1871

1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

January – April

• January 2 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
• January 18 – The member-states of the North German Confederation 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.
• January 10 – France surrenders to end the Franco-Prussian War
• March 21 – Marriage of Princess Louise to John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, whose father, the 8th Duke of Argyll, is the serving Secretary of State for India.
• March 22 – In North Carolina, William Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
• March 26 – The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.
• March 29 – The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
• April – Stockholms Handelsbank is founded.

May – August

• May 11 – First trial of the case of Tichborne Claimant begins in the London Court of Common Pleas.
• May 20 – Paris Commune crushed by government forces.
• May 30 – The Paris Commune is suppressed by the armed forces of the French Third Republic.
• July 20 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• August 31 – Adolphe Thiers becomes President of the French Republic.

September – December

• October 8 – Three major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and Holland, Michigan
  • The Great Chicago Fire is the most famous of these, burning 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) in one day, eventually destroying about 17,450 buildings, and killing about 250 people while leaving another 90,000 homeless.
  • The Peshtigo Fire burns 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) across six counties in one day and kills 1,200 to 2,500 people, making it the deadliest in United States history.
  • The Holland Fire destroys at least two towns.
• October 20 – The Royal Regiment of Artillery formed the first regular Canadian army units when they created two batteries of garrison artillery which eventually became The Royal Canadian Artillery.
• October 27 – The Comte de Chambord refuses to be crowned 'King Henry V of France' until France abandons its tricolour and returns to the old bourbon flag.
• November 10 – Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, and greets him saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
• November 17 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
• December 10 – The German chancellor Otto von Bismarck tries to ban Catholics from the political stage by introducing harsh laws concerning the separation of church and state.

Unknown date

• University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge.
• Trade Union Act – British trade unions legalized.
• Heinrich Schliemann begins the excavation of Troy.
• Japan forms its own police force based on French model.
• George Biddell Airy discovers astronomical aberration is independent of the local medium.
• Abolition of the Han system in Japan.
• William Marcy Tweed serves his last year as the "Boss" of Tammany Hall.
• Neath RFC founded

Births

• January 17 – David Betty, British admiral (d. 1936)
• January 30 – Wilfred Lucas, Canadian-born actor (d. 1940)
• February 4 – Friedrich Ebert, President of Germany (d. 1925)
• February 18 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
• March 1 – Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (d. 1938)
• March 5 – Rosa Luxemburg, German politician (d. 1919)
• March 19 – Schofield Haigh, English cricketer (d. 1921)
• March 27 – Heinrich Mann, German writer (d. 1950)
• May 3 – Walter Robinson Parr, English-born pastor (d. 1922)
• May 6 – Christian Morgenstern, German author (d. 1914)
• May 27 – Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
• July 17 – Lyonel Feininger, German painter (d. 1956)
• July 25 – Richard Ernest Turner, Canadian soldier (d. 1961)
• August 14 – Guangxu Emperor of China (d. 1908)
• August 19 – Orville Wright, American aviation pioneer (d. 1948)
• August 25 – Ross Winn, American anarchist writer and publisher (d. 1912)
• August 27 – Theodore Dreiser, American writer (d. 1945)
• August 29 – Albert Lebrun, French politician (d. 1950)
• August 30 – Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1937)
• September 24 – Lottie Dod, English athlete (d. 1960)
• September 26 – Winsor McCay, American cartoonist and animator (d. 1934)
• September 27 – Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize recipient (d. 1936)
• October 30 – Paul Valéry, French poet (d. 1945)
• November 1 – Stephen Crane, American writer (d. 1900)
• December 9 – Joe Kelley, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1943)
• December 12 – Umenosuke Bessho, Japanese writer (d. 1945)
• December 13 – Emily Carr, Canadian writer (d. 1945)

Deaths

• February 11 – Gaspard Théodore Ignace de la Fontaine, Luxembourg politician
• February 20 – Paul Kane, Irish-born painter (b. 1810)
• September 20 – John Coleridge Patteson, Anglican bishop and missionary (martyred) (b. 1827)
• September 23 – Louis-Joseph Papineau, Canadian politician (b. 1786)
• October 18 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)
• December 28 – John Henry Pratt, English clergyman and mathematician (b. 1809)