1873
| 1873 in topic: |
| Subjects: Archaeology – Architecture – |
| Art – Literature (Poetry) – Music – Science |
| Sports – Rail Transport |
| Countries: Australia – Canada – China – France – Germany – Ireland – Mexico – Netherlands – New Zealand – Norway – South Africa – Spain – UK – USA |
| Leaders: State leaders – Colonial governors |
| Category: Establishments – Disestablishments |
| Births – Deaths – Works |
Year 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).
Events of 1873
January–March
April–June
- April 1 – The British steamer RMS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547.
- April 15 – 17 – Indian Wars: The Second Battle of the Stronghold is fought.
- May – Henry Rose exhibits barbed wire at an Illinois county fair, which is taken up by Joseph Glidden and Jacob Haish, who invent a machine to mass-produce it.
- May 9
- Der Krach: The Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression.
- Battle of Montejurra: Navarra, Spain was fought during the Third Carlist War.
- May 20
- Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received United States patent #139121 for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire.
- In Chipping Norton, England rioters attempt to free the Ascott Martyrs – sixteen women sentenced to imprisonment for attempting to dissuade strikebreakers.
- May 23
- May 28
- C. Laan brings order to the chaos created by the dockworker riots of Tripoli, Lebanon.
- The city of Khiva falls to Imperial Russian forces, under the command of General Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman.
- June 4 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War ends with the capture of Captain Jack.
- June 9 – Alexandra Palace in London is destroyed by fire only a fortnight after its opening.
July–September
- July 1 – Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
- July 21 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West (US$3,000 from the Rock Island Express).
- August 4 – Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the Seventh Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux, near the Tongue River (only 1 man on each side is killed).
- August 12 – A peace treaty is signed between Imperial Russia and the Khanate of Khiva, making the khanate a Russian protectorate.
- September 15 – International Meteorological Organization (IMO).
- September 16 – German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity for the Franco-Prussian War.
- September 17 – The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, later The Ohio State University, opens its doors with 25 students, including 2 women.
- September 18 – The New York stock market crash triggers the Panic of 1873, part of the Long Depression.
- September 25 – Classes begin at Drury University.
October–December
Undated
Births
January–June
- January 2 – Saint Therese of Lisieux, Catholic saint and mystic (d. 1897)
- January 7 – Adolph Zukor, Austrian-born film studio pioneer (d. 1976)
- January 8 – Iuliu Maniu, Romanian politician (d. 1953)
- January 10 – George Orton, Canadian athlete (d. 1958)
- January 12 – Spiridon Louis, Greek runner (d. 1940)
- January 20 – Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
- January 28 – Colette, French writer (d. 1954)
- January 30 – Vasily Balabanov, an administrator and Provincial Governor of Imperial Russia (d. 1947)
- February 2 – Maurice Tourneur, French film director (d. 1961)
- February 3 – Hugh Trenchard, British military aviation pioneer (d. 1956)
- February 3 – Karl Jatho, German aviation pioneer (d. 1933)
- February 4 – Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (d. 1905)
- February 13 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass opera singer (d. 1938)
- February 15 – Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
- February 25 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (d. 1921)
- March 3 – William Green, American labor leader (d. 1952)
- March 8 – Anna Held, French actress, (d. 1918)
- March 11 – David Horsley, English-born film executive (d. 1933)
- March 19 – Max Reger, German composer (d. 1916)
- April 1 (N.S.); March 20 (O.S.) – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist (d. 1943)
- April 7 – John McGraw, baseball player and manager (d. 1934)
- April 10 – Kyösti Kallio, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1940)
- April 19 – Sydney Barnes, English cricketer (d. 1967)
- April 22 – Ellen Glasgow, American writer (d. 1945)
- May – Leon Frank Czolgosz, assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (d. 1901)
- May 4 – Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d. 1940)
- May 9 – Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933)
- May 17
- Henri Barbusse, French novelist and journalist (d. 1935)
