April — The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens. 285 athletes from 13 countries took part.
The French physicist A. Becquerel discovered uranium radiation.
A. P. Chekhov wrote the play The Seagull.
The German engineer R. Diesel created an internal-combustion engine.
January 5 — An article about the radiation discovered by the German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen was published in the Austrian newspaper Wiener Presse.
May 26 — Nicholas II was crowned in Moscow.
May 30 — The tragedy on Khodynka Field occurred. Booths were set up, and the people were to be given the tsar’s treat—a mug with portraits of the tsar and tsarina and a bundle with gingerbread and nuts. The crowd surged so rapidly that about 6,000 people were killed and 3–4 thousand were injured. The sovereign brought troops up to the Kremlin and continued the coronation festivities. According to unofficial reports, up to 20,000 people were affected.
July 4 — The test of the first automobile built by Ford was delayed for an hour because it turned out the car was wider than the doors of the workshop in which it had been made.
August 26–30 — Mass extermination of Armenians by the Turks.
October 8 — The Dow Jones index was published for the first time, becoming the main indicator of the situation on American stock exchanges.
October 18 — After the failed premiere of The Seagull in St. Petersburg, Anton Chekhov swore off writing for the stage.
December 10 — Alfred Bernhard Nobel died, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the prizes.
May 4 — The “Cinematograph of the Lumière brothers” was shown in St. Petersburg in the “Aquarium” amusement garden, and on May 6—in Moscow, at the Solodovnikov Theatre. From this year, there was electric lighting on Moscow’s main street.
PLESHCHEYEV, A. A. published a book on the history of ballet in Russia—Our Ballet (1673–1896).
CHEKHOV, A. P. built a school in the village of Talezh. His sister MARIA helped him. She was educated at the Guerrier Higher Courses for Women and worked as a teacher of history and geography at L. F. RZHEVSKAYA’s private girls’ gymnasium in Moscow. She would help her brother with the next school as well, and later, independently, according to her own plan, would build the Melikhovo school, of which she would be the patron. This year Chekhov wrote The Seagull. M. P. CHEKHOV, on the basis of shared theatrical interests, became acquainted with OLGA GERMANOVNA VLADYKINA, who was employed as a governess by a local manufacturer. They would become enamored of each other and soon marry.