The year1896 inscience andtechnology involved some significant events, listed below.

• April –Svante Arrhenius first publishes the "greenhouse law", becoming the first person to predict that emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and other combustion processes are large enough to causeglobal warming through thegreenhouse effect.^[1]

• June 15 – The1896 Sanriku earthquake of 7.2surface wave magnitude andtsunami inJapan kill 27,000.

• August – Conclusion ofNansen'sFram expedition.

• Theprime number theorem on thedistribution of primes is proved.^[2]
• Charles L. Dodgson publishes the first part ofSymbolic Logic.
• Karl Pearson publishes significant contributions tocorrelation and regression.^[2]

• International Cloud Atlas first published.

• Ernest Duchesne discovers theantibiotic properties ofpenicillin^[3] as part of his doctoral research, but this is not followed up at this time.
• Ernest Hanbury Hankin discovers the antibiotic properties of what will become identified asbacteriophages.^[4]

• January 12 – H. L. Smith takes the firstX-ray photograph.
• March 1 –French physicistHenri Becquerel discovers the principle ofradioactive decay when he exposesphotographic plates touranium.
• German physicistWilhelm Wien derivesWien approximation.

• July –Victor Despeignes pioneersradiation oncology inLyon.^[5]
• Antoine Marfan first describes the symptoms ofMarfan syndrome.^[6][7][8]
• An improvedsphygmomanometer, for the measurement ofblood pressure, is described byScipione Riva-Rocci.^[9]
• The 12th edition ofRichard von Krafft-Ebing'sPsychopathia Sexualis introduces the term 'paedophilia'.
• Belgian psychiatristJean Crocq publishesLes nèvroses traumatiques: ètude pathogènique & clinique.

• Thomas Ellis Brown produces an innovative design ofrolling bascule bridge forBrooklyn.^[10]
• Jesse W. Reno produces the first workingescalator ("inclined elevator"), installed atConey Island, Brooklyn.
• Gottlieb Daimler produces the firsttruck.^[11]
• Léon Serpollet invents theflash boiler for thesteam car.
• CaptainNeville Bertie-Clay, Superintendent of theBritish Army arsenal atDum Dum inBengal, invents anexpanding bullet.
• December 11 –William Preece introducesGuglielmo Marconi's work inwireless telegraphy to the general public at a lecture, "Telegraphy without Wires", at theToynbee Hall inLondon.

• Copley Medal:Carl Gegenbaur^[12]
• Wollaston Medal for geology:Eduard Suess

• January 3 –Jay Laurence Lush (died1982),American livestockgeneticist.
• February 2 –Kazimierz Kuratowski (died1980),Polishmathematician.
• February 14 –Arthur Milne (died1950),Englishspacephysicist.
• February 28 –Philip Showalter Hench (died1965), American physician, recipient of theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• March 29 –Wilhelm Ackermann (died1962),German mathematician.
• April 7 –Donald Winnicott (died1971), Englishchild psychiatrist.
• April 14 –Priscilla Fairfield Bok (died1975), American astronomer.
• April 30 –Hans List (died1996), Austrian inventor.
• May 6 –Rolf Maximilian Sievert (died1966),Swedish physicist.
• May 31 –Hilda Lyon (died1946), Englishaeronautical engineer.
• June 1 –Shintaro Uda (died1976),Japaneseelectrical engineer.
• June 7 –Robert S. Mulliken (died1986), American physicist, recipient of theNobel Prize in Chemistry.
• July 16 –Otmar von Verschuer (died1969), Germaneugenicist.
• August 15 –Gerty Cori (née Radnitz) (died1957),Prague-born winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

• June 23 –Joseph Prestwich (born1812),Englishgeologist.
• July 13 –August Kekulé (born1829), Germanorganicchemist.
• August 10 –Otto Lilienthal (born1848), Germanaviation pioneer.
• September 18 –Hippolyte Fizeau (born1819), Frenchphysicist.
• October 21 –James Henry Greathead (born1844),Britishcivil engineer.
• October 27 –H. Newell Martin (born1848),Britishphysiologist.
• November 3 –Eugen Baumann (born1846), Germanchemist.
• November 22 –George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (born1859),Americancivil engineer, inventor of theFerris wheel.
• December 10 –Alfred Nobel (born1833),Swedish-borninventor.

• 1896 in science
• 19th century in science
• 1890s in science

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
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