- Jan 1 1st US college extension courses for credit, University of Chicago
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
Jan 1 Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar
- Jan 1 The railway line from Germiston to Pretoria, South Africa, is opened to traffic
- Jan 2 1st US commemoratives & 1st US stamp to picture a woman issued (Queen Isabella, patron of Columbus)
- Jan 2 World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago [or 0501]
Tchaikovsky's Iolanta
Jan 3 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final opera "Iolanta", is first performed outside of Russia in Hamburg, Germany
Event of Interest
Jan 6 The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
- Jan 13 British Independent Labour Party forms (Keir Hardie as its leader)
- Jan 13 U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
- Jan 17 -17°F (-27°C), Millsboro, Delaware (state record)
- Jan 17 Franco-Russian Alliance is signed
- Jan 17 Queen Liliuokalani is deposed by an American coup, Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic
- Jan 19 Henrik Ibsen's play "The Master Builder" premieres in Berlin
- Jan 21 Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana)
- Jan 28 Edward Mcdowell's "Hamlet & Ophelia" premieres in Boston
- Jan 31 "Westminster Gazette" begins publishing
Music Premiere
Feb 1 Giacomo Puccini's Opera "Manon Lescaut" premieres in Turin
Film & TV History
Feb 1 Thomas Edison completes worlds 1st movie studio at West Orange, New Jersey
Premiere of Falstaff
Feb 9 Giuseppe Verdi's comic opera "Falstaff" premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy
- Feb 22 1st Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 32-22 in Birmingham
- Feb 24 The American University is chartered by an act of the Congress of the United States of America
- Feb 26 2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge, in Michigan
- Feb 26 Norwegian Einar Halvorsen skates world record 500m (48 sec)
- Feb 28 Edward Acheson of Pennsylvania, patents an abrasive he names "carborundum" (Silicon carbide)
- Mar 1 Diplomatic Appropriation Act, authorizes the US rank of ambassador
- Mar 2 1st US federal railroad legislation passed; required safety features
- Mar 3 US Congress authorizes 1st federal road agency, in Department of Agriculture
- Mar 3 US Mint issues Queen Isabella commemorative silver quarter in conjunction with the World’s Columbian Exposition [1]
- Mar 4 Francis Dhanis' Belgian Congo Free State army attacks the Lualaba, occupies Nyangwe
Event of Interest
Mar 4 Grover Cleveland (D) inaugrated as 24th US President (2nd term)
- Mar 10 Ivory Coast becomes a French colony (Cote d'Ivoire)
- Mar 10 New Mexico State University cancels its 1st graduation ceremony; its only graduand Sam Steele was robbed & killed the night before
Music History
Mar 11 Carlos Gardel and his mother, Berthe Gardès, arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Mar 17 Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (Stanley Cup): Montreal Hockey Club claim inaugural trophy after finishing top of final Amateur Hockey Association of Canada standings with a 7–1–0 record
- Mar 24 55th Grand National: Bill Dollery aboard 9/2 favourite Cloister wins by a massive 40 lengths from Aesop; owner Charles Duff fields 2 more winners 1912-13
- Mar 30 Thomas F. Bayard becomes 1st US ambassador in Great Britain
- Apr 3 1st NSW v Queensland F-C game, at Brisbane Exhibition Ground
- Apr 5 Cleveland passes Park Act (forerunner of Metroparks)
- Apr 6 Andy Bowen & Jack Burke box 7 hrs 19 mins to no decision (111 rounds)
- Apr 6 Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City dedicated
- Apr 8 The Critic reports that ice cream soda is America's national drink
- Apr 12 "Massacre of Hoornkrans": Curt von François, colonial Governor of German South West Africa (now Nambia), leads attack by 225 Schutztruppe soldiers on Nama leader Hendrik Witbooi's headquarters at Hoornkrans; shelling of the village causes tremendous civilian casualties. Witbooi escapes and wages several months of guerrilla warfare against the German forces.
- Apr 22 Francis Dhanis army occupies Kasongo
Election of Interest
Apr 22 Paul Kruger elected President of Transvaal for 3rd time
- Apr 26 1st Cleveland Board of Park Commissioners forms
- Apr 27 Richard "King Dick" Seddon succeeds John Balance as premier of New Zealand and leader of Liberal Party
- May 1 World Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago
- May 4 Cowboy Bill Pickett invents bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground
Panic of 1893
May 5 Panic of 1893 causes a large crash on the NY Stock Exchange
- May 10 19th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Kunze aboard Lookout wins in 2:39.25
- May 10 Imperial Institute in London opens
World Record
May 11 Henri Desgrange establishes world's 1st bicycle world record, travelling 35.325 km (21.95 miles) an hour
Event of Interest
May 31 Remains of Jefferson Davis moved from New Orleans and re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, per his widow's request
- May 31 Whitcomb Judson of Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)
- Jun 1 Opera "Falstaff" is produced (Berlin)
Murder of Interest
Jun 20 Lizzie Borden acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts
- Jun 21 1st Ferris wheel opens at Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois
- Jun 22 British fleet under Vice Admiral George Tryon leaves Beirut
- Jun 23 US National Championship Women's Tennis: Aline Terry wins her lone major title; beats Augusta Schultz 6-1, 6-3
- Jun 27 Great stock crash on NY stock exchange
- Jun 30 Excelsior diamond (blue-white 995 carats) then world's largest, discovered in Jagersfontein Mine, South Africa
- Jul 1 San Francisco Bay City Club opens 1st US bicycle race track, made of wood
- Jul 6 The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa, is nearly destroyed by a tornado that kills 71 people and injures 200
Event of Interest
Jul 9 Daniel Williams repairs the torn pericardium of a knife wound patient, James Cornish, without penicillin or blood transfusion
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
Jul 17 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Joshua Pim wins his first of 2 straight Wimbledon titles beating defending champion Wilfred Baddeley 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2
- Jul 18 Australian Harry Graham scores 107 on cricket debut Australia v England, Lord's
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
Jul 18 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Lottie Dod beats Blanche Bingley-Hillyard 6-8, 6-1, 6-4 for her 3rd consecutive and 5th overall Wimbledon singles title
Event of Interest
Jul 28 A petition organised by Kate Sheppard, demanding women's suffrage, is delivered to New Zealand's parliament; signed by over 25,000 women, a 5th of the adult European female population
- Jul 28 Vizcaya Bridge - largest transporter bridge in the world opens over the River Ibaizabal, designed by Basque architect Alberto de Palacio [1]
- Jul 31 Gaelic League is founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill in order to encourage Irish people to speak the language and take a greater interest in their culture
- Aug 7 53rd Congress (1893-95) convenes
- Aug 9 1st US bowling magazine, Gut Holz, published in New York
- Aug 10 Chinese deported from San Francisco under Exclusion Act
Event of Interest
Aug 10 Rudolf Diesel's prime model internal combustion engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany
- Aug 14 France introduces motor vehicle registration, includes a driving test
- Aug 15 US no longer allowed exclusive rights in Bering Sea
- Aug 20 Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in Switzerland
- Aug 24 Tornado destroys coast of Savannah & Charleston, about 1000 die
- Aug 28 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport, R.I.: Robert Wrenn beats Fred Hovey 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; first of his 4 US singles titles
- Sep 1 British Open Men's Golf, Prestwick GC: Scotland's William Auchterlonie wins by 2 shots from amateur Johnny Laidley
- Sep 1 Gladstones' Second Home Rule Bill for Ireland passes in the House of Commons but vetoed by The House of Lords by 419 votes to 41
Event of Interest
Sep 4 English author Beatrix Potter first writes the story of Peter Rabbit for a 5 year old boy
- Sep 11 Bronx Gas & Electric Company opens on Frisby & Tremont Ave
- Sep 11 First conference of the World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago, Indian monk Swani Vivekananda gives influential speech
- Sep 11 Shaku Soen is 1st Zen teacher to visit the West (Chicago)
- Sep 16 Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma, opens white settlement homesteaders
The First Country to Grant Women the Vote
Sep 19 New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all women the right to vote
- Sep 20 The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts
- Sep 21 Frank Duryea drives the 1st American-made gas propelled vehicle
- Oct 2 Cheniere Caminada hurricane (Great October Storm) - 3rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 in Louisiana (one of the 1st to be classified as a category 4 storm)
- Oct 6 Nabisco Foods invents Cream of Wheat
- Oct 13 Vigilant (US) beats Valkyrie II (UK) in 9th America's Cup, in New York
- Oct 14 George Edwarde's "Gaiety Girl" premieres in London
- Oct 14 Harry Wright suggests umps keep ball-strike count a secret
- Oct 23 C. Dazey's "In Old Kentucky" premieres in NYC (27 seasons)
- Oct 25 Battle of Shangani, Matabeleland: Dr Jameson beats Ndebeles
- Oct 27 Hurricane hits coast between Savannah, Georgia & Charleston, South Carlolina
- Oct 28 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducts first performance of his Symphony Number Six in B minor, "Pathetique", in St. Petersburg, Russia, 9 days before his death
- Oct 30 US Senate approves repealing Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
- Nov 4 British South Africa Company troops under Dr Jamesons occupy Bulawayo, Matabeleland
- Nov 7 US State Colorado accepts female suffrage
- Nov 12 The treaty of the Durand Line is signed between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan - the Durand Line has gained international recognition as an international border between the two sister nations.
Theater Premiere
Nov 14 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Hanneles Himmelfahrt" premieres in Berlin, Germany
- Nov 19 1st newspaper color supplement (NY World)
- Nov 28 Women vote in a national election for the first time, in the New Zealand general election
- Nov 29 Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, is founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing Dynasty of China after his memorial to the throne is approved by the Qing Government.
- Nov 30 2nd Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 40-16 in Montgomery
- Dec 5 Electric car built at the Dixon Carriage works in Toronto, could go 15 miles between charges
- Dec 11 11 fishing ships wash up at Wadden Sea, 22 killed
- Dec 15 Preview performance of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 - "New World Symphony" draws a crowd to Carnegie Hall, New York [1]
- Dec 16 Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 - "New World Symphony" premieres at Carnegie Hall, New York
- Dec 17 Russia ratifies Double Alliance with France
- Dec 20 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia
Music Premiere
Dec 23 Opera "Hansel und Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck and his sister Adelheid Wette premieres in Weimar, conducted by Richard Strauss
Event of Interest
Dec 24 Henry Ford completes his first useful petrol / gasoline fuelled engine
