1890s
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The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade," because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of mauve|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 automobile|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
Film|Motion pictures
Ragtime music
Accession of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia|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 (novel)|The War of the Worlds''.
Hale Johnson is a major leader of the temperance movement.
Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, under Mary Hunt, achieves ''de facto'' control over all alcohol education in the U.S.
Others
People
World leaders
Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson (Canada)
Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Canada)
Emperor Franz Josef of Austria|Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany|Wilhelm II (Germany)
Chancellor Leo von Caprivi (Germany)
King Umberto I of Italy|Umberto I (Italy)
Pope Leo XIII
Czar Alexander III of Russia|Alexander III (Russia)
Czar Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II (Russia)
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Lord Salisbury (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebery (United Kingdom)
President Benjamin Harrison (United States)
President Grover Cleveland (United States)
President William McKinley (United States)
Important people
Thomas A. Edison
Nikola Tesla
Entertainers
Adelina Patti
George W. Johnson
Justin Smith
Jonathan Booth
Sports
Bob Fitzsimmons
Books about the 1890s
''The Mauve Decade'', by Thomas Beer (1926)
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/games/game_0/— Educational Game, In the style of the Monty Pythons
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