September 8: Sitting Bull speaks in Sioux to a crowd of whites at the ceremony in Bismarck, North Dakota at which the last spike is driven in the Northern Pacific Railroad. Sitting Bull tells the assembled, "I hate all the white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts." Not knowing what has been said, they clap politely.
December 1: U.S. Pres. Chester Arthur endorses the colonial enterprise in the Congo of Leopold II, King of the Belgians, describing it as "philanthropic."
