- Jan 4 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
- Jan 4 The Fabian Society is founded in London.
- Jan 8 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
- Jan 18 Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (Welsh for Jesus Christ) Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom
- Jan 18 General Charles Gordon departs London for Khartoum, Sudan
"Manon" Premieres
Jan 19 Jules Massenet's opera "Manon" premieres in Paris
Event of Interest
Feb 18 Russian police seize all copies of Leo Tolstoy's book "What I Believe In"
- Feb 19 "Enigma Outbreak" of over 60 tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana kill hundreds, if not over a thousand (hence the "enigma") people
- Feb 26 British & Portuguese treaty signed in Congo by Leopold II
- Mar 8 1st performance of Edward MacDowell's 2nd Piano Suite
Susan B. Anthony Addresses Congress
Mar 8 Susan B. Anthony addresses U.S. House Judiciary Committee arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote, 16 years after legislators 1st introduced a federal women's suffrage amendment.
- Mar 12 Mississippi establishes 1st US state college for women
- Mar 13 Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins by Mahdist forces, lasts 10 months
- Mar 17 John Joseph Montgomery makes 1st glider flight at Otay, California
- Mar 27 1st long-distance telephone call, Boston-NY
- Mar 28 46th Grand National: Ted Wilson aboard 10/1 shot Voluptuary wins by 4 lengths from Frigate
- Apr 2 London prison for debtors closed
- Apr 10 US Senate accepts Belgian administration of Congo
- Apr 21 Potters Field reopened as Madison Park
- Apr 22 Thomas Stevens starts 1st bike trip around world (2 yrs 9 mths)
- Apr 22 US recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- Apr 24 National Medical Association of Black physicians organizes in Atlanta
- May 1 Catcher Moses Walker is acknowledged as the first African-American to play major league baseball joining the Toledo Blue Stockings
- May 1 Construction begins on Chicago's 1st skyscraper (10 stories)
- May 1 Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
- May 13 Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) forms in New York
- May 14 Anti-Monopoly party forms in US
- May 16 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40.25
- May 16 Italian inventor Angelo Moriondo receives patent for 1st espresso machine
- May 17 Alaska becomes a US territory
- May 19 Ringling Brothers circus premieres
- May 22 1-armed pitcher Hugh Daily fanned 13 hitters
- May 23 12th Preakness: S Fisher aboard Knight of Ellerslie wins in 2:39.5
- May 24 Anti-Monopoly party & Greenback Party forms People's Party in US
Cricket History
May 26 Australian cricket fast bowler Fred Spofforth takes 7-34 & 7-3 against an England XI in a tour match in Birmingham; match over in just 4 hours
- May 29 Europe's first steam cable trams start in Highgate, London
- Jun 3 John Lynch (R-MS) chosen 1st black major-party national convention chair
- Jun 4 18th Belmont: Jim McLaughlin aboard Panique wins in 2:42
- Jun 5 William Sherman refuses Republican presidential nomination saying "I will not accept if nominated & will not serve if elected"
- Jun 16 1st roller coaster used (Coney Island NY)
- Jun 24 John Lynch is 1st black elected chairman of Republican convention
- Jul 3 Dow Jones publishes its 1st stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Average
- Jul 4 1st US bullfight held (Dodge City Ks)
Statue of Liberty
Jul 4 Statue of Liberty presented to US in Paris
- Jul 5 German consul-general Gustav Nachtigal takes possession of Cameroon
- Jul 5 US Congress accept 2nd Chinese Exclusion Act
- Jul 10 First day of Test Cricket at Old Trafford, Manchester (1st Test, England v Australia) is washed out
- Jul 15 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 4 consecutive Wimbledon titles for William Renshaw; beats Herbert Lawford 6-0, 6-4, 9-7
- Jul 19 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Maud Watson becomes inaugural female champion by beating her sister Lillian Watson 6–8, 6–3, 6–3
- Jul 21 1st Test Cricket match played at Lord's
- Jul 27 The East Cleveland Street Railway Company begins the first U.S. commercial electric streetcar line in Cleveland, Ohio, on the Bentley-Knight system
Event of Interest
Jul 29 Society of Independent Artists founded in Paris by Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac
- Jul 30 Nonpareil Dempsey [John Edward Kelly] fights George Fulljames, possibly the 1st middleweight fight with boxing gloves
Event of Interest
Aug 5 Cornerstone for Statue of Liberty laid on Bedloe's Island (NYC)
- Aug 7 Germany annexes Angra Pequena / German South West-Africa (modern Namibia)
- Aug 11 First double-century stand in Test cricket; Percy McDonnell (103) Billy Murdoch (211) for Australia in drawn 3rd Test v England in London
- Aug 12 Bill Murdoch scores 1st Test Cricket double-century, 211 at The Oval
US Men's Tennis Open
Aug 27 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Richard Sears makes it 4 straight US singles titles; beats Howard Taylor 6-0, 1-6, 6-0, 6-2
1st Photograph of a Tornado
Aug 28 First known photograph of a tornado is made near Howard, South Dakota
- Aug 28 MLB pitcher Mickey Welsh makes record for most consecutive batters struck out to begin a game, striking out the 1st 9 men he faces
- Sep 4 Britain ends its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales in Australia
- Sep 10 Congressman John R. Lynch presides over Republican National Convention
- Sep 20 6.2 mile Arlberg railroad tunnel completed in Austria
- Sep 20 Equal Rights Party nominates female candidates for US President and Vice President
- Sep 23 American Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine, the beginning of data processing
- Sep 24 Dixey, Rice & Gill's musical "Adonis" premieres in NYC
- Sep 26 Suriname army shoots on British-Indian contract workers, 7 killed
- Oct 3 British Open Men's Golf, Prestwick GC: Jack Simpson wins in windy conditions by 4 strokes from fellow Scots Douglas Rolland and Willie Fernie
- Oct 6 Naval War College forms in Newport, Rhode Island
- Oct 13 International Meridian Conference in Washington DC establishes Greenwich in London, England as the universal time meridian of longitude
Historic Invention
Oct 14 George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
- Oct 22 General Gordon receives letter of Mahdi
- Oct 22 International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide, creating 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich meridian
- Oct 22 Sporting Life announces that both pennant winners will meet in 3 game series Oct 23-25 at Polo Grounds NYC to determine baseball champion
- Oct 25 1st "World Championship" Baseball Series, Polo Grounds, NYC: Providence Grays (NL) beat NY Mets (American Association), 12-2 in 6 innings for 3 game sweep; game abandoned because of bitter cold
- Oct 27 Architect Henry Hardenberghs Dakota apartment complex opens in NYC
- Nov 1 Gaelic Athletic Association is established in a meeting at Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary; Clare teacher Michael Cusack is credited as founder; objective to promote Irish sport & games
Event of Interest
Nov 4 Grover Cleveland (D) beats James G. Blaine (R) for his 1st presidential term (only American president to serve 2 non-consecutive terms)
- Nov 6 British protectorate proclaimed over southeast New Guinea
- Nov 6 Montreal Foot Ball Club (QFRU) defeats Toronto Argonauts (ORFU) 30-0 in 1st CRFU Championship game
- Nov 8 German government recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- Nov 15 European Colonization and trade in Africa is officially regulated at the international Berlin Conference, formalizing European powers "Scramble for Africa"
Sports History
Nov 17 Cops arrest boxer John L. Sullivan in his 2nd round for being "cruel"
- Nov 22 T Thomas Fortune starts NY Freeman (NY Age) newspaper
- Nov 25 John B Meyenberg of St Louis patents evaporated milk
- Dec 1 American Old West: Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting Charles McCarthy.
- Dec 1 Society of Independent Artists hold 1st exhibition in Polychrome Pavilion, Paris, includes Georges Seurat's "Bathers at Asnières"
- Dec 6 Aluminum capstone set atop Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., making it the tallest human-built structure in the world (overtaking Cologne Cathedral)
- Dec 9 Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate
Historic Publication
Dec 10 "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain is first published in the UK and Canada (US Feb 1885, due to printing error)
- Dec 12 1st Test match played at the Adelaide Oval
- Dec 16 Great Britain recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- Dec 19 Italy recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- Dec 24 Austria-Hungary admits King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- Dec 27 Netherlands recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
Music Premiere
Dec 30 Anton Bruckner's 7th Symphony in E, premieres in Leipzig
- Dec 30 William Morris, Eleanor Marx, and others establish the Socialist League, a revolutionary organization in the UK