Directory

1895 CE

In Munich, Germany, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates. The city of Tainan, last stronghold of the Republic of Formosa, capitulates to the forces of the Empire of Japan, ending the short-lived republic, and beginning the era of Taiwan under Japanese rule. Flamengo, a well known professional football club in Brazil, is officially founded.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 24 – An effort to restore the Hawaiian monarchy ends as the former Queen Liliʻuokalani abdicates and pledges allegiance to the Republic of Hawaii.source
  • February 20 – Venezuelan crisis of 1895: U.S. President Grover Cleveland signs into law a bill resulting from the proposition of House Resolution 252, by William Lindsay Scruggs and Congressman Leonidas Livingston, to the third session of the 53rd Congress of the United States of America. The bill recommends that Venezuela and Great Britain settle their dispute by arbitration.source
  • April 17 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea, and to concede the southern portion of Fengtian province, Taiwan and the Penghu to Japan. The huge indemnity exacted from China is used to establish the Yawata Iron and Steel Works in Japan.source
  • April 22 – Gongche Shangshu movement: 603 candidates sign a 10,000-word petition against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.source
  • May 2 – Gongche Shangshu movement: Thousands of Beijing scholars and citizens protest against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.source
  • May 24 – Anti-Japanese officials, led by Tang Jingsong in Taiwan, declare independence from the Qing dynasty, forming the short-lived Republic of Formosa.source
  • May 27 – In re Debs: The Supreme Court of the United States decides that the federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, legalizing the military suppression of the Pullman Strike.source
  • June 11 – Britain annexes Tongaland, between Zululand and Mozambique.source
  • June 20 – The Treaty of Amapala establishes the union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador (which ends in 1898).source
  • June 28 – The United States Court of Private Land Claims rules that James Reavis's claim to the Barony of Arizona is "wholly fictitious and fraudulent".source

Conflict & Security

  • January 6 – The Wilcox rebellion, an attempt led by Robert Wilcox to overthrow the Republic of Hawaii and restore the Kingdom of Hawaii, begins with royalist troops landing at Waikiki Beach in O'ahu and clashing with republican defenders. The rebellion ends after three days and the remaining 190 royalists are taken prisoners of war.source
  • January 13 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Coatit – Italian forces defeat the Ethiopians.source
  • February 24 – The first rebellions of the Cuban War of Independence break out.source
  • March 4 – Japanese troops capture Liaoyang and land in Taiwan.source
  • July 10–11 – The Doukhobors' pacifist protests culminate in the "burning of the arms" in the South Caucasus.source
  • August 29 – The Mat Salleh Rebellion in North Borneo is incited.source
  • October 1 – French troops capture Antananarivo, Madagascar.source
  • October 8 – Queen Min, queen consort of Joseon (Korea), is assassinated at her private residence within Gyeongbokgung Palace by Japanese agents.source
  • October 23 – The city of Tainan, last stronghold of the Republic of Formosa, capitulates to the forces of the Empire of Japan, ending the short-lived republic, and beginning the era of Taiwan under Japanese rule.source
  • December 7 – A corps of 2,350 Italian troops, mostly Askari, are crushed by 30,000 Abyssinian troops at Amba Alagi.source
  • Ottoman troops burn 3,000 Armenians alive in Urfa.source
  • The Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War begins.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 7 – Nansen's Fram expedition to the Arctic reaches 86°13.6'N, almost 3° beyond the previous Farthest North attained.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 15 – Heian Shrine is completed in Kyoto, Japan.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 21 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. that Congress and the U.S. federal government cannot regulate manufacturing, and dismisses an antitrust lawsuit against American Sugar Refining Company, which controls 98 percent of sugar refining in the United States.source
  • February 20 – The gold reserve of the U.S. Treasury is saved when J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds loan $65 million worth of gold to the United States government. The offering of syndicate bonds sells out only 22 minutes after the New York market opens, and just two hours after going on sale in London.source
  • July 31 – The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) is founded by Sabino Arana.source
  • The Swarovski Company is founded by Armand Kosman, Franz Weis and Daniel Swarovski in the Austrian Tyrol, for the production of crystal glass.source
  • The Raiffeisen model of Cooperative Credit and Saving Bank, predecessor of Rabobank, a worldwide multiple financial service provider, is founded in the Netherlands.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 18 – The world's first gasoline bus route is started in Germany, between Siegen and Netphen.source
  • March 22 – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière make what is probably the first presentation of a projected celluloid film moving picture, the 46-second Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, to members of the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale in Paris.source
  • March 30 – Rudolf Diesel patents the Diesel engine in Germany.source
  • April 27 – The unique, historic and picturesque Spiral Bridge is constructed to carry U.S. 61 over the Mississippi River at Hastings, Minnesota. It is demolished in 1951.source
  • May 18 – The first motor race in Italy is held, on a course from Turin to Asti and back, a total of 93 km mi. Five entrants start the event; only three complete it. It is won by Simone Federman in a four-seat Daimler Omnibus, at an average speed of 15.5 km/h mph.source
  • June 21 – The Kiel Canal, connecting the North Sea to the Baltic across the base of the Jutland peninsula in Germany, is officially opened.source
  • September 3 – The first professional American football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club (Latrobe wins 12–0).source
  • September 24–October 3 – the Automobile Club de France sponsors the longest race to date, a 1710 km mi event, from Bordeaux to Agen and back. Because it is held in ten stages, it can be considered the first rally. The first three places are taken by two Panhards and a three-wheeler De Dion-Bouton.source
  • November 5 – George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.source
  • December 15 – The railways of the Cape of Good Hope, Colony of Natal, the Orange Free State, the South African Republic and southern Mozambique are all linked at Union Junction near Alberton.source
  • December 18 – The Laurin & Klement automobile brand, predecessor of Škoda Auto, is founded as a bicycle manufacturer in central Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic).source
  • The world's first portable handheld electric drill is developed, by brothers Wilhelm and Carl Fein in Germany.source
  • The Duck Reach Power Station opens in Tasmania (the first publicly owned hydroelectric plant in the Southern Hemisphere).source
  • The name 'HP Sauce' is first registered in the United Kingdom for a brown sauce.source

