Modern Era
Discovery of X-Rays (1895): Wilhelm Röntgen's Accidental Find
Röntgen identified a new, penetrating form of radiation that revolutionised medical diagnosis and opened the age of modern physics.
Region
Europe
Modern Era
Jameson Raid (1895-1896): The Failed Coup Against the Transvaal
The raiders surrendered at Doornkop; Rhodes resigned as Cape premier and Anglo-Boer relations were badly damaged.
Modern Era
Becquerel Discovers Radioactivity (1896): Uranium's Rays
Becquerel showed that uranium gives off penetrating radiation on its own, the first observation of what Marie Curie would name radioactivity.
Modern Era
Discovery of the Electron (1897): J.J. Thomson's Cathode Rays
Thomson showed that cathode rays consist of negatively charged particles far smaller than atoms, identifying the first subatomic particle, the electron.
Modern Era
Benin Expedition of 1897: The Sack of Benin City and Its Bronzes
Benin City was captured and burned, the Oba was exiled, the kingdom was annexed and thousands of royal artworks were taken to Europe.
Modern Era
Marie and Pierre Curie Discover Radium and Polonium (1898)
The Curies announced two new radioactive elements, polonium in July and radium in December 1898, establishing radioactivity as a property of atoms.
Modern Era
Fashoda Incident (1898): Britain and France Clash on the Nile
France withdrew from Fashoda; the 1899 Anglo-French convention left the Nile basin to Britain and paved the way for the Entente Cordiale.
Prehistory
Dippy the Diplodocus: Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur and Its Casts
The skeleton was named Diplodocus carnegii, and Carnegie's plaster casts made it the most widely displayed dinosaur in the world.
Modern Era
Boer War Concentration Camps (1900-1902): Civilians in the War
About 26,000-28,000 Boer civilians, mostly children, and at least 14,000 Black Africans died in the camps, leaving a lasting legacy of bitterness.
Modern Era
Zeppelin LZ 1 (1900): Count Zeppelin's First Rigid Airship
LZ 1 proved a large rigid airship could fly but was too slow and hard to steer; it was scrapped in 1901, yet led to the successful zeppelins of 1906–1914.
Modern Era
Planck's Quantum Hypothesis (1900): The Birth of Quantum Theory
Planck derived the correct law of black-body radiation by treating energy as exchanged in discrete packets, introducing the constant h and the quantum.
Modern Era
Marconi's Transatlantic Radio (1901): Signals Across the Ocean
Marconi reported receiving a wireless signal across the Atlantic, a claim confirmed in principle by shipboard tests in 1902; regular transatlantic wireless service began in 1907.