1871

Events in 1871 38

• 1791 – 1871 Charles Babbage (1791-1871) Died 18 October 1871, aged 79 Babbage was an English mathematician and inventor who designed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, mechanical devices considered early forerunners of the modern computer. Financial and technical difficulties meant neither machine was completed in his lifetime. His work is now recognised as foundational to the history of computing.
• 1792 – 1871 John Herschel (1792-1871) Died 11 May 1871, aged 79 Herschel was an English astronomer, mathematician, and chemist who catalogued nebulae and star clusters in both hemispheres, extending the work of his father William Herschel. He also made pioneering contributions to photography, coining the terms photography, positive, and negative. He was one of the most celebrated scientists of his generation.
• 1794 – 1871 George Grote (1794-1871) Died 18 June 1871, aged 76 Grote was an English banker and historian best known for his twelve-volume History of Greece, a major work of nineteenth-century classical scholarship. He was also active in politics as a radical reformer and served as a Member of Parliament. He helped found University College London and later served as its vice-chancellor.
• 1871 – 1942 Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) Died 15 March 1942, aged 70 Alexander Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer and conductor and a teacher of Arnold Schoenberg. His works include the Lyric Symphony and the opera Der Zwerg. He fled the Nazis to the United States and died in Larchmont, New York.
• 1871 – 1958 Georges Rouault (1871-1958) Died 13 February 1958, aged 86 The French painter and printmaker combined Fauvist color with themes of religious suffering, becoming known for stained-glass-like depictions of clowns, judges, and Christ. He was a central figure in 20th-century religious art.
• 1871 – 1936 Grazia Deledda (1871-1936) Died 15 August 1936, aged 64 Grazia Deledda was an Italian novelist from Sardinia who won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the first Italian woman to receive it. Her novels, including Reeds in the Wind, portray Sardinian rural life.
• 1871 – 1908 Guangxu Emperor (1871-1908) Died 14 November 1908, aged 37 Guangxu was the penultimate emperor of the Qing dynasty, whose attempt at the 1898 Hundred Days' Reform led to his confinement by Empress Dowager Cixi. He died under suspicious circumstances one day before Cixi's own death, with later forensic tests suggesting arsenic poisoning. He was succeeded by his nephew, Puyi.
• 1871 – 1950 Heinrich Mann (1871-1950) Died 11 March 1950, aged 78 Heinrich Mann was a German novelist and elder brother of Thomas Mann, best known for the novel Professor Unrat, adapted into the film The Blue Angel. A vocal critic of Nazism, he fled Germany in 1933 and eventually settled in the United States. He died in Santa Monica, California, shortly before a planned return to East Germany.
• 1871 – 1941 Ioannis Metaxas (1871-1941) Died 29 January 1941, aged 69 Ioannis Metaxas ruled Greece as dictator from 1936. He rejected Mussolini's ultimatum in October 1940, the refusal Greeks commemorate as Ohi Day, and died in office while Greece was fighting Italy.
• 1871 – 1919 Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) Died 15 January 1919, aged 47 Liebknecht co-founded the Spartacist League and the German Communist Party with Rosa Luxemburg and helped lead the failed January uprising in Berlin. He was captured alongside Luxemburg and killed by Freikorps troops on the same day.
• 1871 Little Men The first sequel Jo and Professor Bhaer run Plumfield, a school for boys.
• 1871 – 1940 Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1940) Died 28 April 1940, aged 68 Italian coloratura soprano and one of the most celebrated opera singers of the early twentieth century. Chicken Tetrazzini is named after her.
• 1871 – 1922 Marcel Proust (1871-1922) Died 18 November 1922, aged 51 Marcel Proust, the French novelist best known for In Search of Lost Time, died in Paris of pneumonia and complications from asthma. He had spent his final years largely confined to a cork-lined room writing the multi-volume work. It remains one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century.
• 1871 Nokia becomes a public company Nokia Ab becomes a public limited company in 1871 — one of the first Finnish companies to do so. The Finnish paper industry is booming as literacy rates rise across Europe and demand for printed materials grows. Nokia's mills on the Nokianvirta river are among the most modern in Scandinavia. The public listing gives Nokia access to capital markets that will fund its subsequent diversification into rubber and cables.
• 1871 – 1948 Orville Wright (1871-1948) Died 30 January 1948, aged 76 Orville Wright, who with his brother Wilbur built and flew the first successful powered airplane in 1903, died on January 30, 1948. He lived to see aviation transform from a fragile experiment into a global industry. He spent his later decades running the Wright aeronautical laboratory and defending the brothers' legacy.
• 1871 – 1945 Paul Valéry (1871-1945) Died 20 July 1945, aged 73 Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher regarded as one of the leading figures of French symbolist literature. His works include the long poem "Le Cimetière marin" and extensive philosophical notebooks. He was a member of the Académie française.
• 1871 – 1919 Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) Died 15 January 1919, aged 47 Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist and co-founder of the Spartacist League who helped lead the January 1919 uprising in Berlin. She was captured and murdered by Freikorps soldiers after the revolt was suppressed.
• 1871 – 1900 Stephen Crane (1871-1900) Died 5 June 1900, aged 28 An American novelist and poet best known for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, Crane wrote vividly despite never having witnessed battle when he composed it. He also worked as a war correspondent covering conflicts in Greece and Cuba. He died of tuberculosis in Germany at age 28.
• 1871 – 1928 Stjepan Radic (1871-1928) Died 8 August 1928, aged 57 Croatian politician who founded and led the Croatian Peasant Party. He was the main opponent of Serbian centralism in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He died of wounds from a shooting in the Belgrade parliament.
• 1871 – 1935 Victor Grignard (1871-1935) Died 13 December 1935, aged 64 Grignard was a French chemist who discovered the Grignard reagents, which are widely used in organic synthesis. He shared the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1871 Proclamation of the German Empire German states unify under Prussian leadership In the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor, uniting the German states into a single empire. The ceremony took place while Prussian forces still besieged Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Otto von Bismarck became the new empire's first chancellor.
• 1871 Rugby Football Union founded English clubs establish rugby's governing body Representatives of English rugby clubs met in London to found the Rugby Football Union, establishing a standard set of rules for the sport. The union oversaw the first international rugby match, played between England and Scotland later that year. It remains the governing body for rugby union in England.
• 1871 Bulgarian Exarchate adopts its first statute Church council organises new Bulgarian church body A council of Bulgarian clergy and laity meeting in Constantinople adopted the first organic statute of the newly established Bulgarian Exarchate, an autocephalous church separate from the Greek Patriarchate. The move reflected growing Bulgarian national consciousness within the Ottoman Empire. The Exarchate became closely tied to the later Bulgarian national movement.
• 1871 Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 US Congress ends treaty-making with Native nations The United States Congress passed legislation ending the practice of making treaties with Native American tribes, declaring that no tribe would thereafter be recognised as an independent nation for treaty purposes. Existing treaties remained in force, but future relations were to be governed by statute rather than treaty. The act marked a significant shift in US policy toward Native American sovereignty.
• 1871 Paris Commune Revolutionary government briefly rules Paris Parisian workers and National Guardsmen established a radical socialist government after the collapse of Napoleon III's regime, controlling the city for two months. French government troops suppressed the Commune during the violent Bloody Week in late May, killing thousands of Communards. The episode became a foundational reference point for later socialist and communist movements.
• 1871 Royal Albert Hall opens London concert hall inaugurated by Queen Victoria Queen Victoria formally opened the Royal Albert Hall in London, built as a memorial to her late husband Prince Albert. The hall was intended as a venue for the arts and sciences and has since hosted concerts, including the annual Proms, and other major events. It remains one of Britain's best-known performance venues.
