Music Premiere
Dec 2 Camille Saint-Saëns' opera "Samson et Dalila" premieres in Weimar
Edison's Phonograph
Dec 6 Thomas Edison enters the offices of Scientific American and turns the crank on his cylinder phonograph, astonishing those present with the recording, "Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?" [1]
- Dec 6 Washington Post publishes 1st edition
- Dec 9 Russo-Turkish War: Turkish troops attempt to break Russian and Romanian encirclement of Plevna, Ottoman Empire (now Pleven, Bulgaria), fails
- Dec 10 Russo-Turkish War: Turkish commander Osman Pasha surrenders the city of Plevna, Ottoman Empire (now Pleven, Bulgaria) to Romanian Col. Mihail Cerchez
Symphony No. 3
Dec 16 Anton Bruckner reluctantly steps in to conduct the premiere of his "Symphony No. 3", dedicated to Richard Wagner; it is a critical disaster and undergoes many revisions [1]
- Dec 22 "American Bicycling Journal" begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
Edison's Cylinder Phonograph
Dec 24 Thomas Edison files for a patent for the cylinder phonograph [1]
Brahms' 2nd Symphony
Dec 30 Johannes Brahms' 2nd Symphony in D, premieres in Vienna
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists