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, the 872nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 72nd year of the 19th century, and the 3rd year of the 1870s decade.

• 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

• 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)

• 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)