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). [edit] Events of 1896 [edit] January–March [edit] April–June - April 3 – The first edition of the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is published.
- April 6 – The opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games, are held.
- April 9 – The National Farm School (later Delaware Valley College) is chartered in Doylestown, PA.
- May 8 – Cricket: Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887.
- May 18 – Plessy v. Ferguson: The U.S. Supreme Court introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholds 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 normalized damages, killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people.
- June 4 – The Ford Quadricycle, the first Ford vehicle ever developed, is completed, eventually leading Henry Ford to build the empire that "put America on wheels".
- 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 – An earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27,000.
[edit] July–September - July 9 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech at the Democratic National Convention, which nominates him for President of the United States.
- July 11 – Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.
- July 26 International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress opens in London.
- July 27 – A causeway is opened between the islands of Saaremaa and Muhu in Estonia.
- July 30 – Shortly after 6:30 pm, at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, two trains collide, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring approximately 60, in the 1896 Atlantic City rail crash.
- August 16 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in the Klondike.
- August 17 – Bridget Driscoll was run over by a Benz car at Crystal Palace, London. The first motoring fatality in England.
- 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 – The Crash at Crush train wreck stunt is held in Texas.
- September 22 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.
[edit] October–December - October 5 – After a long siege, Brazilian government troops take Canudos in north Brazil, crushing Antonio Conselheiro and his followers.
- October 30 – Augusta, KY: The Augusta High School corner stone is laid, marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College.
- November 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1896: Republican William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan.
- November 30 – A large carcass, later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida.
- 14 December – The Glasgow Subway, the third-oldest underground metro system in the world, opened.
- December 25 – John Philip Sousa composes his magnum opus, the Stars and Stripes Forever, on Christmas Day.
- December 30 – Jose Rizal, Filipino scholar and poet, is executed in the Philippines.
[edit] Undated [edit] Births [edit] January–June - Lawrence Riley, American playwright and screen writer (d. 1974)
- January 2 – Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (d. 1954)
- January 4
- January 8 – Arthur Ford, American psychic spiritual medium, clairaudient (d. 1971)
- January 12 – Rex Ingram, Irish director and actor (d. 1950)
- January 14
- January 18 – C. M. Eddy, Jr., American author (d. 1967)
- 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 23 – Herbert Weichmann, German politician and mayor of Hamburg (d. 1983)
- 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
- March 20 – Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, Canadian World War I pilot (d. 1952)
- March 29 – Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962)
- March 31 – Florrie Baldwin, British supercentenarian and oldest living person in the United Kingdom
- April 15 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- April 27 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
- April 30
- May 7 – John Dunville, British Army officer in World War I (d. 1917)
- May 30 – Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977)
- June 6 – Henry Allingham, British World War I veteran and world's oldest man (d. 2009)
- June 7
- June 19 – Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986)
[edit] 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, Israeli painter (d. 1992)
- July 16 – Trygve Lie, Norwegian, first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)
- July 27 – Henri Longchambon, French politician (d. 1969)
- August 9
- August 15
- August 18 – Jack Pickford, American actor (d. 1933)
- August 22 – W. E. Lawrence, American actor (d. 1947)
- August 30 – Raymond Massey, Canadian-born actor (d. 1983)
- September 1 – A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Indian founder of the Hare Krishna movement (d. 1977)
- September 4 – Antonin Artaud, Theatre Practitioner, Director and Actor (d. 1948)
- September 21 – Walter Breuning, American supercentenarian, world's oldest man, last living man born in 1896
- September 22 – Uri Zvi Grinberg, Israeli poet and journalist (d. 1981)
- 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 27 – Edith Brown, R.M.S. Titanic survivor (d. 1997)
- 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, American baseball player (d. 1977)
- November 10 – Jimmy Dykes, American 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)
- November 23 – Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovakian Communist Politician (d. 1953)
- 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 Air Force general (d. 1993)
- December 21 – Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)
- December 27 – Louis Bromfield, American writer (d. 1956)
[edit] Deaths [edit] January–June - January 4 – Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
- January 6 – Thomas W. Knox, American author and journalist (b. 1835)
- January 8 – Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844)
- May 1 – Naser ad-Din Qajar, Shah of Persia, King of Herat (b. 1831)
- May 7 – Herman Webster Mudgett, American serial killer (b. 1860)
- May 10 – Antti Ahlström, Finnish industrialist and founder of Ahlstrom (b. 1827)
- 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)
[edit] July–December - July 1 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (b. 1811)
- July 4 – Marcelo H. del Pilar, Filipino writer and journalist (b. 1850)
- July 16 – Edmond de Goncourt, French writer and co-founder of the Académie Goncourt (b. 1822)
- July 19 – Abraham H. Cannon, American Mormon apostle (b. 1859)
- August 10 – Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (b. 1848)
- August 17 – Bridget Driscoll, early British automobile fatality (b. c. 1852)
- August 25 – Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini of Zanzibar (b. 1857)
- October 11
- October 21 – James Henry Greathead, British engineer and inventor (b. 1844)
- 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)
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