HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

When La Bohème premieres in 1896:

• Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
• An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.
• The first modern Olympic Games, the 1896 Summer Olympics, open.
• The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson, introducing the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholding segregation.
• Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather, King George III, as the longest reigning monarch in British history.
• William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election.