1878

Events

January

* January 5 – Russo-Turkish War: Battle of Shipka Pass IV – Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire.
* January 9 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
* January 17 – Russo-Turkish War: Battle of Philippopolis – Russian troops defeat the Ottoman Empire.
* January 23 – Benjamin Disraeli orders the British fleet to the Dardanelles.
* January 24 – Russian revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, Governor of Saint Petersburg.
* January 28 – In the United States:
** The world's First Telephone Exchange begins commercial operation in New Haven, Connecticut.
** ''The Yale News'' becomes the first daily college newspaper in the U.S.
* January 31 – Turkey agrees to an armistice at Adrianople.

February

* February 2 – Greece declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
* February 7 – Pope Pius IX dies, after a 31½ year pontificate (the longest definitely confirmed).
* February 8 – The British fleet enters Turkish waters, and anchors off Istanbul; Russia threatens to occupy Istanbul, but does not carry out the threat.
* February 18 – The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
* February 19 – The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.
* February 20 – Pope Leo XIII succeeds Pope Pius IX, as the 256th pope.
* February 23 – Gajanan Maharaj appears at Shegaon, Maharashtra.
* February 24 – Anti-Russian demonstrations occur in Hyde Park, London.
* February 28 – Mississippi State University is created by the Mississippi Legislature (under the name The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi).

March

* March 3 (February 19 O.S.) – Treaty of San Stefano signed between the Russian and Ottoman Empires following Russian victory in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) provides for establishment of an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria (although not as large as originally envisaged). Russia however regards the treaty as a preliminary one only, refusing on March 25 a British proposal to lay it before a European congress, and matters are finally settled in July's Treaty of Berlin.
* March 17 – Emancipated U.S. slave and Baptist minister Rev. John Jasper first preaches his sermon "The Sun Do Move."
* March 24 – The British Royal Navy frigate capsizes in the English Channel; all but 2 of the 319 crew members are killed.
* March 27 – In anticipation of war with Russia, Disraeli mobilizes British reserves, and calls up Indian troops to Malta.
* March 28 – Electric lights are first used at Westminster Palace.

April

* April 16 – The Senate of the Grand Duchy of Finland issues a declaration establishing a city of Kotka on the southern part of the islands from the old Kymi parish.
* April 20 – The Stawell Gift sprint is run for the first time in Australia.

May

* May 1–November 10 – Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, is staged in Paris. In June some parts of the city are first lit by 'Yablochkov candles' ( arc lamps) and on June 30 the head of the Statue of Liberty goes on display there.
* May 2 – The Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis explodes, killing 18.
* May 15 – The Tokyo Stock Exchange is established.
* May 25 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' debuts in London at the Opera Comique, with a first run of 571 performances.

June

* June 1
** The General Postal Union is renamed the Universal Postal Union (UPU).
** British clipper ''Loch Ard'' is wrecked off the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria (Australia) with the loss of 52 lives and only 2 survivors.
* June 4 – Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom, but retains the nominal title.
* June 10 – The League of Prizren is officially founded "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania".
* June 13–July 13 – The Congress of Berlin convenes to discuss the Ottoman Empire.
* June 15 – Eadweard Muybridge produces the first sequence of stop-motion still photographs ''The Horse in Motion'' in California (a predecessor of silent film), demonstrating that all four feet of a galloping horse are off the ground at the same time.
* June 20 – The United States Coast Survey is renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.
* June 22 – Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld leaves Karlskrona on a voyage that will make him the first man to navigate the Northern Sea Route, a shipping lane from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, along the Siberian coast.
* June 25 – The Kanak people of New Caledonia revolt against the French colonial government.

July

* July 4 – A match race between champion thoroughbred racehorses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty draws more than 30,000 fans to Louisville, and inspires the folk song, " Molly and Tenbrooks".
* July 13 – The Treaty of Berlin makes Serbia, Montenegro and Romania completely independent, confirms the autonomy of Bulgaria, makes Cyprus a British possession, and allows Austria-Hungary to garrison the Bosnia Vilayet.

