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 - March

January 5: Roentgen rays.

Roentgen X-ray (23 Jan. 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 bohčme 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 - June

• 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.
• April 9 - The official chartering of The National Farm School which later became Delaware Valley College 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 - 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 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 - Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27,000.

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

July - September

• 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 surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.

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: 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

Undated

• 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.
• Founding of
  • Clarkson University (in Potsdam, New York)
  • Devonport High School for Boys (in Plymouth UK)

Births

January - June

• Lawrence Riley, American playwright and screen writer (d. 1974)
• January 2 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (d. 1954)
• January 4
  • Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
  • André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)
• January 8 - Arthur Ford, American psychic spiritual medium, clairaudient (d. 1971)
• January 12 - Rex Ingram, Irish director and actor (d. 1950)
• January 14
  • Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (d. 1984)
  • John Dos Passos, American author (d. 1970)
• 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 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
  • Dimitris Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist, and composer (d. 1960)
  • Moriz Seeler, German writer, poet, film producer, and man of the theatre (d. 1942)
• March 20 - Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, Canadian World War I pilot (d. 1952)
• March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962)
• April 15 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
• April 27 - Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
• April 30
  • Hans List, founder of AVL List (d. 1996)
  • Gary Davis, American musician (d. 1972)
• May 7 - John Dunville, British Army officer (d. 1917)
• May 30 - Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977)
• June 6 - Henry Allingham, British, oldest ever veteran of British armed forces and oldest ever Englishman
• June 7
  • Robert S. Mulliken, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
  • Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (d. 1990)
• June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986)

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
  • Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (d. 1980)
  • Leonide Massine, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (d. 1979)
• August 15
  • Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)
  • Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (d. 1958)
• 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 Hare Krishna movement (d. 1977)
• 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, RMS 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)
• 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)

Deaths

January - June

• January 4 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
• January 8 - Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844)
• May 1 - Naser ad-Din Qajar, Shah of Persia, King of Herat (b. 1831)
• 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)

July - December

• July 1 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (b. 1811)
• 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 - Hamad bin Thuwaini of Zanzibar, sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1857)
• October 11
  • Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
  • Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)
• October 21 - James Henry Greathead, British engineer and inventor (b. 1844)
• October 23 - Columbus Delano, American statesman (b. 1809)
• November 16 - Josip ?ok?evi?, 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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