1888 - What happened in 1888 ?

January 1888

Tuesday 03:

The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.

Tuesday 24:

Jacob L. Wortman patents the typewriter ribbon.

Friday 27:

In Washington, DC the National Geographic Society is founded.

March 1888

Friday 02:

The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.

Sunday 11:

The Great Blizzard of '88 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.

Thursday 22:

The Football League is formed.

April 1888

Wednesday 11:

The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated.

May 1888

Sunday 13:

With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolishes slavery.

June 1888

Sunday 03:

The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.

Saturday 23:

Frederick Douglass is the first African-American nominated for US president.

August 1888

Tuesday 21:

The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs.

Friday 31:

Mary Ann Nicholls is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims

September 1888

Tuesday 04:

George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film.

Thursday 06:

a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson (twice), J.T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and Tich Freeman (six times).

Saturday 08:

In England the first six Football League matches ever are played.

Tuesday 11:

Death of the Argentine politician Domingo Sarmiento, after whom the Latin American Teacher's Day was chosen.

Sunday 30:

Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.

October 1888

Tuesday 09:

The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.

Wednesday 17:

Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

November 1888

Tuesday 06:

U.S. presidential election, 1888: Democrat incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the overall popular vote, but is voted out of office because he loses in the Electoral College to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison.

Friday 09:

Jack the Ripper kills Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

December 1888

Saturday 08:

Bulgaria's National Assembly adopts an Act on establishing a higher school in Sofia.

Sunday 09:

Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department