1882 CE

Polygamy is made a felony by the Edmunds Act, passed by the United States Congress. 13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The British Mediterranean Fleet carries out the Bombardment of Alexandria, its forces capturing the city of Alexandria, Egypt, and securing the Suez Canal. The Australian cricket team beats England for the first time in a test match at The Oval in London. A mock obituary appears in the next day's Sporting Times, mourning "the death of English cricket", which leads to the creation of The Ashes.

In the 1880s, the 19th century.

1882 at a glance

World population
about 1.43 billion Our World in Data
United States
Chester A. Arthur (President) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
United Kingdom
Victoria (Queen); William Ewart Gladstone (Prime minister) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
Russian Empire
Alexander III (Emperor) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
Qing dynasty
Guangxu (Emperor) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
French Third Republic
Jules Grévy (President); Léon Gambetta, then Charles de Freycinet, then Charles Duclerc (President of the Council of ministers) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602
German Empire
William I (Emperor); Otto von Bismarck (Chancellor) Wikipedia rev. 1370561602

Who led every country in 1882 →

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 1 January – Bilateral conventions for the exchange of money orders come into effect between the United States of America and the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria.Australiasource
  • March 6 (February 22 Old Style) – The Principality of Serbia becomes the Kingdom of Serbia following a proclamation.source
  • May 2 – The Kilmainham Treaty, an agreement between the British government and Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell to abate tenant rent arrears, is announced; Parnell is released from Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin.source
  • 6 May – North Sea Fisheries Convention signed, to come into effect in 1884.Belgiumsource
  • May 20 – The Triple Alliance is formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.source
  • May 25 – John Sparrow David Thompson becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Simon H. Holmes.Canadasource
  • June 28 – The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 is signed, marking territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone.source
  • July 26 – Boers establish the republic of Stellaland in southern Africa.source
  • August 18 – The Married Women's Property Act 1882 receives royal assent in Britain; it enables women to buy, own and sell property, and to keep their own earnings.source
  • In the Cape Colony, the Dutch language is once again admitted as an official language alongside English.South Africasource
  • Carolyn Merrick is elected president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in the United States.source
  • A peace treaty is signed between Paraguay and Uruguay.source
  • Zulu king Cetshwayo kaMpande returns to South Africa from England.source
  • Single women and widows were granted the right to vote.Icelandsource
  • New Zealand Derby winner: CheviotNew Zealandsource
  • The 1882 Parliamentary election takes place.Norwaysource
  • Carolyn Merrick is elected president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.United Statessource

Conflict & Security

  • January 5 – Charles J. Guiteau is found guilty of the assassination of James A. Garfield (President of the United States), despite an insanity defense raised by his lawyer.United Statessource
  • March 2 – Roderick Maclean fails in an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria, at Windsor.source
  • 2 March – Roderick Maclean fails in an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor, Berkshire.Scotlandsource
  • 2 March – Roderick Maclean fails in an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria outside Windsor railway station, the last attempt on her life.United Kingdomsource
  • March 20 – British gunboats enter Monrovia, with Arthur Havelock demanding that Liberia cede disputed territory to the British colony of Sierra Leone, of which he is Governor.source
  • June 6 – Battle of Embabo: The Shewan forces of Menelik II defeat the Gojjame army.source
  • June 11 – The 'Urabi revolt breaks out in Egypt against Khedive Tewfik Pasha and European influence in that country.source
  • 9 July - Battle of La ConcepciónChilesource
  • July 23 – The Imo Incident occurs in Seoul, Korea, as a result of bad rations and late payment for soldiers of the Joseon Army.source
  • July – James Connolly arrives in Ireland for the first time when his British Army regiment is posted to Cork.Irelandsource
  • August 29 – The Australian cricket team historically defeats England at The Oval for the first time on English soil, a humiliation for the English and the origin for The Ashes test series.source
  • September 13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: British troops occupy Cairo, and Egypt becomes a British protectorate.source
  • November 16 – The British Royal Navy's HMS Flirt destroys Abari village in Niger.source
  • Pogroms in Southern Russia end.source
  • The Personal Liberty League is established to oppose the temperance movement in the United States.source
  • Presidency Small Cause Courts ActIndiasource
  • Reserve Forces Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • Anti-Irish riots break out at Tredegar.Walessource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 2 – Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in New York at the beginning of a lecture tour of the United States and Canada.source
  • 15 February: The Dunedin departs from Port Chalmers carrying the first shipment of frozen meat bound for Britain.New Zealandsource
  • May 17 – Provisional districts of the North-West Territories are established between Manitoba and British Columbia: the districts of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and AthabaskaCanadasource
  • 31 May – The steamer Pretty Jane is wrecked on the Ninety Mile Beach, 30 km west of Lakes Entrance. There were no deaths.Australiasource
  • 18 August – The passenger ship Thetis departs carrying Romanian Jews to Palestine as part of the First Aliyah. They found Rosh Pinna and Zikhron Ya'akov.Romaniasource
  • September 29 – 229 Norwegians settle at the mouth of the Umzimkulu River, founding Port Shepstone.South Africasource
  • December – Jean-Charles Houzeau leads a scientific expedition to San Antonio, Texas, to observe a transit of Venus in order to determine the solar parallax.Belgiumsource
  • South American Continental Exhibition is heldArgentinasource
  • The Salvation Army is introduced in Sweden by Hanna Ouchterlony.Swedensource

