Timeline 1885-1886
Return to home
1885 Jan 2, Gen.
Wolseley received the last distress signal of Gen. Gordon in Khartoum.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova Russia’s
premier ballerina, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Jan 4, Dr. William W. Grant
of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is believed to have been the first
appendectomy; the patient was 22-year-old Mary Gartside.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1885 Jan 15, Wilson Bentley
(1865-1931) of Jericho, Vermont, made the world’s 1st clear photographs
of snow crystals.
(ON, 11/04, p.4)
1885 Jan 26, In Sudan General
"Chinese" Gordon (Charles George Gordon, 51), British gov-gen of Sudan,
was killed on the palace steps in the garrison at Khartoum by the
forces of Muhammad Ahmed, El Mahdi. In 1961 "General Gordon’s Khartoum
Journal," edited by Lord Elton, was published.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(HN, 1/26/99)(MC, 1/26/02)(ON,
4/02, p.10)
1885 Jan 27, Jerome Kern, Broadway
composer (Showboat, Roberta), was born in NYC.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1885 Jan 28, Gen’l. Garnet
Wolseley arrived at Khartoum to relieve Gen’l. Gordon, but arrived 2
days late. El Mahdi died soon thereafter but was succeeded by the
Khalifa.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1885 Jan 29, Leadbelly
(d.1949), [Huddie William Ledbetter], blues singer, was born on the
Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana.
(http://leadbelly.lanl.gov/leadbelly.html)
1885 Jan 30, John Henry Towers,
naval and aviation hero, was born.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1885 Jan, Grover Cleveland entered
the White House as a bachelor.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 2)
1885 Feb 7, Sinclair Lewis
(d.1951), American novelist of satire and realism, was born in Sauk
Centre, Minnesota. His books include "Arrowsmith" and "Elmer Gantry."
"There are two insults which no human will endure: the assertion that
he hasn’t a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that
he has never known trouble." "Winter is not a season, it's an
occupation."
(AP, 6/26/98)(AP, 12/22/99)(HNQ, 5/18/98)(HN, 2/7/99)
1885 Feb 9, Alban Maria Johannes
Berg, composer, was born in Vienna, Austria.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1885 Feb 9, The 1st Japanese
arrived in Hawaii.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1885 Feb 13, Elizabeth Virginia
"Bess" Truman, 1st lady (1945-52), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1885 Feb 15, Leopold Damrosch
(52), composer, died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1885 Feb 18, Mark Twain's
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published and became one of the
writer's most famous works. Samuel Clemens, born in 1835, first used
the pseudonym of Mark Twain when he wrote a humorous travel account in
1863. Books such as Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
made Mark Twain a popular American author because people could relate
to his stories of boyhood adventures colored with social commentary. As
a satirical, critical voice of the United States, Twain continued to
write and lecture across the country and the world. Mark Twain died in
1910.
(AP, 2/18/98)(HNPD, 2/18/99)
1885 Feb 21, The Washington
Monument was dedicated.
(HN, 2/21/98)(AP, 2/21/98)
1885 Feb 23, John Lee survived
three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap failed to
open.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1885 Feb 24, Chester Nimitz, was
born. He was the U.S. admiral who commanded naval forces in the Pacific
during WWII.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1885 Feb 25, US Congress condemned
barbed wire around government grounds.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1885 Feb 26, The Congress of
Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1885 Mar 3, The United States
Congress passed the Major Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 1153). It placed seven
major crimes under federal jurisdiction if they are committed by a
Native American in Native territory regardless of whether the victim of
the crime was Native.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/437/634/)
1885 Mar 3, The U.S. Post Office
began offering special delivery for first-class mail.
(AP, 3/3/98)
1885 Mar 3, California became the
1st US state to establish a permanent forest commission.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1885 Mar 3, American Telephone and
Telegraph (AT&T) incorporated as a subsidiary of Bell Telephone to
build and operate a long distance network.
(SC, 3/3/02)(SFC, 7/23/04, p.C1)
1885 Mar 4, Grover Cleveland was
inaugurated as 1st Democratic President since Civil War.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1885 Mar 6, Ring Lardner (d.1933),
American humorist and writer, was born. His books included You
Know Me Al (1916). "The family you come from isn't as important as the
family you're going to have."
(AP, 5/14/99)(HN, 3/6/01)(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.P8)
1885 Mar 11, Sir Michael Campbell,
the first motorist to exceed 300 mph, was born.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1885 Mar 14, Gilbert &
Sullivan's opera "Mikado," premiered in London.
(WSJ, 11/22/00, p.A20)(MC, 3/14/02)
1885 Mar 20, Yiddish theater
opened in NY with Goldfaden operetta.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1885 Mar 20, John Matzeliger of
Suriname patented a shoe lacing machine.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1885 Mar 21, Raoul Lufbery,
French-born American fighter pilot of World War I, was born.
(HN, 3/21/99)
1885 Mar 26, The Eastman Film Co.
of Rochester, N.Y., manufactured the first commercial motion picture
film. George Eastman had perfected a method for bonding photographic
emulsion onto thin strips of celluloid.
(AP, 3/25/98)(HN, 3/25/98)(ON, 11/03, p.5)
1885 Mar 26, Louis Riel's forces
defeated Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.
(SS, 3/26/02)(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1885 Mar 28, The Salvation Army
was officially organized in the U.S.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1885 Mar 30, Texas was the last
Confederate state readmitted to the Union.
(HN, 3/30/01)
1885 Mar 30, In Afghanistan,
Russian troops inflicted a crushing defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe
despite orders not to fight.
(HN, 3/30/99)
1885 Mar 31, Madame Blavatsky was
hoisted in an invalid chair onto a steamer in the Madras harbor of
India and departed for London. In England she wrote "The Secret
Doctrine" and had as guests to her salon William Butler Yeats, Annie
Besant and the young Mohandas K. Gandhi.
(Smith., 5/95, p.127)
1885 Mar 31, Franz Wilhelm Abt
(65), German composer, choir conductor, died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1885 Mar, In Loganville, Pa., Dr.
George E. Holtzapple (22) saved Fred Gable (16), who was suffering from
pneumonia, by supplying the boy with pure oxygen. Oxygen therapy became
the only effective treatment for pneumonia until antibiotics became
available in the 1940s.
(ON, 4/07, p.10)
1885 Apr 3, Harry St. John Philby,
[sheik Abdullah], British explorer, was born.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1885 Apr 16, Leo Weiner, composer
(Fasching), was born in Hungary.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1885 Apr 17, Karen Blixen-Finecke
(Isak Dinesen, d.1962), Danish writer (Out of Africa), was born. "God
made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the
road."
(AP, 9/15/00)(HN, 4/17/01)(MC, 4/17/02)
1885 Apr 18, The Sino-Japanese war
ended.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1885 Apr 24, Metis rebels won a
major victory over Canadian troops at Fish Creek, Saskatchewan. The
troops had been shipped to the region by way of the new Canadian
Pacific Railway.
(Reuters, 11/22/02)(ON, 11/07,
p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1885 Apr 30, Boston Pops Orchestra
formed.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1885 May 2, "Good Housekeeping"
magazine was 1st published.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1885 May 2, The Congo Free State
was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1885 May 9, In the Battle of
Batoche, Saskatchewan, Metis rebels ran out of ammunition and resorted
to firing pebbles from their guns, until they were forced to retreat.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1885 May 11, "King" Joseph Oliver,
jazz cornetist and bandleader, was born.
