December 12 - Robert Browning, English poet (b. 1812)
December 31 - Ion Creangã, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)
Events
January 15 - The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
January 22 - Columbia Phonograph was formed in Washington, D.C.
January 30 - Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.
February 9 - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is established as a Cabinet-level agency.
February 11 - Meiji constitution of Japan is adopted; the first Diet of Japan convenes in 1890.
February 22 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
March 14 - German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon"
March 23 - Land Run: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22.
March 23 - The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London.
March 23 - The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was established by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian India.
April 22 - At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
May 6 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
May 14 - The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London.
May 26 - Opening of the first Eiffel Tower elevator to the public.
May 31 - Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam break sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
June 3 - The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed from coast to coast.
June 3 - The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon, United States.
June 6 - The Great Seattle Fire destroys the entirety of downtown Seattle, Washington.
June 12 - 88 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in what is now Northern Ireland.
July 8 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
September 23 - Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.
September 28 - The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.
October 2 - In Colorado, Nicholas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West.
October 6 - Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.
November 2 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
November 4 - Menelek of Shoa obtains the allegiance of a large majority of the Ethiopian nobility, paving the way for him to be crowned emperor.
November 8 - Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
November 11 - Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.
November 14 - Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in seventy-two days.
November 23 - The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
December 8 - The KNVB is founded in the The Netherlands
