* 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 – Emil Fuchs, German-American attorney and baseball owner ( d. 1961 )

* 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 )

Created by the Scottish-born composer, Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed in 1878, but did not gain its status as the official anthem until 1984.

The original song Advance Australia Fair was composed by Peter Dodds McCormick under the pen-name ' Amicus ' ( which means ' friend ' in Latin ), in the late 19th century, and first performed by Andrew Fairfax at a Highland Society function in Sydney on 30 November 1878.

But the first undoubted Aegean remains reported from it were a few objects extracted from Cnossus by Minos Kalokhairinos of Candia in 1878.

Ibsen started thinking about the play around May 1878, although he did not begin its first draft until a year later, having reflected on the themes and characters in the intervening period ( he visualised its protagonist, Nora, for instance, as having approached him one day wearing " a blue woolen dress ").

The first Cuban labour organisation, the Cigar Makers Guild, was created in 1878, followed by the Central Board of Artisans in 1879, and many more across the island.

The Arithmometer, invented in 1820 as a four-operation mechanical calculator, was released to production in 1851 as an adding machine and became the first commercially successful unit ; forty years later, by 1890, about 2, 500 arithmometers had been sold plus a few hundreds more from two arithmometer clone makers ( Burkhardt, Germany, 1878 and Layton, UK, 1883 ) and Felt and Tarrant, the only other competitor in true commercial production, had sold 100 comptometers.

* 1940 – Childe Wills, early associate of Henry Ford, one of the first employees of the Ford Motor Company, and a contributor to the design of the Model T ( b. 1878 )

In 1878, Essendon played in the first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a full-sized field at Flemington Hill.

This was followed by the formation of St. John Ambulance in 1877, based on the principles of the Knights Hospitaller, to teach first aid, and numerous other organization joined them with the term first aid first coined in 1878 as civilian ambulance services spread as a combination of " first treatment " and " national aid " in large railway centres and mining districts as well as with police forces.

In 1878 Surgeon-Major Peter Shepherd, together with Colonel Francis Duncan established the concept of teaching first aid skills to civilians.

Geelong moved to Corio Oval for the 1878 season – the year the club won its first VFA premiership in only the second VFA season.

Its oxide was first isolated from rare earth ores in 1878 and the element was named after the city of Stockholm.

* Musoptin. com, microscope objectives: as they were used by Robert Koch for his first photos of microorganisms ( 1877 – 1878 )

The first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine, Petah Tikva, was founded in 1878, followed by Rishon LeZion ( 1882 ).

The first German Rugby team was founded in Hanover in 1878.

The first postwar elections were held in 1948 ( women were given the franchise for the first time in 1947 ), and the Liberal Party's vice president, Yoshida Shigeru ( 1878 – 1967 ), became prime minister.

* 1878 – Yale Daily News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the United States.

* 1878 – The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.

A party-list proportional representation system was first devised and described in 1878 by Victor D ' Hondt of Belgium.

Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children.