1876 CE

The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City. American Indian Wars: Dull Knife Fight – In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald S. Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River (Montana). The soldiers destroy all of the villagers' winter food and clothing, and then slash their ponies' throats. Indian Wars: In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald S. Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River. The soldiers destroy all of the villagers' winter food and clothing, and then slash their ponies' throats.

In the 1870s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 26 – The Japanese force the Korean government to sign the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 (having brought a fleet to Incheon, the port of modern-day Seoul), opening three ports to Japanese trade and forcing Korea's Joseon dynasty to cease considering itself a tributary of China. On China's urging, Korea also signs treaties with the European powers, in an effort to counterbalance Japan.source
  • March 20 – Through constitutional reform taking legal effect, Louis De Geer becomes the first Prime Minister of Sweden.source
  • April 12 – The Indian Act comes into force in Canada.source
  • April 12 - The Indian Act is passed. Consolidating and expanding on existing Canadian laws, it defines the special status and land regulations of Aboriginal peoples in Canada who live on reserves; status Indians have no vote in Canadian elections and are exempt from taxesCanadasource
  • May 1 – The Royal Titles Act 1876 in the UK Parliament confers the title 'Empress of India' upon Queen Victoria from 1877.source
  • May 16 – British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejects the Berlin Memorandum.source
  • May 30 – Abdülaziz is deposed by his nephew Murad V as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire on the grounds of mismanaging the economy; 6 days later, Abdülaziz is found dead at the Çırağan Palace in Istanbul and 93 days later Murad is deposed by Abdul Hamid II on the grounds of mental illness. For this reason, in Turkey 1876 is known as the 'Year of the Three Sultans'.source
  • 5 June – George Thorn becomes Premier of Queensland.Australiasource
  • 13 June – Partial legislative electionBelgiumsource
  • June 19 – Jászkunság, the last remnant of Kunság within Austria-Hungary, is disestablished.source
  • July 8 – Reichstadt Agreement: Russia and Austria-Hungary agree on partitioning the Balkan Peninsula.source
  • August 1 – Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.source
  • August 31 – Murad V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid II.source
  • 25 September – The Hans Christian Ørsted Monument in Ørstedsparken in Copenhagen is inaugurated.Denmarksource
  • October 26 – José María Iglesias begins his disputed presidency of Mexico.source
  • President Johannes Brand of the Orange Free State rejects any discussion of Carnarvon's proposed confederation system for Southern Africa.South Africasource
  • November 1 – The British Colony of New Zealand dissolves its 9 provinces and replaces them with 63 counties.source
  • November 7 – 1876 United States presidential election: After long and heated disputes, Rutherford B. Hayes is eventually declared the winner over Samuel J. Tilden.source
  • November 7 – The 1876 presidential election ends indecisively with 184 Electoral College votes for Samuel J. Tilden, 165 for Rutherford B. Hayes, and 20 in dispute. The new president (Hayes) is not decided until 1877.United Statessource
  • November 10 – The Centennial Exposition ends in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
  • November 29 – Porfirio Díaz becomes President of Mexico.source
  • December 13 – New Constitution of the Ottoman Empire signed, ending Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire.source
  • Queen Victoria is proclaimed "Empress of India" and transfers powers from East India Company to the British Crown.Indiasource
  • Tsar Alexander II signed the Ems Ukaz, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print.Russiasource

Conflict & Security

  • February 2 – Third Carlist War (Spain): Battle of Montejurra – The new commander General Fernando Primo de Rivera marches on the remaining Carlist stronghold at Estella, where he meets a force of about 1,600 men under General Carlos Calderón, at nearby Montejurra. After a courageous and costly defence, Calderón is forced to withdraw.source
  • February 19 – Third Carlist War: Government troops under General Primo de Rivera drive through the weak Carlist forces protecting Estella and take the city by storm.source
  • February 28 – Third Carlist War: The Carlist forces do not succeed, and the promises are never fulfilled. The Carlist pretender Carlos, Duke of Madrid, goes into exile in France, bringing the conflict to an end after four years.source
  • March 2 – United States Secretary of War William W. Belknap resigns his office in the wake of the trader post scandal.source
  • April Uprising: Bulgarian nationalists attacked the Ottoman police headquarters in Oborishte.Russiasource
  • May 2 (April 20 O.S.) – April Uprising of 1876 in Ottoman Bulgaria begins: members of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee rise up against their Ottoman Empire overlords. Over the course of one month and 6 days, the rebellion is suppressed by irregular Ottoman bashi-bazouk units that engage in indiscriminate slaughter of both rebels and non-combatants, killing 15,000–30,000, including the principal rebel leaders and around 5,000 in the Batak massacre. Although the rising does not immediately succeed in its aims, reports of the "Bulgarian Horrors" cause a public outcry in the West and the liberation of Bulgaria is achieved two years later.source
  • May 11/12 – Berlin Memorandum: Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary propose an armistice between Turkey and its insurgents.source
  • May 18 – Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, Kansas, serving under Marshal Larry Deger.source
  • June 17 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud – 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne, led by Crazy Horse, beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.source
  • June 17 – Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud – 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.United Statessource
  • June 25/26 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Little Bighorn: 300 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer are wiped out by 2,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.source
  • June 25 – Indian Wars: Battle of the Little Bighorn – an army under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer is defeated by 1,500-2,500 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, suffering over 300 casualties.United Statessource
  • July 1 – Serbia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.source
  • July 2 – Montenegro declares war on the Ottoman Empire.source
  • September 7 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank, but are surrounded by an angry mob and nearly wiped out.source
  • October 24–25 - Shinpūren RebellionJapansource
  • October 27-November 24 - Akizuki RebellionJapansource
  • October 28-November 5 - Hagi RebellionJapansource
  • November 25 – American Indian Wars: Dull Knife Fight – In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald S. Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River (Montana). The soldiers destroy all of the villagers' winter food and clothing, and then slash their ponies' throats.source
  • November 25 – Indian Wars: In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald S. Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River. The soldiers destroy all of the villagers' winter food and clothing, and then slash their ponies' throats.United Statessource
  • George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman – History of the Princes of South WalesWalessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • 16 January Chilean International Exhibition closesChilesource
  • Thousands of Plains Indians in the United States travel to an encampment of the Sioux chief Sitting Bull in the region of the Little Bighorn River, creating the last great gathering of native peoples on the Great Plains.source
  • 16 June – Cape Western – Ceres Road to Worcester, 24 mi 38 ch.South Africasource
  • August 10 – The world's first long-distance phone call connects the Bell residence with a shoe and boot store in nearby Paris, Ontario.Canadasource
  • September 12 – King Leopold II of Belgium hosts the Brussels Geographic Conference, on the subject of colonizing and exploring central Africa. By the event's conclusion, a new international body named the International African Association (indirect forerunner of the modern Congo state) is established.source
  • 12 September – Brussels Geographic Conference opens, leading to the foundation of the International African AssociationBelgiumsource
  • Heinrich Schliemann begins excavation at Mycenae.source
  • 18–19 April – Catalpa rescue; Rescue team sent from New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA by John Devoy, rescues six escaped Fenian prisoners from Fremantle, Western AustraliaAustraliasource
  • Frederik Johnstrup led an expedition to Iceland to study Askja and the volcanoes at Mývatn with Þorvaldur Thoroddsen (1855–1921) as his guide.Icelandsource
  • A combined side from Canterbury toured Nelson, Wellington (at Lower Hutt), and Auckland (at Ellerslie)New Zealandsource
  • Spring – Vast numbers of Indians move north to an encampment of the Sioux chief Sitting Bull in the region of the Little Bighorn River, creating the last great gathering of native peoples on the Great Plains.United Statessource

Religion & Belief

  • 20 April – Leopold I's mortal remains transferred to the crypt of the Church of Our Lady of LaekenBelgiumsource
  • June – Francis Kilvert becomes vicar of Saint Harmon, Radnorshire.Walessource
  • December 6 – The first cremation in the U.S. takes place in a crematory built by Francis Julius LeMoyne.United Statessource
  • The Legislative Council of Manitoba is abolished, and the legislature becomes unicameral.Canadasource
  • Émile Zola - Son Excellence Eugène RougonFrancesource
  • Royal Titles Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • William Forbes Skene's Celtic Scotland: a History of Ancient Alban begins publication in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
  • Mary Sumner founds Christian women's organisation the Mothers' Union.United Kingdomsource

Economy & Finance

  • May 10 – Major pharmaceutical brand Eli Lilly is founded in Indiana, United States.source
  • 19 May – Sir Edmund Buckley, 1st Baronet, files for bankruptcy in Manchester with debts exceeding £500,000, causing his Dinas Mawddwy estate to be put up for sale.Walessource
  • June – Dublin Artisans' Dwellings Company established.Irelandsource
  • August 1 – Senate votes to acquit former Secretary of War William W. Belknap of all impeached charges relating to the trader post scandal.United Statessource
  • September 26 – Global consumer goods and personal care company Henkel is founded by Friedrich Karl Henkel in Aachen, Germany.source
  • December 2 – Chugai Economic Daily, predecessor of Nikkei Economic Daily (Nihon Keizai Shinbun), is first issued in Tokyo, Japan.source
  • Adolphus Busch's brewery, Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri, first markets Budweiser, a pale lager, as a nationally sold beer.source
  • Star Oil Company, predecessor of the global Chevron energy product and sales brand, is founded in California.source
  • Julius Mortensen Shipping, present-day United Shipping & Trading Company, is founded in Fredericia.Denmarksource
  • Customs Consolidation Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • National income - ₹3,887 millionIndiasource
  • Date unknown - Lars Magnus Ericsson founds Ericsson.Swedensource
  • Depression of 1873–79 (1873–1879)United Statessource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 14 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a U.S. patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.source
  • 18 February: The first trans-Tasman submarine communications cable is completed, allowing telegraph communications with the rest of the world.New Zealandsource
  • March 7 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a United States patent for the telephone.source
  • March 10 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call, saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you".source
  • April 1 – Lars Magnus Ericsson starts a small mechanical workshop in Stockholm, Sweden (from April 27 partnering with Carl Johan Andersson), dealing with telegraphy equipment, which grows into the worldwide company Ericsson.source
  • May 1 – The Settle–Carlisle Railway in England is opened to passenger traffic (it opened to goods traffic in 1875).source
  • May 17 – Nicolaus Otto files his patent for the four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine.source
  • June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco via the first transcontinental railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.source
  • June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.United Statessource
  • June 16 – The railway line from Cape Town to Worcester is officially opened.South Africasource
  • July 1 – The Intercolonial Railway connecting central Canada to the Maritimes is completedCanadasource
  • 5 July – The completion of a railway bridge across the Brisbane River links Brisbane and Ipswich, Queensland.Australiasource
  • 12 July – The Svendborg Railway Line opens between the towns of Odense and Svendborg on Funen.Denmarksource
  • August 8 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.source
  • October 4 – Texas A&M University opens for classes.source
  • Lyford House, by Richardson Bay, Tiburon, California, is constructed.source
  • Charles Wells opens his brewery, based in Bedford, England.source
  • Construction of Spandau Prison in Berlin is completed.source
  • Emile Berliner invents an improved form of microphone which will be adopted for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.source
  • Woosung Road constructed in Shanghai, JiangsuChinasource
  • Date unknown - Upsala-Lenna JernvägSwedensource

Science & Discovery

  • January 1 – The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol, in the United Kingdom.source
  • 1 January – the Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the first registered trademark symbol, under the Trade Mark Registration Act 1875.United Kingdomsource
  • American librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.source
  • March – Librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.United Statessource

Health & Medicine

  • 15 August – Elementary Education Act 1876 ("Sandon's Act") prevents employment of children under 10; permits local attendance committees to impose compulsory school attendance for ages 5–13; and authorises poor law guardians to pay school fees for the poor and destitute under a system of certificates.United Kingdomsource
  • Samurai are banned from carrying swords in Japan, and their stipends are replaced by a one-time grant of income-bearing bonds.source
  • Heinz Tomato Ketchup is introduced in the United States.source
  • Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health was set up as Tezpur Lunatic Asylum in April, 1876.Indiasource
  • St. Michael's Hospital (Dún Laoghaire) established by the Sisters of Mercy.Irelandsource
  • Grey squirrel introduced to England at Henbury Park, Cheshire.United Kingdomsource
  • Heinz Tomato Ketchup introduced.United Statessource
  • The Medical Act 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 41) repeals the previous Medical Act in the United Kingdom and enables every university or other body in the United Kingdom entitled to grant qualifications for registration to grant such qualifications to all people without distinction of sex.United Kingdomsource

