Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for copper-riveted work trousers, creating what would become blue jeans.

Spain abolished slavery in Puerto Rico, freeing roughly 30,000 enslaved people after decades of gradual reform and abolitionist agitation.

The world's first mental hospital reform placeholder — event replaced below.

Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss received U.S. Patent No. 139,121 for using copper rivets to reinforce work trousers, creating what would become blue jeans.

British forces under General Garnet Wolseley pressed their campaign against the Ashanti Empire in West Africa, part of a punitive expedition that would culminate in the burning of Kumasi.