Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1887.

The year of 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.

Januray

• January: Detonations are heard at Oroville, a town near Chico, California. (Books535)
• January 6: `Abd-Allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II early in the morning; prepared for the assault, the Negus orders a counter-attack which routs the enemy, a few days later resulting in the capture of Harar.
• January 11: Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the French Academy of Medicine by Dr. Joseph Grancher.
• January 20: The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
• January 21: Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres – a record for any Australian capital city.
• January 24: Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat the Italians.
• January 28: In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, USA, the largest snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.

February

• February 2: In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• February 5: The Giuseppe Verdi opera Otello premieres at La Scala.
• February 23: The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000 along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
• February 23: In Genoa, Italy, the survivors of an earthquake report celestial blazes. (Books766) 
• February 26: At the Sydney Cricket Ground, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets in a Test innings.

March

• March 3: Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.
• March 4: Gottlieb Daimler unveils his first automobile.
• March 13: Chester Greenwood patents earmuffs.
• March 19: The captain of the Dutch bark J.P.A. watches two objects above his ship during a storm, one dark the other luminous. One or both fell into the sea. (Books284) 

April

• April 4: Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
• April 15: At Kaba, Hungary, a resinous substance was said to have fallen. (Books74) 
• April 21: Schnaebele incident, a French/German border incident nearly leads to war between the two countries.
• April 24: Something that "looked exactly like coke" fell during a thunderstorm in the Orne, France. (Books73)
• April 30: There fell on Castlecommon, Ireland, "thick, black rain." (Books27) 

May

• May 3: An earthquake hits Sonora, Mexico.
• May 9: Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.

June

• June 8: Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punch card calculator.
• June 18: The Reinsurance Treaty is closed between Germany and Russia.
• June 20: A stone falls from the sky during a violent thunderstorm at Tarbes, France. (Books125) 
• June 21: The British Empire celebrates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th year of her reign.
• June 23: The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada, creating that nation's first national park, Banff National Park.
• June 28: Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.

July

• Poltergeist phenomena occuring at the home of Rev. David Phillips of Swansea, Wales. (Books693)
• July 12: Odense Boldklub, the Danish football team, is founded as the Odense Cricket Club.
• July 21: An enormous fall of ants, "most of them wingless", at Nancy, France. (Books95) 
• July 26: L. L. Zamenhof publishes "Dr. Esperanto's International Tongue".

August

• August 6: In a small house in Victoria Street, Woodstock, New Brunswick fires break out. Within a few hours there were some forty fires. (Books920)
• August 13: The Hibernian F.C. defeats Preston North End to win the "Championship of the World" after the two teams win the Association football Cup competitions in their respective countries.
• August 17: After a violent thunderstorm an odd, roundish object of iron was found in a London garden. (Books113)
• Auhust 19: Astronomers in the city of Marseilles observe an unknown body that appeared upon the sun's limb, for twenty or thirty seconds, after an eclipse. (Books 445)  

September

• September 5: The Theatre Royal, Exeter, England burns down, killing 186 people.

October

• October 1: The British Empire takes over Balochistan.

November

• Results of the Michelson-Morley experiment are published, indicating that the speed of light is independent of motion.
• November 3: The Associação Académica de Coimbra, the students' union of the University of Coimbra in Portugal, is founded.
• November 10: Louis Lingg, sentenced to be hanged for his alleged role in the Haymarket Riot bomb, kills himself by dynamite.
• November 11: August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Michael Schwab, and Samuel Fielden are hanged for inciting riot and murder in the Haymarket Riot of May 4, 1886.
• November 13: Bloody Sunday: Police clash with pro-Irish independence protesters.
• November 20: Something like an earhquake was heard and felt in and around London, England. (Books447)
• November 23: A luminous triangle is observed on the floor of the lunar crater of Plato. (Books465)

December

• December 3: Following an earthquake the people of Roggiano, Italy, say that they had seen fire in the heavens. (Books765)
• December 25: Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky is first produced.
• December 31: There fell upon Cochin, China, a substance like blood, somewhat coagulated. (Books40)