Founding of the Indian National Congress
72 delegates in Bombay begin India's road to independence
In December 1885, 72 delegates from across British India met in Bombay for the first session of the Indian National Congress, initiated by a retired British official, Allan Octavian Hume. At first the Congress modestly asked for more Indians in government. Within decades, under Gandhi and Nehru, it led the mass movement that brought India independence in 1947.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 24 years earlier
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — 1 year earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 1 year later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 4 years later
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — 20 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 18 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 16 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 8 years earlier
- 1895 Popov's radio receiver — 10 years later
- 1905–1907 Russian Revolution of 1905 — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 9 years earlier
- 1905–1911 Persian Constitutional Revolution — 20 years later
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — 23 years later
- 1908 Young Turk Revolution — 23 years later
Africa
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 6 years earlier
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — same year
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — same year
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 1 year later
- 1897 The British sack Benin City — 12 years later
Americas
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 18 years earlier
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — 16 years earlier
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 9 years earlier
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 6 years earlier
- 1888 Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil — 3 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 8 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 8 years later
Alive at the time
- Queen Victoria (aged 66)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 57)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 51)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 45)
- Thomas Edison (aged 38)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 32)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 29)
- Marie Curie (aged 18)
- Mahatma Gandhi (aged 16)
- Vladimir Lenin (aged 15)