1884 births

Events

January–March

* January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London.
* January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's '' Princess Ida'' premières at the Savoy Theatre, London.
* January 18 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on March 14, setting a legal precedent.
* February 1 – ''A New English Dictionary on historical principles, part 1'' (edited by James A. H. Murray), the first fascicle of what will become ''The Oxford English Dictionary'', is published in England.
* February 5 – Derby County Football Club is founded in England.
* March 13 – The siege of Khartoum, Sudan, begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
* March 28 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, dies, aged 30 in Cannes, France.
* March – John Joseph Montgomery conducts the first manned glider flights in the United States near Otay, California.

April–June

* April 20 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical '' Humanum genus'', denouncing Freemasonry and certain liberal beliefs which he considers to be associated with it.
* April 22
** A German protectorate is established over South-West Africa.
** The Colchester earthquake, England, the UK's most destructive, occurs.
* May 1 – The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. This date, called '' May Day'' or '' Labour Day'', becomes a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
* May 16
** Angelo Moriondo of Turin is granted a patent for an espresso machine.
** Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister (1884–88).
* June 4 (N.S.) ( May 23 O.S.) – The future flag of Estonia is consecrated as the flag of the Estonian Students' Society.
* June 13 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens the "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway" at Coney Island, New York City.
* June 28 – The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights is founded.

July–September

* July 1 – First International Forestry Exhibition opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.
* July 3 – The Dow Jones Transportation Average, consisting of eleven transportation-related companies (nine railroads and two non-rail companies, Western Union and Pacific Mail), is created. The index is the oldest stock index still in use.
* July 5 – Germany takes possession of Togoland.
* July 7 – Nagasaki Shipyard, as predecessor of an aircraft and shipbuilding manufacturing brand in Japan, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was founded in Kyushu Island.
* July 14 – German administration is established in Cameroon.
* July 23 – Today's ''Courier'' records the first tennis tournaments held on the grounds of Shrubland Hall, Leamington Spa, England.
* August 5 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island, in New York Harbor.
* August 10 – An earthquake measuring 5.5 affects a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock has a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (''Very strong''). Chimneys are toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Property damage is severe in Jamaica, Queens and Amityville, New York.
* August 22 – The Sino-French War (for control of Tonkin) breaks out (continues to April 1885).
* August 23 – Sino-French War – Battle of Fuzhou: French Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroys China's Fujian Fleet.
* September 5 – Staten Island Academy is founded.
* September 15 – The invention of local anesthesia by Karl Koller is made public at a medical congress in Heidelberg, Germany.
* September 23– 24 – On the night of 23 to 24, September steamship ''Arctique'' runs aground near Cape Virgenes, leading to the discovery of nearby placer gold and beginning the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.

October–December

* October 6 – The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.
* October 18 – The University of Wales, Bangor (UK), is founded.
* October 22
** The International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
** Letitia Alice Walkington becomes the first woman to receive a degree from the Royal University of Ireland.
* November 1
** The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.
** Leicester City F.C. play their first match, as Leicester Fosse Football Club, in England.
* November 2 – Timișoara, Romania, is the first town in Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
* November 4 – 1884 United States presidential election: Democratic Governor of New York Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest, to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
* November 15 – The Berlin Conference, which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa, begins (ends February 26, 1885).
* December 1
** American Old West: Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys, who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys have been terrorizing the area's Hispanos, and Baca is working against them).
** Porfirio Díaz (1830–1915) returns as President of Mexico, an office he will hold until 1911.
* December 4 – Reformers in Korea who admire the Meiji Restoration in Japan stage the Gapsin Coup, with Japan's help. China intervenes to rescue the king and help suppress the rebels.
* December 6 – The Washington Monument is completed in Washington, D.C., becoming the tallest structure in the world at this date.
* December 10
** The Third Reform Act widens the adult male electorate in the United Kingdom to around 60%.
** Mark Twain's ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' is first published, in London.
* December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial world's fair opens in New Orleans