411 REFERENCE · Wikipedia
1880s
Reference material by Wikipedia contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
Decade
thumb|335x335px|From top left, clockwise: A famous gunfight erupts at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881; a long-distance passenger train called the Orient Express begins running between Paris and Constantinople in 1883; U.S. Congress bans Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. for ten years, starting in 1882; South Fork Dam fails after heavy rainfall and floods the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing over two thousand people; George Eastman introduces the Kodak No 1 and the camera becomes an enormous success; Chicago's Haymarket Square is the scene of a bombing that kills at least seven police officers and four civilians during a massive protest from a labor rally and is generally considered the origin of modern May Day protests; settlers try to claim land during the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889; combined groups of British and Sudanese forces on opposing sides fight during a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha.|alt=
The 1880s (pronounced "eighteen-eighties") was the decade that began on January 1, 1880, and ended on December 31, 1889. The decade took place during what historians call the Victorian Era in the History of the United Kingdom, the Belle Époque in the History of France, and the Gilded Age in the History of the United States,
The period was characterized in general by economic growth and prosperity in many parts of the world, especially Western Europe and North America. It occurred at the height of the Second Industrial Revolution and saw numerous developments in science and a sudden proliferation of electrical technologies, particularly in mass transit and telecommunications. It saw the emergence of modern cities and the foundation of many long-lived corporations, franchises, and brands, as well as the invention of the skyscraper. Elsewhere the major European colonial powers extended their empires, especially the British Empire and the French colonial empire.
The last living survivor from this decade was María Capovilla; she died in Ecuador in 2006.
188
Politics and wars
List of sovereign states in the 1880s
Wars
List of wars: 1880–1889
Aceh War (1873–1904)
War of the Pacific (1879–1884)
First Boer War (1880–1881)
Mahdist War (1881–1899)
1882 Anglo-Egyptian War (1882)
13 September 1882 — British troops occupy Cairo, and Egypt becomes a British protectorate.
Sino-French War (1884–1885)
Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885)
Internal conflicts
American Indian Wars (Intermittently from 1622 to 1918)
20 July 1881 — Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.
Frequent lynchings of African Americans in Southern United States during the years 1880–1890
Urabi Revolt (1879-1882)
Colonization
France colonizes Indochina (1883)
German colonization (1887)
Increasing colonial interest and conquest in Africa leads representatives from Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain to divide Africa into regions of colonial influence at the Berlin Conference. This would be followed over the next few decades by conquest of almost the entirety of the remaining uncolonised parts of the continent, broadly along the lines determined. (1889)
Prominent political events
3 August 1881: The Pretoria Convention peace treaty is signed, officially ending the war between the Boers and Britain.
3 May 1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur.
20 May 1882: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy form The Triple Alliance as a defensive military allianceGrenville, John; Wasserstein, Bernard, eds. (2013). The Major International Treaties of the Twentieth Century: A History and Guide with Texts. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 9780415141253. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C., held to determine the Prime Meridian of the world.
1884–1885: Berlin Conference, when the western powers divided Africa.
The United States had five Presidents during the decade, the most since the 1840s. They were Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison.
20-22 June 1887: The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated marking Queen Victoria's 50 year reign.
13 May 1888: Brazil abolishes slavery, the last country in the western hemisphere to do so.abolition https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/documents/slavery/abolition.htm 2025-05-11 faculty.chass.ncsu.edu
Disasters
May to August, 1883: Krakatoa, a volcano in Indonesia, erupted cataclysmically; 36,000 people were killed, the majority being killed by the resulting tsunami.
September 1887: The Yellow river flooded and killed about 900,000 people.
11 March to 14 March, 1888: The Great Blizzard of 1888 kills 400 in the eastern United States.2009-11-13 Great Blizzard of '88 hits East Coast March 11, 1888 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-11/great-blizzard-of-88-hits-east-coast 2025-05-11 HISTORY en
May 1889: The Johnstown Flood occurred after the failure of the dam due to excessive rainfall in Pennsylvania. Nurse Clara Barton notably helped in the relief effort.McCullough David G. The Johnstown flood 2001 Simon & Schuster New York 978-0-671-20714-4Clara Barton's headquarters, Johnstown, Pa. flood - 1889 Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/2002707084/ english 1 January 1889
Assassinations and attempts
July 2018
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
YearDateNamePositionCulpritsCountryDescriptionImage188113 MarchAlexander II of RussiaTsar of the Russian EmpirePervomartovtsy and Narodnaya Volya Russian EmpireFive Cossacks killed the Tsar by throwing a bomb at his carriage.frameless188119 SeptemberJames A. GarfieldPresident of the United States Charles J. GuiteauUnited StatesGarfield was leaving Washington for his summer vacation and was about to board a train at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station when Guiteau appeared and shot Garfield twice.frameless18822 March Queen Victoria Queen of the British EmpireRoderick MacleanEnglandMaclean was offended when Victoria refused to accept one of his poems and so decided to shoot at the Queen as her carriage left Windsor railway station.18823 April Jesse Jamesoutlaw Bob FordUnited StatesWhile Jesse James was dusting a picture, Ford grabbed James' pistol and shooting him in the back.frameless18826 MayLord Frederick CavendishChief Secretary for Irelandmembers of Irish National Invincibles.IrelandWhile walking in the Phoenix Park in company with Thomas Henry Burke, he was assassinated Irish National Invincibles.frameless18824 December William Henry Haywood Tison39th speaker of the Mississippi House of RepresentativesJ. Edward SandersUnited StatesOn December 4, 1882, J. Edward Sanders shot him in Baldwyn, Mississippi.188220 December Franz Joseph IEmperor of AustriaGuglielmo OberdanAustria-HungaryOberdan and Istrian pharmacist Donato Ragosa plotted an assassination attempt on the emperor. Oberdan's attempt failed, as he was arrested in Ronchi shortly after crossing the border into Austrian territory.frameless
1882 - Guglielmo Oberdan fails to assassinate Austria-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph and is executedSalata 1932, p. 290
Science and technology
Technology
1880: Oliver Heaviside of Camden Town, London, England receives a patent for the coaxial cable.Nahin Paul J. Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age 2002 JHU Press 0-8018-6909-9 In 1887, Heaviside introduced the concept of loading coils. In the 1890s, Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin would both create the loading coils and receive a patent of them, failing to credit Heaviside's work.http://www.mpoweruk.com/history.htm Woodbank Communications Ltd.'s Electropaedia: "History of Batteries (and other things)" 6 October 2014 12 May 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110512173049/http://www.mpoweruk.com/history.htm dead
1880–1882: Development and commercial production of electric lighting was underway. Thomas Edison of Milan, Ohio, established Edison Illuminating Company on December 17, 1880. Based at New York City, it was the pioneer company of the electrical power industry. Edison's system was based on creating a central power plant equipped with electrical generators. Copper electrical wires would then connect the station with other buildings, allowing for electric power distribution.https://www.coned.com/history/electricity.asp https://web.archive.org/web/20121030164753/http://www.coned.com/history/electricity.asp dead We'll be back shortly October 30, 2012 www.coned.com Pearl Street Station was the first central power plant in the United States. It was located at 255–257 Pearl Street in Manhattan on a site measuring 50 by 100 feet,"Edison" by Matthew Josephson. McGraw Hill, New York, 1959, pg. 255. 485621, 0-07-033046-8 just south of Fulton Street. It began with one direct current generator, and it started generating electricity on September 4, 1882, serving an initial load of 400 lamps at 85 customers. By 1884, Pearl Street Station was serving 508 customers with 10,164 lamps.
