1879 CE

Women's rights: President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Yasukuni Shrine is officially renamed from Tokyo Shokonsha Shrine in Japan. Henry George self-publishes his major work Progress and Poverty.

In the 1870s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 15 – Women's rights: President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.United Statessource
  • March 11 – The Ryukyu Domain is incorporated into the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan and the last ruler, Shō Tai, exiled to Tokyo.source
  • April 20 - Spanish general election, 1879Spainsource
  • 26 April – Seventy square kilometres of land in Sydney's Sutherland Shire is proclaimed The National Park (later the Royal National Park).Australiasource
  • May 7 – The current constitution of the State of California in the United States is ratified.source
  • May 26 – Mohammad Yaqub Khan, Emir of Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak, putting the Afghan state into the British sphere of influence.source
  • June 5 – Ontario election: Sir Oliver Mowat's Liberals win a third consecutive majority.Canadasource
  • October 2 – Qing dynasty China signs the Treaty of Livadia with the Russian Empire.source
  • October 7 – The Dual Alliance is formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.source
  • 7 October – A defensive alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary is created by treaty.Germanysource
  • 19 October - Legislative electionPortugalsource
  • October – Roca gives up his military career to enter politics.Argentinasource
  • Colonel Ahmed ‘Urabi forms the Egyptian Nationalist Party.source
  • Education (secular or denominational) was being debated. In two by-elections the winner was described as a Secularist: David Goldie in the 1879 City of Auckland West by-election and Acton Adams in the 1879 City of Nelson by-election. They opposed Curtis's bill before parliament.New Zealandsource

Conflict & Security

  • January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.source
  • January 11 – Britain declares war against the Zulus and launches the Anglo-Zulu War after an ultimatum issued on 11 December 1878 is rejected.South Africasource
  • January 22 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Isandlwana: A force of 1,200 British soldiers is wiped out by over 20,000 Zulu warriors.source
  • January 23 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Rorke's Drift: Following the previous day's defeat, a smaller British force of 140 successfully repels an attack by 4,000 Zulus.source
  • 8 February – A controversial umpiring decision at an international cricket match results in the Sydney Riot of 1879.Australiasource
  • March 28 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Hlobane: British forces suffer a defeat.source
  • March 29 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.source
  • April 5 – War of the Pacific: Chile formally declares war on Bolivia and Peru.source
  • 1 July – Law secularising primary education passes, triggering First School WarBelgiumsource
  • July 4 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Ulundi: A British victory effectively ends the war.source
  • 15 August – The populist revolutionary organization Land and Liberty splits into two factions; the radical terrorist organisation Narodnaya Volya, and the more moderate Black Repartition.Russiasource
  • October 8 – War of the Pacific: Battle of Angamos – The Chilean Navy defeats Peruvian naval forces.source
  • November 19 - Battle of San FranciscoBoliviasource
  • December 26 - the New Zealand Orange riots unfolds, when sectarian Irish Catholic rioters attacked Orange processions held by the New Zealand Orange Order, taking place in Timaru and Christchurch. These two events became known as the "Siege of Timaru" and the "Battle of the Borough" respectively.New Zealandsource
  • Argentina's first anarchist newspaper, El Descamisado, is launched.Argentinasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 22 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.United Statessource
  • April – Conquest of the Desert: Julio Argentino Roca begins his second sweep of the land up to the Río Negro, aiming to "extinguish, subdue or expel" the Indians who inhabit the region.Argentinasource
  • May 14 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji, aboard the Leonidas.source
  • July 8 – Led by George W. De Long, the ill-fated United States Jeannette Expedition departs San Francisco, in an attempt to reach the North Pole, by pioneering a route through the Bering Strait.source
  • July 16 – The city of Kotka is founded in Kymenlaakso, Finland, by separating its two islands from the old Kymi parish.source
  • 26 August – Cape Midland – Mount Stewart to Graaff-Reinet, 72 mi 18 ch.South Africasource
  • 17 September – The Sydney International Exhibition opens at the Garden Palace.Australiasource
  • 2 October – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first transatlantic steamer to be built of mild steel, the SS Buenos Ayrean, at Dumbarton. On 1 December she makes her maiden voyage out of Glasgow for South America.Scotlandsource
  • 29 November – Stradey Park opens as the home of Llanelli RFC. It remains the home for Llanelli RFC for nearly 130 years, and later for the regional side Scarlets, but closes in November 2008 when the teams' new home, Parc y Scarlets, opens in nearby Pemberton.Walessource
  • Tetteh Quarshie first brings cocoa beans to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea.source
  • Visitor fears the Metis on the Assiniboine River will not hold on to their lands much longerCanadasource
  • Prince Valdemar visits St. Croix in the Danish West Indies.Denmarksource

