What Happened in 1893 — Events, Births & Deaths

The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana.

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, premieres at La Scala, Milan.

Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.

Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.

Daniel Hale Williams, American heart surgeon, performs the first successful open-heart surgery in United States without anesthesia.

Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful" after admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

The Sea Islands hurricane strikes the United States near Savannah, Georgia, killing between 1,000 and 2,000 people.

In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique receives its première performance only nine days before the composer's death.

13 November stabbing is committed by Léon Léauthier during the Ère des attentats. This is an influential event in the birth of modern terrorism.

Women's suffrage in New Zealand concludes with the 1893 New Zealand general election.

National Assembly bombing by Auguste Vaillant during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).

Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World" a.k.a. the "New World Symphony") by Antonín Dvořák premieres in a public afternoon rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in New York City, followed by a concert premiere on the evening of December 16.

The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (born 1814)