1879-1882
1879 Jan 1, E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster, English novelist famous for
"A Passage to India" and "A Room With a View," was born in
London.His novels exemplified his ideas about the conflict between the
imaginativeand the earthy component of the human soul and character.
(V.D.-H.K.p.366)(HN, 1/1/99)
1879 Jan 3, Grace Coolidge (Goodhue) First Lady: wife of 30thU.S.
President Calvin Coolidge [1923-29], was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1879 Jan 5, The shares of Homestake Mining Co. began trading onthe NY
Stock Exchange.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.CA1)
1879 Jan 22-24, Eighty-two British soldiers with rifles held off
attacks by 4,000 Zulu warriors with spears at the Battle of Rorke's Drift in South
Africa. A large British troop had just been massacred prior tothis battle. The
1964 film Zulu was based on this event.
(History Channel, 4/9/98)(HN, 1/22/00)
1879 Feb 15, President Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys
to argue cases before the Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1879 Feb 15, Congress authorized women lawyers to practice before the
Supreme Ct.
(440 Int'l., 2/15/99)
1879 Feb 22, Frank Winfield Woolworth's 'nothing over five cents' shop
opened at Utica, New York. It was the first chain store. The "Great5-Cent
Store" failed within weeks.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.B2)(AP, 2/22/99)(HN, 2/22/99)
1879 Mar 8, Otto Hahn, co-discoverer of nuclear fission, was born.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1879 Mar 12, The British Zulu War began. Colonel Henry EvelynWood had
expected little trouble as his cavalry ascended Hlobane Mountain.What he got
was a Zulu army, 22,000 men strong.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1879 Mar 13, New England Telephone and Bell Telephone merged tobecome
the National Bell Telephone Co.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1879 Mar 14, Albert Einstein (d.1955), German theoretical physicist,
born in Ulm, Germany.
(V.D.-H.K.p.325)(AP, 3/14/97)
1879 Mar 19, Jim Currie opened fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore
and Ben Porter near Marshall, Texas. His shots wounded Barrymore and kill
Porter.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1879 Mar 25, Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands,
formerly a vassal of China.
(HN, 3/25/99)
1879 Mar 27, Edward Steichen, pioneer of American photography,was
born.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1879 Mar 28, British mounted troops under Colonel Henry EvelynWood
went up Hlobane Mountain to battle the Zulus-only to be surroundedby a
22,000-man impi (army). Lieutenant Colonel Redvers Buller, receivedthe Victoria
Cross for his gallantry during the difficult withdrawal ofhis troopers from the
mountain. Hlobane was the worst rout of British cavalry-andthe last Zulu
victory-of the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
(HN, 3/12/98)(HN, 3/28/99)
1879 Mar 29, British troops of the 90th Light Infantry
Regimentrepulsed a major attack by Zulu tribesmen in northwest Zululand.
Jubilantover their victory at Hlobane the day before, the Zulus prepared to
finishoff the British at Khambula. This time, however, the outcome was
differentas the Zulus vainly assaulted British foes who were dug in and ready
forthem. The assault, depicted in "The Battle of Khambula" by Angus
McBride,ended in failure for the Zulus, leaving them doubting for the first
timetheir ability to win the Anglo-Zulu War.
(HN, 3/29/99)
1879 Apr 9, W.C. Fields (Claude William Dukinfield), comedian,was
born.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1879 Apr 20, The first mobile home (horse drawn) was used in ajourney
from London to Cyprus. [what about Gypsy wagons, Conestoga wagons?]
(HN, 4/20/98)
1879 Apr 29, Sir Thomas Beecham, founder of London Philharmonic, was
born.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1879 May 19, Lord Waldorf Astor, British publisher, was born.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1879 May 19, Lady Nancy Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne) was born.She was
the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1879 May 21, The Battle of Iquiquw was fought.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1879 May 31, New York's Madison Square Garden opened its doors.
(HN, 5/31/98)
1879 Jun, Frank Woolworth added 10-cent items to the Great 5-Cent
Store in Lancaster, Pa., and created Woolworth's five-and-ten. It was his 2nd
attempt after a failure in Utica. He took in $127 during his firstday of
business.
(WSJ, 9/26/96, p.B1)(SFC,10/20/97, p.B2)
1879 Jul 4, Africaner Union was formed by Rev SJ du Toit at Cape
colony.
(Maggio, 98)
1879 Jul 4, Battle at Rorkes Drift: Britain ended attack on Zulus.
(Maggio, 98)
1879 Jul 5, Dwight Filley Davis (d. Nov 28, 1945 at 66), hallof famer,
tennis player, presidential aide, and Sec of War under Coolidge.He donated
tennis's Davis Cup in 1945.
(DT Internet 11/28/97)
1879 Jul 8, The first ship to use electric lights departed fromSan
Francisco, California.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1879 Aug 28, Cetewayo (or Cetshwayo), last of the great Zulu kings,
was captured by the British at the end of the Zulu wars.
(RTH, 8/28/99)
1879 Sep 17, Andrew "Rube" Foster, father of the Negro
baseballleagues, was born.
(HN, 9/17/98)
1879 Sep 29, Dissatisfied Ute Indians killed Agent Nathan Meeker and
nine others in the "Meeker Massacre."
(HN, 9/29/98)
1879 Oct 2, A dual alliance was formed between Austria and Germany, in
which the two countries agreed to come to the other's aid in the event of
aggression.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1879 Oct 21, Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light,his
carbon filament lamp, at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. It wasthe first
incandescent electric lamp.
(V.D.-H.K.p.270)(AP, 10/21/97)(HN, 10/21/98)
1879 Oct 26, Leon Trotsky (d.1940), a leader of the
BolshevikRevolution, was born. "Old age is the most unexpected of all the
thingsthat happen to a man." [see Nov 8]
(AP, 8/21/98)(HN, 10/26/98)
1879 Nov 4, William Penn Adair Rogers (d.1935) was born on a ranch in
Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). "I never met a man I didn't like."He
was widely loved during the 1920s and 1930s for his gentle humor andhomespun
philosophies. Part Cherokee Indian, Rogers once told a Bostonaudience, "My
ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they metthe boat." Rogers
got his show business start in 1902 doing rope tricksin a Wild West show. He
moved on to vaudeville and, by 1916, he was thewisecracking star of Florenz
Ziegfeld's "Follies." As a newspaper columnistand book author, Rogers
poked fun at important people and events, and hewas equally successful as a
motion picture actor. Rogers' film creditsinclude "A Connecticut
Yankee" in 1931 and "State Fair" in 1933. The nationmourned when
Will Rogers, along with pilot Wiley Post, were killed in anAlaska plane crash
on August 15, 1935. "Statesmen think they make history;but history makes
itself and drags the statesmen along."
(HFA, '96, p.18)(HNPD,
11/4/98)(HN, 11/4/98)(AP, 7/10/99)
1879 Nov 8, Leon Trotsky, Russian communist leader who rivaledLenin,
was born. [see Oct 26]
(HN, 11/6/98)
1879 Nov 10, Little Bighorn participant Major Marcus Reno wascaught
window-peeping at the daughter of his commanding officer--an offensefor which
he would be court-martialed.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1879 Dec 18, Paul Klee, Swiss abstract painter best known forThe
Mocker Mocked, was born.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1879 Dec 20, Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent
light at Menlo Park, N.J.
(AP, 12/20/97)
1879 Dec 21, Joseph Stalin, Communist leader of the Soviet Union
responsible for the killing of more than 10 million of his own people,was born.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1879 Dec 27, Thomas Nast paired the elephant and the donkey ina
political cartoon with an Abe Lincoln-like figure standing over a sleeping
elephant while a donkey with a tail labeled Delaware drags a hatless democrat
over a precipice.
(Hem, 8/96, p.84)
1879 Dec 31, Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric
incandescent light in Menlo Park, N.J. and took out a patent.
(AP, 12/31/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1879 Cezanne, French painter, painted his Self-Portrait. He also began
work on "Auvers-Sur-Oise" (The Fence), which was completed in 1882.
