istoryworld
All Events
Scottish chemist William Ramsay isolates the element helium
Stephen Crane succeeds handsomely with his second novel, The Red Badge of Courage, set in the American Civil War
At the end of the Sino-Japanese war China cedes to Japan the island of Taiwan, together with Port Arthur and the Liadong peninsula
Khama III, the king of Bechuanaland, travels to London to demand the continuing protection of the British crown
Joshua Slocum sails from Boston in his sloop Spray for his attempt at a solo circumnavigation of the world
Oscar Wilde loses a libel case that he has brought against the marquess of Queensberry for describing him as a sodomite
21-year-old Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a radio signal more than a mile at his home near Bologna
Lord Rosebery's Liberal government suffers a defeat in the House of Commons, and Lord Salisbury returns as Britain's prime minister
Australia has a catchy new song in "Waltzing Matilda", written by Banjo Paterson to music by Christina Macpherson
The USGA (US Golf Association) stages the first national amateur and open championships
Oscar Wilde is sent to Reading Gaol to serve a two-year sentence with hard labour after being convicted of homosexuality
The Limes becomes the seat of local government in Mortlake, and remains so until 1940
The British government takes responsibility for Kenya, as the East Africa Protectorate
General Alfred von Schlieffen devises plans for a potential two-pronged attack against France and Russia in a swift war
German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovers rays that can penetrate light-proof barriers, and names them x-rays because their nature is as yet unknown
Lenin is arrested in St Petersburg, along with other members of the Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class
Leander Jameson leads a disastrous raid into the Transvaal, in an attempt to topple Paul Kruger's government
H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine, a story about a Time Traveller whose first stop on his journey is the year 802701
Gwen John persuades a reluctant father to allow her to follow her younger brother to the Slade School of Art in London
A promenade concert, presented by Henry Wood in London's Queen's Hall, turns out to be the beginning of a very long tradition
Utah is admitted to the union as the 45th state, after the Mormons agree to give up polygamy
Cecil Rhodes' involvement with the Jameson raid forces his resignation as the Cape Colony prime minister
Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème has an unsuccessful premiere in Turin
The prolific US poet Edwin Arlington Robinson publishes The Torrent and the Night Before, his first poems about the fictional Tilbury Town
The Ethiopian emperor, Menelik II, inflicts a shattering defeat on Italian forces at Aduwa
