Roller skating is introduced to the Islands when Williams & Wallace open their Honolulu Skating Rink on Hotel Street.

Postmaster issues a one-cent stamp with a full-face portrait of Princess Victoria Kamamalu and a six-cent stamp featuring a portrait of King Kamehameha V; an 18-cent stamp includes a full-face portrait of their father Mataio Kekuanaoa.

The Nevada, pioneer vessel of Webb's line of California and Australian steamers, arrives from San Francisco en route for New Zealand.

Designed by German immigrant Theodore Heuck, `Iolani Barracks (Halekoa) is built near `Iolani Palace, on the site of the current State Capitol. Built partially from salvaged coral blocks and blocks cut with prison labor, the project still runs over budget at a total cost of $25,103. The Barracks houses the monarchy's Household Troops (later called the Household Guard under Kalakaua).

Thirty-three whale ships are abandoned in the ice of the Arctic; only seven ships from the fleet are saved.

Dr. William Hillebrand, a German residing in the Madeira Islands, recommends Hawai'i planters hire Portuguese from Madeira and the Azores. Later in the year, Hillebrand is appointed Commissioner of Immigration for Hawai'i in the Portuguese islands.

The Islands export 21,760,773 pounds of sugar and 271,291 gallons of molasses.

$1,626,000 worth of imports arrive in Hawai'i; exports total $1,816,000.

Earliest recorded winds thought to be a true hurricane hit Hawai'i Island and Maui. In Kohala, Reverend Bond writes: "About 150 houses were blown down, trees in ravines torn up like wisps of grass, cane stripped and torn, as never before and even the grass forced down and made to cleave to the earth . . . . Cooper's shop and several of the people's houses move from two to ten feet off their foundations." Read More.

Madame Agatha States' Italian Opera presents several professional operas, with the accompaniment limited to a single piano.

The Great Chicago Fire destroys a large segment of the city.

P.T. Barnum produces his first "Greatest Show on Earth" in Brooklyn, New York.

Popular uprising in France results in short-lived Paris Commune.