(HN, 5/11/02)
1885 May 14, Otto Klemperer,
conductor, composer, was born in Breslau, Germany.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1885 May 15, Mormons began an
exodus from the United States into Mexico. Chihuahua Governor Ochoa had
agreed to sell land to the Mormons to colonize. Church President John
Taylor had explored the area and church officials selected Casas
Grandes, a valley in the state of Chihuahua, as the place to begin
settlement.
(www.epcc.edu/nwlibrary/borderlands/19_mormons.htm)
1885 May 18, Eurico Gaspar Dutra,
President of Brazil (1945-50), was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1885 May 19, First mass production
of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts).
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1885 May 19, German chancellor
Bismarck took possession of Cameroon & Togoland.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1885 May 22, Victor-Marie Hugo
(b.1802), French novelist (Les Miserables) and poet, died. In 1998
Graham Robb published the biography: "Victor Hugo." Hugo also did a
number of drawings, later appreciated by Andre Breton and Max Ernst,
and in 1914 Henri Focillon published the first critical study of them.
In 1998 Pierre Georgel and Marie-Laure Prevost published "Shadows of a
Hand: The Drawings of Victor Hugo."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(HN, 2/26/98)(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR
p.4)(MC, 5/22/02)
1885 May 26, Al Jolson (d.1950),
American jazz singer and silent film actor, was born in Seredzius,
Lithuania as Asa Yoelson. His father Morris was a rabbi and a cantor
and so Asa started singing early, alongside his elder brother Harry and
two elder sisters. In 1894 the family set off for America in search of
a new life.
(www.unionsquaremusic.co.uk/titlev4.php?ALBUM_ID=576&LABEL_ID=5)
1885 May 29, Erwin F.
Finlay-Freundlich, British astronomer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1885 May 29, Alfred von Meissner
(63), Austrian physician, writer (Ziska), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1885 May, Henri Rousseau
(1844-1910), a self-taught artist, exhibited two of his paintings at
the Salon of French Art in Paris without bothering to obtain
permission. One painting was cut with a knife and authorities removed
them as soon as they were noticed. That same month he exhibited his
work at the Salon of the Independents.
(ON, 8/08, p.8)
1885 May, Richard Schmitt bought
his brewery in Singen, Germany. [see 1875, Schmitt]
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.114)
1885 Jun 6, Leo Delibes' opera
"Lakme" was produced in Paris.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1885 Jun 14, The 1st photo finish
horse race was recorded by Luis-Jean Delton as Paradox beat Reluisant
at the Grand Prix de Paris.
(SFC, 4/28/03, D1)
1885 Jun 17, The French naval ship
Isere arrived in NYC with a cargo of wooden crates containing the
pieces of the Statue of Liberty.
(AP, 6/17/97)(ON, 4/03, p.3)
1886 Jun 24, Ngazidja (Grande
Comore) became a French protectorate.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Comoros.html)
1885 Jun 26, Andre Maurois
(d.1967), French writer (Balzac), was born as Émile Herzog.
"Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time
to form."
(AP, 7/6/00)(MC, 6/26/02)
1885 Jul 2, Canada's North-West
Insurrection ended with the surrender of Big Bear.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1885 Jul 6, French scientist Louis
Pasteur (1822-1895) successfully tested an anti-rabies vaccine on a boy
bitten by an infected dog. Thanks to his vaccine the death rate from
rabies dropped to almost zero by 1888.
(AP, 7/6/97)(ON, 6/08, p.6)
1885 Jul 23, Ulysses S. Grant
(b.1822), commander of the Union forces at the end of the Civil War and
the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y.,
at age 63. He had just completed the final revisions to his memoirs,
which were published as a 2 volume set by Mark Twain. In 1928 W.E.
Woodward authored "Meet General Grant," and in 1981 William S.
McFreeley authored "Grant: A Biography." His tomb was placed in the
largest mausoleum in the US on a bluff over the Hudson River. In 1998
Geoffrey Perret published the biography "Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier and
President." In 2004 Mark Perry authored “Grant and Twain.” In 2006
Edward G. Longacre authored “General Ulysses S. Grant: The Soldier and
Man.”
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A7)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Par p.20)(AP,
7/23/98)(HN, 7/23/98)(ON, SC, p.11)(ON, 12/00, p.7)(WSJ, 5/14/04,
p.W10)(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P9)
1885 Aug 10, Leo Daft opened
America's first commercially operated electric streetcar, in Baltimore.
(AP, 8/10/99)
1885 Aug 11, Joseph Pulitzer’s NY
World announced that $100,000 was raised in US for a pedestal for the
Statue of Liberty.
(ON, 4/03, p.3)
1885 Aug 15, Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, composer (Hiawatha's Wedding Feast), was born in
London.
(www.classical-composers.org)
1885 Aug 29, Gottlieb Daimler
received a German patent for a motorcycle.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1885 Aug 30, Some 13,000 meteors
were seen in 1 hour near Andromeda.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1885 Aug 31, Duboise Heyward,
novelist, poet and dramatist best know for "Porgy" which was the basis
for the opera "Porgy and Bess," was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1885 Sep 2, In Rock Springs,
Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers were killed and hundreds more
chased out of town by striking coal miners.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1885 Sep 4, The 1st cafeteria
opened (NYC).
(MC, 9/4/01)
1885 Sep 5, The 1st gasoline pump
was delivered to a gasoline dealer in Ft. Wayne, Ind.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1885 Sep 10, Carl Clinton Van
Doren, historian and critic who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography
on Benjamin Franklin, was born. His work included "9th Wave."
(HN, 9/10/98)(MC, 9/10/01)
1885 Sep 11, D.H. Laurence,
English novelist, author of "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" and "Sons and
Lovers," was born.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1885 Sep 14, Vittorio Gui
(d.1975), Italian conductor and composer (Batture d'aspetto), was born
in Rome.
(http://www.operone.de/komponist/gui.html)
1885 Sep 15, Juliusz Zarebski,
Polish composer, died at 31.
(http://www.dolmetsch.com/cdefsz.htm)
1885 Sep 16, Karen Horney,
psychoanalyst who exposed the male bias in the Freudian analysis of
women, was born.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1885 Sep 18, A coup d’etat in
Eastern Rumelia led directly to a war between Serbia and Bulgaria. The
Balkan peace settlement established by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin was
undone when a coup d’etat in the disputed province of Eastern Rumelia
resulted in Eastern Rumelia (separated from Bulgaria in 1878)
announcing its re-unification with Bulgaria. Serbian prince Milan
responded by demanding Bulgaria cede some of its territory to Serbia.
An international conference convened and became deadlocked in November
and Serbia declared war.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1885 Sep 20, Ferdinand Lamenthe,
aka Jelly Roll Morton (d,1941), jazz pianist, composer and singer, was
born in New Orleans. He was one of the first to orchestrate jazz music
and disputed W.C. Handy's claim to be the originator of jazz and blues.
He became famous at an early age for his classically informed
improvisational piano playing often in brothels and other
non-traditional settings. With his Red Hot Peppers in the 1920s, he
pioneered the early jazz practice of reorchestrating and improvising
upon well-known standards. He also wrote many enduring jazz tunes
including the ‘London Rag’ and the ‘Jelly Roll Blues’.
(HN, 9/20/98)(MC, 9/20/01)
1885 Sep 22, Erich Von Stroheim,
director, actor and screenwriter best known for "Greed," was born.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1885 Oct 1, Special delivery mail
service began in the United States.
(AP, 10/1/97)
1885 Oct 7, Nils Bohr, Danish
physicist who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for physics and later worked on
the first atom bomb, was born.
