istoryworld
All Events
German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal achieves the first of many guided flights in a glider, from a hill near Potsdam
Oscar Wilde publishes his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly
Thomas Hardy publishes his novel Tess of the Durbervilles, with a dramatic finale at Stonehenge
French artist Paul Gauguin travels to Tahiti and stays in the Pacific islands for most of the rest of his life
Ellis Island in New York Bay opens as the point of reception for arriving immigrants
Dmitri Ivanovsky announces his discovery that minute infectious agents, later known as viruses, can pass through a Chamberland filter so fine that it sieves out all bacteria
Frederick Lugard's Maxim machine gun settles a Protestant-Catholic clash in Kampala, the capital of Buganda
Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermere's Fan is a great success with audiences in London's St. James Theatre
The Ohio Supreme Court rules that monopolistic practices by Rockefeller's oil company are illegal
San Francisco businessmen found an organization to protect nature, the Sierra Club of California, a powerful environmental pressure group
W.B. Yeats founds the National Literary Society in Dublin, with Douglas Hyde as its first president
The French establish a protectorate in part of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey in west Africa
W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama
Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords
Keir Hardie wins the London seat of West Ham, becoming the first Labour member of the House of Commons
Leaves of Grass, still growing, is published in its ninth edition in the year of Walt Whitman's death
Gladstone, becoming prime minister for the fourth time, is described by the queen as 'an old, wild and incomprehensible man of eighty two and a half'
The closing of the Homestead Steel Works near Pittsburgh in a dispute with unions leads to massive confrontation and violence
The Falkland Islands, by now occupied by some 2000 settlers, become a British colony
Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first football pro when the Allegheny Athletic Association pay him $500 to play a game in their team
Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck publishes his play Pelléas et Mélisande
Dvorák takes a job in New York as director of the National Conservatory, returning to Prague in 1895
The vicar, the Reverend Richard Tahourdin, moves into Dial House.
Former president Grover Cleveland defeats incumbent president Benjamin Harrison, becoming the only US president to serve non-consecutive terms
In a sensational trial in Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the charge of killing her father and stepmother with an axe
