1882

Society

1882. The world powers sign a Hague convention agreeing to a 3-mile limit for territorial waters.

1882. Parliament passes the Married Women's Property Act following efforts by women's rights champion Richard Pankhurst, whose widow Emmeline will campaign for women's suffrage after his death in 1898.

1882. A wave of strikes for higher wages in the United States is touched off by higher prices that have resulted from last year's poor crops.

1882. Electricity illuminates parts of London beginning January 12. Electricity illuminates parts of New York City beginning September 4.

1882. An internal combustion engine powered by gasoline is invented by German engineer Gottlieb Daimler.

1882. "The public be damned," says U.S. railroad magnate William H. Vanderbilt to a Chicago Daily News reporter who has asked, "Don't you run it for the public benefit?" "I am working for my stockholders. If the public want the train, why don't they pay for it?"

1882. Rober Koch discovers the tuberculosis bacillus and establishes that the disease is communicable.

1882.Viennese physician Josef Breuer discovers the value of hypnosis in treating a girl suffering from severe hysteria, pioneering psychoanalysis.

1882. Jesse James dies April 3 at age 34 of a gunshot wound in the back of the head. James has befriended his cousin and fellow outlaw Robert Ford, who has shot him to get a reward.

1882. The Hatfield-McCoy feud that has simmered for years in the southern Appalachians of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky boils over, beginning a bloodbath that will continue for years.

1882. Only 2% of New York homes have water connections and while tenements have some rudimentary plumbing facilities nearly every private house has a backyard privy.

Literature

"The Lady or the Tiger." Frank R. Stockton. American. 1882. Story. Youth falls for king's daughter. Condemned. Must open one of two doors. Behind one is a tiger. Behind the other is a lovely lady to be given him in marriage. The Princess knows which is which. She signals Which door does he open? We'll never know.

Specimen Days and Collect. Walt Whitman. American. 1882. Poetry. Poet's youth, Civil War experiences and some reminiscences in old age.

Vice-Versa, or A Lesson to Fathers. F Anstey. 1882. Novel. Transformation of father into son and son into father.