1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar)

Events

• January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
• January 29 - Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
• March 17 - Carrollton Massacre : 20 African Americans are killed in Mississippi.
• March 19 ? Complete darkness for 10 minutes in Oshkosh, Wisconsin
• April 25 - Easter occurs on latest possible date (next in 1943)
• May 1 - the start of the general strike in the United States which escalated into Haymarket Riot and eventually won the eight-hour workday in the U.S.
• May 4 - Emil Berliner started working on inventing the gramophone.
• May 8 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would be named "Coca-Cola."
• May 29 - Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise Coca-Cola (ad in the Atlanta Journal).
• June 2 - U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the first and only president to wed in the executive mansion.
• June 10 - Eruption of Mount Tarawera volcano in New Zealand, resulting in the deaths of over 150 people and the destruction of the famous Pink and White Terraces.
• July 25 ? Steve Brodie fakes a jump from the Brooklyn Bridge
• June 13 - A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
• August 4 ? William Ewart Gladstone fails to secure enough support for the Irish Home Rule in the British parliament
• August 20 - A massive hurricane demolishes the town of Indianola, Texas
• August 31 - Huge Earthquake hits South Carolina USA. Earthquake rods installed afterwards... Much Damage.
• September 4 - Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders with his last band of warriors to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.
• October 28 - In New York Harbor, US President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.
• November 30 - Folies Bergère stages its first revue.

• Britain annexes Burma
• Etna erupts
• Piccadilly Circus
• William Grant & Sons founded

Births

January

• January 2 - Florence Lawrence, Hollywood's first "star" (d. 1938)
• January 14 - Hugh Lofting, author (d. 1947)
• January 25 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor (d. 1954)

February

• February 8 - Charles Ruggles, actor (d. 1970)
• February 27 - Hugo Black, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1971)

March

• March 1 - Oskar Kokoschka, painter, graphic artist and poet (d. 1980)
• March 15 - Sergei Kirov, Soviet revolutionary
• March 18 - Edward Everett Horton, actor (d. 1970)
• March 24 - Edward Weston, photographer (d. 1958)
• March 25 - Patriarch Athenagoras (d. 1972)
• March 27 - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect (d. 1969)
• March 27 - Ludwig Athenagoras Horton , (d. 1972))

April

• April 26 - Ma Rainey, blues singer (d. 1939)

May

• May 2 - Gottfried Benn, German poet (d. 1956)
• May 17 - King Alfonso XIII of Spain
• May 20 - John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, British businessman (d. 1971)
• May 26 - Al Jolson (d. 1950)

June

• June 7 - Henri Coanda, aerodynamics pioneer
• June 18 - George Mallory, climber lost on Mt. Everest

July

• July 12 - Jean Hersholt, Danish born actor (d. 1956)

August

• August 27 - Eric Coates, English composer (d. 1957)

September

• September 16 - Jean Arp, Alsatian sculptor, painter, and poet (d. 1966)

October

• October 6 - Edwin Fischer, pianist and conductor
• October 16 - David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel (d. 1973)

November

• November 1 - Hermann Broch, Austrian author (d. 1951)

December

• December 5 - Rose Wilder Lane, author, reporter (d. 1968)
• December 8 - Diego Rivera, painter
• December 12 - Owen Moore, actor (d. 1939)
• December 18 - Ty Cobb, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1961)
• December 25 - Kid Ory, jazz musician (d. 1973)
• Charles Williams - British author
• Jacques Majorelle - French painter (d. 1962)

Deaths

• January 17 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer
• January 26 - David Rice Atchison, American politician
• May 15 - Emily Dickinson, poet
• June 13 - King Ludwig II of Bavaria (b. 1845)
• July 1 - Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich. German geologist
• July 31 - Franz Liszt
• August 16 - Ramakrishna Paramhansa - Indian spiritual figure
• September 14 - Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard