Directory

1890 CE

Kashihara Shrine, a landmark spot in Nara Prefecture, Japan, is officially built by Emperor Mutsuhito (Emperor of Meiji). Royal Dutch Petroleum, predecessor of Royal Dutch Shell, the major worldwide energy production and sales company, is founded in the Netherlands to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatra. Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, moves to a building on London's Victoria Embankment, as New Scotland Yard.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa.source
  • January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House.source
  • March 20 – Kaiser Wilhelm II forces Otto von Bismarck to resign as Chancellor of Germany.source
  • May 2 – President Benjamin Harrison signs the Oklahoma Organic Act, under which Oklahoma Territory is organized, a prerequisite for later statehood.source
  • July 1 – 1890 Japanese general election: In the first general election for the House of Representatives of Japan, about 5% of the adult male population elect a lower house of the Diet of Japan, in accordance with the new Meiji Constitution of 1889.source
  • July 1 – Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty: Britain cedes the Heligoland islands (in the German Bight) to Germany, in return for protectorates over Wituland and the Sultanate of Zanzibar (the islands of Pemba and Unguja) in east Africa.source
  • July 2 – The Sherman Antitrust Act and Sherman Silver Purchase Act become United States law.source
  • July 3 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.source
  • July 10 – Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.source
  • August 20 – Treaty of London: Portugal and the United Kingdom define the borders of the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.source
  • August – Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Alexander III meet at Narva.source
  • November 29 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan, and its first Diet convenes.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The United Kingdom demands Portugal withdraw its forces from the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia).source
  • June 27 – Canadian-born boxer George Dixon defeats the British bantamweight champion in London, giving him claim to be the first black world champion in any sport.source
  • July 26 – In Buenos Aires, the Revolution of the Park takes place, forcing President Juárez Celman's resignation.source
  • October 11 – In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.source
  • November 29 – At West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24–0 in the first Army–Navy Game of college football.source
  • December 29 – Wounded Knee Massacre: At Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a Lakota camp, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment tries to disperse the non-violent "Ghost-Dance" which was promised to usher in a new era of power and freedom to Native Americans but is feared as a potential rallying tool for violent rebellion by some in the U.S. government. Shooting begins, and 153 Lakota Sioux and 25 troops are killed; about 150 flee the scene. This is the last tribe to be defeated and confined to a reservation as well as the beginning of the decline of both the American Indian Wars and the American frontier.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • English archaeologist Flinders Petrie excavates at Tell el-Hesi, Palestine (mistakenly identified as Tel Lachish), the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land, during which he discovers how tells are formed.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 2 – Kashihara Shrine, a landmark spot in Nara Prefecture, Japan, is officially built by Emperor Mutsuhito (Emperor of Meiji).source
  • May 31 – The Ulm Minister opens in Ulm, Germany as the world's tallest cathedral.source
  • September 25 — President Wilford Woodruff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues the 1890 Manifesto ending the official practice of polygamy.source
  • November 21 – Edward King, Anglican bishop of Lincoln, is convicted of using ritualistic practices.source
  • High School Cadets is written by John Philip Sousa.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 5 – The worldwide insurance and financial service brand Allianz is founded in Berlin, Germany.source
  • June 16 – Royal Dutch Petroleum, predecessor of Royal Dutch Shell, the major worldwide energy production and sales company, is founded in the Netherlands to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatra.source
  • August 23 – The BOVESPA stock exchange is founded in São Paulo, Brazil.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 4 – The Forth Bridge, the longest bridge in Great Britain, on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, is opened to rail traffic.source
  • March 17 – The first railway in Transvaal, the Randtram, opens between Boksburg and Braamfontein in Johannesburg.source
  • October 9 – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory, France. It flies uncontrolled approximately 50 m ft at a height of 20 cm in, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.source
  • November 4 – The first deep level London Underground (Tube) Railway, the City and South London Railway, opens officially.source
  • December 10 – The New York World Building is completed in New York City, the tallest building in the United States for 10 years at a height of 110 meters.source
  • Japanese tractor and iron pipe brand, Kubota founded in Osaka, Japan.source
  • Brown trout are introduced into the upper Firehole River, in Yellowstone National Park.source
  • Emerson Electric, an American electronics industry giant, is founded in Missouri.source
  • Blackwall Buildings, Whitechapel, noted philanthropic housing, is built in the East End of London.source
  • The United States city of Boise, Idaho, drills the first geothermal well.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 25 – American journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.source
  • May 30 – The five-story skylight Arcade opens in Cleveland, Ohio.source
  • The folding carton box is invented by Robert Gair, a Brooklyn printer who developed production of paper-board boxes in 1879.source
  • Francis Galton announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprints.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 27 – March 1890 middle Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak: 24 significant tornadoes are spawned by one system, including one that kills 76 people in Louisville, Kentucky.source
  • June 1 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to tabulate census returns using punched card input, a landmark in the history of computing hardware. Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM. The 1890 United States census determines the US population to be 62,979,766, an increase of 25.5 percent relative to the 1880 census.source
  • August 28 – The strongest storm in Finnish history kills at least three people.source
  • Wilhelm II, German Emperor opposes Bismarck's attempt to renew the law outlawing the Social Democratic Party.source

