Timeline 1877-1878

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1877        Jan 1, The Florida state Supreme Court rejected a canvassing board vote count that showed Hayes in the lead by 208 votes. The Democratic legislature ordered a recount and named Mr. Tilden’s electors as rightful. The matter went to the US Congress after the state Supreme Court declined to take up the case until June.
    (WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)

1877        Jan 4, Cornelius Vanderbilt (b.1794), US financier, railroad and shipping magnate, robber baron, died. His estate at $105 million was worth more than all the money in the US Treasury. His value in 2007 dollars would be $143 billion. In 2007 Edward J. Renehan Jr. authored “Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.” In 2009 T.J. Stiles authored “The first Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt)(SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 12/19/07, p.D9)(SSFC, 4/26/09, Books p.1)

1877        Jan 15, Lewis M. Terman, psychologist (developed Stanford-Binet IQ test), was born in Indiana.
    (MC, 1/15/02)

1877        Jan 22, Hjalmar Horace Greely Schacht, president of German Reichsbank, minister of Economics, was born.
    (MC, 1/22/02)

1877        Jan 25, Congress determined the presidential election between Hayes and Tilden. Tilden  won the popular votes, while Hays won the electoral votes. [see Jan 29]
    (MC, 1/25/02)

1877        Jan 29, A highly partisan Electoral Commission, made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats, was established by Congress to settle the issue of Democrat Samuel Tilden for president against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Under the terms of the Tilden-Hayes Election Compromise, Hayes became president and the Republicans agreed to remove the last Federal troops from Southern territory, ending Reconstruction. On election night, 1876, it was clear that Tilden had won the popular vote, but it was also clear that votes in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon were fraudulent because of voter intimidation. Republicans knew that if the electoral votes from these four states were thrown out, Hayes would win. The country hovered near civil war as both Democrats and Republicans claimed victory. Illustrator Thomas Nast drew his cartoon, "Tilden or Blood," showing the Democrats threatening violence.
    (HNPD, 1/29/99)(PCh, 1992, p.542)

1877        Feb 12, The 1st news dispatch by telephone was made between Boston and Salem, Mass.
    (MC, 2/12/02)
1877        Feb 12, US railroad builders struck against a wage reduction.
    (MC, 2/12/02)

1877        Feb 19, Louis Francois-Marie Aubert, French composer (Habanera), was born.
    (MC, 2/19/02)

1877        Feb 20, The 1st cantilever bridge in US was completed at Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
    (MC, 2/20/02)

1877        Feb 26, Rudolph Dirks, cartoonist, was born. He became the creator of the "Katzenjammer Kids."
    (HN, 2/26/01)
1877        Feb 26, Carel S. Adama van Scheltema, Dutch poet, writer (socialism), was born.
    (SC, 2/26/02)

1877         Mar 2, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote 50.1 to 47.95%. A special US congressional panel had awarded Florida’s electors to Rutherford B. Hayes.
    (PCh, 1992, p.542)(AP, 3/2/98)(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
    http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html

1877        Mar 3, Rutherford B. Hayes took the oath of office as the 19th president of the United States in a private ceremony. A public swearing-in took place two days later.
    (AP, 3/3/02)

1877        Mar 4, The Russian Imperial Ballet staged the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s incomplete ballet "Zwanenmeer" (Swan Lake) in Moscow.
    (WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)(HN, 3/4/01)(SC, 3/4/02)

1877        Mar 5, Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugurated as 19th US president.
    (MC, 3/5/02)

1877        Mar 12, In Philadelphia the first department store, The Grand Depot, opened. John Wanamaker turned an abandoned railway depot into one of the world’s 1st department stores.
    (HN, 3/12/98)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.11)(ON, 12/05, p.5)

1877        Mar 18, Edgar Cayce (d.1945), self-proclaimed psychic, was born in Hopkinsville, Ky. In 2000 Sidney D. Kirkpatrick authored “Edgar Cayce, An American Prophet.”
    (SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(SFC, 8/7/08, p.E1)

1877        Mar 24, Walter Bagehot (b.1826), British economist and author of “The English Constitution” (1867), died. He edited the Economist Magazine from 1861 until his death.
    (WSJ, 11/7/02, p.D8)(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Bagehot)

1877        Mar 25, Alphonse de Chateaubriand, French writer (Instantanes aux Pays-Bas), was born.
    (MC, 3/25/02)

1877        Apr 10, Federal troops were withdrawn from Columbia, SC.
    (MC, 4/10/02)
1877        Apr 10, The 1st human cannonball act was performed in London.
    (MC, 4/10/02)

1877        Apr 12, The catcher's mask was first used in a baseball game, by James Tyng of Harvard, in an exhibition game against the Live Oaks of Lynn, Mass. In 1878 Frederick Thayer, manager and 3rd baseman for the Harvard team, applied for and received a patent for the mask. Thayer became a lawyer after graduating and in 1886 successfully sued Spalding for patent infringement.
    (AP, 4/12/07)(ON, 6/08, p.12)

1877        Apr 18, In Topeka the Nicodemus Town Company was established by William H. Smith and W.R. Hill. They sold home sites to African Americans who founded the town of Nicodemus in Graham County. The name referred to a legendary slave who arrived in America aboard the 2nd slave ship from Africa and later purchased his freedom.
    (NH, 7/98, p.28,29)

1877        Apr 19, Ole Evinrude, inventor of the outboard marine engine, was born.
    (HN, 4/19/97)

1877        Apr 22, The first National League baseball game was played.
    (WSJ, 10/15/98, p.B8)

1877        Apr 24, Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.
    (AP, 4/24/00)
1877        Apr 24, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
    (HN, 4/24/98)

1877        Apr 27, Jules Massenet's Opera "Le Roi de Lahore" was produced in Paris.
    (MC, 4/27/02)
1877        Apr 27, President Hayes removed Federal troops from LA. Reconstruction ended. [see Apr 24]
    (MC, 4/27/02)

1877        Apr 29, Tad Dorgen, cartoonist and columnist, was born.
    (HN, 4/29/01)

1877        Apr 30, Alice B. Toklas (d.1967), expatriate American, was born. She was associated with Gertrude Stein, who wrote "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933).
    (HN, 4/30/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_B._Toklas)

1877        May 1, President Hayes ordered the withdrawal all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.
    (http://www.historycentral.com/rec/EndofRec.html)

1877        May 2, Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer.
    (HN, 5/2/02)

1877        May 6, Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska. Crazy Horse brought General Custer to his end.
    (HN, 5/6/99)

1877        May 13, Cesar Franck's "Lesson Eolides," premiered.
    (MC, 5/13/02)

1877        May 25, Billy Murray, singer, was born.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

1877        May 26, Isadora Duncan, free form, interpretative dancer, was born in SF.
    (MC, 5/26/02)

1877        May 29, John Lothrop Motley (63), (History of United Netherlands), died.
    (SC, 5/29/02)

1877        Jun 1, The Society of American Artists was formed.
    (DTnet, 6/1/97)
1877         Jun 1, U.S. troops were authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico.
    (DTnet, 6/1/97)(HN, 6/1/98)

