date: September 15

text: September 15 – Jumbo, African elephant, star attraction in P. T. Barnum's circus (train accident) (b. 1861)


date: October 1

section: Deaths

text: October 1 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, British politician and philanthropist (b.1801)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian-American leader (executed) (b. 1844)


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Ferdinand II of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria II (b. 1816)


date: January 16

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 16 – A resolution is passed in the German Parliament to condemn the Prussian deportations, the politically motivated mass expulsion of ethnic Poles and Jews from Prussia, initiated by Otto von Bismarck.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Serbo-Bulgarian War in the Balkans.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 4

text: April 4 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the First Irish Home Rule Bill in the Parliament of the United Kingdom; it is defeated on June 8.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Portugal and France agree to regulate the borders of their colonies in Guinea.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

source_section: Events › July


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.

source_section: Events › October


text: Addis Ababa is founded in the Ethiopian Empire.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 1

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885.


date: February 6

text: February 6–9 – Seattle riot of 1886: Anti-Chinese sentiments result in riots in Seattle, Washington.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The West End Riots following a popular meeting in Trafalgar Square, London.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – A white mob storms a courthouse in Carroll County, Mississippi, killing 23 African Americans.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Nagasaki Incident: Chinese troops riot during shore leave in Nagasaki, Japan.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 4

text: September 4 – American Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders, with his last band of warriors, to General Nelson Miles, at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.

source_section: Events › September


date: December 17

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: December 17 – English adventurer Thomas Stevens concludes the first circumnavigation by bicycle in Yokohama, having set out on his penny-farthing from San Francisco in 1884.

source_section: Events › December


text: The village of Skorenovac is founded in Serbia, mostly by Székely Hungarians.


date: March 1

section: Religion & Belief

text: March 1 – The Anglo-Chinese School is founded by Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham on Amoy Street in Singapore.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The settlement of Vancouver, British Columbia, is incorporated.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Father Augustine Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest from the United States to identify himself publicly as African American, is ordained in Rome.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Uganda Martyrs: Charles Lwanga, 12 other Catholic boys and men, and 9 Anglicans, are burned (and another Catholic speared) to death, at the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II of Buganda in Namugongo.

source_section: Events › June


date: August 19

text: August 19 – The Christian Union (Church of God) is established in Monroe County, Tennessee


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is signed.


date: September

section: Economy & Finance

text: September – Avon Products, a worldwide cosmetics and household brand is founded by David H. McConnell in New York City, United States.


text: Scotch whisky distiller William Grant & Sons is founded.


text: Yorkshire Tea is established in Harrogate, England.


text: Johnson & Johnson, which becomes a multinational brand, begins manufacturing healthcare products in New Jersey, United States.


text: Food product and processing brand Del Monte Foods is founded in California, United States.


date: January 29

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 29 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (built in 1885).


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The first trainload of oranges leaves Los Angeles via the United States transcontinental railroad.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – A law establishing the Kiel Canal is adopted in the German Empire.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – William Stanley Jr. demonstrates the first commercial alternating current generator and transformer system in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Wilhelm Steinitz becomes the first recognized World Chess Champion.


date: March

text: March – Gottlieb Daimler assembles his first automobile, in Germany.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Emile Berliner starts work that leads to the invention of the gramophone.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that corporations have the same rights as living persons.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola (in The Atlanta Journal).


date: June 12

text: June 12 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria is detained as part of a deposition, drowning the following day under mysterious circumstances. Because his brother Otto lacks mental capacity, their uncle Luitpold (until 1912) serves as regent. Six weeks later, Ludwig's unfinished Neuschwanstein Castle is opened to the public.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – A large log jam forms on the St. Croix River near Taylors Falls, Minnesota


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – American inventor Charles Martin Hall files a patent for his inexpensive method of refining aluminium (discovered on February 23); independently and near-simultaneously discovered in France by Paul Héroult it becomes known as the Hall–Héroult process.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Steve Brodie is reported to have made a jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, a claim subsequently disputed.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – American physicist William Stanley Jr. patents the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, in New York Harbor. The ensuing spontaneous celebration in New York City leads to the first ticker tape parade.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – German inventor Friedrich Soennecken first develops the hole puncher, a type of office tool capable of punching small holes in paper.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Elektrotechnik (Workshop for Fine Mechanics and Electronics) is founded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany by Robert Bosch. The company will later become the home appliance and power tool brand, Robert Bosch GmbH.


date: May 8

section: Science & Discovery

text: May 8 – American pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that will be named 'Coca-Cola'.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Heinrich Hertz verifies the existence of electromagnetic waves, at the University of Karlsruhe.


date: March 11

section: Health & Medicine

text: March 11 - Anandi Gopal Joshi becomes the first Indian-born woman to graduate from medical school.


section: Disasters & Accidents

text: June 13 – The Great Vancouver Fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The British merchant vessel Normanton sinks off the coast of Japan, triggering the Normanton incident.


date: August 20

section: Climate & Environment

text: August 20 – A massive hurricane demolishes the town of Indianola, Texas.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The 7.0 Charleston earthquake affects southeastern South Carolina, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme); 60 people are killed, and damage is estimated at $5–6 million.


date: November

text: November – The extremely harsh winter of 1886–87 in the United States begins, killing tens of thousands of cattle on the Great Plains of North America.


date: January 5

section: Culture & Society

text: January 5–9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is published in New York and London.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Anti-Chinese League of the City of Napa is formed.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Tchaikovsky’s Manfred symphony premieres in Moscow, Russia.


date: April

text: April – The Swedish Dress Reform Society is established.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – A general strike begins in the United States, which escalates on May 4 into the Haymarket affair in Chicago, and eventually wins the eight-hour day for workers.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Motherwell Football Club is founded in Scotland.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House (Washington, D.C.), becoming the only President of the United States to wed in the executive mansion. She is 27 years his junior.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Arturo Toscanini makes his conducting debut, with an Italian opera company visiting Rio de Janeiro.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The Royal Holloway College for women is opened by Queen Victoria, near London, England.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Grasshopper Club Zürich is founded as the first football club in the Swiss city of Zürich by English students.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The biggest Buddhist boys' school in Sri Lanka, Ananda College, is founded in Colombo.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – In the British Raj, what will become one of the biggest boys' schools in Pakistan, Aitchison College, Lahore, is founded under the auspices of Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The Folies Bergère stages its first revue in Paris.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – London Association football club Arsenal, founded as Dial Square by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, play their first match (on the Isle of Dogs). The club is renamed Royal Arsenal soon afterwards, supposedly on December 25.


text: Bedford Rugby Club is formed in England.


text: Emily Ruete publishes her landmark memoir, Memoirs of an Arabian Princess: An Autobiography.


date: January 2

section: Births

text: January 2 – Apsley Cherry-Garrard, English polar explorer with the Terra Nova expedition and author of The Worst Journey in the World (d. 1959)

source_section: Births › January–February


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Hugo Black, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1971)


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Kazimierz Świtalski, Polish diplomat, politician, soldier and military officer, 18th Prime Minister of Poland (d. 1962)

source_section: Births › March–April


date: March 13

text: March 13 – John “Home Run” Baker, American baseball player, Hall of Famer (d. 1963)


