1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

• February 2 - The Knights of Columbus are formed in New Haven, Connecticut
• February 7 - In Mississippi City the last heavyweight boxing championship bareknuckle fight takes place.
• February 14 - Llanelli Conservative Association founded.
• March 2 – Robert Maclean fails to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor
• March 22 - Polygamy is outlawed by the U.S. Congress
• March 24 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).
• March 29 - The Knights of Columbus are established.
• March - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian claimed to be the 'Reformer of Islam or Majaddid' of 14th Century.
• April 3 - Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
• May 2 – Charles Stewart Parnell released
• May 20 - Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
• June 30 – Assassin Charles Guiteau hanged
• July 11 - British troops occupy Alexandria and Suez Canal
• July 26 - Boers establish the republic of Stellaland in southern Africa.
• August 5 - Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
• August 20 - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow.
• September 5 - The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
• September 13 - British troops occupy Cairo - Egypt becomes British protectorate
• 16 October - The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.

• Nikola Tesla conceives rotating magnetic field principle and uses it to invent the alternating current generator/motor
• First Polar Year, an international scientific program.
• Ferdinand von Lindemann publishes his proof of the transcendence of pi
• Married Women's Property Act in Britain enables women to buy, own and sell property and to keep their own earnings
• Zulu king Cetshwayo returns to South Africa
• Peace treaty between Paraguay and Uruguay

Births

January-April

• January 6 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian poet and political figure (d. 1965)
• January 18 - A. A. Milne, British author (d. 1956)
• January 25 - Virginia Woolf, English writer (d. 1941)
• January 30 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States (d. 1945)
• February 1 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
• February 2 - James Joyce, Irish author (d. 1941)
• February 11 - Gheorghe Cucu composer (d. 1932)
• February 15 - John Barrymore, actor (d. 1942)
• February 28 - Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)
• March 10 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer
• March 14 - Waclaw Sierpinski Polish mathematician (d. 1969)
• March 15 - Jim Lightbody, American middle-distance runner
• March 21 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, actor (d. 1971)
• March 23 - Emmy Noether, mathematician (d. 1935)
• April 17 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (d. 1951)
• April 18 - Isabel J. Cox, future First Lady of Canada (d. 1985)
• April 18 - Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (d. 1977)

May-December

• May 6 - Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II (d. 1951)
• May 9 - Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist (d. 1967)
• May 9 - George Barker, United States painter (d. 1965)
• May 13 - Georges Braque, painter (d. 1963)
• May 16 - Anne McCormick , journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 1954)
• May 19 - Mohammed Mossadegh, Iranian prime minister (d. 1967)
• May 20 - Sigrid Undset, Norwegian author (d. 1949)
• May 30 - Wyndham Halswelle, British runner
• June 9 - Bobby Kerr, Canadian sprinter
• June 15 - Ion Antonescu, Romanian prime minister and dictator (d. 1946)
• June 17 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
• August 14 - Gisela Richter, art historian (d. 1972)
• August 17 – Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood movie mogul (d. 1974)
• August 25 - Sean T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland (d. 1966)
• October 5 - Robert Goddard, rocket scientist (d. 1945)
• October 6 - Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (d. 1937)
• October 14 - Eamon de Valera, Taoiseach and third President of Ireland (d. 1975)
• October 14 - Charlie Parker, cricket player (d. 1959)
• November 11 - King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (d. 1973)
• December 9 - Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (d. 1949)
• December 11 - Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil Indian poet (d. 1921)
• December 16 - Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer (d. 1967)

Deaths

• January 13 - Juraj Dobrila, bishop
• February 11 - Gustav Schmidt , composer
• March 24 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author
• April 3 - Jesse James, American Western outlaw
• April 10 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter
• April 19 - Charles Darwin, British naturalist (b. 1809)
• April 27 - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and writer (b. 1803)
• June 25 - François Jouffroy, French sculptor (b. 1806)
• July 16 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)
• December 3 - Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1811)
• Charles A. Alexander , Victorian architect