Directory

1887 CE

James Blyth operates the first working wind turbine at Marykirk, Scotland. Hibernian F.C. of Scotland defeats Preston North End F.C. of England to win the 'Championship of the World', after the two teams win the Association football Cup competitions in their respective countries. The Association football club Celtic F.C. is formed in Glasgow, Scotland, by Irish Marist Brother Walfrid, to help alleviate poverty in the city's East End by raising money for his charity, the 'Poor Children's Dinner Table'.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 20 – The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.source
  • June 18 – The Reinsurance Treaty is closed between Germany and Russia.source
  • June 21 – Zululand becomes a British colony.source
  • July 6 – King Kalākaua of Hawai'i is forced by anti-monarchists to sign the 'Bayonet Constitution', stripping the Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, as well as disenfranchising most native Hawaiians, all Asians and the poor.source
  • October 1 – The British Empire takes over Balochistan.source
  • October 17 – French Indochina was established, comprising (Lower) Cochinchina, (Upper) Annam, Tonkin, and Cambodia.source
  • Taiwan becomes a Chinese provincesource

Conflict & Security

  • January 24 – Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat the Italians.source
  • February 8 – The Dawes Act, or the General Allotment Act, is enacted in the United States.source
  • April 20−30 – Schnaebele incident: A French/German border incident nearly leads to war between the two countries.source
  • May 25 – The Hells Canyon massacre begins: 34 Chinese gold miners are ambushed and murdered in Hells Canyon, Oregon, United States.source
  • November 13 – Bloody Sunday: Police in London clash with radical and Irish nationalist protesters.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 4 – The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, passed by the 49th United States Congress, is signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.source

Religion & Belief

  • The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is founded.source

Economy & Finance

  • June 28 – Minot, North Dakota, is incorporated as a city.source
  • October 12 – Yamaha Corporation, the global musical instrument and audiovisual brand, is founded as Yamaha Organ Manufacturing in Hamamatsu, Japan.source
  • December 25 – Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky is first produced.source
  • Nagase Shoten (長瀬商店), predecessor of Japanese cosmetics and toiletry brand Kao Corporation, is founded in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan.source
  • Tokyo Fire Insurance, predecessor of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, is founded.source
  • American financial services company A. G. Edwards is founded by General Albert Gallatin Edwards in St. Louis, Missouri.source
  • Global construction and real estate development company Skanska is founded in Malmö, Sweden.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 28 – Construction work begins on the foundations of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.source
  • February 5 – The 1887 Hartford Railroad Disaster leaves thirty-seven dead in Vermont.source
  • February 24 – The first international telephone line in Europe is opened to the public between Brussels and Paris.source
  • March 3 – Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.source
  • March 13 – Chester Greenwood patents earmuffs in the United States.source
  • June 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a U.S. patent for his punched card calculator.source
  • July 1 – Construction of the iron structure of the Eiffel Tower starts in Paris, France.source
  • July 19 – Dorr Eugene Felt receives the first U.S. patent for his comptometer.source
  • July – James Blyth operates the first working wind turbine at Marykirk, Scotland.source
  • November 8 – Emile Berliner is granted a U.S. patent for the Berliner Gramophone.source
  • Heyl & Patterson Inc., a pioneer in coal unloading equipment, is founded by Edmund W. Heyl and William J. Patterson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.source
  • Publication in Barcelona of Enrique Gaspar's El anacronópete, the first work of fiction to feature a time machine.source
  • The first battery rail car is used on the Royal Bavarian State Railways.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 26 – At the Sydney Cricket Ground, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets, in a Test innings.source
  • Results of the Michelson–Morley experiment are published, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.source
  • Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect on the production and reception of electromagnetic (EM) waves (radio); this is an important step towards the understanding of the quantum nature of light.source
  • Franz König publishes "Über freie Körper in den Gelenken" in the medical journal Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie, describing (and naming) the disease Osteochondritis dissecans for the first time.source

Health & Medicine

  • January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher.source
  • August – The earliest constituent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health is established at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.source

Crime & Justice

  • July 6 – Berthe bombing, targeting a Parisian landowner in conflict with several Italian anarchists. Nobody is sentenced but Vittorio Pini and Paolo Chiericotti are heavily suspected by French authorities.source
  • November 10 – Louis Lingg, sentenced to be hanged for his alleged role in the Haymarket affair (a bombing in Chicago on May 4, 1886), kills himself by dynamite.source
  • November 11 – August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are hanged for inciting riot and murder in the Haymarket affair.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 20 – British emigrant ship Kapunda sinks after a collision off the coast of Brazil, killing 303 with only 16 survivors.source
  • March 23 – The DS «Vardøhus» whaler sinks outside the town of Mandal in Norway. 46 dead.source
  • July 21 – Ten Italian workers are killed and six are injured by a train in New Jersey.source
  • September 5 – The Theatre Royal, Exeter, England, burns down, killing 186 people.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 21 – Brisbane receives a one-day rainfall of 465 mm in (a record for any Australian capital city).source
  • January 28 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the largest snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 in cm wide and 8 in cm thick.source
  • February 2 – The first Groundhog Day is observed in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.source
  • February 23 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000 along the coast of the Mediterranean.source
  • May 3 – An earthquake hits Sonora, Mexico.source
  • June 23 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada, creating that nation's first national park, Banff National Park.source
  • September 28 – The 1887 Yellow River flood begins in China, killing 900,000 to 2,000,000 people.source

Culture & Society

  • January 21 – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed in the United States.source
  • February 5 – The Giuseppe Verdi opera Otello premieres at La Scala, Milan.source
  • March 7 – North Carolina State University is established, as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.source
  • April 1 – The final of the first All-Ireland Hurling Championship is held.source
  • April 4 – Argonia, Kansas, elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.source
  • April 10 (Easter Sunday) – The Catholic University of America is founded in Washington, D.C.source
  • April 20 – Occidental College is founded in Los Angeles, California.source
  • May 5 – Ricardo Palma founds the Peruvian Academy of Language.source
  • May 14 – The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid (the college opens in 1891).source
  • June 20 – The British Empire celebrates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th year of her reign.source
  • June 29 – The United Retail Federation is established in Brisbane, Australia.source
  • July 12 – Odense Boldklub, the Danish football team, is founded as the Odense Cricket Club.source
  • July 26 – L. L. Zamenhof publishes "Unua Libro" (Dr. Esperanto's International Language), the first description of Esperanto, the constructed international auxiliary language.source
  • July 26 – Blackpool F.C. is created in England, U.K.source
  • August 13 – Hibernian F.C. of Scotland defeats Preston North End F.C. of England to win the 'Championship of the World', after the two teams win the Association football Cup competitions in their respective countries.source
  • October 3 – Florida A&M University opens in Tallahassee, Florida.source
  • October 18 – Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.source
  • November 3 – The Coimbra Academic Association, the students' union of the University of Coimbra in Portugal, is founded.source
  • November 6 – The Association football club Celtic F.C. is formed in Glasgow, Scotland, by Irish Marist Brother Walfrid, to help alleviate poverty in the city's East End by raising money for his charity, the 'Poor Children's Dinner Table'.source
  • Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance, in the novel A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual.source
  • December 4 – Örgryte IS, the Swedish football team is founded by Wilhelm Friberg.source
  • December 5 – The International Bureau of Intellectual Property is established.source
  • The first English-language edition of Friedrich Engels' 1844 study of The Condition of the Working Class in England, translated by Florence Kelley, is published in New York City.source
  • Teachers College, later part of Columbia University, is founded.source

Births

  • January 1 – Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence in World War II (d. 1945)source
  • January 17 – Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst, philologist (d. 1975)source
  • March 24 – Roscoe Arbuckle, American actor, comedian, film director, and screenwriter (d. 1933)source
  • May 5 – Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1972)source
  • May 31 – Saint-John Perse, French diplomat, writer and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)source
  • July 7 – Marc Chagall, Russian-born French painter (d. 1985)source
  • August 12 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)source
  • August 17 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born American publisher, entrepreneur and Pan Africanist (d. 1940)source
  • September 12 – Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli, Azerbaijani statesman, writer and claimed "core author" of novel Ali and Nino (d. in Gulag 1943)source
  • September 13 – Leopold Ružička, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)source
  • September 28 – Avery Brundage, American sports official, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1975)source
  • October 24 – Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen Consort of Spain (d. 1969)source
  • December 13 – Alvin York, American World War I hero (d. 1964)source
  • December 16 – Adone Zoli, Italian politician, 35th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1960)source

Deaths

  • January 12 – Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, British politician (b. 1818)source
  • March 8 – Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman, reformer (b. 1813)source
  • April 19 – Henry Hotze, Swiss-American Confederate propagandist (b. 1833)source
  • May 14 – Lysander Spooner, American philosopher and abolitionist (b. 1808)source
  • June 4 – William A. Wheeler, 19th Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)source
  • July 17 – Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)source
  • August 8 – Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer, soldier (b. 1808)source
  • August 16 – Sir Julius von Haast, German-born New Zealand geologist (b. 1822)source
  • August 19 – Spencer Fullerton Baird, American naturalist and museum curator (b. 1823)source
  • October 31 – Sir George Macfarren, British composer and musicologist (b. 1813)source
  • November 2 – Jenny Lind, Swedish soprano (b. 1820)source
  • November 8 – Doc Holliday, American gambler, gunfighter (b. 1851)source
  • November 28 – Gustav Fechner, German experimental psychologist (b. 1801)source
  • December 5 – Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, British diplomat (b. 1817)source