Religion & Belief

  • 4 January – Dundee-born Mormon missionary Hugh Findlay arrives in Shetland from the United States and on 31 March baptizes the islands' first two converts.Scotlandsource
  • 6 March – The town of Cleve, South Australia is officially gazetted.Australiasource
  • April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.source
  • April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.United Statessource
  • May 12 – English Catholic convert John Henry Newman is elevated to Cardinal.source
  • June 4 – Yasukuni Shrine is officially renamed from Tokyo Shokonsha Shrine in Japan.source
  • June 14 – Sidney Faithorn Green, a priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.source
  • 14 June – Sidney Faithorn Green, an Anglican priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.United Kingdomsource
  • 21 June – new Roman Catholic Thurles Cathedral consecrated.Irelandsource
  • August 16 – Fulham F.C. is founded in London as a church soccer team.source
  • 24 August – Victor Joseph Doutreloux succeeds Théodore de Montpellier as bishop of LiègeBelgiumsource
  • Les Cinq Cents Millions de la BégumFrancesource
  • Daniel Owen – Offrymau NeilltuaethWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • March 12 – Sir John A. Macdonald introduces protective tariffs on manufactured goods being imported into Canada, a transcontinental railway, and immigration to the west in his National Policy.Canadasource
  • 1 April – Dundee Stock Exchange established.Scotlandsource
  • June 21 – German chemical company Linde is founded by Carl von Linde.source
  • 21 June – German chemical company Linde is founded.Germanysource
  • 12 July – The German tariff of 1879 is voted for by a majority of 100 in the Reichstag.Germanysource
  • August 1 – Tokio Marine (insurer) is founded in Japan, as Tokio Marine Holdings.source
  • 10 November – Tandanor, a worker-owned shipyard, is founded in Buenos Aires.Argentinasource
  • The Bombay Dyeing & Mfg. Co. Ltd., a textile company, establishedIndiasource
  • The Kverneland Group was established by Ole Gabriel Kverneland.Norwaysource
  • Depression of 1873–79 (1873–1879)United Statessource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 3 – Mosley Street in Newcastle upon Tyne (England) becomes the world's first public highway to be lit by the electric incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Swan.source
  • February 14 - The War of the Pacific begins when 500 Chilean soldiers arrive by ship and occupied the port city of Antofagasta without a fight, in response to the National Congress of Bolivia's attempt to seize and auction the assets of the Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company.Boliviasource
  • 30 March: The Ross Guardian ceases publication. It began in 1866.New Zealandsource
  • April – Postman Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal at Hauterives in France.source
  • May 30 – New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.source
  • 31 May – German inventor Werner von Siemens demonstrates the first electric locomotive using an external power source at Berlin.Germanysource
  • June 6 – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going steamer to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, on the River Clyde in Scotland. On October 2 they launch the first transatlantic steamer of the same material, the SS Buenos Ayrean; on December 1 she makes her maiden voyage out of Glasgow, bound for South America.source
  • 1 July – The Daily Telegraph newspaper is first published in Sydney.Australiasource
  • September 19 – The Blackpool Illuminations in England are switched on for the first time.source
  • October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests his first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13 1/2 hours before burning out).source
  • November 4 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his invention of the incandescent light bulb (U.S. Patent 223,898 will be granted on January 27, 1880).source
  • November 10 – The Bell Telephone Company and Western Union reach an agreement in the United States, in which the former agrees to stay out of telegraphy and the latter to keep out of the telephone business.source
  • December 28 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge at Dundee, Scotland, collapses in a storm as a train passes over it, killing 75.source
  • Aberdeen Angus cattle are first introduced to Argentina by Don Carlos Guerrero.Argentinasource
  • Leuven railway station rebuiltBelgiumsource
  • Indian Guaranteed Railways Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • The Natal Government Railways places seven 2-6-0T locomotives in service, later to be modified to a 4-6-0T wheel arrangement and designated Class G.South Africasource

Science & Discovery

  • January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War.source
  • January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect: the Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the American Civil War.United Statessource
  • February 8 – At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming first proposes the global adoption of standard time.source
  • 14 April – The first use of a parachute in Australia occurs when Henri L 'Estrange's balloon ruptures above Melbourne's Agricultural Showgrounds.Australiasource
  • 6 June – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going ship to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, at Dumbarton.United Kingdomsource
  • July 1 – American Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.source
  • July 1 – Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.United Statessource
  • 6 September – first publication of a story by Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley" in Chambers's Journal.Scotlandsource
  • October 28 – The Hall effect is discovered by Edwin Hall at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.source
  • December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.source
  • Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychological research laboratory, at the University of Leipzig.source
  • The Stefan–Boltzmann law is discovered by Jozef Stefan.source
  • D. Walter Thomas & Edward Hughes – The Cymric languageWalessource

Health & Medicine

  • June 21 – Infielder William White plays in one game for the Providence Grays and in conjecture becomes the first African American to play MLB.United Statessource
  • Report claims only self-reliance and industry can relieve distress of Indigenous people and anxiety of Metis (Note: racial stereotypes)Canadasource
  • Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh moves to Lauriston Place.Scotlandsource
  • Butter (General) Market in Wrexham opens.Walessource

Crime & Justice

  • 2 March – murder of Julia Martha Thomas at Richmond upon Thames.United Kingdomsource
  • June 27 - Murder of Mary Gallagher in Griffintown, MontrealCanadasource
  • July 19 – Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.United Statessource
  • August 28 – The Zulu King Cetshwayo is captured.South Africasource
  • 1 September – Natal – Avoca to Verulam, 12 mi 2 ch.South Africasource
  • December 19 – Swift Runner is hanged in Fort Saskatchewan, NWT, for murdering and then eating eight members of his own family over the previous winter. He believed he was possessed by Wendigo, a terrifying mythological creature with a ravenous appetite for human flesh.Canadasource
  • Jacques Offenbach - La fille du tambour-majorFrancesource
  • Beriah Gwynfe Evans – Owain Glyndwr (play)Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 21 February: An explosion in the coal mine at Kaitangata kills 34 men.New Zealandsource
  • 2 March – Castle in Tervuren burns down.Belgiumsource
  • 17 April – Firedamp explosion at Agrappe Mine in Frameries.Belgiumsource
  • May 10 – Meteorite falls near Estherville, Iowa.United Statessource
  • September 8 – 1879 Octagon fire: A fire in The Octagon, Dunedin (New Zealand), claims 12 victims.source
  • 8 September: A fire sweeps through several buildings in central Dunedin, killing 12 people.New Zealandsource
  • September 25 – A fire in Deadwood, South Dakota, leaves 2,000 people homeless and 300 buildings destroyed; total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.source
  • September 25 – Deadwood, South Dakota fire: 2000 people are left homeless and 300 buildings destroyed; total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.United Statessource

Climate & Environment

  • 1 January to 31 December – the combination of the severest winter since 1814, a late spring, an exceptionally cool summer and a cold dry autumn produces the third-coldest year in the CET series and the coldest since 1740, with an annual mean of 7.44 °C.United Kingdomsource
  • April 26 – The National Park, later renamed the Royal National Park, is declared in New South Wales, Australia, the world's second-oldest purposed national park.source
  • June 30 – The 1879 Surigao earthquake measuring Mw 7.4 causes major damage in the northern tip of Mindanao Island.source
  • June–August – the wettest summer in England and Wales since records began in 1766, and the equal seventh-coolest since the CET series begins in 1659.United Kingdomsource
  • July 1 – An 8.0 earthquake shakes southern Gansu, killing 22,000 people.source
  • November–March 1880 – probably the longest ever fog in the city's history engulfs London.United Kingdomsource
  • December 2-28 – the Winter 1879 cold wave freeze Europe with record low temperatures.source
  • Ottawa memo outlines the "utter destitution" of some Indigenous people in the Northwest TerritoriesCanadasource
  • Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79Chinasource
  • Geirfuglasker erupts (submarine).Icelandsource
  • Second year of the Irish Famine (1878–1880) which has its greatest impact in the "wet" West of Ireland where the potato harvest is greatly reduced, and the peat and cereal crops are too wet to harvest.Irelandsource
  • School meals provided for destitute and poorly nourished children in Manchester.United Kingdomsource