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Kálmán Darányi, 31st Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1939)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Felix Manalo, Filipino Executive Minister (Tagapamahalang Pangkalahatan) of the Iglesia ni Cristo (d. 1963)

source_section: Births › May–June


date: June 18

text: June 18 – George Mallory, English climber (d. 1924)


text: June 25 – Henry H. Arnold, American general, aviation pioneer (d. 1950)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Willem Drees, Dutch politician and historian, 30th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1988)

source_section: Births › July–August


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Paul Tillich, German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, theologian (d. 1965)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia (d. 1948)

source_section: Births › September–October


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Archibald Hill, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1977)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Karl von Frisch, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)

source_section: Births › November–December


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (d. 1961)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Winfield Scott Hancock, Union general of the American Civil War, Democratic political candidate (b. 1824)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Horatio Seymour, 18th Governor of New York, 1868 Democratic Party presidential nominee (b. 1810)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – William S. Clark, American chemist, agricultural educator (b. 1826)


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Henry Hobson Richardson, American architect (b. 1838)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (b. 1830)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – The Mount Tarawera volcano erupts in New Zealand, resulting in the deaths of over 150 people and the destruction of the famous Pink and White Terraces.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (b. 1845)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Sir Charles Trevelyan, British civil servant and colonial administrator (b. 1807)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Daniel Dunglas Home, Scottish medium (b. 1833)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Samuel J. Tilden, 25th Governor of New York, 1876 Democratic Party presidential nominee (b. 1814)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Indian spiritual figure (b. 1836)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – David Levy Yulee, American politician, US Senator from Florida (b. 1810)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (b. 1829)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Charles Francis Adams Sr., American historical editor, politician and diplomat (b. 1807)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

source_section: Events › January


date: June 18

text: June 18 – The Reinsurance Treaty is closed between Germany and Russia.


text: June 21 – Zululand becomes a British colony.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – King Kalākaua of Hawai'i is forced by anti-monarchists to sign the 'Bayonet Constitution', stripping the Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, as well as disenfranchising most native Hawaiians, all Asians and the poor.

source_section: Events › July


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The British Empire takes over Balochistan.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 17

text: October 17 – French Indochina was established, comprising (Lower) Cochinchina, (Upper) Annam, Tonkin, and Cambodia.


text: Taiwan becomes a Chinese province

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat the Italians.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The Dawes Act, or the General Allotment Act, is enacted in the United States.

source_section: Events › February


date: April 20

text: April 20−30 – Schnaebele incident: A French/German border incident nearly leads to war between the two countries.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The Hells Canyon massacre begins: 34 Chinese gold miners are ambushed and murdered in Hells Canyon, Oregon, United States.

source_section: Events › May


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Bloody Sunday: Police in London clash with radical and Irish nationalist protesters.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, passed by the 49th United States Congress, is signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.


text: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is founded.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Minot, North Dakota, is incorporated as a city.

source_section: Events › June


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Yamaha Corporation, the global musical instrument and audiovisual brand, is founded as Yamaha Organ Manufacturing in Hamamatsu, Japan.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky is first produced.

source_section: Events › December


text: Nagase Shoten (長瀬商店), predecessor of Japanese cosmetics and toiletry brand Kao Corporation, is founded in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan.


text: Tokyo Fire Insurance, predecessor of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, is founded.


text: American financial services company A. G. Edwards is founded by General Albert Gallatin Edwards in St. Louis, Missouri.


text: Global construction and real estate development company Skanska is founded in Malmö, Sweden.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Construction work begins on the foundations of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The 1887 Hartford Railroad Disaster leaves thirty-seven dead in Vermont.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The first international telephone line in Europe is opened to the public between Brussels and Paris.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Chester Greenwood patents earmuffs in the United States.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a U.S. patent for his punched card calculator.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Construction of the iron structure of the Eiffel Tower starts in Paris, France.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Dorr Eugene Felt receives the first U.S. patent for his comptometer.


date: July

text: July – James Blyth operates the first working wind turbine at Marykirk, Scotland.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Emile Berliner is granted a U.S. patent for the Berliner Gramophone.

source_section: Events › November


text: Heyl & Patterson Inc., a pioneer in coal unloading equipment, is founded by Edmund W. Heyl and William J. Patterson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


text: Publication in Barcelona of Enrique Gaspar's El anacronópete, the first work of fiction to feature a time machine.


text: The first battery rail car is used on the Royal Bavarian State Railways.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – At the Sydney Cricket Ground, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets, in a Test innings.


date: November

text: Results of the Michelson–Morley experiment are published, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.


text: Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect on the production and reception of electromagnetic (EM) waves (radio); this is an important step towards the understanding of the quantum nature of light.


text: Franz König publishes "Über freie Körper in den Gelenken" in the medical journal Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie, describing (and naming) the disease Osteochondritis dissecans for the first time.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher.


date: August

text: August – The earliest constituent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health is established at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.

source_section: Events › August


date: July 6

section: Crime & Justice

text: July 6 – Berthe bombing, targeting a Parisian landowner in conflict with several Italian anarchists. Nobody is sentenced but Vittorio Pini and Paolo Chiericotti are heavily suspected by French authorities.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Louis Lingg, sentenced to be hanged for his alleged role in the Haymarket affair (a bombing in Chicago on May 4, 1886), kills himself by dynamite.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are hanged for inciting riot and murder in the Haymarket affair.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – British emigrant ship Kapunda sinks after a collision off the coast of Brazil, killing 303 with only 16 survivors.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The DS «Vardøhus» whaler sinks outside the town of Mandal in Norway. 46 dead.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Ten Italian workers are killed and six are injured by a train in New Jersey.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The Theatre Royal, Exeter, England, burns down, killing 186 people.

source_section: Events › September


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Brisbane receives a one-day rainfall of 465 mm in (a record for any Australian capital city).


date: January 28

text: January 28 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the largest snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 in cm wide and 8 in cm thick.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The first Groundhog Day is observed in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000 along the coast of the Mediterranean.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – An earthquake hits Sonora, Mexico.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada, creating that nation's first national park, Banff National Park.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – The 1887 Yellow River flood begins in China, killing 900,000 to 2,000,000 people.


text: January 21 – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed in the United States.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The Giuseppe Verdi opera Otello premieres at La Scala, Milan.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – North Carolina State University is established, as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The final of the first All-Ireland Hurling Championship is held.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Argonia, Kansas, elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.


date: April 10

text: April 10 (Easter Sunday) – The Catholic University of America is founded in Washington, D.C.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Occidental College is founded in Los Angeles, California.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Ricardo Palma founds the Peruvian Academy of Language.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid (the college opens in 1891).


