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Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX ) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar ).
Events of 1889
January - March
April - June
April 10 - Hammarby Roddförening founded, later to become Hammarby IF .
April 22 - At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889 . Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
May 2 - Menelik II , Emperor of Ethiopia , signs a treaty of amity with Italy , giving Italy control over what will become Eritrea .
May 6 - Eiffel Tower opens, in Paris .
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 - Johnstown Flood : South Fork Dam collapses in western Pennsylvania , killing more than 2,200 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 6 - The Great Seattle Fire ravages through the downtown area without any fatalities.
June 8 - The Wall Street Journal is established.
June 12 - 88 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in Northern Ireland .
June - Vincent Van Gogh paints Starry Night .
July - September
October - December
Undated
Births
January - June
January 20 - Leadbelly , American musician (d. 1949 )
January 21 - Edith Bratt , wife of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (d. 1971 )
January 31 - Frank Foster , English cricketer (d. 1958 )
February 2 - Jean de Lattre de Tassigny , French general, posthumous Marshal of France (d. 1952 )
February 3 - Risto Ryti , Prime Minister and President of Finland (d. 1956 )
February 5 - Ernest Tyldesley , English cricketer (d. 1962 )
February 7 - Harry Nyquist , important contributor to information theory (d. 1976 )
February 11 - John H. Mills, Sr. , American singer, "Mills Brothers" (d. 1967 )
February 19 - Ernest Marsden , British physicist (d. 1970 )
February 22 - Lady Olave Baden-Powell , English founder of the Girl Guides (d. 1977 )
February 22 - R. G. Collingwood , British philosopher and historian. (d. 1943 )
February 24 - Suzanne Bianchetti , French actress (d. 1936 )
March 1
March 4
March 6 - William D. Francis , Australian botanist (d. 1959 )
March 16 - Reggie Walker , South African athlete (d. 1951 )
March 21 - Aleksandr Vertinsky , Russian singer and actor (d. 1957 )
March 24 - Albert Hill , British athlete (d. 1969 )
March 29 - Warner Baxter , American actor (d. 1951 )
April 7 - Gabriela Mistral , Chilean writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957 )
April 8 - Sir Adrian Boult , English conductor (d. 1983 )
April 11 - Nick LaRocca , American 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 , Austrian dictator of Nazi Germany (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 philosopher (d. 1951 )
April 28 - António de Oliveira Salazar , Portuguese dictator(d. 1970 )
April 30 - Fritz Pfeffer , German-Dutch housemate of Anne Frank , (d. 1944 )
May 12 - Otto Frank , German publisher, businessman, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980 )
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 )
June 23 - Anna Akhmatova , Russian poet (d. 1966 )
July - December
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 12 - Zerna Sharp , American writer and educator (Dick and Jane ) (d. 1981 )
August 21 - Sir Richard O'Connor , English General in WWII (d. 1981 )
September 2 - George H. Plympton , American screenwriter (d. 1972 )
September 7 - Albert Plesman , Dutch aviation pioneer (d. 1953 )
September 8 - Robert Taft , U.S. Senator from Ohio (d. 1953 )
September 11 - Suzanne Duchamp , French painter (d. 1963 )
September 14 - María Capovilla , Supercentenarian , the last surviving person verified as born in 1889. (d. 2006 )
September 18 - Doris Blackburn , Australian politician (d. 1970 )
September 20 - Charles Reidpath , American athlete (d. 1975 )
September 25 - C. K. Scott-Moncrieff , Scottish writer and translator (d. 1930 )
September 26 - Martin Heidegger , German philosopher (d. 1976 )
October 3 - Carl von Ossietzky , German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1938 )
October 8 - C. E. Woolman , American airline executive (d. 1966 )
October 13 - Douglass Dumbrille , Canadian-born actor (d. 1974 )
November 1 - Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker , Canadian-born peace activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1982 )
November 12 - DeWitt Wallace , American magazine publisher (Reader's Digest ) (d. 1981 )
November 14 - Jawaharlal Nehru , Prime Minister of India (d. 1964 )
November 16 - George S. Kaufman , American playwright (d. 1961 )
November 19 - Vasily Blyukher , Soviet military commander (d. 1938 )
November 20 - Edwin Hubble , American astronomer (d. 1953 )
November 23 - Harry Sunderland , Australian rugby league identity (d. 1964 )
November 30 - Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian , English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1977 )
December 9 - Hannes Kolehmainen , Finnish runner (d. 1966 )
December 11 - Walter Knott , farmer and creator of Knott's Berry Farm (d. 1981 ).
date unknown
Deaths
January 13 - Solomon Bundy , American politician (b. 1823 )
January 30 - Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (suicide) (b. 1858 )
January 30 - Baroness Mary Vetsera (suicide) (b. 1871 )
February 3 - Belle Starr , American outlaw (b. 1848 )
February 13 - João Maurício Wanderley , Brazilian magistrate and politician (b. 1885 )
March 8 - John Ericsson , Swedish inventor and engineer (b. 1803 )
March 9 - Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia
March 24 - The Leatherman (b. 1833 )
April 23 - Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly , French writer (b. 1808 )
May 9 - William S. Harney , U.S. Army general (b. 1800 )
May 14 - Volney E. Howard , American politician (b. 1809 )
May 12 - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin , Russian satirist (b. 1826 )
June 8 - Gerard Manley Hopkins , English poet (b. 1844 )
June 15 - Mihai Eminescu , Romanian poet (b. 1850 )
July 10 - Julia Gardiner Tyler , First Lady of the United States (b. 1820 )
August 2 - Eduardo Gutiérrez , Argentinian author (b. 1851 )
August 19 - Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam , French writer (b. 1838 )
September 16 - Bob Younger , American outlaw and youngest of the Younger outlaws
September 23 - Wilkie Collins , British novelist (b. 1824 )
October 10 - Adolf von Henselt , German composer
October 11 - James Prescott Joule , English physicist (b. 1818 )
October 19 - King Luis I of Portugal (b. 1838 )
October 25 - Émile Augier , French dramatist (b. 1820 )
November 18 - William Allingham , Irish author (b. 1824 or 1828 )
December 6 - Jefferson Davis , President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1808 )
December 12 - Robert Browning , English poet (b. 1812 )
December 29 - Glele , King of Dahomey (suicide)
December 31 - Ion Creangă , Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839 )
Heads of State
Argentina - Miguel Juarez Celman (1886 -1890 )
China - Guāngxù Emperor of China , Qing Dynasty (1875 -1908 )
Denmark - Christian IX , King of Denmark (1863 -1906 )
France - Marie François 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 Kingdom - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury , (1886 -1892 )
United States -
Grover Cleveland , President of the United States (1885 -1889)
Benjamin Harrison , President of the United States (1889-1893 )