1880–1886: Charles F. Brush of Euclid, Ohio, and Brush Electric Light Company installed carbon arc lights along Broadway, New York City. A small generating station was established at Manhattan's 25th Street. The electric arc lights went into regular service on December 20, 1880. The new Brooklyn Bridge of 1883 had seventy arc lamps installed in it. By 1886, there was a reported number of 1,500 arc lights installed in Manhattan.
1880–1883: James Wimshurst of Poplar, London, England invents the Wimshurst Machine.
1881–1885: Stefan Drzewiecki of Podolia, Russian Empire finishes his submarine-building project (which had begun in 1879). The crafts were constructed at Nevskiy Shipbuilding and Machinery works at Saint Petersburg. Altogether, 50 units were delivered to the Ministry of War. They were reportedly deployed as part of the defense of Kronstadt and Sevastopol. In 1885, the submarines were transferred to the Imperial Russian Navy. They were soon declared "ineffective" and discarded. By 1887, Drzewiecki was designing submarines for the French Third Republic.https://books.google.com/books?id=yD3eSRfUIesC&q=Stefan+Drzewiecki+%22submarine%22&pg=PA3 Paul E. Fontenoy, "Submarines: an illustrated history of their impact" (2007), p. 3 9781851095636 6 October 2014 Fontenoy Paul E. 2007 Bloomsbury Academic
1881–1883: John Philip Holland of Liscannor, County Clare, IrelandSource: Lecture by Pat Sweeney, Maritime Institute of Ireland 16 January 2009: His father was a member of the Coastguard and occupied a coastguard cottage. There were no coastguard cottages or station in Liscannor. builds the Fenian Ram submarine for the Fenian Brotherhood. During extensive trials, Holland made numerous dives and test-fired the gun using dummy projectiles. However, due to funding disputes within the Irish Republican Brotherhood and disagreement over payments from the IRB to Holland, the IRB stole Fenian Ram and the Holland III prototype in November 1883.Davies, R. Nautilus: The Story of Man Under the Sea. Naval Institute Press. 1995. 1-55750-615-9.
1882: William Edward Ayrton of London, England and John Perry of Garvagh, County Londonderry, Ireland build an electric tricycle. It reportedly had a range of 10 to 25 miles, powered by a lead acid battery. A significant innovation of the vehicle was its use of electric lights, here playing the role of headlamps.https://books.google.com/books?id=GGgwuRly-CQC&q=William+Edward+Ayrton+%22tricycle%22&pg=PA5 Nick Georgano, "Electric Vehicles" (1996), p. 5–6 9780747803164 6 October 2014 Georgano Nick 1996 Bloomsbury USA February 2023 InternetArchiveBot yes
1882: James Atkinson of Hampstead, London, England invented the Atkinson cycle engine. By use of variable engine strokes from a complex crankshaft, Atkinson was able to increase the efficiency of his engine, at the cost of some power, over traditional Otto-cycle engines.C. Lyle Cummins Internal Fire: The Internal-Combustion Engine 1673–1900 Carnot Press Wilsonville, Ore 2000 218 0-917308-05-0
1882: Schuyler Wheeler of Massachusetts invented the two-blade electric fan. Henry W. Seely of New York invented the electric safety iron. Both were arguably among the earliest small domestic electrical appliances to appear.
