1872

Events in 1872 46

• 1791 – 1872 Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872) Died 21 January 1872, aged 81 Franz Grillparzer was an Austrian dramatist and poet regarded as one of the leading writers of the Biedermeier era. His plays, including Sappho and King Ottokar's Rise and Fall, remain part of the German-language theatrical canon.
• 1791 – 1872 Samuel Morse (1791-1872) Died 2 April 1872, aged 80 Samuel Morse was an American inventor and painter who developed the single-wire telegraph system and co-created Morse code. His work made long-distance electrical communication practical and transformed how information traveled around the world.
• 1804 – 1872 Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) Died 13 September 1872, aged 68 Ludwig Feuerbach was a German philosopher whose critique of religion in The Essence of Christianity argued that God was a projection of human ideals. His materialist philosophy strongly influenced Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
• 1805 – 1872 Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) Died 10 March 1872, aged 66 Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian revolutionary and political theorist who championed a unified, republican Italy through the Young Italy movement. His writings and activism helped inspire the broader movement for Italian unification.
• 1806 – 1872 Benito Juárez (1806-1872) Died 18 July 1872, aged 66 Benito Juárez was President of Mexico who led resistance to French intervention and the execution of Emperor Maximilian, restoring the Mexican republic. He remains a central figure in Mexican national identity for his defense of liberal reform and sovereignty.
• 1811 – 1872 Horace Greeley (1811-1872) Died 29 November 1872, aged 61 Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor who founded the New York Tribune and used it to campaign against slavery and for social reform. He ran for president in 1872 as a Liberal Republican against Ulysses S. Grant and died shortly after his defeat.
• 1811 – 1872 Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) Died 23 October 1872, aged 61 Théophile Gautier was a French poet, novelist, and critic known for championing the doctrine of "art for art's sake." His works, including the novel Mademoiselle de Maupin, influenced later French literary movements.
• 1820 – 1872 William John Macquorn Rankine (1820-1872) Died 24 December 1872, aged 52 William John Macquorn Rankine was a Scottish engineer and physicist who was a founding contributor to the science of thermodynamics. He developed the Rankine cycle and the Rankine temperature scale, both still used in engineering.
• 1826 – 1872 Charles XV The Popular King An artist and poet, his reign saw the end of the four-estate parliament.
• 1830 – 1872 Kamehameha V (1830-1872) Died 11 December 1872, aged 42 Kamehameha V was King of Hawaii from 1863 until his death, presiding over a period of conservative reforms and a new constitution that strengthened the monarchy. His death without a named heir ended the direct Kamehameha line of succession.
• 1872 – 1915 Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) Died 27 April 1915, aged 43 Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin died in Moscow of blood poisoning from an infected lip sore. His late works, built on the mystical "Prometheus chord," pushed tonal harmony toward atonality and influenced generations of composers.
• 1872 – 1898 Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) Died 16 March 1898, aged 25 Aubrey Beardsley was an English illustrator known for his stark black-and-white Art Nouveau drawings, including illustrations for Oscar Wilde's Salome. He died of tuberculosis in Menton, France, on 16 March 1898, at age 25. His brief career left a lasting influence on graphic design and the aesthetic movement.
• 1872 – 1970 Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) Died 2 February 1970, aged 97 Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, mathematician and Nobel laureate, died at his home in Wales. His work in logic and his public activism for peace and nuclear disarmament made him one of the most prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century.
• 1872 – 1913 Emily Davison (1872-1913) Died 8 June 1913, aged 40 Davison was a militant suffragette campaigning for women's right to vote in Britain. She was fatally injured after stepping in front of King George V's horse during the 1913 Epsom Derby. Her death and funeral became a rallying point for the suffrage movement.
• 1872 – 1960 Emily Post (1872-1960) Died 25 September 1960, aged 87 American author whose 1922 book Etiquette made her name synonymous with social manners and civility in the United States. She continued writing and broadcasting on etiquette until shortly before her death.
• 1872 – 1930 F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872-1930) Died 30 September 1930, aged 58 British Conservative politician and barrister who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for India. He was known for his sharp wit in speeches and in court.
• 1872 First railway in Japan Tokyo–Yokohama Opened by the Meiji Emperor five years into a state programme of industrialisation, with British engineers and locomotives. Passengers were expected to remove their shoes before boarding.
• 1872 – 1961 Learned Hand (1872-1961) Died 18 August 1961, aged 89 American judge who served on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and is widely regarded as one of the most influential jurists never to sit on the Supreme Court. His opinions on free speech and statutory interpretation remain frequently cited.
• 1872 – 1950 Leon Blum (1872-1950) Died 30 March 1950, aged 77 Leon Blum was a French statesman who led the Popular Front government of the 1930s as France's first Socialist and first Jewish prime minister. He was imprisoned by the Vichy regime and deported to German concentration camps during the war. He briefly served again as prime minister in 1946-47.
• 1872 – 1936 Louis Blériot (1872-1936) Died 1 August 1936, aged 64 Louis Blériot was a French aviator and aircraft designer. In 1909 he made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft. His company later built SPAD fighters during the First World War.
• 1872 – 1956 Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) Died 20 May 1956, aged 83 English essayist, caricaturist, and parodist known for his wit and the novel Zuleika Dobson. He spent much of his later life in Rapallo, Italy, and was knighted shortly before his death. He died in Rapallo at age 83.
• 1872 – 1940 Michael Joseph Savage (1872-1940) Died 27 March 1940, aged 68 New Zealand's first Labour Prime Minister, from 1935, whose government built the country's welfare state. He died of cancer in office.
• 1872 Monet paints Impression, Sunrise Harbor scene later gives the Impressionist movement its name Claude Monet painted a hazy view of the harbor at Le Havre, later titled Impression, Sunrise. When exhibited in 1874, a critic used the title mockingly to coin the term "Impressionism," which the painters then adopted for their movement.
• 1872 Montgomery Ward founded Aaron Montgomery Ward launches the first mail-order retail business Aaron Montgomery Ward founded his mail-order company in Chicago, issuing a catalog that allowed rural customers to buy goods directly and avoid markups from local merchants. The business became a major American retailer and pioneer of the mail-order model.
• 1872 – 1933 Mykola Skrypnyk (1872-1933) Died 7 July 1933, aged 61 Ukrainian Bolshevik leader who championed Ukrainisation as Soviet Ukraine's education commissar. He killed himself amid Stalin's purge of Ukrainian national communists.
• 1872 – 1946 Paul Langevin (1872-1946) Died 19 December 1946, aged 74 Langevin was a French physicist known for his work on magnetism and for the Langevin equation used in statistical physics, as well as for developing sonar technology during the First World War. He died in Paris.
• 1872 – 1958 Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Died 26 August 1958, aged 85 The English composer drew on folk song and Tudor music to create works including "The Lark Ascending" and nine symphonies. He is regarded as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century.
• 1872 – 1928 Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) Died 18 June 1928, aged 55 Norwegian polar explorer who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole in 1911 and first navigated the Northwest Passage. He flew over the North Pole in the airship Norge in 1926. He disappeared over the Barents Sea while flying to search for the crashed airship Italia.
• 1872 – 1929 Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) Died 19 August 1929, aged 57 Russian impresario who founded the Ballets Russes. He commissioned landmark works from Stravinsky, Picasso and Nijinsky, and died in Venice.
• 1872 – 1950 Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) Died 5 December 1950, aged 78 Sri Aurobindo was an Indian philosopher, yogi, and independence activist who later founded an ashram in Pondicherry devoted to his teachings on spiritual evolution. He was an early leader of the Indian nationalist movement before turning to spiritual practice. His writings remain influential in modern Hindu philosophy.
• 1872 – 1939 Zane Grey (1872-1939) Died 23 October 1939, aged 67 Grey was an American novelist whose Western romances did much to create the popular image of the American West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his best-known book. More than a hundred films were made from his stories.
• 1872 Yellowstone National Park established World's first national park created by act of Congress President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act creating Yellowstone National Park on March 1, 1872, setting aside land in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho territories. It became the world's first officially designated national park, establishing a model later copied worldwide.
