1885

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.
• January 26 - Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.

  February

• 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.
• February 20 - The Richmond Football Club is officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria.
• 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, 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.
• 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", 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.

  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 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, a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia.
• 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.

  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.
• 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.

  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.
• 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.
• 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.
• November - The Third Anglo-Burmese War begins.

  December

• December 1 - Dr Pepper is served for the first time.
• December 28 - 72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party.

  Date unknown

• Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in Mannheim, regarded as the first automobile.
• John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle in Coventry, regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• Before November 1 – More than 24,000 Christians are killed, 225 churches burnt, seventeen orphanages and ten convents destroyed in Cochinchina.