1884 CE

English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins takes up a post as professor of Greek and Latin at University College Dublin on St Stephen's Green, where he will remain until his death in 1889 and write his "terrible sonnets". Prince Leopold, the youngest son and eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, dies, aged 30 in Cannes (France) following a fall complicated by his haemophilia. His son, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, is born nearly 4 months later. An earthquake measuring 5.5 Mfa affects a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock has a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Chimneys are toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Property damage is severe in Jamaica, Queens and Amityville, New York.

In the 1880s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 25: Ceará is the first Brazilian state to abolish slavery.Brazilsource
  • April 4 – The Treaty of Valparaiso, an armistice between Chile and Bolivia, ends the War of the Pacific; Bolivia is obliged to cede Antofagasta to Chile, leaving Bolivia as a landlocked country.source
  • 4 April - Treaty of ValparaisoChilesource
  • April 27 - Spanish general election, 1884Spainsource
  • 29 June - Legislative electionPortugalsource
  • July 14 – German administration is established in Cameroon.source
  • November 4 – 1884 United States presidential election: Democratic governor of New York Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest, to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.source
  • December 1 – Porfirio Díaz returns as President of Mexico, an office he will hold until 1911.source
  • December 18 – The Territory of Nayarit is formed once its territorial limits with Jalisco were established.Mexicosource
  • Xinjiang province (Sinkang) establishedChinasource
  • Prime Minister – Agostino Depretis (1881–1887)Italysource
  • Trăiască Regele ("Long live the King") becomes the new national and royal anthem.Romaniasource

Conflict & Security

  • 26 January Ireland 0–5 Scotland (in Belfast)Irelandsource
  • March 13 – The Siege of Khartoum begins in the Sudan as part of the Mahdist War: an Egyptian garrison led by British General Charles Gordon and Sudanese civilians are besieged by Mahdist forces; the city falls on January 26, 1885.source
  • March 27–29 – Cincinnati riots of 1884.United Statessource
  • April 24 – A German protectorate is established over South-West Africa.source
  • April 24 – Germany occupies German South-West Africa.South Africasource
  • 30 May – Fenian dynamite campaign: Three bombs explode in London: at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Irish Branch; in the basement of the Carlton Club (a gentlemen's club frequented by members of the Conservative Party); and outside the home of Conservative MP Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn; ten people are injured. A fourth bomb planted at the foot of Nelson's Column fails to explode.United Kingdomsource
  • July 5 – Germany takes possession of Togoland.source
  • 14 July – Commencement of German administration in Cameroon (Kamerun).Germanysource
  • August 22 – The Sino-French War (for control of Tonkin) breaks out (continues to April 1885).source
  • August 23 – Sino-French War: Battle of Fuzhou – French Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroys China's Fujian Fleet.source
  • November 7 – Calgary is incorporated as a town, changing its name from Fort CalgaryCanadasource
  • 11 November – Blackford Hill is acquired by the city of Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
  • 23 November – Siege of Tuyên Quang begins in Indochina: The French Foreign Legion is besieged by forces of the Empire of China.Francesource
  • December 4 – Reformers in Korea who admire the Meiji Restoration in Japan stage the Gapsin Coup, with Japan's help. China intervenes to rescue the king and help suppress the rebels.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • 26 April — The start of the 1884 Italian General Exhibition in Turin. The exhibition closed on 20 November 1884.Italysource
  • June 22 – The seven surviving members of the 25-man Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, led by Adolphus Greely, are rescued by Winfield Scott Schley. One more died on the homeward journey.Canadasource
  • June – The first ascent is made of Castle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies, by geologist Arthur Philemon Coleman.source
  • July 1 – First International Forestry Exhibition opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.source
  • September 23–24 (night) – Steamship Arctique runs aground near Cape Virgenes, leading to the discovery of nearby placer gold and beginning the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.source
  • October – Billy Hughes migrated to Australia.Australiasource
  • November 15 – The Berlin Conference, which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa, begins (ends February 26, 1885).source
  • 15 November – The Berlin Conference which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa begins (ends 26 February 1885).Germanysource
  • 1 December – Kowie – Port Alfred to Grahamstown, 44 mi.South Africasource
  • December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial world's fair opens in New Orleans.source
  • December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.United Statessource
  • Scottish Plymouth Brethren missionary Frederick Stanley Arnot identifies the source of the Zambezi River, near Kalene Hill.source
  • 1884 New Zealand rugby union tour of New South Wales: A New Zealand team makes an overseas tour for the first time. The team makes a return visit (see 1882) to the Southern Rugby Union in New South Wales and wins all eight matches with 167 points for and 17 against.New Zealandsource
  • Rugby union – The first international match is played at Cardiff Arms Park (between Wales and Ireland).Walessource

