| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1879 | Russia [fiction] | The Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky publishes the first part of his novel Bratia Karamazovy/The Brothers Karamazov. The second part appears in 1880. |
| 1879 | England [fiction] | The English writer George Meredith publishes his novel The Egoist. |
| 1879 | UK [opera] | The comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, by the English writer William Schwenk Gilbert and the English composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan, is first performed, in Paignton, Devon, England. |
| 1879 | Bohemia [orchestral music] | The Bohemian composer Bedrich Smetana completes his cycle of symphonic poems Má Vlast/My Country. |
| 1879 | UK [telephone services] | The Bell Telephone Company and the Edison Telephone Company Ltd open the first telephone exchanges in London, England. |
| 1879 | Norway [plays] | The play El dukkehjem/The Doll's House by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen is first performed, in Christiania (now Oslo) in Norway. |
| 1879 | Germany [psychology] | German psychologist Wilhelm Max Wundt founds the first experimental psychology laboratory at Leipzig, Germany. |
| 1879 | USA [shops and shopping] | Store clerk Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a ‘five-and-ten’ store in the USA, which will become the basis of his retail empire. |
| 1879 | Spain [archaeology] | Maria, the 12-year-old daughter of Spanish nobleman Marcelino de Sautuola, discovers prehistoric paintings of bison and other animals in Altamira Cave, Spain. They are initially dismissed as forgeries. |
| 1879 | USA [chemistry] | US chemist Ira Remsen and his German student Constantin Fahlberg discover the artificial sweetener saccharin; it is 500 times sweeter than sugar. |
| 1879 | USA [Christianity] | The US religious leader Mary Baker Eddy becomes pastor of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1879 | Germany [transport] | German electrical engineer Werner von Siemens demonstrates an electric tram at the Berlin Exhibition in Germany. The first electrically powered locomotive, it runs on a track 500 m/1,640 ft long. |
| 12 January 1879 | Zululand, UK [wars] | Frederic Thesiger, Lord Chelmsford, invades Zululand and begins the war between the British and the Zulus. |
| 22 January 1879 | Zululand, UK [wars] | Zulu warriors massacre British troops at Isandhlwana, Zululand. |
| 22 January 1879 | Natal, UK [wars] | One hundred and forty British troops under the command of Lt John Chard hold off an attacking army of 4,000 Zulus at the outpost of Rorke's Drift, Natal. 17 British soldiers are killed against 400 Zulus. 11 Victoria Crosses are awarded to the defenders, the most ever given for a single battle. |
| 30 January 1879 | France [elections] | Following Republican gains in the senatorial elections, President Marie-Edme-Patrice-Maurice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, resigns and François-Paul-Jules Grévy, a moderate Republican, is elected president of France. |
| 14 February 1879 | Chile, Peru, Bolivia [wars] | Chile begins a war with Peru and Bolivia over the control of nitrate-producing regions. |
| 5 March 1879 | UK, India [births and deaths] | William Henry Beveridge, British economist who was the chief architect of Britain's welfare policies, born in Rangpur, India (–1963). |
| 14 March 1879 | USA, Germany [births and deaths] | Albert Einstein, German-born US physicist who develops the theory of relativity, born in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany (–1955). |
| 19 May 1879 | USA, UK [births and deaths] | Nancy Witcher Langhorne, Lady Astor, British politician and the first woman to sit in the House of Commons, born in Danville, Virginia (–1964). |
| 8 August 1879 | Mexico [births and deaths] | Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary who leads a guerilla force during the Mexican Revolution, born in Anenecuilo, Mexico (–1919). |
| 1 September 1879 | Zululand, UK [treaties] | The British sign a peace treaty with the Zulu chiefs with whom they are at war. |
| 3 September 1879 | Afghanistan, UK [wars] | Afghan troops massacre the British legation at Kabul, reigniting the Anglo-Afghan war ended by the Treaty of Gandamak on 26 May. |
| 21 October 1879 | USA [technology] | US inventor Thomas Alva Edison demonstrates his carbon-filament incandescent lamp light. He lights his Menlo Park power station with 30 lamps that burn for two days; later filaments burn for several hundred hours. Each light can be turned on or off separately in the first demonstration of parallel circuit. |
| 5 November 1879 | Scotland, England [births and deaths] | James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist who formulated the theory of electromagnetism, dies in Cambridge, England (48). |
| 7 November 1879 | Russian Empire, Ukraine [births and deaths] | Leon Trotsky (adopted name of Lev Davidovitch Bronstein), communist theorist and activist, a leader in Russia's October Revolution of 1917, born in Ianovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire (–1940). |
| 18 December 1879 | Switzerland [births and deaths] | Paul Klee, Swiss Abstract artist, born in Münchenbuchsee, near Bern, Switzerland (–1940). |
| 21 December 1879 | USSR, Russian Empire [births and deaths] | Joseph Stalin (adopted name, Russian for steel, of Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili), secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1922–53, and premier 1941–53, born in Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire (–1953). |
