On This Day

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January 1884 in History

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Events in History

  • 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
  • Jan 26 1st Dutch Wagner version of Elizabeth aria

Birthdays in History

  • Jan 2 Jacques Chardonne [Boutelleau], French writer (l'Epithalame), born in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire,, France (d. 1968)
  • Jan 3 E. Stanley Jones, American evangelist (Christ of Indian road), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1973)
  • Jan 6 Harry Pace, American music label owner (Black Swan - 1st major label founded by a Black American), born in Covington, Georgia (d. 1943)
  • Jan 18 Arthur Ransome, English author, journalist and critic (Swallows & Amazons), born in Leeds, England (d. 1967)
  • Jan 20 (Abraham) A. Merritt, American magazine editor and sci-fi author (The Moon Pool; Burn, Witch, Burn!), born in Beverly, New Jersey (d. 1943)
  • Jan 21 Roger Nash Baldwin, American founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, born in Wellesley, Massachusetts (d. 1981)
  • Jan 26 Edward Sapir, American linguist and anthropologist (North American Indian languages), born in Lauenburg, Germany (d. 1939)
  • Jan 26 Roy Chapman Andrews, American scientist and explorer (found 1st known dinosaur eggs, director of the American Museum of Natural History), born in Beloit, Wisconsin (d. 1960)
  • Jan 28 Auguste Piccard, Swiss scientist, explorer and balloonist (1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon), born in Basel, Switzerland (d. 1962)
  • Jan 28 Jean Felix Piccard, Swiss scientist, explorer and balloonist (1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon), born in Basel, Switzerland (d. 1963)
  • Jan 28 Lucien d'Azambuja, French astronomer (studied the solar chromosphere), born in Paris, France (d. 1970)
  • Jan 31 Theodor Heuss, 1st President of Germany (Bundespräsident) (d. 1963)

Weddings in History

Thomas Eakins

Jan 19 Painter Thomas Eakins (39) weds painter and photographer Susan Macdowell (32) in a Quaker ceremony

Thomas Eakins

Frederick Douglass

Jan 24 Abolitionist Frederick Douglass marries his second wife suffragist Helen Pitts

Frederick Douglass

Deaths in History

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)

Jan 6 Austrian monk and geneticist (discoverer of laws of heredity), dies at 61

Gregor Mendel
  • Jan 6 Paul "the Great" Taglioni, Italian-Austrian ballet choreographer, dies at 75
  • Jan 17 Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist, dies at 79
  • Jan 26 John Letcher, American lawyer and politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia, dies at 70
  • Jan 31 Elisha Harris, American physician (founded American Public Health Association, sanitary reform), dies of peritonitis at 60

Historical Figures

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