date: December 18

text: December 18 – French passenger steamer Byzantin founders in the Dardanelles during a gale after collision with British SS Rinaldo, killing around 210 people, with only 14 crew of the Byzantin saved.


date: August 9

section: Climate & Environment

text: August 9 – The Wallingford Tornado of 1878, the deadliest tornado in Connecticut history, destroys the town of Wallingford, killing 34 people and injuring more than 70.

source_section: Events › August


date: January

section: Culture & Society

text: The Yale News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the U.S.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Gajanan Maharaj appears at Shegaon, Maharashtra.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Mississippi State University is created by the Mississippi Legislature (under the name The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi).


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Electric lights are first used at Westminster Palace.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Stawell Gift sprint is run for the first time in Australia.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 1

text: May 1–November 10 – Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, is staged in Paris. In June some parts of the city are first lit by 'Yablochkov candles' (arc lamps) and on June 30 the head of the Statue of Liberty goes on display there.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore debuts in London at the Opera Comique, with a first run of 571 performances.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – The League of Prizren is officially founded "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania".

source_section: Events › June


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Eadweard Muybridge produces the first sequence of stop-motion still photographs The Horse in Motion in California (a predecessor of silent film), demonstrating that all four feet of a galloping horse are off the ground at the same time.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – A match race between champion thoroughbred racehorses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty draws more than 30,000 fans to Louisville, and inspires the folk song, "Molly and Tenbrooks".

source_section: Events › July


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The Hindu, an Indian newspaper, is founded.

source_section: Events › September


text: The Johns Hopkins University Press, America's oldest university press.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina is published complete in book form in Moscow.


text: Ipswich Town Football Club, formed as amateur club Ipswich A.F.C. They will not turn professional until 1936.


text: The following English Association football clubs:


date: February 3

section: Births

text: February 3 – Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1943)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Clemens August Graf von Galen, German Catholic cardinal (d. 1946)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946)


date: April 1

text: April 1 – C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil philologist (d. 1958)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1929)

source_section: Births › May


date: August 28

text: August 28 – George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Sergio Osmeña, 4th President of the Philippines (d. 1961)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, German general and Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr (d. 1943)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Lise Meitner, German-Austrian physicist, discoverer of nuclear fission (d. 1968)


text: November 7 – Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi (d. 1953)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Ernest Joseph King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations (COMINCH-CNO) during World War II (d. 1956)


text: November 23 – Frank Pick, British transport administrator, designer (d. 1941)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – C. Rajagopalachari, Indian politician, freedom fighter (d. 1972)

source_section: Births › December


date: January 8

section: Deaths

text: January 8 – Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet (b. 1821)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Julius von Mayer, German physician and physicist, a founder of thermodynamics (b. 1814)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Sir George Gilbert Scott, English architect (b. 1811)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Joseph Henry, American scientist (b. 1797)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Ōkubo Toshimichi, Japanese samurai, later leader of the Meiji restoration (b. 1830)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1792)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Ernst von Bibra, German scientist (b. 1806)


date: June 12

text: June 12 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet, journalist and editor (b. 1794)


text: June 12 – George V of Hanover, deposed German king (b. 1819)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Shiv Dayal Singh, founder and first SatGuru of Radha Soami faith (b. 1818)


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Sidney Breese, U.S. senator from Illinois, 'father of the Illinois Central Railroad' (b. 1800)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Bohemian pathologist, philosopher and politician (b. 1804)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Discalced Carmelite and Melkite Greek Catholic nun and saint, canonized (b. 1846)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (b. 1843)


date: March 11

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: March 11 – The Ryukyu Domain is incorporated into the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan and the last ruler, Shō Tai, exiled to Tokyo.

source_section: Events › March


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The current constitution of the State of California in the United States is ratified.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Mohammad Yaqub Khan, Emir of Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak, putting the Afghan state into the British sphere of influence.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Qing dynasty China signs the Treaty of Livadia with the Russian Empire.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The Dual Alliance is formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.


text: Colonel Ahmed ‘Urabi forms the Egyptian Nationalist Party.


date: January 11

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Isandlwana: A force of 1,200 British soldiers is wiped out by over 20,000 Zulu warriors.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Rorke's Drift: Following the previous day's defeat, a smaller British force of 140 successfully repels an attack by 4,000 Zulus.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Hlobane: British forces suffer a defeat.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – War of the Pacific: Chile formally declares war on Bolivia and Peru.

source_section: Events › April


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Anglo-Zulu War: Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France, son of Napoléon III, is killed in a skirmish with Zulus while attached to the British Army.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Ulundi: A British victory effectively ends the war.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian reservation in Colorado.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 8

text: October 8 – War of the Pacific: Battle of Angamos – The Chilean Navy defeats Peruvian naval forces.


date: May 14

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: May 14 – The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji, aboard the Leonidas.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Led by George W. De Long, the ill-fated United States Jeannette Expedition departs San Francisco, in an attempt to reach the North Pole, by pioneering a route through the Bering Strait.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – The city of Kotka is founded in Kymenlaakso, Finland, by separating its two islands from the old Kymi parish.


text: Tetteh Quarshie first brings cocoa beans to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: April 12

section: Religion & Belief

text: April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – English Catholic convert John Henry Newman is elevated to Cardinal.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Yasukuni Shrine is officially renamed from Tokyo Shokonsha Shrine in Japan.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Sidney Faithorn Green, a priest in the Church of England, is tried and convicted for using Ritualist practices.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Fulham F.C. is founded in London as a church soccer team.

source_section: Events › August


date: June 21

section: Economy & Finance

text: June 21 – German chemical company Linde is founded by Carl von Linde.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Tokio Marine (insurer) is founded in Japan, as Tokio Marine Holdings.


date: February 3

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: February 3 – Mosley Street in Newcastle upon Tyne (England) becomes the world's first public highway to be lit by the electric incandescent light bulb invented by Joseph Swan.

source_section: Events › February


date: April

text: April – Postman Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal at Hauterives in France.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – William Denny and Brothers launch the world's first ocean-going steamer to be built of mild steel, the SS Rotomahana, on the River Clyde in Scotland. On October 2 they launch the first transatlantic steamer of the same material, the SS Buenos Ayrean; on December 1 she makes her maiden voyage out of Glasgow, bound for South America.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – The Blackpool Illuminations in England are switched on for the first time.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests his first practical electric light bulb (it lasts hours before burning out).


