Events
January January 3–4 – Sino-French War: Battle of Núi Bop – French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Battle of Abu Klea – British troops defeat Mahdist forces. January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster. January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite. January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.
February
February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession. February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii. February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.Dow Record Book Adds Another First. Philly.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08. February 20 – The Richmond Football Club is officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria.Hansen (1992), p. 28. February 21 – United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument. February 23 Sino-French War: Battle of Đồng Đăng – France gains an important victory over China, in the Tonkin region of modern-day Vietnam. An English executioner fails after several attempts to hang John Babbacombe Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the "scramble for Africa". February 28 – February concludes without having a full moon.
March March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York. March 7 – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid is founded. March 14 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens, at the Savoy Theatre in London. March 26 Prussian deportations: The Prussian government, motivated by Otto von Bismarck, expels all ethnic Poles and Jews without German citizenship from Prussia. The North-West Rebellion in Canada by the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, begins with the Battle of Duck Lake. First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey. March 30 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident, which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire. March 31 – The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
April April 2 – Frog Lake Massacre: Cree warriors led by Wandering Spirit kill 9 settlers at Frog Lake in the Northwest Territories. April 3 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent, for his single-cylinder, water-cooled engine design. April 11 – Luton Town Football Club is created by the merger of (Luton) Wanderers F.C. and Luton Excelsior F.C. in England. April 14 – Sino-French War: A French victory at Kép causes China to withdraw its forces from Tonkin, in the final engagement of the conflict. April 22 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 7 is premiered at St James's Hall in London with the composer himself conducting. April 30 – A bill is signed in the New York State legislature, forming the Niagara Falls State Park.
May May 2 Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time in the United States. North-West Rebellion: Battle of Cut Knife – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win their largest victory over Canadian forces. May 9–12 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Batoche – Canadian government forces inflict a decisive defeat on Métis rebels, bringing an end to their part in the rebellion. May 19 – After a three-month legislative battle in the Illinois General Assembly, John A. Logan is re-elected to the United States Senate. May 20 – The first public train departs Swanage railway station, on the newly built Swanage Railway in England.
June June 2 – Dunfermline Athletic F.C. is officially formed at the Old Inn, Dunfermline, Scotland. June 3 – Battle of Loon Lake: The Canadian North-West Mounted Police and allies force a party of Plains Cree warriors to surrender in the last skirmish of the North-West Rebellion, and the last battle fought on Canadian soil. June 17 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor. June 23 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
July July 6 – Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux successfully test their rabies vaccine. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog. July 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first African-American woman to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed. July 15 – The Reservation at Niagara Falls opens, enabling access to all for free. Thomas V. Welch is the first Superintendent of the Park. July 16 – BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia. July 20 – The Football Association recognises professional players in England. July 28 – Louis Riel's trial for treason begins in Regina. July – Japan Brewery, predecessor of Kirin Holdings, is founded in Yokohama, Japan.
August August 19 – S Andromedae, the only supernova seen in the Andromeda Galaxy so far by astronomers, and the first ever noted outside the Milky Way, is discovered.
August 29 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle, which he has produced with Wilhelm Maybach.
September September 2 – The Rock Springs massacre occurs in Rock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town. September 6 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, completing the unification of Bulgaria. September 8 – Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota. September 12 – Arbroath F.C. defeats Bon Accord F.C. in Scotland, 36-0, the highest score ever in professional football. September 15 – A train wreck of the P. T. Barnum Circus kills giant elephant Jumbo, at St. Thomas, Ontario. September 18 The union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria is proclaimed at Plovdiv. Five Chinese people were lynched outside of Pierce City in the Idaho Territory of the United States. September 30 – A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland, and adds it to British Bechuanaland.
October October 3 – Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs in London, as Millwall Rovers. October 10 – The largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose is set off in the East River of New York City as part of a scheme for the removal of Hell Gate rocks by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. October 12 – The city of Fresno, California, is incorporated. October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta as the Georgia School of Technology. October 25 – Brahms's Symphony No. 4 is premiered in Meiningen, Germany, with the composer himself conducting.
November November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway: At Craigellachie, British Columbia, the last spike is driven on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considers the project to be vital to Canada, due to the exponentially greater potential for military mobility. November 14–28 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria, but is defeated in the Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17–19. November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, is executed for high treason. November 27 – St. Helena Anti-Chinese League is formed in Napa County, California. November – The Third Anglo-Burmese War begins.
December December 1 – Dr Pepper is served for the first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr. Pepper's invention is unknown). December 28 – 72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party.
Date unknown
Martha, the last Passenger pigeon was born Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Mannheim (Germany), regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year). John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle in Coventry (England), regarded as the first practical modern bicycle. The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, is completed. With ten floors and a fireproof weight-bearing metal frame, it is regarded as the first skyscraper. Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced in the United States. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association is established in the United Kingdom, to provide charitable assistance. Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in the United States, is founded. John Ormsby publishes his new English translation of Don Quixote, acclaimed as the most scholarly made up to that time. It will remain in print through the 20th century. Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time, in the future Houghton County Fire Hall. Chuo Law College, as predecessor of Chuo University, founded in Kanda, Tokyo, Japan. Before November 1 – More than 24,000 Christians are killed, 225 churches burnt, seventeen orphanages and ten convents destroyed in Cochinchina (modern-day Vietnam).
Births
January
January 1 – Winifred Greenwood, American silent film actress (d. 1961) January 6 – Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946) January 8 – John Curtin, 14th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945) January 11 Jack Hoxie, American actor, rodeo performer (d. 1965) Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (d. 1977) January 12 Harry Benjamin, American endocrinologist, sexologist (d. 1986) Claude Fuess, American author, historian and headmaster (d. 1963) January 14 – Constantin Sănătescu, 44th prime minister of Romania (d. 1947) January 16 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967) January 17 – Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, German general and war criminal (d. 1968) January 21 – Umberto Nobile, Italian aviator and explorer (d. 1978) January 25 – Roy Geiger, American general (d. 1947) January 26 – Harry Ricardo, English mechanical engineer, engine pioneer (d. 1974) January 27 Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945) Harry Ruby, American musician, composer, and writer (d. 1974) January 28 – Władysław Raczkiewicz, President of Poland (d. 1947) January 30 – John Henry Towers, U. S.admiral and naval aviation pioneer (d. 1955)
February
February 1 – Friedrich Kellner, German diarist (d. 1970) February 7 Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951) Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (d. 1953) February 9 – Alban Berg, Austrian composer (d. 1935) February 10 – Rupert Downes, Australian general (d. 1945) February 13 George Fitzmaurice, French-American motion picture director (d. 1940) Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (d. 1982) February 14 – Zengo Yoshida, Japanese admiral (d. 1966) February 21 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-born French dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957) February 22 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-born American director, animated film producer (d. 1933) February 24 Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (d. 1966) Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer, painter (d. 1939) February 25 Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969) Fritz Skullerud, Norwegian long-distance runner and station master (d. 1969) February 26 – Aleksandras Stulginskis, President of Lithuania (d. 1969)
March March 6 – Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933) March 7 – John Tovey, British admiral of the fleet (d. 1971) March 11 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, English land, water racer (d. 1948)