1870

1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday in the Julian calendar.

 Events 
 Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)

 Births 
 January 8 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain (d. 1930)
 January 15 – Pierre S. DuPont, industrialist
 February 7 – Alfred Adler, psychologist
 March 5 – Frank Norris, writer (d. 1902)
 March 17 – Horace Donisthorpe, myrmecologist (d. 1951)
 March 20 – Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)
 April 22 – Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR
 April 30 – Franz Lehár, composer (d. 1948)
 May 19 – Albert Fish, serial killer (d. 1936; executed by electrocution)
  June 13  Sophia of Prussia Queen of Greece Grand Daughter of Queen Victoria and sister of Kaiser William II of Germany and mother of future 3 kings George II Alexander I Paul I  ( died  1932 
 July 3 – Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada.
 July 12 – Louis II of Monaco
 July 29 – George Dixon, Black Canadian boxer, first Black world boxing champion in any weight class.
 August 31 – Maria Montessori, educator
 September 26 – King Christian X of Denmark
 November 21 – Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official
 December 5 – Vitezslav Novák, composer (d. 1949)

 Deaths 
 February 11 – Jacob M. de Kempenaer, Dutch Minister of Internal Affairs (1848-1849?).
 February 11 – Leopold Eugen Mechura, composer
 February 19 – Nathaniel de Rothschild, French wine grower
 March 28 – George Henry Thomas, American general
 June 9 – Charles Dickens, British novelist
 July 20 – Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, Prix Goncourt
 October 12 – Robert E. Lee, Confederate General.
 November 4 – Comte de Lautreamont, French poet and writer.
 December 5 – Alexandre Dumas, père, writer
 December 27 – General Prim, Spanish dictator.
 Henry Rowe – Gothic architect