| January 1 | New York City annexes the Bronx |
| January 13 | Battle between jobless and police in New York City, 100s injuried |
| January 13 | U.S. troops land in Honolulu to protect the king |
| January 14 | I D Shadd elected Speaker of lower house of Miss legislature |
| January 17 | Armed Democrats seize Texas government ending Radical Reconstruction |
| January 21 | Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa," premieres in Vienna |
| January 24 | General J van Swieten conquerors Kraton Atjeh, after 1000's die |
| January 24 | Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov," premieres in St. Petersburg |
| January 31 | Jesse James gang robs train at Gads Hill, Missouri |
| February 12 | King David Kalakaua of Sandwich Is Hawaii, is 1st king to visit U.S. |
| February 21 | Benjamin Disraeli replaces William Gladstone as English premier |
| February 21 | Oakland Daily Tribune begins publication |
| February 23 | Major Walter Winfield patents game called "sphairistike" (lawn tennis) |
| February 27 | Baseball 1st played in England, at Lord's Cricket Grounds |
| March 2 | Baseball batter's box is officially adopted |
| March 10 | Purdue University (Indiana) admits it's 1st student |
| March 21 | U.S. Grant's daughter Nellie marries in the White House |
| March 22 | Young Men's Hebrew Association organizes in New York City |
| April 5 | "Die Fledermaus" 1st performed, in Vienna |
| April 5 | Johann Strauss Sr's opera "Die Fledermaus," premieres in Vienna |
| April 15 | New York legislature passes compulsory education law |
| April 16 | Dr. David Livingstones corpse arrives in Southampton |
| April 19 | Barracks on Alcatraz Island destroyed in fire |
| April 27 | White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, forms |
| May 5 | Dutch 2nd Chamber passes child labor law |
| May 9 | Victoria Embankment, in London opens |
| May 12 | U.S. Assay Office in Helena, Montana authorized |
| May 13 | Pope Pius IX encyclical "On Greek-Ruthenian rite" |
| May 14 | 1st admission charge at a football game, Harvard beats McGill 3-0 |
| May 14 | Harvard beats University of McGill (Montreal) in football, 3-0 |
| May 16 | 1st recorded dam disaster in U.S. (Williamsburg Mass) |
| May 20 | Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price $13.50 doz |
| May 26 | 2nd Preakness: William Donohue aboard Culpepper wins in 2:56 |
| May 29 | Present constitution of Switzerland takes effect |
| June 13 | 8th Belmont: G Barbee aboard Saxon wins in 2:39 |
| June 20 | 1st U.S. Lifesaving Medal awarded (Lucian Clemons) |
| June 22 | Dr. Andrew T Sill, of Macon Missouri, finds science of osteopathy |
| June 22 | Game of lawn tennis introduced |
| June 28 | Freedmen's Bank closes |
| July 1 | 1st Chamber accept law against child labor |
| July 1 | 1st U.S. kidnapping for ransom, 4-year-old Charles Ross, $20,000 |
| July 1 | 1st U.S. zoo opens in Philadelphia |
| July 4 | Social Democratic Workmen's Party of North America formed |
| July 7 | 27th Postmaster General: James W. Marshall of New Jersey takes office |
| July 12 | Ontario Agricultural College founded |
| July 12 | Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "Gloria Scott" |
| July 29 | Major Walter Copton Wingfield patents a portable tennis court |
| July 30 | 1st baseball teams to play outside U.S., Boston-Philadelphia in British Isles |
| July 31 | Patrick Francis Healy, SJ, inaugurated as President of Georgetown U |
| August 11 | Harry S. Parmelee patents sprinkler head |
| September 1 | 28th Postmaster General: Marshall Jewell of Connecticut takes office |
| September 1 | Sydney General Post Office opens in Australia |
| September 26 | 1st Grand International Rifle match held |
| October 1 | Rotterdam opens drink water pipes |
| October 9 | World Postal Union forms in Bern, Switzerland |
| October 10 | Fiji becomes a British possession |
| October 15 | Child labor law takes 12 year olds out of work force |
| October 19 | Mary Walsh and Charles Colson are 1st couple to be married in a balloon |
| November 3 | James Theodore Holly, elected bishop of Haiti |
| November 4 | Samuel J. Tilden elected governor of New York |
| November 7 | 1st cartoon depicting elephant as Republican Party symbol, by T Nast |
| November 17 | Emigrant ship Cospatrick catches fire and sinks off Auckland, New Zealand |
| November 18 | National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland |
| November 19 | William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, of Tammany Hall (New York City) convicted of defrauding city of $6M, sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment |
| November 24 | Joseph F. Glidden patents barbed wire |
| December 8 | Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie, Kansas |
| December 15 | 1st reigning king to visit U.S. (of Hawaii) received by President Grant |
| December 24 | Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875 |
