1883 - Definition and Overview

Events

January

• January 16 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed
• January 19 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service (Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas Edison.

February

• February 16 - Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
• February 23 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
• February 28 - The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.

March

• March - An Australian Catholic school, Star of the Sea College is founded in Elsternwick, Victoria (now known as Gardenstown) by the Irish Presentation Sisters.

May

• May 24 - Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
• May 30 - In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes twelve people.

July

• July 22 – Zulu king Cetshwayo barely escapes rebel attack with his life.

August

• August 12 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• August 26 - 28 - Krakatau volcano eruption (local time)- 163 villages destroyed, 36380 dead.

September

• September 15 - The Bombay Natural History Society is founded.
• September 29 - A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis, Minnesota form the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports but avoid the high tariffs of Chicago, IL.

October

• October 1 - Sydney Boys High School is founded in Sydney, Australia. It is the first boys public school in Australia.
• October 15 - The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional since it allowed individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.

November

• November 3 - American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-8" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
• November 18 - US and Canadian railroads institute four standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
• November 28 - Whitman College is chartered as a four-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.

Unknown date

• Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (German.bacteriologist) discovers the cholera bacillus.
• Antonio Gaudi begins to build Sagrada Familia cathedral.
• Fabian Society founded.
• Orient Express begins operation.

Births

January

• January 3 - Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
• January 6 - Khalil Gibran, poet, painter, novelist (d. 1931)
• January 10 - Francis X. Bushman, actor (d. 1966)
• January 10 - Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi, writer (d. 1945)
• January 21 - Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet

February

• February 15 - Sax Rohmer, author (d. 1959)
• February 7 - Eubie Blake, musician, composer (d. 1983)
• February 11 - Paul August von Klenau Danish composer/conductor
• February 23 - Karl Jaspers, philosopher (d. 1969)
• February 23 - Victor Fleming, director (d. 1949)

March

• March 19 - Joseph Stilwell, US soldier (d. 1946)

April

• April 1 - Lon Chaney, actor (d. 1930)
• April 11 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author
• April 15 - Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)

May

• May 1 - Tom Moore, actor (d. 1955)
• May 18 - Walter Gropius, architect, founder of Bauhaus (d. 1969)
• May 20 - King Faisal I of Iraq (d. 1933)
• May 23 - Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, cofounder of United Artists (d. 1939)
• May 31 - Lauri Kristian Relander, President of Finland (d. 1942)

June

• June 24 - Victor Franz Hess, US physicist
• June 21 - Lluís Companys i Jover, President of Catalonia (d. 1940)

July

• July 4 - Rube Goldberg, cartoonist (d. 1970)
• July 29 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (d. 1942)
• July 29 - Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy (d. 1945)

August

• August 19 - Elsie Ferguson, American actress (d. 1961)
• August 23 - US General Jonathan Wainwright, Medal of Honor recipient

October

• October 26 - Paul Pilgrim, American athlete

November

• November 8 - Arnold Bax, composer
• November 11 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (d. 1969)
• November 18 - Carl Vinson, United States Congressman (d. 1981)
• November 25 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, F.R.C., Rosicrucian mysticist and Imperator of AMORC (d. 1939)
• November 25 - Merrill C. Meigs, newspaper publisher, aviation promoter (d. 1968)

December

• December 3 - Anton Webern, Austrian composer
• December 16 ? Max Linder, French comedic actor (d. 1925)
• December 22 - Edgar Varèse, French composer
• December 25 - Maurice Utrillo, artist and illustrator

• Alberto Gerchunoff, Argentine writer

Deaths

• January 10 - Samuel Mudd, formerly doctor to John Wilkes Booth
• January 23 - Gustave Doré, French artist
• February 13 - Richard Wagner, German composer
• February 17 - Napoleon Coste, French guitarist, composer
• March 14 - Karl Marx, German philosopher
• April 30 - Edouard Manet, painter
• May 24 - Abdel Kadir, Algerian leader
• May 26 - Edward Sabine, astronomer
• July 22 - Edward Ord, US army officer
• October 30 - Robert Volkmann, composer