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The British Empire celebrates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th year of her reign.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The United Retail Federation is established in Brisbane, Australia.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Odense Boldklub, the Danish football team, is founded as the Odense Cricket Club.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – L. L. Zamenhof publishes "Unua Libro" (Dr. Esperanto's International Language), the first description of Esperanto, the constructed international auxiliary language.


text: July 26 – Blackpool F.C. is created in England, U.K.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Hibernian F.C. of Scotland defeats Preston North End F.C. of England to win the 'Championship of the World', after the two teams win the Association football Cup competitions in their respective countries.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Florida A&M University opens in Tallahassee, Florida.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Coimbra Academic Association, the students' union of the University of Coimbra in Portugal, is founded.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The Association football club Celtic F.C. is formed in Glasgow, Scotland, by Irish Marist Brother Walfrid, to help alleviate poverty in the city's East End by raising money for his charity, the 'Poor Children's Dinner Table'.


date: November

text: Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance, in the novel A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Örgryte IS, the Swedish football team is founded by Wilhelm Friberg.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The International Bureau of Intellectual Property is established.


text: The first English-language edition of Friedrich Engels' 1844 study of The Condition of the Working Class in England, translated by Florence Kelley, is published in New York City.


text: Teachers College, later part of Columbia University, is founded.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence in World War II (d. 1945)

source_section: Births › January–February


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst, philologist (d. 1975)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Roscoe Arbuckle, American actor, comedian, film director, and screenwriter (d. 1933)

source_section: Births › March–April


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1972)

source_section: Births › May–June


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Saint-John Perse, French diplomat, writer and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Marc Chagall, Russian-born French painter (d. 1985)

source_section: Births › July–August


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born American publisher, entrepreneur and Pan Africanist (d. 1940)


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, Azerbaijani statesman, writer and claimed "core author" of novel Ali and Nino (d. in Gulag 1943)

source_section: Births › September–October


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Leopold Ružička, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Avery Brundage, American sports official, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1975)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen Consort of Spain (d. 1969)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Alvin York, American World War I hero (d. 1964)

source_section: Births › November–December


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Adone Zoli, Italian politician, 35th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1960)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, British politician (b. 1818)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman, reformer (b. 1813)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Henry Hotze, Swiss-American Confederate propagandist (b. 1833)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Lysander Spooner, American philosopher and abolitionist (b. 1808)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – William A. Wheeler, 19th Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer, soldier (b. 1808)


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Sir Julius von Haast, German-born New Zealand geologist (b. 1822)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Spencer Fullerton Baird, American naturalist and museum curator (b. 1823)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Sir George Macfarren, British composer and musicologist (b. 1813)


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Jenny Lind, Swedish soprano (b. 1820)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Doc Holliday, American gambler, gunfighter (b. 1851)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Gustav Fechner, German experimental psychologist (b. 1801)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, British diplomat (b. 1817)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – The Concertgebouw orchestra in Amsterdam is inaugurated.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – In Brazil, the Lei Áurea abolishes the last remnants of slavery.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – The Kingdom of Sedang is formed, in modern-day Vietnam.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The White Rajahs territories become the British protectorate of Sarawak.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The Oaths Act permits the oath of allegiance taken to the Sovereign by Members of Parliament (MPs) to be affirmed, rather than sworn to God, thus confirming the ability of atheists to sit in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – The Local Government Act, effective from 1889, establishes county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales, redraws some county boundaries, and gives women the vote in local elections. It also declares that "bicycles, tricycles, velocipedes, and other similar machines" be carriages within the meaning of the Highway Acts (which remains the case), and requires that they give audible warning when overtaking "any cart or carriage, or any horse, mule, or other beast of burden, or any foot passenger", a rule abolished in 1930.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – In a letter accepting renomination as President of the United States, Grover Cleveland declares the Chinese "impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare".


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Rudd Concession, a written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and adjoining territories, is granted by King Lobengula of Matabeleland to Charles Rudd, James Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson, who are acting on behalf of South African-based politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes, providing a basis for white settlement of Rhodesia.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 1888 United States presidential election: Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – The Battle of the Grapevine Creek, the last major conflict of the Hatfield–McCoy feud in the Southeastern United States.

source_section: Events › January


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The German Empire annexes the island of Nauru.

source_section: Events › April


date: August 20

text: August 20 – A mutiny at Dufile, Equatoria, results in the imprisonment of the Emin Pasha.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Battle of Guté Dili: Seeking to extend Mahdist control over what is becomes southwestern Ethiopia, governor Khalil al-Khuzani is routed by an alliance of Shewan forces, under Ras Gobana Dacche and Moroda Bekere, ruler of Leqa Naqamte. Only a handful, including Khalil, barely manage to flee the battlefield.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – 1888 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia: The "English Footballers" embark for the first British rugby union tour of Australasia.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – The Sikkim Expedition, a British military expedition to expel the Tibetans from northern Sikkim, begins.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Kahisakan (可否茶館), the first coffee shop in Japan, opens in Tokyo.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law, Charlie Mason, discover the Indian ruins of Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado.


text: The dolphin Pelorus Jack is first sighted in Cook Strait, New Zealand.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: G. D. Searle by Gideon Daniel Searle in Omaha, Nebraska.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Opening of an international Congress for Women's Rights organized by Susan B. Anthony in Washington, D.C., leading to formation of the International Council of Women, a key event in the international women's movement.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is established by the United States Congress.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Edward King (bishop of Lincoln) in England is called to account for using ritualistic practices in Anglican worship.

source_section: Events › June


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The first Saint Verhaegen takes place in Brussels.

source_section: Events › November


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The De Beers diamond mining conglomerate is founded by Cecil Rhodes in Kimberley, Northern Cape (South Africa).

source_section: Events › March


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Nippon Oil Corporation, predecessor of Eneos, a petroleum and gas energy brand in Japan, is founded in Niigata Prefecture.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The North Borneo Chartered Company's territories (including Sabah) become the British protectorate of North Borneo.


text: Katz's Delicatessen is founded on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.


text: Global pharmaceutical and health care brands are founded in the United States:


date: February 27

text: February 27 – In West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge, who proposes a scheme for sound film.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 1

text: March 1 - Queensland's Western Railway Line reaches Charleville.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The Brighton Beach Hotel in Coney Island (New York) is moved 520 ft m, using six steam locomotives, by civil engineer B. C. Miller, to save it from ocean storms.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Texas State Capitol building, completed at a cost of $3 million, opens to the public in Austin.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Hong Kong's Peak Tram begins operation.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Carl Benz is issued with the world's first driving licence by the Grand Duchy of Baden.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Bertha Benz arrives in Pforzheim having driven 40 mi km from Mannheim in a car manufactured by her husband Carl Benz, thus completing the first "long-distance" drive in the history of the automobile.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Dr Friedrich Hermann Wölfert’s motorised airship successfully completes the world’s first engine-driven flight, from Cannstatt to Kornwestheim in Germany.


date: August 24

text: August 24 –The first trams in Tallinn (Reval), horsecars, begin operation.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – In the United States, George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera, which uses roll film.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Australian cricketer Charles Turner becomes the first bowler to take 250 wickets in an English season – a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson (twice), J. T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and Tich Freeman (six times).


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Stanley Park is officially opened by Vancouver (B.C.) mayor David Oppenheimer.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public in Washington, D.C.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, two seconds and 18 frames in length (followed by his movie Leeds Bridge and Accordion Player).


