The World in 1875 the year a man swam the channel
3¢Letter stamp (US)
5¢Glass of beer (US)
~74,000 miRailroad track (US)
~7 daysCoast to coast by train (US)
1 voteMargin that kept France a republic
1stLoad line painted on ships (UK)
~34MPeople living in Japan
BankruptThe Ottoman treasury
~2MPeople in the Australian colonies
A ticket from New York to San Francisco meant about a week sitting up in a railway car. Twenty years earlier the same trip took months.
Life back then
Evenings ended earlier than they do now. Most homes burned kerosene in glass lamps, and the wick needed trimming every night or the room filled with smoke. In cities a lamplighter turned on the street gas one lamp at a time. The kerosene lamp was cheap enough that families read after dark, and cheap novels sold by the thousand.
The year in 8 events
- 👑Jan 12 China's Tongzhi emperor dies at 18. His three year old cousin becomes the Guangxu emperor, and the empress dowager Cixi holds the power.
- ⚖️Mar 1 Grant signs a civil rights act giving black Americans equal use of hotels, trains and theatres. The Supreme Court strikes it down in 1883.
- 🎭Mar 3 Carmen opens in Paris to a cool reception. Bizet dies three months later and never sees it succeed.
- 🏝️May 7 Russia and Japan trade islands by treaty. Japan gives up Sakhalin and takes the whole Kuril chain.
- 🐎May 17 The first Kentucky Derby is run at Louisville. A colt called Aristides wins in front of about 10,000 people.
- 🏊Aug 25 Matthew Webb wades ashore near Calais after almost 22 hours in the water, the first man to swim the Channel unaided.
- 🚢Nov 25 Britain buys the Egyptian ruler's Suez Canal shares for about 4 million pounds, borrowed overnight from the Rothschilds.
- 🎩Dec 4 Boss Tweed, who ran New York's city hall and stole millions, walks out of jail and escapes abroad.
pageType:month friendlyName:July 1875 onDate:in July 1875