1890

1890

At Auburn Prison, New York, William Kemmler is the first man to be executed by the electric chair, for the hatchet-murder of his commonlaw wife. It doesn't go well. The first shock, lasting seventeen seconds, fails to kill him, and the generator needs quite some time to recharge for a second attempt, during which time Kemmler can be heard pitifully moaning. The second attempt, lasting sixty seconds, works, but reduces Kemmler to a smouldering charcoal briquet. A reporter on the scene said it was "an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging".

Idaho! Wyoming!

Massacre at Wounded Knee.

born: H.P. Lovecraft!, Adolphe Menjou, Ho Chi Minh, Stan Laurel, Agatha Christie, Jelly Roll Morton, Groucho Marx

died: John Jacob Astor III, Vincent Van Gogh

Johannes Brahms - String Quintet #2 in G minor, op. 111