| January 1 | French troops occupy Nioro, West-Sudan, 3000 killed |
| January 1 | King Pakketvaart sails to Netherlands Indies |
| January 26 | Oscar Wilde's "Duchess of Padua," premieres in New York City |
| January 27 | Mine explosion kills 109 at Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania |
| February 6 | 1st great train robbery by Dalton Gang (Southern Pacific #17) |
| February 7 | Great Blizzard of 1891 begins |
| February 9 | 1st shipment of asparagus arrives in San Francisco from Sacramento |
| February 18 | Captain Archinard's army fights with Nyamina of Niger in West-Sudan |
| February 24 | French troops under captain Archinard occupy Diena West Sudan |
| February 26 | 1st buffalo purchased for Golden Gate Park |
| February 26 | Henrik Ibsens "Hedda Gabler," premieres in Oslo |
| February 28 | Oscar Grunden skates world record 500m (50.8 sec) |
| March 3 | Congress creates U.S. Courts of Appeal |
| March 3 | Office of Superintendent of Immigration (Treasury Department) created |
| March 17 | British Steamer "Utopia" sinks off Gibraltar killing 574 |
| March 18 | Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone |
| March 21 | A Hatfield marries a McCoy, ends long feud in West Virginia it started with an accusation of pig-stealing and lasted 20 years |
| March 28 | 1st world weightlifting championship held |
| April 1 | London-Paris telephone connection opens |
| April 1 | Painter Gauguin leaves Marseille for Tahiti |
| April 7 | Nebraska introduces 8 hour work day |
| April 11 | 8 year old Jewish tailor's daughter disappears in Greece, rumor spreads that she was a Christian girl ritually killed by Jews |
| April 23 | Jews are expelled from Moscow, Russia |
| April 24 | Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Final Problem" |
| April 25 | President Benjamin Harrison visits San Francisco |
| May 1 | Cy Young pitches 1st game played in Cleveland's League Park Cleveland Spiders 12, Cincinnati Redlegs 3 |
| May 5 | Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in New York, Tchaikovsky as guest conductor |
| May 6 | Conductors on London General Omnibus Company go on strike |
| May 7 | Battle in Bunyoro: Captain F Lugard stops Moslem rebellion, 300 killed |
| May 12 | Riot against tax increase in Paramaribo Suriname |
| May 13 | 17th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Kingman wins in 2:52 |
| May 15 | British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) forms |
| May 15 | Jules Massenets opera "Griselde," premieres in Paris |
| May 15 | Operations begin at Philips and Co in Holland |
| May 15 | Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Rerum novarum |
| May 16 | George A Hormel and Co introduce Spam |
| May 19 | Rice Institute, which became Rice University, is chartered |
| May 21 | Boxers Peter Jackson and Jim Corbett fight to a draw in 61 rounds |
| May 22 | 1st motion picture shown to National Federation of Women's Clubs |
| May 31 | Work on trans-Siberian railway begins |
| June 9 | Painter Gauguin arrives in Papeete, Tahiti |
| June 10 | 25th Belmont: Ed Garrison aboard Foxford wins in 2:08.75 |
| June 11 | Puerto Rican flag adopted |
| June 29 | National Forest Service organized |
| July 5 | Hail kills 6 horses in Rapid City, SD |
| July 7 | Travelers checks patents |
| July 8 | 61 degrees F, highest temp for July 1891, in Baltimore and Philadelphia |
| July 8 | Future president Harding marries Florence K DeWolfe in Marion Ohio |
| July 9 | Irene Coit is 1st woman admitted to Yale University |
| July 14 | John T. Smith patents corkboard |
| July 26 | Henry James' "American," premieres in London |
| July 27 | Titus van Wyck succeeds M de Savornin Lohman as Governor of Suriname |
| August 5 | 1st travelers checks issued, American Express |
| August 17 | 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in New York City (People's Bath) |
| August 17 | Electric self-starter for automobile patented |
| August 18 | Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die |
| August 19 | William Huggins describes astronomical application of spectrum |
| August 21 | Dutch Mackay government resigns |
| August 24 | Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera |
| September 3 | 11th U.S. Mens Tennis: Oliver S Campbell beats C Hobart (26 75 79 61 62) |
| September 3 | Cotton pickers organize union and staged strike in Texas |
| September 3 | John Stephens Durham, named minister to Haiti |
| September 7 | Captain Frederick Lugards army reaches Kavalli Equatoria |
| September 14 | "Empire State Express" train goes from New York City to East Buffalo, a distance of 436 miles, in a record 7H6M |
| September 18 | Harriet Maxwell Converse is 1st white woman to become an Indian chief |
| October 12 | Astronomical Society of France is inaugurated |
| October 18 | 1st international 6-day bicycle race in U.S. (MSG, New York City) begins |
| October 20 | 1st International 6 day bike race (New York MSG) begins |
| October 25 | 1st International 6 day bike race (New York MSG) ends |
| October 28 | Quake strikes Mino-Owari, Japan kills 7,300 |
| November 10 | 1st Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting held (in Boston) |
| November 10 | Granville T. Woods patents electric railway |
| November 30 | Pope Leo XIII's encyclical "Rerum novarum" published |
| December 1 | James Naismith creates the game of basketball |
| December 2 | 52nd Congress (1891-93) convenes |
| December 7 | 52nd Congress (1st to appropriate $1 billion) holds 1st session |
| December 15 | James Naismith invents basketball (Canada) |
| December 19 | Canadian Rugby Union forms |
| December 20 | Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses |
| December 21 | 18 students play 1st basketball game (Springfield College) |
| December 29 | Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio) |
