1870

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1840s  1850s  1860s  – 1870s –   1880s   1890s   1900s
Years:	1867 1868 1869 – 1870 – 1871 1872 1873

Year 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1870

January - March

• January 1
  • First edition of The Northern Echo newspaper published.
  • Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed.
• 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 - Reconstruction: Virginia rejoins the Union.
• January 27 - First college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is established at DePauw University.
• February - Vrain Denis-Lucas in sentenced for two years in prison for multiple forgery in Paris.
• February 1 - Goodna State School in Goodna, Queensland, Australia is founded.
• 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.
  • The YWCA is founded in 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 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 4 - Thomas Scott is executed by Louis Riel's provisional government during the Red River Rebellion in modern day Manitoba Canada.
• March 19 - Ohio Legislature passes the Cannon Act, thereby establishing the Ohio Agriculture and Mechanical College, later The Ohio State University.
• March 24 - Syracuse University is established and officially opens.
• March 30
  • The 15th Amendment is entered into the United States Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote.
  • Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
• March 31 - Thomas Mundy Peterson the first African-American to vote in an election.

April - June

• 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.
• June 9 - The author and actor Charles Dickens dies after suffering from a stroke. The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."
• June 22 - The U.S. Congress creates the Department of Justice.
• June 26
  • Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
  • Richard Wagner's opera Die Walküre is first performed at Munich's National Theatre.

July - September

• 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 state 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 8 - The Republic of Ploieşti, a failed rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.
• August 24 - The Red River Rebellion ends with the arrival of the Wolseley Expedition and the fleeing of Louis Riel.
• 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, becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally since 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 - December

• October 2 - Referendum in Rome supports joining 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 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 30 - Assassination of Juan Prim, Prime minister of Spain.

Births

1870 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1870 MDCCCLXX
Ab urbe condita	2623
Armenian calendar	1319 ԹՎ ՌՅԺԹ
Assyrian calendar	6620
Bahá'í calendar	26–27
Bengali calendar	1277
Berber calendar	2820
British Regnal year	33 Vict. 1 – 34 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2414
Burmese calendar	1232
Byzantine calendar	7378–7379
Chinese calendar	己巳年十一月三十日 (4506/4566-11-30) — to — 庚午年十一月初十日 (4507/4567-11-10)
Coptic calendar	1586–1587
Ethiopian calendar	1862–1863
Hebrew calendar	5630–5631
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1926–1927
- Shaka Samvat	1792–1793
- Kali Yuga	4971–4972
Holocene calendar	11870
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	870–871
Iranian calendar	1248–1249
Islamic calendar	1286–1287
Japanese calendar	Meiji 3 (明治3年)
Juche calendar	N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4203
Minguo calendar	42 before ROC 民前42年
Thai solar calendar	2413

January - June

• 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)
• January 11 - Alexander Stirling Calder, American sculptor (d. 1945)
• February 7 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (d. 1937)
• February 12 - Marie Lloyd, English singer (d. 1922)
• March 4 - Thomas Sturge Moore, English poet, author and artist (d. 1944)
• March 5 - Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-born German political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary (d. 1919)
• March 5 - Frank Norris, American writer (d. 1902)
• March 13 - Seale Harris, American Physician (d. 1957)
• 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 and first Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1924)
• April 30 - Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (d. 1948)
• May 9 - Harry Vardon, English Golf Professional (d. 1937)
• 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 - December

• July 3 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)
• July 12 - Louis II of Monaco (d. 1949)
• July 25 - Maxfield Parrish, American illustrator (d. 1966)
• July 29 - George Dixon, Canadian boxer (d. 1909)
• August 3 - Caroline Celestia "Carrie" Ingalls, née Swanzey, Younger sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. June 2, 1946)
• 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 10 - Mary Bonaparte, pretender to the French imperial throne (d. 1947)
• December 12 - Walter Benona Sharp, American oil pioneer (d. 1912)
• December 18 - Saki, English writer (d. 1916)

Deaths

January - June

• January 29 - Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)
• February 7 - Sylvain Salnave a Hatian president (b. 1827)
• February 19 - Nathaniel de Rothschild, French wine grower (b. 1812)
• March 11 - Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho (b. 1786?)
• 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 - December

• July 20 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, French writer and publisher (b. 1830)
• 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)
• date unknown - Patrick MacDowell, Northern Irish sculptor (b. 1799)