1877        Jun 3, Raoul Dufy, French Fauvist painter (Palm), was born.
    (MC, 6/3/02)
1877        Jun 3, Frank Pocock, British explorer, drowned in the Congo.
    (MC, 6/3/02)

1877        Jun 9, Meta Vaux Warrick, world renowned sculptor, was born.
    (HN, 6/9/00)

1877        Jun 14, Two Nez Perce Indians killed 3 white men.
    (ON, 3/04, p.5)

1877        Jun 15, The US Army under Gen’l. Oliver Otis Howard began to pursue some 800 Nez Perce. The Nez Perce had been ordered to leave the Valley of the Winding Waters (Wallowa Valley) in Oregon.
    (SFC, 6/13/97, p.A13)(SFEC, 6/15/97, Par p.1)(SSFC, 7/9/06, p.G4)

1877        Jun 15, Henry O. Flipper (d.1931 at 84) became the first African American to be graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was given a dishonorable discharge from the army in 1882 on charges that appeared to be racially motivated. In 1999 Pres. Clinton granted him a posthumous pardon.
    (HN, 6/15/98)(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A17)

1877         Jun 16, The Nez Perce War began in the northwestern US. The First Squadron of the First Regiment, the oldest cavalry unit in the US, fought the Apaches and the Nez Perces.
    (WUD, 1994, p.964)(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)(ON, 3/04, p.5)

1877        Jun 18, James Montgomery Flagg, American artist and author, was born. He created the world War I recruiting poster of Uncle Sam saying "I want you."
    (HN, 6/18/99)

1877        Jul 2, Herman Hesse (d.1962), German philosopher poet and author, was born in Switzerland. His work included "Steppenwolf" and he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1946.
    (HN, 7/2/99)(WUD, 1994, p.666)(SC, 7/2/02)

1877        Jul 5, Wanda A. Landowska, Warsaw Poland, harpsichordist (Musique Ancienne), was born.
    (MC, 7/5/02)

1877        Jul 11, Los Angeles recorded a temperature of 112 degrees, but it was not recorded as an all-time-high because official recording only began 20 days later.
    (SFC, 6/11/09, p.D8)

1877        Jul 17, Riots and violence erupted in several major American cities stemming from strikes against railroads in protest of wage cuts. Strikes started against the Baltimore & Ohio, and quickly spread west, with riots erupting in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis. Nine were killed when Federal troops were sent into Martinsburg, West Virginia.
    (HNQ, 12/11/98)

1877        Jul 18, Thomas Edison recorded the human voice for the first time. He shouted “Haloo” into a mouthpiece and played back a moving tape.
    (HN, 7/18/01)(ON, 2/07, p.11)

1877        Jul 21, In West Virginia 26 railroad strikers were killed and the Union Depot and machine shops were burned down.
    (HNQ, 12/11/98)
1877        Jul 21-27, The US army broke a railroad strike.
    (MC, 7/21/02)

1877        Jul 27, Ernst von Dohnanyi, composer (Message to Posterity), was born in Hungary.
    (MC, 7/27/02)

1877        Aug 10, Col. John Gibbon slaughtered Nez-Perce Indians at Big Hole River.
    (MC, 8/10/02)

1877        Aug 14, Olaf Carl Seltzer, Montana artist and locomotive repairman, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He became a friend of Charles Russel and painted over 2500 works.
    (SFEC, 3/22/98, p.B6)

1877        Aug 17, Asaph Hall discovered the Mars moon Phobos. Hall of the US Naval Observatory discovered the moons around Mars and named them Deimos (anxiety) and Phobos (fear), Homer’s names for the attendant’s of the god of war.
    (SFC, 11/29/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 4/30/00, Z1 p.6)(SC, 8/17/02)

1877        Aug 22, Nez Perce fled into Yellowstone National Park.
    (MC, 8/22/02)

1877        Aug 27, Charles Stewart Rolls, British auto manufacturer (Rolls-Royce Ltd), was born.
    (MC, 8/27/02)

1877        Aug 29, Brigham Young (76), the second president of the Mormon Church, died in Salt Lake City, Utah.
    (AP, 8/29/97)

1877        Aug, In the midst of a recession and the turmoil of anti-Chinese riots, San Franciscans decided to build a public library.
    (SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)

1877        Sep 2, Frederick Soddy, named an isotope and received 1921 Nobel prize for chemistry, was born.
    (HN, 9/2/98)

1877        Sep 3, Adolphe Thiers, 1st president of the 3rd French Republic (1871-77), died at 80.
    (MC, 9/3/01)

1877        Sep 5, The great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, a cousin of Kicking Bear, was fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. In 1975 Stephen Ambrose authored "Crazy Horse and Custer." In 2002 Ambrose was accused of plagiarizing from the 1955 book "Custer" by Jay Monaghan (d.1980). In 1999 Larry McMurtry authored the biography "Crazy Horse" for the Penguin Lives series. In 2004 Joseph M. Marshall III authored “The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History.” In 2006 Kingsley M. Bray authored “Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life.”
    (SFEC, 2/7/99, Par p.14)(HN, 12/24/99)(SFC, 1/9/02, p.A2)(SSFC, 12/5/04, p.E5)(AH, 10/07, p.62)

1877        Sep 11, James Jeans (d.1946), English physicist, mathematician and astronomer, was born. He was the first to propose that matter is continuously created throughout the universe.
    (HN, 9/11/00)(www.britannica.com)

1877        Sep 17, William Henry Fox Talbot (b.1800), British inventor, died. He pioneered instantaneous photography and invented paper photography with the negative-positive system now in use. Talbot produced the first book with photographic illustrations, serialized as "The Pencil of Nature," from 1844-1846. In 1980 Gail Buckland authored "Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography."
    (AHD, 1971, p. 1312)(WSJ, 3/24/98, p.A20)(ON, 4/00, p.11)(SFC, 12/26/02, p.E9)

1877        Oct 4, Pancho Villa (d.1923), [Doroteo Arango], Mexican revolutionary rebel, was born. [see Jun 5, 1878]
    (MC, 10/4/01)

1877        Oct 5, Nez Perce Chief Joseph and 418 survivors were captured in the Bear Paw mountains and forced into reservations in Kansas. They surrendered in Montana Territory, after a 1,700-mile trek to reach Canada fell 40 miles short. Nez Perce Chief Joseph surrendered to General O.O. Howard and Colonel Nelson Miles at the Bear Paw ravine in Montana Territory, saying, "Hear me, my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever." The retreat had lasted three months and left 120 Nez Perces dead. Miles had found and surrounded the Nez Perce camp with the help of Sioux and Cheyenne scouts. Many whites, including Howard, admired the Nez Perces’ fighting ability and Chief Joseph himself, who was considered humane and eloquent. He died in 1904.
    (HFA, ‘96, p.40)(SFC, 6/13/97, p.A13)(HNPD, 10/5/98)(HN, 10/5/98)

1877        Oct 6,    Edward S. Morse (1839-1925), educator gave the first lecture on evolution in Japan. He introduced modern ideas in archaeology and zoology to Japan at Tokyo Univ.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)

1877        Oct 10, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was buried at West Point in New York.
    (HN, 10/10/98)

