Events of 1895

January–March

January 5: Dreyfus Affair.

April 17: Shimonoseki treaty: Qing China renounces claim on Korea.

May 24: Republic of Formosa.

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

• January 21 – The National Trust is founded in Britain by Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.

• February 9 – Mintonette, later known as volleyball, is created by William G. Morgan at Holyoke, Massachusetts.

• February 11 – The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) is recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record is equalled in 1982 and again in 1995.

• February 14 – Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest is first shown at St. James' Theatre in London.

• 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.

• March 4 – Japanese troops capture Liaoyang and land in Taiwan.

• March 15 – in County Tipperary, Ireland, Bridget Cleary is killed by her husband, believing her to be a fairy changeling.

April–June

• 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 incorporated.

• April 17 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki is 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 Fengtien province, Taiwan, and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

• April 22 – Gongche Shangshu movement: 603 candidates sign a 10,000-word petition against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

• May 2 – Gongche Shangshu movement: Thousands of Beijing scholars and citizens protest against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

• May 24 – Anti-Japanese officials led by Tang Ching-sung in Taiwan declare independence from the Qing Dynasty, forming the short-lived Republic of Formosa.

• May 25 – Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and is sentenced to serve 2 years in prison at Reading.

• May 27 – In re Debs: The Supreme Court of the United States decides that the federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, legalizing the military suppression of the Pullman Strike.

• June 28 – The union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).

July–September

July 31: Sabino Arana founded the Basque Nationalist Party.

October 1895 issue: The Cosmopolitan, illustrated.

October 22: Montparnasse.

• Night of July 10/11 – The Doukhobors' pacifist protests culminate in the "Burning of the Arms" in their villages in the South Caucasus.

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

• July 31 – The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) was founded by Basque nationalist leader Sabino Arana.

• 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 Northern Rugby Football Union (now Rugby Football League) is formed at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England. This event leads to the creation of the sport of rugby league football.

• September 3 – The first professional American football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club (Latrobe wins 12–0).

• September 7 – The first game of what would become known as rugby league football is played, in England, starting the 1895-96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.

• September 18 – Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise speech.

• September 18 – Tomoji Tanabe is born in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. He would become the last living man born in 1895. Tanabe died on June 19, 2009, at the age of 113.

October–December

• October – Rudyard Kipling publishes the story Mowgli Leaves the Jungle Forever in The Cosmopolitan illustrated magazine (price 10 cents).

• October 1 – French troops capture Antananarivo in Madagascar.

• October 8 – Empress Myung-sung, the national mother of korea, is killed by Japan.

• October 22 – A train wreck occurs at Montparnasse Station in Paris.

• October 23 – The city of Tainan, last stronghold of the Republic of Formosa, capitulates to the forces of the Empire of Japan, ending the short-lived republic and beginning the Japanese rule era.

• October 31 – A major earthquake occurs in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the last to date.

• 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 25 – Oscar Hammerstein opens the Olympia Theatre, the first theatre to be built in NYC's Times Square district.

• 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 his death.

• December – 3,000 Armenians are burned alive in Urfa by the Ottoman troops.

• December 7 – A corps of 2,500 Italian troops, mostly Ascari, are crushed by 30,000 Abyssian troops at Amba Alagi.

• December 24 – George Washington Vanderbilt II officially opens his "Biltmore House" estate on Christmas Eve, inviting his family to celebrate his new home in Asheville, NC.

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

Undated

• The London School of Economics and Political Science is founded in London, England.

• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator.

• Grace Chisholm Young becomes 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.

• The Duck Reach Power Station, Tasmania opens.

• The first Boxer (dog) show is held at Munich, Germany.

• A huge crowd at the Welsh Grand National at Ely Racecourse, Cardiff, almost overwhelms police trying to keep out gatecrashers.

• The gold reserve of the U.S. Treasury is saved when J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds loan $65 million worth of gold to the United States government.

• The Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina is completed.

• The Swarovski Company opens.

• German trade unions have c. 270,000 members.

• The huge indemnity exacted from China is used to establish the Yawata Iron and Steel Works.

• Empress Myeongseong is assassinated.

• A coup in Guayaquil starts 20 years of ultra-liberist government in Ecuador.

• Foundation of:

• *Dundela FC (Belfast, Ireland)

• *Shelbourne F.C. (Dublin, Ireland)

Births

January–June

• 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 23 – Raymond Griffith, American actor (d. 1957)

• January 24 – Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)

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

• February 1 – John Ford, American film director (d. 1973)

• February 2 – George Halas, American football player, coach, and co-founder of the National Football League (d. 1983)

• February 6 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player (d. 1948)

• February 14 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)

• February 15 – Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)

• February 19 – Diego Mazquiarán, Spanish matador (d. 1940)

• 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)

• February 28 – Marcel Pagnol, French novelist and playwright (d. 1974)

• March 3

• *Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)

• *Matthew Ridgway, Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff (d. 1993)

• March 4

• *Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (The Three Stooges) (d. 1955)

• *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 23 – Encarnacion Alzona, Filipino historian (d. 2001)

• March 28 – Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)

• March 29 – Ernst Jünger, German author (d. 1998)

• 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 13 – Olga Rudge, American violinist (d. 1996)

• April 15

• *Corrado Alvaro, Italian writer and journalist (d. 1968)

• *Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (d. 1980)

• April 20 – Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)

• April 29 – Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)

• May 6 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)

• May 8 – Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic archbishop and television personality (d. 1979)

• May 10 – Kama Chinen, Japanese woman supercentenarian and oldest person in the world

• May 25 – Dorothea Lange, American documentary photographer and photojournalist (d. 1965)

• June 24 – Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight boxer (d. 1983)

July–December

• July 2 – Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, Russian aircraft engineer (d. 1975)

• 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)

• *Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)

• *Jaromír Korčák, Czech geographer, demographer and statistician (d. 1989)

• July 14 – F.R. Leavis, British literary critic (d. 1978)

• July 19 – Xu Beihong, Chinese painter (d. 1953)

• 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 comedian (d. 1964)

• August 6 – Ernesto Lecuona, A Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1963)

• August 16 – Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)

• August 18 – Sibyl Morrison, Australian barrister (d. 1961)

• August 24 – Tuanku Abdul Rahman, King of Malaysia (d. 1960)

• September 1 – Chembai, Indian Carnatic musician (d. 1974)

• September 7 – Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (d. 1985)

• September 11 – Vinoba Bhave, Indian religious leader (d. 1982)

• September 18 – Tomoji Tanabe, Japanese supercentenarian who would become the last living man born in 1895 (d. 2009)

• September 24 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)

• September 29 – Joseph Banks Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)

• October 3

• *Giovanni Comisso, Italian writer (d. 1969)

• *Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin, Russian lyric poet (d. 1925)

• October 4 – Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (d. 1966)

• October 6 – Caroline Gordon, American writer and critic (d. 1981)

• October 8

• *Juan Domingo Perón, President of Argentina (d. 1974)

• *King Zog of Albania (d. 1961)

• October 13

• *Cemal Gürsel, Turkish army officer and President (d. 1966)

• *Mike Gazella, American baseball player (d. 1978)

• October 14 – Silas Simmons, Pre-Negro League Baseball player, longest-lived professional baseball player (d. 2006)

• October 19 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)

• October 21 – Edna Purviance, American actress (d. 1958)

• October 22 – Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (d. 1980)

• October 25 – Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister (d. 1969)

• October 30

• *Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)

• *Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)

• October 31 – Basil Liddell Hart, British military historian (d. 1970)

• November 5 – Walter Gieseking, German pianist (d. 1956)

• November 10 – John Knudsen Northrop, American airplane manufacturer (d. 1981)

• November 14 – Walter Freeman, American physician (d. 1972)

• November 15

• *Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)

• *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)

• *Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (d. 1986)

• November 29 – Busby Berkeley, American film director and choreographer (d. 1976)

• December 2 – Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)

• December 28 – Carol Ryrie Brink, American author (d. 1981)

• December 14

• *Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)

• *King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)

Deaths

January–June

• January 9 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watchmaker (b. 1812)

• January 10 – Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)

• January 24 – Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (b. 1849)

• February 2 – Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)

• February 20 – Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave and author (b. 1818)

• February 25 – Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, politician (b. 1815)

• February 26 – Salvador de Itúrbide y de Marzán, Prince of Mexico (b. 1849)

• March 2 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)

• March 10 – Charles Frederick Worth, English-born couturier (b. 1826)

• April 4 – Nikolai Baranov, Russian politician (b. 1843)

• May 19 – José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)

• May 21 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)

• May 26 – Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, Ottoman statesman (b. 1822)

• June 6 – Gustaf Nordenskiöld, Swedish explorer (b. 1868)

• June 27 – Sophie Adlersparre, Swedish feminist (b. 1823)

• June 29

• *Thomas Henry Huxley, English evolutionary biologist (b. 1825)

• *Green Clay Smith, American politician (b. 1826)

• *Floriano Vieira Peixoto, 2nd president of Brazil (b. 1839)

• *Emile Munier, French artist (b. 1840)

July–December

• July 28 – Edward Beecher, American theologian (b. 1803)

• August 4 – Louis-Antoine Dessaulles, Quebec journalist and politician (b. 1818)

• August 5 – Friedrich Engels, German communist 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 5 – Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa of Japan (b. 1847)

• November 23 – Mauritz de Haas, Dutch-American marine painter (b. 1832)

• November 27 – Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author and playwright (b. 1824)

• December 13 – Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist, inventor of the Dynamo (b. 1800)