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1885
Reference material by Wikipedia contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
1885 M-1885 Model 1885 (disambiguation)Model 1885
March 2011
1885
1885
2
Events
January
January 3–4 – Sino-French War: Battle of Núi Bop – French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam.
January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Battle of Abu Klea – British troops defeat Mahdist forces.
January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster.
January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 310–311 0-7126-5616-2
January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.Williams Hywel Cassell's Chronology of World History London Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2005 0-304-35730-8 438–440 https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/438
February
thumb|135px|right| February 21: Washington Monument dedicated.
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 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.Dow Record Book Adds Another First. Philly.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
February 20 – The Richmond Football Club is officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria.Hansen (1992), p. 28.
February 21 – United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.
February 23
Sino-French War: Battle of Đồng Đăng – France gains an important victory over China, in the Tonkin region of modern-day Vietnam.
An English executioner fails after several attempts to hang John Babbacombe Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the "scramble for Africa".
February 28 – February concludes without having a full moon.
March
March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
March 7 – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid is founded.
March 14 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado opens, at the Savoy Theatre in London.The Hutchinson Factfinder Helicon 1999 1-85986-000-1
March 26
Prussian deportations: The Prussian government, motivated by Otto von Bismarck, expels all ethnic Poles and Jews without German citizenship from Prussia.
The North-West Rebellion in Canada by the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, begins with the Battle of Duck Lake.
First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles",Cremation The Times London 1885-03-27 10 31405 is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.
March 30 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident, which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
March 31 – The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington via World Digital Library Mackenzie John Austral Africa: Losing It or Ruling It; Being Incidents and Experiences in Bechuanaland, Cape Colony, and England London April 10, 2018 1887 http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2525 https://web.archive.org/web/20180412145903/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2525/ April 12, 2018 dead
April
April 2 – Frog Lake Massacre: Cree warriors led by Wandering Spirit kill 9 settlers at Frog Lake in the Northwest Territories.
April 3 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent, for his single-cylinder, water-cooled engine design.
April 11 – Luton Town Football Club is created by the merger of (Luton) Wanderers F.C. and Luton Excelsior F.C. in England.
April 14 – Sino-French War: A French victory at Kép causes China to withdraw its forces from Tonkin, in the final engagement of the conflict.
April 22 – Dvořák's Symphony No. 7 is premiered at St James's Hall in London with the composer himself conducting.
April 30 – A bill is signed in the New York State legislature, forming the Niagara Falls State Park.
May
May 2
Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time in the United States.
North-West Rebellion: Battle of Cut Knife – Cree and Assiniboine warriors win their largest victory over Canadian forces.
May 9–12 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Batoche – Canadian government forces inflict a decisive defeat on Métis rebels, bringing an end to their part in the rebellion.
May 19 – After a three-month legislative battle in the Illinois General Assembly, John A. Logan is re-elected to the United States Senate.
May 20 – The first public train departs Swanage railway station, on the newly built Swanage Railway in England.
June
June 2 – Dunfermline Athletic F.C. is officially formed at the Old Inn, Dunfermline, Scotland.
June 3 – Battle of Loon Lake: The Canadian North-West Mounted Police and allies force a party of Plains Cree warriors to surrender in the last skirmish of the North-West Rebellion, and the last battle fought on Canadian soil.
June 17 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
June 23 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
July
July 6 – Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux successfully test their rabies vaccine. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
July 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first African-American woman to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed.
July 15 – The Reservation at Niagara Falls opens, enabling access to all for free. Thomas V. Welch is the first Superintendent of the Park.
July 16 – BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia.Silverton https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/6088837 8 February 2022 The Argus 30 July 1885 Melbourne, Vic. 10
July 20 – The Football Association recognises professional players in England.
July 28 – Louis Riel's trial for treason begins in Regina.
July – Japan Brewery, predecessor of Kirin Holdings, is founded in Yokohama, Japan.July 2020
August
August 19 – S Andromedae, the only supernova seen in the Andromeda Galaxy so far by astronomers, and the first ever noted outside the Milky Way, is discovered.
