1894 ( MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1894th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 894th year of the 2nd millennium, the 94th year of the 19th century, and the 5th year of the 1890s decade.

August 15 – Sante Geronimo Caserio is executed, for the assassination of French President Marie François Sadi Carnot. August 31 – New Zealand enacts the world's first minimum wage law, to take effect on January 1, in the passage of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894.

The Model 1894 is the rifle credited with the name "Winchester" being used to refer to all rifles of this type and was the first commercial sporting rifle to sell over 7,000,000 units. One Model 1894 is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Arms & Armor department.

The largest cartridge that the 1894 action can accommodate is the .450 Marlin, which was chambered in some custom rifles and the short-lived Timber Carbine on a beefed-up 1894 "big bore" receiver.