1890

Events

January

• January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa.
• January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House.
• January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The United Kingdom demands Portugal withdraw its forces from the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.
• January 15 – Ballet The Sleeping Beauty, with music by Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
• January 25
• * The United Mine Workers of America is founded.
• * American journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

  February

• February 5 – The worldwide insurance and financial service brand Allianz is founded in Berlin, Germany.
• February 18 – The National American Woman Suffrage Association is founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
• February 24 – Chicago is selected to host the World's Columbian Exposition.

  March

• March 3 – The first American football game in Ohio State University history is played in Delaware, Ohio, against Ohio Wesleyan
• March 4 – The Forth Bridge, the longest bridge in Great Britain, on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, is opened to rail traffic.
• March 8 – North Dakota State University is founded in Fargo.
• March 17 – The first railway in Transvaal, the Randtram, opens between Boksburg and Braamfontein in Johannesburg.
• March 20 – Kaiser Wilhelm II forces Otto von Bismarck to resign as Chancellor of Germany.
• March 27
• * March 1890 middle Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak: 24 significant tornadoes are spawned by one system, including one that kills 76 people in Louisville, Kentucky.
• * Preston North End retain the English Football League Championship, winning their final game at Notts County
• March 28 – Washington State University is founded in Pullman.

  April

• April 2 – Kashihara Shrine, a landmark spot in Nara Prefecture, Japan, is officially built by Emperor Mutsuhito.
• April 14 – At the First International Conference of American States, in Washington D.C., The Commercial Bureau of the American Republics is founded.

  May

• May 1 – A coordinated series of mass rallies and one-day strikes is held throughout many cities and mining towns in Europe and North America, to demand an eight-hour workday.
• May 2 – President Benjamin Harrison signs the Oklahoma Organic Act, under which Oklahoma Territory is organized, a prerequisite for later statehood.
• May 12 – The first ever official English County Championship cricket match begins in Bristol; Yorkshire beats Gloucestershire, by eight wickets.
• May 20 – Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh moves to Auvers-sur-Oise on the edge of Paris, in the care of Paul Gachet, where he will produce around seventy paintings in as many days.
• May 30 – The five-story skylight Arcade opens in Cleveland, Ohio.
• May 31 – The Ulm Minister opens in Ulm, Germany as the world's tallest cathedral.

  June

• June 1 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to tabulate census returns using punched card input, a landmark in the history of computing hardware. Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM. The 1890 United States census determines the US population to be 62,979,766, an increase of 25.5 percent relative to the 1880 census.
• June 16 – Royal Dutch Petroleum, predecessor of Royal Dutch Shell, the major worldwide energy production and sales company, is founded in the Netherlands to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatra.
• June 20 – The Picture of Dorian Gray is published by Philadelphia-based Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.
• June 27 – Canadian-born boxer George Dixon defeats the British bantamweight champion in London, giving him claim to be the first black world champion in any sport.

July

• July 1
• * Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty: Britain cedes the Heligoland islands to Germany, in return for protectorates over Wituland and the Sultanate of Zanzibar in east Africa.
• * 1890 Japanese general election: In the first general election for the House of Representatives of Japan, about 5% of the adult male population elect a lower house of the Diet of Japan, in accordance with the new Meiji Constitution of 1889.
• * The Ouija board is first released by Elijah Bond.
• July 2 – The Sherman Antitrust Act and Sherman Silver Purchase Act become United States law.
• July 3 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
• July 10 – Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.
• July 13 – In Minnesota, storms result in the Sea Wing disaster on Lake Pepin, killing 98.
• July 26 – In Buenos Aires, the Revolution of the Park takes place, forcing President Juárez Celman's resignation.
• July 27 – Death of Vincent van Gogh: van Gogh shoots himself, dying two days later.

  August

• August 6 – At Auburn Prison in New York, William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed in the electric chair.
• August 20 – Treaty of London: Portugal and the United Kingdom define the borders of the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.
• August 23 – The BOVESPA stock exchange is founded in São Paulo, Brazil.
• August – Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Alexander III meet at Narva.

