1885-1886
1885 Jan 3, Anna Pavlova Russia's premier ballerina,
was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1885 Jan 4, Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is
believed to have been the first appendectomy; the patient was 22-year-old Mary
Gartside.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1885 Jan 26, In Sudan General "Chinese" Gordon was killed on
the palace steps in the garrison at Khartoum by the forces of El Mahdi.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(HN, 1/26/99)
1885 Jan 28, Gen'l. Garnet Wolseley arrived at Khartoum to relieve
Gen'l. Gordon, but arrived 2 days late. El Mahdi died soon thereafter but was
succeeded by the Khalifa.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1885 Jan 30, John Henry Towers, naval and aviation hero, was born.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1885 Jan, Grover Cleveland entered the White House as a bachelor.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 2)
1885 Feb 7, Sinclair Lewis (d.1951), American novelist of satire and
realism, was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. His books include
"Arrowsmith" and "Elmer Gantry." "There are two
insults which no human will endure: the assertion that he hasn't a sense of
humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known
trouble." "Winter is not a season, it's an occupation."
(AP, 6/26/98)(AP, 12/22/99) (HNQ, 5/18/98)(HN, 2/7/99)
1885 Feb 18, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published
and became one of the writer's most famous works. Samuel Clemens, born in 1835,
first used the pseudonym of Mark Twain when he wrote a humorous travel account
in 1863. Books such as Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer made
Mark Twain a popular American author because people could relate to his stories
of boyhood adventures colored with social commentary. As a satirical, critical
voice of the United States, Twain continued to write and lecture across the
country and the world. Mark Twain died in 1910.
(AP, 2/18/98)(HNPD, 2/18/99)
1885 Feb 21, The Washington Monument was dedicated.
(HN, 2/21/98)(AP, 2/21/98)
1885 Feb 23, John Lee survived three attempts to hang him in Exeter
Prison, as the trap failed to open.
(HN, 2/23/99)
1885 Feb 24, Chester Nimitz, was born. He was the U.S. admiral who
commanded naval forces in the Pacific during WWII.
(HN, 2/24/99)
1885 Mar 3, The U.S. Post Office began offering special delivery for
first-class mail.
(AP, 3/3/98)
1885 Mar 11, Sir Michael Campbell, the first motorist to exceed 300
mph, was born.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1885 Mar 21, Raoul Lufbery, French-born American fighter pilot of
World War I, was born.
(HN, 3/21/99)
1885 Mar 26, The Eastman Film Co. of Rochester, N.Y., manufactured the
first commercial motion picture film.
(AP, 3/25/98)(HN, 3/25/98)
1885 Mar 28, The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1885 Mar 30, In Afghanistan, Russian troops inflicted a crushing
defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe despite orders not to fight.
(HN, 3/30/99)
1885 Mar 31, Madame Blavatsky was hoisted in an invalid chair onto a
steamer in the Madras harbor of India and departed for London. In England she
wrote The Secret Doctrine and had as guests to her salon William Butler Yeats,
Annie Besant and the young Mohandas K. Gandhi.
(Smith., 5/95, p.127)
1885 Apr 18, The Sino-Japanese war ended.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1885 May 12, In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebelled
against Canada.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1885 May 19, First mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn,
Massachusetts).
(DT Internet 5/19/97)
1885 May, Richard Schmitt bought his brewery in Singen, Germany. [see
1875, Schmitt]
(Hem., Nov.'95, p.114)
1885 Jun 17, The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the
French ship Isere. [see Jun 19, 1885]
(AP, 6/17/97)
1885 Jun 19, The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City from
France. [see Jun 17, 1885]
(HN, 6/19/98)
1885 Jun 23, Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces at the
end of the Civil War and seventeenth president of the United States, died at
the age of 63.
(HN, 6/23/99)
1885 Jul 6, French scientist Louis Pasteur successfully tested an
anti-rabies vaccine on a boy bitten by an infected dog.
(AP, 7/6/97)
1885 Jul 23, Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces at the
end of the Civil War and the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount
McGregor, N.Y., at age 63. He had just completed the final revisions to his
memoirs, which were published as a 2 volume set by Mark Twain. In 1928 W.E.
Woodward authored "Meet General Grant," and in 1981 William S.
McFreeley authored "Grant: A Biography."
(AP, 7/23/98)(HN, 7/23/98)(ON, SC, p.11)
1885 Aug 10, Leo Daft opened America's first commercially operated
electric streetcar, in Baltimore.
(AP, 8/10/99)
1885 Aug 31, Dubose Heyward, novelist, poet and dramatist best know
for "Porgy" which was the basis for the opera "Porgy and
Bess," was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1885 Sep 2, In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers
were killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1885 Sep 10, Carl Van Doren, historian and critic who won a Pulitzer
Prize for his biography on Benjamin Franklin, was born.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1885 Sep 11, D.H. Laurence, English novelist, author of "Lady
Chatterley's Lover" and "Sons and Lovers," was born.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1885 Sep 16, Karen Horney, psychoanalyst who exposed the male bias in
the Freudian analysis of women, was born.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1885 Sep 18, A coup d'etat in Eastern Rumelia led directly to a war
between Serbia and Bulgaria. The Balkan peace settlement established by the
1878 Treaty of Berlin was undone when a coup d'etat in the disputed province of
Eastern Rumelia resulted in Eastern Rumelia (separated from Bulgaria in 1878)
announcing its re-unification with Bulgaria. Serbian prince Milan responded by
demanding Bulgaria cede some of its territory to Serbia. An international
conference convened and became deadlocked in November and Serbia declared war.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1885 Sep 20, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, jazz pianist,
composer and singer, one of the first to orchestrate jazz music, disputed W.C.
Handy's claim to be the originator of jazz and blues, was born.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1885 Sep 22, Erich Von Stroheim, director, actor and screenwriter best
known for "Greed," was born.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1885 Oct 1, Special delivery mail service began in the United States.
(AP, 10/1/97)
1885 Oct 7, Neils Bohr, Danish physicist who won the Nobel Prize for
physics and later worked on the first atom bomb, was born.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1885 Oct 11, Francois Mauriac, Nobel Prize-winning novelist, was born.
(HN, 10/11/00)
1885 Oct 30, Ezra Pound (d.1972), poet and critic, was born in Hailey,
Idaho. He wrote "The Cantos." Pound met William Carlos Williams at
the Univ. of Pennsylvania in 1907 and they remained friends and wrote many
letters. "Pound/Williams: Selected Correspondence" was ed. by Hugh
Witemeyer in 1996. "Literature is news that stays news." Ezra Pound
spent 3 winters with W.B. Yeats (1913-1916) as the poets artistic prod and
secretary.
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.6)(AP, 8/25/98)(HN, 10/30/98)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.10)
1885 Nov 2, Harlow Shapley, astronomer, was born. He discovered the
Sun is not at the center of the galaxy.
(HN, 11/2/00)
1885 Nov 5, Will Durant (d.1981), historian and author, was born.
"I think America is richer in intelligence than any other country in the
world; and that its intelligence is more scattered than in any country of the
world."
(AP, 4/17/99)(HN, 11/5/00)
1885 Nov 7, The Canadian Pacific Railroad reached the Pacific Ocean.
(CFA, '96, p.58)
1885 Nov 10, Paul Daimler, son of Gottleib Daimler, became the first
motorcyclist when he rode his father's new invention on a round trip of six
miles.
(HN, 11/10/99)
1885 Nov 11, George Patton, U.S. Army commander in World War II, was
born.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1885 Nov 16, Canadian rebel Louis Riel was executed for high treason
after he led another uprising that was crushed by a powerful militia.
(AP, 11/1697)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1885 Nov 17, The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invaded Bulgaria.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1885 Nov 19, Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulsed a larger
Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1885 Nov 26, Bulgaria moved into Serbia.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1885 Dec 2, Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer and lawyer, was born. His
work included "Zorba the Greek."
