1872

Events

January–March

• January 12 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years.
• February 2 - The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on the Gold Coast, from the Netherlands.
• February 4 - A great solar flare, and associated geomagnetic storm, makes northern lights visible as far south as Cuba.
• February 13 - Rex, the most famous parade on Mardi Gras, parades for the first time in New Orleans for Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia.
• February 17 - Filipino priests José Burgos, Mariano Gómez and Jacinto Zamora, collectively known as Gomburza, are executed in Bagumbayan Fields, Manila, Philippines by the authorities of New Spain, on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny.
• February 20 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
• March 1 - In the United States, Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.
• March 5
• * George Westinghouse receives a United States patent for the "failsafe" automatic railway air brake.
• * The Tichborne case is decided in London against claimant Arthur Orton.
• March 9 - Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett found the South Bend Tribune newspaper in the United States.
• March 11 - Work begins on the Seven Sisters Colliery in South Wales, located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.
• March 16 - 1872 FA Cup Final: In the first ever final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest football competition, Wanderers F.C. defeat Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
• March 26 - The 7.4–7.9 Lone Pine earthquake shakes eastern California, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X ; 27 people are killed and 56 injured.

  April–June

• April 21 - The Third Carlist War begins in northern Spain. Don Carlos, Duke of Madrid appoints General Rada commander-in-chief in Spain, and calls for a general rising.
• May
• * The magazine Popular Science is first published in the United States.
• * Rangers F.C., founded in March as an Association football club in Glasgow by brothers Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath, play their first ever game on the public pitches of Glasgow Green, a goalless draw against Callander.
• May 4 - Third Carlist War in Spain - Battle of Oroquieta in Navarre: 1,000 government troops easily defeat the much larger number of Carlists at Oroquieta. 50 Carlists are killed, and the Moriones take 700 prisoners, but Don Carlos escapes.
• May 10 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States, although she is a year too young to qualify and does not appear on the ballot.
• May 15 - The New Zealand Wars end after 17 years, with the conclusion of Te Kooti's War; Maori spiritual leader Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuk crosses the Waikato River, and enters the territory of the Māori King Tāwhiao, where he is granted asylum.
• May 22
• * Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law, restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
• * Georges Bizet's comic opera Djamileh is premièred at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, France.
• June 14 - Trade unions are legalised in Canada.

  July–September

• July 1 - Thomas François Burgers becomes State President of the South African Republic.
• July 4
• * The Society of Jesus is pronounced illegal in the German Empire.
• * Tsukuba University is founded in Japan, as a teacher training college.
• July 15 - Hochi Mail News, later Hochi Daily News, from 1894, a first issued of Japanese language newspaper published in Tokyo, although this newspaper change to sports newspaper from general newspaper from December 1949.
• July 18 - Mexican President Benito Juarez dies of a heart attack, and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada becomes interim president.
• July 19 - Explorer William Gosse reached Uluru in central Australia and named it Ayers Rock.
• August 22 - The Australian Overland Telegraph Line is completed, providing a telegraphic link between Australia and the rest of the world for the first time.
• September - Thomas Hardy anonymously publishes his novel Under the Greenwood Tree.
• September 1 - A group of Icaiche Maya under Marcos Canul attack the British garrison at Orange Walk Town in British Honduras.
• September 17 - Shiseido Pharmacy Shop, as predecessor of Shiseido, a major cosmetics brand in worldwide, founded in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan.
• September 18 - Upon the death of King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway, he is succeeded as King of both crowns by his brother Oscar II.
• September 26 - The first Shriners Temple is established in New York City.