On Jan 1, 2000, the $4.8 million Auvers painting was stolen from the Ashmoleum
Museum in Oxford.
(WSJ, 9/28/95, p.A-16)(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A2)
1879 Edgar Degas, while in New Orleans, painted "Miss La La atthe
Cirque Fernando."
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.9)
1879 Monet painted "Lavacourt in Winter."
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D6)
1879 Pissaro painted "Rabbit Warren at Pontoise, Snow."
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D6)
1879 In Paris Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted "Two Little
CircusGirls," a picture of Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg, jugglers in
theSpanish Cirque Fernande.
(DPCP 1984)
1879 John Singer Sargent began painting "The Spanish Dance."
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A20)
1879 Dostoevsky wrote "The Brothers Karamazov."
(WSJ, 3/28/95, p.A-24)
1879 Henry George, economist, authored "Progress and
Poverty."He laid out tax ideas that were based on a single tax on the
value of land.He argued that the value of land was based on its location and
that thevalue of the land should flow to society as a whole rather than the
personwho holds title.
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.B1)
1879 Henrik Ibsen wrote his play "A Doll's House." Much of
thedialogue was written to move characters on and off stage.
(WSJ, 4/4/97, p.A7)(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)
1879 The Bishop's House at 219-223 S.W. Stark St. in Portland,Oregon,
was built by Archbishop Blanchet.
(Exc, 6/96, p.72)
1879 Chinese settlers built a temple dedicated to the river god, Bok
Kai, at Marysville, Ca., at the junction of the Yuba and Feather Rivers.
(HT, 3/97, p.10)
1879 The San Francisco Free Public Library was opened in Pacific Hall
on Bush St., between Kearny and Dupont (later Grant) streets.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1879 Gustave Niebaum, a Finnish sea captain, founded the Inglenook
Winery in the Napa Valley of California. It was later sold in pieces tomovie
director, Francis Ford Coppola, who bought a large part in 1975 andthe rest of
it in 1994-95.
(WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-20)
1879 The Bowery Mission in New York City was founded. Its broadgoal
was to "save mankind" and it served to aid the homeless.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A19)
1879 Robert Louis Stevenson, the future author of "The
AmateurEmigrant" and other works, embarked on a 6,000-mile journey from
his nativeScotland to see his ailing-and married-lover in California. Stevenson,better
known as the author of "Treasure Island," had often commented
cynicallyabout ardor and matrimony and must have realized the recklessness of
thisventure. There was no guarantee that the object of his
affection-Frances(Fanny) Vandegrift Osbourne, would abandon her comfortable
life and runoff with the then-little-known author. Yet he seemed compelled to
makethe appeal, telling a friend that "No man is of any use until he has
daredeverything." The pair married on May 19, 1880.
(HNQ, 9/6/98)
1879 Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes had the first White House telephone
installed.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.D1)
1879 Congress passed a law that banned ships from bringing morethan 15
Chinese passengers to the US at one time.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1879 Texas passed legislation that made gay and lesbian activity a
crime. The law was modified in 1993 to make homosexual sex a misdemeanor with a
fine up to $500.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.A6)(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A7)
1879 In SF police arrested dancer Mabel Santly for indecent exposure
following a vilification of the Can-can by the SF Chronicle. She was fined $300
for failing to keep her skirts around her ankles.
(SFEM,11/30/97, p.20)
1879 P.T. Barnum (60) teamed up with James A. Bailey to
create"The Greatest Show on Earth."
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
1879 Adolph Sutro returned to SF after becoming a millionairefrom
building a tunnel at the silver mines of the Nevada Comstock Lode.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1879 Genesee Brewing began producing beer in Rochester, NY.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.B2)
1879 The first electric arc lights were installed in Cleveland.Some
women complained that the white light blanched their complexions ina most
ghastly manner.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.B5)
1879 George Frederick Armstrong, British scientist, spent a summer
measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in a garden in
Grasmere, England. He was able to determine that there did exist a diurnal rise
and fall in carbon dioxide concentration.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.246)
1879 Photogravure was invented. It involved the transfer of
photographic images onto a copper plate by acid-etching. The plate is then
inked andpressed by hand onto artist's paper for a print of exceptional detail.
(WSJ, 1/28/99, p.A1)
1879 George Eastman of Rochester, New York, devised a ready-to-use
dry plate for photography. Eastman sought to improve the chemistry andthe
processes of photography that had, for 40 years, required subjectsto remain
perfectly still for exposure times of up to a minute.
(HN, 7/12/99)
1879 Radcliffe College was established as the "Harvard
Annex"for women who were denied access to Harvard. Its name was changed to
Radcliffe in 1894 in honor of Ann Radcliffe.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.A2)
1879 The striped bass was introduced into the San Francisco Bay. It
later became an indicator species of the Bay's health and an archenemy of the
Bay's native fishes.
(Pac. Disc., summer, '96, p.6)
1879 In Afghanistan Sher Ali died in Mazar-i-Shariff, andAmir
Muhammad Yaqub Khan took over until October 1879. Amir Muhammad YaqubKhan gave
up the following Afghan territories to the British: Kurram, Khyber,Michni,
Pishin, and Sibi. Afghans lost these territories permanently.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
1879 Gen'l. Roberts returned to Kabul to hang some Afghans
inpunishment for the murder of a British envoy. Roberts was besieged andanother
British force in southern Afghanistan was almost annihilated. Robertsretreated
in a march from Kabul to Kandahar.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1879 The Royal National Park, Australia's first national park,was officially
gazetted.
(Hem., 1/97, p.56)
1879 Sotirio Boulgaris, silver artisan, migrated from Greece toItaly.
(SFEM,7/28/96, p.32)
1879 In Japan the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was founded.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1879 In Hungary the Tisza River overflowed and destroyed 5,500of 5,800
houses in the town of Szeged.
(Hem., 6/98, p.127)
1879 The Peru Navy commissioned its first submarine, 21 yearsbefore
the US Navy did the same.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, zone 1, p.6)
1879-1883 In the War of the Pacific, Chile's army won the nitrate-rich
desert lands from Peru and Bolivia. The war was fought over the treatment of
Chilean investors in the desert territories. The area remained in contention
until a 1929 agreement proposed by Pres. Herbert Hoover.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1879-1889 Nietzsche wrote all his best books.
(V.D.-H.K.p.279)
1879-1914 http://www.worldwar1.com/tlalli.htm
1879-1940 Paul Klee, Swiss painter and etcher. His work included
"Geschwister" (Brother and Sister - 1930), an abstract painting of
3-dimensional interlocking planes. In 1996 it sold for $4.3 mil.
(WUD, 1994, p.790)(SFC, 7/2/96, p.E3)
1879-1940 Leon Trotsky: "Old age is the most unexpected of allthe
things that happen to a man."
(AP, 8//98)
1879-1944 Katharine Fullerton Gerould, American writer: The real
drawback to 'the simple life' is that it is not simple. If you are living it,
you positively can do nothing else. There is not time. "Funny how people
despise platitudes, when they are usually the truest thing going. A thing has
to be pretty true before it gets to be a platitude."
(AP, 7/5/97)(AP, 1/7/99)
1879-1949 Robert Lynd, British essayist: "Were I a philosopher, I
should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to
betaken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is oneof
the few occasions on which men become entirely alive."
(AP, 12/25/98)
1879-1950 Alfred Korzybski, Polish-American linguist: "There are
two ways to slice easily through life; to believe everything or to
doubteverything. Both ways save us from thinking."
(AP, 2/16/98)
1879-1951 John Erskine, American author and educator: "Opinion is that
exercise of the human will which helps us to make a decision without information."
(AP, 2/18/00)
1879-1953 Joseph Stalin, (Josif Vissarionovitch Dzhugashvili), Communist
party leader. He was Sec. of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from
1922-1953, and Premier from 1941-1953.
(AHD, 1971, p.1255)(AHD, p.1255)
1879-1955 Albert Einstein: "The most beautiful experience we can
have is the mysterious ... the fundamental emotion which stands at thecradle of
true art and true science."
(AP, 7/19/97)
1879-1955 Wallace Stevens, American poet and author: "All history
ismodern history."
(AP, 1/27/00)
1879-1958 Dorothy Canfield Fisher, American author and essayist: "Ifwe
would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what wewant to get
out of life that we give to the question of what to do witha two weeks' vacation,
we would be startled at our false standards andthe aimless procession of our
busy days."
(AP, 10/9/98)
1879-1959 Ethel Barrymore, American actress: "You must learn day
by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love,the
more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant
about-the more you have left when anything happens."
(AP, 8/7/98)
1879-1963 Lord Beveridge, British economist: "Scratch a pessimist, and
you find often a defender of privilege."
(AP, 3/25/99)
1879-1964 Viscountess Astor, American-born English
politician:"The penalty of success is to be bored by people who used to
snub you."
(AP, 6/13/97)
1879-1973 Edward Steichen, American photographer: "Every 10 years
a man should give himself a good kick in the pants."
(AP, 2/1/97)
1880 Jan 26, Douglas MacArthur (d.1964), U.S. general in WorldWar I,
was born. He was the youngest general in the U.S. Army in WW I.In World War II
he was the commander of all U.S. Army forces in the SouthPacific; in Korea he
commanded all United Nations forces. William Manchesterwrote his biography:
"American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur."
(BS, 5/3/98, p.13E)(HN, 1/26/99)
1880 Jan 27, Thomas Edison received a patent for his
electricincandescent lamp.
(AP, 1/27/98)
1880 Jan 29, W.C. Fields, comedian and actor, was born. His films
included David Copperfield and My Little Chickadee.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1880 Jan, Anselm Feuerbach, German painter and close friend ofJohannes
Brahms, died.
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p.320)
1880 Mar 8, President Rutherford B. Hays declared that the United
States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmusof
Panama.
(HN, 3/8/99)
1880 Mar 10, The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from
England. The organization had been founded in Britain by William Booth,a street
preacher. It drew on revivalism and attention-getting tactics.In 1980 Edward
McKinley authored "Marching To Glory," a definitive historyof the
army. In 1999 Diane Winston published "Red-Hot and Righteous," ahistory
of the army's efforts in New York up to 1950.
(AP, 3/10/98)(WSJ, 8/12/99, p.A20)
1880 Mar 23, John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patented the graincrushing
mill. This mill allowed flour production to increase by 70 percent.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1880 Mar 26, Duncan Hines, U.S. restaurant guide author, was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1880 Mar 31, Wabash, Ind., became the first town completely
illuminated by electrical lighting.
(AP, 3/31/97)(HN, 3/31/98)
1880 Mar, In NYC the Metropolitan Museum opened its new building on
Fifth Ave. Its crown jewel was the Cesnola collection of antiquitiesof Cypriot
artifacts collected by Luigi Palma de Cesnola. Cesnola was namedthe first
director.
(AM, 7/97, p.68)
1880 Apr 10, Frances Perkins, Labor secretary, first woman cabinet member
in an American Administration, was born.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1880 Apr 15, William Gladstone became Prime Minister of England.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1880 Apr 17, National Bell reached a settlement with Western Union and
became the American Bell Telephone Co.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1880 Apr 19, The Times war correspondent telephoned a report ofthe
battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news was sent from a field ofbattle in
this manner.
(HN, 4/19/99)
1880 May 11, A US Marshal and his deputies faced a group of farmers in
the San Joaquin Valley of California over a land dispute between thefarmers and
the Southern Pacific Railroad. The farmers had developed anirrigation system
that turned the land into a rich agricultural area andthe Railroad then claimed
the land for itself and won a suit to that effect.Seven men were killed in what
became known as the battle of Mussel Slough.
(Smith., 5/95, p.84)
1880 May 29, Oswald Spengler, German philosopher of history, was born.
He maintained that every culture grows, matures and decays. He wrote the book
"The Decline of the West."
(HN, 5/29/99)
1880 Jun 1, The first pay telephone was installed in theYale
Bank Building in New Haven, Conn.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1880 Jun 1, The U.S. census stood at 50,155,783.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1880 Jun 5, Wild woman of the west Myra Maybelle Shirley married Sam
Starr even though records show she was already married to Bruce Younger.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1880 Summer, Robert Louis Stevenson and his new wife, Fanny Osbourne,
honeymooned at Mount St. Helena. He moved to an abandoned mining camp inthe
Palisades cliffs above Napa Valley and worked on his novel
"TreasureIsland." He made notes for his book "Silverado
Squatters."
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T3)(SFC,11/25/97, p.A15)
1880 Jun 29, France annexed Tahiti.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1880 Jun 27, Helen Adams Keller (d. Jun 1, 1968 at 87) author,social
reformer, educator, lecturer, was born in Tuscumbia, Ala. She losther sight and
hearing at 19 months of age from a fever. She received acollege degree and
became an author (Let us Have Faith) and lecturer despitebeing blind and deaf
most of her life. Helen Keller died in Westport, Connecticut."No matter
how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his
indisputable right." "There is no king who has not had a slave among
his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his."
(DT Internet 6/1/97)(AP, 11/17/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.3)(AP,12/16/98)
1880 Jul 11, Jeannette Rankin, Congresswoman from Montana, thefirst
woman in Congress who also voted against U.S. participation in bothworld wars,
was born.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1880 Jul 25, Morris Raphel Cohen, American philosopher and
mathematician, was born.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1880 Aug 1, Sir Frederick Roberts freed the British
Afghanistangarrison of Kandahar from Afghan rebels.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1880 Aug 31, Queen Wilhelmina of Netherlands (d. Nov 28, 1962at 82)
was born. She reigned from 1890-1947.
(DT Internet 11/28/97)(YN, 8/31/99)
1880 Sep 12, H.L. Mencken (d. Jan 29, 1956), American author and
newspaperman for the Baltimore Sun, was born in Baltimore. He wrote
"TheAmerican Language." Nietzschean iconoclast H.L. Mencken referred
to "BoobusAmericanus" and was cynical about American democracy.
Mencken won fameas a journalist with the Baltimore Morning Herald and Baltimore
Sun, editorof The American Mercury magazine and as a literary critic. Very
popularin the post-WWI period, Mencken's literary criticism was instrumental
inbringing writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Ford Madox Ford and Sherwood Andersonto
the fore.
(AP, 9/12/97)(HNQ, 6/20/98)(HN, 9/12/98)
1880 Oct 14, Apache leader Victorio was slain in Mexico. [seeOct 15]
(HN, 10/14/98)
1880 Oct 15, Victorio, feared leader of the Minbreno Apache, was
killed by Mexican troops in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. [see Oct 14]
(HN, 10/15/98)
1880 Oct 27, Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Lee.
(AP, 10/27/97)
1880 Nov 1, Sholem Asch, Polish-born American novelist, was born. He
wrote "The Nazarene" and "The Apostle, Mary."
(HN, 11/1/99)
1880 Nov 2, James A. Garfield was elected 20th president. During the
Civil War, Garfield was a commander at the bloody fight at Chickamauga.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1880 Nov 21, Adolph Arthur "Harpo" Marx, inventive American
pantomimist who never spoke a line in his many movies, which he starred in
alongsidehis brothers, was born.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1880 Monet painted "Sunset on the Seine in Winter."
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D1)
1880 Thomas Moran painted "Lower Manhattan From Communipaw,
NewJersey."
(SFC,10/15/97, p.D3)
1880 Berthe Morisot painted the riverscape "Boats on the
Seine."
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.E7)
1880 Renoir began his painting "Luncheon of the Boating
Party,"["The Rower's Lunch"] the culmination of a decade of
riverscapes. It depicteda scene at the Restaurant Fournaise on the banks of the
Seine at a spotknown as La Grenouillere (the frog pond). It was completed in
1881 andsold to Duncan Philips in 1923 for $125,000.
(WSJ, 9/10/96, p.A16)(SFC, 10/30/96, p.E7)(DPCP 1984)
1880 Vincent Van Gogh ended his career as a theology student and began
painting.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1880 Joaquin Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), Brazilian mulatto
writer, wrote his novel "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas." The
Oxford Library of Latin America published a new edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1880 Gen. Lew Wallace (1827-1905) of Indiana published "Ben-Hur:
A Tale of the Christ." Some of book was written while Wallace was livingin
Santa Fe at El Palacio as the Territorial governor in the 1870s.
(WSJ, 2/14/96, p.A-15)(HT, 3/97, p.66)(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T7)
1880 "Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning" was
published.It was later made famous by a film version with Shirley Temple. It
waspartly set in Maienfeld, Switzerland.
(WSJ, 10/2/97, p.A11)
1880 In California Folsom Prison began operations.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.CA4)
1880 Caroline Romney hauled in printing presses to a tent witha
sawdust floor and started the Record in Durango, Colo.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1880 William Grace, shipping magnate, was elected mayor of NewYork City.
His election put the Irish in control of city politics.
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.A18)
1880 Maria Longworth Nichols founded the Rookwood Pottery firmin
Cincinnati. The firm operated until 1941. Decorators for the firm included
Albert Valentien, Carl Schmidt, Kataro Shirayamadani and Matthew Daly.
(SFC, 12/15/98, Z1 p.6)
1880 The industrial force exceeded the number of people engagedin
agriculture in the United States and Germany.
(V.D.-H.K.p.284)
1880 Tuscon, Arizona. The railroad came into the city.
(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.31)
1880 Juneau was born when prospectors hit a mother lode on Gastineau
Channel. Juneau was settled soon after a gold strike nearby by RichardHarris
and Joe Juneau.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.T10)(HNQ, 2/6/00)
1880 George M. Pullman established his own industrial communityat Lake
Calumet, south of Chicago. His company town provided homes for2,500 workers
along with schools, parks churches and a hotel.
(SFC, 7/1/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1880 The Przewalski's horse, a wild sub-species of an ancienttype was
discovered in Mongolia about this time. 1870s, The Russian explorer,Colonel
Nicholas Prjevalski, traveled through Mongolia. The wild horsesof the Mongolian
steppes are named after him.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.493)(SFC, 4/14/96, T-1)
1880 Woodsmen march west to Wisconsin clearing forests of whitepine,
yellow birch, hemlock, maple, and oak.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.51)
1880 Johnson Chestnut Whittaker, one of the first blacks to attend
West Point, was assaulted in his room by three masked men. No one confessed and
Whittaker was expelled when the school concluded that he faked theattack. In
1995 Pres. Clinton awards a military commission to Whittakerposthumously.
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-1)
1880 The Serajevo Brewery was built. Builders dug 3 wells down600 feet
to provide water for the brewery. The Austro-Hungarian empireruled Bosnia at
this time.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A8)
1880 Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky took Buddhist vows inCeylon
(now Sri Lanka).
(Smith., 5/95, p.120)
1880 A British effort to tunnel under the Channel stopped after1 1/2
miles. The Chunnel was completed in 1994.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1880 The Hermes harness makers of France added saddle-making totheir
manufacturing list.
(Hem., 7/95, p.27)
1880 The French colonized Polynesia.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T12)
1880 Heinrich Schliemann, German entrepreneur and archeologist,donated
the treasure he found at the site of Troy to Germany in 1881. Hehad dubbed the
collection "Priam's Treasure." The archeologist bequeathedthe
treasure "to the German people for undivided and eternal preservationin
the capital of the Reich" in 1880. [must have been on the cusp]
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)(WSJ, 4/17/96, p.A-18)
1880 Irish tenant farmers, seeking rent cuts after poor harvests,
staged a protest and refused to respond to eviction notices from estatemanager
Charles Boycott (thus immortalizing his name).
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1880 Sadiq Bey, an Egyptian army colonel, took the first
knownphotographs of Mecca and Medina. He traveled extensively between 1860-1880and
kept itineraries of his travels. The photos were sold to the Saudigovernment in
1998.
(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.W12)
1880 In Spain Captain Salvador Ordonez developed a new artillery piece
to defend harbors and military installations.
(G, Spring/98, p.5)
1880 In Zaire Catholicism became established. In 1980 Pope Johnvisited
Kinshasa for the centennial of Catholicism in Zaire.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)
1880s Lord Bryce published "The American Commonwealth."
(WSJ, 3/12/98, p.A16)
1880s Blacks fell prey to a resurgent Southern racism that culminated
in the rigid system of segregation and exploitation that went by the name of
"Jim Crow."
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.A6)
1880s Henry D. Cogswell, dentist, made a fortune in SF real estate. He
was a man of temperance and financed a number of fountains that weredonated to
cities in America, including the one in Washington D.C. on 7thSt.
(HT, 4/97, p.80)
1880s The Rockland Lime and Lumber Company burned local redwoodoff the
Big Sur coastline to produce lime from the naturally occurringlimestone. It was
then packed into barrels and shipped to Monterey andSF where it was used to
make cement. The site later became Limekiln StatePark.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T3)
1880s In great land runs of the US, settlers jumped the gun togo to
Oklahoma, which thus became nicknamed the Sooner State. In the Choctaw
language, Oklahoma means red human. [see 1889]
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-6)
1880s There was a petition to Congress by 52 Indians of
Yosemiterequesting $1 million to relinquish rights to the valley. There is no
recordof any response.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1880s The Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Co. was founded in St. Joseph, Mo.
The firm was sold to the R.T. Davis Milling Co. in the early 1890s.
(SFC,10/22/97, Z1 p.7)
1880s Margarete Steiff went into business making stuffed animals. In
the mid-1920s she introduced stuffed Jocko and other stuffed chimpanzees, named
after famous circus chimps.
(SFC, 5/20/98, Z1 p.6)
1880s Thomas Edison began zapping animals to demonstrate the supposed
danger of alternating current, a mode of power favored by his rival George
Westinghouse. This supposedly led to the development of the electric chair for
executing criminals.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A26)
1880s Anti-Semitism in France spread as a creed to the Catholic, royalist
right. A belief was rampant that there existed a Jewish "syndicate"
whose occult influence had shaped French affairs since the Revolution.This
belief inspired "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and a book
byEdouard Drumont titled "Jewish France" that sold through 200
editions.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A13)
1880s In Germany Louis Doberman, a night watchman and keeper ofthe
local dog pound, refined the dog that bears his name into a fiercecreature.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)
1880s Namibia was made a German protectorate and the deadly Deutsche
Schutzruppe "peacekeeping regiment" quelled the tribes. They
eventuallyannihilated 75% of the Herero and Nama peoples.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)
1880s El Mahdi, a Muslim leader, united the disparate tribes ofSudan.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1880s-1890s The art phenomenon of "tonalism" was a darker cousin
toImpressionism. Some of its practitioners were George Innes, Thomas
WilmerDewing and J. Alden Weir.
(WSJ, 11/2/99, p.A24)
1880s-1890s Lev Ivanov was the second balletmaster of the St. Petersburg
imperial theaters, assistant to Marius Petipa. In 1997 Roland John
Wileypublished "The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov."
(WSJ, 11/18/97, p.A20)
1880-1900 Rodin worked on his "Gates of Hell" over this period.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.D5)
1880-1914 This period of time is examined in through an economic perspective
by Guilio Gallarotti in his Anatomy of an International Monetary Regime:The
Classical Gold Standard 1880-1914.
(WSJ, 8/3/95, p.A-8)
1880-1920 The Beaux-Arts style defined Manhattan building over thisperiod.
It was named after the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where manyAmerican
architects studied. The style reflects a modern interpretationof classical
references, e.g. columns, domes, carved marble and workedbronze.
(WSJ, 4/22/97, p.A20)
1880-1920 The population of Congo was halved due to murder, starvation,
exhaustion, exposure, disease, and a lowered birth rate due to the exploitation
by King Leopold II.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)
1880-1932 Lytton Strachey, English biographer: "Uninterpreted truthis
as useless as buried gold."
(AP, 3/25/00)
1880-1936 Oswald Spengler, German philosopher, author of the Declineof the
West.
(AHD, 1971, p.1242)
1880-1942 Robert Musil, Austrian writer. His work included "The
ManWithout Qualities."
