The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary was published, covering words from 'A' to 'Ant', after decades of painstaking work.

Engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier draft early sketches for a colossal iron tower, a concept that would become the Eiffel Tower.

European powers convened in Berlin to regulate colonization and trade in Africa, carving up a continent without a single African present.