1874 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January 1 - New York City annexes The Bronx
• January 23 - Marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, to Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, only daughter of Emperor Alexander III of Russia.
• January - Signing of the Pangkor Treaty (also known as the Pangkor Engagement ), by which the British extended their control over, first the Sultanate of Perak and later the other independent Malay States.
• February 21 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
• February 23 - Walter Clopton Wingfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
• March 18 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
• March - founding of a Young Men's Hebrew Association in Manhattan which still operates today as the 92nd Street Y

May - August

• May 20 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets
• July 1 - the first public zoo in the U.S. opens, at Philadelphia.
• July 24 - Mathew Evans and Henry Woodward patent the first incandescent lamp with an electric light bulb.

September - December

• October 19 - modern University of Zagreb founded in Zagreb
• November 7 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party [1].
• November 25 - The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party made primarily of farmers financially hurt by the Panic of 1873.

Unknown date

• Iceland is granted a constitution and limited home rule.
• Home Rule Movement created to protest British Government control over Ireland. (see History of Ireland)
• First Impressionist exhibition, Paris; name coined in hostile review of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise
• Opening of the Agra canal in India.

Births

January to June

• January 1 - Gustav Albin Weißkopf , also known as Gustave Albin Whitehead, German-American aviation pioneer (d. 1927)
• January 4 - Josef Suk, Czech composer and violinist (d. 1935)
• January 16 - Robert W. Service, American poet (d. 1958)
• January 20 - Steve Bloomer, footballer, prolific striker for Derby, Middlesbrough and England (d. 1938)
• January 21 - Frederick Madison Smith, American religious leader and author (d. 1946)
• January 25 - William Somerset Maugham, English author (d. 1965)
• January 29 - John D. Rockefeller Jr., American entrepreneur (d. 1960)
• February 1 - Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian lyricist, dramatist, narrator, and essayist (d. 1929)
• February 3 - Gertrude Stein, American writer and patron of the arts (d. 1946)
• February 9 - Amy Lowell, American poet (d. 1925)
• February 11 - Elsa Beskow (Maartman), Swedish children's book/fairy tales author (d. 1953)
• February 11 - Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born Australian composer (d. 1949)
• February 15 - Sir Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer (d. 1922)
• February 17 - Thomas J. Watson, American computer pioneer, first president of IBM (d. 1956)
• February 24 - Honus Wagner, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1955)
• March 20 - Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (d. 1945)
• March 24 - Harry Houdini, Hungarian-American magician (d. 1926)
• March 26 - Robert Frost, American poet (d. 1963)
• March 29 - Lou Hoover, First Lady of the United States (d. 1944)
• April 8 - Stanisław Taczak, Polish general, commander-in-chief of the Greater Poland Uprising (1918-1919) against the Germans (d.1960)
• April 25 - Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, "the father of radio", recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1909 (d. 1937)
• May 3 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (d. 1934)
• May 9 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (d. 1939)
• May 14 - Polaire - French actress and singer (d. 1939)
• May 19 - Gilbert Jessop; English cricketer (d. 1955).
• May 29 - Gilbert Keith Chesterton, English author (d. 1936)
• June 11 - Lyman Gilmore, Choctaw Native American airplane pioneer (d. 1951)
• June 16 - Arthur Meighen, ninth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1960)

July to December

• July 14 - Abbas II, last khedive of Egypt (d. 1944)
• July 26 - Serge Koussevitsky, Russian conductor (d. 1951)
• September 13 - Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer (d. 1951)
• September 21 - Gustav Holst, English composer (d. 1934)
• October 20 - Charles Ives, American musician, composer (d. 1954)
• October 26 - Martin Lowry, English physical chemist (d. 1936)
• October 30 - Bin Ueda , Japanese writer
• November 30 - Sir Winston Churchill, British politician and author (d. 1965)
• November 30 - Lucy Maude Montgomery, Canadian author (d. 1942)
• December 13 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist (d. 1944)
• December 15 - Shoken Kamitsukasa , Japanese writer
• December 17- William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian Prime Minister (d. 1950)
• December 22 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)

Deaths

• January 19 - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (b. 1798)
• February 8 - David Friedrich Strauss, German theologian (b. 1808)
• March 8 - Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (b. 1800)
• June 20 - John Ruggles, American politician
• December 7 - Constantin von Tischendorf, German Biblical scholar (b. 1815)