(SFEC, 1/31/99, BR p.9)
1880-1946 Arthur Dove, American painter, was a native of upstate NewYork and
received a stipend from Duncan Phillips at age 50 that allowedhim to paint full
time. He reduced natural forms to what he called "extractions" and
tried to create the sensory experience of being in nature.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.D3)(WSJ, 3/6/98, p.A13)
1880-1946 Channing Pollock, American author and dramatist: "Happinessis
a way station between too much and too little."
(AP, 10/27/99)
1880-1954 B.C. Forbes, Scottish journalist: "You have no idea how
bigthe other fellow's troubles are."
(AP, 12/17/98)
1880-1956 H.L. Mencken, American author and journalist: "It isthe
dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always
dull.""One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral
prejudicesof the world than one will be able to go to Hell without
perspiring." "Injusticeis relatively easy to bear; what stings is
justice."
(AP, 5/14/97)(AP, 6/14/98)(AP, 10/10/98)
1880-1958 Dame Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragist: "Never
loseyour temper with the press or the public is a major rule of political
life."
(AP, 3/21/99)
1880-1960 Kathleen Norris, American author: "Each and every one of
ushas one obligation, during the bewildered days of our pilgrimage here:the saving
of his own soul, and secondarily and incidentally thereby affectingfor good
such other souls as come under our influence."
(AP, 12/6/98)
1880-1962 R.H. Tawney, English historian, drew a strong connection between
Protestantism and the rise of capitalism.
(V.D.-H.K.p.167)
1880-1964 Sean O'Casey, Irish playwright: "It is my rule never to lose
me temper till it would be detrimental to keep it."
(AP, 3/17/00)
1881 Feb 5, Phoenix, Ariz., was incorporated.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1881 Feb 10, The Offenbach opera "Les Contes d'Hoffman"
(Talesof Hoffman) had its premiere at the Opera-Comique.
(WSJ, 11/18/96, p.A10)( LGC-HCS, p.310)
1881 Feb 19, Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic
beverages.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1881 Mar 13, Tsar Alexander II was assassinated when a bomb wasthrown
at him near his palace.
(HN, 3/13/99)
1881 Mar 18, Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth openedin
Madison Square Gardens.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1881
Apr 1, Anti-Jewish riots took place in Jerusalem.
(OTD)
1881
Apr 1, Kingdom post office in Netherlands opened.
(OTD)
1881 Apr 28, Billy the Kid was held in Lincoln County Courthouse jail,
near Carizozo N.M., but escaped and killed two guards. He used an1876
single-action army revolver made by Samuel Colt. The gun sold for$46,000 in
1998.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(AP, 7/14/97)(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W12)
1881 May 12, The Treaty of Bardo established Tunis [Tunisia] asa
French protectorate.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1881 May 17, Frederick Douglass was appointed recorder of deedsfor
Washington, D.C.
(HN, 5/17/98)
1881 May 21, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.
(CFA, '96, p.46)(AP, 5/21/97)
1881 May 24, Some 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess
Victoria sank near London, Ontario.
(AP, 5/24/97)
1881 Jul 2, Less than four months after his inauguration,
JamesGarfield, the 20th President of the US, was assassinated by Charles
J.Guiteau, who wished to be appointed consul to France, at the
Washingtonrailroad station. Garfield lived out the summer with a fractured
spineand seemed to be gaining strength until he caught a chill and died on
September19. Guiteau was apprehended at the time of the shooting and, in spite
ofan insanity defense, was convicted of murder. Chester Alan Arthur becamethe
21st President.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo,110)(WUD, 1994, p.85)(AP, 7/2/97)(HN,7/2/98)
(HNPD, 9/19/98)
1881 Jul 4, In Alabama Tuskegee Institute enrolled 30 students.It was
founded by former slave Booker T. Washington as a "normal" schooland
industrial institute where "colored" people with little or no
formalschooling could be trained as teachers and skilled workers.
(NH, 2/97, p.82)(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A22)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1881 Jul 14, Outlaw Billy the Kid (21), aka William Bonney orKid Antrim,
was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner,New Mexico. Billy had
been held in Lincoln County Courthouse jail but escapedand killed two guards.
The Kid had fled to Fort Sumner and on a tip, Garrettset out toward Fort Sumner
to find him, with lawmen John Poe and ThomasC. "Kip" McKinney.
According to some, Pete Maxwell had alerted Poe to theKid's whereabouts. Many
details about Billy the Kid's death are controversialbut, apparently, as he was
returning to Maxwell's house he came upon Poeand McKinney outside, unsure of
whether they were friends or foes. Garrettwas awaiting inside, and as the Kid
entered the room, Garrett shot himabove the heart. His tombstone read:
"Billy the Kid, boy bandit king. Hedied as he lived."
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T8,9)(AP, 7/14/97)(HNPD, 7/14/98)(SFC, 11/14/98,p.E3)
1881 Jul 20, Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive sincethe
Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops.
(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)
1881 Jul 22, The first volume of "The War of the Rebellion,"
acompilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,was
published.
(HN, 7/22/99)
1881 Jul, US Army Lt. Augustus W. Greely led a scientific expedition
to Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic and called the site Ft. Conger. 25
American soldiers set forth to establish a scientific base in the Arctic. There
were only 6 survivors. In 2000 Leonard Gurttridge authored "Ghostsof Cape
Sabine," which told their story.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.D12)
1881 Aug 6, Alexander Fleming (d.1955), British (Scottish)
bacteriologist who co-discovered penicillin in [1928] 1929, was born..
(AHD, 1971, p.501)(WUD, 1994, p.542)(HN, 8/6/98)
1881 Aug 12, Pioneering motion picture director Cecil B. DeMille was
born. Before becoming a household name in the early days of movie-making, he
attended the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts and in 1900 began working on
plays with his older brother William. The director, producer and screenwriter
was most famous for his movie "The Ten Commandments."
(HNPD, 8/12/98)(HN, 8/12/98)
1881 Aug 13, The first African-American nursing school openedat
Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1881 Sep 4, The Edison electric lighting system was switched onand
went into operation as a generator serving 85 paying customers.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1881 Sep 19, The 20th president of the United States, James
A.Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by assassin, Charles J. Guiteau.
(AP, 9/19/97)(AP, 11/14/97)
1881 Sep 20, Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the
United States, succeeding James A. Garfield, who had been assassinated.
(AP, 9/20/97)(HNPD, 9/19/98)
1881 Oct 25, Pablo Picasso (d.1973), painter and sculptor, wasborn in
Malaga, Spain. He worked in France and a painter and sculptor.Francoise Gilot was
the mother of 2 of his children. His work includes"Gilot," and
"Self-Portrait with a Palette" (1906). He immortalized theFrench
aperitif Pernod by including it in many paintings. "Picasso andDora"
was written by James Lord.
(V.D.-H.K.p.359)(WUD, 1994, p.1088)(SFC, 7/14/96, p.C11, illustr.)(SFC,
8/14/96, zz-1 p.4)(WSJ, 9/30/96, p.A14)(HN, 10/25/98)
1881 Oct 26, Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday
showed up at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, to disarm the Clanton and
McLaury boys, who were in violation of a ban on carrying guns in the city
limits. Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLowery were killed; Earp's brothers
were wounded. This was the notorious "Showdown at the OK Corral." In
1992 the"Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws" by Jay Robert
Nash was published.In 1999 Allan Barra published "Inventing Wyatt Earp:
His Life and ManyLegends."
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A3)(AP, 10/26/97)(SFEC, 6/14/98, p.T6)(SFEC,1/17/99, BR
p.5)
1881 Nov 7, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, two participants in Tombstone,
Arizona's, famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, were jailed as the hearings on
what happened in the fight grew near.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1881 Nov 14, Charles J. Guiteau went on trial for
assassinatingPresident Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following
year.