1877        Oct 11, Outlaw Wild Bill Longley, who killed at least a dozen men, was hanged, but it took two tries; on the first try, the rope slipped and his knees drug the ground.
    (HN, 10/11/98)

1877        Oct 17, Brigadier General Alfred Terry met with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians' return to the United States.
    (HN, 10/17/99)

1877        Oct 20, Franz Schubert's 2nd Symphony in B, premiered.
    (MC, 10/20/01)

1877        Oct 29, Nathan Bedford Forrest (b.1821), former Confederate cavalry general, died in Memphis, Tenn. He amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader, importing Africans long after the practice had been made illegal. At 40 he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army at the outset of the Civil War, rising to a cavalry general in a year. In 1867 the newly formed Ku Klux Klan elected Forrest its honorary Grand Wizard or national leader, but he publicly denied being involved. In 1869, he ordered the Klan to disband because of the members' increasing violence. Two years later, a congressional investigation concluded his involvement had been limited to his attempt to disband it.
    (AP, 11/4/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest)

1877        Nov 17, Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta "The Sorcerer," premiered (London).
    (MC, 11/17/01)
1877        Nov 17, Russians launched a surprise night attack that overran Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia.
    (HN, 11/17/98)

1877        Nov 21, Inventor Thomas A. Edison announced the invention of his phonograph.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.270)(AP, 11/21/97)

1877        Dec 2, Camille Saint-Saens' opera "Samson et Dalila," premiered in Weimar.
    (WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)(MC, 12/2/01)

1877        Dec 6, The Washington Post published its 1st edition. It was founded by independent-minded Democrat Stilson Hutchins.
    (www.washpostco.com/history-history-1875.htm)
1877        Dec 6, Thomas A. Edison made the first sound-recording when he recited "Mary had a Little Lamb" into his phonograph machine.
    (HN, 12/6/98)

1877        Dec 14, Serbia joined Russia in war on Turkey.
    (AP, 12/14/02)

1877        Dec 24, Thomas A. Edison filed a patent application for his phonograph machine.
    (HN, 12/6/98)

1877        Dec 28, John Stevens applied for a patent for his flour rolling mill.
    (MC, 12/28/01)

1877        Dec 30, Joseph Stevens Jones (b.~1809-1811), physician, Boston actor and playwright, died. He authored some 100 patriotic melodramas.
    (SFC, 12/31/08, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stevens_Jones)
1877        Dec 30, Johannes Brahms' 2nd Symphony in D, premiered in Vienna.
    (MC, 12/30/01)

1877        Dec 31, Pres. and Mrs. Hayes celebrated their silver anniversary (technically, a day late) by re-enacting their wedding ceremony in the White House.
    (AP, 12/31/02)

1877        Harrison Fisher, illustrator, was born in Brooklyn. In 1895 he began working as a staff artist for the SF Morning Call. He later became known as "The Father of a Thousand Girls." In 1908 he published the 1st of his 9 books illustrating idealized women.
    (SSFC, 5/25/03, p.I4)

1877        Cezanne painted "Mme. Cezanne in a Red Armchair."
    (WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-14)

1877        Gustave Caillebotte French impressionist painter, painted his "Paris Street: Rainy Day." [see 1848-1894, Caillebotte]
    (WSJ, 2/23/95, p.A-10)(SSFC, 11/16/03, BR p.6)

1877        Celestino Gilardi painted "A Visit to the Gallery." It was a scene of young women viewing a nude sculpted goddess.
    (MT, Spg. ‘97, p.20)

1877        Winslow Homer painted "Backgammon," a watercolor genre scene.
    (SFC, 6/18/97, p.E4)

1877        Claude Monet painted "Old St. Lazare Station, Paris." He did a series of these and captured the atmospheric effects of steam and light through the glass roof of the train shed.
    (DPCP 1984)

1877        Evelyn De Morgan created her painting "Cadmus and Marmonia."
    (WSJ, 10/16/02, p.D8)

1877        John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, member of Britain’s Aesthetic Movement, painted "Love and the Maiden."
    (SFC, 2/4/03, p.D2)

1877        James McNeil Whistler completed his interior room “Harmony in Blue and Gold” better known as the Peacock Room. The 2-year project was his transformation of the London dining room of shipping magnate Frederick Leyland. The room was later transported to the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery. In 1998 Linda Merrill authored “The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography.”
    (WSJ, 9/15/07, p.W16)

1877        The Grosvenor Gallery opened in London as an alternative showplace for painters ignored by the Royal Academy.
    (SFC, 2/4/03, p.D2)

1877        Madame Blavatsky published her 2,000 page "Isis Unveiled," a book that laid out the fundamentals of Theosophy. "She explained our existence as an evolutionary process by which we progress through successive reincarnations toward a perfect understanding of the absolute."
    (Smith., 5/95, p.114)

1877        Richard Dugdale, American social reformer, authored “The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease, and Heredity.” The Jukes clan from upstate New York counted prostitutes, thieves and drunkards in its ranks.
    (WSJ, 1/15/09, p.A9)

1877        Chabrier composed his operetta "L’Etoille." The story begins with King Ouf’s attempt to find a victim to execute for a birthday treat.
    (WSJ, 8/7/01, p.A12)

1877        Marius Petipa composed his operatic spectacle "La Bayadere."
    (WSJ, 7/10/96, p.A16)

1877        The Tchaikovsky ballet "Swan Lake" had its premier.
    (WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)

1877        The building of the American Museum of Natural History, designed by Calvert Vaux, was erected.
    (NH, 6/96, p.43)

1877        Swan boats began to grace the lagoon in Boston’s Public Garden.
    (SFC, 12/10/95, p.T-1)

1877        A farmhouse was built in Little River by Mendocino, Ca. that later became Dennen’s Heritage House. The film "Same Time Next Year" was filmed here.

1877        The USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides) was rebuilt.
    (SFC, 7/22/97, p.A11)

1877        Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) to the Supreme Court Justice.
    (WSJ, 5/28/02, p.D7)

1877        The U.S. seized the South Dakota Black Hills of the Sioux Indians. [see Jun 13, 1979]
    (HN, 6/13/98)

1877         Congress passed an Act prohibiting the counterfeiting of any coin, gold or silver bar.
    (http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/history.shtml)

1877        Almost one-fourth of the California labor force was unemployed. Anti-Chinese feelings in SF resulted in several killings. The Sand Lot riots began under the leadership of Denis Kearney, who organized mobs that attacked the Chinese. The Chronicle newspaper called him “a political mad dog.” These riots followed similar mob attacks in the Eastern States.
    (SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)(www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/kearneyism.html)

1877        James Whistler filed a libel suit against the art critic, John Ruskin. He won the suit but went bankrupt due to court costs.
    (WSJ, 5/31/95, p. A-14)

1877        In Chicago 17 businessmen founded their Commercial Club.
    (Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.12)

1877        William Voss and his brothers Fred and John Voss established the Voss Bros. Manufacturing Co. in Davenport, Iowa. Voss had invented one of the first washing machines with early models operated by a hand crank or foot pedal. Voss motor-driven machines were introduced in 1905. during the Depression Voss washing machines sold for $39.95.
    (SFC, 1/21/09, p.G4)