(HN, 10/7/98)(MC, 10/7/01)
1885 Oct 10, Mary Newton (12), the
daughter of US Army Engineer under Lt. Col. John Newton (1823-1895)
triggered a 2nd huge blast to clear Flood Rock in the Hell Gate channel
of the East River. Mill Rock Island was formed by joining two rocks
with debris from the demolition. The Flood Rock detonation held the
record as the largest deliberately planned explosion until the Trinity
atomic blast in 1945.
(ON, 2/08, p.10)
1885 Oct 11, Francois Mauriac,
Nobel Prize-winning novelist (1952), was born.
(HN, 10/11/00)
1885 Oct 22, Giovanni Martinelli,
opera tenor (NY Met), was born in Montagnana, Italy.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1885 Oct 22, John Ward and several
team-mates secretly formed the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball
Players, the 1st baseball union.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1885 Oct 24, Johann Strauss'
operetta, "The Gypsy Baron," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1885 Oct 25, Johannes Brahms' 4th
Symphony in E, premiered.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1885 Oct 29, George B. McClellan
(58), Union army general and governor of New Jersey (1878-1881), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McClellan)(ON, 12/03, p.4)
1885 Oct 30, Ezra Pound (d.1972),
poet and critic, was born in Hailey, Idaho. He wrote "The Cantos."
Pound met William Carlos Williams at the Univ. of Pennsylvania in 1907
and they remained friends and wrote many letters. "Pound-Williams:
Selected Correspondence" was ed. by Hugh Witemeyer in 1996. Ezra Pound
spent 3 winters with W.B. Yeats (1913-1916) as the poets artistic prod
and secretary. During World War II, Pound was arrested for broadcasting
fascist propaganda to the United States from Rome. He stood trial for
this crime and was judged to be insane. He was incarcerated at St.
Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington from 1946 until his release in 1958.
"Literature is news that stays news."
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.6)(AP, 8/25/98)(HN,
10/30/98)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.10)(MC, 10/30/01)
1885 Nov 2, Harlow Shapley,
astronomer, was born. He discovered the Sun is not at the center of the
galaxy.
(HN, 11/2/00)
1885 Nov 3, Tacoma, Wa.,
vigilantes drove out Chinese residents and burned their homes and
businesses.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1885 Nov 5, Will Durant (d.1981),
historian and author, was born. "I think America is richer in
intelligence than any other country in the world; and that its
intelligence is more scattered than in any country of the world."
(AP, 4/17/99)(HN, 11/5/00)
1885 Nov 7, The Canadian Pacific
Railway completed its transcontinental rail line with the last spike
driven at the Rocky Mountain town of Craigellachie.
(SFEM, 10/10/99, p.46)(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1885 Nov 10, Paul Daimler, son of
Gottlieb Daimler, became the first motorcyclist when he rode his
father's new invention on a round trip of six miles.
(HN, 11/10/99)
1885 Nov 11, George Patton, U.S.
Army commander in World War II, was born.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1885 Nov 16, Canadian rebel Louis
Riel was executed for high treason after he led another uprising that
was crushed by a powerful militia.
(AP, 11/1697)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1885 Nov 17, The Serbian Army,
with Russian support, invaded Bulgaria.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1885 Nov 19, Bulgarians, led by
Stefan Stambolov, repulsed a larger Serbian invasion force at
Slivinitza.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1885 Nov 26, The 1st photograph of
a meteor was made.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1885 Nov 26, Bulgaria moved into
Serbia.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1885 Nov 30, Albrecht (von)
Kesselring, German field marshal, was born.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1885 Nov 30, Jules Massenet's
opera "Le Cid" had its premier in Paris. It included text from the
playwright Corneille's "Le Cid."
(WSJ, 11/18/99, p.A24)(MC, 11/30/01)
1885 Dec 2, Nikos Kazantzakis
(d.1957), Greek writer and lawyer, was born. His work included "Zorba
the Greek." [see Feb 18, 1887]
(HN, 12/2/00)
1885 Dec 2, George Richards Minot
(d.1950), physician (Nobel-1934), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.913)(Internet)
1885 Dec 2, Karl Goldmark's opera
"Queen of Sheba," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1885 Dec 29, Gottlieb Daimler
patented the 1st bike in Germany.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1885 Frederic Leighton created his
sculpture "The Sluggard."
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A19)
1885 Cezanne painted his
watercolor of "Madame Cezanne with hydrangeas." His painting “the
Bather” (Le Grand Baigneur) was also done about this time.
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-14)(WSJ, 3/29/08, p.W18)
1885 Winslow Homer painted "Lost
on the Grand Banks." It was reportedly sold to Bill Gates in 1998 for
$30 million.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Par p.2)
1885 Berthe Morisot (d.1895),
French Impressionist, painted her self portrait.
(NMWA, 12/04, p.29)
1885 Renoir, French painter,
painted "In the Garden." It was a lush double-portrait in which the
artist’s future wife, Aline, calmly accepted the embrace of a suitor
whose face says everything about love’s sweet delusions.
(WSJ, 4/6/95, p.A-12)
1885 Ethel Reed, graphic artist,
designed the poster for Folly or Saintliness by Jose Echegaray. A print
by Ellen Thayer Fisher titled Sumac & Milkweed was made the same
year.
(Smith., 5/95, p.36, illus.)
1885 A tapestry study was done by
Sir Edward Cowley Burne-Jones and William Morris.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)
1885 Vincent Van Gogh painted "The
Potato Eaters" and "A Pair of Shoes."
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.D3)(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A12)
1885 Thomas Mellon published
privately his autobiography, which included much detail on the
expanding US economy after the Civil War.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-10)
1885 J.R. McCulloch wrote his book
"Taxation and the Funding System." In it he stated that: "The moment
you abandon the cardinal principle of exacting from all individuals the
same proportion of their income or their profits, you are at sea
without a rudder or compass and there is no amount of injustice of
folly you may not commit."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, p.A18)
1885 William Dean Howells authored
his novel “The Rise of Silas Lapham,” about a self-made industrialist,
who slips from the high rung of success just as he attempts to enter
the exclusive precincts of Boston’s elite.
(WSJ, 3/15/08, p.W10)
1885 Emile Zola (1840-1902)
authored his novel “Germinal,” a fictional account of a French mining
strike. It was the 13th novel in Zola's 20-volume series Les
Rougon-Macquart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germinal_%28novel%29)(WSJ, 10/7/97, p.A20)
1885 Architect William Le Baron
Jenney began to use steel a steel frame skeleton for the first
skyscrapers.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, Z1 p.8)
1885 The Home Insurance Building
in Chicago was built and is considered the first skyscraper. It stood 9
stories and had 2 added in 1891.
(HT, 5/97, p.23)
1885 Thomas Hardy, English writer,
built his own home, Max Gate, outside Dorchester on the Wareham Road.
It was here that he wrote "Tess of the D’Ubbervilles" and "Jude the
Obscure."
(SFC, 12/4/94, p.T-4)
1885 The Norment-Parry Inn was
built in Orlando, Florida. It is now the oldest house in Orlando and
serves as a bed-and-breakfast inn. It is part of a 3 building complex
called The Courtyard at Lake Lucerne.
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.28)
1885 The Detroit Institute of Arts
opened.
