1884

Events in 1884 33

• 1802 – 1884 Elias Lönnrot Compiler of Kalevala A physician and philologist who collected Finnish folk oral traditions to create the national epic, the Kalevala.
• 1809 – 1884 Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884) Died 13 May 1884, aged 75 Cyrus McCormick was an American inventor and businessman who developed a commercially successful mechanical reaper, transforming agricultural harvesting. The company he founded later became the core of International Harvester. He died in Chicago.
• 1814 – 1884 Charles Reade (1814-1884) Died 11 April 1884, aged 69 Charles Reade was an English novelist and dramatist best known for his historical novel The Cloister and the Hearth. He was a prominent figure in Victorian popular fiction and also wrote widely on social reform issues. He died in London.
• 1819 – 1884 Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) Died 1 July 1884, aged 64 Allan Pinkerton was a Scottish-American detective who founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, one of the first and most famous private security and investigative firms. He gained early fame for foiling an alleged plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln. He died in Chicago.
• 1822 – 1884 Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) Died 6 January 1884, aged 61 Gregor Mendel was an Austrian friar and scientist whose experiments with pea plants established the fundamental laws of inheritance. His work, largely overlooked in his lifetime, was rediscovered around 1900 and became the foundation of modern genetics. He died in Brno in what is now the Czech Republic.
• 1824 – 1884 Bedřich Smetana Czech national composer Czech composer whose cycle of symphonic poems Má vlast (My Homeland) including Vltava became the symbol of Czech national identity.
• 1826 – 1884 Cetshwayo kaMpande (1826-1884) Died 8 February 1884, aged 58 Cetshwayo kaMpande was the king of the Zulu Kingdom during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, in which his forces famously defeated the British at Isandlwana before ultimately losing the war. He was exiled to Britain and later partially restored to a reduced kingdom amid ongoing civil conflict. He died in Eshowe in Zululand.
• 1853 – 1884 Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884) Died 28 March 1884, aged 30 Prince Leopold was the youngest son of Queen Victoria and suffered from hemophilia throughout his life. He died in Cannes, France, from bleeding after a fall, shortly after the birth of his second child. His descendants include several European royal houses.
• 1859 – 1884 Morphy retires from chess Abandoned the game at his peak At just 22, Morphy withdrew from competitive chess entirely, citing a lack of worthy opponents. He never played seriously again, a mystery that has fascinated chess historians ever since.
• 1884 – 1942 Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942) Died 16 May 1942, aged 58 Bronisław Malinowski was a Polish-born anthropologist who established participant-observation fieldwork as the core method of social anthropology. His research in the Trobriand Islands produced Argonauts of the Western Pacific. He died in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1884 Construction begins on the Home Insurance Building Chicago tower pioneers steel-frame skyscraper construction Architect William Le Baron Jenney began construction of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, using a load-bearing metal frame instead of masonry walls to support the structure. The building is widely credited as the first skyscraper built on a fully supporting metal skeleton. It stood ten stories tall and influenced high-rise construction worldwide.
• 1884 – 1941 Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) Died 1 June 1941, aged 57 Hugh Walpole was a popular English novelist known for Mr Perrin and Mr Traill and The Herries Chronicle. He died at his home in the Lake District.
• 1884 – 1943 Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943) Died 18 April 1943, aged 59 Isoroku Yamamoto was commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet and planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. American codebreakers learned his itinerary. US P-38 fighters shot down his aircraft over Bougainville.
• 1884 – 1933 Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) Died 29 January 1933, aged 48 American lyric poet who won the first Pulitzer Prize for poetry, awarded in 1918 under an earlier name. She died by suicide in New York.
• 1884 – 1933 Texas Guinan (1884-1933) Died 5 November 1933, aged 49 American actress and nightclub hostess who ran some of the best-known speakeasies of the Prohibition era. She greeted customers with 'Hello, suckers!'
• 1884 Fabian Society founded in London Socialist society advocating gradual reform A group of British intellectuals founded the Fabian Society in London to promote socialism through gradual, democratic reform rather than revolution. Early members later included George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice and Sidney Webb. The society went on to influence the founding of the British Labour Party.
• 1884 First fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary published Landmark dictionary project begins publication The Philological Society and Oxford University Press published the first fascicle of what would become the Oxford English Dictionary, covering words from A to Ant. Edited initially by James Murray, the dictionary aimed to document the full history of every English word. The complete first edition would not be finished until 1928.