Religion & Belief

  • 18 January – Dr William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, at Llantrisant. Later tried at Cardiff Assizes and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the U.K. in modern times) on 14 March.United Kingdomsource
  • 18 February – English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins takes up a post as professor of Greek and Latin at University College Dublin on St Stephen's Green, where he will remain until his death in 1889 and write his "terrible sonnets".Irelandsource
  • April 20 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, denouncing Freemasonry and certain liberal beliefs which he considers to be associated with it.source
  • The first Christian missionary arrives in Korea.source
  • End of the First School War between confessional Catholic Party and secularist Liberal PartyBelgiumsource
  • Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly - Ce qui ne meurt pasFrancesource
  • Monarch – Umberto I (1878–1900)Italysource
  • Wellington Cup winner: The PoetNew Zealandsource
  • Founding of Shamordino ConventRussiasource
  • Joseph Parry – Nebuchadnezzar (cantata)Walessource

Economy & Finance

  • January 11 — Clara Oriol de la Huerta, First Lady of Mexico (1920) (died 1967)Mexicosource
  • April 21 – Hammond, Indiana, is incorporated a city.United Statessource
  • May 4 – The Panic of 1884 creates a credit shortage that accelerates the current United States economic recession into the Depression of 1882–1885.source
  • May 16 – Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister (1884–88).source
  • June 2 – Banamex was formed from the merger of Banco Nacional Mexicano and Banco Mercantil Mexicano, two banks that had operated since the beginning of 1882.Mexicosource
  • 16 June – The South Australian government of John Bray lost a no confidence motion over the introduction of a new tax and Bray was replaced as premier by the opposition leader John Colton.Australiasource
  • 12 July – The foundation stone of the National Bank of Romania is laid.Romaniasource
  • 6 December – Representation of the People Act ("Third Reform Act") extends the franchise uniformly across the U.K. to all male tenants paying a £10 rental or occupying land to that value, and restricts multiple voting; this increases the Irish electorate from 126,000 to 738,000.Irelandsource
  • German company Glastechnisches Laboratorium Schott & Genossen was founded, later becoming Schott AGGermanysource
  • Depression of 1882–85 (1882–1885)United Statessource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 10 March — Foundation of the Terni steelworks in Umbria with state guarantees and capital from several large banks, such as the Banca Generale, Credito Mobiliare and Banca Nazionale in the Kingdom of Italy. Construction, an important step in the industrialization of Italy, of the plant began shortly afterwards with the support of workers from the French Schneider steelworks. Completion was reached after two years and showed a complex of international significance. The key initiator of the project was the Minister of the Navy Benedetto Brin, while the self-made industrialist, Ernesto Breda, was its technical designer. The main purpose was to free the Italian Royal Navy and the Italian railways from depending on foreign steel. The national output of steel, which had been under 4,000 tons in 1881, reached 158,000 tons in 1889.Italysource
  • 31 March – Cape Midland – Noupoort to De Aar, to link up with the Cape Western System, 69 mi 6 ch.South Africasource
  • March – John Joseph Montgomery conducts the first manned glider flights in the United States near Otay, California.source
  • May 1 – The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. This date, called May Day or Labour Day, becomes a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.source
  • May 16 – Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.source
  • 9 June – The construction of the Reichstag building in Berlin started.Germanysource
  • June 13 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens the "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway" at Coney Island, New York City.source
  • July 3 – The Dow Jones Transportation Average, consisting of eleven transportation-related companies (nine railroads and two non-rail companies, Western Union and Pacific Mail), is created in the United States. The index is the oldest stock index to remain in use.source
  • 5 July – Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property obtains legal forceBelgiumsource
  • July 7 – Nagasaki Shipyard, predecessor of the Japanese aircraft and shipbuilding business Mitsubishi, is founded on the island of Kyushu.source
  • August 5 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.source
  • November 2 – Timișoara, Romania, is the first town in Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.source
  • Thomas Parker builds a practical production electric car in Wolverhampton (England) using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.source
  • Mexican General Manuel Mondragón designs an early form of the Mondragón rifle, the world's first automatic rifle.source
  • Indian Marine Service Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • Unknown date – Yamada Electronic Wire Manufacturing, as predecessor of Furukawa Electronic Work has founded.Japansource
  • 1883–84 New Zealand cricket seasonNew Zealandsource
  • Launch of NRP Afonso de Albuquerque.Portugalsource

Science & Discovery

  • January – Arthur Conan Doyle's anonymous story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" appears in the Cornhill Magazine (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the Mary Celeste in 1872, many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to replace the real events in the popular imagination.source
  • October 22 – The International Meridian Conference meeting in Washington, D.C., fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian (voted on October 13).source
  • 22 October – The International Meridian Conference meeting in Washington, D.C., adopts the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian (voted on 13 October).United Kingdomsource
  • October – International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.United Statessource
  • The Stefan–Boltzmann law is reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.source
  • The Thorvaldsen Exhibition Medal is awarded to Christian Zacho for the painting Quiet waters in Dyrehaven and to August Jerndorff for a portrait painting (possibly Anne Gerricke).Denmarksource
  • Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884.Germanysource
  • Paal-Knorr Synthesis was initially reported independently by German chemists Carl Paal and Ludwig Knorr as a method for the preparation of furansGermanysource
  • Naval Discipline Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • Teacher's Highland Cream blended whisky registered.Scotlandsource

Health & Medicine

  • January 7 – German microbiologist Robert Koch isolates Vibrio cholerae, the cholera bacillus, working in India.source
  • 7 March – Eugène Poubelle introduces the dustbin to Paris.Francesource
  • 10–16 August – The 8th International Medical Congress opens in Copenhagen. The participants include Peter Ludvig Panum (President), Louis Pasteur, Rudolf Ludwig Virchow and James Paget.Denmarksource
  • 26 June — The first Italian officially to fall ill of cholera on Italian soil is a migrant worker who arrived at Ventimiglia from Toulon.Italysource
  • September 15 – The invention of local anesthesia by ophthalmologist Karl Koller is made public at a medical congress in Heidelberg, Germany.source
  • 2 November – the "Home Office Baby" is delivered to the Home Office.United Kingdomsource
  • The water hyacinth is introduced in the United States, and quickly becomes an invasive species.source
  • Robert Koch resided and researched at Grant Medical College in Bombay, India, where he was able to determine the causative agent of cholera, isolating Vibrio cholerae.Germanysource
  • Which led in turn to the 1889 Workers' Safety Act and the foundation of the Labor Inspectorate, as well as the 1891 National Health Insurance ActSwedensource
  • The water hyacinth is introduced in the U.S. and quickly becomes an invasive species.United Statessource
  • Isolation hospital for cholera patients opens on Flat Holm.Walessource

Crime & Justice

  • 10 February – Jon Hol is imprisoned for his pamphlet Rifleringen.Norwaysource
  • December 1 – American Old West: Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys, who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys have been terrorizing the area's Hispanos, and Baca is working against them).source
  • December 9 – Tom Dudley and Edwin Stephens are convicted of murder in the survival cannibalism case of R v. Dudley and Stephens in the English courts.source
  • 9 December – Dudley and Stephens receive the mandatory death penalty with a recommendation for clemency and on 13 December are told that their penalties have been commuted to six months' imprisonment.United Kingdomsource
  • Théo van Rysselberghe, Four BreakwatersBelgiumsource
  • James Ensor, The Rooftops of OstendBelgiumsource
  • Joris-Karl Huysmans - À reboursFrancesource
  • The Webb case – District magistrate of Assam dismisses most charges against Charles Webb, who sexually assaulted and killed a female tea plantation worker; case galvanises public opinion against colonial ruleIndiasource
  • "Dublin Castle scandal" – following a failed libel action, a number of members of the Dublin Castle administration are convicted of participating in male homosexual acts.Irelandsource
  • Chair – Evan Rees ("Dyfed"), "Gwilym Hiraethog"Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 17 July – Barque Vicksburg of Leith goes aground on Muckle Skerry in the Pentland Skerries with the loss of nine lives; twelve are saved by the island's lighthouse keepers.Scotlandsource
  • 22 September – HMS Wasp is wrecked on Tory Island, County Donegal, with the loss of 52 lives and only 6 survivors.Irelandsource
  • 3 October – The fire of the 2nd Christiansborg Palace begins.Denmarksource
  • The Yellow Crane Tower last burns in Wuhan.source
  • Closure of Talargoch lead mine, near Dyserth.Walessource

Climate & Environment

  • 22 April – Colchester earthquake ("the Great English earthquake") measuring EMS-98 VIII (Heavily damaging) is the UK's most destructive, although no direct fatalities can be confirmed.United Kingdomsource
  • April 24 – The Colchester earthquake ("the Great English earthquake") measuring EMS-98 VIII (Heavily damaging) is the UK's most destructive, although no direct fatalities can be confirmed.source
  • 28 April – Napier Commission delivers the Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry Into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • August 10 – An earthquake measuring 5.5 Mfa affects a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock has a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Chimneys are toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Property damage is severe in Jamaica, Queens and Amityville, New York.source
  • August 10 – An earthquake measuring 5.5 Mfa (based on the felt area) affected a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Chimneys were toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Property damage was severe in Jamaica and Amityville in New York.United Statessource
  • In the "rain year" from July 1883 to June 1884, Los Angeles and San Diego receive their heaviest rainfall since instrumental records began, with Los Angeles receiving 38.18 in and San Diego 25.97 in.United Statessource
  • American bison herd size reaches a low point, with fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining (resulting in a severe genetic bottleneck).United Statessource
  • Slate industry in Wales: A flood at Dorothea quarry in the Nantlle Valley kills 7 and there is a major rockfall in the underground Cwmorthin quarry in the Blaenau Ffestiniog district.Walessource

Culture & Society

  • January 2: The Brazilian Spiritist Federation is founded in Rio de Janeiro.Brazilsource
  • January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress.source
  • January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Princess Ida, a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy Theatre, London.source
  • January 18 – William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on March 14, setting a legal precedent.source
  • February 1 – A New English Dictionary on historical principles, part 1 (edited by James A. H. Murray), the first fascicle of what will become The Oxford English Dictionary, is published in England.source
  • February 5 – Derby County Football Club is founded in England.source
  • February – First exhibition of Les XX opensBelgiumsource
  • 13 March – Daisy Bates married Breaker Morant.Australiasource
  • 30 March — Reshuffle in the Depretis government. Depretis moves closer to the Historical Right to broaden his parliamentary base. The financial policy of the Historical Left, which was much less rigorous than that of the Right, led to a resurgence of the deficit in the State budget.Italysource
  • 11 May - Establishment of the Museu Nacional de Belas-Artes e Arqueologia.Portugalsource
  • June 4 (N.S.) (May 23 O.S.) – The future flag of Estonia is consecrated as the flag of the Estonian Students' Society.source
  • June 28 – The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (Norsk Kvinnesaksforening) is founded. Also this year, the Fredrika Bremer Association (Fredrika Bremer Förbundet) is founded in Sweden for the same purpose.source
  • July 23 – The first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall, Leamington Spa, England, are recorded in today's Courier.source
  • September 5 – Staten Island Academy is founded.source
  • October 6 – The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.source
  • October 18 – The University College of North Wales, Bangor, is founded in the UK.source
  • October 22 – The "Nine Graces", nine women who are the first to be awarded degrees from the Royal University of Ireland, become the first women in the United Kingdom to be awarded degrees. They include Alice Oldham, Isabella Mulvany and Charlotte M. Taylor.source
  • October 30 – Hosay massacre in Trinidad: British colonial authorities fire on Indian indentured labourers marking a religious festival, killing at least 9.source
  • November 1 – Leicester City F.C. play their first match, as Leicester Fosse Football Club, in England.source
  • November 1 – The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.source
  • November 3 – Imvo Zabantsundu (Xhosa: The Native People's Opinion of South Africa), South Africa's first newspaper by and for Black people, is founded by John Tengo Jabavu in King William's Town.South Africasource
  • December 6 – The Third Reform Act widens the adult male electorate in the United Kingdom to around 60%.source
  • December 6 – The Washington Monument is completed in Washington, D.C., becoming the tallest structure in the world at this date.source
  • December 10 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first published, in London.source
  • December 30 – Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 is premiered in Leipzig, bringing the composer his first great success.source
  • Police training schools are established in every prefecture in Japan.source
  • The National Gallery of Iceland is founded in Copenhagen, Denmark.Icelandsource
  • Establishment of Academicheskaya DachaRussiasource

Births

  • January 24 – Thomas Blamey, Australian field marshal (died 1951)source
  • January 30 - Pedro Pablo Ramírez, president of ArgentinaArgentinasource
  • February 1 – Bradbury Robinson, American football player, who threw the first forward pass in American football history (died 1949)source
  • March 13 – Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (died 1941)source
  • April 4 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (died 1943)source
  • April 7 – Bronisław Malinowski, Polish anthropologist (died 1942)source
  • May 8 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States (died 1972)source
  • May 28 – Edvard Beneš, Czechoslovak politician, prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia (died 1948)source
  • June 18 – Édouard Daladier, Prime Minister of France (died 1970)source
  • July 4 – Louis B. Mayer, American film producer, studio mogul (died 1957)source
  • July 12 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter, sculptor (died 1920)source
  • August 9 – John S. McCain Sr., American admiral (died 1945)source
  • September 24 – İsmet İnönü, Turkish soldier, statesman, 3-time prime minister of Turkey and 2nd president of Turkey (died 1973)source
  • October 11 – Eleanor Roosevelt, American politician, diplomat, activist, and First Lady of the United States (died 1962)source
  • 7 December – Petru Groza, prime minister between 1945 and 1952 and president between 1952 and 1958 (died 1958).Romaniasource
  • December 20 – Ehsanollah Khan Dustdar, an early twentieth century Iranian Marxist revolutionary and leader of the Persian Socialist Soviet Republic.Iransource
  • December 30 – Hideki Tojo, Japanese general, 27th prime minister of Japan (died 1948)source
  • December 30 - Hideki Tojo (died 1948), leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and the 40th Prime Minister of JapanJapansource

Deaths

  • January 6 – Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist (born 1822)source
  • 5 February - Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal, infanta (born 1843)Portugalsource
  • February 8 – Cetshwayo kaMpande, Zulu king (born 1826)source
  • 14 March — Quintino Sella, mathematician, politician, economist and mountaineer (born 1827)Italysource
  • March 28 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, dies, aged 30 in Cannes (France) following a fall complicated by his haemophilia. His son, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, is born nearly 4 months later.source
  • March 28 – Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria (born 1853)source
  • May 6 – Judah P. Benjamin, American politician, US senator from Louisiana, Cabinet officer of the Confederate States (born 1811)source
  • May 12 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (born 1824)source
  • May 13 – Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (born 1809)source
  • May 29 – Sir Henry Bartle Frere, British colonial administrator (born 1815)source
  • June 19 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentine politician, writer and main Constitution promoter (born 1810)source
  • July 1 – Allan Pinkerton, American detective (born 1819)source
  • July 10 – Paul Morphy, American chess player (born 1837)source
  • July 15 – Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American educator, author (born 1793)source
  • September 10 – George Bentham, English botanist (born 1800)source
  • October 16 – Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Hawaiian ali‘i (born 1831)source
  • Oura Okei (born 1828), businesswomanJapansource
  • José Fondevila García was born in Pontevedra province Spain (died 1973)Mexicosource