date: November 4

text: November 4 – 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).

source_section: Events › November


date: November 10

text: November 10 – 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.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – 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.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 1

section: Science & Discovery

text: January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming first proposes the global adoption of standard time.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – American Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The Hall effect is discovered by Edwin Hall at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.


text: Gottlob Frege publishes Begriffsschrift, eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens in Halle, a significant text in the development of mathematical logic.


text: Wilhelm Wundt establishes the first psychological research laboratory, at the University of Leipzig.


text: The Stefan–Boltzmann law is discovered by Jozef Stefan.


date: September 8

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: September 8 – 1879 Octagon fire: A fire in The Octagon, Dunedin (New Zealand), claims 12 victims.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – A fire in Deadwood, South Dakota, leaves 2,000 people homeless and 300 buildings destroyed; total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The National Park, later renamed the Royal National Park, is declared in New South Wales, Australia, the world's second-oldest purposed national park.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The 1879 Surigao earthquake measuring 7.4 causes major damage in the northern tip of Mindanao Island.


text: July 1 – An 8.0 earthquake shakes southern Gansu, killing 22,000 people.


date: December 2

text: December 2-28 – the Winter 1879 cold wave freeze Europe with record low temperatures.


text: January 1 – Brahms' Violin Concerto is premiered in Leipzig with Joseph Joachim as soloist and the composer conducting.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – United States Geological Survey is founded.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 76, B. 54, is premiered (four years after being written) in Prague with Adolf Čech conducting.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is founded clandestinely at the Casa Labra tavern in Madrid, by printer Pablo Iglesias.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Claimed apparition to local people at Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist and Jesus Christ (as the Lamb of God).


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society is founded.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Wilhelm Marr founds the Antisemitenliga (League of Antisemites), the first German organization committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to German culture posed by Jews.


date: September

text: September – Henry George self-publishes his major work Progress and Poverty.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – 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.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – 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 Hall, and with the Society of Oxford Home-Students.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Sunderland Association Football Club is formed by a group of schoolteachers in northeast England.


date: November

text: November – Land is acquired for Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, established as a Baptist institution.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – 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).


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourgeois-born American painter and photographer (d. 1973)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Georgia Ann Robinson, community worker, first African-American woman to be appointed a Los Angeles police officer (d. 1961)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born British politician, wife of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor (d. 1964)


text: May 19 – Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, British businessman, politician, husband of Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor (d. 1952)


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Canadian-born British statesman and newspaper publisher (d. 1964)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Lois Weber, American film director, screenwriter (d. 1939)


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Janusz Korczak (pen-name of Henryk Goldszmit), Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician and child pedagogist (b. 1878 or 1879) (d. 1942)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia, Premier of Tasmania (d. 1939)


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Franz von Papen, German diplomat and politician; Chancellor (1932) and Vice-Chancellor (1933–34; under Adolf Hitler) (d. 1969)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Billy Mitchell, U.S. general, military aviation pioneer (d. 1936)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Baldomero Espartero, Spanish general, regent and Prime Minister (b. 1793)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Hugh M'Neile, Irish-born English Anglican priest. (b. 1795)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (b. 1808)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – William Kingdon Clifford, English mathematician and philosopher (b. 1845)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Bernadette Soubirous, French Roman Catholic saint (b. 1844)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Henry Sewell, New Zealand politician, 1st Premier of New Zealand (b. 1807)


text: May 14 – Epameinondas Deligeorgis, Greek politician, 20th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1829)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – George Fife Angas, English coachbuilder, businessman and politician, founder of South Australia (b. 1789)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Napoléon, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (b. 1856)


date: August 30

text: August 30 – John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect (b. 1814)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Miguel Grau Seminario, Peruvian admiral (killed in action) (b. 1834)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord, American political essayist (b. 1810)


text: Publius Helvius Pertinax becomes pro-consul of Africa from 188 to 189.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Queen Himiko (or Shingi Waō) begins her reign in Japan (until 248).

source_section: Events › By place › Japan


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Caracalla (or Antoninus), Roman emperor (d. 217)

source_section: Births


text: Sun Shao, Chinese general of the Eastern Wu state (d. 241)


text: Lu Ji (or Gongji), Chinese official and politician (d. 219)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Julian, pope and patriarch of Alexandria

source_section: Deaths


text: Ma Xiang, Chinese rebel leader (approximate date)


text: Lucius Antistius Burrus, Roman politician (executed)


text: Publius Atilius Aebutianus, Roman prefect (executed)


text: Qiangqui, Chinese ruler of the southern Xiongnu


text: Fa Zhen (or Gaoqing), Chinese scholar (b. AD 100)


text: Shusun Tong, Chinese official and ritual specialist


date: April 18

text: April 18 – 1880 United Kingdom general election: William Ewart Gladstone defeats Benjamin Disraeli, to become Prime Minister for the second time.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The Prime Minister of Sweden, Louis De Geer, resigns over the defeat of a defense reform bill in the country's Riksdag; he is succeeded by Count Arvid Posse (1880–1883).


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Abdur Rahman Khan becomes Emir of Afghanistan.

source_section: Events › July


date: November 2

text: November 2 – 1880 United States presidential election: James Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Manuel González Flores becomes the 31st President of Mexico.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – The Transvaal becomes a republic, and Paul Kruger becomes its first president.


text: Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza signs a treaty of protection with the chief of the large Teke tribe, and begins to establish a French protectorate on the north bank of the Congo River.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Black Donnelly Massacre takes the lives of five members of one family in Biddulph Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.


date: April

text: April – The government of Cape Colony sets a deadline for the Basuto people to surrender their weapons; non-compliance leads to the Basuto Gun War.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – France annexes Tahiti.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Second Anglo-Afghan War – Battle of Maiwand: Afghan troops under Ayub Khan defeat British and Indian forces, under Brigadier General George Burrows.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Second Anglo-Afghan War – Battle of Kandahar: General Frederick Roberts, commanding British forces, defeats the Afghan troops of Mohammad Ayub Khan, bringing an end to the war.

source_section: Events › September


date: December 20

text: December 20 – First Boer War: The Battle of Bronkhorstspruit results in a Boer victory over the British.


date: January

text: The Gokstad ship is found in Norway, the first Viking ship burial to be excavated.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia arrives in London, aboard the SS Strathleven.

source_section: Events › February


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The SS Columbia completes her maiden voyage, arriving without incident in Portland, Oregon, after a stopover in San Francisco.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Cologne Cathedral is completed, after construction began in 1248, 632 years earlier.


text: The Capuchin catacombs of Palermo are officially closed (there will be some burials afterwards).