  October–December

• October 1
• * The Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College begins its first academic session.
• * The first case is reported in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, of the Great Epizootic of 1872 which will substantially disrupt life in North America by mid-December.
• October 16 - University College Wales begins its first academic session.
• November 5
• * U.S. presidential election, 1872: Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horace Greeley.
• * Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, American suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time.
• November 7 - The Mary Celeste sets sail from New York; bound for Genoa, Italy.
• November 9 - Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street.
• November 11 - U.S. government geologist Clarence King reveals the diamond hoax in Wyoming.
• November 13 - Claude Monet begins painting Impression, Sunrise as viewed from his hotel room at Le Havre in France.
• November 16 - The first ever Metropolitan Police strike
• November 22 - "Spitzeder Swindle": Adele Spitzeder's pioneering Ponzi scheme in Munich collapses.
• November 27 - A meteor shower display of Andromedids is seen over France.
• November 29
• * American Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
• * Horace Greeley, President Ulysses S. Grant's opponent in this year's U.S. presidential election, dies. His electoral votes are divided among several candidates.
• November 30 - The first international Association football match to be recognised by FIFA as "official" takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland; the result is Scotland 0-0 England. Earlier international football matches had already taken place in 1870, in 1871 and again in 1872 at the Oval, London.
• December 1
• *Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada becomes constitutional President of Mexico.
• * Responsible government is granted to Cape Colony. Sir John Molteno, first Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, forms the first Cape Cabinet which immediately plans to establish Cape Government Railways and take over the operation of all private railways in the Colony.
• December 3 - George Smith presents the first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, to a meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London.
• December 4 - The now-crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia in the Atlantic.
• December 6 - Springwell Pit disaster at Dawley, England: Eight coal miners fall to their death, when a winding chain snaps.
• December 14
• * 6.5-7 magnitude earthquake takes place in the Cascade mountains in northern Washington.
• * President Ulysses S. Grant establishes the San Carlos Apache Reservation, in southeastern Arizona.
• December 21 - Challenger expedition: sails from Portsmouth, England on the 4-year scientific expedition that lays the foundation for the science of oceanography.

  Date unknown

• In the aftermath of the Paraguayan War, the new government of Paraguay makes peace with Brazil, grants reparations and territorial concessions.
• The Kolozsvári Egyetem, predecessor of the University of Szeged, is founded.
• Under Japan's Meiji Restoration:
• * A conscription law, modeled on the French version, is issued.
• * Universal public schools are called for.
• The first Marist Brothers travel to Australia.
• S. T. Dupont begins manufacture of luxury leather goods in France.
• Kimberly, Clark and Co. is founded in Neenah, Wisconsin by John A. Kimberly, Charles B. Clark, Havilah Babcock and Franklyn C. Shattuck.
• Schenker, as predecessor of DB Schenker, a logistics and freight transport worldwide, founded in Vienna, Austria.
• Versicherung-Verein, as predecessor of Zurich Insurance Group was founded.

  Births

January–June

• January 6 - Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer
• January 13 - Vlasios Tsirogiannis, Greek general
• January 14 - Kerstin Hesselgren, Swedish politician
• January 20 - Julia Morgan, American architect
• January 23 - Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary
• January 31 - Zane Grey, American writer
• February 1 - Jerome F. Donovan, American politician
• February 6 - Robert Maillart, Swiss civil engineer
• February 11 - Hannah Mitchell, English socialist, suffragette
• February 19 - Johan Pitka, Estonian entrepreneur, sea captain, and admiral
• February 24 - Gustave Sandras, French artistic gymnast
• February 27 - Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, 3-time Prime Minister of Romania
• February 28 - Mehdi Frashëri, Albanian politician, 15th Prime Minister of Albania
• March 3 - Willie Keeler, American baseball legend
• March 7 - Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter
• March 11 - Kathleen Clarice Groom, British writer
• March 15 - Harry Holman, American character actor
• March 23 - Michael Joseph Savage, 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
• March 24 - J. C. Wienecke, Dutch medallist
• April 9 - Léon Blum, French politician, Prime Minister of France
• April 14 - Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Indian-born Islamic scholar, translator
• April 29 - Harry Payne Whitney, American businessman, horse breeder
• May 1 - Sidónio Pais, 4th President, 66th Prime Minister of Portugal
• May 2 - Ichiyō Higuchi, Japanese author
• May 6 - William Bowie, American geodetic engineer
• May 12 - Anton Korošec, Slovenian political leader
• May 16 - John O'Connell, American baseball player
• May 18 - Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• May 21 - Henry E. Warren, inventor of the first commercially viable electric clock, the Telechron
• May 31
• * Charles Greeley Abbot, American astrophysicist
• * W. Heath Robinson, British cartoonist, illustrator
• June 5 - Ladislas Lazaro, U.S. Representatives from Louisiana
• June 6 - Alexandra Feodorovna
• June 8 - Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter
• June 13 - Thomas N. Heffron, American film director
• June 14 - János Szlepecz, Slovene writer, priest
• June 20 - George Carpenter, 5th General of The Salvation Army
• June 22 - Charles Murray, American actor
• June 27 - Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet, publisher

