- Jan 1 Norway adopts Mid-European time
Aguinaldo a Freemason
Jan 1 Philippine Revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo becomes a Freemason, joining Pilar Lodge No. 203, Imus, Cavite
Dreyfus Affair
Jan 5 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, publicly stripped of his rank; later exonerated
- Jan 5 Henry James' play "Guy Domville" opens in London
- Jan 5 Victor Trumper makes first-class debut for NSW 17 yrs 64 days
- Jan 12 The National Trust is founded in Britain
"An Ideal Husband"
Jan 13 Oscar Wilde's play "An Ideal Husband" premieres at the Haymarket Theatre in London
- Jan 15 Australian cricket spin bowler Albert Trott takes 8-43 on debut to end England's 2nd innings at 143 in 3rd Test in Adelaide; Australia wins by 382 in 4 days
- Jan 15 French fleet reaches Majunga, Madagascar
- Jan 17 French president Casimir-Perier resigns; Félix Faure installed.
- Jan 22 National Association of Manufacturers organized in Cincinnati
- Jan 25 New Haven Symphony Orchestra of Connecticut performs its first concert
Gretchaninov's 1st Symphony
Jan 26 Alexander Gretchaninov's 1st Symphony premieres in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov conducting
"Swan Lake" Revived
Jan 27 Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's revival of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premieres in St. Petersburg
- Jan 29 King Koko's Kopermannen assault on Akassa Niger, 100's killed
- Jan 30 C J Eady (Tas) 1st Australian to score twin centuries (v Vic)
- Jan 30 SS Elbe sinks after collision in North Sea, 332 killed
- Jan 30 Tasmania beat Victoria for 1st F-C victory in 41 years
- Jan 31 Jose Martí & others leave NYC for invasion of Spanish Cuba
- Feb 3 Wilhelm Mauseth skates world record 500 m (46.8 secs)
- Feb 4 1st rolling lift bridge opens in Chicago
- Feb 9 William Morgan presents his new sport "Mintonette" to the world at Springfield College, Massachusetts, later renames it "Volleyball" [1]
- Feb 11 -17°F (-27.2°C) in Braemar, Grampian (UK record)
- Feb 11 Georgetown became part of Washington, D.C.
- Feb 13 Moving picture projector patented
- Feb 14 Oscar Wilde's play "Importance of Being Earnest" premieres at St James's Theatre in London
- Feb 15 23 cm (9 inches) of snow falls on New Orleans
- Feb 20 Congress authorizes a US mint at Denver, Colorodo
Frederick Douglass Honoured
Feb 21 North Caroline Legislature adjourns for the day to mark the passing of Frederick Douglass
- Feb 23 William Heard, AME minister and educator, named American minister to Liberia
- Feb 24 Cuban war for independence begins
Event of Interest
Feb 25 Groenkloof Nature Reserve in Pretoria established by President Paul Kruger as the first game sanctuary in Africa
Resurrection
Mar 4 Gustav Mahler conducts the premiere of his incomplete 2nd Symphony ("Resurrection") in Berlin, Germany, with the Berlin Philharmonic; complete version debuts in December
- Mar 6 England beat Australia to win one of the best cricket series ever, 3-2; Jack Brown hits the fastest 50 in test cricket in 28 mins
- Mar 9 Stanley Cup, Victoria Rink, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Victorias clinches trophy as Montreal HC beats Queens University (Kingston, Ontario), 5-1
- Mar 11 Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks in Straits of Gibraltar, over 400 die
- Mar 18 200 African Americans leave Savannah, Georgia for Liberia
- Mar 19 Los Angeles Railway is established to provide streetcar service
- Mar 22 Auguste & Louis Lumiere show their 1st movie to an invited audience
- Mar 25 Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
- Mar 26 King Alfonso plants pine sapling in Madrid, starts Spain's Arbor Day
- Mar 29 57th Grand National: Joe Widger aboard 10/1 chance Wild Man From Borneo wins by 1.5 lengths from Cathal
- Mar 30 British inventor Birt Acres films Oxford and Cambridge boat race
- Apr 5 Oscar Wilde loses libel case against Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices
Nansen Almost Reaches Pole
Apr 7 Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen reaches record 86°13.6′N latitude north, expedition closest to the North pole
Around The World Alone In A Fishing Boat
Apr 24 Canadian-American adventurer Joshua Slocum sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts on a solo around-the-world voyage aboard 'Spray', an 11.2-m oyster sloop [1]
- May 4 Wilhelm Kienzl's opera "Der Evangelimann" (The Evangelist), 1st performed at the Neues Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin, Germany
- May 6 21st Kentucky Derby: James "Soup" Perkins aboard Halma wins last KD run over a distance of 1.5 miles (2.4km)
- May 7 Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the world's first radio receiver in St. Petersburg. Celebrated as Radio Day in Russia.
- May 8 China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki
W. G. Grace's 100th 100
May 17 W. G. Grace completes his 100th 100 v Somerset at Bristol
- May 20 1st commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, NYC)
- May 24 Henry Irving becomes the first actor to receive a knighthood
- May 25 20th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Belmar wins in 1:50.5
- May 25 Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for gross indecency
- May 25 The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president
- May 27 British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector
- May 30 English cricket icon W. G. Grace scores 169 for Gloucestershire against Middlesex at Lord's for his 1,000th first-class run of the season in just 22 days
- Jun 11 Charles Duryea patents a gas-driven automobile
- Jun 13 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Englishman J.H. Taylor retains title; beats Sandy Herd of Scotland by 4 shots
- Jun 13 Emile Levassor wins the first automobile race in history the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, taking 48 hours and 48 minutes (1,178 km)
- Jun 17 US Ship Canal (W 225th St) in the Bronx completed; cutting Marble Hill off from Manhattan
- Jun 20 1st female PhD from an American University, earned by Caroline Willard Baldwin (in Science) at Cornell University
- Jun 20 Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras form a short-lived confederation
- Jun 21 British Earl of Rosebery's Liberal Party government falls
- Jun 28 El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form Central American Union
Gauguin Leaves for Tahiti
Jun 28 Painter Paul Gauguin leaves France for Tahiti for the second time and never sees France again
- Jun 29 Doukhobors burn their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.
- Jun 29 US National Championship Women's Tennis: Juliette Atkinson beats defending champion Helen Hellwig 6-4, 6-2, 6-1
- Jul 4 Katherine Lee Bates publishes "America the Beautiful"
- Jul 8 Delagoa Bay Railway opens in South Africa
- Jul 11 French film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière show film for scientists
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
Jul 13 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Wilfred Baddeley beats Wilberforce Eaves 4-6, 2-6, 8-6, 6-2, 6-3 for his third Wimbledon singles title
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
Jul 15 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Charlotte Cooper beats Helen Jackson 7-5, 8-6 for her first of 5 Wimbledon singles titles
- Jul 16 Lancashire batsman Archie MacLaren scores the first-ever quadruple-hundred (424) in first-class cricket against Somerset at Taunton
- Aug 10 1st Queen's Hall Promenade Concerto (Wagner's "Rienzi")
- Aug 19 American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin is shot and killed by John Selman Sr. in a saloon in El Paso, Texas
Stanley Honored
Aug 21 Henry Morton Stanley makes his maiden speech in the UK House of Commons as the member for North Lambeth in a discussion on Africa
US Men's Tennis Open
Aug 25 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Fred Hovey beats defending champion Robert Wrenn 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 for his lone major singles title
- Aug 26 Electric generator at Niagara Falls produces first power
- Aug 29 The formation of the Northern Rugby Union at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.
