1890 - Definition and Overview

Events

• January 2 - Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the U.S. White House.
• January 25 - The United Mine Workers of America is founded.
• January 25 - Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
• March 1 - Léon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest Constans as French Minister of the Interior
• March 4 - The longest bridge in Britain, the Forth Rail Bridge (1,710 ft) in Scotland is opened.
• March 20 - Wilhelm II of Germany fires Otto von Bismarck
• June 1 - The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
• July 3 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
• July 10 - Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.
• July 27 - Vincent van Gogh shoots himself to the chest and dies two days later
• August 6 - At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electric chair is performed (murderer William Kemmler was the subject).
• October 11 - In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
• November 23 - King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to become Queen.
• November 29 - The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.
• November 29 - In West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24 to 0 in the first Army-Navy football game.
• December 29 - The United States Seventh Cavalry massacres over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota (see Wounded Knee Massacre).

unknown dates

• Britain receives Zanzibar from Germany in exchange of Heligoland
• Scotland Yard moves to Embankment
• The cardboard box is invented by Robert Gair.
• U.S. Census - Herman Hollerith devises method using punch cards (like Jacquard's loom) to tabulate the data by machine, since existing methods would use more than ten years. (see also History of computing hardware). Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM.

Births

January-March

• January 1 - Anton Melik, Slovene geographer
• January 4 - Victor Lustig, con artist (d. 1947)
• January 7 - Henny Porten, actress (d. 1960)
• January 9 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist
• January 9 - Karel Čapek, Czech writer (d. 1938)
• February 10 - Boris Pasternak, writer, winner Nobel Prize in literature
• January 19 - Elise Rivet, Roman Catholic nun and war hero (d. 1945)
• February 11 - John de Vries, fairy tale writer
• February 14 - Nina Hamnett, artist
• February 17 - Ronald Fisher, biologist
• February 18 - Adolphe Menjou, actor (d. 1963)
• February 24 - Marjorie Main, actress (d. 1975)
• February 25 - Dame Myra Hess, English pianist (d. 1965)
• February 25 - (old date) Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (d. 1986)
• February 27 - Freddie Keppard, jazz musician (d. 1933)
• March 9 - (new date) Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (d. 1986)
• March 11 - Vannevar Bush, author
• March 20 - Beniamino Gigli, tenor (d. 1957)
• March 20 - Lauritz Melchior, opera singer (d. 1973)
• March 28 - Paul Whiteman, bandleader (d. 1967)

April-December

• April 6 - Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer
• May 4 - Franklin Carmichael, Canadian artist, member of Group of Seven
• May 10 - Alfred Jodl, German general (d. 1946)
• May 15 - Katherine Anne Porter, author (d. 1980)
• May 19 - Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam (d. 1969)
• May 23 - Herbert Marshall, actor (d. 1966)
• June 6 - Ted Lewis, jazz musician and entertainer (d. 1971)
• June 16 - Arthur Stanley Jefferson, British actor later known as Stan Laurel
• June 26 - Jeanne Eagels, American actress (d. 1929)
• July 18 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1983)
• August 5 - Erich Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 1956)
• August 20 - Howard Phillips Lovecraft, horror writer.
• August 24 - Duke Kahanamoku, US swimmer
• September 10 - Elsa Schiaparelli, French couturiere (d. 1973)
• September 15 - Agatha Christie, English mystery writer
• September 20 - Jelly Roll Morton. Jazz pianist, composer, bandleader (d. 1941)
• October 2 - Groucho Marx, comedian (d. 1977)
• October 14 - Dwight David Eisenhower, US general and president
• October 16 - Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
• October 16 - Paul Strand, American photographer.
• November 22 - Charles de Gaulle, French president
• December 5 - David Bomberg, painter
• December 8 - Bohuslav Martinu, composer
• December 30 - Lanoe Hawker, British fighter pilot

Deaths

• January 18 - Amadeus I of Spain, ex-king
• February 22 - John Jacob Astor III, American businessman
• July 29 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter
• October 26 - Carlo Collodi, Italian writer, the creator of Pinocchio
• November 3 - Ulrich Ochsenbein, member of the Swiss Federal Council (* 1811)
• November 8 - César Franck, composer and organist
• November 23 - King William III of the Netherlands
• December 26 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist