Year '1887' ('
MDCCCLXXXVII') was a
common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower
Julian calendar).
Events of 1887
January - March
★
January 6 -
`Abd-allah II of
Harar opens the
Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the
Shewan army of
Negus Menelik II early in the morning; prepared for the assault, the Negus orders a counter-attack which routs the enemy, resulting in the capture of Harar a few days later.
★
January 11 -
Louis Pasteur's anti-
rabies treatment is defended in the
French Academy of Medicine by Dr. Joseph Grancher.
★
January 20 - The
United States Senate allows the
Navy to lease
Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
★
January 21
★
★ The
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed.
★
★
Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres - a record for any
Australian capital city.
★
January 24 -
Battle of Dogali:
Abyssinian troops defeat
Italians.
★
January 28 - In a
snowstorm at Fort Keogh,
Montana,
USA, the largest
snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 inches (38cm) wide and 8 inches (20cm) thick.
★
February 2 - In
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first
Groundhog Day is observed.
★
February 5 - The
Giuseppe Verdi opera ''
Otello'' premieres at
La Scala.
★
February 8 - Dawes Act or General Allotment Act was made.
★
February 23 - The
French Riviera is hit by a large
earthquake, killing around 2,000 along the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea.
★
February 26 - At the
SCG,
George Lohmann becomes the first
bowler to take eight wickets in a
Test innings.
★
March 3 -
Anne Sullivan begins teaching
Helen Keller.
★
March 4 -
Gottlieb Daimler unveils his first
automobile.
★
March 7 -
North Carolina State University is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
★
March 13 -
Chester Greenwood patents
earmuffs.
★
March 19 -
Henry Cogswell College established by
Henry D. Cogswell.
April - June
★
April 4 -
Argonia, Kansas elects
Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the
United States.
★
April 20 -
George Bouton wins the world's first motor racing contest: he is the only participant.
★
May 3 -
Earthquake in
Sonora,
Mexico.
★
May 9 -
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in
London.
★
May 14 - The cornerstone was laid for building new
Stanford University, in northern
California (opened in
1891).
★
June 8 -
Herman Hollerith receives a
patent for his
punch card calculator.
★
June 18 - The
Reinsurance Treaty is closed between
Germany and
Russia.
★
June 21 -
Britain celebrates a Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th year of
Queen Victoria's reign.
[1]
★
June 23 - The
Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in
Canada, creating that nation's first
national park,
Banff National Park.
[2]
★
June 28 -
Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.
July - September
★
July 12 -
Odense Boldklub, Danish footballteam was founded as Odense Cricketclub.
★
July 26 -
L. L. Zamenhof publishes
"Dr. Esperanto's International Language".
★
July 27 -
Giuseppe Peano marries Carola Crosio.
★ August
★
★
Anna Connelly patents the
fire escape.
★
★ U.S.
National Institutes of Health is founded at the Marine Hospital,
Staten Island, NY, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.
★
August 13 -
Hibernian FC defeat
Preston North End to become undisputed champions of the World through the dominance of these two teams in their respective countries.
★
September 5 -
Theatre Royal, Exeter,
England burns down, 186 people killed.
October - December
★
October 1 -
British Empire takes over
Balochistan.
★ November - Results of the
Michelson-Morley experiment are published, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.
★
November 3 -
Associação Académica de Coimbra,
students' union of the
University of Coimbra in
Portugal, was founded.
★
November 10
★
★
Louis Lingg, sentenced to be hanged for his alleged role in the
Haymarket Riot bomb, kills himself by
dynamite
★
★ In London, police and left-wing demonstrators clash. One dead. One of the participants is
George Bernard Shaw.
★
November 11 -
August Spies,
Albert Parsons,
Adolph Fischer,
George Engel,
Michael Schwab, and
Samuel Fielden hanged for inciting riot and murder in the
Haymarket Riot of
May 4,
1886.
★
November 13 -
Bloody Sunday, Police clash with pro-Irish independence protesters.
★
December 25 -
Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky first ran from the stills of Glenfiddich Distillery. The whisky is still produced today by
William Grant & Sons.
Undated
★
Teachers College, later part of
Columbia University, is founded.
★
Thomas Stevens is 1st man to
bicycle around the world.
