1870
1870 (
MDCCCLXX) was a
common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar or a
common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower
Julian calendar.
*
Franco-Prussian War* Term "
economics" first used, by
Alfred Marshall* In England, the
Forfeiture Act was passed, abolishing the punishment of
hanging, drawing and quartering.
* The
North Carolina General Assembly forms a county from
Currituck,
Tyrrell and
Hyde counties and names it
Dare County in honor of
Virginia Dare. The Dare county seat is laid out and named
Manteo in honor of Chief Manteo.
January
*
January 1 - Plans for the
Brooklyn Bridge are done.
*
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 -
American Civil War:
Virginia rejoins the Union
*
January 27 - First college
sorority,
Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at
DePauw UniversityFebruary
* February -
Vrain Denis-Lucas in sentenced for two years in prison for multiple
forgery in Paris
*
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.
*
February 10 - The
YWCA is founded (
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
*
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 24 -
Syracuse University is established and officially opens.
*
March 30 - The fifteenth amendment is entered into the
United States Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote.
*
March 30 -
Texas is readmitted to the Union following
Reconstruction.
April
*
April 11 -
Irish peer Lord Muncaster and his entourage kidnapped in
Greece.
May
*
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.
*
May 24 - Opening day of the
Brooklyn Bridge.
June
*
June 22 - The
U.S. Congress creates the
Department of Justice.
*
June 26 -
Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the
United StatesJuly
*
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 states 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
*
August 8 - The
Republic of Ploieşti, a failed rising against
Domnitor Carol of
Romania.
September
*
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
*
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
*
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
*
December 30 - Assassination of
Juan Prim, Prime minister of
Spain.
*
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 -
Frank Norris, American writer (d.
1902)
*
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, first leader of the Soviet Union (d.
1924)
*
April 30 -
Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (d.
1948)
*
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 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 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 12 -
Walter Benona Sharp, American oil pioneer (d.
1912)
*
December 18 -
Saki, English writer (d.
1918)
*
January 29 -
Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b.
1797)
*
February 7 -
Sylvain Salnave a Hatian president
*
February 19 -
Nathaniel de Rothschild, French wine grower (b.
1812)
*
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 20 -
Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, French writer and publisher (b.
1822)
*
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)
Unknown dates
*
Patrick MacDowell, Northern Irish sculptor (b.
1799)
*
Moshoeshoe I of
Lesotho (b.
1786?)
