1878

This article is about the year 1878.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1840s  1850s  1860s  – 1870s –  1880s  1890s  1900s
Years:	1875 1876 1877 – 1878 – 1879 1880 1881

1878 in topic:

Humanities

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Literature – Music

By country

Australia – Canada – France – Germany – Mexico – Philippines – South Africa – US – UK

Other topics

Rail Transport – Science – Sports

Lists of leaders

Colonial Governors – State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1878 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1878 MDCCCLXXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2631
Armenian calendar	1327 ԹՎ ՌՅԻԷ
Assyrian calendar	6628
Bahá'í calendar	34–35
Bengali calendar	1285
Berber calendar	2828
British Regnal year	41 Vict. 1 – 42 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2422
Burmese calendar	1240
Byzantine calendar	7386–7387
Chinese calendar	丁丑年十一月廿八日 (4514/4574-11-28) — to — 戊寅年十二月初八日 (4515/4575-12-8)
Coptic calendar	1594–1595
Ethiopian calendar	1870–1871
Hebrew calendar	5638–5639
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1934–1935
- Shaka Samvat	1800–1801
- Kali Yuga	4979–4980
Holocene calendar	11878
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	878–879
Iranian calendar	1256–1257
Islamic calendar	1294–1296
Japanese calendar	Meiji 11 (明治11年)
Juche calendar	N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4211
Minguo calendar	34 before ROC 民前34年
Thai solar calendar	2421

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

Events

January–March

January – Cleopatra's Needle.

• January – Cleopatra's Needle arrives in London.
• January 5 – Battle of Shipka Pass IV: Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire.
• January 9 – Humbert I becomes King of Italy.
• January 17 – Battle of Philippopolis: Russian troops defeat the Turks.
• January 23 – Benjamin Disraeli orders the 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 an armistice at Adrianople.
• February 2 – Greece declares war on Turkey.
• February 7 – Pope Pius IX dies after a 31½ year reign (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 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 3
  • Bulgaria regains its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
  • The Treaty of San Stefano concludes the Russo-Turkish War

Year 1878

• March 24 – The UK frigate Eurydice sinks, killing 300.
• March 25 – Russia rejects a British proposal to lay the San Stefano treaty before a European congress.
• March 27 – In anticipation of 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 2 – The Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota explodes, killing 18.
• May 15 – The Tokyo Stock Exchange is established
• June 1 – Universal Postal Union (UPU)
• 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 established.
• June 12 – July 12 – The Congress of Berlin convenes to discuss the Ottoman Empire.
• June 15 – Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, the first motion picture ever made was recorded on this day.
• June 20 – U.S. Coastal Survey renamed U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
• 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 4 – A match race between champion thoroughbred racehorses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty draws more than 30,000 fans to Louisville and insprires the folk song, Molly and Tenbrooks.
• 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 is found later with a taunting poem inside.
• August 7 – The Salvation Army "foundation deed" is signed.
• August 9 – The Wallingford Tornado of 1878, the deadliest tornado in Connecticut history, destroys the town of Wallingford, killing 34 people and injuring 70 or more.
• August 26 – Uyedineniya Island is discovered in the Kara Sea by Norwegian explorer Captain Edvard Holm Johannesen.
• 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, an Indian newspaper, is founded.
• September 30 – The ship Priscilla arrives in Hawaii from Funchal, Madeira, marking the beginning of the Portuguese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands (1878–1913).

October–December

• October 1 – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) opens as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.
• October 14 – The world's first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane in Sheffield.
• October 17 – John A. Macdonald returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• November 17 – The first assassination attempt is made against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in one arm. Prime minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury to one of his legs.
• November 21 – The Second Afghan War commences when the British attack Ali Masjid in the Khyber Pass.
• December 7 — The U.S. 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.

Date unknown

• U.S. arbitration rejects Argentine claims to Paraguay's part of the Chaco region.
• Otto von Bismarck abandons his Kulturkampf and forces through legislation outlawing the Social Democrats.
• 10-year Nauruan Tribal War breaks out.
• Yellow fever in the Mississippi Valley kills over 13,000.
• Foundation of:
  • Nainital Cantonment.
  • The Buchan School, Isle of Man.
  • The Johns Hopkins University Press, America's oldest university press.
  • Geiger (Corporation), formed as Geiger Brothers.
  • The following English Association football clubs:
    • Everton Football Club, formed as St Domingo.
    • Grimsby Town FC, 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..
• Lester Allan Pelton produces the first operational Pelton wheel.
• Death of last confirmed Cape Lion.

Births

January–June

• January 6 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)
• January 12 – Ferenc Molnár, author (d. 1952)
• January 20 – Finlay Currie, Scottish actor (d. 1968)
• January 22 – Constance Collier, stage & screen actress (d. 1955)
• 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, unverified claimant to be world's oldest person (d. 2007)
• May 10 – Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1929)
• May 21 – Glenn H. Curtiss, American aviation pioneer (d. 1930)
• May 25 – Bill Robinson, African American tap dancer (d. 1949)
• 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)
• June 12 – James Oliver Curwood, American writer and conservationist (d. 1927)

July–December

• July 4 – George M. Cohan, American singer, dancer, composer, actor, and writer (d. 1942)
• July 12 – Peeter Põld, Estonian pedagogical scientist and politician (d. 1930)
• July 24 – Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author (d. 1957)
• August 10 – Alfred Döblin, German writer (d. 1957)
• August 13 – Harold Clarke Goddard, American professor and Shakespearean scholar (d. 1950)
• 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 2 – Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal (d. 1946)
• September 5 – Robert von Lieben, Austrian physicist (d. 1913)
• September 13 – Matilde Moisant, American pilot (d. 1964)
• September 14 – Ion Farris, American politician, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (d. 1934)
• 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 9 – Robert Warwick, American stage & screen actor (d. 1964)
• October 16 – Maxie Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
• November 1 – Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)
• 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 and 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)
• December 10 – C. Rajagopalachari, Indian politician and freedom-fighter. (d. 1972)
• December 18 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union (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, Argentinian writer (d. 1937)

Deaths

January–June

• 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-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 12 – Anselme Payen, French chemist (b. 1795)
• May 13 – Joseph Henry, American scientist (b. 1797)
• May 14 – Ōkubo Toshimichi, Japanese samurai and later leader of the Meiji restoration (b. 1830)
• 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, Dutch murderer (b. 1851)

July–December

• July 1 – Catherine Winkworth, English translator of hymns (b. 1827)
• July 17 – Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)
• July 23 – Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Bohemian pathologist, philosopher and politician (b. 1804)
• August 13 – Henry James Montague, British actor (b. 1844)
• August 30 – James Geiss, English businessman (b. 1820)
• October 20 – Hiram Paulding, American admiral (b. 1797)
• November 20 – William Thomas (Islwyn), Welsh poet (b. 1832)
• 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)
• December 25 – Henry K. Hoff, American admiral (b. 1809)

In fiction

• The Doctor Who novel Imperial Moon takes place in this year.