Year 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). [edit] Events of 1885 [edit] January–March [edit] April–June [edit] July–September - 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 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first female African-American 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 (soccer) 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.
- 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 36-0 Bon Accord, the highest score ever in professional soccer.
- September 15 – A train wreck of the P.T. Barnum Circus kills giant elephant Jumbo.
- 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.
[edit] October–December [edit] Undated - The Benz Patent Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile, is built.
- The first genuine safety bicycle, the Rover, is built by John K Starley, the nephew of James Starley of Coventry Company.
- A cholera outbreak occurs in Spain.
- The Committee of Fifteen tries to expel all remaining Chinese from the Puget Sound area.
- Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse.
- Millwall F.C. are founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs as Millwall Rovers.
- The first skyscraper (the Home Insurance Building) is built in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors).
- Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced.
- SSAFA Forces Help (British charity) is established.
- Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in America, 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 what is now the Houghton County Fire Hall.
[edit] Births [edit] January–June - January 6 – Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)
- January 8 – John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
- January 11
- January 16 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)
- January 21 – Umberto Nobile, Italian politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
- January 26 – Michael Considine, Australian politician (d. 1959)
- January 27
- 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 14 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Muslim philosopher (d. 1949)
- February 15 – Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969)
- February 21 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-born dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)
- February 24
- 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 – Bee Ho Gray, Wild West star, silent film actor and vaudeville performer (d. 1951)
- April 13 – Vean Gregg, American baseball player (d. 1964)
- April 17 – Karen Blixen, Danish author (d. 1962)
- 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 (d. 1953)
- May 14 – Otto Klemperer, German conductor (d. 1973)
- May 21
- May 24- Susan Sutherland Isaacs, educational psychologist and psychoanalyst (d.1948)
- 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 19 – John Palm, Curaçao born composer (d. 1925)
- June 22 – Milan Vidmar, Slovenian electrical engineer and chess player (d. 1962)
[edit] July–December - 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)
- August 7 – Billie Burke, American actress (d. 1970)
- September 11 – D. H. Lawrence, English author (d. 1930)
- September 22 – Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1951)
- September 22 – Erich Von Stroheim, motion picture actor & director (d. 1957)
- 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 8 – Eva Morris, last surviving person documented as born in 1885 (d. 2000)
- November 9 (October 28 (O.S.)) – Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet (d. 1922)
- November 11 – George Patton, American general (d. 1945)
- November 15 – Frederick Handley-Page, British aviation pioneer & aircraft company founder (d. 1962)
- 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)
[edit] Deaths [edit] January–June [edit] July–December |
