1879
1879 (
MDCCCLXXIX) was a
common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).
January-February
*
January 1 - The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The
Greenback is valued the same as
Gold for the first time since the Civil War.
* January - The current constitution of The State of
California, US was ratified.
*
January 2 -
Fred Spofforth claims the first
Hat-trick in
test cricket.
*
January 11 -
Anglo-Zulu War begins.
*
January 22 -
Zulu troops massacre
British troops at the
Battle of Isandlwana. At
Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.
*
February 12 - At
New York City's
Madison Square Garden the first artificial
ice rink in
North America opens.
*
February 14 - At
Antofagasta,
Chile: Chilean troops disembark in this port, then Bolivian. This is the beginning of the
War of the Pacific between Chile and the joint forces of
Peru and
Bolivia.
*
February 15 -
Women's rights: American
President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female
attorneys to argue cases before the
Supreme Court of the United States.
*
February 22 - In
Utica, New York,
Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
*
February 27 - The discovery of
saccharin is announced.
March-April
*
March 3 - The
United States Geological Survey is created
*
March 12 -
Anglo-Zulu War: A
British force over one-hundred strong is
ambushed and destroyed by Zulu forces.
*
March 13 - Marriage of
The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of
Queen Victoria, to
Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.
*
March 14 -
Albert Einstein: German-born physicist who would go on to revolutionize modern Physics.
*
March 28 -
Anglo-Zulu War:
British forces suffer a defeat at the
Battle of Hlobane.
*
March 29 -
Anglo-Zulu War:
Battle of Kambula:
British forces defeat 20,000
Zulus.
*
April 3 -
Anglo-Zulu War:
British forces successfully lift the two-month
Siege of Eshowe.
*
April 21 (
San Jacinto Day) -
Texas governor Oran M. Roberts authorized the establishment of Sam Houston Normal Institute (today known as
Sam Houston State University).
*
April 24 - Swedish explorer
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld arrives in
Stockholm with the
S/S Vega, concluding the world's first
circumnavigation of
Eurasia.
May-December
*
May 26 -
Russia and the
United Kingdom sign the
Treaty of Gandamak establishing an
Afghan state.
*
May 30 -
New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed
Madison Square Garden by
William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
*
May 30 - A
F4 tornado struck Irving,
Kansas, killing 18 people and injuring 60.
*
June 14 -
Sidney Faithorn Green, an
Anglican priest in the
Church of England, is tried and convicted for using
Ritualist practices
*
July 4 -
Anglo-Zulu War: The
Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends at the
Battle of Ulundi.
*
July 4 -
Taughannock Giant unearthed on the shore of
Cayuga Lake in
Ithaca, New York (later proven to be a hoax).
*
July 19 -
Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots-up Holliday's
New Mexico saloon.
*
August 21 -
Virgin Mary, along with
St. Joseph and
St. John the Evangelist appeared in
Knock to local people.
*
October 7 -
Dual Alliance formed by
Germany and
Austria-Hungary*
October 21 - Using a filament of
carbonized thread,
Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric
light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).
*
December 28 - The central part of the
Tay Rail Bridge in
Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
*
December 30 -
The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (
Paignton,
Devon,
England).
*
December 31 -
Thomas Edison demonstrates
incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (
Menlo Park, New Jersey).
Unknown dates
*
Hall effect discovered by Dr.
Edwin Hall.
*
Somerville College founded.
*
Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by
Jožef Stefan.
*
Football first played in
Shepshed.
*
Irish Land League convinces tenants of
Charles Boycott and neighboring townsfolk to isolate him by noncooperation - first
boycott*
Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his
Palais Idéal in France
* The
Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was formed
January-April
*
January 1 -
E. M. Forster, English writer (d.
1970)
*
January 3 -
Grace Coolidge,
First Lady of the United States (d.
1957)
*
January 12 -
Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d.
1968)
*
January 13 -
Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d.
1961)
*
January 28 -
Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (d.
1953)
*
February 22 -
J. N. Brønsted, Danish chemist (d.
1947)
*
February 26 -
Frank Bridge, English composer (d.
1941)
*
March 8 -
Otto Hahn, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1968)
*
March 14 -
Albert Einstein, German-born physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1955)
*
March 26 -
Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born engineer (d.
1965)
*
March 30 -
Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d.
1954)
*
April 16 -
Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (d.
1961)
*
April 20 -
Paul Poiret, French couturier (d.
1944)
*
April 26 -
Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1959)
*
April 29 - Sir
Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d.
1961)
May-August
*
May 6 -
Bedřich Hrozny´, Czech orientalist and linguist (d.
1952)
*
May 17 -
Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d.
1926)
*
May 19 -
Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d.
1964)
*
May 19 -
Viscount Waldorf Astor, British businessman and politician (d.
1952)
*
May 22 -
Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (d.
1945)
*
May 23 -
Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (d.
1966)
*
May 25 -
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born statesman and newspaper publisher (d.
1964)
*
June 3 -
Raymond Pearl, American biologist (d.
1940)
*
July 1 -
Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1954)
*
July 5 -
Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (d.
1959)
*
August 8 -
Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d.
1919)
*
August 13 -
John Ireland, English composer (d.
1962)
*
August 31 -
Emperor Yoshihito, 123rd
Emperor of Japan (d.
1926)
September-December
*
September 2 -
An Jung-geun, assassin of the Japanese politician
Ito Hirobumi (d.
1910)
*
September 6 -
Joseph Wirth,
Chancellor of Germany (d.
1956)
*
September 14 -
Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d.
1966)
*
September 15 -
Joseph Lyons, tenth
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1939)
*
September 20 -
Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d.
1960)
*
October 2 -
Wallace Stevens, American poet (d.
1955)
*
October 3 -
Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor (d.
1938)
*
October 5 -
Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1970)
*
October 9 -
Max von Laue, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1960)
*
October 21 -
Joseph Canteloube, French composer and singer (d.
1957)
*
October 29 -
Franz von Papen,
Chancellor of Germany (d.
1969)
*
November 4 -
Will Rogers, American humorist (d.
1935)
*
November 10 -
Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d.
1916)
*
November 26 -
Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d.
1951)
*
December 3 -
Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer (d.
1959)
*
December 10 -
Jouett Shouse, American politician (d.
1968)
*
December 18 -
Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d.
1940)
*
December 28 -
Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (d.
1936)
Unknown dates
*
Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (d.
1944)
*
Robert Wilson Lynd, Northern Irish essayist and writer (d.
1949)
*
February 11 -
Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (b.
1808)
*
February 23 -
Albrecht Graf von Roon,
Prime Minister of Prussia (b.
1803)
*
February 25 -
Charles Peace, British criminal (executed) (b.
1832)
*
March 1 -
Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b.
1825)
*
March 30 -
Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b.
1815)
*
April 30 -
Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (b.
1788)
*
June 1 -
Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor
Napoleon III (b.
1856)
*
August 30 -
John Bell Hood, America Confederate general (b.
1831)
*
November 5 -
James Clark Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b.
1831)
*
August 11 -
George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b.
1799)
