• The "Great Game" of Imperialism intensifies across the globe:
  • The Berlin Conference concludes with the signing of the Berlin Act specifying the rules for the partition of Africa by the European powers and seting off the "Scramble for Africa".
  • Great Britain establishes protectorates over the southern regions of the Niger River in West Africa and the Bechuanaland in South Africa, and cements its control over Burma by defeating the Burmese in the Third Anglo-Burmese War.
  • King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as his personal possession, initiating a tyranical and bloody reign of terror.
  • China, humbled by the French in the Franco-Chinese War, cedes Vietnam to France.
  • Germany annexes Zanzibar and Tanganyika.
  • Italy, with the backing of the British, expands its holdings in East Africa.
• The Serbo-Bulgarian War is precipitated when Bulgaria unites in a bloodless coup with semi-independent Ottoman satellite state of Eastern Rumelia, which is largly peopled by Bulgarians anyway. Serbia, fearing the enlarged Bulgarian state, promptly launches an invasion with the tacit approval of Austria-Hungary, only to be defeated and turned back by a hastily mustered untrained Bulgarian army at the Battle of Slivnitsa.
• The First Anglo-Sudanese War comes to an end as the Mahdi captures Khartoum from the Anglo-Egyptian defenders.
• In the North-West Rebellion, Canadian forces suppress an attempt by the Métis people to establish an independent nation in Saskatchewan. The Métis score a small triumph at the Battle of Cut Knife, but the rebellion is crushed at the Battle of Batoche, in which the Métis run out of ammunition and are forced to resort to firing pebbles from their guns.
• The Indian National Congress, now known as the Congress Party, is established in Bombay by leading intellectuals for the purpose of gaining a larger say in the administration of India.
• In Japan, the Meiji Oligarchs establish a cabinet government along western lines.
• The disassembled Statue of Liberty, in the form of 350 individual pieces packed in 214 crates, arrives in New York aboard the French frigate Isere.
• The 138-foot, 10-story Home Insurance Building, often considered the first skyscraper, is constructed in Chicago, Illinois.
• Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• German engineer Karl Benz constructs the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine - a surprisingly advanced three-wheeled contraption with an electric ignition, differential gears, a water cooling system, and a top speed of a glorious 9 mph.
• Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado debuts.
• Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
• Baseball continues to develop as the infield fly rule is added to the rule book, as is a rule prohibiting players other than catchers and first basemen from wearing oversize mitts.
• Stanford University is chartered. Bryn Mawr College opens for classes.
• A tasty concoction of 23 secret ingredients known as "Dr Pepper" is sold for the first time by Waco, Texas drugstore owner Wade Morrison.

These people were born in 1885:

• Danish physicist Niels Bohr.
• English author D.H. Lawrence.
• American novelist Sinclair Lewis.
• American poet Ezra Pound.
• American general George Patton.
• American composer Jerome Kern.
• American blues great Leadbelly.
• Arab freedom fighter Faisal ibn Husayn, later installed by the British as King Faisal I of Iraq.
• Visionary Austrian-born American film director Erich Von Stroheim.
• Japanese haiku master Iida Dakotsu.
• Paraguayan composer, poet and virtusoso guitarist Agustin Barrios Mangore.
• American philosopher and historian Will Durant, co-author of The Story of Civilization.

These people and animals died in 1885:

• Ulysses S. Grant, Union general in the American Civil War and 18th President of the United States.
• French author Victor Hugo.
• Celebrated British army officer Charles Gordon, killed in the defense of Khartoum.
• King Alfonso XII of Spain, succeeded by his posthumous son Alfonso XIII.
• Canadian Métis resistance leader Louis Riel, hanged for treason following the defeat of the North-West Rebellion.
• Famed circus elephant Jumbo, whose name became the adjective "jumbo" meaning "huge", tragically run over by a train.

1884 - 1885 - 1886

19th century