What Happened in December 1878

Historical Events

Anglo-Zulu War

Dec 11 Anglo-Zulu War: British high commissioner Henry Bartle Frere presents an ultimatum to the Zulu Kingdom to submit to British rule or face war
Learn More >>

Dec 12 Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing "St Louis Dispatch"
Dec 18 French SS Byzantin sinks after collision in Dardanelles, 210 killed
Dec 18 John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires, is executed in Pennsylvania
Dec 26 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia
Dec 28 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Quod apostolici muneris (socialism)

Famous Birthdays

Dec 1 Arthur B Spingarn, US NAACP-chairman (1940-65)
Dec 5 Arrigo Pedrollo, Italian composer, born in Montebello Vicentino, Veneto, Italy (d. 1964)
Dec 7 Akiko Yosano, Japanese poet (Tangled Hair), born in Sakai, Ōsaka, Japan (d. 1942)
Dec 10 C. Rajagopalachari, India's freedom fighter and the first Governor General of independent India, born in Thorapalli, Madras Presidency, British India (d. 1972)
Dec 15 Hans Carossa, German writer, born in Tölz, Bavaria (d. 1956)

Joseph Stalin

Dec 18 Joseph Stalin, Dictator and General Secretary of the Soviet Union (1941-53), born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1953)

Dec 19 Anton Lajovic, composer
Dec 21 Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish logician and philosopher, born in Lviv, Ukraine (d. 1956)
Dec 23 Stephen Timoshenko, Ukrainian-born mechanical engineer (d. 1972)
Dec 25 W Starling Burgess, yacht designer (America Cup's Enterprise)
Dec 25 Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver (d. 1941)
Dec 26 Isaiah Bowman, American geography/co-founder (Geographical Review)
Dec 30 William Aberhart, Canadian politician (d. 1943)
Dec 31 Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer (Anaconda, El Crimen del Otro), born in Salto, Uruguay (d. 1937)
Dec 31 Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman, born in Woodbridge, Ontario (d. 1966)

Famous Weddings

Wedding of Interest

Dec 4 Novelist Bram Stoker (31) weds Florence Balcombe (20) in Dublin, Ireland

Famous Deaths

Dec 10 Henry Wells, American businessman and founder (American Express Co & Wells Fargo & Co), dies at 72
Dec 14 Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse, dies at 35
Dec 19 Bayard Taylor, American author and poet (b. 1825)
Dec 25 Anna Claypoole Peale, American painter of miniatures, dies
Dec 28 José Bernardo Alcedo, Peruvian composer, dies at 90

On This Day