Year 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1884

March 13: Battle of Khartoum.

January - March

• January 4 - The Fabian Society is founded in London.
• January 5 - Princess Ida premieres at the Savoy Theatre.
• January 18 - Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ) Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
• February 1 - Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
• February 7 - Diocese of Madrid-Alcalá is founded.
• March 13 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).

April - June

• April 22 - Colchester earthquake, England; the UK's most destructive.
• May 1 - the first proclamation of eight-hour workday by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. May 1st, called May Day or Labour Day, is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
• June 4 - Estonian flag is consecrated as the flag of the Estonian Students Society.

July - September

August 5: Statue of Liberty begun.

• July 5 - Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
• July 23 - Today's Courier recorded the first tennis tournaments held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall, Leamington Spa, England.
• August 5 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
• August 10 - A severe earthquake, magnitude 5.5, (intensity VII) occurs off the northeast Atlantic coast. The area affected extends from central Virginia to southern Maine, and west as far as Cleveland.
• September 5 - Staten Island Academy is founded.

October - December

October 6: US Naval War College founded.

• October - International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
• October 6 - United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.
• October 18 - University of Wales, Bangor (UK) founded.
• October 22 - The first woman receives a degree from an Irish university. The degree is granted by the Royal University of Ireland.
• November 1 - The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.
• November 2 - Timi?oara is the first town of Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
• November 4 - United States presidential election: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
• November 15 - The Berlin Conference which regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa begins (ends February 26, 1885).
• December 1 - American Old West - Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys were terrorizing the area's Hispanos and Baca was working against them).
• December 6 - Washington Monument was completed.
• December 16 - World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Undated

• Stefan-Boltzmann law reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.
• Mark Twain writes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• First ascent made of Castle Mountain by geologist Arthur Philemon Coleman.
• The water hyacinth is introduced in the U.S. and quickly becomes an invasive species.
• Parliamentarism is introduced in Norway.
• Yellow Crane Tower last burned in Wuhan.
• Derby County Football Club formed.
• Leicester City Football Club formed.
• Third Reform Act gives the vote to almost every adult male in England.
• 1884-1885 - France conquers Vietnam.
• Police training schools are established in every prefecture in Japan.
• Reformers in Korea who admire the Meiji Restoration in Japan stage a coup with Japan's help. China intervens to rescue the king and help suppress the rebels. Afterward both China and Japan agree to withdraw their troops and military advisers.
• The first Christian missionary arrive to Korea.

Births

January - June

• January 12 - Texas Guinan, American vaudeville performer (d. 1933)
• January 13 - Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer and comedian (d. 1966)
• January 21 - Roger Nash Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)
• January 23 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d. 1956)
• January 28 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, balloonist, and inventor (d. 1962)
• January 31 - Theodor Heuss, German politician and publicist (d. 1963)
• February 10 - Frederick Hawksworth, GWR Chief mechanical engineer. (d. 1976)
• February 12
  • Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1950)
  • Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)
• February 13 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete and inventor (d. 1961)
• February 14 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)
• February 16 - Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (d. 1951)
• February 18 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
• February 22 - Abe Attell, American boxer (d. 1970)
• March 6 - R. Williams Parry, Welsh poet (d. 1956)
• March 13 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941)
• March 17 - Alcide Nunez, American jazz musician (d. 1934)
• March 24 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
• March 25 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (d. 1950)
• March 26 - Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (d. 1969)
• April 4 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander (d. 1943)
• April 6 - Walter Huston, actor (d. 1950)
• April 12
  • Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
  • Tenby Davies, Welsh half-mile world champion runner (d. 1932)
• May 1 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (d. 1918)
• May 8 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (d. 1972)
• May 10 - Olga Petrova, English-born actress (d. 1977)
• May 14 - Claudius Dornier, German aircraft designer (d. 1969)
• May 21 - Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (b. 1920)
• May 27 - Max Brod, Austrian author (d. 1968)
• May 28 - Edvard Bene?, Austrian politician (d. 1948)

July - December

• July 12 - Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1920)
• July 15 - Phraya Manopakorn Nititada, Thailand's First Prime Minister (d. 1948)
• July 18 - Alberto di Jorio, former head of the Vatican Bank and secretary of the 1958 conclave (d. 1979)
• July 23 - Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (d. 1950)
• August 8 - Sara Teasdale, American poet (d. 1933)
• August 10 - Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (d. 1935)
• August 23 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
• August 30 - Theodor Svedberg, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
• September 17 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (d. 1920)
• September 24
  • ?smet ?nönü, Turkish soldier, statesman and the second President of Turkey.(d. 1973)
  • September 24 - Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (d. 1953)
• October 7 - Major Harold Geiger, U.S. Army aviation pioneer (d. 1927)
• October 11
  • Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
  • Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (d. 1962)
• October 16 - Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
• November 20 - Norman Thomas, American social reformer (d. 1968)
• December 3 - Walther Stampfli, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1965)
• December 30 - Tojo Hideki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)
• date unknown
  • M. Louise Gross, American politician and lobbyist (d. 1951)
  • Richard Spikes, African American inventor (d.1962)

Deaths

January - June

• January 6 - Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist (b. 1822)
• January 25 - Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (b. 1815)
• March 1 - Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician (b. 1820)
• March 21 - Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar (b. 1819)
• April 4 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist (b. 1858)
• April 6 - Emanuel Geibel, poet and dramatist (b. 1815)
• April 24 - Marie Taglioni, ballerina (b. 1804)
• May 12 - Bed?ich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)
• May 13 - Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b. 1809)
• June 25 - Hans Rott, Austrian composer (b. 1858)

July - December

• July 1 - Allan Pinkerton, American detective (b. 1819)
• July 10 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)
• July 15 - Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, diplomat (b. 1804)
• October 4 - Leona Florentino, Filipina poet (b. 1849)
• October 18 - William VIII, Duke of Brunswick (b. 1806)
• November 16 - Franti?ek Chvostek, Moravian physician (b. 1835)
• November 25 - Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b. 1818)
• December 1 - William Swainson (lawyer), second, and last, Attorney-General (New Zealand) of the Crown Colony of New Zealand (b. 1809)
• December 20 - Domenico Consolini, Roman Catholic Cardinal (b. 1806)

See also Category: 1884 deaths.

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