1882–1883: John Hopkinson of Manchester, England patents the three-phase electric power system in 1882. In 1883 Hopkinson showed mathematically that it was possible to connect two alternating current dynamos in parallel — a problem that had long bedeviled electrical engineers.https://archive.org/details/originalpaperson00hopkrich Original papers on dynamo machinery and allied subjects (London, Whittaker, 1893) Internet Archive 1893 6 October 2014http://profiles.incredible-people.com/john-hopkinson/ Incredible People: "Biography of John Hopkinson" 6 October 2014 https://archive.today/20120717085513/http://profiles.incredible-people.com/john-hopkinson/ 2012-07-17 dead
1883: Charles Fritts, an American inventor, creates the first working solar cell. The energy conversion efficiency of these early devices was less than 1%. Denounced as a fraud in the US for "generating power without consuming matter, thus violating the laws of physics".http://encyclobeamia.solarbotics.net/articles/solar_cell.html Eric Seale, "Solar Cells" 6 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20140923012203/http://encyclobeamia.solarbotics.net/articles/solar_cell.html 2014-09-23 usurped
1883–1885: Josiah H. L. Tuck, an American inventor, works in his own submarine designs. His 1883 model was created in Delameter Iron Works. It was 30-feet long, "all-electric and had vertical and horizontal propellers clutched to the same shaft, with a 20-feet breathing pipe and an airlock for a diver." His 1885 model, called the "Peacemaker", was larger. It used "a caustic soda patent boiler to power a 14-HP Westinghouse steam engine". She managed a number of short trips within the New York Harbor area.https://books.google.com/books?id=7qztw0sO2NgC&q=Josiah+H.L.+Tuck&pg=PA21 Norman Friedman, "U.S. submarines through 1945: an illustrated design history" (1995), p. 21 9781557502636 6 October 2014 Friedman Norman 1995 Naval Institute Press http://centreforforeignpolicystudies.dal.ca/cdq/Hadley%20Winter%201988.PDF https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://centreforforeignpolicystudies.dal.ca/cdq/Hadley%20Winter%201988.PDF 2022-10-09 live Michael L. Hadley, "Steam-Driven Submarines" (1988), p. 59 Dalhousie University 6 October 2014 The Peacemaker had a submerged endurance of 5 hours. Tuck did not benefit from his achievement. His family feared that the inventor was squandering his fortune on the Peacemaker. They had him committed to an insane asylum by the end of the decade.https://books.google.com/books?id=yD3eSRfUIesC&q=Josiah+H.L.+Tuck&pg=PT19 Paul E. Fontenoy, "Submarines: an illustrated history of their impact" (2007), p. 7 9781851095636 6 October 2014 Fontenoy Paul E. 2007 Bloomsbury Academic
1883–1886: John Joseph Montgomery of Yuba City, California, starts his attempts at early flight. In 1884, using a glider designed and built in 1883, Montgomery made the "first heavier-than-air human-carrying aircraft to achieve controlled piloted flight" in the Western Hemisphere. This glider had a curved parabolic wing surface. He reportedly made a glide of "considerable length" from Otay Mesa, San Diego, California, his first successful flight and arguably the first successful one in the United States. In 1884–1885, Montgomery tested a second monoplane glider with flat wings. The innovation in design was "hinged surfaces at the rear of the wings to maintain lateral balance". These were early forms of Aileron. After experimentation with a water tank and smoke chamber to understand the nature of flow over surfaces, in 1886, Montgomery designed a third glider with fully rotating wings as pitcherons. He then turned to theoretic research towards the development of a manuscript "Soaring Flight" in 1896.http://www.flyingmachines.org/mont.html Carroll Gray, "John J. Montgomery 1858 – 1911" 6 October 2014http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/montgomery.html Hargrave the Pioneers, Aviation and Aeromodeling-Interdependent Evolutions and Histories: "John Joseph Montgomery (1858–1911)" 6 October 2014https://books.google.com/books?id=lEguRmQVu1sC&q=quest+for+flight+montgomery Craig S. Harwood and Gary B. Fogel Quest for Flight: John J. Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West, University of Oklahoma Press, 2012 9780806187839 6 October 2014 Harwood Craig S. Fogel Gary B. 17 October 2012 University of Oklahoma Press
1884–1885: On August 9, 1884, La France, a French Army airship, makes its maiden flight. Launched by Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs. Krebs piloted the first fully controlled free-flight with the La France. The 170 ft on long, 66000 cuft airship, electric-powered with a 435 kg batteryWinter, Lumen & Degner, Glenn, Minute Epics of Flight, New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1933, pgs. 49–50 completed a flight that covered 8 km mi on in 23 minutes. It was the first full round trip flighthttp://rbmn.waika9.com/Dirigeable_LA_FRANCE_1884.HTML Dirigeable LA FRANCE 1884 rbmn.waika9.com 2010-01-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20100111072036/http://rbmn.waika9.com/Dirigeable_LA_FRANCE_1884.HTML 2010-01-11 dead with a landing on the starting point. On its seven flights in 1884 and 1885http://rbmn02.waika9.com/Ballon_photos_19.html Ballon photos rbmn02.waika9.com 2010-01-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20070416141821/http://rbmn02.waika9.com/Ballon_photos_19.html 2007-04-16 dead the La France dirigible returned five times to its starting point. "La France was the first airship that could return to its starting point in a light wind. It was 165 ft m off us long, its maximum diameter was 27 ft m off us, and it had a capacity of 66,000 cubic feet (1,869 cubic meters)." Its battery-powered motor "produced 7.5 horsepower (5.6 kilowatts). This motor was later replaced with one that produced 8.5 horsepower (6.3 kilowatts)."http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Beginning_of_the_Dirigible/LTA6.htm First Flights of the Airship centennialofflight.gov dead https://web.archive.org/web/20100528024835/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Beginning_of_the_Dirigible/LTA6.htm 2010-05-28
1884: Paul Gottlieb Nipkow of Lębork, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire invents the Nipkow disk, an image scanning device. It was the basis of his patent method of translating visual images to electronic impulses, transmit said impulses to another device and successfully reassemble the impulses to visual images. Nipkow used a selenium photoelectric cell.http://www.edgeare.com/randomnews/aspddl.asp?file=topix-02209.pdf&force=false How Products Are Made, Inventor Biographies: "Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (1860–1940)" 6 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20120727075524/http://www.edgeare.com/randomnews/aspddl.asp?file=topix-02209.pdf&force=false 2012-07-27 dead Nipkow proposed and patented the first "near-practicable" electromechanical television system in 1884. Although he never built a working model of the system, Nipkow's spinning disk design became a common television image rasterizer used up to 1939.George Shiers and May Shiers, Early Television: A Bibliographic Guide to 1940, Taylor & Francis, 1997, p. 13, 22. 978-0-8240-7782-2.
