1889

Years: 1886 1887 1888 - 1889 - 1890 1891 1892
Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1889 in literature 1889 in music 1889 in sports

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Heads of State

Events

January 8 - Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine
January 22 - Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, DC.
February 11 - Meiji Constitution of Japan adopted; 1st Diet convenes in 1890
January 30 – Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress Marie Vetsera commit a double suicide in Mayerling hunting lodge
February 22 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
March 4 - Grover Cleveland, 24th President of the United States (1885 - 1889) is succeeded by Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893).
March 9 - Emperor of Ethiopia Yohannes IV dies and is succeeded by Menelik II.
March 23 - Land run: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22.
March 31 - The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated (opens May 6). Contemporary critics regard it aesthetically displeasing
April 22 - Oklahoma land rush: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement; Land rush begins.
May 15 – In Samoa, three US and three German ships sink in a typhoon because the captains refuse to leave before the others – almost 200 drown. British steamer Calliope saves itself by pushing into the wind with full speed
May 31 – South Fork dam collapses in Pennsylvania – more than 2200 dead
June 3 - The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
June 12 - 88 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in Northern Ireland.
July 8 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
September 10 - Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi becomes Reigning Prince Albert I of Monaco
October 2 - In Washington, DC, the first international Conference of American States begins.
November 2 - North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
November 8 - Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
November 11 - Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.
November 14 - Pioneer woman Journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to beat travel around the world in less than 80 days (Bly finished the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes).
November 15 - Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup (he was the second and last emperor of Brazil).
Frederick Abel invents cordite
Diet of Japan founded
French defense minister Georges Boulanger attempts a coup but is forced the flee the country
First free elections in Costa Rica
Ghele, king of Dahomey, commits suicide
Yellow fever interrupts the building of Panama Canal
Huge locus swarm crosses the Red Sea and destroys crops in the Nile Valley
Ghost Dance movement

Births

February 6 - Elmo Lincoln, actor (d. 1952)
February 11 - John Mills, American musician.
February 11 - Vladimir Mikhaylovich Deshevov, composer.
February 22 - Lady Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide
February 24 - Suzanne Bianchetti, French actress (d. 1936)
March 1 - Kanoko Okamoto, novelist, poet and Buddhism scholar (d. 1939)
March 4 – Pearl White, American silent film star (d. 1938)
March 16 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
March 23 - Yukichi Chuganji, (d. 2003 with 114 years)
March 24 - Albert Hill, British athlete
March 29 - Warner Baxter, actor (d. 1951)
April 11 - Nick LaRocca, jazz musician (d. 1961)
April 15 - Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. muralist (d. 1975)
April 16 - Charlie Chaplin, English actor and director
April 20 - Adolf Hitler, German politician
April 23 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral
April 26 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born English philosopher (d. 1951)
May 12 - Otto Frank, writer, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
May 15 - Bessie Hillman, founder, Almalgamated Clothing Workers of America
May 15 - Mitoyo Kawate, later Oldest Person in the World (d. 2003)
May 18 - Thomas Midgley, chemist and inventor (d. 1944)
May 25 - Igor Sikorsky developer of a working helicopter (d. 1972)
June 21 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (d. 1972)
July 5 - Jean Cocteau, writer
July 17 - Erle Stanley Gardner, author (d. 1970)
September 20 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete
October 13 – Douglass Dumbrille, actor (d. 1974)
November 16 - Charlotte Benkner, later Oldest Person in the World.
December 9 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner
Suzanne Duchamp, Dada painter (d. 1963)

Deaths

January 30 - Archduke Rudolph of Austria and Baroness Mary Vetsera, at Mayerling
February 3 - Belle Starr, outlaw
March 8 - John Ericsson - Swedish inventor and engineer
March 9 - Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia
May 9 - William S. Harney, U.S. Army major general
May 12 - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian satirist
June 15 - Mihai Eminescu, outstanding Romanian poet
July 10 - Julia Gardiner Tyler, former First Lady of the United States.
September 23 - Wilkie Collins, novelist
December 6 - Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America

Heads of State

China - Guāngxù; Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (1875-1908)
Denmark - Christian IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906)
France - Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of France (1887-1894)
Germany - Wilhelm II, German Kaiser (1888-1918)
Holy See - Pope Leo XIII, Bishop of Rome (1878-1903)
Japan - Mutsuhito, Meiji emperor (1867-1912)
Norway - Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway (1872-1905)
Ottoman Empire - Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909)
Russia - Alexander III, Tsar of Russia (1881-1894)
Spain - Alfonso XIII of Spain, King of Spain (1886-1931)
United States -
1. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (1885-1889)
2. Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States (1889-1893)