★
Gramophone is patented by
Emile Berliner.
★
The New Gate is built in
Jerusalem.
★
Comptometer patented by
Dorr Eugene Felt.
★ The first All-Ireland
Hurling and
Football Finals are held.
★
Japan annexes
Iwo Jima.
★
Zululand becomes a British colony.
★
Yellow river floods in China: 900,000 dead.
★ Construction of
Spandau Prison in
Berlin is completed.
★
Heinrich Hertz discovers
electromagnetism.
★
US congress passes the
Interstate Commerce Act.
★
Adolf Eugen Fick invents the
contact lens, made of a type of brown glass.
★
A.G. Edwards founded by General
Albert Gallatin Edwards
★
Maldives The Maldives became a British Protectorate in 1887. The British made an agreement in which they pledged not to interfere with the internal affairs of the Maldives, while on foreign affairs the British were to be consulted. In return the British assured of security and protection from any colonial intimidation.
Births
The last surviving documented person who was born in 1887 was
Kamato Hongo, who died on
October 31,
2003, aged 116 years.
January - June
★
January 1 -
Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence in World War II (d.
1945)
★
January 3 -
August Macke, German painter (d.
1914)
★
January 10 -
Robinson Jeffers, American poet (d.
1962)
★
January 19 -
Alexander Woollcott, American intellectual (d.
1943)
★
January 21 -
Maude Davis,
Oldest Person in the World (d.
2002)
★
January 22 -
Helen Hoyt, American poet (d.
1972)
★
January 23 -
Dorothy Payne Whitney, American-born philanthropist and social activist (d.
1968)
★
January 28 -
Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist and conductor (d.
1982)
★
February 1 -
Charles Nordhoff, English-born author (d.
1947)
★
February 2 -
Pat Sullivan, Australian director and producer of animated films (d.
1933)
★
February 3 -
Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d.
1914)
★
February 4 -
Sheila Kaye-Smith, English writer (d.
1955)
★
February 6 -
Josef Frings, Archbishop of Cologne (d.
1978)
★
February 10 -
John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1985)
★
February 11
★
★
Ernst Hanfstängl, German-born pianist and U.S. politician (d.
1975)
★
★
John van Melle, Dutch-born writer (d.
1953)
★
February 17 -
Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (d.
1947)
★
February 20 -
Vincent Massey,
Governor-General of Canada (d.
1967)
★
February 26
★
★
Grover Cleveland Alexander, baseball player (d.
1950)
★
★
William Frawley, American actor (d.
1966)
★
March 4 -
Violet MacMillan, American Broadway theatre actress (d.
1953)
★
March 5 -
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (d.
1959)
★
March 9 -
Phil Mead, English cricketer (d.
1958)
★
March 14 -
Sylvia Beach, American publisher in Paris (d.
1952)
★
March 14 -
Charles Reisner, American silent actor and film director (d.
1962)
★
March 22 -
Chico Marx, American comedian and actor (d.
1961)
★
March 23 -
Juan Gris, Spanish-born painter and graphic artist (d.
1927)
★
March 23 -
Prince Felix Yussupov, Russian assassin of
Rasputin (d.
1967)
★
March 24 -
Fatty Arbuckle, American actor (d.
1933)
★
April 10 -
Bernardo Houssay, Argentine physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1971)
★
April 15 -
Mike Brady, American golfer (d.
1972)
★
May 2 -
Eddie Collins, baseball player (d.
1951)
★
May 5 -
Geoffrey Fisher,
Archbishop of Canterbury (d.
1972)
★
May 10 -
Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad Angha, 40th master of
Oveyssi Sufi order (d.
1962)
★
May 11 -
Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (d.
1951)
★
May 25 -
Pio of Pietrelcina, Italian saint (d.
1968)
★
May 26 -
Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (d.
1971)
★
May 31 -
Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1975)
★
June 2 -
Orrick Johns, American poet and playwright (d.
1946)
★
June 22 -
Julian Huxley, British biologist (d.
1975)
★
June 25 -
George Abbott, American playwright (d.
1995)
July - December
★
July 7 -
Marc Chagall, Russian-born painter (d.
1985)
★
July 16 -
Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball player (d.
