Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
Jan
12
On January 12, 1888, the so-called “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” kills 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning, and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours.
Jan
27
On January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society is incorporated in Washington, D.C., for “the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.”
The National Geographic Society was founded, the Soviet army freed the prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in the Apollo 1 fire in This Day in History video. The date is January 27th.The National Geographic Society’s goal was to distribute geographic knowledge. It was started by thirty-three world travelers.
Mar
11
On March 11, 1888, one of the worst blizzards in American history strikes the Northeast, killing more than 400 people and dumping as much as 55 inches of snow in some areas. New York City ground to a near halt in the face of massive snow drifts and powerful winds from the storm. At the time, approximately one in every four Americans lived in the area between Washington, D.C. and Maine, the area affected by the Great Blizzard of 1888.
Children clearing snow on Third Avenue after the blizzard of 1888, which saw over 21 inches fall on New York City, New York, March 1988. The Great Blizzard of 1888 caused major disruption to the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine, as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada, from 11th to 14th March, and was was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
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Apr
11
On April 11, 1888, 24-year-old Henry Ford marries Clara Jane Bryant on her 22nd birthday at her parent’s home in Greenfield Township, Michigan. Clara Ford would prove to be a big supporter of her husband’s business ideas: Fifty years later, Henry Ford—who by then had founded the Ford Motor Company, invented the top-selling Model T car and revolutionized the auto industry with his mass-production technology—was quoted in a 1938 New York Times Magazine article as saying, “The greatest day of my life is when I married Mrs. Ford.”
Jun
05
Aug
31
Prostitute Mary Ann Nichols, the first known victim of London serial killer “Jack the Ripper,” is found murdered and mutilated in the city’s Whitechapel district. London saw four more victims of the murderer during the next few months, but no suspect was ever found.
Sep
26
Dec
23
On December 23, 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Today, Van Gogh is regarded as an artistic genius and his masterpieces sell for record-breaking prices; however, during his lifetime, he was a poster boy for tortured starving artists and sold only one painting.
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe', February 1889', (1947). Van Gogh (1853-1890) had cut off his ear with a razor during one of his periods of mental illness. Painting in a private collection. From "Vincent Van Gogh", by Ludwig Goldscheider and Wilhelm Uhde. [Phaidon Press Ltd, Oxford and London, 1947]. Artist Vincent van Gogh. (Photo by The Print Collector via Getty Images)
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