Historical Events in 1879

Brahms' Violin Concerto

Jan 1 Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major premieres in Leipzig

1st Test Hat-trick

Jan 2 Australian fast bowler Fred Spofforth dismisses 3 English batsmen with consecutive deliveries during the 3rd Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Test cricket's first "hat-trick"

Jan 2 British battleship HMS Thunderer gun turret explodes during gunnery practice in Gulf of Izmit, near Turkey; 11 sailors killed and 35 injured
Jan 2 Dr Benjamin Mays, named president of Atlanta Board of Education
Jan 9 Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Ft Robinson
Jan 9 Kirland Warbler discovered on Andros Island in Bahamas

Anglo-Zulu War

Jan 11 Anglo-Zulu War begins as British Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford invades Zululand in South Africa

Jan 16 January record 13" of snow falls in NYC (broken Jan 7, 1996)
Jan 16 The Windom Resolution by Minnesota Senator William Windom encourages black migration out of the South, helping trigger the "Exodus of 1879". 6,000 southern blacks flee Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas for Kansas. [1]
Jan 20 British troops under Lord Chelmsford make camp at Isandlwana

"A Doll's House"

Jan 21 Henrik Ibsen's play "Et Dukkehjem" (A Doll's House) premieres in Copenhagen

The British: 139. Zulu Warriors: 4,000. Let Battle Begin

Jan 22 Battle of Rorke's Drift: British garrison of 150 holds off 3,000-4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses and a number of other decorations were awarded to the defenders.

Young officer Michael Caine awaits the attack of Zulu warriors in the 1964 movie

Jan 22 James Shields (D) elected US senator from Missouri after previously serving as US senator from Illinois & Minnesota
Jan 22 Zulu warriors attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa
Jan 23 US National Archery Association forms in Crawfordsville, Indiana
Jan 25 The Bulgarian National Bank is founded

Custer Battlefield Monument

Jan 29 Custer Battlefield National Monument established in Montana

Jan 30 French President Patrice de Mac-Mahon resigns
Feb 5 Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
Feb 8 Sandford Fleming first proposes dividing the world into 24 equal time zones and adopting a Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute (adopted 1884)
Feb 10 1st electric arc light used (California Theater)

Stanley Departs

Feb 10 Henry Morton Stanley departs for the Congo

Journalist and Explorer Henry Morton Stanley

Feb 12 1st artificial ice rink in North America at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Feb 12 News about British loss at Battle of Isandlwana to Zulu attack (Anglo-Zulu War) reaches London
Feb 14 Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta
Feb 15 US Congress authorizes women lawyers to practise before Supreme Court
Feb 18 Arabs capture Egyptian premier Nabar Pasha

Statue of Liberty

Feb 18 Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi is awarded a patent for his design for the Statue of Liberty

Wonder of Woolworths Begins its Meteoric Rise

Feb 22 First "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Utica, New York. It fails almost immediately.

The Woolworth Building in New York, the tallest in the world when it opened in 1914.

Feb 25 US Congress passed 1st Timberland Protection Act
Feb 27 Russian-American chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovers an artificial sweetener (later named 'saccharin'), while working on coal tar analysis at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland [1]
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 Department of the Interior
Mar 23 War of the Pacific fought between Chile and the joints forces of Bolivia and Peru. Chile successfully takes over Arica and Tarapacá, leaving Bolivia a landlocked country.
Mar 27 Longest championship fight (136 rounds)
Mar 28 41st Grand National: Garry Moore aboard 5/1 chance The Liberator wins by 2 lengths from Jackal
Mar 29 English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Old Etonians beat Clapham Rovers, 1-0; Charles Clerke scores winner

Music Premiere

Mar 29 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.'s opera "Jevgeni Onegin", based on the novel by Alexander Pushkin, premieres Maly Theatre in Moscow, Russia

Apr 5 Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
Apr 8 Khedive Ismael of Egypt fires French and British ministers
Apr 8 Milk 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
Apr 26 National Park (later renamed Royal National Park) established south of Sydney, Australia. World's second-oldest national park.
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 Antonín Dvořák's "Slavonic Dances" 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 Iquique: Chilean naval forces overcome Peruvian ships (War of the Pacific)
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 An F4 tornado strikes Irving, Kansas, killing 18 and injuring 60.
May 30 Gilmore Garden (NYC) renamed Madison Square Garden
May 31 1st electric railway opens at Berlin Trades Exposition

Madison Square Garden Opens

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

HMS Pinafore

Jun 16 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "HMS Pinafore" debuts at Bowery Theater NYC

Jun 18 W. H. Richardson, an African-American inventor, patents the children's carriage (Patent no. 405599)

Historic Invention

Jun 21 Frank Winfield Woolworth opens his 1st successful "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" on North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Businessman and Retail Pioneer Frank Winfield Woolworth

Jun 21 Infielder William White plays one game for the Providence Grays with conjecture was the first African-American to play MLB even though he appeared Caucasian
Jun 26 Ismael Pasha resigns as khedive of Egypt
Jun 30 Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha leaves Cairo with train full of stolen goods

The Watchtower

Jul 1 Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the illustrated religious magazine "The Watchtower"

Jul 1 Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha sails from Alexandria to Naples
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 12 Agricultural and industrial tariffs are introduced in Germany
Jul 15 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: John Hartley beats Vere St. Leger Goold 6-2, 6-4, 6-2
Jul 17 1st railroad opens in Hawaii
Jul 20 Swedish expedition headed by Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, aboard SS Vega, becomes the first to navigate the Northeast passage
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

Catholic Encyclical

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 American Arctic explorer George Washington De Long on board the Jeannette, becomes trapped with his crew in pack ice during attempt to reach the North Pole
Sep 15 Pim Mulier forms Royal Haarlemsche Football Club based in Haarlem, Netherlands; oldest existing club in Dutch football
Sep 19 The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
Sep 19 Thomas Ray becomes youngest to break a world track & field record pole-vaulting 11' 2½" at age 17 years & 198 days

Grant Visits SF

Sep 20 Ulysses S. Grant and family go to San Francisco for elaborate extended visit

Union General and US President Ulysses S. Grant

Sep 23 Baldwin steam motors tram 1st tried in Sydney Australia
Sep 23 Richard Rhodes invented a hearing aid called the Audiophone

British Golf Open

Sep 27 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Scotsman Jamie Anderson wins by 3 shots from countrymen Jamie Allen & Andrew Kirkaldy; 3rd consecutive title

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 first report on Baseball's reserve clause; rights to players retained by team upon the contract's expiration; replaced by free agency
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

Edison Perfects Light Bulb

Oct 22 Thomas Edison perfects carbonized cotton filament light bulb

Refrigerating Apparatus

Nov 4 African American inventor Thomas Elkins patents the Refrigerating Apparatus [1]

Nov 4 James Ritty patents first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his saloon in Dayton, Ohio
Nov 6 Canada celebrates 1st Thanksgiving Day
Nov 19 National 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 First federal fish hatching steamer launched (Wilmington, Delaware)
Dec 20 Thomas Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park
Dec 26 Johannes Brahms' "Tragic Ouverture" premieres in Vienna, Austria
Dec 28 North British Railway's train falls as Tay bridge collapses (Scotland)
Dec 30 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "The Pirates of Penzance" premieres in Paignton, England and at Fifth Avenue Theatre NYC the next day
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