1885

1885 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for calendar)

Years: 1882 1883 1884 - 1885 - 1886 1887 1888

Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1885 in art 1885 in literature 1885 in music 1885 in science 1885 in sports 1885 in Canada List of state leaders in 1885 List of religious leaders in 1885

Table of contents

1 Events 1.1 Fictional events 2 Births 3 Deaths

Events

• January 4 - The first successful appendectomy is performed (Dr. William Grant; patient was Mary Gartside).
• January 20 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• January 26 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum
• 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 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-May - North-West Rebellion took place and was put down in Canada.
• March 31 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
• May 9-12 - Canadian government forces inflict decisive defeat on Métis rebels at the Battle of Batoche.
• June 17 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
• 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 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 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 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

• Creation of the first genuine bicycle, the Rover, by John K Starley.
• John Boyd Dunlop invents the pneumatic tyre.
• 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 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
• Local anesthetic
• First skyscraper – Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors)

Fictional events

• Wednesday, September 2, 1885 - In the third film of Back to the Future Trilogy, Marty McFly arrives on this date to stop Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen from killing Doc Brown.

Births

• January 8 - John Curtin, Australian Prime Minister, (d. 1945)
• January 11 - Alice Paul, women's rights activist
• January 21 - Umberto Nobile, politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
• January 27 - Eduard Künnecke, composer (d. 1953)
• January 27 - Jerome Kern, composer (d. 1945)
• January 29 - Leadbelly
• February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, US novelist
• February 9 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer
• February 9 - Anita Ree, painter (d. 1933))
• February 13 - Bess Truman, wife of US President Harry S. Truman
• February 15- Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg
• February 21 - Sacha Guitry, dramatist, writer, director, actor (d. 1957)
• February 24 - Chester Nimitz, US admiral (d. 1966)
• March 6 - Ring Lardner, writer (d. 1933)
• March 11 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (d. 1948)
• March 31 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse"
• April 1 - Wallace Beery, actor (d. 1949)
• April 3 - Allan Dwan, film director (d. 1981)
• April 4 - Arthur Murray, dancer
• May 2 - Hedda Hopper, columnist (d. 1966)
• May 7 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, actor (d. 1969)
• May 14 - Otto Klemperer, conductor
• May 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral
• July 28 - Monte Attell, bantamweight world boxing champion (d. 1960)
• June 14 - E. L. Grant Watson
• June 22 - Milan Vidmar, Slovene electrical engineer and chess player (d. 1962
• September 11 - D.H. Lawrence, author
• September 22 - Ben Chifley, Australian Prime Minister
• October 7 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d. 1962)
• November 5 - William James Durant, later known as Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (d. 1981)
• November 11 - George Patton, American general (d. 1945)
• December 19 - Joe King Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)

Deaths

• April 2 - Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader
• May 22 - Victor Hugo, author
• August 10 - James Wilson Marshall, contractor and builder of Sutter's Mill
• September 15 - Jumbo the elephant; run over by a locomotive
• November 16 - Louis Riel, Canadian Métis leader (hanged for treason)
• November 25 - King Alfonso XII of Spain
• December 8 - William Henry Vanderbilt, entrepreneur