1870

Centuries:	18th century · 19th century · 20th century
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
Years:	1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873

1870 in topic:
Humanities
Archaeology - Architecture - Art - Literature - Music
By country
Australia - Canada - Mexico - South Africa - U.S. - UK
Other topics
Rail Transport - Science - Sports
Lists of leaders
Colonial Governors - State leaders
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments - Disestablishments
Works category
Works

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.

[edit] Events

January 1 - Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed.
January 3 - 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 - 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 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.

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 9 - The great author and actor Charles Dickens dies after suffering from a stroke. 'The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."'
June 22 - The U.S. Congress creates the Department of Justice.
June 26 - Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States

July 13 - The Ems Dispatch serves as a reason for a war between Prussia and France
July 15 - Reconstruction: Georgia becomes the last former Confederate state 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 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 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 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 Generales proclaims Amadeo de Saboya as King Amadeus I of Spain.