1869

Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s - 1860s - 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s

Years: 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 - 1869 - 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874

• August 4 - Emperor Norton I of the United States abolished both the Democratic and Republican parties.
• Invention of barbed wire, see ranching.
• May 10 - Transcontinental Railroad completed at Promontory, Utah.
• May 15 - Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman's Suffrage Association.
• August 12 - A decree from emperor Norton I dissolves and abolishes the Democratic and Republican parties
• November 6: The first intercollegiate American football game is played. Rutgers defeats Princeton, 6 to 4.
• Ulysses S. Grant succeeds Andrew Johnson as President of the United States of America.
• Fire burns down about 75% of Hancock, Michigan

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1869 in literature:

Births

• February 11 - Helene Kroller-Muller Dutch museum founder and patron of the arts.
• February 14 - Charles Wilson[?], physicist
• March 5 - Michael von Faulhaber[?], cardinal and archbishop (+ 1952)
• March 14 - Algernon Blackwood, writer (+ 1951)
• March 18 - Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (+ 1940)
• March 21 - Florenz Ziegfeld[?], theatrical producer (+ 1932)
• April 11 - Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor
• May 14 - Friedrich Karl Kleine[?], physician (+ 1951)
• August 10 - Lawrence Binyon, poet and scholar
• September 2 - Fritz Pregl, chemist (Nobel prize 1923)
• October 2 - Mohandas Gandhi, Indian politician
• November 9 - Marie Dressler, Academy Award winning actress (+ 1934)
• December 31 - Henri Matisse, painter

Deaths

• March 8 - Hector Berlioz, French composer
• April 20 - Carl Loewe, composer