Timelines for year 1896

Bijou Fernandez

Bijou Fernandez


Stage actor. Ms. Fernandez enjoyed one of the longest Broadway careers on record, active there from 1896-1954 (see "Other Works").

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot


Born to Louis Bardot (1896-1975), nicknamed Pilou, who graduated from an engineering school to go into the family business, which manufactured liquid air and acetylene, and Ann-Marie Mucel (1912-1978), nicknamed Toty, her parents married in 1933. Toty had studied theatre and dance as a young lady, while Pilou wrote poetry in his notebook and published several volumes.

Nap Lajoie

Nap Lajoie


Infielder, primarily a second baseman, with the Philadelphia Phillies (1896-1900), Philadelphia A's (1901-1902[start; 1 game]; 1915-1916), Cleveland Indians (1902[end]-1914).

Made major league debut on 12 August 1896.

William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan


Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908.

Doris Eaton

Doris Eaton


According to Jamie Brotherton, who wrote a "Classic Images" article on Doris, she engaged in a long romantic relationship with songwriter Nacio Herb Brown (1896-1964), who wrote "Singin' in the Rain" and "Doll Dance" for her, both songs introduced by Doris in "The Hollywood Music Box Revue" in 1927.

Minnie Dupree

Minnie Dupree


Stage actress. Appeared in a prolific number of productions on Broadway from 1896-1946. Her resume includes the hits, 1922's 'The Old Soak,' 1923's 'The Shame Woman' and appeared as "Martha Brewster" [replacement actress for 'Jean Adair'] in the smash comedy hit, 'Arsenic and Old Lace' that ran for a remarkable 1444 performances from 1941-1944. She died a little more than 3 months after her last production, 'Land's End,' had closed.

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover


Mining Engineer (1896-1914).

Karen Lynn Gorney

Karen Lynn Gorney


Daughter of American composer Jay Gorney (1896-1990) whose songs include, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", "Moonlight and Pretzels", etc. Her mother is actress/writer Sondra Gorney.

Anton LaVey

Anton LaVey


The Satanic Bible was largely (if not completely) plagiarized from other sources. Some sources include the 1896 tract "Might is Right" by Ragnar Redbeard, Aleister Crowley's "Equinox", and Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged".

Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès


Founded the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in France in 1896.

G.W. Bitzer

G.W. Bitzer


Photographed William McKinley upon his nomination for the presidency. These images were later exhibited at Hammerstein's Olympia Theatre in October 1896.

William F. Cody

William F. Cody


1896: Founded Cody, WY.

Charles Bryan

Charles Bryan


Distant cousin of William Jennings Bryan (three-time Democratic nominee for President (1896, 1900, 1908) and one of America's greatest leaders/orators as the nation came of age at the turn of the 20th century).

Robert W. Paul

Robert W. Paul


In 1896, he designed a working film projector, which used a Maltese Cross, or Geneva, type of intermittent movement. Months laster he produced a new type of film camera using the same principle. It was a success.

Charles Dawes

Charles Dawes


He was a member of the Republican executive committee in William McKinley's presidential campaign (1896) and served (1897-1901) as comptroller of the Treasury.

John C. Rice

John C. Rice


Performed the first onscreen kiss in movie history with May Irwin in The Kiss (1896).