| 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. |
| 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. |
| 1888 | UK [crime and punishment] | Five female prostitutes are murdered in the Whitechapel area of London, England, by an unidentified assailant known popularly as ‘Jack the Ripper’. |
| 1888 | France [fiction] | The French writer Guy de Maupassant publishes his novel Pierre et Jean/Pierre and Jean. |
| 1888 | Germany [literature and language] | The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche publishes Der Antichrist/The Anti-Christ, and Ecce Homo/Behold the Man. |
| 1888 | UK [newspapers] | The Financial Times newspaper is launched in Britain. |
| 1888 | UK [opera] | The comic opera The Yeoman of the Guard, or The Merryman and His Maid by the English writer William Schwenk Gilbert and the English composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan is first performed, in London, England. |
| 1888 | France [painting] | The French artist Paul Gauguin paints Vision After The Sermon and The Awakening of Spring. |
| 1888 | Netherlands, France [painting] | The Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh paints Sunflowers and The Night Café. |
| 1888 | USA [technology] | Serbian-born US inventor Nikola Tesla invents the first alternating current (AC) electric motor, which serves as the model for most modern electric motors. He sells the patent to George Westinghouse, who manufactures the motors in competition with Edison's direct current (DC) electric generators. |
| 1888 | France [solo and chamber music] | The French composer Erik Satie completes his three piano pieces Gymnopédies. The first and third are orchestrated by the French composer Claude Debussy in 1897. |
| 6 March 1888 | USA [births and deaths] | Louisa May Alcott, US author of children's books, best known for Little Women (1869), dies in Boston, Massachusetts (65). |
| 9 March 1888 | Germany [political events] | Frederick III succeeds as emperor of Germany following the death of Wilhelm I. |
| 15 April 1888 | France [elections] | Following election to the French chamber, General Georges Boulanger begins a campaign for the revision of the constitution with the intention of making himself dictator. Charles Floquet forms a cabinet which stands until February 1889. |
| 12 May 1888 | Netherlands East Indies, UK [colonization] | The British proclaim a protectorate in North Borneo and Brunei. |
| June 1888 | USA [photography] | US manufacturer George Eastman introduces the hand-held ‘Kodak’ box camera. The first commercial roll film camera, it is simple to use and contains a 100-exposure roll of paper film. The entire camera is returned to Eastman's factory for the film to be developed and printed, and the camera reloaded. Costing $25, it revolutionizes photography by making it possible for large numbers of amateur photographers to take acceptable snapshots. |
| 15 June 1888 | Germany [political events] | Wilhelm II becomes emperor of Germany on the death of his father, Frederick III. |
| 23 July 1888 | USA [births and deaths] | Raymond Chandler, US author, creator of the private detective Philip Marlowe, born in Chicago, Illinois (–1959). |
| 13 August 1888 | Scotland [births and deaths] | John Logie Baird, Scottish engineer who is the first to televise moving pictures, born in Helensburgh, Dunbarton, Scotland (–1946). |
| 15 August 1888 | Wales [births and deaths] | T(homas) E(dward) Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), British scholar, military strategist, and author, born in Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire, Wales (–1935). |
| 26 September 1888 | USA, UK [births and deaths] | T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot, US-born British modernist poet and playwright who has a strong influence on 20th-century poetry, born in St Louis, Missouri (–1965). |
| October 1888 | USA [magazines] | The magazine National Geographic is launched in the USA. |
| 9 October 1888 | USA [other structures] | The Washington Monument, 202.2 m/555 ft high and built at a cost of $1.2 million, opens to the public in Washington, DC. |
| 16 October 1888 | USA [births and deaths] | Eugene O'Neill, US dramatist, born in New York City (–1953). |
| 11 November 1888 | USA [elections] | In the US presidential election, fought on tariff issues, the Republican Benjamin Harrison wins 233 electoral votes, and the Democrat Grover Cleveland 168. Cleveland's loss is attributed to the treachery of Tammany Hall, the Democratic organization in New York City. |
