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 – The current constitution of The State of California, USA is ratified.

• 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 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 14 – Albert Einstein – Theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists and intellectuals of all time was born.

• 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

• May 2 – The Spanish Socialist Worker's Party is founded in Casa Labra Pub (city of Madrid) by the historical Spanish workers' leader Pablo Iglesias.

• 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 Gilmore's 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.

Media:

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, Ireland 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 25 – Deadwood, South Dakota fire: Two-thousand people left homeless. Three hundred buildings destroyed. Total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.

• 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 8 – The Naval Battle of Angamos was fought during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific.

• October 17 – Sunderland Association Football Club formed in the North East Of England.

• October 22 – 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 Tay Bridge disaster – 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.

Ongoing events

• 1876–1879 – Great North China Famine: ten million die.

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.

Literature

The following are references to 1879 in literature:

• November – Occult Date of the Archangel Michael overcoming the Dragon

Births

January–June

• January 1 – E. M. Forster, English writer (d. 1970)

• January 3 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)

• January 10 – Bobby Walker, Scotish footballer (d. 1930)

• January 12 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)

• January 12 – Calbraith Perry Rodgers, American pioneer aviator, made first transcontinental U.S. flight (d. 1912)

• January 13 – Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)

• January 20 – Ruth St. Denis, American dancer (d. 1968)

• January 28 – Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (d. 1953)

• February 22 – J. N. Brønsted, Danish chemist (d. 1947)

• February 26 – Frank Bridge, English composer (d. 1941)

• March 8 – Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

• March 14 – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)

• March 26 – Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born engineer (d. 1965)

• March 27 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourgeois-born painter/photographer (d. 1973)

• March 30 – Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d. 1954)

• April 9 – Thomas Meighan, American stage & screen actor (d. 1936)

• April 16 – Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (d. 1961)

• April 20 – Paul Poiret, French couturier (d. 1944)

• April 26 – Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)

• April 29 – Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)

• May 6 – Bedřich Hrozny´, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)

• May 12 – George Landenberger, United States Navy Captain and the 23rd Governor of American Samoa (d. 1936)

• May 17 – Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d. 1926)

• May 19

• *Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d. 1964)

• *Viscount Waldorf Astor, British businessman and politician (d. 1952)

• May 22 – Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (d. 1945)

• May 23 – Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (d. 1966)

• May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born statesman and newspaper publisher (d. 1964)

• May 27 – Lucile Watson, stage & screen actress (d. 1962)

• June 3 – Raymond Pearl, American biologist (d. 1940)

• June 7 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer (d. 1963)

• June 7 – Knud Rasmussen, Greenlander explorer (d. 1933)

• June 10 – Rafael Erich, Prime minister of Finland (d. 1946)

July–December

• July 1 – Léon Jouhaux, French labour leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)

• July 5 – Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist and musicologist (d. 1959)

• July 9 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer, musicologist and conductor (d. 1936)

• July 22 – Janusz Korczak (pen-name of Henryk Goldszmit), Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogist (born 1878 or 1879#Births)) (d. 1942)

• August 8 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)

• August 13 – John Ireland, English composer and organist (d. 1962)

• August 15 – Ethel Barrymore, American stage & film actress (d. 1959)

• August 21 – Claude Grahame White, British aviation pioneer (d. 1959)

• August 30 – Fritzi Scheff, actress and singer, (d. 1954)

• August 31 – Emperor Taishō, 123rd Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)

• September 2 – Ahn Jung-Keun, Eu-sa('rightous hero' in Korean) and general, assassin of the Japanese politician, Ito Hirobumi (d. 1910)

• September 6

• *Joseph Wirth, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1956)

• *Max Schreck, German actor (d. 1936)

• September 14 – Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)

• September 15 – Joseph Lyons, Premier of Tasmania and Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)

• September 20 – Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d. 1960)

• September 25 – Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer, father of Philippine national language and grammar (d. 1963)

• September 27 – Hans Hahn, Austrian mathematician (d. 1934)

• October 2 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)

• October 3 – Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor (d. 1938)

• October 5 – Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1970)

• October 9 – Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)

• October 21

• *Joseph Canteloube, French composer and singer (d. 1957)

• *Eugene Ely, American pioneer aviator (d. 1911)

• October 29 – Franz von Papen, German Chancellor and diplomat (d. 1969)

• November 4 – Will Rogers, American humorist (d. 1935)

• November 7 – Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (d. 1940)

• November 10

• * Vachel Lindsay, American poet (d. 1931)

• * Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot (d. 1916)

• November 15 – Lewis Stone, American stage & film actor Judge Hardy (d. 1953)

• November 26 – Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)

• December 4 – Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer (d. 1959)

• December 10 – Jouett Shouse, American politician (d. 1968)

• December 12 – Laura Hope Crews, American stage & film actress (Aunt PittyPat) (d. 1942)

• December 13 – Eleanor Robson Belmont aka Eleanor Robson, stage actress & philanthropist (d. 1979)

• December 18 – Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d. 1940)

• December 18 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator (d. 1953)

• December 20 – Earle Ovington, American aviator, flew first experimental airmail (d. 1936)

• December 27 – Sydney Greenstreet, British stage & screen actor (d. 1954)

• December 28 – Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (d. 1936)

• December 29 – Florence Mary Taylor, Australia's first female architect (d. 1969)

• date unknown

• *Joseph Campbell, Northern Irish poet and lyricist (d. 1944)

• *Robert Wilson Lynd, Northern Irish essayist and writer (d. 1949)

• *Francis "Frank" McGee, Canadian ice hockey superstar (d. 1916)

• *Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, Influential American jurist (d. 1918)

Deaths

January–June

• January 8 – Baldomero Espartero, Prince of Vergara (b. 1793)

• February 11 – Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (b. 1808)

• February 23 – Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)

• February 25 – Charles Peace, British criminal (executed) (b. 1832)

• March 1 – Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b. 1825)

• March 2 – John Eberhard Faber, pencil manufacturer (b. 1822)

• March 27

• *Hércules Florence, Brazilian photographer (b. 1804)

• *Prince Waldemar of Prussia (b. 1868)

• March 30 – Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b. 1815)

• April 30 – Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (b. 1788)

• June 1 – Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (b. 1856)

• June 7 – William Tilbury Fox, English dermatologist (b. 1836)

July–December

• July 17 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian painter (b. 1856)

• July 19 – Louis Favre, French engineer (b. 1826)

• August 11 – George Willison Adams, Ohio abolitionist (b. 1799)

• August 30 – John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (b. 1831)

• September 30 – Francis Gillette, politician (b. 1807)

• October 8 – Miguel Grau Seminario, Peruvian Admiral during the War of the Pacific (b. 1834)

• November 5 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831)

• December 2 – Ferdinand Lindheimer, German-born botanist (b. 1801)

• December 7 – Jón Sigurðsson, campaigner for Icelandic independence (b. 1811)