(AP, 11/14/97)
1881 Nov 15, The American Federation of Labor was founded. [seeNov 17]
(HN, 11/15/98)
1881 Nov 17, Under Samuel Gompers (d.1924), the Federation ofOrganized
Trades and Labor Union of the United States was formed--a precursorto the
American Federation of Labor. Gompers emigrated from England toNew York with
his family as a boy. He grew up working in a sweatshop andamid discussion about
labor reform. Gompers led the AFL for 40 years, sometimesusing strikes and
boycotts to demand workers' rights. He successfully changedthe unionism of the
19th century in the United States, uniting differentlabor groups and keeping
away from political influence to guide Americanlaborers. [see Nov 15]
(HNPD, 11/17/98)
1881 Nov 25, Pope John the 23rd was born Angelo Roncalli nearBergamo,
Italy.
(AP, 11/25/97)
1881 Dec 1, Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp were exonerated in court for
their action in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1881 Dec 10, Viscount Alexander of Tunis, British soldier, wasborn. He
took his title from his part in the Allied victories in NorthAfrica.
(HN, 12/10/99)
1881 Dec 20, Branch Ricky, President of the Brooklyn Dodgers who made
Jackie Robinson the first black to play in the modern major leaguesin 1947, was
born.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1881 Dec, German-born illustrator Thomas Nast made his
familiarillustration of "Merry Old Santa Claus" in Harper's Weekly.
(HNPD, 12/25/99)
1881 Claude Monet painted his landscape "Paysage Dans L'Ile Saint
Martin." It later ended up in the corporate collection of Reader's Digest.
(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.W16)
1881 Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted "On the Terrace," a
pictureof a young woman and a pink-cheeked child with the Seine in the
background.
(DPCP 1984)
1881 Rodin sculpted his "Eve."
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.46)
1881 In Japan Shibata Zeshin made a book of lacquer paintingson paper,
a medium that he alone mastered.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1881 "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Southern Cooking" by Abby
Fisher was published by the Women's Co-operative Printing Office.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1881 Helen Hunt Jackson (1831-1885) wrote "A Century of Dishonor:
The Early Crusade for Indian Reform."
(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.7)
1881 Henry James wrote his novel "The Portrait of a Lady."
Healso wrote his novella "Washington Square." Both books were later
madeinto films.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.D12)(SFC, 10/10/97, p.C1)
1881 Dankmar Adler, Chicago engineer, invited Louis Sullivan toform a
partnership. There was much work in Chicago after the Great Firethat destroyed
18,000 buildings and covered three square miles.
(Hem., 7/95, p.77)
1881 Rev. F.M. Warrington described the mining town of Bodie,Calif.,
as "a sea of sin, lashed by the tempests of lust and passion."
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.T1,3)
1881 Judge James Logan (d.1928) produced the loganberry, sayingthat he
invented it and raised it from a seed.
(SFC, 11/29/97, p.C3)
1881 The only recorded 19th-century incident in which Indian scouts
turned against the U.S. Army occurred at Cibicue Creek in Arizona Territory. At
Cibicue Creek, White Mountain Apache scouts were asked to campaign against
their own kin, resulting in a mutiny against the army soldiers. Three ofthe
mutinous scouts were later court-martialed and executed.
(HNQ, 2/27/99)
1881 MJB Inc., a coffee concern, was established in SF.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)
1881 The Tennessee Coal and Railroad Co. was renamed to the Tennessee
Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1881 Alice Freeman Palmer became the forward-thinking presidentof
Wellesley College after graduating from the Univ. of Mich. in 1876.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.12)
1881 The USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides) last sailed underfree
sail. It was restored in 1931 and visited ports on both coasts until1934. It
sailed again in 1997.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, Par p.14)(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A1)
1881 The city directory of San Francisco indicated 233,959 residents,
428 restaurants, 342 oyster saloons, 18 oyster dealers, 90 coffee saloons, 299
bakeries, 254 retail butchers, 205 fresh fruit sellers, some 1400 grocers and
an equal number of bars, 40 brewers and 15 champagne importers.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1881 The area around Bosnia was annexed by the Austro-HungarianEmpire
and Pope Leo XIII reasserted the Catholic Church with dioceses inSarajevo,
Banja Luka and Mostar.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A10)
1881 In Chile the Mapuches Indians made peace with the government.
Their name means "people of the earth."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A12)
1881 The French state finally relinquished its hold on the artsand turned
power over to the Societe des artistes Francais.
(Calg. Glen., 1996)
1881 Heinrich Schliemann, German entrepreneur and archeologist,donated
the treasure he found at the site of Troy to Germany in 1881. Hehad dubbed the
collection "Priam's Treasure." The archeologist bequeathedthe
treasure "to the German people for undivided and eternal preservationin
the capital of the Reich" in 1880.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)(WSJ, 4/17/96, p.A-18)
1881 In Japan the Asahi Shimbun newspaper became jointly ownedby Ryuhei
Murayama ans Riichi Ueno.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A19)
1881 Ottoman forces crushed Albanian resistance fightersat
Prizren. The League's leaders and families were arrested and deported.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1881-1890 The currency base of the US declined some 60% as the old Civil War
bonds are paid off. This led to panics and instability.
(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-8)
1881-1885 Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President under Garfield, was the21st
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1881-1885 Fort Hays, Kansas, was the temporary home to the black
"buffalo soldiers."
(NH, 7/98, p.30)
1881-1919 Some 59 laborers, mostly Chinese immigrants, were killed
inexplosions at the California Powder Works in Hercules. They were paid
12.5cents per hour.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
c.1881-1927 Mary Webb, Scottish religious leader: The more anybody
wants a thing, the more they do think others want it. "The well of
Providence is deep. It's the buckets we bring to it that are small."
(AP, 7/7/97)(AP, 12/9/98)
1881-1934 In Germany Ernst Paul Lehmann made tin toys over this period in
Brandenburg. His toys included a toy mule that kicked while pullinga cart
driven by a clown called "the balky mule." The toy was valued
at$1,500 in 1997.
(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.7)
1881-1945 Bela Bartok, Hungarian composer. His works include the opera:
"Bluebeard's Castle," and his pantomime score: "The Miraculous
Mandarin," which first premiered in Cologne in 1926. Also he wrote: a
Concerto forOrchestra, a Solo Violin Sonata, Third Piano Concerto, Four Pieces forOrchestra,
the Contata Profana, a folk ballad for chorus and soloists.
(WSJ, 8/24/95, p.A-14)
1881-1955 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit philosopher, author orthe
"Phenomenon of Man." Here he proposed the idea of the noosphere,
i.e.sphere of mind, so all the minds of all the humans on earth could be
conceivedof as both separate and as combined in one great, single intelligence.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)
1881-1958 Rose Macaulay, English poet and essayist: "Work is
adull thing; you cannot get away from that. The only agreeable existenceis one
of idleness, and that is not, unfortunately, always compatible withcontinuing
to exist at all."
(AP, 12/30/97)
1881-1959 Edgar A. Guest, American author, journalist and
poet:"The best of all the preachers are the men who live their
creeds."
(AP, 8/14/98)
1881-1960 Franklin Pierce Adams, F.P.A., American journalist, columnist,
humorist and author. "There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in
thecountry. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country really
needsis a good five-cent nickel."
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(AP, 5/8/99)
1881-1970 Alexander Kerensky, Russian revolutionary leader. He led amore
centrist group of revolutionaries as opposed to the extreme left minority group
of Lenin.
(V.D.-H.K.p.261)
1882 Jan 2, Oscar Wilde arrived in New York City and began totour the
US with lectures on the aesthetic movement.
(HT, 3/97, p.16)
1882 Jan 6, Sam Rayburn, U.S. congressman from Texas who becamethe
Speaker of the House of Representatives (1940-46, 1949-53), was born.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1882 Jan 18, A.A. [Alan Alexander] Milne, novelist, humorist and
journalist who wrote Winnie the Pooh, was born.
(HN, 1/18/99)
1882 Jan 25, Virginia Woolf (d.1941), English author, critic,was born.
She was a member of the intellectual circle known as the Bloomsbury Group and
wrote "Mrs. Dalloway" and "Orlando." "On the outskirts
of every agony sits some observant fellow who points." "I read the
Book of Job last night, I don't think God comes out of it well." "The
compensation of growing old was simply this: that the passions remain as strong
as ever, but onehas gained-at last! -- the power which adds the supreme flavor
to existence,the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it round,
slowly, inthe light." In 1997 Panthea Reid published: "Art and
Affection: A Lifeof Virginia Woolf." In 1998 Mitchell Leaska published:
"Granite and Rainbow:The Life of Virginia Woolf."
(AP, 7/6/97)(IW 12/29/97)(AP, 1/18/98)(SFC, 5/25/98, p.E6)(HN,1/25/99)
1882 Jan 30, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United
States, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y. He led the country out of the
GreatDepression and through most of World War II.
(AP, 1/30/98)(HN, 1/30/99)
1882 Feb 2, James Joyce (d.1941), Irish novelist and poet wasborn near
Dublin. He wrote "Ulysses" and "Portrait of an Artist as a
YoungMan." From "Ulysses": "History, Stephen said, is a
nightmare from whichI am trying to awake." In 1998 John Wyse Jackson and
Peter Costello publishedthe biography: "John Stanislaus Joyce: The
Voluminous Life and Genius ofJames Joyce's Father."
(AP, 6/22/98)(AP, 2/2/99)(HN, 2/2/99)
1882 Feb 7, American pugilist John L. Sullivan became the lastof the
bare-knuckle world heavyweight champions with his defeat of PattyRyan in
Mississippi City.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1882 Mar 22, US Congress outlawed polygamy. [see Morrill Act 1862]
(AP, 3/22/97)(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.39)
1882 Mar 24, German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlinthat he
had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1882 Apr 3, Outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back and killedin St.
Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang for a $5,000reward. Jesse
and Frank James, the bank robbing James brothers, were bornas Woodson and
Alexander.
(AP, 4/3/97)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)(HN, 4/3/99)
1882 Apr 25, French commander Henri Riviere seized the citadelof
Hanoi.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1882 Mar 29, The Knights of Columbus was granted a charter bythe state
of Connecticut.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1882 Apr 3, Outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph,Mo., by
Robert Ford, a member of his own gang. Jesse and Frank James, thebank robbing
James brothers, were born as Woodson and Alexander.
(AP, 4/3/97)(SFC,12/26/97, p.C22)
1882 Apr 26, Jessie Redmon Fauset, author, was born. Fauset'swork
included: "There Is confusion," "Plum Bun," "The
Chinaberry Tree,"and "American Style."
(440 Int'l. Internet, 4/26/97, p.5)
1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson , philosopher and author, died.He was
one of the original members of the Transcendental Club with Thoreauand Orestes Brownson.
(HNQ, 6/14/98)(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W11)
1882 May 6, Over President Arthur's veto, Congress passed theChinese
Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the UnitedStates for 10
years.
(AP, 5/6/97)
1882 May 9, Henry J. Kaiser, builder of Liberty Ships for U.S.war
effort, was born.
(HN, 5/9/98)
1882 May 22, The United States formally recognized Korea.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1882 Jun 17, Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (d.1971), Russian-bornU.S.
composer who wrote "The Rite of Spring" and "The Firebird"
among othersymphonies, was born. His work included "The Rake's
Progress" and "OedipusRex." The libretto for Rake's Progress was
written by W.H. Auden and ChesterKallman. "Sin cannot be undone, only
forgiven."
(WUD, 1994, p.1405)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(WSJ, 12/4/96,
p.A16)(HN,6/17/98)(AP, 12/29/99)
1882 Jun 30, Charles Guiteau the assassin of President Garfieldwas
hanged in a Washington jail.
(HNPD, 9/19/98)
1882 Jul 1, Susan Glapell, playwright, author of 'Alison's
House," was born.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1882 Jul 4, Telegraph Hill Observatory opened in SF.
(Maggio, 98)
1882 Jul 16, Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln,died of a
stroke.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1882 Jul 31, Belle and Sam Starr were charged with Horse stealing in
the Indian territory. Myra Maybelle Shirley (Belle Starr) was neithera belle
nor the star of any outlaw band and still remains a legendary wildwoman of the
Old West.
(HN, 7/31/98)
1882 Aug 3, Congress passed the Immigration Act, banning Chinese
immigration for ten years. The Chinese Exclusion Act barred laborers from China
and halted a massive immigration of Cantonese peasants.
(HN, 8/3/98)(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1882 Aug 27, Samuel Goldwyn, movie producer who formed the Goldwyn
film company, was born.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1882 Aug 28, Belle Benchley, the first female zoo director inthe
world, who directed the Zoological Gardens of San Diego, was born.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1882 Aug 29, Australia defeated England in cricket for the first time.
The following day a obituary appeared in the Sporting Times addressed to the
British team.
(HN, 8/29/98)
1882 Sep 5, The first Labor Day observance-a picnic and parade-was
held in New York City. Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of theNew
York City Central Labor Union, probably first suggested the celebrationin 1882
to recognize the contributions of workers to America. Parades likethe one in
Buffalo, New York, around 1900, soon became an important partof Labor Day
festivities. Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary ofthe New York City
Central Labor Union, probably first suggested the celebrationin 1882 to
recognize the contributions of workers to America. Local andregional Labor Day
observances spread across the nation until, on June28, 1894, the U.S. Congress
passed an act making the first Monday in Septembera legal holiday.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HNPD, 9/5/98)(HNQ, 9/7/98)
1882 Sep 18, The Pacific Stock Exchange was founded in SF as Local
Security Board in the basement of Wohl & Pollitz at 403 California.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.B1)(SFC, 7/24/98, p.B1)
1882 Oct 5, Robert Goddard, American rocket scientist who possessed
over 200 rocketry patents, was born.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1882 Oct 5, Outlaw Frank James surrendered in Missouri six months
after brother Jesse's assassination.
(HN, 10/5/98)
1882 Oct 18, Alexander Graham Bell made his historic telephonecall to
the mayor of Chicago.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1882 Oct 29, Jean Giraudoux, French dramatist, novelist and diplomat,
famous for his book "Tiger at the Gates," was born.
(HN, 10/29/98)
1882 Oct 30, William F. "Bull" Halsey, Jr., American
admiral,was born. He played an instrumental role in the defeat of Japan
duringWorld War II. The Japanese surrender was signed on his flagship, the
USSMissouri.
(HN, 10/30/99)
1882 Nov 2, Newly elected John Poe replaced Pat Garrett as sheriff of
Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1882 Nov 10, Frances Perkins, first US woman cabinet member--Secretary
of Labor, was born.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1882 Nov 14, Billy Clairborne, a survivor of the gunfight at the O.K.
Corral, lost his life in a shoot-out with Buckskin Frank Leslie.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1882 Nov 15, Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, wasborn in
Vienna, Austria. He came to the U.S. in 1894 and graduated fromHarvard Law
School in 1906. A close adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt,Frankfurter
helped recruit personnel for the New Deal. He was appointedassociate justice of
the Supreme Court in 1939 and served until 1962. Frankfurterdied on February
22, 1965. "There is no inevitability in history exceptas men make
it."
(AP, 2/27/98)(HNQ, 3/16/99)
1882 Dec 11, Fiorella H. La Guardia, mayor of New York City,
1933-1945, was born.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1882 Dec 28, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, English astronomerwho
confirmed Einstein's theory of relativity, was born.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1882 Claude Monet painted "The Cliff Walk (Pourville)." His
series of seaside cliff scenes are among his most dramatic paintings.
(DPCP 1984)
1882 John Singer Sargent painted "The Sulphur Match" and
"TheDaughters of Edward Boit." He also completed "El
Jaleo," the mural-scaledepiction of a Spanish dancer.
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A20)(WSJ, 8/5/99, p.A16)
1882 Vincent Van Gogh painted "The Wounded Veteran.'
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1882 Ignatius Donnelly wrote "Atlantis: The Antediluvian
World."
(SFEC, 7/26/98, BR p.3)
1882 J.A. Gillet and W.J. Rolfe published "The Heavens
Above,"a popular handbook of astronomy.
(NH, 10/98, p.87)
1882 Leslie Stephen, the father of Virginia Woolf, began writing the
"Dictionary of National Biography." It was published over the
years1890-1911.