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Competing circus owners P. T. Barnum and James A. Bailey sign a contract in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to create the Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1907, the circus will merge forces with another competitor, the Ringling Brothers Circus.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – German company Munich Re is founded in Munich.

source_section: Events › October


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament, including using "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," Edison and his team later discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last more than 1200 hours.


text: February 2 – The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – After having her lights installed by Edison's personnel, the SS Columbia is lit up for the first time at the foot of Wall Street, in New York City.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 13

text: May 13 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Tinius Olsen is awarded a United States Patent, for the Little Giant Testing Machine.


date: June

text: June – The SS Columbia sets off on her maiden voyage around Cape Horn to Portland, Oregon, carrying 13 locomotives and 200 railcars.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Dorchester Penitentiary opens in Canada.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.

source_section: Events › November


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The SS Columbia, which will be the first outside usage of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, is launched at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania.


date: July

text: July – John Venn popularises Venn diagrams.


text: Piezoelectricity is discovered by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.


section: Crime & Justice

text: The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Australian police capture bank robber Ned Kelly, after a gun battle at Glenrowan, Victoria.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Belgian ship Mercator founders off the coast of the Netherlands port of Vlissingen with the loss of her entire crew of more than 60 people.

source_section: Events › March


text: October 15 – A blizzard marks the start of the Hard Winter in North America.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – A major earthquake strikes Zagreb and destroys many buildings, including Zagreb Cathedral.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The horse Empress and its jockey, Tommy Beasley, win the 1880 Grand National


date: March 20

text: March 20 – For the first and last time in its history, the annual side-by-side rowing race between the 8-member teams of University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge on the River Thames is postponed. The call comes because of a thick fog that makes visibility impossible. Two days later, Oxford wins the race by 3+3⁄4 lengths.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The Royal University of Ireland is founded by charter, allowing the Catholic University of Ireland to re-form as University College Dublin.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – The University of Southern California opens its doors to 53 students and 10 faculty.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech, England.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre, in New York City.


text: The Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, is established in the United States.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Manuel Azaña, 2nd President of the Spanish Second Republic, 55th Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1940)

source_section: Births › January–February


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Mack Sennett, Canadian-born comedy film director, producer (d. 1960)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Ruth Hanna McCormick, American politician, activist and publisher (d. 1944)

source_section: Births › March–April


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Adrian Carton de Wiart, Belgian-born British general (d. 1963)

source_section: Births › May–June


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, British field marshal (d. 1959)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (d. 1964)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Ludwig Beck, German general, Chief of the General Staff (d. 1944)


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Tod Browning, American motion picture director, horror film pioneer (d. 1962)

source_section: Births › July–August


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Sir Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)

source_section: Births › September–October


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian Zionist philosopher, intellectual (d. 1940)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Alfred Wegener, German scientist, meteorologist (d. 1930)

source_section: Births › November–December


date: December 31

text: December 31 – George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Joshua A. Norton, self-anointed Emperor Norton I of the United States of America (b. 1811)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, wife of Chester A. Arthur (b. 1837)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Captain Moonlite, Australian bushranger (hanged) (b. 1842)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (b. 1821)


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse), Empress Consort of Czar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1824)


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy (b. 1846)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Paul Broca, French physician and anthropologist (b. 1824)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Jacques Offenbach, German-born French composer (b. 1819)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Ned Kelly, Australian bush ranger (hanged) (b. c. 1855)


text: November 11 – Lucretia Mott, American social activist (b. 1793)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Sir Redmond Barry, Australian judge, sentenced Ned Kelly to death (b. 1813)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, (Portuguese) Archbishop of Goa (b. 1837)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Maria Giuseppa Rossello, Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and blessed (b. 1811)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)


date: February 24

text: February 24 (February 12 Old Style) – Qing dynasty China signs the Treaty of Saint Petersburg with the Russian Empire providing for the return to China of the eastern part of the Ili Basin.


date: March 26

text: March 26 (March 14 Old Style) – The Principality of Romania is proclaimed the Kingdom of Romania.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate by the Treaty of Bardo.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – The Pacific island of Rotuma cedes to Great Britain, becoming a dependency of the Colony of Fiji.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – The League of the Three Emperors is resurrected.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 1

text: July 1 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell–Childers reforms of the British Army's organization, comes into effect.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – The Pretoria Convention peace treaty is signed, officially ending the war between the Boers and Britain.


text: On the Isle of Man (an internally self-governing dependent territory of the United Kingdom), the House of Keys Election Act extends the franchise for the national legislature to spinsters and widows owning real estate of a certain value.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 1

text: January 1–24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 13

text: January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The Chilean army defeats Peruvian forces.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – War of the Pacific – Battle of Miraflores: The Chileans take Lima, capital of Peru, after defeating its second line of defense in Miraflores.


date: March 13

text: March 13 (March 1 Old Style) – Assassination of Alexander II of Russia: Emperor Alexander II of Russia ("the Liberator") is killed near his palace in Saint Petersburg when bombs are thrown at him, an act committed by the revolutionary socialist group Narodnaya Volya coordinated by Sophia Perovskaya but falsely blamed upon Russian Jews. He is succeeded by his son, Alexander III. The assassin Ignacy Hryniewiecki is also killed by his own bomb.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Anti-Semitic pogroms in Southern Russia begin.

source_section: Events › April


date: June 26

text: June 26 – War of the Pacific – Battle of Sangrar: Peruvian and Chilean forces battle to a draw.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Assassination of James A. Garfield: United States President James A. Garfield is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau in Washington, D.C. The wound becomes infected, killing Garfield on September 19.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – American Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Mapuche uprising of 1881 begins with an attack on Quillem, Chile.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – A meteorite strikes the Earth near the village of Großliebenthal, a few kilometers southwest of Odesa, Ukraine.


