1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January – Cleopatra's Needle arrives in London
• January 9 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy
• January 23 – Disraeli orders British fleet to Dardanelles
• January 28 - The Yale News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States.
• January 31 - Turkey agrees to armistice at Adrianople
• February 2 - Greece declares war on Turkey.
• February 8 - British fleet enters Turkish waters and anchors off Constantinople - Russia threatens to occupy Constantinople but does not carry out the threat
• February 11 - 1st US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms.
• February 11 - 1st weekly Weather report published in UK
• February 18 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico
• February 19 - The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison
• February 24 - Anti-Russian demonstrations in Hyde Park, London
• February 28 - Mississippi State University is created by the Mississippi Legislature (under the name The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi)
• March 3 - Bulgaria regained its independence from Ottoman Empire.
• March 3 - Russia arranges Pan-Slavist peace treaty with Turkey at San Stefano
• March 24 - The UK frigate Eurydice sinks, killing 300.
• March 25 - Russia rejects British proposal to lay San Stefano treaty before European congress
• March 27 - In anticipation with war with Russia, Disraeli mobilizes the reserves and calls up Indian troops to Malta

May - August

• May 15 - Tokyo Stock Exchange established
• June 4 - Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
• June 12 - July 12 - Congress of Berlin about Turkey
• July 13 - The Treaty of Berlin makes Serbia completely independent
• July 26 - In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.

September - December

• September 3 - Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames.
• October 1 - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) opens as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.
• October 14 - The worlds first recorded floodlit football fixture is played at Bramall Lane in Sheffield
• October 15 - The Edison Electric Company begins operation.
• October 17 - John A. Macdonald returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.

Unknown date

• Newton Heath founded in that year. Later the team was renamed as Manchester United.
• Yellow fever in Mississippi Valley - over 13.000 dead
• US arbitration rejects Argentinean claims to Paraguay's part of Chaco region
• West Bromwich Albion F.C. play their first match.

Births

• January 6 - Carl Sandburg, poet, historian (d. 1967)
• January 12 - Ferenc Molnár , author (d. 1952)
• January 20 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer (d. 1968)
• January 25 - Ernst Alexanderson, television pioneer
• February 2 - Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer
• February 5 - André Citroën, automobile pioneer
• February 8 - Martin Buber, philosopher
• February 14 - Hirota Koki, Japanese prime minister (d. 1948)
• February 26 - Emmy Destinn, opera singer (d. 1930)
• March 16 - Clemens August Graf von Galen, archbishop of Münster and cardinal (d. 1946)
• March 22 - Michel Théato, Luxembourg athlete
• March 27 - Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect
• March 31 - Jack Johnson, the first African American to hold a boxing title.
• April 6 - Erich Mühsam, German author (d. 1934)
• April 24 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist
• April 28 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (d. 1951)
• May 10 - Gustav Stresemann, politician and recipient of the Nobel Prize in peace 1926 (d. 1929)
• May 26 - Isadora Duncan, dancer (d. 1927)
• June 1 - John Masefield, English poet and novelist (d. 1967)
• June 3 - Barney Oldfield, American automobile racer and pioneer (d. 1946)
• June 5 - Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1923)
• July 4 - George M. Cohan, singer, dancer, composer, actor, writer (d. 1942)
• July 24 - Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author
• August 31 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
• September 13 - Matilde Moisant, pioneer aviatrix (d. 1964)
• September 22 - Yoshida Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1967)
• September 24 - C. F. Ramuz, Swiss writer (d. 1947)
• October 1 - Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher and economist
• October 16 - Maxey Long, American athlete
• November 14 - Leopold Staff, Polish poet (d. 1957)
• November 17 - Grace Abbott, social worker, activist (d. 1939)
• December 25 - Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race driver and automobile builder (d. 1941)
• December 25 - Joseph Schenck, pioneer motion picture executive (d. 1961)
• December 31 - Elizabeth Arden, (d. 1966), beautician, and cosmetics entrepreneur

Deaths

• January 9 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (b. 1820)
• January 18 - Antoine César Becquerel, French scientist (b. 1788)
• February 7 - Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
• February 11 - Gideon Welles, American politician (b. 1802)
• February 19 - Charles-Francois Daubigny, French painter (b. 1817)
• March 8 - Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (b. 1802)
• April 12 - William Marcy Tweed, American politician (b. 1823)
• April 25 - Anna Sewell, English author (b. 1820)
• May 28 - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, prime minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)
• June 6 - Robert Stirling, Scottish clergyman and inventor (b. 1790)
• June 8 - Porter Rockwell, Mormon bodyguard (b. 1815)
• June 12 - George V of Hanover (b. 1819)
• November 28 - Orson Hyde, American religious leader (b. 1805)
• December 10 - Henry Wells, American businessman, founder of American Express and Wells Fargo (b. 1805)
• December 14 - Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Queen Victoria and consort of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
• Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1818)