January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885.
January 5–9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is published in New York and London.
January 16 – A resolution is passed in the German Parliament to condemn the Prussian deportations, the politically motivated mass expulsion of ethnic Poles and Jews from Prussia, initiated by Otto von Bismarck.
January 18 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
January 29 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (built in 1885).
February 6–9 – Seattle riot of 1886: Anti-Chinese sentiments result in riots in Seattle, Washington.
February 8 – The West End Riots following a popular meeting in Trafalgar Square, London.
February 14 – The first trainload of oranges leaves Los Angeles via the United States transcontinental railroad.
March 3 – The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Serbo-Bulgarian War in the Balkans.
March 16 – A law establishing the Kiel Canal is adopted in the German Empire.
March 17 – Carrollton Massacre: 20 African Americans are killed in Mississippi.
March 29 – Wilhelm Steinitz becomes the first recognized World Chess Champion.
March – Gottlieb Daimler assembles his first automobile, in Germany.
April 4 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the First Irish Home Rule Bill in the Parliament of the United Kingdom; it is defeated on June 8.
April 6 – The settlement of Vancouver, British Columbia, is incorporated.
April 24 – Father Augustine Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest from the United States to identify himself publicly as African American, is ordained in Rome.
April – The Swedish Dress Reform Society is established.
May 1 – A general strike begins in the United States, which escalates on May 4 into the Haymarket affair in Chicago, and eventually wins the eight-hour day for workers.
May 4 – Emile Berliner starts work that leads to the invention of the gramophone.
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197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies. 356 – The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan idols in the Roman Empire. 1594 – Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
421 – Emperor Theodosius II marries Aelia Eudocia at Constantinople (Byzantine Empire). 879 – Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia under Duke Branimir as an independent state. 1002 – Henry II, a cousin of Emperor Otto III, is elected and crowned King of Germany. 1099 – First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins. 1420 – Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patria del Friuli. 1494 – Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.
472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius). 911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor.