1885 elections in the United States

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 rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite.
* January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed.
* February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession.
* 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.
* February 20 – The Richmond Football Club was officially formed at the Royal Hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria.
* 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.
* February 26 – The final act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonization and trade, in the '' scramble for Africa''.
* 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.
* 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", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.
* 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.

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.
* 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.

July–September

* July – Japan Berery, predecessor of Kirin Holdings was founded in Yokohama, Japan.
* 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 16 – BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), a worldwide mining and natural gas producer is founded in New South Wales, Australia.
* 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.
* 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 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

* Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).
* John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Rover safety bicycle, regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.
* Chile's Matrimony and Civil Registry laws come into effect.
* 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.
* 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.
* Chuo Law College, as predecessor of Chuo University, founded in Kanda, Tokyo, Japan.
* Before November 1 – More than 24,000 Christians killed, 225 churches burnt, seventeen orphanages and ten convents destroyed in Cochinchina, now known as Vietnam.

Births

January

* January 6 – Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)
* January 8 – John Curtin, 14th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
* January 11
** Jack Hoxie, American actor, rodeo performer (d. 1965)
** Alice Paul, American women's rights activist (d. 1977)
* January 12
** Harry Benjamin, American endocrinologist, sexologist (d. 1986)
** Claude Fuess, American author, historian and headmaster (d. 1963)
* January 14 – Constantin Sănătescu, 44th prime minister of Romania (d. 1947)
* January 16 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)
* January 17 – Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, German general and war criminal (d. 1968)
* January 21 – Umberto Nobile, Italian aviator and explorer (d. 1978)
* January 25 – Roy Geiger, American general (d. 1947)
* January 26 – Harry Ricardo, English mechanical engineer, engine pioneer (d. 1974)
* January 27
** Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945)
** Harry Ruby

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