1896
| File:Decade.png ( 1890s: ) 1896 link | |
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 The Jameson Raid a British (with plausible deniability) attempt to trigger an uprising in the Transvaal, fails. The area was conquered in the Boer War two years later. | |
| year 1896 |
Events
- January 6 – Cecil Rhodes is forced to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, for his involvement in the Jameson Raid.
- March 1 – Battle of Adwa: Ethiopia defends its independence from Italy, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
- March 3 – Publication begins for Der Eigene, the world's first magazine with an orientation to male homosexuality, by Adolf Brand in Berlin.
- April – The first study of the sensitivity of global climate to atmospheric carbon dioxide is published. Svante Arrhenius presents his findings in his paper, "On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground", the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, as an extract of a paper that had been presented to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on December 11, 1895.
- April 6 – The opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games, are held in Athens, Greece.
- April 9 – The National Farm School (later Delaware Valley College) is chartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
- May 8 – Cricket: Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record, when they accumulate an innings total of 887.
- May 13 – The Franchise Bill is passed by the Colony of Natal's Legislative Assembly, disfranchising natives of other countries.
- May 26 – Eleven years after its foundation, a group of 12 purely industrial stocks were chosen to form the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index is composed entirely of industrial shares for the first time.
- 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 26 – The International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress opens in London.
- August 14 – The Uganda Railway Act, 1896, is approved in the United Kingdom, for construction of a railway in Africa, from Mombasa to Lake Victoria.[1]
- August 16 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in the Klondike, Yukon.
- August 23 – The Cry of Pugad Lawin initiates the Philippine Revolution.
- August 27 – The shortest war in recorded history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, starts at 9:00 in the morning, and lasts for 45 minutes of shelling.
- Britain establishes a Protectorate over the Ashanti concluding the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War.
- 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.
- September 28 – Pathé or Pathé Frères a French film company and one of the oldest film companies is founded by the brothers Charles Pathé, Théophile Pathé, Émile Pathé and Jacques Pathé.
- September 30 – Italy and France sign a treaty, whereby Italy virtually recognizes Tunisia as a French dependency.[2]
- November 3 – 1896 U.S. presidential election: Republican William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan. The event is viewed by some as a political realignment for the United States Republican Party.
- December 30 – José Rizal, Filipino scholar and poet, is executed by Spanish authorities in the Philippines.