1875
Events
January
- January 1 - The Midland 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.
- January 5 - The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated as the home of the Paris Opera.
- January 12 - Guangxu becomes the 11th Qing dynasty Emperor of China at the age of 3. He succeeds his cousin, the Tongzhi Emperor, who had no sons of his own.
- January 14 - The newly proclaimed King Alfonso XII of Spain arrives in Spain to restore the monarchy during the Third Carlist War.
- January 24 - Camille Saint-Saëns' orchestral Danse macabre receives its première.
February
- February 3 - Third Carlist War: Battle of Lácar - Carlist commander Torcuato 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.
- February 18 - The Mason County War begins, as a German-American mob breaks into a prison, and lynches cattle rustlers in central Texas.
- February 24 - The 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 the Yavapai and Tonto Apache tribes are forced by the United States Cavalry, under command of Brigadier General George Crook, to walk at gunpoint from Arizona's Verde Valley, to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, 180 miles to the southeast. The two tribes are not allowed to return to the Verde Valley until 1900.
- February 27 - Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California, resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governor William Irwin.
March
- March 1 - The United States Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in public accommodations and jury duty.
- March 3
- * Bizet's Carmen is first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, France, three months before the composer's death.
- * The Page Act of 1875 is enacted in the United States, effectively prohibiting the immigration of Chinese women.
- * The first indoor ice hockey game is played at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- March 15 - Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
April
- April 10 - The Arya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.
- April 25 - Ten sophomores from Rutgers College steal a one-ton cannon from the campus of the College of New Jersey, and start the Rutgers–Princeton Cannon War.
- April - 'Albert's swarm' of Rocky Mountain locusts begins to devastate the western United States.
May
- May 7
- * The Treaty of Saint Petersburg is signed between Japan and Russia.
- * German liner wrecks on the rocks off the Isles of Scilly, with the loss of 335 lives.
- May 17 - Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.
- May 20 - The Metre Convention is signed in Paris, France.
- June 4 - Two American colleges play each other in arguably the first game of college football: Tufts University and Harvard University at Jarvis Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- June 18 - The Dublin whiskey fire in Ireland leaves 13 people dead and causes more than €6 million worth of damage.
- June 29 - The Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 is passed in the United Kingdom, to permit slum clearance.
- June -
- *The record-setting American clipper Flying Cloud of 1851 is burned for scrap metal.
- *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 drive opposing sympathisers from their homes, and burn crops in areas they can not hold. Several Carlist generals 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
- July 1 - The General 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 first stock exchange is established as The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association.
- July 11 - Tanaka Manufacturing, a telecommunications factory in Ginza, Tokyo, a predecessor of Toshiba, a Japanese electromechanics giant, is founded.
- July 28 - Joe Borden throws the first no-hitter in baseball history versus Mike Golden and the Chicago White Stockings in his third start as a replacement for Cherokee Fisher as a member of the Philadelphia White Stockings
August
- August 6 - Hibernian F.C. is founded by Irishmen in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- August 25 - Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.
- September 1 - A murder conviction begins to break the power of the violent Irish-American anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", in Pennsylvania.
- September 7 - Battle of Agurdat: An Egyptian invasion of Ethiopia fails, when Emperor Yohannes IV defeats an army led by Werner Munzinger.
- September 11 - Egypt adopts the Gregorian calendar, having previously used the Alexandrian calendar.
- September 24 - The 1864 play Heath Cobblers by Aleksis Kivi is premiered for the first time in Oulu, Finland.
- September 27 - American merchant sailing ship Ellen Southard is wrecked off Liverpool in England; 12 crew and life-boatmen are lost.
- September - English Association football team Birmingham City F.C. is founded as Small Heath Alliance in Birmingham by a group of cricketers from Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, playing its first match in November.
- October 15 - Chief Lone Horn of the Minneconjou dies at the Cheyenne River, leaving his son Big Foot as the new chief.
- October 16 - Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.
- October 25 - The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts, with Hans von Bülow as soloist.
- October 30 - The Theosophical Society is founded in New York by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others.
- October - The Ottoman state declares partial bankruptcy, 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.
November
- November 5 - Blackburn Rovers F.C. is founded in England by two old-boys of Shrewsbury School following a meeting at the Leger Hotel, Blackburn.
- November 9 - American Indian Wars: In Washington, D.C., Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins issues a report stating that hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are hostile to the United States.
- November 16 - Battle of Gundat: Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV defeats another Egyptian army.
- November 26 - The Times newspaper in London reveals that Isma'il Pasha has sold Egypt's 44% share in the Suez Canal to Britain, in a deal secured by Benjamin Disraeli, without the prior sanction of the British Parliament.
- November 29 - Dōshisha English School, predecessor of Dōshisha University, is founded in Kyōto, Japan.
December
- December 4 - Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Spain.
- December 6
- * The German emigrant ship SS Deutschland runs aground off the English coast, killing 157 passengers and crew.
- * A firedamp explosion at kills 143 miners at the Swaithe Main Colliery in the South Yorkshire Coalfield of England.
- December 9 - , America's oldest active gun club, is formed.
- December 20 - The ICRM is renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- December 25 - The first Edinburgh derby in Association football is played: Heart of Midlothian F.C. wins 1–0 against Hibernian F.C.
Date unknown
- Convent Scandal: During the winter in Montreal, typhoid fever strikes at a convent school. The corpses of the victims are filched by body-snatchers before relatives arrive from America, causing much furor. Eventually the Anatomy Act of Quebec is changed over it.
- At Wimbledon, Henry Cavendish Jones convinces the All England Croquet Club to replace a croquet lawn with a lawn tennis court.
- British Indian Army officer Neville Chamberlain originates the cue sport of snooker at Jubbulpore in India.
- The opening of Flushing High School, the oldest public high school in New York City.
Births
January–February
- January 3 - Alexandros Diomidis, Prime Minister of Greece
- January 5 - J. Stuart Blackton, American film producer
- January 6 - Leslie Green, English architect
- January 9 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor, socialite
- January 11 - Reinhold Glière, Russian composer
- January 14
- * Felix Hamrin, 22nd Prime Minister of Sweden
- * Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian philosopher and musician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- January 15
- *Thomas Burke, American sprinter
- *King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia
- January 22 - D. W. Griffith, American film director
- February 1 - Eddie Polo, Austrian-American actor
- February 2 - Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist
- February 4 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist
- February 7 - Erkki Melartin, Finnish composer
- February 8 - Valentine O'Hara, Irish author, authority on Russia and the Baltic states
- February 21 - Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, world's longest lived person
- February 26 - Emma Dunn, British-born stage, screen actress