January–March
- January 20 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the first woman to testify before the United States Congress.
- January 21 – The P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization for women, is founded at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
- January 27 – The Republic of Ezo is proclaimed on the northern Japanese island of Ezo (which will be renamed Hokkaidō on September 20) by remaining adherents to the Tokugawa shogunate.
- February 20 – Ranavalona II, the Merina Queen of Madagascar, is baptized.
- February 26 – The 2½-year-old Mahbub Ali Khan begins a 42-year reign as Nizam of Hyderabad.
- March – In Japan, the daimyo of the Tosa, Hizen, Satsuma and Chōshū Domains are persuaded to 'return their domains' to the Emperor Meiji, leading to creation of a fully centralized government in the country.
- March 1 – North German Confederation issues 10gr and 30gr value stamps, printed on goldbeater's skin.
- March 4 – Ulysses S. Grant succeeds Andrew Johnson as the 18th President of the United States of America.
- March 6 – Mendeleev makes a formal presentation of his periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
- March 24 – Titokowaru's War ends with surrender of the last Māori troops at large in the South Taranaki District of New Zealand's North Island.