1887

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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.
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.
June 23 - The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada, creating that nation's first national park, Banff National Park.
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 Tongue".
July 27 - Giuseppe Peano marries Carola Crosio.
August - 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

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 Pan Africanist (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)
Kamato Hongo, last verified living person born in 1887. (d. 2003)

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 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)

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)