1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-March

• January 2 - Fred Spofforth claims the first Hat-trick in test cricket.
• January 11 - Anglo-Zulu War begins.
• January 22 - Zulu troops massacre British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.
• February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
• February 14 - At Antofagasta, Chile: Chilean troops disembark in this port, then Bolivian. This is the beginning of the War of the Pacific between Chile and the joint forces of Peru and Bolivia.
• February 15 - Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
• February 22 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created
• March 13 - Marriage of The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, to Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.
• March 14 - Albert Einstein: is born, and he would go on to revolutionise modern Physics.
• March 29 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

May-December

• May 26 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
• May 30 - New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
• July 4 - Taughannock Giant unearthed on the shore of Lake Cayuga in Ithaca (later proven to be a hoax).
• July 19 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots-up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
• August 21 - Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared in Knock to local people.
• October 21 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).
• December 28 - The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
• December 30 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).
• December 31 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey).

unknown dates

• Hall effect discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
• Somerville College founded
• Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by Jožef Stefan
• Dual Alliance formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary

Births

January-April

• January 3 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady
• January 12 - Ray Harroun, first winner of the Indianapolis 500 (d. 1968)
• January 13 - Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International
• January 28 - Francis Picabia, painter, poet
• February 22 - J. N. Brønsted, physical chemist
• March 1 - Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b. 1825)
• March 8 - Otto Hahn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944 (d. 1968)
• March 14 - Albert Einstein, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics 1921 (d. 1955)
• March 26 - Othmar Ammann, engineer, Verrazano Narrows Bridge (d. 1965)
• March 30 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater
• April 20 - Paul Poiret, French couturier (d. 1944)
• April 29 - Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)

May-December

• May 6 - Bedřich Hrzony´, Czech orientalist and linguist
• May 17 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d. 1926)
• May 19 - Nancy Astor, British parliamentarian (d. 1964)
• May 19 - Viscount Waldorf Astor, British businessman and politician (d. 1952)
• May 22 - Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (d. 1945)
• May 23 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman
• May 25 - Max Aitken, Statesman, newspaper baron (d. 1964)
• May 27 - Karl Bühler , psychologist (d. 1963)
• August 31 - Emperor Yoshihito, 123rd Emperor of Japan
• September 14 - Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate
• September 15 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
• September 20 – Victor Sjöström, Sweedish film actor and director (d. 1960)
• October 2 - Wallace Stevens, American Poet (d. 1955)
• October 3 - Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor (d. 1938)
• October 21 - Joseph Canteloube French composer and singer
• October 29 - Leon Trotsky - Russian revolutionary
• November 10 - Patrick Pearse Irish patriot and leader of the 1916 Easter Rising
• November 26 - Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)
• December 3 - Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer
• December 18 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist
• December 21 - Joseph Stalin - Soviet leader
• December 28 - Billy Mitchell - military aviation pioneer

Deaths

• February 11 - Honoré Daumier, caricaturist/painter.
• February 11 - Willem J van Zeggelen , Dutch author.
• February 25 - Charles Peace, notorious British criminal (executed)
• March 30 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher.
• April 30 - Sarah Josepha Hale, United States author.
• June 1 - Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, only son of French Emperor Napoleon III, killed fighting the Zulus
• August 30 - John Bell Hood, Confederate general (b. 1831)