1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January 2 - Brigham Young, is arrested for bigamy (25 wives).
• January 12 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 200 years.
• February 20 - In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
• March 1 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park
• March 5 - George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
• March 5 - The case of Tichborne Claimant decided against the claimant Arthur Orton
• March 26 - Earthquake at Lone Pine, California with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 .

May - August

• May 10 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
• May 22 - Reconstruction: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
• June 14 - Trade unions legalised in Canada.[1]

September - December

• November - Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horace Greeley in the U.S. presidential election
• November 5 - Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time (on November 18 she was served an arrest warrant and in the subsequent trial she was fined $100 - she never paid the fine).
• November 7 – Mary Celeste sets sail from New York, bound for Genoa
• November 9 - Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street (the two day event destroyed about 65 acres (0.3 km²) of city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and caused US$60 million in damage).
• November 27 - Meteor rain display over France
• November 29 - Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
• November 30 - First ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland.
• December 4 - The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship was abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged).
• December 12 - A meteorite struck earth near Banbury, England.
• December 21 - HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth on the 4 year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography

Unknown date

• London Metropolitan Police strike.
• In the aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance, new government of Paraguay makes peace with Brazil, grant reparations and territorial concessions
• Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition
• Foundation of the Kolozsvári Egyetem, the predecessor of the University of Szeged

Births

• January 6 - Alexander Scriabin, composer (d. 1915)
• January 23 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1903)
• January 31 - Zane Grey, writer (d. 1939)
• March 7 - Piet Mondrian, painter (d. 1944)
• April 29 – Harry Payne Whitney , businessman, horse breeder (+ 1930)
• May 18 - Bertrand Russell, philosopher and logician
• May 31 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist and illustrator.
• July 1 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer
• July 4 - Calvin Coolidge, American president
• July 16 - Roald Amundsen, Explorer
• August 3 - King Haakon VII of Norway
• August 10 - Bill Johnson, jazz musician (d. 1972)
• August 15 - Shri Aurobindo
• August 21 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist
• October 11 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1946)
• November 30 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (d. 1918)
• Charles Greely Abbot , American astrophysicist.

Deaths

• January 7 - James Fisk, entrepreneur
• April 1 - Frederick Maurice, English theologian
• April 2 - Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse code
• June 4 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician
• July 18 - Benito Juárez, President of Mexican (b. 1806)
• September 13 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (b. 1804)
• October 23 - Théophile Gautier, French writer (b. 1811)
• November 28 - Mary Fairfax Somerville, British mathematician
• December 15 - Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (b. 1792)