1876

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
7 December 1872 - 26 May 1876	UK [earth sciences]	The British ship Challenger undertakes the world's first major oceanographic survey. Under the command of the Scottish naturalist Wyville Thomson, the crew collect marine animals and water samples, dredge and core samples of the ocean bottom, and make hundreds of temperature and depth measurements.
12 November 1874 - 12 August 1877	Africa [exploration]	Welsh-born US journalist and explorer Henry Stanley explores the shores of Lake Victoria and circumnavigates Lake Tanganyika before travelling down the Congo River (now the Zaïre) to Africa's west coast, establishing beyond argument that Lake Victoria is the principal source of the Nile.
1876	USA [fiction]	The US writer Mark Twain publishes his novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
1876	UK [food and drink]	The British confectionery company Slater & Bullock creates lettered rock; they will soon use the names of towns, the first being Blackpool.
1876	Scotland [computing]	The Scottish physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), develops the first analogue computer. Called the ‘Harmonic Analyser’, he uses it to solve differential equations to predict tides.
1876	Germany [motor vehicles]	German engineer Nikolaus Otto patents the four-stroke internal combustion engine, the prototype of modern engines. Its development marks the beginning of the end of the age of steam. More than 30,000 are built in the following decade.
1876	Germany [opera]	The operas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung/The Twilight of the Gods by the German composer Richard Wagner are first performed, in Bayreuth, Germany. They form the third part of his Der Ring des Nibelungen/The Ring of the Nibelung cycle of operas, which is now performed in its entirety.
1876	Austria [orchestral music]	The Austrian composer Josef Anton Bruckner completes his Symphony No. 5.
1876	France [sculpture]	The French artist Auguste Rodin sculpts The Age of Bronze.
1876	Germany [technology]	The German engineer Karl von Linde develops the first really efficient refrigerator, replacing the potentially explosive methyl ether with ammonia. It opens the way for refrigerated railway cars and ships.
1 January 1876	France [weights and measures]	The International System of Weights and Measures comes into effect in France.
12 January 1876	USA [births and deaths]	Jack London (pseudonym of John Griffith Chaney), US novelist and short-story writer, born in San Francisco, California (–1916).
2 February 1876	USA [baseball]	The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, the first major league, is established in New York City by representatives of eight teams brought together by the Chicago White Stockings president William A Hulbert.
28 February 1876	Spain [wars]	The Second Carlist War in Spain ends with the flight to France of the pretender Don Carlos following the defeat of his forces by the king's troops.
7 March 1876	USA [technology]	Scottish-born US inventor Alexander Graham Bell patents a device for transmitting human speech over electric wires. It consists of an identical microphone and receiver each made of a solenoid placed next to an iron membrane; vibration in the microphone's membrane induces a current in the solenoid that travels down the wire and causes the membrane in the receiver to vibrate.
10 March 1876	USA [telephone services]	Scottish-born US inventor Alexander Graham Bell transmits the first complete sentence by voice over wire using his newly invented telephone in the USA: ‘Mr Watson, come here. I want you’.
25 June 1876	USA [wars]	At the Battle of Little Bighorn, Sioux and Cheyenne warriors commanded by legendary chief Sitting Bull rout a force of US soldiers led by General George A Custer, killing Custer and over 200 of his soldiers.
30 June 1876	Serbia, Ottoman Empire [wars]	Serbia, under the nationalist leader Jovan Ristic, declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
2 July 1876	Montenegro, Ottoman Empire [wars]	Montenegro declares war on the Ottoman Empire in support of the revolt against Ottoman rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
31 August 1876	Ottoman Empire [political events]	Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire is deposed because of his insanity and is succeeded by Abdul Hamid II.
7 November 1876	USA [elections]	In the US presidential election, Samuel Tilden (Democrat) secures 184 out of the 185 electoral votes required, against Rutherford B Hayes (Republican) with 165, but 20 votes are in dispute (settled by an electoral commission on 29 January 1877).
23 December 1876	Ottoman Empire [law and government]	An Ottoman constitution is proclaimed by the reformist grand vizier (chief minister) Midhat Pasha, guaranteeing parliamentary government, freedom of worship, and a free press throughout the empire.
25 December 1876	India, Pakistan [births and deaths]	Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian/Pakistani Muslim politician, founder and first premier of Pakistan 1947–48, born in Karachi, India (now Pakistan) (–1948).