What happened in 1871

World1

• Jan 1The Constitution of the German Confederation comes into effect. It abolishes all restrictions on Jewish marriage, choice of occupation, place of residence, and property ownership, but exclusion from government employment and discrimination in social relations remain in effect.

Japan1

• Jun 27The Meiji government officially adopts the yen as Japan's modern unit of currency. Coins which have been made in advance with the date 1870 are released into circulation.

North America10

• Feb 21The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 is signed into law by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
• Jul 20British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• Jul 21The first ever photographs of Yellowstone National Park region are taken by photographer William Henry Jackson, during the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.
• Sep 25West Chester University (Pennsylvania) is charted as West Chester Normal School
• Oct 8The Great Chicago Fire breaks out in Chicago, Illinois and burns for 2 days, killing 300 people, destroying 17,500 buildings and leaving 100,000 people homeless.
• Oct 8The Peshtigo fire begins and destroys the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and kills as many as 2,500 people, becoming the deadliest wildfire in United States history.
• Oct 24Chinese massacre of 1871: In Los Angeles' Chinatown, 19 Chinese immigrants are killed by a mob of 500 men.
• Nov 5Wickenburg Massacre: Six men travelling by stagecoach, in the Arizona Territory, are reportedly murdered by Yavapai people.
• Nov 17The National Rifle Association of America is granted a charter by the state of New York.
• The Harvard Summer School is founded.

Europe18

• Jan 3Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Bapaume – Prussians win a strategic victory.
• Jan 18Proclamation of the German Empire: The member states of the North German Confederation and the south German states 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, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
• Jan 21Battle of Dijon: Giuseppe Garibaldi's group of French and Italian volunteer troops, in support of the French Third Republic, win a battle against the Prussians.
• Feb 81871 French legislative election elects the first legislature of the French Third Republic; monarchists (Legitimists and Orleanists) favourable to peace with the German Empire gain a large majority. The National Assembly meets in Bordeaux.
• Feb 24The Danish Women's Society is founded to promote women's rights in Denmark; on December 15 it adopts the style Dansk Kvindesamfund.
• Mar 16Mokrani Revolt breaks out in French Algeria against colonial rule.
• Mar 18Origin of the Paris Commune: Troops of the regular French Army, sent by Adolphe Thiers, Chef du pouvoir executive de la République française, to seize cannons stored on the hill of Montmartre, fraternise with civilians and the National Guard, and two army generals are killed. Regular troops are evacuated to Versailles.
• Mar 26The Paris Commune is formally established in France.
• AprThe Stockholms Handelsbank is founded.
• May 10The Treaty of Frankfurt is signed, confirming the frontiers between Germany and France. The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine are transferred from France to Germany.
• May 21French government troops enter Paris to overthrow the Commune, beginning "Bloody Week" (Semaine sanglante), leading to the deaths of over 20,000 Parisians and the arrests of over 38,000 more.
• May 28Paris Commune falls to French government forces.
• Jul 20C. W. Alcock proposes that "a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association", giving birth to the FA Cup for Association football in England.
• Oct 8Continental AG is founded as Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie in Hanover, Germany.
• Dec 24The opera Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.

3 more in the app

Asia4

• Jun 1Bombardment of the Selee River Forts: Koreans attack two United States Navy warships.
• Jun 10United States expedition to Korea: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 members of the United States Marine Corps in a punitive naval attack on the Han River forts on Ganghwa Island in Korea, resulting in 250 Koreans dying and diplomatic failure to "open up" Korea.
• Aug 29The abolition of the han system is carried out in Japan.
• Oct 12The Criminal Tribes Act is enacted by the British Raj in India, naming over 160 communities as "Denotified Tribes", allegedly habitually criminal (it will be repealed in 1949, after Indian independence).

Africa1

• Oct 27British forces march into the Klipdrift Republic and annex the territory as Griqualand West Colony.