Editing 1884 (section)

=== January&ndash;March ===
* January &ndash; [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s anonymous story "[[J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement]]" appears in the ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]'' (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the ''[[Mary Celeste]]'' in [[1872]], many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to replace the real events in the popular imagination.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jones|first=Thomas|title=Arthur Conan Doyle and the ''Mary Celeste''|journal=[[London Review of Books]]|date=2005-02-17|volume=27|issue=4|page=22|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n04/thomas-jones/short-cuts|access-date=2024-12-14}}</ref>
* [[January 4]] &ndash; The [[Fabian Society]] is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress.
* [[January 5]] &ndash; [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s comic opera ''[[Princess Ida]]'', a satire on feminism, premières at the [[Savoy Theatre]], London.
* [[January 7]] &ndash; German microbiologist [[Robert Koch]] isolates ''[[Vibrio cholerae]]'', the [[cholera]] [[bacillus]], working in India.<ref>Koch, R. (1884-03-20). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=yY41AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA191 Sechster Bericht der deutschen wissenschaftlichen Commission zur Erforschung der Cholera]". ''Deutsche medizinische Wochenscrift'' '''10'''(12): 191–2.</ref>
* [[January 18]] &ndash; [[William Price (physician)|William Price]] attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that [[cremation]] is not contrary to [[English law]], he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on [[March 14]], setting a legal precedent.<ref>{{cite book|title=Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain|author-link=Ronald Hutton|last=Hutton|first=Ronald|year=2009|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0-300-14485-7}}</ref>
* [[February 1]] &ndash; ''A New English Dictionary on historical principles, part 1'' (edited by [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James A. H. Murray]]), the first fascicle of what will become ''The [[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', is published in England.<ref>{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref>
* [[February 5]] &ndash; [[Derby County F.C.|Derby County Football Club]] is founded in England.
* [[March 13]] &ndash; The [[Siege of Khartoum]] begins in the [[Sudan]] as part of the [[Mahdist War]]: an Egyptian garrison led by British [[Charles George Gordon|General Charles Gordon]] and Sudanese civilians are besieged by [[Mahdist State|Mahdist]] forces;<ref name=CBH>{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Alan|author2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd|location=London|pages=309–310|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}</ref> the city falls on [[January 26]], [[1885]].
* [[March 28]] &ndash; [[Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany|Prince Leopold]], the youngest son and eighth child of [[Queen Victoria]] and [[Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Prince Albert]], dies, aged 30 in [[Cannes]] ([[France]]) following a fall complicated by his [[haemophilia]]. His son, [[Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]], is born nearly 4 months later.
* [[March]] &ndash; [[John Joseph Montgomery]] conducts the first manned glider flights in the United States near Otay, California.