| January 2 | General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum |
| January 4 | Dr. W W Grant of Iowa, performs 1st appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22) |
| January 17 | British beat Mahdists at Battle of Abu Klea in Sudan |
| January 19 | Battle at Abu Klea Sudan, 800-1000 killed |
| January 25 | Vincent d'Indy's "Saugefleurie," premieres |
| January 26 | Muhammad Ahmed ("Mahdi") rebels conquer Khartoum |
| February 5 | News of fall of Khartoum reaches London |
| February 9 | 1st Japanese arrive in Hawaii |
| February 12 | Carl Peters founds German East-Africa Society |
| February 17 | Bismarck gives Carl Peters' firm management of East-Africa |
| February 18 | Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," published |
| February 21 | Washington Monument dedicated in Washington D.C. |
| February 25 | U.S. Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds |
| February 26 | Congress of Berlin, gives Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England |
| March 3 | 1st U.S. state (California) establishes a permanent forest commission |
| March 3 | American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) incorporates |
| March 3 | Congress passes Indian Appropriations Act (Indians wards of federal government) |
| March 3 | U.S. Post Office offers special delivery for 1st-class mail |
| March 4 | Gilbert and Sullivan's opera "Mikado," premieres in London |
| March 4 | Grover Cleveland inaugrated as 1st Democratic President since Civil War |
| March 14 | Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado," premieres in London |
| March 14 | "Mikado" opera premieres in London |
| March 15 | 1st performance of Cesar Franck's "Lesson Djinns" |
| March 19 | Louis Riel returns to Canada, proclaims provisional government, Sask |
| March 20 | John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine |
| March 20 | Yiddish theater opens in New York with Golldfaden operetta |
| March 21 | 2nd French government of Ferry resigns |
| March 26 | Eastman Film Co. manufactures 1st commercial motion picture film |
| March 26 | Louis Riel's forces defeat Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Sask |
| March 28 | U.S. Salvation Army officially organized |
| March 31 | Great Britain declares Bechuanaland a protectorate |
| April 30 | Boston Pops Orchestra forms |
| May 1 | Maria "Goeie Mie" Swanenburg sentence to life for killing 27 in Netherlands |
| May 2 | Congo Free State forms by King Leopold II of Belgium |
| May 2 | "Good Housekeeping" magazine is 1st published |
| May 7 | John E. W. Thompson, named minister to Haiti |
| May 8 | Sarah Ann Henley survives 76-m jump from Clifton Bridge, Avon, Engl |
| May 14 | 11th Kentucky Derby: Babe Henderson aboard Joe Cotton wins in 2:37 |
| May 15 | Canadian Meti insurgent Louis Reil captured, Saskatchewan |
| May 19 | 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts) |
| May 19 | German chancellor Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon and Togoland |
| May 19 | Jan Matzeliger begins 1st mass production of shoes |
| May 22 | 13th Preakness: Jim McLaughlin aboard Tecumseh wins in 2:49 |
| June 6 | 19th Belmont: Paul Duffy aboard Tyrant wins in 2:43 |
| June 6 | Opera "Lakme" is produced, Paris |
| June 12 | Roof collapse kills 30 at murder trial in France |
| June 17 | Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City |
| June 24 | British government of Salisbury forms |
| June 24 | Samuel David Ferguson becomes 1st U.S. black bishop |
| July 2 | Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear |
| July 6 | Louis Pasteur successfully tests an anti-rabies vaccine |
| August 7 | 5 German warships anchor at Zanzibar |
| August 10 | Leo Daft opens America's 1st coml operated electric streetcar (Balt) |
| August 11 | $100,000 raised in U.S. for pedestal for Statue of Liberty |
| August 29 | Boxing's 1st heavyweight title fight with 3-oz gloves and 3-minute rounds fought between John L Sullivan and Dominick McCaffrey |
| August 29 | Gottlieb Daimler receives German patent for a motorcycle |
| August 29 | Phillies Charlie Ferguson no-hits Providence 1-0 |
| August 30 | 13,000 meteors seen in 1 hour near Andromeda |
| September 4 | 1st cafeteria opens (New York City) |
| September 5 | 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer (Ft. Wayne, Ind) |
| September 11 | Moses Hopkins, named minister to Liberia |
| September 12 | Highest score (35) recorded in any 1st-class soccer match is set |
| September 16 | Puritan (U.S.) beats Genesta (England) in 6th running of America's Cup |
| September 21 | Dutch demonstrate for general voting right |
| September 24 | 5 German warships depart to Zanzibar |
| September 30 | Bechuanaland becomes a British protectorate |
| October 1 | Special delivery mail service begins in US |
| October 15 | Hoss Radbourne pitches his 60th win of season |
| October 17 | Baseball sets all players salaries at $1,000-$2,000 for 1885 season |
| October 22 | John Ward and several teammates secretly form Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players, 1st baseball union |
| October 24 | Johann Strauss' opera "Zigeunerbaron," premieres in Vienna |
| October 25 | John Brahms' 4th Symphony in E, premieres |
| November 1 | Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Immortale Dei |
| November 3 | Tacoma vigilantes drive out Chinese, burn their homes and businesses |
| November 6 | U.S. Mint at Carson City, Nevada directed to close |
| November 7 | Canadian Pacific Railway completed at Craigellachie |
| November 9 | Opera "Ermine," premieres in London |
| November 10 | Gottlieb Daimler's motorcycle, world's 1st, unveiled |
| November 12 | Montreal and Britannia Football Clubs (QRFU) defeat Ontario Combined Team (ORFU) 3-0 in CRFU Championship game |
| November 13 | Serbian army occupies Bulgaria |
| November 23 | Amsterdam police attack meeting of social-democrats united |
| November 26 | 1st meteor photograph |
| November 30 | Opera "El Cid" premieres (Paris) |
| December 2 | Opera "Regina di Saba," premieres in Vienna |
| December 7 | 49th Congress (1885-87) convenes |
| December 17 | France declares Madagascar a protectorate |
| December 22 | Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee |
| December 29 | Gottlieb Daimler patents 1st bike (Germany) |
BrainyHistory
