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  • Stockholm, Sweden
    1884
    Alfred Nobel

    Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

    Stockholm, Sweden
    1884

    Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the same institution that would later select laureates for two of the Nobel prizes.




  • Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
    1884
    The Wright brothers

    Family's abrupt move

    Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
    1884

    Both brothers attended high school, but did not receive diplomas. The family's abrupt move in 1884 from Richmond, Indiana, to Dayton, Ohio, where the family had lived during the 1870s, prevented Wilbur from receiving his diploma after finishing four years of high school. The diploma was awarded posthumously to Wilbur on April 16, 1994, which would have been his 127th birthday.




  • New York, U.S.
    1884
    Statue of Liberty

    Fundraising Lagging

    New York, U.S.
    1884

    Even with these efforts, fundraising lagged. Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York, vetoed a bill to provide $50,000 for the statue project in 1884. An attempt the next year to have Congress provide $100,000, sufficient to complete the project, also failed. The New York committee, with only $3,000 in the bank, suspended work on the pedestal. With the project in jeopardy, groups from other American cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, offered to pay the full cost of erecting the statue in return for relocating it.




  • United Kingdom
    1884
    Nuclear Power

    A steam turbine

    United Kingdom
    1884

    A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884.




  • New York City, New York, U.S.
    1884
    Nikola Tesla

    Charles Batchelor was brought back to the United States to manage the Edison Machine Works

    New York City, New York, U.S.
    1884

    In 1884, Edison manager Charles Batchelor, who had been overseeing the Paris installation, was brought back to the United States to manage the Edison Machine Works, a manufacturing division situated in New York City, and asked that Tesla be brought to the US as well.




  • Poland
    1884
    Penicillin

    With Fire and Sword

    Poland
    1884

    In 17th-century Poland, wet bread was mixed with spider webs (which often contained fungal spores) to treat wounds. The technique was mentioned by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his 1884 book With Fire and Sword.




  • Lamar, Missouri, U.S.
    Thursday May 8, 1884
    Harry S. Truman

    Birth

    Lamar, Missouri, U.S.
    Thursday May 8, 1884

    Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884.


  • England, United Kingdom
    1884
    Winston Churchill

    Churchill transferred to Brunswick School

    England, United Kingdom
    1884

    Churchill began boarding at St. George's School in Ascot, Berkshire, at age seven but was not academic and his behavior was poor. In 1884 Churchill transferred to Brunswick School in Hove, where his academic performance improved.


  • France
    May, 1884
    Eiffel Tower

    Working at home

    France
    May, 1884

    In May 1884, working at home, Koechlin made a sketch of their idea, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Eiffel initially showed little enthusiasm, but he did approve further study, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base of the tower, a glass pavilion to the first level, and other embellishments.


  • U.S.
    Jun, 1884
    Nikola Tesla

    Tesla emigrated to the United States

    U.S.
    Jun, 1884

    In June 1884, Tesla emigrated to the United States.


  • Paris, France
    Friday Jul 4, 1884
    Statue of Liberty

    Ferdinand de Lesseps

    Paris, France
    Friday Jul 4, 1884

    Laboulaye died in 1883. He was succeeded as chairman of the French committee by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal. The completed statue was formally presented to Ambassador Morton at a ceremony in Paris on July 4, 1884, and de Lesseps announced that the French government had agreed to pay for its transport to New York.


  • Worldwide
    1884
    Bicycle

    Worldwide

    Worldwide
    1884

    By 1884 high-wheelers and tricycles were relatively popular among a small group of upper-middle-class people in all three countries, the largest group being in England. Their use also spread to the rest of the world, chiefly because of the extent of the British Empire.


  • Evansville, Indiana, U.S.
    Saturday Sep 13, 1884
    Hot Dog

    An early use of the term hot dog in reference to sausage-meat

    Evansville, Indiana, U.S.
    Saturday Sep 13, 1884

    An early use of the term hot dog in reference to sausage-meat appears in the Evansville (Indiana) Daily Courier (September 14, 1884): even the innocent 'wienerworst' man will be barred from dispensing hot dog on the street corner.


  • France
    1884
    Eiffel Tower

    The design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts

    France
    1884

    The new version gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier, and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name.


  • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
    1884
    Kroger

    Kroger opened his second store

    Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
    1884

    In 1884 Kroger opened its second store.


  • Berlin, Germany
    Saturday Nov 15, 1884
    Rwandan genocide

    Berlin Conference

    Berlin, Germany
    Saturday Nov 15, 1884

    Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi were assigned to Germany by the Berlin Conference of 1884, and Germany established a presence in the country in 1897 with the formation of an alliance with the king.


  • Mexico City, Mexico
    Monday Dec 1, 1884
    Mexican Revolution

    Díaz had ruled Continuously

    Mexico City, Mexico
    Monday Dec 1, 1884

    Díaz had ruled continuously since 1884. The question of presidential succession was an issue as early as 1900, when Díaz turned 70. It was his "undeclared intention to step down from the presidency in 1904."


  • Korea
    Thursday Dec 4, 1884
    First Sino-Japanese War

    Gapsin Coup

    Korea
    Thursday Dec 4, 1884

    On December 4, 1884, with the help of the Japanese minister Takezoe Shinichiro who promised to mobilize Japanese legation guards to provide assistance, the reformers staged their coup under the guise of a banquet hosted by Hong Yeong-sik, the director of the General Postal Administration. The banquet was to celebrate the opening of the new national post office. King Gojong was expected to attend together with several foreign diplomats and high-ranking officials, most of whom were members of the pro-Chinese Sadaedang faction. Kim Ok-gyun and his comrades approached King Gojong falsely stating that Chinese troops had created a disturbance and escorted him to the small Gyoengu Palace, where they placed him in the custody of Japanese legation guards. They then proceeded to kill and wound several senior officials of the Sadaedang faction. Consequently, within three days, even before the reform measures were made public, the coup was suppressed by the Chinese troops who attacked and defeated the Japanese forces and restored power to the pro-Chinese Sadaedang faction.


  • New York City, New York, U.S.
    Dec, 1884
    Nikola Tesla

    Good bye to the Edison Machine Works

    New York City, New York, U.S.
    Dec, 1884

    Tesla had been working at the Machine Works for a total of six months when he quit. What event precipitated his leaving is unclear. It may have been over a bonus he did not receive, either for redesigning generators or for the arc lighting system that was shelved. Tesla had previous run-ins with the Edison company over unpaid bonuses he believed he had earned. In his autobiography, Tesla stated the manager of the Edison Machine Works offered a $50,000 bonus to design "twenty-four different types of standard machines" "but it turned out to be a practical joke".[51] Later versions of this story have Thomas Edison himself offering and then reneging on the deal, quipping "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor".[52][53] The size of the bonus in either story has been noted as odd since Machine Works manager Batchelor was stingy with pay and the company did not have that amount of cash (equivalent to $12 million today) on hand. Tesla's diary contains just one comment on what happened at the end of his employment, a note he scrawled across the two pages covering 7 December 1884, to 4 January 1885, saying "Good bye to the Edison Machine Works".


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