Jozef Stefan

1879

Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1879

January - March

January 1 - The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the Civil War.
January - The current constitution of The State of California, USA is ratified.
January 2 - Fred Spofforth claims the first Hat-trick in test cricket.
January 11 - The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
January 22 - Anglo-Zulu War - Battle of Isandlwana: Zulu troops massacre British troops. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.
February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden, the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
February 14 - At Antofagasta, Chile, Chilean troops disembark in this port, then Bolivian. This is the beginning of the War of the Pacific between Chile and the joint forces of Peru and Bolivia.
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.
February 27 - The discovery of saccharin is announced.
March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created.
March 12 - Anglo-Zulu War - Battle of Intombe: A British force over one-hundred strong is ambushed and destroyed by Zulu forces.
March 13 - The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, marries Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.
March 28 - Anglo-Zulu War - Battle of Hlobane: British forces suffer a defeat.
March 29 - Anglo-Zulu War - Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

April - June

April 3

The Anti Revolutionary Party is formed in the Netherlands by Abraham Kuyper. It is the first political party formed advocating Christian Democracy, in opposition to the secularism of Dutch society, which follows the militant secularism of the French Revolution.
Anglo-Zulu War: British forces successfully lift the two-month Siege of Eshowe.

April 4 - Sofia becomes the official capital of the Third Bulgarian State.
April 21 (San Jacinto Day) - Texas governor Oran M. Roberts authorizes the establishment of Sam Houston Normal Institute (today known as Sam Houston State University).
April 24 - Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld arrives in Stockholm with the S/S Vega, concluding the world's first circumnavigation of Eurasia.
May 14 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji abroad the Leonidas.
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 Henry Vanderbilt, and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
June 1 - Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial (Napoléon IV), great-nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bonapartist pretender to the throne, dies in Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
June 14 - Sidney Faithorn Green, a priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.

July - September

July 4 - Anglo-Zulu War: The Anglo-Zulu War effectively ends at the Battle of Ulundi.
July 19 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
August 21 - The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, allegedly appears in Knock to local people.
September 8 - The Octagon fire claims 12 victims in Dunedin, New Zealand.
September 13 - Tsutomu Sakuma, Japanese, The sixth submarine corps coxswain.
September 29 - Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado.

October - December

October 7 - The Dual Alliance is formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.
October 21 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out).
December 28 - The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
December 30 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed in Paignton, Devon, England.
December 31 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Undated

Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France.
The Fulham F.C. is founded.
The Hall effect is discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
Henrik Ibsen (while living in Italy) publishes his masterpiece, A Doll’s House.
Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
Somerville College, Oxford, is founded.
The Stefan-Boltzmann law is discovered by Jozef Stefan.
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychology research laboratory at the University of Leipzig.
Tetteh Quarshie first brings cocoa to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea.
Colonel Ahmed Arabi forms the Egyptian Nationalist Party.