1884
1884 (
MDCCCLXXXIV) is a
leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower
Julian calendar).
*
January 4 - The
Fabian Society is founded in
London.
*
January 18 -
Dr William Price attempts to
cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
*
February 1 - Edition one of the
Oxford English Dictionary is published.
*
March 13 - The siege of
Khartoum,
Sudan begins (ends on
January 26,
1885).
*
April 22 -
Colchester earthquake,
England; the
UK's most destructive.
*
May 1 - the first proclamation of
eight-hour workday by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the
United States. May 1st, called
May Day or
Labour Day, is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
*
July 5 -
Germany takes possession of
Cameroon.
*
August 5 - The cornerstone for the
Statue of Liberty is laid on
Bedloe's Island in
New York Harbor.
*
August 10 - A severe
earthquake,
magnitude 5.5, (intensity
VII) occurs off the northeast Atlantic coast. The area affected extends from central
Virginia to southern
Maine, and west as far as
Cleveland.
* October -
International Meridian Conference in
Washington, D.C. fixes the
Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
*
October 6 -
United States Naval War College established in
Newport, Rhode Island.
*
October 18 -
University of Wales, Bangor (
UK) founded.
*
October 22 - The first woman receives a degree from an Irish university. The degree is granted by the
Royal University of Ireland.
*
November 1 - The Irish
Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles,
Ireland.
*
November 2 -
Timişoara is the first town of
Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
*
November 4 -
U.S. presidential election:
Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats
Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
*
November 15 - The
Berlin Conference which regulated
European
colonisation and trade in
Africa begins (ends
February 26,
1885).
*
November 25 - British surgeon
John Dooglee makes the first successful removal of a
brain tumor.
*
December 1 -
American Old West - Near Frisco,
New Mexico (now
Reserve, New Mexico), deputy sheriff
Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan
cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys were terrorizing the area's
Hispanos and Baca was working against them).
*
December 6 -
Washington Monument was completed.
*
December 16 -
World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in
New Orleans, Louisiana.
*
Bechuanaland becomes British
protectorate.
*
Stefan-Boltzmann law reformulated by
Ludwig Boltzmann.
*
British Police officers go on armed patrol in
London.
*
Mark Twain writes
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
*
Vanity Fair by
William Thackeray is published.
Environmental change
* The
Water Hyacinth is introduced in the US and quickly becomes an
invasive speciesJanuary-March
*
January 2 -
Oscar Micheaux, American filmmaker and author (d.
1951)
*
January 12 -
Texas Guinan, American vaudeville performer (d.
1933)
*
January 13 -
Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer and comedian (d.
1966)
*
January 21 -
Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d.
1981)
*
January 23 -
Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d.
1956)
*
January 28 -
Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, balloonist, and inventor (d.
1962)
*
January 31 -
Theodor Heuss, German politician and publicist (d.
1963)
*
February 12 -
Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (d.
1950)
*
February 12 -
Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d.
1957)
*
February 13 -
Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete and inventor (d.
1961)
*
February 14 -
Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d.
1972)
*
February 16 -
Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (d.
1951)
*
February 18 -
Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d.
1970)
*
February 22 -
Abe Attell, American boxer (d.
1970)
*
March 13 - Sir
Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d.
1941)
*
March 17 -
Alcide Nunez, American jazz musician (d.
1934)
*
March 24 -
Peter Debye, Dutch chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1966)
*
March 25 -
Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (d.
1950)
*
March 26 -
Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (d.
1969)
April-December
*
April 4 -
Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander (d.
1943)
*
April 6 -
Walter Huston, actor (d.
1950)
*
April 12 -
Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1951)
*
May 1 -
Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (d.
1918)
*
May 8 -
Harry S. Truman, 33rd
President of the United States (d.
1972)
*
May 10 -
Olga Petrova, English-born actress (d.
1977)
*
May 14 -
Claudius Dornier, German aircraft designer (d.
1969)
*
May 27 -
Max Brod, Austrian author (d.
1968)
*
May 28 -
Edvard Beneš, Austrian politician (d.
1948)
*
July 12 -
Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (d.
1920)
*
July 23 -
Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (d.
1950)
*
August 10 -
Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (d.
1935)
*
August 23 -
Will Cuppy, American humorist (d.
1949)
*
August 30 -
Theodor Svedberg, Swedish chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1971)
*
September 17 -
Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (d.
1920)
*
September 24 -
Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (d.
1953)
*
October 11 -
Friedrich Bergius, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1949)
*
October 11 -
Eleanor Roosevelt,
First Lady of the United States (d.
1962)
*
November 20 -
Norman Thomas, American social reformer (d.
1968)
*
December 30 -
Tojo Hideki,
Prime Minister of Japan (d.
1948)
Exact month/day unknown
*
M. Louise Gross, American politician and lobbyist (d.
1951)
*
January 6 -
Gregor Mendel, Austrian geneticist (b.
1822)
*
January 25 -
Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (b.
1815)
*
March 1 -
Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician (b.
1820)
*
March 21 -
Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar (b.
1819)
*
April 4 -
Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist (b.
1858)
*
May 12 -
Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (b.
1824)
*
May 13 -
Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b.
1809)
*
June 25 -
Hans Rott, Austrian composer (b.
1858)
*
July 1 -
Allan Pinkerton, American detective (b.
1819)
*
July 10 -
Paul Morphy, American chess player (b.
1837)
*
November 25 -
Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b.
1818)
