The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.

Alfred Austin and William John Courthope found The National Review in London

A ten-story building, the first “skyscraper,” is built in Chicago

The Orient Express, running from Paris to Istanbul, makes its first journey

The volcano Krakatoa erupts from the Pacific Ocean west of Java

Friedrich Nietzsche publishes Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra)

The socialist Fabian Society is founded in London

The Sino-French War is fought over French claims to Cochin China (present-day Vietnam)

Martin Flavin is born

Sarah Winnemucca publishes Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims

James Whitcomb Riley publishes “The Old Swimmin’-Hole,” and ’Leven More Poems

William Carlos Williams is born

Robert Louis Stevenson publishes Treasure Island

E. J. Pratt is born

Kahlil Gibran is born

Explore: Kahlil Gibran, The Broken Wings

Karl Marx dies

Explore: Karl Marx, Das Kapital, The Communist Manifesto

José Ortega y Gasset is born

Explore: The Revolt of the Masses

Franz Kafka is born

Explore: The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, What makes Kafka's use of irony unique?

Ivan Turgenev dies

Explore: Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev