Directory

1883 CE

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is first published complete in book form, in Italy. Battle of Gia Cuc: A French force defeats the Vietnamese in northern Vietnam in the run-up to the Sino-French War. In five Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 16 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States civil service, is passed.source
  • June 13 – Count Arvid Posse leaves office as Prime Minister of Sweden. He is succeeded by Carl Johan Thyselius, the first non-aristocrat (Swedish; "ofrälse") to serve as Swedish head of government, and Prime Minister.source
  • October 20 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to Chile, ending Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.source
  • December 21 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed.source
  • The Mexican government passes a law allowing real estate companies (controlled by General Porfirio Díaz's political associates) to survey public and "vacant" lands, and to retain one third of the land they survey.source
  • The British Parliament considers a major bill to allow Indian judges to try Europeans in India. The British community rises in protest, and defeats the measure.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 8 — January 19 – Trial of the 66 in Lyon, targeting the Black International in France.source
  • March 28 – Battle of Gia Cuc: A French force defeats the Vietnamese in northern Vietnam in the run-up to the Sino-French War.source
  • July 22 – Zulu King Cetshwayo barely escapes a rebel attack with his life.source
  • September 11 – Major Evelyn Baring becomes Consul-General of Egypt under British rule.source
  • October 16 – In five Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.source
  • October 30 – Two Clan na Gael dynamite bombs explode in the London Underground, injuring several people. The next day, British Home Secretary Vernon Harcourt drafts 300 policemen to guard the underground, and introduces the Explosives Bill.source
  • November 3 – The 14th Century AH begins in the Islamic calendar on the 1st of Muharram, 1301 AH.source
  • December 16 – Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • October 1 – In Amsterdam, the first International Colonial and Export Exhibition closes, having had over 1 million visitors.source
  • October 4 – The Orient Express train begins to run through from Paris Gare de l'Est to Giurgiu in Romania, with onward ferry and train connections to Istanbul (the train has been running since June 5 as far as Vienna).source

Religion & Belief

  • September 1 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Supremi apostolatus officio ("On Devotion of the Rosary").source
  • Antoni Gaudí begins to work on the Sagrada Família Cathedral in Barcelona (it was consecrated in 2010)source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey, United States, installed by Thomas Edison.source
  • February 15 – Tokyo Electrical Lightning Grid, predecessor of Tokyo Electrical Power (TEPCO), one of the largest electrical grids in Asia and the world, is founded in Japan.source
  • February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.source
  • March 20 – The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is held.source
  • April 5 – Oxygen is liquefied for the first time.source
  • May 24 – Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic in New York City, after 13 years of construction.source
  • June 28 – In Milan, Italy, the first central European electricity power station is inaugurated.source
  • July 4 – The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.source
  • September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis forms the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway, as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports, avoiding the high tariffs of Chicago.source
  • October 22 – The Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram in Vienna (Austria) is the first electric tram powered by overhead wire.source
  • November 18 – U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.source
  • ASEA is founded by Ludvig Fredholm in Sweden, predecessor of the global electronic equipment and engineering business ABB.source
  • Construction of Speicherstadt as a free zone in the Port of Hamburg begins.source
  • Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in Marylandsource
  • During construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, blasting and excavation reveal high concentrations of nickel–copper ore at Murray Mine, on the edge of the Sudbury Basin, located near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 2 – The Hong Kong Observatory is established.source

Health & Medicine

  • May 31 – Otto von Bismarck pushes the first social security law through the Reichstag. It establishes a system of Publicly funded health care, one of the first worldwide. It is signed into law on June 15.source
  • June 16 – Victoria Hall disaster: A rush for treats results in 183 children being asphyxiated in a concert hall in Sunderland, England.source
  • Bernard Kroger establishes the first Kroger grocery store, in Cincinnati, Ohio.source

Crime & Justice

  • November 3 – American Old West: Self-described Black Bart the Po-8 makes his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves a handkerchief with a laundry mark that eventually leads to his capture.source
  • December 5 – Bisbee Massacre: Five people are killed in the robbery of a general store by bandits in Bisbee, Arizona.source
  • The Black Arabs F.C (later Bristol Rovers) in Englandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people.source
  • May 30 – A rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede, which crushes 12 people.source
  • July 3 – The SS Daphne sinks on launch in Glasgow, Scotland, leaving 124 dead.source

Climate & Environment

  • May 20 – 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, Indonesiasource
  • August 21 – 1883 Rochester tornado: An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.source
  • August 26–27 – 1883 eruption of Krakatoa: The volcanic island of Krakatoa erupts at 10:02 am (local time); 163 villages are destroyed, 36,417 killed by tsunami.source

Culture & Society

  • February 16 – The Ladies' Home Journal is published for the first time, in the United States.source
  • February 28 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
  • February – The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is first published complete in book form, in Italy.source
  • March 9 – Demonstration of 9 March 1883 : Parisian anarchists, unemployed and carpenters narrowly miss the Presidential palace during a violent protest; first use of the black flag as a symbol of anarchism by Louise Michel.source
  • April 28 – The first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC in Scotland.source
  • May 23 – Robert Louis Stevenson's children's pirate adventure novel Treasure Island is first published in book format, in London.source
  • June 30 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Black Arrow first appears as a serial in the British magazine Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature as by 'Captain George North'. Stevenson completes writing it at the end of the summer in France.source
  • August 29 – Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline, Scotland.source
  • August – King William's College is opened on the Isle of Man.source
  • September 15 – The Bombay Natural History Society is founded in India.source
  • September 15 – The University of Texas at Austin opens to students.source
  • October 1 – Sydney Boys High School is founded in Sydney, Australia, the country's first state high school.source
  • October 4 – The Boys' Brigade (the first uniformed youth organization in existence) is founded in Glasgow, Scotland.source
  • October 24 – Cardiff University, Wales, opens (under the name of University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire).source
  • November 14 – Chile's National Library of Congress is founded.source
  • November 28 – Whitman College is chartered as a 4-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.source
  • December 1 – Battleford Industrial School, the first government-operated Indian residential school opens in Canada.source
  • December 26 – The Harbour Grace Affray takes place in Harbour Grace, Colony of Newfoundland.source
  • The first purebred Percheron (horse) stud book is created in France.source

Births

  • January 6 – Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese poet, painter and novelist (d. 1931)source
  • January 10 – Hubert Latham, pioneer French aviator of the pre-World War I era (d. 1912)source
  • March 4 – Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (d. 1956)source
  • May 5 – Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, British field marshal (d. 1950)source
  • May 25 – Lesley J. McNair, American general (d. 1944)source
  • May 28 – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Indian pro-independence activist, Hindu nationalist (d. 1966)source
  • June 5 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist (d. 1946)source
  • June 29 – Lothrop Stoddard, American eugenicist, radical scientific racist (d. 1950)source
  • July 3 – Franz Kafka, Austrian writer (d. 1924)source
  • July 19 – Max Fleischer, Austrian animator, film producer (Betty Boop) (d. 1972)source
  • July 23 – Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, British field marshal (d. 1963)source
  • October 8 – Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)source
  • October 30 – Bob Jones Sr., American evangelist, religious broadcaster, and founder of Bob Jones University (d. 1968)source
  • December 3 – Anton Webern, Austrian composer (d. 1945)source

Deaths

  • January 10 – Samuel Mudd, American doctor to John Wilkes Booth (b. 1833)source
  • March 4 – Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1812)source
  • March 27 – John Brown, Scottish personal servant and favourite of Queen Victoria (b. 1826)source
  • April 4 – Peter Cooper, American industrialist, inventor and philanthropist (b. 1791)source
  • April 15 – Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1823)source
  • May 26 – Abdelkader El Djezairi, Algerian leader (b. 1808)source
  • June 20 – John Colenso, English-born mathematician and theologian, Bishop of Natal (b. 1814)source
  • July 15 – General Tom Thumb, American circus performer and entertainer (b. 1838)source
  • July 24 – Matthew Webb, English sailor, first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids (b. 1848)source
  • August 12 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.source
  • October 20 – George Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall, Anglo-Irish landowner, courtier and politician (b. 1797)source
  • October 30 – Dayananda Saraswati, Hindu religious leader (b. 1824)source
  • November 29 – Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent, Haitian-born migrant and free woman of colour (b. 1798)source
  • December 27 – Andrew A. Humphreys, American general and civil engineer (b. 1810)source