August

* August 9 – The Wallingford Tornado of 1878, the deadliest tornado in Connecticut history, destroys the town of Wallingford, killing 34 people and injuring more than 70.
* August 26 – Uyedineniya Island is discovered in the Kara Sea, by Norwegian explorer Captain Edvard Holm Johannesen.

September

* September 3 – Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat collides with the '' Bywell Castle'' in the River Thames.
* September 12 – Cleopatra's Needle is erected beside the Thames in London, having arrived in England on January 21.
* September 17 – 1878 Canadian federal election: Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative Party are returned to power, defeating the incumbent Liberal Party, led by Alexander Mackenzie.
* September 20 – ''The Hindu'', an Indian newspaper, is founded.

October

* October 14 – The world's first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane, in Sheffield, England.
* October 17 – John A. Macdonald returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
* October 27 – The Manhattan Savings Institution robbery occurs.
* October 31 – A fire destroys the '' Eldkvarn'' gristmill in Stockholm, Sweden.

November

* November 17 – The first assassination attempt is made against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, armed with a dagger. The King survives with a slight wound in one arm. Prime minister Benedetto Cairoli blocks the aggressor, receiving a leg injury.
* November 21 – The Second Anglo-Afghan War commences when the British attack Ali Masjid in the Khyber Pass.
* November 26 – American-born artist James McNeill Whistler's libel case against English critic John Ruskin, over a review of the painting ''Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket'' (in which Whistler is described as "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face"), is decided in the High Court of Justice in London. Whistler wins a farthing in nominal damages and only half of the costs, leading to his bankruptcy, and alienates patrons.

December

* December 7 – The United States territory of New Mexico is linked to the rest of the nation by railroad for the first time, as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates a newly completed line through the Raton Pass.
* December 18 – French passenger steamer ''Byzantin'' founders in the Dardanelles during a gale after collision with British SS ''Rinaldo'', killing around 210 people, with only 14 crew of the ''Byzantin'' saved.
* December 25 – Stella Maris Church, Sliema on Malta becomes a parish, seceding from the Parish of St. Helen's in Birkirkara.

Date unknown

* U.S. arbitration rejects Argentine claims to Paraguay's part of the Chaco region.
* Otto von Bismarck abandons his , and forces through legislation outlawing the Social Democrats.
* The 10-year Nauruan Tribal War breaks out.
* Yellow fever in the Mississippi Valley kills over 13,000.
* Foundation of:
** Small town La Farge, Wisconsin, along the Kickapoo River.
** Nainital Cantonment.
** The Buchan School, Isle of Man.
** The Johns Hopkins University Press, America's oldest university press.
** Geiger (corporation), formed as Geiger Brothers.
** Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipyard, as predecessor of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a motorbike, helicopters, rolling stock and shipbuilding concern in Japan.
** The following English Association football clubs:
*** Everton F.C., formed as St Domingo.
*** Grimsby Town F.C., formed as Grimsby Pelham.
*** Ipswich Town Football Club, formed as amateur club Ipswich A.F.C. They will not turn professional until 1936.
*** Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club, the team that will become Manchester United.
*** West Bromwich Albion F.C., formed as West Bromwich Strollers F.C.
* Leo Tolstoy's novel ''Anna Karenina'' is published complete in book form in Moscow.
* Lester Allan Pelton produces the first operational Pelton wheel.
* E. Remington and Sons, in the United States, introduce their No. 2 typewriter, the first with a shift key, enabling production of lower as well as upper case characters.
* The last confirmed Cape lion dies.
* In Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, the much studied stele of the Roman legionary Caius Largennius is discovered.

Births

January–March

* January 2 – Jaakko Mäki, Finnish politician (d. 1938)
* January 4
** A. E. Coppard, English short story writer and poet (d. 1957)
** Augustus John, Welsh painter (d. 1961)
* January 6 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)
* January 9 – John B. Watson, American psychologist (d. 1958)
* January 11
**Theodoros Pangalos, Greek general, politician and President of Greece (d. 1952)
** Leopoldo Saro, Spanish general (d. 1936)
* January 12 – Ferenc Molnár, Hungarian-born author (d. 1952)
* January 16 – Harry Carey, American actor (d. 1947)
* January 20 – Finlay Currie, Scottish actor (d. 1968)
* January 22 – Constance Collier, English stage, screen actress (d. 1955)
* January 23 – Rutland Boughton, English composer (d. 1960)
* January 25 – Ernst Alexanderson, Swedish-born American television pioneer (d. 1975)
* January 26
** Luís of Orléans-Braganza, Brazilian royalty
** Harry Rountree, New Zealand illustrator (d. 1950)
* February 1 – Milan Hodža, Slovak politician, champion of regional integration in Europe (d. 1944)
* February 2
** Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer, architect (d. 1955)
** Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn, American suffragist (d. 1951)
* February 3 – Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1943)
* February 4 – Grigory Petrovsky, Ukrainian Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik (d. 1958)
* February 5 – André Citroën, French automobile manufacturer (d. 1935)
* February 8 – Martin Buber, Austrian philosopher (d. 1965)
* February 14 – Kōki Hirota, 21st Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)
* February 16 – Big Jim Colosimo, Italian-born American gangster (d. 1920)
* February 18 – Kate Gordon Moore, American psychologist (d. 1963)
* February 21 – Mirra Alfassa, multi-origined spiritual leader and founder of Auroville, India (d. 1973)
* February 26 – Emmy Destinn, Czech soprano (d. 1930)
* February 28 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (d. 1929)
* March 3 – Edward Thomas, British poet (d. 1917)
* March 4
** Egbert Van Alstyne, American songwriter, pianist (d. 1951)
** Arishima Takeo, Japanese novelist, short-story writer and essayist (d. 1923)
* March 5 – P. D. Ouspensky, Russian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)
* March 7 – Boris Kustodiev, Soviet painter and designer (d. 1927)
* March 16
** Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1944)
** Clemens August Graf von Galen, German Catholic cardinal (d. 1946)
* March 20 – Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz (d. 1927)
* March 22 – Michel Théato, Luxembourg athlete (d. 1923)
* March 23 – Franz Schreker, Austrian composer (d. 1934)
* March 25 – Frances Glessner Lee, American forensic scientist; known as "mother of forensic science" (d. 1962)
* March 26 – Henry Gullett, Australian politician (d. 1940)
* March 31 – Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946)

April–June

* April 1 – C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil philologist (d. 1958)
* April 4 – Stylianos Lykoudis, Greek admiral (d. 1958)
* April 6
** Erich Mühsam, German author (d. 1934)
** Vicente Mejía Colindres, 23rd President of Honduras (d. 1966)
* April 24 – Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (d. 1958)
* April 28
** Lionel Barrymore, American actor (d. 1954)
** Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (d. 1951)
* April 30 – Władysław Witwicki, Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian (of philosophy and art) and artist (d. 1948)
* May 2 – Roy Atwell, American actor, comedian and composer (d. 1962)
* May 10 – Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany (German Reich), Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1929)
* May 13 – Julia Dean (actress, born 1878), Julia Dean, American actress (d. 1952),
* May 16 – Taylor Holmes, American actor (d. 1959)
* May 17 – Conway Tearle, American actor (d. 1938)
* May 21 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation pioneer (d. 1930)
* May 22 – The Great Gama, Punjabi wrestler (d. 1960)
* May 25 – Bill Robinson, African-American tap dancer (d. 1949)
* May 28 – Paul Pelliot, French sinologist (d. 1945)
* May 29 – Zelmira Segreda Solera de Cappella, Costa Rican soprano (d. 1923)
* June 1 – John Masefield, English poet, novelist (d. 1967)
* June 3 – Barney Oldfield, American automobile racer, pioneer (d. 1946)
* June 5 – Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1923)
* June 10 – William Skelly, American oil magnate (d. 1957)
* June 12 – James Oliver Curwood, American writer, conservationist (d. 1927)
* June 19 – Yakov Yurovsky, Russian Old Bolshevik, revolutionary, and Cheka, Chekist (d.1938)
* June 22 – John Burton Cleland, Australian naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist and ornithologist (d. 1971)
* June 27 – He Xiangning, Chinese revolutionary, feminist, politician, painter and poet (d. 1972)

