Brussels
Term "art nouveau" appears in print for the first time, describing the Belgian artists' group "Les XX." The first subway system opens in London.
1885
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz invent the first automobile run by an internal combustion engine.
1889
The Eiffel Tower is built for the Paris World's Fair.
1892
New York
Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company established.
1893
Great Britain Paris
Japanese prints exhibition organized by Siegfried Bing.
Aubrey Beardsley design published in the first issue of the magazine The Studio. Brussels
Victor Horta designs the Tassel House
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paints Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris. Women win the right to vote in New Zealand, the first country to embrace female suffrage. In Belgium universal male suffrage is adopted.
Chicago
Columbian World's Fair; Adler and Sullivan design the Transportation Building.
1894
Paris Claude Debussy completes L'après-midi d'une faune.
Hector Guimard designs Castel Béranger.
1895
Paris Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibits at Bing's opening of L'Art Nouveau.
The Lumière brothers screen the first moving picture--of workers leaving a factory.
Siegfried Bing opens his gallery/shop L'Art Nouveau. 1897
Glasgow Brussels
World's Fair: Henry van de Velde and Victor Horta show designs.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and George Walton design Buchanan Street tearooms. 1898
Munich Vienna
Josef Olbrich designs Secession Building.
United Workshops for Art in Handicraft founded. Gustav Klimt paints Pallas Athene. Turin
Exhibition of Italian decorative arts.
European and American troops are sent to quell the Boxer Rebellion in China.
1899
London
South Kensington Museum becomes Victoria and Albert Museum Paris
Hector Guimard designs Castel Henriette.
René Lalique designs Dragonfly woman corsage ornament. Thorstein