1889 in science

	… 1879; 1880; 1881; 1882; 1883; 1884; 1885; ; 1886; 1887; 1888; 1889; 1890; 1891; 1892; ; 1893; 1894; 1895; 1896; 1897; 1898; 1899 …;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

The year 1889 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

Francis Galton publishes Natural Inheritance, a book which summarizes the results of a number of his papers and inspires Karl Pearson, Raphael Weldon and others to develop the mathematics and statistics of inheritance and biometry.^[1]
Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski at the University of Strasbourg demonstrate that a function of the mammalian pancreas is to produce the hormone insulin, the lack of which leads to diabetes mellitus.^[2]

Returning to France from his expedition up the Niger River, Louis Gustave Binger reveals that the Mountains of Kong do not exist.^[4]

Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld publishes the Facsimile-Atlas to the Early History of Cartography in Stockholm.

Joseph Louis François Bertrand publishes Calcul des probabilités ("Calculation of probabilities") containing the Bertrand's box paradox in probability theory.
Giuseppe Peano publishes Arithmetices principia, nova methodo exposita ("The principles of arithmetic presented by a new method") containing the Peano axioms for the natural numbers.

January 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent in the United States for his electric tabulating machine.^[7]
March 12 – Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, files a patent in the United States for an automatic telephone exchange using the Strowger switch.^[8]
May 6 – October 31 – Exposition Universelle in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower as its entrance arch. At 300 m, the tower's height exceeds the previous tallest structure in the world by 130 m. The Galerie des machines, designed by architect Ferdinand Dutert and engineer Victor Contamin, at 111 m, spans the longest interior space in the world at this time.
June 3 – The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
An early method of high-voltage direct current transmission as developed by Swiss engineer René Thury^[9] is implemented commercially in Italy by the Acquedotto de Ferrari-Galliera company. This system transmits 630 kW at 14 kV DC over a distance of 120 km.^[10]^[11]

January 17 – Ralph H. Fowler (died 1944), English physicist and astronomer.
March 21 – Frederick Osborn (died 1981), American philanthropist and eugenicist.
April 21 – Paul Karrer (died 1971), Swiss winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
May 18 – Thomas Midgley, Jr. (died 1944), American chemist and inventor.
June 4 – Beno Gutenberg (died 1960), German-born seismologist.
July 18 – Axel Boëthius (died 1969), Swedish archeologist of Etruscan culture.
July 30 (O.S. July 17) – Vladimir K. Zworykin (died 1982), Russian-born pioneer of television technology.
August 1 – Walter Gerlach (died 1979), German physicist.
August 7 – Léon Brillouin (died 1969), French physicist.
November 20 – Edwin Hubble (died 1953), American astronomer.
December 21 – Sewall Wright (died 1988), American geneticist.
December 29 – Vera Fedorovna Gaze (died 1954), Russian astronomer.

^ Bulmer, M.G. (2003). Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Statistics. pp. 202–203.
^ von Mering, Joseph; Minkowski, Oskar (1889). "Diabetes mellitus nach Pankreasextirpation". Centralblatt für klinische Medicin. 10 (23). Leipzig: 393–394.
^ Arrhenius equation – IUPAC Goldbook definition.
^ Delaney, John. "Evolution of the Map of Central, East & West Africa". To the Mountains of the Moon: Mapping African Exploration, 1541-1880. Princeton University. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
^ "Johns Hopkins Medicine: The Four Founding Professors".
^ Müller-Lyer, F. C. (1889). "Optische Urteilstäuschungen". Archiv für Physiologie Supplementband: 263–270.
^ US patent 395782, Herman Hollerith, "Art of compiling statistics", issued 1889-01-08
^ Hill, Roger B. (March 1953). "The Early Years of the Strowger System". Bell Laboratories Record. 31 (3): 95–103. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
^ Beaty, Donald; et al. (1978). Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers (11th ed.). McGraw Hill.
^ "History of Electrical Systems and Cables". 2012-01-23.
^ Black, R. M. (1983). The History of Electric Wires and Cables. London: Peter Perigrinus. pp. 94–96. ISBN 0-86341-001-4.