Dashed left edge = started before May 1889 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond May 1889
Events in May 1889 8
1826 – 1889Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889)Died 10 May 1889, aged 63Saltykov-Shchedrin was a leading Russian satirist whose novel The Golovlyov Family and other works savaged the corruption and cruelty of Russian provincial life under serfdom. He also served for decades as a government official and provincial administrator.
1889Eiffel Tower opensCenterpiece of the Paris Exposition UniverselleGustave Eiffel's company completed the wrought-iron tower for the 1889 World's Fair marking the centenary of the French Revolution. At 300 meters it became the tallest man-made structure on Earth, a record it held until 1930.
1889Admitted to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylumVoluntarily commits himselfVan Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in May 1889. During his year there he painted over 150 canvases including The Starry Night.
1889 – 1981Beulah Bondi (1889-1981)American actress who played James Stewart's mother four times, including in It's a Wonderful Life.
1889Beulah Bondi born in ChicagoBeulah Bondi is born in Chicago.
1889 – 1944Thomas Midgley JrTwo solutions, two disastersThomas Midgley solved two real engineering problems brilliantly. Engine knock was limiting compression ratios, so he found tetraethyl lead. Refrigerators were poisoning families with ammonia and methyl chloride, so he found Freon. Both worked perfectly, and between them they put lead into the bloodstream of most of the twentieth century and opened a hole in the ozone layer. The historian J. R. McNeill wrote that he had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in the planet's history. He held over a hundred patents and won every major prize American chemistry could give him.
1889Thomas Midgley Jr born in Beaver Falls, PennsylvaniaThe son of an inventorThomas Midgley Jr is born into a family of inventors — his father held tyre patents, his maternal grandfather invented an inserted-tooth saw. He grows up in Columbus, Ohio. As a schoolboy he works out that rubbing elm bark on a baseball makes it curve more sharply, which turns out to be a fair preview of his entire method.
1889Johnstown FloodDam failure kills over 2,200 in PennsylvaniaThe South Fork Dam above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, collapsed after days of heavy rain, sending a wall of water through the town and killing more than 2,200 people. It remains one of the deadliest disasters in United States history and prompted Clara Barton's American Red Cross to mount its first major disaster relief effort.