On June 26, Illinois Governor Edward F. Dunne signs law allowing the women of the state to vote in presidential elections only. Nonetheless it becomes the first state east of the Mississippi to extend voting right to women. Alaska Territory also grants women the right to vote.
Architect William LeBaron Jenney designs the first U.S. skyscraper, the ten story Home Insurance Building, in Chicago. Construction begins on May 1. The building is completed in the autumn of 1885.
