Theater Premiere
Jan 10 Henrik Ibsen's play "John Gabriel Borkman" premieres in Helsingfors
- Jan 10 Ukrainian bacteriologist Wademar Haffkine performs the first human trial for a vaccine for the plague on himself during the Bombay epidemic
- Jan 11 M H Cannon becomes 1st woman state senator in US (Utah)
- Jan 14 6,960 m (22,834 ft) Cerro Aconcagua (Argentina) 1st climbed by European expedition led by British mountaineer Edward FitzGerald
Event of Interest
Jan 16 John Dewey's essay "My Pedagogic Creed" appears in School Journal
- Jan 23 Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Resulting murder trial of her husband perhaps only case in US history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
- Jan 26 Battle at Bida Gold Coast: British troops beat Nupe's army
- Jan 27 British troops occupy Bida Gold Coast (Ghana)
- Feb 1 1st auto insurance policy in US issued, by Travelers Insurance Company
- Feb 1 Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
- Feb 5 Marcel Proust meets Jean Lorrain in a pistol duel
The Benin Pendant Mask
Feb 9 Invasion of Benin City by British Expedition force, the city is burnt and looted, marks the end of Nigerian Kingdom of Benin formed in the 11th century
Battle of Zapote Bridge
Feb 17 Emilio Aguinaldo and a group of katipuneros defeat Spanish forces led by General Camilo de Polavieja at the Battle of Zapote Bridge in Cavite
- Feb 17 National Organization of Mothers formed in American by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst (Parent Teacher Association)
President Inaugurated
Mar 4 William McKinley inaugurated as 25th US President
- Mar 5 American Negro Academy forms
- Mar 11 A meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human injuries are reported.
- Mar 13 San Diego State University is founded.
- Mar 15 1st indoor fly casting tournament opens, at Madison Square Garden
- Mar 20 1st US orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary (RIETS) incorporates in NY
Franco-Ethiopian Convention
Mar 20 France signs treaty with Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia establishing a common border between French held Djibouti and Ethiopia
- Mar 29 Japan adopts Gold Standard
- Apr 5 The Greco-Turkish War, also called "Thirty Days' War", is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
- Apr 22 NYC Jewish newspaper "Forward" begins publishing (still active)
- Apr 24 1st reporter, William Price (Washington Star), assigned to White House
- Apr 27 Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) dedicated
Scientific Discovery
Apr 30 English physicist and head of the Cavendish laboratory J. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron in a lecture to the Royal Institution
- May 4 Fire in Paris bazaar at Rue Jean Goujon kills 200
- May 12 1800-1900 year old fossil of "girl of Yde" found in Drente, Netherlands
- May 12 Battle at Thessalie: Turkish army beats Greece
- May 14 Great Britain signs treaty with Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia
- May 15 The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in the Greco-Turkish War.
Event of Interest
May 15 The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is founded in Berlin by Magnus Hirschfeld, the first-ever LGBT rights organization
Event of Interest
May 17 The first successful submarine that can run submerged for any considerable distance and combines electric and gasoline engines is launched in the USA by its designer John Philip Holland
Event of Interest
May 18 Herbert Henry Dow founds Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan
Event of Interest
May 19 Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol
Historic Publication
May 26 "Dracula" by Irish author Bram Stoker is published by Archibald Constable and Company in London
- Jun 12 Possibly the most severe quake in history strikes Assam, India, Shock waves felt over an area size of Europe (low mortality rate given size of earthquake, 1,500 casualties).
- Jun 15 Liberals/social-democrats win Dutch 2nd Parliamentary election
- Jun 16 A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later
- Jun 17 US State Department appoints New Jersey educator William Frank Powell as Envoy to Haiti, and Chargé d’Affaires for Dominican Republic
- Jun 19 Wee Willie Keeler's 44 game hitting streak ends
- Jun 22 Bombay plague commissioner Walter Charles Rand shot by Chapekar brothers as protest against his extreme measures to combat city's plague epidemic (dies July 3)
- Jun 24 Hail injures 26 in Topeka, Kansas
- Jun 28 Marquis C de Bonchamps' expedition reaches Gore Ethiopia
- Jul 1 Bronx acquires Hutton Square
- Jul 11 Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen by balloon headed for the North Pole
Event of Interest
Jul 16 The South African Committee, investigating the Jameson Raid releases its report finding that it was conducted almost implicitly through the support and encouragement of Cecil Rhodes and the mining houses in the Transvaal
- Jul 17 1st ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from Yukon
- Jul 18 Cap Anson is 1st to get 3,000 hits
- Jul 21 Tate Gallery opens in England
- Jul 25 Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories
- Jul 26 37.5 cm rainfall at Jewell, Maryland (state record)
- Jul 27 14.75" (37.5 cm) of rainfall, Jewell, Maryland (state 24-hr record)
- Jul 27 Dutch government of Pierson/Goeman Borgesius resigns
- Aug 4 Henry A Rucker appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for Georgia
- Aug 10 Automobile Club of Great Britain established (now: Royal Automobile Club)
- Aug 10 German chemist Felix Hoffman first synthesizes acetylsalicylic acid, which would later be patened by his company Bayer under the name "aspirin"
- Aug 14 The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
- Aug 17 W B Purvis patents electric railway switch (aka points)
- Aug 19 1st electric taxis driven in London
- Aug 21 Oldsmobile first manufactured by Olds Motor Vehicle Co. in Lansing, Michigan
- Aug 30 The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar
Event of Interest
Aug 31 British General Kitchener's army occupies Berber, North of Khartoum
- Sep 1 The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
- Sep 2 "McCal" magazine first published
- Sep 10 Lattimer Massacre - a sheriff's posse kills twenty unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania, United States
- Sep 11 After months of pursuit, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom
- Sep 12 Battle of Saragarhi: Thousands of Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen overwhelm and kill at great cost to themselves 21 British Raj Sikh Soldiers led by Havildar Ishar Singh at Tirah, North-West Frontier Province, British India
- Sep 21 NY Sun runs famous "Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus" editorial
- Sep 23 1st frontier days rodeo celebration (Cheyene Wyoming)
- Sep 25 1st British bus service opens
Theater Premiere
Oct 4 George Bernard Shaw's play "Devil's Disciple" premieres in NYC
- Oct 5 Swedish explorer Solomon August Andrée expedition to the North Pole reaches White Island
- Oct 15 Aaron and Samuel Bloch carry 1st Mail Pouch
- Oct 15 King Leopold II takes Belgian crown
- Oct 21 Yerkes Observatory of University of Chicago is dedicated
- Oct 22 World's first car dealer opens in London
- Nov 23 American inventor Andrew Jackson Beard invents the "jerry coupler" to connect railroad cars
- Nov 23 Portable pencil sharpener patented by American inventor John Lee Love
- Nov 25 Spain grants Puerto Rico autonomy
- Nov 29 1st motorcycle race in Surrey, England
- Dec 6 London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs
- Dec 9 Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde in Paris.
- Dec 12 Anti-Jewish violence breaks out in Bucharest, Romania
- Dec 12 Belo Horizonte, the first planned city of Brazil, founded
- Dec 14 Emilio Aguinaldo signs the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, to end hostilities and dissolve his government, in exchange for amnesty and "$800,000 (Mexican)" as an indemnity
- Dec 16 1st submarine with an internal combustion engine demonstrated
- Dec 28 Edmond Rostand's play "Cyrano de Bergerac" premieres in Paris
- Dec 30 Province of Zululand annexed to Natal colony
- Dec 31 Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898)