1872

1872 was a leap year in the 19th century.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1840s  1850s  1860s  – 1870s –  1880s  1890s  1900s
Years:	1869 1870 1871 – 1872 – 1873 1874 1875

Events

• Levi Strauss invents jeans.
• American department store Montgomery Ward opens for business.
• Huntington's disease is defined for the first time.
• University of Toledo founded in Toledo, Ohio

Births

• January 6 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (d. 1915)
• May 18 – Bertrand Russell, English philosopher and logician (d. 1970)
• July 4 – Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (d. 1933)
• June 6 – Alexandra Fyodorovna, Empress of Russia, wife of Nicholas II (d. 1918)
• July 16 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer (d. 1928)
• August 21 – Aubrey Beardsley, English artist (d. 1898)
• October 12 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (d. 1958)
• October 15 – Edith Bolling Wilson, American First Lady, wife of Woodrow Wilson (d. 1961)
• November 30 – John McCrae, Canadian poet and soldier in World War I
• December 28 – Pio Baroja, Spanish writer (d. 1956)

Deaths

• January 21 – Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer and poet (b. 1791)
• April 27 – Ion Heliade Rădulescu, Romanian writer and politician (b. 1802)
• June 4 – Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, Dutch politician (b. 1798)
• November 29 – Horace Greeley, American newspaper editor and politician (b. 1811)
• December 23 - George Catlin, American painter (b. 1796)

Date unknown

• Karolina Bock, Swedish dancer, actress and singer (b. 1792)
• Petros Duryan, Armenian poet (b. 1851)