1874 CE

The Pangkor Treaty (also known as the Pangkor Engagement), by which the British extend their control over first the Sultanate of Perak, and later the other independent Malay States, is signed. The Republic of Ecuador is consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, carried out by President Gabriel García Moreno and supported, blessed and specified by Pope Pius IX. The first issue of Japanese-language newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun is published in Tokyo, Japan.

In the 1870s, the 19th century.

1874 at a glance

World population
about 1.37 billion Our World in Data
United States
Ulysses S. Grant (President) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
United Kingdom
Victoria (Queen); William Ewart Gladstone, then Benjamin Disraeli (Prime minister) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
Russian Empire
Alexander II (Emperor) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
Qing dynasty
Tongzhi (Emperor) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
French Third Republic
Patrice de Mac-Mahon (President) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
German Empire
William I (Emperor); Otto von Bismarck (Chancellor) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602

Who led every country in 1874 →

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx.source
  • January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time.source
  • 5 January − The post of Minister for Iceland is established with Christian Sophus Klein being the first minister.Icelandsource
  • 8 January – Arthur Macalister becomes Premier of Queensland for the third time.Australiasource
  • 10 January – German federal election, 1874Germanysource
  • January 20 – The Pangkor Treaty (also known as the Pangkor Engagement), by which the British extend their control over first the Sultanate of Perak, and later the other independent Malay States, is signed.source
  • March 15 – France and Viet Nam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.source
  • March 18 – Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States, granting exclusive trading rights.source
  • The Molteno Government of the Cape passes a parliamentary act to redraw the provincial boundaries of the Cape Colony, from two provinces (Eastern and Western Cape) to seven.South Africasource
  • June 14 – Michel Domingue becomes head of state of Haiti.source
  • 30 June: The Wellington Independent publishes its final issue, and is replaced by The New Zealand Times. The newspaper started in 1845.New Zealandsource
  • 12 July – Legislative electionPortugalsource
  • July 31 – Patrick Francis Healy, S.J., the first Black man to receive a PhD, is inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in America, and becomes the first Black person to head a predominantly White university.source
  • October 9 – The Treaty of Bern establishes the General Postal Union, to coordinate the exchange of international mail.source
  • November 4 – Democrats gain control of the United States House of Representatives for the first time since 1860.source
  • November 25 – The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party, made primarily of farmers financially hurt by the Panic of 1873.source
  • December 1 – Iceland is granted a constitution and limited home rule from Denmark.source
  • December 29 – General Martínez and Brigadier General Luís Daban stage a pronunciamento at Sagunto, and proclaim Isabel's son Alfonso as King of Spain. Subsequently, the Madrid garrison follows suit, and the First Spanish Republic comes to an end.source
  • The House of Keys, lower house of the Tynwald, the legislature of the Isle of Man, moves from Castletown to Douglas.source
  • end of the Tongzhi RestorationChinasource
  • A revised version of the Swiss Federal Constitution is signed, superseding the version signed in 1848.Switzerlandsource

Conflict & Security

  • January 3 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Caspe – Campaigning on the Ebro in Aragon for the Spanish Republican Government, Colonel Eulogio Despujol surprises a Carlist force under Manuel Marco de Bello at Caspe, northeast of Alcañiz. In a brilliant action the Carlists are routed, losing 200 prisoners and 80 horses, while Despujol is promoted to Brigadier and becomes Conde de Caspe.source
  • 31 January – British defeat the Ashanti at the Battle of Amoaful.United Kingdomsource
  • February 16–April 9 - Saga RebellionJapansource
  • February 24–25 – Third Carlist War: First Battle of Somorrostro – Determined to raise the siege of Bilbao by the Pretender Don Carlos VII, Republican commander Marshal Francisco Serrano sends General Domingo Moriones with a relief force of 14,000 men. Carlists, under General Nicolás Ollo, entrenched at Somorrostro outside Bilbao, drive back a courageous assault by General Fernando Primo de Rivera and then the entire Republican army. The republicans lose 1,200 men, and Moriones loses his nerve, demanding reinforcements and a replacement for himself. Moriones's men entrench and wait.source
  • March 14 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Castellfollit de la Roca – Appointed to command the Spanish Republican army in the north, General Ramón Nouvilas attempts to relieve the Carlist siege of Olot in Girona. But at Castellfollit de la Roca, in one of the Government's worst defeats, Nouvilas is routed by Carlist General Francesc Savalls, and captured along with about 2,000 of his men. Olot capitulates two days later.source
  • March 25–27 – Third Carlist War: Second Battle of Somorrostro – In a renewed attempt to raise the siege of Bilbao by Don Carlos VII, Republican commander Marshal Francisco Serrano himself arrives with 27,000 men and 70 cannons. However, in three days of fierce fighting, the Carlist General Joaquín Elío, with just 17,000 men, once again drives off the attack at nearby Somorrostro, and it is another six weeks before Serrano manages to relieve Bilbao.source
  • May 2 – Third Carlist War: The siege of Bilbao is lifted.source
  • May 24 - Revolt of the Muckers: religious service was held in Ferrabraz, where Jacobina announced the end of the world and ordered the extermination of 16 enemy familiesBrazilsource
  • June 28 - Revolt of the Muckers: police attack Muckers but are defeatedBrazilsource
  • July 24 – Third Carlist War: Sack of Cuenca – After Carlist forces successfully defend Estella, Don Alfonso de Bourbon, brother of the Don Carlos VII, leads 14,000 Catalan Carlists south to attack Cuenca (136 km from Madrid), held by Republicans under Don Hilario Lozano. After two days the outnumbered garrison capitulates, but Don Alfonso permits a terrible slaughter. The city is sacked. Subsequently, another republican force defeats the disorderly Catalans, who flee back to the Ebro.source
  • August 11 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Oteiza – Two months after Government forces were repulsed from Carlist-held Estella, in Navarre, Republican General Domingo Moriones makes a fresh diversionary attack a few miles to the southeast at Oteiza. In heavy fighting Moriones secures a costly tactical victory over Carlist General Torcuato Mendíri, but the war continues another 18 months, before Estella finally falls.source
  • September 9 – Captain Lyman's wagon train besieged by Indians in Hemphill County, Texas.source
  • September 14 – Battle of Liberty Place: In New Orleans, former Confederate Army members of the White League temporarily drive Republican Governor William P. Kellogg from office, replacing him with former Democratic Governor John McEnery. U.S. Army troops restore Kellogg to office five days later.source
  • September 28 – Texas–Indian wars: U.S. Army Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie leads his force of 600 men on the successful raid of the last sanctuary of the Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne Indian tribes, a village inside the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas, and carries out their removal to the designated Indian reservations in Oklahoma.source
  • October 31 – The Quebra-Quilos Revolt starts in Paraíba, Empire of Brazil.source
  • November 28 – King Kalākaua's 1874–75 state visit to the United States begins when the ship carrying him from Hawaii, USS Benicia, docks in San Francisco.United Statessource
  • November - Quebra–Quilos revoltBrazilsource
  • Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874) *Chinasource
  • The first match is played at Cardiff Arms Park, between the Wanderers Club and Glamorgan 2nd XV.Walessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • 14 March – peace treaty with the Ashanti gives freedom of movement for British Gold Coast traders, and a promise to end human sacrifice.United Kingdomsource
  • 1 April – John Forrest leads an expedition from Geraldton, Western Australia across the Gibson Desert to the Peake telegraph station in South Australia.Australiasource
  • May 27 – The first group of Dorsland Trekkers, a series of expeditions by Trekboere in search of political independence and better farming conditions, departs South Africa to settle in Angola, led by Gert Alberts.source
  • May 27 – The first group of Dorsland Trekkers departs from Pretoria to settle in Angola, led by Gert Alberts.South Africasource
  • The South African Teachers' Association is established in the Cape.South Africasource
  • Gold is discovered in the Black Hills.source
  • Anabaptists (Russian Mennonites) start to arrive in Manitoba from various Russian colonies arriving in Canada in August.Canadasource
  • Émile Zola - La Conquête de PlassansFrancesource
  • The Marine Department employs Capt. B.A. Edwin to provide weather maps and forecasts to ships, establishing New Zealand's first weather service.New Zealandsource
  • Sir William Boyd Dawkins – Cave HuntingWalessource

Religion & Belief

  • March 25 – The Republic of Ecuador is consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, carried out by President Gabriel García Moreno and supported, blessed and specified by Pope Pius IX.source
  • 26 July – the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Sligo, is opened.Irelandsource
  • 7 August – Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1874 abolishes patronage in the appointment of ministers to the Church of Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • 24 August – William Basil Jones is consecrated Bishop of St David's.Walessource
  • The 147 m-tall spire of St. Nicholas' Church, Hamburg, designed by English architect George Gilbert Scott, is completed, making it (briefly, and by 5m) the world's tallest building (a title held since 1647 by Strasbourg Cathedral).source
  • Bolton Wanderers (as Christ Church F.C.)source
  • The Supreme Council 33° Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of Canada is founded.source
  • Jean-François Portaels, Juive de TangerBelgiumsource
  • Victor Hugo - Quatrevingt-treizeFrancesource
  • Freedom of Religion is introduced in Iceland.Icelandsource
  • Colonial Clergy Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • Establishment of the Prästerskapets Änke- och Pupillkassa, a retirement fund for widows of priests.Swedensource

Economy & Finance

  • Schindler Group, known for escalators and elevators, is founded in Switzerland.source
  • The 25 øre coin is introduced on the decimalisation of the krone. It remains in circulation until 2008, when it is demonetised as the lowest-denomination coin in the country.Denmarksource
  • German company HeidelbergCement is founded.Germanysource
  • The Danish krone was introduced to Iceland, replacing the earlier Danish currency, the rigsdaler.Icelandsource
  • East India Company is dissolved.Indiasource
  • National income - ₹3,507 millionIndiasource
  • Coulburn Lobnitz & Company establish the shipbuilding business that will become known as Lobnitz in Renfrew.Scotlandsource
  • Depression of 1873–79 (1873–1879)United Statessource
  • The Welsh Flannel Company is established at Holywell.Walessource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 21 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first issue in California.source
  • February 23 – Walter Clopton Wingfield patents in Britain a game called "sphairistike", more commonly called lawn tennis.source
  • The railway line from Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage is partially opened.South Africasource
  • 15 June – Brisbane's first Victoria Bridge opens; it is lost in the 1893 Brisbane flood.Australiasource
  • July 1 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, with cylindrical platen and QWERTY keyboard, is first marketed in the United States.source
  • July 1 – The Bank of Spain issues the first peseta banknotes.source
  • July 1 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, with cylindrical platen and QWERTY keyboard, is first marketed.United Statessource
  • July 24 – Mathew Evans and Henry Woodward patent the first incandescent lamp, with an electric light bulb.source
  • 2 September – Convention with The Netherlands for improvements to the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal signed in Brussels.Belgiumsource
  • October 1 – The North-West Mounted Police base at Fort Macleod is foundedCanadasource
  • November 10 – John Ernst Worrell Keely demonstrates his "induction resonance motion motor", a perpetual motion machine, which eventually turns out to be a fraud.source
  • The Agra Canal opens in India.source
  • Dalum Papirfabrik is established on Odense Å.Denmarksource
  • The Marlborough Times begins publication bi-weekly, and absorbs The Marlborough News. It became a daily in 1882. The Marlborough Express bought it in 1895 and closed it in 1905.New Zealandsource
  • The inauguration of the Grand Hôtel (Stockholm).Swedensource

Science & Discovery

  • Charles Taze Russell and the Bible Student movement claim this year marks the invisible return of Jesus Christ to earth.source

Health & Medicine

  • 15 February - The Hospital of San Carlos (Chile) is founded.Chilesource
  • The Molteno Regulations establish the South African public library system.South Africasource
  • June 22 – Andrew Taylor Still starts the movement for osteopathic medicine in the United States at Kirksville, Missouri.source
  • 7 August – Public Worship Regulation Act prohibits ritualistic practices in the Church of England.United Kingdomsource
  • English chemist C. R. Alder Wright synthesizes heroin for the first time.source

Crime & Justice

  • 28 February – at the conclusion of one of the longest cases ever heard in an English court, the defendant in the Tichborne case is convicted of perjury and his counsel, Edward Kenealy, is disbarred.United Kingdomsource
  • July 1 – Four-year-old Charley Ross, America's first major kidnapping for ransom victim, is taken from his home in Philadelphia.United Statessource
  • August 2 - Jacobina Mentz and most of her followers killed by police, who were helped by informant Carlos Luppa. End of the Revolt of the Muckers.Brazilsource
  • November 9 – The New York Zoo hoax, a supposed breakout of animals from the Central Park Zoo, is perpetrated on the public.source
  • Jacques Offenbach - Bagatelle / Madame l'archiducFrancesource
  • Foundation of the Friends of Handicraft.Swedensource
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti's oil painting Proserpine, modelled on Jane Morris.United Kingdomsource
  • William Goscombe John begins assisting his father, a wood-carver, in his work at Cardiff Castle.Walessource
  • The London Welsh Choral Union presents Sarah Edith Wynne with a bust of herself by Joseph Edwards.Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 1 January: Wreck of the Surat, carrying 271 passengers and 37 crew, on the Catlins coast. All survived.New Zealandsource
  • 24 January – Four pilots and two apprentices are drowned in an accident off Llanddwyn on Anglesey.Walessource
  • 27 January – Bo'ness Junction rail crash near Falkirk on the North British Railway: 16 killed in a collision.Scotlandsource
  • 27 February – four crew of Stonehaven life-boat lost on service.Scotlandsource
  • 14 April – Astley Deep Pit Disaster: a mining accident as the result of an explosion in Dukinfield, Cheshire, kills 54.United Kingdomsource
  • May 16 – The Mill River dam collapses in Massachusetts, killing 139 people.source
  • May 23 – Passenger ship British Admiral, on a voyage from Liverpool (England) to Melbourne (Australia), sinks after hitting rocks off King Island (Tasmania); only nine of the 88 passengers and crew are rescued.source
  • July 14 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council.source
  • November 18 – Sailing ship Cospatrick carrying emigrants from England bound for New Zealand, catches fire and sinks in the South Atlantic with the loss of all but three of the 472 persons on board.source
  • 18 November: Fire and sinking of the Cospatrick carrying emigrants to New Zealand near the Cape of Good Hope; one of New Zealand's worst disasters as only three of the 472 on board survived.New Zealandsource
  • The medieval Frankish Tower on the Acropolis of Athens is demolished.source

Climate & Environment

Culture & Society

  • 20 January – Royal decree providing for subsidies to the dramatic arts.Belgiumsource
  • January 23 – Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, marries Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, only daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.source
  • March 18 – The Dresden English Football Club is founded, the first association football club on the European mainland.source
  • March – The Young Men's Hebrew Association in Manhattan (which will still be operating 150 years later as the 92nd Street Y) is founded.source
  • April 15–May 15 – A group of young painters, Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, gives their first exhibition, at the studio of the photographer Nadar in Paris. Louis Leroy's critical review of it published on 25 April gives rise to the term Impressionism for the movement, with reference to Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise.source
  • May 9 – The first commercial horse-drawn carriage debuts in the city of Bombay, plying two routes.source
  • May 14 – First admission charge at a football game: Harvard beats University of McGill (Montreal) 3–0.source
  • May 22 – Verdi's Requiem is first performed at San Marco in Milan, marking the first anniversary of Manzoni's death.source
  • June–July - New Brunswick electionCanadasource
  • July 1 – The Universal Postal Union is established.source
  • July 1 – The Philadelphia Zoo opens, the first public zoo in the United States.source
  • October 9 – The San Diego Society of Natural History, originator of the San Diego Natural History Museum, is founded in California.source
  • October 19 – The modern University of Zagreb is founded.source
  • November 2 – The first issue of Japanese-language newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun is published in Tokyo, Japan.source
  • November 6 – The University of Adelaide is founded in Australia.source
  • 6 November – University of Adelaide established by act of the South Australian Parliament; it opened in 1876.Australiasource
  • November 7 – Harper's Weekly publishes a cartoon by Thomas Nast which is the first use of an elephant as a symbol for the Republican Party in the United States.source
  • November 9 – The Sigma Kappa sorority is founded at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, by Mary Caffrey Low, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Fuller, Frances Mann, and Louise Helen Coburn.United Statessource
  • November 11 – The Gamma Phi Beta sorority is founded at Syracuse University. This is the first women's Greek letter organization to be called a sorority.source
  • November 16 – Premiere of Alfred Cellier's comic opera The Sultan of Mocha at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester.source
  • December 9 – Passage de Vénus is released as the oldest "film" in history.source
  • Heart of Midlothian (in Edinburgh).source
  • Georg Cantor's paper, Ueber eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen Zahlen ("On a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers") is published in Crelle's Journal, considered as the origin of set theory.Germanysource
  • Reykjavik Women's Gymnasium is established.Icelandsource
  • Rugby union spreads quickly, with many new clubs being formed: Ngāruawāhia, Hamilton, Cambridge, New Plymouth (Taranaki club) Hawera (Egmont club), Parnell, Grafton, Ponsonby, and Mount Hobson. Rugby was also taken up at Auckland College and Auckland Grammar School.New Zealandsource
  • The Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals, a union for graduate technical and scientific professionals, is founded.Norwaysource

