December 1888 in History

Events in History

Dec 11 French Panama Canal Company fails
Dec 18 Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde, Colorado

Historic Expedition

Dec 19 Henry Morton Stanley's expedition reaches Fort Bodo, East-Africa

Event of Interest

Dec 23 Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor, after argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and sends to a prostitute for safe keeping

Dec 30 Belgium: king Leopold II installs Order of African Star

Birthdays in History

Dec 4 Aleksandar I, King of Yugoslavia (1921-34), born in Cetinje, Montenegro (d. 1934)
Dec 7 Hamilton Fish III, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), born in Garrison, New York (d. 1991)
Dec 7 Heywood Broun, American journalist (1st President of American Newspaper Guild), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1939)
Dec 7 Joyce Cary, Anglo-Irish writer (House of Children), born in Londonderry, Ireland (d. 1957)
Dec 8 Fiske Kimball, American architect and art historian, born in Newton, Massachusetts (d. 1955)
Dec 9 Mabel Stark, American tiger trainer "crazy Mabel", born in Tennessee or Kentucky (d. 1968)
Dec 15 Artturi Leinonen, Finnish journalist and writer (Kati), born in Ylihärmä, Finland (d. 1963)

Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959)

Dec 15 American dramatist (Winter Set, High Tor), born in Atlantic, Pennsylvania

Dec 16 Alexander I, king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1921–29) and of Yugoslavia (1929–34), born in Cetinje, Montenegro (d. 1934)
Dec 16 Alphonse Juin, French general and Marshal, born in Bône, French Algeria (d. 1967)
Dec 18 Robert Moses, American Parks official (oversaw rebuilding of Long Island & NYC parks & roads), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1981)
Dec 22 J. Arthur Rank, English industrialist, born in Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom (d. 1972)
Dec 23 Friedrich Wolf, German writer and diplomat, born in Neuwied, Germany (d. 1953)
Dec 29 Joseph Beran, Czech Roman Catholic prelate, born in Pilsen, Czech Republic (d. 1969)

Deaths in History

Dec 2 Namık Kemal, Turkish writer, journalist and political activist (Young Ottomans), dies at 47
Dec 3 Carl Zeiss, German scientific instrument and lens maker (Carl Zeiss AG), dies at 72
Dec 11 John Rylands, English cloth merchant and philanthropist (Rylands & Sons, Manchester's 1st multi-millionaire), dies at 87
Dec 31 Samson Raphael Hirsch, German Orthodox rabbi and intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism, dies at 80