1885

Events

January

• January 4 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.
• January 20 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• January 26 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum

February

• February 5 - King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a personal possession.
• February 9 - The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
• February 18 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
• February 21 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
• February 26 - Final Act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa.

March

• March-May - North-West Rebellion took place and was put down in Canada.
• March 3 - A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
• March 4 - Grover Cleveland replaces Chester A. Arthur as President of the United States.
• March 31 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

May

• May 9-12 - Canadian government forces inflict decisive defeat on Mtis rebels at the Battle of Batoche.

June

• June 17 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

July

• July 6 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister; a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
• July 20 - Professional football legalized in Britain

September

• September 2 - In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
• September 18 - Union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria proclaimed at Plovdiv.
• September 30 - A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland and adds it to British Bechuanaland.

November

• November 7 - Canadian Pacific Railway finished: In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considered the project to be vital to Canada.
• November 14-28 - Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria but is defeated in Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17-19.
• November 16 - Canadian rebel leader of the Mtis, Louis Riel is executed for high treason.

December

• December 1 - The US Patent Office acknowledges this date as the day Dr Pepper was served for the very first time; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown.
• December 28 - 72 Indian lawyers, academicians and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party

Unknown Dates

• Creation of the first genuine bicycle, the Rover, by John K Starley.
• John Boyd Dunlop invents the pneumatic tire.
• W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado
• The Times reports that "A lady well-known in literary and scientific circles" has been cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. She is the first person to be officially cremated in the United Kingdom
• Cholera epidemic in Spain – one of the victims is the king Alfonso XII
• Third Burmese War begins
• Sitting Bull joins Buffalo Bill
• Randolph Churchill becomes a viceroy of India
• Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse
• William Stanley, Jr. builds the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.
• Local anesthetic
• First skyscraper – Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors)
• Bicycle Playing Cards first produced

Births

• January 6 - Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)
• January 8 - John Curtin, Australian Prime Minister, (d. 1945)
• January 11 - Alice Paul, women's rights activist
• January 21 - Umberto Nobile, politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
• January 27 - Jerome Kern, composer (d. 1945)
• January 27 - Eduard Knnecke, composer (d. 1953)
• January 29 - Leadbelly
• February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, US novelist
• February 9 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer
• February 9 - Anita Ree, painter (d. 1933)
• February 13 - Bess Truman, wife of US President Harry S. Truman
• February 15 - Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg
• February 21 - Sacha Guitry, dramatist, writer, director, actor (d. 1957)
• February 24 - Chester Nimitz, US admiral (d. 1966)
• February 24 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (a.k.a. “Witkacy”), Polish writer and painter (d. 1939)
• March 6 - Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
• March 11 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (d. 1948)
• March 14 - Raoul Lufbery, World War I American flying ace (d. 1918)
• March 31 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse"
• April 1 - Wallace Beery, actor (d. 1949)
• April 3 - Allan Dwan, film director (d. 1981)
• April 4 - Arthur Murray, dancer
• May 2 - Hedda Hopper, columnist (d. 1966)
• May 7 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, actor (d. 1969)
• May 14 - Otto Klemperer, German conductor
• May 21 - Oscar A.C. Lund, Swedish film actor/director/writer (d. 1963)
• May 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral
• June 14 - E. L. Grant Watson
• June 22 - Milan Vidmar, Slovene electrical engineer and chess player (d. 1962)
• July 28 - Monte Attell, bantamweight world boxing champion (d. 1960)
• September 11 - D.H. Lawrence, English author
• September 22 - Ben Chifley, Australian Prime Minister
• October 7 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d. 1962)
• October 30 - Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)
• November 2 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)
• November 5 - William James Durant, Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (d. 1981)
• November 11 - George Patton, American general (d. 1945)
• December 19 - Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)

Deaths

• April 2 - Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader
• May 22 - Victor Hugo, author
• July 23 - Ulysses Simpson Grant, American Civil War General and the 18th U.S. President
• August 10 - James Wilson Marshall, contractor and builder of Sutter's Mill
• September 15 - Jumbo the elephant; run over by a locomotive
• November 16 - Louis Riel, Canadian Mtis leader (hanged for treason)
• November 25 - King Alfonso XII of Spain
• December 8 - William Henry Vanderbilt, entrepreneur

<< Previous Word Browser Next >>
1915 1910 1966 1490s 1640s 1776 1770s 1780s 1789 1782 1840	1840s 1883 1800s 1991 1801 1809 1833 1890 1940 1707 1700s	1889 1888 1893 1897 1881 1962 1597 1690 1764 1760s 1742	1282 1921 1876 1970 1735 1730s 1740s 1790s 1890s 1850s 1688