1872

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s - 1870s - 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s

Years: 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 - 1872 - 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Heads of state in 1872

Events

January 2 - Brigham Young, is arrested for bigamy (25 wives).
February 20 - In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
March 1 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park
March 5 - George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
March 26 - Earthquake at Lone Pine, California with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 .
May 10 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
May 22 - Reconstruction: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
November - Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horace Greeley in the U.S. presidential election
November 5 - Womens suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time (on November 18 she was served an arrest warrant and in the subsequent trial she was fined $100 - she never paid the fine).
November 9 - Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street (the two day event destroyed about 65 acres of city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and caused US$60 million in damage).
November 26 - The San Francisco Evening Bulletin exposes one of the most notorious mining scandals in US history, The Great Diamond Hoax.
November 29 - Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
December 4 - The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship was abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged).
December 21 - HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography
Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition

Year in topic

Births

January 6 - Alexander Scriabin, composer (+ 1915)
January 31 - Zane Grey, writer (+ 1939)
March 7 - Piet Mondrian, painter (+ 1944)
May 18 - Bertrand Russell, philosopher and logician
May 31 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator.
July 1 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer
July 4 - Calvin Coolidge, American president
August 3 - King Haakon VII of Norway
August 15 - Shri Aurobindo
November 30 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (+ 1918

Deaths

January 7 - James Fisk, entrepreneur
April 2 - Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse code
June 4 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician
Germany, Death of Ludwig Feuerbach, German Philosophy
Benito Juarez
December 23 - Theophile Gautier, poet, novelist