Victor Hugo dies May 22. This triggers griant national mourning and hundreds of thousands of Parisians line the route of the cortege from the Arc de Triumphe to the Pantheon, where he is interred. The left image of the Arc de Triumphe is from Almanach Francais.

Jean Beraud, Les funerailes de Victor Hugo, l'arc de triomphe de l'Etoile en 1885, oil on canvas, Carnavalet, right. This image is from Duby, L'Histoire de Paris par la Peinture.

Paul Cezanne, The Card Players (Les joueurs de cartes)
Oil on canvas, 52 3/4 x 71 1/2 in. (134 x 181.5 cm), The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

Emile Zola writes Germinal.

Pasteur develops the rabies vaccine. (CHF)

The Sorbonne, in the 5th arrondissement, is being reconstructed. (AF)

More broadly:

Peugeot gets into the bicycle manufacturing business. (CHF)

The railroad comes to Indochina. (CHF)

Senegal gets its first railroad. (CHF)

Belgium is recognized as controlling the Congo. (CHF)