Joseph Thomson discovers gamma rays.

Frederick Gowland Hopkins discovers vitamins.

Explorer Roald Amundsen determines the position of the magnetic North Pole.

Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi begins constructing Casa Mila in Barcelona.

A test for diagnosing the sexually transmitted disease syphilis is developed by German bacteriologist August von Wassermann and dermatologist Albert Neisser.

German scientist Walther Hermann Nernst develops the third law of thermodynamics.

Tears of Blood by Yi Injik, generally recognized as the first modern novel in Korean, is published in serialized form in a Korean newspaper.

Giosue Carducci of Italy wins the Nobel Prize for literature.

Le Mans, France, hosts that country's first Grand Prix auto race.

12 Jan.

The Liberal Party wins in a landslide in Britain, and, led by Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, inaugurates a period of far-reaching social reforms.

29 Jan.

The king of Denmark, Christian IX, dies.

Feb.

Pope Pius X's encyclical Vehementer Nos condemns the...