WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1889
Find out what all happened January to December 1889

Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam fails and sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (31. May 1889)

American inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture. (6. October 1889)

The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon. (3. June 1889)

Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling. (30. January 1889)

Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state. (8. November 1889)

The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States. (11. November 1889)

Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C. (22. January 1889)

The transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway is completed. (3. June 1889)

Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, signs a treaty of amity with Italy, giving Italy control over Eritrea. (2. May 1889)

The Yngsjö murder in Yngsjö, Sweden: Anna Månsdotter is arrested along with her son. (28. March 1889)

In Colorado, Nicholas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West. (2. October 1889)

Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted; the first National Diet convenes in 1890. (11. February 1889)

Hull House, the United States' most influential settlement house, opens in Chicago. (18. September 1889)

78 are killed in the Armagh rail disaster near Armagh in what is now Northern Ireland. (12. June 1889)

The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. (23. November 1889)

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. (22. April 1889)

North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states. (2. November 1889)

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. (28. September 1889)

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. (14. November 1889)

Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population. (29. June 1889)