1884
| File:Decade.png ( 1880s: ) 1884 link | |
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| File:Bismarck Congo conference.png German Chancellor Bismarck leads the partitioning of Africa like a cake (contemporary cartoon) | |
| year 1884 |
April–June
- April 20 – Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, denouncing Freemasonry and certain liberal beliefs which he considers to be associated with it.
- April 22
- A German protectorate is established over South-West Africa.
- May 1 – The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. This date, called May Day or Labour Day, becomes a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
- May 16 - Sweden's Finance Minister Robert Themptander becomes his country's Prime Minister (1884–88).
- June 28 – The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights is founded.
July–September
- July 1 – First International Forestry Exhibition opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- July 3 – The Dow Jones Transportation Average, consisting of eleven transportation-related companies (nine railroads and two non-rail companies, Western Union and Pacific Mail), is created. The index is the oldest stock index still in use.
- July 5 – Germany takes possession of Togoland.
- July 7 – Nagasaki Shipyard, as predecessor of an aircraft and shipbuilding manufacturing brand in Japan, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was founded in Kyushu Island.
- July 14 – German administration is established in Cameroon.
- August 22 – The Sino-French War (for control of Tonkin) breaks out (continues to April 1885).
- August 23 – Sino-French War – Battle of Fuzhou: French Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroys China's Fujian Fleet.
- September 15 – The invention of local anesthesia by Karl Koller is made public, at a medical congress in Heidelberg, Germany.
October–December
- October 22 - The International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
- November 2 – Timișoara, Romania is the first town in Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
- November 4 – 1884 United States presidential election: Democratic Governor of New York Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest, to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
- November 15 – The Berlin Conference, which regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa, begins (ends February 26, 1885).
- December 1 - Porfirio Díaz (1830-1915) returns as President of Mexico, an office he will hold until 1911.[1]
- December 4 – Reformers in Korea who admire the Meiji Restoration in Japan stage the Gapsin Coup, with Japan's help. China intervenes to rescue the king, and help suppress the rebels.
- December 10 - The Third Reform Act widens the adult male electorate in the United Kingdom to around 60%.
- December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial world's fair opens in New Orleans.
Date unknown
- The first Christian missionary arrives in Korea.
- Police training schools are established in every prefecture in Japan.
- Parliamentarism is introduced in Norway.
- The water hyacinth is introduced in the United States, and quickly becomes an invasive species.
- An economic depression hits the United States.
- The Fredrika Bremer Association is founded in Sweden.
- Thomas Parker built a practical production electric car in Wolverhampton using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries.