* 1878 – Erich Mühsam, German author ( d. 1934 )

* 1878 – Aino Kallas, Finnish-Estonian author ( d. 1956 )

* 1878 – John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician ( b. 1796 )

Alexander Mackenzie, PC ( January 28, 1822 – April 17, 1892 ), a building contractor and newspaper editor, was the second Prime Minister of Canada from November 7, 1873 to October 8, 1878.

* Sir Henri Elzear Taschereau – October 7, 1878

* 1878 – Dick Grant, Canadian runner ( d. 1958 )

** Haliotis kamtschatkana assimilis Dall, 1878 – synonym: Haliotis assimilis, the threaded abalone

Prominent leaders include co-founders Lucien Febvre ( 1878 – 1956 ) and Marc Bloch ( 1886 – 1944 ).

* 1878 – Tip Foster, English cricketer ( d. 1914 )

* 1878 – Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian army officer ( d. 1928 )

* 1878 – Léon Binoche, French rugby player ( d. 1962 )

* 1878 – Manuel L. Quezon, Filipino politician, 2nd President of the Philippines ( d. 1944 )

* 1878 – Richard Girulatis, German footballer and manager ( d. 1963 )

* George V of Hanover ( 1819 – 1878 )

* 1878 – George Whipple, American physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1976 )

* Queen Victoria – the British Weights and Measures Act of 1878 defined it as containing 4, 840 square yards.

* 1878 – Oliver W. F. Lodge, English poet and writer ( d. 1955 )

* 1878 – Alfred Döblin, German writer ( d. 1957 )

* 1929 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician ( b. 1878 )

* 1843 – Alice of the United Kingdom ( d. 1878 )

* 1878 – William Merz, American gymnast and athlete ( d. 1946 )

* 1878 – Jean Crotti, Swiss artist ( d. 1958 )

* 1965 – Louise Dresser, American actress ( b. 1878 )

Composers of Slovenian Lieder and art songs include Emil Adamič ( 1877 – 1936 ), Fran Gerbič ( 1840 – 1917 ), Alojz Geržinič ( 1915 – 2008 ), Benjamin Ipavec ( 1829 – 1908 ), Davorin Jenko ( 1835 – 1914 ), Anton Lajovic ( 1878 – 1960 ), Kamilo Mašek ( 1831 – 1859 ), Josip Pavčič ( 1870 – 1949 ), Zorko Prelovec ( 1887 – 1939 ), and Lucijan Marija Škerjanc ( 1900 – 1973 ).

* Emil Fuchs ( baseball ) ( 1878 – 1961 ), owner of the Boston Braves 1923 – 1935

Emil Max Hödel ( May 27, 1857 – August 16, 1878 ) was a plumber from Leipzig, Germany who became known for a failed assassination.

In 1878, Joseph Pulitzer purchased the St. Louis Westliche Post, a German-American newspaper where he had worked, and the St. Louis Dispatch, and merged the two papers to be called the St. Louis Post and Dispatch, which was shortened to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

* George Moore ( judge ) ( 1878 – 1962 ), Missouri attorney and United States federal judge

He was city attorney of Rochester 1878 – 1881 and county attorney for Olmsted County, Minnesota, from 1882 – 1887.

* Joseph H. Earle-member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1878 to 1882, a member of the South Carolina Senate from 1882 to 1886, South Carolina attorney general from 1886 to 1890 and a United States Senator from South Carolina in 1897

He was elected prosecuting attorney of Mason County in 1876, 1878, and 1884.

He returned to public service in 1878 when he was elected Wood County's attorney, and he went on to serve from 1880 to 1884 as Texas ' seventh district's attorney.

He served as United States attorney ( 1875 – 1885 ), and as reporter for the supreme court for the Territory of Washington from 1878 to 1885.

He studied law under Judge George J. Smith ( 1799 – 1878 ) and Thomas Corwin, a Lebanon attorney who later was Governor of Ohio.

* Alexander Wilson ( Wisconsin politician ), attorney general of Wisconsin, 1878 – 1882

Oury unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for the United States House of Representatives in 1878 and was appointed district attorney for Pinal County, Arizona in 1879.

Spalding retired from playing baseball in 1878, although he continued as a major force as owner of the White Stockings and major influence on the National League.

* 1878 – Mike Donlin, American baseball player ( d. 1933 )

The first known professional black baseball player was Bud Fowler, who appeared in a handful of games with a Chelsea, Massachusetts club in April 1878 and then pitched for the Lynn, Massachusetts team in the International Association.

Fowler appeared in an exhibition game with a team from Lynn, Iowa in 1878, 68 years before Jackie Robinson played in a professional baseball game.

In 1878 William H. Upham, later governor of Wisconsin, built a sawmill near the railway, with a millpond where the baseball field now is in Miller Park.

* Fred Mitchell ( baseball ) ( 1878 – 1970 ), baseball manager of the 1910s

* Bill Bradley ( baseball ) ( 1878 – 1954 ), early 20th-century third baseman in Major League Baseball

However, Fuller Field in Clinton, Massachusetts made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in September 2007 as the " world ’ s oldest continuously used baseball diamond / field ", dating back to 1878 — a year after Tecumseh Park-Labatt Park opened in 1877 — as Fuller Field's home plate and bases have purportedly remained in the same location since 1878, whereas home plate at Labatt Park has been moved ( within the same field ) from its original location in 1877.

From 1878 to 1886 Bellán served as both player and manager for the recently founded Havana baseball team.

Bellán piloted Habana to three Cuban League baseball championships ( 1878 – 79, 1879 – 80, and 1882 – 83 ).

* Rick Adams ( baseball ) ( 1878 – 1955 ), former professional baseball player

As baseball made the transition toward becoming a professional sport over the next decade, and the NABBP dissolved into competing organizations in 1871, professional players were no longer restricted by this rule and, for a short while – in 1878 and again in 1884 – African American players played professional baseball.

" In 1910, John Montgomery Ward, a Hall of Fame inductee who played from 1878 to 1894, published an article about the greatest infielders in baseball history.

He first played baseball under Tom Loftus with the Peoria Reds in 1878.

* Sam Brown ( baseball ) ( 1878 – 1931 ), Major League Baseball player

After organized baseball was started with the National League in 1876, the National League changed a rule in 1878 so that pinch runners were not allowed except in cases of illness or injury with the substitute entering the game after the original player reached base.

* Fred Holmes ( 1878 – 1956 ), American baseball player

The ground was home to the Providence Grays baseball club of the National League from 1878 to 1885.

In 1878 the Providence Base Ball Association formed, and began scouting around the city for a good location for " the best baseball plant in the country ".