Directory

1885 CE

The Richmond Football Club is officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria. First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey. The largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose is set off in the East River of New York City as part of a scheme for the removal of Hell Gate rocks by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession.source
  • March 26 – Prussian deportations: The Prussian government, motivated by Otto von Bismarck, expels all ethnic Poles and Jews without German citizenship from Prussia.source
  • March 31 – The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.source
  • April 30 – A bill is signed in the New York State legislature, forming the Niagara Falls State Park.source
  • May 19 – After a three-month legislative battle in the Illinois General Assembly, John A. Logan is re-elected to the United States Senate.source
  • June 17 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.source
  • June 23 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • September 6 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, completing the unification of Bulgaria.source
  • September 18 – The union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria is proclaimed at Plovdiv.source
  • September 30 – A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland, and adds it to British Bechuanaland.source
  • December 28 – 72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 3–4 – Sino-French War: Battle of Núi Bop – French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam.source
  • January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Battle of Abu Klea – British troops defeat Mahdist forces.source
  • January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.source
  • February 23 – Sino-French War: Battle of Đồng Đăng – France gains an important victory over China, in the Tonkin region of modern-day Vietnam.source
  • March 26 – The North-West Rebellion in Canada by the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, begins with the Battle of Duck Lake.source
  • March 30 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident, which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.source
  • April 2 – Frog Lake Massacre: Cree warriors led by Wandering Spirit kill 9 settlers at Frog Lake in the Northwest Territories.source
  • April 14 – Sino-French War: A French victory at Kép causes China to withdraw its forces from Tonkin, in the final engagement of the conflict.source
  • May 2 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Cut Knife – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win their largest victory over Canadian forces.source
  • May 9–12 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Batoche – Canadian government forces inflict a decisive defeat on Métis rebels, bringing an end to their part in the rebellion.source
  • June 3 – Battle of Loon Lake: The Canadian North-West Mounted Police and allies force a party of Plains Cree warriors to surrender in the last skirmish of the North-West Rebellion, and the last battle fought on Canadian soil.source
  • July 28 – Louis Riel's trial for treason begins in Regina.source
  • September 2 – The Rock Springs massacre occurs in Rock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.source
  • November 14–28 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria, but is defeated in the Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17–19.source
  • November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, is executed for high treason.source
  • November 27 – St. Helena Anti-Chinese League is formed in Napa County, California.source
  • November – The Third Anglo-Burmese War begins.source
  • The Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association is established in the United Kingdom, to provide charitable assistance.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.source
  • February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the "scramble for Africa".source

Religion & Belief

  • March 7 – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid is founded.source

Economy & Finance

  • July 16 – BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia.source
  • July – Japan Brewery, predecessor of Kirin Holdings, is founded in Yokohama, Japan.source
  • October 12 – The city of Fresno, California, is incorporated.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster.source
  • February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.source
  • March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.source
  • April 3 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent, for his single-cylinder, water-cooled engine design.source
  • May 20 – The first public train departs Swanage railway station, on the newly built Swanage Railway in England.source
  • July 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first African-American woman to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed.source
  • July 15 – The Reservation at Niagara Falls opens, enabling access to all for free. Thomas V. Welch is the first Superintendent of the Park.source
  • July 20 – The Football Association recognises professional players in England.source
  • August 29 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle, which he has produced with Wilhelm Maybach.source
  • October 10 – The largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose is set off in the East River of New York City as part of a scheme for the removal of Hell Gate rocks by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.source
  • November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway: At Craigellachie, British Columbia, the last spike is driven on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considers the project to be vital to Canada, due to the exponentially greater potential for military mobility.source
  • December 1 – Dr Pepper is served for the first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr. Pepper's invention is unknown).source
  • Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time, in the future Houghton County Fire Hall.source
  • Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Mannheim (Germany), regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).source
  • Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced in the United States.source
  • John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle in Coventry (England), regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.source

Science & Discovery

  • August 19 – S Andromedae, the only supernova seen in the Andromeda Galaxy so far by astronomers, and the first ever noted outside the Milky Way, is discovered.source
  • Martha, the last Passenger pigeon was bornsource

