Explore 883 historical events from 1870–1879.
Georges Bizet was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Car…
Georges Bizet, French pianist and composer (born 1838)
Eduard Friedrich Mörike was a German Lutheran pastor who was also a Romantic poet and writer of novellas and novels. Many of his poems were set to music and became established folk…
Eduard Mörike, German pastor and poet (born 1804)
Gérard Paul Deshayes was a French geologist and conchologist.
Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist and conchologist (born 1795)
Joseph Lafayette Meek was an American pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapp…
Joseph Meek, American police officer and politician (born 1810)
Antoine-Louis Barye was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an animalier, a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the sculptor Alfred Barye.
Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (born 1796)
Ferdinand I was Emperor of Austria from March 1835 until his abdication in December 1848. He was also King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, King of Lombardy–Venetia and holder of …
Ferdinand I of Austria (born 1793)
Isaac Merritt Singer was an American inventor, actor, and businessman. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of what became one of …
Isaac Singer, American businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (born 1811)
Aleksander Kunileid, was an Estonian composer. He is one of the founding figures of Estonian choral music.
Aleksander Kunileid, Estonian composer and educator (born 1845)
George Edward Pickett was an American military officer who became a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for being one …
George Pickett, American general (born 1825)
Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lin…
Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (born 1808)
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish writer. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (born 1805)
Karl Andree was a German geographer, publicist and consul.
Karl Andree, German geographer and journalist (born 1808)
Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was a German linguist who lived in the Cape Colony and developed a particular interest for the languages and culture of the San peoples. He is the a…
Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist and anthropologist (born 1827)
William Chapman Ralston was a San Francisco businessman and financier, and the founder of the Bank of California.
William Chapman Ralston, American businessman and financier, founded the Bank of California (born 1826)
Captain Matthew Webb was an English seaman, swimmer and stuntman who became the first person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids. Webb increased the popu…
Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, doing so in approximately 21 hours 40 minutes.
The Minute Man is an 1874 sculpture by Daniel Chester French in Minute Man National Historical Park, located in Concord, Massachusetts, United States. It was created between 1871 a…
The Minute Man was unveiled as part of the centennial celebration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Metre Convention, also known as the Treaty of the Metre, is an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations: Argentina, Austria…
Representatives from seventeen countries signed the Metre Convention, which set up an institute for the purpose of coord
The 1875 Indianola hurricane brought a devastating and deadly storm surge to the coast of Texas. The third known system of the 1875 Atlantic hurricane season, the storm was first c…
The Indianola hurricane dissipated over Mississippi after killing around eight hundred people in Texas.
The Mill River is a 13.5-mile-long (21.7 km) tributary of the Connecticut River arising in the western hilltowns of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. It is notable for dropping in e…
A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people
Dorsland Trek is the collective name of a series of explorations undertaken by Boer settlers from South Africa from 1874 to 1881, in search of political independence and better liv…
The first group of Dorsland trekkers under the leadership of Gert Alberts leaves Pretoria
Charilaos Trikoupis was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.
Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to Blame?" levelin
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11…
The Mounties begin their March West.
The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Aless…
Verdi's Requiem was first performed at San Marco in Milan on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death
The Sholes and Glidden typewriter was the first commercially successful typewriter. Principally designed by the American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes, it was developed with t…
The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.