(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A20)
1885 Isaac Mayer Wise united
pockets of Jewish immigrants and assembled 15 rabbis in Pittsburgh to
articulate a platform for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations,
the Hebrew Union College, and the Central Conference of American
Rabbis. The organization of Reform Judaism discussed the Mitzvot,
the 613 commandments in the Torah, and accepted only the moral laws as
binding.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)
1885 "Pemberton’s French Wine
Coca" made its premier In Dr. Jacob's pharmacy in Atlanta. John Stith
Pemberton refined the wine-based drink and Coca-Cola, the future symbol
of "the American way of life," made its debut in 1886.
(AP, 5/3/03)(http://cocaine.org/coca-cola/)
1885 The soft drink Dr Pepper was
introduced.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, Z1 p.8)
1895 George Henderson founded
Dorchester Pottery outside Boston. Charles A. Hill, his brother-in-law,
was the plant manager and decorator.
(SFC, 6/17/98, Z1 p.3)
1885 Annie Oakley joined Buffalo
Bill's Wild West Show and toured Europe.
(WSJ, 3/12/99, p.W18)
1885 John Montgomery Ward and
fellow baseball players secretly formed the Brotherhood of Professional
Base Ball Players.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, BR p.4)
1885 To escape a federal crackdown
on polygamy, hundreds of Mormon families fled to Mexico and established
the first of five Mormon colonies in the state of Chihuahua.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1885 Christmas became a national
holiday in the US.
(http://tinyurl.com/dmun5)
1885 The US Mail began a Special
Delivery service and issued the first $.10 stamp for the guaranteed
immediate delivery.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A6)
1885 California in response to the
“yellow menace” passed legislation that allowed districts to create
separate schools for Asian Americans.
(SSFC, 5/16/04, p.E5)
1885 In California the Far Niente
winery was built in Napa Valley. In 2008 it was among the a maverick
group of local wineries to embrace solar power.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A1)
1885 Union Iron Works launched its
first ship, the coal carrier Arago, from Pier 70 in SF.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A11)
1885 The Concord, Mass., public
library banned "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1885 Princeville, North Carolina
was chartered. It had been founded by a community of newly freed slaves
and originally called Freedom Hill or Liberty Hill on the south side of
the Tar River. It was named after Turner Prince, a carpenter who was
one of its early leaders.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A8)
1885 Joseph O’Neil, US Army
lieutenant, spent a month ascending from Port Angeles to Hurricane
Ridge in the Olympic Mountains of Washington state.
(NG, 7/04, p.66)
1885 Chief Joseph and his band of
Nez Perce were allowed to take up residence on the Colville reservation
in northern Washington.
(ON, 3/04, p.5)
1885 George Westinghouse
(1846-1914), who eventually held more than 400 patents, turned his
interest to electricity and in 1886 formed the Westinghouse Electric.
(HNQ, 5/28/00)
1885 Charles Cretors of Chicago
invented the first popcorn popping machine. It was powered by steam and
first drawn by a team of horses.
(HFA, ‘96, p.67)
1885 Philip Handel started Handel
and Co., a ceramic and glass operation in Meridan, Conn. He moved to
New York and made lamps, vases and other glassware from 1893-1933.
(SFC, 7/22/98, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 1/10/07, p.G2)
1885 Leland and Jane Stanford
founded Stanford Univ. The cornerstone was laid in 1887. The 1st class
began in 1891 with David Starr Jordan (d.1931) as the first president.
(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.8)(Ind, 4/12/03, 5A)(Ind, 4/19/03,
5A)
1885 Sylanus Bowser invented the
kerosene pump. Twenty years later he modified it into a self-regulating
gasoline pump.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1885 The cigar lighter was
invented.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)
c1885 The founder of Johnson
Controls invented an electric room thermostat.
(WSJ, 2/3/97, p.B4)
1885 Arcade Manufacturing Co. of
Freeport, Ill., began as a manufacturer of industrial castings and
household items. It introduced toys in the 1890s and by the 1920s was a
major manufacturer of high-quality cast-iron toys.
(SFC, 5/17/06, p.G5)
1885 Carl Friedrich Benz invented
the first operable auto with an internal combustion engine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1885 The Varney model of the
miner’s candlestick was patented.
(SFC, 4/1/98, Z1 p.7)
1885 The clipper ship James
Stafford crossed the Pacific Ocean in 21 ½ days, a record that
lasted until 1995.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.B6)
1885 Scientists discovered the
plant growth hormone auxin. In 2005 they managed to reveal its
mechanism of action.
(WSJ, 6/3/05, p.B1)
1885 A new star appeared in the
Great Nebula of Andromeda.
(SCTS, p.1185)
1885 In Texas George Bannerman
Dealey founded the Dallas News at the behest of Col. A.H. Belo.
(SFC, 2/20/07, p.B4)
1885 America's 1st recorded serial
murders took place in Austin, Texas.
(SFCM, 10/11/03, p.34)
1885 Helen Hunt Jackson (b.1830),
author and social reformer, died. Her books included "Ramona" (1984).
In 2003 Kate Phillips authored Helen Hunt Jackson: A Literary Life."
(SFEC, 12/20/98, BR p.5)(SFC, 4/19/03, p.D4)
1885 Titian Ramsey Peale (b.1799),
American naturalist and painter, died. He and his nephew developed and
patented the kinematoscope, a forerunner of the motion picture camera.
(NH, 5/96, p.75)
1885 Canada began forcing tens of
thousands of Chinese, who helped build the nation's railroad, to pay a
"head tax" if they wished to remain in the country and then taxed them
again to bring in their families. It started at $50 and by 1903 grew to
$500. Collections ended in 1923, when immigration from China was
banned. Canada only began admitting Chinese again in 1947. On June 22,
2006, Canada apologized.
(AP, 6/23/06)
1885 The Canadian Pacific Railway
completed its transcontinental rail line.
(SFEM, 10/10/99, p.46)
1885 In BC, Canada, St. Paul’s
Church was built at Fulford. It was the first church on Salt Spring
Island.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T5)
1885 In England John Starley
introduced the safety bicycle.
(Hem, 8/96, p.34)
1885 English scientist Francis
Galton proved that no two 2 fingerprints were identical.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Zone 1 p.5)
1885 William Hesketh Lever opened
his 1st factory to make Sunlight Soap in Britain. In 2004 Adam Macqueen
authored “The King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up the World.”
(Econ, 7/24/04, p.75)
1885 Alphonse Bertillon of the
Paris Police Dept. (Surete) developed the Bertillon system to help
identify criminals. It was based on a variety or personal
characteristics including hair and eye color and various body
measurements.
(ON, 4/04, p.11)
1885 The 70-room Herrenchiemsee
Castle of Ludwig II of Bavaria was built on an island in Lake Chiemsee.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T4)
1885 In Germany a treaty made in
Berlin called for the humane treatment of Africans.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1885 In Japan the first
Shakespeare production was a Kabuki adaptation of a Japanese novel
inspired by a Charles Lamb narrative based on "The Merchant of Venice."
(SFC,12/23/97, p.E6)
1885 In the Netherlands the
façade of the Rijksmuseum was completed.
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
1885 Managua, Nicaragua, was
leveled by an earthquake.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.F4)
1885 Dr. Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof
(1859-1917), Polish ophthalmologist, invented the artificial language
known as Esperanto. [see 1887]
(SFCM, 6/8/03, p.18)
c1885 Geneva rubies were sold in
Switzerland. They were supposedly made by processing small bits of real
rubies into larger gemstones.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.7)
1885-1889 Grover Cleveland became the 22nd President
of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1885-1920 Sisters Frances and Mary Allen of
Deerfield, Massachusetts, began their careers as schoolteachers, but
when deafness forced a change of profession, they turned to
photography. Their work shows everyday activities in a rural
community. Self-taught in their craft, the Allen sisters achieved
remarkable success. During their photography career from 1885 to 1920,
their work appeared in numerous books and magazines as covers,
illustrations and frontispieces.
