1890s

The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade," because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no connotation of homosexuality as in current-day usage.

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Technology

• Early commercial production of automobiles.

Science

• Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity
• Discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm R?ntgen
• Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius and US geologist Thomas Crowder Chamberlain independently come to the conclusion that burning fossil fuels might cause global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions

War, peace and politics

• Second Boer War
• Spanish-American War
• Split in Irish nationalism over Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell's affair with a fellow MP's wife, Kitty O'Shea
• The New Imperialism

Culture, religion

• Motion pictures
• Ragtime music
• Accession of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in the world's first ever filmed coronation
• Lynchings of African Americans in the United States averaged 150 per year.

Others

William Henry Perkin: Sir William Henry Perkin, FRS (12 March 1838 14 July 1907) was an English chemist best known for his discovery, at the age of 18, of the first aniline dye, mauveine....

Aniline dye: REDIRECT Mauveine...

Homosexuality: Since its coining, the term homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. In the original sense, it refers to a sexual orientation characterized by aesthetic attraction, romantic love, and sexual desire exclusively for members of the same sex or gender identity. It can also refer to the manifestatio...