1878

Events

January–March

• January 5 - Battle of Shipka Pass IV: Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire.
• January 9 - Umberto 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 - Russian revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, 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.
• 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 - Sadguru Shri Gajanan Maharaj appears at Shegaon, Dist: Buldhana, Maharashtra.
• February 24 - Anti-Russian demonstrations occur in Hyde Park, London.
• February 28 - Mississippi State University is created by the Mississippi Legislature.

• March 17 - 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 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 in Australia.
• 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 1 - The General Postal Union is renamed the Universal Postal Union.
• 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 sequence of stop-motion still photographs Sallie Gardner at a Gallop in California, demonstrating that all four feet of a galloping horse are off the ground at the same time.
• June 20 - The U.S. Coastal Survey is renamed the U.S. 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.

  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 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 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 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 in London, having arrived in England on January 21.
• September 20 - The Hindu, an Indian newspaper, is founded.

  October–December

• October 1 - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University opens as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, in the United States.
• 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 31 - A fire destroys the Eldkvarn gristmill mill in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 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,, 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 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 25 - Stella Maris Church in Sliema, 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 Kulturkampf, 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:
• * Nainital Cantonment.
• * The Buchan School, Isle of Man.
• * The Johns Hopkins University Press, America's oldest university press.
• * Geiger, formed as Geiger Brothers.
• * The following English Association football clubs:
• ** Everton Football Club, 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..
• Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina is published complete in book form in Moscow.
• Lester Allan Pelton produces the first operational Pelton wheel.
• The last confirmed Cape lion dies.
• 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.
• In Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, the much studied stele of the Roman legionary Caius Largennius is discovered.
• Kawasaki Tsukiji Shipbuilding, as predecessor of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a motorbike, helicopters, rolling stock and shipbuilding in Japan, was founded.

  Births

January–March

• January 4
• * A. E. Coppard, English short story writer and poet
• * Augustus John, Welsh-born painter
• January 6 - Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian
• January 9 - John B. Watson, American psychologist
• January 11 - Theodoros Pangalos, Greek general, politician and President of Greece
• January 12 - Ferenc Molnár, Hungarian-born author
• January 16 - Harry Carey, American actor
• January 20 - Finlay Currie, Scottish actor
• January 22 - Constance Collier, English stage, screen actress
• January 23 - Rutland Boughton, English composer
• January 25 - Ernst Alexanderson, Swedish-born television pioneer
• February 1 - Milan Hodža, Slovak politician, champion of regional integration in Europe
• February 2 - Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer, architect
• February 3 - Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand
• February 5 - André Citroën, French automobile manufacturer
• February 8 - Martin Buber, Austrian philosopher
• February 14 - Kōki Hirota, 21st Prime Minister of Japan
• February 16
• * Giacomo "James" Colosimo, Italian-born American gangster
• * Selim Palmgren, Finnish composer
• February 18 - Kate Gordon, American psychologist
• February 21 - The Mother, multi-origined spiritual leader and founder of Auroville, India
• February 26 - Emmy Destinn, Czech soprano
• February 28 - Pierre Fatou, French mathematician
• March 4
• * Egbert Van Alstyne, American songwriter, pianist
• * Peter D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher
• * Arishima Takeo, Japanese novelist, short-story writer and essayist
• March 5 - P. D. Ouspensky, Russian mathematician
• March 7 - Boris Kustodiev, Soviet painter and designer
• March 16
• * Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran
• * Clemens August Graf von Galen, German Catholic cardinal
• March 20 - Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz
• March 22 - Michel Théato, Luxembourg athlete
• March 26 - Henry Gullett, Australian politician
• March 31 - Jack Johnson, American boxer

  April–June

• April 1 - C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil Philologist
• April 4 - Stylianos Lykoudis, Greek admiral
• April 6
• * Erich Mühsam, German author
• * Vicente Mejía Colindres, 23rd President of Honduras
• April 24 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist
• April 28
• * Lionel Barrymore, American actor
• * Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor
• April 30 - Władysław Witwicki, Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian and artist
• May 2 - Roy Atwell, American actor, comedian and composer
• May 3 - Jean Chiappe, French civil servant
• May 10 - Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• May 13 - Julia Dean, American stage and film actress
• May 16 - Taylor Holmes, American actor
• May 21 - Glenn H. Curtiss, American aviation pioneer
• May 22 - The Great Gama, Punjabi wrestler
• May 25 - Bill Robinson, African-American tap dancer
• May 27 - Anna Cervin, Swedish artist
• May 28 - Paul Pelliot, French sinologist
• June 1 - John Masefield, English poet, novelist
• June 3 - Barney Oldfield, American automobile racer, pioneer
• June 5 - Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary
• June 12 - James Oliver Curwood, American writer, conservationist
• June 20 - Will Mastin, American vaudevillian
• June 22 - John Burton Cleland, Australian naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist and ornithologist
• June 27 - He Xiangning, Chinese revolutionary, feminist, politician, painter and poet

