1885

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1881–1890	USA, UK [statistics and demography]	Emigration to the USA is 807,357 from Britain and 655,482 from Ireland.
June 1883 - December 1885	Madagascar, France [wars]	The French wage a war with Madagascar when the Hova government rejects the island's status as a French protectorate, created in 1882.
1885	USA [tools]	The US firm Singer demonstrates the first electric sewing machine, at the Philadelphia Electric Exhibition.
1885	England [opera]	The comic opera The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu by the English writer William Schwenk Gilbert and the English composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan is first performed, at the Savoy Theatre in London, England.
1885	Netherlands [painting]	The Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh paints The Potato Eaters.
1885	Norway [plays]	The play Vildanden/The Wild Duck, and the verse play Brand, by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen, are first performed in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. Brand was written in 1886.
1885	France [sculpture]	The French artist Auguste Rodin sculpts Burghers of Calais.
1885	Hungary [solo and chamber music]	The Hungarian composer Franz Liszt completes his piano work Mephistowaltzer/Mephisto Waltz No. 4 and the last of his 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies. The first was completed in 1846.
1885–1890	South Africa [astronomy]	British astronomer David Gill photographs over 450,000 stars of 11th magnitude or brighter in the southern hemisphere, in South Africa.
1885	Pacific, UK, Germany [colonization]	Britain proclaims a protectorate in Southern New Guinea, following German annexation of the north part of the island.
1885	England [fiction]	The English explorer and translator Richard Burton publishes the first volume of his The Arabian Nights, translations of a collection of Arabic tales. The final volume appears in 1888.
1885	England [fiction]	The English writer Henry Rider Haggard publishes his adventure novel King Solomon's Mines.
c. 1885	UK [food and drink]	Bananas begin to be imported into Britain, from the Canary Islands.
26 January 1885	Germany [motor vehicles]	German mechanical engineer Karl Friedrich Benz patents a three-wheeled vehicle powered by a two-cycle, single-cylinder internal combustion engine, pioneering the development of the motorcar. His car achieves a speed of 14.4 kph/9 mph.
26 January 1885	Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, England, Egypt [wars]	The Sudanese followers of the dervish Mahdi (prophet) Mohammed Ahmed of Dongola capture the city of Khartoum, capital of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, massacring the inhabitants and the occupying Anglo-Egyptian forces, including the Anglo-Egyptian commander, British general Charles Gordon.
5 February 1885	Congo, Belgium [colonization]	The Congo State is established as a personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium.
25 February 1885	Africa, Germany [colonization]	Germany annexes Tanganyika and Zanzibar, forming German East Africa and continuing its expansion into East Africa.
May 1885	USA [physics]	Croatian-born US physicist Nikola Tesla sells his polyphase system of alternating current (AC) dynamos, transformers, and motors to US industrialist George Westinghouse, who begins a power struggle to establish AC technology over US inventor Thomas Alva Edison's direct current (DC) systems.
2 May 1885	France [births and deaths]	Victor Hugo, French Romantic novelist, dies in Paris, France (83).
17 May 1885	Pacific, Germany [colonization]	Germany annexes Northern New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.
20 May 1885	Saudi Arabia, Iraq [births and deaths]	Faisal I, King of Iraq 1921–33 and promoter of pan-Arab nationalism, born in Mecca, Hejaz (–1933).
5 June 1885	Africa, UK [colonization]	The British proclaim a protectorate in the Niger River region of West Africa.
21 June 1885	Anglo-Egyptian Sudan [political events]	The dervish Mahdi (prophet) Mohammed Ahmed of Dongola dies, probably of typhoid, in Omdurman, Sudan, and is succeeded by his son Abdullah.
25 June 1885	UK [administration]	Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, forms a Conservative ministry in Britain, with himself taking the position of foreign secretary as well as prime minister, Michael Hicks Beach chancellor of the Exchequer, and Richard Cross home secretary.
4 July 1885	Russia, USA [births and deaths]	Louis B Mayer, US film executive, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) 1924–48, born in Minsk, Russia (–1957).
20 July 1885	UK [football]	The Football Association in England legalizes professionalism.
23 July 1885	USA [births and deaths]	Ulysses S Grant, US general who commanded the Union army during the last two years of the American Civil War and president 1863–1877, dies in Mount McGregor, New York (63).
11 September 1885	England [births and deaths]	D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence, English poet and novelist, author of the controversial Lady Chatterley's Lover, born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England (–1930).
30 October 1885	USA [births and deaths]	Ezra Pound, US poet and literary critic, born in Hailey, Idaho (–1972).
13 November 1885	Ottoman Empire, Serbia, Ottoman Empire [wars]	Serbia invades Bulgaria following the union of Bulgaria and former Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, to force compensation for the territorial gains of its neighbour.
16 November 1885	Canada [political events]	Louis Riel, Canadian Mètis leader who led an uprising against the Canadian government, is hanged in Assiniboia, Canada (41).
19 December 1885	France [elections]	The conservative Republican François-Paul-Jules Grévy is re-elected president of France.