1884: Alexander Mozhaysky of Kotka, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire makes the second known "powered, assisted take off of a heavier-than-air craft carrying an operator". His steam-powered monoplane took off at Krasnoye Selo, near Saint Petersburg, making a hop and "covering between 65 and 100 feet". The monoplane had a failed landing, with one of its wings destroyed and serious damages. It was never rebuilt. Later Soviet propaganda would overstate Mozhaysky's accomplishment while downplaying the failed landing. The Grand Soviet Encyclopedia called this "the first true flight of a heavier-than-air machine in history".http://www.flyingmachines.org/moz.html Carroll Gray, "Aleksandr Fyodorovich Mozhaiski 1825 – 1890" 6 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20180226225631/http://www.flyingmachines.org/moz.html 26 February 2018 deadhttp://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/mozhaisky.html Hargrave the Pioneers, Aviation and Aeromodeling-Interdependent Evolutions and Histories:"Alexandr Fyodorovich Mozhaisky (1825–1890)" 6 October 2014
1884–1885: Ganz Company engineers Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy and Miksa Déri had determined that open-core devices were impracticable, as they were incapable of reliably regulating voltage. In their joint patent application for the "Z.B.D." transformers, they described the design of two with no poles: the "closed-core" and the "shell-core" transformers. In the closed-core type, the primary and secondary windings were wound around a closed iron ring; in the shell type, the windings were passed through the iron core. In both designs, the magnetic flux linking the primary and secondary windings traveled almost entirely within the iron core, with no intentional path through air. When employed in electric distribution systems, this revolutionary design concept would finally make it technically and economically feasible to provide electric power for lighting in homes, businesses and public spaces.Bláthy, Ottó Titusz (1860 – 1939) https://web.archive.org/web/20101202031830/http://www.hpo.hu/English/feltalalok/blathy.html 2010-12-02 , Hungarian Patent Office, January 29, 2004.Zipernowsky, K., M. Déri and O. T. Bláthy, Induction Coil, Patent No. 352,105, U.S. Patent Office, November 2, 1886, retrieved July 8, 2009. Bláthy had suggested the use of closed-cores, Zipernowsky the use of shunt connections, and Déri had performed the experiments.Smil, Vaclav, Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867—1914 and Their Lasting Impact, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 71. Electrical and electronic systems the world over continue to rely on the principles of the original Z.B.D. transformers. The inventors also popularized the word "transformer" to describe a device for altering the EMF of an electric current,Nagy, Árpád Zoltán, "Lecture to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Electron in 1897" (preliminary text) https://web.archive.org/web/20121125115109/http://www.kfki.hu/~aznagy/lecture/lecture.htm 2012-11-25 , Budapest October 11, 1996, retrieved July 9, 2009. although the term had already been in use by 1882. Oxford English Dictionary https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic0006unse registration 2nd 1989 Oxford University PressHospitalier, Édouard, 1882, The Modern Applications of Electricity, Translated and Enlarged by Julius Maier. New York, D. Appleton & Co., p. 103.
1884–1885: John Philip Holland and Edmund Zalinski, having formed the "Nautilus Submarine Boat Company", start working on a new submarine. The so-called "Zalinsky boat" was constructed in Hendrick's Reef (former Fort Lafayette), Bay Ridge in (ray) or (rayacus the 3rd) New York City borough of Brooklyn. "The new, cigar-shaped submarine was 50 feet long with a maximum beam of eight feet. To save money, the hull was largely of wood, framed with iron hoops, and again, a Brayton-cycle engine provided motive power." The project was plagued by a "shoestring budget" and Zalinski mostly rejecting Holland's ideas on improvements. The submarine was ready for launching in September, 1885. "During the launching itself, a section of the ways collapsed under the weight of the boat, dashing the hull against some pilings and staving in the bottom. Although the submarine was repaired and eventually carried out several trial runs in lower New York Harbor, by the end of 1886 the Nautilus Submarine Boat Company was no more, and the salvageable remnants of the Zalinski Boat were sold to reimburse the disappointed investors." Holland would not create another submarine to 1893.http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_19/holland3.htm Edward C. Whitman, "John Holland, Father of the modern Submarine". Chapter: "A Disappointing Hiatus" 6 October 2014 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20150221224716/http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_19/holland3.htm 21 February 2015
1885: Galileo Ferraris of Livorno Piemonte, Kingdom of Italy reaches the concept of a rotating magnetic field. He applied it to a new motor. "Ferraris devised a motor using electromagnets at right angles and powered by alternating currents that were 90° out of phase, thus producing a revolving magnetic field. The motor, the direction of which could be reversed by reversing its polarity, proved the solution to the last remaining problem in alternating-current motors. The principle made possible the development of the asynchronous, self-starting electric motor that is still used today. Believing that the scientific and intellectual values of new developments far outstripped material values, Ferraris deliberately did not patent his invention; on the contrary, he demonstrated it freely in his own laboratory to all comers." He published his findings in 1888. By then, Nikola Tesla had independently reached the same concept and was seeking a patent.http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/ferraris.htm The Institute of Chemistry. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: "Galileo Ferraris"." 6 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20090909162956/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/ferraris.htm 2009-09-09 dead
1885: Nikolay Bernardos and Karol Olszewski of Broniszów were granted a patent for their Electrogefest, an "electric arc welder with a carbon electrode". Introducing a method of carbon arc welding, they also became the "inventors of modern welding apparatus".http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwelding.htm https://archive.today/20120711064304/http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwelding.htm dead July 11, 2012 Mary Bellis, "The history of Welding Tools" 6 October 2014
thumb|The Linotype machine (introduced in 1886) revolutionized printing, newspapers, and communication.
1884–1886: Ottmar Mergenthaler invents and refines the Linotype composing machine which mechanizes the process of typesetting for printing newspapers and books. This speeds up the composition of text for printing and revolutionizes communication of news and information. The Linotype allows for a daily newspaper, even in small towns.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUtJO59eKJ8 Linotype How One Machine Shaped History The Real OG of Mass Communication 2025-04-12 Moconomy 2025-11-21 YouTube The first Linotype was put into production at the New York Tribune on July 3, 1886 and was used at night to compose the “Tribune Book of Open-Air Sports” which was the first book created with Linotype type.The NY Tribune Issues "The Tribune Book of Open-Air Sports", the First Book Typeset by the "Mergenthaler Machine," later called Linotype : History of Information https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3022 2025-11-21 www.historyofinformation.comthumb|Benz Patent Motorwagen which is widely regarded as the first automobile was first introduced in 1885.
