1885

1885 is a common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January

• January 4 – The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.
• January 20 – L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• January 26 – Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum

February

• February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a personal possession.
• February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
• February 18 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
• February 21 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
• February 26 – Final Act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa.

March

• March-May – North-West Rebellion took place and was put down in Canada.
• March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
• March 4 – Grover Cleveland replaces Chester A. Arthur as President of the United States.
• March 31 – The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

May

• May 2
  • Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.
  • Cree and Assiniboine warriors won the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.
  • The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
• May 9-12 – Canadian government forces inflict decisive defeat on Métis rebels at the Battle of Batoche.

June

• June 17 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

July

• July 6 – Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister; a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
• July 20 – Professional football legalized in Britain

September

• September 2 – In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
• September 18 – Union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria proclaimed at Plovdiv.
• September 30 – A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland and adds it to British Bechuanaland.

November

• November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway finished: In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considered the project to be vital to Canada.
• November 14-28 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria but is defeated in Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17-19.
• November 16 – Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, Louis Riel is executed for high treason.

December

• December 1 – The US Patent Office acknowledges this date as the day Dr Pepper was served for the very first time; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown.
• December 28 – 72 Indian lawyers, academicians and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party

Unknown Dates

• Creation of the first genuine bicycle, the Rover, by John K Starley.
• John Boyd Dunlop invents the pneumatic tire.
• W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado
• The Times reports that "A lady well-known in literary and scientific circles" has been cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. She is the first person to be officially cremated in the United Kingdom
• Cholera epidemic in Spain – one of the victims is the king Alfonso XII
• Third Burmese War begins
• Sitting Bull joins Buffalo Bill
• Randolph Churchill becomes a viceroy of India
• Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse
• William Stanley, Jr. builds the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.
• Local anesthetic
• First skyscraper – Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors)
• Bicycle Playing Cards first produced

Births

• January 6 – Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)
• January 8 – John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
• January 11 – Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (d. 1977)
• January 21 – Umberto Nobile, Italian politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
• January 27 – Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945)
• January 27 – Eduard Künnecke, German composer (d. 1953)
• January 29 – Leadbelly, American musician (d. 1949)
• February 7 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist (d. 1951)
• February 9 – Alban Berg, Austrian composer (d. 1935)
• February 9 – Anita Ree, painter (d. 1933)
• February 13 – Bess Truman, wife of U.S. President Harry S. Truman (d. 1982)
• February 15 – Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969)
• February 21 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-born dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)
• February 24 – Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral (d. 1966)
• February 24 – Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (d. 1939)
• March 6 – Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
• March 11 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, English land and water racer (d. 1948)
• March 14 – Raoul Lufbery, World War I American pilot (d. 1918)
• March 31 – Pascin, Bulgarian painter (d. 1930)
• April 1 – Wallace Beery, American actor (d. 1949)
• April 3 – Allan Dwan, Canadian-born film director (d. 1981)
• April 4 – Arthur Murray, American dancer (d. 1991)
• May 2 – Hedda Hopper, American columnist (d. 1966)
• May 7 – George 'Gabby' Hayes, American actor (d. 1969)
• May 14 – Otto Klemperer, German conductor (d. 1973)
• May 21 – Oscar A.C. Lund, Swedish film actor, director, and writer (d. 1963)
• May 22 – Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)
• June 9 – John Edensor Littlewood, British mathematician (d. 1977)
• June 14 – E. L. Grant Watson, writer, anthropologist, and biologist (d. 1970)
• June 22 – Milan Vidmar, Slovenian electrical engineer and chess player (d. 1962)
• July 28 – Monte Attell, American boxer (d. 1960)
• September 11 – D.H. Lawrence, English author (d. 1930)
• September 22 – Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1951)
• October 3 – Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist {d. 1970)
• October 7 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d. 1962)
• October 30 – Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)
• November 2 – Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)
• November 5 – Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (d. 1981)
• November 11 – George Patton, American general (d. 1945)
• December 19 – Joe "King" Oliver, American jazz musician (d. 1938)

Deaths

• January 26 – Charles "Chinese" Gordon, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1833)
• April 2 – Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader (b. 1835)
• May 22 – Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)
• July 23 – Ulysses Simpson Grant, American Civil War general and the 18th U.S. President (b. 1822)
• August 10 – James Wilson Marshall, American contractor and builder of Sutter's Mill (b. 1810)
• September 15 – Jumbo the elephant (train accident)
• November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian leader (hanged for treason) (b. 1844)
• November 25 – King Alfonso XII of Spain (b. 1857)
• December 8 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1821)