1890s
| Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century | |
| Decades: | |
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The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade," because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no connotation of homosexuality as in current-day usage.
Contents
Events and trends
Technology
- Early commercial production of automobiles.
Science
- Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity
- Discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen
- Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius and US geologist Thomas Crowder Chamberlain independently come to the conclusion that burning fossil fuels might cause global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions
War, peace and politics
- Anglo-Zanzibar War
- Boxer Uprising
- Second Boer War
- Spanish-American War
- Split in Irish nationalism over Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell's affair with a fellow MP's wife, Kitty O'Shea
- The New Imperialism
Culture, religion
- Motion pictures
- Ragtime music
- Accession of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in the world's first ever filmed coronation.
- Lynchings of African Americans in the United States averaged 150 per year.
- H. G. Wells creates modern science fiction with his book The War of the Worlds.
- Hale Johnson is a major leader of the temperance movement.
- Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, under Mary Hunt, achieves de facto control over all alcohol education in the U.S.
Others
People
World leaders
- Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson (Canada)
- Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Canada)
- Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
- Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany)
- Chancellor Leo von Caprivi (Germany)
- King Umberto I (Italy)
- Pope Leo XIII
- Czar Alexander III (Russia)
- Czar Nicholas II (Russia)
- Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Lord Salisbury (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Lord Rosebery (United Kingdom)
- President Benjamin Harrison (United States)
- President Grover Cleveland (United States)
- President William McKinley (United States)
- Shahs of Persia (Qajar dynasty)
- Nasser-al-Din Shah, 1848-1896
- Mozzafar-al-Din Shah, 1896-1907
- Sultans of Zanzibar
- Khalifah bin Said, 1888–1890
- Ali bin Said, 1890–1893
- Hamad bin Thuwaini, 1893–1896
- Khalid bin Barghash, 1896
- Hamud bin Muhammed, 1896–1902
Important people
Entertainers
Sports
Books about the 1890s
- The Mauve Decade, by Thomas Beer (1926)
External links
- Quiz: Victorian Etiquette — Educational Game, In the style of the Monty Pythons
Wiki Source: Wikipedia
