The first Zionist Congress is held in Basel with Theodor Herzl in the chair

Diamond Jubilee bonfires and fireworks all round Briain celebrate Victoria's sixty years on the throne

Turbinia, powered by the newly invented Parsons steam turbine, breaks the speed record when Queen Victoria reviews her fleet

Somerset Maugham publishes his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, based on the London life he has observed as a medical student

English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania

British physician Ronald Ross identifies the Anopheles mosquito as the carrier of malaria

Rachmaninov's First Symphony has a disastrous premiere in St Petersburg, probably caused by the incompetence of Glazunov as conductor

Germany passes the first of four Fleet Acts, reflecting the determination of Alfred von Tirpitz to build a navy equal to that of Britain

Émile Zola sends an open letter to the French president, headed 'J'accuse!', drawing attention to the injustice done to Alfred Dreyfus

British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers isolate the element c

Henry James moves from London to Lamb House in Rye, Sussex, which remains his home for the rest of his life

British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers isolate the element neon

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

British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers isolate the element xenon

Marie Curie and her husband Pierre isolate a new element which they name polonium in honour of her native Poland

Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the element radium, working without any protection because unaware of the danger of radioactivity

In the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War, Spain cedes Puerto Rico and Cuba to the USA

H.G. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth

Marconi launches a factory in Chelmsford, England, for the purpose of manufacturing radios ('wirelesses' in the language of the time)

English town-planner Ebenezer Howard puts forward a Utopian scheme in Tomorrow a Peaceful Path to Real Reform

Henry James publishes The Turn of the Screw in a collection of short stories

Belgian racing driver Camille Jenatzy is the first to drive faster than a mile a minute, reaching 65 mph in an electric car at Achères in France

Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a wireless telegraph message across the English Channel

The Boer War breaks out, ostensibly over the rights of British settlers in the Transvaal

Edward Elgar teases with the word 'enigma' printed at the head of his orchestral Variations on an Original Theme