What Happened in December 1878

Historical Events

  • Dec 1 1st White House telephone installed
  • Dec 3 Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah, Israel
  • Dec 9 Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500

Declaration of WarAnglo-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
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Napoleon, Prince Imperial, head of the House of Bonaparte, is killed during the Anglo-Zulu War
Napoleon, Prince Imperial, head of the House of Bonaparte, is killed during the Anglo-Zulu War
  • 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)

Person of interestJoseph Stalin

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

Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin
Soviet General Secretary
Joseph Stalin
  • 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


LoveWedding of Interest

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

Novelist Bram Stoker
Novelist
Bram Stoker

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, US painter of miniatures, dies
  • Dec 28 José Bernardo Alcedo, Peruvian composer, dies at 90