| January 2 | Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust |
| January 13 | Richard Wagner completes his opera "Parsifal" |
| January 15 | 1st U.S. ski club forms, Berlin, New Hampshire |
| January 17 | 1st Dutch female physician Aletta Jacobs opens office |
| January 25 | Bilu, a Russian Zionist organization, forms |
| January 26 | France government of Gambetta falls |
| February 2 | Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Conn |
| February 3 | Circus owner PT Barnum buys his world famous elephant Jumbo |
| February 7 | Last bare knuckle champion John L Sullivan KOs Paddy Ryan in Miss |
| February 10 | Rimski-Korsakovs opera "Snyegurochka," premieres in St. Petersburg |
| February 12 | Social-Democratic Union forms in Amsterdam |
| February 15 | 1st cargo of frozen meat leaves New Zealand for Britain, on SS Dunedin |
| February 15 | SS Dunedin leaves New Zealand with 1st frozen meat to England |
| February 17 | 1st Test Cricket match played at Sydney Cricket Ground |
| February 21 | New York City's 24 hour race begins, winner with most mileage in 24 hours |
| February 22 | With 120 miles James Saunders wins New York City's 24 hour race and $100 prize |
| February 28 | 1st U.S. college cooperative store opens, at Harvard University |
| March 3 | New York Steam Corp begins distributing steam to Manhattan buildings |
| March 6 | Monarch Milan Obrenovic of Serbia crowns himself king |
| March 9 | False teeth patented |
| March 11 | Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in Princeton New Jersey |
| March 16 | U.S. Senate ratifies treaty establishing the Red Cross |
| March 22 | Edmunds Act adopted by U.S. to suppress polygamy in the territories |
| March 24 | Dr. Robert Koch discovers germ that causes tuberculosis |
| March 24 | German scientist Robert Koch discovers bacillus cause of TB |
| March 25 | 1st demonstration of pancake making (Department store in New York City) |
| March 29 | Knights of Columbus chartered for Catholic men |
| April 3 | Wood block alarm invented, when alarm rang, it dropped 20 wood blocks |
| April 10 | Matson founds his shipping company (San Francisco and Hawaii) |
| May 6 | Chinese Exclusion Act: U.S. Congress ceases Chinese immigration |
| May 6 | Epping Forest England dedicated by Queen Victoria |
| May 8 | David Belasco's "La Belle Russe," premieres in New York City |
| May 9 | Telegraph Hill RR Co organized |
| May 13 | Toba-indians killed 20 members of French expedition |
| May 15 | May Laws-Czar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania |
| May 16 | 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40 |
| May 20 | Germany/Austria-Hungary/France sign Triple Alliance |
| May 20 | Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago |
| May 20 | St. Gotthard-railroad tunnel between Switzerland and Italy opens |
| May 23 | 6" of snow falls in eastern Iowa |
| May 27 | 10th Preakness: T Costello aboard Vanguard wins in 2:44 |
| June 2 | Pierre de Brazza festival welcomed in Paris |
| June 5 | Storm and floods hits Bombay; about 100,000 die |
| June 6 | Cyclone in Arabian Sea, Bombay, India, drowns 100,000 |
| June 6 | Electric iron patented by Henry W Seely, New York City |
| June 8 | 16th Belmont: Jim McLaughlin aboard Forester wins in 2:43 |
| June 10 | Anti-colonization mass society of Alexandria Egypt kills 50 Europeans |
| June 16 | 17" hailstones weighing 1.75 lbs fall in Dubuque Iowa |
| June 17 | Tornado kills 130 in Iowa |
| June 24 | NL expels umpire Richard Higham for dishonesty |
| July 4 | Telegraph Hill Observatory opens in San Francisco |
| July 6 | 14 Russian Jews of Bilu, arrive in Jaffa Palestine |
| July 11 | British fleet bombs Alexandria |
| July 12 | 1st ocean pier in U.S. completed, Washington, D.C. |
| July 13 | 200 die as train derails near Tcherny, Russia |
| July 18 | Louisville Tony Mullane is 1st to pitch righty then lefty |
| July 28 | Opera "Parsifal" is produced (Beirut) |
| August 3 | Congress passes 1st law restricting immigration |
| August 7 | Hatfields of south WV and McCoys of east Kentucky feud, 100 wounded or die |
| August 14 | Queen Victoria recieves Zulu chief Cetewayo |
| August 16 | British under General Wolseley land in Alexandria |
| August 20 | Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" opens in Moscow |
| August 29 | Australia beat England by 7 runs "Death of English cricket" |
| August 29 | Fred Spofforth completes 14-90 for match vs. England (7-46 and 7-44) |
| September 3 | French/Vietnamese/Chinese battle at Hanoi, 100s die |
| September 4 | 1st district lit by electricity (NY's Pearl Street Station) |
| September 5 | 10,000 workers march in 1st Labor Day parade in New York City |
| September 10 | 1st international conference to promote anti-semitism meets Dresden Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests) |
| September 12 | Belgian King Leopold II receives Pierre de Brazza |
| September 13 | Battle at Count el-Kebir: British troops invade Egypt |
| September 14 | British General Wolseley reaches Cairo |
| September 15 | British general Wolseley occupies Cairo |
| September 18 | Pacific Stock Exchange opens (as Local Security Board) |
| September 25 | 1st baseball doubleheader (Providence and Worcester) |
| October 6 | 1st World Series game, Cincinnati (AA) beats Chicago (NL) 4-0 |
| October 7 | 1st World Series (game 2), Chicago (NL) beats Cincinnati (AA) 2-0 |
| October 19 | Pierre de Brazza meets Henry Morton Stanley |
| October 28 | Athletics reveal $22,000 profit in their 1st season in the American Association |
| November 5 | Bedrich Smetana's "Ma Vlast," premieres |
| November 15 | British HMS Flirt destroys village of Asaba Niger |
| November 16 | British HMS Flirt fire at and destroy Abari village in Niger |
| December 2 | Amsterdam Artis Zoo opens aquarium |
| December 6 | Atmosphere of Venus detected during transit |
| December 10 | John Brahms' "Gesang der the Parzen," premieres |
| December 11 | Boston's Bijou Theatre, 1st American playhouse lit exclusively by electricity, 1st performance, Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe" |
| December 11 | Victorien Sardous "Fedora," with Sarah Bernhardt, premieres in Paris |
| December 14 | Henry Morton Stanley returns to Brussels from the Congo |
| December 22 | 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison |
BrainyHistory
