Also Within This Year in History:
1871
The Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871, ending in France’s humiliating defeat. What emerged: a new and expanded German Empire, and the revolutionary Paris Commune, which briefly overthrew the French government. In Africa, journalist Henry Stanley began his famous search for missing explorer Dr. Livingstone. In the U.S., fire destroyed much of Chicago, forcing the young city to rebuild from the ground up, the first professional association of baseball players formed and, in Brooklyn, P.T. Barnum debuted his first traveling circus.
On this day in 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David Livingstone. In the late 19th century, Europeans and…
Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David Livingstone. In the late 19th century, Europeans and Americans were fascinated by the…
With passage of the Third Force Act, popularly known as the Ku Klux Act, Congress authorizes President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law, impose heavy penalties against terrorist organizations…
The humiliating defeat of Louis Napoleon’s Second Empire of France is made complete on May 10, 1871, when the Treaty of Frankfurt is signed, ending the Franco‑Prussian War and marking…
The Kiowa Chief Satanta joins with other Native Americans to massacre a wagon train near the Red River in northeastern Texas. One of the leading chiefs of the Kiowa in…
John Wesley Hardin, one of the deadliest men in the history of the Old West, arrives in Abilene, Kansas, where he briefly becomes friends with Marshal Wild Bill Hickok. Hardin…
On October 8, 1871, flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting a two‑day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves…
On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire, now considered the most devastating fire in United States history, burns in Wisconsin. Some 1,200 people lost their lives and 2 billion trees…
