At Wounded Knee, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment massacres 153 Lakota Sioux. Elsewhere, Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed by police on Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
Vincent van Gogh moves to Auvers-sur-Oise on the edge of Paris in the care of Dr Paul Gachet where he will produce around seventy paintings in as many days before shooting himself in the chest with a 7mm Lefaucheux à broche revolver.
In the UK, the Forth Bridge is opened to rail traffic and first deep level London Underground Railway, the City and South London Railway, opens.
The first ever official English County Championship cricket match begins in Bristol; Yorkshire beats Gloucestershire by 8 wickets. In London, Canadian-born boxer George Dixon defeats the British bantamweight champion, giving him claim to be the first black world champion in any sport.
Kaiser Wilhelm II dismisses Otto von Bismarck.
Portugal and the United Kingdom define the borders of the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.
In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
Francis Galton announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprints.
Births
Agatha Christie, English writer (d. 1976)
Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th President of the United States (d. 1969)
Robert Franklin Stroud, Birdman of Alcatraz (d. 1963)
Carlos Gardel, Argentine tango singer (d. 1935)
Charles de Gaulle, President of France (d. 1970)
A. P. Herbert, English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist (d. 1971)
Ho Chi Minh, Prime minister/President of North Vietnam (d. 1969)
Stanley Holloway, English actor (d. 1982)
Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
Fritz Lang, German-Austrian filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1976)
Stan Laurel, English-born actor (d. 1965)
H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (d. 1937)
Victor Lustig, Bohemian-born con artist (d. 1947)
Groucho Marx, American comedian (d. 1977)
Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (d. 1986)
Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1941)
Boris Pasternak, Russian writer (Doctor Zhivago), Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (d. 1960)
Robert Ripley, American collector of odd facts (d. 1949)
Colonel Sanders, Founder of KFC (d. 1980)
Paul Whiteman, American bandleader (d. 1967)
Deaths
King Amadeus I of Spain (b. 1845)
John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (The Adventures of Pinocchio) (b. 1826)
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (b. 1853)
Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man), English oddity (b. 1862)
Henri Nestlé, Swiss confectioner and the founder of Nestlé (b. 1814)
John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (b. 1844)
Sitting Bull, Native American chief (b. c. 1831)
King William III of the Netherlands (b. 1817)