1873

Events in 1873 38

• 1803 – 1873 Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) Died 18 January 1873, aged 69 The English novelist, playwright, and politician died at Torquay. His novels, including The Last Days of Pompeii, made him one of the best-selling authors of his era, and his famous opening line "It was a dark and stormy night" remains widely quoted.
• 1803 – 1873 Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) Died 18 April 1873, aged 69 The German chemist, a pioneer of organic and agricultural chemistry, died in Munich. His research on plant nutrition and mineral fertilizers helped found the science of agricultural chemistry, and he developed early techniques for protein and beef extract analysis still associated with his name.
• 1806 – 1873 John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Died 8 May 1873, aged 66 The English philosopher and political economist, author of On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, died in Avignon, France. He had served as a Liberal MP and was among the most influential thinkers on liberty, utilitarianism, and women's rights of the 19th century.
• 1807 – 1873 Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) Died 14 December 1873, aged 66 The Swiss-born naturalist and Harvard professor, known for his studies of glaciation and fish fossils, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had built one of the era's foremost natural history collections but also promoted scientifically discredited racial theories that drew criticism even in his lifetime.
• 1808 – 1873 Napoleon III (1808-1873) Died 9 January 1873, aged 64 Napoleon III, the last monarch to rule France as emperor, died in exile in Chislehurst, England, following surgery for bladder stones. He had been deposed in 1870 after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and capture at Sedan. His death ended hopes of a Bonapartist restoration led by him personally.
• 1808 – 1873 Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873) Died 7 May 1873, aged 65 The sixth Chief Justice of the United States, who had earlier served as Treasury Secretary under Lincoln and helped establish the national banking system, died in New York City. As Chief Justice he presided over the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
• 1813 – 1873 David Livingstone (1813-1873) Died 1 May 1873, aged 60 The Scottish missionary and explorer died of malaria and internal bleeding at Chitambo, in present-day Zambia, while searching for the source of the Nile. His African attendants buried his heart locally and carried his preserved body over a thousand miles to the coast for return to Britain. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
• 1873 – 1944 Al Smith (1873-1944) Died 4 October 1944, aged 70 Four-term Governor of New York and a progressive reformer. In 1928 he became the first Catholic nominated for president by a major party, losing to Herbert Hoover. He later led the construction of the Empire State Building.
• 1873 – 1932 Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932) Died 23 July 1932, aged 59 The Brazilian aviation pioneer flew early airships and, in 1906, the 14-bis aeroplane in Paris. He is regarded as a national hero in Brazil.
• 1873 – 1928 Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928) Died 7 April 1928, aged 54 Russian physician, philosopher, Bolshevik co-founder and science-fiction writer. He founded the Proletkult movement and wrote the utopian novel Red Star. He died after a blood transfusion experiment he performed on himself.
• 1873 – 1907 Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) Died 1 November 1907, aged 34 French writer and dramatist whose play Ubu Roi scandalized Parisian audiences in 1896 and anticipated absurdist and surrealist theater. He invented pataphysics, a parody of science and philosophy that influenced later avant-garde movements. He died in poverty in Paris.
• 1873 – 1933 Anton Cermak (1873-1933) Died 6 March 1933, aged 59 Czech-born mayor of Chicago who founded the city's Democratic machine. He was fatally wounded in Miami by Giuseppe Zangara during an attempt on Franklin D. Roosevelt's life.
• 1873 – 1954 Colette (1873-1954) Died 3 August 1954, aged 81 The French novelist, born Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, was known for works exploring female sexuality and identity, including the Claudine novels and Gigi. She was the first woman to receive a state funeral in France. Her writing influenced generations of French literature.
• 1873 – 1921 Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) Died 2 August 1921, aged 48 Enrico Caruso, the Italian operatic tenor renowned as the most celebrated singer of his generation, died in Naples of complications from a lung infection. His recordings had made him one of the first global celebrities of the phonograph era. He had starred at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for nearly two decades.
• 1873 – 1938 Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) Died 12 April 1938, aged 65 Chaliapin was a Russian operatic bass who was famous for the title role in Boris Godunov. He was one of the most celebrated singers of his time.
• 1873 – 1939 Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) Died 26 June 1939, aged 65 Ford was an English novelist and editor. His novels include The Good Soldier and the Parade's End tetralogy. He founded The English Review and The Transatlantic Review and published many modernist writers.
• 1873 – 1913 Francisco I. Madero (1873-1913) Died 22 February 1913, aged 39 Madero led the revolution that ended Porfirio Diaz's long rule and served as President of Mexico from 1911. He was overthrown and executed on the orders of General Victoriano Huerta during the Decena Tragica coup. His death is widely seen as the start of the bloodiest phase of the Mexican Revolution.
• 1873 – 1935 Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) Died 30 August 1935, aged 62 Barbusse was a French novelist whose First World War novel Under Fire won the Prix Goncourt. He later became a communist, and he died in Moscow.
• 1873 – 1929 Liang Qichao (1873-1929) Died 19 January 1929, aged 55 Chinese scholar, journalist and reformer and a leader of the 1898 Hundred Days' Reform. His writings shaped modern Chinese nationalism and political thought.
• 1873 – 1943 Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) Died 31 October 1943, aged 70 Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theatre and film director who transformed stagecraft in Berlin and Vienna. He co-founded the Salzburg Festival. He left Europe because of the Nazis and died in exile in New York.
• 1873 Steinitz introduces positional chess Vienna tournament debut of new style At the Vienna tournament Steinitz unveiled his revolutionary positional approach, abandoning romantic attacking play. This moment marks the birth of modern chess strategy.
• 1873 – 1933 Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933) Died 22 May 1933, aged 59 Hungarian psychoanalyst and close associate of Sigmund Freud. He is known for his work on trauma and the relationship between analyst and patient.
• 1873 Third Anglo-Ashanti War begins Britain invades the Ashanti Empire on the Gold Coast Fighting broke out in 1873 between Britain and the Ashanti Empire after Ashanti forces crossed the Pra River into British-protected territory on the Gold Coast. The war would culminate the following year in a British expedition that burned the Ashanti capital, Kumasi.
• 1873 – 1958 W. C. Handy (1873-1958) Died 28 March 1958, aged 84 Known as the "Father of the Blues," Handy was a composer and bandleader who helped popularize the blues through published works such as "St. Louis Blues." He was one of the first African American musicians to achieve widespread commercial success.
• 1873 – 1947 Willa Cather (1873-1947) Died 24 April 1947, aged 73 Willa Cather was an American novelist known for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers! and My Ántonia. She won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours in 1923. Death Comes for the Archbishop is among her best-known works.
• 1873 Proclamation of the First Spanish Republic Spain's monarchy gives way to a short-lived republic After King Amadeo I abdicated, the Spanish Cortes proclaimed the First Republic on 11 February 1873. The new republic was immediately beset by the Third Carlist War, cantonalist uprisings, and political instability, and it would collapse within two years.
• 1873 Coinage Act of 1873 United States ends bimetallism, angering silver interests Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on 12 February 1873, the act discontinued the minting of standard silver dollars and moved the United States toward a de facto gold standard. Silver producers and debtors denounced it as the "Crime of '73," and it became a lasting grievance in American monetary politics.
• 1873 Comstock Act US law criminalizes mailing "obscene" materials Signed on 3 March 1873, the federal law championed by anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock banned the mailing of contraceptives, abortion-related material, and material deemed obscene. It remained the basis for censorship and anti-birth-control prosecutions in the United States for nearly a century.
• 1873 Colfax Massacre Reconstruction-era mass killing in Louisiana On 13 April 1873, a white paramilitary force attacked freedmen and Republican officeholders who had occupied the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, killing dozens of Black men after they had surrendered. The subsequent Supreme Court case United States v. Cruikshank weakened federal protection of civil rights for decades.
• 1873 Vienna World's Fair Weltausstellung 1873 opens in Austria-Hungary Emperor Franz Joseph I opened the World's Fair in Vienna on 1 May 1873, the first world's fair held in a German-speaking country. A cholera outbreak and the concurrent stock market crash hurt attendance, but the fair still drew millions of visitors from around the globe before closing on 31 October.
• 1873 Vienna Stock Exchange crash "Black Friday" collapse in Austria-Hungary Speculative overbuilding fueled by the 1873 Vienna World's Fair drove a stock market boom that collapsed on 9 May 1873, wiping out investors across the Habsburg capital. The Gru00fcnderkrach, as it became known, spread financial panic into Germany and helped trigger the wider Panic of 1873.
• 1873 – 1916 Erik Satie French avant-garde composer Eccentric French composer whose Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes pioneered minimalism and influenced Debussy, Ravel and the entire 20th-century avant-garde.
• 1873 Patenting of riveted blue jeans Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent copper-riveted work trousers Tailor Jacob Davis and dry-goods merchant Levi Strauss received US Patent 139,121 on 20 May 1873 for using copper rivets to reinforce the pockets of denim work trousers. The design became the basis for blue jeans, one of the most widely worn garments in the world.
• 1873 Anglo-Zanzibar treaty ends the slave trade Sultan Barghash agrees to close Zanzibar's slave market Under pressure from British diplomat John Kirk, Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar signed a treaty on 5 June 1873 banning the seaborne slave trade in his dominions. The Zanzibar slave market, once East Africa's largest, was closed shortly afterward.
• 1873 – 1943 Sergei Rachmaninoff Late Romantic pianist & composer Russian composer and pianist known for his Piano Concerto No. 2, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Vocalise. One of the last great Romantic composers.
• 1873 Panic of 1873 Bank failures trigger a global economic depression The failure of banking house Jay Cooke & Company on 18 September 1873, undone by overinvestment in railroads, set off a financial panic that closed the New York Stock Exchange for ten days. The crisis spread through Europe and the United States, ushering in a prolonged economic downturn later called the Long Depression.
• 1873 League of Three Emperors formed Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia align Chancellor Otto von Bismarck brought Emperor Wilhelm I into an understanding with Austria-Hungary and Russia, completed in Berlin in October 1873, binding the three conservative monarchies to consult on mutual interests. The Dreikaiserbund aimed to isolate France and preserve monarchical solidarity in Europe.
• 1873 Modoc War ends Captain Jack executed for Canby's killing The Modoc War in northern California and Oregon ended after Modoc leader Kintpuash, known as Captain Jack, surrendered following months of resistance from lava-bed strongholds. He was hanged at Fort Klamath on 3 October 1873 for his role in killing US Army General Edward Canby during peace talks.