- Jan 1 1st US college extension courses for credit, University of Chicago
- 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]
- Jan 4 US President Cleveland grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
- Jan 6 Great Northern Railway connects Seattle with east coast
Event of Interest
Jan 6 The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
Benjamin Harrison
- Jan 7 Hermann Sudermanns "Heimat" premieres in Berlin
- Jan 10 Richard Drigo's ballet "Magic Flute" premieres, St Petersburg
- 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 Queen Liliuokalani is deposed by an American coup, Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic
- Jan 17 Franco-Russian Alliance is signed
Theater Premiere
Jan 19 Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin
Henrik Ibsen
- 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
- Feb 5 Alfred Naess skates world record 500m (49.4 sec)
- Feb 9 Canal builder De Lesseps & others sentenced to prison for fraud
- 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, Mich
- Feb 26 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 Columbian Isabella silver quarter authorized
- Mar 3 US Congress authorizes 1st federal road agency, in Department of Agriculture
- Mar 4 Francis Dhanis' army attacks the Lualaba, occupies Nyangwe
Event of Interest
Mar 4 Grover Cleveland (D) inaugrated as 24th US President (2nd term)
Grover Cleveland
- 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
- 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
Paul Kruger
- May 10 Imperial Institute in London opens
- May 19 Heavy rain washes "quick clay" into a deep valley killing 111 in Norway
- May 22 Montreal Athletic Association beat Ottawa Generals 2-1, in 1st Cup Game
- May 27 Audath Yisroel forms at Kattowitz (Katowice) Poland
- May 31 Whitcomb Judson, Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)
Mahatma Gandhi
- Jun 16 German-American F.W. Rueckheim introduces "Cracker Jack" brand snack food consisting of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts
Murder of Interest
Jun 20 Lizzie Borden acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts
Lizzie Borden
- Jun 21 1st Ferris wheel opens at Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois
- Jun 22 British fleet under Vice Admiral George Tryon leaves Beirut
- 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 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
Daniel Williams
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
Kate Sheppard
- 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
Rudolf Diesel
- 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
- 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
Beatrix Potter
- Sep 11 Bronx Gas & Electric Company opens on Frisby & Tremont Ave
- Sep 11 Shaku Soen is 1st Zen teacher to visit the West (Chicago)
- Sep 11 First conference of the World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago, Indian monk Swani Vivekananda gives influential speech
- Sep 16 Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma, opens white settlement homesteaders
The Story of the First Country to Grant Women the Vote
Sep 19 New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all women the right to vote
Read Article
- Sep 20 The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts
- Sep 21 Frank Duryea drives the 1st American-made gas propelled vehicle
- Oct 1 3rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 (Mississippi)
- Oct 6 Nabisco Foods invents Cream of Wheat
- 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 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
Gerhart Hauptmann
- 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.
- 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 17 Russia ratifies Double Alliance with France
- Dec 20 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia
Event of Interest
Dec 24 Henry Ford completes his first useful petrol / gasoline fuelled engine
Henry Ford