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The World in 1873 the year the money ran out

Japan's old calendar ran out on December 2, and the next day was January 1. That December lasted two days.

Life back then

The trouble started in Vienna in May and reached New York in September. Railway building stopped, and so did the mills that made the rails. In the Panic of 1873 banks shut their doors and men who had steady work in the spring were tramping between towns by winter. Cities opened soup kitchens. Wheat and cotton prices fell too, so farmers who had borrowed to buy land could not keep up the payments. The slump lasted most of the decade.

The year in 8 events

• 📅Jan 1 Japan wakes up on the Western calendar. Dates now match Europe and America.
• 👑Feb 11 Spain's king gives up the throne. Parliament declares a republic the same day.
• 🕯️Apr 13 A white militia kills scores of Black men at the courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana.
• 🎡May 1 The Vienna World Exposition opens beside the Danube, under a huge iron rotunda built for the fair.
• 📉May 9 Share prices collapse on the Vienna exchange. Banks fail across central Europe.
• 👖May 20 Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent work trousers held together with copper rivets.
• 🏦Sep 18 The bank of Jay Cooke fails in New York. The stock exchange closes for ten days.
• ⚓Oct 31 A Spanish warship seizes the steamer Virginius off Cuba. Dozens of the crew are shot.

Who Was in Charge?

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