1884

Events

January–March

• January 4 - The Fabian Society is founded in London.
• January 5 - Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida premières at the Savoy Theatre, London.
• January 18 - Dr. William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony on March 14, setting a legal precedent.
• February 1 - A New English Dictionary on historical principles, part 1, the first fascicle of what will become The Oxford English Dictionary, is published in England.
• February 5 - Derby County Football Club is founded in England.
• March 13 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins.
• March - John Joseph Montgomery conducts the first manned glider flights in the United States near Otay, California.

  April–June

• April 20 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, denouncing Freemasonry and certain liberal beliefs which he considers to be associated with it.
• April 22
• * A German protectorate is established over South-West Africa.
• * The Colchester earthquake, England, the UK's most destructive, occurs.
• May 1 - The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. This date, called May Day or Labour Day, becomes a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
• May 16
• * Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.
• * Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister.
• June 4 - The future flag of Estonia is consecrated, as the flag of the Estonian Students' Society.
• June 13 - LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens the "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway" at Coney Island, New York City.
• June 28 - The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights is founded.

  July–September

• July 1 - First International Forestry Exhibition opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• July 3 - The Dow Jones Transportation Average, consisting of eleven transportation-related companies, is created. The index is the oldest stock index still in use.
• July 5 - Germany takes possession of Togoland.
• July 7 - Nagasaki Shipyard, as predecessor of an aircraft and shipbuilding manufacturing brand in Japan, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was founded in Kyushu Island.
• July 14 - German administration is established in Cameroon.
• July 23 - Today's Courier records the first tennis tournaments held on 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 - An earthquake measuring 5.5 affects a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock has a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII. Chimneys are toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Property damage is severe in Jamaica, Queens and Amityville, New York.
• August 22 - The Sino-French War breaks out.
• August 23 - Sino-French War - Battle of Fuzhou: French Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroys China's Fujian Fleet.
• September 5 - Staten Island Academy is founded.
• September 15 - The invention of local anesthesia by Karl Koller is made public, at a medical congress in Heidelberg, Germany.

  October–December

• October 6 - The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.
• October 18 - The University of Wales, Bangor is founded.
• October 22
• * The International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
• * Letitia Alice Walkington becomes the first woman to receive a degree from the Royal University of Ireland.
• November 1
• * The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.
• * Leicester City F.C. play their first match, as Leicester Fosse Football Club, in England.
• November 2 - Timișoara, Romania is the first town in Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
• November 4 - 1884 United States presidential election: Democratic Governor of New York 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 regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa, begins.
• 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.
• * Porfirio Díaz returns as President of Mexico, an office he will hold until 1911.
• December 4 - Reformers in Korea who admire the Meiji Restoration in Japan stage the Gapsin Coup, with Japan's help. China intervenes to rescue the king, and help suppress the rebels.
• December 6 - The Washington Monument is completed in Washington, D.C., becoming the tallest structure in the world at this date.
• December 10
• * The Third Reform Act widens the adult male electorate in the United Kingdom to around 60%.
• * Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first published, in London.
• December 16 - The World Cotton Centennial world's fair opens in New Orleans.

  Date unknown

• The first Christian missionary arrives in Korea.
• Police training schools are established in every prefecture in Japan.
• The Yellow Crane Tower last burns in Wuhan.
• Parliamentarism is introduced in Norway.
• Scottish Plymouth Brethren missionary Frederick Stanley Arnot identifies the source of the Zambezi River, near Kalene Hill.
• The first ascent is made of Castle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies, by geologist Arthur Philemon Coleman.
• The Stefan–Boltzmann law is reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.
• Mexican General Manuel Mondragón creates the Mondragón rifle, the world's first automatic rifle.
• The water hyacinth is introduced in the United States, and quickly becomes an invasive species.
• An economic depression hits the United States.
• The Fredrika Bremer Association is founded in Sweden.

  Births

January

• January 1
• * Papa Celestin, American jazz bandleader, singer, cornetist, and trumpeter
• * Chikuhei Nakajima, Japanese naval officer, engineer, and politician, founder of the Nakajima Aircraft Company
• * Konstantinos Tsaldaris, Greek politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Greece
• January 2 - Ben-Zion Dinur, Russian-born Israeli educator, historian and politician
• January 12
• * Texas Guinan, American vaudeville performer
• * Charles Armijo Woodruff, 11th Governor of American Samoa
• January 13 - Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer, comedian
• January 20 - Charles Whittlesey, United States Army officer, commander of the Lost Battalion in World War I
• January 21 - Roger Nash Baldwin, American social activist
• January 23 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver
• January 24 - Thomas Blamey, Australian field marshal
• January 26
• *Gheorghe Avramescu, Romanian general
• *Roy Chapman Andrews, American explorer, adventurer, and naturalist
• January 28 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, balloonist, and inventor
• January 29 - Rickard Sandler, 20th Prime Minister of Sweden
• January 30
• * Sōjin Kamiyama, Japanese actor in American silent films,
• * Pedro Pablo Ramírez, 26th President of Argentina, leader of World War II
• January 31 - Theodor Heuss, German politician, publicist

