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
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, 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 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
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 , 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)
Genealogical Resources