- Aug 30 Belgium begins compulsory Roman Catholic education
- Aug 31 1st pro football game (QB John Brallier paid $10 & won 12-0)
- Sep 5 George Washington Murray elected to Congress from South Carolina
- Sep 9 American Bowling Congress forms (NYC)
- Sep 11 FA Cup stolen in Birmingham
- Sep 12 Annie Londonderry [Annie Kopchovsky] arrives in Chicago to complete first round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle in 15 months and collects her $10,000 prize
- Sep 12 Defender (US) beats Valkyrie III (England) in 10th America's Cup
Atlanta Compromise
Sep 18 Booker T. Washington delivers his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech to the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, suggesting blacks focus on vocational education and economic advancement over equality (for the present)
- Sep 18 Daniel David Palmer of Davenport, Iowa, gives the first chiropractic adjustment
- Sep 21 America's first automotive producer, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, is founded by Charles and J. Frank Duryea
- Sep 23 French labor union CGT (Confederation Generale du Travail) forms
- Sep 26 Italian general Oreste Baratieri lands in Massawa, Eritrea
- Sep 30 France proclaims a protectorate over Madagascar
Event of Interest
Sep 30 Stephen Crane's novel "The Red Badge of Courage" is published to wide acclaim
- Oct 1 Romanians in Costantinople massacred
- Oct 2 1st cartoon comic strip is printed in a newspaper
- Oct 4 1st US Open Men's Golf, Newport GC: Englishman Horace Rawlins wins inaugural event; beats Willie Dunn of Scotland by 2 strokes
- Oct 5 First UK individual cycling time trial is held on a 50-mile course north of London; Frederick Thomas Bidlake organiser
- Oct 8 Ohio Valley Improvement Association forms
Ethiopian History
Oct 11 Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia rejects a treaty with Italy
- Oct 15 Henry Perky patents a machine he developed with William Ford for the preparation of cereals for food, otherwise known as shredded wheat
- Oct 21 The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
- Oct 22 David Belasco's "Heart of Maryland" premieres in NYC
- Oct 22 In Paris an express train overruns a buffer stop, crosses more than 30 meters of concourse before plummeting through a window at Gare Montparnasse
- Nov 2 Belmont Stakes: Fred Taral aboard Preakness winner Belmar wins in 2:11½; race run in November as NY Jockey Club closed out its affairs
- Nov 2 First organised auto race in the United States is run in Chicago; 6 cars race over 52-mile lakefront course; 2 finish because of blizzard conditions
- Nov 5 1st US patent granted for auto (George B Selden) for gasoline driven car
- Nov 5 Edward, Prince of Wales, says "We are all Socialists nowadays"
- Nov 5 US state Utah accepts female suffrage
X-rays
Nov 8 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produces and detects electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röntgen rays
- Nov 11 Bechuanaland becomes part of Cape Colony
- Nov 19 American inventor Frederick E. Blaisdell of Philadelphia patents the "self-sharpening" paper sheathed pencil, commonly known as a china marker
- Nov 23 4th Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 48-0 in Tuscaloosa
- Nov 26 Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association forms
Nobel Prizes Established
Nov 27 Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel's will establishes the Nobel Prize
1st Car Race in America
Nov 28 America's 1st auto race organised by the "Chicago Times-Herald" - Chicago to Evanston and back; 6 cars, 55 miles, Frank Duryea wins averaging 7 MPH
- Dec 2 54th Congress (1895-97) convenes
- Dec 7 Battle at Amba Alagi: Abyssinians beat Italian armies
- Dec 8 Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II drives Italian General Baratieri out
- Dec 13 First complete performance of Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony ("Resurrection"), in Berlin, Germany, conducted by the composer
- Dec 17 Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington, D.C.
- Dec 17 George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Mass)
- Dec 24 George Vanderbilt opens Biltmore estate, the largest privately owned house in America at 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 m2) in Asheville, North Carolina
- Dec 28 Filmmakers the Lumiere brothers, hold the first commercial film screening at Salon Indien du Grand Café, Paris
- Dec 29 Dr L S Jameson begins failed raid on Johannesburg
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies