1894

1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-April

• January 7 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
• January 8 - A fire at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois causes a good deal of damage.
• January 9 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard (Lexington, Massachusetts).
• February 15 - 04:51 GMT, French anarchist Martial Bourdin attempts to destroy the Royal Greenwich Observatory, London, England with a bomb.
• March 1 - Thomas McGreevy, Canadian politician and contractor, is released from prison after serving time for defrauding the government
• March 4 - The First Sino–Japanese War: Great fire in Shanghai; over 1,000 buildings are destroyed
• March 12 - For the first time Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.
• March 15 - Anarchist Jean Pauwels dies in a Madeline church in Paris when his bomb explodes in his pocket
• March 25 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C.

May-August

• May - outbreak of bubonic plague in the Tai Ping Shan area of Hong Kong. The disease killed a total of 2,552 people in the territory that year
• May 1 - Coxey's Army arrives in Washington D.C.
• May 1 - May Day Riots of 1894 break out in Cleveland, Ohio
• May 11 - Pullman Strike: Three thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a "wildcat" (without union approval) strike in Illinois.
• May 14 - Meteor shower in Southern France
• May 14 - Blackpool Tower opened in Blackpool, Lancashire, England
• June 22 - Dahomey becomes French colony
• June 23 - International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
• June 24 - Assassination of Sadi Carnot, president of France
• June 30 - Tower Bridge in London opened for traffic
• July 4 - The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
• August 1 - Declaration of war between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, over their rival claims of influence on their common ally, the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. The event marks the start of the first Sino-Japanese War.
• August 15 - Sante Jeronimo Caserio executed for the Marie Francois Sadi Carnot assassination

September-December

• September 1 - Great Hinckley Fire: A forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota kills more than 400 people.
• September 4 - In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions.
• October 15 - Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying - Dreyfus affair begins
• 30 October - Domenico Menegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.
• November 1 - Russian Tsar Alexander III dies and is succeeded by his son Nicholas II.
• December 18 - Women in South Australia become the first in Australia to gain the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament.
• December 21 - Mackenzie Bowell becomes Canada's fifth prime minister.

Unknown dates

• Western countries give up their extraterritorial rights in Japan
• Grace Kimmins founds the Guild of the Poor Brave Things
• New Zealand becomes the first country to pass a minimum wage law

Births

January-March

• January 1 - Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (d. 1974)
• January 20 - Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976)
• January 30 - King Boris III of Bulgaria (d. 1943)
• January 31 - Isham Jones, American jazz musician (d. 1956)

• February 3 - Norman Rockwell, American artist and illustrator (d. 1978)
• February 8 - Ludwig Marcuse, German philosopher (d. 1971)
• February 10 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)
• February 11 - Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (d. 1974)
• February 14 - Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
• February 25 - Meher Baba, Avatar of the Age, was born in India (d. 1969)
• February 28 - Ben Hecht, American playwright, and film writer (d. 1964)
• March 17 - Paul Green, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (d. 1981)
• March 19 - Moms Mabley, American comedienne (d. 1975)

April-June

• April 10 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian, and educationist (d. 1983)
• April 13 - Arthur Fadden, thirteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1973)
• April 15 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
• April 17 - Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Soviet politician (d. 1971)
• April 26 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (d. 1987)
• May 11 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
• May 16 - Walter Yust, American encyclopædia editor (d. 1960)
• May 27 - Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
• May 27 - Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)
• May 31 - Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956)
• June 4 - Gabriel Pascal, Hungarian Film Producer (d. 1954)
• June 5 - Roy Thomson, Canadian publisher (d. 1976)
• June 9 - Nedo Nadi, Italian fencer (d. 1940)
• June 14 - Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1924)
• June 23 - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (d. 1972)

July-September

• July 9 - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• July 18 - Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940)
• July 19 - Khawaja Nazimuddin, second Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1965)
• July 26 - Aldous Huxley, English author (d. 1963)
• August 3 - Harry Heilmann, baseball player (d. 1951)
• August 28 - Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981)
• August 28 - Elisha Scott, footballer (d. 1959)
• September 2 - Joseph Roth, Austrian writer (d. 1939)
• September 13 - J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (d. 1984)
• September 13 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (d. 1953)
• September 15 - Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979)
• September 24 - Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (d. 1968)

October-December

• October 5 - Bevil Rudd, South African athlete (d. 1948)
• October 7 - Del Lord, Hollywood director (d. 1970)
• October 14 - E. E. Cummings, American poet (d. 1962)
• October 15 - Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1965)
• October 25 - Claude Cahun, French photographer and writer (d. 1954)
• November 2 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamics engineer (d. 1976)
• November 24 - Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (d. 1978)
• November 26 - Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (d. 1964)
• November 29 - Lucille Hegamin, American singer and entertainer (d. 1970)
• December 17 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (d. 1979)
• December 20 - Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
• December 26 - Jean Toomer, Poet (d. 1967)
• December 31 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)

Unknown date

• Chaim Soutine, Russian-born painter (d. 1944)
• Edwin Linkomies, Finnish Prime Minister

Deaths

• January 1 - Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist (b. 1857)
• February 4 - Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (b. 1814)
• February 6 - Maria Deraismes, French feminist (b. 1828)
• February 11 - Pasqual Juan Emilio Arrieta y Corera, composer
• June 3 - Karl Eduard Zachariae, German jurist and expert on Byzantine law (b. 1812)
• October 24 - Tsar Alexander III of Russia (b. 1845)
• November 20 - Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1829)
• November 25 - Solomon Caesar Malan, Swiss-born orientalist (b. 1812)
• December 3 - Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (b. 1850)
• December 9 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)
• December 12 - John Sparrow David Thompson, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1845)

Fictional events of the year

Sherlock Holmes returns to London from "The Great Hiatus".