1885–1888: Karl Benz of Karlsruhe, Baden, German Empire introduces the Benz Patent Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first automobile.Ralph Stein (1967). The Automobile Book. Paul Hamlyn Ltd." It featured wire wheels (unlike carriages' wooden ones)G.N. Georgano Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985) with a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels, with a very advanced coil ignitionG.N. Georgano and evaporative cooling rather than a radiator. The Motorwagen was patented on January 29, 1886, as DRP-37435: "automobile fueled by gas".DRP's patent No. 37435 https://web.archive.org/web/20120204045616/http://home.arcor.de/carsten.popp/DE_00037435_A.pdf 2012-02-04 (PDF, 561 kB, German) was filed January 29, 1886, and granted November 2, 1886, thus taking effect January 29. The 1885 version was difficult to control, leading to a collision with a wall during a public demonstration. The first successful tests on public roads were carried out in the early summer of 1886. The next year Benz created the Motorwagen Model 2 which had several modifications, and in 1887, the definitive Model 3 with wooden wheels was introduced, showing at the Paris Expo the same year. Benz began to sell the vehicle (advertising it as the Benz Patent Motorwagen) in the late summer of 1888, making it the first commercially available automobile in history.
1885–1887: William Stanley, Jr. of Brooklyn, New York, an employee of George Westinghouse, creates an improved transformer. Westinghouse had bought the patents of Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs on the subject, and had purchased an option on the designs of Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy and Miksa Déri. He entrusted engineer Stanley with the building of a device for commercial use.Skrabec Quentin R. George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius Algora Publishing 2007 102 978-0-87586-508-9 https://books.google.com/books?id=C3GYdiFM41oC&pg=PA102 Stanley's first patented design was for induction coils with single cores of soft iron and adjustable gaps to regulate the EMF present in the secondary winding. This design was first used commercially in 1886.International Electrotechnical Commission International Electrotechnical Commission Otto Blathy, Miksa Déri, Károly Zipernowsky IEC History http://www.iec.ch/cgi-bin/tl_to_htm.pl?section=technology&item=144 https://web.archive.org/web/20070930171011/http://www.iec.ch/cgi-bin/tl_to_htm.pl?section=technology&item=144 dead September 30, 2007 May 17, 2007 But Westinghouse soon had his team working on a design whose core comprised a stack of thin "E-shaped" iron plates, separated individually or in pairs by thin sheets of paper or other insulating material. Prewound copper coils could then be slid into place, and straight iron plates laid in to create a closed magnetic circuit. Westinghouse applied for a patent for the new design in December 1886; it was granted in July 1887.https://books.google.com/books?id=w3Mh7qQRM-IC&q=ZBD+transformer&pg=PA71 Vaclav Smil, "Creating the Twentieth Century:Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and their lasting impact", p. 71 Oxford University Press, 2005." 9780198037743 6 October 2014 Smil Vaclav 25 August 2005 Oxford University Press Westinghouse, G. Jr., Electrical Converter, Patent No. 366362, United States Patent Office, 1887.
1885–1889: Claude Goubet, a French inventor, builds two small electric submarines.http://www.submarine-history.com/NOVAtwo.htm Captain Brayton Harris, USN, "World Submarine History Timeline 1580–2000" 6 October 2014 23 November 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20141123140700/http://www.submarine-history.com/NOVAtwo.htm dead The first Goubet model was 16-feet long and weighed 2 tons. "She used accumulators (storage batteries which operated an Edison-type dynamo." While among the earliest submarines to successfully make use of electric power, she proved to have a severe flaw. She could not stay at a stable depth, set by the operator. The improved Goubet II was introduced in 1889. This version could transport a 2-man crew and had "an attractive interior". More stable than her predecessor, though still unable to stay at a set depth.https://books.google.com/books?id=_rX-eHagIggC&q=Claude+Goubet+%22submarine%22&pg=PA57 Richard Knowles Morris, "John P. Holland, 1841–1914: inventor of the modern submarine" (1998), p. 57–58 9781570032363 6 October 2014 Morris Richard Knowles 1998 University of South Carolina Press
1885–1887: Thorsten Nordenfelt of Örby, Uppsala Municipality, Sweden produces a series of steam powered submarines. The first was the Nordenfelt I, a 56 tonne, 19.5 metre long vessel similar to George Garrett's ill-fated Resurgam (1879), with a range of 240 kilometres and armed with a single torpedo and a 25.4 mm machine gun. It was manufactured by Bolinders in Stockholm in 1884–1885. Like the Resurgam, it operated on the surface using a 100 HP steam engine with a maximum speed of 9 kn, then it shut down its engine to dive. She was purchased by the Hellenic Navy and was delivered to Salamis Naval Base in 1886. Following the acceptance tests, she was never used again by the Hellenic Navy and was scrapped in 1901.Vice Admiral C. Paizis-Paradellis, HN Hellenic Warships 1829–2001 Athens, Greece The Society for the Study of Greek History 2002 960-8172-14-4 133 3rd Nordenfelt then built the Nordenfelt II (Abdülhamid) in 1886 and Nordenfelt III (Abdülmecid) in 1887, a pair of 30 metre long submarines with twin torpedo tubes, for the Ottoman Navy. Abdülhamid became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo while submerged under water.The Submarine Heritage Centre: History, Barrow Shipyard and Submarines http://www.submarineheritage.com/history.html dead https://web.archive.org/web/20070704042341/http://www.submarineheritage.com/history.html July 4, 2007 www.submarineheritage.com submarine history of Barrow-in-Furness The Nordenfelts had several faults. "It took as long as twelve hours to generate enough steam for submerged operations and about thirty minutes to dive. Once underwater, sudden changes in speed or direction triggered—in the words of a U.S. Navy intelligence report—"dangerous and eccentric movements." ...However, good public relations overcame bad design: Nordenfeldt always demonstrated his boats before a stellar crowd of crowned heads, and Nordenfeldt's submarines were regarded as the world standard."
1886–1887: Carl Gassner of Mainz, German Empire receives a patent for a zinc–carbon battery, among the earliest examples of dry cell batteries. Originally patented in the German Empire, Gassner also received patents from Austria-Hungary, Belgium, the French Third Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (all in 1886) and the United States (in 1887). Consumer dry cells would first appear in the 1890s.http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/gassner.html The Institute of Chemistry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: "Carl Gassner" 6 October 2014 10 February 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080210024627/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/gassner.html dead In 1887, Wilhelm Hellesen of Kalundborg, Denmark patented his own zinc–carbon battery. Within the year, Hellesen and V. Ludvigsen founded a factory in Frederiksberg, producing their batteries.http://www.teponia.dk/museumsposten/index.php?artikelid=482 Birgitte Wistoft, "Bottled Energy" 2010-01-14 https://web.archive.org/web/20110719132610/http://www.teponia.dk/museumsposten/index.php?artikelid=482 2011-07-19 dead
1886: Charles Martin Hall of Thompson Township, Geauga County, Ohio, and Paul Héroult of Thury-Harcourt, Normandy independently discover the same inexpensive method for producing aluminium, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron. The basic invention involves passing an electric current through a bath of alumina dissolved in cryolite, which results in a puddle of aluminum forming in the bottom of the retort. It has come to be known as the Hall-Héroult process.Isaac Asimov, "Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology", p. 933. Second Revised Edition, Doubleday, 1982" Often overlooked is that Hall did not work alone. His research partner was Julia Brainerd Hall, an older sister. She had studied chemistry at Oberlin College, helped with the experiments, took laboratory notes and gave business advice to Charles.https://books.google.com/books?id=eCg5MgI2S54C&q=Julia+Brainerd+Hall&pg=PA35 Mary Ellen Bowden Chemical Achievers: The Human Face of the Chemical Sciences 1997 35–37 Chemical Heritage Foundation 9780941901123 6 October 2014
1886–1890: Herbert Akroyd Stuart of Halifax Yorkshire, England receives his first patent on a prototype of the hot bulb engine. His research culminated in an 1890 patent for a compression ignition engine. Production started in 1891 by Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England under the title Hornsby Akroyd Patent Oil Engine under licence.Herbert Akroyd Stuart, Improvements in Engines Operated by the Explosion of Mixtures of Combustible Vapour or Gas and Air, British Patent No 7146, Mai 1890https://books.google.com/books?id=9HQDGHQzVqAC&q=British+Patent+No+7146,&pg=PA681 Lance Day, Ian McNeil, "Biographical dictionary of the history of technology" (1996), p. 681 9780203028292 6 October 2014 Day Lance McNeil Ian September 2003 Taylor & Francis Stuart's oil engine design was simple, reliable and economical. It had a comparatively low compression ratio, so that the temperature of the air compressed in the combustion chamber at the end of the compression stroke was not high enough to initiate combustion. Combustion instead took place in a separated combustion chamber, the "vaporizer" (also called the "hot bulb") mounted on the cylinder head, into which fuel was sprayed. It was connected to the cylinder by a narrow passage and was heated either by the cylinder's coolant or by exhaust gases while running; an external flame such as a blowtorch was used for starting. Self-ignition occurred from contact between the fuel-air mixture and the hot walls of the vaporizer.McNeil Ian An Encyclopaedia of the History of Technology Taylor & Francis 1990 310–311 https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofh00mcne/page/310 0-415-01306-2
1887: William Thomson (later Baron Kelvin) of Belfast, Ireland introduces the multicellular voltmeter. The electrical supply industry needed instruments capable of measuring high voltages. Thomson's voltmeter could measure up to 20,000 volts. It could measure both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) flows.http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/sis25/objects.php?id=24 Museum of the History of Science, Oxford: Kelvin Multi-Cellular Electrostatic Voltmeter 6 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20140803080737/http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/sis25/objects.php?id=24 3 August 2014 dead They went into production in 1888, being the first electrostatic voltmeters.http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/instruments/test/voltmeters.htm Robert A. Paselk, "Voltmeters" 6 October 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20071016121057/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/instruments/test/voltmeters.htm 2007-10-16 dead
1887: Charles Vernon Boys of Wing, Rutland, Englandhttp://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Boys.html J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, "Sir Charles Vernon Boys" 6 October 2014 introduces a method of using fused quartz fibers to measure "delicate forces". Boys was a physics demonstrator at the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, but was contacting private experiments on the effects of delicate forces on objects. It was already known that hanging an object from a thread could demonstrate the effects of such weak influences. Said thread had to be "thin, strong and elastic". Finding the best fibers available at the time insufficient for his experiments, Boys set out to create a better fiber. He tried making glass from a variety of minerals. The best results came from natural quartz. He created fibers both extremely thin and highly durable. He used them to create the "radiomicrometer", a device sensitive enough to detect the heat of a single candle from a distance of almost 2 miles. By March 26, 1887, Boys was reporting his results to the Physical Society of London.http://www.poetikhars.com/files/deneme/City_of_Light_The_Story_of_Fiber_Optics_0195108183.pdf https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.poetikhars.com/files/deneme/City_of_Light_The_Story_of_Fiber_Optics_0195108183.pdf 2022-10-09 live Jeff Hecht City of Light:The Story of Fiber Optics 29–31 August 2018 InternetArchiveBot yes
1887–1888: Augustus Desiré Waller of Paris recorded the human electrocardiogram with surface electrodes. He was employed at the time as a lecturer in physiology at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, England.Waller AD A demonstration on man of electromotive changes accompanying the heart's beat J Physiol 1887 8 5 229–34 10.1113/jphysiol.1887.sp000257 16991463 1485094 In May, 1887, Waller demonstrated his method to many physiologists. In 1888, Waller demonstrated that the contraction of the heart started at the apex of the heart and ended at the base of the heart. Willem Einthoven was among those who took interest in the new method. He would end up improving it in the 1900s.[Besterman E, Creese R Waller--pioneer of electrocardiography Br Heart J July 1979 42 1 61–64 383122 10.1136/hrt.42.1.61 482113
1887–1889: The Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla files patents on a rotating magnetic field based alternating current induction motor and related polyphase AC transmission systems. The patents are licensed by Westinghouse Electric although technical problems and a shortage of cash at the company meant a complete system would not be rolled out until 1893.Quentin R. Skrabec, George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius, Algora Publishing – 2007, page 127
1887–1890: Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti of Liverpool, England is hired by the London Electric Supply Corporation to design the Deptford Power Station. Ferranti designed the building, as well as the electrical systems for both generating and distributing alternating current (AC). Among the innovations included in the Station was "the use of 10,000-volt high-tension cable", successfully tested for safety. On its completion in October 1890 it was the first truly modern power station, supplying high-voltage AC power.http://www.mosi.org.uk/collections/explore-the-collections/ferranti-online/timeline Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester: "Ferranti timeline" 6 October 2014 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20140802144113/http://www.mosi.org.uk/collections/explore-the-collections/ferranti-online/timeline 2 August 2014 "Ferranti pioneered the use of Alternating Current for the distribution of electrical power in Europe authoring 176 patents on the alternator, high-tension cables, insulation, circuit breakers, transformers and turbines."
1888: Heinrich Hertz of Hamburg, a city-state of the German Empire, successfully transmits and receives radio waves. He was employed at the time by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Attempting to experimentally prove James Clerk Maxwell' "A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field" (1864), Hertz "generated electric waves using an electric circuit". Then he detected said waves "with another similar circuit some distance away". Hertz succeeded in proving the existence of electromagnetic waves. But in doing so, he had built basic transmitter and receiver devices. Hertz took this work no further, did not exploit it commercially, and famously did not consider it useful. But it was an important step in the invention of radio.Eugenii Katz, "Heinrich Rudolf Hertz https://web.archive.org/web/20061002065000/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/hertz.htm 2006-10-02 ". Biographies of Famous Electrochemists and Physicists Contributed to Understanding of Electricity, Biosensors & Bioelectronics.
1888–1890: Isaac Peral of Cartagena, Spain launches his pioneering submarine on September 8, 1888. Created for the Spanish Navy, el Peral was "roughly 71 feet long, with a 9-foot beam and a height of almost 9 feet amidships, with one horizontal and two small vertical propellers, Peral's "cigar," as the workers called it, ... had a periscope, a chemical system to oxygenate the air for a crew of six, a speedometer, spotlights, and a launcher at the bow capable of firing three torpedoes. Its two 30-horsepower electrical motors, powered by 613 batteries, gave it a theoretical range of 396 nautical miles and a maximum speed of 10.9 knots an hour at the surface." It underwent a series of trials in 1889 and 1890, all in the Bay of Cádiz. On June 7, 1890, it "successfully spent an hour submerged at a depth of 10 meters, following a set course of three and a half miles". He was celebrated by the public and honored by Maria Christina of Austria, Queen Regent of Spain. But Navy officials ultimately declared the submarine a "useless curiosity", scrapping the project.http://harvardmagazine.com/1998/05/vita.html Harvard Magazine, 1998. Francisco Márquez, "Isaac Peral. Brief Life of a scorned inventor 1851–1895". 6 October 2014 2 April 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150402013150/http://harvardmagazine.com/1998/05/vita.html dead
1888–1890: Gustave Zédé and Arthur Constantin Krebs launch the Gymnote, a 60-foot submarine for the French Navy. "It was driven by a 55 horse power electric motor, originally powered by 564 Lalande-Chaperon alkaline cells by Coumelin, Desmazures et Baillache with a total capacity of 400 Amphours weighing 11 tons and delivering a maximum current of 166 Amps." She was launched on 24 September 1888 and would stay in service to 1908.http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/submarines2.htm Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk: "List of French Submarines, 1863 – Now")" 6 October 2014 The Gymnote underwent various trials to 1890, successful enough for the Navy to start building two "real fighting submarines", considerably larger. Several of the trials were intended to established tactical methods of using submarines in warfare. Several weapons were tested until it was decided that the Whitehead torpedoes were ideal for the job. The Gymnote proved effective in breaking blockades and surface ships had trouble spotting it. She was able to withstand explosions of up to 220 pounds of guncotton in a distance of 75 yards from its body. Shells of quick-firing guns, fired at short range, would explode in the water before hitting it. At long-range everything fired at the submarine, ended up ricocheting. The submarine proved "blind" when submerged, establishing the need of a periscope.https://books.google.com/books?id=25flcayCpI0C&q=1888+submarine+%22Gymnote%22&pg=PA350 Theodore Ropp, Stephen S. Roberts, "The development of a modern navy: French naval policy, 1871–1904" (1987), p. 350 9780870211416 6 October 2014 Ropp Theodore 1987 Naval Institute Press
1889–1891: Almon Brown Strowger of Penfield, New York, files a patent for the stepping switch on March 12, 1889. Issued on March 10, 1891, it enabled automatic telephone exchanges.http://www.strowger.com/About-us/Strowger-Invention-of-Telephone-Switch.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100822185417/http://www.strowger.com/about-us/strowger-invention-of-telephone-switch.html dead Strowger: "Invention of the Telephone Switch" August 22, 2010 Since 1878, telephone communications were handled by telephone switchboards, staffed by telephone operators. Operators were not only responsible for connecting, monitoring and disconnecting calls. They were expected to provide "emotional support, emergency information, local news and gossip, business tips", etc.https://books.google.com/books?id=b2mMzS0hCkAC&q=%22emma+nutt%22+telephone+operator&pg=PA696 Julie K. Petersen, "The telecommunications illustrated dictionary" (2002), p. 696 9781420040678 6 October 2014 Petersen J. K. 29 May 2002 Strowger had reportedly felt the negative side of this development, while working as an undertaker in Kansas City. The local operator happened to be the wife of a rival undertaker. Whenever someone asked to be put through to an undertaker, the operator would connect them to her husband. Strowger was frustrated at losing customers to this unfair competition. He created his device explicitly to bypass the need of an operator. His system "required users to tap out the number they wanted on three keys to call other users directly. The system worked with reasonable accuracy when the subscribers operated their push buttons correctly and remembered to press the release button after a conversation was finished, but there was no provision against a subscriber being connected to a busy line." Strowger would found the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange in 1891.
