- Jan 2 Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
Wagner's Parsifal
Jan 13 Richard Wagner completes his final opera "Parsifal"
- Jan 15 1st US ski club forms (Berlin NH)
- Jan 15 French explorer Jules Nicholas Crevaux is the first European to discover an Inca City near Sarta, north-west Argentina
- Jan 17 1st Dutch female physician Aletta Jacobs opens her office
- Jan 25 Bilu, a Russian Zionist organization, forms
- Jan 26 France government of Gambetta falls
Jumbo the Elephant
Feb 3 Circus owner P. T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo
- Feb 6 The society of the Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Connecticut
Boxing Title Fight
Feb 7 Last bare knuckle champion John L. Sullivan KOs Paddy Ryan in Miss
- Feb 10 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "Snyegurochka" premieres in St Petersburg
- Feb 12 Social-Democratic Union forms in Amsterdam
- Feb 15 SS Dunedin leaves New Zealand for Britain with the first cargo of frozen meat.
- Feb 17 Australian cricket opening bowlers Joey Palmer (7/68) and Edwin Evans (3/64) dismiss England for 133 in 2nd Test; first Test match played at Sydney Cricket Ground
- Feb 21 NYC's 24 hour race begins, winner with most mileage in 24 hours
- Feb 22 The Serbian kingdom is refounded.
- Feb 22 With 120 miles James Saunders wins NYC's 24 hour race & $100 prize
- Feb 28 1st US college cooperative store opens, at Harvard University
Assassination Attempt
Mar 2 Queen Victoria narrowly escapes assassination when Roderick Maclean shoots at her while boarding a train in Windsor
Voyage of Discovery
Mar 11 Fridtjof Nansen sets out on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology
- Mar 11 Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in Princeton, New Jersey
First Geneva Convention
Mar 16 U.S. Senate ratifies the Geneva Convention of 1864, legitimatizing the International Red Cross and the American Red Cross
- Mar 18 Morgan Earp is assassinated by outlaws while playing billiards in Tombstone
Event of Interest
Mar 19 1st stone laid for the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudí
Robert Koch Discovers Tuberculosis and Germs
Mar 24 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory
Jesse James Assassinated
Apr 3 American outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back of the head and killed by fellow gang member Robert Ford at home in St. Joseph, Missouri
Event of Interest
Apr 29 The "Elektromote" - forerunner of the trolleybus - is tested by Werner von Siemens in Berlin
- May 6 Chinese Exclusion Act: US Congress ceases Chinese immigration
- May 6 Epping Forest, England, dedicated by Queen Victoria
- May 6 Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin
- May 8 David Belasco's "La Belle Russe" premieres in NYC
- May 9 Telegraph Hill RR Co (Cable Cars) in San Francisco organized
- May 13 Toba indians kill 20 members of French expedition in Argentina, including explorer Jules Nicolas Crevaux
May Laws
May 15 May Laws: Russian Tsar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania
Theater Premiere
May 20 Henrik Ibsen's play "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
Event of Interest
Jun 2 Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza festival welcomed in Paris
- Jun 5 Storm & floods hits Bombay; about 100,000 die
- Jun 6 Cyclone in Arabian Sea (Bombay, India) drowns 100,000 (disputed event)
- Jun 6 Electric iron patented by New York inventor Henry W. Seely. It weighed almost 15 pounds and was very slow to heat up.
- Jun 6 Ethiopia: Shewan forces of Menelik defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
- Jun 8 16th Belmont: Jim McLaughlin aboard Forester wins in 2:43
- Jun 10 Anti-colonization mass society of Alexandria Egypt kills 50 Europeans
- Jun 16 17" hailstones weighing 1.75 lbs fall in Dubuque Iowa
- Jun 17 Tornado kills 130 in Iowa
- Jun 24 National League expels umpire Richard Higham from baseball for dishonesty after his links with gambling on games are confirmed
- Jul 4 Telegraph Hill Observatory opens in San Francisco
- Jul 6 14 Russian Jews from Bilu arrive in Jaffa, Palestine
- Jul 11 British fleet bombards Alexandria
- Jul 12 1st ocean pier in US completed, Washington, D.C.
- Jul 13 200 die as train derails near Tcherny, Russia
- Jul 17 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Defending champion William Renshaw beats twin brother Ernest Renshaw 6-1, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
- Jul 18 Louisville Tony Mullane is 1st to pitch righty then lefty
- Jul 26 Richard Wagner's opera "Parsifal" premieres in Bayreuth, Germany
- Aug 3 US Congress passes 1st law restricting immigration
- Aug 5 Martial law is imposed in Japan
- Aug 5 Standard Oil of New Jersey is established
- Aug 7 Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of east Kentucky feud, 100 wounded or die
- Aug 8 Snow falls on Lake Michigan
- Aug 14 Queen Victoria receives Zulu chief Cetewayo
- Aug 16 British under General Wolseley land in Alexandria
Music History
Aug 20 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow
- Aug 29 Australia beat England by 7 runs - "Death of English cricket"
Cricket History
Aug 29 Australian cricket fast bowler Fred Spofforth completes 14-90 (7-46 & 7-44) in one-off Test v England in London
US Men's Tennis Open
Sep 2 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Defending champion Richard Sears beats Clarence M. Clark 6-1, 6-4, 6-0
- Sep 3 French/Vietnamese/Chinese battle at Hanoi, 100s die
Event of Interest
Sep 4 In its 1st large-scale test, Thomas Edison's light bulb is used to light NY's Pearl Street Station
- Sep 5 10,000 workers march in 1st Labor Day parade in NYC
- Sep 10 1st international conference to promote anti-semitism meets Dresden Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests)
- Sep 12 Belgian King Leopold II receives Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza
- Sep 13 Battle at Count el-Kebir: British troops defeat Egyptian force in the decisive battle of the Anglo-Egytian War
- Sep 14 British General Wolseley reaches Cairo
- Sep 15 British General Wolseley occupies Cairo
- Sep 18 Pacific Stock Exchange opens (as Local Security Board)
- Sep 25 1st baseball doubleheader (Providence & Worcester)
- Sep 30 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Bob Ferguson wins third consecutive Open title; beats fellow Scot Willie Fernie by 3 strokes
- Oct 6 1st World Series Baseball Game 1: Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA) beat Chicago White Stockings (NL), 4-0 at Bank Street Grounds, Cincinnati
- Oct 7 1st World Series Baseball Game 2: Chicago White Stockings (NL) beats Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA), 2-0 at Bank Street Grounds, Cincinnati
- Oct 14 University of the Punjab is founded in present day Pakistan.
- Oct 16 The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
- Oct 28 Athletics reveal $22,000 profit in their 1st season in the American Association
- Nov 5 Bedřich Smetana's complete "Má Vlast" premieres, conducted by Adolf Čech, at Žofín Palace, Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic)
- Nov 15 British HMS Flirt destroys village of Asaba, Niger
- Nov 16 British gunboat HMS Flirt fires at & destroys Abari village in Niger
- Dec 2 Amsterdam Artis Zoo opens aquarium
- Dec 6 Atmosphere of Venus detected during transit
Music History
Dec 10 Johannes Brahms' choir and orchestra piece "Gesang der Parzen" (Song of the Fates) premieres in Basel
Music Premiere
Dec 11 Boston's Bijou Theatre, 1st American playhouse lit exclusively by electricity holds its 1st performance, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "Iolanthe"
Theater Premiere
Dec 11 Victorien Sardous play "Fedora" with Sarah Bernhardt premieres in Paris
- Dec 14 Henry Morton Stanley returns to Brussels from the Congo
- Dec 22 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison