1891

1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 1 - Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany
• January 20 - James Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state.
• January 29 - Liliuokalani proclaimed Queen of Hawaii
• March 3 - The International Copyright Act of 1891 was passed by the 51st Congress of the United States of America
• March 9 - 12 - Powerful storm off England's south coast; 14 ships sink
• March 17 - The British steamship SS Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar, killing 574.
• April 1 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• May 1 - Nine killed and thirty wounded when troops fire on workers' May Day demonstration in support of eight-hour workday in Fourmies, France.
• May 5 - The Music Hall in New York (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
• May 20 - First public display of Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope (shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs).
• June 16 - John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister.
• June 21 - First long-distance transmission of Alternating current by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado by Lucien and Paul Nunn.
• August 27 - France and Russia conclude defensive alliance.
• October 1 - In California, Stanford University opens its doors
• December 29 - Thomas Edison patents the radio

• Building of The Trans-Siberian Railroad begins (ends 1917)
• The Brahmin teacher and nationalist, Bal Bangadhar tilak, begins agitation for Indian home Rule
• Civil War in Chile
• Kicking Bear surrenders
• Earthquake in Japan kills 25.000
• Famine in Russia
• Maria Skłodowska enters Sorbonne University
• New Scotland Yard becomes the HQ of London Metropolitan Police
• Swiss Army Knife
• Winter - James Naismith invents Basketball
• The Tobacco Protest occurs in Iran

Births

• January 8 - Walther Bothe, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
• February 9 - Ronald Colman, English actor (d. 1958)
• February 11 - J.W. Hearne English cricketer (d. 1965).
• February 27 - David Sarnoff, Russian-born broadcasting pioneer (d. 1971)
• March 10 - Sam Jaffe, American actor (d. 1984)
• March 19 - Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)
• March 24 - John Knittel, dramatist (d. 1970)
• March 29 - Yvan Goll, lyricist and dramatist (d. 1950)
• April 2 - Max Ernst, German painter (d. 1976)
• April 13 - Nella Larsen, American novelist (d. 1964)
• April 17 - George Adamski, Polish-born UFO traveler (d. 1965)
• April 23 - Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer (d. 1953)
• May 15 - Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian writer (d. 1940)
• May 16 - Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (d. 1948)
• May 18 - Rudolf Carnap, German philosopher (d. 1970)
• May 19 - Oswald Boelcke, German World War I pilot (d. 1916)
• May 22 - Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (d. 1963)
• May 23 - Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• May 24 - William F. Albright, American archeologist and Biblical scholar (d. 1971)
• June 9 - Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (d. 1964)
• June 18 - Grace Thaxton,oldest resident in history of Kentucky and oldest person ever born in the state of New York. 6 July 2005
• June 20 - Li Jieren, Chinese author,translater (d. 1962)
• June 20 - John A. Costello, second Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1976)
• June 21 - Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (d. 1966)
• June 30 - Man Mountain Dean, American professional wrestler (d. 1953)
• July 5 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
• September 12 - Don Pedro Albizu Campos, advocate of Puerto Rican independence (d. 1965)
• September 14 - William F. Friedman, American cryptographer (d. 1969)
• September 16 - Karl Dönitz, President of Germany (d. 1980)
• September 26 - Charles Munch, French conductor and violinist (d. 1968)
• September 28 - Myrtle Gonzalez, American film and stage actress (d. 1918)
• October 20 - James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• October 24 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (d. 1961)
• November 14 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine (d. 1941)
• November 15 - Vincent Astor, American philanthropist (d. 1959)
• November 15 - Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (d. 1944)
• December 26 - Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980)

Deaths

• January 5 - Emma Abbott, American opera singer (b. 1849)
• January 16 - Léo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)
• January 21 - Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b. 1842)
• March 15 - Théodore de Banville, French writer (b. 1823)
• March 15 - Sir Joseph Bazalgette, English civil engineer (b. 1819)
• April 7 - Phineas Taylor Barnum, American circus impresario (b. 1810)
• May 8 - Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Russian-born author and theosophist (b. 1831)
• July 4 - Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States (b. 1809)
• August 12 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)
• August 14 - Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (b. 1803)
• September 15 - Ivan Goncharov, Russian author (b. 1812)
• September 28 - Herman Melville, American novelist (b. 1819)
• October 6 - Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist leader (b. 1846)
• October 15 - Gilbert Arthur a Beckett, English writer (b. 1837)
• November 10 - Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (b. 1854)

Fictional events of the year

Sherlock Holmes is believed to have died in the Reichenbach fall with the "Napoleon of crime", Professor James Moriarty.