The first imperial Fabergé egg
Inside the egg a yolk, inside the yolk a hen, inside it a crown
At Easter 1885 Alexander III gave his wife an enamel egg by Fabergé: inside was a gold 'yolk', inside that a ruby-eyed hen, and inside the hen a tiny crown and pendant. The empress was so delighted that the tsar ordered a new surprise egg for every Easter after.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 24 years earlier
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — 1 year earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 1 year later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 4 years later
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 9 years earlier
- 1905–1911 Persian Constitutional Revolution — 20 years later
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — 23 years later
- 1908 Young Turk Revolution — 23 years later
Africa
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 6 years earlier
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — same year
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — same year
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 1 year later
- 1897 The British sack Benin City — 12 years later
Asia
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 9 years earlier
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 2 years earlier
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — same year
- 1891 Discovery of Java Man — 6 years later
- 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War — 9 years later
Americas
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 18 years earlier
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — 16 years earlier
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 9 years earlier
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 6 years earlier
- 1888 Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil — 3 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 8 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 8 years later
Alive at the time
- Queen Victoria (aged 66)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 57)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 51)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 45)
- Thomas Edison (aged 38)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 32)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 29)
- Marie Curie (aged 18)
- Mahatma Gandhi (aged 16)
- Vladimir Lenin (aged 15)