1872

1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday in the Julian calendar, the 1872nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, . 

 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, thirtieth 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)