1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January 4 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
• January 5 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• January 12 - H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.
• January 18 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
• February 1 - The opera La Bohème premieres (Turin).
• February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play Salomé premieres in Paris.
• March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defended its independence from Italy.
• 6 April - Opening ceremonies of first modern Olympic Games.

May - August

• May 8 - Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887.
• May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v Ferguson, introducing the "Separate but Equal " doctrine.
• June 12 - J.T. Hearne sets a record for the earliest date of taking 100 wickets. It is equalled by Charlie Parker in 1931.
• June 15 ? Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku , Japan, kills 27.000
• July 9 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech.
• July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.
• August 16 - George Carmack discovers gold in the Klondike.
• August 27 - The shortest war in the world - 9.02 - 9.40 between Britain and Zanzibar

September - October

• October 3 ? Dalton brothers try to rob two banks but only Emmet Dalton survives the shootout
• November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election.

Unknown date

• Nepalese archaeologists rediscover the great stone pillar of Ashoka at Lumbini, using Fa Xian's records.
• Pontifical University of Maynooth is established by decree of the Vatican
• France establishes an administrative post in Abengourou , Ivory Coast.

Births

• January 2 - Dziga Vertov, filmmaker (d. 1954)
• January 4 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
• January 4 - André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)
• January 12 - Rex Ingram, director and actor (d. 1950)
• January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (d. 1984)
• January 14 - John Dos Passos, author (d. 1970)
• January 23 - Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
• February 11 - Else Lasker-Schuler, writer
• February 18 - André Breton, French poet, principal theoretician of surrealism (d. 1966)
• March 1 - Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist, and composer (d. 1960)
• March 20 - Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, World War 1 ace
• March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann, mathematician (d. 1962)
• April 30 - Gary Davis, reverend
• May 11 - Mari Sandoz , writer (d. 1966)
• May 30 - Howard Hawks, director (d. 1977)
• June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986)
• July 2 - Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animation director (d. 1984)
• July 16 - Trygve Lie, the first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)
• August 18 - Jack Pickford, actor, Hollywood's first "bad boy" (d. 1933)
• August 30 - Raymond Massey, actor (d. 1983)
• October 1 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1951)
• October 28 - Howard Hanson, composer (d. 1981)
• October 31 - Ethel Waters, singer (d. 1977)
• November 8 - Bucky Harris, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1977)
• November 10 - Jimmy Dykes, Major League Baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
• November 14 - Mamie Eisenhower, wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady of the United States of America (d. 1979)
• November 16 - Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (d. 1980)
• December 6 - Ira Gershwin, lyricist (d. 1983)
• December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II General (d. 1993)
• December 24 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (d. 1940)

Deaths

• January 4 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
• January 8 - Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844)
• May 20 - Clara Schumann, German composer (b. 1819)
• August 10 - Otto Lilienthal, aviation pioneer
• August 17 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality
• October 11 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
• October 11 - Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)
• October 23 ? Columbus Delano, American statesman
• November 28 - George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.
• December 10 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize
• December 30 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines