13th January » National convention of black leaders meets in Washington, D.C.
27th January » Boshin War: Tokugawa rebels establish the Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.
5th February » The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
6th March » Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
6th April » Celluloid is patented.
28th April » Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay 10 miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
4th May » The Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay is fought in Japan.
10th May » The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
17th May » Imperial Empire of Japan known as Japanese forces defeat the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate in the Battle of Hakodate to end the Boshin War.
26th May » Boston University is chartered by the Massachusetts known as Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
25th July » The Japanese daimyo begin returning their land holdings to the Emperor of Japan called emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese calendar called Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).
15th August » The Government of Meiji Japan or Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.
16th August » Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War.
24th September » "Black Friday (1869) Black Friday": Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the United States Department of the Treasury Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk (financier) James Fisk plot to control the market.
5th October » The Saxby Gale devastates the Bay of Fundy region of Maritime Canada. The storm had been predicted over a year before by a British naval officer.
16th October » The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".
6th November » In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the 1869 college football season First football game ever played or first official intercollegiate American College football name
17th November » In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
22nd November » In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper 'Cutty Sark' is launched one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.
7th December » American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri.
10th December » The Kappa Sigma Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.