Firsts
The first modern Olympic Games takes place, Blackpool Pleasure Beach opens, X-rays are discovered, La bohème premiers, Henry Ford builds The Ford Quadricycle, his first vehicle, there is the world’s first motoring fatality, the first speeding fine and the first study of the sensitivity of global climate to atmospheric carbon dioxide.
American Politics
William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech, but loses the presidential election to William McKinley. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court introduces the “separate but equal” doctrine and upholds racial segregation
The Scramble for Africa
Jameson surrenders to the Boers, The Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War begins, at the Battle of Adwa Ethiopia defends its independence from Italy, in the Mahdist War there is British and Egyptian victory at the Battle of Ferkeh, and on August 27th from 9am to 9.45am the Anglo-Zanzibar War, the shortest war in recorded history, takes place.
Disasters
A train carrying 56 tons of dynamite explodes at Braamfontein, Johannesburg, killing more than 78 people.
The St. Louis—East St. Louis tornado levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, killing more than 255 people.
Terrors of the deep
The St. Augustine Monster, a large carcass, later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida.
Born
Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish soccer player (d. 1964)
Anna Anderson, pretender to the Russian throne (d. 1984)
Antonin Artaud, French stage actor and director (d. 1948)
Philip Barry, American playwright (d. 1949)
André Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
George Burns, American actor and comedian (d. 1996)
Mark W. Clark, American general (d. 1984)
Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)
Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (d. 1984)
Gary Davis, American musician (d. 1972)
Priscilla Dean, American actress (d. 1987)
Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (d. 1979)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (d. 1940)
Bud Flanagan, British entertainer and comedian (d. 1968)
Ramón Franco, Spanish aviation pioneer (d. 1938)
Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (d. 1983)
Ruth Gordon, American actress, screenwriter, and playwright (d. 1985)
Bucky Harris, American baseball player (d. 1977)
Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977)
Helen of Greece and Denmark, Queen Mother of Romania (d.1982)
Léonide Massine, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (d. 1979)
Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist and composer (d. 1960)
Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (d. 1980)
Imre Nagy, 3-time Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1958)
John Dos Passos, American author (d. 1970)
Sandro Pertini, President of Italy (d. 1990)
Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (d. 1980)
Marie Prevost, Canadian-born American actress (d. 1937)
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Indian religious leader, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (d. 1977)
Wallis Simpson, American-born Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986)
Léon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)
Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (d. 1954)
Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)
William A. Wellman, American motion picture director (d. 1975)
Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977)
Señor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist (d. 1999)
Georgi Zhukov, Soviet military leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1974)
Died
Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (b. 1811)
Mathew Brady, American photographer (b. 1822)
Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel (b. 1859)
Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, father of Archduke Ferdinand (b. 1833)
August Kekulé, German chemist (b. 1829)
Thomas W. Knox, American author and journalist (b. 1835)
Gustav Koerner, German-American statesman (b. 1809)
Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (b. 1848)
John Everett Millais, British Pre-Raphaelite painter (b. 1829)
Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1861)
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia, King of Herat (b. 1831)
Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)
José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines (b. 1861)
Clara Schumann, German composer and pianist (b. 1819)
Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844)