1896

Centuries:	18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s - 1890s - 1900s 1910s 1920s
Years:	1893 1894 1895 - 1896 - 1897 1898 1899

1896 in topic:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
Art - Literature (Poetry) - Music - Science
Sports - Rail Transport
Countries: Australia - Canada - Germany - Ireland - New Zealand - Norway - South Africa - U.S. - UK
Leaders: State leaders - Colonial governors
Category: Establishments - Disestablishments
Births - Deaths - Works v • d • e

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).

Events of 1896

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.
9 March - Responding to national outrage at the defeat at Adowa, Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns.
March 23 - The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels

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.

A picture of the restored Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the 1896 Summer Olympics

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

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 "Realignment" of the Republican Party of the United States of America.
Clarkson University is founded in Potsdam, New York.
Devonport High School for Boys is founded in Plymouth UK.
The world's first escalator was built in Coney Island, New York.