Four days later, as it was the costume at the Tsar's coronation, a banquet was going to be held for the people at Khodynka Meadow, a field outside Moscow. There would be free beer and gifts for everyone. A night before, people began to crowd at Khodynka; at dawn a half million people had gathered there, where they could see the beer and the gifts, awaiting for them. Only sixteen men had been assigned to keep order among the crowd. Suddenly a rumour spread among the people that there were not enough beer and presents for everbody. The crowd began to push themselves, falling down and crushing between them. It all happened in 15 minutes; there were 1429 deads and thousand of woundeds. When they learned about the tragedy, Nicholas and Alexandra were shocked; they spent the rest of the day visiting hospitals and comforting the woundeds. That night a ball given by the Franch embassy, was going to be held. The Minister of Finance, Serguei Witte, suggested that the ball should be canceled in spite of the tragedy, but Nicholas' uncles, Grand Dukes Vladimir, Alexis, Serge and Paul advised their nephew that he and Alexandra must attend the ball for diplomatic reasons, and so they did.
Children began to arrive in 1895. On November 15, Alexandra gave birth to a girl, Grand Duchess Olga. A year and a half later, on June 10, 1897, Grand Duchess Tatiana was born. Everyone was dissapointed as they had been hoping for a son. But Nicholas and Alexandra were young and they could bear more children, the hope of a son was still alive. But on June 26 1899, another girl was born to the Imperial couple, Grand Duchess Marie; another dissapointment for Russia, Alexandra had failed again, she couldn't gave them a heir.
Some days later, Nicholas' brother, Grand Duke George, died of tuberculosis. When Nicholas became Tsar, George, as his second brother, was named Tsarevitch and heir to the throne; at his death, the next in line was the youngest brother, Grand Duke Michael, but before he was named officialy as tsarevitch, on November, 1900, Nicholas became ill with typhoid fever and was about to die. Alexandra was again pregnant. Minister Serguei Witte and the Dowager Empress suggested that Michael should be regent in case Nicholas died, if Alexandra gave birth to a boy; if she had a girl, Michael would be Tsar. Alexandra believed they were plotting to remove Nicholas from the throne; she was certain that this time she would have a boy and in case of Nicholas' death, she was the one who should be regent. But eventuallym, Nicholas recovered and Alexandra gave birth to another girl on June 18, 1901, Grand Duchess Anastasia.