What Happened in December 1878

Historical Events

Dec 9 Joseph Pulitzer buys the St. Louis Dispatch for $2,500

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

Dec 12 Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing the "St. Louis Post-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)

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)

Dec 18 Dictator and General Secretary of the Soviet Union (1922-53), born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire

Dec 19 Anton Lajovic, Slovenian composer, born in Vače, Slovenia (d. 1960)
Dec 21 Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish logician, philosopher, professor, and author, born in Lembeck, Galacia (now Lviv, Ukraine) (d. 1956)
Dec 22 Stephen Timoshenko [Stepan Tymoshenko], Ukrainian-American mechanical engineer (elasticity; strength of materials), and pedagogue, born in Shpotovka, Russian Empire (d. 1972)
Dec 25 Louis Chevrolet, Swiss auto racer (co-founder Chevrolet Motor Car Company), born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (d. 1941)
Dec 25 William Starling Burgess, American yacht designer (America's Cup yachts "Enterprise", "Rainbow", "Ranger") and aviation pioneer, born in Boston Massachusetts (d. 1947)
Dec 26 Isaiah Bowman, American geographer (co-founder of the Geographical Review), born in Waterloo, Ontario (d. 1950)
Dec 30 Fred Van Eps, American banjoist and banjo maker, born in Somerville, New Jersey (d. 1960)
Dec 30 William Aberhart, Canadian politician (d. 1943)
Dec 31 Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman, born in Woodbridge, Ontario (d. 1966)
Dec 31 Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer (Anaconda, El Crimen del Otro), born in Salto, Uruguay (d. 1937)

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

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 poet, travel author and diplomat, dies at 53
Dec 25 Anna Claypoole Peale, American painter of miniatures, dies at 87
Dec 28 José Bernardo Alcedo, Peruvian composer, dies at 90