- Jan 1 French troops occupy Nioro, West-Sudan, 3000 killed
- Jan 1 King Pakketvaart sails to Neth Indies
Event of Interest
Jan 26 Oscar Wilde's "Duchess of Padua" premieres in NYC
Oscar Wilde
- Jan 27 Mine explosion kills 109 at Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania
- Jan 29 Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch
- Jan 31 The first attempt of a Portuguese republican revolution breakes out in the northern city of Porto
- Feb 6 1st great train robbery by Dalton Gang (Southern Pacific #17)
- Feb 9 1st shipment of asparagus arrives in San Francisco from Sacramento
- Feb 15 AIK is founded at Biblioteksgatan 8 in Stockholm by Isidor Behrens.
- Feb 18 Capt Archinard's army fights with Nyamina of Niger in West-Sudan
- Feb 24 French troops under Captain Archinard occupy Diena West Sudan
- Feb 26 1st buffalo purchased for Golden Gate Park
- Feb 26 Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" premieres in Oslo
- Feb 28 Oscar Grundén skates world record 500m (50.8 sec)
- Mar 3 US Congress creates Courts of Appeal
- Mar 3 US Congress creates Office of Superintendent of Immigration (Treasury Dept)
- Mar 3 The Penalty Spot Kick rule in Association Football is conceived, but does not come into effect until the next season.
- Mar 9 Great Blizzard of 1891 begins in England (lasts until 13th March; 200 people and 6,000 animals killed)
- Mar 10 Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patents the strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching
- Mar 17 British Steamer "Utopia" sinks off Gibraltar killing 574
- Mar 18 Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone
- Mar 20 53rd Grand National: Irish jockey, trainer Harry Beasley wins aboard 4/1 Come Away
- Mar 28 1st world weightlifting championship won by Edward Lawrence in London, England
- Apr 1 London-Paris telephone connection opens
Event of Interest
Apr 1 French painter Paul Gauguin leaves Marseille for Tahiti
Paul Gauguin
Event of Interest
Apr 25 US President Benjamin Harrison visits San Francisco
Benjamin Harrison
Event of Interest
May 5 Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in New York, Tchaikovsky is guest conductor
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Assassination Attempt
May 11 The Otsu Scandal: While visiting Japan, Prince Nicholas (later Tsar Nicholas II) survives an assassination attempt
Nicholas II
- May 12 Riot against tax increase in Paramaribo, Suriname
- May 13 17th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Kingman wins in 2:52.25
- May 15 British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) forms
- May 15 Jules Massenet's opera "Grisélidis" premieres in Paris
- May 15 Operations begin at Philips & Co in Holland
- May 15 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Rerum novarum
- May 16 George A. Hormel & Co establishes Geo. A.Hormel & Co. (Hormel Foods Corporation) in Austin, Minnesota
- May 19 Rice Institute, which became Rice University in Houston, Texas, is chartered
Event of Interest
May 20 History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women's Club
Thomas Edison
Event of Interest
Jun 16 John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister
John Abbott
- Jun 27 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Mabel Cahill beats defending champion Ellen Roosevelt 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
- Jun 29 US National Forest Service organized
- Jun 29 Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation.
- Jul 4 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Wilfred Baddeley wins first of 3 Wimbledon singles championships; beats Joshua Pim 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, 6-0
- Jul 5 Hail kills 16 horses in Rapid City, South Dakota
- Jul 7 Marcellus F. Berry, an American Express employee is granted four copyrights for what he called "the travelers cheque"
- Jul 8 61°F, highest temperature for July 1891, in Baltimore and Philadelphia
- Jul 9 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Lottie Dod beats Blanche Bingley-Hillyard 6-2, 6-1 in a repeat matchup and result of the 2 previous finals
- Jul 14 John T Smith patents corkboard
- Jul 26 Henry James' "American" premieres in London
- Jul 26 France annexes Tahiti.
- Jul 27 Titus van Wyck succeeds M de Savornin Lohman as governor of Suriname
- Aug 5 world's 1st traveler's cheques issued (American Express)
- Aug 15 San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.
- Aug 16 President Benjamin Harrison attends the dedication of the Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont
- Aug 17 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in NYC (People's Bath)
- Aug 17 Electric self-starter for automobile patented
- Aug 18 Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die
- Aug 19 William Huggins describes astronomical application of spectrum
- Aug 21 Dutch Mackay government resigns
- Aug 24 Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera
- Aug 31 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Defending champion Oliver Campbell beats Clarence Hobart 2-6, 7-5, 7-9, 6-1, 6-2; second of 3 straight titles
- Sep 3 Cotton pickers organize union & stage strike in Texas
- Sep 3 John Stephens Durham named US minister to Haiti
- Sep 7 Captain Frederick Lugard's army reaches Kavalli, Equatoria
- Sep 11 The Jewish Colonization Association is established by Baron Maurice de Hirsch.
- Sep 14 "Empire State Express" train goes from NYC to East Buffalo, a distance of 436 miles, in a record 7H6M
- Sep 18 Harriet Maxwell Converse is 1st white woman to become an Indian chief
Event of Interest
Oct 1 Stanford University, California opens its doors after being founded by Leland Stanford and his wife Jane with a $40m donation (1891 dollars). It's 1st student, future US President Herbert Hoover.
Leland Stanford
Herbert Hoover
- Oct 7 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Hugh Kirkaldy wins by 2 strokes from brother Andrew Kirkaldy and Willie Fernie; last Open contested in a single day over 36 holes
- Oct 12 Astronomical Society of France is inaugurated
- Oct 20 1st International 6 day bike race at New York's Madison Square Garden begins
- Oct 25 1st International 6 day bike race (NY Madison Square Garden) ends
- Oct 28 Quake strikes Mino-Owari, Japan kills 7,300
- Nov 10 1st Women's Christian Temperance Union meeting held (in Boston)
- Nov 10 Granville T Woods patents electric railway
- Nov 30 Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "Rerum novarum" published
- Dec 2 52nd Congress (1891-93) convenes
- Dec 7 52nd US Congress (1st to appropriate $1 billion) holds 1st session
- Dec 19 1st Negro Catholic priest ordained in US, Charles Uncles, Baltimore
- Dec 19 Canadian Rugby Union forms
- Dec 20 Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses
Event of Interest
Dec 21 1st game of basketball, based on rules created by James Naismith, played by 18 students in Springfield, Massachusetts
James Naismith
- Dec 29 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)