| January 4 | Ontario Rugby Football Union (forerunner of CFL) forms |
| January 6 | Ontario Rugby Football Union forms |
| January 10 | Fire at uninsured Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin kills 71. General Tom Thumb of P T Barnum fame, escapes unhurt |
| January 13 | Fire in circus Ferroni in Berditschoft Poland kills 430 |
| January 13 | Henrik Ibsen's "En Folkefiende," premieres in Oslo |
| January 16 | Pendleton Act creates basis of U.S. Civil Service system |
| January 16 | Quebec Rugby Football Union forms |
| January 20 | Billy Barnes takes a hat-trick, England vs. Australia MCG |
| January 22 | England complete 1st innings victory in Tests vs. Australia MCG |
| January 30 | England team presented with ashes of a bail after Sydney Test |
| February 1 | French Lt-colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes reaches Bamako on the Niger |
| February 7 | Lt-colonel Borgnis-Desbordes founds Fort Bamako Niger |
| February 8 | Louis Waterman begins experiments to invents fountain pen |
| February 10 | Fire at un-insured New Hall Hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin, kills 71 |
| February 14 | 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions |
| February 16 | "Ladies Home Journal" begins publishing |
| February 17 | A. Ashwell patents free-toilet in London |
| February 21 | 2nd French government of Ferry begins |
| February 23 | Alabama becomes 1st U.S. state to enact an antitrust law |
| February 23 | American Anti-Vivisection Society organized in Philadelphia |
| February 27 | Oscar Hammerstein patents 1st cigar-rolling machine |
| February 28 | 1st U.S. vaudeville theater opens in Boston |
| March 3 | Congress authorizes the 1st steel vessels in U.S. navy |
| March 4 | John Gordon Cashmans begins "Vicksburg Evening Post" in Mississippi |
| March 19 | Jan Matzeliger invents 1st machine to manufacture entire shoes |
| March 20 | Unity treaty of Paris signed: protects industrial property |
| March 24 | 1st telephone call between New York and Chicago |
| March 31 | 1st performance of Cesar Franck's "Le Chasseur Maudit" |
| March 31 | Utrecht begins water pipe system |
| April 2 | Battle at Bamako: French assault on Fabous arm forces attack |
| April 6 | Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Speckled Band" |
| April 12 | French troops under Lt-colonel Borgnis-Desbordes occupy Bamako Senegal |
| April 13 | Alfred Packer convicted of cannibalism |
| April 14 | Leo Delibes' opera "Lakme," premieres in Paris |
| April 16 | Paul Kruger chosen president of Transvaal |
| April 23 | John Heemskerk Azn forms Dutch government |
| April 24 | 28 Surinamers depart to Amsterdam World's Fair |
| May 1 | Amsterdam World's Fair opens |
| May 1 | Baseball returns to Philadelphia, 1st NL game since 1876 |
| May 1 | "Buffalo Bill" Cody put on his 1st Wild West Show |
| May 1 | New York Athletic Club hires Bob Rogers as 1st American pro sports trainer |
| May 4 | John Gordon Cashmans begins "Vicksburg Evening Post" (Miss) |
| May 15 | Italy signs military treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany |
| May 17 | Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha |
| May 22 | Cub's Billy Sunday's 1st at bat, begins 14 consecutive strikes out |
| May 23 | 9th Kentucky Derby: William Donohue aboard Leonatus wins in 2:43 |
| May 23 | Baseball game between one-armed and one-legged players |
| May 24 | Brooklyn Bridge opened by President Arthur and Governor Cleveland |
| May 26 | 11th Preakness: G Barbee aboard Jacobus wins in 2:42 |
| May 27 | Czar Alexander III crowned in Moscow |
| May 30 | Rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse caused a stampede that kills 12 |
| May 31 | French fleet under Pierre begins siege of Tamatave, Madagascar |
| June 2 | 1st night baseball under lights, Ft. Wayne Indiana |
| June 2 | Chicago's "El" opens to traffic |
| June 9 | 17th Belmont: Jim McLaughlin aboard George Kinney wins in 2:42 |
| June 9 | 1st commercial electric railway line begins operation in Chicago |
| June 16 | 1st baseball "Ladies' Day" (New York Gothams beat Cleveland Spiders 5-2) |
| July 1 | ANWB forms in Utrecht |
| July 3 | SS Daphne sinks on Clyde River Scotland; 195 die |
| July 4 | Buffalo Bill Cody presents 1st wild west show, North Platte, Nebr |
| July 24 | Arabi Pasha declares a holy war in Egypt |
| July 28 | Shocks triggered by volcano Epomeo (Isle of Ischia, Italy) destroyed 1,200 houses at Casamicciola killing 2,000 |
| August 1 | A papyrus offered to British Museum for 10,000 pounds, forgery |
| August 1 | Amsterdam's Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky gets electric lights |
| August 1 | Inland postal service begins in Great Britain |
| August 21 | Providence shuts out Phillies 28-0 |
| August 23 | Phillies make 27 errors against Providence (wild pitches, walks and and passballs count as errors prior to 1888) |
| August 26 | Krakatoa erupts with increasingly large explosions kills 36,000 |
| August 27 | Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons |
| August 28 | Slavery banned throughout British Empire |
| August 29 | Seismic sea waves created by Krakatoa eruption create a rise in English Channel 32 hours after explosion |
| September 6 | Cub's Burns (extra bases), Williamson and Pfeiffer get 3 hits in 1 inn |
| September 8 | New York Giants score 13 runs in an inning against Phillies |
| September 8 | Northern Pacific RR's last spike driven at Independence Creek, Mont |
| September 11 | James Cutler patents postal mail chute |
| September 13 | Cleveland Hugh Daily no-hits Philadelphia 1-0 |
| September 13 | Hugh Daily, a one-armed pitcher for Cleveland (Forest City), tosses 1-0 no-hitter against Philadelphia |
| September 21 | 1st direct U.S. - Brazil telegraph connection |
| September 24 | National black convention meets in Louisville, Kentucky |
| October 4 | Orient Express' 1st run, linking Turkey to Europe by rail |
| October 15 | Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional |
| October 20 | Max Bruch's "Kol Nidre," 1st performed |
| October 20 | Treaty of Ancon, Peru cedes Tarapaca to Chile |
| October 22 | 1st New York Horse Show held (Madison Square Garden) |
| October 22 | Original Metropolitan Opera House (New York City) grand opening (Faust) |
| October 30 | Austria-Hungary/Germany/Romania signs military treaty |
| November 3 | Race riots in Danville Virginia (4 blacks killed) |
| November 3 | U.S. Supreme Court decides Native Americans can't be Americans |
| November 5 | Battle at El Obeid Sudan: Mahdi's army destroys Egyptian army |
| November 5 | Musical "Cordelia's Aspirations" premieres in New York City |
| November 6 | NYAC organizes 1st American cross-country championship race |
| November 8 | English freighter Nisero stranded at Atjeh (crew taken hostage) |
| November 10 | Toronto Argonauts defeat Ottawa FC 9-7, for 1st ORFU Championship |
| November 18 | Antonin Dvorak's "Husitska," premieres |
| November 18 | Standard time zones forms by railroads in U.S. and Canada |
| December 2 | John Brahms' 3rd Symphony in F, premieres |
| December 3 | 48th Congress (1883-85) convenes |
| December 9 | New Brunswick adopts Eastern Standard Time (until 1902) |
| December 20 | International cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls |
| December 22 | August Strindberg's "Lycko-Pers Reja," premieres |
