Directory

1875 CE

Tanaka Manufacturing, a telecommunications factory in Ginza, Tokyo, a predecessor of Toshiba, a Japanese electromechanics giant, is founded. Hibernian F.C. is founded by Irishmen in Edinburgh, Scotland. English Association football team Birmingham City F.C. is founded as Small Heath Alliance in Birmingham by a group of cricketers from Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, playing its first match in November.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 12 – Guangxu becomes the 11th Qing dynasty Emperor of China at the age of 3. He succeeds his cousin, the Tongzhi Emperor, who had no sons of his own.source
  • January 14 – The newly proclaimed King Alfonso XII of Spain (Queen Isabella II's son) arrives in Spain to restore the monarchy during the Third Carlist War.source
  • February 27 – Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California, resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governor William Irwin.source
  • March 1 – The United States Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in public accommodations and jury duty.source
  • May 7 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg is signed between Japan and Russia.source
  • May 20 – The Metre Convention is signed in Paris, France.source
  • July 1 – The General Postal Union is established.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 3 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Lácar – Carlist commander Torcuato Mendíri secures a brilliant victory, when he surprises and routs a Government force under General Enrique Bargés at Lácar, east of Estella, nearly capturing newly crowned King Alfonso XII. The Carlists take several pieces of artillery, more than 2,000 rifles, and 300 prisoners. 800 men of both sides are killed (mostly government troops).source
  • February 18 – The Mason County War begins, as a German-American mob breaks into a prison, and lynches cattle rustlers in central Texas.source
  • February 25 – The majority of the Yavapai (Wipukyipai) and Tonto Apache (Dil Zhéé) tribes are forced by the United States Cavalry, under command of Brigadier General George Crook, to walk at gunpoint from Arizona's Verde Valley, to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, 180 miles to the southeast. The two tribes are not allowed to return to the Verde Valley until 1900.source
  • April 25 – Ten sophomores from Rutgers College (modern-day Rutgers University) steal a one-ton cannon from the campus of the College of New Jersey (modern-day Princeton University), and start the Rutgers–Princeton Cannon War.source
  • July 1–7 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Treviño – Advancing on the key city of Vitoria, in Navarre, Spanish Republican commander General Jenardo de Quesada sends General Tello to attack the Carlist lines just to the southwest, at Treviño. The newly appointed Carlist commander General José Pérula is heavily defeated and withdraws, and soon afterwards Quesada enters Vitoria in triumph.source
  • September 7 – Battle of Agurdat: An Egyptian invasion of Ethiopia fails, when Emperor Yohannes IV defeats an army led by Werner Munzinger.source
  • November 9 – American Indian Wars: In Washington, D.C., Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins issues a report stating that hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are hostile to the United States (the Battle of the Little Bighorn is fought in Montana the next year).source
  • November 16 – Battle of Gundat: Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV defeats another Egyptian army.source
  • December 4 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Spain.source
  • December 20 – The ICRM is renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).source
  • British Indian Army officer Neville Chamberlain originates the cue sport of snooker at Jubbulpore (Jabalpur) in India.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 15 – Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.source
  • April 10 – The Arya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 3 – The Page Act of 1875 is enacted in the United States, effectively prohibiting the immigration of Chinese women.source
  • July 9 – Asia's first stock exchange is established as The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association (the modern-day Bombay Stock Exchange).source
  • July 28 – Joe Borden throws the first no-hitter in baseball history versus Mike Golden and the Chicago White Stockings in his third start as a replacement for Cherokee Fisher as a member of the Philadelphia White Stockingssource
  • October – The Ottoman state declares partial bankruptcy, and places its finances in the hands of European creditors. It is also suffering widespread nationalist rebellions resulting in Russian intervention and Great Power tensions.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third Class is renamed Second Class in 1956).source
  • March 3 – The first indoor ice hockey game is played at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.source
  • May 17 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.source
  • July 11 – Tanaka Manufacturing, a telecommunications factory in Ginza, Tokyo, a predecessor of Toshiba, a Japanese electromechanics giant, is founded.source
  • August 25 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.source
  • November 26 – The Times newspaper in London reveals that Isma'il Pasha has sold Egypt's 44% share in the Suez Canal to Britain, in a deal secured by Benjamin Disraeli, without the prior sanction of the British Parliament.source

Science & Discovery

  • September 11 – Egypt adopts the Gregorian calendar; replacing the Coptic/Alexandrian calendar (based on the ancient Egyptian calendar) which had been the official calendar since the Roman period.source

Health & Medicine

  • April – 'Albert's swarm' of Rocky Mountain locusts begins to devastate the western United States.source
  • Convent Scandal: During the winter in Montreal, typhoid fever strikes at a convent school. The corpses of the victims are filched by body-snatchers before relatives arrive from America, causing much furor. Eventually the Anatomy Act of Quebec is changed over it.source

