As many of you know, 1878 was the year Dempsey & Carroll was founded in New York, but it was also the year that these things happened too!
January 1 – Cleopatra’s Needle arrives in London.
January 5 – At the Battle of Shipka Pass IV, Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire.
January 10 – The Senate proposes Female suffrage.
January 14 – US Supreme court rules race separation on trains unconstitutional.
January 16 – Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
January 22 – Canada wins right to decide whether or not to be included in British trade treaties.
January 25 – Turkish steamer becomes the first ship to be sunk by a torpedo, fired from a Russian boat.
January 28 – First telephone exchange (New Haven CT), and George W. Coy hired as first full-time telephone operator.
February 10 – Peter Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony in F premieres.
February 11 – The first US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms.
February 11 – The first weekly weather report published in UK.
February 16 – The silver dollar becomes legal tender.