1870 - What happened in 1870 ?

January 1870

Thursday 06:

The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).

Monday 10:

John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

Saturday 15:

A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

Wednesday 26:

American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.

Thursday 27:

The first college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University.

February 1870

Wednesday 02:

It is revealed that the famed Cardiff Giant was just carved gypsum and not the petrified remains of a human.

Wednesday 23:

Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.

Friday 25:

Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

Saturday 26:

In New York City, the first pneumatic-subway opens.

Monday 28:

The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.

March 1870

Wednesday 30:

Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

May 1870

Thursday 12:

The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.

Saturday 14:

The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.

June 1870

Sunday 19:

After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States of America, the Confederate States of America (a/k/a the CSA) ceases to exist.

July 1870

Friday 01:

The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.

Friday 15:

Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories are established from these vast territories.

Tuesday 19:

Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.

August 1870

Tuesday 02:

Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London.

September 1870

Friday 02:

Prussian forces take French Emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.

Sunday 04:

Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed and the Third Republic is declared.

Tuesday 06:

Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, votes in the morning, becoming the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

Friday 09:

Redmond, Washington, founded

Tuesday 20:

Bersaglieri corps enters Rome through Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy

October 1870

Friday 07:

Leon Gambetta flees Paris in balloon.

Thursday 27:

Marshal François Achille Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers in one of the biggest French defeats of the Franco-Prussian War.

November 1870

Tuesday 01:

In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.

December 1870

Monday 12:

Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black U.S. congressman