- 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 General Charles Gordon departs London for Khartoum
- 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 26 1st Dutch Wagner version of Elizabeth aria
- Feb 1 1st volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, published
- Feb 18 General Charles Gordon arrives in Khartoum
Leo Tolstoy
Event of Interest
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.
Susan B. Anthony
- Mar 12 Mississippi establishes 1st US state college for women
- Mar 13 Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins by Mahdist forces, lasts 10 months
- Mar 13 US adopts Standard Time
- Mar 17 John Joseph Montgomery makes 1st glider flight at Otay, California
- Mar 27 1st long-distance telephone call, Boston-NY
- Apr 2 London prison for debtors closed
- Apr 10 US Senate accepts Belgian administration of Congo
- Apr 20 Pope Leo XIII encyclical "On Freemasonry"
- 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 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 17 Alaska becomes a US territory
- May 19 Ringling Brothers circus premieres
- May 24 Anti-Monopoly party & Greenback Party forms People's Party in US
- May 29 1st steam cable trams start in highgate
- May 31 Dr John Harvey Kellogg patents "flaked cereal"
- Jun 3 John Lynch (R-MS) chosen 1st black major-party national convention chair
- 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)
- 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 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
Georges Seurat
First Photograph of a Tornado
Aug 28 First known photograph of a tornado is made near Howard, South Dakota
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- Aug 28 Mickey Welsh strikes-out 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 26 Suriname army shoots on British-Indian contract workers, 7 killed
- Oct 6 Naval War College forms in Newport, Rhode Island
- Oct 13 Greenwich in London established as the universal time meridian of longitude
Historic Invention
Oct 14 George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
George Eastman
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)
Grover Cleveland
- 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"
- 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.
- 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)
Mark Twain
- 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
- Dec 30 William Morris, Eleanor Marx, and others establish the Socialist League, a revolutionary organization in the UK