About the day » Wednesday December 4, 1878Calender converter

• Achille Marinus Maria van den Kerkhof, Alphen en Riel
• Anna BAKKER, Spijkenisse, Zuid-Holland, Nederland
• Aartje van der Horst, Nijkerk
• Anna Cornelia Vermeulen, Reusel († 1955)
• Abraham Leenhouts, Koudekerke, Zeeland, NL († 1878)
• Alberga, Kingston, Jamaica
• Anna Helena De Vries, Weststellingwerf, Friesland, Netherlands († 1925)
• Albertus Stefanus Veen *, Steenwijk
• Agnes van Munster, Nederasselt (Heumen) († 1941)
• Alice Dunink, Pella, Marion County, Iowa, Verenigde Staten († 1895)

• Verwaal (0), Lekkerkerk, Zuid Holland, Nederland
• Adélaide Auclair (84), Tadoussac, La Haute-Côte-Nord, Québec, Canada
• Aalbert Klaasse de JONG (91), Scheveningen, gemeente 's-Gravenhage (Z-H)
• Aalbert Claasse de Jong (91), Scheveningen
• Adrianus Vrijland (66), ,, Oudenhoorn, Nederland
• Angelina Francisca Maertens (77), Melle
• Adriaantje de Groot (11), Groot-Ammers, Zuid-Holland, Nederland
• Adriaan Gerrit Zijlmans (43), Vrijhoeve-Capelle
• Anje Kornelis Kuiper (48), Farmsum, Delfzijl, Groningen, Nederland
• Anna Horemans (78), Vlijmen

• 1865 » Edith Cavell, English nurse, humanitarian, and saint (Anglicanism) († 1915)
• 1867 » Stanley Argyle, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of Victoria († 1940)
• 1868 » Jesse Burkett, American baseball player, coach, and manager († 1953)
• 1875 » Agnes Forbes Blackadder, Scottish medical doctor († 1964)
• 1875 » Joe Corbett, American baseball player and coach († 1945)
• 1875 » Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian-Swiss poet and author († 1926)
• 1881 » Erwin von Witzleben, Polish-German field marshal († 1944)
• 1882 » Constance Davey, Australian psychologist († 1963)
• 1883 » Katharine Susannah Prichard, Australian author and playwright († 1969)
• 1884 » R. C. Majumdar, Indian historian († 1980)

• 1828 » Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1770)
• 1839 » John Leamy, Irish–American merchant (b. 1757)
• 1841 » David Daniel Davis, Welsh-English physician and academic (b. 1777)
• 1845 » Gregor MacGregor, Scottish soldier and explorer (b. 1786)
• 1850 » William Sturgeon, English physicist, invented the electric motor (b. 1783)
• 1893 » John Tyndall, Irish-English physicist and chemist (b. 1820)
• 1897 » Griffith Rhys Jones, Welsh conductor (b. 1834)
• 1902 » Charles Dow, American journalist and publisher, co-founded the Dow Jones & Company (b. 1851)
• 1926 » Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (b. 1861)
• 1933 » Stefan George, German-Swiss poet and translator (b. 1868)

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.
• January 16 » Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
• February 22 » In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
• May 25 » Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
• June 10 » League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stefano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in the Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece.
• 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.
• December 31 » Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.

The temperature on December 4, 1878 was about 3.3 °C. There was 0.3 mm of rain. The air pressure was 1 kgf/m² and came mainly from the north-northwest. The airpressure was 76 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 97%.