The Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh dies at Auvers-sur-Oise, France, little recognised in his lifetime.
Adolf Hitler, later dictator of Nazi Germany, is born in Braunau am Inn, Austria.
France creates the Indochinese Union of Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin and Cambodia; Laos is added in 1893.
Karl Benz receives a patent for the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine.
After a failed attack on the French at Huế, Emperor Hàm Nghi flees the capital and issues an edict calling for resistance to French rule.
Louis Pasteur administers his rabies vaccine to Joseph Meister, a boy bitten by a rabid dog, who survives.
Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays at Würzburg, opening the era of medical imaging.