• 1872 – 1944 Piet Mondrian De Stijl · Netherlands Piet Mondrian (March 7, 1872 – February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter who reduced painting to horizontal and vertical lines and primary colours. His De Stijl aesthetic influenced architecture, design and typography throughout the 20th century.
• 1872 Third Carlist War begins Carlist uprising renews civil conflict in Spain Supporters of the pretender Carlos VII launched an uprising against the Spanish government, beginning the Third Carlist War. The conflict, fought largely in the Basque provinces, Navarre, and Catalonia, lasted until 1876.
• 1872 – 1933 Calvin Coolidge 30th President — Silent Cal, the Roaring Twenties Calvin Coolidge (Jul 4, 1872 – Jan 5, 1933) was the 30th President 1923-1929. He presided over the prosperous Roaring Twenties with a laissez-faire economic policy. Known for his extreme taciturnity — "Silent Cal".
• 1872 Germany bans the Jesuit order Reichstag passes law expelling Jesuits as part of the Kulturkampf The German Reichstag passed the Jesuit Law, banning the Society of Jesus from the German Empire and authorizing the expulsion of its members. The law was part of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's wider campaign against Catholic Church influence known as the Kulturkampf.
• 1872 Ballot Act introduces secret voting in Britain Parliament mandates the secret ballot for elections The Ballot Act 1872 received royal assent, requiring parliamentary and local elections in the United Kingdom to be conducted by secret ballot. It aimed to reduce bribery and intimidation of voters that had been common under open voting.
• 1872 Credit Mobilier scandal exposed Newspaper reveals bribery of U.S. congressmen over railroad construction The New York Sun published allegations that the Credit Mobilier construction company had bribed members of Congress with discounted stock to avoid scrutiny of profits skimmed from the Union Pacific Railroad. The scandal implicated the sitting vice president and damaged the reputations of numerous politicians.
• 1872 Geneva Award settles Alabama Claims International arbitration tribunal rules against Britain A tribunal meeting in Geneva ruled that Britain must pay the United States $15.5 million for damages caused by Confederate raiding ships built in British shipyards during the American Civil War. The arbitration under the Treaty of Washington was a landmark in the peaceful resolution of international disputes.
• 1872 Ulysses S. Grant re-elected President Grant defeats Horace Greeley in the U.S. presidential election Ulysses S. Grant won a second term as President of the United States, defeating Democratic-Liberal Republican candidate Horace Greeley. Greeley died before the Electoral College votes were cast.
• 1872 Great Boston Fire Massive fire destroys much of downtown Boston A fire broke out in Boston's commercial district on the night of November 9, 1872, and burned for more than twelve hours before being contained. It destroyed around 65 acres and hundreds of buildings, making it one of the costliest fires in American history at the time.
• 1872 Japan announces adoption of Gregorian calendar Meiji government decrees switch from lunisolar calendar The Meiji government issued a decree replacing Japan's traditional lunisolar calendar with the Gregorian calendar, effective January 1, 1873. The reform was part of a broader modernization of Japanese institutions along Western lines.
• 1872 Susan B. Anthony arrested for illegal voting Suffragist tests women's right to vote and is charged with a crime Susan B. Anthony cast a vote in the presidential election in Rochester, New York, arguing the 14th Amendment gave women that right. She was arrested and later convicted, fined, and refused to pay, drawing national attention to the women's suffrage movement.
• 1872 Modoc War begins Conflict erupts between the U.S. Army and the Modoc people Fighting broke out after federal troops attempted to force the Modoc people back onto a reservation in northern California, beginning at the Battle of Lost River. The war continued into 1873 and ended with the execution of Modoc leader Kintpuash (Captain Jack).
• 1872 First international football match Scotland and England play the first official international soccer game Scotland and England drew 0-0 at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow in what is recognized as the first official international association football match. The fixture helped establish the format for international sport that followed.
• 1872 Mary Celeste found abandoned Ship discovered adrift with crew missing, cargo and provisions intact The merchant ship Mary Celeste was found sailing unmanned in the Atlantic Ocean by the crew of the Dei Gratia. The fate of the captain, his family, and crew was never determined, and the case became one of the most enduring maritime mysteries.