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Events on Thursday 7 February 1878 1
1792 – 1878Pope Pius IX (1792-1878)Died 7 February 1878, aged 85Born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, he served as pope from 1846 until his death, the longest reign in papal history. He convened the First Vatican Council, which proclaimed papal infallibility, and lost the Papal States to the newly unified Kingdom of Italy in 1870. He spent his final years as the self-declared "prisoner of the Vatican."