1878

Year '1878' ('MDCCCLXXVIII') was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1878

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Events of 1878

January - March

★ January - Cleopatra's Needle arrives in London

★ January 9 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy

★ January 5 - Battle of Shipka Pass IV

★ January 17 - Battle of Plovdiv

★ January 23 - Benjamin Disraeli orders British fleet to the Dardanelles

★ January 24 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.

★ January 28 - ''The Yale News'' becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States.

★ January 31 - Turkey agrees to armistice at Adrianople

★ February 2 - Greece declares war on Turkey.

★ February 8 - British fleet enters Turkish waters and anchors off Istanbul - Russia threatens to occupy Istanbul but does not carry out the threat

★ February 11

★
★ First US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms.

★
★ First weekly Weather report published in UK

★ 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 24 - Anti-Russian demonstrations 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 3

★
★ Bulgaria regained its independence from Ottoman Empire.

★
★ The Treaty of San Stefano concludes the Russo-Turkish War

★ March 24 - The UK frigate ''Eurydice'' sinks, killing 300.

★ March 25 - Russia rejects British proposal to lay San Stefano treaty before European congress

★ March 27 - In anticipation with war with Russia, Disraeli mobilizes the reserves and calls up Indian troops to Malta

April - June

★ April 20 - The Stawell Gift is run for the first time.

★ May 15 - Tokyo Stock Exchange established

★ June 4 - Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.

★ June 10 - League of Prizren is established

★ June 12-July 12 - Congress of Berlin about the Ottoman Empire

★ June 22 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld leaves Karlskrona on a voyage that will make him the first to navigate the Northern Sea Route, a shipping lane from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean along the Siberian coast.

July - September

★ July 13 - The Treaty of Berlin makes Serbia, Montenegro and Romania completely independent

★ July 26 - In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.

★ September 3 - Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat ''Princess Alice'' collides with the ''Bywell Castle'' in the River Thames.

★ September 20 - The Hindu founded

October - December

★ October 1 - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) opens as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.

★ October 14 - The worlds first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane in Sheffield

★ October 15 - The Edison General Electric Company begins operation.

★ October 17 - John A. Macdonald returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.

★ November 17 - First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy.

★ November 21 - Second Afghan War commences when the British attack Ali Masjid in the Khyber Pass.

★ November 29 - Kahua, the chief of Jaluits in the Marshall Islands, declares himself king of the Ralik Islands

Undated

★ The Buchan School was founded on the Isle of Man.

★ Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club, the team that would become Manchester United, was founded.

★ Yellow fever in Mississippi Valley - over 13,000 dead

★ US arbitration rejects Argentinean claims to Paraguay's part of Chaco region

★ West Bromwich Albion F.C. play their first match.

★ Everton Football Club, then known as St Domingo, formed

Births

January - June

★ January 6 - Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)

★ January 12 - Ferenc Molnár, author (d. 1952)

★ January 20 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer (d. 1968)

★ January 25 - Ernst Alexanderson, Swedish-born television pioneer (d. 1975)

★ February 1 - Milan Hodža, Slovak politician, champion of regional integration in Europe (d. 1944)

★ February 2 - Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer and architect (d. 1955)

★ February 5 - André Citroën, French automobile manufacturer (d. 1935)

★ February 8 - Martin Buber, Austrian philosopher (d. 1965)

★ February 14 - Hirota Koki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)

★ February 21 - The Mother (Mirra Alfassa), multi-origined spiritual leader and founder of Auroville in India (d. 1973)

★ February 26 - Emmy Destinn, Czech soprano (d. 1930)

★ February 28 - Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (d. 1929)

★ March 4

★
★ Egbert Van Alstyne, United States songwriter and pianist (d. 1951)

★
★ Peter D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher (d. 1947)

★
★ Arishima Takeo, Japanese novelist, short-story writer and essayist (d. 1923)

★ March 16 - Clemens August Graf von Galen, German Catholic cardinal (d. 1946)

★ March 22 - Michel Théato, Luxembourg athlete (d. 1919)

★ March 31 - Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946)

★ April 6 - Erich Mühsam, German author (d. 1934)

★ April 24 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (d. 1958)

★ April 28

★
★ Lionel Barrymore, American actor (d. 1954)

★
★ Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (d. 1951)

★ May 3 - Cruz Hernandez, Oldest Living Person (disputed) (d. 2007)

★ May 10 - Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1929)

★ May 25 - Bill Robinson, Tap Dancer (d. 1949)

★ May 26 - Isadora Duncan, American dancer (d. 1927)

★ May 28 - Paul Pelliot, French sinologist (d. 1945)

★ June 1 - John Masefield, English poet and novelist (d. 1967)

★ June 3 - Barney Oldfield, American automobile racer and pioneer (d. 1946)

★ June 5 - Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1923)

July - December

★ July 4 - George M. Cohan, American singer, dancer, composer, actor, and writer (d. 1942)

★ July 22 - Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldszmit), Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogist (possibly born in 1879) (d. 1942)

★ July 24 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author (d. 1957)

★ August 10 - Alfred Döblin, German writer (d. 1957)

★ August 28 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)

★ August 31 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)

★ September 5 - Robert von Lieben, Austrian physicist (d. 1913)

★ September 13 - Matilde Moisant, American pilot (d. 1964)

★ September 20 - Upton Sinclair, American writer (d. 1968)

★ September 22 - Yoshida Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1967)

★ September 24 - C. F. Ramuz, Swiss writer (d. 1947)

★ October 1 - Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher and economist (d. 1950)

★ October 16 - Maxey Long, American athlete (d. 1959)

★ November 1 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)

★ November 14 - Leopold Staff, Polish poet (d. 1957)

★ November 17 - Grace Abbott, American social worker and activist (d. 1939)

★ November 26 - Marshall "Major" Taylor, American cyclist (d. 1932)

★ December 18 - Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader (d. 1953)

★ December 25

★
★ Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race driver and automobile builder (d. 1941)

★
★ Joseph Schenck, Russian-born film executive (d. 1961)

★ December 28 - Nikolai Bryukhanov, Soviet statesman and political figure who served as People's Commissar of Finances (d.1938)

★ December 31 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born beautician and cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 1966)

★ December 31 - Horacio Quiroga, Argentina's writer was born in Salto, Uruguay (d. 1937)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ 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-Francois Daubigny, French painter (b. 1817)

★ February 26 - Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1818)

★ March 8 - Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (b. 1802)

★ April 8 - Henrietta Treffz, soprano, first wife of Johann Strauss II (b. 1818)

★ April 12 - William Marcy Tweed, American politician (b. 1823)

★ April 25 - Anna Sewell, English author (b. 1820)

★ May 28 - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)

★ June 6

★
★ Robert Stirling, Scottish clergyman and inventor (b. 1790)

★
★ Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, Marshal of France (b. 1795)

★
★ Porter Rockwell, Mormon bodyguard (b. 1815)

★ June 12

★
★ George V of Hanover (b. 1819)

★
★ Hendrik Jut, murderer (b. 1851)

July - December

★ July 1 - Catherine Winkworth, translator of hymns (b. 1827)

★ July 17 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)

★ August 30 - James Geiss, English businessman (b. 1820)

★ November 28 - Orson Hyde, American religious leader (b. 1805)

★ December 10 - Henry Wells, American businessman (b. 1805)

★ December 14 - Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine (b. 1843)
: ''See also .''