Timeline December 1894

Events in December 1894 7

• 1805 – 1894 Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) Died 7 December 1894, aged 89 De Lesseps was the French diplomat who developed the Suez Canal, completed in 1869. His later attempt to build a Panama Canal ended in financial collapse and scandal that damaged his reputation. He died at his estate in France two years after the Panama Canal Company's failure was exposed.
• 1830 – 1894 Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) Died 29 December 1894, aged 64 Rossetti was an English poet best known for Goblin Market and the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter. She was a central figure among the Pre-Raphaelite circle through her brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She died of cancer in London.
• 1850 – 1894 Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Died 3 December 1894, aged 43 Stevenson was a Scottish novelist whose works, including Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, became enduring classics of world literature. He spent his final years in Samoa for his health, where he was greatly admired by the local population. He died suddenly of a suspected cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Vailima.
• 1894 Left behind in Munich The family business fails and the Einsteins move to Italy When the Munich firm collapsed the family moved to Milan and then Pavia, leaving fifteen-year-old Albert in a boarding house to finish at the Luitpold Gymnasium. He lasted six months, obtained a doctor's note for nervous exhaustion and followed them to Italy.
• 1894 – 1979 Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979) Died 10 July 1979, aged 84 Arthur Fiedler, longtime conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, died in Brookline, Massachusetts. He led the orchestra for half a century, popularizing classical and light orchestral music for mass American audiences through recordings and outdoor concerts. He died on 10 July 1979.
• 1894 Alfred Dreyfus convicted of treason A wrongful conviction ignites years of national crisis in France Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer, was convicted by a French military court on 22 December 1894 of passing secrets to Germany and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. The conviction, based on forged evidence, was later shown to be a miscarriage of justice driven by antisemitism. The Dreyfus Affair went on to divide French society for over a decade.
• 1894 – 1906 The Dreyfus Affair Political Scandal A wrongful treason conviction of a Jewish officer that divided France over issues of antisemitism and justice.