  July–September

• July 1 - Gino Meneghetti, Italian thief
• July 3 - George M. Cohan, American singer, dancer, composer, actor and writer
• July 8 - Jimmy Quinn, Scottish footballer
• July 10 - Otto Freundlich, German painter, sculptor
• July 12
• *Claude C. Bloch, American admiral
• *Peeter Põld, Estonian pedagogical scientist, politician
• July 16 - Andreas Hermes, German agricultural scientist, politician
• July 17 - Mabel Van Buren, American actress
• July 24 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author
• August 1
• * Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, Prime Minister of Greece
• * José Pedro Montero, 27th President of Paraguay
• * Eva Tanguay, Canadian-born vaudeville performer
• August 2 - Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, Princess of Sweden
• August 4 - Ernest Lundeen, American lawyer, politician
• August 9 - Eileen Gray, Irish architect, furniture designer
• August 10 - Alfred Döblin, German writer
• August 13 - Harold Clarke Goddard, American professor, Shakespearean scholar
• August 19 - Manuel L. Quezon, 2nd President of the Philippines
• August 20 - Maria Assunta Pallotta, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed
• August 27 - Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian general, anti-Bolshevik leader
• August 28 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• August 31 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete
• September 2 - Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal
• September 5 - Robert von Lieben, Austrian physicist
• September 9 - Sergio Osmena, 4th President of the Philippines
• September 13 - Matilde Moisant, American pilot
• September 14 - Ion Farris, American politician, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives
• September 18
• *Robert Brooke-Popham, British air chief marshal
• *James O. Richardson, American admiral
• September 20 - Upton Sinclair, American writer
• September 22 - Shigeru Yoshida, Prime Minister of Japan
• September 24 - C. F. Ramuz, Swiss writer
• September 28 - Jirō Tamon, Japanese general

  October–December

• October 1 - Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher, economist
• October 2 - Richard Spikes, African-American inventor
• October 9 - Robert Warwick, American stage, screen actor
• October 12 - Karl Buresch, 9th Chancellor of Austria
• October 15 - Paul Reynaud, Prime Minister of France
• October 16 - Maxie Long, American athlete
• October 17 - Louise Dresser, American actress
• October 29 - Alexander von Falkenhausen, German general
• October 30 - Arthur Scherbius, German electrical engineer, mathematician, cryptanalyst and inventor
• November 1 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• November 8 - Dorothea Bate, British archaeologist and pioneer of archaeozoology
• November 14
• * Inigo Campioni, Italian admiral
• * Julie Manet, French painter
• * Leopold Staff, Polish poet
• November 17 - Grace Abbott, American social worker, activist
• November 23
• * Ernest Joseph King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations during World War II
• * Frank Pick, British transport administrator, designer
• November 27 - William Orpen, Irish artist
• December 1 - Nathaniel Baldwin, American inventor, supporter of the early Mormon fundamentalist movement
• December 10 - C. Rajagopalachari, Indian politician, freedom fighter
• December 18 - Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union
• December 22 - Myer Prinstein, Polish-American athlete
• December 25
• * Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race driver, automobile builder
• * Joseph Schenck, Russian-born American film executive
• December 28 - Nikolai Bryukhanov, Soviet statesman, political figure who served as People's Commissar of Finances
• December 31
• * Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born beautician, cosmetics entrepreneur
• * Horacio Quiroga, Argentine writer

  Deaths

January–June

• January 5 - Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, 6th Prime Minister of Italy
• January 8 - Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet
• January 9 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
• January 18 - Antoine César Becquerel, French scientist
• February 7 - Pope Pius IX
• February 11 - Gideon Welles, American politician
• February 18 - John Tunstall, American rancher, merchant, first man killed in the Lincoln County War
• February 19 - Charles-François Daubigny, French painter
• February 26 - Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer
• March 8 - Archduke Franz Karl of Austria
• March 20 - Julius von Mayer, German physician, physicist and one of the founders of thermodynamics
• March 27 - Sir George Gilbert Scott, British architect
• April 4 - Richard M. Brewer, American gunslinger, cowboy
• April 5 - Buckshot Roberts, American buffalo hunter who killed Richard M. Brewer
• April 8 - Henrietta Treffz, Austrian soprano, first wife of Johann Strauss II
• April 11 - Robert Wentworth Little, British occultist
• April 12 - William M. Tweed, American politician
• April 25 - Anna Sewell, English author
• May 11 - Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau, French military officer and politician
• May 12 - Anselme Payen, French chemist
• May 13 - Joseph Henry, American scientist
• May 14 - Ōkubo Toshimichi, Japanese samurai, later leader of the Meiji restoration
• May 28 - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• June 5 - Ernst von Bibra, German scientist
• June 6
• * Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, Marshal of France
• * Robert Stirling, Scottish clergyman, inventor
• June 12
• * Queen Cheorin, Korean queen consort
• * George V of Hanover
• June 27 - Sidney Breese, U.S. senator from Illinois, father of the Illinois Central Railroad

  July–December

• July 1 - Catherine Winkworth, English translator of hymns
• July 17 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet
• July 23 - Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Bohemian pathologist, philosopher and politician
• August 13 - Henry James Montague, English-born actor
• August 16 - Richard Upjohn, English-American architect
• August 26 - Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Discalced Carmelite and Melkite Greek Catholic nun and saint, canonized
• August 30 - James Geiss, English businessman
• September 7 - Mehmed Ali Pasha, Prussian-born Ottoman military leader
• October 4 - Dora Hand, dance hall singer, actress
• October 20 - Hiram Paulding, American admiral
• November 20 - William Thomas, Welsh poet
• November 28 - Orson Hyde, American religious leader
• December 10 - Henry Wells, American businessman
• December 14 - Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
• December 18 - W H Payne, actor and mime artist
• December 23 - Frederick Aiken, American lawyer, journalist, and soldier
• December 25 - Henry K. Hoff, American admiral

  In fiction

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