1890s

Centuries:
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades:
1860s 1870s 1880s - 1890s - 1900s 1910s 1920s
Years:
1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade," because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no connotation of Homosexuality as in current-day usage.

Events and trends

Technology

Early commercial production of automobiles.

Science

Henri Becquerel discovers Radioactivity
Discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen
Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius and US geologist Thomas Crowder Chamberlain independently come to the conclusion that burning fossil fuels might cause Global warming due to Carbon dioxide emissions

War, peace and politics

Second Boer War
Spanish-American War
Split in Irish nationalism over Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell's affair with a fellow MP's wife, Kitty O'Shea
The New Imperialism

Culture, religion

Motion pictures
Ragtime music
Accession of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in the world's first ever filmed coronation.
Lynchings of African Americans in the United States averaged 150 per year.
H. G. Wells creates modern science fiction with his book The War of the Worlds.

Others

People

World leaders

Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson (Canada)
Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Canada)
Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany)
Chancellor Leo von Caprivi (Germany)
King Umberto I (Italy)
Pope Leo XIII
Czar Alexander III (Russia)
Czar Nicholas II (Russia)
Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Lord Salisbury (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Lord Rosebery (United Kingdom)
President Benjamin Harrison (United States)
President Grover Cleveland (United States)
President William McKinley (United States)

Important people

Entertainers

Books about the 1890s

The Mauve Decade, by Thomas Beer (1926)