On This Day

December 1872 in History

Events in History

  • 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
  • Dec 11 Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback takes office as the first African American US Govenor in Louisiana

Event of Interest

Dec 21 Phileas Fogg completes his round the world trip in 80 days, in Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days"

Jules Verne
Novelist Jules Verne
  • Dec 26 4th largest snowfall in NYC history (18")

Birthdays in History

  • Dec 7 Johan Huizinga, Dutch culture historian (Homo Ludens), born in Groningen, Netherlands (d. 1945)
  • Dec 10 Ludwig Klages, German philosopher (study of graves), born in Hannover, Germany (d. 1956)
  • Dec 16 Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian general (d. 1947)
  • Dec 21 Albert Payson Terhune, American novelist (Lad, a Dog), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1942)
  • Dec 22 Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist, born in Poitiers, France (d. 1961)
  • Dec 26 Norman Angell, British politician/cowboy/journalist, Nobel laureate (1933), (d. 1967)

Pío BarojaPío Baroja (1872-1956)

Dec 28 Spanish Basque writer, author of over 100 novels (The Struggle for Life, Zalacain the Adventurer), born in San Sebastián, Basque Country

Pío Baroja

Weddings in History

Brigham Young

Dec 8 American religious leader Brigham Young (71) weds his 55th and final wife, American poet Hannah Tapfield (68) in Salt Lake City, Utah

Brigham Young

Deaths in History

  • Dec 11 Kamehameha V, Hawaiian king (1863-72), dies at 42
  • Dec 12 Willem Anne Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, Dutch politician, dies at 72
  • Dec 13 Helena Beeloo, a maid, murdered by Henry Jut at the Hague, Netherlands
  • Dec 13 W T van der Kouwen-ten Cate, murdered by Henry Jut at the Hague, Netherlands
  • Dec 21 Ambrose R. Wright, American Civil War General, dies at 46
  • Dec 24 William John Macquorn Rankine, Scottish mechanical engineer and physicist, dies at 52
  • Dec 28 James Van Ness, Mayor of San Francisco (1855-1856) (b. 1808)
  • Dec 31 Aleksis Kivi, Finnish writer and poet (Kanervala), dies at 38

Historical Figures

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