General
Population: 1.54 Billion*
- Entertainment: Music includes Engelbert Humperdink, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak's New World symphony, Sibelius, Verdi composes "Falstaff"
Art includes Edvard Munch's The Scream
Writers include Wilde, Crane Red Badge of Courage, Anatole France, Mark Rutherford, Courteline, Pinero, Max Halbe, Gerhart Hauptmann,
Arthur Schnitzler, Sardou, Sudermann, FH Bradley, WT Stead
- Medicine: First open-heart surgery by Daniel Hale Williams
Cholera worldwide to 1894
- Science: Phenotypic plasticity described by Poulton in caterpillars
- Technology: Diesel invents engine
Karl Benz constructs his four-wheeled car
Henry Ford builds his first car
- Deaths: Composer Charles Gounod, Psychiatrist Jean Martin Charcot, Historian Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, Actor Edwin Booth, Bishop Phillips Brooks, WRiter John Addington Symonds,
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Guy de Moupassant
Natal granted self-government,
Africa
- Dahomey: French suppress Fon warriors
- Ivory Coast: Ivory Coast becomes French protectorate
- South Africa: Revolt against British South Africa Company in Matabele – crushed by Starr Jameson – occupation of Bulawayo –Matabele War
- Transvaal: Annexes Swaziland
Americas
- Trinidad: Principality of Trinidad declares independence
Asia
Europe
- General: Franco-Russian alliance signed
"Art Noveau" appears in Europe
- Belgium: General strike
- France: Trial over Panama Canal corruption in Paris
- Great Britain: Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass
University of Wales founded at Aberystwyth
Imperial Institute in London founded
Independent Labour Party formed at conference in Bradford England under socialist Keir Hardie
Manchester Ship Canal completed
Lady Margaret Scott wins first British golf championship
HMS Victoria collides with HMS Camperdown due to mistake in geometry – 90 degrees versus 180 degrees
- Greece: Corinth Canal opened
Middle East
Pacific
- Arctic: Fridtjof Nansen begins unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole
- Hawaii: Annexed partially by United States
- New Zealand: Votes for women introduced - first country to do so