1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1892nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 892nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 92nd year of the 19th century, and the 3rd year of the 1890s decade. As of the start of 1892, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Calendar year
In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west.
Events
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January
[edit]
January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing immigrants to the United States.[1]
February
[edit]
February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies for a patent, on his compression ignition engine (the Diesel engine).
February 29 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated as a town.
March
[edit]
March 1 – Theodoros Deligiannis ends his term as Prime Minister of Greece and Konstantinos Konstantopoulos takes office.
March 6–8 – Exclusive Agreement: Rulers of six Trucial States (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain) and Bahrain sign an agreement, by which they become de facto British protectorates.
March 11 – The first basketball game is played in public, between students and faculty at the Springfield YMCA before 200 spectators.[2] The final score is 5–1 in favor of the students, with the only goal for the faculty being scored by Amos Alonzo Stagg.[2]
March 13 – Ernest Louis, a grandson of Queen Victoria, becomes Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine on the death of his father, Grand Duke Louis IV.
March 15
The Liverpool Football Club is founded in England by John Houlding, the owner of Anfield; Houlding decides to form his own team after Everton leaves Anfield, in an argument over rent.
Jesse W. Reno patents the first escalator, installed at Coney Island.
March 17 – The St. Patrick's Day Snowstorm besieges Tennessee with upwards of 26 inches of snow, establishing accumulation records that still stand.
March 18 – Sir Frederick Stanley, Governor General of Canada, announces his intention to donate the Stanley Cup for ice hockey.
March 20 – The first ever French rugby championship final takes place in Paris. Pierre de Coubertin referees the match, which Racing Club de France wins 4–3 over Stade Français.
March 31 – The world's first fingerprinting bureau is formally opened by the Buenos Aires Chief of Police; it has been operating unofficially since the previous year.
February 27: Rudolf Diesel's patent.
April
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April 15 – The General Electric Company is established through the merger of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and the Edison General Electric Company.
April – The Johnson County War breaks out between small farmers and large ranchers in Wyoming.
May
[edit]
May 19 – Battle of Yemoja River: British troops defeat Ijebu infantry in modern-day Nigeria, using a maxim gun.
May 20 – The last broad gauge train runs from Paddington on the Great Western Railway of England.
May 22 – The British conquest of Ijebu Ode marks a major extension of colonial power into the Nigerian interior.
May 24 – Prince George (later George V of the United Kingdom) becomes Duke of York.[3]
June
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June 5 – An oil fire in Oil City, Pennsylvania, United States, kills 130 people.
June 6 – The Chicago "L" begins operation for the first time with the opening of the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad.
June 7 – Homer Plessy, a mixed-race man, is arrested for deliberately sitting in a whites-only railroad car in Louisiana, leading to the landmark United States Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which legitimized "separate but equal" racial segregation in the United States.
June 11 – The Limelight Department, later one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
June 30 – The Homestead Strike begins in Homestead, Pennsylvania, culminating in a battle between striking workers and private security agents on July 6.
July
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July 4 – Samoa changes its time zone from 4 hours ahead of Japan to being 3 hours behind California, such that it crosses the International Date Line, and Monday, July 4 occurs twice.
July 4–26 – British general election: The Conservative and Liberal Unionist coalition government loses its majority in the House of Commons, eventually leading to Prime Minister Lord Salisbury's resignation on August 12.
July 6
Dr. José Rizal, Filipino writer, philosopher and political activist, is arrested by Spanish authorities in connection with La Liga Filipina.
Homestead Strike: The arrival of a force of 300 Pinkerton detectives from New York and Chicago results in a fight in which about 10 men are killed.
July 8 – The Great Fire of 1892 devastates the city of St. John's, Newfoundland.
July 12 – A hidden lake bursts out of a glacier on the side of Mont Blanc, flooding the valley below and killing around 200 villagers and holidaymakers in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains.
July 13 – The United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property (UIBPIP or BIRPI) is established in Bern, Switzerland.
July 16 – Queen Victoria meets with Martha Ann Ricks.[4]
July 25 – The Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican religious community for men, is founded by Charles Gore and Walter Frere, initially in Oxford.
August
[edit]
August 4
The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home; she will be acquitted of their murder.[5]
August 9 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
August 15 – Valparaíso, Chile founds its first football team, Santiago Wanderers.
August 18 – William Ewart Gladstone assumes the U.K. premiership, as head of the Liberal government, with Irish Nationalist Party support.
September
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September 8 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in the United States.
September 9 – Amalthea, the fifth moon of Jupiter, is discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard.
September 15 – Sergei Witte replaces Ivan Vyshnegradsky, as Russian finance minister.
September 22 – The 'Little Pastry Chef', a French police informant among anarchists, is murdered in Saint-Denis.
September – Women are first admitted to Yale University's graduate school.
October
[edit]
October 1 – The University of Chicago holds its first classes.
October 5: Dalton Gang.Oct.31: "Sherlock Holmes"
October 5
The Dalton Gang, attempting to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, is shot by the townspeople; only Emmett Dalton, with 23 wounds, survives, to spend 14 years in prison.
Master criminal Adam Worth is captured in Liège, Belgium, during an attempted robbery of a money delivery cart.
October 12 – To mark the 400th anniversary Columbus Day holiday, the "Pledge of Allegiance" is first recited in unison by students in U.S. public schools.
October 30 – The Historical American Exposition opens in Madrid.
October 31 – The first collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories from The Strand Magazine, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, is published in London.
November
[edit]
November 2 – The first football club in Bohemia, Slavia Praha is established, originally under name of Akademický cyklistický odbor Slavia (A.C.O.S.), focusing on cycling.
November 8
1892 United States presidential election: Grover Cleveland is elected over Benjamin Harrison and James B. Weaver, to win the second of his non-consecutive terms.
An anarchist bomb kills six in a police station in Avenue de l'Opéra, Paris.
The four-day New Orleans General Strike begins.
November 17 – French troops occupy Abomey, capital of the kingdom of Dahomey.
November 24 – The Hotel Zinzendorf catches fire in the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; 45 people die.
December
[edit]
December 5 – John Thompson becomes Canada's fourth prime minister.
December 17 – First issue of Vogue is published in the United States.
December 18 – The Nutcracker ballet, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
December 22 – The Newcastle East End F.C. is renamed Newcastle United F.C., following the demise of the Newcastle West End F.C. and East End's move to St James' Park, formerly West End's home, in the north east of England.
Date unknown
[edit]
Diplomat Henry Galway secures a treaty by which Ovonramwen, Oba of Benin, ostensibly accepts British protection for his kingdom.[6]
A cholera outbreak occurs in Hamburg, Germany.
A 50-year-old tortoise called Timothy, previously serving as a naval mascot, is brought to the estate of Powderham Castle in England, where she lives until her death in 2004.
Viruses are first described by Russian biologist Dmitri Ivanovsky.
Manuel Nieto, Filipino footballer, businessman, politician, and military official (d. 1980)
June 16 – Daisy Burrell, British actress (d. 1982)
June 21
Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian (d. 1971)
Hilding Rosenberg, Swedish composer (d. 1985)
June 22 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German field marshal (d. 1945)
June 23 – Mieczysław Horszowski, Polish pianist (d. 1993)
June 25
Katherine Kennicott Davis, American composer (d. 1980)
Shirō Ishii, Japanese microbiologist, lieutenant general of Unit 731 (d. 1959)
Mongush Buyan-Badyrgy, Tuvan politician and statesman (d. 1932)
June 26 – Pearl S. Buck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
June 28
Clifford Campbell, Jamaican educator, politician (d. 1991)
E. H. Carr, English historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist (d. 1982)
June 30 – Oswald Pohl, German S.S. officer (d. 1951)
July
[edit]
Haile Selassie IWilliam Powell
July 1 – James M. Cain, American author and journalist (d. 1977)
July 2
Daniel Mercier, French footballer and soldier (d. 1914)
Sweet Evening Breeze, African American drag queen (d. 1983)
July 4 – A. G. Gaston, American businessman (d. 1996)
July 6
Willy Coppens, Belgian World War I flying ace (d. 1986)
John Simpson Kirkpatrick, Australian soldier (d. 1915)
July 8
Richard Aldington, English poet (d. 1962)
Dean O'Banion, American gangster (d. 1924)
Lester C. Hunt, American politician (d. 1954)
July 9 – Cromwell Dixon, American pioneer aviator (d. 1911)
July 11
Trafford Leigh-Mallory, British aviator and Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal (d. 1944)
Thomas Mitchell, American actor (d. 1962)
July 12 – Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (d. 1942)
July 15
Walter Benjamin, German philosopher and cultural critic (suicide 1940)
Milena Rudnytska, Ukrainian educator, women's activist, politician and writer (d. 1979)
Henry Johnson, African-American Army soldier (d. 1929)
July 16 – Michel Coiffard, French World War I fighter ace (d. 1918)
July 21 – Lenore Ulric, American actress (d. 1970)
July 22 – Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi politician (d. 1946)
July 23 – Haile Selassie I, Ethiopian emperor (d. 1975)
July 24 – Alice Ball, African American chemist (d. 1916)
July 29 – William Powell, American actor (d. 1984)
July 31 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist and founder of the Worldwide Church of God (d. 1986)
August
[edit]
Jack L. Warner
August 2 – Jack L. Warner, Canadian film producer (d. 1978)
August 6 – Hoot Gibson, American actor, film director (d. 1962)
August 11
Władysław Anders, Polish general, politician (d. 1970)
Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poet (d. 1978)
August 12 – Alfred Lunt, American actor, stage director (d. 1977)
August 14 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English composer and pianist (d. 1988)
August 15
Louis de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
Walther Nehring, German general (d. 1983)
August 17 – Tamon Yamaguchi, Japanese admiral (d. 1942)
August 20 – George Aiken, American politician and horticulturist (d. 1984)
August 21 – Charles Vanel, French actor and director (d. 1989)
August 22 – Percy Fender, English cricketer (d. 1985)
August 25 – Gabriel Guérin, French World War I fighter ace (d. 1918)
August 26 – Elizebeth Smith Friedman, American cryptographer (d. 1980)
August 27 – Helen Gibson, American actress and performer (d. 1977)
August 29 – Kwan Sung-sing, Chinese construction engineer, architect, and entrepreneur (d. 1960)
September
[edit]
Edward Victor AppletonArthur ComptonPinto ColvigIvo Andrić
September 1 – Harold Lamb, American writer, novelist, and historian (d. 1962)
September 4 – Darius Milhaud, French composer (d. 1974)
September 5 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (d. 1973)
September 6 – Edward Victor Appleton, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
September 9 – Tsuru Aoki, Japanese American actress (d. 1961)
September 10 – Arthur Compton, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
September 11 – Pinto Colvig, American vaudeville actor, radio actor, newspaper cartoonist, prolific movie voice actor and circus performer (original voice of Goofy) (d. 1967)
September 12 – Alfred A. Knopf Sr., American publisher (d. 1984)
September 13 – Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, Duchess of Brunswick (d.1980)
September 20 – Patricia Collinge, Irish-American actress (d. 1974)
September 24
Julia Faye, American actress (d. 1966)
Adélard Godbout, Canadian agronomist and politician (d. 1956)
October
[edit]
October 2 – Ilie Crețulescu, Romanian general (d. 1971)
October 4
Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian statesman, chancellor (d. 1934)
Luis Trenker, South Tyrolean film producer, director, writer, actor, architect and alpinist (d. 1990)
October 7 – Louis C. Fraina, founder of the Communist Party USA (d. 1953)
October 8 – Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (d. 1941)
October 9 – Ivo Andrić, Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
October 14 – Andrei Yeremenko, Soviet military leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1970)
October 17
R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, Indian jurist, economist (d. 1953)
Theodor Eicke, German Nazi and Waffen-SS general (d. 1943)
Herbert Howells, English composer, organist, and teacher (d. 1983)
October 20 – Oliver Goonetilleke, Sri Lankan statesman (d. 1978)
October 23 – Gummo Marx, American actor, comedian (d. 1977)
October 25 – Nell Shipman, Canadian actress, writer, and director (d. 1970)
October 27
Graciliano Ramos, Brazilian writer (d. 1953)
Charles Ledoux, French wrestler (d. 1967)
October 29 – Stanisław Ostrowski, President of Poland (d. 1982)
October 30 – Charles Atlas, Italian-American strongman, sideshow performer (d. 1972)
October 31 – Alexander Alekhine, Russian chess champion (d. 1946)
November
[edit]
Francisco FrancoRebecca West
November 2 – Alice Brady, American actress (d. 1939)
November 3 – Maria Antonescu, Romanian socialite and philanthropist (d. 1964)
November 5 – J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist (d. 1964)
November 9 – Erich Auerbach, German philologist (d. 1957)
November 12 – Guo Moruo, Chinese author, poet (d. 1978)
November 16
Richard Hale, American singer, actor (d. 1981)
Tazio Nuvolari, Italian racing driver (d. 1953)
November 20
James Collip, Canadian biochemist (d. 1965)
November 22 – Emma Tillman, American supercentenarian, briefly the world's oldest living person and last surviving person born in 1892 (d. 2007)
November 25 – Arthur Blackburn, Australian soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 1960)
^Harlan D. Unrau (1984). Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York-New Jersey. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. p. 208.
^ ab"Basket Football Game". Springfield Republican. Springfield, Massachusetts. March 12, 1892. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
^Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British chronology. Cambridge England: New York Cambridge University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780521563505.
^Vincent, Benjamin (1911). Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information (25th ed.). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 824.
^Anderson, REPRINT AUTHOR PLACEHOLDER,Sonja. "How Lizzie Borden Got Away With Murder". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved July 26, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Igbafe, Philip A. (1970). "The fall of Benin: A Reassessment". The Journal of African History. XI (3): 385–400. doi:10.1017/S0021853700010215. JSTOR 180345. S2CID 154621156.
^Castrén, Klaus: Majewski-suku SuomessaArchived June 24, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, GENOS - journal of the Finnish genealogy society, issue #70/1999. Accessed on 24 June 2021.
^Hitchins, Keith (1994). Rumania, 1866-1947. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 110. ISBN 9780198221265.
^Samuel Atkins Eliot (1910). Heralds of a Liberal Faith. American Unitarian Association. p. 151.