Major Events
- Jan 18 Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck
- Mar 21 Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa
- Mar 26 Municipal elections bring revolutionaries to power in Paris who form the short lived Paris Commune government
- May 21 -July 28] French regular troops attack Commune of Paris; 17,000 die
- Oct 10 The Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after 3 days, leaving approximately 300 dead, 100,000 homeless, and costing $222m in damage
- More 1871 Events
1871 in Music
- Dec 24 Giusseppi Verdi's "Aida" opera premieres in Cairo, Egypt
1871 in Sport
Did You Know?
Henry Morton Stanley encounters David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa, with the immortal words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
David Beatty
James Weldon Johnson
Orville Wright
Ernest Rutherford
Lottie Dod
Stephen CraneMore People Born in 1871
Fun Fact About 1871
Forest fire destroys Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing between 1,200 and 2,500 people, making it then the deadliest wildfire in recorded history
Howard B. Cushing
John Herschel
Anna Atkins
Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin
Charles BabbageMore 1871 Deaths
Articles About 1871
Henry Morton Stanley's Expedition to Africa
Welsh journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley with Kalulu who he later adoptedMarch 21
Ernest Rutherford, The Man Who ‘Split’ The Atom
New Zealand’s Ernest Rutherford, the first man to “split” the atom, and who would become world-famous as “the Father Of Nuclear Physics” was born on this day.August 30
Great Chicago Fire
A depiction of the Great Chicago Fire which lasted from October 8 to October 10, 1871October 8
'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'
An illustration from Henry Morton Stanley's 1872 book "How I Found Livingstone"November 10
Famous Weddings in 1871
- Jan 25 US President William McKinley (27) weds Ida Saxton (23) at the First Presbyterian Church in Canton
- Jun 14 Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (40) weds Julie Vellay in London
- Jun 17 Canadian giantess Anna Haining Swan (7ft 11in tall) marries the 'Kentucky Giant' Martin Van Buren Bates (7ft 9in tall) at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London
More Weddings in 1871
Claude Monet
Giuseppe Verdi
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Otto von Bismarck
Ulysses S. Grant
William Gladstone