Battle of Chelenqo
Jan 6 `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II
- Jan 16 Cliff House damaged when powder cargo of schooner "Parallel" explodes
- Jan 20 US Senate approves naval base lease of Pearl Harbor
- Jan 21 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) forms
- Jan 21 Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city
- Jan 26 Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian Emperor John IV defeats Italians
Eiffel Tower Constructions Begins
Jan 26 Ground is broken and construction begins on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France
- Jan 28 England all out for 45 v Aust SCG, their lowest total ever
- Jan 28 In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick
- Feb 1 Harvey Wilcox of Ks subdivides 120 acres he owned in Southern California & starts selling it off as a real estate development (Hollywood)
- Feb 2 First Groundhog Day observed at Gobbler's Knob, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania
- Feb 3 To avoid disputed national elections, the US Congress creates Electoral Count Act
- Feb 4 Interstate Commerce Act authorizes federal regulation of railroads
"Otello"
Feb 5 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello" premieres at La Scala in Italy, Verdi's first new opera for over 15 years
- Feb 5 Snow falls on San Francisco
- Feb 8 Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing, Minnesota becomes the 1st US ski club
- Feb 8 The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe were granted United States citizenship.
- Feb 14 Cubs sell Mike King Kelly to Boston for record $10,000
- Feb 16 1st newspaper convention held in Rochester, NY
- Feb 16 Dutch writer Multatuli writes his last text
- Feb 20 Germany, Austria-Hungary & France end Triple Alliance
- Feb 21 1st US bacteriology laboratory opens (Brooklyn)
- Feb 21 Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday
- Feb 22 Union Labor Party organized in Cincinnati
- Feb 23 French/Italian Riviera struck by Earthquake; 2,000 die
- Feb 23 US Congress grants Seal Rocks to San Francisco
Cricket History
Feb 26 George Lohmann took 1st 8-wkt haul in test cricket, 8-35 at Sydney Cricket Ground
- Mar 3 American Protective Association forms (anti-Catholic) in Clinton Iowa
Helen Keller Begins Lessons
Mar 3 Anne Sullivan begins teaching 6-year-old blind-deaf Helen Keller
- Mar 7 North Carolina State University is founded by the North Carolina General Assembly.
- Mar 8 Everett Horton, CT, patents fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes
- Mar 15 1st salaried fish & game warden (William Alden Smith in Michigan)
- Mar 24 Oscar Straus appointed 1st Jewish ambassador from US (to Turkey)
- Mar 25 49th Grand National: Bill Daniels aboard 20/1 chance Gamecock wins by 3 lengths from Savoyard
- Apr 4 Susanna Madora Salter elected 1st US woman mayor in Argonia, Kansas
- Apr 5 Anne Sullivan teaches "water" to blind and deaf six-year-old Helen Keller by holding one of her hands under a dripping water pump and spelling out “w-a-t-e-r” in Keller’s palm. She goes on to learn how to read, write, speak and graduate from college.
- Apr 10 Soccer team Be Quick forms in Hairs Groningen
Lincoln Reburied
Apr 10 US President Abraham Lincoln's re-buried with his wife in Springfield, Illinois
Rosmersholm
Apr 12 Henrik Ibsen's play "Rosmersholm" premieres in Oslo
- Apr 26 Huntsville Electric Co forms to sell electricity
World's First Motor Race
Apr 28 "Europe's first motoring competition" is 'won' by The Marquis de Dion on a steam-powered quadricycle built by French toymaker and engineer Georges Bouton; French newspaper Le Velocipede organized the 'test', and Bouton was the only participant
- Apr 30 1st game played at Broad & Huntingdon St Park (Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia; Phillies beat Giants 19-10
Music History
May 2 Gioachino Rossini's corpse transferred to Santa Croce, Florence
Celluloid Photographic Film
May 2 Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film (used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope)
- May 3 Nanaimo Mine Disaster: explosion in the mine kills 150 men - British Columbia's worst mine disaster [1]
- May 9 Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London
- May 11 13th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Lewis aboard Montrose wins in 2:39.25
- May 13 15th Preakness: William Donohue aboard Dunboyne wins in 2:39.25
- May 18 Emmanuel Chabrier's opera "Le roi malgré lui" (King, in spite of himself) premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris; after 3 performances the theatre burns down
- May 23 1st transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver, British Columbia
- May 24 Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar grants E African Association at East African harbors
- May 25 Gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire; 200 die
- May 26 Racetrack betting becomes legal in NY state
Pasteur Institute
Jun 4 Pasteur Institute founded by French biologist Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux in Paris
- Jun 7 Monotype type-casting machine patented by Tolbert Lanston, Washington, D.C.
- Jun 8 Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punch card calculator
- Jun 9 21st Belmont: Jim McLaughlin aboard Hanover wins in 2:43.5
- Jun 15 Carlisle D Graham survives 2nd ride in a barrel down Niagara Falls
- Jun 15 NY Giants beat Philadelphia Phillies 29-1
- Jun 15 Stanley's expedition reaches Yambuya waterfalls Congo
- Jun 18 The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia is signed
Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria
Jun 21 Britain celebrates the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria
- Jun 28 MLB Philadelphia Quakers (later Phillies) win most lopsided shut-out in franchise history, 24-0, over Hoosiers at Seventh Street Ballpark in Indianapolis, Indiana
- Jul 5 Columbia University 4's crew becomes first American boat to win at London's Henley Regatta (Visitors Challenge Cup)
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
Jul 6 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Lottie Dod becomes youngest ever Wimbledon champion (15 years, 285 days); defending champion beats Blanche Bingley 6-2, 6-0
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
Jul 7 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 3-time runner-up Herbert Lawford wins his only Wimbledon title beating Ernest Renshaw 1-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Event of Interest
Aug 19 Dmitri Mendeleev makes a solo ascent by balloon to an altitude of 11,500 feet (3.5 km) above Klin, Russia to observe an eclipse
US Men's Tennis Open
Aug 30 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Richard Sears wins 7th straight US singles title; beats Henry Slocum 6-1, 6-3, 6-2
- Sep 1 Dutch Amateur Photography Cooperation established
- Sep 5 Gas lamp at Theatre Royal in Exeter catches fire killing about 200
- Sep 15 Philadelphia celebrates 100th anniversary of US Constitution
- Sep 16 British Open Men's Golf, Prestwick GC: Willie Park Jr wins first of 2 Open titles by 1 stroke from fellow Scot Bob Martin
- Sep 23 Tongariro National Park formed in New Zealand after proposal by local chief Ngāti Tūwharetoa - fourth national park in the world [1]
- Sep 26 Emile Berliner patents the Gramophone
- Sep 28 Yellow River or Huáng Hé floods in China, killing between 900,000 and 2 million people, one of the deadliest natural disasters in history
- Sep 30 8th America's Cup: New York Yacht Club’s cutter Volunteer beats Scottish challenger Thistle by 11:48.75 seconds on corrected time to win series, 2-0 off Newport, RI
- Oct 1 Balochistan (part of modern Pakistan) conquered by the British
- Oct 5 1st US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Ellen Hansell wins inaugural event; beats Laura Knight 6-1, 6-0
- Oct 8 Phillies set club record 16th straight victory
- Oct 11 A Miles patents elevator
Nellie Melba Debuts
Oct 13 Australian soprano Nellie Melba makes her operatic debut as Gilda in "Rigoletto" at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels
- Oct 21 Detroit clinches best-of-15 touring World Championship with its 8th victory in Game 11 this afternoon in Baltimore, 13-3
- Oct 26 "World Championship" Baseball Series, Sportsman's Park, Detroit Wolverines (NL) beat St Louis Browns (AA), 10 games to 5 in series played in bitterly cold conditions
- Oct 31 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral work "Capriccio Espagnol" premieres in St Petersburg, Russia
- Nov 5 Ottawa College (ORFU) defeats Montreal Football Club (QRFU) 10-5 to win the Dominion championship
- Nov 11 Anarchist Haymarket Martyrs August Spies (b. 1855), Albert Parsons (b. 1848), Adolph Fischer (b. 1858) and George Engel (b. 1836) are executed.
- Nov 11 Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal starts at Eastham.
- Nov 13 Bloody Sunday clashes in central London
- Nov 15 British SS Wah Yeung catches fire on Canton River off Hong Kong
- Nov 23 Notre Dame loses its 1st football game 8-0 to Michigan
- Nov 23 Opera "Trumpeter of Säckingen" 1st American production (NYC)
- Nov 24 Victorien Sardou's "La Tosca" premieres in Paris
- Nov 29 US receives rights to Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, Hawaii
- Nov 30 1st indoor softball game in Chicago
Sherlock Holmes Appears
Dec 1 Sherlock Holmes first appears in print in "Study in Scarlet" by Arthur Conan Doyle
- Dec 1 Sino-Portuguese treaty recognizes Portugal's control of Macao
- Dec 2 Amsterdam's Oscar Carrés Circus Theater opens
- Dec 2 French president Jules Grévy resigns
- Dec 2 International Baseball League disbands; teams in Syracuse, Toronto, Hamilton, and Buffalo form the International Association; those in Newark, Jersey City, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton become the Central League
- Dec 5 Stanley's expedition reaches plateau at Lake Albert Congo
- Dec 10 Austria-Hungary, Italy and Great Britain sign Balkan military treaty
- Dec 17 Georges Feydeau's "Tailleur Pour Dames" premieres in Paris
- Dec 19 Jake Kilrain & Jem Smith fight 106 round bare knuckle draw
- Dec 28 John Layton Jarvis becomes first British race horse trainer to be knighted for services to racing
Authors
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