Religion & Belief

  • March 29 – The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.source
  • March 29 – The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, is incorporated in New Haven, Connecticut by Father Michael J. McGivney.United Statessource
  • St Andrew's Ambulance Association is founded in Glasgow, Scotland; St. John Ambulance Canada is also founded this year.source
  • July 31 – The Hebrew Moshava of Rishon LeZion in Palestine is founded.source
  • 31 July – Désiré-Joseph Mercier appointed to the new chair in Thomist philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain.Belgiumsource
  • 28 October – six Benedictine monks return from France to commence the rebuilding of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, largely destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.United Kingdomsource
  • December – Zikhron Ya'akov is founded in northern Israel.source
  • Ludovic Halévy - L'abbé ConstantinFrancesource
  • Gaelic poet William Livingston (Uilleam Macdhunleibhe)'s collected works are published posthumously as Duain agus Orain.Scotlandsource
  • "Mundella Code" promotes 'enlightened' teaching in public elementary schools.United Kingdomsource
  • Bargoed RFC, Loughor RFC, Pentyrch RFC and Pontardawe RFC are formed.Walessource
  • St Catharine's Church, Baglan, is consecrated.Walessource

Economy & Finance

  • January 2 – The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.source
  • January 2 – The Standard Oil Trust (monopoly) is secretly created to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates.United Statessource
  • March 28 – German medical products company Beiersdorf is founded.source
  • 28 March – German company Beiersdorf was founded.Germanysource
  • 1 May – Helsingør Shipyard is founded by Mads Christian Holm.Denmarksource
  • 10 June – Hjedding Dairy is established as Denmark's first cooperative dairy.Denmarksource
  • August 3 – The United States Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1882, imposing a head tax on immigrants to the U.S. and excluding undesirables.source
  • August 3 – The U.S. Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1882, imposing a head tax on arrivals in the U.S., excluding undesirable immigrants, and setting up a federal bureaucracy to manage immigration.United Statessource
  • August 5 – Standard Oil of New Jersey, the company later known as ExxonMobil, is established.source
  • The North Bay Police Service is founded.Canadasource
  • Founding of Albion Rovers F.C. through the amalgamation of two Coatbridge clubs, Albion and Rovers.Scotlandsource
  • Albion Rovers F.C. (through the amalgamation of two Coatbridge clubs, Albion and Rovers) in industrial west Scotland.United Kingdomsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 2 January – FLSmidth, a supplier of cement production technology, is founded by Frederik Læssøe Smidth as a small "technical bureau" based in a single room of his mother's apartment.Denmarksource
  • January 12 – Holborn Viaduct power station in the City of London, the world's first coal-fired public electricity generating station, begins operation.source
  • 17 February – The first cricket Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground begins.Australiasource
  • 26 April – A telephone exchange is opened in Dunedin (the third in New Zealand).New Zealandsource
  • April 29 – The Elektromote, the world's first trolleybus, begins operation in Berlin.source
  • 29 April – the Electromote was the world's first vehicle run like a trolleybus, which was first presented to the public on April 29, 1882, by its inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens in Halensee, a suburb of Berlin, Germany.Germanysource
  • May 1 – The Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is founded in Germany, as Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle.source
  • July 11–13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The British Mediterranean Fleet carries out the Bombardment of Alexandria, its forces capturing the city of Alexandria, Egypt, and securing the Suez Canal.source
  • September 2 – Kimberley becomes the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting.South Africasource
  • September 4 – Thomas Edison flips the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in the United States, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan. This is considered by many as the day that begins the electrical age.source
  • September 4 – Thomas Edison starts the U.S.'s first commercial electrical power plant, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan.United Statessource
  • September 5 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.source
  • October 10 – The Bank of Japan opens in Tokyo City.source
  • October 16 – The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad ("Nickel Plate Road") runs its first trains over the entire system between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago. Nine days later the Seney Syndicate sells the road to William Henry Vanderbilt, for US$7.2 million.source
  • 16 November – The new Fishguard Lifeboat Station boat Sir Edward Perrott is launched 5 times and rescues 46 lives from 15 different vessels.Walessource
  • The British Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (the modern-day Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys) is founded.source
  • Redruth Mining School opens in Cornwall.source
  • Nikola Tesla claims this is when he conceives the rotating magnetic field principle, which he later uses to invent his induction motor.source
  • Closure of the Rossander Course.Swedensource

Science & Discovery

  • August 5 – Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.United Statessource
  • September 7 – W.H. Finlay of Cape Town's Royal Observatory is first to record observations of the Great Comet of 1882.South Africasource
  • September 18 – Great Comet of 1882: Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape, David Gill, reports watching the comet rise a few minutes before the Sun, describing it as "The nucleus was then undoubtedly single, and certainly rather under than over 4″ in diameter; in fact, as I have described it, it resembled very much a star of the 1st magnitude seen by daylight."source
  • December 6 – A transit of Venus, the last until 2004, occurs.source
  • 6 December – A rare transit of Venus across the disc of the Sun is visible from Australia, and many scientific parties arrive from around the world to observe and record the transit. The next occurrence was June 2004.Australiasource
  • The first International Polar Year, an international scientific program, begins.source
  • Documentary Evidence Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • Lewis Campbell publishes The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, with a Selection from his Correspondence and Occasional Writings and a Sketch of his Contributions to Science, including some of Maxwell's verses.Scotlandsource
  • American scholar Francis James Child begins publication of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the Child Ballads.Scotlandsource
  • Archaeologist Robert Munro publishes Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings or Crannogs.Scotlandsource
  • The Society for Psychical Research is founded by Henry Sidgwick.United Kingdomsource

Health & Medicine

  • March 22 – Polygamy is made a felony by the Edmunds Act, passed by the United States Congress.source
  • March 24 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).source
  • 24 March – the Tuberculosis bacillus causing tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis, was identified and described by Robert Koch.Germanysource
  • May 6 – The Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers, is the first law which restricts immigration into the United States.source
  • May 6 – The Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers, is the first significant law that restricts immigration into the U.S.United Statessource
  • 20 December – Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, opened at Garnethill.Scotlandsource

