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January 4 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.

January 20 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.

January 26 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum

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February 5 - King Léopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a personal possession.

February 9 - The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.

February 18 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.

February 21 - US president Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument

February 23 - British executioner fails to hang John Lee, sentenced of the murder of Emma Keyse. Sentence is commuted to life imprisonment

February 26 - Final Act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa.

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March-May - North-West Rebellion took place and was put down in Canada.

March 3 - A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.

March 4 - Grover Cleveland replaces Chester A. Arthur as President of the United States.

March 14 - W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado opens at the Savoy Theatre.

March 26 - The Times reports that "A lady well-known in literary and scientific circles" has been cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. Jeannette C. Pickersgill was the first person to be officially cremated in the United Kingdom

March 30 - Pandjeh Incident - Russian force routs Afghan troops and drive them across the Pul-iKhishti bridge

March 31 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

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April 3 - Gottlieb Daimler was granted a German patent for his 1-cylinder water-cooled engine design

April 30 - A bill is signed in the New York State legislature forming the Niagara Falls State Park

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May 2

Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time.

Cree and Assiniboine warriors won the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion.

The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium.

May 9-May 12 - Canadian government forces inflict decisive defeat on Métis rebels at the Battle of Batoche.

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June 17 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

June 24 - Randolph Churchill becomes Secretary of State for India

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July 6 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister; a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.

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 20 - Professional football legalized in Britain

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September 1 - In the film ''Back to the Future III'', Doc Brown gives a letter to the post office with the instructions that it be delivered to Marty in 1955.

September 2 - 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. The Unification of Bulgaria is accomplished.

September 18 - Union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria proclaimed at Plovdiv.

September 30 - A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland and adds it to British Bechuanaland.

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November 7 - Canadian Pacific Railway finished - Finally: In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald considered the project to be vital to Canada due to the exponentially greater potential for military mobility.

November 11 - George S. Patton, Jr. Born in San Gabriel, California.

November 14-November 28 - Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria but is defeated in Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17-November 19.

November 16 - Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, Louis Riel is executed for high treason.

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December 1 - The US Patent Office acknowledges this date as the day Dr Pepper was served for the very first time; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown.

December 28 - 72 Indian lawyers, academicians and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party

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Creation of the first genuine safety bicycle, the Rover, by the nephew of James Starley of Coventry Company; John K Starley.

John Boyd Dunlop a Scottish veterinarian, invents the pneumatic tyre which by the 1890s combines with the new safety bicycle designed by John K. Starley. The new tyre is patented 7 December 1888.

Cholera epidemic in Spain – one of the victims is the king Alfonso XII

Third Burmese War begins

Sitting Bull joins Buffalo Bill

Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse

William Stanley, Jr. builds the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.

Local anesthetic

First skyscraper – Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors)

Bicycle Playing Cards first produced

SSAFA established

Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys camp in America, was founded.

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January 6 - Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)

January 8 - John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)

January 11 - Jack Hoxie, American actor, rodeo performer (d. 1965)

January 11 - Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (d. 1977)

January 16 - Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)

January 21 - Umberto Nobile, Italian politician and airship designer (d. 1978)

January 27 - Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945)

January 27 - Eduard Künneke, German composer (d. 1953)

January 27 - Harry Ruby, American musician, composer, and writer (d. 1974)

February 1 - Friedrich Kellner, German diarist, (d. 1970)

February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)

February 9 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer (d. 1935)

February 13 - Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)

February 15 - Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969)

February 21 - Sacha Guitry, Russian-born dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)

February 24 - Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral (d. 1966)

February 24 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (d. 1939)

March 6 - Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)

March 7 - John Tovey, British admiral of the fleet (d. 1971)

March 11 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, English land and water racer (d. 1948)

March 14 - Raoul Lufbery, World War I American pilot (d. 1918)

March 31 - Pascin, Bulgarian painter (d. 1930)

April 1 - Wallace Beery, American actor (d. 1949)

April 3 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born film director (d. 1981)

April 4 - Arthur Murray, American dancer (d. 1991)

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May 2 - Hedda Hopper, American columnist (d. 1966)

May 7 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, American actor (d. 1969)

May 9 - Eduard C. Lindeman, American social worker and author

May 14 - Otto Klemperer, German conductor (d. 1973)

May 21 - Oscar A.C. Lund, Swedish film actor, director, and writer (d. 1963)

May 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)

June 5 - Georges Mandel, French politician and World War II hero (d. 1944)

June 9 - John Edensor Littlewood, British mathematician (d. 1977)

June 14 - E. L. Grant Watson, writer, anthropologist, and biologist (d. 1970)

June 22 - Milan Vidmar, Slovenian electrical engineer and chess player (d. 1962)

July 4 - Louis B. Mayer, American film producer (d. 1957)

July 14 - King Sisavang Vong of Laos (d. 1959)

July 28 - Monte Attell, American boxer (d. 1960)

August 1 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)

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September 11 - D.H. Lawrence, English author (d. 1930)

September 22 - Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1951)

October 3 - Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (d. 1970)

October 7 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)

October 11 - François Mauriac, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

October 30 - Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)

November 2 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)

November 5 - Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (d. 1981)

November 9 (October 28 (O.S.)) - Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet (d. 1922)

November 11 - George Patton, American general (d. 1945)

November 20 - Heinrich Brüning, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1970)

December 2 - George Minot, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1950)

December 19 - Joe "King" Oliver, American jazz musician (d. 1938)

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January 26 - Charles "Chinese" Gordon, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1833)

April 2 - Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader (b. 1835)

May 22 - Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)

July 23 - Ulysses Simpson Grant, American Civil War general and the 18th U.S. President (b. 1822)

August 10 - James Wilson Marshall, American contractor and builder of Sutter's Mill (b. 1810)

September 15 - Jumbo the elephant (train accident)

November 16 - Louis Riel, Canadian leader (hanged for treason) (b. 1844)

November 25 - King Alfonso XII of Spain (b. 1857)

November 25 - Thomas Hendricks, Vice President of the United States (b. 1819)

November 26 - Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (b.1813)

December 8 - William Henry Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1821)