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

Contents

Events of 1884

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Events of 1884

January - March

★ January 4 - The Fabian Society is founded in London.

★ January 18 - Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ) Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.

★ February 1 - Edition one of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is published.

★ March 13 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).

April - June

★ April 22 - Colchester earthquake, England; the UK's most destructive.

★ May 1 - the first proclamation of eight-hour workday by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. May 1st, called ''May Day'' or ''Labour Day'', is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.

★ June 4 - Estonian flag is consecrated as the flag of the Estonian Students Society.

July - September

★ July 5 - Germany takes possession of Cameroon.

★ July 23 - Today's ''Courier'' recorded the first tennis tournaments held in the grounds of Shrubland Hall.

★ August 5 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

★ August 10 - A severe earthquake, magnitude 5.5, (intensity VII) occurs off the northeast Atlantic coast. The area affected extends from central Virginia to southern Maine, and west as far as Cleveland.

★ September 5 - Staten Island Academy is founded.

October - December

★ October - International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.

★ October 6 - United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.

★ October 18 - University of Wales, Bangor (UK) founded.

★ October 22 - The first woman receives a degree from an Irish university. The degree is granted by the Royal University of Ireland.

★ November 1 - The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.

★ November 2 - Timişoara is the first town of Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.

★ November 4 - United States presidential election: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.

★ November 15 - The Berlin Conference which regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa begins (ends February 26, 1885).

★ November 25 - British surgeon John Dooglee makes the first successful removal of a brain tumor.

★ December 1 - American Old West - Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys were terrorizing the area's Hispanos and Baca was working against them).

★ December 6 - Washington Monument was completed.

★ December 16 - World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Undated

★ Bechuanaland becomes British protectorate.

★ Stefan-Boltzmann law reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.

★ British Police officers go on armed patrol in London.

★ Mark Twain writes ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn''.

★ First ascent made of Castle Mountain by geologist Arthur Philemon Coleman.

★ The water hyacinth is introduced in the U.S. and quickly becomes an invasive species.

★ Parliamentarism is introduced in Norway.

Births

January - June

★ January 2 - Oscar Micheaux, American filmmaker and author (d. 1951)

★ January 12 - Texas Guinan, American vaudeville performer (d. 1933)

★ January 13 - Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer and comedian (d. 1966)

★ January 21 - Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)

★ January 23 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d. 1956)

★ January 28 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, balloonist, and inventor (d. 1962)

★ January 31 - Theodor Heuss, German politician and publicist (d. 1963)

★ February 12

★
★ Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1950)

★
★ Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)

★ February 13 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete and inventor (d. 1961)

★ February 14 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)

★ February 16 - Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (d. 1951)

★ February 18 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)

★ February 22 - Abe Attell, American boxer (d. 1970)

★ March 13 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941)

★ March 17 - Alcide Nunez, American jazz musician (d. 1934)

★ March 24 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)

★ March 25 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (d. 1950)

★ March 26 - Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (d. 1969)

★ April 4 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander (d. 1943)

★ April 6 - Walter Huston, actor (d. 1950)

★ April 12 - Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)

★ May 1 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (d. 1918)

★ May 8 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (d. 1972)

★ May 10 - Olga Petrova, English-born actress (d. 1977)

★ May 14 - Claudius Dornier, German aircraft designer (d. 1969)

★ May 27 - Max Brod, Austrian author (d. 1968)

★ May 28 - Edvard Beneš, Austrian politician (d. 1948)

July - December

★ July 12 - Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1920)

★ July 15 - Phraya Manopakorn Nititada, Thailand's First Prime Minister (d. 1948)

★ July 18 - Alberto di Jorio, former head of the Vatican Bank and secretary of the 1958 conclave (d. 1979)

★ July 23 - Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (d. 1950)

★ August 8 - Sara Teasdale, American poet (d. 1933)

★ August 10 - Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (d. 1935)

★ August 23 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)

★ August 30 - Theodor Svedberg, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)

★ September 17 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (d. 1920)

★ September 24 - İsmet İnönü, Turkish soldier, statesman and the second President of Turkey.(d. 1973)

★ September 24 - Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (d. 1953)

★ October 11 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)

★ October 11 - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (d. 1962)

★ November 20 - Norman Thomas, American social reformer (d. 1968)

★ December 3 - Walther Stampfli, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1965)

★ December 30 - Tojo Hideki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)

★ ''date unknown''

★
★ M. Louise Gross, American politician and lobbyist (d. 1951)

★
★ Richard Spikes, African American inventor (d.1962)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ January 6 - Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist (b. 1822)

★ January 25 - Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (b. 1815)

★ March 1 - Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician (b. 1820)

★ March 21 - Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar (b. 1819)

★ April 4 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist (b. 1858)

★ April 6 - Emanuel Geibel, poet and dramatist (b. 1815)

★ April 24 - Marie Taglioni, ballerina (b. 1804)

★ May 12 - Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)

★ May 13 - Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b. 1809)

★ June 25 - Hans Rott, Austrian composer (b. 1858)

July - December

★ July 1 - Allan Pinkerton, American detective (b. 1819)

★ July 10 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)

★ July 15 - Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, diplomat (b. 1804)

★ October 4 - Leona Florentino, Filipina poet (b. 1849)

★ October 18 - William VIII, Duke of Brunswick (b. 1806)

★ November 16 - František Chvostek, Moravian physician (b. 1835)

★ November 25 - Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b. 1818)

★ December 20 - Domenico Consolini, Roman Catholic Cardinal (b. 1806)
: ''See also .''