- March 25
- Socialist leader Domela Nieuwenhuis is elected to Dutch second chamber. [1]
- April 18
- The Imperial British East Africa Company is incorporated in London, England. [505.15]
- April 30
- Hailstones kill about 250 in Moradabad district of Delhi, India. [1]
- May 4
- Italy and Spain sign military covenant. [1]
- May 7
- George Eastman patents "Kodak box camera". [1]
- May 13
- Princess Isabel of Brazil signs "Lei Auréa" abolishing slavery. [1]
- May 16
- Canadian Pacific Railway opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [1]
- May 22
- Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers. [1]
- June 1
- In Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California, formal opening of Ewing duplex-pendulum seismometer, Ewing horizontal-pendulum seismometers, and Gray-Ewing vertical seismometers. [1] [53]
- June 3
- Casey at the Bat is published in the San Francisco Examiner. [1]
- June 29
- The first known recording of classical music, Handel's Israel in Egypt, is made on wax cylinder. [5]
- July 4
- First organized rodeo competition held, Prescott, Arizona. [1]
- July 11
- Pennsylvania's Monongehela River rises 32 feet after 24-hour rainfall. [1]
- July 15
- Bandai volcano (Japan) erupts for first time in 1,000 years. [1]
- August 5
- Bertha Benz, wife of inventor Karl Benz, drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany in the first long distance automobile trip. [5]
- August 7
- Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia patents revolving door. [1]
- August 21
- William Seward Burroughs patents the first successful adding machine in the United States. [5]
- September 1
- In North Canterbury, New Zealand, a magnitude 7.0-7.3 earthquake occurs. [53]
- September 4
- George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film. [1] [5]
- September 6
- Queen Victoria grants a charter to the Imperial British East Africa Company. [505.15]
- September 19
- The first beauty contest is held, the Concours de Beauté, held at Spa in Belgium. Winner is 18-year-old Bertha Soucaret of Guadeloupe. [55.22]
- October 9
- In the USA, the Washington Monument officially opens to the general public. [1] [5]
- October 17
- Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie). [5]
- October 19
- Moshav Gederah is attacked by the Arabs. [1]
- October 30
- First ballpoint pen patented. [1]
- November 3
- Jack the Ripper kills last victim. [1]
- November 20
- William Bundy patents the timecard clock. [1]
- December 11
- French Panamá Canal company fails. [1]
- December 23
- Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. [1] [129]
- December 30
- Belgium: King Leopold II installs Order of African Star. [1]
1889
- January 8
- Dr Herman Hollerith receives first US patent for a tabulating machine (first computer). [1] [55.44]
- January 10
- Ivory Coast is declared a protectorate of France. [1]
- January 15
- The Pemberton Medicine Company (later the Coca-Cola Company), is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia. [5]
- January 16
- In Cloncurry, Queensland, an Australian record hot temperature of 128 degrees F (53 degrees C) is recorded. [1] [54]
- January 30
- Crown Prince Archduke Rudolph of Austria-Hungary and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera are found dead at the hunting lodge of Mayerling, outside Vienna, possibly a murder-suicide. (Former Austrian empress Zita claims in 1983 it was murder, assassination by two conspirators when he would not take part in plot to oust his father Franz Josef.) [389.22] [427.62] [890.21]
- February 7
- Astronomical Society of Pacific holds first meeting in San Francisco, California. [1]
- February 8
- Flood ravages Dutch coast. [1]
- February 11
- Meiji constitution of Japan adopted; first Diet convenes in 1890. [1]
- February 22
- US President Grover Cleveland signs bill to admit Dakotas, Montana and Washington state. [1]
- March 12
- Battle at Metema (Gallabad) in which Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV is defeated. [1]
- Yohannes IV [Kasa], Emperor of Ethiopia (1872-89), dies in battle. [1]
- March 14
- German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon." [5]
- March 15
- Six US and German warships perish in harbor of Apia, Samoa, 200 die. [1]
- March 31
- The Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris, France, in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower's designer, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard. [1] [129]
- April 1
- First dishwashing machine marketed (Chicago, Illinois). [1]
- April 6
- George Eastman places Kodak Camera on sale for first time. [1]
- April 18
- In Potsdam, Germany, Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz makes the first known recordings of a distant earthquake, taken place in Tokyo, Japan, an hour earlier. [53]
- May 1
- First International Workers Day, according to the second International. [1]
- Bayer introduces aspirin in powder form (Germany). [1]
- May 2
- Abyssinian emperor Menelik II and Italy sign Treaty of Wichale. [1]
- May 6
- Universal Exposition opens in Paris, France; the Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public. [1] [5]
- May 30
- The brassiere is invented. [1]
- May 31
- Johnstown Flood; 2,209 die in Pennsylvania, USA. [1]
- June 3
- The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed from coast to coast. [5]
- June 12
- Single tornado kills 119, injures 146 (New Richmond, Wisconsin, USA). [1]
- (month unknown)
- The Mighei chondrite meteorite (type CM2) falls in Ukraine. [523.90]
- July 1
- Frederick Douglass named US Minister to Haiti. [1]
- July 8
- Wall Street Journal begins publishing. [1]
- July 14
- Second Socialist International is founded in Paris, France. [916.83]
- August 13
- William Gray patents coin-operated telephone. [518.70]
- August 23
- First ship-to-shore wireless message is received in the U.S., at San Francisco. [1] [457]
- September 28
- The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a metre as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice. [5]
- October 6
- Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture. [1]
- October 29
- Stanley Park dedicated in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [1]
- November 2
- North Dakota becomes 39th and South Dakota becomes the 40th state of the USA. [1] [453.70]
- November 14
- New York World's Nellie Bly (Liz Cochrane) begins world trip (takes 72 days). [1]
- November 15
- End of Brazilian rule as emperor by Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga. [1] [503.15]
- November 23
- The first jukebox makes its debut at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco, California. For a nickel, one can listen to a few minutes of music through a tube of an Edison tinfoil phonograph. [5] [457]
- December 4
- Stanley's expedition reaches Bagamoyo in Indian Ocean. [1]
- December 15
- King Ferdinand II of Portugal dies at age 73. [1]
- December 24
- Daniel Stover and William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake. [1]
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