About the day » Monday October 21, 1878Calender converter

• Adriaan Hartman, 's Gravenzande († 1900)
• Allegonda Petronella Joanna Spaan, Duiven, Nederland († 1959)
• Adriaan van Bragt, Made
• Andries Franken, Bergen op Zoom, Noord-Brabant, Nederland († 1879)
• Allegonda Petronella Joanna Spaan, Duiven, Nederland († 1959)
• Alida Johanna Sprangers, Amsterdam
• Adriana Wilhelmina Catharina Krapels, Delft († 1957)
• Alida Johanna Sprangers, Amsterdam († 1945)
• Adrianus Walterus Klazen, Waspik, Nederland († 1945)
• Annaatje Lof, Holysloot

• Abraham Johannes Beun (71), Weststellingwerf
• Aagje GROOT (32), Zaandam, Noord-Holland, Nederland
• Aimée Langlois (75), Boucey, 50065, France
• Augustus Franciscus VAN PELT (77), Antwerpen
• Arent Arents ter Steege (77), Het Haagje A205 Hoogeveen
• Augusto Maria Gavião Peixoto (59), Beja, Beja, Portugal
• Aagje Cornelisdr Wagenaar (48), de Rijp, Noord Holland, Nederland
• Adriana Schep (65), Oldenzaal
• Abraham Beun (71), Leiden
• Anna van Vugt (70), Berghem, Noord-Brabant, Nederland

• 1868 » Ernest Swinton, British Army officer († 1951)
• 1874 » Tan Kah Kee, Chinese businessman, community leader, communist and philanthropist (d.1961)
• 1877 » Oswald Avery, Canadian-American physician and microbiologist († 1955)
• 1884 » Claire Waldoff, German singer and actress († 1957)
• 1886 » Eugene Burton Ely, American soldier and pilot († 1911)
• 1887 » Krishna Singh, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Bihar († 1961)
• 1894 » Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese author and critic († 1965)
• 1895 » Edna Purviance, American actress († 1958)
• 1895 » Paavo Johansson, Finnish javelin thrower and decathlete († 1983)
• 1896 » Esther Shumiatcher-Hirschbein, Russian-Canadian poet and screenwriter (d.1985)

• 1821 » Dorothea Ackermann, German actress (b. 1752)
• 1835 » Muthuswami Dikshitar, Indian poet and composer (b. 1775)
• 1861 » Edward Dickinson Baker, American congressman and colonel (b. 1811)
• 1872 » Jacques Babinet, French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer (b. 1794)
• 1873 » Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian author, poet, and critic (b. 1807)
• 1896 » James Henry Greathead, South African-English engineer (b. 1844)
• 1903 » Jinmaku Kyūgorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 12th Yokozuna (b. 1829)
• 1904 » Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and journalist (b. 1877)
• 1907 » Jules Chevalier, French priest, founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (b. 1824)
• 1931 » Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and playwright (b. 1862)

1. Johannes
2. Jan
3. Hendrik
4. Cornelis
5. Pieter
6. Willem
7. Gerrit
8. Jacob
9. Petrus
10. Adrianus
11. Jacobus
12. Arie
13. Dirk
14. Wilhelmus
15. Gerardus
16. Klaas

1. Maria
2. Johanna
3. Anna
4. Cornelia
5. Elisabeth
6. Catharina
7. Adriana
8. Hendrika
9. Wilhelmina
10. Grietje
11. Aaltje
12. Trijntje
13. Neeltje
14. Jacoba
15. Antje
16. Geertruida

• Koning Willem III (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from 1849 till 1890 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 the cabinet Kappeijne van de Coppello, with Mr. J. Kappeijne van de Coppello (liberaal) as prime minister.
• The Netherlands had about 4.0 million citizens.
• February 19 » Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
• February 22 » In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
• March 15 » Restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy, broken off back in 1603.
• June 15 » Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
• July 13 » Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.
• September 1 » Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.

The temperature on October 21, 1878 was about 14.6 °C. There was 2 mm of rain. The air pressure was 8 kgf/m² and came mainly from the south-southwest. The airpressure was 74 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 96%.