1877        Albert Pope founded his Pope Manufacturing Co. in Boston, Mass. He started making tricycles in 1883.
    (SFC, 2/14/07, p.G3)

1877        Joseph S. Hartmann opened a luggage business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, making leather covered wooden steamer trunks. The Hartmann family ran the business until 1955. In 1959 the company moved to Lebanon, Tennessee and was later taken over by Clarion Capital Partners.
    (SFC, 1/2/08, p.G3)

1877        Erastus Bigelow introduced a machine-made broadloom carpet in the US.
    (SFCM, 10/10/04, p.8)

1877        The CP railroad decided to take title to lands in the Central Valley of California and sell it to the farmers who had settled there based on previous advertisements. The railroad broke its earlier promises and announced sale of lands to the highest bidder at prices from $25 -40 per acre. Angry settlers sued but lost in several court cases. The story is told by Oscar Lewis in his book "The Big Four."
    (SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)

1877        The Bell Telephone Co. was formed.
    (SFC, 7/23/04, p.C1)

1877        Isaac Magnin and his wife Mary Ann Cohen Magnin founded their first I. Magnin store in SF. The original store was located on Market street. It moved to Grant Avenue after the 1906 earthquake and in 1948 opened at Geary and Stockton in the “Marble Lady,” designed by Timothy Pflueger. It merged with Bullocks in 1944 and became a division of Federated Department Stores in 1964. The store closed Jan 15, 1995.
    (SSFC, 12/31/06, p.E5)

1877        The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association was formed to represent ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma in their fight against castle theft on the open range.
    (SSFC, 4/11/04, p.A24)

1877        Arthur Downes and Thomas P. Blunt of Shrewsbury proved the bactericidal action of light. Blunt was offered a British knighthood for his achievements in research, but humbly declined. His partner in research, Arthur Downes, accepted the title.
    (http://members.shaw.ca/TPBLUNT/)

1877        Thomas Watson invented the ringer for the telephone.
    (SFEM, 1/11/98, p.12)

1877        Earmuffs were devised.
    (SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)

1877        O.C. Marsh, paleontologist, described a large dinosaur that he called Apatosaurus ajax (deceptive lizard) based on a newly discovered vertebral column. In 1879 he discovered the bones of a larger beast that he named Brontosaurus (thunder lizard). In 1903 Elmer Riggs showed that Apatosaurus was just a younger Brontosaurus.
    (SFEC, 5/30/99, Par p.12)

1877        Oil was found in the Santa Clara area of Los Angeles County. Chevron later traced its roots to this discovery.
    (SSFC, 4/13/08, p.C5)

1877        Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-born American explorer, emerged from the forests of Africa near the mouth of the Congo River. He had traced the river to its source. In 1878 he authored “Through the Dark Continent.”
    (SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)(WSJ, 11/3/07, p.W8)

1877        The 1st shipload of frozen beef was carried to France from Argentina.
    (Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.7)

1877        In England the oldest known calendar plate with a business advertisement was made by J.W. Harrison of Liverpool.
    (SFC, 12/15/98, Z1 p.6)

1877        In Germany the Steiff Toy Co. was founded. They made their first teddy bears in 1903 with black, shoe-button eyes.
    (SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.3)
1877        In Germany the S. Gunthermann manufacturer of metal vehicles and other toys was founded in Nuremberg about this time.
    (SFC, 9/19/06, p.G3)

1877        Europe's 2nd oldest shopping center, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, opened in Milan. It was designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, who died the night before the grand opening. Mengoni used roof ventilators and underground air-cooling chambers to regulate indoor temperature.
    (SFEC, 1/23/00, p.T14.15)(Econ, 12/4/04, TQ p.17)
1877        Pietro Barilla opened a shop in Parma, Italy, selling bread and pasta. The company left the bread business in 1952. By 2007 it was the world’s leading pasta maker. In 1999 the Parma pasta factory was closed and converted to the Academia Barilla, which also housed a library dedicated to gastronomy.
    (Econ, 6/23/07, p.75)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.145)
1877        The Italian astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli, saw long thin lines on the surface of Mars and called them canali. The term was translated into English as canals.
    (Smith., 8/95, p.71)

1877        In Japan Saigo Takamori slit his belly in ritual suicide rather than surrendering to Tokyo’s hated minions. The hilltop monument named Shiroyama in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan, is dedicated to him.
    (NG, Jan. 94, p.116)

1877        The rebellion of Satsuma province in Japan was quelled.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)

1877-1878    The Russo-Turkish War.
    (AP, 7/13/97)

1877-78     Treaty of San Stefano, signed after Russo-Turkish War, assigned Albanian-populated lands to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia; but Austria-Hungary and Britain block the treaty's implementation. Albanian leaders meet in Prizren, Kosova, to form the League of Prizren. The League initially advocated autonomy for Albania. At the Congress of Berlin, the Great Powers overturned the Treaty of San Stefano and divided Albanian lands among several states. The League of Prizren began to organize resistance to the Treaty of Berlin's provisions that affected Albanians.
    (www, Albania, 1998)

1877-1878     It was during the Russo-Turkish War that the term jingo began to be used to refer to a person who considered himself a patriot by urging belligerence in foreign policy and favoring war at the slightest provocation. Such a policy is now commonly referred to as "jingoistic." Originally a mild oath-as in "by jingo"-the term was used in a popular London music hall song inspired by the sending of the British fleet to Turkish waters to block Russia’s advance: "We don’t want to fight, But by jingo if we do, We’ve got the ships, We’ve got the men, We’ve got the money, too."
    (HNQ, 5/22/98)

1877-1879    India experienced a devastating famine that left 6-12 million people dead.
    (http://sharpgary.org/1864-1895.html)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.74)

c1877-1880    The CP railroad hired 2 men, Hart and Crow, to oust farmers in Tulare, Ca., in exchange for free farms. They arrived in a buggy loaded with shotguns and ammo at the gate of a farmer named Brewer and were met by a dozen farmers, led by James Harris. Crow shot Harris in the face and gunned down 5 other farmers. Hart was killed and Crow was also killed after he fled into a wheat field. The railroad shut down its telegraph line and announced that an "armed insurrection" of farmers was taking place.
    (SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)

1877-1880    Arthur Lakes, geologist, filled field journals with eyewitness reports on the early days of vertebrate paleontology in Wyoming. In 1997 Michael F. Kohl and John S. McIntosh edited his work in the book: "Discovering Dinosaurs in the Old West."
    (NH, 6/97, p.12)

1877-1881    Rutherford B. Hayes served as the 16th President of the US.
    (A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)

1877-1887    In San Elizario, Texas, the San Elizario Presidio Chapel was constructed. Though small it featured four bells.
    (AWAM, Dec. 94, p.64)

1877-1910    In Mexico Porfirio Diaz, a full-blooded Indian, served as president.
    (SFC, 4/5/01, p.A12)

1877-1946    Harley Granville Barker, English playwright. He produced, directed and starred in many works by George Bernard Shaw.
    (WSJ, 8/29/97, p.A9)

