1879

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1840s  1850s  1860s  – 1870s –   1880s   1890s   1900s
Years:	1876 1877 1878 – 1879 – 1880 1881 1882

Year 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 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 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 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 - June

• April 3
  • The Anti Revolutionary Party is formed in the Netherlands by Abraham Kuyper. It is the first political party formed advocating Christian Democracy; in opposition to the secularism of Dutch society, which was following a course in the militant secularism of the French Revolution.
  • Anglo-Zulu War: British forces successfully lift the two-month Siege of Eshowe.
• April 4 - Sofia becomes the official capital of the Third Bulgarian State.
• 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 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 Gilmores 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, died in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War
• June 14 - Sidney Faithorn Green, an Anglican priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices

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 - Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared in Knock to local people.

October - December

• 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 13½ 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).

Undated

• Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
• Hall effect discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
• Somerville College, Oxford, is founded.
• Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by Jožef Stefan.
• Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France.
• The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was formed.
• Fulham F.C. was founded
• Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychology research laboratory at the University of Leipzig.
• While living in Italy, Henrik Ibsen publishes his masterpiece, A Doll’s House.

Literature

The following are references to 1879 in literature:

• November - Occult Date of the Archangel Michael overcoming the Dragon

Births

1879 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1879 MDCCCLXXIX
Ab urbe condita	2632
Armenian calendar	1328 ԹՎ ՌՅԻԸ
Assyrian calendar	6629
Bahá'í calendar	35–36
Bengali calendar	1286
Berber calendar	2829
British Regnal year	42 Vict. 1 – 43 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2423
Burmese calendar	1241
Byzantine calendar	7387–7388
Chinese calendar	戊寅年十二月初九日 (4515/4575-12-9) — to — 己卯年十一月十九日 (4516/4576-11-19)
Coptic calendar	1595–1596
Ethiopian calendar	1871–1872
Hebrew calendar	5639–5640
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1935–1936
- Shaka Samvat	1801–1802
- Kali Yuga	4980–4981
Holocene calendar	11879
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	879–880
Iranian calendar	1257–1258
Islamic calendar	1296–1297
Japanese calendar	Meiji 12 (明治12年)
Juche calendar	N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4212
Minguo calendar	33 before ROC 民前33年
Thai solar calendar	2422

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, Hearts and Scotland Footballer, Record Cap Holder for 25 years(d. 1930)
• January 12 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)
• January 13 - Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)
• January 20 - Ruth St. Denis, 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 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 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)
• June 3 - Raymond Pearl, American biologist (d. 1940)
• June 10 - Rafael Erich, Prime minister of Finland (d. 1946)

July - December

• July 1 - Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
• July 5 - Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (d. 1959)
• July 22 - Janusz Korczak ( Henryk Goldszmit), Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogist (possibly born in 1878) (d. 1942)
• August 8 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
• August 13 - John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
• August 15 - Ethel Barrymore, stage & film actress (d. 1959)
• August 21 - Claude Grahame White, British aviation pioneer, (d. 1959)
• 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)
• September 14 - Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)
• September 15 - Joseph Lyons, the 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)
• 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 7 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (d. 1940)
• November 10
  • Vachel Lindsay, American poet (d. 1931)
  • Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d. 1916)
• December 12 - Laura Hope Crews, stage & film actress (aunt PittyPat), (d. 1942)
• 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 18 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d. 1940)
• 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, ice hockey superstar (d. 1916, Battle of the Somme)

Deaths

January - June

• January 8 - Baldomero Espartero, Prince of Vergara (b. 1793)
• February 11 - Honouré 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 19 - Louis Favre, engineer
• August 11 - George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b.1799)
• August 30 - John Bell Hood, America Confederate general (b. 1831)
• September 30 - Francis Gillette, politician (b. 1807)
• 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)