Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades: 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
Years: 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 - 1888 - 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893
Events
- January 24 - Jacob L. Wortman patents the typewriter ribbon.
- January 27 - In Washington, DC the National Geographic Society is founded.
- August 31 - Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.
- Alexander Graham Bell founds the National Geographic Society.
- Brazil abolishes slavery
- November - Benjamin Harrison defeats Grover Cleveland in the U.S. presidential election
- George Eastman invents celluloid roll film, markets Kodak, first simple to use mass produced camera.
- Gramophone patented by Emile Berliner
Births
- January 24 -
- Vicki Baum, writer (+ 1960)
- Ernst Heinkel, aircraft designer (+ 1958)
- March 4 - Knute Kenneth Rockne, American football player
- March 12 - Vaslav Nijinsky, Ukrainian ballet dancer
- April 6 - Hans Richter, German filmmaker
- May 27 - Louis Durey, composer, member of Les Six
- May 28 - Jim Thorpe, American sportsman
- June 24 - Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect
- August 13 - John Logie Baird, first demonstrated the television
- September 26 - T. S. Eliot, American/British poet
- October 7 - Henry A. Wallace, vice president of the United States
- October 9 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician
- October 16 - Eugene O'Neill, American dramatist
- November 23 - Harpo Marx, comedian, The Marx Brothers (+ 1964)
- December 28 - F.W. Murnau, German director
- Irving Berlin, American composer
- Raymond Chandler, American novelist
- Maurice Chevalier, French actor
- Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Australian illustrator
- Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer
- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher
- Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Finnish writer
- Max Steiner, Austrian film maker
- Harald Sverdrup, Norwegian scientist
Deaths
- January 29 - Edward Lear, British artist and writer
- February 3 - Henry Maine, British jurist
- March 6 - Louisa May Alcott, American novelist
- April 15 - Father Damien, Belgian priest
- October 16 - John Wentworth, mayor of Chicago, United States
- Anton de Bary, German biologist
- Henry Bergh, founder of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- Charles Cros, French poet
- Philip Henry Gosse, British scientist