- Jan 2 Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
- Jan 15 1st US ski club forms (Berlin NH)
- 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
- Feb 3 Circus owner PT Barnum buys his world famous elephant Jumbo
- Feb 6 The society of the Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Connecticut
- Feb 7 Last bare knuckle champion John L Sullivan KOs Paddy Ryan in Miss
- 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 21 NYC's 24 hour race begins, winner with most mileage in 24 hours
- Feb 22 With 120 miles James Saunders wins NYC's 24 hour race & $100 prize
- Feb 22 The Serbian kingdom is refounded.
- Feb 28 1st US college cooperative store opens, at Harvard University
Assassination Attempt
Event of Interest
Mar 11 Fridtjof Nansen sets out on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology
Fridtjof Nansen
- Mar 16 US Senate ratifies treaty establishing the Red Cross
- Mar 18 Morgan Earp is assassinated by outlaws while playing billiards in Tombstone
- Mar 19 1st stone laid for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
- Mar 23 The Edmunds Act (Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act) is adopted by the US to suppress polygamy. 1300 men are later imprisoned under the act
Scientific Discovery
Mar 24 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis ( Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
Robert Koch
Event of Interest
Apr 3 American outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford at home in St Joseph
Jesse James
Event of Interest
Apr 29 The "Elektromote" - forerunner of the trolleybus - is tested by Werner von Siemens in Berlin
Werner von Siemens
- 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
- May 15 May Laws-Tsar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania
- May 20 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy sign the Triple Alliance
- May 20 Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
- May 20 Gotthard rail tunnel between Switzerland & Italy opens
- May 23 6" of snow falls in eastern Iowa
- Jun 2 Pierre 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 Henry W Seely, NYC
- Jun 6 Ethiopia: Shewan forces of Menelik defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and heir victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
- 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
- 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 18 Louisville Tony Mullane is 1st to pitch righty then lefty
- 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
- 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
Thomas Edison
- 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 de Brazza
- Sep 13 Battle at Count el-Kebir: British troops invade Egypt
- Sep 14 British General Wolseley reaches Cairo
- Sep 15 British General Wolseley occupies Cairo
- Sep 18 Pacific Stock Exchange opens (as Local Security Board)
- Oct 14 University of the Punjab is founded in present day Pakistan.
- Oct 16 The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
Meeting of Interest
Oct 19 Pierre de Brazza meets Henry Morton Stanley
Henry Morton Stanley
- Oct 28 Athletics reveal $22,000 profit in their 1st season in the American Association
- Nov 5 Bedrich Smetana's "Ma Vlast" premieres
- 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
- Dec 10 Johannes Brahms' "Gesang der Parzen" (Song of the Fates) premieres
- Dec 11 Victorien Sardous "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