1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-February

• 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-April

• 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 14 - Albert Einstein: German-born physicist who would go on to revolutionize modern Physics.
• 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 3 - Anglo-Zulu War: British forces successfully lift the two-month Siege of Eshowe.
• 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-December

• 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.
• May 30 - A F4 tornado struck Irving, Kansas, killing 18 people and injuring 60.
• June 14 - Sidney Faithorn Green, an Anglican priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices
• July 4 - Anglo-Zulu War: The Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends at the Battle of Ulundi.
• July 4 - Taughannock Giant unearthed on the shore of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, New York (later proven to be a hoax).
• 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 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 13 1/2 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).

Unknown dates

• Hall effect discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
• Somerville College founded.
• Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by Jožef Stefan.
• Football first played in Shepshed.
• Irish Land League convinces tenants of Charles Boycott and neighboring townsfolk to isolate him by noncooperation - first boycott
• Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France
• The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) was formed

Births

January-April

• January 1 - E. M. Forster, English writer (d. 1970)
• January 3 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
• January 12 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)
• January 13 - Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)
• 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 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-August

• 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)
• May 19 - 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)
• July 1 - Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
• July 5 - Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (d. 1959)
• August 8 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
• August 13 - John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
• August 31 - Emperor Yoshihito, 123rd Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)

September-December

• 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, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
• September 20 - Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d. 1960)
• 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 10 - Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d. 1916)
• November 26 - Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)
• December 3 - 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)

Unknown dates

• Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (d. 1944)
• Robert Wilson Lynd, Northern Irish essayist and writer (d. 1949)

Deaths

• 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 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)
• August 30 - John Bell Hood, America Confederate general (b. 1831)
• November 5 - James Clark Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831)
• August 11 - George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b.1799)

1879

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