What Happened in 1878

Douglass Purchases Cedar Hill House

Frederick Douglass purchased his final home in 1877, and named it Cedar Hill. He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms (including a china closet),... Read more

The Second Anglo-Afghan War

The Second Anglo-Afghan War refers to a war between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan that lasted from 1878 to 1880. After tension between... Read more

Oscar Wilde Is Awarded the Newdigate Prize

Oscar Wilde was awarded the Newdigate Prize for Poetry for Ravenna in his last year at Oxford. Wilde's winning the Newdigate Prize and his earning... Read more

Louis Pasteur Inoculates Chickens Against Cholera

During the heat of the summer, Pasteur returned to Paris leaving the cholera cultures used for infection stored on the shelves of the Arbois... Read more

Pope Pius IX dies

Pius IX lived long enough to witness the death of his old adversary, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in January 1878. As soon as he learned about the... Read more

Thomas Edison Patents the First Phonograph

The phonograph was developed as a result of Thomas Edison's work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. In 1877, Edison was... Read more

Count Vincenzo Pecci (Leo XIII) elected Pope

Pope Leo XIII (2 March 1810 - 20 July 1903), born Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was the 257th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church,... Read more

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson is Born

Legendary jazz tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was born on May 25, 1878, in Richmond, Virginia. His given name was Luther, but he despised it... Read more

Henry James' "Daisy Miller" Is Published

Considered one of the greatest novelists of the English language, James was also an accomplished writer of short fiction. Shunning what he called... Read more

George M. Cohan is Born

Playwright, songwriter, dancer, actor, theater owner, and producer George M. Cohan was born on July 3, 1878, in Providence, Rhode Island. (Some... Read more

Foundation of the American Bar Association

The ABA was founded on August 21,1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York, by 100 lawyers from 21 states. The legal profession as we know it today... Read more

Emma Mills Nutt Becomes the World's First Female Telephone Operator

When the first commercial telephone exchange began service in January 1878, teenage boys were hired as the first operators. However, the young men... Read more

Sinking of the SS Princess Alice

The lifeless frames of men and women lay about, and out on the balcony, from which the directors had so often looked upon their fleet through the... Read more

Grace Abbott Is Born

Progressive Era reformer Grace Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska on November 17, 1878. Reared in a family of activists, Abbott grappled... Read more

Joseph Stalin Is Born

Joseph Stalin, was born in Gori, Georgia on 21st December, 1879. He was his mother's fourth child to be born in less than four years. The first... Read more

Joseph Swan Demonstrates Lamp with Carbon Rod

With the help of Charles Stearn, an expert on vacuum pumps, in 1878 Swan developed a method of processing that avoided the early bulb blackening.... Read more

Benz Finishes Making his Two-Stroke Gas Engine

To get more revenues, in 1878 he began to work on new patents. First, he concentrated all his efforts on creating a reliable gas two-stroke engine.... Read more