Published
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by American author L Frank Baum. This enchanting story relates the strange adventures of Dorothy, whisked away by a cyclone to a magical country. The book's first print sold out within weeks, partly due to W W Denselow's much praised whimsical illustrations of the book's characters.

Invented
The paperclip Johann Waaler, a Norwegian inventor based in Germany patents a tiny device made of bent wire for keeping papers together. He intends his new paperclip to replace pins for doing this job - providing a safer and more effective solution.

The "Polo" shirt
John Brooks, USA designs the button-down collar "Polo" shirt, inspired by British polo players.

The tape recorder
The world's first tape recorder, the Telegraphone, is invented by Valdemar Poulsen

Discovered
Max Planck discovers energy comes in packets called "quanta", giving birth to quantum theory.

Opened
19 July, Paris: the Metro underground railway system.

First
Woman to win Olympic Gold Medal: British tennis player Charlotte Cooper.

First Nights
14 Jan, Rome: Tosca, opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.

4 June, Paris: French artist Auguste Rodin's sculpture The Kiss first exhibited publically.

Married
28 June: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and Countess Sophie von Chotkowa und Wognin, iafter having eloped because the Archduke was not allowed to marry a mere Countess, regarded as a commoner.

The Boxer Rebellion

On 14th August, Beijing was liberated from its Chinese rebel captors by a 10,000-strong international armed force. The rebels are members of a patriotic mystical martial arts society and have been dubbed "Boxers" because they practice a form of shadowboxing that they believe makes them immune to bullets. They inflicted 3 months of terror on Europeans in China in a protest against "foreign devils" in the country.

The uprising began in May in southern China when the Boxers defeated imperial Chinese government troops before moving northward to take control of Tientsin and Beijing. Foreign governments determined to protect the lives of diplomats, businessmen and missionaries mobilised a joint army including Japanese, French, British, American and German soldiers.

The boxers were driven out of Tientsin in July - but only after killing 1500 Europeans, including the German ambassador. The failure of the imperial government to impose order forced foreign intervention and when the Europeans reached Beijing its ruling Empress Dowager fled.

The Second Boer War

Attempts to force the southern African Boer republics to join the British Empire provoked a war in 1880-81 that was won by the Boers; but tensions remained. Fighting broke out again in October 1899 and at first things looked grim for the British, with the Boers winning three major battles and besieging the British-held rail junctions of Mafeking, Ladysmith and Kimberly.

After these sieges were broken by the British, the Boers began a guerrilla campaign. The British responded by burning their farms and imprisoning their families in concentration camps. The Treaty of Vereeniging, by which the Boer republics became part of British South Africa, finally ended the war in 1902.

The Paris International Exhibition

On 15th April, the greatest exhibition Europe had ever seen opened its doors in Paris. The Paris International Exhibition occupies almost 220 hectares (545 acres) of space in seven separate sites across the city. 40 million flocked to the exhibition to see the world's latest wonders.

The greatest impressions of the show are the magnificent effects produced by electric lighting in the halls, while the industrial exhibits include some of the first motor cars and the world's first escaltor, invented by Charles Seeberger.

Most of the objects are displayed in halls devoted to a particular subject. In each of these France has more than half the space, enabling it to overwhelm rivals. But national pavilions have also been bulit along the Quai d'Orsay. including -- for the first time since the war of 1870 -- a German pavilion.