July–September

* July 3 – George M. Cohan, American singer, dancer, composer, actor and writer (d. 1942)
* July 8 – Jimmy Quinn (footballer, born 1878), Jimmy Quinn, Scottish footballer (d. 1945)
* July 16 – Andreas Hermes, German agricultural scientist, politician (d. 1964)
* July 24 – Lord Dunsany, Irish author (d. 1957)
* August 1
** Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1961)
** José Pedro Montero, 27th President of Paraguay (d. 1927)
** Eva Tanguay, Canadian-born vaudeville performer (d. 1947)
* August 2
** Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, Princess of Sweden (d. 1958)
** Aino Kallas, Finnish-Estonian author (d. 1956)
* August 9 – Eileen Gray, Irish architect, furniture designer (d. 1976)
* August 10 – Alfred Döblin, German writer (d. 1957)
* August 15 – Paa Grant, Ghanian politician (d. 1956)
* August 19 – Manuel L. Quezon, 2nd President of the Philippines (d. 1944)
* August 20 – Maria Assunta Pallotta, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (d. 1905)
* August 26 – Lina Stern, Soviet biochemist, physiologist and humanist (d. 1968)
* August 27 – Pyotr Wrangel, Russian general, anti-Bolshevik leader (d. 1928)
* August 28 – George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
* August 31 – Frank Jarvis (athlete), Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
* September 2 – Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal (d. 1946)
* September 5 – Robert von Lieben, Austrian physicist (d. 1913)
* September 9
** Sergio Osmeña, 4th President of the Philippines (d. 1961)
** Princess Catherine Yurievskaya, daughter of Alexander II of Russia (d. 1959)
* September 13 – Matilde Moisant, American pilot (d. 1964)
* September 16 – Karl Albiker, German sculptor, lithographer and teacher (d. 1961)
* September 20 – Upton Sinclair, American writer (d. 1968)
* September 22 – Shigeru Yoshida, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1967)
* September 24 – Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss writer (d. 1947)
* September 26 – Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, German general and Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr (d. 1943)
* September 28 – Jirō Tamon, Japanese general (d. 1934)

October–December

* October 1 – Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher, economist (d. 1950)
* October 5 – Louise Dresser, American actress (d. 1965)
* October 9 – Robert Warwick, American actor (d. 1964)
* October 11 – Nicole Girard-Mangin, French physician in the French Army (d. 1919)
* October 12 – Karl Buresch, 9th Chancellor of Austria (d. 1936)
* October 15 – Paul Reynaud, 77th Prime Minister of France (d. 1966)
* October 16 – Maxie Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
* October 18 – Miguel Llobet, Spanish guitarist (d. 1938)
* October 26 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American motor racing driver and yachtsman (d. 1944)
* October 29 – Alexander von Falkenhausen, German general (d. 1966)
* October 30 – Arthur Scherbius, German electrical engineer, mathematician, cryptanalyst and inventor (d. 1929)
* November 1 – Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)
* November 7
** Lise Meitner, German-Austrian physicist, discoverer of nuclear fission (d. 1968)
** Margaret Cousins, Irish-Indian educationist, suffragist and Theosophist (d. 1954)
** Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi (d. 1953)
* November 8 – Dorothea Bate, British archaeologist and pioneer of archaeozoology (d. 1951)
* November 14
** Inigo Campioni, Italian admiral (d. 1944)
** Julie Manet, French painter (d. 1966)
** Leopold Staff, Polish poet (d. 1957)
* November 17 – Grace Abbott, American social worker, activist (d. 1939)
* November 23
** Ernest Joseph King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations (COMINCH-CNO) during World War II (d. 1956)
** Frank Pick, British transport administrator, designer (d. 1941)
* November 27 – William Orpen, Irish artist (d. 1931)
* December 1 – Jeni Bojilova-Pateva, Bulgarian women's rights activist and suffragist (d. 1955)
* December 3 – Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, English noble (d. 1959)
* December 10 – C. Rajagopalachari, Indian politician, freedom fighter (d. 1972)
* December 18 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
* December 22 – Myer Prinstein, Polish-American athlete (d. 1925)
* December 25
** Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race driver, automobile builder (d. 1941)
** Joseph M. Schenck, Russian-born American film executive (d. 1961)
* December 28 – Nikolai Bryukhanov, Soviet statesman, political figure who served as People's Commissar of Finances (d. 1938)
* December 31
** Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born beautician, cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 1966)
** Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan writer (d. 1937)