  September

• September 6 – Dublin association football club Bohemian F.C. is founded in the Gate Lodge, Phoenix Park.
• September 12 – Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded.
• September 19 – The University of North Texas is founded, as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute.
• September 25 — President Wilford Woodruff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues the 1890 Manifesto ending the official practice of polygamy.

  October

• October 1 – Yosemite National Park is established in California.
• October 9 – The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory, France. It flies uncontrolled approximately at a height of, the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.
• October 11 – In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
• October 12 – The Uddevalla Suffrage Association is founded in Sweden, with a formal founding event on November 2 a month later.
• October 13 – The Delta Chi fraternity is founded by 11 law students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

  November

• November 4 – The first deep level London Underground Railway, the City and South London Railway, opens officially.
• November 21 – Edward King, Anglican bishop of Lincoln, is convicted of using ritualistic practices.
• November 23 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir, and his daughter Princess Wilhelmina becomes Queen, causing the end of the personal union of thrones with Luxembourg so that Adolphe, Duke of Nassau becomes Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
• November 29
• * The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan, and its first Diet convenes.
• * At West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24–0 in the first Army–Navy Game of college football.
• November – Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, moves to a building on London's Victoria Embankment, as New Scotland Yard.

  December

• December 10 – The New York World Building is completed in New York City, the tallest building in the United States for 10 years at a height of 110 meters.
• December 15 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed by police on Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
• December 24 – The Oklahoma territorial legislature establishes three institutions of higher learning University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma.
• December 29 – Wounded Knee Massacre: At Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a Lakota camp, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment tries to disperse the non-violent "Ghost-Dance" which was promised to usher in a new era of power and freedom to Native Americans but is feared as a potential rallying tool for violent rebellion by some in the U.S. government. Shooting begins, and 153 Lakota Sioux and 25 troops are killed; about 150 flee the scene. This is the last tribe to be defeated and confined to a reservation as well as the beginning of the decline of both the American Indian Wars and the American frontier.

  Date unknown

• The folding carton box is invented by Robert Gair, a Brooklyn printer who developed production of paper-board boxes in 1879.
• The United States city of Boise, Idaho, drills the first geothermal well.
• Brown trout are introduced into the upper Firehole River, in Yellowstone National Park.
• High School Cadets is written by John Philip Sousa.
• William II of Prussia opposes Bismarck's attempt to renew the law outlawing the Social Democratic Party.
• Blackwall Buildings, Whitechapel, noted philanthropic housing, is built in the East End of London.
• English archaeologist Flinders Petrie excavates at Tell el-Hesi, Palestine, the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land, during which he discovers how tells are formed.
• American geostrategist Alfred Thayer Mahan publishes his influential book The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783.
• Francis Galton announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprints.
• Japanese tractor and iron pipe brand, Kubota founded in Osaka, Japan.
• Emerson Electric, an American electronics industry giant, is founded in Missouri.

  Births

January

• January 1 – Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer
• January 3 - Eddie Gribbon, American comedy actor
• January 4
• *Augustus Agar, British commodore, Victoria Cross recipient
• *Victor Lustig, Bohemian-born con artist
• January 5 – Sarah Aaronsohn, member of the Jewish spy ring Nili
• January 8 – Taixu, Chinese Buddhist activist
• January 9
• * Kurt Tucholsky, German-born journalist and satirist
• * Karel Čapek, Czech writer
• January 11 – Oswald de Andrade, Brazilian Modernist writer
• January 13 – Jüri Uluots, 8th Prime Minister of Estonia
• January 19 – Élise Rivet, French Roman Catholic nun and war heroine
• January 20 – Boris Kozo-Polyansky, Russian botanist and evolutionary biologist
• January 22 – Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States
• January 28
• * Néstor Guillén, Bolivian politician, 40th President of Bolivia
• * Robert Stroud, ''Birdman of Alcatraz''