Crime & Justice

  • May 20 – Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh moves to Auvers-sur-Oise on the edge of Paris, in the care of Paul Gachet, where he will produce around seventy paintings in as many days.source
  • August 6 – At Auburn Prison in New York, William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed in the electric chair.source
  • November – Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, moves to a building on London's Victoria Embankment, as New Scotland Yard.source
  • December 15 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed by police on Standing Rock Indian Reservation.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • July 13 – In Minnesota, storms result in the Sea Wing disaster on Lake Pepin, killing 98.source

Climate & Environment

  • October 1 – Yosemite National Park is established in California.source

Culture & Society

  • January 15 – Ballet The Sleeping Beauty, with music by Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.source
  • January 25 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded.source
  • February 18 – The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.source
  • February 24 – Chicago is selected to host the World's Columbian Exposition.source
  • March 3 – The first American football game in Ohio State University history is played in Delaware, Ohio, against Ohio Wesleyansource
  • March 8 – North Dakota State University is founded in Fargo.source
  • March 27 – Preston North End retain the English Football League Championship, winning their final game at Notts Countysource
  • March 28 – Washington State University is founded in Pullman.source
  • April 14 – At the First International Conference of American States, in Washington D.C., The Commercial Bureau of the American Republics is founded.source
  • May 1 – A coordinated series of mass rallies and one-day strikes is held throughout many cities and mining towns in Europe and North America, to demand an eight-hour workday.source
  • May 12 – The first ever official English County Championship cricket match begins in Bristol; Yorkshire beats Gloucestershire, by eight wickets.source
  • June 20 – The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Oscar Wilde) is published by Philadelphia-based Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (dated July).source
  • July 1 – The Ouija board is first released by Elijah Bond.source
  • September 6 – Dublin association football club Bohemian F.C. is founded in the Gate Lodge, Phoenix Park.source
  • September 12 – Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded.source
  • September 19 – The University of North Texas is founded, as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute.source
  • October 12 – The Uddevalla Suffrage Association is founded in Sweden, with a formal founding event on November 2 a month later.source
  • October 13 – The Delta Chi fraternity is founded by 11 law students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.source
  • December 24 – The Oklahoma territorial legislature establishes three institutions of higher learning University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma.source
  • American geostrategist Alfred Thayer Mahan publishes his influential book The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783.source

Births

  • January 4 – Augustus Agar, British commodore, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1968)source
  • January 11 – Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian Modernist writer (d.1954)source
  • February 10 – Boris Pasternak, Russian writer (Doctor Zhivago), Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (d. 1960)source
  • February 17 – Ronald Fisher, English statistician and geneticist (d. 1962)source
  • March 11 – Vannevar Bush, American engineer, inventor and politician (d. 1960)source
  • March 31 – Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)source
  • April 13 – Frank Murphy, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1949)source
  • June 21 – Lewis H. Brereton, American aviation pioneer and air force general (d. 1967)source
  • July 22 – Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist and matriarch of the Kennedy family (d. 1995)source
  • October 8 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American race car driver and World War I fighter pilot (d. 1973)source
  • October 9 – Aimee Semple McPherson, Canadian-American Pentecostal Evangelist (d. 1944)source
  • October 20 – Sherman Minton, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1965)source
  • November 16 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (d. 1956)source
  • December 21 – Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1967)source

Deaths

  • January 7 – Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Empress Consort of Wilhelm I, German Emperor (b. 1811)source
  • February 18 – Gyula Andrássy, Hungarian statesman, 4th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1823)source
  • April 11 – Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man), British oddity (b. 1862)source
  • July 9 – Clinton B. Fisk, American philanthropist and temperance activist (b. 1828)source
  • July 25 – Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Ruler of Bahrain (b. 1813)source
  • July 27 – Death of Vincent van Gogh: van Gogh shoots himself, dying two days later.source
  • August 6 – William Kemmler, American murderer, first person executed in the electric chair (b. 1860)source
  • August 10 – John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (b. 1844)source
  • August 14 – Blessed Michael J. McGivney, American priest and founder of the Knights of Columbus (b. 1852).source
  • August 18 – August von Bulmerincq, Baltic German legal scholar (b. 1822)source
  • October 20 – Richard Francis Burton, English explorer, linguist, soldier (b. 1821)source
  • October 26 – Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (The Adventures of Pinocchio) (b. 1826)source
  • November 3 – Ulrich Ochsenbein, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1811)source
  • November 7 – Comanche, American horse, survivor of Custer's cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighornsource