Events of 1894

January–March

March 12: Coca-Cola in bottles (copies).

• January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

• January 9 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.

• February 12 – French anarchist Émile Henry set off a bomb in a Parisian cafe, killing one person and wounding twenty.

• February 13 – The Het Gezelschap "Practische Studie", a study association of civil engineering, is founded at the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands.

• February 15 – At 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 – First Sino-Japanese War: A great fire in Shanghai destroys over 1,000 buildings.

• March 12 – For the first time, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.

• March 21 – A syzygy of planets occurs as Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both transit the Sun as seen from Saturn. But no two of the transits are simultaneous.

• March 25 – Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs from Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C.

April–June

May 14: Blackpool Tower.

• April 16 – Manchester City Football Club is formed.

• May – The bubonic plague breaks out in the Tai Ping Shan area of Hong Kong (by the end of the year, the death toll is 2,552 people).

• May 1

• *Coxey's Army arrives in Washington, D.C.

• *The 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

• *A meteor shower is seen in Southern France.

• *Blackpool Tower is opened in Blackpool, Lancashire, England.

• May 21 – The Manchester Ship Canal and Docks are opened by Queen Victoria.

• June 22 – Dahomey becomes a French colony.

• June 23 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

• June 24 – Sadi Carnot, president of France, is assassinated.

• June 30 – The Tower Bridge in London opens for traffic.

July–September

July: Fire damages Columbian Exposition.

• July – A fire at the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago destroys most of the remaining buildings.

• July 4 – The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.

• August 1 – War is declared 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 Geronimo Caserio is executed for the assassination of Marie François Sadi Carnot.

• September 1 – Great Hinckley Fire: A forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota kills more than 450 people.

• September 4 – In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions.

October–December

Nov. 1: Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia

• October 1 – The Owl Club of Cape Town, South Africa has its first formal meeting.

• October 15 – Dreyfus affair: French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.

• October 30 – Domenico Menegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.

• November 1 – Russian Tsar Alexander III is succeeded by his son Nicholas II.

• November 7 – The Masonic Grand Lodge de France is founded, splitting from the larger and older Grand Orient de France.

• November 5 – West Palm Beach, Florida is incorporated as a city.

• 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.

• December 22 – Dreyfus Affair: French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason.

Undated

• Western countries give up their extraterritorial rights in Japan.

• Grace Kimmins founds the Guild of the Poor Brave Things.

• Kate Chopin writes The Story of An Hour (fiction).

• The National College of Music, London, is founded by the Moss family.

• In the U.S., the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects is founded.

• Chatham Episcopal Institute (now know as Chatham Hall ) is founded in Chatham Virginia , U.S.

• Sir William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh discover the first noble gas, Argon.

• Oil is discovered on the Osage Indian reservation, making the Osage the richest group of people in the world.

• In Korea, peasant unrest erupts in a massive revolt of followers of the Tanghak movement. Both China and Japan send military forces, claiming to come to the Korean government's aid. They end up fighting each other instead.

Births

January–June

• January 1 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (d. 1974)

• January 8 – Vilmos Tkálecz, Hungarian politician (d. unknown)

• 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, British Prime Minister (d. 1986)

• February 11 – Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (d. 1974)

• February 14 – Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)

• February 25 – Meher Baba, Indian Avatar of the Age (d. 1969)

• February 28 – Ben Hecht, American playwright, film writer (d. 1964)

• March 17 – Paul Green, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (d. 1981)

• March 19 – Moms Mabley, African American comedienne (d. 1975)

• March 30 – Nikolai P. Barabashov, Russian astronomer (d. 1971)

• April 6 – Gertrude Baines, American supercentenarian, world's oldest verified living person (d. 2009)

• April 10

• *Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian, and educationalist (d. 1983)

• *Ben Nicholson English abstract artist (d. 1982)

• April 13 – Arthur Fadden, Australian Prime Minister (d. 1973)

• April 15 – Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)

• April 17 – Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Soviet politician (d. 1971)

• April 26 – Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (d. 1987)

• April 27 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian/American musicologist (d. 1995)

• May 11 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)

• May 16 – Walter Yust, American encyclopædia editor (d. 1960)

• May 20 – Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian religious scholar and saint (d.1994)

• May 27

• *Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)

• *Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)

• May 31 – Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956)

• June 4 – Gabriel Pascal, Hungarian film producer (d. 1954)

• June 7 – 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)

• *Alfred Kinsey, American sexologist (d. 1956)

July–December

• July 9 – Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)

• July 18 – Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940)

• July 19 – Khawaja Nazimuddin, Pakistani Prime Minister (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)

• *Elisha Scott, footballer (d. 1959)

• September 2 – Joseph Roth, Austrian writer (d. 1939)

• September 7 – George Waggner, American film director, producer, and actor (d. 1984)

• September 13

• *J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (d. 1984)

• *Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (d. 1953)

• September 15 – Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979)

• September 24 – Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (d. 1968)

• 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, Israeli Prime Minister (d. 1965)

• October 18 – H. L. Davis, American author (d. 1960)

• October 25

• *Claude Cahun, French photographer and writer (d. 1954)

• *Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu, Turkish poet, songwriter and saz player (d. 1973)

• November 2 – Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamics engineer (d. 1976)

• November 4 – Chafik Charobim, Egyptian impressionist painter (d. 1975)

• November 5 – Harold Innis, Canadian communications scholar (d. 1952)

• November 24 – Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (d. 1978)

• November 26 – Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (d. 1964)

• November 27 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist (d. 1989)

• November 29 – Lucille Hegamin, American singer and entertainer (d. 1970)

• December 5 – Philip K. Wrigley, American business and sports executive (d. 1977)

• December 8 – James Thurber, American writer (d. 1961)

• December 17 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (d. 1979)

• December 20 – Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister (d. 1978)

• December 22 – Edwin Linkomies, Finnish Prime Minister (d. 1963)

• December 26 – Jean Toomer, American poet (d. 1967)

• December 31 – Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)

Deaths

January–June

• January 1 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (b. 1857)

• January 13 – Nadezhda von Meck, patron of Tchaikovsky (b. 1831)

• February 3 – Auguste Vaillant, French anarchist (b. 1861) (executed)

• February 4 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (b. 1814)

• February 8 – Robert Michael Ballantyne, Scottish novelist (b. 1825)

• February 11 – Margaret Emma Henley, inspiration for the name "Wendy" in Peter Pan (b. 1888)

• February 27 – Hilarión Daza, President of Bolivia (assassinated) (b. 1840)

• March 3 – Ned Williamson, American baseball player (b. 1857)

• March 20 – Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician (b. 1802)

• April 8 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali poet (b. 1838)

• June 3 – Karl Eduard Zachariae, German jurist and expert on Byzantine law (b. 1812)

• June 7 – King Hassan I of Morocco (b. 1836)

• June 23

• *Marietta Alboni, Italian opera singer (b. 1826)

• *Władysław Czartoryski, Polish political activist and art collector (b. 1828)

• June 25 – Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (assassinated) (b. 1837)

July–December

• September 13 – Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (b. 1841)

• October 20 – James Anthony Froude, English historian (b. 1818)

• October 30 – Juan Cortina, Mexican folk hero (b. 1824)

• November 1 – 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 8 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)

• December 12 – John Sparrow David Thompson, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1845)

• December 28 – Chamaraja Wodeyar, Maharajah of Mysore (b. 1863)