Historical Events in 1885

Jan 28 Commission for Auguste Rodin's sculpture 'The Burghers of Calais' signed by the Municipal Council of Calais.

Feb 5 News of the fall of Khartoum reaches London
Feb 5 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal colonial possession
Feb 9 1st Japanese arrive in Hawaii
Feb 12 Carl Peters founds German East-Africa Society

Feb 17 Bismarck gives Carl Peters' firm management of East-Africa

Feb 18 Mark Twain publishes the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the US

Feb 25 US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds
Feb 26 Berlin Conference gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to Great Britain
Mar 3 1st US state (California) establishes a permanent forest commission
Mar 3 American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) incorporates
Mar 3 US Congress passes Indian Appropriations Act (Indians wards of federal government)
Mar 3 US Post Office offers special delivery for 1st-class mail

Mar 4 Grover Cleveland inaugrated as 1st US Democratic President since Civil War

Mar 14 Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera "Mikado" premieres in London at the Savoy Theatre
Mar 15 1st performance of Caesar Franck's "Lesson Djinns"

Mar 19 Louis Riel returns to Canada, proclaims provisional government, Sask

Mar 20 Jan Ernst Matzeliger received patent number 274,207 for his lasting machine which creates wood or stone molds of customers' feet
Mar 20 Yiddish theater opens in NY with Goldfaden operetta
Mar 21 2nd French government of Ferry resigns
Mar 26 Eastman Film Co manufactures 1st commercial motion picture film
Mar 26 Louis Riel's forces defeat Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Sask
Mar 27 47th Grand National: Jockey Ted Wilson wins his second consecutive GN aboard 10/3 favourite Roquefort
Mar 28 US Salvation Army officially organized
Mar 30 The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
Mar 31 Great Britain declares Bechuanaland a protectorate
Apr 30 Boston Pops Orchestra forms

May 1 Maria "Goeie Mie" Swanenburg sentence to life for killing 27 in Netherlands
May 2 "Good Housekeeping" magazine is 1st published
May 2 Congo Free State formed by King Leopold II of Belgium
May 7 John E W Thompson named US minister to Haiti
May 8 Sarah Ann Henley survives 76-m jump from Clifton Bridge in Bristol, England
May 12 Battle of Batoche: Louis Riel and the Metis defeated by Frederick Middleton, leds to collapse of Provincial Government of Saskatchewan and surrender of Riel
May 14 11th Kentucky Derby: Babe Henderson aboard Joe Cotton wins in 2:37.25
May 15 Canadian Meti insurgent Louis Reil captured, Saskatchewan
May 19 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts)
May 19 German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon and Togoland
May 22 13th Preakness: Jim McLaughlin aboard Tecumseh wins in 2:49
Jun 6 19th Belmont: Paul Duffy aboard Tyrant wins in 2:43
Jun 6 Opera "Lakmé" is produced (Paris)
Jun 12 Roof collapse kills 30 at murder trial in France

Jun 17 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'
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Jun 24 British government of Salisbury forms
Jun 24 Samuel David Ferguson becomes 1st US black bishop
Jul 1 The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada
Jul 2 Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear

Jul 6 Louis Pasteur successfully tests an anti-rabies vaccine

Jul 13 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 5 straight Wimbledon titles for William Renshaw; for second consecutive year he beats Herbert Lawford 7-5, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
Jul 17 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Defending champion Maud Watson defeats Blanche Bingley 6–1, 7–5
Aug 7 Five German warships anchor off Zanzibar
Aug 10 Leo Daft opens America's 1st commercially operated electric streetcar in Baltimore
Aug 11 $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty

Aug 14 Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
Aug 22 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Richard Sears wins 5th consecutive US singles title; beats Godfrey M. Brinley 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3

Aug 29 Gottlieb Daimler receives German patent for a motorcycle

Aug 29 Phillies Charlie Ferguson no-hits Providence 1-0
Aug 29 Boxing's 1st heavyweight title fight with 3-oz gloves & 3-minute rounds fought between John L Sullivan & Dominick McCaffrey
Aug 30 13,000 meteors seen in 1 hour near Andromeda
Sep 2 In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who were struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
Sep 4 1st cafeteria opens (NYC)
Sep 5 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer (Ft Wayne, Ind)
Sep 6 Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria. The Unification of Bulgaria is accomplished.
Sep 11 Moses Hopkins, named minister to Liberia

Sep 11 Ambrose Bierce finishes as editor of The Wasp magazine

Sep 12 Highest score (35) recorded in any 1st-class soccer match is set
Sep 16 Puritan (US) beats Genesta (England) in 6th running of America's Cup
Sep 18 Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
Sep 21 Dutch demonstrate for general voting right
Sep 22 Lord Randolph Churchill makes a speech in Ulster in opposition to Home Rule e.g. "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right"
Sep 24 Five German warships depart to Zanzibar
Sep 29 The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England.
Sep 30 Bechuanaland becomes a British protectorate
Oct 1 Special delivery mail service begins in US
Oct 3 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Bob Martin wins his second Championship by 1 stroke from fellow Scot Archie Simpson
Oct 13 The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
Oct 15 Hoss Radbourne pitches his 60th win of season
Oct 17 Baseball sets all players salaries at $1,000-$2,000 for 1885 season
Oct 22 John Ward & several teammates secretly form Brotherhood of Prof Base Ball Players, 1st baseball union
Oct 24 Johann Strauss' operetta "Zigeunerbaron (Gypsy Baron)" premieres in Vienna
Oct 25 Johannes Brahms' 4th Symphony in E premieres
Nov 1 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Immortale Dei
Nov 3 Tacoma vigilantes drive out Chinese, burn their homes & businesses

Nov 6 US mint at Carson City, Nevada, directed to close
Nov 7 Canadian Pacific Railway completed at Craigellachie
Nov 9 Opera "Ermine" premieres in London
Nov 10 German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world's first motorcycle
Nov 12 Montreal & Britannia Football Clubs (QRFU) defeat Ontario Combined Team (ORFU) 3-0 in CRFU Championship game
Nov 14 Serbia invades Bulgaria, beginning the two-week Serbo-Bulgarian War; the Serbs are later defeated decisively [O.S. November 2]
Nov 17 The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invades Bulgaria
Nov 19 Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza
Nov 23 Amsterdam police attack meeting of social-democrats united
Nov 27 1st photograph of a meteor taken by Austro-Hungarian photographer Ladislaus Weinek in Prague
Nov 30 Opera "El Cid" premieres (Paris)
Dec 2 Opera "Regina di Saba" premieres in Vienna
Dec 7 49th Congress (1885-87) convenes
Dec 17 France declares Madagascar a protectorate
Dec 22 Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee
Dec 22 Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan