1875

Events in 1875 39

• 1796 – 1875 Camille Corot (1796-1875) Died 22 February 1875, aged 78 Corot was a French landscape and portrait painter whose atmospheric style bridged Neoclassicism and Impressionism. His work influenced the Barbizon school and later generations of plein-air painters.
• 1797 – 1875 Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Died 22 February 1875, aged 77 Lyell was a Scottish geologist whose Principles of Geology established uniformitarianism as the foundation of modern geology. His work profoundly influenced Charles Darwin's development of the theory of evolution.
• 1808 – 1875 Andrew Johnson 17th President — impeached by Congress Andrew Johnson (Dec 29, 1808 – Jul 31, 1875) was the 17th President 1865-1869. He succeeded Lincoln after the assassination and was the first US president to be impeached, in 1868, though he was acquitted by the Senate.
• 1811 – 1875 Isaac Singer (1811-1875) Died 23 July 1875, aged 63 Singer was an American inventor and businessman who patented improvements to the sewing machine and founded the Singer Manufacturing Company. His company became the world's leading sewing machine manufacturer through aggressive marketing and installment financing.
• 1814 – 1875 Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) Died 20 January 1875, aged 60 Millet was a French painter best known for The Gleaners and The Angelus, works that dignified the labor of peasant life. He was a founding figure of the Barbizon school of rural landscape and genre painting.
• 1819 – 1875 Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) Died 23 January 1875, aged 55 Kingsley was an English clergyman and author best known for the children's novel The Water-Babies and the historical novel Westward Ho!. He was also a prominent Christian socialist and social reformer.
• 1838 – 1875 Georges Bizet French opera composer French composer best known for his opera Carmen, one of the most performed operas in the repertoire, which he completed shortly before his death at 36.
• 1875 – 1934 Albert I of Belgium (1875-1934) Died 17 February 1934, aged 58 King of the Belgians who led his army's resistance to the German invasion during the First World War. He died in a rock-climbing accident at Marche-les-Dames.
• 1875 – 1965 Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Died 4 September 1965, aged 90 Albert Schweitzer was an Alsatian theologian, musician, and physician who founded a hospital in Lambarene, Gabon, dedicating decades of his life to medical missionary work. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his philosophy of "reverence for life." He died at his hospital in Lambarene on 4 September 1965.
• 1875 – 1947 Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) Died 1 December 1947, aged 72 Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, writer and mountaineer who founded the religion of Thelema. The press called him the wickedest man in the world. He became a lasting figure in Western esotericism and popular culture.
• 1875 – 1933 Anatoly Lunacharsky (1875-1933) Died 26 December 1933, aged 58 First Soviet People's Commissar for Education, responsible for culture and schooling from 1917 to 1929. He died in France on his way to take up the post of ambassador to Spain.
• 1875 – 1939 Antonio Machado (1875-1939) Died 22 February 1939, aged 63 Machado was a Spanish poet of the Generation of 98 and wrote Campos de Castilla. He supported the Republic and fled to France as Catalonia fell. He died in Collioure a few weeks later.
• 1875 – 1948 D. W. Griffith (1875-1948) Died 23 July 1948, aged 73 D. W. Griffith, the American film director whose innovations helped establish the grammar of narrative cinema, died on July 23, 1948, largely forgotten by the industry he had helped build. His 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation" was both hugely influential and deeply controversial for its racist content. He spent his final years in relative obscurity in Hollywood.
• 1875 – 1950 Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) Died 19 March 1950, aged 74 Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author best known for creating Tarzan and the John Carter of Mars series. His pulp adventure novels sold in the tens of millions and were adapted into numerous films. He died in Encino, California.
• 1875 Edgar Thomson Steel Works founded Andrew Carnegie opens his first steel plant near Pittsburgh Andrew Carnegie opened the Edgar Thomson Steel Works near Pittsburgh, adopting the Bessemer process to mass-produce steel rails. The plant became the foundation of Carnegie Steel and a model for the vertically integrated industrial enterprises that would dominate American manufacturing.
• 1875 – 1932 Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) Died 10 February 1932, aged 56 The prolific English thriller writer co-wrote the story for King Kong, and he died while working on the film in Hollywood.
• 1875 – 1951 Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) Died 30 January 1951, aged 75 Porsche was an Austrian-German automotive engineer who designed the original Volkswagen Beetle and founded the Porsche car company. His engineering work spanned racing cars, tanks, and mass-market vehicles across both World Wars. He died in Stuttgart, West Germany.
• 1875 – 1944 Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) Died 15 April 1944, aged 68 Italian idealist philosopher who called himself the philosopher of Fascism. As education minister he carried out major reforms of the Italian school system. He was assassinated by communist partisans in Florence.
• 1875 – 1912 Harriet Quimby (1875-1912) Died 1 July 1912, aged 37 Harriet Quimby was the first woman to earn a pilot's certificate in the United States and the first to fly across the English Channel. She died when she was thrown from her airplane during an air meet near Boston.
• 1875 – 1940 John Buchan (1875-1940) Died 11 February 1940, aged 64 Scottish novelist, author of "The Thirty-Nine Steps", and Governor General of Canada as Lord Tweedsmuir from 1935. He died in office in Montreal after a stroke.
• 1875 – 1938 Marie of Romania (1875-1938) Died 18 July 1938, aged 62 Marie was Queen consort of Romania and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She lobbied at the Paris Peace Conference for the creation of Greater Romania.
• 1875 – 1940 Walter Chrysler (1875-1940) Died 18 August 1940, aged 65 American industrialist who founded the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. He also paid for the Chrysler Building in New York.
• 1875 – 1928 Zhang Zuolin (1875-1928) Died 4 June 1928, aged 53 Chinese warlord known as the Old Marshal, who ruled Manchuria and controlled the Beiyang government in Beijing. He died when Japanese Kwantung Army officers bombed his train. His son Zhang Xueliang succeeded him.
• 1875 French constitutional laws of 1875 adopted Wallon Amendment and constitutional laws establish the Third Republic The French National Assembly passed a series of constitutional laws creating a bicameral parliament and an indirectly elected president, formally establishing the Third Republic. The Wallon Amendment, passed by a single vote in January, first proposed the republican presidency that became the basis of the new constitution.
• 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875 signed US law bans racial discrimination in public accommodations President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law guaranteeing African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, transportation, and jury service. The Supreme Court struck down most of the act in 1883, and comparable federal protections were not restored until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• 1875 Carmen premieres in Paris Bizet's opera opens at the Opera-Comique to a poor reception Georges Bizet's opera Carmen premiered at the Opera-Comique in Paris, shocking audiences with its frank depiction of passion, jealousy, and murder among working-class characters. Bizet died three months later unaware that Carmen would become one of the most performed operas in the world.
• 1875 – 1937 Maurice Ravel French Impressionist composer French composer whose Boléro, La Valse and orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition are among the most recognised works in classical music.
• 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg signed Japan and Russia exchange Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands Japan ceded its claims to Sakhalin Island in exchange for Russia's recognition of Japanese sovereignty over the Kuril Islands. The treaty settled a long-running territorial dispute between the two empires in the North Pacific.
• 1875 Whiskey Ring scandal exposed Treasury raids uncover a distillers' tax fraud conspiracy Treasury agents raided distilleries across the Midwest, exposing a conspiracy among distillers and federal officials to evade liquor taxes and funnel the proceeds to the Republican Party. The scandal implicated President Grant's own private secretary, Orville Babcock, though he was acquitted.
• 1875 Metre Convention signed Seventeen nations establish an international system of measurement Delegates from seventeen countries signed the Metre Convention in Paris, creating the International Bureau of Weights and Measures to maintain uniform standards for the metre and kilogram. The treaty laid the institutional groundwork for the later International System of Units.
• 1875 Red River War ends Comanche leader Quanah Parker surrenders at Fort Sill Quanah Parker led the last band of Quahadi Comanche to surrender to US forces at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, ending the Red River War. The surrender marked the end of organized Comanche resistance on the Southern Plains and the confinement of the tribe to reservation land.
• 1875 – 1955 Thomas Mann German novelist Mann wrote The Magic Mountain, exploring intellectual life, illness, and European culture.
• 1875 Herzegovina Uprising begins Christian peasants revolt against Ottoman rule Serb and Croat peasants in Herzegovina rose against Ottoman taxation and land policies, sparking a wider revolt that spread into Bosnia. The uprising drew in Serbia, Montenegro, and eventually Russia, triggering the Great Eastern Crisis that reshaped the Balkans by 1878.
• 1875 – 1961 Carl Jung Analytical Psychology Psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology; famous for the concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious.
• 1875 Matthew Webb swims the English Channel First person recorded to swim across the Channel unaided Captain Matthew Webb swam from Dover to Calais in just under twenty-two hours, becoming the first person known to cross the English Channel without the aid of a boat or swimming apparatus. His feat made him a national celebrity and inspired decades of subsequent Channel swimming attempts.
• 1875 Ganghwa Island incident Japanese warship clashes with Korean forts, forcing Korea open The Japanese warship Unyo provoked an exchange of fire with Korean coastal batteries near Ganghwa Island, killing dozens of Korean defenders. The incident became Japan's pretext for the Treaty of Ganghwa the following year, which opened Korea to Japanese trade.
• 1875 Mary Baker Eddy publishes Science and Health Foundational text of Christian Science appears Mary Baker Eddy published Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, laying out the theological basis for what became the Church of Christ, Scientist. The book became the central text of the Christian Science movement she founded four years later.
• 1875 Britain purchases Suez Canal shares Disraeli buys Egypt's stake in the canal company Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli arranged a loan from the Rothschild bank to purchase the Khedive of Egypt's 44 percent shareholding in the Suez Canal Company. The deal gave Britain a controlling strategic interest in the canal route to India without prior parliamentary approval.
• 1875 – 1961 Robert Frost American poet Frost wrote poetry about rural life and human decision-making, becoming one of Americas most celebrated poets.