1870

Years: 1867 1868 1869 - 1870 - 1871 1872 1873

Decades: 1840s 1850s 1860s - 1870s - 1880s 1890s 1900s

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

• Franco-Prussian War
• Term "economics" first used, by Alfred Marshall
• In England, the Forfeiture Act was passed, abolishing the punishment of hanging, drawing and quartering.
• The North Carolina General Assembly forms a county from Currituck, Tyrrell and Hyde counties and names it Dare County in honor of Virginia Dare. The Dare county seat is laid out and named Manteo in honor of Chief Manteo.

January

• January 1 - Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are done.
• January 2 - 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 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union
• January 27 - First college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University

February

• February - Vrain Denis-Lucas in sentenced for two years in prison for multiple forgery in Paris
• 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.
• February 10 - The YWCA is founded (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

• 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 24 - Syracuse University is established and officially opens.
• March 30 - The fifteenth amendment is entered into the United States Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote.
• March 30 - Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

April

• April 11 - Irish peer Lord Muncaster and his entourage kidnapped in Greece
• April 22 - Vladimir Lenin is born

May

• 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.
• May 24 - Opening day of the Brooklyn Bridge.

June

• June 22 - The U.S. Congress creates the Department of Justice.
• June 26 - Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States

July

• July 13 - The Emser Depesche serves as a reason for a war between Prussia and France
• July 15 - Reconstruction: Georgia becomes the last former Confederate states 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.

September

• 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, votes in the morning, becoming the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 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

• October 2 – Referendum in Rome supports joining the 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

• 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 proclaims Amadeo de Saboya as king Amadeus I of Spain.

December

• December - Assassination of Juan Prim, Prime minister of Spain

Births

• 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)
• February 7 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (d. 1937)
• March 4 - Thomas Sturge Moore, English poet, author and artist (d. 1944)
• March 5 - Frank Norris, American writer (d. 1902)
• March 17 - Horace Donisthorpe, English entomologist (d. 1951)
• March 20 - Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)
• April 22 - Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary, first leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1924)
• April 30 - Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (d. 1948)
• 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 3 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)
• July 12 - Louis II of Monaco (d. 1949)
• July 29 - George Dixon, Canadian boxer (d. 1909)
• 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 12 - Walter Benona Sharp, American oil pioneer (d. 1912)
• December 18 - Saki, English writer (d. 1918)

Deaths

• January 29 - Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)
• February 7 - Sylvain Salnave a Hatian president
• February 19 - Nathaniel de Rothschild, French wine grower (b. 1812)
• 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 20 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, French writer and publisher (b. 1822)
• 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)

Unknown dates

• Patrick MacDowell, Northern Irish sculptor (b. 1799)
• Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho (b. 1786?)