| January 3 | 1st free kindergarten in U.S. opens in Florence, Mass |
| February 2 | Baseball's National League forms with teams in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis |
| February 3 | Albert Spalding with $800 starts sporting goods co, manufacturing 1st official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football |
| February 7 | President Grants private-secretary Orville acquitted in Whiskey Ring |
| February 12 | Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop |
| February 14 | A G Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor |
| February 15 | Historic Elm at Boston blown down |
| February 17 | Sardines 1st canned by Julius Wolff-Eastport, Maine |
| February 18 | Direct telegraph link established between Britain and New Zealand |
| February 22 | Johns Hopkins University opens |
| February 24 | Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," premieres in Oslo |
| March 1 | Guernsey Cattle Club forms in Farmington, Connecticut |
| March 4 | U.S. Congress decides to impeach Minister of War Belknap |
| March 7 | Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone |
| March 7 | Battle at Gura: Ethiopian emperor Yohannes beats Egyptians |
| March 10 | 1st telephone call made (Alexander Graham Bell to Thomas Watson) |
| March 16 | Nelly Saunders and Rose Harland fight 1st female boxing match (NY) |
| March 17 | 1st record high jump over 6' (Marshall Jones Brooks) |
| March 17 | General Crook destroy Cheyennes and Oglala-Sioux indian camps |
| March 25 | Glasgow 1st soccer match Scotland-Wales (4-0) |
| April 1 | 1st official NL baseball game (Boston-6, Philadelphia-5) |
| April 2 | Philadelphia A's and Boston Red Caps play 1st NL game, in Phila |
| April 8 | Amiliare Ponchielli's opera "La Gioconda," premieres in Milan |
| April 11 | Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks organizes |
| April 11 | Sir Charles Gordon ends religious tolerance in Sudan |
| April 18 | Daniel O'Leary completes a 500 mile walk in 139 hours 32 min |
| April 22 | 1st NL game, Boston Braves beat Philadelphia Athletics 6-5 |
| April 22 | Philadelphia Nationals Wes Fisler scores baseball's 1st run |
| April 22 | Tsjaikovsky completes his "Swan Lake" ballet |
| April 25 | Chicago Cubs 1st NL game, beats Louisville 4-0 (1st NL shutout) |
| May 2 | Ross Barnes hit 1st home run in National League |
| May 10 | Centennial Fair opens in Philadelphia |
| May 13 | Amersfoort-Zutphen railway opens |
| May 15 | 2nd Kentucky Derby: Bobby Swim aboard Vagrant wins in 2:38 |
| May 17 | 7th U.S. Cavalry under Custer leaves Ft. Lincoln |
| May 23 | 1st NL no-hitter (Joe Borden, Boston) |
| May 25 | 1st tie in NL history (Athletics and Louisville, 2-2 in 14) |
| May 25 | 4th Preakness: G Barbee aboard Shirley wins in 2:44.75 |
| May 26 | HMS Challenger returns from 128,000-km oceanographic exploration |
| June 3 | Lacrosse introduced in Britain and Canada |
| June 5 | Bananas become popular in U.S., at Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia |
| June 10 | 10th Belmont: William Donohue aboard Algerine wins in 2:40 |
| June 11 | Republicans pick Rutherford B Hayes as presidental candidate |
| June 14 | 1st player to hit for cycle (George Hall, Philadelphia Athletics) |
| June 14 | California Street Cable Car Railroad Co gets its franchise |
| June 15 | Sara Spencer (R) is 1st woman to address a U.S. presidential convention |
| June 15 | Tsunami's after earthquake floods NE coast of Japan, kills 28,000 |
| June 17 | 1st to hit 2 home runs; and score 5 runs in 9 inn NL game (George Hall, A's) |
| June 17 | Battle of Rosebud/Battle Where Girl Saved Her Brother |
| June 25 | Custer and 7th Cavalry wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne at Little Big Horn |
| June 27 | 1st NLer to get 6 hits in 9 inn game (Dave Force, Philadelphia Athletics) |
| June 27 | Democratic Party elects Samuel Tilden as presidential candidate |
