1885

Decades: 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s

Years: 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 - 1885 - 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890

Events

• January 4 - The first successful appendectomy is performed (Dr. William Grant; patient was Mary Gartside).
• January 20 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• January 26 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum
• 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 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-May - North-West Rebellion took place and was put down in Canada.
• March 31 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
• May 9-12 - Canadian government forces inflict decisive defeat on Métis rebels at the Battle of Batoche.
• July 6 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister; a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
• 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.
• 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 Métis, Louis Riel is executed for high treason.
• 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.

• Creation of the first genuine bicycle, the Rover, by John K Starley.
• John Boyd Dunlop invents the pneumatic tyre.
• W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado

Year in topic

• 1885 in literature
• 1885 in science
• 1885 in music

Births

• January 11 - Alice Paul, women's rights activist
• January 21 - Umberto Nobile, politician and airship designer (+ 1978)
• January 27 - Eduard Künneke, composer (+ 1953)
• January 27 - Jerome Kern, composer (+ 1945)
• January 29 - Leadbelly
• February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, novelist
• February 9 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer
• February 9 - Anita Ree, painter (+ 1933))
• February 13 - Bess Truman, First Lady, wife of President Harry S. Truman
• February 15- Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg
• February 21 - Sacha Guitry, dramatist, writer, director, actor (+ 1957)
• February 24 - Chester Nimitz, United States admiral (+ 1966)
• March 6 - Ring Lardner, writer (+ 1933)
• March 11 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer(+ 1948)
• March 31 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse"
• April 1 - Wallace Beery, actor (+ 1949)
• April 3 - Allan Dwan, pioneer film director ( + 1981)
• April 4 - Arthur Murray, dancer
• May 2 - Hedda Hopper, columnist (+ 1966)
• May 7 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, actor (+ 1969)
• May 14 - Otto Klemperer, conductor
• May 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral of World War II
• June 14 - E. L. Grant Watson
• June 22 - Milan Vidmar, Slovene electrical engineer and chess player (+ 1962).
• September 11 - D.H. Lawrence, author
• September 22 - Ben Chifley, Australian Prime Minister
• October 7 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (+ 1962)

Deaths

• April 2 - Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader
• May 22 - Victor Hugo, author
• November 16 - Louis Riel, Canadian Métis leader (hanged for treason)
• November 25 - King Alfonso XII of Spain

Referenced By