Crime & Justice

  • January 27 – The Northampton Bank robbery occurs in Massachusetts.source
  • May 16 – German American "Napoleon of crime" Adam Worth steals Gainsborough's Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire from a London gallery three weeks after its sale at Christie's for 10,000 guineas, the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction at this time. It is not recovered until 1901.source
  • 16 May – Adam Worth steals the Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire from Agnew's gallery in Old Bond Street, London three weeks after its sale at Christie's for 10,000 guineas, the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction at this time. It is not recovered until 1901.United Kingdomsource
  • May 29 – The United States Senate votes 37 to 29 that U.S. Secretary of War William W. Belknap cannot be barred from trial and impeachment, despite being a private citizen; however, this is far short of the two-thirds majority required and thus he is acquitted.source
  • May 29 – Senate votes 37 to 29 that Secretary of War William W. Belknap cannot be barred from trial and impeachment, despite being a private citizen; however, this is far short of the two-thirds majority required and thus he is acquitted.United Statessource
  • July 13 – The prosecution of Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman, for using ritualist practices begins.source
  • August 1 – The United States Senate votes to acquit former Secretary of War William W. Belknap of all impeachment charges relating to the trader post scandal.source
  • August 2 – Wild Bill Hickok is shot dead during a poker game in Deadwood, Dakota.United Statessource
  • November 7 – A failed grave robbery of the Lincoln Tomb takes place this night.source
  • November 23 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City, after being captured in Spain.source
  • Jacques Offenbach - Pierrette et JacquotFrancesource
  • Jules Verne - Michael StrogoffFrancesource
  • Song "Rose of Killarney" composed by John Rogers Thomas in the United States.Irelandsource
  • Saint Petersburg Art and Industry AcademyRussiasource
  • Eos Bradwen – Bugeiles yr WyddfaWalessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 5 – The ship Memento sinks off East London and two 2nd Class 2-6-2TT locomotives intended for the Eastern System of the Cape Government Railways are lost.South Africasource
  • 5 April – River Dee Ferry Boat Disaster: 32 drown.Scotlandsource
  • 11 September – SS Dandenong sinks; 40 lives are lost.Australiasource
  • October 19 – The 2,700 ton steamer Windsor Castle sinks off Dassen Island.South Africasource
  • 1 December – SS Georgette runs aground near Busselton, Western Australia; Grace Bussell and Sam Isaacs help to rescue the passengers.Australiasource
  • December 5 – The Brooklyn Theatre fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300.source
  • December 5 – The Brooklyn Theater Fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300.United Statessource
  • December 29 – The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs in Ohio when a bridge collapses, leaving 92 dead.source

Climate & Environment

  • 16 February – The community of Bowen was struck by an F5 tornado that caused £7000 of damage, injured numerous people and had one confirmed casualty.Australiasource
  • March 3 – Kentucky meat shower.United Statessource
  • October 31 – The great 1876 Bengal cyclone strikes the coast of modern-day Bangladesh, killing 200,000.source
  • 7 December – After weeks of heavy precipitation the Guadiana and Tagus rivers in southeastern Portugal burst their banks, destroying several villages in one of the worst flooding events in recorded in the country as well as the biggest involving Guadiana and Tagus rivers.Portugalsource
  • The Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79, which will claim 30 million lives and become the 5th-worst famine in recorded history, begins after the droughts of the previous year.source
  • Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79Chinasource
  • Henry Wickham smuggles rubber seeds out of Brazil leading to the eventual collapse of the Amazon rubber boom.United Kingdomsource