1877-1956    Alben William Barkley served one term as vice president of the U.S. under Harry Truman (1949-53), and was reelected to the Senate from Kentucky in 1954 and died suddenly in 1956 while still a senator. Barkley served in the senate from 1927 to 1949 (majority leader from 1937-47) before becoming vice president.
    (HNQ, 11/3/99)

1877-1961    Abbe Henri Breuil, paleolithic scholar. He copied cave paintings and viewed them as a kind of "hunting magic," a means of making game plentiful.
    (NH, 7/96, p.22)

1878        Jan 6, Carl Sandburg, U.S. journalist, poet and biographer who won a Pulitzer Prize in history for his biography of Abraham Lincoln, was born. "There are people who want to be everywhere at once, and they get nowhere."
    (HN, 1/6/99)(AP, 7/13/99)

1878        Jan 9, Victor Emmanuel II (57), king of Sardinia (1849-61) and Italy (1861-78), died.
    (MC, 1/9/02)

1878        Jan 12, Ferenc Molnar, Hungarian-US playwright (A Pal Utrai Fiuk), was born.
    (MC, 1/12/02)

1878        Jan 14, US Supreme court ruled that race separation on trains was unconstitutional.
    (MC, 1/14/02)

1878        Jan 16, Harry Carey Sr., actor (Aces Wild, Border Cafe, Air Force), was born in Bronx, NY.
    (MC, 1/16/02)

1878        Jan 25, Off of San Francisco the 3-masted clipper ship King Philip, built in Maine in 1856, was towed by a tug through the Golden Gate and laid anchor to allow the tug to assist a nearby vessel. The anchor failed and the King Philip drifted onto sand at Ocean Beach, where it foundered. Remnants of the ship appeared in 1980 and again in 2007.
    (SFC, 5/8/07, p.B5)

1878        Jan 28, The first daily college newspaper, Yale News (now Yale Daily News), began publication in New Haven, Conn.
    (AP, 1/28/08)
1878        Jan 28, The 1st telephone exchange was established at New Haven, Conn.
    (AP, 1/28/04)

1878        Feb 1, Hattie Caraway, first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, was born.
    (HN, 2/1/99)

1878        Feb 7, Pope Pius IX (1846-1878), Giovanni Ferretti (85), died. Revenge-seeking Italian liberals tried to dump his body into the Tiber River. He served 31 years, seven months and 22 days. In 1954 E.E.Y. Hayes authored “Pio Nono.”
    (PTA, 1980, p.510)(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D4)(AP, 10/15/03)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)

1878        Feb 8, Martin Buber, German-Israeli philosopher, theologist (Ich und Du), was born.
    (MC, 2/8/02)

1878        Feb 10, Peter Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony in F, premiered.
    (MC, 2/10/02)
1878        Feb 10, Cuba’s 10 year war with Spain ended with the signing of the pact of Zanjon. The nationalist uprising failed.
    (WSJ, 9/12/08, p.W6)(www.cubagen.org/mil/war-hist.htm)

1878        Feb 16, The silver dollar became US legal tender.
    (MC, 2/16/02)

1878        Feb 18, The bitter and bloody Lincoln County War began with the murder of Billy the Kid's mentor, Englishman rancher John Tunstall. Hired killers of James J. Dolan gunned down John Tunstall in Lincoln, N.M. Tunstall’s partner Alexander McSween formed a posse known as the Regulators to get even. Billy the Kid was part of the posse.
    (SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(HN, 2/18/99)

1878        Feb 19, Thomas Edison received a U.S. patent for "an improvement in phonograph or speaking machines."
    (AP, 2/19/07)
1878        Feb 19, Charles F. Daubigny (61), French restaurateur, painter, died.
    (MC, 2/19/02)

1878        Feb 21, The first telephone directory was issued, by the District Telephone Company of New Haven (New Harbor), Conn. It contained the names of its 50 subscribers.
    (AP, 2/21/98)(HN, 2/21/01)(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W7)

1878        Mar 3, Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to Serbia. With the Treaty of San Stefano (and subsequent negotiations in Berlin) in the wake of the last Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire lost its possession of numerous territories including Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia. The Russo-Turkish wars dated to the 17th century, the Russians generally gaining territory and influence over the declining Ottoman Empire. In the last war, Russia and Serbia supported rebellions in the Balkans. In concluding the Treaty of San Stefano, the Ottomans released control of Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, granted autonomy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and allowed an autonomous state of Bulgaria to be placed under Russian control.
    (HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 2/23/01)

1878        Mar 20, Thomas Fisher, an alleged member of the Molly McGuires, was hung at the Carbon County Prison of Mauch Chunk, Pa. He had been convicted of the murder of Morgan Powell, a supervisor for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Fisher insisted up to his death on his innocence.
    (HT, 4/97, p.20)

1878        Mar 26, Hastings College of Law was founded in SF. It was named after Serranus Clinton Hastings, the 1st chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
    (SS, 3/26/02)(SFCM, 10/26/03, p.8)
1878        Mar 26, Sabi Game Reserve, the world's 1st official designated game reserve, opened.
    (SS, 3/26/02)

1878        Mar 31, Jack Johnson, first Africa-American boxer to become the world heavyweight champion (1908-1915), was born.
    (HN, 3/31/99)(MC, 3/31/02)

1878        Apr 1, The 1st large-scale Easter Monday egg roll was held on White House lawn under President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy. The egg roll has been held every year since except during the war years of WWI and WWII until 1953 when Pres. Eisenhower re-established the egg roll tradition.
    (AH, 4/07, p.14)(http://tinyurl.com/ygrbvwq)
1878        Apr 1, Carl Sternheim, German playwright (Hyperion, Tabula Rasa), was born.
    (MC, 4/1/02)
1878        Apr 1, The city of Berkeley, home to UC Berkeley, was incorporated.
    (SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1878        Apr 1, In Lincoln, N.M., the Regulators, including Billy the Kid, ambushed and killed Sheriff William Brady, a James Dolan partisan, along with a deputy.
    (SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(SFC, 2/2/01, p.A14)

1878        Apr 8, Rudolf Nelson, composer, was born.
    (MC, 4/8/02)

1878        Apr 10, The California St. Cable Car RR Co. started service.
    (MC, 4/10/02)

1878        Apr 12, William M "Boss" Tweed, NYC politician, died in prison.
    (MC, 4/12/02)(Arch, 7/02, p.24)

1878        Apr 21, Ship Azor left Charleston with 206 blacks for Liberia.
    (MC, 4/21/02)

1878        Apr 28, Lionel Barrymore, American stage, screen and radio actor, was born. He won an Oscar for his role in "A Free Soul."
    (HN, 4/28/99)

1878        Apr, A Fijian minister and three teachers were killed and eaten by Tolai tribespeople on the Gazelle Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. In 2007 descendants of the Tolai apologized for their forefathers' actions. Englishman George Brown directed and took part in a punitive expedition that resulted in a number of Tolais being killed and several villages burnt down. Official investigations by British colonial authorities in the Pacific cleared him of criminal charges.
    (AFP, 8/16/07)

1878        May 1, James Graham was born. He was the inventor of the first naval aircraft-carrying ship and the first man to film a total eclipse of the Sun.
    (HN, 5/1/99)

