1896

Years: 1893 1894 1895 - 1896 - 1897 1898 1899
Decades: 1860s 1870s 1880s - 1890s - 1900s 1910s 1920s
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1896 in art 1896 in film 1896 in literature 1896 in music 1896 in science 1896 in sports List of state leaders in 1896 List of religious leaders in 1896

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths

Events

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).
February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play Salomé premieres in Paris.
March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defended its independence from Italy.
March 1 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
May 1 - Charles Tupper becomes Canada's sixth prime minister.
May 14 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia crowned in Moscow, in the first coronation ever filmed. One thousand spectators crushed to death in Khodynskoe Fields during coronation celebrations.
May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court announces its decision in the infamous case Plessy v. Ferguson.
May 26 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
June 4 - Henry Ford test-drives the first automobile he designed - the Quadricycle (it was also the first automobile he ever drove).
June 8 – Fritjof Nansen reaches the Antarctic Circle
June 15 – Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27.000
July 9 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech.
July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.
August 16 - George Carmack discovers gold in the Klondike.
August 27 - The shortest war in the world - 9.02 - 9.40 between Britain and Zanzibar
October 3 – Dalton brothers try to rob two banks but only Emmet Dalton survives the shootout
November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election.

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

Births

January 2 - Dziga Vertov, filmmaker
January 4 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
January 12 - Rex Ingram, director and actor (d. 1950)
January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (d. 1984)
January 14 - John Dos Passos, author (d. 1970)
January 23 - Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg
February 11 - Else Lasker-Schuler, writer
February 18 - André Breton;, poet, principal theoretician of surrealism (d. 1966)
March 1 - Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist and composer († 1960)
March 12 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada
March 20 - Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, world war 1 ace
March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann, mathematician
April 30 - Gary Davis, reverend
May 11 - Mari Sandoz, writer (d. 1966)
May 30 - Howard Hawks, director (d. 1977)
June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor
July 16 - Trygve Lie, the first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)
August 18 - Jack Pickford, actor, Hollywood's first "bad boy" (d. 1933)
August 30 - Raymond Massey, actor (d. 1983)
October 1 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1951)
October 28 - Howard Hanson, composer
October 31 - Ethel Waters, singer (d. 1977)
November 8 - Bucky Harris, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1977)
December 6 - Ira Gershwin, lyricist
December 14 - George VI Windsor, father of Elizabeth II
December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II General.
December 24 - F Scott Fitzgerald, American writer.

Deaths

January 4 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
January 8 - Paul Verlaine, lyric poet
May 20 - Clara Schumann, Austrian composer
August 10 - Otto Lilienthal, aviation pioneer
August 17 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality
October 11 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer
October 23 – Columbus Delano, American statesman
December 10 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize
December 30 - José Rizal;, national hero of the Philippines