1888 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Auguste Marie François Beernaert

  Events

• 12 June – Partial legislative elections of 1888
• August – Preaching of Charles Lavigerie in Brussels Minster inspires the founding of the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society
• 26-27 August – Polydore de Keyser, Lord Mayor of London, visits Dendermonde

  Publications

• Het Laatste Nieuws begins publication

• Theodore Low De Vinne, Christopher Plantin, and the Plantin-Moretus Museum at Antwerp

• J.-H. Rosny, Les Xipéhuz
• Émile Verhaeren, Les Soirs and Les Débâcles

  Art and architecture

• Robert Alott, Am Strand von Ostende
• Théo van Rysselberghe, Portrait of Alice Sethe

• Patrie! performed at Ghent and Antwerp

  Births

• 19 February – Hector Tiberghien, cyclist
• 29 February – Fanny Heldy, opera singer
• 4 March – Charles Leirens, photographer and musician
• 19 March – Léon Scieur, coureur cycliste
• 23 May – Dieudonné Saive, small arms designer
• 14 July – Odile Defraye, cyclist
• 11 August – Paul Loicq, hockey administrator
• 16 October – Émile Masson, cyclist
• 2 December – Omer Verschoore, cyclist

  Deaths

• 8 January – Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans, painter
• 6 February – Gaston Errembault de Dudzeele, diplomat
• 17 July – Henricus Franciscus Bracq, bishop of Ghent
• 20 July – Henri de Braekeleer, painter
• 15 August – Alexandre Jamar, businessman
• 8 October – Jules d'Anethan, politician