Modern Era
Edison's Phonograph (1877): The First Machine to Play Back Sound
Edison demonstrated the first machine able to record sound and reproduce it, patented in February 1878, which founded the recorded-sound industry.
Region
Americas
Prehistory
Bone Wars: The Cope and Marsh Fossil Rivalry of the American West
The two men named well over a hundred new species of dinosaurs between them, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Diplodocus, but the feud damaged both their reputations and finances.
Modern Era
War of the Pacific (1879-1884): Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Nitrate
Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia, annexing the nitrate provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta; Bolivia lost its entire Pacific coastline.
Modern Era
Edison's Light Bulb (1879): Lighting the World with Electricity
Edison's team produced a practical high-resistance carbon-filament lamp and built an electric lighting system around it, while Joseph Swan developed a rival lamp in Britain.
Modern Era
French Panama Canal (1881-1889): De Lesseps's Failure and Scandal
The French canal company went bankrupt in 1889 after the deaths of an estimated 20,000 or more workers, and the resulting Panama scandal discredited many French politicians.
Modern Era
Pearl Street Station (1882): Edison's First Central Power Plant
The station supplied direct-current electricity to paying customers in Lower Manhattan, proving the central-station model on which the electric utility industry was built.
Modern Era
Brooklyn Bridge (1883): The Roeblings' Steel-Wire Masterpiece
The bridge opened as the longest suspension bridge in the world and the first to use steel wire for its cables, linking New York and Brooklyn.
Modern Era
Canadian Pacific Railway Last Spike (1885): Uniting Canada
The Canadian Pacific Railway main line was completed, linking eastern Canada with British Columbia and fulfilling the promise that had brought the province into Confederation.
Modern Era
War of the Currents (1886-1893): Edison vs Tesla and Westinghouse
Alternating current became the standard for generating and distributing electric power, while Edison's direct-current system was gradually confined to special uses.
Modern Era
Charleston Earthquake (1886): The Southeast's Great Quake
Severe damage to most buildings in Charleston, about 60 deaths, and a landmark scientific study of an eastern US earthquake.
Modern Era
Michelson-Morley Experiment (1887): The Search for the Ether
The experiment found no measurable motion of the Earth through the supposed luminiferous ether, a null result that later supported Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Modern Era
Lei Áurea (1888): The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil
Slavery was abolished immediately and without compensation, freeing around 700,000 people; the monarchy lost planter support and fell in November 1889.