  July–December

• July 1 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer
• July 2 - Horace Short, British aircraft designer
• July 4 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
• July 5 - Édouard Herriot, 3-time Prime Minister of France
• July 12 - Emil Hácha, 3rd President of Czechoslovakia
• July 16 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer
• July 25 - Herbert Stanley, Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Ceylon and Southern Rhodesia
• July 28 - Albert Sarraut, 2-time Prime Minister of France
• August 2 - George E. Stewart, American Medal of Honor recipient
• August 3 - King Haakon VII of Norway
• August 4 - Ruth Ward Kahn, American lecturer and writer
• August 9 - Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal
• August 10 - Bill Johnson, American jazz musician
• August 13 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 15 - Sri Aurobindo, Indian nationalist, writer and mystic
• August 21 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist
• August 26 - Joseph Taylor Robinson, American politician
• September 8 - James William McCarthy, American judge
• September 13 - Kijūrō Shidehara, 31st Prime Minister of Japan
• September 20 - Maurice Gamelin, French general
• September 28
• * David Unaipon, Australian author, inventor
• * Charles F. Watkins, American physician
• October 4 - Roger Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, British admiral
• October 6 - Carl Gustaf Ekman, 2-time Prime Minister of Sweden
• October 11 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States
• October 12 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer
• October 15
• * Wilhelm Miklas, 3rd President of Austria
• * Edith Wilson, First Lady of the United States
• October 30 - Louisa Martindale, British physician, writer, magistrate and prison commissioner
• November 1 - Louis Dewis, Belgian Post-Impressionist painter
• November 4 - Barbu Știrbey, 30th Prime Minister of Romania
• November 11 - Maude Adams, American stage actress
• November 30 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier, surgeon and poet
• December 3 - William Haselden, Spanish cartoonist
• December 8 - Mace Greenleaf, American actor
• December 11 - René Bull, British illustrator, photographer
• December 14 - John Smith Archibald, Canadian architect
• December 16 - Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Imperial Russian Lieutenant General
• December 21 - Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer
• December 26 - Norman Angell, English politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

  Date unknown

• Fok Hing Tong, also known as Huo Qingtang, Hong Kong business woman and social reformer

  Deaths

January–June

• January 7 - Big Jim Fisk, American financier
• January 9 - Henry Halleck, American general
• January 13 - William Scamp, English architect and engineer
• January 21 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer
• March or April - Mercator Cooper, American sea captain
• March 8 - Priscilla Susan Bury, British botanist
• March 11 - Emily Taylor, English schoolmistress
• March 12 - Zeng Guofan, Chinese official, military general and Confucian scholar
• March 15 - Jonathan Letterman, American surgeon, "father" of battlefield medicine.
• March 20 - William Wentworth, Australian explorer
• April 1
• * Frederick Maurice, English theologian
• * Hugo von Mohl, German botanist
• April 2 - Samuel Morse, American inventor
• April 16 - Adolf von Bonin, Prussian general
• June 4
• * Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer
• * Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, Dutch politician
• June 20 - Élie Frédéric Forey, Marshal of France

  July–December

• July 15 - Mary Eliza Herbert, Canadian publisher and writer
• July 18 - Benito Juárez, President of Mexico, of a heart attack
• September 1 - Robert Gray, first Bishop of Cape Town
• September 10 - Avram Iancu, Romanian Transylvanian insurgent
• September 13 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher
• September 18 - Charles XV, King of Sweden and Norway
• September 18 - Ana María Martínez de Nisser, Colombian heroine, writer
• October 4 - Vladimir Dal, Russian lexicographer
• October 10 - William H. Seward, 24th United States Secretary of State
• October 23 - Théophile Gautier, French writer
• October 25 - William F. Johnston, American politician
• November 6 - George Meade, American Civil War general
• November 23 - Sir John Bowring, British colonial administrator, 4th Governor of Hong Kong
• November 28 - Mary Somerville, British mathematician
• November 29 - Horace Greeley, American newspaper editor, Democratic presidential candidate
• December 15 - Lady Beaconsfield, wife of Benjamin Disraeli
• December 31 - Aleksis Kivi, Finnish novelist