(HNPD, 1/3/00)
1885-1930 D.H. Lawrence, English novelist. David
Herbert Lawrence. "The world fears a new experience more than it fears
anything. Because a new experience displaces so many old experiences."
(WUD, 1994, p.812)(AP, 3/4/00)
1885-1958 Eva Gauthier, American concert singer. She
is discussed in the 1997 book "The American Opera Singer" by Peter G.
Davis.
(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.A20)
1885-1962 Niels Henrik David Bohr, Danish theoretical
physicist. He is the author of the Bohr theory which is a model of
atomic structure wherein electrons travel around the nucleus in orbits
determined by quantum conditions of angular momentum.
(AHD, 1971, p.147)
1885-1957 Sacha Guitry, French director, actor and
dramatist: "The little I know I owe to my ignorance." "You can pretend
to be serious; but you can't pretend to be witty."
(AP, 5/27/98)(AP, 2/27/99)
1885-1968 Helen M. Cam, English historian and
educator: "We must not read either law or history backwards."
(AP, 8/15/00)
1885-1973 Otto Klemperer, maestro, was born in
Breslau and died in Zurich. "Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times" Vol II
was completed by John Lucas based on the work of Mr. Heyworth and
published in 1996. Vol I by Peter Heyworth was published in 1983.
(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)
1886 Jan 1, A great blizzard
buried the eastern and southern plains, killing 50 to 85 percent of the
cattle herds.
(HNPD, 1/4/99)
1886 Feb 16, Van Wyck Brooks
(d.1963), American biographer, critic and literary historian, was born.
"Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in
our forebears. It seems to absolve us."
(AP, 8/14/00)(HN, 2/16/01)
1886 Jan 25, Wilhelm Furtwangler,
conductor, composer, was born in Berlin, Germany.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1886 Jan 26, Karl Benz patented
the 1st automobile. [see Jan 29]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1886 Jan 28, Artur Rubinstein,
pianist, was born in Lodz, Poland.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1886 Jan 29, 1st successful
gasoline-driven car was patented by Karl Benz in Karlsruhe. [see Jan 26]
(MC, 1/29/02)
1886 Feb 9, President Cleveland
declared a state of emergency in Seattle because of anti-Chinese
violence.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1886 Feb 13, Painter Thomas Eakins
resigned from the Philadelphia Academy of Art over controversial use of
male nudes in a coed art class.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1886 Feb 14, California orange
growers ship their first trainload of fruit from Los Angeles.
(HCB, 2003, p.92)
1886 Feb 15, Sax Rohmer, author
(Dr. Fu Manchu), was born in England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1886 Feb 23, Tchaikovsky’s
symphonic poem "Manfred" premiered.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1886 Feb 23, An aluminum
manufacturing process was developed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1886 Feb 23, London Times
published the world's 1st classified ad.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1886 Feb 27, Hugo L. Black was
born in Alabama. He became the 78th Supreme Court Justice (1937-71) and
wrote opinions forbidding prayer in schools (Sen-D-Ala).
(HN, 2/27/99)(MC, 2/27/02)
1886 Mar 3, The Treaty of
Bucharest concluded the Serb-Bulgarian war, re-establishing pre-war
Serbo-Bulgarian borders but leaving Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria united.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1886 Mar 6, The 1st US alternating
current power plant started in Great Barrington, MA.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1886 Mar 8, Edward Kendall,
chemist, isolated cortisone (Nobel 1950), was born.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1886 Mar 13, Albert William
Stevens, balloonist and photographer, was born.
(HN, 3/13/01)
1886 Mar 17, The Carrollton
Massacre in Mississippi occurred and 20 African Americans were killed.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1886 Mar 24, Edward Weston,
photographer, was born.
(HN, 3/24/01)
1886 Mar 26, The 1st cremation in
England took place.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1886 Mar 27, Ludwig Mies Van Der
Rohe, German-US architect (Bauhaus), was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1886 Mar 28, Jarosla Novotny,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1886 Mar 29, Coca-Cola was
advertised for the first time in the Atlanta Daily. Its inventor, Dr.
John Pemberton, claimed it could cure anything from hysteria to the
common cold. John Stith (Doc) Pemberton, pharmacist, concocted a bath
of a dark, sugary syrup meant to be mixed with carbonated water and
sold at the city’s soda fountains. This was the beginning of Coca Cola,
which then contained enough cocaine to give the a drinker a buzz and
more caffeine than the drink contains today. Sales at the soda fountain
of Jacob‘s Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. The
story is told by Frederick Allen in his book “Secret Formula.” The
drink was named by Frank Robinson and he created its signature script
logo. [see May 8]
(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1886 Mar 31, Giovanni Rossi (57),
composer, died.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1886 Apr 11, General Nelson A.
Miles arrived at Fort Bowie, Ariz., to begin his assignment to
subjugate or destroy a band of Apaches led by Geronimo.
(ON, 10/06, p.1)
1886 Apr 26, Ma Rainey, [Gertrude
Pridgett], "Mother of the Blues", US blues singer, was born. [see Apr
3, 1888]
(MC, 4/26/02)
1886 Apr 27, A band of Apaches led
by Geronimo attacked a ranch west of Fort Huachuca and killed 3
American citizens.
(ON, 10/06, p.1)
1886 Apr 28, Erich Salomon, German
photographer, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1886 Apr, Abolitionist Frederick
Douglass gave a speech in Washington to celebrate the 24th year after
the Emancipation Proclamation. He said: "Where justice is denied, where
poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, where any one class is
made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob
and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
(USAT, 2/14/97, p.15A)
1886 Apr, In San Francisco school
children on Arbor Day planted the first trees of the Presidio forest.
Adolph Sutro enlisted schoolchildren to help plant eucalyptus, acacia,
Monterey pine and Monterey cypress trees in Glen Park. The 904-foot
Mount Parnassus, owned by Sutro, was also planted.
(G, Winter, p.3)(SFC, 5/26/00, Wb p.8)(SFC, 6/20/00,
p.A1)
1886 May 1, A labor strike began
across the US to support an 8-hour work day.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1886 May 2, Edouard Lockroy,
French Minister of Culture, announced plans for a tower for the 1889
Paris exhibition and invited proposals for the project. The winning
design was submitted by engineer Gustave Eiffel.
(ON, 7/03, p.9)
1886 May 3, Police arrived outside
the McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago, where 1,400 IWPA workers were
on strike. They opened-fire on the crowd while anarchist August Spies
was making a speech, killing four of the workers.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAspies.htm)
1886 May 4, At
Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an 8-hour
workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen were
killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the
strike. 3 labor leaders were executed Nov 10, 1887, for the bombing.
The Haymarket affair is generally considered to have been an important
influence on the origin of international May Day observances for
workers.
(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 2/6/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot)
1886 May 5, A bomb exploded on the
fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1886 May 8, Atlanta pharmacist
John Stith Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola, which
contained cocaine. The name for the soft drink came from his
bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. Sales of Coca-Cola at the soda fountain of
Jacob‘s Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. [see Mar 29]
(AP, 5/8/97)(HN,
5/8/98)(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1886 May 9, William Hornaday,
taxidermist for the Smithsonian Institute, arrived with his assistants
in Miles City, Montana, on a venture to hunt buffalo and learned that
none had been seen for a long time.
