1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was acommon year starting on Friday of theGregorian calendar and acommon year starting on Wednesday of theJulian calendar, the 1875th year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini (AD) designations, the 875th year of the2nd millennium, the 75th year of the19th century, and the 6th year of the1870s decade. As of the start of 1875, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

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• January 1 – TheMidland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third Class is renamed Second Class in1956).
• January 5 – ThePalais Garnier, one of the most famousopera houses in the world, is inaugurated as the home of the Paris Opera.
• January 12 –Guangxu becomes the 11thQing dynastyEmperor of China at the age of 3. He succeeds his cousin, theTongzhi Emperor, who had no sons of his own.
• January 14 – The newly proclaimed KingAlfonso XII of Spain (QueenIsabella II's son) arrives in Spain to restore the monarchy during theThird Carlist War.
• January 24 –Camille Saint-Saëns' orchestralDanse macabre receives its première.
• February 3 –Third Carlist War: Battle of Lácar – Carlist commanderTorcuato Mendíri secures a brilliant victory, when he surprises and routs a Government force under General Enrique Bargés at Lácar, east of Estella, nearly capturing newly crowned King Alfonso XII. The Carlists take several pieces of artillery, more than 2,000 rifles, and 300 prisoners. 800 men of both sides are killed (mostly government troops).
• February 18 – TheMason County War begins, as a German-American mob breaks into a prison, and lynches cattle rustlers in centralTexas.
• February 24 – TheSS Gothenburg sinks off Australia's east coast with the loss of approximately 102 lives, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.
• February 25 – The majority of theYavapai (Wipukyipai) andTonto Apache (Dil Zhéé) tribes are forced by theUnited States Cavalry, under command of Brigadier GeneralGeorge Crook, to walk at gunpoint fromArizona'sVerde Valley, to theSan Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, 180 miles to the southeast. The two tribes are not allowed to return to the Verde Valley until1900.
• February 27 –Newton Booth, 11thGovernor of California, resigns, having been electedSenator.Lieutenant Governor of CaliforniaRomualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governorWilliam Irwin.
• March 1 – TheUnited States Congress passes theCivil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in public accommodations and jury duty.
• March 3
  • Bizet'sCarmen is first performed at theOpéra-Comique,Paris,France, 3 month's before the composer's death.
  • ThePage Act of 1875 is enacted in the United States, effectively prohibiting the immigration of Chinese women.^[1]
  • Thefirst indoor ice hockey game is played at theVictoria Skating Rink inMontreal, Quebec, Canada.
• March 15 –Roman Catholic Archbishop of New YorkJohn McCloskey is named the firstcardinal in the United States.

• April – 'Albert's swarm' ofRocky Mountain locusts begins to devastate thewestern United States.^[2]
• April 10 – TheArya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by SwamiDayananda Saraswati.
• April 25 – Tensophomores fromRutgers College (modern-day Rutgers University) steal a one-ton cannon from the campus of theCollege of New Jersey (modern-day Princeton University), and start theRutgers–Princeton Cannon War.
• May 7
  • TheTreaty of Saint Petersburg is signed between Japan and Russia.
  • German linerSS Schiller wrecks on the rocks off theIsles of Scilly, with the loss of 335 lives.
• May 17 –Aristides wins the firstKentucky Derby.
• May 20 – TheMetre Convention is signed in Paris, France.
• June – The record-setting AmericanclipperFlying Cloud of1851 is burned for scrap metal.
• June 4 – Two American colleges play each other in arguably the first game ofcollege football:^[3]Tufts University andHarvard University atJarvis Field inCambridge, Massachusetts.
• June 18 – TheDublin whiskey fire in Ireland leaves 13 people dead and causes more than €6 million worth of damage.
• June 29 – TheArtisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 is passed in the United Kingdom, to permitslum clearance.

