January 4
January 4
Utah enters the Union
Six years after Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon church, issued his Manifesto reforming political, religious, and economic life in Utah, the territory is admitted into the Union as the…
A Year In History: 1896
This Year in History:
1896
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
February 1
February 1
Puccini’s “La Bohème” premieres in Turin, Italy
On February 1, 1896, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème premieres at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy. It would go on to become one of the opera world’s most enduring, and…
April 6
April 6
First modern Olympic Games
On April 6, 1896, the Olympic Games, a long‑lost tradition of ancient Greece, are reborn in Athens 1,500 years after being banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. At the opening…
May 7
May 7
Serial killer H.H. Holmes is hanged in Philadelphia
Dr. H. H. Holmes, one of America’s first well‑known serial killers, is hanged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born Herman Mudgett in New Hampshire, Holmes began torturing animals as a child. Still,…
May 18
May 18
Supreme Court rules “separate but equal” constitutional in Plessy v. Ferguson
In a major victory for supporters of racial segregation, the U.S. Supreme Court rules seven to one that a Louisiana law providing for “equal but separate accommodations for the white…
May 26
May 26
Czar Nicholas II crowned
Nicholas II, the last czar, is crowned ruler of Russia in the old Ouspensky Cathedral in Moscow. Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the…
June 4
June 4
Henry Ford test‑drives his “Quadricycle”
At approximately 4:00 a.m. on June 4, 1896, in the shed behind his home on Bagley Avenue in Detroit, Henry Ford unveils the “Quadricycle,” the first automobile he ever designed…
August 16
August 16
Gold discovered in the Yukon
While salmon fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory on August 16, 1896, George Carmack reportedly spots nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His lucky discovery sparks…
August 25
August 25
Outlaw Bill Doolin is killed
The outlaw Bill Doolin is killed by a posse at Lawson, Oklahoma on the night of August 25, 1896. Born in Arkansas in 1858, William Doolin was never as hardened a criminal…
