| 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. |
| 1896 | Poland [fiction] | The Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz publishes his novel Quo Vadis?. |
| 1896 | England [fiction] | The English writer Thomas Hardy publishes his novel Jude the Obscure. |
| 1896 | USA [food and drink] | Italian immigrant Italo Marcioni creates the ice-cream cone in the USA. |
| 1896 | UK [administration] | Queen Victoria becomes the longest-reigning British monarch. |
| 1896 | France [cinema and film] | Le Coucher de la Marie, directed by Eugène Pirou, is released in France. The first pornographic movie, it stars Louise Willy. |
| 1896 | UK [legislation] | The ‘Red Flag Act’ of 1865, which required a man on foot carrying a red flag to precede all carriages, is repealed. |
| 1896 | USA [newspapers] | The first comic-strip in a newspaper appears in the New York World. |
| 1896 | UK [newspapers] | Alfred Harmsworth founds the Daily Mail newspaper in Britain, which is advertised as ‘bright and breezy’, and sold at ½ pence. |
| 1896 | Italy [opera] | The opera La Bohème/The Bohemian Girl by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini is first performed, in Turin, Italy. |
| 1896 | [orchestral music] | Austrian composer Gustav Mahler completes his Symphony No 3. |
| 1896 | France [painting] | The French artist Paul Cézanne paints The Great Pine and The Lake at Annecy. |
| 1896 | France [philosophy] | The French philosopher Henri Bergson publishes Matière et Mémoire/Matter and Memory. |
| 1896 | England [poetry] | The English writer A E Housman publishes his poetry collection A Shropshire Lad. |
| 1896 | USA [tools] | US inventor Elmer Ambrose Sperry develops the gyrocompass, which always points to true north. It is first installed on the US battleship Delaware, in 1911, and later in torpedoes and aeroplanes. |
| 2 January 1896 | Transvaal [wars] | Leander Starr Jameson surrenders to Boer commandos at Doornkop, Transvaal, after his attempt to start an anti-Boer rising in Transvaal fails. |
| 3 January 1896 | Germany, Transvaal [diplomacy] | Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany sends the ‘Kruger telegram’ congratulating the Transvaal leader on suppressing the ‘Jameson raid’, and provokes a crisis in Anglo-German relations. |
| 6 January 1896 | Cape Colony, Transvaal [law and government] | Cecil Rhodes resigns the premiership of Cape Colony following the failure of the raid on Transvaal by his friend Leander Starr Jameson. |
| 2 February 1896 | Crete, Greece, Ottoman Empire [revolution] | A revolution inspired by the Greeks begins on the Ottoman island of Crete in the search for independence from Turkey. |
| 1 March 1896 | Ethiopia, Italy [wars] | The Ethiopians under King Menelek II defeat the attacking Italian force at Adowa, Ethiopia, forcing Italy to sue for peace. |
| 12 March 1896 | Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, UK [wars] | In order to protect the Nile region from a French advance, Britain decides to undertake the re-conquest of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, evacuated in 1885 because of the hostility of the Sudanese followers of the dervish Mahdi (prophet) Mohammed Ahmed of Dongola. |
| 6 April - 15 April 1896 | Greece [Olympic Games] | The first Olympic Games of the modern era are held in Athens, Greece, in the ancient Panathenaic stadium. Around 250 athletes (all men) from 14 nations assemble to compete in 44 track and field, swimming, cycling, fencing, Graeco-Roman wrestling, gymnastics, shooting, tennis, and weightlifting events. The USA wins 11 gold medals (including 9 of the 12 track and field gold medals); Greece wins 10 gold medals; Germany, 7; France, 5; Great Britain, 3; Hungary, Austria, and Australia, 2 each. The marathon, using the ancient course covered by Pheidippides after the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, is won by Spiridon Louis of Greece. |
| 1 May 1896 | Persia [law and government] | The Shah of Persia Nasir ud-Din is murdered and is succeeded by his son Muzaffar ud-Din. |
| 18 May 1896 | USA [law and government] | The US Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, upholds the concept of separate railway cars for black Americans, creating the basis for segregationist provision of ‘separate but equal’ public facilities in the USA, known as Jim Crow. |
| June 1896 | UK [communications] | Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi patents wireless telegraphy. In September, he gives public demonstrations, sending signals 6.4 km/4 mi over Salisbury Plain, England, and 14.5 km/9 mi over the Bristol channel. |
| 27 June 1896 | UK [cinema and film] | Footage of the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Cardiff Exhibition is the first newsfilm to be shown in Britain. |
| 1 July 1896 | USA [births and deaths] | Harriet Beecher Stowe, US writer, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, dies in Hartford, Connecticut (85). |
| 18 August 1896 | Madagascar [colonization] | France annexes Madagascar, whose external treaties with other states are annulled. |
| 24 September 1896 | USA [births and deaths] | F Scott Fitzgerald, US novelist and short-story writer, born in St Paul, Minnesota (–1940). |
| 26 October 1896 | Ethiopia, Italy [wars] | By the Treaty of Addis Ababa the Italian protectorate of Ethiopia is withdrawn, following Italian military defeat by the Ethiopians. |
| 3 November 1896 | UK [media and communication] | The world's first permanent wireless installation is set up at The Needles on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, England, by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. |
| 3 November 1896 | USA [elections] | Republican candidate William McKinley is elected as president of the USA. In the Congressional elections, the Republicans retain majorities in the House (204–113) and Senate (47–34). |
| 10 December 1896 | Sweden, Italy [births and deaths] | Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel prizes, dies in San Remo, Italy (63). |
| 12 December 1896 | UK, Italy [technology] | The Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi publically demonstrates his system for commercially viable radio communication in Britain and obtains a patent. |
