:
Great Blizzard of 1888.
January •
January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) 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 1 - Queensland's
Western Railway Line reaches
Charleville. •
March 8 – The Agriculture College of Utah (later
Utah State University) 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 (South Africa). •
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 (New York) 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 (reference date). •
April 11 – The
Concertgebouw orchestra in
Amsterdam is inaugurated. •
April 13 –
Kahisakan (可否茶館), 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 (continues to November). •
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 (including
Sabah) 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 (London). •
May 28 – In Glasgow (Scotland),
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 (bishop of Lincoln) 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 (under the pen name "Phin") 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 (South Africa). •
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 (according to Japanese government sources). •
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 (MPs) 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 (which remains the case), 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 (
Reval),
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. : Victim found from
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 (twice),
J. T. Hearne,
Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and
Tich Freeman (six times). •
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 (considered to be the second victim of
Jack the Ripper). • In England, the first six
Football League matches are played. •
Abbott Laboratories as Abbott Alkaloidal by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott in
Illinois. •
Katz's Delicatessen is founded on the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan. • In Poland, silver manufacturer
Schiffers & Co. is founded in
Warsaw. • The Finnish epic
Kalevala is published for the first time in the
English language, by American linguist
John Martin Crawford. == Births ==