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Joseph Assheton Fincher files a patent in the United Kingdom for the parlour game which he calls "Tiddledy-Winks".


date: December 7

text: December 7 – John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tyre in the United Kingdom.

source_section: Events › December


text: In Poland, silver manufacturer Schiffers & Co. is founded in Warsaw.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of 91 cm diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – The longest date in roman numerals is achieved, as "VIII-XXVIII-MDCCCLXXXVIII". In contrast, the shortest date (I-I-MM) will be achieved 111 years later on January 1, 2000.


text: September 4 – Mohandas Gandhi embarks on the SS Clyde from Bombay for London.


text: John Robert Gregg first publishes Gregg shorthand in the United States.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – During a bout of mental illness (and having quarreled with his friend Paul Gauguin), Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh infamously cuts off the lower part of his own left ear, taking it to a brothel, and is removed to the local hospital in Arles in the south of France.


text: Abbott Laboratories as Abbott Alkaloidal by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott in Illinois.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – London prostitute Emma Elizabeth Smith is brutally attacked by two or three men, dying of her injuries the following day, first of the Whitechapel murders, but probably not a victim of Jack the Ripper.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Whitechapel murders: The body of London prostitute Martha Tabram is found, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Whitechapel murders: The mutilated body of London prostitute Mary Ann Nichols is found; she is considered the first victim of Jack the Ripper.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Whitechapel murders: The mutilated body of London prostitute Annie Chapman is found (considered to be the second victim of Jack the Ripper).


text: September 27 – Whitechapel murders: The 'Dear Boss letter' signed "Jack the Ripper", the first time the name is used, is received by London's Central News Agency.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Whitechapel murders: The bodies of London prostitutes Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, the latter mutilated, are found. They are generally considered Jack the Ripper's third and fourth victims, respectively.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The Whitehall Mystery: Dismembered remains of a woman's body are discovered at three central London locations, one being the construction site of the police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Whitechapel murders: The mutilated body of London prostitute Mary Jane Kelly is found. She is considered to be the fifth, and last, of Jack the Ripper's victims. A number of similar murders in England follow, but the police attribute them to copy-cat killers.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – The Croatian sailing ship Kostrena, sailing from Cette to Rijeka, ran aground in the Bobina bay on the Istrian side of the Vela vrata strait because of bad weather; the same happened to another Croatian sailing ship, the Ireneo.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Over 200 miners are killed in an accident at a diamond mine in Kimberley, Northern Cape (South Africa).

source_section: Events › July


date: August 9

text: August 9 – A fire destroys the Main Building, the heart of Wells College in Aurora, New York, causing a loss of $130,000.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Earliest evidence of a death and injury by a meteorite, in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.


text: The Camborne School of Mines is founded in Cornwall, England.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, leaving 235 dead, many of them children on their way home from school.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the East Coast of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – First signs of famine in Ethiopia, caused by drought combined with early spread of the 1890s African rinderpest epizootic.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – The Amateur Athletic Union is founded by William Buckingham Curtis in the United States.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Agriculture College of Utah (later Utah State University) is founded in Logan, Utah.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The foundation stone for a new National Library of Greece is laid in Athens.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – A meeting called by William McGregor to discuss establishment of The Football League is held in London.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The first New Year's Day is observed, of the solar calendar adopted by Siamese King Chulalongkorn, with the 106th anniversary of Bangkok's founding in 1782 as its epoch (reference date).


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Westminster School is founded in Simsbury, Connecticut.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow opens (continues to November).


date: May 26

text: May 26 – The comic novel The Diary of a Nobody by brothers George and Weedon Grossmith begins serialization in Punch (London).


date: May 28

text: May 28 – In Glasgow (Scotland), Celtic F.C. plays its first official match, winning 5–2 against Rangers F.C.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – American writer Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published (under the pen name "Phin") as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – In Chicago, the Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building. Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton win the nominations for President and Vice President of the United States, respectively.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Handel's Israel in Egypt is recorded onto wax cylinder at The Crystal Palace in London, the earliest known recording of classical music.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom opens its laboratory, on Plymouth Hoe.


date: July 2

text: July 2–27 – London matchgirls strike of 1888: About 200 workers, mainly teenaged girls, strike following the dismissal of three colleagues from the Bryant and May match factory, precipitated by an article on their working conditions published on June 23 by campaigning journalist Annie Besant, and the workers unionise on July 27.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Frank E. McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at this time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that is widely used in modern times.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – In England, the first six Football League matches are played.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Las Cruces College (later New Mexico State University) is founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Sofia University officially opens, becoming the first university in liberated Bulgaria.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – St Cuthbert's Society at the University of Durham in England is founded, after a general meeting chaired by the Reverend Hastings Rashdall.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – International sorority Delta Delta Delta is founded at Boston University in the United States.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – The celebration of Thanksgiving (United States) and the first day of Hanukkah coincide.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – The Lyric Theatre, London opens.


text: The Finnish epic Kalevala is published for the first time in the English language, by American linguist John Martin Crawford.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Lead Belly, American folk, blues singer (d. 1949)

source_section: Births › January–February


date: February 25

text: February 25 – John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State (d. 1959)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Lucie Randoin, French biologist, nutritionist, expert in dietary significance of vitamins (d. 1960)

source_section: Births › May–June


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Harold Hitz Burton, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1964)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › July–August


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-born American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher, politician and 2nd President of India (d. 1975)

source_section: Births › September–October


date: September 26

text: September 26 – T. S. Eliot, American-born British poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarcho-communist revolutionary (d. 1934)

source_section: Births › November–December


text: November 7 – C. V. Raman, Indian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban World chess champion (1921–1927) (d. 1942)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Alphonse Juin, French general, Marshal of France (d. 1967)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Robert Moses, American civil engineer, public works director, highway and bridge builder (d. 1981)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – John Bosco, Italian priest, youth worker, educator and founder of the Salesian Society (b. 1815)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Louisa May Alcott, American novelist (b. 1832)


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Year of the Three Emperors in Germany: Wilhelm I dies aged 90 and is succeeded as German Emperor and King of Prussia by his son, the terminally ill Frederick III.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (b. 1813)


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Morrison Waite, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1816)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Year of the Three Emperors in Germany: Frederick III dies after ruling for 99 days and is succeeded as German Emperor and King of Prussia by his son, Wilhelm II, who will reign until his abdication in 1918.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Eruption of Mount Bandai: An explosive eruption of the stratovolcano Mount Bandai in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan results in pyroclastic flows and the deaths of at least 477 people (according to Japanese government sources).


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Philip Sheridan, American general (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Martha Tabram, possible first victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1849)


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Rudolf Clausius, German physicist, contributor to thermodynamics (b. 1822)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Mary Ann Nichols, generally considered the first victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1845)


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine politician, writer, and father of education (b. 1811)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Mary Jane Kelly, generally considered the fifth and final victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1863)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Namık Kemal, Turkish patriotic poet, social reformer (b. 1840)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted; the 1st Diet of Japan convenes in 1890.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – President Grover Cleveland signs the Enabling Act of 1889, admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The United States Congress proclaims the entire Bering Sea to be under US control.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated in Paris (opens May 6). At 300 m ft, its height exceeds the previous tallest structure in the world by 130 m ft. Contemporary critics regard it as aesthetically displeasing.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – At high noon in Oklahoma Territory, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed, with populations of at least 10,000.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, giving Italy control over what will become Eritrea.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The Naval Defence Act dictates that the fleet strength of the British Royal Navy must be equal to that of at least any two other countries.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Bangui is founded in the French Congo.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 29

text: June 29–30 – First Inter-Parliamentary Conference held.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – In Washington, D.C., the first International Conference of American States begins.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Gustaf Åkerhielm, previously Swedish Foreign Minister, replaces Gillis Bildt as Prime Minister of Sweden.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, delivers the Tenterfield Oration, calling for the Federation of Australia.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states, respectively.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The Brazilian Imperial Family is forced into exile in France.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Elisha P. Ferry is inaugurated as first governor of Washington.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The modern-day flag of Brazil is adopted by the Provisional Government of the Republic.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Argentina is the first country to recognize the abolition of the monarchy in Brazil.


date: November

text: November – The first free elections are held in Costa Rica.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Battle of Metemma: Yohannes IV, Emperor of Ethiopia, is killed; Sudanese forces, who have been almost defeated, rally and destroy the Ethiopian army. Yohannes is probably the world's last ruler ever to die in battle; on March 25 Menelik II proclaims himself as his successor.

source_section: Events › March


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Following a failure on January 27 to launch a coup, former French defense minister General Georges Boulanger flees to Brussels to avoid arrest for treason.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Birth of Adolf Hitler at Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary, the son of customs official Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, survives an assassination attempt in Rio de Janeiro.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Mahdist War: Battle of Toski – Egyptian and British troops are victorious.

source_section: Events › August


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca organizes a military coup which deposes Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and abolishes the Brazilian monarchy. Deodoro da Fonseca proclaims Brazil a republic, and forms a provisional government.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Mount Kilimanjaro's summit is first reached, by German geologist Hans Meyer with Austrian mountaineer Ludwig Purtscheller.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, introduces the Kanunname of 1889 against the slave trade.

source_section: Events › December


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Claiming to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founds the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Punjab Province (British India).


date: August

text: August – The Jewish settlement of Moisés Ville is founded in Argentina.


text: The Wisden Cricketers' Almanack publishes its first Wisden Cricketers of the Year (actually titled Six Great Bowlers of the Year). The cricketers chosen are George Lohmann, Bobby Peel, Johnny Briggs, Charles Turner, John Ferris and Sammy Woods.

source_section: Events › Undated


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Rubber tire company Michelin is registered by Édouard and André Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, France.


date: August 14

text: August 14–September 15 – London Dock Strike: Dockers strike for a minimum wage of sixpence an hour ("The dockers' tanner"), which they eventually receive, a landmark in the development of New Unionism in Britain.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The Nintendo Koppai (later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded in Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi, to produce and market Hanafuda playing cards.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 29

text: October 29 – The British South Africa Company receives a Royal Charter.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine in the United States.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, files a patent in the United States for an automatic telephone exchange using the Strowger switch.


date: April

text: April – British chemists Frederick Abel and James Dewar file their first patent for the smokeless propellant cordite.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The Exposition Universelle opens in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower as its entrance arch. The Galerie des machines, at 111 m ft, spans the longest interior space in the world at this time. The Exposition, which marks the centenary of the French Revolution, runs until October 31.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 mi km between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – A Neapolitan baker named Raffaele Esposito invents the Pizza Margherita, named after the queen consort of Italy Margherita of Savoy. This is the forerunner of the modern pizza.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – The Savoy Hotel in London opens.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office officially opens in London.


text: October 6 – The Moulin Rouge cabaret opens in Paris.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – English Association football team Wimbledon F.C. plays their first match.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The first jukebox goes into operation, at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The first interurban tram-train to emerge in the United States is the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio.


text: An early method of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission, as developed by the Swiss engineer René Thury, is implemented commercially in Italy by the Acquedotto de Ferrari-Galliera Company. This system transmits 630 kW at 14 kV DC over a distance of 120 km mi.


text: Yellow fever interrupts the building of the Panama Canal.


text: The Capilano Suspension Bridge (the longest suspension foot-bridge in the world) is opened in British Columbia.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The annular solar eclipse of June 28, 1889 is visible across the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and Indian Ocean, and is the 47th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 125.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder is recorded by Adelbert Theodor Wangemann, a German associate of Thomas Edison, on wax cylinders via phonograph. The two surviving wax cylinders that are produced make von Moltke, who was born in 1800, the earliest-living human whose voice has been recorded, and the only person born in the 18th century whose voice will be heard into the 21st.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Pioneer American woman journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days, inspired by Jules Verne; she finishes the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.


text: January 1 – Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the Dakotas.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – An Act to Regulate Appointments in the Marine Hospital Service of the United States is signed by President Grover Cleveland. It establishes a Commissioned Corps of officers, as a predecessor to the modern-day U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The Coca-Cola Company is originally incorporated as the Pemberton Medicine Company in Atlanta, Georgia.


date: May

text: May – The first case of the 1889–1890 pandemic of is reported in the city of Bukhara in the Central Asian part of the Russian Empire.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Mayerling incident: Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera commit a double suicide (or a murder-suicide) at the Mayerling hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – The landmark court decision in the case of The Moorcock establishes the concept of implied terms in English contract law.

source_section: Events › February


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Wham Paymaster robbery: An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort in the Arizona Territory results in the theft of over $28,000, and the award of two Medals of Honor.


date: June

text: June – Vincent van Gogh paints The Starry Night at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Several aristocrats are implicated in the Cleveland Street scandal after police raid a male brothel in London.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 26

text: August 26 – The Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act, commonly known as the Children's Charter, is passed in the United Kingdom; for the first time it imposes criminal penalties to deter child abuse.


text: Arthur Wharton signs for Rotherham Town F.C. in England for the 1889/90 season, becoming probably the world's first black professional Association football player.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Samoan crisis: German and American warships keep each other at bay in a standoff in Apia Harbor, ending when a cyclone blows in and sinks them all.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Johnstown Flood: The South Fork Dam collapses in western Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,200 people in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The Great Seattle Fire ravages through the downtown area without any fatalities.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The Armagh rail disaster: runaway carriages from a Sunday school excursion collide with an oncoming train near Armagh in the north of Ireland, killing 80, leading to rapid passage of the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 on railway signalling and brakes in the United Kingdom.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington, destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.


text: A huge locust swarm crosses the Red Sea and destroys crops in the Nile Valley.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The first issue of the Filipino liberal newspaper La Solidaridad is published in Spain.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is founded in Manchester (England), originally known as "The Plumage League" to campaign against the use of plumage in women's clothing.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The North Carolina Legislature issues a charter for the creation of Elon College.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – English Association football team Sheffield United F.C. is formed at the Adelphi Hotel, Sheffield. They play their first match on September 7.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Preston North End F.C. win the 1889 FA Cup final in England. Having on January 5 won the first Football League title with no defeats all season, they complete the double in Association football.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The Hammarby Roddförening (later Hammarby IF) sports club is founded in Sweden.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published in New York City.


text: July 8 – The last official bare-knuckle boxing title fight is held (under London Prize Ring Rules): Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan, the Boston Strong Boy, defeats Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout, lasting 75 rounds, in Mississippi.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – International Workers Congresses of Paris open, and establish the Second International.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Louise, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, marries Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, at Buckingham Palace in London.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi becomes Albert I, Prince of Monaco.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – American Civil War veteran Charles Jefferson Wright founds New York Military Academy, with 75 students on 30 acre m2 of land in Cornwall, New York.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Gustav Mahler premieres his Symphony No. 1, in Budapest.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Clemson University is founded in Clemson, South Carolina.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – In U.S. college football, Wofford and Furman play the first intercollegiate football game in the state of South Carolina, starting the Furman–Wofford football rivalry.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – The Spanish Association football team Recreativo de Huelva is formed (the oldest club in Spain by the 21st century).


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, 2nd Caliph of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam (d. 1965)

source_section: Births › January


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general, posthumous Marshal of France (d. 1952)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Risto Ryti, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1956)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Harry Nyquist, Swedish-American contributor to information theory (d. 1976)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, British army general and Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1963)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)

source_section: Births › April


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1951)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Abelardo L. Rodríguez, Mexican professional baseball player, general and substitute President of Mexico, 1932–1934 (d. 1967)

source_section: Births › May


text: July 14 – Ante Pavelić, Croatian fascist dictator (d. 1959)

source_section: Births › July


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1938)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Troy H. Middleton, American general and educator (d. 1976)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker, Canadian-born peace activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1982)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st Prime Minister of India (d. 1964)


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, 47th President of Mexico (d. 1973)

source_section: Births › December


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Mary Louise Booth, American editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia (b. 1837)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Father Damien, Belgian Roman Catholic priest, missionary to Hawaiians with leprosy, and saint (b. 1840)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, Mexican jurist, 27th President of Mexico (b. 1823)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian satirist (b. 1826)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Lucy Webb Hayes, First Lady of the United States (b. 1831)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Susan Catherine Koerner Wright, mother of the Wright Brothers (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Giovanni Bottesini, Italian conductor, composer and virtuoso double bass player (b. 1821)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, First Lady of the United States (b. 1820)


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Louis Faidherbe, French general and colonial administrator (b. 1818)


date: November 20

text: November 20 – August Ahlqvist, Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author and literary critic (b. 1826)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, Empress consort of Brazil (b. 1822)


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Priscilla Cooper Tyler, de facto First Lady of the United States (b. 1816)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Ion Creangă, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)


text: Dong Zhuo has Liu Bian deposed, and installs Emperor Xian as emperor.

source_section: Events › By place › China


text: Liu Bian succeeds Emperor Ling, as Chinese emperor of the Han dynasty.


text: Two thousand eunuchs in the palace are slaughtered in a violent purge in Luoyang, the capital of Han.


text: Pope Victor I succeeds Pope Eleuterus as the fourteenth pope, the first from Africa.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: Demetrius of Alexandria becomes Patriarch of Alexandria.


text: Pantaenus, who was sent by the bishop of Alexandria to India to preach Christianity, meets with little success.


text: Plague (possibly smallpox) kills as many as 2,000 people per day in Rome. Farmers are unable to harvest their crops, and food shortages bring riots in the city.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Galen publishes his "Treatise on the various temperaments" (a.k.a. On the Elements According to Hippocrates).

source_section: Events › By topic › Arts and sciences


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Publius Septimius Geta, Roman emperor (d. 211)

source_section: Births


text: Zhang Chunhua, Chinese noblewoman and aristocrat (d. 247)


text: Ling Tong, Chinese general of the Eastern Wu state (d. 217)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Ling of Han (or Liu Hong), Chinese emperor (b. 156)

source_section: Deaths


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Eleutherius, bishop of Rome (or Catholic Church)


date: September 22

text: September 22 – He Jin, Chinese Grand Marshal and regent


text: Lingsi (or He), Chinese empress of the Han dynasty


text: Xiaoren, Chinese empress dowager of the Han dynasty


text: Jian Shuo, Chinese eunuch leader (Ten Attendants)


text: Ding Yuan (or Jian Yang), Chinese official and warlord


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Kaiser Wilhelm II forces Otto von Bismarck to resign as Chancellor of Germany.

source_section: Events › March


date: May 2

text: May 2 – President Benjamin Harrison signs the Oklahoma Organic Act, under which Oklahoma Territory is organized, a prerequisite for later statehood.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 1

text: July 1 – 1890 Japanese general election: In the first general election for the House of Representatives of Japan, about 5% of the adult male population elect a lower house of the Diet of Japan, in accordance with the new Meiji Constitution of 1889.

source_section: Events › July


text: July 1 – Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty: Britain cedes the Heligoland islands (in the German Bight) to Germany, in return for protectorates over Wituland and the Sultanate of Zanzibar (the islands of Pemba and Unguja) in east Africa.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The Sherman Antitrust Act and Sherman Silver Purchase Act become United States law.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Treaty of London: Portugal and the United Kingdom define the borders of the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.

source_section: Events › August


date: August

text: August – Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Alexander III meet at Narva.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan, and its first Diet convenes.

source_section: Events › November


date: January 11

text: January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The United Kingdom demands Portugal withdraw its forces from the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia).


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Canadian-born boxer George Dixon defeats the British bantamweight champion in London, giving him claim to be the first black world champion in any sport.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 26

text: July 26 – In Buenos Aires, the Revolution of the Park takes place, forcing President Juárez Celman's resignation.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.

source_section: Events › October


text: November 29 – At West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24–0 in the first Army–Navy Game of college football.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Wounded Knee Massacre: At Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a Lakota camp, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment tries to disperse the non-violent "Ghost-Dance" which was promised to usher in a new era of power and freedom to Native Americans but is feared as a potential rallying tool for violent rebellion by some in the U.S. government. Shooting begins, and 153 Lakota Sioux and 25 troops are killed; about 150 flee the scene. This is the last tribe to be defeated and confined to a reservation as well as the beginning of the decline of both the American Indian Wars and the American frontier.

source_section: Events › December


text: English archaeologist Flinders Petrie excavates at Tell el-Hesi, Palestine (mistakenly identified as Tel Lachish), the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land, during which he discovers how tells are formed.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Kashihara Shrine, a landmark spot in Nara Prefecture, Japan, is officially built by Emperor Mutsuhito (Emperor of Meiji).

source_section: Events › April


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The Ulm Minister opens in Ulm, Germany as the world's tallest cathedral.


date: September 25

text: September 25 — President Wilford Woodruff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues the 1890 Manifesto ending the official practice of polygamy.

source_section: Events › September


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Edward King, Anglican bishop of Lincoln, is convicted of using ritualistic practices.


text: High School Cadets is written by John Philip Sousa.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The worldwide insurance and financial service brand Allianz is founded in Berlin, Germany.

source_section: Events › February


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Royal Dutch Petroleum, predecessor of Royal Dutch Shell, the major worldwide energy production and sales company, is founded in the Netherlands to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatra.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – The BOVESPA stock exchange is founded in São Paulo, Brazil.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Forth Bridge, the longest bridge in Great Britain, on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, is opened to rail traffic.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The first railway in Transvaal, the Randtram, opens between Boksburg and Braamfontein in Johannesburg.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory, France. It flies uncontrolled approximately 50 m ft at a height of 20 cm in, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The first deep level London Underground (Tube) Railway, the City and South London Railway, opens officially.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The New York World Building is completed in New York City, the tallest building in the United States for 10 years at a height of 110 meters.


text: Japanese tractor and iron pipe brand, Kubota founded in Osaka, Japan.


text: Brown trout are introduced into the upper Firehole River, in Yellowstone National Park.


text: Emerson Electric, an American electronics industry giant, is founded in Missouri.


text: Blackwall Buildings, Whitechapel, noted philanthropic housing, is built in the East End of London.


text: The United States city of Boise, Idaho, drills the first geothermal well.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – American journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – The five-story skylight Arcade opens in Cleveland, Ohio.


text: The folding carton box is invented by Robert Gair, a Brooklyn printer who developed production of paper-board boxes in 1879.


