1891
| Years: 1888 1889 1890 – 1891 – 1892 1893 1894 | |
| Decades: 1860s 1870s 1880s – 1890s – 1900s 1910s 1920s | |
| Centuries: 18th century – 19th century – 20th century 1891 in topic: Lists of leaders: | |
1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).
Table of contents |
Events
- January 1 – Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany
- January 20 – James Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state.
- January 29 – Liliuokalani proclaimed Queen of Hawaii
- March 3 – The International Copyright Act of 1891 was passed by the 51st Congress of the United States of America
- March 9 – 12 – Powerful storm off England's south coast; 14 ships sink
- March 17 – The British steamship SS Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar, killing 574.
- April 1 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago.
- May 1 – Nine killed and thirty wounded when troops fire on workers' May Day demonstration in support of eight-hour workday in Fourmies, France.
- May 5 – The Music Hall in New York (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
- May 20 – First public display of Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope (shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs).
- June 16 – John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister.
- June 21 – First long-distance transmission of Alternating current by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado by Lucien and Paul Nunn.
- August 27 – France and Russia conclude defensive alliance.
- October 1 – In California, Stanford University opens its doors
- December 29 – Thomas Edison patents the radio
- Building of The Trans-Siberian Railroad begins (ends 1917)
- The Brahmin teacher and nationalist, Bal Bangadhar tilak, begins agitation for Indian home Rule
- Civil War in Chile
- Kicking Bear surrenders
- Earthquake in Japan kills 25.000
- Famine in Russia
- Maria Skłodowska enters Sorbonne University
- New Scotland Yard becomes the HQ of London Metropolitan Police
- Swiss Army Knife
- Winter – James Naismith invents Basketball
- The Tobacco Protest occurs in Iran
Births
- January 8 – Walther Bothe, German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics (d. 1957)
- February 9 – Ronald Colman, English actor (d. 1958)
- February 11 – J.W. Hearne English cricketer (d. 1965).
- February 27 – David Sarnoff, Russian-born broadcasting pioneer (d. 1971)
- March 10 – Sam Jaffe, American actor (d. 1984)
- March 19 – Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)
- March 24 – John Knittel, dramatist (d. 1970)
- March 29 – Yvan Goll, lyricist and dramatist (d. 1950)
- April 2 – Max Ernst, German painter (d. 1976)
- April 13 – Nella Larsen, American novelist (d. 1964)
- April 17 – George Adamski, Polish-born UFO traveler (d. 1965)
- April 23 – Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer (d. 1953)
- May 15 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian writer (d. 1940)
- May 16 – Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (d. 1948)
- May 18 – Rudolf Carnap, German philosopher (d. 1970)
- May 19 – Oswald Boelcke, German World War I pilot (d. 1916)
- May 22 – Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (d. 1963)
- May 24 – William F. Albright, American archeologist and Biblical scholar (d. 1971)
- June 9 – Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (d. 1964)
- June 20 – John A. Costello, second Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1976)
- June 21 – Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (d. 1966)
- June 30 – Man Mountain Dean, American professional wrestler (d. 1953)
- September 12 – Don Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate for Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965)
- September 14 – William F. Friedman, American cryptographer (d. 1969)
- September 16 – Karl Dönitz, President of Germany (d. 1980)
- September 26 – Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (d. 1968)
- October 24 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (d. 1961)
- November 14 – Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine (d. 1941)
- November 15 – Vincent Astor, American philanthropist (d. 1959)
- November 15 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (d. 1944)
- December 26 – Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980)
Deaths
- January 5 – Emma Abbott, American opera singer (b. 1849)
- January 16 – Léo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)
- January 21 – Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b. 1842)
- March 15 – Théodore de Banville, French writer (b. 1823)
- March 15 – Sir Joseph Bazalgette, English civil engineer (b. 1819)
- April 7 – Phineas Taylor Barnum, American circus impresario (b. 1810)
- May 8 – Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Russian-born author and theosophist (b. 1831)
- July 4 – Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States (b. 1809)
- August 12 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
- August 14 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (b. 1803)
- September 15 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian author (b. 1812)
- September 28 – Herman Melville, American novelist (b. 1819)
- October 6 – Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist leader (b. 1846)
- October 15 – Gilbert Arthur a Beckett, English writer (b. 1837)
- November 10 – Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (b. 1854)
Fictional events of the year
Sherlock Holmes is believed to have died in the Reichenbach fall with the "Napoleon of crime", Professor James Moriarty.
Categories: 1891