1889: Elihu Thomson of Manchester, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland creates a motor-driven Wattmeter.. Woodbank Communications Ltd.'s Electropaedia: "History of Batteries (and other things)" https://web.archive.org/web/20110512173049/http://www.mpoweruk.com/history.htm 2011-05-12
1889: Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky of Gatchina, Russian Empire created the first squirrel-cage induction motor. He was at the time working for AEG.
Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobiles were undertaken by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach
The first commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings occurred.
Steel frame construction of "sky-scrapers" happened for the first time.
February 16, 1880: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was founded in New York City.
Construction began on the Panama Canal by the French. This was the first attempt to build the Canal; it would end in failure.
Lewis Ticehurst invented the drinking straw.
1884: Smokeless powder was broughtJuly 2011 from France.
1885: Thomas Edison invents the first ever movie in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
1886: Earliest commercial automobile is invented.
1887: As the Prohibition movement gained nationwide prevalence, a "liquor-free" drink was brewed, known now as Coca-Cola.
1888: Infrastructure reform movements begin when many cities are devastated by the Great Blizzard of '88.
Science
Heinrich Hertz discovered the photoelectric effect.
The Michelson–Morley experiment was undertaken, which suggested that the speed of light is invariant.
The James–Lange theory of emotion was produced.
William James publishes numerous articles on human thought, leading to the 1890 publication of his The Principles of Psychology.
Society
The beginning of the Italian diasporaPozzetta, George E., Bruno Ramirez, and Robert F. Harney. The Italian Diaspora: Migration across the Globe. Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1992.
About 600,000 Swedes emigrated to America.
Chinese, Scandinavians and Irish immigrants laid 73000 mi km of Railroad tracks in America.
Syrian Canadians started immigrating to the Americas.
Popular culture
Literature and arts
Friedrich Nietzsche published Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Mark Twain published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Carlo Collodi published The Adventures of Pinocchio.
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov.
Edward Bellamy published Looking Backward.
Robert Louis Stevenson published Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Arthur Conan Doyle published his first Sherlock Holmes tale.
African-American music and ragtime rise to popularity in the later part of the decade.
Guy de Maupassant wrote The Necklace.
Henrik Ibsen published Ghosts
Vincent van Gogh painted IrisesPaintings Authors: Department of European Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) Essay The Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History October 2004 en and The Starry NightVincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. Saint Rémy, June 1889 MoMA https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79802 The Museum of Modern Art en
Moulin Rouge opened as Jardin de ParisL'entrée du Jardin de Paris https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-ea3f-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 NYPL Digital Collections en
Architecture
thumb|180px|Home Insurance Building
thumb|160px| The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated on March 31, 1889, thus becoming the tallest structure in the world
Home Insurance Building, the first skyscraper in history, becomes the tallest man-made structure ever built after it officially opened in 1885.
March 31, 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated (opens May 6). At 300 m, its height exceeds the previous tallest structure in the world by 130 m.
Sports
July 2018
In 1882 Kanō Jigorō creates JudoKano, Jigoro | Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, su ndl.go.jp. URL consultato il 2 ottobre 2020.
Music
Romantic music
The Romantic style, most prominent in Europe, emphasised strong melodies, beautiful harmony, and the unique vision of the artist. Loud, extreme contrasts in dynamics and accentuated rhythmic patterns were featured in the music of the time. The influence of Ludwig van Beethoven was strong, especially in the German-language area. Many of the artists involved in the Romantic music movement were disappointed with the effects of the Industrial Revolution and urbanisation, and drew influence from nature, the countryside, commoners, and old myths and legends. Nevertheless, music was seen as separate from politics, an ethereal sphere dominated by sublime expressions of the artists' deepest, primal sentiments. It was seen as something almost divine, with a unique ability to portray passionate emotions like love directly to the listener. Romantic orchestral pieces tended to be quite long and required more players than before, with symphonies regularly taking a whole hour to perform completely.
Within the Russian Empire, the influence of the Five, or "the Mighty Handful" and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky had been crucial in developing a new national understanding of music.
Fashion
1880s in fashion
January 2010
Other
180px|thumb|Coca-Cola was invented in May 1886
8 May 1886 — Coca-Cola was invented.
1888 — Whitechapel murders by the infamous Jack the Ripper.
23 September - Nintendo was established in Japan.
People
Politics
Eugène Borel, Director Universal Postal Union
Louis Curchod, Director International Telecommunication Union
Henri Morel, Secretary-general World Intellectual Property Organization
Gustave Moynier, President International Committee of the Red Cross
Heinrich Wild, President World Meteorological Organization
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey
Sports figures
Cap Anson
Moses Fleetwood Walker
John L. Sullivan
Jim Adams
John Ake
Pete Browning
William Ahearn
Famous and infamous personalities
Wyatt Earp, lawman
Morgan Earp, lawman
Virgil Earp, lawman
Doc Holliday, outlaw and gunfighter, friend of Wyatt Earp
Tom McLaury, Wild West, outlaw, cowboy, cattle rustler
Frank McLaury, ranch hand, outlaw
Billy Claiborne, outlaw Cowboy, gunfighter
Curly Bill Brocius, outlaw Cowboy, rustler
Buffalo Bill, scout, bison and buffalo hunter, founder of Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Billy the Kid, a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Wild West, outlaw, murderer
Ignacy Hryniewiecki, assassin of Tsar Alexander II of Russia
Bob Ford, Wild West, outlaw, murderer of Jesse James
188
See also
List of decades, centuries, and millennia
Victorian era
Gilded Age
American frontier
References
Sources
Ranade Sadashiv Bhaskar Sadashiv Ranade 1974 Cittapāvana Kauśika Gotrī Āgāśe-Kula-vr̥ttānta The Agashe Family Genealogy belonging to the Chitpavan Kaushik Gotra https://books.google.com/books?id=RstWAAAAMAAJ mr 1st Pune University of Michigan 74903020 600048059 Kulavruttanta
Further reading
The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1881
The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1882
The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1884
The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1887
The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1888
Prices and Wages by Decade, 1880–1889 – Guide published by the University of Missouri Library points to pages in digital libraries (freely available online) that show average prices and wages by occupation, race, sex, and more.