1879 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1879?
- January 11, 1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
- January 22, 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke’s Drift – 139 British soldiers successfully defend their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors.
- January 25, 1879 – The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
- February 8, 1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
- February 14, 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- February 15, 1879 – 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.
- March 29, 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
- April 5, 1879 – Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
- May 26, 1879 – Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
- May 30, 1879 – New York, New York’s Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
- July 4, 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: the Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burnt to the ground, thus, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
- July 8, 1879 – Sailing ship USS Jeannette (1878) departs San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole.
- August 7, 1879 – The opening of the Poor Man’s Palace in Manchester.
- August 21, 1879 – The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears at Knock Shrine in Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
- August 28, 1879 – Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
- October 7, 1879 – Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the “Twofold Covenant” and create the Dual Alliance.
- October 22, 1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
- December 21, 1879 – World première of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.
- December 28, 1879 – The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
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