text: Francis Galton announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprints.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – March 1890 middle Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak: 24 significant tornadoes are spawned by one system, including one that kills 76 people in Louisville, Kentucky.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to tabulate census returns using punched card input, a landmark in the history of computing hardware. Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM. The 1890 United States census determines the US population to be 62,979,766, an increase of 25.5 percent relative to the 1880 census.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – The strongest storm in Finnish history kills at least three people.


text: Wilhelm II, German Emperor opposes Bismarck's attempt to renew the law outlawing the Social Democratic Party.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh moves to Auvers-sur-Oise on the edge of Paris, in the care of Paul Gachet, where he will produce around seventy paintings in as many days.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – At Auburn Prison in New York, William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed in the electric chair.


date: November

text: November – Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, moves to a building on London's Victoria Embankment, as New Scotland Yard.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed by police on Standing Rock Indian Reservation.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – In Minnesota, storms result in the Sea Wing disaster on Lake Pepin, killing 98.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Yosemite National Park is established in California.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Ballet The Sleeping Beauty, with music by Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.


text: January 25 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Chicago is selected to host the World's Columbian Exposition.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The first American football game in Ohio State University history is played in Delaware, Ohio, against Ohio Wesleyan


date: March 8

text: March 8 – North Dakota State University is founded in Fargo.


text: March 27 – Preston North End retain the English Football League Championship, winning their final game at Notts County


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Washington State University is founded in Pullman.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – At the First International Conference of American States, in Washington D.C., The Commercial Bureau of the American Republics is founded.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – A coordinated series of mass rallies and one-day strikes is held throughout many cities and mining towns in Europe and North America, to demand an eight-hour workday.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The first ever official English County Championship cricket match begins in Bristol; Yorkshire beats Gloucestershire, by eight wickets.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Oscar Wilde) is published by Philadelphia-based Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (dated July).


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Ouija board is first released by Elijah Bond.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Dublin association football club Bohemian F.C. is founded in the Gate Lodge, Phoenix Park.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – The University of North Texas is founded, as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The Uddevalla Suffrage Association is founded in Sweden, with a formal founding event on November 2 a month later.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Delta Chi fraternity is founded by 11 law students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The Oklahoma territorial legislature establishes three institutions of higher learning University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma.


text: American geostrategist Alfred Thayer Mahan publishes his influential book The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Augustus Agar, British commodore, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1968)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian Modernist writer (d.1954)


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer (Doctor Zhivago), Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (d. 1960)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Ronald Fisher, English statistician and geneticist (d. 1962)


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Vannevar Bush, American engineer, inventor and politician (d. 1960)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Frank Murphy, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1949)

source_section: Births › April


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Lewis H. Brereton, American aviation pioneer and air force general (d. 1967)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist and matriarch of the Kennedy family (d. 1995)

source_section: Births › July


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American race car driver and World War I fighter pilot (d. 1973)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Aimee Semple McPherson, Canadian-American Pentecostal Evangelist (d. 1944)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Sherman Minton, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1965)


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (d. 1956)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1967)

source_section: Births › December


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Empress Consort of Wilhelm I, German Emperor (b. 1811)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Gyula Andrássy, Hungarian statesman, 4th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1823)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man), British oddity (b. 1862)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Clinton B. Fisk, American philanthropist and temperance activist (b. 1828)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Ruler of Bahrain (b. 1813)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Death of Vincent van Gogh: van Gogh shoots himself, dying two days later.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 6

text: August 6 – William Kemmler, American murderer, first person executed in the electric chair (b. 1860)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (b. 1844)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Blessed Michael J. McGivney, American priest and founder of the Knights of Columbus (b. 1852).


date: August 18

text: August 18 – August von Bulmerincq, Baltic German legal scholar (b. 1822)


text: October 20 – Richard Francis Burton, English explorer, linguist, soldier (b. 1821)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (The Adventures of Pinocchio) (b. 1826)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Ulrich Ochsenbein, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1811)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Comanche, American horse, survivor of Custer's cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories.

source_section: Events › January


text: January 7 – The Inter-American Monetary Commission meets in Washington, D.C.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – In France, the Irish Nationalist leaders hold a conference at Boulogne. The French government promptly takes loan.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Jim Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The constitution of the First Brazilian Republic is promulgated.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – 1st Prime Minister of Canada Sir John A. Macdonald wins a 4th consecutive parliamentary victory over the Liberal Party.

source_section: Events › March


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Minas Gerais was granted in 1891.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The Home Alliance was established in Woodland, California where, initially, it was the only publication in the state that fought the legalized liquor traffic.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – France and Russia conclude a defensive alliance.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The Chilean Civil War of 1891 ends with the suicide of deposed President José Manuel Balmaceda and victory for the Congressional party, beginning the country's Parliamentary Era.

source_section: Events › September


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Drexel University is inaugurated as the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in Philadelphia.

source_section: Events › December


text: Brahmin teacher and nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak begins agitation for Indian Home Rule.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: January 1 – A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – A fight between the United States and Lakota people breaks out near Pine Ridge agency.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – General Nelson A. Miles' forces surround the Lakota in the Pine Ridge Reservation.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – 3,000 Lakotas approach Pine Ridge with a view to surrender.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Canada brings suit before the United States Supreme Court in re seizures of vessels in the Bering Sea.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Conference of Lakota chiefs with General Miles at Pine Ridge Reservation: the Lakota agree to surrender.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The Chilean Civil War of 1891 breaks out.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – The Portuguese republican revolution breaks out, in the northern city of Porto.


date: February

text: February – The Tobacco Protest begins in Iran.

source_section: Events › February


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Chilean Civil War of 1891: Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada is sunk at the Battle of Caldera Bay by torpedo boats. This is the first ironclad warship lost to a self-propelled torpedo.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Troops fire on a workers' May Day demonstration in support of the 8-hour workday in Fourmies, France, killing 9 and wounding 30.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Ōtsu incident: Tsesarevich Nikolay Alexandrovich (the future Czar Nicholas II) of Russia survives an assassination attempt while visiting Japan.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Jindandao Incident: The Chinese Juu Uda League in Inner Mongolia massacres tens of thousands of Mongols, before being suppressed by government troops in late December.

source_section: Events › November


date: January 19

text: January 19 – A British Royal Navy squadron is ordered to Chile.


date: January 27

text: January 27–May 2 – The Jamaica International Exhibition is held.


date: October

text: October – Eugène Dubois finds the first fragmentary bones of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or "Java Man", at Trinil on the Solo River.

source_section: Events › October


text: January 12 – St. Mary's Cathedral is dedicated in San Francisco.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Pope Leo XIII issues the encyclical Rerum novarum, on the rights and duties of capital and labor, resulting in the creation of many Christian Democrat parties throughout Europe.


date: May

text: May – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claims to be the Promised Messiah (the second coming of Jesus) and the Mahdi awaited in Islam.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Thyssen, predecessor of the Thyssen Krupp worldwide conglomerate, is founded in Duisburg, Germany.


text: A predecessor of the Japanese personal care brand Lion Corporation is founded as Kobayashi Tomijirō Shōten (小林富次郎商店).


date: January 5

text: January 5 – A fight between railway strikers and police breaks out at Motherwell, Scotland.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Scottish railway strikers attempt to wreck a train near Greenock, Scotland.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – The London–Paris telephone system officially opens.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The London–Paris telephone system is opened to the general public.


text: May 1 – The first Fascio dei lavoratori (Workers League) is founded by Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida in Catania, Sicily.


date: May 31

text: May 31 N.S. (May 19 O.S.) – In the Kuperovskaya district of Vladivostok, a grand ceremonial inauguration of construction work on the Trans-Siberian Railway is carried out by the Tsesarevich Nikolay Alexandrovich, and a religious service held.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The first long-distance transmission of alternating current is made, from the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado, by Lucien and Paul Nunn.


date: June

text: June – The clipper ship Cromdale is completed. She is the last fully rigged ship built for the Australian wool trade.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – The first American Express traveler's cheque is cashed.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The first hydropower plant of Finland is commissioned along the Tammerkoski rapids in Tampere, Pirkanmaa.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Club Atlético Peñarol is founded in Montevideo, under the name of the CURCC (Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club).