(WSJ, 11/12/99, p.W13)
1882 Henrik Ibsen wrote his moral melodrama "An Enemy of the
People."
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)
1882 The maternal grandfather of jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers published
"A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies."
(SFEC, 8/10/97, DB p.41)
1882 Brahms completed his "Piano Concerto in B flat M."
(BLW, 1963 ed. p. 19)
1882 The six tone poems "Ma Vlast" (My Homeland) by Czech
composer Smetana were first performed in their entirety.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.D6)
1882 The first performance of Richard Wagner's opera
"Parsifal."
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A14)
1882 The Golden Gate Park Band was founded in San Francisco andbegan
performing annual concerts in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 7/3/96, p.E1)
1882 In Colorado Bat Masterson served as the town Marshall ofTrinidad.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A6)
1882 In Colorado the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was
completed to haul gold, silver and other minerals.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.T5)
1882 In Colorado Bat Masterson served as the town Marshall ofTrinidad.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A5)
1882 The Knights of Columbus, a benevolent society of Roman Catholic
men, was founded in the US.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)
1882 Marshall Virgil Earp and his brother Wyatt left Tombstone,Arizona.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A3)
1882 Pres. Chester Arthur approved new borders for the Hopi
reservation, a 1.6 million-acre site in the center of 17 million acres of
Navajo landin the 4 Corners area of the Southwest. A 3,863 sq. mile area was
set upas a Hopi reservation. The intent was to keep Mormon settlers away
fromHopi pueblos. The Hopi Reservation was formed on territory historicallyused
by both Hopi and Navajo.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A4)(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 5/4/97, z1 p.4)
1882 Theodore Roosevelt described Thomas Jefferson as "perhapsthe
most incapable executive that ever filled the presidential
chair."Roosevelt added, "It would be difficult to imagine a man less
fit to guidea state with honor and safety through the stormy times that marked
theopening of the present century."
(HNQ, 9/21/98)
1882 Barbed wire was used to fence the west at this time. Specimens
were later put on display at Oracle Junction, Arizona, and included Dodge and
Washburn and Ellwood "Spread."
(NOHY, 3/90, p.173)
1882 Charles M. Bergstresser bankrolled a publishing venture with
Charles Dow and Edward Jones and established the new agency known as
theCustomer's Afternoon Letter. Bergstresser dubbed it the Wall street
Journalin 1889. Dow and Jones left the Kiernan New Agency to launch Dow
Jones.Dow developed an initial stock average containing 11 stocks, which
appearedin the Customer's Afternoon Letter, a 2-page bulletin that developed
intothe WSJ.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. C-1)(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.C15)
1882 The Standard Oil Trust began and issued its first stock signed by
John D. Rockefeller. The trust was preceded by the Standard Oil Company. All
pre-1920 stocks were printed by the American Banknote Co. John D. Rockefeller
by this time had acquired 77 separate oil companies and controlled some90
percent of the refinery and pipeline business in the country throughthe
Standard Oil Trust.
(Cont, 12/97, p.58)(HNQ, 1/23/00)
1882 The factory of the Racine Silver Plate Co. burned down. Itwas
re-opened a year later in Rockford, Ill.
(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.7)
1882 The Royal Worcester pottery company in England began making the
"Asthetic" or "Oscar Wilde" teapots. They depicted a man on
one sideand a woman on the other and were inspired by the Gilbert and
Sullivanoperetta "Patience."
(SFC, 12/30/96, z-1 p.2)
1882 Thomas Edison manufactured electricity generators that fetched
$33,000 in 1994 as a collector's antique.
(WSJ, 12/9/94, p.R-8)
1882 Edison Electric installed a power grid in Manhattan thatwrecked
telephone reception.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1882 In Chicago electric streetcars began running and createdhavoc
with the telephone system.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.13)
1882 The electric iron was patented.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1882 Electric lights were first used on a Christmas tree.
(SFC, 12/23/98, Z1 p.3)
c1882 Thomas Doolittle began manufacturing new hard-drawn copper wire.
Angus Hibbard, field operation manager for American Bell, began touse the new
wire to replace the old iron lines.
(SFEM, 1/11/98, p.14)
1882 Charles Darwin, naturalist, died.
(NH, 8/96, p.56)
1882 Alexander Hamilton Stephens was elected governor of Georgia but
died after serving just a few months.
(HNQ, 5/24/98)
1882 In London euphoric investors pushed up the stock prices ofthe
first companies to issue shares for companies with new patents forequipment to
power electric lights.
(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.B1)
1882 Parliament passed the Electric Lights Act to regulate electric
utilities.
(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.B1)
1882 The central Bank of Japan was established.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B2)
1882-1943 In the US the Chinese Exclusion Act was in force. [see May6, 1882]
The Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of Chineselaborers into
the United States, was first passed in 1882 and then repealedby Congress in
1943. Strong anti-Chinese feeling in the West led to the1882 act, which was
extended for 10 years in 1894 and indefinitely in 1902.The laws were finally
repealed in 1943 but only after the Chinese populationin the U.S. had declined
dramatically.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, DB p.27)(HNQ, 9/9/98)
1882-1844 Jean Giradoux, French novelist, playwright and diplomat. Hewrote
"The Mad Woman of Chaillot." It was later adopted by playwright
MauriceValency (1903-1996) in a New York production with Audrey Hepburn.
(WUD, 1994, p.1679)(SFEC, 9/30/96, p.A23)
1882-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the US.
(AHD, 1971, p. 1127)
1882-1947 Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor of New York City: "The devil
is easy to identify. He appears when you're terribly tired and makes avery
reasonable request which you know you shouldn't grant." He amassedhuge
debts in the course of infrastructure improvements that lasted tothe end of the
century.
(AP, 1/8/98)(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A20)
1882-1961 Percy Williams Bridgeman, American scientist: "Thereis
no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea."
(AP, 8/10/97)
1882-1961 Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the U-S House of Representatives:
"When you get too big a majority, you're immediately in trouble."
(AP, 2/10/97)
1882-1944 Hendrik Willem van Loon, Dutch-American journalist and lecturer:
"Any frontal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses
arealways ready to defend their most precious possession -- their
ignorance."
(AP, 12/7/98)
1882-1945 N.C. Wyeth, American artist.
(Hem., 6/98, p.133)
1882-1950 James Stephens, Irish poet and novelist: "Originality doesnot
consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what
you think yourself."
(AP, 5/21/99)
1882-1958 George Jean Nathan, American author and critic: "Love demands
infinitely less than friendship."
(AP, 4/30/99)
1882-1963 Georges Braque, French cubist painter, was born in Argenteuil,
near Paris. He said of his work that: "The aim is not to reconstitute
ananecdotal fact, but to constitute a pictorial fact." He was shot in
thehead during WW I and had his head drilled to relieve the pressure.
His"Billiard Tables" series was painted between 1944 and 1949.
(V.D.-H.K.p.359-360)(AHD, 1971, p.160)(WSJ, 5/7/97, p.A16)
1882-1967 Geraldine Farrar, American opera singer. She was very photogenic
and starred in a dozen silent films. She is discussed in the 1997 book"The
American Opera Singer" by Peter G. Davis.
(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.A20)
1882-1967 Edward Hopper, American artist, born in Nyack, N.Y. He studied in
Paris but never painted in the abstract. He often used his wife, artist
Josephine Nivison (d.1968, as his model. He was the first artist to paint the
American scene as a desolate, vacant place. A biography of Mr. Hopper and his
44 years with Josephine was published in 1995 by Gail Levin titled Edward
Hopper. In 1998 the Whitney Museum published: "Edward Hopper: AJournal of
His Work."
(WSJ, 6/28/95, p.A-16)(WSJ, 10/4/95, p.A-12)(SFEC, 3/15/98, BRp.7)
1882-1967 Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist: "When yourwork
speaks for itself, don't interrupt." "Trouble is only opportunityin
work clothes."
(AP, 12/2/99)
1882-1975 Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, British writer and humorist,he produced
93 books and countless articles and short stories. He was thecreator of the two
great comic characters: Bertie Wooster and his valet,Jeeves.
(Hem., 10/'95, p.109)