  February

• February 1 - Bradbury Robinson, American football player, who threw the first forward pass in American football history in 1906
• February 8 - Burt Mustin, American actor
• February 10 - Frederick Hawksworth, GWR chief mechanical engineer
• February 12
• * Max Beckmann, German painter, graphic artist
• * Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist
• * Johan Laidoner, seminal figure of Estonian history between the World Wars
• February 13 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete, inventor
• February 15 - Mieczysław Norwid-Neugebauer, Polish general and politician
• February 16 - Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker
• February 17 - María Beatriz del Rosario Arroyo, Filipino Roman Catholic nun and servant of God
• February 18 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician
• February 20 - Constantin Constantinescu-Claps, Romanian general
• February 22 - Lew Cody, American actor
• February 26 - John Cyril Porte, Irish-born British flying boat pioneer
• February 28 - Ants Piip, Prime Minister of Estonia

  March

• March 6 - R. Williams Parry, Welsh poet
• March 13 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist
• March 17 - Alcide Nunez, American jazz musician
• March 21 - George David Birkhoff, American mathematician
• March 24
• *Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• *Chika Kuroda, Japanese chemist
• March 25 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist
• March 26
• * Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist
• * Isaac C. Kidd, American admiral
• * Paul Legentilhomme, French general
• March 27 - James Cruze, American motion picture director

  April

• April 4 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral
• April 5 - Ion Inculeț, President of Moldova
• April 7 - Bronisław Malinowski, Polish anthropologist
• April 12 - Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician, biochemist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• April 20 - Oliver Kirk, American Olympic boxer
• April 22
• * Tenby Davies, Welsh half-mile world champion runner
• * Armas Launis, Finnish composer, ethnomusicologist
• April 24 - Otto Froitzheim, German tennis player

  May

• May 1 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper
• May 5 - Jean Decoux, French admiral, Governor-General of French Indochina
• May 8 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States
• May 10 - Olga Petrova, English-born actress
• May 14 - Claude Dornier, German aircraft designer
• May 20 - Leon Schlesinger, American producer, filmmaker
• May 21 - Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet
• May 23 - Corrado Gini, Italian statistician, demographer and sociologist
• May 27 - Max Brod, Austrian author
• May 28 - Edvard Beneš, Czechoslovak politician
• May 30
• * Siegmund Glücksmann, German-Jewish politician
• * Robert "Fuzzy" Theobald, American admiral

  June

• June 5 - Doris 'Dodo' Große, German artists' model, lover of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
• June 7 - Birger Ljungberg, Norwegian minister of defense
• June 13
• * Anton Drexler, German far-right politician
• * Gerald Gardner, English founder of the Wiccan religion
• June 17 - Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland
• June 18 - Édouard Daladier, Prime Minister of France
• June 21
• * Claude Auchinleck, British field marshal
• * Gordon Lowe, British tennis player
• June 23 - Cyclone Taylor, Canadian ice hockey player
• June 27 - Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher
• June 29
• *Nicolae Dăscălescu, Romanian general
• *William Whitworth, senior British Royal Navy officer
• June 30 - Franz Halder, German general

  July

• July 2 - Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist
• July 4
• * Gustaf Malmström, Swedish wrestler
• * Pauline Carton, French actress
• July 7 - J. Roy Hunt, American motion picture cameraman and cinematographer
• July 11 - Howard Estabrook, American actor, film director and producer, and screenwriter
• July 12
• * Robert McKeen, New Zealand politician
• * Edgar Stehli, American actor
• * Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter, sculptor
• July 15 - Phraya Manopakorn Nititada, Thailand's first Prime Minister
• July 17 - Prince George Bagration
• July 18
• * Alberto di Jorio, former head of the Vatican Bank, secretary of the 1958 conclave
• * Alexandra Tolstaya, Russian activist
• July 19 - Maurice Nicoll, British psychiatrist
• July 23 - Emil Jannings, Swiss-born German actor
• July 25 - Rafael Arévalo Martínez, Guatemalan writer
• July 27 - Kathleen Howard, Canadian/American opera singer, character actress

  August

• August 2 - Rómulo Gallegos, 48th President of Venezuela
• August 4 - Billie Burke, American actress
• August 8 - Sara Teasdale, American poet
• August 9 - John S. McCain, Sr., American admiral
• August 10
• *Robert G. Fowler, American pioneer aviator
• * Robert Pohl, German "Father of solid state physics"
• *Panait Istrati, Romanian writer
• August 15 - Mary Nash, American actress
• August 20 - Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian
• August 23 - Will Cuppy, American humorist
• August 27
• * Harry Antrim, American actor
• * Vincent Auriol, 16th President of France
• August 28 - Peter Fraser, 24th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• August 30 - Theodor Svedberg, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

  September

• September 1 - Richard C. Saufley, American naval aviation pioneer
• September 13 - Petros Voulgaris, Prime Minister of Greece
• September 17 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer
• September 18 - Margit Slachta, Hungarian politician
• September 24
• * İsmet İnönü, Turkish soldier, statesman, 3-time Prime Minister of Turkey and 2nd President of Turkey
• * Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer
• September 25 - Forrest Smithson, American Olympic athlete
• September 30 - Bessie Barriscale, American actress

  October

• October 7 - Harold Geiger, U.S. Army aviation pioneer
• October 8 - Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal
• October 9 - Martin Johnson, American adventurer, documentary filmmaker
• October 11
• * Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Eleanor Roosevelt, American politician, diplomat, activist, and First Lady of the United States
• October 16 - Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor
• October 24 - Arthur S. Carpender, American admiral
• October 28 - William Douglas Cook, New Zealand founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum and Pukeiti

  November

• November 4 - Harry Ferguson, Irish engineer, inventor
• November 20
• * Loyal Blaine Aldrich, American astronomer
• * Norman Thomas, American social reformer
• November 22 - Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, Indian/Pakistani historian, biographer, littérateur and scholar of Islam
• November 24 - Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 2nd President of Israel

  December

• December 3
• * Walther Stampfli, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• * Rajendra Prasad, Indian politician, 1st President of India
• December 4 - R. C. Majumdar, Indian historian
• December 7 - Petru Groza, Romanian politician, 46th Prime Minister of Romania
• December 14 - Nicholas Charnetsky, Soviet Orthodox priest, bishop, martyr and blessed
• December 17 - Alison Uttley, English writer of children's books
• December 19 - Antonín Zápotocký, 6th President and 15th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
• December 22 - Bartlett Adamson, Australian journalist, poet, author and political activist
• December 25
• * Samuel Berger, American Olympic boxer
• * Evelyn Nesbit, American model, actress
• December 29 - Ted Theodore, Australian politician, Premier of Queensland
• December 30 - Hideki Tojo, Japanese general, 27th Prime Minister of Japan
• December 31 - Stanley Forman Reed, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

  Date unknown

• M. Louise Gross, American politician, lobbyist
• Wyncie King, American illustrator
• Catherine Schleimer-Kill, Luxemburgian women's rights activist
• Ayoub Tabet, 6th Prime Minister of Lebanon

  Deaths

January–June

• January 6 - Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist
• January 25 - Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor, composer
• February 8 - Cetshwayo kaMpande, Zulu king
• February 13 - Wilhelm von Tümpling, Prussian general
• February 14
• *Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, first wife of Theodore Roosevelt
• *Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt
• February 26 - Emmanuel Félix de Wimpffen, French general
• March 1 - Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician
• March 8 - Sydney Dacres, British admiral
• March 13 - Leland Stanford, Jr., son of Governor Leland Stanford of California, in whose memory Stanford University was founded
• March 19 - Elias Lönnrot, Finnish philologist, collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry
• March 21
• * Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar
• * Constantin A. Crețulescu, 7th Prime Minister of Romania
• March 23 - Henry C. Lord, American railroad executive
• March 28 - Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria
• April 1 - Marie Litton, English stage actress
• April 4 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist
• April 6 - Emanuel Geibel, German poet, dramatist
• April 24 - Marie Taglioni, Swedish-Italian ballerina
• May 6 - Judah P. Benjamin, Cabinet officer of the Confederate States
• May 12 - Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer
• May 13 - Cyrus McCormick, American inventor
• May 29 - Sir Henry Bartle Frere, British colonial administrator
• June 19
• * Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentine politician, writer and main Constitution promoter
• * Johann Gustav Droysen, German historian
• June 21 - Alexander, Prince of Orange, heir apparent to the Dutch throne
• June 25 - Hans Rott, Austrian composer

  July–December

• July 1 - Allan Pinkerton, American detective
• July 10 - Paul Morphy, American chess player
• July 15
• * Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, British diplomat
• * Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American educator, author
• August 9 - Annestine Beyer, Danish reform pedagogue
• August 18 - Mary C. Ames, American writer
• September 2 - Karl Eberhard Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Russian field marshal
• September 10 - George Bentham, English botanist
• October 4 - Leona Florentino, Filipina poet
• October 7 - Bernard Petitjean, French Roman Catholic missionary to Japan
• October 16 - Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Hawaiian ali‘i
• October 18 - William VIII, Duke of Brunswick
• November 3 - Menyhért Lónyay, 5th Prime Minister of Hungary
• November 11 - Alfred Brehm, German zoologist
• November 16 - František Chvostek, Moravian physician
• November 25 - Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist
• December 1 - William Swainson, second, and last, Attorney-General of the Crown Colony of New Zealand
• December 3 - Jane Lundie Bonar, Scottish hymnwriter
• December 20 - Domenico Consolini, Italian Catholic Cardinal