1885 is a common year starting on Thursday.

Events

January

• January 4 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.
• January 20 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• January 26 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum

February

• February 5 - King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a personal possession.
• February 9 - The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
• February 18 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
• February 21 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
• February 26 - Final Act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa.

March

• March-May - North-West Rebellion took place and was put down in Canada.
• March 3 - A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company , American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
• March 4 - Grover Cleveland replaces Chester A. Arthur as President of the United States.
• March 31 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

May

• May 9-12 - Canadian government forces inflict decisive defeat on Métis rebels at the Battle of Batoche.

June

• June 17 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

July

• July 6 - Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister; a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.
• July 20 - Professional football legalized in Britain

September

• September 2 - In Rock Springs, Wyoming, 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
• September 18 - Union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria proclaimed at Plovdiv.
• September 30 - A British force abolishes the Boer republic of Stellaland and adds it to British Bechuanaland.

November

• November 7 - Canadian Pacific Railway finished: In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on a railway extending across Canada. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald considered the project to be vital to Canada.
• November 14-28 - Serbo-Bulgarian War: Serbia declares war against Bulgaria but is defeated in Battle of Slivnitsa on November 17-19.
• November 16 - Canadian rebel leader of the Métis, Louis Riel is executed for high treason.

December

• December 1 - The US Patent Office acknowledges this date as the day Dr Pepper was served for the very first time; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown.
• December 28 - 72 Indian lawyers, academicians and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party

Unknown Dates

• Creation of the first genuine bicycle, the Rover, by John K Starley.
• John Boyd Dunlop invents the pneumatic tire.
• W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado
• The Times reports that "A lady well-known in literary and scientific circles" has been cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. She is the first person to be officially cremated in the United Kingdom
• Cholera epidemic in Spain – one of the victims is the king Alfonso XII
• Third Burmese War begins
• Sitting Bull joins Buffalo Bill
• Randolph Churchill becomes a viceroy of India
• Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse
• William Stanley, Jr. builds the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.
• Local anesthetic
• First skyscraper – Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors)
• Bicycle Playing Cards first produced

Births

• January 6 - Florence Turner, American actress (d. 1946)
• January 8 - John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
• January 11 - Alice Paul, women's rights activist
• January 21 - Umberto Nobile, Italian politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
• January 27 - Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945)
• January 27 - Eduard Künnecke, composer (d. 1953)
• January 29 - Leadbelly, musician
• February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, American novelist
• February 9 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer (d. 1935)
• February 9 - Anita Ree , painter (d. 1933)
• February 13 - Bess Truman, wife of US President Harry S. Truman
• February 15 - Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg
• February 21 - Sacha Guitry, dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)
• February 24 - Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral (d. 1966)
• February 24 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (a.k.a. “Witkacy”), Polish writer and painter (d. 1939)
• March 6 - Ring Lardner, American writer (d. 1933)
• March 11 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (d. 1948)
• March 14 - Raoul Lufbery, World War I American pilot (d. 1918)
• March 31 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse"
• April 1 - Wallace Beery, actor (d. 1949)
• April 3 - Allan Dwan, film director (d. 1981)
• April 4 - Arthur Murray, dancer
• May 2 - Hedda Hopper, columnist (d. 1966)
• May 7 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, actor (d. 1969)
• May 14 - Otto Klemperer, German conductor
• May 21 - Oscar A.C. Lund, Swedish film actor, director, and writer (d. 1963)
• May 22 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral
• June 14 - E. L. Grant Watson
• June 22 - Milan Vidmar, Slovenian electrical engineer and chess player (d. 1962)
• July 28 - Monte Attell, bantamweight world boxing champion (d. 1960)
• September 11 - D.H. Lawrence, English author
• September 22 - Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia
• October 7 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d. 1962)
• October 30 - Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)
• November 2 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)
• November 5 - William James Durant, Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (d. 1981)
• November 11 - George Patton, American general (d. 1945)
• December 19 - Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)

Deaths

• January 26 - Charles "Chinese" Gordon, British general (killed in battle)
• April 2 - Justo Rufino Barrios, Central American leader
• May 22 - Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)
• July 23 - Ulysses Simpson Grant, American Civil War general and the 18th U.S. President
• August 10 - James Wilson Marshall, contractor and builder of Sutter's Mill
• September 15 - Jumbo the elephant (train accident)
• November 16 - Louis Riel, Canadian Métis leader (hanged for treason)
• November 25 - King Alfonso XII of Spain
• December 8 - William Henry Vanderbilt, entrepreneur