Notable Historical Events - 1879
1879 Historical Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
Jan 1 |
John Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major premieres in Leipzig |
Jan 2 |
1st Test match hat-trick, Fred Spofforth at the MCG |
Jan 2 |
British battleship Thunder explodes in Gulf of Ismid, 9 die |
Jan 2 |
Dr Benjamin E Mays, named president of Atlanta Board of Education |
Jan 2 |
Northwestern League (minor baseball league) organized, Rockford, Ill |
Jan 9 |
Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Ft Robinson |
Jan 9 |
Kirland Warbler discovered on Andros Island in Bahamas |
Jan 11 |
Zulu war against British colonial rule in South Africa begins |
Jan 12 |
British Zulu War begins: Lt-General Chelmsford invades Zululand |
Jan 16 |
January record 13" of snow falls in NYC (broken Jan 7, 1996) |
Jan 20 |
British troops under Lord Chelmsford set camp at Isandlwana |
Jan 21 |
Henrik Ibsen's "Et Dukkehjem," premieres in Copenhagen |
Jan 22 |
Zulus attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana South Africa |
Jan 22 |
James Shields (D) elected US senator from Missouri after previously serving as US senator from Illinois & Minnesota |
Jan 22 |
Battle at Rorkes Drift: British garrison of 150 holds off 3,000-4,000 Zulus |
Jan 23 |
US National Archery Association forms (Crawfordsville, Ind) |
Jan 25 |
The Bulgarian National Bank is founded. |
Jan 29 |
Custer Battlefield National Monument, Mont established |
Jan 30 |
French President MacMahon resigns |
Feb 5 |
Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow |
Feb 8 |
Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute. |
Feb 10 |
1st electric arc light used (California Theater) |
Feb 10 |
Henry Morton Stanley departs for the Congo |
Feb 12 |
1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Sq Garden, NYC) |
Feb 12 |
News about slaughtering of Isandlwana reaches London |
Feb 14 |
Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta |
Feb 15 |
Congress authorizes women lawyers to practice before Supreme Ct |
Feb 18 |
Arabs capture Egyptian premier Nabar Pasha |
Feb 18 |
Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi is awarded a patent for his design for the Statue of Liberty |
Feb 22 |
1st 5 cent & 10 cent store opened by Frank W Woolworth (Utica NY) |
Feb 25 |
Congress passed 1st Timberland Protection Act |
Feb 27 |
Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener) |
Feb 28 |
"Exodus of 1879" southern blacks flee political/economic exploitation |
Mar 1 |
Library of Hawaii founded |
Mar 3 |
1st female lawyer heard by US Supreme Court (Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood) |
Mar 3 |
US Geological Survey director authorized in Dept of the Interior |
Mar 23 |
War of the Pacific was fought between Chile and the joints forces of Bolivia and Peru. Chile successfully took over Arica and Tarapacá which left Bolivia as a landlocked country. |
Mar 27 |
Longest championship fight (136 rounds) |
Mar 29 |
Tsjaikovski's opera "Jevgeni Onegin," premieres in Moscow |
Apr 5 |
Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific. |
Apr 8 |
Khedive Ismael of Egypt fires French/British ministers |
Apr 8 |
Milk was sold in glass bottles for 1st time |
Apr 18 |
Trial of Standing Bear-Crook on indians citizen rights begins |
Apr 20 |
1st mobile home (horse drawn) used in a journey from London & Cyprus |
May 8 |
George Selden files for 1st patent for a gasoline-driven automobile |
May 10 |
Meteor falls near Estherville, Iowa |
May 14 |
The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji aboard the Leonidas. |
May 16 |
Antonin Dvorák's "Slavic Dancing" premieres |
May 16 |
Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English |
May 20 |
5th Kentucky Derby: Charlie Shauer aboard Lord Murphy wins in 2:37 |
May 21 |
Battle of Iquiquw |
May 21 |
War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique. |
May 24 |
7th Preakness: L Hughes aboard Harold wins in 2:40.5 |
May 30 |
92°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in May |
May 30 |
Gilmore Garden (NYC) renamed Madison Square Garden |
May 30 |
An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60. |
May 31 |
1st electric railway opens at Berlin Trades Exposition |
May 31 |
Madison Square Garden opens in New York, named after 4th President James Madison |
Jun 1 |
Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed serving with British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. He is buried in Farnborough, Hampshire. |
Jun 5 |
13th Belmont: George Evans riding Spendthrift wins in 2:42.75 |
Jun 16 |
Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" debuts at Bowery Theater NYC |
Jun 18 |
W H Richardson, a black inventor, patents the children's carriage |
Jun 21 |
F W Woolworth opens 1st store (failed almost immediately) |
Jun 26 |
Ismael Pasha resigns as khedive of Egypt |
Jun 30 |
Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha leaves Cairo with train full stolen goods |
Jul 1 |
Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha sails from Alexandria to Naples |
Jul 1 |
Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower. |
Jul 4 |
Africaner Union forms by Rev SJ du Toit at Cape colony |
Jul 4 |
Battle at Ulundi: Lord Chelmsford beats Zulu King Cetshwayo |
Jul 16 |
3rd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: John Hartley beats V Goold (6-2 6-4 6-2) |
Jul 17 |
1st railroad opens in Hawaii |
Jul 19 |
Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon. |
Jul 31 |
The first cable connection between South Africa and Europe is laid by the British electrical engineer Charles Tilston Bright as part of his project to link the British Empire with growing telecommunications technologies |
Aug 4 |
Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Aeterni Patris |
Aug 7 |
The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester. |
Aug 12 |
1st National Archery Association tournament (Chicago) |
Aug 17 |
Ferdinand de Lesseps forms French Panama Canal Company |
Aug 20 |
Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns |
Aug 21 |
The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland. |
Aug 23 |
Governor-general Charles Gordon of Sudan returns to Cairo |
Sep 5 |
George Washington De Long, American Arctic Explorer, and commander on board the Jeannette, becomes trapped with his crew in pack ice during his attempt to reach the North Pole |
Sep 15 |
Pim Mulier forms "Haarlem Football Club" |
Sep 19 |
Thomas Ray becomes youngest to break a world track & field record pole-vaulting 11' 2½" at age 17 years & 198 days |
Sep 19 |
The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time. |
Sep 20 |
Ulysses S. Grant and family go to SF for elaborate extended visit |
Sep 23 |
Baldwin steam motors tram 1st tried in Sydney Australia |
Sep 23 |
Richard Rhodes invented a hearing aid called the Audiophone |
Sep 28 |
Sydney Australia inaugurates steam motor tram route |
Sep 29 |
NL owners meeting in Buffalo adopt reserve clause, giving each team exclusive rights to their players |
Oct 1 |
Cincinnati Enquirer publishes 1st report on baseball reserve clause |
Oct 2 |
Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Musgrave Ritual" (BG) |
Oct 7 |
Germany & Austrian-Hungary sign Twofold Covenant |
Oct 8 |
War of the Pacific: the Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos, Peruvian Admiral Miguel Grau is killed in the encounter. |
Oct 12 |
British troops occupy Kabul, Afghanistan |
Oct 19 |
Afghan's emir Mohammed Yakub forced to resign |
Oct 22 |
Thomas Edison perfects carbonized cotton filament light bulb |
Nov 2 |
In a 6-day footrace a Mr Weston loses to a horse, 900 to 885 km |
Nov 4 |
Elkins patents refrigerating apparatus |
Nov 4 |
James Ritty patents first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his Dayton, Ohio saloon |
Nov 6 |
Canada celebrates 1st Thanksgiving Day |
Nov 19 |
Natl Association of Trotting Horse Breeders determines what "is" a trotter |
Nov 28 |
Battle at Lydenburg South Africa: Gen Wolseley beats Sekhukhenes Pedi-Zulu |
Dec 5 |
1st automatic telephone switching system patented |
Dec 13 |
1st federal fish hatching steamer lauched (Wilmington Delaware) |
Dec 20 |
Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park |
Dec 26 |
John Brahms' "Tragic Ouverture," premieres |
Dec 28 |
North British Railway's train falls as Tay bridge collapses (Scot) |
Dec 30 |
Gilbert & Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance," premieres |
Dec 31 |
Cornerstone laid for Honolulu's Iolani Palace (only royal palace in US) |
Dec 31 |
Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp |
Dec 31 |
Gilbert and Sullivan's Opera "Pirates of Penzance," premieres in NYC |
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