Directory

1893 CE

Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii: Lorrin A. Thurston and the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety in Hawaii, with the intervention of the United States Marine Corps, overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani. Thomas Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey. The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1893 is signed, as the Kingdom of Siam cedes all of its territories east of the Mekong River to France, creating the territory of Laos.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 13 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom has its first meeting.source
  • March 10 – Ivory Coast becomes a French colony.source
  • June 15 – 1893 German federal election: Small anti-Semitic parties secure 2.9% of the vote.source
  • July 13 – Frederick Jackson Turner gives a lecture titled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" before the American Historical Association in Chicago.source
  • September 1 – William Ewart Gladstone's Government of Ireland Bill 1893, intended to give Ireland self-government, is rejected by the U.K. Parliament.source
  • September 7 – Under pressure of a general strike, the Belgian Federal Parliament enacts general multiple suffrage.source
  • September 19 – New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant women's suffrage.source
  • October 13 – The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1893 is signed, as the Kingdom of Siam cedes all of its territories east of the Mekong River to France, creating the territory of Laos.source
  • November 7 – Colorado women are granted the right to vote.source
  • December 5 – Plural voting is abolished in New South Wales.source
  • By 1893 – 8,000 Chinese have arrived in Cuba.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 13 – U.S. Marines from the USS Boston land in Honolulu, Hawaii, to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.source
  • January 17 – Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii: Lorrin A. Thurston and the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety in Hawaii, with the intervention of the United States Marine Corps, overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani.source
  • July 11 – Liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya leads a successful revolt in Nicaragua.source
  • July 13 – Paknam Incident: Two French Navy ships are fired upon by Siamese cannons stationed at the Paknam Fort, that guards the Chao Phraya River. Three months later, Siam is forced to cede modern-day Laos to France.source
  • August 15 – The Ibadan area becomes a British protectorate, after a treaty signed by Fijabi, the Baale of Ibadan, with the British acting Governor of Lagos, George C. Denton.source
  • October 23 – The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) is founded in the town of Thessaloniki. Its aim is to liberate the region of Macedonia from the Ottoman Turks.source
  • November 1 – First Matabele War: Battle of Bembezi, British South Africa Company defeats an assault by the Matabele.source
  • December 4 – First Matabele War: The Shangani Patrol of British South Africa Company soldiers is ambushed and annihilated, by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • September 16 – Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma.source
  • November 12 – The Durand Line is established as the boundary between British India and Afghanistan, by a memorandum of understanding signed by Sir Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of British India, and Abdur Rahman Khan, Amir of Afghanistan.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; the charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.source
  • April 1 – The rank of Chief Petty Officer is established in the United States Navy.source
  • April 6 – The iconic Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dedicated, after 40 years of construction.source
  • May – The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is formed.source
  • September 19 – Swami Vivekananda delivers an inspiring paper at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.source
  • September 23 – The Baháʼí Faith is first publicly mentioned in the United States, at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.source
  • September 27 – The World Parliament of Religions holds its closing meeting in Chicago.source
  • The Girls' Brigade is founded in Dublin, Ireland, origin of the international Christian youth organisation.source
  • TMI Episcopal is founded in San Antonio as "The West Texas School for Boys", quickly changed to "West Texas Military Academy", by Bishop James S. Johnston.source

Economy & Finance

  • May 5 – Panic of 1893: A crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a depression.source
  • December 20 – Evergreen Park, Illinois, is incorporated.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America.source
  • January 15 – The Telefon Hírmondó service starts with around 60 subscribers, in Budapest.source
  • February 23 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.source
  • March 6 – The Liverpool Overhead Railway opens with 2-car electric multiple units, the first to operate in the world.source
  • June 20 – The Wengernalpbahn railway in Wengen, Switzerland (Canton of Bern) is opened.source
  • 6 August – The Corinth Canal is completed in Greece.source
  • August 14 – The world's first driving licenses are introduced in France under the Paris Police Ordinance.source
  • September 21 – Brothers Charles and Frank Duryea drive the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America, on public roads in Springfield, Massachusetts.source
  • October 10 – The first car number plates appear in Paris, France.source
  • Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson begins serialization in The Century Magazine (U.S.)source
  • The first recumbent bicycle, the Fautenil Vélociped, is made in France.source
  • Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, is incorporated as a town.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 28 – USS Indiana, the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to other nation's battleships of the time, is launched.source
  • May 9 – Edison's 1½ inch system of Kinetoscope is first demonstrated in public, at the Brooklyn Institute.source
  • July 1 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland is operated on in secret.source
  • July 11 – Kōkichi Mikimoto, in Japan, develops the method to seed and grow cultured pearls.source
  • Carl Anton Larsen becomes the first man to ski in Antarctica.source
  • German physicist Wilhelm Wien formulates Wien's displacement law.source

Health & Medicine

  • American pharmacist Caleb Bradham invents the recipe for what later becomes Pepsi. He originally sells it as 'Brad's Drink' at his pharmacy in New Bern, North Carolina.source

Crime & Justice

  • March 20 – In Belgium, Adam Worth is sentenced to 7 years for robbery (he is released in 1897).source
  • June 17 – Gold is found in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.source
  • June 20 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the axe murder of her parents in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892.source
  • October 16 – American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill copyright their book Song Stories for the Kindergarten including "Good Morning to All". The melody, by Mildred Hill, is later adapted, without authorization, by Robert H. Coleman as "Good Morning to You!", with the second stanza containing the words to "Happy Birthday to You", leading to a successful copyright lawsuit by the Hill sisters in 1934.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • February 11–19 – White Star Line cargo liner sinks without a trace in heavy seas on the Liverpool–New York transatlantic passage.source
  • June 22 – The flagship of the British Mediterranean Fleet collides with and sinks in 10 minutes; Vice-admiral Sir George Tryon goes down with his ship.source
  • September 7 – Russian monitor Rusalka sinks in a storm in the Gulf of Finland, with the loss of all 177 crew; her hulk is eventually discovered in 2003 off Helsinki.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 21 – The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern-day Botswana).source
  • June 6 – The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa, is nearly destroyed by a tornado; 71 people are killed and 200 injured.source
  • August 27 – The Sea Islands hurricane hits Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, and the Sea Islands, killing 1,000–2,000.source
  • October 14 – A devastating levee collapse, flash flood and landslide hit and damage around Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island and western Honshū in Japan, due to a strong typhoon wind; an official document reports that 2,044 people perish.source
  • October 30 – The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition, closes.source

Culture & Society

  • February 1 – Thomas Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey.source
  • February 24 – The American University is established by an Act of Congress, in Washington, D.C.source
  • April 8 – The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, between the Geneva College Covenanters and the New Brighton YMCA.source
  • April 17 – Belgian general strike of 1893: Riots erupt in Mons; the day after, the Belgian Parliament approves universal male suffrage.source
  • April 17 – The Alpha Xi Delta Sorority is founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois.source
  • May 1 – The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition, opens to the public in Chicago, Illinois. The first United States commemorative postage stamps are issued for the event.source
  • May 23 – Gandhi arrives in South Africa, where he will live until 1914, lead non-violent protests on behalf of Indian immigrants in the South African Republic (Transvaal), and develop a deeper experience of such activities.source
  • June 4 – The Anti-Saloon League is incorporated, originally as a state organization, in Oberlin, Ohio. On December 18, 1895, it becomes a nationwide organization. The same year, the American Council on Alcohol Problems is established, along with the Committee of Fifty for the Study of the Liquor Problem.source
  • June 6 – Wedding of Prince George, Duke of York, and Princess Mary of Teck: the future King George V of the United Kingdom marries at St James's Palace in London.source
  • June 29 – Unveiling of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain at Piccadilly Circus in London with its statue of Anteros.source
  • July 13 – Scottish Association football club Dundee F.C. is formed.source
  • September 7 – Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, the oldest Italian Association football club, is formed.source
  • September 11 – The World Parliament of Religions opens as an adjunct to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; Bengali Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda receives a standing ovation for his address in response to his welcoming.source
  • September 12 – American Temperance University begins classes in Harriman, Tennessee (it closes after 15 years, in May 1908).source
  • September 28 – The Portuguese sports club Futebol Clube do Porto is founded.source
  • October 13 – The first students enter St Hilda's College, Oxford, England, founded for women by Dorothea Beale.source
  • October 28 (October 16 O.S.) – In Saint Petersburg (Russia), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducts the first performance of his Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique, nine days before his death.source
  • November 15 – FC Basel Association football club is founded in Switzerland.source
  • November 16 – Athletic club Královské Vinohrady, later Sparta Prague, is founded.source
  • December 16 – Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) receives its premiere at Carnegie Hall, New York City, conducted by the composer, to immediate acclaim.source
  • Booker T. Washington High School (Houston) is founded as "Colored High", the first African-American high school in Houston, Texas.source
  • A 16th century Ardabil Carpet from Persia enters the collection of the South Kensington Museum in London.source

Births

  • January 27 – Soong Ching-ling, one of the Soong sisters, wife of Chinese president Sun Yat-sen (d. 1981)source
  • April 11 – Dean Acheson, 51st United States Secretary of State (d. 1971)source
  • April 23 – Allen Dulles, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1969)source
  • April 29 – Harold Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)source
  • June 10 – Hattie McDaniel, actress, first African-American woman to win an Academy Award (d. 1952)source
  • June 13 – Dorothy L. Sayers, British crime writer, poet, playwright and essayist (d. 1957)source
  • June 24 – Roy O. Disney, brother, business partner of Walter Elias Disney (d. 1971)source
  • August 17 – Mae West, American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol (d. 1980)source
  • August 30 – Huey Long, Louisiana governor and senator (assassinated 1935)source
  • September 6 – Claire Lee Chennault, American aviator, general and leader of the Flying Tigers (d. 1958)source
  • September 16 – Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)source
  • October 24 – Kurt Huber, German university professor, member of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)source
  • November 22 – Lazar Kaganovich, Soviet politician, Great Purge perpetrator (d. 1991)source
  • December 26 – Mao Zedong, Chinese communist leader, founder of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1976)source

Deaths

  • January 11 – Benjamin Butler, American lawyer, politician, and general (b. 1818)source
  • January 17 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822)source
  • January 23 – Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1825)source
  • January 27 – James G. Blaine, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1830)source
  • February 18 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician (b. 1814)source
  • February 20 – P. G. T. Beauregard, American Confederate general (b. 1818)source
  • March 18 – Bandō Kakitsu I, Japanese kabuki actor (b. 1847)source
  • April 22 – Edward Fitzgerald Beale, American adventurer, businessman (b. 1822)source
  • June 22 – Sir George Tryon, British admiral (b. 1832)source
  • October 17 – Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, French general, politician, and 1st president of the Third Republic (1875-1879) (b. 1808)source
  • October 18 – Charles Gounod, French composer (b. 1818)source
  • October 30 – Sir John Abbott, 3rd Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)source
  • November 17 – Alexander of Battenberg, first prince of Bulgaria (b. 1857)source
  • November 26 – Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Adventure of the Final Problem", published in the December dated issue of The Strand Magazine and serialized in Sunday newspapers worldwide, surprises the reading public by revealing that his popular character Sherlock Holmes had apparently died at the Reichenbach Falls on May 4, 1891.source