January 5 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
January 12 - The National Trust is founded in Britain.
February 9 - William G. Morgan modifies Mintonette to volleyball.
February 11 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled on 10 January 1982 and again on 30 December 1995.
February 24 - Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the second war for Cuban independence, which ended with the Spanish-American War in 1898.
March 22 - First display (a private screening) of motion pictures by Auguste and Louis Lumière.
April 3 - Trial of the libel case instigated by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
April 6 - Oscar Wilde is arrested (in the Cadogan Hotel, London) after losing a libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.
April 8 - The Supreme Court of the United States declares income tax to be unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
April 17 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. 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 7 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention
May 17 - The first Omonoia station of the Athens metro is inaugurated in Greece.
May 24 - Henry Irving becomes the first personage from the theatre to be knighted.
May 25 - Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
May 25 - The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.
June 28 - El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form the Central American Union.
June 29 - Doukhobors burn their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.
July 11 - The Lumière brothers demonstrate film technology to scientists.
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 formation of the Northern Rugby Union at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.
September 18 - Booker T. Washington delivers the "Atlanta Compromise" address.
September 18 - Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
September 30 - Madagascar becomes a French protectorate.
October 4 - The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.
October 5 - The first individual time trial for racing cyclists is held on a 50-mile course north of London.
October 8 - Eulmi incident- Queen Min of Joseon, the last empress of Korea, is assassinated and her corpse burnt by the Japanese in Gyeongbok Palace.
October 21 - The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
October 22 - In Paris an express train overruns a buffer stop and crosses more than 30 metres of concourse before plummeting through a window at Gare Montparnasse.
November 2 - The first gasoline-powered race in the United States. First prize: $2,000
November 5 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
November 8 - While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
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.
November 28 - The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours.
December 28 - The Lumière brothers have their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines marking the debut of the cinema.
