In the year 1894.
Jan 1 First public performance of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No. 12 "The American", by the Kneisel Quartet, in Boston, Massachusetts
Jan 8 Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
Jan 9 Georges Feydeau's "Un à la Patte" premieres in Paris
Jan 9 New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Jan 9 William K.L. Dickson's motion picture "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" aka "Fred Ott's Sneeze" receives first US copyright for the format; it was filmed a few days earlier at Edison Studio, West Orange, New Jersey [1]
Jan 11 Donghak Peasant Rebellion begins in Mujiang, Korea over local corruption, sparking the 1st Sino-Japanese War
Jan 13 Revolution in Sicily crushed by government troops
Jan 21 Oscar Fredriksen skates world record 500m in 47.8 sec
Jan 23 G. W. Bunbury of Dublin sets shorthand record of 250 wpm for 10 min
Listing only January because I'm almost 66. A lot more was happening in 1894.
