James Joyce’s iconic modernist novel Ulysses published
It is considered one of the most important works of modernist literature and has been called “a demonstration and summation of the entire movement.”
Artists & philosophers
ʻAbdu’l-Bahá travels to the Americas to spread his teachings about the unity of humankind
When he arrived in America, newspapers called him the “Apostle of Peace.” He “will surely unite the East and West,” the president of Stanford University remarked, “for he treads the mystic way with practical feet.”
The 12-minute-long silent film, The Great Train Robbery becomes the first narrative movie ever
The Great Train Robbery’s popularity led directly to the opening up of permanent movie theaters and the possibility of a future film industry.
Vincent Van Gogh paints “The Starry Night”
Largely self-taught, van Gogh produced more than 2,000 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sketches, which became in demand only after his death.
Mark Twain publishes “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist over 20 years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.
First ‘Impressionist’ art exhibition opens in Paris, featuring Monet, Degas, Renoir, and others
Impressionism is an art movement that took the French art world—and later the artistic spheres of other countries —by storm in the 19th century.
Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes Crime & Punishment
Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money.
Hermann Melville publishes Moby-Dick
It was only in the early 1900s that Moby-Dick gained attention and acclaim. During his lifetime, the novel sold a scant 3,000 copies. In modern times the novel is not only considered a great American classic, it is also heralded as one of greatest novels in the English language.
Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto
The political pamphlet, arguably the most influential in history. proclaimed that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
Frederick Douglass publishes his memoir Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number of narratives written by former slaves during the same period.