Births on October 21

Esther Shumiatcher-Hirschbein, Russian-Canadian poet and screenwriter (d.1985)

Esther Shumiatcher-Hirschbein was a Belarusian-born Canadian and American Yiddish poet and screenwriter.

28 Jan

Speed limit
Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).
26 May

Dow Jones Industrial Average
Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
16 Aug

Klondike Gold Rush
Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
21 Sep

Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Mahdist War: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener takes Dongola in the Sudan.
22 Sep

George III of the United Kingdom
Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.