date: December 25

text: December 25–27 – The Warsaw pogrom is carried out in Vistula Land, Russian Empire.

source_section: Events › December


date: October 5

text: October 5–December 31 – The International Cotton Exposition is held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.


text: Hattori Watch Shop (服部時計店) is founded by Kanetarō Hattori in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, predecessor of watch brand Seiko.


text: Kinshasa (the capital of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) is founded by Henry Morton Stanley as a trading outpost called Léopoldville.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Determined to bring about the revival of the Hebrew language as a way of unifying Jews, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda has what is believed to be the first conversation in Modern Hebrew, with friends living in Paris.


text: December 25 – Catholic religious congregation Mothers of the Forsaken and Saint Joseph of the Mountain is founded by Blessed Petra of Saint Joseph.


text: New York City's oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart New York (91st Street), is founded.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Phoenix, Arizona, is incorporated.

source_section: Events › February


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The Cunard Line's , the first large steel transatlantic liner, is launched at Clydebank in Scotland.

source_section: Events › March


date: May 16

text: May 16 – The world's first regular electric tram service is started near Berlin, by Siemens & Halske.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The current Cincinnati Reds baseball team plays its first game.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Godalming becomes the first town in England to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated).

source_section: Events › September


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre opens in London, the world's first public building to be fully lit by electricity, using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulbs.


text: Rafaela, Argentina, is formed.


text: Some Vatican archives are opened to scholars for the first time.


text: The Pali Text Society is founded by British scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids, for the study of Pali (Ceylonese) texts.


date: February 18

section: Health & Medicine

text: February 18 – Carlos Finlay introduces his discovery of the transmission of Yellow Fever by mosquitoes Aedes aegypti, in the Fifth International Sanitary Conference held in Washington, D.C.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Kansas becomes the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – William Edward Forster, chief secretary for Ireland, introduces his Coercion Bill, which temporarily suspends habeas corpus so that those people suspected of committing an offence can be detained without trial; it goes through a long debate before it is accepted February 2. Note that Coercion bills had been passed almost annually in the 19th century, with a total of 105 such bills passed from 1801 to 1921.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Billy the Kid escapes from his 2 jailers at the Lincoln County Jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, killing James Bell and Robert Ollinger, before stealing a horse and riding out of town.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett, outside Fort Sumner, New Mexico.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone, Arizona, and loses the use of his left arm.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – A fire caused by a gas explosion destroys the Opéra de Nice in the south of France with fatalities.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – hits a reef and sinks off the coast of New Zealand's South Island with only 20 survivors of the 151 on board.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The Thumb Fire in the U.S. state of Michigan destroys over a million acres (4,000 km 2 ) and kills 282 people.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – At least 380 die in a fire at the Vienna Ringtheater.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – The fifth hurricane of the Atlantic season hits Florida and the Carolinas, killing about 700.

source_section: Events › August


date: February 13

text: February 13 – The first issue of the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is published by Hubertine Auclert in Paris.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Edward Rudolf founds the 'Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays' (later The Children's Society).


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Spelman College is established in Atlanta, Georgia.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The University of Connecticut is founded as the Storrs Agricultural School.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Caulfield Grammar School is founded in Melbourne, Australia.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.


text: May 21 – The United States Tennis Association is established by a small group of tennis club members; the first U.S. Tennis Championships are played this year.


date: May 22

text: May 22 (May 10 Old Style) – Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen is crowned King of Romania.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Tuskegee Institute opens in Alabama.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The first episode of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio is published in Italy.


date: July 14

text: July 14–20 – The London Social Revolutionary Congress is held; delegates include Marie Le Compte, Peter Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta, Saverio Merlino, Louise Michel, Nikolai Tchaikovsky and Émile Gautier.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Francis Howell High School (Howell Institute) in St. Charles, Missouri, and Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas, open on the same day, putting them in a tie for the title of the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – The satirical magazine Judge is first published in the United States.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 premieres in Budapest with the composer as soloist.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The Clarkson Memorial to an anti-slavery campaigner in Wisbech (England) is completed and unveiled to the public.


date: November

text: November – Newcastle United F.C. is founded in the northeast of England as Stanley F.C., with a further name change to Newcastle East End F.C. the following year.


text: Meiji Law School, predecessor of Meiji University, is founded in Yurakucho, Tokyo, Japan.


text: Culford School, a public school in Suffolk, England, is founded as the East Anglian School for Boys.


text: The Vocational and Technical College of Tokyo, later Tokyo Institute of Technology, is founded in Japan.


text: Leyton Orient F.C. is founded in London.


text: Tokyo Law College, predecessor of Hosei University, is founded in Japan.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)

source_section: Births › January


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Alexei Rykov, Premier of Russia and Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1938)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Hans Wilsdorf, German-Swiss watchmaker, founder of Rolex (d. 1960)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Guccio Gucci, Italian fashion designer, founder of Gucci (d. 1953)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, British politician (d. 1959)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkiye and the first President of Turkey, Turkish field marshal and statesman (official birthday; d. 1938)

source_section: Births › May


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Smedley Butler, United States Marine Corps general (d. 1940)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish biomedical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1955)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 7

text: August 7 – François Darlan, French admiral and 81st prime minister of France from 1941 to 1942 (d. 1942)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Cecil B. DeMille, American film director, producer (d. 1959)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Lu Xun, leading figure of modern Chinese literature (d. 1936)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Eugénie Cotton, French physicist, socialist, women's rights advocate (d. 1967)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 15

text: October 15 – William Temple, English Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1944)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Louis Auguste Blanqui, French socialist, political activist (b. 1805)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Frances Stackhouse Acton, British botanist, archaeologist, writer and artist (b. 1794)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer, historian (b. 1795)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (b. 1821)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (b. 1839)


