| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1893 | USA [fiction] | The US writer Stephen Crane publishes his novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. |
| 1893 | USA [fiction] | The US writer Ambrose Bierce publishes his collection of short stories Can Such Things Be? |
| 1893 | USA [food and drink] | William Wrigley introduces Juicy Fruit and Spearmint to his chewing gum ranges. Wrigley's is the leading brand in the USA by 1910. |
| 1893 | USA [food and drink] | The Coca-Cola trademark is registered. |
| 1893 | New Zealand [legislation] | New Zealand becomes the first country to extend the franchise to women. |
| 1893 | USA [medicine] | Canadian physician William Osler, US surgeons William Stewart Halsted and Howard Atwood Kelly, and US pathologist William Henry Welch establish Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland. Associated with Johns Hopkins Hospital, and created especially for teaching and research, it excels in clinical work and surgery, and sets an example that influences medical education in the USA. |
| 1893 | Laos, France [colonization] | France proclaims a protectorate in Laos, continuing the expansion of its influence in Southeast Asia. |
| 1893 | Germany [motor vehicles] | German mechanical engineer Karl Friedrich Benz constructs his first four-wheeled car. |
| 1893 | Russia [orchestral music] | The Russian composer Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky completes his Symphony No. 6, the Pathétique/Pathetic. |
| 1893 | Bohemia [orchestral music] | The Bohemian composer Antonín Dvorák completes his Symphony No. 9 (once classified as No. 5); Z noveho svéta/From the New World; and his String Quartet in F major (Opus 96), the American. |
| 1893 | UK [philosophy] | The British philosopher Francis Herbert Bradley publishes Appearance and Reality. |
| 1893 | USA [physics] | German-born US electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz develops a mathematical method for making calculations about alternating current (AC) circuits. By allowing the performance and efficiency of electrical equipment to be predicted, it leads to the rapid development of devices using AC. |
| 1893 | Norway [plays] | The play Bygmester Solness/The Master Builder, by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen, is first performed, in Trondheim, Norway. |
| January 1893 | France, Russian Empire [diplomacy] | A Franco-Russian alliance is signed, formalizing the entente established between the two countries in August 1891. |
| 12 January 1893 | Germany [births and deaths] | Hermann Goering, German Nazi leader under Hitler, born in Rosenheim, Germany (–1946). |
| 13 January 1893 | UK [political parties] | The Independent Labour Party is formed under (James) Keir Hardie at a conference in Bradford, England. |
| 17 January 1893 | Pacific, USA [administration] | Hawaiian revolutionaries depose Queen Liliuokalani, amid rumours of US government complicity. |
| 15 February 1893 | USA, Pacific [administration] | US president Benjamin Harrison's administration submits a Hawaiian annexation treaty to the US Senate, but on 9 March the newly inaugurated president Grover Cleveland retracts the treaty amid controversy over US complicity in the Hawaiian revolution. |
| 10 March 1893 | Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, France [colonization] | The French colonies of French Guinea and the Ivory Coast are formally established. |
| 5 May - 27 June 1893 | USA [economic conditions] | Panic grips Wall Street as the stock prices dive in the USA. By the end of June, some 600 banks and 15,000 businesses have closed and 74 railways have declared bankruptcy. |
| 10 May 1893 | Natal [decolonization] | Britain grants Natal self-government following war over its declaration of independence. |
| 11 May 1893 | USA [births and deaths] | Martha Graham, US choreographer of modern dance, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (–1991). |
| 9 June 1893 | USA [births and deaths] | Cole Porter, US composer and lyricist, born in Peru, Indiana (–1964). |
| 6 July 1893 | France [births and deaths] | Guy de Maupassant, French short-story writer in the Naturalist school, dies in Paris, France (42). |
| 21 September 1893 | USA [motor vehicles] | Brothers Charles and Frank Duryea, who own a bicycle shop, test the first gasoline-powered car built in the USA. |
| 22 September 1893 | USA [motor vehicles] | At Springfield, Massachusetts, US inventors Charles Edgar and James Frank Duryea demonstrate the first car built in the USA. It has a single-cylinder, water-cooled petrol engine, electric ignition, rubber tyres, and leather transmission. |
| 6 November 1893 | Russia [births and deaths] | Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky, leading 19th-century Russian composer who, amongst a great variety of works, composed the music for the ballets Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty, dies in St Petersburg, Russia (53). |
| 26 December 1893 | China [births and deaths] | Mao Zedong, Chinese Marxist theorist who is chairman of the People's Republic of China 1949–59 and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party 1949–76, born in Shaoshan, Hunan Province, China (–1976). |
