The year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
January
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 18: Fall of small, friable, vesicular masses, from the size of a pea to that of a walnut, at Lobau, Austria. (Books70)
February
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: The watch of HMS Caroline, at 10pm, sailing between Shanghai and Japan report "some unusual lights" in the sky. (Books297)
March
March 4: President of the United States Benjamin Harrison is succeeded by Stephen Grover Cleveland.
March 7: A luminous object shaped like a pear was seen in the sky of Val-de-la-Haye, France. (Books485)
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
April 1: The rank of Chief Petty Officer is established in the United States Navy.
April 1: A shaft of light seen projecting from the moon, by M. de Mores, in the Azores. (Books466)
April 8: The first recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania between the Geneva College Covenanters and the New Brighton
YMCA.
April 10: Morning, several men are rushed to a Brooklyn hospital from different parts of the city. Several accidents, quick succession, seemingly all had
fallen from high places or been struck by objects falling from high places! (Books858)
May
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is formed.
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 7: Miss M. Scott walking near St. Boswells, Roxburghshire, watches as figure dressed in black, like a glergyman, disappears "in an instant."
(Books697)
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.
June
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
July 6: The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa is nearly destroyed by a tornado; 71 people are killed and 200 injured.
July 6: An attack by a "mysterious animal" in the Orel Government, South of Moscow. (Books647)
July 9: An attack on a woman by a "mysterious animal" in the Orel Government, South of Moscow. A boy of 10 is killed and
devoured. (Books647)
July 11: Kokichi Mikimoto, in Japan, develops the method to seed and grow cultured pearls.
July 11: A woman is killed by an undescribed beast near Trosna, South of Moscow. (Books647)
July 14: A woman beats off an attack by a "mysterious animal" in the Orel Government, South of Moscow. Later that day a peasant girl is attacked
(Books648)
July 24: Four women are attacked and one of them killed by a beast described as being "long, with a blunt muzzle, and round, standing-up
ears, with a long, smooth, hanging tail", in the Orel Government, South of Moscow. (Books648)
August
August 17: Between Ramsgate and Ostend a series of distinct detonations are heard. (Books472)
August 27: The Sea Islands Hurricane hits Savannah, Charleston, and the Sea Islands, killing 1,000-2,000.
September
September 5: At Middlekirk, Scotland loud sounds of remarkable intensity. (Books472)
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 8: On the English Channel, near Dover, an explosive sound is heard. (Books472)
September 11: The World Parliament of Religions in Chicago opens its first meeting.
September 19: New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote.
September 19: 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 25: M. Gaboreau, in Paris, watches as a shaft of light projecting from the moon. (Books466)
October
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 2: A loud sound was heard at a place ten miles northeast of Worcester; no shock was felt. (Books476)
November 7: Colorado women are granted the right to vote.
December
December 5: Plural voting is abolished in New South Wales.
December 6: Lumps of ice, four pounds in weight, fall out of a Texan sky. (Books185)
December 20: A luminous body pases overhead, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. (Books275)