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, Bavarian general (b. 1815)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Mary Seacole, British nurse (b. 1805)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – J. V. Snellman, Finnish statesman and an influential Fennoman philosopher (b. 1806)

source_section: Deaths › July – December


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Billy the Kid, American gunslinger (b. 1859)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – William Fargo, American expressman and politician, Mayor of Buffalo, New York (b. 1818)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Ambrose Burnside, American Civil War general, inventor, politician from Rhode Island (b. 1824)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States (b. 1831)


text: September 19 – President James A. Garfield dies eleven weeks after being shot. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes the 21st president of the United States.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, American general, politician, and diplomat (b. 1836)


date: March 6

text: March 6 (February 22 Old Style) – The Principality of Serbia becomes the Kingdom of Serbia following a proclamation.


date: May 2

text: 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.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The Triple Alliance is formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 is signed, marking territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Boers establish the republic of Stellaland in southern Africa.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 18

text: 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.


text: Carolyn Merrick is elected president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in the United States.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: A peace treaty is signed between Paraguay and Uruguay.


text: Zulu king Cetshwayo kaMpande returns to South Africa from England.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Roderick Maclean fails in an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria, at Windsor.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 20

text: 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.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Battle of Embabo: The Shewan forces of Menelik II defeat the Gojjame army.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The 'Urabi revolt breaks out in Egypt against Khedive Tewfik Pasha and European influence in that country.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The Imo Incident occurs in Seoul, Korea, as a result of bad rations and late payment for soldiers of the Joseon Army.


date: August 29

text: 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_section: Events › August


text: September 13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: British troops occupy Cairo, and Egypt becomes a British protectorate.

source_section: Events › September


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The British Royal Navy's destroys Abari village in Niger.

source_section: Events › November


text: Pogroms in Southern Russia end.


text: The Personal Liberty League is established to oppose the temperance movement in the United States.


date: January 2

text: 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_section: Events › January


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.


date: June

text: St Andrew's Ambulance Association is founded in Glasgow, Scotland; St. John Ambulance Canada is also founded this year.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – The Hebrew Moshava of Rishon LeZion in Palestine is founded.


date: December

text: December – Zikhron Ya'akov is founded in northern Israel.

source_section: Events › December


text: 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.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – German medical products company Beiersdorf is founded.


date: August 3

text: 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.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Standard Oil of New Jersey, the company later known as ExxonMobil, is established.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Holborn Viaduct power station in the City of London, the world's first coal-fired public electricity generating station, begins operation.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – The Elektromote, the world's first trolleybus, begins operation in Berlin.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is founded in Germany, as Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 11

text: 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.


date: September 4

text: 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.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The Bank of Japan opens in Tokyo City.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 16

text: 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.


text: The British Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (the modern-day Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys) is founded.


text: Redruth Mining School opens in Cornwall.


text: Nikola Tesla claims this is when he conceives the rotating magnetic field principle, which he later uses to invent his induction motor.


date: September 18

text: 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."


date: December 6

text: December 6 – A transit of Venus, the last until 2004, occurs.


text: The first International Polar Year, an international scientific program, begins.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Polygamy is made a felony by the Edmunds Act, passed by the United States Congress.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers, is the first law which restricts immigration into the United States.


date: February 4

text: 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_section: Events › February


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back of the head and killed by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri.


text: May 1 – Édouard Manet exhibits his painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère at the Paris Salon.


text: 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).


date: June 30

text: June 30 – U.S. presidential assassin Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Franklyn Leslie shoots Billy Claiborne dead in the streets of Tombstone, Arizona.


text: Waterloo F.C., a rugby union club, as Serpentine on Merseyside in the north of England.


text: Glentoran F.C. in Belfast in the north of Ireland;


text: Albion Rovers F.C. (through the amalgamation of two Coatbridge clubs, Albion and Rovers) in the urban west of Scotland;


date: November 2

text: November 2 – The Great Fire of Oulu destroys 27 buildings in the downtown of Oulu, Finland.


date: June 6

text: 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.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – American showman P. T. Barnum acquires the elephant Jumbo from the London Zoo.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Republican Jules Ferry makes primary education in France free, non-clerical (laique) and obligatory.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Burnley F.C. in Northern England changes codes, from rugby football to association football.


date: June

text: Ferdinand von Lindemann publishes his proof of the transcendentality of pi.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal debuts, at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bavaria.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Tottenham Hotspur F.C. is founded (as Hotspur F.C.) in London.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Selwyn College, Cambridge, is founded after Queen Victoria grants a Charter of Incorporation.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The Society for Ethical Culture of Chicago (the modern-day Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago) is founded by Felix Adler.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – The University of the Punjab at Lahore (British India), is founded in modern-day Pakistan.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Waseda University is founded by Shigenobu Ōkuma in Japan as Tokyo Specializing School.


text: Christchurch Rangers, the earliest predecessor of Queens Park Rangers F.C., in London;


text: Founding of the following sports clubs:


text: Thames Ditton Lawn Tennis Club, the oldest lawn tennis club still on its original site, in the outer London suburbs;


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1961)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Anna Abrikosova, Soviet Roman Catholic religious sister and servant of God (d. 1936)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Virginia Woolf, English writer (d. 1941)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Louis St. Laurent, 12th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Walter Nash, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1968)


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Hugh Dowding, commander of the RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 2

text: May 2 – James F. Byrnes, American politician, Secretary of State and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1972)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian politician, 35th Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)

source_section: Births › June


date: August 26

text: August 26 – James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Ion Agârbiceanu, Romanian writer, journalist, politician and priest (d. 1963)

source_section: Births › September


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1965)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Max Born, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Arthur Eddington, English astronomer, astrophysicist and mathematician (d. 1944)


text: January 6 – Richard Henry Dana Jr., founder of Dana Point, California (b. 1815)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author (b. 1807)


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet, painter (b. 1828)


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, writer (b. 1803)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Charles J. Guiteau, American preacher, writer, lawyer, assassin of James A. Garfield (executed) (b. 1841)


text: June 30 – Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer, businessman (b. 1827)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 23

text: July 23 – George Perkins Marsh, American diplomat, philologist and pioneer environmentalist (b. 1801)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – William Stanley Jevons, English economist and logician (b. 1835)


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Arthur de Gobineau, French writer, demographist (b. 1816)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1811)


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur (b. 1819)


text: December 6 – Anthony Trollope, British novelist, postal service official (b. 1815)


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Lucy Smith Millikin, early Latter Day Saint and sister of Joseph Smith (b. 1821)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States civil service, is passed.