Culture & Society

  • January 1 – Brahms' Violin Concerto is premiered in Leipzig with Joseph Joachim as soloist and the composer conducting.source
  • February 4 – Prince Edward Island election: William Wilfred Sullivan's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority.Canadasource
  • March 3 – United States Geological Survey is founded.source
  • March 25 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 76, B. 54, is premiered (four years after being written) in Prague with Adolf Čech conducting.source
  • 21 April – From 1879 the eight-hour day was a public holiday in Victoria; it celebrated the stonemasons' strike in 1856.Australiasource
  • May 2 – The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is founded clandestinely at the Casa Labra tavern in Madrid, by printer Pablo Iglesias.source
  • May 10 – The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.source
  • 26 July: The first union in New Zealand, Canterbury Rugby Football Union, is formed at Timaru, incorporating Christchurch, Christ's College, Temuka, North Canterbury, Eastern, South Canterbury, Ashburton, and Southbridge rugby clubs.New Zealandsource
  • August 21 – Claimed apparition to local people at Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist and Jesus Christ (as the Lamb of God).source
  • September 23 – The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society is founded.source
  • September 26 – Wilhelm Marr founds the Antisemitenliga (League of Antisemites), the first German organization committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to German culture posed by Jews.source
  • 26 September – Wilhelm Marr founds the Antisemitenliga (League of Antisemites), the first German organization committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to German culture posed by Jews.Germanysource
  • September – Henry George self-publishes his major work Progress and Poverty.source
  • October 1 – University of Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band is founded in Lincoln, Nebraska. The group will go on to perform the first football halftime show in 1892 and, under Director Donald A. Lentz, invent Band Day.source
  • October 13 – The first female students are admitted to study for degrees of the University of Oxford in England, at the new Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville Hall, and with the Society of Oxford Home-Students.source
  • October 17 – Sunderland Association Football Club is formed by a group of schoolteachers in northeast England.source
  • November – Land is acquired for Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, established as a Baptist institution.source
  • December 31 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance opens at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City (following a token performance the day before for U.K. copyright reasons in Paignton, Devon).source
  • Gottlob Frege publishes Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens in Halle, a significant text in the development of mathematical logic.source
  • José Hernández publishes La Vuelta de Martín Fierro, the second and final part of his epic poem.Argentinasource
  • St. John's College (Shanghai) founded Local Community in the Era of Social Media Technologies: A Global ApproachChinasource
  • Henrik Ibsen (while living in Italy) publishes A Doll's HouseNorwaysource
  • The Kharkov Mathematical Society is formed.Russiasource

Births

  • January 18 – Tane Ikai, super-centenarian (died 1995)Japansource
  • March 8 – Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)source
  • March 14 – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955)source
  • April 29 – Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (died 1961)source
  • May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born British statesman and newspaper publisher (died 1964)source
  • May 28 – Milutin Milanković, Serbian scientist (died 1958)source
  • June 13 – Lois Weber, American film director, screenwriter (died 1939)source
  • July 15 - Alcides Arguedas, historian (died 1946)Boliviasource
  • September 14 – Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (died 1966)source
  • September 15 – Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia, Premier of Tasmania (died 1939)source
  • October 25 – Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (died 1925)source
  • October 29 – Franz von Papen, German diplomat and politician; Chancellor (1932) and Vice-Chancellor (1933–34; under Adolf Hitler) (died 1969)source
  • November 4 – Will Rogers, Native American humorist (died 1935)source
  • November 7 – Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (died 1940)source
  • 22 November – Julio Salvador Sagreras, guitarist and composer (died 1942)Argentinasource
  • 18 December – Paul Klee, German-Swiss artist (died 1940)Switzerlandsource
  • December 28 – Billy Mitchell, U.S. general, military aviation pioneer (died 1936)source
  • December 30 – Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage, jivanmukta (died 1950)source

Deaths

  • January 28 – Hugh M'Neile, Irish-born English Anglican priest. (born 1795)source
  • February 11 – Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (born 1808)source
  • 20 February - Joaquim Heliodoró da Cunha Rivara, physician, professor, intellectual, politician (born 1809)Portugalsource
  • 1 March – Joachim Heer, politician (born 1825)Switzerlandsource
  • March 3 – William Kingdon Clifford, English mathematician and philosopher (born 1845)source
  • April 12 – Richard Taylor, American Confederate general (born 1826)source
  • April 16 – Bernadette Soubirous, French Roman Catholic saint (born 1844)source
  • April 30 – Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (born 1788)source
  • May 24 – William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer (born 1805)source
  • June 1 – Anglo-Zulu War: Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France, son of Napoléon III, is killed in a skirmish with Zulus while attached to the British Army.source
  • June 1 – Napoléon, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (born 1856)source
  • August 30 – John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (born 1831)source
  • September 17 – Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect (born 1814)source
  • September 29 – Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian reservation in Colorado.source
  • October 31 – Joseph Hooker, American general (born 1814)source
  • November 5 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (born 1831)source
  • date unknown – Juan Madariaga, general (born 1809)Argentinasource
  • Juan de Zavala, 1st Marquis of Sierra BullonesSpainsource