1896

Year '1896' ('MDCCCXCVI') was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1896

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Events of 1896

January - March

★ January 4 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.

★ January 5 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.

★ January 12 - H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.

★ January 18 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.

★ February 1

★
★ The opera ''La bohème'' premieres (Turin).

★
★ Walter Arnold, of Kent, England, is fined for speeding in excess of the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph.

★ February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play ''Salomé'' premieres in Paris.

★ March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defends its independence from Italy.

★ March 23 - The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels

April - June

★ April 3 - First edition of Italian sports newspaper ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' is published.

★ April 6 - Opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games.

★ May 8 - Cricket: Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887.

★ May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson, introducing the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholding segregation.

★ May 26 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

★ May 27 - The costliest and third deadliest tornado in U.S. history levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, incurring $2.9 billion (1997 USD) in damages, killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people.

★ June 12 - J.T. Hearne sets a record for the earliest date of taking 100 wickets. It is equalled by Charlie Parker in 1931.

★ June 15 - Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27,000.

July - September

★ July 9 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech.

★ July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.

★ July 27 - A causeway is opened between the islands of Saaremaa and Muhu in Estonia.

★ August 16 - Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in the Klondike.

★ August 27 - The shortest war in recorded history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, starts at 9 in the morning and lasts for 45 minutes of shelling.

★ September 15 - Crash at Crush train wreck stunt.

★ September 22 - Queen Victoria surpassed her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.

October - December

★ October 5 - After a long siege, Brazilian government troops take Canudos in north Brazil, crushing Antonio Conselheiro and his followers.

★ October 12 - In Richland county, Ohio, the trial of Celia Rose for the triple murder of her family begins.

★ October 20 - In Richland county, Ohio, Celia Rose was acquitted on grounds of insanity.

★ October 30 - Augusta, KY: Augusta High School corner stone laid marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College.

★ November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election.

★ November 6 - Hale Johnson runs as vice-presidential candidate for Prohibition Party.

★ November 16 - Cherry Sisters perform in Olympia Music Hall in New York City. At first audience is stunned but then begins to answer with catcalls.

★ November 30 - A large carcass, later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida.

★ December 25 - John Philip Sousa composes magnum opus, "Stars and Stripes Forever" on Christmas Day.

★ December 30 - Jose Rizal, Filipino scholar and poet, executed in the Philippines

Undated

★ Nepalese archaeologists rediscover the great stone pillar of Ashoka at Lumbini, using Fa Xian's records.

★ Pontifical University of Maynooth is established by decree of the Vatican

★ France establishes an administrative post in Abengourou, Côte d'Ivoire.

★ Formation of the New York Telephone Company

★ The great "Realignment" of the Republican Party of the United States of America

★ Clarkson University is founded in Potsdam, New York.

Births

January - June

★ Lawrence Riley, American playwright and screen writer (d. 1974)

★ January 2 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (d. 1954)

★ January 4

★
★ Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)

★
★ André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)

★ January 8 - Arthur Ford, American psychic spiritual medium, clairaudient (d. 1971)

★ January 12 - Rex Ingram, Irish director and actor (d. 1950)

★ January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (d. 1984)

★ January 14 - John Dos Passos, American author (d. 1970)

★ January 20 - George Burns, American comedian (d. 1996)

★ January 23 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)

★ February 18 - André Breton, French writer (d. 1966)

★ February 28 - Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)

★ February 29 - Morarji Desai, Indian politician (d. 1995)

★ March 1

★
★ Dimitris Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist, and composer (d. 1960)

★
★ Moriz Seeler, German writer, poet, film producer, and man of the theatre (d. 1942)

★ March 20 - Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, Canadian World War I pilot (d. 1952)

★ March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962)

★ April 15 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)

★ April 30

★
★ Hans List, founder of AVL List (d. 1996)

★
★ Gary Davis, American musician (d. 1972)

★ May 7 - John Dunville, British Army officer (d. 1917)

★ May 30 - Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977)

★ June 7

★
★ Robert S. Mulliken, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)

★
★ Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (d. 1990)

★ June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986)

★ June 26 - Henry Allingham, Oldest Surviving soldier of World War I

July - December

★ July 2 - Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (d. 1984)

★ July 10 - Maurice Zbriger, Canadian violinist, composer and conductor (d. 1981)

★ July 13 - Mordecai Ardon, one of Israel's greatest painters (d. 1992)

★ July 16 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)

★ August 9 - Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (d. 1980)

★ August 15 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)

★ August 15 - Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (d. 1958)

★ August 18 - Jack Pickford, American actor (d. 1933)

★ August 30 - Raymond Massey, Canadian-born actor (d. 1983)

★ September 1 - A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder of Hare Krishna movement (d. 1977)

★ September 24 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (d. 1940)

★ October 7 - Paulino Alcántara, Philippine-Spanish soccer player (d. 1964)

★ October 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)

★ October 28 - Howard Hanson, American composer (d. 1981)

★ October 31 - Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977)

★ November 4 - Carlos P. Garcia, president of the Philippines (d. 1971)

★ November 8 - Bucky Harris, baseball player (d. 1977)

★ November 10 - Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (d. 1976)

★ November 13 - Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1987)

★ November 14 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (d. 1979)

★ November 16 - Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (d. 1980)

★ November 17 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)

★ December 5 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1984)

★ December 6 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (d. 1983)

★ December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II general (d. 1993)

★ December 21 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)

★ December 27 - Louis Bromfield, American writer (d. 1956)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ January 4 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)

★ January 8 - Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844)

★ May 1 - Nasser_al-Din_Shah, Shah of Persia (b. 1831)

★ May 17 - Muhammad Al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait (b. 1831)

★ May 19 - Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, father of Archduke Ferdinand (b. 1833)

★ May 20 - Clara Schumann, German composer (b. 1819)

★ May 24 - Federico Luigi, Conte Menabrea, Italian soldier and statesman (b. 1809)

July - December

★ July 1 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (b. 1811)

★ July 16 - Edmond de Goncourt, co-founder of the Académie Goncourt (born 1822)

★ July 19 - Abraham H. Cannon, American Mormon apostle (b. 1859)

★ August 10 - Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (b. 1848)

★ August 17 - Bridget Driscoll, an early automobile fatality

★ August 25 - Hamad bin Thuwaini of Zanzibar, sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1857)

★ October 11

★
★ Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)

★
★ Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)

★ October 21 - James Henry Greathead, British engineer and inventor (b. 1884)

★ October 23 - Columbus Delano, American statesman (b. 1809)

★ November 16 - Josip Šokčević, Croatian viceroy (b. 1811)

★ December 10 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)

★ December 30 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines (b. 1861)
: ''See also .''