Editing 1879 (section)

===October&ndash;December===
[[Image:Light Bulb.jpg|thumb|October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests his first practical electric light bulb]]
*[[October 1]] &ndash; [[University of Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band]] is founded in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]]. The group will go on to perform the first football [[halftime show]] in [[1892]] and, under Director Donald A. Lentz, invent [[Band Day]].
* [[October 2]] &ndash; [[Qing dynasty]] China signs the [[Treaty of Livadia]] with the [[Russian Empire]].
* [[October 7]] &ndash; The [[Dual Alliance (1879)|Dual Alliance]] is formed by [[German Empire|Germany]] and [[Austria-Hungary]].
* [[October 8]] &ndash; [[War of the Pacific]]: [[Battle of Angamos]] &ndash; The Chilean Navy defeats Peruvian naval forces.
* [[October 13]] &ndash; The first female students are admitted to study for degrees of the [[University of Oxford]] in England, at the new [[Lady Margaret Hall]] and [[Somerville College|Somerville Hall]], and with the [[St Anne's College, Oxford|Society of Oxford Home-Students]].<ref name=CBH>{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Alan|last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd|location=London|pages=303–04|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}</ref>
* [[October 17]] &ndash; [[Sunderland Association Football Club]] is formed by a group of schoolteachers in northeast England.
* [[October 22]] &ndash; Using a filament of [[carbon]]ized thread, [[Thomas Edison]] tests his first practical electric [[light bulb]] (it lasts {{frac|13|1|2}} hours before burning out).
* [[October 28]] &ndash; The [[Hall effect]] is discovered by [[Edwin Hall]] at [[Johns Hopkins University]] in the United States.
* [[November]] &ndash; Land is acquired for [[Simmons College of Kentucky]], a [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black school]], established as a Baptist institution.
* [[November 4]] &ndash; [[Thomas Edison]] applies for a patent for his invention of the [[incandescent light bulb]] (U.S. Patent 223,898 will be granted on [[January 27]], [[1880]]).<ref>{{cite book|first=Abbott Payson|last=Usher|title=A History of Mechanical Inventions|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|year=1954|page=402}}</ref>
* [[November 10]] &ndash; The [[Bell Telephone Company]] and [[Western Union]] reach an agreement in the United States, in which the former agrees to stay out of telegraphy and the latter to keep out of the telephone business.<ref>{{cite book|first=Richard A.|last=Schwarzlose|title=The Nation's Newsbrokers: The Rush to Institution: From 1865 to 1920|publisher=Northwestern University Press|location=Evanston, IL|year=1990|page=84}}</ref>
* [[December 28]] &ndash; [[Tay Bridge disaster]]: The central part of the [[Tay Rail Bridge]] at [[Dundee]], Scotland, collapses in a storm as a train passes over it, killing 75.<ref name=CBH/>
* [[December 31]]
** [[Thomas Edison]] demonstrates [[incandescent lighting]] to the public for the first time, in [[Menlo Park, New Jersey]].
** [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s [[comic opera]] ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' opens at the [[Fifth Avenue Theatre]] in [[New York City]] (following a token performance the day before for U.K. copyright reasons in [[Paignton]], [[Devon]]).<ref name="Pocket On This Day">{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref>