The U.S. Department of Energy announced production of solar panels giving nearly twice the efficiency of existing panels. Made by United Solar Systems of Troy, Mich., these amorphous silicon submodule (1 ft2) panels converted 10.2% of solar energy into electricity, as compared to 6% previously possible. This was possible by using new thin-film photovoltaic technology. The company has subsequently produced flexible solar shingles based on thin film photovoltaics that can permit the roofs of ordinary commercial and residential buildings to evolve from simply providing protection from the weather to becoming a source of much-needed electric power.

An x-ray machine was not exhibited at Casino Chambers, New York City, though some sources state it was. The news of Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of the astonishingly penetrating X-rays had only been revealed to the world earlier in the month. So, riding on the wave of that publicity, the Cabaret du Neant opened, charging 25 cents admission to see the “Parisian sensation.” What the audiences actually saw was only a theatrical illusion of an x-ray image using only magic lantern techniques and the Peppers Ghost effect. No actual x-ray equipment was used. However, just a few days earlier, the first X-ray photograph in the U.S. has been credited were taken by Dr. Henry Lewis Smith in Davidson, N.C., on 12 Jan 1896. He had acted very quickly, as Röntgen made his discovery on 8 Nov 1895, announced it on 1 Jan 1896, and the first newspaper report, in Austria, was on 5 Jan 1896.