Births

  • January 1 – Gustave Whitehead, German-born aviation pioneer (died 1927)source
  • February 3 – Gertrude Stein, American writer, patron of the arts (died 1946)source
  • February 15 – Sir Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer (died 1922)source
  • February 23 – Konstantin Päts, 1st President of Estonia (died 1956)source
  • March 24 – Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician (died 1926)source
  • April 25 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 1937)source
  • May 29 – G. K. Chesterton, English author (died 1936)source
  • July 3 – R. B. Bennett, 11th Prime Minister of Canada (died 1947)source
  • July 30 - João de Deus Mena Barreto (1874–1933), a member of the junta that temporarily governed Brazil when Washington Luís was deposedBrazilsource
  • August 10 – Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (died 1964)source
  • September 13 – Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer (died 1951)source
  • September 21 – Gustav Holst, English composer (died 1934)source
  • 21 October – Henri Guisan, military leader (died 1960)Switzerlandsource
  • November 27 – Chaim Weizmann, 1st president of Israel (died 1952)source
  • 29 November – António Egas Moniz, neurologist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1949) (died 1955).Portugalsource
  • November 30 – Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (died 1965)source
  • December 17 – William Lyon Mackenzie King, 10th Prime Minister of Canada (died 1950)source
  • ? – Bibi Maryam Bakhtiari, Iranian politician.Iransource

Deaths

  • 5 January - Ernst Gotthelf Gersdorf, German writer and librarian (born 1804)Germanysource
  • January 14 – Johann Philipp Reis, German scientist, inventor (born 1834)source
  • January 17 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese twins, sideshow performers (born 1811)source
  • February 3 – William Charles Lunalilo, last monarch of the House of Kamehameha (born 1835)source
  • February 8 – David Friedrich Strauss, German theologian (born 1808)source
  • March 8 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (born 1800)source
  • March 11 – Charles Sumner, American senator, civil rights activist (born 1811)source
  • April 13 – Etō Shimpei (born 1834) and Shima Yoshitake (born 1822), rebel leaders (executed by beheading)Japansource
  • 24 May - Pedro Félix Vicuña (born 1805)Chilesource
  • June 17 – Sir Stephen Glynne, British antiquary and politician (born 1817)source
  • June 23 – Cosme García Sáez, Spanish inventor (born 1818)source
  • June 25–27 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Monte Muro – Carlist forces entrenched around Abárzuza, on the approach to Estella in Navarre, repel an attack by Isabelino/Liberal (supporters of Queen Isabella II) troops led by General Manuel Gutiérrez de la Concha, Marqués del Duero, who is killed on the third day of fighting.source
  • August 2 - Jacobina Mentz MaurerBrazilsource
  • August 14 – Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, African-American minister, politician (born 1821)source
  • September 12 – François Guizot, Prime Minister of France (born 1787)source
  • October 23 – Abraham Geiger, German rabbi, a founder of European Reform Judaism (born 1810)source
  • October 28 – William Henry Rinehart, American sculptor (born 1825)source
  • December 7 – Constantin von Tischendorf, German Biblical scholar (born 1815)source