WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1878
Find out what all happened January to December 1878

The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar (18. December 1878)

Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule. (4. January 1878)

John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania. (18. December 1878)

First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg. (17. November 1878)

Treaty of Berlin: the European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire. (13. July 1878)

Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames. (3. September 1878)

The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton. (22. October 1878)

Umberto I becomes King of Italy. (9. January 1878)

Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London. (25. May 1878)

The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg. (24. January 1878)

The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation. (15. October 1878)

John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico. (18. February 1878)

Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) – Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule. (16. January 1878)

Yale Daily News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the United States. (28. January 1878)

Thomas Edison patents the phonograph. (19. February 1878)

Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures. (15. June 1878)

The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300. (24. March 1878)

The coat of arms of the Baku Governorate is established. (5. July 1878)

Canada joins the Universal Postal Union. (1. July 1878)

Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879. (31. December 1878)