Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1888.

March

• March 5: In the presence of many investigators pieces of brick were falling inside a schoolroom in Pondicherry, India. (Books567)
• March 8: The Agriculture College of Utah, (later Utah State University) is founded in Logan, Utah.
• March 6: A red rain fell in the Mediterranean. (Books39)
• March 11: The "Great Blizzard of '88" begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
• March 18: In the Mediterranean a red rain fell, whatever the substance may be, when burned, the odor of animal matter from it was strong and persistant. (Books39)
• March 20: The very first Romani language operetta premieres in Moscow, Russia.
• March 22: The Football League is formed.

 

April

• April 11: The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated.
• April 28: (Until March 1, 1889). Loud detonations are heard over the towns of Barisal, Bengal. The explosions become known as the Barisal Guns. (Books436) 

 

May

• May 1: The United States Congress establishes the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.
• May 13: Brazil abolishes the last remnants of slavery.
• May 28: In Scotland, the Celtic F.C. plays its first official match winning 5-2 against Rangers F.C..

 

June

• Annie Besant organizes the London matchgirls strike of 1888.
• June 3: The Kingdom of Sedang is formed in modern-day Vietnam.
• June 15: Wilhelm II is crowned German Emperor.
• June 19: In Chicago, the Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building. Benjamin Harrison & Levi Morton win the nominations for President and VicePresident, respectively.
• June 29: Handel's Israel in Egypt is recorded onto wax cylinder at The Crystal Palace, it being the earliest known recording of classical music.

 

July

• July 6: Pebbles, described as "common water-worn pebbles" fell at Palestine, Texas. (Books176)
• July 12: A mirage at Hudiksvall, Sweden, of a stormy sea with a vessel upon it; a small boat leaving the vessel. (Books445)
• July 25: Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that is widely used now.
• July 27: The British Parliament passes an act that permits bicycles on the road, on condition that they are equipped with a bell that should be rung while on the carriageway. The law is eventually abolished in 1930.

 

August

• On or about August 1, near, Warasdin, Hungary, several divisions of infantry, led by a chief, who waved a flaming sword, was seen in the sky, for three consecutive days, marching for hours at a time. (Books458)
• August 5: Berta Benz arrives in Pforzheim, having driven 40 miles from Mannheim in a car manufactured by her husband Karl Benz, thus completing the first "long-distance" drive in the history of the automobile.
• August 7: The body of Martha Tabram is found, a possible murder victim of Jack the Ripper.
• August 14: A rain described as a "shower of ink" fell upon the Cape of Good Hope. (Books29) 
• August 20: There is a mutiny at Dufile, India, and the Emin Pasha is imprisoned.
• August 31: Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is considered the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.

 

September

• September 4: George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film.
• September 6: Charles Turner becomes the first cricket bowler to take 250 wickets in an English season – a feat since accomplished only by Tom Richardson (twice), J.T. Hearne, Wilfred Rhodes (twice) and Tich Freeman (six times).
• September 8: In London, the dead body of Annie Chapman is found. She is considered to be the second victim of Jack the Ripper.
• September 30: In London, the bodies of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes are found. They are generally considered Jack the Ripper's third and fourth victims, respectively.

 

October

• October 1: Sofia University officially opens, becoming the first university in liberated Bulgaria.
• October 8: At Merexull, on the Baltic, was seen the mirage of a city that lasted an hour. (Books445) 
• October 9: The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.
• October 12: At the lighthouse of Port Isabel, Texas, the widow of the recently deceased keeper, was pelted with a shower of nails. Another shower of nails the following night - people gathered and saw them fall! (Books576) 
• October 14: Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK (followed by his movie Leeds Bridge).

 

November

• In a small region about four miles wide and ten to fifteen miles long of the Thames Valley, near Reading, flocks of sheep had run from their folds in terror. (Books448)
• November 6: U.S. presidential election, 1888: United States Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.
• November 9: In London, England, the dead body of Mary Jane Kelly is found. She is considered to be the fifth, and last, of Jack the Ripper's victims. A number of similar murders in England follow, but the police attribute them to copy-cat killers.

 

December

• December 23: During a bout of mental illness, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh infamously cuts off the lower part of his own left ear.