1895

1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events

January

• January 5 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

February

• February 11 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled in 1982 and again in 1995.
• February 14 - First *showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St. James' Theatre in London).

March

• March 1 - William L. Wilson is appointed United States Postmaster General
• March 3 - In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates

April

• April 6 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
• April 14 - a major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• April 16 - the town of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario is incorparated.
• April 17 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki (also known as Treaty of Maguan) was signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the first Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

May

• May 24 - Anti-Japanese officials led by Tang Ching-sung in Taiwan declared independence from Qing, forming the short-lived Republic of Formosa.
• May 25 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and is sentenced to serve two years in a prison in Reading.

June

• June 11 - Britain annexes Togoland
• June 28 - Union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).

July

• July 15 - Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.

August

• August 19 - American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
• August 29 - The sport of rugby league is formed at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.

September

• September 3 - The first professional football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club. (Latrobe won the contest 12-0.).
• September 18 - Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise Speech.
• September 18 - D D Palmer of Davenport, Iowa, delivers the first chiropractic adjustment of the spine to Harvey Lillard, allegedly restoring his hearing and founding what would become the largest licensed non-medical doctorate level health care profession in the U.S.

November

• November 5 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
• November 8 - Wilhelm Röntgen discovers a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• November 27 - At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies (he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 10, 1896).

December

• December 28 - Auguste and Louis Lumière display their first moving picture film in Paris

Unknown date

• Dundela FC were formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland
• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator
• Most recent major earthquake in the New Madrid Fault Zone
• Grace Chisholm Young, the first woman awarded a doctorate at a German university
• W.E.B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University
• Duck Reach Power Station opens
• The first Boxer show was held at Munich, Germany.

Births

January-March

• January 1 - J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1972)
• January 15 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
• January 21 - Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish-French couturier (d. 1972)
• January 24 - Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)
• February 1 - John Ford, American film director (d.1973)

January 30 - Wilhelm Gustloff, German-born Swiss Nazi party leader (d. 1936)

• February 2 - George Halas, American football player, coach, and co-founder of the National Football League (d. 1983)
• February 6 - Babe Ruth, baseball player (d. 1948)
• February 14 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
• February 15 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)
• February 21 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
• February 25 - Lew Andreas, American basketball coach (d. 1984)
• March 3 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
• March 3 - Matthew Ridgway, Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff (d. 1993)
• March 4 - Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (d. 1955)
• March 4 - Bjarne Brustad, Norwegian violinist, composer and teacher (d. 1978)
• March 4 - Milt Gross, American comic book illustrator and animator (d. 1953)
• March 12 - William C. Lee, U.S. general (d. 1948)
• March 20 - Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1944)
• March 29 - Ernst Jünger, German author (d. 1998)

April-June

• April 1 - Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)
• April 3 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
• April 9 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (d. 1976)
• April 15 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (d. 1980)
• April 20 - Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)
• April 28 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)
• April 29 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)
• May 6 - Rodolfo Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
• May 8 - Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic archbishop and television personality (d. 1979)
• May 12 - William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
• May 15 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (d. 1941)
• May 30 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1975)
• May 30 - Maurice Tate, English cricketer (d. 1956)
• June 10 - Hattie McDaniel, American actress (d. 1952)

July-September

• July 8 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
• July 10 - Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)
• July 12 - Kirstin Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (d. 1982)
• July 12 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)
• July 24 - Robert Graves, English writer (d. 1985)
• July 25 - Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (d. 1977)
• July 26 - Gracie Allen, American actress and comedienne (d. 1964)
• August 16 - Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
• September 7 - Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (d. 1985)
• September 11 - Vinoba Bhave, Indian religious leader (d. 1982)
• September 24 - André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)
• September 29 - J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)

October-December

• October 2 - Bud Abbott, American actor (d. 1974)
• October 4 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (d. 1966)
• October 8 - Juan Perón, President of Argentina (d. 1974)
• October 8 - King Zog of Albania (d. 1961)
• October 10 - Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Gosvami Maharaja, religious Guru from India (d. 1988)
• October 16 - Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan, is born on this day, he becomes a future Cambrigde University Student and coins the name PAKISTAN in 1933 (d. 1951)
• October 19 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
• October 21 - Edna Purviance, actress (d. 1958)
• October 22 - Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (d. 1980)
• October 25 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
• October 30 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)
• October 30 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)
• October 31 - Basil Liddell Hart, military historian (d. 1970)
• November 5 - Walter Gieseking, German pianist (d. 1956)
• November 15 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (d. 1976)
• November 16 - Paul Hindemith, German composer (d. 1963)
• November 17 - Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher and literary scholar (d. 1975)
• November 25 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)
• November 29 - Busby Berkeley, American film director and choreographer (d. 1976)
• December 2 - Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)
• December 14 - Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)
• December 14 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
• Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, King of Malaysia (d. 1960)

Deaths

• January 9 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watchmaker (b. 1812)
• January 10 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)
• February 2 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)
• February 20 - Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave and author (b. 1818)
• March 2 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
• March 10 - Charles Frederick Worth, English-born couturier (b. 1826)
• May 19 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)
• May 21 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
• June 29 - Sir Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (b. 1825)
• August 5 - Friedrich Engels, German socialist philosopher (b. 1820)
• August 22 - Luzon B. Morris, American politician (b. 1827)
• September 28 - Louis Pasteur, French microbiologist and chemist (b. 1822)
• October 8 - Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min), last Korean empress (b. 1851)
• October 25 - Charles Hallé, German-born pianist and conductor (b. 1819)
• November 27 - Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author and playwright (b. 1824)
• December 13 - Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist, the inventor of the Dynamo

Date unknown

• Green Clay Smith, American politician (b. 1826).
• The gold reserve of the U.S. Treasury was saved when J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds loaned $65 million worth of gold to the United States government.