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January 1 - The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The Greenback is valued the same as Gold for the first time since the Civil War.

January - The current constitution of The State of California, US was ratified.

January 2 - Fred Spofforth claims the first Hat-trick in test cricket.

January 11 - Anglo-Zulu War begins.

January 22 - Zulu troops massacre British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.

February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.

February 14 - At Antofagasta, Chile: Chilean troops disembark in this port, then Bolivian. This is the beginning of the War of the Pacific between Chile and the joint forces of Peru and Bolivia.

February 15 - Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

February 22 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.

February 27 - The discovery of saccharin is announced.

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March-April

March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created
March 12 - Anglo-Zulu War: A British force over one-hundred strong is ambushed and destroyed by Zulu forces.
March 13 - Marriage of The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, to Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.
March 14 - Albert Einstein: German-born physicist who would go on to revolutionize modern Physics.
March 28 - Anglo-Zulu War: British forces suffer a defeat at the Battle of Hlobane.
March 29 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
April 3 - Anglo-Zulu War: British forces successfully lift the two-month Siege of Eshowe.
April 21 (San Jacinto Day) - Texas governor Oran M. Roberts authorized the establishment of Sam Houston Normal Institute (today known as Sam Houston State University).
April 24 - Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld arrives in Stockholm with the S/S Vega, concluding the world's first circumnavigation of Eurasia.

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May-December

May 26 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
May 30 - New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
May 30 - A F4 tornado struck Irving, Kansas, killing 18 people and injuring 60.
June 14 - Sidney Faithorn Green, an Anglican priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices
July 4 - Anglo-Zulu War: The Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends at the Battle of Ulundi.
July 4 - Taughannock Giant unearthed on the shore of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, New York (later proven to be a hoax).
July 19 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots-up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
August 21 - Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared in Knock to local people.
October 7 - Dual Alliance formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary
October 21 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
December 28 - The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
December 30 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).
December 31 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey).

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Unknown dates

Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
Hall effect discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
Somerville College founded.
Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by Jožef Stefan.
Football first played in Shepshed.
Irish Land League convinces tenants of Charles Boycott and neighboring townsfolk to isolate him by noncooperation - first boycott
Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was formed

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January-April

January 1 - E. M. Forster, English writer (d. 1970)
January 3 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
January 12 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)
January 13 - Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)
January 28 - Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (d. 1953)
February 22 - J. N. Brønsted, Danish chemist (d. 1947)
February 26 - Frank Bridge, English composer (d. 1941)
March 8 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
March 14 - Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
March 26 - Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born engineer (d. 1965)
March 30 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d. 1954)
April 16 - Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (d. 1961)
April 20 - Paul Poiret, French couturier (d. 1944)
April 26 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
April 29 - Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)

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May-August

May 6 - Bedřich Hrozny´, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
May 17 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d. 1926)
May 19 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d. 1964)
May 19 - Viscount Waldorf Astor, British businessman and politician (d. 1952)
May 22 - Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (d. 1945)
May 23 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (d. 1966)
May 25 - Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born statesman and newspaper publisher (d. 1964)
June 3 - Raymond Pearl, American biologist (d. 1940)
June 10 - Rafael Erich, Prime minister of Finland (d. 1946)
July 1 - Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
July 5 - Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (d. 1959)
August 8 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
August 13 - John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
August 31 - Emperor Yoshihito, 123rd Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)

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September-December

September 2 - An Jung-geun, assassin of the Japanese politician Ito Hirobumi (d. 1910)
September 6 - Joseph Wirth, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1956)
September 14 - Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)
September 15 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
September 20 - Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d. 1960)
October 2 - Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)
October 3 - Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor (d. 1938)
October 5 - Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1970)
October 9 - Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
October 21 - Joseph Canteloube, French composer and singer (d. 1957)
October 29 - Franz von Papen, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1969)
November 4 - Will Rogers, American humorist (d. 1935)
November 7 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (d. 1940)
November 10 - Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d. 1916)
November 26 - Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)
December 3 - Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer (d. 1959)
December 10 - Jouett Shouse, American politician (d. 1968)
December 18 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d. 1940)
December 28 - Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (d. 1936)

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Unknown dates

Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (d. 1944)
Robert Wilson Lynd, Northern Irish essayist and writer (d. 1949)
Francis "Frank" Mcgee, Hockey superstar (d. 1916, Battle of the Somme)

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Deaths

February 11 - Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (b. 1808)
February 23 - Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)
February 25 - Charles Peace, British criminal (executed) (b. 1832)
March 1 - Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b. 1825)
March 30 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b. 1815)
April 30 - Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (b. 1788)
June 1 - Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (b. 1856)
August 30 - John Bell Hood, America Confederate general (b. 1831)
November 5 - James Clark Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831)
August 11 - George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b.1799)