1889

May 2 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, which gives Ethiopia control over Eritrea.
May 15 ? In Samoa, three US and three German ships sink in a typhoon because the captains refuse to leave before the others ? almost 200 drown. British steamer Calliope saves itself by pushing into the wind with full speed
May 31 - South Fork Dam collapses in western Pennsylvania, killing more than 2200 people in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania
June 3 - The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
June 12 - 88 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in Northern Ireland.
July 8 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
September 10 - Albert Honor� Charles Grimaldi becomes Reigning Prince Albert I of Monaco
October 2 - In Washington, DC, the first international Conference of American States begins.
October 3 - Sister Carries goes to Chicago

November 2 - North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
November 8 - Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
November 11 - Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.
November 14 - Pioneer woman Journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins an attempt to beat travel around the world in less than 80 days (Bly finished the journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes).
November 15 - Brazil is declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup (he was the second and last emperor of Brazil).

Wisden Cricketer's Almanac publishes its first Wisden Cricketers of the Year (actually titled Six Great Bowlers Of The Year). The crickters chosen are George Lohmann, Bobby Peel, Johnny Briggs, Charles Turner, John Ferris and Sammy Woods.
Frederick Abel invents cordite
Diet of Japan founded
French defense minister Georges Boulanger attempts a coup but is forced to flee the country
First free elections in Costa Rica
Glele, king of Dahomey, commits suicide
Yellow fever interrupts the building of Panama Canal
Huge locust swarm crosses the Red Sea and destroys crops in the Nile Valley
Ghost Dance movement
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.
Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by George Bernard Shaw, is published.
Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

Births

January 21 - Edith Bratt, wife of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (d. 1971)
January 31 - Frank Foster, English cricketer (d. 1958)
February 3 - Risto Ryti, Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1956)
February 6 - Elmo Lincoln, actor (d. 1952)
February 11 - Vladimir Mikhaylovich Deshevov, composer
February 19 - Ernest Marsden, British physicist (d. 1970)
February 22 - Lady Olave Baden-Powell, English founder of the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
February 24 - Suzanne Bianchetti, French actress (d. 1936)
March 1 - Kanoko Okamoto, Japanese novelist, poet, and Buddhism scholar (d. 1939)
March 1 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese philosopher (d. 1960)
March 4 ? Pearl White, American silent film actress (d. 1938)
March 16 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
March 24 - Albert Hill, British athlete (d. 1969)
March 29 - Warner Baxter, American actor (d. 1951)
April 7 - Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet (d. 1957)
April 8 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
April 11 - Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (d. 1961)
April 15 - Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (d. 1975)
April 16 - Charlie Chaplin, English actor and film director (d. 1977)
April 20 - Adolf Hitler, German dictator (d. 1945)
April 21 - Paul Karrer, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
April 23 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942)
April 26 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born English philosopher (d. 1951)

May 12 - Otto Frank, German writer, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
May 15 - Bessie Hillman, American labor organizer
May 18 - Thomas Midgley, American chemist and inventor (d. 1944)
May 25 - Igor Sikorsky Russian developer of the helicopter (d. 1972)
June 21 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (d. 1972)
July 5 - Jean Cocteau, French writer (d. 1963)
July 17 - Erle Stanley Gardner, American author (d. 1970)
August 5 - Conrad Aiken, American writer (d. 1973)
August 31 - Ramona Trinidad Iglesias-Jordan, (d. 2004), oldest person in the world and the last person to die who was born in the 1880s
September 18 - Doris Blackburn, Australian politician (d. 1970)
September 20 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete (d. 1975)
September 26 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (d. 1976)
October 8 - C. E. Woolman, American airline executive (d. 1966)
October 13 - Douglass Dumbrille, Canadian-born actor (d. 1974)
November 14 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (d. 1948)
November 16 - Charlotte Benkner, oldest person in the world (d. 2004)
December 9 - Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish long-distance runner (d. 1966)
Suzanne Duchamp, French painter (d. 1963)

China - Guāngx� Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (1875-1908)
Denmark - Christian IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906)
France - Marie Fran�ois Sadi Carnot, President of France (1887-1894)
Germany - Wilhelm II, German Kaiser (1888-1918)
Holy See - Pope Leo XIII, Bishop of Rome (1878-1903)
Japan - Mutsuhito, Meiji emperor (1867-1912)
Norway - Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway (1872-1905)
Ottoman Empire - Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909)
Russia - Alexander III, Tsar of Russia (1881-1894)
Spain - Alfonso XIII of Spain, King of Spain (1886-1931)
United States -
1. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (1885-1889)
2. Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States (1889-1893)