1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1885th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 885th year of the 2nd millennium, the 85th year of the 19th century, and the 6th year of the 1880s decade. As of the start of 1885, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

• Benz builds the first single-cylinder engine for car.
• John K Starley creates the first genuine bicycle, the Rover.
• John Boyd Dunlop invents the pneumatic tire.
• W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado
• The Times reports that "A lady well known in literary and scientific circles" has been cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. She is the first person to be officially cremated in the United Kingdom.
• Cholera epidemic in Spain – one of the victims is the king Alfonso XII.
• Third Burmese War begins.
• Clint Eastwood defeats Mad Dog Tannen.
• Sitting Bull joins Buffalo Bill.
• Randolph Churchill becomes a viceroy of India.
• Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse.
• William Stanley, Jr. builds the first practical alternating current transformer device, the induction coil.
• Local anesthetic.
• First skyscraper – Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors) is built.
• Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced.
• Grover Cleveland replaces Chester A. Arthur as President of the United States

• January 8 – John Curtin, Australia's 14th Prime Minister
• September 17 – George Cleveland, Canadian actor

• March 31 – Charlotte Brontë, British writer