1883

Events

January

• January 4 - Life magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States.
• January 10 - A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people.
• January 16 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States civil service, is passed.
• January 19 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey, United States, installed by Thomas Edison.

  February

• February 15 - Tokyo Electrical Lightning Grid, predecessor of Tokyo Electrical Power, one of the largest electrical grids in Asia and the world, is founded in Japan.
• February 16 - The Ladies' Home Journal is published for the first time, in the United States.
• February 23 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
• February 28 - The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• February - The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is first published complete in book form, in Italy.

  March

• March 2 - The Hong Kong Observatory is established.
• March 9 – Demonstration of 9 March 1883 : Parisian anarchists, unemployed and carpenters narrowly miss the Presidential palace during a violent protest; first use of the black flag as a symbol of anarchism by Louise Michel.
• March 20 - The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is held.
• March 28 - Battle of Gia Cuc: A French force defeats the Vietnamese in northern Vietnam in the run-up to the Sino-French War.

  April

• April 5 - Oxygen is liquefied for the first time.
• April 28 - The first rugby sevens tournament is played at Melrose RFC in Scotland.

  May

• May 20 - 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, Indonesia
• May 23 - Robert Louis Stevenson's children's pirate adventure novel Treasure Island is first published in book format, in London.
• May 24 - Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic in New York City, after 13 years of construction.
• May 30 - A rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede, which crushes 12 people.
• May 31 - Otto von Bismarck pushes the first social security law through the Reichstag. It establishes a system of Publicly funded health care, one of the first worldwide. It is signed into law on June 15.

  June

• June 13 - Count Arvid Posse leaves office as Prime Minister of Sweden. He is succeeded by Carl Johan Thyselius, the first non-aristocrat to serve as Swedish head of government, and Prime Minister.
• June 16 - Victoria Hall disaster: A rush for treats results in 183 children being asphyxiated in a concert hall in Sunderland, England.
• June 28 - In Milan, Italy, the first central European electricity power station is inaugurated.
• June 30 - Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Black Arrow first appears as a serial in the British magazine Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature as by 'Captain George North'. Stevenson completes writing it at the end of the summer in France.

  July

• July 3 - The SS Daphne sinks on launch in Glasgow, Scotland, leaving 124 dead.
• July 4 - The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.
• July 22 - Zulu King Cetshwayo barely escapes a rebel attack with his life.

  August

• August 12 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• August 21 - 1883 Rochester tornado: An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.
• August 26-27 - 1883 eruption of Krakatoa: The volcanic island of Krakatoa erupts at 10:02 am ; 163 villages are destroyed, 36,417 killed by tsunami.
• August 29 - Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library, is opened in Andrew Carnegie's hometown, Dunfermline, Scotland.
• August - King William's College is opened on the Isle of Man.

  September

• September 1 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Supremi apostolatus officio.
• September 11 - Major Evelyn Baring becomes Consul-General of Egypt under British rule.
• September 15
• * The Bombay Natural History Society is founded in India.
• * The University of Texas at Austin opens to students.
• September 29 - A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis forms the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway, as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports, avoiding the high tariffs of Chicago.

  October

• October 1
• * Sydney Boys High School is founded in Sydney, Australia, the country's first state high school.
• * In Amsterdam, the first International Colonial and Export Exhibition closes, having had over 1 million visitors.
• October 4
• * The Boys' Brigade is founded in Glasgow, Scotland.
• * The Orient Express train begins to run through from Paris Gare de l'Est to Giurgiu in Romania, with onward ferry and train connections to Istanbul.
• October 16 - In five Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
• October 20 - Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to Chile, ending Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
• October 22 - The Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram in Vienna is the first electric tram powered by overhead wire.
• October 24 - Cardiff University, Wales, opens.
• October 30 - Two Clan na Gael dynamite bombs explode in the London Underground, injuring several people. The next day, British Home Secretary Vernon Harcourt drafts 300 policemen to guard the underground, and introduces the Explosives Bill.

  November

• November 3
• * The 14th Century AH begins in the Islamic calendar on the 1st of Muharram, 1301 AH.
• * American Old West: Self-described Black Bart the Po-8 makes his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves a handkerchief with a laundry mark that eventually leads to his capture.
• November 14 - Chile's National Library of Congress is founded.
• November 18 - U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
• November 28 - Whitman College is chartered as a 4-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.

  December

• December 1 - Battleford Industrial School, the first government-operated Indian residential school opens in Canada.
• December 5 - Bisbee Massacre: Five people are killed in the robbery of a general store by bandits in Bisbee, Arizona.
• December 16 - Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.
• December 21 - The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed.
• December 26 - The Harbour Grace Affray takes place in Harbour Grace, Colony of Newfoundland.

  Date unknown

• Antoni Gaudí begins to work on the Sagrada Família Cathedral in Barcelona
• Construction of Speicherstadt as a free zone in the Port of Hamburg begins.
• During construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, blasting and excavation reveal high concentrations of nickel–copper ore at Murray Mine, on the edge of the Sudbury Basin, located near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
• The British Parliament considers a major bill to allow Indian judges to try Europeans in India. The British community rises in protest, and defeats the measure.
• The Mexican government passes a law allowing real estate companies to survey public and "vacant" lands, and to retain one third of the land they survey.
• Bernard Kroger establishes the first Kroger grocery store, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• The first purebred Percheron stud book is created in France.
• ASEA is founded by Ludvig Fredholm in Sweden, predecessor of the global electronic equipment and engineering business ABB.
• Founding of:
• * Houghton College in New York State
• * Wagner College in New York City
• * Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in Maryland
• * Raith Rovers F.C. in Scotland
• * The Black Arabs F.C in England
• * Dunstable Town F.C. in England

  Births

January–February

• January 1 - Ichirō Hatoyama, Prime Minister of Japan
• January 3 - Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• January 4 - Johanna Westerdijk, Dutch plant pathologist
• January 5 - Döme Sztójay, Prime Minister of Hungary
• January 6 - Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese poet, painter and novelist
• January 10
• * Francis X. Bushman, American screen actor
• * Hubert Latham, pioneer French aviator of the pre-World War I era
• * Florence Reed, American actress
• * Helen Lackaye, American stage actress
• * Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Russian writer
• January 16 - Oswald Short, English aircraft manufacturer
• January 19 - Waite Phillips, American businessman, philanthropist
• January 20 - Bertram Ramsay, British admiral
• February 8 - Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist
• February 15 - Sax Rohmer, English author
• February 16 - Koshirō Oikawa, Japanese admiral
• February 22
• * Abe Attell, American boxer
• * Marguerite Clark, American silent film actress
• February 23 - Karl Jaspers, German philosopher
• February 28 - Gheorghe Argeșanu, Romanian general and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Romania

  March–April

• March 2 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer
• March 3 - Cyril Burt, British educational psychologist
• March 4
• * Sam Langford, Canadian boxer
• * Maude Fealy, American actress
• March 7 - Michael Somogyi, Hungarian-American biochemist
• March 19
• * Norman Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Joseph Stilwell, American general
• March 21 - Sam Hardy, American stage and screen actor
• March 24 - Dorothy Campbell, Scottish golfer
• March 28 - Tikiri Bandara Panabokke II, Ceylonese colonial-era legislator, lawyer and diplomat
• April 1
• *Laurette Taylor, American actress
• *Lon Chaney, American actor
• April 3 - Henry Diesen, Norwegian admiral
• April 5 - Walter Huston, Canadian-born American actor
• April 11 - Leonard Mudie, English actor
• April 12 - Dally Messenger, Australian rugby league player
• April 15 - Stanley Bruce, 8th Prime Minister of Australia
• April 25 - Semyon Budyonny, Cossack cavalryman, Marshal of the Soviet Union
• April 30 - Jaroslav Hašek, Czech writer