Culture & Society

  • January 15 – Die Patriot, the first Afrikaans newspaper, begins to be published in Paarl.South Africasource
  • February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs is formed at a meeting in Chicago; it replaces the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. Morgan Bulkeley of the Hartford Dark Blues is selected as the league's first president.source
  • February 22 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.source
  • February 24 – The first stage production of the verse-play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen premieres, with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, in Christiania (modern-day Oslo), Norway.source
  • February–March – The Harvard Lampoon humor magazine is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.source
  • 28 March – Classes commence at the University of Adelaide.Australiasource
  • April 17 – Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost at Locust Valley, New York.source
  • May 10 – The Centennial Exposition begins in Philadelphia.source
  • May 30 – The Ems Ukaz, a secret decree, is issued by Tsar Alexander II of Russia in the German city of Bad Ems, aimed at stopping the printing and distribution of Ukrainian-language publications in the Russian Empire.source
  • June 6 – The Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feebleminded Persons, later known as the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, is founded when several directors led by Édouard Séguin, inspired by Centennial events, meet to improve the lives of those with disabilities.source
  • 15 June - Chilean presidential election, 1876Chilesource
  • July 4 – The United States Centennial Exposition is celebrated across the country.source
  • August 6 – The first issue of Arabic language newspaper Al-Ahram is published by Saleem and Beshara Takla in Alexandria, Muhammad Ali dynasty (modern-day Egypt).source
  • August 13 – A performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold opens the first Ring cycle at the first Bayreuth Festival.source
  • August 14 – Prairie View A&M University, at the time named Alta Vista Agriculture & Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth, is founded, the first state-supported HBCU in the state of Texas.source
  • September 5 – British Prime Minister William Gladstone publishes his Bulgarian Horrors pamphlet.source
  • 27 September – Opening of the International Congress of Hygiene and Life-Saving Equipment in Brussels, as part of the International Exhibition of Hygiene.Belgiumsource
  • October 6 – The American Library Association is founded in Philadelphia.source
  • November 4 – The long-awaited First Symphony of Johannes Brahms has its première at Karlsruhe, under the baton of Otto Dessoff.source
  • December 6 – The first cremation in the United States takes place, in a crematory built by Francis Julius LeMoyne at North Franklin Township, Pennsylvania.source
  • December 23 – Constantinople Conference opens.source
  • December – The first American edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is published by the American Publishing Company; a British edition has appeared in early June in London with the first review appearing on June 24 in a British magazine.source
  • The Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland is founded.source
  • Stockport Lacrosse Club, thought to be the oldest existing lacrosse club in the world, is founded at Cale Green Cricket Club in Davenport, near Manchester in England, where they will still be playing in the 21st century.source
  • The Augusteum art museum is founded in OldenburgGermanysource
  • Rugby clubs were founded in Marton, Bulls, and Sanson, Oamaru, Hawera, Pātea, Invercargill, Otautau, Riverton, Greytown, Masterton, Rangiora, Waimate, Kaiapoi and Te Awamutu.New Zealandsource
  • Associação Académica de Coimbra – O.A.F. foundedPortugalsource
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's patriotic Slavonic March makes its premiere in Moscow.Russiasource

Births

Deaths

  • 5 April – William Spain, first New South Wales Inspector-General of PoliceAustraliasource
  • May 8 – Truganini, supposed last Tasmanian Aboriginal woman (born c. 1812)source
  • June 1 – Hristo Botev, Bulgarian revolutionary (born 1848)source
  • June 4 – Abdülaziz, 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (born 1830)source
  • June 7 – Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway (born 1807)source
  • June 8 – George Sand, French writer (born 1804)source
  • June 20 – John Neal, American writer, critic and women's rights activist (born 1793)source
  • June 21 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, 11-time President of Mexico (born 1794)source
  • June 25 – George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Army general (killed in action) (born 1839)source
  • June 27 – Harriet Martineau, British social theorist, writer (born 1802)source
  • July 1 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian revolutionary, anarchist (born 1814)source
  • July 15 – Juan Pablo Duarte, Dominican revolutionary and political activist.source
  • August 2 – Wild Bill Hickok is murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota.source
  • August 2 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter, entertainer (born 1837)source
  • 5 September - Manuel Blanco Encalada (born 1790)Chilesource
  • September 27 – Braxton Bragg, American Confederate Civil War general (born 1817)source
  • 22 November: Charles Flinders Hursthouse, author and settler.New Zealandsource
  • Mikhail Bakunin, Russian revolutionary anarchist, Died in Bern, SwitzerlandRussiasource