Science & Discovery

  • October – Rudyard Kipling publishes the story "Mowgli Leaves the Jungle Forever" in The Cosmopolitan illustrated magazine in the United States, collected in The Second Jungle Book, published in England in November.source
  • November 1 – Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil present a short film at the Berlin Wintergarten theatre in Germany using the movie projector they have developed.source
  • November 8 – Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the type of electromagnetic radiation later known as X-rays.source
  • December 11 – Svante Arrhenius becomes the first scientist to deliver quantified data about the sensitivity of global climate to atmospheric carbon dioxide (the "Greenhouse effect"), as he presents his paper "On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air Upon The Temperature of the Ground" to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.source
  • Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator.source

Health & Medicine

  • September 18 – Daniel David Palmer performs the first chiropractic spinal adjustment, on Harvey Lillard, whose complaint was partial deafness after an injury.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of treason.source
  • March 3 – In Munich, Germany, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates.source
  • March 15 – Bridget Cleary is killed and her body burned in County Tipperary, Ireland, by her husband, Michael; he is subsequently convicted and imprisoned for manslaughter, his defence being a belief that he had killed a changeling left in his wife's place after she had been abducted by fairies.source
  • April 6 – Oscar Wilde is arrested in London for "gross indecency", after losing a criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.source
  • May 9 – Thirteen workers are killed by soldiers of the Russian Empire during the Yaroslavl Great Manufacture strike.source
  • May 25 – R. v. Wilde: Oscar Wilde is convicted in London of "unlawfully committing acts of gross indecency with certain male persons" (under the Labouchere Amendment) and given a two years' sentence of hard labour, during which he will write De Profundis.source
  • June 11 – The Paris–Bordeaux–Paris automobile trial is held.source
  • August 19 – American frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 15 – A warehouse fire and dynamite explosion kills 57 people, including 13 firefighters in Butte, Montana in the U.S.source
  • January 21 – The American steamer S.S. Chicora sinks in a storm on Lake Michigan, along with all 21 of its crew and a lone passenger.source
  • January 31 – The sinking of the German ocean liner SS Elbe kills 334 people on board, 20 minutes after the ship had collided with the British steamer SS Crathie in the North Sea. Only two lifeboats are able to evacuate before the Elbe goes down, and the first lifeboat capsizes when too many passengers attempt to get onboard. A second lifeboat, with 15 members of the crew, four men and a woman, carries the only survivors.source
  • December 24 – Kingstown lifeboat disaster: 15 crew are lost when their life-boat capsizes while trying to rescue the crew of the Palme off Kingstown (modern-day Dún Laoghaire), near Dublin, Ireland.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 17 – A 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes northeastern Iran near the town of Quchan and causes at least 1,000 deaths.source
  • April 14 – A major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, the capital of Carniola.source
  • October 31 – 1895 Charleston earthquake: A major earthquake occurs near Charleston, Missouri, in the New Madrid Seismic Zone of the midwestern United States. As of 2014, the earthquake risk for the region is being closely monitored.source

Culture & Society

  • January 12 – Britain's National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty is founded by Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.source
  • June 5 – The Liberal Revolution begins in Ecuador, making the civil war more intense in the country.source
  • July 15 – Archie MacLaren scores an English County Championship cricket record innings of 424 for Lancashire, against Somerset, at Taunton. This record lasts until 1994.source
  • July – Oldham Athletic A.F.C. is founded in England.source
  • August 7 – The Aljaž Tower, a symbol of the Slovenes, is erected on Mount Triglav.source
  • August 10 – The first ever indoor promenade concert, origin of The Proms, is held at the Queen's Hall in London, opening a series conducted by Henry Wood.source
  • August 29 – The Northern Rugby Football Union (the modern-day Rugby Football League) is formed at a meeting of 21 rugby clubs at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, in the north of England, leading to the creation of the professional sport of rugby league football.source
  • September 7 – The first game of what will become known as rugby league football is played in England, starting the 1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.source
  • September – Shelbourne F.C. is founded in Dublin, Ireland.source
  • October 2 – Peiyang University, predecessor of Tianjin University, is founded as an institution of higher education in Qing dynasty China.source
  • October 10 – The London School of Economics holds its first classes in London, England.source
  • November 17 – Flamengo, a well known professional football club in Brazil, is officially founded.source
  • November 25 – Oscar Hammerstein opens the Olympia Theatre, the first theatre to be built in New York City's Times Square district.source
  • November 27 – At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death.source
  • November 28 – Chicago Times-Herald race: The first American automobile race in history is sponsored by the Chicago Times-Herald. Press coverage first arouses significant American interest in the automobile.source
  • December 13 – The first complete performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 is given, with the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra conducted by the composer.source
  • December 24 – George Washington Vanderbilt II officially opens his Biltmore Estate, inviting his family and guests to celebrate his new home in Asheville, North Carolina.source
  • December 28 – Auguste and Louis Lumière make what is probably the first commercial public screening of projected moving picture films to a paying audience, at the Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris.source
  • The first sample fair (Mustermesse) is held at Leipzig, Germany.source
  • The first Boxer dog club is established in Germany.source

Births

  • January 1 – J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1972)source
  • February 8 – Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Marshal of the Mongolian People's Republic, Prime Minister of the Mongolian People's Republic (d. 1952)source
  • March 3 – Matthew Ridgway, United States Army Chief of Staff, Commander of NATO (d. 1993)source
  • March 3 – Ragnar Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)source
  • March 28 – Spencer W. Kimball, 12th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)source
  • March 29 – Ernst Jünger, German military hero, philosopher and entomologist (d. 1998)source
  • May 6 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)source
  • May 11 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher, speaker and writer (d. 1986)source
  • May 21 – Lázaro Cárdenas, 44th President of Mexico, 1934–1940 (d. 1970)source
  • June 17 – Ruben Rausing, Swedish entrepreneur, founder of Tetra Pak (d. 1983)source
  • September 18 – John Diefenbaker, 13th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1979)source
  • October 1 – Liaquat Ali Khan, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1951)source
  • October 10 – Wolfram von Richthofen, German field marshal (d. 1945)source
  • November 17 – Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher, literary scholar (d. 1975)source

Deaths

  • January 28 – François Certain de Canrobert, French general, Marshal of France (b. 1809)source
  • February 18 – Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen, Austrian general (b. 1817)source
  • March 2 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)source
  • March 9 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer for whom the word masochism is named (b. 1836)source
  • May 19 – José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)source
  • June 4 – Abu Bakar of Johor, Malaysian sultan (b. 1833)source
  • June 29 – Thomas Henry Huxley, English evolutionary biologist (b. 1825)source
  • July 18 – Stefan Stambolov, 9th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (assassinated) (b. 1854)source
  • August 8 – Howell Edmunds Jackson, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1832)source
  • September 28 – Louis Pasteur, French microbiologist, chemist (b. 1822)source
  • October 3 – Harry Wright, English-born American baseball pioneer (b. 1835)source
  • October 8 – Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min), last Korean empress (assassinated) (b. 1851)source
  • October 27/28 – Adele Spitzeder, German actress, folk singer and confidence trickster (b. 1832)source
  • December 13 – Ányos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist, inventor of the dynamo (b. 1800)source