source_section: Events › January


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Count Arvid Posse leaves office as Prime Minister of Sweden. He is succeeded by Carl Johan Thyselius, the first non-aristocrat (Swedish; "ofrälse") to serve as Swedish head of government, and Prime Minister.

source_section: Events › June


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to Chile, ending Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed.

source_section: Events › December


text: The Mexican government passes a law allowing real estate companies (controlled by General Porfirio Díaz's political associates) to survey public and "vacant" lands, and to retain one third of the land they survey.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The British Parliament considers a major bill to allow Indian judges to try Europeans in India. The British community rises in protest, and defeats the measure.


date: January 8

text: January 8 — January 19 – Trial of the 66 in Lyon, targeting the Black International in France.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Battle of Gia Cuc: A French force defeats the Vietnamese in northern Vietnam in the run-up to the Sino-French War.

source_section: Events › March


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Zulu King Cetshwayo barely escapes a rebel attack with his life.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Major Evelyn Baring becomes Consul-General of Egypt under British rule.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 16

text: October 16 – In five Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Two Clan na Gael dynamite bombs explode in the London Underground, injuring several people. The next day, British Home Secretary Vernon Harcourt drafts 300 policemen to guard the underground, and introduces the Explosives Bill.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The 14th Century AH begins in the Islamic calendar on the 1st of Muharram, 1301 AH.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – In Amsterdam, the first International Colonial and Export Exhibition closes, having had over 1 million visitors.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The Orient Express train begins to run through from Paris Gare de l'Est to Giurgiu in Romania, with onward ferry and train connections to Istanbul (the train has been running since June 5 as far as Vienna).


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Supremi apostolatus officio ("On Devotion of the Rosary").


text: Antoni Gaudí begins to work on the Sagrada Família Cathedral in Barcelona (it was consecrated in 2010)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey, United States, installed by Thomas Edison.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Tokyo Electrical Lightning Grid, predecessor of Tokyo Electrical Power (TEPCO), one of the largest electrical grids in Asia and the world, is founded in Japan.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is held.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Oxygen is liquefied for the first time.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic in New York City, after 13 years of construction.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 28

text: June 28 – In Milan, Italy, the first central European electricity power station is inaugurated.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis forms the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway, as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports, avoiding the high tariffs of Chicago.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – The Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram in Vienna (Austria) is the first electric tram powered by overhead wire.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.


text: ASEA is founded by Ludvig Fredholm in Sweden, predecessor of the global electronic equipment and engineering business ABB.


text: Construction of Speicherstadt as a free zone in the Port of Hamburg begins.


text: Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in Maryland


text: During construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, blasting and excavation reveal high concentrations of nickel–copper ore at Murray Mine, on the edge of the Sudbury Basin, located near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The Hong Kong Observatory is established.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Otto von Bismarck pushes the first social security law through the Reichstag. It establishes a system of Publicly funded health care, one of the first worldwide. It is signed into law on June 15.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Victoria Hall disaster: A rush for treats results in 183 children being asphyxiated in a concert hall in Sunderland, England.


text: Bernard Kroger establishes the first Kroger grocery store, in Cincinnati, Ohio.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – American Old West: Self-described Black Bart the Po-8 makes his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves a handkerchief with a laundry mark that eventually leads to his capture.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Bisbee Massacre: Five people are killed in the robbery of a general store by bandits in Bisbee, Arizona.


text: The Black Arabs F.C (later Bristol Rovers) in England


date: January 10

text: January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – A rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede, which crushes 12 people.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – The SS Daphne sinks on launch in Glasgow, Scotland, leaving 124 dead.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, Indonesia


date: August 21

text: August 21 – 1883 Rochester tornado: An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 26

text: August 26–27 – 1883 eruption of Krakatoa: The volcanic island of Krakatoa erupts at 10:02 am (local time); 163 villages are destroyed, 36,417 killed by tsunami.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Ladies' Home Journal is published for the first time, in the United States.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.


date: February

text: February – The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is first published complete in book form, in Italy.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Demonstration of 9 March 1883 : Parisian anarchists, unemployed and carpenters narrowly miss the Presidential palace during a violent protest; first use of the black flag as a symbol of anarchism by Louise Michel.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC in Scotland.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Robert Louis Stevenson's children's pirate adventure novel Treasure Island is first published in book format, in London.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Black Arrow first appears as a serial in the British magazine Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature as by 'Captain George North'. Stevenson completes writing it at the end of the summer in France.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline, Scotland.


date: August

text: August – King William's College is opened on the Isle of Man.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – The Bombay Natural History Society is founded in India.


text: September 15 – The University of Texas at Austin opens to students.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Sydney Boys High School is founded in Sydney, Australia, the country's first state high school.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The Boys' Brigade (the first uniformed youth organization in existence) is founded in Glasgow, Scotland.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Cardiff University, Wales, opens (under the name of University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire).


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Chile's National Library of Congress is founded.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Whitman College is chartered as a 4-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Battleford Industrial School, the first government-operated Indian residential school opens in Canada.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The Harbour Grace Affray takes place in Harbour Grace, Colony of Newfoundland.


text: The first purebred Percheron (horse) stud book is created in France.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese poet, painter and novelist (d. 1931)

source_section: Births › January–February


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Hubert Latham, pioneer French aviator of the pre-World War I era (d. 1912)


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (d. 1956)

source_section: Births › March–April


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, British field marshal (d. 1950)

source_section: Births › May–June


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Lesley J. McNair, American general (d. 1944)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Indian pro-independence activist, Hindu nationalist (d. 1966)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist (d. 1946)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Lothrop Stoddard, American eugenicist, radical scientific racist (d. 1950)


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Franz Kafka, Austrian writer (d. 1924)

source_section: Births › July–August


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Max Fleischer, Austrian animator, film producer (Betty Boop) (d. 1972)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, British field marshal (d. 1963)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › September–October


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Bob Jones Sr., American evangelist, religious broadcaster, and founder of Bob Jones University (d. 1968)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Anton Webern, Austrian composer (d. 1945)

source_section: Births › November–December


text: January 10 – Samuel Mudd, American doctor to John Wilkes Booth (b. 1833)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


text: March 4 – Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1812)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – John Brown, Scottish personal servant and favourite of Queen Victoria (b. 1826)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Peter Cooper, American industrialist, inventor and philanthropist (b. 1791)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1823)


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Abdelkader El Djezairi, Algerian leader (b. 1808)


date: June 20

text: June 20 – John Colenso, English-born mathematician and theologian, Bishop of Natal (b. 1814)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – General Tom Thumb, American circus performer and entertainer (b. 1838)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Matthew Webb, English sailor, first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids (b. 1848)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – George Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall, Anglo-Irish landowner, courtier and politician (b. 1797)


text: October 30 – Dayananda Saraswati, Hindu religious leader (b. 1824)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent, Haitian-born migrant and free woman of colour (b. 1798)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Andrew A. Humphreys, American general and civil engineer (b. 1810)


text: 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.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – German administration is established in Cameroon.


date: November 4

text: 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.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Porfirio Díaz returns as President of Mexico, an office he will hold until 1911.

source_section: Events › December


date: March 13

text: 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_section: Events › March


date: April 24

text: April 24 – A German protectorate is established over South-West Africa.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Germany takes possession of Togoland.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The Sino-French War (for control of Tonkin) breaks out (continues to April 1885).


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Sino-French War: Battle of Fuzhou – French Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroys China's Fujian Fleet.


date: December 4

text: 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.


date: June

text: June – The first ascent is made of Castle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies, by geologist Arthur Philemon Coleman.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 1

text: July 1 – First International Forestry Exhibition opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.


date: September 23

text: 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_section: Events › September


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The Berlin Conference, which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa, begins (ends February 26, 1885).

source_section: Events › November


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial world's fair opens in New Orleans.


text: Scottish Plymouth Brethren missionary Frederick Stanley Arnot identifies the source of the Zambezi River, near Kalene Hill.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: April 20

text: 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_section: Events › April


text: The first Christian missionary arrives in Korea.


date: May 4

text: 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_section: Events › May


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister (1884–88).


date: March

text: March – John Joseph Montgomery conducts the first manned glider flights in the United States near Otay, California.


date: May 1

text: 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.


text: May 16 – Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens the "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway" at Coney Island, New York City.


date: July 3

text: 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.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Nagasaki Shipyard, predecessor of the Japanese aircraft and shipbuilding business Mitsubishi, is founded on the island of Kyushu.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

source_section: Events › August


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Timișoara, Romania, is the first town in Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.


text: Thomas Parker builds a practical production electric car in Wolverhampton (England) using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.


text: Mexican General Manuel Mondragón designs an early form of the Mondragón rifle, the world's first automatic rifle.


date: January

text: 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_section: Events › January


date: October 22

text: 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_section: Events › October


text: The Stefan–Boltzmann law is reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – German microbiologist Robert Koch isolates Vibrio cholerae, the cholera bacillus, working in India.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – The invention of local anesthesia by ophthalmologist Karl Koller is made public at a medical congress in Heidelberg, Germany.


text: The water hyacinth is introduced in the United States, and quickly becomes an invasive species.


date: December 1

text: 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).


date: December 9

text: 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.


text: The Yellow Crane Tower last burns in Wuhan.


date: April 24

text: 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.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – An earthquake measuring 5.5 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.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Princess Ida, a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy Theatre, London.


date: January 18

text: 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.


date: February 1

text: 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_section: Events › February


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Derby County Football Club is founded in England.


date: June 4

text: June 4 (N.S.) (May 23 O.S.) – The future flag of Estonia is consecrated as the flag of the Estonian Students' Society.


date: June 28

text: 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.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The first tennis tournaments, held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall, Leamington Spa, England, are recorded in today's Courier.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Staten Island Academy is founded.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – The University College of North Wales, Bangor, is founded in the UK.


date: October 22

text: 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.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Hosay massacre in Trinidad: British colonial authorities fire on Indian indentured labourers marking a religious festival, killing at least 9.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Leicester City F.C. play their first match, as Leicester Fosse Football Club, in England.


text: November 1 – The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Third Reform Act widens the adult male electorate in the United Kingdom to around 60%.


text: December 6 – The Washington Monument is completed in Washington, D.C., becoming the tallest structure in the world at this date.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first published, in London.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 is premiered in Leipzig, bringing the composer his first great success.


text: Police training schools are established in every prefecture in Japan.


text: February 1 – Bradbury Robinson, American football player, who threw the first forward pass in American football history (d. 1949)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 26

text: February 26 – John Cyril Porte, Irish-born British flying boat pioneer (d. 1919)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)

source_section: Births › March


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States (d. 1972)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Edvard Beneš, Czechoslovak politician, prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia (d. 1948)


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Gerald Gardner, English founder of the Wiccan religion (d. 1964)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Louis B. Mayer, American film producer, studio mogul (d. 1957)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Peter Fraser, 24th prime minister of New Zealand (d. 1950)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 24

text: September 24 – İsmet İnönü, Turkish soldier, statesman, 3-time prime minister of Turkey and 2nd president of Turkey (d. 1973)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Eleanor Roosevelt, American politician, diplomat, activist, and First Lady of the United States (d. 1962)

source_section: Births › October


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Rajendra Prasad, Indian politician, 1st president of India (d. 1963)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Petru Groza, Romanian politician, 46th prime minister of Romania (d. 1958)


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Ted Theodore, Australian politician, Premier of Queensland (d. 1950)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Stanley Forman Reed, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1980)


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1835)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


text: February 14 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, first wife of Theodore Roosevelt (b. 1861)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Elias Lönnrot, Finnish philologist, collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry (b. 1802)


date: March 28

text: 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_section: Events › March


text: March 28 – Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria (b. 1853)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Judah P. Benjamin, American politician, US senator from Louisiana, Cabinet officer of the Confederate States (b. 1811)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Sir Henry Bartle Frere, British colonial administrator (b. 1815)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentine politician, writer and main Constitution promoter (b. 1810)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Allan Pinkerton, American detective (b. 1819)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American educator, author (b. 1793)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Karl Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Prussian field marshal (b. 1796)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – William Swainson, second, and last, Attorney-General of the Crown Colony of New Zealand (b. 1809)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Prussian deportations: The Prussian government, motivated by Otto von Bismarck, expels all ethnic Poles and Jews without German citizenship from Prussia.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – A bill is signed in the New York State legislature, forming the Niagara Falls State Park.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 19

text: May 19 – After a three-month legislative battle in the Illinois General Assembly, John A. Logan is re-elected to the United States Senate.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, completing the unification of Bulgaria.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria is proclaimed at Plovdiv.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland, and adds it to British Bechuanaland.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – 72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 3

text: January 3–4 – Sino-French War: Battle of Núi Bop – French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Battle of Abu Klea – British troops defeat Mahdist forces.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Sino-French War: Battle of Đồng Đăng – France gains an important victory over China, in the Tonkin region of modern-day Vietnam.

