1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January 18 - The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany.
• January 10 - France surrenders to end the Franco-Prussian War
• March 21 - Marriage of Princess Louise to John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, whose father, the 8th Duke of Argyll, is the serving Secretary of State for India.
• March 22 - In North Carolina, William Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
• March 26 - The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.
• March 29 - The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
• April - Stockholms Handelsbank is founded.

May - August

• May 11 - First trial of the case of Tichborne Claimant begins in the London Court of Common Pleas.
• May 20 - Paris Commune crushed by government forces.
• May 30 - The Paris Commune is suppressed by the armed forces of the French Third Republic.
• July 20 - British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• August 31 - Adolphe Thiers becomes President of the French Republic.

September - December

• October 8 - Three major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and Holland, Michigan
  • The Great Chicago Fire is the most famous of these, burning 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) in one day, eventually destroying about 17,450 buildings, and killing about 250 people while leaving another 90,000 homeless.
  • The Peshtigo Fire burns 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) across six counties in one day and kills 1,200 to 2,500 people, making it the deadliest in United States history.
  • The Holland Fire destroys at least two towns.
• October 20 - The Royal Regiment of Artillery formed the first regular Canadian army units when they created two batteries of garrison artillery which eventually became The Royal Canadian Artillery.
• October 27 - The Comte de Chambord refuses to be crowned 'King Henry V of France' until France abandons its tricolour and returns to the old bourbon flag.
• November 10 - Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, and greets him saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
• November 17 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
• December 10 - The German chancellor Otto von Bismarck tries to ban Catholics from the political stage by introducing harsh laws concerning the separation of church and state.

Unknown date

• University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge.
• Trade Union Act - British trade unions legalized.
• Heinrich Schliemann begins the excavation of Troy.
• Japan forms its own police force based on French model.
• George Biddell Airy discovers astronomical aberration is independent of the local medium.
• Abolition of the Han system in Japan.
• William Marcy Tweed serves his last year as the "Boss" of Tammany Hall.

Births

• January 17 - David Earl Betty of the North Sea and of Brooksby , British admiral (d. 1936)
• January 30 - Wilfred Lucas, actor (d. 1940)
• February 4 - Friedrich Ebert, president of the Weimar Republic (d. 1925)
• February 18 - Harry Brearley, inventor of stainless steel (d. 1948)
• March 1 - Ben Harney, US composer and ragtime pianist, is born. (d. 1938)
• March 5 - Rosa Luxemburg, politician (d. 1919)
• March 27 - Heinrich Mann, narrator, dramatist and essayist (d. 1950)
• May 3 - Walter Robinson Parr, British preacher
• May 6 - Christian Morgenstern, author (d. 1914)
• May 27 - Georges Rouault, painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
• July 17 - Lyonel Charles Feininger, German painter
• July 25 - Richard Ernest Turner, Canadian lieutenant of the of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, awarded with the Victoria Cross for bravery during the Second Boer War.
• August 19 - Orville Wright of the Wright brothers, American co-inventor of the airplane
• August 25 - Ross Winn, anarchist writer and publisher
• August 29 - Albert Lebrun, French politician (d. 1950)
• September 24 - Lottie Dod, English athlete
• September 26 - Winsor McCay, United States comic creator and animator (d. 1934)
• September 27 - Grazia Deledda, Sardinian writer - Nobel prize (d. 1936)
• October 30 - Paul Valéry, French poet (d. 1945)
• December 9 - Joe Kelley, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1943)
• December 12 - Umenosuke Bessho , Japanese writer (d. 1945)
• December 13 - Emily Carr, Canadian writer
• Guangxu, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in China

Deaths

• February 11 - Gaspard Théodore Ignace de la Fontaine , luxembourgish polititian
• February 20 - Paul Kane, painter
• September 23 - Louis-Joseph Papineau, aged 85, Canadian politician and former leader of the Patriotes Rebellion
• October 18 - Charles Babbage, aged 79, English mathematician and inventor of computing machines