Year 1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday
of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

In the ISO 8601 calendar, 1875 is defined as the year the Metre Convention was originally signed, by way of a reference year.

Events of 1875

January–March

• January 1 – Midland Railway abolishes Second Class passenger facilities, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British Railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third Class is renamed Second Class in 1956).

• January 12 – Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.

• February 24 – The SS Gothenburg sinks off the Australian east coast with the loss of approximately 102 lives, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.

• February 25 – The majority of the Yavapai (Wipukyipai) and Tonto Apache (Dil Zhéé) tribes are forced by the U.S. Cavalry under command of Brigadier General George Crook to walk at gunpoint from the Arizona's Verde Valley, to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, 180 miles to the southeast. The two tribes are not allowed to return to the Verde Valley until 1900.

• February 27 – Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California, resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governor William Irwin.

• March 1 – The United States Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in public accommodations and jury duty.

• March 3 – Bizet’s Carmen is first performed at the Opéra Comique, Paris.

• March 3 – The first organized indoor game of ice hockey is played between two teams at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Canada.

April–June

• April 10 – The Arya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by Swami Dayananda.

• April 25 – Ten sophomores from Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) steal a one-ton cannon from the campus of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and start the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War.

• May 7 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) is signed between Japan and Russia.

• May 7 – The S.S. Schiller wrecks on the rocks off the Isles of Scilly.

• May 17 – Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.

• May 20 – The Metre Convention is signed in Paris.

• June 4 – Two American colleges play each other in arguably the first game of College Football : Tufts University and Harvard University at Jarvis Field in Cambridge, Mass..

• June (date unknown) – The record-setting clipper Flying Cloud is burned for scrap metal.

July–September

• August 25 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.

• September 1 – A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Irish anti-owner coal miners, the "Molly Maguires", to disband.

• September 7 – Battle of Agurdat: An Egyptian invasion of Ethiopia fails when Emperor Yohannes IV defeats an army led by Werner Munzinger.

October–December

• October 15 – Chief Lone Horn of the Minneconjou dies at the Cheyenne River, leaving his son Big Foot as the new chief.

• October 16 – Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

• October 25 – The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts with Hans von Bülow as soloist.

• October 30 – The Theosophical Society is founded in New York by Helena Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott, W. Q. Judge, and others.

• November 9 – Indian Wars: In Washington, D.C., Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins issues a report stating that hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are hostile to the United States (the Battle of the Little Bighorn is fought in Montana the next year).

• November 16 – Battle of Gundat: Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes defeats another Egyptian army.

• December 4 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then to Spain.

• December 9 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is formed.

• December 25 – The first Edinburgh derby is played: The Hearts win 1–0 against the Hibs.

Undated

• Wimbledon: Henry Cavendish Jones convinces the "All England Croquet Club" to replace a croquet court with a lawn tennis court.

• The Tong wars begin in San Francisco.

• The Hibernian F.C. is founded in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland.

• The Birmingham City F.C. is founded in Small Heath, Birmingham, England.

• The Artisan's and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 is passed.

• The Ottoman state declares partial bankruptcy and places its finances in the hands of European creditors.

• Widespread nationalist rebellion in the Ottoman Empire has resulted in Turkish repression, Russian intervention and Great Power tensions.

• Convent Scandal: During the winter in Montreal, typhoid fever strikes at a convent school. The corpses of the victims are filched by body-snatchers before relatives arrive from America, causing much furor. Eventually the Anatomy Act of Quebec is changed over it.

• The Opening of Flushing High School

Births

January–June

• January 5 – James Stuart Blackton, American film producer (d. 1941)

• January 7 – Thomas J. Hicks, American runner (d. 1963)

• January 9 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor and socialite (d. 1942)

• January 11 – Reinhold Glière, Russian composer (d. 1956)

• January 14 – Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician, philosopher, and musician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1965)

• January 15 – Tom Burke, American runner (d. 1929)

• January 22 – D. W. Griffith, American film director (The Birth Of A Nation) (d. 1948)

• January 27 – Elizabeth Israel, world's oldest person (d. 2003)

• February 2 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist (d. 1962)

• February 2 – Erkki Melartin, Finnish composer (d. 1937)

• February 4 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (d. 1953)

• February 8 – Valentine O'Hara, Irish author and authority on Russia and the Baltic States (d. 1945)

• February 21 – Jeanne Calment, Unverified long-lived person (d. 1997)

• March 4 – Mihály Károlyi, former Prime Minister of Hungary and President of Hungary (d. 1955)

• March 7 – Maurice Ravel, French composer (d. 1937)

• March 26 – Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea (d. 1965)

• March 28 – Helen Westley, stage & film character actress (d. 1942)

• March 30 – Jonathan Campbell, American film pioneer (d. 1942)

• April 1 – Edgar Wallace, English writer (d. 1932)

• April 2 – Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (d. 1940)

• April 4 – Samuel S. Hinds, American actor (d. 1948)

• April 4 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor (d. 1964)

• April 5 – Mistinguett, French singer (d. 1956)

• April 8 – King Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)

• April 15 – James J. Jeffries, American boxer (d. 1953)

• April 18 – Oskar Ernst Bernhardt (Abdruschin), German author (d. 1941)

• May 11 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot (d. 1912)

• May 12 – Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (d. 1949)

• May 23 – Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr., American automobile industrialist (d. 1966)

• June 6 – Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)

• June 12 – Sam De Grasse, Canadian actor (d. 1953)

• June 24 – Diedrich Westermann, German linguist (d. 1956)

• June 28 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (d. 1941)

July–December

• July 26 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)

• July 26 – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (d. 1939)

• August 15 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)

• August 16 – Juho Sunila, Prime Minister of Finland (d. 1936)

• August 21 – Winnifred Eaton, Canadian author (d. 1954)

• August 27 – Katharine McCormick, American suffragist (d. 1967)

• September 1 – Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (d. 1950)

• September 3 – Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian automotive engineer (d. 1951)

• September 18 – Tomas Burgos, Chilean philanthropist (d.1945)

• September 18 – Arthur Henry Knighton-Hammond, British water-colourist (d.1970)

• September 22 – Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Lithuanian composer (d.1911)

• October 1 – Eugeen Van Mieghem, Belgian painter (d. 1930)

• October 12 – Aleister Crowley, British occultist (d. 1947)

• October 23 – Gilbert N. Lewis, American chemist (d. 1946)

• October 31 – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian political leader (Iron Man of India) (d.1950)

• November 14 – Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (d. 1899)

• December 4 – Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet (d. 1926)

• December 5 – Arthur Currie, Canadian military leader (d. 1933)

• December 15 – Emilio Jacinto, Filipino poet and revolutionary (d. 1899)

• December 19 – Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein's first wife (d. 1948)

• December 25 – Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Austrian Catholic cardinal (d. 1955)

Deaths

January–June

• January 20 – Jean-François Millet, French painter (b. 1814)

• January 23 – Charles Kingsley, English writer (b. 1819)

• February 22 – Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (b. 1796)

• February 22 – Sir Charles Lyell, British geologist (b. 1797)

• March 1 – Tristan Corbière, French poet (b. 1845)

• April 25 – the 12th Dalai Lama (b. 1857)

• May 17 – John C. Breckinridge, Vice President of the United States (b. 1821)

• May 31 – Eliphas Lévi, French occult author and magician (b. 1810)

• June 2 – Józef Kremer, Polish messianistic philosopher (b. 1806)

• June 3 – Georges Bizet, French composer (b. 1836)

• June 4 – Eduard Mörike, German poet (b. 1804)

• June 25- Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (b. 1796)

July–December

• July 30 – George Pickett, American Confederate General (b. 1825)

• July 31 – Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)

• August 4 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)

• August 10 – Karl Andree, German geographer (b. 1808)

• August 12 – János Kardos, Hungarian Slovenes evangelic priest, teacher and writer (b. 1801)

• August 17 – Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (b. 1827)

• September 22 – Charles Bianconi, Italian-Irish entrepreneur (b. 1786)

• October 10 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (b. 1817)

• October 15 – Chief Lone Horn, Native American Chief (b.1790)

• October 12 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (b. 1827)

• October 24 – Jacques Paul Migne, French priest, theologian, and publisher (b. 1800)

• November 7 – Werner Munzinger, Swiss adventurer (b. 1832)

• November 22 – Henry Wilson, 18th Vice President of the United States (b. 1812)

• November 24 – William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American businessman (b. 1792)

• December 25 – Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1851)