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
★
January 1 -
Japan adopted the use of the Gregorian calendar.
★
January 17 -
Indian Wars: First Battle of the Stronghold during the
Modoc War.
★
February 11 -
Spanish Cortes deposes King
Amadeus I and proclaims the
First Spanish Republic.
★
February 12 - Former foreign minister
Emilio Castelar becomes prime minister of the new Spanish Republic.
★
February 20 - The
University of California opens its first
medical school in
San Francisco, California.
★
March 1 -
E. Remington and Sons of
Ilion, New York start production of the first practical
typewriter.
★
March 3 -
Censorship: The
U.S. Congress enacts the
Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
★
March 4 -
President Ulysses S. Grant begins his second term.
★
March 15 - The
Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at the
University of Massachusetts.
April - June
★
April 1 - The
British steamer
RMS ''Atlantic'' sinks off
Nova Scotia killing 547.
★
April 15 -
17 -
Indian Wars: Second Battle of the Stronghold.
★ 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'': Vienna stock market crash heralds
Long Depression .
★
May 23
★
★ The
Canadian Parliament establishes the
North West Mounted Police (which will be renamed the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
1920).
★
★ First running of the
Preakness Stakes horse race in
Baltimore, Maryland
★
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 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 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, clash for the first time with the
Sioux (near the
Tongue River; only one 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 16 -
German troops leave
France upon completion of payment of indemnity for
Franco-Prussian War.
★
September 17 - The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, later
The Ohio State University, opens its doors with 25 students, including two women.
★
September 18 -
New York stock market crash, triggering the
panic of 1873 (again part of the Long Depression).
★
September 25 - Classes begin at
Drury University.
October - December
★
November 6 - Formation of the
Halifax Rugby Club.
★
November 7 -
Alexander Mackenzie becomes
Canada's second
prime minister.
★
November 17 - From
Pest,
Buda and
Óbuda,
Budapest, Hungary's capital is formed.
★
December 15 - Women of
Fredonia,
New York march against the retail liquor dealers in town to inaugurate the Woman's Crusade of 1873-74. This led to the creation of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
★
December 16 -
Heineken brewery is founded in
Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.
★
December 21 -
Francis Garnier is attacked outside of
Hanoi by Black Flag mercenaries fighting for the Vietnamese.
Undated
★
Toronto Argonauts are founded. The oldest pro sports team still playing in North America.
★
Rangers F.C. are founded.
★ The
United Kingdom declares war against
Ghana's King Kofi KariKari, who was involved in the trading of
slaves. The war ended by July and the British established the
Gold Coast Colony.
★
Coors Brewing Company begins making
beer in
Golden, Colorado.
★
DDT first synthesized.
★ Swedish arms company
Bofors is incorporated.
★ In
Mexico,
Veracruz to
Mexico City railroad completed.
★ Royal Montreal Club in
Montreal, Quebec is founded, becoming the first permanent
golf club in
North America.
★ Britain puts pressure on Sultan Barghash Sayyid who closes slave markets in
Zanzibar
★
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composes
''The Tempest''
★ Womans Temperance League organized by
Eliza Daniel Stewart
★
Central Park is officially completed in
New York City,
New York.
★ Nine
Pekin ducks were imported to
Long Island, the first Pekins in the United States.
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 -
Karl Jatho, German aviation pioneer (d.
1933)
★
February 4 -
Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (d.
1905)
★
February 13 -
Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (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 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 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 17 -
John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d.
1946)
★
August 26 -
Lee De Forest, American inventor (d.
1961)
★
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
★
★
Thorvald Stauning,
Prime Minister of Denmark (d.
1942)
★
★
A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bengali statesman (d.
1962)
★
November 16 -
W. C. Handy, American blues composer (d.
1958)
★
November 22 -
Johnny Tyldesley, English cricketer (d.
1930)
★
December 7 -
Willa Cather, American novelist (d.
1947)
★
December 11 -
Josip Plemelj, Slovenian mathematician (d.
1967)
★
December 17 -
Ford Madox Ford, English writer (d.
1939)
★
December 26 -
Thomas Wass, Nottinghamshire
bowler (d.
1953)
★
December 30 -
Al Smith, American politician (d.
1944)
★ ''date unknown''
★
★
James Cousins, Irish writer (d.
1956)
★
★
Leon Frank Czolgosz, assassin of U.S. President
William McKinley (d.
1901)
★
★
William Ernest Hocking, American philosopher (d.
1966)
: ''See also .''
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 7 -
Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish writer (b.
1814)
★
February 19 -
Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b.
1837)
★
March 10 -
John Torrey, American botanist (b.
1796)
★
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 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 9 -
George Ormerod, English historian and antiquarian (b.
1785)
★
December 14 -
Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born geologist and naturalist (b.
1807)
: ''See also .''
Genealogical Resources
★
1873 Return of Owners of Land