1889 - Definition and Overview

Events

January-April

• 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-October

• 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 western Pennsylvania, killing more than 2200 people in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania
• 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.
• October 3 - Sister Carries goes to Chicago

November

• 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).

unknown dates

• 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
• Glele, king of Dahomey, commits suicide
• Yellow fever interrupts the building of Panama Canal
• Huge locust swarm crosses the Red Sea and destroys crops in the Nile Valley
• Ghost Dance movement
• Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.
• Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by George Bernard Shaw, is published.

Births

January

• January 21 - Edith Bratt, later wife and source of inspiration to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (d. 1971)

February

• February 3 - Risto Ryti, former Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1956)
• February 6 - Elmo Lincoln, actor (d. 1952)
• February 11 - Vladimir Mikhaylovich Deshevov, composer
• February 19 - Ernest Marsden, British physicist (d. 1970)
• February 22 - Lady Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide (d. 1977)
• February 24 - Suzanne Bianchetti, French actress (d. 1936)

March

• March 1 - Kanoko Okamoto, novelist, poet and Buddhism scholar (d. 1939)
• March 1 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese ethicist and philosopher (d. 1960)
• 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 aged 114 years)
• March 24 - Albert Hill, British athlete
• March 29 - Warner Baxter, actor (d. 1951)

April

• April 8 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
• 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 (d. 1977)
• April 20 - Adolf Hitler, German dictator (d. 1945)
• April 23 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942)
• April 26 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born English philosopher (d. 1951)

May-December

• May 12 - Otto Frank, writer, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
• May 15 - Bessie Hillman, founder, Amalgamated 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, French writer (d. 1963)
• July 17 - Erle Stanley Gardner, author (d. 1970)
• September 18 - Doris Blackburn, Australian politician (d. 1970)
• September 20 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete (d. 1975)
• October 8 - C. E. Woolman, founder of Delta Air Lines (d. 1966)
• October 13 - Douglass Dumbrille, actor (d. 1974)
• November 14 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (d. 1948)
• November 16 - Charlotte Benkner, later Oldest Person in the World. (d. 2004)
• December 9 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner (d. 1966)
• Suzanne Duchamp, Dada painter (d. 1963)

Deaths

• January 30 - Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Mary Vetsera, at Mayerling
• February 3 - Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
• March 8 - John Ericsson - Swedish inventor and engineer (b. 1803)
• March 9 - Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia
• May 9 - William S. Harney, U.S. Army major general (b. 1800)
• May 14 - Volney E. Howard, American politician (b. 1809)
• May 12 - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian satirist (b. 1826)
• June 15 - Mihai Eminescu, Romanian poet (b. 1850)
• July 10 - Julia Gardiner Tyler, First Lady of the United States (b. 1820)
• September 23 - Wilkie Collins, novelist
• December 6 - Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1808)

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)