Vildauden
Jan 11 Henrik Ibsen's play "Vildauden," (The Wild Duck) premieres in Oslo
Saugefleurie
Jan 25 Vincent d'Indy's symphonic poem "Saugefleurie" premieres with the Concerts Lamoureux in Paris
- Jan 26 Muhammad Ahmed ("Mahdi") rebels conquer Khartoum
"The Burghers of Calais"
Jan 28 Commission for Auguste Rodin's sculpture 'The Burghers of Calais' signed by the Municipal Council of Calais.
Congo Leopold II's Possession
Feb 5 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal colonial possession
Event of Interest
Feb 17 Otto von Bismarck gives Carl Peters' firm management of German possessions in East-Africa
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Feb 18 Mark Twain publishes the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the US
- Feb 21 Washington Monument dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- Feb 25 US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds
- Feb 26 Berlin Conference gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to Great Britain
- Mar 3 1st US state (California) establishes a permanent forest commission
- Mar 3 American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) incorporates
- Mar 3 US Congress passes Indian Appropriations Act (Indians wards of federal government)
- Mar 3 US Post Office offers special delivery for 1st-class mail
Grover Cleveland
Mar 4 Grover Cleveland inaugrated as 1st US Democratic President since Civil War
The Mikado
Mar 14 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "The Mikado" premieres in London at the Savoy Theatre
- Mar 15 1st performance of Caesar Franck's "Lesson Djinns"
Louis Riel's Return
Mar 19 Louis Riel returns to Canada, proclaims provisional government in Saskatchewan
- Mar 20 Yiddish theater opens in New York City with an operetta by Abraham Goldfaden
- Mar 21 2nd French government of Ferry resigns
- Mar 26 1st modern, legal cremation held in England at Woking, Surrey [1]
- Mar 26 Battle of Duck Lake: Louis Riel's forces defeat Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, 1st engagement of the North-West Rebellion
- Mar 26 Eastman Film Co manufactures 1st commercial motion picture film
- Mar 27 47th Grand National: Jockey Ted Wilson wins his second consecutive GN aboard 10/3 favourite Roquefort
A Salute To The Salvation Army
Mar 28 US Salvation Army officially organized
- Mar 30 The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire
- Mar 31 Great Britain declares Bechuanaland a protectorate
- Apr 30 Henry Lee Higginson starts the "Popular Music" series with the Boston Symphony, which evolves into the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1900
- May 1 Maria "Goeie Mie" Swanenburg sentence to life for killing 27 in Netherlands
- May 2 "Good Housekeeping" magazine is first published in the US by Clark W. Bryan
- May 2 Congo Free State formed by King Leopold II of Belgium
- May 7 John E. W. Thompson named US minister to Haiti
- May 8 Sarah Ann Henley survives 76-m jump from Clifton Bridge in Bristol, England
- May 12 Battle of Batoche: Louis Riel and the Metis defeated by Frederick Middleton, leads to collapse of Provincial Government of Saskatchewan and surrender of Riel
- May 14 11th Kentucky Derby: Babe Henderson aboard Joe Cotton wins in 2:37.25
- May 15 Canadian Métis insurgent Louis Riel captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Batoche in Saskatchewan
- May 19 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger's Consolidated Lasting Machine Company in Lynn, Massachusetts)
- May 19 German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon and Togoland
- May 22 13th Preakness: Jim McLaughlin aboard Tecumseh wins in 2:49
Kellogg's Flaked Cereal
May 31 Dr John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan files application for patent for "flaked cereal, and process of making same", controversially excluding his younger brother Will Keith Kellogg
Statue of Liberty
Jun 17 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'
- Jun 24 British government of Salisbury forms
- Jun 24 Samuel David Ferguson becomes 1st US black bishop
Root Resigns as Attorney
Jul 1 Elihu Root, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (since 1883), submits his resignation to President Grover Cleveland after successfully prosecuting James C. Fish
- Jul 1 The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada
- Jul 2 Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear
Anti-rabies Vaccine
Jul 6 Louis Pasteur successfully give an anti-rabies vaccine to 9-year-old Joseph Meister, saving his life
- Jul 6 William T. Stead's "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" 1st published, describes how he was able to buy a 13-year-old girl in "The Pall Mall Gazette"
- Jul 13 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 5 straight Wimbledon titles for William Renshaw; for second consecutive year he beats Herbert Lawford 7-5, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
Jul 17 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Defending champion Maud Watson defeats Blanche Bingley 6–1, 7–5
Event of Interest
Aug 11 $100,000 is raised in the US for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty
- Aug 14 British Criminal Law Amendment Act raises age of consent from 13 to 16, protects against child prostitution
- Aug 14 Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
US Men's Tennis Open
Aug 22 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Richard Sears wins 5th consecutive US singles title; beats Godfrey M. Brinley 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
Heavyweight History
Aug 29 Boxing's 1st heavyweight title fight with 3-oz gloves & 3-minute rounds fought between American boxers John L. Sullivan & Dominick McCaffrey in Cincinnati, Ohio
Daimler's Motorcycle Patent
Aug 29 Gottlieb Daimler receives German patent for a motorcycle
- Aug 29 Phillies Charlie Ferguson no-hits Providence 1-0
- Aug 30 13,000 meteors seen in 1 hour near Andromeda
- Sep 2 In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners, who were struggling to unionize so they could strike for better wages and work conditions, attack their Chinese fellow workers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
- Sep 4 1st cafeteria opens (NYC)
- Sep 5 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer in Fort Wayne, Indiana
- Sep 6 Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria. The Unification of Bulgaria is accomplished.
Editor Ambrose Bierce
Sep 11 Ambrose Bierce finishes as editor of The Wasp magazine
- Sep 11 Moses Hopkins, named minister to Liberia
- Sep 12 Highest football score recorded in any 1st-class soccer match: Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord in Scotland
- Sep 16 5th America's Cup: Puritan (NY Yacht Club) beats Genesta (Royal Yacht Squadron, Isle of Wight, UK) by 1:38 for 2-0 series win
- Sep 18 Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
- Sep 21 Dutch demonstrate for general voting right
- Sep 22 Lord Randolph Churchill makes a speech in Ulster in opposition to Home Rule e.g. "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right"
- Sep 24 Five German warships depart to Zanzibar
- Sep 29 First practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England
- Sep 30 Bechuanaland becomes a British protectorate
- Oct 1 Special delivery mail service begins in US
- Oct 3 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Bob Martin wins his second Championship by 1 stroke from fellow Scot Archie Simpson
- Oct 13 The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is founded in Atlanta, Georgia
- Oct 17 Baseball sets all players salaries at $1,000-$2,000 for 1885 season
- Oct 22 John Ward & several teammates secretly form Brotherhood of Prof Base Ball Players, 1st baseball union
- Oct 24 "World Championship" Baseball Series, Cincinnati Base Ball Grounds: St. Louis Browns beat Chicago White Stockings, 13–4 in Game 7; disputed series tied at 3-3-1
- Oct 24 Johann Strauss' operetta "Zigeunerbaron (Gypsy Baron)" premieres in Vienna
Symphony No. 4
Oct 25 Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his 4th Symphony in e, Op. 98, in Meiningen, Germany
- Nov 3 Tacoma vigilantes drive out Chinese, burn their homes & businesses
- Nov 6 US mint at Carson City, Nevada, directed to close
- Nov 7 Canadian Pacific Railway completed at Craigellachie - connects British Columbia with Eastern Canada
- Nov 9 Edward Jakobowski's opera "Ermine" premieres in London at the Comedy Theatre
- Nov 10 German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world's first motorcycle
- Nov 12 Montreal & Britannia Football Clubs (QRFU) defeat Ontario Combined Team (ORFU) 3-0 in CRFU Championship game
- Nov 14 Serbia invades Bulgaria, beginning the two-week Serbo-Bulgarian War; the Serbs are later defeated decisively [O.S. November 2]
- Nov 17 The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invades Bulgaria
- Nov 19 Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza
- Nov 23 Amsterdam police attack meeting of social-democrats united
- Nov 25 Banff National Park, Canada's first national park established as Rocky Mountains Park, Alberta [1]
- Nov 27 1st photograph of a meteor taken by Austro-Hungarian photographer Ladislaus Weinek in Prague, Austrian-Hungarian Empire
- Nov 30 Opera "El Cid" premieres (Paris)
- Dec 2 Opera "Regina di Saba" premieres in Vienna
- Dec 7 49th Congress (1885-87) convenes
- Dec 17 France declares Madagascar a protectorate
- Dec 22 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Quod auctoritate "The Annunciation of an Extraordinary Holy Year" - celebrating 50 years since Pope's ordination
Itō Hirobumi First PM
Dec 22 Samurai Itō Hirobumi, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan
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