Every event in our archive, in chronological order. Showing the 1890s — 8 events. Click any event to read the full theory page.
The Bureau of American Ethnology's authoritative survey of North American burial mounds documents Mound Builder skeletal remains as being of normal stature, directly contradicting exaggerated newspaper claims.
Smithsonian Giants →A French military tribunal convicts Captain Alfred Dreyfus of treason on the basis of the bordereau and a secret dossier not disclosed to the defence. He is sentenced to life imprisonment and publicly degraded in January 1895 before transport to Devil's Island.
Newly appointed Statistical Section head Lt Col Georges Picquart independently determines that the bordereau's handwriting matches Major Esterhazy, not Dreyfus. Military hierarchy suppresses the finding and transfers Picquart to Tunisia.
Dreyfus Affair / French Army cover-up (1894-1906) →Émile Zola's open letter in L'Aurore names the officers responsible for the wrongful conviction by name and accuses the French Army of judicial crime. International pressure mounts. Zola is convicted of criminal libel and flees to England.
Dreyfus Affair / French Army cover-up (1894-1906) →The Maine arrives in Havana on 25 January 1898 during escalating US-Spain tensions over Cuba. The visit is framed as a courtesy call but is widely understood as a demonstration of US power. Spain protests but does not block the visit.
USS Maine 1898: Spanish mine vs internal coal-bunker explosion →At 9:40 p.m., two successive explosions destroy the Maine's forward section. The ship sinks rapidly; 266 of 354 crew members die. The cause is immediately attributed to a Spanish mine by the yellow press before any investigation.
USS Maine 1898: Spanish mine vs internal coal-bunker explosion →The Sampson Court of Inquiry concludes the Maine was destroyed by a submarine mine. The finding, combined with yellow-press amplification, drives the political push to war. Congress declares war on Spain on 25 April 1898.
USS Maine 1898: Spanish mine vs internal coal-bunker explosion →Annual Grove retreats begin.
Bohemian Grove →