1879

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s - 1870s - 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 - 1879 - 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884

• January 11 - Anglo-Zulu War begins
• January 22 - Zulu troops massacre British troops at Isandhlwana[?]
• February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink[?] in North America opens.
• 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.
• March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created
• March 13 - Marriage of The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, to Princess Louise of Prussia[?].
• March 29 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula[?]: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
• 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 Vanderbilt[?] and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
• 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[?].
• Hall effect discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall[?]
• Somerville College founded
• Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by Jožef Stefan
• Dual Alliance formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

• 1879 in literature:

Births

• January 3 - Grace Coolidge[?], First Lady
• January 13 - Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International
• January 28 - Francis Picabia, painter, poet
• February 22 - J. N. Bronsted, physical chemist.
• March 8 - Otto Hahn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944 (+ 1968)
• March 14 - Albert Einstein, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics 1921 (+ 1955)
• March 26 - Othmar Ammann, engineer, Verrazano Narrows Bridge[?] (+ 1965)
• March 30 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater
• May 17 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (+ 1926)
• May 25 - Max Aitken, Statesman, newspaper baron (+ 1964)
• May 27 - Karl Bühler[?], psychologist (+ 1963)
• October 29 - Leon Trotsky - Russian revolutionary
• December 18 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist
• December 21 - Joseph Stalin - Soviet leader
• December 28 - Billy Mitchell - military aviation pioneer

Deaths

• February 11 - Honore Daumier[?], caricaturist/painter.
• February 11 - Willem J van Zeggelen[?], Dutch author.
• March 30 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher.
• June 1 - Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, only son of French Emperor Napoleon III, killed fighting the Zulus