- Dorothy Richardson, English feminist writer (d. 1957)
- May 28 – D.D. Sheehan, Irish politician (d. 1948)
- June 3 – Otto Loewi, German-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1961)
- June 26 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1944)
July–December
- July 1 – Alice Guy-Blaché, French-American filmmaker (d. 1968)
- July 20 – Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviation pioneer (d. 1932)
- August 5 – Joseph Russell Knowland, American politician and newspaperman (d. 1966)
- August 13 – Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven
- August 17 – John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)
- August 25 – Blanche Bates, actress (d. 1941)
- August 26 – Lee De Forest, American inventor (d. 1961)
- September 1 – Sir Guy Standing, British actor (d. 1937)
- September 5 – Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, engineer (d. 1942)
- September 8 – David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1970)
- September 20
- Sidney Olcott, pioneer film director (d. 1949)
- Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (d. 1944)
- September 21 – Papa Jack Laine, jazz musician (d. 1966)
- September 26 – Wacław Berent, Polish novelist and translator (d. 1940)
- October 2 – Stephen Warfield Gambrill, U.S. Congressman for Maryland's 5th District (d. 1924)
- October 3 – Emily Post, American etiquette expert (d. 1960)
- October 9 – Charles Rudolph Walgreen, American businessman (d. 1939)
- October 14 – Ray Ewry, American athlete (d. 1937)
- October 19
- Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (d. 1925)
- John Barton King, American cricketer (d. 1965)
- October 26
- November 16 – W. C. Handy, American blues composer (d. 1958)
- November 22 – Johnny Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1930)
- December 7 – Willa Siebert Cather, American novelist (d. 1947)
- December 11 – Josip Plemelj, Slovenian mathematician (d. 1967)
- December 17 – Ford Madox Ford, English writer (d. 1939)
- December 20 – Kwan-Ichi Asakawa, Japanese historian(d. 1948)
- December 26 – Thomas Wass, Nottinghamshire bowler (d. 1953)
- December 30 – Al Smith, American politician (d. 1944)
- date unknown
- James Cousins, Irish writer (d. 1956)
- William Ernest Hocking, American philosopher (d. 1966)
Deaths
January–June
- January 9 – Napoleon III, last Emperor of the French (b. 1808)
- January 18 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English writer (b. 1803)
- January 23 – Jothi Ramalinga Swamigal, Hindu religious leader (b. 1823)
- January 29 – The Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (b. 1799)
- February 3 – Isaac Baker Brown, English gynaecologist and surgeon (b. 1811)
- February 7 – Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish writer (b. 1814)
- February 19 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1837)
- March 10 – John Torrey, American botanist (b. 1796)
- March 24 – Mary Ann Cotton, English serial killer (b. 1832)
- March 25 – Wilhelm Marstrand, Danish painter (b. 1810)
- April 11 – Edward Canby, U.S. general (b. 1817)
- April 18 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)
- April 27 – William Charles Macready, English actor (b. 1793)
- May 4 – David Livingstone, Scottish explorer of Africa (b. 1813)
- May 6 – José Antonio Páez, first President of Venezuela (b. 1790)
- May 7 – Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1808)
- May 8 – John Stuart Mill, British philosopher (b. 1806)
- May 15 – Alexandru Ioan Cuza, first ruler of Romania (b. 1820)
- May 20 – George-Étienne Cartier, Canadian statesman (b. 1814)
- May 29 – Edouard de Verneuil, palaeontologist (b. 1805)
- June 1 – Joseph Howe, Canadian politician (b. 1804)
July–December
- August 18 – Charles II, Duke of Brunswick (b. 1804)
- September 11 – Augustín Fernández Muñoz, Duke of Riansares, morganatic husband of Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies
- September 17 – Alexander Berry, Scottish adventurer and Australian pioneer (b. 1781)
- September 22 – Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1801)
- September 23 – Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (b. 1823)
- October 5 – William Todd (1803–1873), American businessman, Canadian senate nominee (b. 1803)
- October 9 – George Ormerod, English historian and antiquarian (b. 1785)
- November 6 – Breton de los Herreros, Spanish playwright (b. 1796)
- December 14 – Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born geologist and naturalist (b. 1807)
- December 14 – Alexander Keith, Scottish brewer and mayor of halifax (b. 1795)
reference
- Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...for 1873 (1879) online edition, detailed worldwide coverage