Deaths

January–June

* January 5 – Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, 6th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1804)
* January 8 – Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet (b. 1821)
* January 9 – King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (b. 1820)
* January 18 – Antoine César Becquerel, French scientist (b. 1788)
* February 7 – Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
* February 11 – Gideon Welles, American politician (b. 1802)
* February 19 – Charles-François Daubigny, French painter (b. 1817)
* February 26 – Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1818)
* March 8 – Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (b. 1802)
* March 20 – Julius von Mayer, German physician and physicist, a founder of thermodynamics (b. 1814)
* March 27 – Sir George Gilbert Scott, English architect (b. 1811)
* April 8 – Henrietta Treffz, Austrian soprano, first wife of Johann Strauss II (b. 1818)
* April 11 – Robert Wentworth Little, English occultist (b. 1840)
* April 12 – William M. Tweed, American politician (b. 1823)
* April 25 – Anna Sewell, English author (b. 1820)
* May 11 – Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau, French military officer and politician (b. 1823)
* May 12 – Anselme Payen, French chemist (b. 1795)
* May 13 – Joseph Henry, American scientist (b. 1797)
* May 14 – Ōkubo Toshimichi, Japanese samurai, later leader of the Meiji restoration (b. 1830)
* May 28 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)
* June 5 – Ernst von Bibra, German scientist (b. 1806)
* June 6
** Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, Marshal of France (b. 1795)
** Robert Stirling, Scottish clergyman and inventor (b. 1790)
* June 12
**William Cullen Bryant, American poet, journalist and editor (b. 1794)
** Queen Cheorin, Korean queen consort (b. 1837)
** George V of Hanover, deposed German king (b. 1819)
* June 15 – Shiv Dayal Singh, founder and first SatGuru of Radha Soami faith (b. 1818)
* June 27 – Sidney Breese, U.S. senator from Illinois, 'father of the Illinois Central Railroad' (b. 1800)

July–December

* July 21 – Sam Bass (outlaw), American outlaw (b. 1851)
* July 23 – Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Bohemian pathologist, philosopher and politician (b. 1804)
* August 13 – Henry James Montague, English-born actor (b. 1844)
* August 16 – Richard Upjohn, English-American architect (b. 1802)
* August 26 – Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Discalced Carmelite and Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Melkite Greek Catholic nun and saint, canonized (b. 1846)
* August 30 – James Geiss, English businessman (b. 1820)
* September 7 – Mehmed Ali Pasha (marshal), Mehmed Ali Pasha, Prussian-born Ottoman military leader (b. 1827)
* October 4 – Dora Hand, dance hall singer, actress (b.1844)
* October 11 – Satanta, Kiowa war chief (b. 1820)
* December 10 – Henry Wells, American businessman (b. 1805)
* December 14 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (b. 1843)
* December 18 – William Payne (pantomimist), W H Payne, actor and mime artist (b. 1804)
*December 23 – Frederick Aiken, American lawyer, journalist, and soldier (b. 1832)
* December 25 – Henry K. Hoff, American admiral (b. 1809)

References

Further reading

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