Health & Medicine

  • July 6 – Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux successfully test their rabies vaccine. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 23 – An English executioner fails after several attempts to hang John Babbacombe Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.source
  • September 18 – Five Chinese people were lynched outside of Pierce City in the Idaho Territory of the United States.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.source
  • September 15 – A train wreck of the P. T. Barnum Circus kills giant elephant Jumbo, at St. Thomas, Ontario.source
  • Before November 1 – More than 24,000 Christians are killed, 225 churches burnt, seventeen orphanages and ten convents destroyed in Cochinchina (modern-day Vietnam).source

Climate & Environment

  • February 28 – February concludes without having a full moon.source

Culture & Society

  • February 20 – The Richmond Football Club is officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria.source
  • February 21 – United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.source
  • March 14 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens, at the Savoy Theatre in London.source
  • March 26 – First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.source
  • April 11 – Luton Town Football Club is created by the merger of (Luton) Wanderers F.C. and Luton Excelsior F.C. in England.source
  • April 22 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 7 is premiered at St James's Hall in London with the composer himself conducting.source
  • May 2 – Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time in the United States.source
  • June 2 – Dunfermline Athletic F.C. is officially formed at the Old Inn, Dunfermline, Scotland.source
  • September 8 – Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota.source
  • September 12 – Arbroath F.C. defeats Bon Accord F.C. in Scotland, 36-0, the highest score ever in professional football.source
  • October 3 – Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs in London, as Millwall Rovers.source
  • October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta as the Georgia School of Technology.source
  • October 25 – Brahms's Symphony No. 4 is premiered in Meiningen, Germany, with the composer himself conducting.source
  • Chuo Law College, as predecessor of Chuo University, founded in Kanda, Tokyo, Japan.source
  • The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, is completed. With ten floors and a fireproof weight-bearing metal frame, it is regarded as the first skyscraper.source
  • John Ormsby publishes his new English translation of Don Quixote, acclaimed as the most scholarly made up to that time. It will remain in print through the 20th century.source
  • Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in the United States, is founded.source

Births

  • February 7 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)source
  • February 22 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-born American director, animated film producer (d. 1933)source
  • April 3 – St John Philby, Ceylonese-born British orientalist (d. 1960)source
  • April 13 – Otto Plath, American father of poet Sylvia Plath, entomologist (d. 1940)source
  • July 15 – Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, 1st prime minister of Sudan (d. 1959)source
  • July 19 – Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat, humanitarian (d. 1954)source
  • August 1 – George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)source
  • October 7 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)source
  • October 11 – François Mauriac, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)source
  • October 19 – Charles E. Merrill, American banker, co-founder of Merrill Lynch (d. 1956)source
  • October 30 – Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)source
  • November 21 – Edmée Chandon, first professional female astronomer in France, first woman in France to earn a doctorat d'État in mathematics. (d. 1944)source
  • November 30 – Albert Kesselring, German field marshal (d. 1960)source
  • December 19 – John Lavarack, Australian general, Governor of Queensland (1946-1957) (d. 1957)source

Deaths

  • January 13 – Schuyler Colfax, 17th Vice President of the United States (b. 1823)source
  • January 26 – Charles "Chinese" Gordon, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1833)source
  • February 19 – José María Pinedo, Argentinian naval commander (b. 1795)source
  • April 25 – Queen Emma of Hawaii (b. 1836)source
  • May 19 – Robert Emmet Odlum, American swimming instructor (died as result of becoming the first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge) (b. 1851)source
  • May 20 – Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (b. 1817)source
  • June 17 – Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel, German field marshal (b. 1809)source
  • August – Aga Khan II, Iranian religious leader (b. 1830)source
  • September 6 – Narcís Monturiol, Catalan intellectual, artist and engineer, inventor of the first combustion engine-driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion (b. 1819)source
  • September 15 – Jumbo, African elephant, star attraction in P. T. Barnum's circus (train accident) (b. 1861)source
  • October 1 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, British politician and philanthropist (b.1801)source
  • November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian-American leader (executed) (b. 1844)source
  • November 25 – Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)source
  • December 15 – Ferdinand II of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria II (b. 1816)source