1886

1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar)

Events

• January 18 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
• January 29 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
• March 17 – Carrollton Massacre: 20 African Americans are killed in Mississippi.
• March 19 ? Complete darkness for 10 minutes in Oshkosh, Wisconsin
• April 25 – Easter occurs on latest possible date (next in 1943)
• May 1 – the start of the general strike in the United States which escalated into Haymarket Riot and eventually won the eight-hour workday in the U.S.
• May 4 – Emil Berliner started working on inventing the gramophone.
• May 8 – Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would be named "Coca-Cola."
• May 29 – Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola (ad in the Atlanta Journal).
• June 2 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the first and only president to wed in the executive mansion.
• June 10 – Eruption of Mount Tarawera volcano in New Zealand, resulting in the deaths of over 150 people and the destruction of the famous Pink and White Terraces.
• July 25 ? Steve Brodie fakes a jump from the Brooklyn Bridge
• June 13 – A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
• August 4 ? William Ewart Gladstone fails to secure enough support for the Irish Home Rule in the British parliament
• August 20 – A massive hurricane demolishes the town of Indianola, Texas
• August 31 – Huge Earthquake hits South Carolina USA. Earthquake rods installed afterwards... Much Damage.
• September 4 – Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders with his last band of warriors to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.
• October 28 – In New York Harbor, US President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.
• November 30 – Folies Bergère stages its first revue.

• Britain annexes Burma
• Etna erupts
• Piccadilly Circus
• William Grant & Sons founded

Births

January-April

• January 2 – Florence Lawrence, Canadian-born actress (d. 1938)
• January 14 – Hugh Lofting, English-born author (d. 1947)
• January 25 – Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor (d. 1954)
• February 8 – Charles Ruggles, American actor (d. 1970)
• February 27 – Hugo Black, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1971)
• March 1 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter, graphic artist, and poet (d. 1980)
• March 15 – Sergei Kirov, Soviet revolutionary (d. 1934)
• March 18 – Edward Everett Horton, American actor (d. 1970)
• March 24 – Edward Weston, American photographer (d. 1958)
• March 25 – Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople (d. 1972)
• March 27 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (d. 1969)
• April 26 – Ma Rainey, American blues singer (d. 1939)

May-December

• May 2 – Gottfried Benn, German poet (d. 1956)
• May 3 – Marcel Dupré, French composer (d. 1971)
• May 17 – King Alfonso XIII of Spain (d. 1941)
• May 20 – John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, British businessman (d. 1971)
• May 26 – Al Jolson, American trumpeter (d. 1950)
• June 7 – Henri Coanda, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (d. 1972)
• June 18 – George Mallory, English climber (d. 1924)
• July 12 – Jean Hersholt, Danish-born actor (d. 1956)
• August 27 – Eric Coates, English composer (d. 1957)
• September 16 – Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet (d. 1966)
• September 20 – Charles Williams, British author (d. 1945)
• October 6 – Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor (d. 1960)
• October 16 – David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
• November 1 – Hermann Broch, Austrian author (d. 1951)
• November 15 – René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (d. 1951)
• December 5 – Rose Wilder Lane, American author and reporter (d. 1968)
• December 8 – Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (d. 1957)
• December 12 – Owen Moore, Irish actor (d. 1939)
• December 18 – Ty Cobb, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1961)
• December 25 – Kid Ory, American jazz musician (d. 1973)
• Jacques Majorelle – French painter (d. 1962)

Deaths

• January 17 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (b. 1834)
• January 26 – David Rice Atchison, American politician (b. 1807)
• May 15 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (b. 1830)
• June 13 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (b. 1845)
• July 1 – Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich, German geologist (b. 1806)
• July 31 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer (b. 1811)
• August 16 – Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Indian spiritual figure (b. 1836)
• September 14 – Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, American land speculator (b. 1802)