1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January 17 - Indian Wars: First Battle of the Stronghold during the Modoc War.
• February 11 - Spanish Cortes deposes King Amadeus I and proclaims the First Spanish Republic.
• February 12 - Former foreign minister Emilio Cistelar y Ripoli becomes prime minister of the new Spanish Republic.
• February 20 - The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California
• March 1 - E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York start production of the first practical typewriter.
• March 3 - Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
• March 15 - The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at the University of Massachusetts
• April 1 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia killing 547.
• April 15 - 17 - Indian Wars: Second Battle of the Stronghold

May - August

• May 9 Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds Long Depression
• May 23 - The Canadian Parliament establishes the North West Mounted Police (which will be renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920).
• June 4 - Indian Wars: The Modoc War ends with the capture of Captain Jack.
• July 1 - Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
• July 21 - At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West (US$3,000 from the Rock Island Express).
• August 4 - Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the Seventh Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clash for the first time with the Sioux (near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed).

September - December

• September 16 - German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity for Franco-Prussian War.
• September 18 - New York stock market crash.
• September 25 - Classes begin at Drury University.
• November 6 - Formation of the Halifax Rugby Club.
• November 7 - Alexander Mackenzie becomes Canada's second prime minister.
• November 17 - From Pest, Buda and Óbuda, Budapest, Hungary's capital is formed.
• December 15 - Women of Fredonia, New York march against the retail liquor dealers in town to inaugurate the Woman's Crusade of 1873-74. This led to the creation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
• December 21 - Francis Garnier is attacked outside of Hanoi by Black Flag mercenaries fighting for the Vietnamese

Unknown date

• Toronto Argonauts are founded. The oldest pro sports team still playing in North America.
• Rangers F.C. are founded. Rangers go on to be the most successful club in the world in terms of trophies won.
• The United Kingdom declares war against Ghana's King Kofi KariKari, who was involved in the trading of slaves. The war ended by July and the British established the Gold Coast Colony.
• Coors Brewing Company begins making beer in Golden, Colorado.
• Heineken brewery is founded in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• DDT first synthesized.
• Swedish arms company Bofors is incorporated.
• In Mexico, Veracruz to Mexico City railroad completed.
• Royal Montreal Club in Montreal, Quebec is founded, becoming the first permanent golf club in North America.
• Henry Rose exhibits barbed wire at an Illinois county fair, which is taken up by Joseph Glidden and Jacob Haish, who invent a machine to mass-produce it.
• Britain puts pressure on Sultan Barghash Sayyid who closes slave markets in Zanzibar
• Peter Tchaikovsky composes The Tempest
• First running of the Preakness Stakes horse race in Baltimore, Maryland
• SUN was founded
• Womans Temperance League organized by Eliza Daniel Stewart
• Central Park is officially completed in New York City, New York.

Births

January-March

• January 2 - Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, Roman Catholic nun (d. 1897)
• January 7 - Adolph Zukor, Austrian-born film studio pioneer (d. 1976)
• January 8 - Iuliu Maniu, Romanian politician (d. 1953)
• January 10 - George Orton, Canadian athlete (d. 1958)
• January 12 - Spiridon Louis, Greek runner (d. 1940)
• January 20 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
• January 28 - Colette, French writer (d. 1954)
• February 2 - Maurice Tourneur, French film director (d. 1961)
• February 3 - Karl Jatho, German aviation pioneer (d. 1933)
• February 4 - Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (d. 1905)
• February 13 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (d. 1938)
• February 15 - Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
• February 25 - Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (d. 1921)
• March 3 - William Green, American labor leader (d. 1952)
• March 11 - David Horsley, English-born film executive (d. 1933)
• March 19 - Max Reger, German composer (d. 1916)

April-June

• April 1 (N.S.); March 20 (O.S.) - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist (d. 1943)
• April 7 - John McGraw, baseball player and manager (d. 1934)
• April 10 - Kyösti Kallio, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1940)
• April 19 - Sydney Barnes, English cricketer (d. 1967)
• April 22 - Ellen Glasgow, American writer (d. 1945)
• May 4 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d. 1940)
• May 9 - Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
• May 17 - Henri Barbusse, French novelist and journalist (d. 1935)
• May 17 - Dorothy Richardson, English feminist writer (d. 1957)
• May 28 - D.D. Sheehan, Irish politician (d. 1948)
• June 3 - Otto Loewi, German-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1961)
• June 26 - Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1944)

July-September

• July 1 - Alice Guy-Blaché, French-American filmmaker (d. 1968)
• July 20 - Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviation pioneer (d. 1932)
• August 26 - Lee De Forest, American inventor (d. 1961)
• September 5 - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, engineer (d. 1942)
• September 8 - David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1970)
• September 20 - Sidney Olcott, pioneer film director (d. 1949)
• September 20 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (d. 1944)
• September 21 - Papa Jack Laine, jazz musician (d. 1966)
• September 26 - Wacław Berent, Polish novelist and translator (d. 1940)

October-December

• October 14 - Ray Ewry, American athlete (d. 1937)
• October 19 - Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (d. 1925)
• October 26 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1942)
• November 16 - W.C. Handy, American blues composer (d. 1958)
• November 22 - Johnny Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1930)
• December 7 - Willa Cather, American novelist (d. 1947)
• December 11 - Josip Plemelj, Slovenian mathematician (d. 1967)
• December 17 - Ford Maddox Ford, English writer (d. 1939)
• December 26 - Thomas Wass, Nottinghamshire bowler (d. 1953)
• December 30 - Al Smith, American politician (d. 1944)

Unknown dates

• James Cousins, Irish writer (d. 1956)
• Leon Czolgosz, assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (d. 1901)
• William Ernest Hocking, American philosopher (d. 1966)

Deaths

• January 9 - Napoleon III, last Emperor of France (b. 1808)
• January 18 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English writer (b. 1803)
• January 29 - The Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (b. 1799)
• February 7 - Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish writer (b. 1814)
• February 19 - Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1837)
• March 10 - John Torrey, American botanist (b. 1796)
• April 11 - Edward Canby, U.S. general (b. 1817)
• April 18 - Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)
• May 1 - David Livingstone, Scottish explorer of Africa (b. 1813)
• May 6 - José Antonio Páez, first President of Venezuela (b. 1790)
• May 7 - Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United States (b.1808)
• May 8 - John Stuart Mill, British philosopher (b. 1806)
• May 20 - George-Étienne Cartier, Canadian statesman (b. 1814)
• June 1 - Joseph Howe, Canadian politician (b. 1804)
• September 17 - Alexander Berry, Scottish adventurer and Australian pioneer (b. 1781)
• September 22 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1801)
• September 23 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (b. 1823)
• December 14 - Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born geologist and naturalist (b. 1807)
• Tekle Giyorgis II of Ethiopia, Emperor of Ethiopia

Genealogical Resources

• 1873 Return of Owners of Land

1873

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