| June 30 | Serbia declares war on Turkey |
| July 3 | Montenegro declares war on Turkey |
| July 4 | 1st public exhibition of electric light in San Francisco |
| July 4 | Batholdi visits Bedloe Island, future home of his Statue of Liberty |
| July 8 | White terrorists attack Black Republicans in Hamburg, South Carolina, killing 5 |
| July 9 | Black landowner murdered in Hamburg, South Carolina |
| July 13 | 29th Postmaster General: James N. Tyner of Indiana takes office |
| July 15 | Baseball's 1st no-hitter, St. Louis' George W Bradley no-hits Hartford |
| July 20 | 1st U.S. intercollegiate track meet held, Saratoga, New York; Princeton wins |
| July 31 | U.S. Coast Guard officers' training school established New Bedford, Massachusetts |
| August 1 | Colorado becomes 38th state |
| August 8 | Dan O'Leacy completes 500 mile walk in 139h32m |
| August 8 | Thomas Edison patents mimeograph |
| August 12 | Madeline (U.S.) beats Countess Dufferin (Canada) in 4th America's Cup |
| August 13 | Reciprocity Treaty between U.S. and Hawaii ratified |
| August 13 | Wagner's "Of the Ring," premieres |
| August 14 | Prairie View State University forms |
| August 15 | U.S. law removes Indians from Black Hills after gold find |
| August 16 | Opera "Siegfried" premieres in Bayreuth |
| August 17 | Opera "Gotterdammerung" premieres in Bayreuth |
| August 24 | Riot abolishes fairs in Amsterdam, 2 killed |
| September 6 | Race riot in Charleston SC |
| September 6 | Southern Pacific line from LA to San Francisco completed |
| September 7 | Bank robbery by James/Younger fails (Cole/Bob/Jim Younger arrested) |
| September 12 | King Leopold II opens Congo-conference |
| September 14 | Henry Morton Stanley's expedition leaves Rwanda |
| September 14 | Leopold II closes Congo-conference |
| September 19 | 1st carpet sweeper patented (Melville Bissell of Grand Rapids, Michigan) |
| September 19 | Talks begin to set up a football club in Ottawa |
| September 20 | Ottawa Football Club forms |
| September 23 | Ottawa Rough Riders play their 1st game |
| September 26 | 1st Belgian parachute jump (Glorieux) |
| October 6 | American Library Association organized in Philadelphia |
| October 9 | 1st 2-way telephone conversation, 1st over outdoor wires |
| October 16 | Race riot at Cainhoy South Carolina (5 whites and 1 black killed) |
| October 17 | Henry Morton Stanley's reaches Lualaba River |
| October 23 | New Orleans Mint reopens as an assay office |
| October 31 | Cyclone hits Bengal, about 200,000 die |
| November 1 | King Willem III opens North Sea Canal (Amsterdam-IJmuiden) |
| November 4 | John Brahms' 1st Symphony in C, premieres |
| November 5 | Henry Morton Stanley's expedition leaves Nyangwe |
| November 7 | Edward Bouchet, is 1st black to recieve a PhD in U.S. college (Yale) |
| November 7 | Meharry Medical College forms at Central Tennesse College |
| November 7 | President Rutherford B Hayes and Samuel J Tilden claim presidential victory Tilden (D) wins election but Electoral college selects Hayes (R) |
| November 21 | Skirmish between HM Stanley's expedition and natives |
| November 23 | Columbia, Harvard and Princeton form Intercollegiate Football Association |
| December 5 | Daniel Stillson (Mass) patents 1st practical pipe wrench |
| December 5 | Fire at Brooklyn Theater kills 295, trampled or burned to death |
| December 6 | 1st crematorium in U.S. begins operation, Washington, Penn |
| December 6 | City of Anaheim incorporated for 2nd time |
| December 6 | U.S. Electorial College picks Rep Hayes as President (although Tilden won) |
| December 7 | NY Mutuals and Philadelphia A's expelled from NL for not completing sked |
| December 8 | Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 years |
| December 23 | Turkey's 1st constitution proclaimed |
| December 29 | 11 passenger cars crash in a ravine near Ashtabula Ohio, 92 die |
| December 29 | Frederic A Bartholdi (Statue of Liberty sculptor) weds Jeanne-Emilie |
