General
Population: 1.46 Billion*
- Entertainment: Writers include Jenry James, Pierre Loti, Nitzsche, Rimbaud, August Stringberg, Ibsen, Marie Corelli, Andrew Carnegie,
Adolf von Harnack, Auguste Fournier, RL Stevenson writes "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", Frances Hodgson Burnett writes "Little Lord Fauntleroy",
Nietzsche, Henri Rousseau
Karl Marx's Das Kapital published in English
Richard von Krafft-Ebing publishes Psychopathia Sexualis
Music includes Charles Mustel of Paris invents the celesta
Art includes JS Sargent, Max Klinger sculpts bust of Beethoven, Rodin's "The Kiss", Millais, Ferdinand Hodler, Seurat paints "Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte"
Eighth and last Impressionist Expo in Paris
- Medicine: Ernst von Bergmann uses steam to sterilize surgical instruments
- Science: Germanium discovered by Winkler
Moissan produces fluorine
Hall and Heroult each produce aluminum by electrolysis
Aminopyrine and acitanelide discovered
Edison's first patent
Gould discusses mythical monsters and promotes idea that they were based on fossils
- Sports: Amateur Golf Championship first played
- Deaths: Historian Leopold von Ranke, Composer Franz Liszt, Dramatist Alexander Ostrovski, Poet Josef Viktor von Scheffel, Chester A. Arthur,
Medium and levitator Daniel Douglas-Home, Hindu mystic Ramakrishna, Architect Henry Hobson Richardson, King Louis II of Bavaria
Africa
- Transvaal: Gold discovered
Boers deny rights to foreigners
Founding of Johannesburg
Americas
- Canada: Canadian Pacific Railway completed
- Cuba: Slavery abolished
Asia
- Burma: Annexed by Britain at end of Third Burmese War
- India: First Indian National Congress meets
- Philippines: Mt. Tarawera erupts killing 120
Europe
- General: Severn Tunnel opened
- Bulgaria: Alexander abdicates after coup d'etat – Stefan Stambulov becomes regent
- France: General Georges Boulanger becomes French War Minister
Bonaparte and Orleans families banished from France
Pasteur Institute in Paris founded
- Germany: Death of King Louis II of Bavaria- Otto I rules but uncle Luitpold becomes regent
Ludwig II of Bavaria pronounced unfit to rule due to insanity – probably just a homosexual with strong fantasy life
World's first real oil-tanker launched
- Great Britain: Gladstone's Home Rule for Ireland bill defeated
Storm in Cornwall England
English Lawn tennis Association founded
Gladstone resigns second reign as Prime Minister
- Greece: British School of Archaeology opens at Athens
- Romania: Treaty of Bucharest ends 14-day Serbian-Bulgarian conflict
- Spain: Birth of King Alfonso III of Spain – his father died the previous year
Middle East
Pacific
- New Zealand: Eruption of Tarawera
1886 
