Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1882.

the year 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

January

• January 2: John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.
• January 22: A darkness descends upon London, so that at 10:30am it was possible to hear people on the opposite side of the street but not see tham. (Books234)

February

• February 2: The Knights of Columbus are formed in New Haven, Connecticut.
• February 3: P. T. Barnum purchases the elephant Jumbo.

March

• March – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian claims to be the 'Reformer of Islam' or Majaddid of the Muslim 14th century.
• March 2: Roderick Maclean fails to assassinate Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
• March 20: British gunboats enter Monrovia, with Arthur Havelock demanding that Liberia cede disputed territory to the British colony of Sierra Leone.
• March 22: Polygamy is made a felony by the Edmunds Act as passed by the U.S. Congress.
• March 24: Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).
• March 28: Republican Jules Ferry makes primary education in France free, non-clerical (laique) and obligatory.
• March 29: The Knights of Columbus are established.

April

• April 3: Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed by Robert Ford.

May

• May 2: Charles Stewart Parnell is released.
• May 6: The "Invincibles" (militant Irish republicans) kill Lord Frederick Cavendish, chief secretary for Ireland and permanent undersecretary T.H. Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin;
• May 6: The Chinese Exclusion Act is the first important law which restricts immigration into the U.S.A.
• May 20: The Triple Alliance is formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

June

• June 6: A cyclone in the Arabian Sea causes flooding in Bombay harbor, leaving about 100,000 dead.
• June 6: Battle of Embabo: The Shewan forces of Menelik defeat the Gojjame army.
• June 11: The Urabi Revolt breaks out in Egypt against the Khedive and European influence in that country.
• June 16: A storm at Dubuque, Iowa, in which hail and pieces of ice fell. In two of the large hailstones, when melted, were found live frogs. (Books183) 
• June 30: U.S. presidential assassin Charles Guiteau is hanged.

July

• July 3: Two triangular, luminous appearances reorted by several observers in Lebanon, Connecticut, on the moon's upper limb. (Books268)
• July 11: British troops occupy Alexandria and the Suez Canal.
• July 26: Boers establish the republic of Stellaland in southern Africa.
• July 31: The Hebrew Moshava of Rishon Le-Zion is founded.

August

• August 3: The U.S. Congress passes the 1882 Immigration Act.
• August 20: Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.
• August 30: Pieces of ice eight inches long and an inch and a half thick fell upon Davenport, Iowa. (Books184) 

September

• September 5: The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
• September 13: 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War: British troops occupy Cairo, and Egypt becomes a British protectorate.

October

• October 5: The Society for Ethical Culture of Chicago – (currently the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago) is founded by Felix Adler.
• October 16: The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.