In the year 1874, New York City annexes the Bronx (Jan 1), Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States, granting exclusive trading rights (Mar 18), Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans (May 20), the movement for osteopathic medicine in the U.S. starts (Jun 22), the first public zoo in the U.S. opens in Philadelphia (Jul 1), the first incandescent light bulb is patented in both Canada and the United States, but the U.S. patent is sold to Edison five years later (Jul 24), Iceland is granted a constitution, and limited home rule from Denmark (Dec 1) - and all these fine people were born:

1874-0104 Josef Suk* Czech violinist/composer - Křečovice, Bohemia (1935/61) 1874-0112 Laura Adams Armer* artist/writer - Sacramento, CA USA (1963/89) 1874-0116 Herman Gesellius* architect - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1916/42) 1874-0125 W. Somerset Maugham* playwright/novelist - UK Embassy, Paris, French Third Republic (1965/91) 1874-0129 John D. Rockefeller Jr.* financier/ philanthropist - Cleveland, OH USA (1960/86) 1874-0201 1874-0206 Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati* Hindu guru/ spiritual reformer - Puri, Indian Empire (1937/62) 1874-0208 Carl Fredrik Kivi** (b Stenvall) married to Olga Olivia Granqvist/father of August Fredrik Kivi - Tuusula, GD of Finland (19xx) 1874-0208 Gertrude Stein* novelist/ art collector - Allegheny, PA USA (1946/72) 1874-0209 Amy Lowell* poet - Boston, MA USA (1925/51) 1874-0211 Elsa Beskow* author/illustrator - Stockholm, Sweden (1953/79) 1874-0215 Ernest Shackleton* polar explorer - Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland (1922/47) 1874-0217 Thomas J. Watson* businessman/ CEO of IBM - Campbell, NY USA (1956/82) 1874-0220 1874-0226 Katharine Cameron* artist (the Glasgow Girls)/watercolourist/printmaker - Glasgow, Scotland (1965/91) 1874-0226 Nikolai Korotkov* surgeon/a pioneer of vascular surgery - Kursk, Russian Empire (1920/46) 1874-0303 Ada Reeve* (b Adelaide Reeves) actress - London, England (1966/92) 1874-0304 1874-0306 William Charles Morris* political cartoonist - Salt Lake City, UT USA (1940/66) 1874-0310 1874-0318 Nikolai Berdyaev* Russian philosopher theologian/Christian existentialist - Obukhov, Ukraine, Russian Empire (1948/74) 1874-0320 1874-0324 Harry Houdini* stage magician/stunt performer - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (1926/52) 1874-0325 Selim Sırrı Tarcan* Turkish educator/sports official/politician - Larissa, Thessaly, Ottoman Empire (1957/82) 1874-0326 Robert Frost* poet - San Francisco, CA USA (1963/88) 1874-0414 Johannes Stark* physicist/N - Schickenhof, German Empire (1957/83) 1874-0419 Ernst Rüdin* psychiatrist/Nazi geneticist- St. Gallen, Switzerland (1952/78) 1874-0420 1874-0425 Karl Feiertag* painter - Vienna, Austria-Hungary (1944/70) 1874-0425 Guglielmo Marconi* electrical engineer/inventor/N - Bologna, Italy (1937/63) 1874-0503 François Coty* (b Spoturno) perfumer/businessman - Ajaccio, Corsica, French Third Republic (1934/60) 1874-0507 Ilmari Kianto* author - Pulkkila, GD of Finland (1970/95) 1874-0517 Mally Burjam-Borga* (b Burjam) opera singer - Viipuri, GD of Finland (1919/44) 1874-0602 Ludwig Roselius* coffee merchant - Bremen, German Empire (1943/68) 1874-0604 Jesse Paulmier Whiton* son of Jennie Paulmier - Jersey City, NJ USA (1950/76) 1874-0611 Lyman Gilmore* aviation pioneer - USA (1951/76) 1874-0617 Wilhelmiina Aspinen* (b Vaittinen) married to Juhana Juhonpoika Aspinen - Tervajoki, Viipuri, GD of Finland (1949/75) 1874-0617 Grant Mitchell* actor - Columbus, OH USA (1957/82) 1874-0702 Henry Houry* actor - Paris, French Third Republic (1972/97) 1874-0712 Cathal Brugha* (b Charles Burgess) revolutionary/republican politician - Dublin, Ireland (1922/47) 1874-0727 Frank Shannon* actor/silent firm pioneer/writer - Ireland (1959/84) 1874-0810 Herbert Hoover* politician/31usp - West Branch, IA USA (1964/90) 1874-0819 Katharine Wright* highschool teacher/promoter - Dayton, OH USA (1929/54) 1874-0827 Carl Bosch* chemist/N/engineer - Cologne, German Empire (1940/65) 1874-0829 Ben Purse* trade unionist/campaigner for the rights of blind people in the United Kingdom - Salord, Lancashire, England (1950/75) 1874-0831 1874-0901 1874-0905 Fred Hackman* Finnish businessman/part of the Hackman cutlery manufacture - Viborg, Russian Empire (1925/50) 1874-0906 W. E. Clyde Todd* ornithologist - Smithfield, OH USA (1969/94) 1874-0911 Hilja Haahti* teacher/ writer/translator - Hämeenlinna, GD of Finland (1966/91) 1874-0912 Redcliffe N. Salaman* botanist/ potato breeder - Kensington, London, England (1955/80) 1874-0913 Henry F. Ashurst* attorney/politician - Winnemucca, NV USA (1962/87) 1874-0921 Gustav Holst* composer/arranger - Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England (1934/59) 1874-0926 Lewis Hine* sociologist/documentary photographer (child labor/ Empire State Building) - Oshkosh, WI USA (1940/66) 1874-1003 Charles Middleton* actor - Elizabethtown, KY USA (1949/74) 1874-1018 Christine Murrell* medical doctor - Clapham, London, England (1933/59) 1874-1026 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller* (b Aldrich) wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr. /patron of modern art/the driving force behind the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art - Providence, RI USA (1948/73) 1874-1101 1874-1114 Adolf Brand* writer/egoist anarchist/pioneering campaigner for the acceptance of male bisexuality and homosexuality - Berlin, German Empire (1945/70) 1874-1120 1874-1127 Chaim Weizmann* Zionist leader/first P of Israel - Motal, Russian Empire (1952/77) 1874-1128 Armas Lindgren* architect - Hämeenlinna, GD of Finland (1929/54) 1874-1129 António Egas Moniz* neurologist/N - Avanca, Estarreja, Portugal (1955/81) 1874-1130 Winston Churchill* statesman/writer/N - Oxfordshire, England (1965/90) 1874-1201 1874-1205 Nikolay Burenin* revolutionary/concert pianist/writer - Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire (1962/87) 1874-1210 1874-1211 James L. Kraft* Canadian-American entrepreneur/inventor/the first to patent processed cheese  - Stevensville, ON Canada(1953/78) 1874-1220 1874-1229 Thomas W. Benoist* aviator/aircraft manufacturer/founder of the world’s first scheduled airline - Irondale, MO USA (1917/42) 1874-1231 1874-0 1874-0 1874-0 Updated 2025-0429 Helsinki-Stockholm Search for another year here