4th January » Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman Empire or Ottoman rule.
9th January » Umberto I of Italy known as Umberto I becomes House of Savoy or King of Italy.
16th January » Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Battle of Philippopolis (1878) Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a Squadron (army) squadron of Russian Empire Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman Empire Ottoman rule.
24th January » The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
28th January » 'Yale Daily News' becomes the first daily Student newspaper named college newspaper in the United States.
18th February » John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans (outlaw) called Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
19th February » Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
21st February » The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
3rd March » The Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) or Russo-Turkish War ends as Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of San Stefano; shortly after Congress of Berlin stripped its status to an autonomous state of the Ottoman Empire.
24th March » The British frigate HMS Eurydice 1843 6 sinks, killing more than 300.
4th June » Cyprus Convention: The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title.
10th June » League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stephano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulg
15th June » Eadweard Muybridge takes Sallie Gardner at a Gallop known as 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 film called motion pictures.
1st July » Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
4th July » Thoroughbred horses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty run a Ten Broeck - Mollie McCarty match race or match race, recalled in the song Molly and Tenbrooks.
5th July » The coat of arms of the Baku Governorate is established.
13th July » Treaty of Berlin (1878) or Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.
3rd September » Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat SS Princess Alice 1865 2 collides with the 'Bywell Castle' in the River Thames.
15th October » The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.
22nd October » The first rugby football rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, Greater Manchester Salford, between Broughton and Swinton Lions Swinton.
17th November » 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 of Italy named Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, r
18th December » John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
18th December » The House of Thani called Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar
31st December » Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable Two-stroke engine e.g two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.