| January 1 | Norway adopts Mid-European time |
| January 5 | French Captain Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, publicly stripped of his rank; later declared innocent |
| January 5 | Henry James' play "Guy Domville" opens in London |
| January 5 | Victor Trumper makes first-class debut for NSW 17 years 64 days |
| January 13 | Oscar Wilde's "Ideal Husband," premieres in London |
| January 15 | Albert Trott takes 8-43 on Test debut, then a record |
| January 15 | French fleet reaches Majunga, Madagascar |
| January 15 | Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premieres, St. Petersburg |
| January 17 | Felix Faure installed as president of France |
| January 17 | French president Casimir-Perier resigns |
| January 18 | Amsterdam's AFC soccer team forms |
| January 22 | National Association of Manufacturers organized in Cincinnati |
| January 29 | King Koko's Kopermannen assault on Akassa Niger, 100's killed |
| January 30 | C. J. Eady (Tas) 1st Australian to score twin centuries (v Vic) |
| January 30 | SS Elbe sinks after collision in North Sea, 332 killed |
| January 30 | Tasmania beat Victoria for 1st F-C victory in 41 years |
| January 31 | Jose Marti and others leave New York City for invasion of Spanish Cuba |
| February 3 | Wilhelm Mauseth skates world record 500 m (46.8 seconds) |
| February 4 | 1st rolling lift bridge opens, Chicago |
| February 8 | Tchaikovsky/Petipa's "Swan Lake," premieres in Petersburg |
| February 9 | 1st intercollegiate basketball game (Minn Agricult beats Hamline, 9-3) |
| February 9 | Volleyball invented by W. G. Morgan in Massachusetts |
| February 11 | -17 degrees F (-27.2 degrees C) in Braemar, Grampian (UK record) |
| February 11 | Georgetown became part of Washington D.C. |
| February 13 | Moving picture projector patented |
| February 14 | Oscar Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest," opens in London |
| February 15 | 23 cm (9") of snow falls on New Orleans |
| February 20 | Congress authorizes a U.S. mint at Denver, Colorodo |
| February 21 | North Carolina Legislature, adjourns for day to mark death of Frederick Douglass |
| February 23 | Jaap Eden skates world record 10km (17:56) |
| February 23 | William Heard, AME minister and educator, named minister to Liberia |
| February 24 | Cuban war for independence begins |
| February 26 | Michael Owens of Toledo, Ohio patents a glass-blowing machine |
| March 4 | Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony, premieres in Berlin |
| March 6 | England beat Australia to win one of the best cricket series ever, 3-2 |
| March 6 | J. T. Brown hits the fastest 50 in Test Crickets (28 minutes) England vs. Australia |
| March 9 | Stanley Cup: Montreal Victorias awarded cup, as Queens University (Kingston Ont) loses to Montreal AAA, 5-1 |
| March 11 | Spanish cruiser Reina Regenta sinks at Gibraltar, 400 killed |
| March 13 | Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks off Gibraltar, 402 die |
| March 18 | 200 blacks leave Savannah, Georgia for Liberia |
| March 19 | Los Angeles Railway established to provide streetcar service |
| March 22 | Auguste and Louis Lumiere show their 1st movie to an invited audience |
| March 25 | Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia) |
| March 26 | King Alfonso plants pine sapling in Madrid, starts Spain's Arbor Day |
| March 30 | British inventor Birt Acres films Oxford-Cambridge |
| April 5 | Oscar Wilde loses libel case against Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices |
| April 5 | Start of Sherlock Holmes' "Adventure of 3 Students" |
| April 11 | Anaheim completes it's new electric light system |
| April 13 | Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Solitary Cyclist" |
| April 14 | 1st performance of Gustav Mahler's (incomplete) 2nd Symphony |
| April 15 | Josephine Blatt (U.S.) makes hip-and-harness lift of 3564 lb (record) |
| April 17 | Treaty of Shimonoseki signed, ends 1st Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) |
| April 24 | Joshua Slocum completes around-the-world voyage in 11-m boat |
| May 6 | 21st Kentucky Derby: Soup Perkins aboard Halma wins in 2:37 |
| May 8 | China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki |
| May 17 | W G Grace completes his 100th 100 vs. Somerset at Bristol |
| May 20 | 1st commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, New York City) |
| May 24 | Henry Irving becomes 1st theatrical knight |
| May 25 | 20th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Belmar wins in 1:50 |