• Summer –Third Carlist War in Spain: Two government armies under General Quesada and Martínez Campos start encroaching on Carlist territory. Both they and their Carlist opponent (Mendiri) drive opposing sympathisers from their homes, and burn crops in areas they can not hold. Several Carlist generals (Dorregaray, Savalls, and others) are unjustly put on trial for disloyalty. Mendiri is also removed from his command, and replaced by the Count of Caserta. Despite having 48 infantry battalions, 3 cavalry regiments, 2 engineer battalions, and 100 pieces of artillery at his disposal, Caserta is heavily outnumbered by the government forces opposing him.
• July 1 – TheGeneral Postal Union is established.
• July 1–7 –Third Carlist War: Battle of Treviño – Advancing on the key city of Vitoria, in Navarre, Spanish Republican commander General Jenardo de Quesada sends General Tello to attack the Carlist lines just to the southwest, at Treviño. The newly appointed Carlist commander General José Pérula is heavily defeated and withdraws, and soon afterwards Quesada enters Vitoria in triumph.
• July 9 – Asia's firststock exchange is established asThe Native Share & Stock Brokers Association (the modern-dayBombay Stock Exchange).
• July 11 – Tanaka Manufacturing, a telecommunications factory inGinza,Tokyo, a predecessor ofToshiba, aJapaneseelectromechanics giant, is founded.^[4]
• July 28 –Joe Borden throws the firstno-hitter in baseball history versusMike Golden and theChicago White Stockings in his third start as a replacement forCherokee Fisher as a member of thePhiladelphia White Stockings
• August 6 –Hibernian F.C. is founded by Irishmen inEdinburgh, Scotland.^[5]
• August 25 – CaptainMatthew Webb becomes the first person to swim theEnglish Channel.
• September 1 – A murder conviction begins to break the power of the violentIrish-American anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", in Pennsylvania.
• September 7 – Battle of Agurdat: AnEgyptian invasion ofEthiopia fails, when EmperorYohannes IV defeats an army led byWerner Munzinger.
• September 11 – Egyptadopts the Gregorian calendar, having previously used theAlexandrian calendar.
• September 24 – The 1864 playHeath Cobblers byAleksis Kivi is premiered for the first time inOulu, Finland.^[6]
• September 27 – American merchant sailing shipEllen Southard is wrecked offLiverpool in England; 12 crew andlife-boatmen are lost.
• September – EnglishAssociation football teamBirmingham City F.C. is founded asSmall Heath Alliance inBirmingham by a group ofcricketers fromHoly Trinity Church, Bordesley, playing its first match in November.^[7]

• October – TheOttoman state declares partialbankruptcy, and places its finances in the hands of European creditors. It is also suffering widespread nationalist rebellions resulting in Russian intervention and Great Power tensions.
• October 15 – Chief Lone Horn of theMinneconjou dies at theCheyenne River, leaving his sonBig Foot as the new chief.
• October 16 –Brigham Young University is founded inProvo, Utah.
• October 25 – The first performance of thePiano Concerto No. 1 byPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given inBoston,Massachusetts, withHans von Bülow as soloist.
• October 30 – TheTheosophical Society is founded in New York byHelena Blavatsky,Henry Steel Olcott,William Quan Judge, and others.
• November 5 –Blackburn Rovers F.C. is founded in England by two old-boys ofShrewsbury School following a meeting at the Leger Hotel,Blackburn.^[8]
• November 9 –American Indian Wars: In Washington, D.C., Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins issues a report stating that hundreds ofSioux andCheyenne associated withSitting Bull andCrazy Horse are hostile to the United States (theBattle of the Little Bighorn is fought inMontana the next year).
• November 16 – Battle of Gundat:Ethiopian EmperorYohannes IV defeats anotherEgyptian army.
• November 26 –The Times newspaper in London reveals thatIsma'il Pasha has soldEgypt's 44% share in theSuez Canal to Britain, in a deal secured byBenjamin Disraeli, without the prior sanction of the British Parliament.
• November 29 –Dōshisha English School, predecessor ofDōshisha University, is founded inKyōto, Japan.^[9]
• December 4 – Notorious New York City politicianBoss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Spain.
• December 6
  • German emigrant shipSSDeutschland runs aground off the English coast, resulting in the death of 157 passengers and crew.^[10]
  • Afiredampexplosion at Swaithe Main Colliery in theSouth Yorkshire Coalfield of England results in the death of 143 miners.^[11]
• December 9 –The Massachusetts Rifle Association, America's oldest active gun club, is formed.
• December 20 – TheICRM is renamed theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
• December 25 – The firstEdinburgh derby inAssociation football is played:Heart of Midlothian F.C. wins 1–0 againstHibernian F.C.

• Convent Scandal: During the winter in Montreal,typhoid fever strikes at aconvent school. The corpses of the victims are filched bybody-snatchers before relatives arrive from America, causing much furor.^[12] Eventually the Anatomy Act of Quebec is changed over it.^[13]
• AtWimbledon, Henry Cavendish Jones convinces the All England Croquet Club to replace a croquet lawn with a lawn tennis court.
• British Indian Army officerNeville Chamberlain originates the cue sport ofsnooker at Jubbulpore (Jabalpur) in India.^[14]
• The opening ofFlushing High School, the oldest public high school in New York City.

• January 3 –Alexandros Diomidis, Prime Minister of Greece (d.1950)
• January 5 –J. Stuart Blackton, American film producer (d.1941)
• January 6 –Leslie Green, English architect (d.1908)
• January 9 –Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor, socialite (d.1942)
• January 11 –Reinhold Glière, Russian composer (d.1956)
• January 14
  • Felix Hamrin, 22nd Prime Minister of Sweden (d.1937)
  • Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian philosopher and musician, recipient of theNobel Peace Prize (d.1965)
• January 15
  • Thomas Burke, American sprinter (d.1929)
  • KingIbn Saud of Saudi Arabia (d.1953)
• January 22 –D. W. Griffith, American film director (The Birth of a Nation) (d.1948)
• February 1 –Eddie Polo, Austrian-American actor (d.1961)
• February 2 –Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist (d.1962)
• February 4 –Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (d.1953)
• February 7 –Erkki Melartin, Finnish composer (d.1937)
• February 8 –Valentine O'Hara, Irish author, authority on Russia and theBaltic states (d.1941)
• February 21 –Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, world's longest lived person (d.1997)
• February 26 –Emma Dunn, British-born stage, screen actress (d.1966)

• March 4 –Mihály Károlyi,Prime Minister andPresident of Hungary (d.1955)
• March 7 –Maurice Ravel, French composer (d.1937)
• March 8 –Kenkichi Ueda, Japanese general (d.1962)
• March 9
  • Juan de Dios Martínez, 23rd President of Ecuador (d.1955)
  • Martin Shaw, English composer and conductor (d.1958)^[15]
• March 19 –Zhang Zuolin, Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord (d.1928)
• March 26 –Syngman Rhee,President of South Korea (d.1965)
• March 28 –Helen Westley, American stage, film actress (d.1942)
• April 1 –Edgar Wallace, English author (d.1932)
• April 2 –Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (d.1940)
• April 4
  • Samuel S. Hinds, American actor (d.1948)
  • Pierre Monteux, French-born conductor (d.1964)
• April 5 –Mistinguett, French singer (d.1956)
• April 8 – KingAlbert I of Belgium (d.1934)
• April 15 –James J. Jeffries, American boxer (d.1953)
• April 18 –Abd-ru-shin, German author (d.1941)

• May 2 –Owen Roberts,Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d.1955)
• May 6 –William D. Leahy, American admiral (d.1959)
• May 11 –Harriet Quimby, American pilot (d.1912)
• May 12
  • Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (d.1949)
  • Charles Holden, English architect (d.1960)
• May 23 –Alfred P. Sloan, American automobile industrialist (d.1966)
• June 4 –Albert E. Smith, English stage magician, film director and producer (d.1958)
• June 6
  • J. Farrell MacDonald, American character actor, film director (d.1952)
  • Thomas Mann, German novelist,Nobel Prize laureate (d.1955)
• June 9 –Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d.1968)
• June 12 –Sam De Grasse, Canadian actor (d.1953)
• June 15 –Herman Smith-Johannsen, Norwegian supercentenarian (d.1987)
• June 24 –Diedrich Westermann, German linguist (d.1956)
• June 28 –Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (d.1941)

• July 3
  • Tanxu, Chinese Buddhist monk (d.1963)
  • Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon (d.1951)
• July 10
  • Dezső Pattantyús-Ábrahám, Hungarian politician (d.1973)
  • Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator (d.1955)
• July 25 –Jim Corbett, Anglo-Indian hunter, conservationist and author (d.1955)
• July 26
  • Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d.1961)
  • Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (d.1939)
• August 8 –Artur Bernardes, 12th President of Brazil (d.1955)
• August 10 –Florrie Forde, Australian-born music hall singer (d.1940)
• August 15 –Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d.1912)
• August 16 –Juho Sunila, Prime Minister of Finland (d.1936)
• August 21 –Winnifred Eaton, Canadian author (d.1954)
• August 26 –John Buchan, Scottish-Canadian novelist, historian and politician, 15thGovernor General of Canada (d. 1940)
• August 27 –Katharine McCormick, American suffragist (d.1967)
• August 29 –Leonardo De Lorenzo, Italian flautist (d.1962)
• August 31 –Rosa Lemberg, Namibian-born Finnish American teacher, singer and choral conductor (d.1959)^[16]

• September 1 –Edgar Rice Burroughs, American fiction writer (d.1950)
• September 3 –Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian automotive engineer (d.1951)
• September 16 –James Cash Penney, American businessman, founder ofJ. C. Penney (d.1971)
• September 18 –Tomás Burgos, Chilean philanthropist (d.1945)
• September 20 –Matthias Erzberger, German politician (assassinated1921)^[17]
• September 22 –Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Lithuanian composer (d.1911)
• October –George Ranetti, Romanian poet, publicist (d.1928)
• October 1 –Eugeen Van Mieghem, Belgian painter (d.1930)
• October 12 –Aleister Crowley, British occultist (d.1947)
• October 18 –James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, Ghanaian-born educationalist (d.1927)
• October 23 –Gilbert N. Lewis, American chemist (d.1946)
• October 31 –Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian political leader ("Iron Man of India") (d.1950)

• November 8 –Qiu Jin, Chinese revolutionary, writer and feminist (executed1907)
• November 14 –Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (k. in action1899)
• November 17 –Birger Eriksen, Norwegian military officer, sinker of theBlücher (d.1958)
• November 30 –Otto Strandman, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (d.1941)
• December 4 –Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet (d.1926)
• December 5 –Arthur Currie, Canadian general (d.1933)
• December 6 –Evelyn Underhill, British writer (d.1941)
• December 11 –Yehuda Leib Maimon, Bassarabian-born Israeli rabbi, government minister (d.1962)
• December 12 –Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (d.1953)
• December 15 –Emilio Jacinto, Filipino poet, revolutionary (d.1899)
• December 19 –Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein's first wife (d.1948)
• December 24 –Otto Ender, 8th Chancellor of Austria (d.1960)
• December 25 –Theodor Innitzer, Austrian Catholic cardinal (d.1955)

• January 12 –Tongzhi Emperor, 8th emperor ofQing dynasty (b.1856)
• January 20 –Jean-François Millet, French painter (b.1814)
• January 23 –Charles Kingsley, English writer (b.1819)
• February 5 –Birgitte Andersen, Danish actress and ballet dancer (b.1791)
• February 7 –Edmund Spangler, American stagehand atFord's Theatre (b.1825)
• February 22
  • Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter (b.1796)
  • SirCharles Lyell, Scottish geologist (b.1797)^[18]
• March 1 –Tristan Corbière, French poet (b.1845)
• April 4 –Karl Mauch, German explorer (b.1837)
• April 17 –Marija Milutinović Punktatorka, Serbian lawyer (b.1810)
• April 25 – the12th Dalai Lama (b.1857)
• May 17 –John C. Breckinridge,14thVice President of the United States,Confederate States Secretary of War (b.1821)
• May 20 –Amalia of Oldenburg, Greek queen (b.1818)
• May 31 –Eliphas Lévi, French occult author, magician (b.1810)
• June 2 –Józef Kremer, Polish philosopher (b.1806)
• June 3 –Georges Bizet, French composer (b.1838)
• June 4 –Eduard Mörike, German poet (b.1804)
• June 25 –Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (b.1796)
• June 29 –Ferdinand I of Austria, Emperor of Austria (b.1793)

• July 8 –Francis Preston Blair Jr., American politician, Civil War officer (b.1821)
• July 29 –Paschal Beverly Randolph, American occultist (b.1825)
• July 30 –George Pickett, American Confederate general (b.1825)
• July 31 –Andrew Johnson, 17thPresident of the United States (b.1808)
• August 4 –Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b.1805)
• August 6 –Gabriel García Moreno,President of Ecuador (b.1821)
• August 10 –Karl Andree, German geographer (b.1808)
• August 11 –William Alexander Graham,United States Senator fromNorth Carolina, (1840–1843),Confederate States Senator (1864–1865) (b.1804)
• August 12 –János Kardos,Hungarian Slovenes evangelic priest, teacher and writer (b.1801)
• August 16 –Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria, Bavarian field marshal (b.1795)
• August 17 –Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (b.1827)
• August 25 –Charles Auguste Frossard, French general (b.1807)
• August 27 –William Chapman Ralston, American banker and financier (b.1826)
• September 12 –Chauncey Wright, American philosopher and mathematician (b.1830)
• September 22 –Charles Bianconi, Italian-Irish entrepreneur (b.1786)
• October 10 –Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (b.1817)
• October 12 –Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor, painter (b.1827)
• October 15 – ChiefLone Horn, Native American Chief (b.1790)
• October 19 –Sir Charles Cowper, Australian politician,Premier of New South Wales (b.1807)
• October 24 –Jacques Paul Migne, French priest, theologian, and publisher (b.1800)
• November 14 –Werner Munzinger, Swiss adventurer (b.1832)
• November 21 –Orris S. Ferry, American Civil War general and politician (b.1823)
• November 22 –Henry Wilson,18thVice President of the United States (b.1812)
• November 24 –William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American businessman (b.1792)
• November 27 –Richard Christopher Carrington, English astronomer (b.1826)
• November 29 –Maximilian Piotrowski, Polish painter,Kunstakademie Königsberg professor (b.1813)
• December 13 –Théonie Rivière Mignot, American restaurateur and businesswoman (b.1819)
• December 25 –Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b.1851)

• 1875 Annual Cyclopedia (1876) highly detailed coverage of "Political, Military, and Ecclesiastical Affairs; Public Documents; Biography, Statistics, Commerce, Finance, Literature, Science, Agriculture, and Mechanical Industry" for year 1875; massive compilation of facts and primary documents; worldwide coverage; 801pp