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is organized in St. Louis, Missouri.


text: Philips founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, for the production of carbon-filament lamps and other electro-technical products.


text: Michelin patents the removable pneumatic bicycle tire.


text: Production of the Swiss Army Knife by Victorinox begins.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The International Copyright Act of 1891 is passed, by the 51st United States Congress.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope is first displayed at Edison's Laboratory, for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The Johnstown Inclined Plane opens in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.


text: Nikola Tesla invents the Tesla coil.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – General Miles officially announces the end of the native outbreak and congratulates his troops.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Census in the United Kingdom: 15.6 million people live in cities of 20,000 or more in England and Wales, and cities of 20,000 or more account for 54% of the total English population.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The Springboks rugby union team of South Africa play their first international test match against the Lions team of the British Isles, and lose by 4–0.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – In the FA Cup quarter-final in English association football, a goal is deliberately stopped by handball on the goal line. An indirect free kick is awarded, since the penalty kick, proposed the previous year by William McCrum, has not yet been implemented. This event probably changes public opinion on the penalty kick, seen previously as an Irishman's motion.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – In New Orleans, a lynch mob storms the Old Parish Prison, and lynches 11 Italians arrested but found innocent of the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes appears in The Strand Magazine (London) for the first time, in the issue dated July.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The first penalty kick is awarded in an Association football match: John Heath scores it for Wolverhampton Wanderers in England.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – In Mahoning Valley, Ohio, sixteen blast furnaces shut down, putting 10,000 men out of work.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Springhill, Nova Scotia suffers a serious mining disaster.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The British steamship , carrying Italian migrants to New York, sinks in the inner harbor of Gibraltar after collision with the battleship HMS Anson, killing 564.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a declaration regarding the famine in the western counties of Ireland.


date: March 9

text: March 9–12 – The Great Blizzard of 1891 in the south and west of England leads to extensive snow drifts and powerful storms off the south coast, with 14 ships sunk, and approximately 220 deaths attributed to the weather conditions.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The 8.0 Mino–Owari earthquake strikes the Gifu region of Japan. This oblique-slip event kills over 7,200, injures more than 17,000, and creates fault scarps that still remain visible.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – The Australian shearers' strike, that leads indirectly to the foundation of the Australian Labor Party, begins.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The great shoe strike in Rochester, New York is called off.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Allmänna Idrottsklubben (AIK) sports club is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Djurgårdens IF (DIF) sports club is founded in Stockholm.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The first official game in the Association football league of Argentina (1891 Argentine Primera División) is held in Caballito, Buenos Aires.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The Music Hall in New York (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Skansen is established as the world's first open-air museum by Artur Hazelius, on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden.


text: October 1 – Stanford University in California opens its doors.


text: Seattle University is established as the Immaculate Conception school.


text: New Mexico Military Institute is founded (as Goss Military Institute) in Roswell, New Mexico Territory.


text: James Naismith invents basketball in the United States.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Zora Neale Hurston, African-American writer, anthropologist, ethnographer (d. 1960)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Walther Bothe, German physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1957)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer, politician (d. 1937)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Antonio Segni, Italian politician, 34th Prime Minister of Italy (1955–1957, 1959–1960), 4th President of the Italian Republic (d. 1972)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Earl Warren, American politician and Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Laura Vicuña, Chilean Roman Catholic holy figure and blessed (d. 1904)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: April 14

text: April 14 – B. R. Ambedkar, Indian jurist and politician (d. 1956)


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Nipo T. Strongheart, Native American filmmaker (d. 1966)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Dulcie Mary Pillers, English medical illustrator (d. 1961)

source_section: Births › July–September


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate of Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965)


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Fumimaro Konoe, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1945)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 20

text: October 20 – James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Charles Coughlin, American Catholic priest, anti-Semitic radio host (d. 1979)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, British field marshal (d. 1969)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Kalākaua, last reigning King of Hawaii (b. 1836)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Roman Catholic archbishop and Mexican politician who served as regent during the Second Mexican Empire, 1863-1864 (b. 1816)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Sir John Robertson, Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1816)


text: May 8 – Helena Blavatsky, Russian-born author, theosophist (b. 1831)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Mihail Kogălniceanu, 3rd Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1817)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Hannibal Hamlin, 15th Vice President of the United States (b. 1809)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (b. 1803)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Lorenzo Sawyer, 9th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California (b. 1820)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – José Manuel Balmaceda, 10th President of Chile (b. 1840)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Herman Melville, American novelist (b. 1819)


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist leader (b. 1846)


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Lawrence Dudley Bailey, American abolitionist and jurist who served on the Kansas Supreme Court from 1861 to 1869 (b. 1819)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Mary Crane, American activist; mother of the writer, Stephen Crane (b. 1827)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing immigrants to the United States.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Theodoros Deligiannis ends his term as Prime Minister of Greece and Konstantinos Konstantopoulos takes office.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 6

text: March 6–8 – Exclusive Agreement: Rulers of six Trucial States (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain) and Bahrain sign an agreement, by which they become de facto British protectorates.


text: July 4–26 – British general election: The Conservative and Liberal Unionist coalition government loses its majority in the House of Commons, eventually leading to Prime Minister Lord Salisbury's resignation on August 12.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 18

text: August 18 – William Ewart Gladstone assumes the U.K. premiership, as head of the Liberal government, with Irish Nationalist Party support.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in the United States.

source_section: Events › September


date: November 8

text: November 8 – 1892 United States presidential election: Grover Cleveland is elected over Benjamin Harrison and James B. Weaver, to win the second of his non-consecutive terms.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – John Thompson becomes Canada's fourth prime minister.

source_section: Events › December


text: Diplomat Henry Galway secures a treaty by which Ovonramwen, Oba of Benin, ostensibly accepts British protection for his kingdom.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: April

text: April – The Johnson County War breaks out between small farmers and large ranchers in Wyoming.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Battle of Yemoja River: British troops defeat Ijebu infantry in modern-day Nigeria, using a maxim gun.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The British conquest of Ijebu Ode marks a major extension of colonial power into the Nigerian interior.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The Homestead Strike begins in Homestead, Pennsylvania, culminating in a battle between striking workers and private security agents on July 6.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Homestead Strike: The arrival of a force of 300 Pinkerton detectives from New York and Chicago results in a fight in which about 10 men are killed.


text: November 8 – An anarchist bomb kills six in a police station in Avenue de l'Opéra, Paris.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 17

text: November 17 – French troops occupy Abomey, capital of the kingdom of Dahomey.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Liberian freed slave Martha Ann Ricks meets Queen Victoria.