- March 11
- Great Blizzard of 1888 strikes northeast US. [1]
- March 12
- Second day of the Great Blizzard of 1888 in northeast US (400 die). [1]
- 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]
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- 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 6
- Great Britain annexes Christmas Island. [1152.1200]
- 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 8
- Spanish navy launches first submarine, designed by Isaac Peral. It features accumulator batteries, three dynamos, two 30hp engines, electric propulsion, torpedo tube, and periscope. Weight is 80 tonnes, length 22m, and 2.87m beam. [1268.98]
- 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] [1443.16]
- 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 16
- A typhoon strikes in Apia Harbor, Samoan Islands, with German, and US warships lying at anchor, neither wishing to leave to allow the other to claim exclusive rights to the harbor. German merchantman barque Peter Godeffroy sinks after collision with Danish merchant ship Santiago. 550-ton German gunboat Eber is thrown onto reefs, sinking with loss of 76 sailors. 1375-ton USS Nipsic rams and sinks schooner Lily then is beached. 884-ton German gunboat Adler breaks up on a shoal with 20 sailors killed. 981-ton USS Vandalia gunboat strikes reef and sinks, 43 crew drowned. USS Trenton is wrecked on a reef. German gunboat Olga is wrecked on a reef and sinks. Total over 200 servicemen dead. [1] [1109.34]
- 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 18
- French company Cie. Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama ceases work, after moving 72 million cubic yards of earth, and capitalization of 600+ million francs. [1119.110]
- 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 1
- A decree of France creates Benin in Africa. [1143.141]
- 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
- Journalist for New York World Nellie Bly (AKA Elizabeth Jane Cochrane) begins world circumnavigation trip from New York City. (72 days later she successfully returns to New York City.) [1433.6]
- 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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