Diamond Jubilee bonfires and fireworks all round Briain celebrate Victoria's sixty years on the throne

Humbert I, the king of Italy, is assassinated by an Italian-American anarchist, Gaetano Bresci

Queen Victoria dies at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, after 63 years on the throne

Edward VII is already 59 when he succeeds his mother, Victoria, as Britain's monarch

Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters has its premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Stanislavsky

King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia are murdered in their palace by army officers

The monk Grigory Rasputin exercises a powerful influence over the Russian empress Alexandra

Tsar Nicholas II issues a Fundamental Law emphasizing his own autocratic power

Tsar Nicholas II summarily dismisses Russia's new duma when it has been sitting for only three months

The Transvaal government presents to Edward VII the Cullinan diamond, now part of the British crown jewels

The king of Portugal, Carlos I, and his heir, Luis Filipe, are shot as they ride in an open carriage in Lisbon

Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria declares his country's independence from Ottoman rule and calls himself Tsar Ferdinand I

The last Manchu emperor, Puyi, is placed on the throne at the age of two on the death of his uncle, the Guanxu emperor

The Empress Dowager Cixi dies the day after selecting the infant Puyi for the Chinese throne

George V succeeds his father, Edward VII, on the British throne

A republican revolution in Portugal deposes Manuel II, bringing to an end the Braganza dynasty and the Portuguese monarchy

The British monarch George V holds a great durbar in Delhi to celebrate his coronation as emperor of India

The abdication of the child emperor Puyi brings to an end the Qing dynasty

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip

Petrograd buzzes with rumours about Rasputin's dissolute life, including salacious hints that he is the lover of the empress Alexandra

Ras Tafari, a member of the Ethiopian imperial family, deposes his distant relation the emperor and puts on the throne his aunt, Zauditu

Three members of the Russian imperial family assassinate the influential charlatan Grigory Rasputin

The emperor Francis Joseph dies after 66 years on the thrones of Austria and Hungary, to be succeeded by his great-nephew Charles I

Crowds demonstrating in Petrograd are fired on after tsar Nicholas II sanctions the use of force

With his capital city in the hands of rebels, tsar Nicholas II abdicates