WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1871
Find out what all happened May to December 1871

The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people. (30. July 1871)

Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years. (26. December 1871)

British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada. (20. July 1871)

Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". (10. November 1871)

Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 US Marines in a naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea. (10. June 1871)

The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology). (16. June 1871)

French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week", some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested. (21. May 1871)

The Paris Commune falls. (28. May 1871)

Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt. (24. December 1871)

The Great Chicago Fire: Chicago burns after a barn accident. The fire lasts from October 8 to October 10. (10. October 1871)

Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by British rule in India, which named over 160 local communities 'Criminal Tribes', i.e. hereditary criminals. Repealed in 1949, after Independence of India. (12. October 1871)

Bishop John Coleridge Patteson is martyred on the island of Nukapu, a Polynesian outlier island now in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands. He is the first bishop of Melanesia. (20. September 1871)

Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all new children born to slaves, the first major step in the eradication of slavery in Brazil. (28. September 1871)

Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan including the Great Chicago Fire, and the much deadlier Peshtigo Fire. (8. October 1871)

The U.S. Army issues an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska. (22. May 1871)

The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (4. May 1871)

Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi. (21. May 1871)

The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York. (17. November 1871)

Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States. (2. July 1871)

Emperor Meiji orders the abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871). (29. August 1871)