source_section: Events › February


text: March 26 – The North-West Rebellion in Canada by the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, begins with the Battle of Duck Lake.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident, which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Frog Lake Massacre: Cree warriors led by Wandering Spirit kill 9 settlers at Frog Lake in the Northwest Territories.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Sino-French War: A French victory at Kép causes China to withdraw its forces from Tonkin, in the final engagement of the conflict.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Cut Knife – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win their largest victory over Canadian forces.


date: May 9

text: May 9–12 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Batoche – Canadian government forces inflict a decisive defeat on Métis rebels, bringing an end to their part in the rebellion.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Battle of Loon Lake: The Canadian North-West Mounted Police and allies force a party of Plains Cree warriors to surrender in the last skirmish of the North-West Rebellion, and the last battle fought on Canadian soil.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Louis Riel's trial for treason begins in Regina.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The Rock Springs massacre occurs in Rock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.


date: November 14

text: November 14–28 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria, but is defeated in the Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17–19.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, is executed for high treason.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – St. Helena Anti-Chinese League is formed in Napa County, California.


date: November

text: November – The Third Anglo-Burmese War begins.


text: The Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association is established in the United Kingdom, to provide charitable assistance.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the "scramble for Africa".


date: March 7

text: March 7 – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid is founded.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia.


date: July

text: July – Japan Brewery, predecessor of Kirin Holdings, is founded in Yokohama, Japan.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The city of Fresno, California, is incorporated.

source_section: Events › October


date: January 20

text: January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent, for his single-cylinder, water-cooled engine design.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The first public train departs Swanage railway station, on the newly built Swanage Railway in England.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first African-American woman to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Reservation at Niagara Falls opens, enabling access to all for free. Thomas V. Welch is the first Superintendent of the Park.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The Football Association recognises professional players in England.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle, which he has produced with Wilhelm Maybach.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose is set off in the East River of New York City as part of a scheme for the removal of Hell Gate rocks by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway: At Craigellachie, British Columbia, the last spike is driven on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considers the project to be vital to Canada, due to the exponentially greater potential for military mobility.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Dr Pepper is served for the first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr. Pepper's invention is unknown).


text: Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time, in the future Houghton County Fire Hall.


text: Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Mannheim (Germany), regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).


text: Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced in the United States.


text: John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle in Coventry (England), regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – S Andromedae, the only supernova seen in the Andromeda Galaxy so far by astronomers, and the first ever noted outside the Milky Way, is discovered.


text: Martha, the last Passenger pigeon was born


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux successfully test their rabies vaccine. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – An English executioner fails after several attempts to hang John Babbacombe Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Five Chinese people were lynched outside of Pierce City in the Idaho Territory of the United States.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – A train wreck of the P. T. Barnum Circus kills giant elephant Jumbo, at St. Thomas, Ontario.


text: Before November 1 – More than 24,000 Christians are killed, 225 churches burnt, seventeen orphanages and ten convents destroyed in Cochinchina (modern-day Vietnam).


date: February 28

text: February 28 – February concludes without having a full moon.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – The Richmond Football Club is officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens, at the Savoy Theatre in London.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Luton Town Football Club is created by the merger of (Luton) Wanderers F.C. and Luton Excelsior F.C. in England.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 7 is premiered at St James's Hall in London with the composer himself conducting.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time in the United States.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Dunfermline Athletic F.C. is officially formed at the Old Inn, Dunfermline, Scotland.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Arbroath F.C. defeats Bon Accord F.C. in Scotland, 36-0, the highest score ever in professional football.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs in London, as Millwall Rovers.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta as the Georgia School of Technology.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Brahms's Symphony No. 4 is premiered in Meiningen, Germany, with the composer himself conducting.


text: Chuo Law College, as predecessor of Chuo University, founded in Kanda, Tokyo, Japan.


text: The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, is completed. With ten floors and a fireproof weight-bearing metal frame, it is regarded as the first skyscraper.


text: John Ormsby publishes his new English translation of Don Quixote, acclaimed as the most scholarly made up to that time. It will remain in print through the 20th century.


text: Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in the United States, is founded.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-born American director, animated film producer (d. 1933)


date: April 3

text: April 3 – St John Philby, Ceylonese-born British orientalist (d. 1960)

source_section: Births › April


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Otto Plath, American father of poet Sylvia Plath, entomologist (d. 1940)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, 1st prime minister of Sudan (d. 1959)

source_section: Births › July


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat, humanitarian (d. 1954)


date: August 1

text: August 1 – George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)

source_section: Births › August


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 11

text: October 11 – François Mauriac, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Charles E. Merrill, American banker, co-founder of Merrill Lynch (d. 1956)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Edmée Chandon, first professional female astronomer in France, first woman in France to earn a doctorat d'État in mathematics. (d. 1944)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Albert Kesselring, German field marshal (d. 1960)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – John Lavarack, Australian general, Governor of Queensland (1946-1957) (d. 1957)

source_section: Births › December


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Schuyler Colfax, 17th Vice President of the United States (b. 1823)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Charles "Chinese" Gordon, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1833)


date: February 19

text: February 19 – José María Pinedo, Argentinian naval commander (b. 1795)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Queen Emma of Hawaii (b. 1836)


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Robert Emmet Odlum, American swimming instructor (died as result of becoming the first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge) (b. 1851)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (b. 1817)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel, German field marshal (b. 1809)


date: August

text: August – Aga Khan II, Iranian religious leader (b. 1830)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Narcís Monturiol, Catalan intellectual, artist and engineer, inventor of the first combustion engine-driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion (b. 1819)