250px|right|thumb|The Reitwagen (riding car), the first internal combustion motorcycle (1885)
August 29 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle, which he has produced with Wilhelm Maybach.Classic motorcycles Mark Gardiner MetroBooks 1997 1-56799-460-1 16
September
September 2 – The Rock Springs massacre occurs in Rock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
September 6 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, completing the unification of Bulgaria.
September 8 – Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota.
September 12 – Arbroath F.C. defeats Bon Accord F.C. in Scotland, 36-0, the highest score ever in professional football.
September 15 – A train wreck of the P. T. Barnum Circus kills giant elephant Jumbo, at St. Thomas, Ontario.
September 18
The union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria is proclaimed at Plovdiv.
Five Chinese people were lynched outside of Pierce City in the Idaho Territory of the United States.Burrows William E. William E. Burrows http://archive.org/details/vigilante00burr Vigilante! Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1976 978-0-15-193655-7 New York City 2035082 236
September 30 – A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland, and adds it to British Bechuanaland.
October
October 3 – Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs in London, as Millwall Rovers.
October 10 – The largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose is set off in the East River of New York City as part of a scheme for the removal of Hell Gate rocks by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3D71631F931A35755C0A9609C8B63 The East River is Cleaner Now The New York Times 2006-06-02 2009-04-12 Whitt Toni
October 12 – The city of Fresno, California, is incorporated.
October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta as the Georgia School of Technology.
October 25 – Brahms's Symphony No. 4 is premiered in Meiningen, Germany, with the composer himself conducting.
November
November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway: At Craigellachie, British Columbia, the last spike is driven on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considers the project to be vital to Canada, due to the exponentially greater potential for military mobility.
November 14–28 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria, but is defeated in the Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17–19.
November 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, is executed for high treason.
November 27 – St. Helena Anti-Chinese League is formed in Napa County, California.MacCormick John Chinese in Napa Valley 2023 The History Press 9781467152785 123
November – The Third Anglo-Burmese War begins.
December
December 1 – Dr Pepper is served for the first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr. Pepper's invention is unknown).
December 28 – 72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party.
Date unknown
thumb|200px|right| The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1885
Martha, the last Passenger pigeon was born
Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Mannheim (Germany), regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).Benz Carl Friedrich 1925 Lebensfahrt eines deutschen erfinders; erinnerungen eines achtzigjahrigen Leipzig Koehler & Amelang
John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle in Coventry (England), regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention/technology/1880-1939/IC.025/ Making the Modern World Icons of Invention: Rover safety bicycle, 1885 Science Museum (London) 2011-06-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20110522112647/http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention/technology/1880-1939/IC.025/ May 22, 2011 live
The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, is completed. With ten floors and a fireproof weight-bearing metal frame, it is regarded as the first skyscraper.Home Insurance Building http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=10370 SkyscraperPage 2011-06-27 https://web.archive.org/web/20110629092831/http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=10370 June 29, 2011 live
Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced in the United States.
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association is established in the United Kingdom, to provide charitable assistance.
Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in the United States, is founded.
John Ormsby publishes his new English translation of Don Quixote, acclaimed as the most scholarly made up to that time. It will remain in print through the 20th century.
Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time, in the future Houghton County Fire Hall.
