African rinderpest epizootic
An imported plague kills up to 90% of cattle, starving herders
Around 1887 rinderpest reached Eritrea with Asian cattle imported to feed Italian troops. Within a decade it swept to southern Africa, killing an estimated 90% of cattle and countless wild grazers. Famine ravaged Ethiopia and East African herders at the height of the Scramble for Africa.
Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — 3 years earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 1 year earlier
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 2 years later
- 1889 Van Gogh's The Starry Night — 2 years later
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — 18 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 20 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 18 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 10 years earlier
- 1895 Popov's radio receiver — 8 years later
- 1905–1907 Russian Revolution of 1905 — 18 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 11 years earlier
- 1905–1911 Persian Constitutional Revolution — 18 years later
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — 21 years later
- 1908 Young Turk Revolution — 21 years later
Asia
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 4 years earlier
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 2 years earlier
- 1891 Discovery of Java Man — 4 years later
- 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War — 7 years later
- 1894 Yersin identifies the plague bacterium — 7 years later
Americas
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — 18 years earlier
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 11 years earlier
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 8 years earlier
- 1888 Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil — 1 year later
- 1903 Wright brothers' first flight — 16 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 6 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 6 years later
- 1911 Amundsen reaches the South Pole — 24 years later
- 1912 The death of Scott's polar party — 25 years later
Alive at the time
- Queen Victoria (aged 68)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 59)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 53)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 47)
- Thomas Edison (aged 40)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 34)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 31)
- Marie Curie (aged 20)
- Mahatma Gandhi (aged 18)
- Vladimir Lenin (aged 17)