1890
1891
history - Portuguese republican revolution - France and Russia conclude a defensive alliance
culture - the London-Paris telephone system is opened to the general public - Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope is first displayed at Edison's Laboratory - Eugène Dubois makes the first discovery of Homo erectus fossils in the Dutch colony of Java - Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany - Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes appears in the Strand Magazine for the first time - Frank Wedekind: Frühlings Erwachen - Oscar Wilde: Salome - Herman Melville (†) - Arthur Rimbaud (†) - Georges-Pierre Seurat (†)
music - the Music Hall in New York (now known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor - Eric Satie: 6 Gnossiennes for Piano - Hugo Wolf: Spanisches Liederbuch - Carl Zeller: Der Vogelhändler - Léo Delibes (†)
released songs - George W. Johnson: The Laughing Song
- US: New York City - recordings for Edison - Unique Quartette (Joseph M. Moore?, William H. Tucker, J.E. Carsons, Samuel G. Baker...)
- 1891.08.05 -- US: New York City - recordings for New York - Standard Quartette
- 1891.08.19 -- US: New York City - recordings for New York - Standard Quartette