1888

Events

January

• January 3 - The great telescope at Lick Observatory in California is first used.
• January 12 - The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, leaving 235 dead, many of them children on their way home from school.
• January 13 - The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
• January 19 - The Battle of the Grapevine Creek, the last major conflict of the Hatfield–McCoy feud in the Southeastern United States.
• January 21 - The Amateur Athletic Union is founded by William Buckingham Curtis in the United States.
• January 26 - The Lawn Tennis Association is founded in England.

  February

• February 27 - In West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge, who proposes a scheme for sound film.

  March

• March 8 - The Agriculture College of Utah is founded in Logan, Utah.
• March 9
• * Year of the Three Emperors in Germany: Wilhelm I dies aged 90 and is succeeded as German Emperor and King of Prussia by his son, the terminally ill Frederick III.
• * 1888 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia: The "English Footballers" embark for the first British rugby union tour of Australasia.
• March 11 - The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the East Coast of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
• March 13 - Ritter Island eruption and tsunami: The summit of Ritter Island off the coast of New Guinea collapses, resulting in a tsunami and the deaths of an estimated 500 to 3,500 people.
• March 13 - The De Beers diamond mining conglomerate is founded by Cecil Rhodes in Kimberley, Northern Cape.
• March 15 - The Sikkim Expedition, a British military expedition to expel the Tibetans from northern Sikkim, begins.
• March 16 - The foundation stone for a new National Library of Greece is laid in Athens.
• March 20 - The first Romani language operetta premieres in Moscow, Russia.
• March 23 - A meeting called by William McGregor to discuss establishment of The Football League is held in London.
• March 25 - Opening of an international Congress for Women's Rights organized by Susan B. Anthony in Washington, D.C., leading to formation of the International Council of Women, a key event in the international women's movement.

  April

• April 3
• * London prostitute Emma Elizabeth Smith is brutally attacked by two or three men, dying of her injuries the following day, first of the Whitechapel murders, but probably not a victim of Jack the Ripper.
• * The Brighton Beach Hotel in Coney Island is moved, using six steam locomotives, by civil engineer B. C. Miller, to save it from ocean storms.
• April 6 - The first New Year's Day is observed, of the solar calendar adopted by Siamese King Chulalongkorn, with the 106th anniversary of Bangkok's founding in 1782 as its epoch.
• April 11 - The Concertgebouw orchestra in Amsterdam is inaugurated.
• April 13 - Kahisakan, the first coffee shop in Japan, opens in Tokyo.
• April 16 - The German Empire annexes the island of Nauru.
• April 18 – Westminster School is founded in Simsbury, Connecticut.
• April 21 - The Texas State Capitol building, completed at a cost of $3 million, opens to the public in Austin.

  May

• May 1 - Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is established by the United States Congress.
• May 8 - The International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow opens.
• May 10 - Nippon Oil Corporation, predecessor of Eneos, a petroleum and gas energy brand in Japan, is founded in Niigata Prefecture.
• May 12 - The North Borneo Chartered Company's territories become the British protectorate of North Borneo.
• May 13 - In Brazil, the Lei Áurea abolishes the last remnants of slavery.
• May 26 - The comic novel The Diary of a Nobody by brothers George and Weedon Grossmith begins serialization in Punch.
• May 28 - In Glasgow, Celtic F.C. plays its first official match, winning 5–2 against Rangers F.C.
• May 30 - Hong Kong's Peak Tram begins operation.

  June

• June 2 - Edward King in England is called to account for using ritualistic practices in Anglican worship.
• June 3
• * The Kingdom of Sedang is formed, in modern-day Vietnam.
• * American writer Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner.
• June 14 - The White Rajahs territories become the British protectorate of Sarawak.
• June 15 - Year of the Three Emperors in Germany: Frederick III dies after ruling for 99 days and is succeeded as German Emperor and King of Prussia by his son, Wilhelm II, who will reign until his abdication in 1918.
• June 19 - In Chicago, the Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building. Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton win the nominations for President and Vice President of the United States, respectively.
• June 29 - Handel's Israel in Egypt is recorded onto wax cylinder at The Crystal Palace in London, the earliest known recording of classical music.
• June 30 - The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom opens its laboratory, on Plymouth Hoe.

  July

• July 2-27 - London matchgirls strike of 1888: About 200 workers, mainly teenaged girls, strike following the dismissal of three colleagues from the Bryant and May match factory, precipitated by an article on their working conditions published on June 23 by campaigning journalist Annie Besant, and the workers unionise on July 27.
• July 11 - Over 200 miners are killed in an accident at a diamond mine in Kimberley, Northern Cape.
• July 15 - Eruption of Mount Bandai: An explosive eruption of the stratovolcano Mount Bandai in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan results in pyroclastic flows and the deaths of at least 477 people.
• July 25 - Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at this time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that is widely used in modern times.

  August

• August 1 - Carl Benz is issued with the world's first driving licence by the Grand Duchy of Baden.
• August 5 - Bertha Benz arrives in Pforzheim having driven from Mannheim in a car manufactured by her husband Carl Benz, thus completing the first "long-distance" drive in the history of the automobile.
• August 7 - Whitechapel murders: The body of London prostitute Martha Tabram is found, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper.
• August 9
• * A fire destroys the Main Building, the heart of Wells College in Aurora, New York, causing a loss of $130,000.
• * The Oaths Act permits the oath of allegiance taken to the Sovereign by Members of Parliament to be affirmed, rather than sworn to God, thus confirming the ability of atheists to sit in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
• August 10 - Dr Friedrich Hermann Wölfert’s motorised airship successfully completes the world’s first engine-driven flight, from Cannstatt to Kornwestheim in Germany.
• August 13 - The Local Government Act, effective from 1889, establishes county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales, redraws some county boundaries, and gives women the vote in local elections. It also declares that "bicycles, tricycles, velocipedes, and other similar machines" be carriages within the meaning of the Highway Acts, and requires that they give audible warning when overtaking "any cart or carriage, or any horse, mule, or other beast of burden, or any foot passenger", a rule abolished in 1930.
• August 20 - A mutiny at Dufile, Equatoria, results in the imprisonment of the Emin Pasha.
• August 22 - Earliest evidence of a death and injury by a meteorite, in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
• August 24 -The first trams in Tallinn, horsecars, begin operation.
• August 31 - Whitechapel murders: The mutilated body of London prostitute Mary Ann Nichols is found; she is considered the first victim of Jack the Ripper.

September

• September 4
• * In the United States, George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera, which uses roll film.
• * Mohandas Gandhi embarks on the SS Clyde from Bombay for London.
• September 6 - Australian cricketer Charles Turner becomes the first bowler to take 250 wickets in an English season - a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson, J. T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes and Tich Freeman.
• September 8
• * Patagonian sheep farming boom: The Great Herding begins with thousands of sheep being herded from the Argentine outpost of Fortín Conesa to Santa Cruz near the Strait of Magellan.
• * Whitechapel murders: The mutilated body of London prostitute Annie Chapman is found.
• * In England, the first six Football League matches are played.
• * In a letter accepting renomination as President of the United States, Grover Cleveland declares the Chinese "impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare".
• September 17 - Las Cruces College is founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
• September 27
• * Whitechapel murders: The 'Dear Boss letter' signed "Jack the Ripper", the first time the name is used, is received by London's Central News Agency.
• * Stanley Park is officially opened by Vancouver mayor David Oppenheimer.
• September 30 - Whitechapel murders: The bodies of London prostitutes Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, the latter mutilated, are found. They are generally considered Jack the Ripper's third and fourth victims, respectively.