1891 in History

• Jan 1 French troops occupy Nioro, West-Sudan, 3000 killed
• Jan 1 King Pakketvaart sails to Neth Indies

• 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
• Apr 1 London-Paris telephone connection opens

• Apr 1 The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• Apr 7 Nebraska introduces 8 hour work day
• Apr 11 8-year old Jewish tailor's daughter disappears in Greece, rumor spreads that she was a Christian girl ritually killed by Jews
• Apr 23 Jews are expelled from Moscow, Russia
• Apr 24 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Final Problem"

• May 6 Conductors on London General Omnibus Company go on strike
• May 7 Battle in Bunyoro: Capt F Lugard stops Muslim rebellion, 300 killed

• May 12 Riot against tax increase in Paramaribo, Suriname
• May 15 British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) forms
• 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, is chartered
• May 31 Work on trans-Siberian railway begins
• Jun 9 French painter Paul Gauguin arrives in Papeete, Tahiti
• Jun 11 Puerto Rican flag adopted

• Jun 29 US National Forest Service organized
• Jun 29 Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation.
• 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 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

• 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
• Oct 1 In the U.S. state of California, Stanford University opens its doors.
• 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 20 Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses
• Dec 29 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 139

• Jan 3 Osip E Mandelstam, Polish/Russian poet/author (Kamenj) [NS=Jan 15]
• Jan 4 Edward Brooker, Premier of Tasmania (d. 1948)
• Jan 7 Zora Neale Hurston, Notasulga Alabama, American writer
• Jan 8 Bronislava Nijinska, ballet choreographer
• Jan 8 Walter Bothe, German subatomic particle physicist (Nobel 1954)
• Jan 8 Storm Jameson, English writer (d. 1986)
• Jan 9 August Gailit, Estonia, writer (Ekke Moor)
• Jan 10 Jos Speybrouck, Belgian drawer, born in Kortrijk, Belgium (d. 1956)
• Jan 15 Osip E Mandelstam, Russian poet (Noise of Time), born in Warsaw, Poland
• Jan 17 Norman "Squab" Read, US aviator who lived to be 101
• Jan 17 Walter Eucken, German economist
• Jan 22 Franz Alexander, Hungarian/US psycho analytical
• Jan 22 Moise Kisling, Polish/French painter (La Souris Boiteuse)

• Jan 24 Walter Model, German field marshal
• Jan 25 William C Bullitt, 1st US ambassador to USSR
• Jan 26 Ilya G Ehrenburg, writer (Fall of Paris, The Thaw), born in Kiev, Ukraine

• Jan 26 Wilder Penfield, American-born Canadian neurosurgeon (d. 1976)
• Jan 27 Ilja Ehrenburg, writer
• Jan 28 Camille Melloy, [Paepe], Belgian poet (Parfum des Buis)
• Feb 2 Antonio Segni, Italian politician, Prime Minister of Italy (1955-57, 59-60, 62-64), born in Sassari, Sardinia (d. 1972)
• Feb 3 Jan Donner, Dutch minister of Justice (1926-33)
• Feb 4 Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, Speaker of Lok Sabha (d: 1978).
• Feb 5 Karl L Schmidt, German/Swiss theologist (Urchristentum)
• Feb 9 Pietro Nenni, Italian socialist/minister of foreign affairs (1946-47)
• Feb 10 Harold RLG, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, Gov-gen of Canada (1945-52)
• Feb 13 Grant Wood, American painter (American Gothic), born near Anamosa, Iowa (d. 1942)
• Feb 13 Kate Roberts, Welsh nationalist and writer (d. 1985)
• Feb 16 Hans F. K. Günther, German eugenicist (d. 1967)
• Feb 17 Georg Britting, writer
• Feb 22 Jan Wils, Holland, architect/designer (Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium)
• Feb 22 Vlas Chubar, Soviet politician (d. 1939)
• Feb 27 Anne Samson, oldest-ever nun documented (d. 2004)
• Mar 3 Jan Donner, Dutch minister of Justice/president High Council
• Mar 7 Marcel Barger, [Meyer Streliskie], cabaret performer (I keep Susy)

• Mar 10 Jacob van Gelderen, economist/sociologist/Dutch 2nd Chamber (SDAP)
• Mar 12 Michael Polany, Hungarian/English chemist/economist/sociologist
• Mar 12 George W. Mason, American industrialist (d. 1954)
• Mar 14 John P Strijbos, Dutch writer (Wandering through South-Africa)

• Mar 24 Annie "Charley" Toorop, Dutch painter (3 Generations)
• Mar 24 John Knittel, Swiss writer, born in Dharwar, India (d. 1970)
• Mar 24 Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov, Soviet physicist (d. 1951)
• Mar 28 Karel M J F Cruysberghs, Flemish author
• Mar 28 Peter Suhrkamp, German publisher (Suhrkamp Verlag), born in Hatten, Germany (d. 1959)
• Mar 29 Ivan Goll, French-German writer (the Landless John), born in Saint-Dié (d. 1950)
• Mar 29 Alfred Neubauer, German racing team manager (Mercedes Benz), born in Neutitschein, Austria-Hungary (d. 1980)
• Mar 31 Ion Pillat, Romaniams poet/senator (Umbra timpului)
• Apr 2 Max Ernst, German-French surrealist painter and sculptor (founded surrealism), born in Brühl, German Empire (d. 1976)
• Apr 7 Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish inventor (founded LEGO), born in Filskov, Denmark (d. 1958)
• Apr 13 Maurice Vincent Buckley, Australian winner of the Victoria Cross (d. 1921)
• Apr 13 Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen [Nellie Walker], African-American Harlem Renaissance novelist (Quicksand, Passing), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1964)

• Apr 19 Ricardo Bacchelli, Italian writer/poet (La Ronda)
• Apr 22 Harold Jeffreys, English astronomer (d. 1989)
• Apr 22 Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (d. 1965)
• Apr 22 Ferdinando Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (Sacco and Vanzetti Trial), born in Torremaggiore, Italy (d. 1927)
• Apr 30 Watze Cuperus, Frisian author (Swart mar leaflik)
• May 3 Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet, born in Kraków, Poland (d. 1969)
• May 4 J. W. F. Werumeus Buning, Dutch poet (Daily Bread), born in Amsterdam (d. 1958)
• May 7 Harry McShane, Scottish socialist (d. 1988)
• May 11 Henry Morgenthau Jr, US Secretary of Treasury (1934-45)
• May 15 David Vogel, Russian-born Hebrew writer (Huwelijksleven), born in Satanov, Russian Empire (d. 1944)
• May 15 Fritz Feigl, Austrian Brazilian chemist (spot tests), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1971)
• May 15 Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian playwright and novelist ( The Master and Margarita, Black Snow), born in Kiev, Russian Empire (d. 1940)
• May 17 Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife (d. 1959)
• May 18 Rudolf Carnap, philosopher (German Logical Positivist)
• May 19 Oswald Boelcke, German World War I pilot (d. 1916)
• May 22 Johannes R. Becher, German writer and politician, born in Munich (d. 1958)
• May 22 Robert Gordon Sproul, educator/college pres (Univ of California)
• May 23 Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1974)
• May 24 Benedictus H Danser, Dutch botanist
• May 24 William F Albright, US old testament scholar/archaeologist
• May 25 Robert W P Peereboom, Dutch editor in chief (Haarlem Newspaper)
• May 30 Iman J van den Bosch, Belgian resistance fighter
• Jun 2 Thurman Arnold, American attorney and jurist (d. 1969)
• Jun 7 Koos [Jacobus Jan] Vorrink, Dutch politician and socialist (SDAP/AJC/PvdA), born in Vlaardingen, Zuid, Holland, Netherlands (d. 1955)
• Jun 18 Hans Ruin, Finnish Swedish-language historian
• Jun 20 John A. Costello, second Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1976)
• Jun 21 Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian engineer and architect (Nuove Struttura), born in Sondrio, Italy (d. 1979)
• Jun 22 Franz de Backer, Flemish writer (White Enemy)
• Jun 23 Vladislav Vančura, Czech writer (Rozmarné léto), born in Háj ve Slezsku, Austria-Hungary (d. 1942)
• Jun 26 Sidney Coe Howard, American dramatist (Swords, Pulitzer 1925), born in Oakland, California (d. 1939)
• Jun 28 Carl Panzram, American serial killer and rapist, born in East Grand Forks, Minnesota (d. 1930)
• Jun 28 Esther Forbes, American novelist (Johnny Tremain), born in Westborough, Massachusetts (d. 1968)
• Jun 28 Carl Spaatz, American World War II general and 1st Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, born in Boyertown, Pennsylvania (d. 1974)
• Jul 5 John H. Northrop, American biochemist (crystallized enzymes (Nobel 1946)), born in Yonkers, New York (d. 1987)
• Jul 5 Tin Ujević, Croatian poet (Žedan kamen na studencu), born in Vrgorac, Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1955)
• Jul 8 Elisabeth Zernike, Dutch writer (Poor Part, Bruidstijd)
• Jul 8 Josef Hora, Czech writer/poet (Working Day)
• Jul 23 Maurus H. Hulsman, Dutch priest and editor (Amigoe di Curacao)
• Jul 26 Jacques Pirenne, Belgian historian and honorary secretary of King Leopold III of Belgium, born in Ghent, Belgium (d. 1972)
• Jul 29 Bernhard Zondek, German/Israeli gynaecologist
• Aug 2 Viktor Maksimovich Zhirmunsky, Russian literary historian and linguist, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1971)
• Aug 6 William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
• Aug 21 Emiliano Mercado del Toro, World's oldest living man 2004-2007, born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico (d. 2007)

• Aug 22 Jacques Lipchitz, Polish-French-American painter and cubist sculptor, born in Druskininkai, Lithuania (d. 1973)

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• Mar 21 A Hatfield marries a McCoy, ends long feud in West Virginia it started with an accusation of pig-stealing & lasted 20 years

• Jan 4 Antoine Labelle, Quebec catholic priest (b. 1833)
• Jan 5 Guillaume L Baud, Dutch minister of Colonies (1848-49), dies at 89
• Jan 11 Georges-Eugene, Baron Haussmann, French administrator and architect, dies at 81

• Jan 20 David Kalakahua, emperor of Hawaii, dies
• Jan 23 Boudouin LPMCAJL, prince of Belgium/count of Flaanders, dies at 21
• Jan 26 Nicholaus Otto, German auto pioneer (internal combustion engine), dies. (b. 1833)
• Jan 31 Ernest Meissonier, French painter/etcher/sculptor, dies at 75
• Feb 9 Johan B Jongkind, Dutch/French painter (Winter View), dies at 71
• Feb 10 Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)
• Feb 13 David Dixon Porter, United States Navy admiral, dies at 77

• Feb 28 George Hearst, American businessman and politician (U.S. Senator from California), dies at 70
• Mar 15 Théodore de Banville, French writer, dies at 67
• Mar 15 Joseph Bazalgette, English civil engineer (b. 1819)
• Mar 17 Napoleon JKP Bonaparte, French prince/member National Convention, dies at 68

• Mar 24 Daniel H. Wells, Mormon leader and 3rd Mayor of Salt Lake City, dies at 76

• Apr 7 Phineas T Barnum, US circus promoter (B & Bailey), dies at 88
• Apr 7 P. T. [Phineas Taylor] Barnum, American circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 80
• Apr 24 Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian general and fieldmarshal, dies at 90
• Apr 25 Nathaniel Woodard, English educationalist (b. 1811)
• Apr 29 Armistead Lindsay Long, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 65
• May 4 Sherlock Holmes, "dies" at Reichenbach Falls
• May 6 Thomas Hare, English barrister and political reformer, dies at 85
• May 8 Helena Blavatsky, Russian occultist, philosopher, and author (co-founded Theosophical Society), dies at 59
• May 10 Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss botanist (famous for his work on plant cells), dies at 74
• May 11 Edmond Becquerel, French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity and optics (photovoltaic effect), dies at 71
• May 16 Ion Brătianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)

• Jun 23 Wilhelm Eduard Weber, German physicist, dies at 86
• Jul 4 Hannibal Hamlin, American attorney and 15th Vice President of U.S. (1861-65), dies at 81
• Jul 29 Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, father of Bengali prose (Exile of Sita), dies at 70
• Jul 31 Jean-Baptist Capronnier, French-Belgian glass painter, dies at 77
• Aug 2 George Washington Williams, American historian (History of the Negro Race in America), dies from tuberculosis and pleurisy at 41
• Aug 12 James Russell Lowell, poet/critic/diplomat, dies
• Aug 14 Sarah Childress Polk, Wife of the 11th President of the United States, James K. Polk (1845-1849), dies at 87
• Aug 22 Jan Neruda, Czech author (b. 1834)
• Sep 7 Lorenzo Sawyer, 9th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California (b. 1820)
• Sep 9 Jules Grévy, 2nd President of the French Third Republic, dies at 84
• Sep 18 William Ferrel, American mathematician (b. 1817)
• Sep 27 Ivan Goncharov, Russian author (b. 1812)

• Sep 30 Georges Boulanger, French general and politician (b. 1837)
• Oct 3 Edouard Lucas, French mathematician (Lucas sequences), dies at 49
• Oct 6 Charles Stewart Parnell, English-Irish Home Rule Party leader, dies at 45
• Oct 9 Johannes Tideman, theologist, dies at 83
• Oct 11 Charles Stewart Parnells remains buried in Ireland
• Oct 15 Gilbert Arthur a Beckett, English writer (b. 1837)
• Oct 16 Sarah Winnemucca, indian scout, dies
• Oct 22 Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, Austrian physiologist (b. 1846)

• Dec 5 JKLSBFXvPSMGRG Pedro II of Alcantara, emp of Brazil (1831-89), dies
• Dec 6 Émile Bayard, French artist and illustrator, dies at 54
• Dec 11 Johan C J van Schagen, Dutch poet/writer (Narrenwijsheid), dies
• Dec 17 Msiri, ruler of the Garanganze Kingdom, Congo (Katanga), dies in battle against Belgian funded expedition
• Dec 17 Omer Bodson, Belgian captain, dies in battle against Msiri, ruler of Garanganze Kingdom in the Congo
• Dec 29 Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (Tensor of Kronecker), dies at 68

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