February 21 - Thomas Edison received two U.S. patents. The first was for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and another for a "Stop Device" (No. 491,992-3). Also No. 492,150 for "Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps."
July 12 - Frederick Jackson Turner gives his famous lecture entitled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" before the American Historical Association in Chicago