January •
January 1 • The
Reichsbank opens in
Berlin. • The
Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first
registered trademark symbol, in the United Kingdom. •
January 27 – The
Northampton Bank robbery occurs in Massachusetts.
February •
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. • 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. •
February 14 –
Alexander Graham Bell applies for a U.S.
patent for the telephone, as does
Elisha Gray. •
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. •
February 22 –
Johns Hopkins University is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland. •
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. •
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. •
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. •
February–
March –
The Harvard Lampoon humor magazine is founded in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
March •
March 2 – United States Secretary of War
William W. Belknap resigns his office in the wake of the
trader post scandal. •
March 7 –
Alexander Graham Bell is granted a United States
patent for the
telephone. •
March 10 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call, saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you". •
March 20 – Through constitutional reform taking legal effect,
Louis De Geer becomes the first
Prime Minister of Sweden. •
March • 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. • American librarian
Melvil Dewey first publishes the
Dewey Decimal Classification system.
April •
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. •
April 12 – The
Indian Act comes into force in Canada. •
April 17 –
Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost at
Locust Valley, New York.
May •
May 1 • The
Royal Titles Act 1876 in the UK Parliament confers the title '
Empress of India' upon
Queen Victoria from 1877. • The
Settle–Carlisle Railway in England is opened to passenger traffic (it opened to goods traffic in 1875). •
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. •
May 10 • The
Centennial Exposition begins in
Philadelphia. • Major
pharmaceutical brand
Eli Lilly is founded in
Indiana, United States. •
May 11/
12 –
Berlin Memorandum: Germany, Russia and
Austria-Hungary propose an armistice between
Turkey and its
insurgents. •
May 16 • British Prime Minister
Benjamin Disraeli rejects the Berlin Memorandum. •
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. •
May 17 –
Nicolaus Otto files his
patent for the
four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine. •
May 18 –
Wyatt Earp starts work in
Dodge City, Kansas, serving under
Marshal Larry Deger. •
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. •
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'. • 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.
June •
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. •
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. •
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. •
June 19 – Jászkunság, the last remnant of
Kunság within
Austria-Hungary, is disestablished. •
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 5,000
Lakota,
Cheyenne and
Arapaho, led by
Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse.
July '' cartoon from
June 17. Russia preparing to let slip the "Dogs of War", its imminent engagement in the growing Balkan
conflict between Slavic states and
Turkey, while policeman
John Bull (Britain) warns Russia to take care. The Slavic states of Serbia and Montenegro would declare war on Turkey two weeks later. •
July 1 –
Serbia declares war on the
Ottoman Empire. •
July 2 –
Montenegro declares war on the Ottoman Empire. •
July 4 – The United States
Centennial Exposition is celebrated across the country. •
July 8 –
Reichstadt Agreement: Russia and Austria-Hungary agree on partitioning the
Balkan Peninsula. •
July 13 – The prosecution of
Arthur Tooth, an
Anglican clergyman, for using
ritualist practices begins.
August •
August 1 •
Colorado is admitted as the 38th
U.S. state. • The United States Senate votes to acquit former Secretary of War
William W. Belknap of all
impeachment charges relating to the
trader post scandal. •
August 2 –
Wild Bill Hickok is murdered in
Deadwood, South Dakota. •
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). •
August 8 –
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his
mimeograph. •
August 13 – The
Bayreuth Festival, showcasing the stage works of
Richard Wagner, is inaugurated under the direction of him and his wife
Cosima. •
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. •
August 31 –
Murad V,
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is deposed and succeeded by his brother
Abdul Hamid II.
September •
September 5 – British Prime Minister
William Gladstone publishes his
Bulgarian Horrors pamphlet. •
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. •
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. •
September 26 – Global
consumer goods and
personal care company
Henkel is founded by
Friedrich Karl Henkel in
Aachen,
Germany.
October •
October 4 –
Texas A&M University opens for classes. •
October 6 – The
American Library Association is founded in
Philadelphia. •
October 26 –
José María Iglesias begins his disputed
presidency of Mexico. •
October 31 – The great
1876 Bengal cyclone strikes the coast of modern-day Bangladesh, killing 200,000.
November •
November 1 – The British
Colony of New Zealand dissolves its
9 provinces and replaces them with
63 counties. •
November 4 – The long-awaited
First Symphony of
Johannes Brahms has its première at
Karlsruhe, under the baton of
Otto Dessoff. •
November 7 •
1876 United States presidential election: After long and heated disputes,
Rutherford B. Hayes is eventually declared the winner over
Samuel J. Tilden. • A failed grave robbery of the
Lincoln Tomb takes place this night. •
November 10 – The
Centennial Exposition ends in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. •
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. •
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. •
November 29 –
Porfirio Díaz becomes President of Mexico.
December •
December 2 –
Chugai Economic Daily, predecessor of
Nikkei Economic Daily (
Nihon Keizai Shinbun), is first issued in
Tokyo, Japan. •
December 5 – The
Brooklyn Theatre fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300. •
December 6 – The first
cremation in the United States takes place, in a crematory built by
Francis Julius LeMoyne at
North Franklin Township, Pennsylvania. •
December 13 – New
Constitution of the Ottoman Empire signed, ending
Tanzimat in the
Ottoman Empire. •
December 23 –
Constantinople Conference opens. •
December 29 – The
Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs in
Ohio when a bridge collapses, leaving 92 dead. • 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.
Date unknown by
Edgar Degas, c. 1876 - Medium: Oil paint on paper mounted on board ; Dimensions: Frame: 800 × 515 × 85 mm support: 632 × 340 mm ; Collection:
Tate. • 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. •
Heinz Tomato Ketchup is introduced in the United States. •
Adolphus Busch's brewery,
Anheuser-Busch in
St. Louis,
Missouri, first markets
Budweiser, a
pale lager, as a nationally sold
beer. •
Charles Wells opens his
brewery, based in
Bedford, England. • Star Oil Company, predecessor of the global
Chevron energy product and sales brand, is founded in
California. •
Emile Berliner invents an improved form of
microphone which will be adopted for
Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. • Lyford House, by
Richardson Bay,
Tiburon, California, is constructed. • Construction of
Spandau Prison in Berlin is completed. •
Samurai are banned from carrying swords in
Japan, and their stipends are replaced by a one-time grant of income-bearing bonds. • The
Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland is founded. •
Heinrich Schliemann begins excavation at
Mycenae. •
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. == Births ==