Timeline November 1884

Events in November 1884 3

• 1884 Hiram Maxim patents the Maxim gun First self-powered automatic machine gun Inventor Hiram Maxim patented a fully automatic machine gun that used the energy of each fired cartridge to reload and fire the next round. The Maxim gun became the basis for machine guns adopted by European armies over the following decades. Its firepower would later prove devastating in colonial conflicts and the First World War.
• 1884 Grover Cleveland elected President of the United States Democrat defeats Republican James G. Blaine Grover Cleveland won a narrow victory over James G. Blaine, becoming the first Democrat elected president since before the Civil War. The campaign was marked by personal scandal on both sides and a close result decided by New York state. Cleveland took office in March 1885.
• 1884 Berlin Conference opens European powers meet to regulate colonization of Africa Fourteen nations, convened by Otto von Bismarck, met in Berlin to formalize rules for the partition of Africa among European colonial powers. The conference established the principle of effective occupation and set the terms for the Congo Free State. It continued into early 1885 and is regarded as the formal starting point of the Scramble for Africa.