1885

1885 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1885; MDCCCLXXXV
Ab urbe condita	2638
Armenian calendar	1334; ԹՎ ՌՅԼԴ
Assyrian calendar	6635
Bahá'í calendar	41–42
Balinese saka calendar	1806–1807
Bengali calendar	1292
Berber calendar	2835
British Regnal year	48 Vict. 1 – 49 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2429
Burmese calendar	1247
Byzantine calendar	7393–7394
Chinese calendar	甲申年 (Wood Monkey); 4581 or 4521; — to —; 乙酉年 (Wood Rooster); 4582 or 4522
Coptic calendar	1601–1602
Discordian calendar	3051
Ethiopian calendar	1877–1878
Hebrew calendar	5645–5646
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1941–1942
- Shaka Samvat	1806–1807
- Kali Yuga	4985–4986
Holocene calendar	11885
Igbo calendar	885–886
Iranian calendar	1263–1264
Islamic calendar	1302–1303
Japanese calendar	Meiji 18; (明治１８年)
Javanese calendar	1814–1815
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4218
Minguo calendar	27 before ROC ; 民前27年
Nanakshahi calendar	417
Thai solar calendar	2427–2428
Tibetan calendar	阳木猴年; (male Wood-Monkey); 2011 or 1630 or 858; — to —; 阴木鸡年; (female Wood-Rooster); 2012 or 1631 or 859

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century ; 19th century ; 20th century ;
Decades:	1860s ; 1870s ; 1880s ; 1890s ; 1900s ;
Years:	1882 ; 1883 ; 1884 ; 1885 ; 1886 ; 1887 ; 1888 ;

Last updated April 10, 2019

1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV ) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar , the 1885th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 885th year of the 2nd millennium , the 85th year of the 19th century , and the 6th year of the 1880s decade. As of the start of 1885, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Roman numerals Numbers in the Roman numeral system

The numeric system represented by Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet. Roman numerals, as used today, employ seven symbols, each with a fixed integer value, as follows:

A common year is a calendar year with 365 days, as distinguished from a leap year, which has 366. More generally, a common year is one without intercalation. The Gregorian calendar,, employs both common years and leap years to keep the calendar aligned with the tropical year, which does not contain an exact number of days.

A common year starting on Thursday is any non-leap year that begins on Thursday, 1 January, and ends on Thursday, 31 December. Its dominical letter hence is D. The most recent year of such kind was 2015 and the next one will be 2026 in the Gregorian calendar or, likewise, 2010 and 2021 in the obsolete Julian calendar, see below for more. This common year contains the most Friday the 13ths; specifically, the months of February, March, and November. Leap years starting on Sunday share this characteristic. From February until March in this type of year is also the shortest period that occurs within a Friday the 13th.

Events

January–March

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 4 – The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant, on Mary Gartside.
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 terrorists damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.^[1]
January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.^[2]
February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession.
February 7 – The play La vida alegre y muerte triste by dramatist José Echegaray opens.
February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stood at a level of 62.76, and represented the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.^[3]
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.
The Battle of Đồng Đăng was an important French victory during the Sino-French War. It is named after the town of Đồng Đăng, then in northern Tonkin, close to the border between China and Vietnam.
Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is in the Red River Delta Region of northern Vietnam.
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain "hanging". Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since medieval times, and is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. The first known account of execution by hanging was in Homer's Odyssey. In this specialised meaning of the common word hang, the past and past participle is hanged instead of hung.
February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the scramble for Africa .^[2]
February 28 – February concludes without having a full moon.
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 is sworn in, as the 22nd President of the United States.
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.^[4]
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: Mrs Jeannette C. Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles",^[5] is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.
The Prussian deportations were the mass expulsions of ethnic Poles from the German-controlled Prussia between 1885 and 1890. More than 30,000 Poles with Austrian or Russian citizenship were deported from the Prussian part of divided Poland to the respective Austrian and Russian Partitions of the no-longer existing Commonwealth. The deportations were carried out in an inhumane way, and were based on ethnic discrimination principles. The county-wide expulsion was condemned by the Polish public as well as the federal German parliament. The expulsion also contributed to the worsening of the German-Russian relations. In the aftermath, Poles without German citizenship were again allowed to work and reside in the German Empire in all seasons but the winter. It is regarded as an early example of ethnic cleansing.
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, known as Otto von Bismarck, was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890 and was the first Chancellor of the German Empire between 1871 and 1890.
The North-West Rebellion of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of Saskatchewan against the government of Canada. Many Métis felt Canada was not protecting their rights, their land and their survival as a distinct people. Riel had been invited to lead the movement of protest. He turned it into a military action with a heavily religious tone. This alienated Catholic clergy, whites, most Indigenous tribes and some Métis. But he had the allegiance of a couple hundred armed Métis, a smaller number of other Indigenous warriors and at least one white man at Batoche in May 1885, confronting 900 Canadian militia plus some armed local residents. About 91 people would die in the fighting that occurred that spring, before the rebellion's collapse.
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.^[6]

January 3 is the third day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 362 days remaining until the end of the year. Perihelion, the point during the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun, occurs around this date.

January 4 is the fourth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 361 days remaining until the end of the year.

Sino-French War limited conflict between France and China

The Sino-French War, also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 through April 1885, to decide whether France would supplant China's control of Tonkin. Although the Chinese armies performed better than in other nineteenth-century wars and the war ended with French defeat on land, the French achieved most of their aims in the Treaty of Tientsin.

April–June

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 (Luton) 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 30 – A bill is signed in the New York State legislature, forming the Niagara Falls State Park.
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.
- The Congo Free State is established, by King Leopold II of Belgium.
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal", popularly known as the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval".
The Battle of Cut Knife, fought on May 2, 1885, occurred when a flying column of mounted police, militia, and Canadian army regular army units attacked a Cree and Assiniboine teepee settlement near Battleford, Saskatchewan. First Nations fighters forced the Canadian forces to retreat, with losses on both sides.
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people, also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota, are a First Nations/Native American people originally from the Northern Great Plains of North America.
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 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.
June 24 – Randolph Churchill becomes Secretary of State for India.

April 2 is the 92nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 273 days remaining until the end of the year.

The Frog Lake Massacre was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. Led by Wandering Spirit, young Cree men attacked officials, clergy and settlers in the small settlement of Frog Lake in the District of Saskatchewan in the Northwest Territories on 2 April 1885. Nine settlers were killed in the incident.

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations in North America.

July–September

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 20 – Professional football is legalized in Britain.
July 28 – Louis Riel's trial for treason begins in Regina.
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.^[7]^[8]^[9]
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 FC defeats Bon Accord FC, 36-0, in 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.
September 30 – A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland, and adds it to British Bechuanaland.

October–December

October 3 – Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs in London, as Millwall Rovers.
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 – Symphony No. 4 (Brahms) is premiered in Meiningen, Germany, with Johannes Brahms himself conducting it.
November – The Third Anglo-Burmese War begins.
November 7 – Canadian Pacific Railway: In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister Sir 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.
December 1 – The U.S. Patent Office acknowledges this date as the day Dr Pepper is served for the very first time; the exact date of Dr. Pepper's invention is unknown.
December 28 – 72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay, to form the Congress Party.

Date unknown

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1885 1885Benz.jpg — The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1885

Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).^[10]
John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle, regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.^[11]
Chile's Matrimony and Civil Registry laws come into effect.
A cholera outbreak occurs in Spain.
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.^[12]
Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced.
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 (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time, in the future Houghton County Fire Hall.