1871

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Events

• Virginia's independent cities were classified by the Virginia General Assembly as cities of the first class and cities of the second class.
• September 4 – The first public school in Charlottesville opened.
• March 28 – Approved by the General Assembly of 1870-1871, Chapter 153 of the Acts provided a new charter for the Town of Charlottesville which stipulated that the council should have a mayor and six alderman elected annually on the fourth Saturday in June.
• May – John H. Salmon was discharged from the County Court on a technical ruling during the second trial on his alleged murders of his mother and brother.

Deaths

• May 10 – The adventurous Benjamin Franklin Ficklin died, but not from a bullet, arrow, or cannonball. Rather, a jagged fishbone lodged in his throat during a dinner at the Willard Hotel in Washington. When a physician tried to remove it he severed an artery, and Ficklin drowned in his own blood. His body was transported to Charlottesville and lies buried in the city's Maplewood Cemetery.