(HN, 12/2/00)
1885 Cezanne painted his watercolor of "Madame Cezanne with
hydrangeas."
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-14)
1885 Winslow Homer painted "Lost on the Grand Banks." It was
reportedly sold to Bill Gates in 1998 for $30 million.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Par p.2)
1885 Renoir, French painter, painted "In the Garden." It was
a lush double-portrait in which the artist's future wife, Aline, calmly
accepted the embrace of a suitor whose face says everything about love's sweet
delusions.
(WSJ, 4/6/95, p.A-12)
1885 Ethel Reed, graphic artist, designed the poster for Folly or
Saintliness by Jose Echegaray. A print by Ellen Thayer Fisher titled Sumac
& Milkweed was made the same year.
(Smith., 5/95, p.36, illus.)
1885 A tapestry study was done by Sir Edward Cowley Burne-Jones and
William Morris.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)
1885 Vincent Van Gogh painted "The Potato Eaters."
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.D3)
1885 Thomas Mellon published privately his autobiography, which
included much detail on the expanding US economy after the Civil War.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-10)
1885 J.R. McCulloch wrote his book "Taxation and the Funding
System." In it he stated that: "The moment you abandon the cardinal
principle of exacting from all individuals the same proportion of their income
or their profits, you are at sea without a rudder or compass and there is no
amount of injustice of folly you may not commit."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, p.A18)
1885 Emile Zola wrote "Germinal," a fictional account of a
French mining strike.
(WSJ, 10/7/97, p.A20)
1885 The opera "Le Cid" by Massenet had its premier in
Paris. It included text from the playwright Corneille's "Le Cid."
(WSJ, 11/18/99, p.A24)
1885 Gilbert and Sullivan created their opera "The Mikado."
(WSJ, 11/22/00, p.A20)
1885 Architect William Le Baron Jenney began to use steel a steel
frame skeleton for the first skyscrapers.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, Z1 p.8)
1885 The Home Insurance Building in Chicago was built and is
considered the first skyscraper. It stood 9 stories and had 2 added in 1891.
(HT, 5/97, p.23)
1885 Thomas Hardy, English writer, built his own home, Max Gate,
outside Dorchester on the Wareham Road. It was here that he wrote "Tess of
the D'Ubbervilles" and "Jude the Obscure."
(SFC, 12/4/94, p.T-4)
1885 The Norment-Parry Inn was built in Orlando, Florida. It is now
the oldest house in Orlando and serves as a bed-and-breakfast inn. It is part
of a 3 building complex called The Courtyard at Lake Lucerne.
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.28)
1885 The Detroit Institute of Arts opened.
(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A20)
1885 Isaac Mayer Wise united pockets of Jewish immigrants and
assembled 15 rabbis in Pittsburgh to articulate a platform for the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, the Hebrew Union College, and the Central
Conference of American Rabbis. The organization of Reform Judaism discussed the
Mitzvot, the 613 commandments in the Torah, and accepted only the moral
laws as binding.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)
1885 The soft drink Dr Pepper was introduced.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, Z1 p.8)
1895 George Henderson founded Dorchester Pottery outside Boston.
Charles A. Hill, his brother-in-law, was the plant manager and decorator.
(SFC, 6/17/98, Z1 p.3)
1885 Annie Oakley joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and toured
Europe.
(WSJ, 3/12/99, p.W18)
1885 John Montgomery Ward and fellow baseball players secretly formed
the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, BR p.4)
1885 To escape a federal crackdown on polygamy, hundreds of Mormon
families fled to Mexico and established the first of five Mormon colonies in
the state of Chihuahua.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1885 The US Mail began a Special Delivery service and issued the first
$.10 stamp for the guaranteed immediate delivery.
(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A6)
1885 Princeville, North Carolina was chartered. It had been founded by
a community of newly freed slaves and originally called Freedom Hill or Liberty
Hill on the south side of the Tar River. It was named after Turner Prince, a
carpenter who was one of its early leaders.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A8)
1885 George Westinghouse (1846-1914), who eventually held more than 400
patents, turned his interest to electricity and later formed the Westinghouse
Electric.
(HNQ, 5/28/00)
1885 Charles Cretors of Chicago invented the first popcorn popping
machine. It was powered by steam and first drawn by a team of horses.
(HFA, '96, p.67)
1885 Philip Handel started working with glass in Meridan, Conn. He
moved to New York and made lamps, vases and other glassware from 1893-1933.
(SFC, 7/22/98, Z1 p.2)
1885 Stanford Univ. was begun with David Starr Jordan as the first
president. The 1st class began in 1891.
(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.8)
1885 Sylanus Bowser invented the kerosene pump. Twenty years later he
modified it into a self-regulating gasoline pump.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1885 The cigar lighter was invented.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)
c1885 The founder of Johnson Controls invented an electric room
thermostat.
(WSJ, 2/3/97, p.B4)
1885 Carl Friedrich Benz invented the first operable auto with an
internal combustion engine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1885 The Varney model of the miner's candlestick was patented.
(SFC, 4/1/98, Z1 p.7)
1885 The clipper ship James Stafford crossed the Pacific Ocean in 21
1/2 days, a record that lasted until 1995.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.B6)
1885 A new star appeared in the Great Nebula of Andromeda.
(SCTS, p.1185)
1885 Victor Hugo (b.1802), French novelist and poet, died. In 1998
Graham Robb published the biography: "Victor Hugo." Hugo also did a
number of drawings, later appreciated by Andre Breton and Max Ernst, and in
1914 Henri Focillon published the first critical study of them. In 1998 Pierre
Georgel and Marie-Laure Prevost published "Shadows of a Hand: The Drawings
of Victor Hugo."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(HN, 2/26/98)(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR p.4)
1885 Titian Ramsey Peale (b.1799), American naturalist and painter,
died. He and his nephew developed and patented the kinematoscope, a forerunner
of the motion picture camera.
(NH, 5/96, p.75)
1885 The Canadian Pacific Railway completed its transcontinental rail
line.
(SFEM, 10/10/99, p.46)
1885 In BC, Canada, St. Paul's Church was built at Fulford. It was the
first church on Salt Spring Island.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T5)
1885 In England John Starley introduced the safety bicycle.
(Hem, 8/96, p.34)
1885 English scientist Francis Galton proved that no two 2
fingerprints were identical.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Zone 1 p.5)
1885 In Germany a treaty made in Berlin called for the humane
treatment of Africans.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1885 In Japan the first Shakespeare production was a Kabuki adaptation
of a Japanese novel inspired by a Charles Lamb narrative based on "The
Merchant of Venice."
(SFC,12/23/97, p.E6)
1885 In the Netherlands the façade of the Rijksmuseum was
completed.
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
c1885 Geneva rubies were sold in Switzerland. They were supposedly
made by processing small bits of real rubies into larger gemstones.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.7)
1885-1889 Grover Cleveland became the 22nd President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1885-1920 Sisters Frances and Mary Allen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, began
their careers as schoolteachers, but when deafness forced a change of
profession, they turned to photography. Their work shows everyday activities in
a rural community. Self-taught in their craft, the Allen sisters achieved
remarkable success. During their photography career from 1885 to 1920, their
work appeared in numerous books and magazines as covers, illustrations and
frontispieces.
(HNPD, 1/3/00)
1885-1930 D.H. Lawrence, English novelist. David Herbert Lawrence. "The
world fears a new experience more than it fears anything. Because a new
experience displaces so many old experiences."
(WUD, 1994, p.812)(AP, 3/4/00)
1885-1933 Ring Lardner, American humorist: "The family you come from
isn't as important as the family you're going to have."
(AP, 5/14/99)
1885-1958 Eva Gauthier, American concert singer. She is discussed in the
1997 book "The American Opera Singer" by Peter G. Davis.
(WSJ, 11/6/97, p.A20)
1885-1962 Niels Henrik David Bohr, Danish theoretical physicist. He is the
author of the Bohr theory which is a model of atomic structure wherein
electrons travel around the nucleus in orbits determined by quantum conditions
of angular momentum.
(AHD, 1971, p.147)
1885-1957 Sacha Guitry, French director, actor and dramatist:
"The little I know I owe to my ignorance." "You can pretend to
be serious; but you can't pretend to be witty."
(AP, 5/27/98)(AP, 2/27/99)
1885-1962 Isak Dinesen, Danish author: "God made the world round so we
would never be able to see too far down the road."
(AP, 9/15/00)
1885-1967 Andre Maurois, French author: "Growing old is no more than a
bad habit which a busy man has no time to form."
(AP, 7/6/00)
1885-1968 Helen M. Cam, English historian and educator: "We must not
read either law or history backwards."
(AP, 8/15/00)
1885-1973 Otto Klemperer, maestro, was born in Breslau and died in Zurich.
"Otto Klemperer: His Life and Times" Vol II was completed by John
Lucas based on the work of Mr. Heyworth and published in 1996. Vol I by Peter
Heyworth was published in 1983.
(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)
1886 Jan 1, A great blizzard buried the eastern and southern plains,
killing 50 to 85 percent of the cattle herds.
(HNPD, 1/4/99)
1886 Feb 27, Hugo Black was born. He became the U.S. Supreme Court
Justice who wrote opinions forbidding prayer in schools.
(HN, 2/27/99)
1886 Mar 3, The Treaty of Bucharest concluded the Serb-Bulgarian war,
reestablishing prewar Serbo-Bulgarian borders but leaving Eastern Rumelia and
Bulgaria united.
(HNQ, 4/2/99)
1886 Mar 17, Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi occurred. 20 Blacks
were killed.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1886 Apr, Abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Washington
to celebrate the 24th year after the Emancipation Proclamation. He said:
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance
prevails, where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized
conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will
be safe.
(USAT, 2/14/97, p.15A)
1886 May 4, At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for
an eight-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. Seven policemen
were killed and some 60 others injured. Only one policeman was killed in the
strike. Labor leaders were later executed for the bombing.
(AP, 5/4/97)(WSJ, 10/7/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/6/98, p.A20)
Web site on labor strikes of this year.
http://www.execpc.com/~blake/
1886 May 5, A bomb exploded on the fourth day of a workers' strike in
Chicago, Ill.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1886 May 8, Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented the
flavor syrup for Coca-Cola. The name for the soft drink came from his
bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. Sales at the soda fountain of Jacob's Pharmacy
averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year.
(AP, 5/8/97)(HN, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(HNQ, 10/23/00)
1886 May 15, Poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, Mass.
(AP, 5/15/97)
1886 May 25, Philip Murray, founder of Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO) , was born.
(HN, 5/25/98)
1886 May 26, Al Jolson, jazz singer and silent film actor, was born.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1886 Jun 2, President Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White
House ceremony. Cleveland's bride, Frances Folsom, was the 22-year-old daughter
of Cleveland's late law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom. The intimate wedding
ceremony took place in the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people
present.(To date, Cleveland is the only president to marry in the Executive
Mansion while in office.)
(AP, 6/2/97)(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A1)(HNQ, 6/2/98)
1886 Jun 10, In New Zealand Mount Tarawera erupted at Rotorua on the
North Island. 155 people were killed and several Maori and European settlement
were destroyed.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T5)
1886 Jun 13, King Ludwig II of Bavaria drowned in Lake Starnberg.
Bavarian leaders had conspired to remove Ludvig II from office and got a
doctor, who never saw him, to declare him insane. He was captured and taken to
a mansion on Lake Starnburg where he was found floating dead with his doctor.
In 1996 Greg King authored "The Mad King."
(AP, 6/13/97)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T5)
1886 Jun 25, Henry (Hap) Arnold, commanding general of the U.S. Army
Air Force during World War II, was born.
(HN, 6/25/99)
1886 Jun 29, James Van Der Zee, African-American photographer, was
born.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1886 Jul 4, 1st scheduled transcontinental passenger train reached Pt
Moody, BC.
(Maggio, 98)
1886 Jul 13, Father Edward J. Flanagan, catholic priest, founder of
Boys Town, was born.
(HN, 7/13/98)
1886 Jul 23, New York saloonkeeper Steve Brodie claimed to have made a
daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.
(AP, 7/23/98)
1886 Jul 26, William Gladstone was replaced by Lord Salisbury as prime
minister of England.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1886 Jul 31, Franz Liszt, composer, died in Bayreuth. His work
included the symphonic poem "Les Preludes" and the "Faust
Symphony." Cosima-von-Bulow was a illegitimate daughter of Liszt and
married to Richard Wagner. A 3 volume biography of Liszt (1977, 1983, 1996) was
written by Alan Walker, Vol 3 was titled: "Franz Liszt: The final
Years." Deszno Legany of Hungary earlier wrote: "Liszt and His
country: 1874-1866."
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A14)
1886 Aug 20, Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher who wrote
"Systematic Theology," was born.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1886 Aug 31, An earthquake rocked Charleston, S.C., killing up to 110
people.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1886 Sep 4, Elusive Apache leader Geronimo surrendered to General
Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Ariz.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1886 Sep 9, The Berne International Copyright Convention took place.
(HN, 9/9/00)
1886 Sep 13, Alain Locke, writer and first African-American Rhodes
scholar, was born.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1886 Oct 10, The tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut at the
autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
(AP, 10/10/97)
1886 Oct 16, David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman, was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)
1886 Oct 28, The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, formerly
Bedloe's Island, in New York Harbor, a gift from the people of France, was
dedicated by President Cleveland. It was originally named Liberty Enlightening
the World and was erected at the entrance of New York harbor as a symbol of
freedom to welcome immigrants and others from around the world. It became a
monument to republicanism and to the amity between the French and American
nations. The 225-ton statue arrived in 214 packing cases in June 1885 and was
assembled on an American-built pedestal, the money for which was largely raised
by Joseph Pulitzer. Later the 14 line, 1883 poem "New Colossus" by
Emma Lazarus was placed at the base.
(WUD, 1994, p.1389)(WSJ, 7/26/96, p.A9)(THC, 4/10/97)(AP, 10/28/97)(HNPD,
10/28/98)(HN, 10/28/98)(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1886 Nov 9, Ed Wynn, actor and comedian, was born.
(HN, 11/9/00)
1886 Nov 18, The 21st president of the United States, Chester A.
Arthur, died in New York at age 56.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1886 Nov 24, Margaret Anderson, editor, was born. She founded
"The Little Review."
(HN, 11/24/00)
1886 Dec 1, Rex Stout, writer, poet, was born. He created the
detective character Nero Wolfe.
(HN, 12/1/00)
1886 Dec 6, Joyce Kilmer (d.1918), American poet best known for his
poem "Trees," was born. Kilmer was killed by a sniper in WW I.
(HN, 12/6/98)(WUD, 1994 p.786)
1886 Dec 8, The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded at a
convention of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio, by some 25 labor groups
representing about 150,000 members. The first president of the American
Federation of Labor was Samuel Gompers, who had reorganized the Cigarmakers
Union and participated in the founding of the Federation of Organized Trades
and Labor Unions in 1881.
(AP, 12/8/97)(HNPD, 9/7/99)
1886 Dec 9, Clarence Birdseye, inventor of flash freezing foods,
was born.
(HNPD, 12/9/98)
1886 Dec 17, At a Christmas party, Sam Belle shot his old enemy Frank
West, but was fatally wounded himself.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1886 Dec 18, Ty [Tyrus Raymond] Cobb, American baseball player, first
man to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, was born.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1886 Karl von Frisch, Austrian ethologist, was born. In the 1940s he
first described the method by which honeybees describe the source of gathered
pollen to their fellow bees. The bees perform a dance is that integrates
information about the orientation of the sun and the distance to the pollen
source.
(WUD, 1994, p.569)(NH, 9/97, p.60)
1886 The last impressionist exhibition was held in France.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.E8)
1886 Jean-Leon Gerome painted "The First Kiss of the Sun."
(WSJ, 2/5/99, p.W12)
1886 Henri Fantin-Latour painted "Vase With Autumn Asters."
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.B1)
1886 Auguste Rodin created his marble sculpture "The Kiss."
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)
1886 Medardo Rosso sculpted his "The Golden Age."
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.46)
1886 Baron von Richard Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) published a work on
mental disease.
(WUD, 1994, p.795)
1886 Pierre Loti, French naval officer and author, wrote "An
Iceland Fisherman."
(SFEC, 11/17/96, DB p.40)
1886 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde" and "Kidnapped." His work also included
"Silverado Squatters" based on his experiences in Calistoga, Ca. When
he wrote "Treasure Island," he used Mount St. Helena and the
Palisades for story scenes.
(Article on Calistoga by Cybil McCabe, 7/95)(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.W1)
1886 The musical "The Black Crook" was named as the first
American musical.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, DB p.13)
1886 In Galveston, Texas, the Millie Walters House was built. It was
the last of the famous Postoffice St. bordellos.
(HT, 5/97, p.62)
1886 Assembly Hall, a gothic-style building built by the Latter-day
Saint pioneers, was completed in Salt Lake City, Utah.
(THM, 4/27/97, p.N3)
1886 The three Korbel brothers built a lumber mill in Guerneville,
California. The mill prospered logging redwoods and specialized in fancy
moldings used in many of the Victorian homes of San Francisco. The property was
acquired by the Heck family in 1954 who began producing sparkling wines.
(SFC, 4/9/96, zz1 p.3)
1886 In San Francisco the 13-room Haas-Lilienthal House was built at
2007 Franklin. Architect Peter R. Schmidt built the 24-room house of fir and
redwood for Bertha and William Haas, a mercantile grocer, for $18,500.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.2)(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D5)
1868 The ship Balclutha was built in Glasgow, Scotland. It was named
in Gaelic for Clyde's rock. For 16 years it sailed from the British Isles with
a load of coal around Cape Horn to SF where it picked up grain and returned to
Europe. It was later preserved at the National Maritime Museum in San
Francisco. [1st source said 1860]
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A15)(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D1)
1886 The Baptist General Convention, a state umbrella group for
Baptist churches, was founded in Texas.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.A14)
1886 Agua Caliente, home of warm mineral springs used by the Sonoma
Valley Indians, was founded as the first resort in Sonoma, Ca.
(WCG, p.58)
1886 David McConnell of New York founded the California Perfume
Company. He found that people were buying his books because of his free rose
oil perfumes. US saleswoman P.F.E. Albee of Winchester, N.H., became the first
Avon Lady. The company was named Avon in 1939.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(WSJ, 9/18/00, p.B1)
1886 Nicholas Hilger began river boat tours on the Missouri River near
Helena at the site of the limestone cliffs named the Gates of the Mountains by
the Lewis and Clark expedition.
(GOTM, brochure)
1886 Millionaires Pulitzer, McCormick, Rockefeller, Morgan and others
formed the Jekyll Island Club as a vacation resort for themselves and their
families on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia.
(SFC, 4/28/96, p.T-7)
1886 Ybor City was founded next to St. Petersburg by Spanish, Italian
and Cuban cigar workers.
(Hem., 3/97, p.60)
1886 A board game called "The Game of Baseball" was made
with a lithographed game board by the McLoughlin Brothers. In 1999 the boxed
game was worth $3,000.
(SFC, 4/7/99, Z1 p.7)
1886 The beverages Moxie, Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola and Hires Root Beer all
appeared in bottles.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.B5)
1886 Maxwell House coffee was named.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.B5)
1886 Pres. Grover Cleveland (49) married Frances Folsom (21), his ward
and the daughter of his late law partner. He became the first and only
president to be married in the White House. Cleveland's bride, Frances Folsom,
was the 22-year-old daughter of Cleveland's late law partner and friend, Oscar
Folsom. For years, the bachelor Cleveland acted as executor of Folsom's estate,
but no one suspected his interest in Frances until he proposed marriage after
her graduation from Wells College. The intimate wedding ceremony took place in
the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people present. They had 2 sons
and 3 daughters, one of whom, Ruth, inspired the Babe Ruth candy bar.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 2)(HNQ, 11/1/98)
1886 George Hearst was elected US Senator for California.
(SFEM, 10/24/99, p.20)
1886 The Passenger Services Act (PSA) of this year required that
cruise ships stopping in at US ports be built and registered in the US, be
owned by US citizens and manned by American seamen-or that they stop at a
foreign port before returning passengers to their departure point. It was
designed to protect US ferry boats operating on the Great Lakes from Canadian
competition.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.C10)(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.B1)
1886 Josephine Garis Cochrane (d.1913), a housewife from Shelbyville,
Ill., patented the first dishwashing machine. She named it the Garis-Cochran
Dishwashing Machine in honor of her father and late husband.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(ON, 4/00, p.12)
1886 Alexander Winton, Cleveland bicycle manufacturer, made his first
running experimental car. He went into the car business a year later.
(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1886 John Stith (Doc) Pemberton, pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia,
concocted a bath of a dark, sugary syrup meant to be mixed with carbonated
water and sold at the city's soda fountains. This was the beginning of Coca
Cola, which then contained enough cocaine to give the a drinker a buzz and more
caffeine than the drink contains today. The story is told by Frederick Allen in
his book "Secret Formula." The drink was named by Frank Robinson and
he created its signature script logo.
(WSJ, Angrist, 11/23/94)(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A1)
1886 Duke's Cameo smokes was patented.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1886 In Honolulu, Hawaii, a fire destroyed the original Chinatown.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.3)
1886 Alexander Ostrovsky (b.1823), Russian social realist playwright,
died.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A24)
1886 In Bulgaria the Cathedral of the Assumption was built in Varna.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T3)
1886 In Germany the firm of Robert Bosch GmbH was founded. It later
became a world leader in automotive electronics.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A30)
1886 London's Soho district of this year was the setting for Joseph
Conrad's 1907 novel "The Secret Agent."
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.C12)
1886 In Mexico the Tequila San Matias company in Guadalahara began
tequila production.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.4)
1886 The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, South Africa,
launched the city of Johannesburg. Labor was provided from Lesotho.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 562)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A11)
1886-1888 Vincent Van Gogh made his Paris sojourn.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1886-1952 Sister Elizabeth Kenny, Australian nurse: "Some minds
remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through
by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route."
(AP, 11/25/97)
Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963), American author: "Nothing is so soothing
to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to
absolve us."
(AP, 8/14/00)
1886-1963 Robert Schuman, French statesman: "When I was a young
man I vowed never to marry until I found the ideal woman. Well, I found
her-but, alas, she was waiting for the perfect man."
(AP, 6/26/97)
1886-1965 Paul Tillich, American theologian: "The first duty of
love is to listen."
(AP, 11/28/97)
1886-1967 Bruce Barton, American advertising executive: "Conceit is God's
gift to little men."
(AP, 8/11/00)
1886-1967 Mir Osman Ali Khan, 7th and last ruler of the Sif Jahi dynasty in
India. He ruled Hyderabad up to 1948 and amassed a fortune from taxation. He
donated to hundreds of universities and hospitals regardless of caste and
religion. When he died rooms were found filled with bank notes eaten through by
rats.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1886-1967 Siegfried Sassoon, English poet and novelist. He met Wilfred Owen
in a sanatorium and published his poetry after Owen died at the front.
(WUD, 1994, p.1270)
1886-1969 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, member of Bauhaus, established a new
dept. of architecture at Armour Institute (later Illinois Institute of
Technology) in Chicago.
(V.D.-H.K.p.363)
1886-1975 Rex Stout, American author: "There are two kinds of
statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up."
(AP, 7/14/97)