• 1871 Treaty of Washington signed US and Britain settle Alabama Claims dispute The United States and Britain signed a treaty resolving American claims for damages caused by Confederate warships built in British shipyards during the Civil War. The treaty submitted the Alabama Claims to international arbitration and also addressed fishing rights and the San Juan Islands boundary dispute. It is considered an early landmark in international arbitration.
• 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt ends Franco-Prussian War France cedes Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire The treaty formally ended the Franco-Prussian War, requiring France to pay a war indemnity of five billion francs and cede most of Alsace and part of Lorraine to Germany. German troops occupied parts of France until the indemnity was paid. The territorial loss remained a source of French resentment for decades.
• 1871 Italy passes the Law of Guarantees Rome's status as Italian capital formalised The Italian Parliament passed the Law of Guarantees, defining the relationship between the new Kingdom of Italy and the Papacy after Rome's annexation in 1870. The law granted the Pope certain honours and immunities but did not restore his temporal power, which Pope Pius IX refused to accept. Rome was formally established as the capital of unified Italy.
• 1871 Trade Union Act legalises British unions UK law grants trade unions legal status The British Parliament passed the Trade Union Act, giving trade unions formal legal recognition and protecting their funds from misuse. The act marked a significant step in the legal recognition of organised labour in Britain. It followed decades of campaigning by trade union leaders.
• 1871 Diamond rush begins at Kimberley Major diamond deposit discovered in South Africa Prospectors discovered a rich diamond deposit at Colesberg Kopje in what became Kimberley, South Africa, triggering a major diamond rush. The site developed into the Kimberley Big Hole, one of the largest hand-dug excavations in the world. The rush laid the groundwork for the diamond industry later dominated by De Beers.
• 1871 British Columbia joins Canada Pacific colony becomes Canada's sixth province British Columbia entered Confederation as the sixth province of Canada, after the federal government promised to build a transcontinental railway connecting it to the rest of the country. The agreement extended Canadian territory to the Pacific coast. The promised Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885.
• 1871 Mont Cenis Tunnel opens Rail tunnel links France and Italy through the Alps The Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps, commonly known as the Mont Cenis Tunnel, opened to traffic after fourteen years of construction, connecting France and Italy. At over 13 kilometres, it was the longest tunnel in the world at the time. It demonstrated new mechanical drilling techniques later used in other major tunnels.
• 1871 Great Chicago Fire Blaze destroys much of Chicago A fire burned through Chicago for three days, killing an estimated 300 people and destroying roughly three square miles of the city, including most of its business district. Legend blamed a cow owned by Mrs. O'Leary for kicking over a lantern, though the true cause was never established. The disaster prompted major reforms in building codes and fire prevention.
• 1871 San Juan Islands boundary dispute resolved Kaiser Wilhelm I arbitrates US-British border dispute German Emperor Wilhelm I, acting as arbitrator, ruled in favour of the United States in the long-running dispute with Britain over ownership of the San Juan Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The decision fixed the final section of the US-Canada border in the Pacific Northwest. It peacefully ended a dispute that had earlier brought the two countries close to conflict during the so-called Pig War.
• 1871 Stanley locates David Livingstone Journalist finds the missing explorer at Ujiji Henry Morton Stanley, sent by the New York Herald to find the missing Scottish explorer David Livingstone, located him at Ujiji on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Stanley reportedly greeted him with the now-famous words, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' The meeting became one of the most famous episodes of European exploration in Africa.
• 1871 National Rifle Association founded Marksmanship organisation chartered in New York Former Union officers William Conant Church and George Wood Wingate obtained a charter for the National Rifle Association in New York, aiming to improve marksmanship among American citizens. The organisation later became a major force in American gun politics. It remains one of the most prominent advocacy groups in the United States.
• 1871 Verdi's Aida premieres in Cairo Opera commissioned for Egypt's Khedivial Opera House Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida received its first performance at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo, having been commissioned by the Egyptian government. Set in ancient Egypt, the opera became one of the most frequently performed works in the operatic repertoire. Verdi did not attend the premiere himself.