1889 was a year of new stuff. Among other debuts we have;
* The Coca-Cola Company (incorporated as the Pemberton Medicine Company)
* Columbia Phonograph (though we will have to wait to get some of their discs)
* The Eiffel Tower (much to the dissaproval of Parisians)
* The first long distance electric power transmission line, in Portland, Oregon.
* The first Pizza Margherita, made by Neapolitan baker Raffaele Esposito.
* The first issue of The Wall Street Journal.
* New York Military Academy
* Nintendo. Yes, that Nintendo. They manufactured playing cards at the time.
* The Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in Paris.
* The first jukebox, at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
* The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack published its first Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
* The Savoy Hotel in London.
And a few other things were going on too;
* The Meiji Constitution of Japan was adopted
* President Grover Cleveland signed a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
* The South Fork Dam collapsed, killing more than 2,200 people in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
* Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
* The last official bare-knuckle boxing title fight ever was held – John L. Sullivan, the “Boston Strong Boy”, defeated Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout lasting 75 rounds in Mississippi.
* Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca deposed Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and abolished the Brazilian monarchy.
Some famous people were born;
Charlie Chaplin, English actor and film director (d. 1977)
Jean Cocteau, French writer (d. 1963)
Victor Fleming, American motion picture director, (d. 1949)
Otto Frank, German publisher, businessman, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (d. 1976)
Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born dictator of Nazi Germany (d. 1945)
Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (d. 1953)
Nick LaRocca, American musician (d. 1961)
Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st Prime Minister of India (d. 1964)
Kermit Roosevelt, American explorer and author (d. 1943)
Igor Sikorsky, Russian developer of the helicopter (d. 1972)
Arnold J. Toynbee, British historian (d. 1975)
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1951)
And some famous people died;
Robert Browning, English poet (b. 1812)
Wilkie Collins, British novelist (b. 1824)
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1808)
Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (b. 1844)
Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria (b. 1858), and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera (b. 1871) commited a double suicide (or was it a murder suicide?) in the Mayerling hunting lodge.
Yohannes IV, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1837), was killed in the Battle of Metemma – Yohannes is probably the world’s last ruler ever to die in battle.