1878        May 13, Joseph Henry, head of the Smithsonian Inst. for 32 years, died in Washington DC. His death initiated a national day of mourning and a state funeral. In 1997 the Smithsonian published his biography: "Joseph Henry: The Rise of an American Scientist." He discovered electric induction at the same time as Michael Faraday and made the first versions of the telegraph, the electric motor and electric relay.
    (WSJ, 12/17/97, p.A20)(www.si.edu/archives/ihd/jhp/joseph11.htm)

1878        May 14, Vaseline first sold with the registered trademark for petroleum jelly.
    (MC, 5/14/02)

1878        May 15, The Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan’s 1st public trading institution, formed.
    (WSJ, 3/15/07, p.C1)

1878        May 21, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, aviation pioneer and contemporary of the Wright brothers, was born in Hammondsport, N.Y. He also originally made bicycles and invented the hydroplane. Curtiss` entrance into flying began in 1904 when Thomas Scott Baldwin, famous lighter-than-air devotee, asked Curtiss to make him a two-cylinder, air-cooled engine to power his airship. The first plane Curtiss had anything to do with was Red Wing, which Casey Baldwin lofted from the ice at Keuka Lake on March 12, 1908.
    (HN, 5/21/98)(HNQ, 5/28/01)

1878        May 24, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, pioneer in time-motion studies, was born.
    (HN, 5/24/01)
1878        May 24, The first American bicycle race was held in Boston.
    (HN, 5/24/98)

1878        May 25, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was born and began his dancing career in childhood. The young song-and-dance man learned his trade in beer gardens, traveling companies and later on the vaudeville circuit. Robinson performed only within the black community until he was 50 years old, when his unique style of tap-dancing, including his signature "stair dance," crossed over to white audiences. Robinson, who continued to perform into his late sixties, made 14 Hollywood motion pictures, playing both stereotypical black roles and a handful of leads. He died of a chronic heart condition in 1949.
    (WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A20)(HNPD, 5/26/99)
1878        May 25, Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera "HMS Pinafore" premiered in London.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

1878        May 27, Isadora Duncan (d.1927), US pioneer in modern dance and choreographer, was born in San Francisco.
    (WUD, 1994, p.442)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)(HN, 5/27/01)

1878        May 30, Michigan’s all-University football team played its 1st game. It defeated Racine College 7-2.
    (LSA, Spring/04, p.53)

1878        Jun 1, John Masefield (d.1967), England’s 15th poet laureate, was born. "To most of us the future seems unsure. But then it always has been; and we who have seen great changes must have great hopes."
    (AP, 1/1/00)(HN, 6/1/01)(MC, 6/1/02)

1878        Jun 4, Turkey turned Cyprus over to the British.
    (AP, 6/4/97)

1878        Jun 5, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader, was born. He defied American General John J. Pershing’s expedition for him.
    (HN, 6/5/99)

1878        Jun 12, William Cullen Bryant (b.1794), American poet and journalist, died. He wrote the bulk of his poem “Thanatopsis” while still a teenager in Massachusetts. In 2008 Gilbert H. Muller authored “William Cullen Bryant: Author of America.”
    (WSJ, 6/20/08, p.W3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cullen_Bryant)

1878        Jun 19, Immigrant English photographer Edward Muybridge settled a bet for Leland Stanford, governor of California and horse racing enthusiast. Stanford bet a friend that a galloping horse kept at least one hoof on the ground at all times. At the governor’s training course in Palo Alto, Muybridge set up 12 cameras at trackside with shutters activated by tripwires. The resulting "motion" pictures, seen here in postcard form, proved that the horse did indeed raise all four hooves off the ground during its gallop. Muybridge’s photographic methods were expanded by Thomas Edison to develop "an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion...."
    (HNPD, 6/19/98)

1878        Jun 23, Adm. George Back (b.1796), English Arctic explorer, died in London.
    (www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9011650)

1878        Jul 1, Treaty of Berlin divided Africa for colonization. [see Jul 13]
    (MC, 7/1/02)

1878        Jul 2, The Chattanooga Times was first published under the ownership of Adolph Ochs. The 9-year-old paper at Eighth and Cherry Streets had plummeted under S.A. Cunningham to a circulation of 250. Ochs acquired the New York Times 18 years later. The Chattanooga Times merged with the Chattanooga Free Press in 1998.
    (SFC, 1/4/99, p.A19)(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.10)

1878        Jul 3, George M. Cohan, American entertainer, was born. He wrote the songs "Over There," "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" and the play "Yankee Doodle-Dandy."
    (HN, 7/3/99)
1878        Jul 3, John Wise flew the first dirigible in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
    (HN, 7/3/98)

1878        Jul 9, H.V. Kaltenborn, newscaster (Who Said That?), was born in Milwaukee, Wisc.
    (MC, 7/9/02)
1878        Jul 9, An improved corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe in Washington, Mo.
    (MC, 7/9/02)

1878        Jul 12, A Yellow Fever epidemic began in New Orleans. It killed 4,500.
    (MC, 7/12/02)

1878        Jul 13, The Treaty of Berlin amended the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among European powers. The Slavic converts to Islam in the Sandzak region of southwestern Serbia were separated from their ethnic cousins in Bosnia.
    (AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 6/16/99, p.A20)

1878        Jul 29, Don Marquis (d.1937), American dramatist, journalist, novelist and poet, was born. "The trouble with the public is that there is too much of it."
    (AP, 7/31/99)(HN, 7/29/01)

1878        Jul, In Lincoln, N.M., soldiers from Fort Stanton and 40 men of James Dolan surrounded the McSween home for 5 days. McSween and 4 supporters were killed but Billy the Kid and several Regulators managed to escape.
    (SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)

1878        Aug 3, Ambrose Bierce in the SF Argonaut stated: There is no recorded instance of punishment for shooting a newspaperman. The restrictions of the game law do not apply to this class of game."
    (SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)

1878        Aug 10, In Chautauqua, New York, John H. Vincent (46), clergyman, introduced his idea for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. His vision was to spread education around the globe with organized reading programs. The 1878 class read "Old Tales Retold from Grecian Mythology" by Augusta Larned  and "Studies of the Stars" by Henry w. Warren.
    (WSJ, 7/31/00, p.B1)

1878        Aug 21, The American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y.
    (AP, 8/21/97)

1878        Jul 30, German anti-Semitism began during the Reichstag election.
    (MC, 7/30/02)

1878        Aug 13, Leonid Vladimirovich Nikolayev, composer, was born.
    (MC, 8/13/02)

1878        Sep 1, Emma M. Nutt became the first female telephone operator in the United States, for the Telephone Despatch Co. of Boston.
    (AP, 9/1/03)

1878        Sep 5, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Bill Tilghman and Clay Allison, four of the West’s most famous gunmen, met in Dodge City, Kansas.
    (HN, 9/5/98)

1878        Sep 12, The Cleopatra Needle was installed in London.
    (MC, 9/12/01)

1878        Sep 17, Vincenzo Tommasini, composer, was born.
    (MC, 9/17/01)

1878        Sep 20, Upton Beall Sinclair (d.1968), muckraking author, was born. His work included "The Jungle," which exposed the horrible conditions in the meat packing industry and calling for reforms.
    (WUD, 1994 p.1330)(HN, 9/20/98)(MC, 9/20/01)

1878        Sep, Herbert Hayden, a prominent Connecticut minister, used arsenic to murder Mary Stannard, a young servant girl that he thought he had made pregnant. The reverend, who was tried 1st for physical assault and later for murder was acquitted. In 1880 he produced an exculpatory account of the case. In 1999 Virginia A. McConell authored “Arsenic Under the Elms: Murder in Victorian New Haven.”
    (WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)(http://tinyurl.com/amrk5)

1878        Oct 1, General Lew Wallace was sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He went on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and wrote "Ben-Hur."
    (HN, 10/1/98)

1878        Oct 15, Thomas A. Edison incorporated Edison Electric Light Co.
    (HN, 10/15/98)(MC, 10/15/01)

1878        Oct 18, Edison made electricity available for household usage.
    (MC, 10/18/01)

1878        Oct 21, German republic chancellor Bismarck delegated the end of "Socialism."
    (MC, 10/21/01)

1878        Oct 25, Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer (89), composer, died.
    (MC, 10/25/01)

1878        Oct 29, Alex E. von Falkenhausen, German general (China, WW II), was born.
    (MC, 10/29/01)

1878        Oct, Theodore Roosevelt first saw his future wife, Alice Hathaway (1861-1884).
    (SFEC, 9/29/96, Par p.8)

1878        Nov 2, Edward Scripps (1854-1926) and John Scripps Sweeney founded the Penny Press. Ellen Scripps helped her younger half brother, Edward W. Scripps, begin his Penny Press in Cleveland, Ohio. She gave financial support and contributed articles and columns to the Penny Press while continuing her work for the Detroit Evening News.
    (http://tinyurl.com/3dc4tx)(http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SEW)

1878        Nov 8, Marshall Walter Taylor, "Major Taylor," the world's fastest bicycle racer for a twelve-year period, was born.
    (HN, 11/6/98)

1878        Nov 12, US Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes was called upon to arbitrate a dispute between Paraguay and Argentina over the Chaco grasslands, a land area about the size of Colorado. He ruled in favor of Paraguay and became a national hero.
    (WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A1,20)

1878        Nov 13, New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace offered amnesty to many participants of the Lincoln County War, but not to gunfighter Billy the Kid.
    (HN, 11/13/98)

1878        Nov 23, Ernest King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. fleet who designed the United States' winning strategy in World War II, was born.
    (HN, 11/23/98)

1878        Nov 25, In London a trial opened to hear the suit of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) against critic John Ruskin for libel. After a 2-day hearing the jury found Ruskin guilty and awarded Whistler one farthing, a quarter of a penny. Whistler later authored “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies” (1890).
    (www.abcgallery.com/W/whistler/whistlerbio.html)(ON, 4/03, p.9)

1878        Dec 9, Joseph Pulitzer bought the St Louis Dispatch for $2,500.
    (MC, 12/9/01)

1878        Dec 17, Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky sailed for India. Colonel Olcott became a popular lecturer in India and worked to merge the Theosophist society with the Arya Samaj, a large Hindi revivalist organization. He befriended A.P. Sinnett, the editor of the Pioneer, the most influential British newspaper in India.
    (Smith., 5/95, p.117)

1778        Dec 19, Marie-Therese-Charlotte, daughter of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, was born.
    (MC, 12/19/01)

1878        Dec 26, The 1st US store to install electric lights was in Philadelphia.
    (MC, 12/26/01)

1878        Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (d.1963) was born in Mexico. She co-founded the Congregation of the Servants of Saint Margaret Mary and the Poor and was beatified in 2004.
    (AP, 4/25/04)

1878        Rodin created his bronze sculpture: Torso of a Man."
    (SFC, 1/22/99, p.D7)

1878        William Adolphe Bouguereau debuted his painting "La Charite" at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.
    (WSJ, 3/24/00, p.W4)

1878        Gustave Caillebotte painted his impressionist "View of Rooftops (Snow)."
    (SFC, 6/13/98, p.E1)

1878        William Merritt Chase painted "Moorish Warrior."
    (WSJ, 8/11/00, p.W6)

1878        The Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) painting "The Gross Clinic" was bought for $200 by Thomas Jefferson University, a medical and health sciences school in Philadelphia. In 2006 The National Gallery of Art agreed to buy the painting for a record $68 million, however the deal was matched by local institutions and the painting remained in Philadelphia.
    (AP, 11/11/06)(WSJ, 12/26/06, p.D8)

1878        Monet painted his "Chrysanthemums," and gave it to Dr. Gachet after a squabble about its price.
    (WSJ, 5/26/99, p.A20)

1878        Renoir painted his "Portrait of a Model" and gave it to Dr. Gachet for his visit to the young model who was dying of smallpox.
    (WSJ, 5/26/99, p.A20)

1878        Thomas Gold Appleton, poet, artist and scion of one of Boston’s first families, published his essay “The Kingdom of the Common-Place,” in which he argued that New Englanders must reconcile themselves to “the fatal poison” of modernity.
    (WSJ, 11/9/05, p.D16)

1878        Allen Dodworth, New York dancing master, published a new edition of his instruction manual.
    (HNPD, 10/9/98)

1878        Clarence Cook authored "The House Beautiful."
    (WSJ, 1/29/00, p.A24)

1878        Scribner’s Magazine sent a crew of bohemian writers and artists, the Tile Club, to report on life in East Hampton, NY.
    (SSFC, 7/18/04, p.M2)

1878        Tombstone’s Boot Hill  was laid out as a burial plot and was originally called the Tombstone Cemetery. On that rocky hill at the edge of town lie many of the legendary characters of the "Town Too Tough To Die." The Clantons, McLaurys and other legendary Western figures were buried in Tombstone’s cemetery. During the wild and lawless years of the settling of the West, some sort of graveyard could be found near almost every town or camp. Because many of the people in those settlements died rather quickly and unexpectedly, usually with their boots on, and were buried with their boots still on, these cemeteries became known as "boot hills."
    (HNQ, 4/28/01)

1878        A tunnel to drain and ventilate the silver mines at the Comstock Lode was completed by Adolph Sutro.
    (G, Winter 98/99, p.1)

1878        The Nott Memorial of Union College at Schenectady, N.Y., was completed under the direction of architect Edward Tuckerman Potter, grandson of Eliphalet Nott, and a leader in the Victorian Gothic style. His plans were based on the original design by the French landscape architect Joseph Ramee.
    (WSJ, 3/21/95, p.A-12)

1878        The Mendocino Hotel was built in Mendocino, Ca.
    (WCG, 7/95, p.93)
1878        Ephraim Burr (1809-1894), former mayor of SF (1856-1859), built an Italianate house at 1772 Vallejo St.
    (SFC, 5/5/07, p.B3)

1878        General William Booth (1829-1912), the founder and leader of the Salvation Army, changed the name of his Christian Mission to the Salvation Army in 1878, adopting a military structure.
    (HNQ, 3/13/00)

1878        The first American badminton club was formed in NYC. Its charter limited play to men and "good-looking single women."
    (SFC, 7/3/99, p.B3)

1878        The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in response to abuses by federal troops in the South after the Civil War. It basically prohibited the use of the military "to execute the laws" of the US.
    (Wired, 8/96, p.137)(WSJ, 3/904, p.B1)

1878        In Reynolds vs. the US the Supreme Court rejected the freedom of religion defense for polygamy.
    (WSJ, 9/7/01, p.W17)

~1878        The US Army began to capture the horses that provided mobility to the Comanche Indians. Quanah Parker, the last great Comanche war chief surrendered.
    (NG, Jan, 1968, N.T. Kenney p. 118)

1878        Theodore Vail left a career position with the U.S. Post Office and was hired to become the first general manager of the Bell Telephone Co. He was able to move the company forward to nationwide service but disappointed the financial backers. He left the company until called back by Morgan in 1906.
    (I&I, Penzias, p.214)

1878        John Wesley Powell published his Report on water resources in the US West.
    (HFA, ‘96, p.128)

1878        The Miner’s Union Hall was build in Bodie, Calif.
    (SFC, 6/23/96, p.T3)
1878        The Big Four, Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, formed the city’s second cable car company, the California Street Cable Railroad, to go from market St. to their mansions atop Nob Hill.
    (SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1878        Steve’s Hardware in St. Helena Calif., was established.
    (SFEM, 7/28/96, p.21)
1878        A waiter in SF concocted the dish named chop suey for Li Hung-Chang, the first Chinese viceroy to visit SF. [see 1896]
    (SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1878        Hills Bros. Coffee was founded in SF.
    (SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)

1878        Pete Browning, a baseball player for the Louisville Eclipse, got frustrated with his bat and received help from furniture maker J. Andrew "Bud" Hillerich."
    (SFEC, 7/18/99, p.T9)

1878        Bishop Wright gave his sons, Orville and Wilbur, a toy helicopter.
    (NPub, 2002, p.5)

1878        The Chattanooga Times came under the ownership of Adolph Ochs, who acquired the New York Times 18 years later. In 1998 the Chattanooga Times merged with the Chattanooga Free Press.
    (SFC, 1/4/99, p.A19)

1878        George Eastman of Rochester, NY, developed his own dry-plate formula for taking pictures, an improvement on a method by British photographer Charles Bennett.
    (ON, 3/05, p.10)

1878        Joseph P. McHugh (1854-1916) opened his furnishings business, the Popular Shop, in NYC. In 1884 it moved to 42nd Street.
    (SFC, 1/2/08, p.G3)

1878        Thomas Edison began working on the light bulb. British inventor Joseph Swan was also later credited for inventing the light bulb.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.270)(WSJ, 6/25/99, p.A1)

1878        An improved version of the typewriter with a shift key that permitted a change of case was put on the market.
    (SJSVB, 3/25/96, p.27)

1878        The corncob pipe was invented.
    (SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)

1878        Philip Marqua of Cincinnati invented the "swing stand horse," a toy horse that moves back and forth on a stand as an alternative to the rocking horse.
    (SFC,12/24/97, Z1 p.6)

1878        Calamity Jane served as a devoted nurse to several ailing Deadwood, S.D., residents during the smallpox epidemic of 1878.
    (HNPD, 8/28/99)

1878        The name of Alabama’s Alcorn University was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (Alcorn A&M).
    (www.alcorn.edu/about/history.htm)

1878        A major fire hit the seaside town of Cape May, NJ.
    (WSJ, 9/30/02, p.R10)

1878        Yellow fever decimated Memphis.
    (NH, 9/98, p.9)

1878        The clipper ship Western Shore, built in 1874 at Coos Bay for the Simpson Brothers Lumber Co. of San Francisco, ran aground on Duxbury Reef and sank near Bolinas, Ca.
    (SFC, 10/22/05, p.B2)

1878        In Afghanistan the new amir, Dost Mohammad’s son, signed a treaty of friendship with Russia. British Gen’l. Frederick "Little Bobs" Roberts was sent with an army to force Afghanistan into a treaty ceding foreign policy to the British. The treaty was concluded but the British envoy was murdered.
    (WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)

1878        Henry and James Doulton purchased a major interest in Pinder, Bourne & Co., a pottery in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. In 1882 they changed the name to Doulton & Co.
    (SFC, 10/18/06, p.G3)
1878        The New Wharf Pottery Co. began operating in Burslem in the Staffordshire district of England. It later became part of Wood & Son and from 1890-1894 used a rope identification mark.
    (SFC, 2/5/97, Z1 p.7)
1878        The 1st electric street lights were deployed alongside Holburn Viaduct in London, England.
    (Econ, 12/1/07, p.79)

1878        The French Academy accepted "humoristique" as a French word.
    (Econ, 12/20/03, p.75)

1878        Topf & Sons was founded in Erfurt, Germany, as a customized incinerator and malting equipment manufacturer. The firm was close to the Ettersberg hill, later the site of Buchenwald concentration camp. With the expansion of cremation in Germany as a burial rite in the 1920s, the firm's ambitious chief engineer Kurt Pruefer pioneered furnaces which complied with strict regulations on preserving the dignity of the body. In 1941 the firm agreed to build crematoria for Auschwitz and enable industrialized mass murder.
    (Reuters, 7/25/05)

1878        In India construction began on the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, earlier known as Victoria Terminus Station. It was completed after 10 years. UNESCO included it in their list of world heritage sites in 2004.
    (AP, 11/27/08)
1878        In India British officials recorded 624 human killings by wolves in the area of Banbirpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
    (SFC, 9/1/96, p.A16)

1878        Montenegro was recognized as an independent state when it became a monarchy.
    (AP, 5/22/06)

1878        The 266-foot square-rigger Falls of Clyde was built in Glasgow, Scotland. From 1899-1922 the Matson shipping line used it to haul molasses to California and back to Hawaii with kerosene. The ship was then demasted and sent to Alaska where it became a floating fuel dock. In 1963 enthusiasts towed the ship back to Hawaii, where it later came under the ownership of the Bishop Museum. In 2008 new owners hoped to save an renovate the ship.
    (SSFC, 10/19/08, p.A11)

1878-1881    George B. McClellan (d.1885), former Union army general, served as governor of New Jersey.
    (ON, 12/03, p.4)

1878-1884    Theodore Roosevelt maintained a diary over this period.
    (SFEC, 9/29/96, Par p.8)

1878-1891    Sir John A. MacDonald, Conservative Party, again serves as the Prime Minister of Canada.
    (CFA, ‘96, p.81)

1878-1918    Bosnia came under the rule of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. A representative from Vienna governed the area.
    (Econ, 11/26/05, p.65)

1878-1969     Henry Emerson Fosdick, American clergyman: "He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward." "I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
    (AP, 5/23/97)(AP, 3/7/98)

1878-1972    Lillian Moller Gilbreth, a mother of 12, invented such labor saving devices as the foot-lever lid lifter and the electric food mixer. She and her husband, Frank Gilbreth, pioneered the first time-and-motion studies.
    (SFEC, 8/16/98, Z1 p.8)

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