The year 1886

Vancouver was incorporated in 1886. What else was happening that same year outside the city?

Here and elsewhere in Canada, inspectors were assigned to enforce labor laws that forbade women and children from working more than 60 hours per week. The Pope named Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau the first ever Canadian Cardinal. The whipping of female prison inmates was abolished.

The Nova Scotia legislature passed a resolution moved by Premier William Fielding for the release of the province from Confederation! (Wonder how that turned out?)

A new national trade union umbrella group, the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, was formed. Manitoba farmer Angus Mackay showed that Red Fife wheat was a winner: he got 35 bushels of hard wheat per acre. And Salada Tea was introduced by Canada’s Peter Larkin, who named it for a small tea garden in India.

In the USA, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. U.S. troops captured the Apache chief Geronimo. The “tuxedo” dinner jacket was introduced, named for Tuxedo Park, a New York State hangout for rich folk. Coca-Cola first went on sale in Atlanta, devised by pharmacist John Pemberton as a headache and hangover remedy. Johnson’s Wax was introduced. Sears, Roebuck began. Maxwell House Coffee got its name from the Nashville hotel that served it.

Elsewhere in the world: Karl Benz patented the first successful gasoline-driven automobile. Johannesburg, South Africa was incorporated. Robert Louis Stevenson’s horror novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, appeared. Das Kapital, by Karl Marx, was published in English. And Israeli politician (the first prime minister) David Ben-Gurion and Mexican muralist Diego Rivera were born.

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