1883

1883 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 16 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed
• January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service (Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas Edison.
• February 16 – Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
• February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
• February 28 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• March – An Australian Catholic school, Star of the Sea College is founded in Elsternwick, Victoria (now known as Gardenstown) by the Irish Presentation Sisters.
• May 24 – Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
• May 30 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes twelve people.
• July 22 – Zulu king Cetshwayo barely escapes rebel attack with his life.
• August 12 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• August 26 – 28 – Krakatau volcano eruption (local time)- 163 villages destroyed, 36380 dead.
• September 15 – The Bombay Natural History Society is founded.
• September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis, Minnesota form the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports but avoid the high tariffs of Chicago.
• October 1 – Sydney Boys High School is founded in Sydney, Australia. It is the first boys public school in Australia.
• October 15 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional since it allowed individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
• November 3 – American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-8" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
• November 18 – US and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
• November 28 – Whitman College is chartered as a four-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.

Unknown date

• Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (German.bacteriologist) discovers the cholera bacillus.
• Antonio Gaudi begins to build Sagrada Familia cathedral.
• Fabian Society founded.
• Orient Express begins operation.

Births

January-June

• January 3 – Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
• January 6 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet, painter, and novelist (d. 1931)
• January 10 – Francis X. Bushman, American actor (d. 1966)
• January 10  – Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi, Russian writer (d. 1945)
• January 21 – Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (d. 1929)
• February 15 – Sax Rohmer, English author (d. 1959)
• February 7 – Eubie Blake, American musician and composer (d. 1983)
• February 11 – Paul August von Klenau, Danish composer and conductor
• February 23 – Karl Jaspers, German philosopher (d. 1969)
• February 23  – Victor Fleming, American film director (d. 1949)
• March 19 – Joseph Stilwell, American soldier (d. 1946)
• April 1 – Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (d. 1930)
• April 11 – Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author (d. 1951)
• April 15 – Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
• May 1 – Tom Moore, Irish actor (d. 1955)
• May 18 – Walter Gropius, German architect (d. 1969)
• May 20 – King Faisal I of Iraq (d. 1933)
• May 21 – Swan Glassey, inventor (d. 1962)
• May 23 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor (d. 1939)
• May 31 – Lauri Kristian Relander, President of Finland (d. 1942)
• June 5 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist (d. 1946)
• June 21 – Lluís Companys i Jover, President of Catalonia (d. 1940)
• June 24 – Victor Franz Hess, American physicist (d. 1964)

July-December

• July 4 – Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist (d. 1970)
• July 29 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (d. 1942)
• July 29  – Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy (d. 1945)
• August 19 – Elsie Ferguson, American actress (d. 1961)
• August 23 – Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, American general (d. 1953)
• August 30 – Theo van Doesburg, Dutch artist, painter, architect, and poet (d. 1931)
• September 15 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (d. 1950)
• October 26 – Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (d. 1958)
• November 8 – Arnold Bax, English composer (d. 1953)
• November 11 – Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (d. 1969)
• November 18 – Carl Vinson, U. S. Congressman (d. 1981)
• November 25 – Harvey Spencer Lewis, American Rosicrucian mystic (d. 1939)
• November 25  – Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher and aviation promoter (d. 1968)
• December 3 – Anton Webern, Austrian composer (d. 1945)
• December 16 ? Max Linder, French actor (d. 1925)
• December 22 – Edgar Varèse, French composer (d. 1965)
• December 25 – Maurice Utrillo, French artist and illustrator (d. 1955)

Unknown date

• Alberto Gerchunoff, Argentine writer (d. 1949)
• T. F. O'Rahilly, Irish academic

Deaths

• January 10 – Samuel Mudd, American doctor to John Wilkes Booth (b. 1833)
• January 23 – Gustave Doré, French artist (b. 1832)
• January 24 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (b. 1812)
• February 13 – Richard Wagner, German composer (b. 1813)
• February 17 – Napoleon Coste, French guitarist and composer (b. 1806)
• March 14 – Karl Marx, German philosopher (b. 1818)
• April 30 – Edouard Manet, French painter (b. 1832)
• May 24 – Abdel Kadir, Algerian leader (b. 1808)
• May 26 – Edward Sabine, Irish astronomer (b. 1788)
• July 22  – Edward Ord, U.S. Army officer (b. 1818)
• October 30 – Robert Volkmann, German composer (b. 1815)