1872

January 3

• First patent list issued by US Patent Office. [1]

January 20

• California Stock Exchange Board organized. [1]

January 21

• Franz Grillparzer Austrian playwright (Sappho/Libussa), dies at age 81. [1]

January 28

• In Samaxi (Shemakha), Azerbaijan (Azerbaydzhan, Russia), a magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurs. 188 killed. Samaxi almost completely destroyed; about 30,000 people left homeless. [53]

January 29

• Francis L Cardoza elected State Treasurer of South Carolina. [1]

February 7

• Alcorn A and M College opens. [1]

February 14

• First state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt CA). [1]

February 20

• Hydraulic electric elevator patented by Cyrus Baldwin. [1]
• Luther Crowell patents a machine that manufactures paper bags. [1]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art opens (New York City, New York). [1]
• Silas Noble and JP Cooley patents toothpick manufacturing machine. [1]

February 21

• Pavel P Gagarin Russian monarch/politician, dies at age 82. [1]

February 22

• First national convention of the Prohibition Party (Columbus Ohio). [1]
• Labor Reform Party formed at Columbus Ohio. [1]

March 1

• Yellowstone becomes world's first national park. [1]

March 5

• George Westinghouse Jr patents triple air brake for trains. [1]

March 7

• -8 degrees F in Boston Massachusetts. [1]

March 10

• Giuseppe Mazzini Italian revolutionary (Giovane Italy), dies at age 66. [1]

March 22

• Illinois becomes first state to require sexual equality in employment. [1]

March 26

• In Owens Valley, California, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurs. [1] [53]
• Thomas J Martin patents fire extinguisher. [1]

March 30

• Nicolaos Mantzaros composer, dies at age 76. [1]

April 1

• First edition of The Standard. [1]

April 2

• George B Brayton patents gasoline powered engine. [1]
• Samuel F B Morse, developer of electric telegraph, dies at age 80 in New York City. [1] [129]

April 9

• Samuel R Percy patents dried milk. [1]

April 10

• First National black convention meets in New Orleans. [1]
• Arbor day first celebrated in Nebraska, later changed to April 22. [1]

April 12

• Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia Kentucky (one dead/$1,500). [1]

April 14

• Dominion Lands Act passed-Canada's Homestead Act. [1]
• San Francisco organizes Bar Association. [1]

April 20

• Ljudwit Gaj Croatian writer/poet (Pjesma iz Zagorja), dies at age 62. [1]
• San Francisco Bar Association organized. [1]

April 24

• Volcano Vesuvius erupts. [1]

April 27

• Ion Heliade-Radulescu Romanian politician/author, dies at age 70. [1]

May 1

• Amalia princess of Weimar/wife of prince Hendrik the Navigator, dies. [1]

May 10

• Victoria Woodhull becomes first woman nominated for US president. [1]

May 15

• Thomas Hastings composer, dies at age 87. [1]

May

• White Star Line's Adriatic sets a westward Atlantic record crossing of 7 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes. [274.11]

May 16

• Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for first time. [1]

May 17

• Bohemian Club incorporated. [1]
• Fryderyk Edward Sobolewski composer, dies at age 63. [1]

May 19

• Johan van Dale schoolmaster (New Dutch Language Wordbook), dies at age 44. [1]

May 22

• Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners (except for 500). [1]

May 24

• Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld painter, dies. [1]

May 30

• Mahlon Loomis patents wireless telegraphy. [1]

May 31

• Birth of William Heath Robinson England, illustrator/cartoonist (Don Quixote). [1]

June 5

• Republican National Convention meets (Philadelphia). [1]

June 18

• Woman's Sufferage Convention held at Merchantile Liberty Hall. [1]

July 9

• Doughnut cutter patented by John Blondel, Thomaston, Maine. [1]

July 18

• Benito Juárez Cuban justice/general (battle of Acapulco), dies at age 66. [1]
• Britain introduces secret ballot voting. [1]

July 31

• C H F Peters discovers asteroids #122 Gerda and #123 Brunhild. [1]

August 23

• First Japanese commercial ship visits SF, carrying tea. [1]

October 19

• World's largest gold nugget (215 kg) found in New South Wales. [1]

November 5

• Susan B Anthony fined $100 for trying to vote for Ulysses S Grant. [1]

November 7

• Mary Celeste sails from New York to Genoa; found abandoned four weeks later. [1]

November 9

• Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston. [1]

November 29

• Cornelius Krieghoff Canadian, dies. [1]

December 7

• HMS Challenger sets sail on 3.5-year world oceanographic cruise. [1]

December 12

• Willem A Schimmelpenninck van der Oye Dutch politician, dies at age 72. [1]

December 13

• Helena Beeloo, Hague's maid, murdered by Henry Jut. [1]

December 15

• Near Lake Chelan, Washington, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurs. [53]

December 26

• 4th largest snowfall in New York City history (18"). [1]

December 31

• Aleksis Kivi [Stenvall] Finnish writer/poet (Kanervala), dies at age 38. [1]
• The casinos of Homburg, Germany, operate for the last time, shutting down on order of the Prussian government. [80.295] [187.199,213]

1873

January 1

• Origin of Japanese Era. [1]

January 3

• John Lodge Ellerton composer, dies at age 71. [1]

January 6

• Pope Pius IX encyclical "On the Church in Armenia". [1]
• US Congress begins investigating Crédit Mobilier scandal. [1]

January 11

• First livestock market newspaper published, Drover's Journal, Chicago. [1]

January 13

• PBS Pinchback relinquishes office at Louisiana Governor. [1]

January 14

• "Celluloid" registered as a trademark. [1]
• P B S Pinchback elected to Senate. [1]

January

• White Star Line's Baltic sets an eastward Atlantic record crossing of 7 days, 20 hours, 9 minutes. [274.11]

January 22

• Britains SS Northfleet sinks at Dungeness England, 300 die. [1]

January 28

• Henry Hugo Pierson composer, dies at age 57. [1]

February 1

• Matthew Maury hydrographer, dies. [1]

February 11

• Spanish Cortes fires king Amadeus I. [1]

February 12

• US Congress abolishes bimetallism and authorizes $1 and $3 gold coins. [1]

February 13

• Petrus AS van Limburg Brouwer [Abraham van Luik], literary, dies. [1]

February 14

• Charles Samvei Bovy-Lysberg composer, dies at age 52. [1]

February 20

• University of California gets its first Medical School (University of California/San Francisco). [1]

February 27

• Dutch socialist Samuel van Wooden demands law against child labor. [1]

March 3

• US Congress authorizes federal departmental postage stamps. [1]
• US Congress and government raise own salary, retroactively. [1]

March 4

• New York Daily Graphic, first illustrated daily newspaper in US, published. [1]

March 5

• Marie-Alexis Castillon de Saint-Victor composer, dies at age 34. [1]

March 9

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police founded. [1]

March 20

• Adolfe Louis Eugene Fetis composer, dies at age 52. [1]

March 22

• Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico. [1]

March 30

• Benedict Augustin Morel psychologist (dementia praecox), dies at age 63. [1]

April 1

• British White Star passenger steamship Atlantic sinks in a storm off Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 585 die. [1] [71.28]
• Mehmed Kemal's play Vatan premeres in Constantinople. [1]

April 13

• Carlo Coccia composer, dies at age 90. [1]
• Colfax Massacre in Grant Parish Los Angeles (60 blacks killed). [1]

April 17

• Semyon Stepanovich Gulak-Artemovsky composer, dies at age 60. [1]

April 18

• Justus Freiherr von Liebig German chemist, dies at age 69. [1]
• In Rotterdam, Netherlands, the Netherlands-America Steamship Company (Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij) begins operations. (later renamed Holland America Line) [76]

April 25

• Walter de la Mare English poet/author (Behold the Dreamer), dies at age 43. [1]

May 1

• First US postal card issued. [1]
• David Livingstone, British physician/explorer (Africa), dies at age 60. [1] [5]
• Emperor Franz Jozef opens 5th World's Fair in Wien (Vienna). [1]

May 7

• US marines attack Panamá. [1]

May 8

• John Stuart Mill great Empiricist philosopher, dies at age 66. [1]

May 13

• Kaspar Masek composer, dies at age 79. [1]

May 15

• Alexander J Cuza monarch of Moldavia/Romania, dies at age 53. [1]

May 20

• Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings", work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of blue jeans. [5] [129]

May 22

• Alessandro Manzoni writer, dies at age 88. [1]

May 23

• Canada's North West Mounted Police Force (RCMPF) forms. [1]
• Postal cards sold in San Francisco for first time. [1]

May 24

• Leo Delibes' opera "Le Roi l'a Dit" premieres in Paris France. [1]

May 26

• August Conradi composer, dies at age 51. [1]

June 2

• Ground broken on Clay Steet (San Francisco) for world's first cable railroad. [1]

June 13

• J C Watson discovers asteroid #132 Aethra. [1]

June 18

• Susan B Anthony fined $100 for attempting to vote for President. [1]

June 22

• Prince Edward Island joins Canada. [1]

July 1

• Henry Flipper of Georgia is second black to enter West Point. [1]
• Prince Edward Island becomes 7th Canadian province. [1]

July 4

• Aquarium opens in Woodward Gardens. [1]

July 21

• Jesse James, first train robbery. [1]

August 1

• SF's first cable car begins service. [1]

August 2

• First trial run of San Francisco cable car, Clay Street between Kearny and Jones. [1]

August 14

• "Forest and Stream" begins publishing. [1]

August 18

• First ascent of Mount Whitney, California (14,494 feet). [1]

September 6

• Regular Cable Car service begins on Clay Street. [1]

September 17

• Nineteen students attend opening class at Ohio State University. [1]

September 19

• Black Friday: Jay Cooke and Company fails, causing a securities panic. [1]

September 20

• Panic sweeps New York Stock Exchange (railroad bond default/bank failure). [1]

November 4

• Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown. [1]

November 12

• Bay District Race Track opens. [1]

December 6

• Manuel Acuña Mexican poet (Ante un Cadáver), dies at age 24. [1]

December 14

• J Louis R Agassiz Swiss geologist/paleo-biologist), dies. [1]

December 30

• American Metrological Society forms (New York City, New York) weights, measures and money. [1]

1874

January 1

• New York City annexes the Bronx. [1]

January 13

• Battle between jobless and police in New York City, New York, 100s injured. [1]
• US troops land in Honolulu to protect the king. [1]

January 14

• I D Shadd elected Speaker of the lower house of the Mississippi legislature. [1]

January 17

• Armed Democrats seize Texas government ending Radical Reconstruction. [1]
• Chang and Eng Bunker Chinese/Thai Siamese twins, die at age 62. [1]

January 19

• H v Fallersleben writer, dies at age 75. [1]

January 21

• Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa" premieres in Vienna. [1]

January 24

• General J van Swieten conquers Kraton Atjeh, after 1000's die. [1]
• Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov" premieres in Saint Petersburg Russia. [1]

January 31

• Jesse James gang robs train at Gads Hill Missouri. [1]

February 8

• David F Strauss German theologist, dies at age 66. [1]

February 9

• Jules Michelet French historian (History of France), dies at age 75. [1]

February 12

• King David Kalakaua of Sandwich Island Hawaii, is first king to visit US. [1]

February 17

• [Lambert] Adolphe J Quetelet Belgian astronomer/sociologist, dies at age 77. [1]

February 21

• Benjamin Disraeli replaces William Gladstone as English premier. [1]
• Oakland Daily Tribune begins publication. [1]

February 24

• Anselmo Clave composer, dies at age 49. [1]

March 8

• Millard Fillmore 13th President (1850-53), dies at age 74. [1]

March 10

• Purdue University (Indiana) admits its first student. [1]

March 11

• Charles Sumner a white civil rights leader, dies at age 63. [1]

March 20

• Hans Christian Lumbye composer, dies at age 63. [1]

March 21

• US Grant's daughter Nellie marries in the White House. [1]

March 22

• Young Men's Hebrew Association is founded in New York City, New York. [1]

April 5

• Johann Strauss Sr's opera "Die Fledermaus", premieres in Vienna. [1]

April 14

• Hermanus J Abbring Dutch author/engineer on Curaçao, dies at age 86. [1]

April 15

• New York legislature passes compulsory education law. [1]

April 16

• Dr David Livingstones corpse arrives in Southampton. [1]

April 18

• David Livingstone buried in Westminster Abbey. [1]

April 19

• Barracks on Alcatraz Island destroyed in fire. [1]
• Owen Jones architect, dies. [1]

April 24

• Birth of Willem E Roelofs Dutch painter/cartoonist. [1]

April 27

• White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, forms. [1]

May 1

• Vilem Blodek composer, dies at age 39. [1]

May 5

• Dutch second Chamber passes child labor law. [1]

May 9

• The first horse-drawn omnibus makes its debut in the city of Mumbai. [5]
• Victoria Embankment, in London opens. [1]

May 12

• US Assay Office in Helena Montana authorized. [1]

May 13

• Pope Pius IX encyclical "On the Greek-Ruthenian rite". [1]

May 16

• First recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg Massachusetts). [1]

May 20

• Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets, price US$13.50 per dozen. [1]

May 29

• Present constitution of Switzerland takes effect. [1]

June 20

• First US Lifesaving Medal awarded (Lucian Clemons). [1]

June 22

• Dr Andrew T Sill, of Macon, Missouri, finds science of osteopathy. [1]
• Howard Staunton world chess champion, designer of chess pieces, dies. [1]

June 28

• Freedmen's Bank closes. [1]

July 1

• First US kidnapping for ransom, 4-year-old Charles Ross, $20,000. [1]

July 4

• Social Democratic Workmen's Party of North America formed. [1]

July 12

• Ontario Agricultural College founded. [1]

July 31

• Patrick Francis Healy, SJ, inaugurated as president of Georgetown University. [1]

August 26

• Sixteen blacks lynched in Tennessee. [1]

September 1

• Sydney General Post Office opens in Australia. [1]

October 10

• Fiji becomes a British possession. [1]

November 3

• James Theodore Holly, elected bishop of Haiti. [1]

November 7

• First cartoon depicting elephant as Republican Party symbol, by T Nast. [1]

November 9

• Israel Bak created first hebrew printing press, dies. [1]

November 18

• National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland. [1]

November 19

• William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, of Tammany Hall (New York City) convicted of defrauding the city of $6M, sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. [1]

November 24

• Joseph F Glidden patents barbed wire. [1]

December 8

• Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie KS. [1]

December 15

• First reigning king to visit US (of Hawaii) received by President Grant. [1]

December 16

• Abraham Capadose physician/missionary, dies at age 79. [1]

December 22

• Johann Peter Pixis composer, dies at age 86. [1]

December 24

• Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875. [1]