Crime & Justice

  • February 4 – Charles J. Guiteau, the murderer of President James A. Garfield, is sentenced to death (found guilty on January 25), despite an insanity defense raised by his lawyer.source
  • April 3 – Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back of the head and killed by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri.source
  • April 3 – Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back of the head and killed by fellow outlaw Robert Ford in his home at St. Joseph, Missouri for reward.United Statessource
  • May 1 – Édouard Manet exhibits his painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère at the Paris Salon.source
  • May 6 – Phoenix Park Murders in Ireland: Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, his Permanent Undersecretary, are fatally stabbed in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by members of the Irish National Invincibles (militant Irish republicans).source
  • 6 May – Phoenix Park Murders: Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, his Permanent Undersecretary (the primary target), are fatally stabbed in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by members of the "Irish National Invincibles" (militant Irish republicans).Irelandsource
  • 6 May – Phoenix Park Murders in Ireland: Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, his Permanent Undersecretary, are fatally stabbed in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by members of the "Irish National Invincibles" (militant Irish republicans).United Kingdomsource
  • June 30 – U.S. presidential assassin Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C.source
  • November 14 – Franklyn Leslie shoots Billy Claiborne dead in the streets of Tombstone, Arizona.source
  • 27 November – The Peltzer Case comes to trial before the Brussels Court of assizes.Belgiumsource
  • Waterloo F.C., a rugby union club, as Serpentine on Merseyside in the north of England.source
  • Glentoran F.C. in Belfast in the north of Ireland;source
  • Albion Rovers F.C. (through the amalgamation of two Coatbridge clubs, Albion and Rovers) in the urban west of Scotland;source
  • The North-West Mounted Police (which later became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) established a post in 1882 in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) have since established their main training academy there, which is called "Depot", or Depot Division.Canadasource
  • The Thorvaldsen Exhibition Medal is awarded to Vilhelm Rosenstand for the painting Outside a Brasserie in Paris. Mother and Son at Café Pousse, Frants Henningsen for A Funeral and Peder Severin Krøyer.Denmarksource
  • Joris-Karl Huysmans - À vau-l'eauFrancesource
  • The Welsh Charity School in Ashford, Surrey, becomes girls-only and changes its name to the Welsh Girls' School.Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 10 January – The vessels Constancia and Primus attempt to pass through a lock at Newport Docks at the same time and a collision results. The lock is blocked and the vessels already in the dock are trapped for nearly two weeks. The resulting losses eventually culminate in the demise of the Newport Dock Company a year later.Walessource
  • January 13 – A train collision in New York City kills eight, including Webster Wagner, a New York state senator and founder of the luxury sleeper-car company bearing his name.United Statessource
  • 16 February – Trimdon Grange colliery disaster: an underground explosion in the Durham Coalfield kills 69.United Kingdomsource
  • 20 October – The steamer Clan MacDuff sinks off Holyhead, resulting in 32 deaths.Walessource
  • 20 October – The Victory, a Bideford schooner carrying coal from Cardiff to Waterford, sinks near Ballyteique with the loss of all crew.Walessource
  • 1 November – An Austrian barque, the Petroslava, is wrecked on Skokholm with the loss of 10 of its 11 crew members.Walessource
  • November 2 – The Great Fire of Oulu destroys 27 buildings in the downtown of Oulu, Finland.source
  • 28 December – Newlands Mill chimney in Bradford collapses causing the loss of 54 lives, mostly young girls and boys.United Kingdomsource

Climate & Environment

  • 2 February – A cyclone causes considerable damage to the town of Cardwell, Queensland.Australiasource
  • June 6 – Supposedly, the Bombay Cyclone of 1882 in the Arabian Sea causes flooding in Bombay harbor, leaving about 100,000 dead; this alleged event has, however, been proved a hoax.source
  • 1882–83 New Zealand cricket seasonNew Zealandsource

Culture & Society

  • February 3 – American showman P. T. Barnum acquires the elephant Jumbo from the London Zoo.source
  • 25 February - John Price becomes the first Welsh footballer to score a hat-trick in an international match, when he produces four of the goals in a 7–1 win against Ireland.Walessource
  • March 28 – Republican Jules Ferry makes primary education in France free, non-clerical (laique) and obligatory.source
  • 3 April – The National Archives of Iceland is established.Icelandsource
  • May 18 – Burnley F.C. in Northern England changes codes, from rugby football to association football.source
  • 23 June – Kiel Week in Kiel started.Germanysource
  • Ferdinand von Lindemann publishes his proof of the transcendentality of pi.source
  • June – St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is officially founded with a constitution being adopted at a general meeting in Glasgow.Scotlandsource
  • 1 July – Last stone laid of Palais de Justice, Brussels (formally opened 1883)Belgiumsource
  • July 26 – Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal debuts, at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bavaria.source
  • August 20 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.source
  • 29 August – The Australian cricket team beats England for the first time in a test match at The Oval in London. A mock obituary appears in the next day's Sporting Times, mourning "the death of English cricket", which leads to the creation of The Ashes.Australiasource
  • September 5 – Tottenham Hotspur F.C. is founded (as Hotspur F.C.) in London.source
  • September 13 – Selwyn College, Cambridge, is founded after Queen Victoria grants a Charter of Incorporation.source
  • September – Redpath's McGee Illustrated Weekly newspaper changes its name to Redpath's Illustrated Weekly.United Statessource
  • October 5 – The Society for Ethical Culture of Chicago (the modern-day Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago) is founded by Felix Adler.source
  • October 14 – The University of the Punjab at Lahore (British India), is founded in modern-day Pakistan.source
  • October 21 – Waseda University is founded by Shigenobu Ōkuma in Japan as Tokyo Specializing School.source
  • October 21 – The Canadian Rugby Football Union is founded. {Reference is needed. The link cited as well as the Rugby Canada Wiki note different years (1880 and 1884 respectively)}Canadasource
  • Christchurch Rangers, the earliest predecessor of Queens Park Rangers F.C., in London;source
  • Thames Ditton Lawn Tennis Club, the oldest lawn tennis club still on its original site, in the outer London suburbs;source

Births

  • January 12 - José Luis Tejada Sorzano, President 1934-1936Boliviasource
  • January 25 – Virginia Woolf, English writer (died 1941)source
  • January 30 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (died 1945)source
  • February 2 – James Joyce, Irish author (died 1941)source
  • February 15 – John Barrymore, American actor (died 1942)source
  • March 23 – Emmy Noether, German mathematician (died 1935)source
  • April 19 – Getúlio Vargas, 14th and 17th president of Brazil (died 1954)source
  • 19 April - Getúlio Vargas, 14th and 17th President of BrazilBrazilsource
  • May 5 – Sir Douglas Mawson, Australian Antarctic explorer (died 1958)source
  • 14 June – Ion Antonescu, military officer and marshal, Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II (died 1946).Romaniasource
  • June 15 – Ion Antonescu, Romanian prime minister, dictator (died 1946)source
  • June 16 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, former Prime Minister of Iran.Iransource
  • June 17 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (died 1971)source
  • September 12 – Ion Agârbiceanu, Romanian writer, journalist, politician and priest (died 1963)source
  • September 29 – Lilias Armstrong, English phonetician (died 1937)source
  • October 5 – Robert H. Goddard, American rocket scientist (died 1945)source
  • October 14 – Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach and third President of Ireland (died 1975)source
  • December 16 – Jack Hobbs, English cricketer (died 1963)source

Deaths

  • January 11 – Theodor Schwann, German physiologist (born 1810)source
  • 20 February - Manuel Camilo Vial, politician (birth 1804)Chilesource
  • March 24 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author (born 1807)source
  • April 3 – Jesse James, American Western outlaw (born 1847)source
  • April 9 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet, painter (born 1828)source
  • April 19 – Charles Darwin, British naturalist (born 1809)source
  • April 27 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, writer (born 1803)source
  • June 2 – Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot (born 1807)source
  • June 30 – Charles J. Guiteau, American preacher, writer, lawyer, assassin of James A. Garfield (executed) (born 1841)source
  • July 6 - Tomás Guardia GutiérrezCosta Ricasource
  • July 16 – Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (born 1818)source
  • August 13 – William Stanley Jevons, English economist and logician (born 1835)source
  • September 23 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist (born 1800)source
  • October 13 – Arthur de Gobineau, French writer, demographist (born 1816)source
  • 22 October – Ion Andreescu, painter (born 1850).Romaniasource
  • December 6 – Anthony Trollope, British novelist, postal service official (born 1815)source
  • December 31 – Léon Gambetta, French statesman (born 1838)source
  • António Rodrigues Sampaio, politician (born 1806)Portugalsource