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January 2 - Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.

January 10 - France surrenders to end the Franco-Prussian War

January 18 - The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany.

January 21 - Giuseppe Garibaldi's troops win in Dijon

March 21 - Marriage of Princess Louise to John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, whose father, the 8th Duke of Argyll, is the serving Secretary of State for India.

March 22 - In North Carolina, William Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.

March 26 - The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.

March 29 - The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.

April - Stockholms Handelsbank is founded.

April 20 - United States President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Ku Klux Klan Act.

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May 4- First MLB baseball game is played.

May 11 - First trial of the case of Tichborne Claimant begins in the London Court of Common Pleas.

May 21-30 - French Third Republic.government troops invade Paris Commune and crush the rebellion.

June 10 - Capt McLane Tilton leads 109 Marines in naval attack on Han River forts in Korea.

June 18 -- University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham.

July 20 - British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.

July 20 - C. W. Alcock proposes that 'a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association', giving birth to the FA Cup.

August 29 - Abolition of the han system in Japan.

August 31 - Adolphe Thiers becomes President of the French Republic.

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October 8 - Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. The Great Chicago Fire is the most famous of these, having left nearly 100,000 people homeless, although the Peshtigo Fire killed as many as 2,500 people making it the deadliest fire in United States history.

October 20 - The Royal Regiment of Artillery formed the first regular Canadian army units when they created two batteries of garrison artillery which eventually became The Royal Canadian Artillery.

October 27 - The Comte de Chambord refuses to be crowned 'King Henry V of France' until France abandons its tricolour and returns to the old bourbon flag.

October 27 - New York mayor Boss Tweed arrested

October 27 - British occupy the Klipdrift in South Africa, ending the Klipdrift Republic

November 10 - Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, and greets him saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

November 17 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.

December 10 - The German chancellor Otto von Bismarck tries to ban Catholics from the political stage by introducing harsh laws concerning the separation of church and state.

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Trade Union Act - British trade unions legalized.

Heinrich Schliemann begins the excavation of Troy.

Japan forms its own police force based on French model.

George Biddell Airy discovers astronomical aberration is independent of the local medium.

William Marcy Tweed serves his last year as the "Boss" of Tammany Hall.

Neath RFC founded

Cary, North Carolina named in honor of Samuel Fenton Cary

Reading Football Club formed

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January 7 - Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician (d. 1956)

January 30 - Wilfred Lucas, Canadian-born actor (d. 1940)

February 4 - Friedrich Ebert, President of Germany (d. 1925)

February 18 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)

March 1 - Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (d. 1938)

March 5 - Rosa Luxemburg, German politician (d. 1919)

March 19 - Schofield Haigh, English cricketer (d. 1921)

March 27 - Heinrich Mann, German writer (d. 1950)

March 31 - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (d. 1922)

May 3 - Walter Robinson Parr, English-born pastor (d. 1922)

May 6 - Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate (d. 1935)

May 6 - Christian Morgenstern, German author (d. 1914)

May 27 - Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)

June 14 - Jacob Ellehammer, Danish inventor (d. 1946)

July 10 - Marcel Proust, French writer (d. 1922)

July 17 - Lyonel Feininger, German painter (d. 1956)

July 25 - Richard Ernest Turner, Canadian soldier (d. 1961)

August 14 - Guangxu Emperor of China (d. 1908)

August 19 - Orville Wright, American aviation pioneer (d. 1948)

August 25 - Ross Winn, American anarchist writer and publisher (d. 1912)

August 27 - Theodore Dreiser, American writer (d. 1945)

August 29 - Albert Lebrun, French politician (d. 1950)

August 30 - Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1937)

September 1 - J. Reuben Clark, Under Secretary of State (d. 1961)

September 24 - Lottie Dod, English athlete (d. 1960)

September 26 - Winsor McCay, American cartoonist and animator (d. 1934)

September 27 - Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)

October 2 - Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1955)

October 19 - Walter Bradford Cannon, Physiologist (d. 1945)

October 30 - Paul Valéry, French poet (d. 1945)

October 30 - Buck Freeman, baseball player (d. 1949)

November 1 - Stephen Crane, American writer (d. 1900)

December 9 - Joe Kelley, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1943)

December 13 - Emily Carr, Canadian artist (d. 1945)

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January 15 - Edward C. Delevan, American temperance movement leader (b. 1793)

January 19 - Sir William Denison, Governor of New South Wales (b. 1804)

February 20 - Paul Kane, Irish-born painter (b. 1810)

May 11 - John Herschel, English astronomer (b. 1792)

September 20 - John Coleridge Patteson, Anglican bishop and missionary (martyred) (b. 1827)

September 23 - Louis-Joseph Papineau, Canadian politician (b. 1786)

October 18 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)

December 28 - John Henry Pratt, English clergyman and mathematician (b. 1809)

March 18 - Augustus De Morgan, Professor of mathematics and mathematician (b. 1806)