1951)
★
July 18 -
Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and traitor (d.
1945)
★
July 22 -
Gustav Hertz, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1975)
★
July 28 -
Marcel Duchamp, French-born artist (d.
1968)
★
July 29 -
Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-born composer (d.
1951)
★
August 3 -
Rupert Brooke, British war poet (d.
1915)
★
August 12 -
Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1961)
★
August 13 -
Julius Freed, American inventor and banker (d.
1952)
★
August 15 -
Edna Ferber, American novelist (d.
1968)
★
August 17
★
★ Emperor
Karl I of Austria (d.
1922)
★
★
Marcus Garvey, American publisher, entrepreneur, and black nationalist (d.
1940)
★
August 24 -
Harry Hooper, baseball player (d.
1974)
★
September 1 -
Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (d.
1961)
★
September 3 -
Frank Christian, American jazz musician (d.
1973)
★
September 13 -
Lavoslav Ružička, Croatian chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1976)
★
September 16 -
Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher (d.
1979)
★
September 26 -
Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (d.
1958)
★
September 28 -
Avery Brundage, American sports official (d.
1975)
★
October 1 -
Violet Jessop,
RMS Titanic survivor (d.
1971)
★
October 5 -
René Cassin, French judge, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1976)
★
October 6 -
Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (d.
1965)
★
October 8 -
Huntley Gordon, Canadian-born actor (d.
1956)
★
October 15 -
H.W. Hughes, British entreprenuer and
philantrophist (d.
1968)
★
October 22 -
John Reed, American journalist (d.
1920)
★
October 31 -
Chiang Kai-shek, 1st ~ 5th President of the Republic of China (d.
1975)
★
November 1 -
L. S. Lowry, English painter (d.
1976)
★
November 6 -
Walter Johnson, baseball player (d.
1946)
★
November 10 -
Arnold Zweig, German writer (d.
1968)
★
November 15 -
Georgia O'Keeffe, American Woman Painter (d.
1986)
★
November 17 -
Bernard Montgomery, World War II British commander (d.
1976)
★
November 19 -
James B. Sumner, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1955)
★
November 23 -
Boris Karloff, English actor (d.
1967)
★
December 12 -
Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer (d.
1974)
★
December 13 -
Alvin Cullum York, American war hero during
World War I (d.
1964)
★
December 22 -
Srinivasa Aaiyangar Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d.
1920)
★ ''date unknown'' -
Pauline Sabin, American activist for
repeal of prohibition in U.S. (d.
1955)
: ''See also .''
Deaths
January - June
★
February 26 -
Anandi Gopal Joshi, first Indian woman doctor (b.
1865)
★
February 27 -
Alexander Borodin, Russian composer (b.
1833)
★
March 8 -
Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (b.
1813)
★
March 24 -
Ivan Kramskoi, painter (b.
1837)
★
March 28 -
Ditlev Gothard Monrad, Danish politician (b.
1811)
★
April 23 -
John Ceiriog Hughes, Welsh poet (b.
1832)
★
May 8 -
Aleksandr Ulyanov, Russian revolutionary, brother of V. I. Lenin (b.
1866)
★
May 14 -
Lysander Spooner, American philosopher and abolitionist (b.
1808)
★
June 10 -
Richard Lindon, Inventor of the Rugby Ball, the India-rubber inflatable bladder and the Brass Hand Pump for the same (b.
1816)
July - December
★
July 8 -
John Wright Oakes, Landscape
painter (b.
1820)
★
July 17 -
Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b.
1802)
★
July 25 -
John Taylor, American religious leader (b.
1808)
★
August 8 -
Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier (b.
1808)
★
August 19 -
Alvan Clark, telescope manufacturer (b.
1804)
★
August 20 -
Jules Laforgue, French poet (b.
1860)
★
October 17 -
Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist (b.
1824)
★
October 21 -
Bernard Jauréguiberry, admiral (b.
1815)
★
November 2 -
Jenny Lind, Swedish soprano (b.
1820)
★
November 8 -
Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (b.
1851)
★
November 19 -
Emma Lazarus, American poet (b.
1859)
★
November 28 -
Gustav Fechner, experimental psychologist (b.
1801)
★
December 5 -
Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (b.
1804)
: ''See also .''