1883

Decades: 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s

Years: 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 - 1883 - 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888

Events

• January 16 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed
• January 19 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service (Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas Edison.
• February 16 - Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
• February 23 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
• February 28 - The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts
• May 24 - Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
• May 30 - In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes twelve people.
• August 12 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• August 26 - Krakatau volcano eruption (local time)
• September 15 - The Bombay Natural History Society is founded.
• Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (German bacteriologist) discovers the cholera bacillus.
• October 1 - Sydney Boys High School is founded in Sydney, Australia. It is the first boys public school in Australia.
• October 15 - The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional since it allowed individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
• November 3 - American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-8" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
• November 18 - US and Canadian railroads institute four standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
• November 28 - Whitman College is chartered as a four-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.

Year in topic

• 1883 in literature
• 1883 in music
• 1883 in science

Births

• January 3 - Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
• January 6 - Khalil Gibran, poet, painter, novelist (d. 1931)
• January 10 - Francis X. Bushman, actor (d. 1966)
• January 10 - Aleksei Tolstoy, writer (d. 1945)
• February 15 - Sax Rohmer, author (d. 1959)
• February 7 - Eubie Blake, musician, composer (d. 1983)
• February 11 - Paul August von Klenau Danish composer/conductor
• February 23 - Karl Jaspers, philosopher (d. 1969)
• February 23 - Victor Fleming, director (d. 1949)
• March 19 - Joseph Stilwell, US soldier (d. 1946)
• April 1 - Lon Chaney, actor (d. 1930)
• April 11 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author
• May 18 - Walter Gropius, architect, founder of Bauhaus (d. 1969)
• May 20 - King Faisal I of Iraq (d. 1933)
• May 23 - Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, cofounder of United Artists (d. 1939)
• June 24 - Victor Franz Hess, US physicist
• July 4 - Rube Goldberg, cartoonist (d. 1970)
• July 29 - Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy
• August 23 - US General Jonathan Wainwright, Medal of Honor recipient
• November 8 - Arnold Bax, composer
• November 25 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, Rosicrucian mysticist and Imperator of AMORC (d. 1939)
• December 3 - Anton Webern, Austrian composer
• December 25 - Maurice Utrillo, a "Montmartre" artist
• Alberto Gerchunoff, Argentine writer

Deaths

• January 10 - Samuel Mudd, formerly doctor to John Wilkes Booth
• January 23 - Gustave Doré, French artist
• February 13 - Richard Wagner, German composer
• March 14 - Karl Marx, German philosopher
• April 30 - Edouard Manet, painter
• May 24 - Abdel Kadir, Algerian leader
• May 26 - Edward Sabine, astronomer
• July 22 - Edward Ord, US army officer
• October 30 - Robert Volkmann, composer

Referenced By