1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January - April

• January 2 - Brigham Young is arrested for bigamy (28 wives).
• January 12 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years.
• February 20 - In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art closes for "urban renovation.
• March 1 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's 2nd national park
• March 5 - George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
• March 5 - The case of Tichborne Claimant decided against the claimant Arthur Orton
• March 11 - Work began erecting Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales; Located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.
• March 26 - Earthquake at Lone Pine, California with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 .

May - August

• May 10 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States, although she is a year too young to qualify and does not appear on the ballot.
• May 22 - Reconstruction: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
• June 14 - Trade unions legalised in Canada.^*
• July 4 - Society of Jesus is pronounced Illegal in German Empire

September - December

• September 1 - Group of Icaiche Maya under Marcos Canul attack Orange Walk town in British Honduras. British send troops against them
• November 5 - Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horace Greeley in the U.S. presidential election
• November 5 - Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time (on November 18 she was served an arrest warrant and in the subsequent trial she was fined $100 - she never paid the fine).
• November 7 – Mary Celeste sets sail from New York, bound for Genoa
• November 9 - Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street (the two day event destroyed about 65 acres (0.3 km²) of city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and caused US$60 million in damage).
• November 27 - Meteor rain display over France
• November 29 - Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
• November 29 - Horace Greeley, President Grant's opponent in the 1872 Presidential election, dies. His electoral votes are divided among several candidates.
• November 30 - First ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland.
• December 4 - The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship was abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged).
• December 12 - A meteorite struck earth near Banbury, England.
• December 21 - HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography

Unknown date

• Louis Ducos du Hauron creates the first color photograph.^*
• London Metropolitan Police strike.
• In the aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance, new government of Paraguay makes peace with Brazil, grant reparations and territorial concessions
• Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition
• Foundation of the Kolozsvári Egyetem, the predecessor of the University of Szeged
• US government geologist Clarence King reveals the diamond hoax in Wyoming

Births

• January 6 - Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (d. 1915)
• January 23 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1903)
• January 31 - Zane Grey, American writer (d. 1939)
• March 7 - Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter (d. 1944)
• April 29 - Harry Payne Whitney, businessman, horse breeder (d. 1930)
• May 18 - Bertrand Russell, English philosopher and mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1970)
• May 31 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator (d. 1944)
• June 20 - George Carpenter, the 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
• June 27 - Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and publisher (d. 1906)
• July 1 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer (d. 1936)
• July 4 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States (d. 1933)
• July 16 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer (d. 1928)
• August 3 - King Haakon VII of Norway (d. 1957)
• August 9 - Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1962)
• August 10 - Bill Johnson, American jazz musician (d. 1972)
• August 13 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)
• August 15 - Sri Aurobindo, Indian nationalist, writer, and mystic (d. 1950)
• August 21 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist (d. 1898)
• October 11 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1946)
• November 30 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (d. 1918)
• December 21 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (d. 1956)
• December 24 - Benjamin Rockaway, writer (d. 1897)
• December 26 - Norman Angell, British politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1967)
• Charles Greely Abbot, American astrophysicist (d. 1973)

Deaths

• January 7 - Big Jim Fisk, American financier (b. 1834)
• January 21 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)
• March 20 - William Charles Wentworth, Australian explorer (b. 1790)
• April 1 - Frederick Maurice, English theologian (b. 1805)
• April 2 - Samuel Morse, American inventor (b. 1791)
• June 4 - Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer (b. 1819)
• June 4 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician (b. 1798)
• June 20 - Elie Frédéric Forey, Marshal of France (b. 1804)
• July 18 - Benito Juárez, President of Mexico (b. 1806)
• August 19 - Charles XV, King of Sweden and Norway (b. 1826)
• September 10 - Avram Iancu, Romanian Transylvanian insurgent (b. 1824)
• September 13 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (b. 1804)
• October 23 - Théophile Gautier, French writer (b. 1811)
• November 28 - Mary Somerville, British mathematician (b. 1780)
• November 29 - Horace Greeley, newspaper editor and presidential candidate (b. 1811)
• December 15 - Lady Beaconsfield, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (b. 1792)

1872

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