(ON, 3/02, p.8)
1886 May 10, Karl Barth (d.1966),
Swiss theologian, was born. "Conscience is the perfect interpreter of
life."
(AP, 3/9/01)(HN, 5/10/02)
1886 May 15, Poet Emily Dickinson
(b.1830) died in Amherst, Mass., where she had lived in seclusion for
the previous 24 years. In 2001 Alfred Habegger authored her biography:
"My Wars Are laid Away in Books." In 2008 Brenda Wineapple authored
“White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth
Higginson (1823-1911).
(AP, 5/15/97)(HN, 5/15/01)(WSJ, 11/2/01,
p.W11)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.96)
1886 May 16, Douglas Southall
Freeman, journalist, historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, was
born.
(HN, 5/16/01)
1886 May 19, Camille Saint-Saens'
3rd Symphony in C ("Organ"), premiered.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1886 May 25, Philip Murray,
founder of Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) , was born.
(HN, 5/25/98)
1886 Jun 2, President Cleveland
married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony. Cleveland’s bride,
Frances Folsom, was the 22-year-old daughter of Cleveland’s late law
partner and friend, Oscar Folsom. The intimate wedding ceremony took
place in the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people
present.(To date, Cleveland is the only president to marry in the
Executive Mansion while in office.)
(AP, 6/2/97)(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A1)(HNQ, 6/2/98)
1886 Jun 3, 24 Christians were
burned to death in Namgongo, Uganda.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1886 Jun 10, In New Zealand Mount
Tarawera erupted at Rotorua on the North Island. 155 people were killed
and several Maori and European settlement were destroyed.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T5)
1886 Jun 11, David Steinman,
bridge designer (Hudson, Triborough), was born in NYC.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1886 Jun 13, King Ludwig II (40),
King of Bavaria, drowned in Lake Starnberg. Bavarian leaders had
conspired to remove Ludvig II from office and got a doctor, who never
saw him, to declare him insane. He was captured and taken to a mansion
on Lake Starnberg where he was found floating dead with his doctor. In
1996 Greg King authored "The Mad King."
(AP, 6/13/97)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T5)
1886 Jun 25, Henry (Hap) Arnold,
commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, was
born.
(HN, 6/25/99)
1886 Jun 29, James Van Der Zee,
African-American photographer, was born.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1886 Jul 3, In Germany Karl Benz
drove the 1st automobile. [see Jan 29]
(MC, 7/3/02)
1886 Jul 4, The 1st scheduled
Canadian transcontinental passenger train (CPR) reached Pt. Moody, BC.
It had left Montreal on June 28.
(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1886 Jul 13, Father Edward J.
Flanagan, catholic priest, founder of Boys Town, was born in Roscommon,
Ireland.
(AP, 7/13/07)
1886 Jul 23, Arthur Whitten Brown,
British aviator, was born.
(HN, 7//2302)
1886 Jul 23, New York saloonkeeper
Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn
Bridge into the East River. However, few historians believe the jump
actually occurred
(AP, 7/23/07)
1886 Jul 26, William Gladstone was
replaced by Lord Salisbury as prime minister of England.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1886 Jul 31, Franz Liszt,
composer, died in Bayreuth. His work included the symphonic poem "Les
Preludes" and the "Faust Symphony." Cosima-von-Bulow was a illegitimate
daughter of Liszt and married to Richard Wagner. A 3 volume biography
of Liszt (1977, 1983, 1996) was written by Alan Walker, Vol 3 was
titled: "Franz Liszt: The final Years." Deszno Legany of Hungary
earlier wrote: "Liszt and His country: 1874-1866."
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A14)
1886 Aug 20, Paul Tillich,
German-US theologian and philosopher who wrote "Systematic Theology,"
was born.
(HN, 8/20/98)(MC, 8/20/02)
1886 Aug 27, Eric Coates, viola
player, composer, was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1886 Aug 31, An earthquake rocked
Charleston, S.C., killing 60 people, according to the US Geological
Survey.
(AP, 8/31/07)
1886 Sep 4, Elusive Apache leader
Geronimo (1829-1909) surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925)
at Skeleton Canyon, Ariz. This ended the last major US-Indian war.
(HN, 9/4/98)(ON, 10/06, p.4)
1886 Sep 9, The Berne
International Copyright Convention took place at the instigation of
Victor Hugo and backed the individual copyright laws of the European
states. It was updated in 1971. In 1993 the Brussels directive brought
in a Europe-wide 70-year rule.
(HN, 9/9/00)(WSJ, 1/31/02,
p.A16)(www.ifla.org.sg/documents/infopol/copyright/ucc.txt)
1886 Sep 13, Alain Locke, writer
and first African-American Rhodes scholar, was born.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1886 Sep 14, Jan Garrique Masaryk
(d.1948), Czech statesman, was born.
(www.britannica.com)
1886 Sep 14, George K. Anderson of
Memphis, Tennessee, patented typewriter ribbon.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltypewriter.htm)
1886 Oct 7, Spain abolished
slavery in Cuba.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.C4)(MC, 10/7/01)
1886 Oct 10, The tuxedo dinner
jacket made its American debut at the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
(AP, 10/10/97)
1886 Oct 16, David Ben-Gurion
(d.1973), Israeli statesman, was born in Plonsk, Poland. He was the 1st
PM of Israel and served from 1948-53 and in 1955.
(HN, 10/16/00)(MC, 10/16/01)
1886 Oct 26, Gustav Hermann Unger,
composer, was born.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1886 Oct 28, The Statue of Liberty
on Liberty Island, formerly Bedloe's Island, in New York Harbor,
a gift from the people of France, was dedicated by President Cleveland.
It was designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and originally named
Liberty Enlightening the World. It was erected at the entrance of New
York harbor as a symbol of freedom to welcome immigrants and others
from around the world and became a monument to republicanism and to the
amity between the French and American nations. The 225-ton statue
arrived in 214 packing cases in June 1885 and was assembled on an
American-built pedestal, the money for which was largely raised by
Joseph Pulitzer. Lady Liberty, holding up her torch at the entrance of
the harbor, remains one of America's most recognized monuments. Later
the poem "New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus was placed at the base. The
island was renamed by Pres. Eisenhower.
(WUD, 1994, p.1389)(WSJ, 7/26/96, p.A9)(THC,
4/10/97)(AP, 10/28/97) (HNPD, 10/28/98)(HN, 10/28/98)(MC, 10/28/01)
1886 Nov 9, Ed Wynn, actor and
comedian, was born.
(HN, 11/9/00)
1886 Nov 18, Chester A. Arthur
(56), 21st president of the United States (1881-1885), died in
New York.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1886 Nov 21, Harold G. Nicolson,
English diplomat and author (Good Behavior), was born.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1886 Nov 24, Margaret Anderson,
editor, was born. She founded "The Little Review."
(HN, 11/24/00)
1886 Nov 30, 1st commercially
successful AC electric power plant opened in Buffalo.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1886 Nov 30, Folies Bergere
introduced an elaborate review featuring women in sensational costumes.
Years later, the Folies followed the Parisian taste for striptease and
gained a reputation for spectacular nudie shows. The Folies had
originated as a hall for operettas, pantomime, and even political
meetings.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1885 Nov, Atlanta, Georgia, voted
to become a dry city effective July, 1886.
(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1886 Dec 1, Rex Stout, writer,
poet, was born. He created the detective character Nero Wolfe.
