- May 20
- International Bureau of Weights and Measures established by treaty. [1]
- June 6
- Netherlands goes on the gold standard. [411.46]
- July 1
- General Union of Posts comes into effect, standardizing letter and postcard rates between member countries. [1] [729.38] [1135]
- September 11
- First newspaper cartoon strip. [1]
- September 29
- The National Mint is established in Buenos Aires, Argentina. [441.34] [551.22]
- November 2
- In Northern Georgia, USA, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurs. [53]
- November 4
- Pacific collides with Orpheus off Cape Flattery, Washington, USA; 236 dies. [1]
- November 7
- Verney Cameron is first European to cross equatorial Africa. [1]
- November 17
- American Theosophical Society is founded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott. [1]
- November 30
- With the help of private financing, the British government now owns 44 percent of Suez Canal Company. [1842.264]
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- December 17
- Violent bread riots in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. [1]
- December 30
- Andrassy Note calls for Christian-Muslim religious freedoms. [1]
1876
- January 1
- Founding of the Reichsbank; the Mark becomes the German currency. [37]
- February 14
- Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents; (The US Supreme Court eventually rules Bell is the rightful inventor.) [1] [457] [914.14]
- February
- Inman Line's Germanic sets an eastward Atlantic record crossing of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes. [274.11]
- February 17
- Sardines are first canned (Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine). [1]
- February 18
- Direct telegraph link established between Great Britain and New Zealand. [1]
- March 7
- Alexander Graham Bell's application for a patent for the telephone is approved and officially issued. [1] [5] [129] [457]
- Battle at Gura: Ethiopian emperor Yohannes beats Egyptians. [1]
- March 10
- First telephone call made (Alexander Graham Bell to Thomas Watson). [1]
- March 17
- General Crook destroys Cheyennes and Oglala-Sioux Indian camps. [1]
- April 11
- Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized. [1]
- Sir Charles Gordon ends religious tolerance in Sudan. [1]
- May 13
- Amersfoort-Zutphen railway opens. [1]
- June
- White Star Line's Britannic sets a westward Atlantic record crossing of 7 days, 16 hours, 35 minutes. [274.11]
- June 25
- US Army General George Custer attacks the Lakota and Cheyenne village. [246.70]
- Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana's Little Bighorn River. [1] [129] [246.70]
- August 1
- Colorado becomes 38th US state. [1]
- August 2
- In Deadwood, South Dakota, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, playing poker in Carl Mann's saloon, is shot dead (from behind) by Jack "Crooked Nose" McCall, for no apparent reason. Hickok reportedly held a pair of Aces and a pair of eights, which becomes known as the Dead Man's Hand. [1] [187.264] [565.79] [819.341]
- August 3
- In Brantford, Ontario, Canada, Alexander Graham Bell makes the world's first definitive telephone tests, and first intelligible telephone call from building to building. In a one-way transmission, he hears his uncle David Bell recite Hamlet's 'to be or not to be...'. [457]
- August 8
- Thomas Edison patents mimeograph. [1]
- August 9
- Gold is discovered in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory of the USA. [518.70] (August 15 [430.68])
- August 10
- Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell makes the world's first long-distance call from Brantford, Ontario, Canada to the Bell homestead in Paris, Ontario, using a 13 km long line. [457]
- August 13
- Reciprocity Treaty between US and Hawaii is ratified. [1]
- October 9
- First two-way telephone conversation over outdoor wires. [1]
- October 16
- Race riot at Cainhoy, South Carolina, USA (5 whites and one black killed). [1]
- December 5
- Daniel Stillson (Massachusetts, USA) patents first practical pipe wrench. [1]
- Fire at Brooklyn Theater, New York, kills 295, trampled or burned to death. [1]
- December 8
- Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 year-olds. [1]
- December 20
- Hannah Omish, at age 12, is youngest ever hanged in US. [1]
- December 23
- Turkey's first constitution is proclaimed. [1]
- December 29
- Eleven passenger cars crash in a ravine near Ashtabula, Ohio, USA; 92 die. [1]
1877
- January 1
- England's parliament proclaims Queen Victoria "Empress of India". [1] [623.50]
- January 8
- Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana. [129]
- January 16
- Color organ (for light shows) is patented, by Bainbridge Bishop. [1]
- January 30
- Storm flood ravages Dutch coastal provinces. [1]
- March 2
- US Electoral College declares Rutherford B Hayes (Republican) US President despite Samuel J Tilden (Democrat) winning the popular vote (one electoral vote shy of victory). [1]
- March 5
- Rutherford B Hayes inaugurated as 19th US President. [1] [397.96]
- March 12
- Great Britain annexes Walvis Bay at Cape colony. [1]
- March 13
- US Patent Office awards a patent to Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine for ear protectors (earmuffs). [66.4]
- March 31
- British high director/Governor sir Bartle Frere arrives in Capetown. [1]
- April 2
- At West's Amphitheatre in London, England, Zazel performs the first human-cannonball circus act. The Cannon is powered by elastic springs. [55.39] (April 10 [1])
- April 12
- British annex Transvaal, in South Africa. [1]
- April 24
- Russia declares war on Turkey through Romania. [1]
- May 6
- Crazy Horse leads about 1,100 Indians to the Red Cloud reservation near Nebraska's Fort Robinson and surrenders. [129]
- May 10
- In Chile, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake occurs, producing a 24-metre tsunami that causes extensive damage along the Peru-Chile coast. The tsunami is observed at all the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, and causes fatalities in Hawaii and Japan. [53]
- May 17
- Edwin T Holmes installs first telephone switchboard burglar alarm. [1]
- June 1
- US troops are authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico. [1]
- June 18
- Hot air balloon Buffalo carries mail from Nashville to Gallatin, Tennessee, USA; a privately-issued 5-cent postage stamp is used on 23 items, the first time a stamp is used for carrying mail by air. [956.9] [1135]
- June 20
- Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. [5]
- August 12
- Thomas Edison invents the Edisonphone, a sound recording device. [1]
- October 5
- Chief Joseph surrenders, ending Nez Percé War. [1]
- November 15
- In Eastern Nebraska, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake occurs. [53]
- November 21
- American inventor Thomas A. Edison announces his successful development of the "talking machine" or phonograph. [1] [5] [457]
- December 6
- First sound recording is made (Thomas Edison). [1]
- December 7
- Thomas A Edison demonstrates the gramophone. [1]
- December 14
- German inventor Ernst Siemens patents the first loudspeaker. [457]
- December 15
- Thomas Edison patents phonograph. [1]
- December 26
- Socialist Labor Party of North America holds first national convention. [1]
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