1884

Events 
 December 10 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first published, in London.

 Births 
 May 8 – Harry S. Truman, thirty-third President of the United States (d. 1972)
 October 11 – Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt (d. 1962)
 December 30 – Hideki Tōjō, 40th Prime Minister of Japan, Led the Attack on Pearl Harbour (d. 1948)

 Deaths 
 January 25 – Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (b. 1815)
 March 21 – Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar (b. 1819)
 April 4 – Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist (b. 1858)
 May 12 – Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)
 May 13 –  Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b. 1809)
 June 25 – Hans Rott, Austrian composer (b. 1858)
 July 1 – Allan Pinkerton, American detective (b. 1819)
 July 10 – Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)
 November 25 – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b. 1818)