Crime & Justice

  • September 1 – A murder conviction begins to break the power of the violent Irish-American anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", in Pennsylvania.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 24 – The sinks off Australia's east coast with the loss of approximately 102 lives, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.source
  • May 7 – German liner wrecks on the rocks off the Isles of Scilly, with the loss of 335 lives.source
  • June 18 – The Dublin whiskey fire in Ireland leaves 13 people dead and causes more than €6 million worth of damage.source
  • September 27 – American merchant sailing ship Ellen Southard is wrecked off Liverpool in England; 12 crew and life-boatmen are lost.source
  • December 6 – The German emigrant ship SS Deutschland runs aground off the English coast, killing 157 passengers and crew.source
  • December 6 – A firedamp explosion at kills 143 miners at the Swaithe Main Colliery in the South Yorkshire Coalfield of England.source

Climate & Environment

  • The record-setting American clipper Flying Cloud of 1851 is burned for scrap metal.source

Culture & Society

  • January 5 – The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated as the home of the Paris Opera.source
  • January 24 – Camille Saint-Saëns' orchestral Danse macabre receives its première.source
  • March 3 – Bizet's Carmen is first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, France, three months before the composer's death.source
  • June 4 – Two American colleges play each other in arguably the first game of college football: Tufts University and Harvard University at Jarvis Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts.source
  • June 29 – The Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 is passed in the United Kingdom, to permit slum clearance.source
  • August 6 – Hibernian F.C. is founded by Irishmen in Edinburgh, Scotland.source
  • September 24 – The 1864 play Heath Cobblers by Aleksis Kivi is premiered for the first time in Oulu, Finland.source
  • September – English Association football team Birmingham City F.C. is founded as Small Heath Alliance in Birmingham by a group of cricketers from Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, playing its first match in November.source
  • October 16 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.source
  • October 25 – The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts, with Hans von Bülow as soloist.source
  • October 30 – The Theosophical Society is founded in New York by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others.source
  • November 5 – Blackburn Rovers F.C. is founded in England by two old-boys of Shrewsbury School following a meeting at the Leger Hotel, Blackburn.source
  • November 29 – Dōshisha English School, predecessor of Dōshisha University, is founded in Kyōto, Japan.source
  • December 9 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, America's oldest active gun club, is formed.source
  • December 25 – The first Edinburgh derby in Association football is played: Heart of Midlothian F.C. wins 1–0 against Hibernian F.C.source
  • The opening of Flushing High School, the oldest public high school in New York City.source
  • At Wimbledon, Henry Cavendish Jones convinces the All England Croquet Club to replace a croquet lawn with a lawn tennis court.source

Births

  • January 14 – Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian philosopher and musician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1965)source
  • January 22 – D. W. Griffith, American film director (The Birth of a Nation) (d. 1948)source
  • February 21 – Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, world's longest lived person (d. 1997)source
  • March 4 – Mihály Károlyi, Prime Minister and President of Hungary (d. 1955)source
  • March 19 – Zhang Zuolin, Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord (d. 1928)source
  • May 2 – Owen Roberts, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1955)source
  • June 6 – Thomas Mann, German novelist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)source
  • July 26 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)source
  • August 8 – Artur Bernardes, 12th President of Brazil (d. 1955)source
  • August 26 – John Buchan, Scottish-Canadian novelist, historian and politician, 15th Governor General of Canada (d. 1940)source
  • September 16 – James Cash Penney, American businessman, founder of J. C. Penney (d. 1971)source
  • October 12 – Aleister Crowley, British occultist (d. 1947)source
  • October 31 – Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian political leader ("Iron Man of India") (d. 1950)source
  • December 12 – Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (d. 1953)source

Deaths

  • February 7 – Edmund Spangler, American stagehand at Ford's Theatre (b. 1825)source
  • February 22 – Sir Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (b. 1797)source
  • May 17 – John C. Breckinridge, 14th Vice President of the United States, Confederate States Secretary of War (b. 1821)source
  • May 26 – Victoriano Sánchez Barcáiztegui, Spanish Navy officer and hero (killed in action) (b. 1826)source
  • July 8 – Francis Preston Blair Jr., American politician, Civil War officer (b. 1821)source
  • July 30 – George Pickett, American Confederate general (b. 1825)source
  • August 4 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)source
  • August 11 – William Alexander Graham, United States Senator from North Carolina, (1840–1843), Confederate States Senator (1864–1865) (b. 1804)source
  • October 10 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (b. 1817)source
  • October 19 – Sir Charles Cowper, Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1807)source
  • November 22 – Henry Wilson, 18th Vice President of the United States (b. 1812)source
  • November 24 – William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American businessman (b. 1792)source
  • November 27 – Richard Christopher Carrington, English astronomer (b. 1826)source
  • November 29 – Maximilian Piotrowski, Polish painter, Kunstakademie Königsberg professor (b. 1813)source