January 22 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift
January 23 - Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
January 25 - The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
February 8 - Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
February 14 - The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
February 15 - Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 22 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created.
March 23 - War of the Pacific was fought between Chile and the joints forces of Bolivia and Peru. Chile successfully took over Arica and Tarapacá which left Bolivia as a landlocked country.
March 29 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
April 5 - Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
May 14 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
May 21 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
May 26 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
May 30 - New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
May 30 - An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60.
June 1 - Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War.
July 1 - Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
July 19 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon.
August 7 - The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
August 21 - The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
August 28 - Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
September 18 - The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
September 20 - Cliftonville Football Club, the oldest club in Ireland, is founded.
October 7 - Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
October 8 - War of the Pacific: the Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos, Peruvian Admiral Miguel Grau is killed in the encounter.
October 21 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
December 28 - The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
December 31 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.
