office 23
Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1883.
".....but I have records of 31 extraordinary events in 1883. Someone should write a book upon the phenomena of this one year - that is, if books should be written." - The Book of The Damned by Charles Fort.
January
- January 10: A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee kills 73 people.
- January 16: The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed.
- January 19: The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey (it was built by Thomas Edison).
February
- February 13: The German composer Richard Wagner dies of a heart attack in Venice, Italy.
- February 16: The Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
- February 23: Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
- February 27: Many reports of a luminous object in the sky and earthquake, Conecticutt. (Books243-244)
- February 28: The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.
March
April
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April 15: M. Briguiere's observes from Marseilles the crossing of the sun by bodies that were irregular in form. Some of them moved as if in alignment. (Books221)
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April 25: As if in alignment, M. Briguiere of Marseilles, watches the crossing of the sun by bodies irregular in form. (Books221)
May
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May 9: An unknown creature at large in the area around Masterton, New Zealand. (Books609)
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May 18: A number of stones of peculiar formation and shapes, unknown in this neighbourhood, fell in a tornado at Hillsboro, Illinois. (Books176)
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May 19: Beams of light at Lake Ludyika, Sweden. Mirages of a lake in moonshine, with shores covered with trees and the faint outlines of farms. (Books445)
- May 24: Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 13 years of construction.
- May 28: Mirages at Finsbo, Sweden - changing scenes at shot intervals, mountains, lakes and farms. (Books445)
- May 30: In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes 12 people.
June
- June 16: Victoria Hall disaster: A rush for treats results in 183 children being asphyxiated in a concert hall in Sunderland, England.
- June 30: The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson first appears as a serial in Young Folks; A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature. Stevenson completes the novel at the end of summer in France.
July
- July 3: The SS Daphne disaster in Glasgow leaves 124 dead.
- July 4: The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.
- July 7: A meteorite fell during a storm near Lachine, Quebec. (Books101)
- July 12: There fell a lump of ice the size of a brick weighing two pounds on Chicago, USA. (Books185)
- July 22: Zulu King Cetshwayo barely escapes a rebel attack with his life.
- July 30: The crew aboard the steamship Resolution alone in the Arctic Ocean hear six reports, like gunfire. (Books438)
August
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In the home of Lulu Hurst, aged 15, at Cedarville, Georgia, there were poltergeist disturbances. Pebbles moved, things vanished, crockery was smashed... (Books1033)
- King William's College is opened on the Isle of Man.
- August 12: M. Bonilla at the Observatory of Zacatecas, Mexico, witnessed a large number of small luminous bodies, entering upon the disk of the sun. (Books223)
- August 12 :The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
- August 25: Ashes fall to earth deep in the interior of Western Australia. (Books781)
- August 26-28: Krakatoa erupts at 10:02 AM (local time); 163 villages are destroyed, 36,380 killed. In the autumn and for years afterward, occurred brilliant-coloured sunsets, such as had never been seen before within the memory of all observers. (Books16)
- August 28: Captain Noble, at 10:35pm watches in the sky something "like a new and most glorious comet." (Books455)
- August 29: W.K. Bradgate at 12:40am, at Liverpool saw an object like the planet Jupiter, a ray of light eminating from him. (Books455)
September
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September 11: Prof. Swift saw, at Rochester, N.Y., an unknown object like a comet. (Books456)
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September 13: An unknown comet like object was observed by Prof. Swift at Rochester, N.Y. (Books456)
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September 15: Mr Hoad, of Adelaide, found on the a bank of Brungle Creek, a headless trunk of a pig-like animal, with an appendage that curved inwards, like that of a lobster. (Books609)
- September 15: The Bombay Natural History Society is founded.
- September 15: The University of Texas at Austin opens to students.
- September 21: At Yeovil, England, a brilliant searchlight-like light is seen. (Books456)
- September 24: During a whirlwind and storm, a meteorite fell upon Sweden. (Books101)
- September 24: Hicks Pashaw, in Egypt, saw "an immense black spot upon the lower part of the sun." (Books209)
- September 29: A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis, Minnesota forms the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports but avoid the high tariffs of Chicago.
October
- October 4: The Boys' Brigade (the first uniformed youth organization in existence) is founded in Glasgow, Scotland.
- October 4: The Orient Express begins operation.
- October 15: The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, since the Court allows private individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
- October 16: Over Montussan, France, came a thick cloud accompanied by rain and strong winds. The cloud was compsed of a woolly substance in lumps the size of a fist, which fell to the ground. (Books62)
- October 20: Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
- October 24: Cardiff University, Wales, opens (under the name of University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire).
- October 30: Two Clan na Gael dynamite bombs explode in the London underground, injuring several people. The next day, Home Secretary Vernon Harcourt drafts 300 policemen to guard the underground and introduces the Explosives Bill.
November
- November 1: Amsterdam, The first international colonial and export exhibition closes, having had over 1 million visitors.
- November 3: Self-described "Black Bart the Poet" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
- November 5: In the sky a luminous object the size of a full moon, visible over Chili, USA, for an hour and an half. (Books287)
- November 14: Chile's National Library of Congress is founded.
- November 18: U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
December
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December 2: An unknown substance fell on Scutari, (Turkey?). "It was found to be saltish to the taste, and to dissolve readily in water." (Books70)