Chuo Law College, as predecessor of Chuo University, founded in Kanda, Tokyo, Japan.May 2020
Before November 1 – More than 24,000 Christians are killed, 225 churches burnt, seventeen orphanages and ten convents destroyed in Cochinchina (modern-day Vietnam).24,346 Christians Massacred, Altogether, In Cochin-China The Cornishman 387 17 December 1885 8
Births
births yes
January
thumb|110px|John Curtin
thumb|110px|Claude Fuess
January 1 – Winifred Greenwood, American silent film actress (d. 1961)
January 6 – Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)
January 8 – John Curtin, 14th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
January 11
Jack Hoxie, American actor, rodeo performer (d. 1965)
Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (d. 1977)
January 12
Harry Benjamin, American endocrinologist, sexologist (d. 1986)
Claude Fuess, American author, historian and headmaster (d. 1963)
January 14 – Constantin Sănătescu, 44th prime minister of Romania (d. 1947)
January 16 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)
January 17 – Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, German general and war criminal (d. 1968)
January 21 – Umberto Nobile, Italian aviator and explorer (d. 1978)
January 25 – Roy Geiger, American general (d. 1947)
January 26 – Harry Ricardo, English mechanical engineer, engine pioneer (d. 1974)
January 27
Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945)
Harry Ruby, American musician, composer, and writer (d. 1974)
January 28 – Władysław Raczkiewicz, President of Poland (d. 1947)
January 30 – John Henry Towers, U. S.admiral and naval aviation pioneer (d. 1955)
February
thumb|110px|Bess Truman
February 1 – Friedrich Kellner, German diarist (d. 1970)
February 7
Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)Martin Bucco G. K. Hall & Company Critical Essays on Sinclair Lewis https://books.google.com/books?id=o06vAAAAIAAJ 1986 G.K. Hall 978-0-8161-8698-3 1
Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (d. 1953)
February 9 – Alban Berg, Austrian composer (d. 1935)
February 10 – Rupert Downes, Australian general (d. 1945)
February 13
George Fitzmaurice, French-American motion picture director (d. 1940)
Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)
February 14 – Zengo Yoshida, Japanese admiral (d. 1966)
February 21 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-born French dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)Radio Liberty Research Bulletin https://books.google.com/books?id=i4zwAAAAMAAJ 1985 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 8
February 22 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-born American director, animated film producer (d. 1933)
February 24
Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (d. 1966)Richard R. Hobbs Naval Science https://books.google.com/books?id=fYUfdr0WDBgC 1997 Naval Institute Press 978-1-55750-373-2 160
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer, painter (d. 1939)
February 25
Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969)Smith Lyn Heroes of the Holocaust: Ordinary Britons Who Risked Their Lives to Make a Difference 2012 Ebury Publishing 978-0-09-194067-6 171 https://books.google.com/books?id=DiO0_i4FVoQC&pg=PA171 en
Fritz Skullerud, Norwegian long-distance runner and station master (d. 1969)Olympedia – Fritz Skullerud https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/79711 www.olympedia.org 30 October 2025 enNy stasjonsmester ved Stabekk https://www.nb.no/items/2d6f04663b39a36bb26a6eb929fedb9a 29 October 2025 Asker og Bærum Budstikke 125 12 December 1945 no
February 26 – Aleksandras Stulginskis, President of Lithuania (d. 1969)
March
March 6 – Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
March 7 – John Tovey, British admiral of the fleet (d. 1971)
March 11 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, English land, water racer (d. 1948)
March 14 – Raoul Lufbery, French-born American World War I pilot (d. 1918)
March 23 – Mollie McNutt, Australian poet (d. 1919)
March 27 – Julio Lozano Díaz, President of Honduras (d. 1957)
March 31 – Jules Pascin, Bulgarian painter (d. 1930)
April
thumb|110px|Clementine Churchill
April 1
Wallace Beery, American actor (d. 1949)
Clementine Churchill, wife of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (d. 1977)
April 3
Allan Dwan, Canadian-born American film director (d. 1981)
Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (Mutt and Jeff) (d. 1954)
St John Philby, Ceylonese-born British orientalist (d. 1960)
April 12 – Hermann Hoth, German general (d. 1971)
April 13
John Cunningham, British admiral (d. 1962)
Otto Plath, American father of poet Sylvia Plath, entomologist (d. 1940)
April 15 – Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (d. 1947)
April 16 – Charles Debbas, 1st president, 5th prime minister of Lebanon (d. 1935)
April 17 – Karen Blixen, Danish author (d. 1962)O. Classe [Anonymus AC02468681] Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English: A-L https://books.google.com/books?id=myLDA0_brhcC&pg=PA158 2000 Taylor & Francis 978-1-884964-36-7 158
April 29 – Frank Jack Fletcher, American admiral (d. 1973)
May
thumb|110px|Otto Klemperer
May 2 – Hedda Hopper, American columnist (d. 1966)
May 5 – Agustín Barrios, Paraguayan guitarist, composer (d. 1944)
May 7 – George "Gabby" Hayes, American actor (d. 1969)
May 8 – Thomas B. Costain, Canadian author and journalist (d. 1965)Current Biography: Who's News and Why, 1953 June 1953 https://books.google.com/books?id=BeeiQW67jAsC June 1953 Hw Wilson Company 978-0-8242-0119-7 124
May 9 – Eduard C. Lindeman, American social worker, author (d. 1953)
May 14 – Otto Klemperer, German conductor (d. 1973)
May 15
Robert James Hudson, Governor of Southern Rhodesia (d. 1963)
Naokuni Nomura, Japanese admiral and Minister of the Navy (d. 1973)
May 20 – Faisal I, King of Iraq (d. 1933)
May 21 – Sophie, Princess of Albania, consort of William of Wied, Prince of Albania (d. 1936)
May 22 – Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)
May 24 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English educational psychologist, psychoanalyst (d. 1948)
May 27 – Richmond K. Turner, American admiral (d. 1961)
May 30 – Arthur E. Andersen, American accountant (d. 1947)
June
June 2 – Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt, German neuropathologist (d. 1964)
June 4 – Arturo Rawson, President of Argentina (d. 1952)
June 5 – Georges Mandel, French politician, World War II hero (d. 1944)
June 9
John Edensor Littlewood, British mathematician (d. 1977)
Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski, Prime Minister of Poland (d. 1962)
Harry Gribbon, American comedy actor (d. 1961)
June 19 – Adela Pankhurst, British-Australian suffragette and political activist (d. 1961)Coleman Verna Walsh, Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst (1885–1961), suffragette and pacifist 2004-09-23 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-56250 2026-06-03 Oxford University Press en 10.1093/ref:odnb/56250 978-0-19-861412-8
June 21 – Harry A. Marmer, Ukrainian-born American mathematician, oceanographer (d. 1953)
June 22 – Milan Vidmar, Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player (d. 1962)
June 27 – Guilhermina Suggia, Portuguese cellist (d. 1950)Obituary, The Musical Times, September 1950, p. 362
June 29 – Izidor Kürschner, Hungarian football player and coach (d. 1941)https://www.mtkbudapest.hu/en/hirek/multidezes/ezen-a-napon-szuletett-kurschner-izidor-a-kivalo-jatekos-es-vilagjaro-edzo-akinek-braziliaban-szobrot-allitottak Ezen a napon született Kürschner Izidor, a kiváló játékos és világjáró edző, akinek Brazíliában szobrot állítottak www.mtkbudapest.hu January 23, 2021 December 26, 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20221226113011/https://www.mtkbudapest.hu/en/hirek/multidezes/ezen-a-napon-szuletett-kurschner-izidor-a-kivalo-jatekos-es-vilagjaro-edzo-akinek-braziliaban-szobrot-allitottak dead
July
July 2 – Nikolai Krylenko, Russian Bolshevik and Soviet politician (d. 1938)
July 6 – Ernst Busch, German field marshal (d. 1945)
July 8 – Paul Leni, German film director (The Cat and the Canary) (d. 1929)
July 9 – Luo Meizhen, Chinese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
July 14 – King Sisavang Vong of Laos (d. 1959)
July 15
Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, 1st prime minister of Sudan (d. 1959)
July 16 – Hakuun Yasutani, Japanese Sōtō rōshi (d. 1973)
July 19