| May 25 | Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years hard labor for being a sodomite |
| May 27 | British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector |
| May 30 | W. G. Grace scores his 1,000th Cricket run of the season after 22 days |
| June 11 | Charles E Duryea patents a gas-driven automobile |
| June 13 | Emile Levassor wins 1st Paris-Bordeaux-Paris auto race (24 kph) |
| June 17 | U.S. Ship Canal (W 225th St) in the Bronx completed; cutting Marble Hill off from Manhattan |
| June 20 | 1st female PhD (science) earned (Caroline Willard Baldwin) |
| June 20 | Canal of Smock official opens |
| June 20 | Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras form a short-lived confederation |
| June 21 | British Roseberry government falls |
| June 28 | El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form Central American Union |
| July 3 | Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Black Peter" |
| July 4 | Katherine Lee Bates publishes "America the Beautiful" |
| July 8 | Delagoa Bay Railway opens in South Africa |
| July 11 | Auguste and Louis Lumiere show film for scientists |
| July 16 | Archie MacLaren completes cricket 424 for Lancs vs. Somerset at Taunton |
| August 10 | 1st Queen's Hall Promenade Concerto (Wagners "Rienzi") |
| August 20 | Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Norwood Builder" |
| August 26 | Electric central at Niagara Falls gives 1st steam |
| August 27 | 15th U.S. Mens Tennis: Fred H Hovey beats Robert D Wrenn (63 62 64) |
| August 30 | Belgium begins compulsory Roman Catholic education |
| August 31 | 1st pro football game (quarterback John Brallier paid $10 and won 12-0) |
| September 3 | 1st pro football game played, Latrobe beats Jeanette 12-0 (Penn) |
| September 5 | George Washington Murray elected to Congress from South Carolina |
| September 9 | American Bowling Congress forms (New York City) |
| September 11 | FA Cup stolen in Birmingham |
| September 12 | Defender (U.S.) beats Valkyrie III (England) in 10th America's Cup |
| September 18 | Booker T. Washington delivers "Atlanta Compromise" address |
| September 18 | D D Palmer of Davenport, Iowa, becomes 1st chiropractor |
| September 21 | 1st auto manufacturer opens-Duryea Motor Wagon Company |
| September 23 | French labor union CGT (Confederation Generale du Travail) forms |
| September 24 | 1st round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle (took 15 months) |
| September 26 | Italian general Oreste Baratieri lands in Massawa, Eritrea |
| September 30 | France proclaims a protectorate over Madagascar |
| October 1 | Romanians in Costantinople massacred |
| October 2 | 1st cartoon comic strip is printed in a newspaper |
| October 4 | 1st U.S. Golf Open: Horace Rawlins shoots a 173 at Newport Golf Club Rhode Island |
| October 4 | Horace Rawlins wins 1st U.S. Open golf tournament (Newport RI) |
| October 8 | Ohio Valley Improvement Association forms |
| October 11 | Emperor Menelik II of Addis Ababa draws against Italians |
| October 22 | David Belasco's "Heart of Maryland," premieres in New York City |
| November 2 | 29th Belmont: Fred Taral aboard Belmar wins in 2:11 |
| November 5 | 1st U.S. patent granted for auto, George B. Selden |
| November 5 | George Selden patents 1st gasoline-driven car |
| November 5 | King Edward VII says "We are all Socialists nowadays" |
| November 5 | U.S. state Utah accepts female suffrage |
| November 8 | Wilhelm Roentgen (Germany) discovers X-rays |
| November 11 | Bechuanaland becomes part of Cape Colony |
| November 13 | 1st shipment of canned pineapple from Hawaii |
| November 19 | Frederick E. Blaisdell patents the pencil |
| November 21 | Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Bruce Partington Plans" |
| November 26 | Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association forms |
| November 27 | Alfred Nobel establishes Nobel Prize |
| November 28 | America's 1st auto race starts; 6 cars, 55 miles, winner avg 7 MPH |
| December 2 | 54th Congress (1895-97) convenes |
| December 7 | Battle at Amba Alagi: Abyssinians beat Italian armies |
| December 8 | Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian general Baratieri's out |
| December 13 | 1st complete execution of Gustav Mahlers 2nd Symphony |
| December 17 | Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington, D.C. |
| December 17 | George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Mass) |
| December 28 | World's 1st movie theater opens in Paris |
| December 29 | Dr. L S Jameson begins failed raid on Johannesburg |
BrainyHistory
