Dashed left edge = started before August 1886 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond August 1886
Events in August 1886 4
1814 – 1886Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886)Died 4 August 1886, aged 72Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic governor of New York and presidential candidate, died at his estate in Yonkers. He won the popular vote in the disputed 1876 presidential election but lost the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes after a contested electoral count. He left much of his fortune to found what became the New York Public Library.
1886US Championships 1886Men: Richard Sears
1886Bulgarian Crisis abdication of Alexander of BattenbergRussian-backed officers force the Bulgarian prince to abdicateA group of pro-Russian army officers kidnapped Prince Alexander of Battenberg and forced him to sign an abdication, plunging Bulgaria into a political crisis. Alexander briefly returned but resigned for good within weeks amid Russian opposition to his rule. The crisis strained relations between Russia and Austria-Hungary and fed into wider Balkan instability.
1886Charleston earthquakeMajor earthquake devastates South CarolinaA magnitude-7 earthquake struck near Charleston, South Carolina, killing around 60 people and destroying much of the city's downtown. It remains the most powerful and damaging earthquake recorded in the southeastern United States. Reconstruction reshaped the city's architecture for decades afterward.