Events January–March January 2 The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in the United States for an extended lecture tour; when asked by a customs official if he has anything to declare, he replies "I have nothing to declare but my genius" according to later tradition. January 5 – Charles J. Guiteau is found guilty of the assassination of James A. Garfield (President of the United States) and sentenced to death, despite an insanity defense raised by his lawyer. January 12 – Holborn Viaduct power station in the City of London, the world's first coal-fired public electricity generating station, begins operation. February 3 – American showman P. T. Barnum acquires the elephant Jumbo from the London Zoo. March 2 – Roderick Maclean fails in an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria, at Windsor. March 18 (March 6 Old Style) – The Principality of Serbia becomes the Kingdom of Serbia following a proclamation. March 20 – British gunboats enter Monrovia, with Arthur Havelock demanding that Liberia cede disputed territory to the British colony of Sierra Leone, of which he is Governor. March 22 – Polygamy is made a felony by the Edmunds Act, passed by the United States Congress. March 24 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). March 28 Republican Jules Ferry makes primary education in France free, non-clerical (laique) and obligatory. German medical products company Beiersdorf is founded. March 29 – The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, is founded in New Haven, Connecticut. April–June April 3 – Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back of the head and killed by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri. April 29 – The Elektromote, the world's first trolleybus, begins operation in Berlin. May – Burnley F.C. in the north of England changes codes, from Rugby union to Association football. May 1 The Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is founded in Germany, as Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle. Édouard Manet exhibits his painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère at the Paris Salon. May 2 – The Kilmainham Treaty, an agreement between the British government and Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell to abate tenant rent arrears, is announced; Parnell is released from Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. May 6 – Phoenix Park Murders in