The Inspector General, a farce by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol satirising Russian offialdom, has tsar Nicholas I in the audience for the premiere

An anti-British mob attacks the New York theatre where William Macready is appearing as Macbeth, leaving 22 dead and many injured

An official National Eisteddfod is held for the first time in Wales, in Aberdare

English surgeon Joseph Lister introduces the era of antiseptic surgery, with the use of carbolic acid in the operating theatre

On a visit to a Washington theatre, Lincoln is assassinated in his box by John Wilkes Booth

Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde has its premiere in the Munich court theatre

English actor Henry Irving plays what becomes one of his most famous parts, that of Mathias in the melodrama The Bells

Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt has its premiere in Oslo, with incidental music by Edvard Grieg

Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House signals a new direction in drama in its frank treatment of tensions within a marriage

London's new Savoy Theatre is the first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity

The theatre, still known affectionately in Richmond as Kean's, falls on hard times and is pulled down

Henrik Ibsen publishes his play Hedda Gabler, with its powerfully manipulative central character, a year before it is first produced (in Germany)

Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermere's Fan is a great success with audiences in London's St. James Theatre

W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama

Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords

Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck publishes his play Pelléas et Mélisande

Oscar Wilde's most brilliant comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest is performed in London's St. James Theatre

Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull has a disastrous premiere in St Petersburg (but is well received two years later in Moscow)

Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, succeeds at the Moscow Art Theatre

5-year-old Mary Pickford plays her first professional role on stage

A new theatre opens on the Green in Richmond, designed by a speciallist in theatre architecture, Frank Matcham

Isadora Duncan dances professionally for the first time in Europe in London's Lyceum Theatre

Scottish music-hall artist Harry Lauder makes his first London appearance at Gatti's music hall in Westminster

David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly has its premiere in New York, and is subsequently seen in London by Giacomo Puccini

Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya is directed by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre