1879

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Events

January–March

January 1
- The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War.
- Brahms' Violin Concerto is premiered in Leipzig with Joseph Joachim as soloist and the composer conducting.
January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
January 22 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Isandlwana: A force of 1,200 British soldiers is wiped out by over 20,000 Zulu warriors.
File:Isandhlwana.jpg
January 22: Battle of Isandlwana
January 23 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Rorke's Drift: Following the previous day's defeat, a smaller British force of 140 successfully repels an attack by 4,000 Zulus.
File:Alphonse de Neuville - The defence of Rorke's Drift 1879 - Google Art Project.jpg
January 22–23: Battle of Rorke's Drift
February 3 – Mosley Street in Newcastle upon Tyne (England) becomes the world's first public highway to be lit by the electric incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Swan.^[1]
February 8 – At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming first proposes the global adoption of standard time.
March 3 – United States Geological Survey is founded.
March 11 – The Ryukyu Domain is incorporated into the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan and the last ruler, Shō Tai, exiled to Tokyo.
March 25 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 76, B. 54, is premiered (four years after being written) in Prague with Adolf Čech conducting.
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

April – Postman Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal at Hauterives in France.
April 5 – War of the Pacific: Chile formally declares war on Bolivia and Peru.^[2]
April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.
April 26 – The National Park, later renamed the Royal National Park, is declared in New South Wales, Australia, the world's second-oldest purposed national park.
May 2 – The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is founded clandestinely at the Casa Labra tavern in Madrid, by printer Pablo Iglesias.^[3]
May 7 – The current constitution of the State of California in the United States is ratified.
May 10 – The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
May 12 – English Catholic convert John Henry Newman is elevated to Cardinal.
May 14 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji, aboard 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 – Anglo-Zulu War: Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France, son of Napoléon III, is killed in Africa while attached to the British Army.^[4]
June 4 – Yasukuni Shrine is officially renamed from Tokyo Shokonsha Shrine in Japan.^[5]
June 6 – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going steamer to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, on the River Clyde in Scotland.^[6] On October 2 they launch the first transatlantic steamer of the same material, the SS Buenos Ayrean; on December 1 she makes her maiden voyage out of Glasgow, bound for South America.^[7]
June 14 – Sidney Faithorn Green, a priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.
June 21 – German chemical company Linde is founded by Carl von Linde.
June 30 – The 1879 Surigao earthquake measuring Template:M 7.4 causes major damage in the northern tip of Mindanao Island.^[8]

July–September

July 1
- An 8.0 earthquake shakes southern Gansu, killing 22,000 people.
- American Christian Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.
July 4 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Ulundi: A British victory effectively ends the war.^[9]
July 8 – Led by George W. De Long, the ill-fated United States Jeannette Expedition departs San Francisco, in an attempt to reach the North Pole, by pioneering a route through the Bering Strait.
July 16 – The city of Kotka is founded in Kymenlaakso, Finland, by separating its two islands from the old Kymi parish.^[10]
August 1 – Tokio Marine (insurer) is founded in Japan, as Tokio Marine Holdings.^[11]
August 16 – Fulham F.C. is founded in London as a church soccer team.
August 21 – Claimed apparition to local people at Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist and Jesus Christ (as the Lamb of God).
September – Henry George self-publishes his major work Progress and Poverty.^[12]
September 8 – A fire in The Octagon, Dunedin (New Zealand), claims 12 victims.
September 19 – The Blackpool Illuminations in England are switched on for the first time.
September 23 – The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society is founded.^[13]
September 25 – A fire in Deadwood, South Dakota, leaves 2,000 people homeless and 300 buildings destroyed; total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.
September 26 – Wilhelm Marr founds the Antisemitenliga (League of Antisemites),^[14] the first German organization committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to German culture posed by Jews.
September 29 – Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian reservation in Colorado.