1870

Year '1870' ('MDCCCLXX') was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1870

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Events of 1870

January - March

★ January 1 - First edition of The Northern Echo newspaper published.

★ January 1 - Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed.

★ January 3 - Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.

★ January 6 - The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).

★ January 10 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

★ January 15 - A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for ''Harper's Weekly'').

★ January 26 - Reconstruction: Virginia rejoins the Union.

★ January 27 - First college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is established at DePauw University.

★ February - Vrain Denis-Lucas in sentenced for two years in prison for multiple forgery in Paris.

★ February 1 - Goodna State School in Goodna, Queensland, Australia is founded.

★ February 2 - It is revealed that the famed Cardiff Giant was just carved gypsum and not the petrified remains of a human.

★ February 3 - The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.

★ February 10

★
★ Anaheim, California is incorporated.

★
★ The YWCA is founded in New York City.

★ February 12 - Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.

★ February 23 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.

★ February 25 - Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

★ February 26 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-subway is opened.

★ February 28 - The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.

★ March 2 - Francisco Solano López' last troops cornered by Triple Alliance troops at Cerro Cora. López refuses to surrender and is killed. Fighting ends in Paraguay - the War of the Triple Alliance is over.

★ March 3 - Thomas Scott is executed by Louis Reil's provisional government during the Red River Rebellion in modern day Manitoba Canada.

★ March 19 - Ohio Legislature passes the Cannon Act, thereby establishing the Ohio Agriculture and Mechanical College, later The Ohio State University.

★ March 24 - Syracuse University is established and officially opens.

★ March 30

★
★ The 15th Amendment is entered into the United States Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote.

★
★ Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

★ March 31 - Thomas Mundy Peterson the first African-American to vote in an election.

April - June

★ April 11 - Irish peer Lord Muncaster and his entourage kidnapped in Greece.

★ May 12 - The Canadian province of Manitoba is created in response to Louis Riel's Red River Rebellion.

★ May 14 - First rugby match to be played in New Zealand, between the Nelson Football Club and Nelson College.

★ May 24 - The Port Adelaide Football Club play their first match of Australian rules football at Buck's Flat, Glanville, South Australia.

★ June 9 - The great author and actor Charles Dickens dies after suffering from a stroke. The inscription on his tomb reads: ''"He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."''

★ June 22 - The U.S. Congress creates the Department of Justice.

★ June 26

★
★ Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.

★
★ Richard Wagner's opera Die Walküre is first performed at Munich's National Theatre.

July - September

★ July 13 - The ''Ems Dispatch'' serves as a reason for a war between Prussia and France.

★ July 15 - Reconstruction: Georgia becomes the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union, and the CSA is dissoluted.

★ July 16 - Lambert McKenna is born, Irish scholar.

★ July 19 - Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.

★ August 8 - The ''Republic of Ploieşti'', a failed rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.

★ August 24 - The Red River Rebellion ends with the arrival of the Wolseley Expedition and the fleeing of Louis Riel.

★ September 2 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan - Prussian forces defeat the French armies and take emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner at Sedan.

★ September 4 - Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared. Empress Eugenie flees to England with her children.

★ September 6 - Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, votes in the morning, becoming the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

★ September 20 - With ''Bersaglieri'' soldiers entering Rome at Porta Pia, the unification of Italy is completed. End of the last remnant of the Papal States.

October - December

★ October 2 - Referendum in Rome supports joining the Italy with 133681 against 1500. Decision is made official October 6. Rome becomes the capital of unified Italy.

★ October 8 - Leon Michel Gambetta escapes the besieged Paris in a hot-air balloon.

★ November 1 - In the United States, the newly-created Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast: "High winds at Chicago and Milwaukee... and along the Lakes".

★ November 16 - Spanish Cortes Generales proclaims Amadeo de Saboya as King Amadeus I of Spain.

★ December 30 - Assassination of Juan Prim, Prime minister of Spain.

Births

January - June

★ January 2 - Ernst Barlach, German sculptor, graphic artist, and poet (d. 1938)

★ January 6 - Gustav Bauer, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1944)

★ January 8 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain (d. 1930)

★ February 7 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (d. 1937)

★ March 4 - Thomas Sturge Moore, English poet, author and artist (d. 1944)

★ March 5 - Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-born German political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary (d. 1919)

★ March 5 - Frank Norris, American writer (d. 1902)

★ March 13 - Seale Harris, American Physician (d. 1957)

★ March 17 - Horace Donisthorpe, English entomologist (d. 1951)

★ March 20 - Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)

★ April 1 - Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1931)

★ April 4 - George Albert Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1951)

★ April 22 - Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary and first Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1924)

★ April 30 - Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (d. 1948)

★ May 9 - Harry Vardon, English Golf Professional (d. 1937)

★ May 19 - Albert Fish, American serial killer (d. 1936)

★ June 13 - Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1961)

July - December

★ July 3 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)

★ July 12 - Louis II of Monaco (d. 1949)

★ July 29 - George Dixon, Canadian boxer (d. 1909)

★ August 3 - Caroline Celestia "Carrie" Ingalls, née Swanzey, Younger sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. June 2, 1946)

★ August 11 - Tom Richardson, English cricketer (d. 1912)

★ August 31 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (d. 1952)

★ September 25 - James A. Hawken, Schoolteacher (d. 1964)

★ September 26 - King Christian X of Denmark (d. 1947)

★ September 30 - Jean Baptiste Perrin, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)

★ October 10 - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)

★ November 21 - Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official (d. 1964)

★ November 27 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1956)

★ December 5 - Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (d. 1949)

★ December 10 - Mary Bonaparte, pretender to the French imperial throne (d. 1947)

★ December 12 - Walter Benona Sharp, American oil pioneer (d. 1912)

★ December 18 - Saki, English writer (d. 1916)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ January 29 - Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)

★ February 7 - Sylvain Salnave a Hatian president (b. 1827)

★ February 19 - Nathaniel de Rothschild, French wine grower (b. 1812)

★ March 11 - Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho (b. 1786?)

★ March 28 - George Henry Thomas, American general (b. 1816)

★ May 6 - Sir James Young Simpson, Scottish physician and researcher (b. 1811)

★ June 9 - Charles Dickens, British novelist (b. 1812)

★ June 24 - Adam Lindsay Gordon, Australian poet (b. 1833)

July - December

★ July 20 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, French writer and publisher (b. 1830)

★ September 12 - Fitz Hugh Ludlow, American author and explorer (b. 1836)

★ September 23 - Prosper Mérimée, French writer (b. 1803)

★ October 12 - Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (b. 1807)

★ November 24 - Comte de Lautreamont, French poet and writer (b. 1846)

★ November 28 - Frédéric Bazille, French painter (b. 1841)

★ December 5 - Alexandre Dumas, père, French author (b. 1802)

★ December 27 - General Prim, Spanish dictator (b. 1814)

★ ''date unknown'' - Patrick MacDowell, Northern Irish sculptor (b. 1799)
: ''See also .''