Historical Events in 1872

Louis Riel's Exile

Mar 2 Louis Riel goes into voluntary exile in St. Paul, Minnesota

Mar 5 American engineer George Westinghouse patents triple air brake for trains

Mar 7 -8°F (-22°C) in Boston, Massachusetts
Mar 11 Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain
Mar 11 The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture
Mar 16 1st English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Wanderers defeat Royal Engineers, 1-0; Morton Betts scores winner
Mar 21 34th Grand National: John Page wins his second GN aboard 20/1 shot Casse Tete
Mar 22 Illinois becomes 1st state to require sexual equality in employment
Mar 26 7.8 earthquake shakes Owens Valley, California
Mar 26 Thomas J. Martin, of Alabama, receives a U.S. patent for a pipe and valve fire extinguisher system
Apr 1 1st edition of The Standard
Apr 2 US engineer George Brayton patents an internal combustion engine (Brayton Cycle)
Apr 9 Samuel R Percy patents dried milk
Apr 10 1st Arbor Day celebrated in Nebraska, later changed to Apr 22
Apr 10 1st National black convention meets in New Orleans
Apr 14 Dominion Lands Act passed: Canada's Homestead Act
Apr 14 San Francisco organizes Bar Association
Apr 24 Volcano Mt Vesuvius erupts in Italy

Apr 29 Jesse James' gang robs a bank of $1,500 in Columbia, Kentucky, killing bank employee Robert A.C. Martin during the crime

May 10 Victoria Woodhull becomes 1st woman nominated for US presidency by Equal Rights Party at Apollo Hall, NYC

May 16 Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for 1st time
May 17 Bohemian Club incorporated in San Francisco
May 22 Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners (except for 500)
Jun 1 6th Belmont: James Roe aboard Joe Daniels wins in 2:58.25
Jun 1 Charles Albanel's expedition sets off for Hudson Bay overland accompanied by sixteen Amerindian canoeists (they will be the first Europeans to reach it overland about 25 days later) [1]
Jun 5 Republican National Convention meets in Philadelphia
Jun 8 US Congress endorses penny post card
Jun 14 Trade unions are legalised in Canada
Jun 18 Woman's Suffrage Convention held at Merchantile Liberty Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jul 9 Doughnut cutter patents granted to John Blondel, Thomaston, Maine
Jul 18 The Ballot Act introduces the secret ballot in elections in Britain; previously votes made openly

Jul 23 African American inventor Elijah McCoy is granted a patent for lubricators for steam-engines

Jul 30 Mahlon Loomis patents wireless telegraphy
Aug 18 Aaron Montgomery Ward issues the first "catalog" for his mail-order business, it is one sheet listing 163 available items
Aug 22 Australia's Overland Telegraph Line connected - one of Australia's greatest logistical and engineering feats, allowed fast communications between Australia and the world for the first time [1]
Aug 23 1st Japanese commercial ship visits San Francisco, carrying tea

Sep 10 Karl Marx speaks in Amsterdam

Sep 13 British Open Men's Golf, Prestwick GC: Tom Morris, Jr. wins 4th consecutive title; beats fellow Scot Davie Strath by 3 strokes
Sep 14 Britain pays US$15½m for damages during Civil War
Sep 17 Phillip W. Pratt patents his sprinkler system for extinguishing fires
Sep 18 King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway
Sep 21 John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes first black student at Annapolis
Sep 24 Franz Grillparzer's "Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg" premieres in Vienna
Sep 26 The first Shriners Temple (called Mecca) was established in New York City.
Sep 28 "3 Fingers" Ranald Mackenzie destroys Kwahadi-Commanche village, Texas, killing 23 men and taking 120 women and children prisoner
Sep 29 Kiowa-chief Lone Wolf captures Satanta & Big Tree
Oct 2 Morgan State University founded
Oct 2 Phileas Fogg sets out on his journey as depicted in Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days"
Oct 3 Bloomingdale's department store in NY opens
Oct 12 Montreal Foot Ball Club 1st game playing Quebec City to 0-0 tie
Oct 29 J. S. Risdon of Genoa, Illinois, patents the metal windmill

Nov 5 American women's right to vote advocate Susan B. Anthony votes for Ulysses S. Grant

Nov 5 Ulysses S. Grant re-elected US President

Nov 7 Cargo ship Mary Celeste sails from Staten Island for Genoa; mysteriously found abandoned four weeks later
Nov 9 The Great Boston Fire of 1872. Close to 1,000 buildings destroyed
Nov 18 Suffragette Susan B. Anthony is arrested by a U.S. Deputy Marshal and charged with illegally voting
Nov 19 E.D. Barbour of Boston is awarded the first U.S. patent for the first 'calculator', an adding machine capable of printing totals and subtotals
Nov 22 Franz Grillparzer's "Die Judin von Toledo" premieres in Prague
Nov 29 Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River
Nov 30 First international soccer game, Scotland draws with England (0-0) in Glasgow
Dec 3 English Assyriologist George Smith reads his translation of The Great Flood from the "Epic of Gilgamesh" to the Society of Biblical Archaeology, with striking similarities to the later flood of Noah in "Genesis"
Dec 5 Ship the Mary Celeste is discovered mysteriously abandoned by her crew in the Atlantic Ocean
Dec 7 HMS Challenger sets sail on 3½ year world oceanographic cruise - first expedition to explore the deep sea successfully on a global scale [1]
Dec 11 Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback takes office in Louisiana as the first African American US Governor