1893

Years: 1890 1891 1892 - 1893 - 1894 1895 1896
Decades: 1860s 1870s 1880s - 1890s - 1900s 1910s 1920s

Events of 1893

January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America.
January 13 – The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting.
January 17 – The U.S. Marines intervene in Hawaii, resulting in overthrow of the government of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii.
January 21 – The Cherry Sisters first perform in Marion, Iowa.
February 1 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey.
February 19 – The SS Naronic is believed to have sunk due to a storm.
February 23 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
February 24 – American University is established by an Act of Congress in Washington, D.C.
March 4 – President of the United States Benjamin Harrison is succeeded by Stephen Grover Cleveland.
March 10 – Côte d'Ivoire becomes a French colony.
March 20 – In Belgium, Adam Worth is sentenced to 7 years for robbery (he is released in 1897).

April 1 – The rank of Chief Petty Officer is established in the United States Navy.
April 8 – The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania between the Geneva College Covenanters and the New Brighton YMCA.
May 1 – The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition, opens to the public in Chicago, USA. The first United States commemorative postage stamps are issued for the Exposition.
May 5 – Panic of 1893: A crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a depression.
May 9 – Edison's 1½ inch system of Kinetoscope is first demonstrated in public at the Brooklyn Institute.
May 10 – The United States Supreme Court legally declares the tomato to be a vegetable.
May – The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is formed.
June 6 – Prince George, Duke of York marries Mary of Teck.
June 7 – Gandhi commits his first act of civil disobedience in India.
June 17 – Gold is found in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
June 20 – The Wengernalpbahn railway in Wengen, Switzerland (Canton of Bern) is opened.
June 22 – The flagship Victoria of the British Mediterranean Fleet collides with Camperdown and sinks in 10 minutes; Vice-admiral Sir George Tryon goes down with his ship.

July 6 – The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa is nearly destroyed by a tornado; 71 people are killed and 200 injured.
July 11 – Kokichi Mikimoto, in Japan, develops the method to seed and grow cultured pearls.
July 12
- Frederick Jackson Turner gives a lecture titled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" before the American Historical Association in Chicago.
- The Dundee FC, a Scottish football club, is formed.

September 7 – The Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, the oldest Italian football club, is formed.
September 7 – Under the pressure of a general strike, the Belgian parliament accepts a proposal to accept general multiple suffrage.
September 11 – The World Parliament of Religions in Chicago opens its first meeting.
September 11 – Standing ovation to Hindu monk Swami Vivekanda for his address in Response to the welcome at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
September 19
- Swami Vivekananda delivers an inspiring speech on his paper at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
- New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote.
- The Russian ironclad Rusalka disappears in a storm en route from Tallinn to Helsinki; her hulk is eventually discovered in July 2003, off Helsinki.
September 21 – Brothers Charles and Frank Duryea drive the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America on public roads in Springfield, Massachusetts.
September 23 – The Bahá'í Faith is first publicly mentioned in the United States at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
September 27 – The World Parliament of Religions holds its closing meeting in Chicago.
September 28 – The Portuguese sports club Futebol Clube do Porto is founded.

October 10 – The first car number plates appear in Paris, France.
October 30 – The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition, closes.
November – In the United Kingdom, the Local Government Act 1894 is read for the second time in the House of Commons.
November 7 – Colorado women are granted the right to vote.
November 15 – The FC Basel Club is founded.
December 5 – Plural voting is abolished in New South Wales.
December – Carl Anton Larsen was the first man to ski in Antarctica.

April 30 - Joachim von Ribbentrop, German WWII foreign minister and Nuremberg martyr (d. 1946)
July 9 - Dorothy Thompson, American journalist and wartime propagandist (d. 1961)
30 July - Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Camminetz, German general (d. 1968)
August 25 - Truman Smith, WWII American intelligence officer (d. 1970)
August 28 - Pedro del Valle, American general and nationalist (d. 1978)
October 15 - Carol II of Romania (d. 1953)
December 14 - Laura Ingalls, American record-setting pilot and alleged unregistered agent for National Socialist Germany (d. 1967)