Dumitru Coroamă, Romanian soldier and fascist activist (d. 1956)
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat, humanitarian (d. 1954)
July 20 – Michitarō Komatsubara, Japanese general (d. 1940)
July 28 – Monte Attell, American boxer (d. 1960)
July 29 – Theda Bara, American silent film actress (d. 1955)
August
thumb|110px|D H Lawrence
August 1 – George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
August 17 – Ernest Dezentjé, Dutch-Indonesian painter (d. 1972)The Journey of Indonesian Painting: The Bentara Budaya Collection
2008
Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia
Jakarta
978-979-9101-20-4
https://books.google.com/books?id=QuB3RHAWu1MC&q=Dezentje
September
thumb|right|110px|Ben Chifley
September 6 – Otto Kruger, American actor (d. 1974)
September 7 – Jovita Idar, Mexican-American journalist and political activist (d. 1946)
September 11 – D. H. Lawrence, English novelist (d. 1930)John Worthen D. H. Lawrence: The Early Years 1885-1912: The Cambridge Biography of D. H. Lawrence https://books.google.com/books?id=l_tSP0DZzK0C&pg=PR23 31 July 1992 Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-43772-1 23
September 20 – Enrico Mizzi, 6th Prime Minister of Malta (d. 1950)
September 21 – Thomas de Hartmann, Russian composer (d. 1956)
September 22
Ben Chifley, 16th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1951)
Erich von Stroheim, Austrian-born motion picture actor, director (d. 1957)
September 25 – Mineichi Koga, Japanese admiral (d. 1944)
September 27 – Harry Blackstone Sr., American magician and illusionist (d. 1965)
October
thumb|right|110px|Niels Bohr
October 3 – Sophie Treadwell, American playwright, journalist (d. 1970)
October 7 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
October 11 – François Mauriac, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar Francois Mauriac: Novelist & Moralist https://books.google.com/books?id=ay4nAAAAMAAJ 1963 Asia Publishing House 2
October 19 – Charles E. Merrill, American banker, co-founder of Merrill Lynch (d. 1956)
October 24 – Rachel Katznelson-Shazar, Zionist political figure, wife of third President of Israel (d. 1975)
October 28 – Per Albin Hansson, 2-time prime minister of Sweden (d. 1946)
October 30 – Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)Lawrence S. Rainey Ezra Pound and the Monument of Culture: Text, History, and the Malatesta Cantos https://books.google.com/books?id=ajVbyQLNRLwC&pg=PA43 15 December 1991 University of Chicago Press 978-0-226-70316-9 43
November
thumb|right|110px|George S. Patton
thumb|right|110px|Heinrich Brüning
November 1 – Anton Flettner, German aviation engineer, inventor (d. 1961)
November 2 – Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)
November 5 – Will Durant, American philosopher, writer (d. 1981)
November 8 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (d. 1946)
November 9 (October 28 (O.S.)) – Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet (d. 1922)
November 11 – George S. Patton, American general (d. 1945)
November 15 – Frederick Handley-Page, British aviation pioneer, aircraft company founder (d. 1962)
November 21 – Edmée Chandon, first professional female astronomer in France, first woman in France to earn a doctorat d'État in mathematics. (d. 1944)
November 26 – Heinrich Brüning, Chancellor of Germany 1930-1932 (d. 1970)
November 30
Albert Kesselring, German field marshal (d. 1960)
Ma Zhanshan, Chinese general (d. 1950)
December
December 2 – George Minot, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1950)
December 13 – Mario Talavera, Mexican songwriter (d. 1960)
December 18 – Walter Crail, American photographer, staff photographer for the Public Ledger (d. 1924)
December 19
John Lavarack, Australian general, Governor of Queensland (1946-1957) (d. 1957)
King Oliver, American jazz musician (d. 1938)
December 22 – Deems Taylor, American composer and music critic (d. 1966)
December 29 – Eliza Marian Butler, British scholar and writer (d. 1959)
Date unknown
Martha, the last Passenger pigeon (d. 1914)
Geza von Hoffmann, Austrian-Hungarian eugenicist and writer (d. 1921)Turda, Marius, and Paul Weindling. "Blood and Homeland": Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940. Budapest: Central European UP, 2007. pp. 1 Print.
Alessandro Tonini, Italian aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer and manufacturer (d. 1932)
Deaths
January–June
thumb|right|110px|Victor Hugo
January 11 – Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, President of Colombia (b. 1805)
January 13 – Schuyler Colfax, 17th Vice President of the United States (b. 1823)
January 26 – Charles "Chinese" Gordon, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1833)
February 1 – Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, British inventor (b. 1850)
February 7 – Iwasaki Yataro, Japanese industrialist, Founder of Mitsubishi (b. 1835)
February 8 – Nikolai Severtsov, Russian explorer, naturalist (b. 1827)
February 19 – José María Pinedo, Argentinian naval commander (b. 1795)
March 12 – Próspero Fernández Oreamuno, President of Costa Rica (b. 1834)
March 13 – Giorgio Mitrovich, Maltese politician (b. 1795)Mangion Fabian Recalling a brave, sincere patriot forgotten by Malta https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150308/life-features/Recalling-a-brave-sincere-patriot-forgotten-by-Malta.559170 Times of Malta 8 March 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20181225125956/https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150308/life-features/Recalling-a-brave-sincere-patriot-forgotten-by-Malta.559170 December 25, 2018 December 24, 2018 live mdy-all
March 22 – Sir Harry Smith Parkes, British diplomat (b. 1828)
April 2 – Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader (b. 1835)
April 6 – Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein, Prussian general (b. 1797)
April 25 – Queen Emma of Hawaii (b. 1836)
May 2 – Terézia Zakoucs, Hungarian Slovene author (b. 1817)
May 4 – Irvin McDowell, American general (b. 1818)
May 17 – Jonathan Young, United States Navy commodore (b. 1826)
May 19 – Robert Emmet Odlum, American swimming instructor (died as result of becoming the first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge) (b. 1851)
May 20 – Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (b. 1817)
May 22 – Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)Albert W. Halsall Victor Hugo and the Romantic Drama https://books.google.com/books?id=CTyPQqvgHnUC&pg=PA206 1 January 1998 University of Toronto Press 978-0-8020-4322-1 206
June 11 – Amédée Courbet, French admiral (b. 1827)
June 17 – Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel, German field marshal (b. 1809)
June 22 – Muhammad Ahmad, Sudanese Mahdi (b. 1844)
July–December
thumb|148x148px|Ulysses S. Grant
July 21 – Karolina Sobańska, Polish noble, agent (b. 1795)
July 23 – Ulysses S. Grant, 63, American Civil War general, 18th President of the United States (b. 1822)
August – Aga Khan II, Iranian religious leader (b. 1830)
August 6 – Emil Zsigmondy, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1861)
August 10 – James W. Marshall, American contractor, builder of Sutter's Mill (b. 1810)
August 29 – Moriz Ludassy, Hungarian journalist (b. 1825)
September 2 – Giuseppe Bonavia, Maltese architect (b. 1821)
September 5 – Zuo Zongtang, Chinese general and politician (b. 1812)
September 6 – Narcís Monturiol, Catalan intellectual, artist and engineer, inventor of the first combustion engine-driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion (b. 1819)
September 15 thumb|110px|right|Carl Spitzweg
Jumbo, African elephant, star attraction in P. T. Barnum's circus (train accident) (b. 1861)
Carl Spitzweg, German romanticist painter (b. 1808)
October 1 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, British politician and philanthropist (b.1801)
October 3 – Mazhar Nanautawi, Indian freedom struggle activist and founding figure of Mazahir Uloom (b. 1821)
October 5 – Thomas C. Durant, American railroad financier (b. 1820)
October 29
George B. McClellan, American Civil War general, politician (b. 1826)
Juan Bautista Topete, Spanish admiral and politician (b. 1821)
thumb|157x157px|Thomas A. HendricksNovember 16 – Louis Riel, Canadian-American leader (executed) (b. 1844)
November 8 – John McCullough, Irish-American actor (b. 1832)
November 24 – Nicolás Avellaneda, Argentine president (b. 1837)
November 25
King Alfonso XII of Spain (b. 1857)
Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)
November 26 – Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (b. 1813)
December 8 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1821)
December 13 – Benjamin Gratz Brown, American politician (b. 1826)
December 15 – Ferdinand II of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria II (b. 1816)
Date unknown
Eugenia Kisimova, Bulgarian feminist, philanthropist and women's rights activist (b. 1831)
In fiction
September 2–September 7 – The film Back to the Future Part III takes place during this time. Dr. Emmett Brown is initially murdered by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen in Hill Valley, California (1885); however, Marty McFly later prevents this murder.
The stage "Bury My Shell at Wounded Knee", in the 1992 video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, is set in this year.
The Nickelodeon TV movie, Lost in the West, takes place in this year.
The plot of An American Tail is set in this period.
Stephen Gordon, protagonist of The Well of Loneliness, is born on 24 December 1885.
References
Further reading
Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1885 Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 25 1887 42 v D. Appleton and Co. New York 2027/hvd.hb0r95