• 1884 Siege of Khartoum begins Mahdist forces surround General Gordon's garrison Forces loyal to the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, besieged the Egyptian garrison at Khartoum commanded by British General Charles Gordon. The siege cut off the city from relief and set the stage for a prolonged crisis that drew British public attention to Sudan. Khartoum would fall to the Mahdists in January 1885, shortly before a British relief force arrived.
• 1884 Germany establishes protectorates in West Africa Togoland and Cameroon claimed as German colonies German explorer Gustav Nachtigal secured treaties establishing German protectorates over Togoland and Cameroon in July 1884, shortly after Germany had also claimed South West Africa. The moves marked Germany's entry into overseas colonial competition alongside Britain and France. The territories remained under German rule until the First World War.
• 1884 – 1972 Harry S. Truman 33rd President — ended WWII, Marshall Plan, NATO Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – Dec 26, 1972) was the 33rd President 1945-1953. He ended World War II with the atomic bombs, launched the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, created NATO, and fought the Korean War.
• 1884 – 1944 Harry Langdon (1884-1944) American silent comedian, briefly ranked with Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.
• 1884 Wimbledon 1884 Men: William Renshaw · Women: Maud Watson First women's singles at Wimbledon, won by Maud Watson. William Renshaw won the men's title for the fourth consecutive year.
• 1884 Statue of Liberty completed in Paris Finished sculpture presented to the American ambassador Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty was completed in Paris and formally presented to the United States ambassador in a ceremony on 4 July 1884. The statue was subsequently dismantled into more than 300 pieces and shipped to New York, where it would be reassembled and dedicated in 1886. It was a gift from the people of France marking Franco-American friendship.
• 1884 – 1920 Amedeo Modigliani Modernism · Italy Amedeo Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian Modernist painter and sculptor known for his elongated, mask-like portraits and nudes. He died of tubercular meningitis at 35, his work largely unrecognised in his lifetime.
• 1884 – 1950 Emil Jannings (1884-1950) Swiss-born German actor, winner of the first Academy Award for Best Actor, whose later career was tied to Nazi film.
• 1884 – 1970 Billie Burke (1884-1970) American actress, wife of Florenz Ziegfeld and Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz.
• 1884 Sino-French War begins France and China clash over control of Tonkin Fighting escalated between France and Qing China over control of Tonkin in northern Vietnam, following the French destruction of the Chinese fleet at Fuzhou. The undeclared war grew out of French efforts to expand colonial control from Cochinchina into the rest of Vietnam. It continued until a peace treaty in 1885 confirmed French dominance over Vietnam.
• 1884 International Meridian Conference held in Washington Delegates agree on Greenwich as the world prime meridian Representatives of 25 nations met in Washington, D.C. to standardize global timekeeping and geographic reference. The conference adopted the meridian through Greenwich, England as the world prime meridian and established the basis for a universal day divided into 24 time zones. The agreement underpinned the worldwide standard time system still in use today.
• 1884 Hiram Maxim patents the Maxim gun First self-powered automatic machine gun Inventor Hiram Maxim patented a fully automatic machine gun that used the energy of each fired cartridge to reload and fire the next round. The Maxim gun became the basis for machine guns adopted by European armies over the following decades. Its firepower would later prove devastating in colonial conflicts and the First World War.
• 1884 Grover Cleveland elected President of the United States Democrat defeats Republican James G. Blaine Grover Cleveland won a narrow victory over James G. Blaine, becoming the first Democrat elected president since before the Civil War. The campaign was marked by personal scandal on both sides and a close result decided by New York state. Cleveland took office in March 1885.
• 1884 Berlin Conference opens European powers meet to regulate colonization of Africa Fourteen nations, convened by Otto von Bismarck, met in Berlin to formalize rules for the partition of Africa among European colonial powers. The conference established the principle of effective occupation and set the terms for the Congo Free State. It continued into early 1885 and is regarded as the formal starting point of the Scramble for Africa.
• 1884 Representation of the People Act passed in Britain Third Reform Act extends the male franchise The British Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act 1884, extending the property-based franchise to agricultural laborers and roughly doubling the electorate. It applied the same voting qualifications used in boroughs to county constituencies across the United Kingdom. The act was a major step in the gradual democratization of the British electoral system.
• 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published Mark Twain novel first released in the UK and Canada Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in the United Kingdom and Canada in December 1884, ahead of its American release the following year. The book follows Huck Finn and the enslaved man Jim on a journey down the Mississippi River. It is now widely regarded as a landmark of American literature.