Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity
The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time - placed the Prime Minister in order of precedence in Britain immediately after the Archbishop of York
Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration
Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship
America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French (completed 1914)
France and UK sign the Entente Cordiale
Leeds University established
First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright
Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain
Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst
Henry Ford sets up his motor company
Coronation of Edward VII
Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War
Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated
Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education
Cremation Act - cremation can only take place at officially recognised establishments, and with two death certificates issued
Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi - Morse code from Cornwall to Newfoundland
Britain's first submarine launched
Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War
Queen Victoria's funeral - interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park
Queen Victoria dies - Edward VII king
Commonwealth of Australia founded
Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
Labour Party formed
Davis Cup tennis competition established
School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified
Escalator shown at Paris exhibition
Start of Second Boer War
Aspirin first marketed by Bayer
The first solo circumnavigation of the globe completed at Rhode island by Joshua Slocum in Spray (started from Boston, Mass on Apr 24, 1895)
USS Holland launched, the first practical submarine
First photograph using artificial light
Zeppelin builds airship
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company founded
Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio
First modern Olympic Games held in Athens
X-rays discovered
First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences - John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey
First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain
Oscar Wilde sent to prison
Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted
The National Trust founded in England
Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London
Death duties first introduced in Britain
Tower Bridge first opens
Blackpool Tower opens
Picture postcard introduced in Britain
Manchester Ship Canal opens
Henry Ford's first car
Zip fastener invented
Alfred Lord Tennyson dies, aged 83, at his house Aldworth, near Haslemere
Electric oven invented
Shop Hours Act - limit 74 hours per week for under-18's
Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera
Fictional date when Sherlock Holmes throws Moriarty over Reichenbach Falls, then disappears for 3 years! (published in 1893)
First telephone link between London & Paris
Primary education made free and compulsory
City & South London Railway opens - London's first deep-level tube railway and first major railway in the world to use electric traction
Forth railway bridge opens - took six years to build
Length of a metre defined
Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast
Children's charity NSPCC launched in London
Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)
Celluloid film produced
Dock Strike - docker's won their 'Docker's Tanner' 6 old pennies
Football League formed
Convention of Constantinople guarantees free maritime passage through Suez Canal in war and peace
Jack the Ripper active in east London during the latter half of the year
County Councils set up in Britain
Dunlop invents pneumatic tyre
First box camera - George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film
Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car
Putney Bridge opens in London
Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage later named 'Coca-Cola'
Mersey railway (under Mersey) opened by Prince of Wales
First electric tramcar used at Blackpool
The first train runs through the Severn Tunnel
First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking
Carl Benz builds the 'Motorwagen', a single-cylinder motor car
Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle
Eastman makes first coated photographic paper
Canadian Pacific Railway completed
Greenwich made prime meridian of the world
John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes
Eruption of Krakatoa near Java - 30,000 killed by tidal wave
Parcel post starts in Britain
Brooklyn Bridge, New York opens (crosses East River)
Statue of Liberty presented to USA by France
Fourth Eddystone Lighthouse completed
Gunfight at OK Corral
Godalming in Surrey became the first town in England to have a public electricity supply installed (but in 1884 it reverted to gas lighting until 1904)
Postal Orders introduced
Flogging abolished in Army and Royal Navy
Greenwich Mean Time adopted throughout UK
Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year olds
Mosquito found to be the carrier of malaria
Blackpool illuminations switched on for first time
Edison & Swan invent electric lamp
Red Flag Act in Britain limits mechanical road vehicles to 4mph
CID established at New Scotland Yard
Edison invents microphone and phonograph
Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone - Bell awarded the rights
London's main sewage system completed
Midland Railway abolishes Second Class passenger facilities, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies followed during the rest of the year. (Third Class was renamed Second Class in 1956)
Birkenhead Park opened, said to be the first civic public park in the world - features of it later copied in Central Park, New York
Factory Act introduces 56-hour week
American ship 'Mary Celeste' is found abandoned by the British brig 'Dei Gratia' in the Atlantic Ocean
Licensing hours introduced
Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng & Wales)