1878

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

Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s - 1870s - 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Years: 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 - 1878 - 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883

• January 9 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy
• January 28 - The Yale News[?] becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States.
• February 2 - Greece declares war on Turkey.
• February 11 - 1st US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms.
• February 11 - 1st weekly Weather report published in UK
• February 18 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico
• February 19 - The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison
• February 28 - Mississippi State University is created by the Mississippi Legislature (under the name The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi)
• March 24 - The UK frigate Eurydice sinks, killing 300.
• May 15 - Tokyo Stock Exchange established
• July 13 - The Treaty of Berlin[?] makes Serbia completely independent
• October 17 - John A. Macdonald returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• West Bromwich Albion F.C. play their first match.

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1878 in literature:

Births

• January 6 - Carl Sandburg, poet, historian (+ 1967)
• January 12 - Ferenc Molnár[?], author (+ 1952)
• January 20 - Ruth St. Denis[?], dancer († 1968)
• January 25 - Ernst Alexanderson[?], television pioneer
• February 8 - Martin Buber, philosopher
• February 5 - André Citroën[?], automobile pioneer
• March 16 - Clemens August Graf von Galen[?], archbishop of Münster and cardinal (+ 1946)
• March 27 - Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect
• March 31 - Jack Johnson, the first African American to hold a boxing title.
• April 6 - Erich Mühsam[?], German author (+ 1934)
• April 24 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist
• May 10 - Gustav Stresemann, politician and recipient of the Nobel Prize in peace 1926 (+ 1929)
• May 26 - Isadora Duncan, dancer (+ 1927)
• July 4 - George M. Cohan, singer, dancer, composer, actor, writer (+ 1942)
• July 24 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author
• December 26 - Jack Johnson, African-American boxer

Deaths

• December 14 - The Grand Duchess of Hesse and the Rhine, née Princess Alice of the United Kingdom[?], second daughter of Queen Victoria