Second German Empire
Jan 18 Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck
- Jan 19 1st Negro lodge of US Masons approved, New Jersey
- Jan 26 The Rugby Football Union is formed at a meeting of 21 clubs at the Pall Mall Restaurant, London, England
- Jan 28 Paris surrenders to Prussians
- Jan 31 Millions of birds fly over western San Francisco, darkening the sky
- Feb 1 Jefferson Long of Georgia is first African American to make an official speech in US House of Representatives (opposing leniency to former Confederates)
- Feb 9 Federal fish protection office authorized by US Congress
- Feb 27 Meeting of Alabama claims commission
- Feb 28 2nd Enforcement Act gives federal control of congressional elections in US
- Mar 1 J Milton Turner named US minister to Liberia
- Mar 3 US Congress changes Indian tribes status from independent to dependent
- Mar 3 US Congress establishes the civil service system
- Mar 16 1st fertilizer law enacted
- Mar 17 National Association of Professional Base-Ball players organized
- Mar 18 Communards revolt in Paris
- Mar 21 33rd Grand National: Irish 1868 winner The Lamb claims second GN at 11/2; ridden by Tommy Pickernell
Stanley Begins African Expedition
Mar 21 Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa
Prince Bismarck
Mar 21 Otto von Bismarck elevated to rank of Fürst (Prince)
- Mar 22 William Holden of North Carolina becomes 1st governor removed by impeachment
- Mar 26 Municipal elections bring revolutionaries to power in Paris who form the short lived Paris Commune government
- Mar 27 First international rugby union match - Scotland beats England, 1-0 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh
- Mar 28 San Francisco Art Association holds open reception at 430 Pine
Royal Albert Hall
Mar 29 Royal Albert Hall opened by Queen Victoria in London
- Apr 1 New Constitution adopted by the German Empire
- Apr 10 William Hammond Hall's maps & surveys of Golden Gate Park accepted
- Apr 14 Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, & mills
- Apr 20 US 3rd Enforcement Act (President can suspend writ of habeas corpus)
- Apr 22 All German Jews emancipated after the German Constitution adopted by its last state Bavaria
- Apr 23 Blossom Rock in San Francisco Bay blown up
- Apr 30 The Camp Grant Massacre of Apache Indians in Arizona Territory is committed by white and Mexican adventurers, 144 die
- May 4 1st baseball league game (National Association of Baseball Players), (Ft Wayne 2, Cleveland 0) Deacon Jim White gets 1st hit, a double
- May 8 British-US treaty ends Alabama dispute
- May 10 Peace of Frankfurt-am-Main concluded between France & Germany ends Franco-Prussian war
- May 12 Segregated street cars integrated in Louisville, Kentucky
Salt Creek Massacre
May 18 Warren Wagon Train raid: Native American Comanche and Kiowa warriors attack a corn train led by Henry Warren near Graham, Texas, killing 7 waggoners. William T. Sherman pursues and captures 3 leaders, Satanta (White Bear), Satank (Sitting Bear) and Addo-eta ( Big Tree).
Jesse James Robbery
Jun 3 Jesse James & his gang robs Obocock Bank (Corydon Iowa), of $15,000
- Jun 10 5th Belmont: W. Miller aboard Harry Basset wins in 2:56
- Jun 10 Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 Marines in naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea
- Jun 13 Hurricane kills 300 in Labrador
- Jun 15 Phoebe Couzins is 1st woman graduate of a US collegiate law school
- Jun 16 Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of Mystic Shrine founded, NYC
- Jun 16 The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology
- Jun 20 Ku Klux Klan trials began in federal court in Oxford, Mississippi
- Jun 30 Guatemala revolts for agrarian reforms
- Jul 1 The decimal currency system is made uniform in Canada
- Jul 5 Trial against Kiowa chief Satanta (White Bear) and Big Tree, begins
- Jul 13 World's first championship cat show; Organised by Harrison Weir and held in Crystal Palace, London
- Jul 20 British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
- Jul 25 Carousel patented by Wilhelm Schneider, Davenport, Iowa
- Aug 29 Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871).
- Sep 5 German archaeologist Carl Mauch is the first European to explore the ruins of the medieval Shona city of Great Zimbabwe, the largest archaeological site in Sub-Saharan Africa [1]
- Sep 7 Bay of Biscay: British warship HMS Captain capsizes, 500 killed
- Sep 17 Mont Cenis railway tunnel in Switzerland opens
- Sep 20 Bishop John Coleridge Patteson martyred on the island of Nukapu, a Polynesian outlier island now in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. He was the first bishop of Melanesia.
- Oct 1 General Dutch Werkliedenverbond (ANWV), forms in Utrecht
Brigham Young Arrested
Oct 2 US Mormon leader Brigham Young arrested for bigamy
- Oct 6 Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American a cappella ensembe from Nashville's Fisk University, begin 1st national tour of US in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Oct 7 16-hour fire injures 30 of Chicago's 185 firefighters
- Oct 8 Forest fire destroys Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing between 1,200 and 2,500 people, making it then the deadliest wildfire in recorded history
Great Chicago Fire
Oct 8 The Great Chicago Fire kills an estimated 300 people and destroys over 4 square miles (10 square km) of buildings and the original Emancipation Proclamation
- Oct 10 The Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after 3 days, leaving approximately 300 dead, 100,000 homeless, and costing $222m in damage
- Oct 12 US President Grant condemns Ku Klux Klan
- Oct 13 The Delphic Fraternity is founded as the Delphic Society at the State Normal School in Geneseo, New York.
- Oct 17 Great Britain annexes Griqualand, South Africa
Grant Takes on the Klan
Oct 17 US President Ulysses S. Grant suspends habeas corpus in parts of South Carolina during prosecutions against Ku Klux Klan
Boss Tweed Arrested
Oct 27 Democratic leader of Tammany Hall NY, Boss Tweed is arrested after the NY Times exposes his corruption
Stanley Encounters Livingstone
Nov 10 Henry Morton Stanley encounters David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa, with the immortal words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
- Nov 16 National Rifle Association is first chartered in the State of New York
- Nov 21 Moses F Gale patents a cigar lighter (NYC)
- Nov 28 Ku Klux Klan trials began in Federal District Court in South Carolina
- Dec 12 Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum
- Dec 19 Albert L Jones of New York City patents corrugated paper
- Dec 24 Giusseppi Verdi's "Aida" opera premieres in Cairo, Egypt
"Thespis"
Dec 26 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera "Thespis"; despite modest success they do not collaborate again for four years
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies