The European powers reorganise the Balkans after the Russo-Turkish War, recognising the independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania.
Ioseb Jughashvili, later known as Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, is born in Gori, Georgia.
In the Anglo-Zulu War, a Zulu army defeated a British column at Isandlwana, one of the worst defeats of the British army by an indigenous force.
The physicist Albert Einstein, author of the theory of relativity, is born in Ulm, Germany.
Boers of the Transvaal rose against British annexation and regained self-government after their victory at Majuba Hill.
Tsar Alexander II is killed by a bomb thrown by members of the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya in Saint Petersburg.
Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister during the Second World War, is born at Blenheim Palace.