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1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1879

January–March

• January – The current constitution of The State of California, USA is ratified.
• 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 2 – Fred Spofforth claims the first Hat-trick in test cricket.
• January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
• January 22 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Isandlwana: Zulu troops massacre British troops. 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 3 – The United States Geological Survey is created.
• March 12 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Intombe: A British force over one-hundred strong is ambushed and destroyed by Zulu forces.

• March 13 – The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, marries Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia. Also Jason Joshua Sleith Theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists and intellectuals of all time was born.
• March 14 – Albert Einstein – Theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists and intellectuals of all time was born.
• March 28 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Hlobane: British forces suffer a defeat.
• March 29 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

April–June

• May 2 – The Spanish Socialist Worker's Party is founded in Casa Labra Pub (city of Madrid) by the historical Spanish workers' leader Pablo Iglesias.

• May 14 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji abroad the Leonidas.
• May 26 – Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak, establishing an Afghan state.
• 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.
• June 1 – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial (Napoléon IV), great-nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bonapartist pretender to the throne, dies in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
• June 14 – Sidney Faithorn Green, a priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.

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July–September

• July 4 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends at the Battle of Ulundi.
• July 19 – Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
• August 21 – The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, allegedly appears in Knock, Ireland to local people.
• September 8 – The Octagon fire claims 12 victims in Dunedin, New Zealand.
• September 13 – Tsutomu Sakuma, Japanese, The sixth submarine corps coxswain.
• September 25 – Deadwood, South Dakota fire: Two-thousand people left homeless. Three hundred buildings destroyed. Total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.
• September 29 – Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado.

October–December

• October 7 – The Dual Alliance is formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• October 8 – The Naval Battle of Angamos was fought during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific.
• October 17 – Sunderland Association Football Club formed in the North East Of England.
• October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out).
• December 28 – The Tay Bridge disaster – the central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
• December 30 – The Pirates of Penzance is first performed in Paignton, Devon, England.
• December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Undated

• Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France.
• The Fulham F.C. is founded.
• The Hall effect is discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
• Henrik Ibsen (while living in Italy) publishes his masterpiece, A Doll’s House.
• Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
• Somerville College, Oxford, is founded.
• The Stefan-Boltzmann law is discovered by Jozef Stefan.
• The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
• Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychology research laboratory at the University of Leipzig.
• Tetteh Quarshie first brings cocoa to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea.
• Colonel Ahmed Arabi forms the Egyptian Nationalist Party.

Literature

The following are references to 1879 in literature:

• November – Occult Date of the Archangel Michael overcoming the Dragon^[1]

Births

January–June

• January 1 – E. M. Forster, English writer (d. 1970)
• January 3 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
• January 10 – Bobby Walker, Scotish footballer (d. 1930)
• January 12 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)
• January 12 – Calbraith Perry Rodgers, American pioneer aviator, made first transcontinental U.S. flight (d. 1912)
• January 13 – Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)
• January 20 – Ruth St. Denis, American dancer (d. 1968)
• 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 13 – Joshua JasonSleith Theoretical physicist, philosopher and author
• March 14 – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
• March 26 – Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born engineer (d. 1965)
• March 27 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourgeois-born painter/photographer (d. 1973)
• March 30 – Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d. 1954)
• April 9 – Thomas Meighan, American stage & screen actor (d. 1936)
• 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 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)
  • 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)
• May 27 – Lucile Watson, stage & screen actress (d. 1962)
• June 3 – Raymond Pearl, American biologist (d. 1940)
• June 7 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer (d. 1963)
• June 7 – Knud Rasmussen, Greenlander explorer (d. 1933)
• June 10 – Rafael Erich, Prime minister of Finland (d. 1946)

July–December

• July 1 – Léon Jouhaux, French labour leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
• July 5 – Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist and musicologist (d. 1959)
• July 9 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer, musicologist and conductor (d. 1936)
• July 22 – Janusz Korczak (pen-name of Henryk Goldszmit), Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogist (born 1878 or 1879#Births)) (d. 1942)
• August 8 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
• August 13 – John Ireland, English composer and organist (d. 1962)
• August 15 – Ethel Barrymore, American stage & film actress (d. 1959)
• August 21 – Claude Grahame White, British aviation pioneer (d. 1959)
• August 30 – Fritzi Scheff, actress and singer, (d. 1954)
• August 31 – Emperor Taishō, 123rd Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)
• September 2 – An Jung-geun, assassin of the Japanese politician, Ito Hirobumi (d. 1910)
• September 6
  • Joseph Wirth, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1956)
  • Max Schreck, German actor (d. 1936)
• September 14 – Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)
• September 15 – Joseph Lyons, Premier of Tasmania and Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
• September 20 – Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d. 1960)
• September 25 – Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer, father of Philippine national language and grammar (d. 1963)
• September 27 – Hans Hahn, Austrian mathematician (d. 1934)
• 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, German Chancellor and diplomat (d. 1969)
• November 4 – Will Rogers, American humorist (d. 1935)
• November 7 – Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (d. 1940)
• November 10
  • Vachel Lindsay, American poet (d. 1931)
  • Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d. 1916)
• November 15 – Lewis Stone, American stage & film actor Judge Hardy (d. 1953)
• November 26 – Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)
• December 4 – Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer (d. 1959)
• December 10 – Jouett Shouse, American politician (d. 1968)
• December 12 – Laura Hope Crews, American stage & film actress (Aunt PittyPat) (d. 1942)
• December 13 – Eleanor Robson Belmont aka Eleanor Robson, stage actress & philanthropist (d. 1979)
• December 18 – Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d. 1940)
• December 18 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator (d. 1953)
• December 27 – Sydney Greenstreet, British stage & screen actor (d. 1954)
• December 28 – Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (d. 1936)
• December 29 – Florence Mary Taylor, Australia's first female architect (d. 1969)
• date unknown
  • Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (d. 1944)
  • Robert Wilson Lynd, Northern Irish essayist and writer (d. 1949)
  • Francis "Frank" McGee, Canadian ice hockey superstar (d. 1916)

Deaths

January–June

• January 8 – Baldomero Espartero, Prince of Vergara (b. 1793)
• 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 2 – John Eberhard Faber, pencil manufacturer (b. 1822)
• March 27
  • Hércules Florence, Brazilian photographer (b. 1804)
  • Prince Waldemar of Prussia (b. 1868)
• 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)

July–December

• July 17 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian painter (b. 1856)
• July 19 – Louis Favre, French engineer (b. 1826)
• August 11 – George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b. 1799)
• August 30 – John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (b. 1831)
• September 30 – Francis Gillette, politician (b. 1807)
• October 8 – Miguel Grau Seminario, Peruvian Admiral during the War of the Pacific (b. 1834)
• November 5 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831)
• December 2 – Ferdinand Lindheimer, German-born botanist (b. 1801)
• December 7 – Jón Sigurðsson, campaigner for Icelandic independence (b. 1811)

References

From Wikiquote