Slavery is finally made illegal in the Portuguese empire

An agreement is signed between France and Britain to cooperate in the construction of a tunnel beneath the Channel

Henry James's early novel Roderick Hudson is serialized in the Atlantic Monthly and is published in book form in 1876

Turkish irregular soldiers, the ferocious bashibazouks, massacre some 15,000 Bulgarian civilians

The chaotic government finances of Egypt are placed under joint French and British control

William Gladstone's pamphlet Bulgarian Horrors, protesting at massacre by the Turks, sells 200,000 copies within a month

Henry James moves to London, which remains his home for the next 22 years

India becomes the 'jewel in the crown' of Queen Victoria when Benjamin Disraeli secures for her the title Empress of India

English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins develops a new verse form that he calls 'sprung rhythm'

Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky begins an intense correspondence with a wealthy patron, Nadezhda von Meck

Richard Wagner's sequence of four operas, The Ring of the Nibelungen, has its first complete performance at Bayreuth

English cricketer W.G. Grace scores a record 344 runs, playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club against Kent at Canterbury

Lewis Carroll publishes The Hunting of the Snark, a poem about a voyage in search of an elusive mythical creature

Leopold II hosts a conference in Brussels on the subject of opening up the African continent

Johannes Brahms' first symphony has its premiere in Karlsruhe

The first Test match is played in Melbourne between English and Australian cricket teams, with victory going to Australia

The ballet Swan Lake, with choreography by Julius Wenzel Reisinger to music by Tchaikovsky, has its premiere at the Bolshoi in Moscow

The first lawn-tennis championships are organized by the All-England Croquet Club at Wimbledon

On a wave of jingoism Benjamin Disraeli sends six British ironclads, in support of Turkey, to confront the Russians near Istanbul

A congress in Berlin agrees that Austria may administer the Turkish province of Bosnia-Herzegovina

William Crookes develops a special tube, now known as the Crookes tube, for the study of cathode rays

Romania achieves a new status as an internationally recognized independent nation

English-born US photographer Eadweard Muybridge publishes closely linked photographs revealing how a horse goes through its paces

Stanley agrees to work for Leopold II in opening up the Congo river to commerce

Czech composer Anton Dvorák writes his first set of Slavonic Dances, originally as piano duets