(HN, 12/1/00)
1886 Dec 6, Joyce Kilmer (d.1918),
American poet best known for his poem "Trees," was born. Kilmer was
killed by a sniper in WW I.
(HN, 12/6/98)(WUD, 1994 p.786)
1886 Dec 8, Diego Rivera (d.1957),
Mexican painter, was born.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1886 Dec 8, The American
Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded at a convention of union leaders
in Columbus, Ohio, by some 25 labor groups representing about 150,000
members. The first president of the American Federation of Labor was
Samuel Gompers, who had reorganized the Cigarmakers Union and
participated in the founding of the Federation of Organized Trades and
Labor Unions in 1881.
(AP, 12/8/97)(HNPD, 9/7/99)
1886 Dec 9, Clarence Birdseye,
inventor of flash freezing foods, was born.
(HNPD, 12/9/98)
1886 Dec 17, At a Christmas party,
Sam Belle shot his old enemy Frank West, but was fatally wounded
himself.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1886 Dec 18, Ty [Tyrus Raymond]
Cobb, American baseball player, first man to be elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame, was born.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1886 Dec 20, Domingo Julio Gomez
Garcia, composer, was born.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1886 Karl von Frisch, Austrian
ethologist, was born. In the 1940s he first described the method by
which honeybees describe the source of gathered pollen to their fellow
bees. The bees perform a dance is that integrates information about the
orientation of the sun and the distance to the pollen source.
(WUD, 1994, p.569)(NH, 9/97, p.60)
1886 The last impressionist
exhibition was held in France.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.E8)
1886 Jean-Leon Gerome painted "The
First Kiss of the Sun."
(WSJ, 2/5/99, p.W12)
1886 Henri Fantin-Latour painted
"Vase With Autumn Asters."
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.B1)
1886 Auguste Rodin created his
marble sculpture "The Kiss."
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)
1886 Medardo Rosso sculpted his
"The Golden Age."
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.46)
1886 Thomas Hardy, English writer,
authored "The Mayor of Casterbridge."
(SFC, 8/16/03, p.D1)
1886 Baron von Richard
Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) published a work on mental disease.
(WUD, 1994, p.795)
1886 Pierre Loti, French naval
officer and author, wrote "An Iceland Fisherman."
(SFEC, 11/17/96, DB p.40)
1886 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Kidnapped." His work
also included "Silverado Squatters" based on his experiences in
Calistoga, Ca. Stevenson used Mount St. Helena and the Palisades for
story scenes in "Treasure Island."
(Article on Calistoga by Cybil McCabe, 7/95)(WSJ,
4/24/98, p.W1)
1886 Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910),
Russian writer, authored his novel “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”
(WSJ, 2/25/06, p.P6)
1886 Jules Verne (1828-1905)
authored his novel “The Clipper of the Clouds.”
(ON, 3/06, p.3)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/verne.htm)
1886 Emile Zola (1840-1902),
French author, wrote "The Masterpiece," the story of an artist in
pursuit of his vision. Zola described the horror felt by much of the
general public when presented with the work of the new Impressionists.
(WSJ, 4/29/06, p.P10)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.85)
1886 The musical "The Black Crook"
was named as the first American musical.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, DB p.13)
1886 The Beaumont Hotel was built
in Ouray, Colo.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.E2)
1886 James McCutcheon, who made a
fortune in the linen trade, hired a Boston architect to build him a
mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. In late 2007 the property was sold
to Rene Kern, managing director of the General Atlantic hedge fund, who
planned to demolish it, despite protests, and build a new home.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.A6)
1886 In Galveston, Texas, the
Millie Walters House was built. It was the last of the famous
Postoffice St. bordellos.
(HT, 5/97, p.62)
1886 Assembly Hall, a gothic-style
building built by the Latter-day Saint pioneers, was completed in Salt
Lake City, Utah.
(THM, 4/27/97, p.N3)
1868 The ship Balclutha was built
in Glasgow, Scotland. It was named in Gaelic for Clyde’s rock. For 16
years it sailed from the British Isles with a load of coal around Cape
Horn to SF where it picked up grain and returned to Europe. It was
later preserved at the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco. [1st
source said 1860]
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A15)(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D1)
1886 A US general interest
magazine was begun that came to be known as Cosmopolitan.
(SFC, 8/19/05, p.E9)
1886 The Baptist General
Convention, a state umbrella group for Baptist churches, was founded in
Texas.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.A14)
1886 Agua Caliente, home of warm
mineral springs used by the Sonoma Valley Indians, was founded as the
first resort in Sonoma, Ca.
(WCG, p.58)
1886 David McConnell of New York
founded the California Perfume Company. He found that people were
buying his books because of his free rose oil perfumes. US saleswoman
P.F.E. Albee of Winchester, N.H., became the first Avon Lady. The
company was named Avon in 1939.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(WSJ, 9/18/00, p.B1)
1886 Nicholas Hilger began river
boat tours on the Missouri River near Helena at the site of the
limestone cliffs named the Gates of the Mountains by the Lewis and
Clark expedition.
(GOTM, brochure)
1886 Millionaires Pulitzer,
McCormick, Rockefeller, Morgan and others formed the Jekyll Island Club
as a vacation resort for themselves and their families on Jekyll Island
off the coast of Georgia.
(SFC, 4/28/96, p.T-7)
1886 Ybor City was founded next to
St. Petersburg by Spanish, Italian and Cuban cigar workers.
(Hem., 3/97, p.60)
1886 A board game called "The Game
of Baseball" was made with a lithographed game board by the McLoughlin
Brothers. In 1999 the boxed game was worth $3,000.
(SFC, 4/7/99, Z1 p.7)
1886 The beverages Moxie, Dr
Pepper, Coca-Cola [see Mar 29] and Hires Root Beer all appeared in
bottles.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.B5)
1886 Maxwell House coffee was
named.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.B5)
1886 Pres. Grover Cleveland (49)
married Frances Folsom (21), his ward and the daughter of his late law
partner. He became the first and only president to be married in the
White House. Cleveland's bride, Frances Folsom, was the 22-year-old
daughter of Cleveland's late law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom. For
years, the bachelor Cleveland acted as executor of Folsom's estate, but
no one suspected his interest in Frances until he proposed marriage
after her graduation from Wells College. The intimate wedding ceremony
took place in the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people
present. They had 2 sons and 3 daughters, one of whom, Ruth, inspired
the Babe Ruth candy bar.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 2)(HNQ, 11/1/98)
1886 The US Army, which handled
weather forecasting, banned the word “tornado.” It had determined that
the harm done by predicting a tornado would be greater than that done
by the tornado itself. The ban was lifted in 1952.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.D6)
1886 US Corporations acquired the
legal status of "personhood" and the accompanying right to
constitutional protections.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.E4)
1886 The Passenger Vessel Services
Act (PSA) of this year required that cruise ships stopping in at US
ports be built and registered in the US, be owned by US citizens and
manned by American seamen—or that they stop at a foreign port before
returning passengers to their departure point. It was designed to
protect US ferry boats operating on the Great Lakes from Canadian
competition.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.C10)(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.B1)
1886 George Hearst was elected US
Senator for California.
(SFEM, 10/24/99, p.20)
1886 The three Korbel brothers
built a lumber mill in Guerneville, California. The mill prospered
logging redwoods and specialized in fancy moldings used in many of the
Victorian homes of San Francisco. The property was acquired by the Heck
family in 1954 who began producing sparkling wines.
(SFC, 4/9/96, zz1 p.3)
1886 In San Francisco Adolph Sutro
opened his Sutro Baths. The huge glass enclosure had room for 1,600
bathers. Late in his life the former mayor donated the Sutro Library to
the city. It was made up of a 50,000-volume genealogy collection,
medieval Jewish tests, books and documents from the Italian
Renaissance, the papers of British explorer Joseph Banks, a labor
archive and other collections.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1886 The 13-room Haas-Lilienthal
House was built at 2007 Franklin, SF. Architect Peter R. Schmidt built
the 24-room house of fir and redwood for Bertha and William Haas, a
mercantile grocer, for $18,500.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.2)(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D5)
1886 In San Francisco the Union
Iron Works red brick machine shop was built across from the dry dock
gate at Pier 70. It closed in 2004 due to seismic issues. In 2009 plans
were made public for the redevelopment of the area.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)(SFC, 7/11/09, p.A6)
1886 In SF the Fior d’Italia
restaurant began to serve clients for a nearby North Beach bordello. In
February 2005 the restaurant was burned out of its Washington Square
location. It re-opened in November on Mason Street at the former San
Remo Hotel.
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A1)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.B5)
1886 In SF the North Beach jewelry
business, later run by Rocco Matteucci (d.1959), was founded.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A24)
1886 Aaron Shenson started a meat
business. In 1953 the H. Shenson Wholsesale Meat Co. moved to a new
plant at 1040 Bryant St., SF.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1886 Josephine Garis Cochrane
(d.1913), a housewife from Shelbyville, Ill., patented the first
dishwashing machine. She named it the Garis-Cochran Dishwashing Machine
in honor of her father and late husband.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(ON, 4/00, p.12)
1886 The Chicago Tribune began
using the Linotype, invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899) of
Germany. It produced newspaper type until it was replaced by computers.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A21)(ON, 7/00, p.5)
1886 Charles T. Yerkes acquired a
primitive horse-car company on Chicago’s North Side. He acquired
another the following year on the West Side and proceeded to develop
the city’s streetcar system. His accomplishments included the
Northwestern Elevated, the Consolidated Traction network of suburban
lines and the Union Loop.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)
1886 The Grand Rapids School
Furniture Company was founded in Grand Rapids, Mich. By 1899 the
company had merged with 18 others to form the American Seating Co. of
NYC.
(SFC, 1/14/09, p.G2)
1886 Bloomingdale's department
store in NYC moved to 59th and Lexington Ave.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.D2)
1886 Robert J. Horner opened a
furniture shop on West 23rd Street in NYC. In 1914-15 the business
merged with a furniture company owned by George C. Flint and became
Flint & Horner, which grew into a large retail store.
(SFC, 1/16/08, p.G4)
1886 George Westinghouse
incorporated the Westinghouse Electric Company.
(ON, 10/04, p.6)
1886 Alexander Winton, Cleveland
bicycle manufacturer, made his first running experimental car. He went
into the car business a year later.
(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1886 Richard W. Sears began
selling watches in North Redwood, Minn. In 1887 he opened a Chicago
headquarters after hiring watchmaker Alvah C. Roebuck. In 1888 the 1st
Sears catalog sold watches and jewelry. [see 1893]
(SFC, 11/18/04, p.B1)
1886 Duke's Cameo smokes was
patented.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1886 LaVerne Noyes (1849-1919)
invented his akromotor, a device that converted wind to electricity and
proved to be immensely useful to American farmers.
(http://eos.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/donors2.html#d)
1886 In Honolulu, Hawaii, a fire
destroyed the original Chinatown.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.3)
1886 Texas was hit by 4 hurricanes.
(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.A1)
1886 Alexander Ostrovsky (b.1823),
Russian social realist playwright, died.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A24)
1886 London’s Soho district of
this year was the setting for Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel "The Secret
Agent."
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.C12)
1886 The Clunies-Ross family was
granted the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, about 2,700 kilometers
(1,680 miles) northwest of Perth, by Queen Victoria. Captain John
Clunies-Ross, a Scottish trader, had landed there in 1825.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
1886 Henry Stanley (1841-1904),
Welsh-born journalist, led the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition to "rescue"
Emin Pasha, the governor of Equatoria in the southern Sudan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morton_Stanley)
1886 In Bulgaria the Cathedral of
the Assumption was built in Varna.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T3)
1886 The ruler of Bambao unified
Grande Comore Island into the State of Ngazidja, with the local rulers
retaining their titles.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Comoros.html)
1886 In Cuba slavery was abolished.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.C4)
1886 Rene Lalique, a pioneer of
Art Nouveau style, set up his own jewelry workshop in Paris, France. He
had already apprenticed under Louis Aucoq and worked for Cartier,
Boucheron and other established houses.
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.C4)
1886 In Germany the firm of Robert
Bosch GmbH was founded. It later became a world leader in automotive
electronics.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A30)
1886 In Mexico the Tequila San
Matias company in Guadalajara began tequila production.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.4)
1886 A handful of German families,
led by Elisabeth Nietzsche-Foerster (1935), founded the Aryan colony
Nueva Germania in the jungles of Paraguay. The idea had been originally
suggested by composer Richard Wagner in 1880. The colony fell apart in
1893 and Elisabeth Nietzsche-Foerster, described by her brother,
Friedrich Nietzsche (d.1900), as a “vengeful anti-Semitic goose,”
returned to Germany where she edited and promoted the work of her
brother.
(SSFC, 3/13/05, p.C6)
1886 Piotr Smirnov was made
'Official Purveyor' of vodka to the imperial Russian court. His pure,
charcoal-filtered vodka became the toast of the Czars. Later, one of
Smirnov's sons escaped Russia's revolution and restarted the family
business in Paris, adopting the francophone name Smirnoff. The pure
Smirnoff vodka took America by storm in the 1930's and went on to
become a global icon.
(www.diageo.com/en-row/AboutDiageo/OurHistory/)
1886 The discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand, South Africa, launched the city of Johannesburg. Labor
was provided from Lesotho.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 562)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A11)
1886-1888 Vincent Van Gogh made his Paris sojourn.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1886-1952 Sister Elizabeth Kenny, Australian nurse:
"Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but
to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere
along the route."
(AP, 11/25/97)
1886-1963 Robert Schuman, French statesman: "When I
was a young man I vowed never to marry until I found the ideal woman.
Well, I found her—but, alas, she was waiting for the perfect man."
(AP, 6/26/97)
1886-1965 Paul Tillich, American theologian: "The
first duty of love is to listen."
(AP, 11/28/97)
1886-1967 Bruce Barton, American advertising
executive: "Conceit is God’s gift to little men."
(AP, 8/11/00)
1886-1967 Mir Osman Ali Khan, 7th and last ruler of
the Sif Jahi dynasty in India. He ruled Hyderabad up to 1948 and
amassed a fortune from taxation. He donated to hundreds of universities
and hospitals regardless of caste and religion. When he died rooms were
found filled with bank notes eaten through by rats.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1886-1967 Siegfried Sassoon, English poet and
novelist. He met Wilfred Owen in a sanatorium and published his poetry
after Owen died at the front.
(WUD, 1994, p.1270)
1886-1969 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, member of
Bauhaus, established a new dept. of architecture at Armour Institute
(later Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago.
(V.D.-H.K.p.363)
1886-1975 Rex Stout, American author: "There are two
kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up."
(AP, 7/14/97)
1886-1966 Karl Barth, Swiss theologian: "Conscience
is the perfect interpreter of life."
(AP, 3/9/01)
Go to 1887-1890