1899

Year 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–March

January 1: Cuba free.

• January 1
  • Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
  • Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City.
• Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
• January 8 – The Association football club SK Rapid Wien is founded in Vienna.
• January 10 – The Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity is founded at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
• January 19 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed. It is disbanded in 1956.
• January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business.

January 21: Opel car.

• January 22 – The leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss the confederation of Australia as a whole.
• January 23
  • Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
  • British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
• February 2 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne agrees that Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• February 4 – The Philippine–American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
• February 6 – Spanish–American War: A peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
• February 12–February 14 – Great Blizzard of 1899: Freezing temperatures and snow extend well south into North America, including southern Florida. It is the latest in a series of disasters to Florida's citrus industry.
• February 14 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
• February 15 – The February Manifesto is issued by the Emperor of Russia subjugating the Diet of Finland to Imperial legislation. The Finnish estates lose their veto in regards to laws interpreted to concern all Russia, including autonomous Finland. The manifesto is viewed as unconstitutional and a coup d'état by the Finns who have come to consider their country being in real union with Russia. Furthermore, the manifesto also fails to separate which laws are to be considered local or imperial, leading the Finns to fear that any law could be considered as imperial, therefore in fact stripping the Finnish diet of all its legislative power.
• February 16 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the first Association football club in Iceland, is established in the island's capital, Reykjavík.
• February 25 – In an accident at Grove Hill, Harrow, London, England, Edwin Sewell becomes the world's first driver of a petrol-driven vehicle to be killed; his passenger, Maj. James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.^[1]
• Chamkanniws that have been raiding in the Kurram Valley, and captures 100 prisoners with 3,000 head of cattle.
• March 2 – In Washington state, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
• March 4 – Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay, Queensland. A 12 m wave reaches up to 5 km inland, leaving over 400 dead, the deadliest natural disaster in Australia's history.

March 6: Aspirin.

• March 6 – Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.
• March 8 – The Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 (predecessor of Eintracht Frankfurt) is founded.
• March 20 – At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.
• Admiral of the US Navy.
• March 27
  • Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.^[2]
  • Philippine–American War – Battle of Marilao River: Filipino forces under the personal command of Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines, fail to prevent troops of the United States Army crossing the river.
• International Committee on Atomic Weights.

April–June

• April 15 – Students at the University of California, Berkeley steal the Stanford Axe from Stanford University yelling at leaders following a baseball game, thus establishing the Axe as a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.
• April 26 — Jean Sibelius' 1. Symphony premiers in Helsinki.
• May 3 – Ferencvárosi TC Association football club is founded in Budapest.
• May 13 – Esporte Clube Vitória Association football club is founded in Salvador, Brazil.
• May 14 – Three times world champion Club Nacional de Football is founded in Montevideo, Uruguay.
• May 18 – The First Hague Peace Conference is opened in The Hague by Willem de Beaufort, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
• May 30 – Female outlaw Pearl Hart robs a stage coach 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona.
• May 31 – Launch of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.
• June 12 – The New Richmond tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 and injuring more than 200.
• June 19 – Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations premiered in London.
• June 22–27 – The highest ever recorded individual cricket score, 628 not out, is made by A. E. J. Collins.
• June 25 – Three Denver newspapers publish a story (later proved to be a fabrication) that the Chinese government under the Guangxu Emperor is going to demolish the Great Wall of China.
• June 27 – The paperclip is patented by Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor.^[3]
• June 30 – Mile-a-Minute Murphy earns his nickname after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for one mile (1.6 km) in under a minute on Long Island.

July–September

• July 17 –
  • America's first juvenile court is established in Chicago.
  • NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
  • Battle of Togbao: The French Bretonnet–Braun mission is destroyed in Chad, by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr.
• July 19 – The Newsboys Strike takes place when the Newsies of New York go on strike (until August 2).
• July 29 – The first Peace Conference ends with the signing of the First Hague Convention.
• July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends successfully.
• August 3 – The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago
• August 10 – Marshall "Major" Taylor wins the world 1-mile (1.6 km) professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.^[4]
• August 17 – The San Ciriaco hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.
• August 28 – At least 512 are killed when a debris hill from the Sumitomo Besshi copper mine at Niihama, Shikoku, Japan, collapses after heavy rain; 122 houses, a smelting factory, hospital and many other facilities are destroyed.
• September 6 – The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner RMS Oceanic sails on her maiden voyage. At 17,272 gross tons and 704 ft (215 m), she is the largest ship afloat, following scrapping of the SS Great Eastern a decade earlier.^[5]
• September 13 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
• September 18 – Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag is registered for copyright as ragtime music enjoys mainstream popularity in the United States.
• September 19 – Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned in France.

October–December

• Duke of York Island (Antarctica) discovered by the British Southern Cross Expedition.
• October 11 – The Second Boer War: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
• October 13 – Second Boer War: Siege of Mafeking begins.
• October 14 – Second Boer War: Kimberley comes under siege by the Boers.
• October 20 – Second Boer War: Battle of Talana Hill: In the first major clash of the conflict, near Dundee, Natal, the British Army drives the Boers from a hilltop position, but with heavy casualties, including their commanding general Sir Penn Symons.
• October 30 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Ladysmith begins.
• October 30 – The Augusta High School Building is completed in Augusta, Kentucky; Augusta Methodist College shuts down.
• November 4 – The Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
• November 8 – The New York Zoological Society opens the Bronx Zoological Park to the public in New York City.
• November 15 – The American Line's SS St. Paul becomes the first ocean liner to report her imminent arrival by wireless telegraphy when Marconi's station at The Needles contacts her 66 nautical miles (122 km) off the coast of England.
• November 24 – Mahdist War: Decisive British and Egyptian victory at the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat ends the war in Sudan.
• November 29 – The FC Barcelona Association football club is founded.
• December 2
  • Philippine–American War – Battle of Tirad Pass ("The Filipino Thermopylae"): General Gregorio del Pilar and his troops are able to guard the retreat of Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo before being wiped out.
  • During the new moon, a near-grand conjunction of the classical planets and several binocular Solar System bodies occur. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are all within 15° of each other, with Venus 5° ahead of this conjunction and Jupiter 15° behind. Accompanying the classical planets in this grand conjunction are Uranus (technically visible unaided in pollution-free skies), Ceres and Pallas.
• December 10 – 4-month-old Sobhuza II begins his 82-year reign as King of Swaziland on the death of his father, Ngwane V; his grandmother Labotsibeni Mdluli serves as queen regent.
• December 15 – Glasgow School of Art opens its new building, the most notable work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.^[6]
• December 16
  • The Association football club A.C. Milan is founded in Italy.
  • Augusta High School in Augusta, Kentucky, burns down due to a heating plant failure.
• December 31 – A large standing stone at Stonehenge falls over, the most recent time this has happened.

Date unknown

• David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry with the publication of his book Grundlagen der Geometrie.
• The International Council of Nurses is founded.
• The significance of Chinese oracle bones is discovered.
• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Manteo, which was originally laid out as the Dare county seat in 1870.
• Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska.
• The German Trades Union Congress recognizes collective bargaining.
• Japan gets the right of extraterritoriality.
• Riro, last of the Kings of Easter Island, on a visit to Valparaíso, Chile, dies either from alcohol poisoning or an assassination plot by the Chilean government.^[7]
• Oxo beef stock cubes introduced by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.
• Alfred R. Tucker becomes Bishop of Uganda.^[8]

Births

January

• January 1 – Jack Beresford, British Olympic rower (d. 1977)
• January 6 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German automotive engineer (d. 1968)
• January 7 – Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)
• January 11 – Eva Le Gallienne, English actress (d. 1991)
• January 12 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
• January 14 – Carlos Romulo, Filipino diplomat (d. 1985)
• January 15 – Goodman Ace, American actor, comedian, and writer (d. 1982)
• January 17
  • Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
  • Nevil Shute, English author (d. 1960)
• January 20 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese television development pioneer (d. 1990)
• January 21 – Dr John Bodkin Adams, suspected British serial killer (d. 1983)
• January 23 – Alfred Denning, Baron Denning, English lawyer, judge and Master of the Rolls (d. 1999)
• January 30 – Max Theiler, South African virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1972)

February

• February 2 – Herbie Faye, American actor (d. 1980)
• February 3
  • Doris Speed, British actress (d. 1994)
  • Lao She, Chinese author (d. 1966)
• February 6 – Ramón Novarro, Mexican actor (d. 1968)
• February 7 – Earl Whitehill, American baseball player (d. 1954)
• February 15
  • 1983)
  • Gale Sondergaard, American actress (d. 1985)
• February 17 –
  • Jibanananda Das, Indian poet, writer, novelist and essayist in Bengali (d. 1954)
  • Leo Najo, American baseball player (d. 1978)
• February 22
  • 1966)
  • Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1986)
  • Ian Clunies Ross, Australian scientist (d. 1959)
• February 23 – Erich Kästner, German writer (d. 1974)
• February 26
  • Alec Campbell, Australian WWI soldier, last Australian Gallipoli veteran (d. 2002)
  • Max Petitpierre, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1994)
• February 27 – Charles Best, Canadian medical scientist (d. 1978)

March

• March 4 – Harry R. Wellman, University of California president (d. 1997)
• March 8
  • Eric Linklater, American author (d. 1974)
  • Elmer Keith, American rancher, author, firearms enthusiast (d. 1984)
• March 11 – King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
• March 13 – John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
• March 18 – Jean Goldkette, French-born musician (d. 1962)
• March 24 – Dorothy C. Stratton, American director of the SPARS during World War II (d. 2006)
• March 27 – Gloria Swanson, American actress (d. 1983)
• March 28 – August Anheuser Busch, Jr., Founder of Anheuser-Busch brewery company (d. 1989)
• March 28 – Harold B. Lee, eleventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1973)
• March 29 – Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet official (d. 1953)

April

• April 1 – Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian fascist leader (d. 1968)
• April 3 – Maria Redaelli-Granoli, Italian supercentenarian, oldest person in Europe (d. 2013)
• April 4 – Hillel Oppenheimer, German-born Israeli botanist (d. 1971)
• April 5 – Elsie Thompson, American supercentenarian (d. 2013)
• April 7 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972)
• April 9 – Hans Jeschonnek, German general (d. 1943)
• April 16 – Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist (d. 1988)
• April 20 – Alan Arnett McLeod, Canadian soldier (d. 1918)
• April 21 – Percy Lavon Julian, American scientist (d. 1975)
• April 22 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born writer (d. 1977)
• April 23 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• April 24 – Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (d. 1986)
• April 27 – Walter Lantz, American animator (d. 1994)
• April 29
  • Duke Ellington, American jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)
  • Mary Petty, American illustrator (d. 1976)

May

• May 8 – Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
• May 10
  • Fred Astaire, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1987)
  • Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (d. 1979)
• May 12 – Indra Devi, Baltic-born yogi and actress (d. 2002)
• May 15 – Jean-Étienne Valluy, French general (d. 1970)
• May 23 – Jeralean Talley, American supercentenarian
• May 24 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
• May 24 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi National poet (d. 1976)
• May 30 – Irving Thalberg, American film producer (d. 1936)

June

• June 1 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (d. 1963)
• June 2 – Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (d. 1981)
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1972)
• June 12 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1986)
• June 13 – Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (d. 1978)
• June 14 – Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
• June 26 – Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
• June 27 – Juan Trippe, American airline entrepreneur and pioneer (d. 1981)
• June 30 – Harry Shields, American jazz clarinettist (d. 1971)

July

• July 1 – Charles Laughton, English-American stage and film actor (d. 1962)
• July 5 – Marcel Achard, French play and scriptwriter (d. 1974)
• July 7
  • 1983)
  • Jesse Wallace, American naval officer, 29th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1961)
• July 10 – John Gilbert, American actor (d. 1936)
• July 11 – E. B. White, American writer (d. 1985)
• July 15 – Seán Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1971)
• July 17 – James Cagney, American actor (d. 1986)
• July 21
  • Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
  • Ernest Hemingway, American author and journalist (d. 1961)
• July 22 – King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (d. 1982)
• 1981)
• July 29
  • Walter Beall, American baseball player (d. 1959)
  • Alice Terry, American film actress (d. 1987)

August

• August 4 – Ezra Taft Benson, 13th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
• August 9 – Paul Kelly, stage & film actor (d. 1956)
• August 13 – Alfred Hitchcock, British film director (d. 1980)
• August 14 – Evelyn Kozak, American supercentenarian, oldest Jewish person ever (d. 2013)
• August 24
  • 1986)
  • Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1983)
• August 27 – Byron Foulger, American actor (d. 1970)
• August 28 – Vernon Huber, American Rear admiral (United States); 36th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1967)
• August 29
  • Lyman Lemnitzer, American general (d. 1988)
  • Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter (d. 1991)
• August 30 – Ray Arcel, American boxing trainer (d. 1994)

September

• September 1 – Andrei Platonovich Klimentov, Russian-born Soviet writer (d. 1951)
• September 3 – Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)
• September 9
  • Brassaï, French photographer (d. 1984)
  • Waite Hoyt, American baseball player (d. 1984)
• September 13 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist politician, leader of the Iron Guard (d. 1938)
• September 17 – Harold Bennett, British actor (d. 1981)
• September 21 – Frederick Coutts, 8th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1986)
• September 28 – Boris Yefimov, Russian political cartoonist (d. 2008)

October

• October 1 – Ernest Haycox, American writer (d. 1950)
• October 3 – Gertrude Berg, American actress (d. 1966)
• October 4 – Franz Jonas, former President of Austria (d. 1974)
• 1963)
• October 9 – Bruce Catton, American Civil War historian, Pulitzer Prize winner (1954) (d. 1978)
• October 19 – Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• October 20 – Evelyn Brent, American actress (d. 1975)
• October 30 – Katarina Marinič, Slovenia's oldest person. (d. 2010)

November

• November 5 – Forrest Lewis, American actor (d. 1977)
• November 7 – Yitzhak Lamdan, Russian-born Israeli poet and columnist (d. 1954)
• November 13 – Vera Caspary, American screenwriter, novelist, playwright (d. 1987)
• November 15
  • Avdy Andresson, Estonian Minister of War in Exile (d. 1990)
  • Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
• November 17 – Douglas Shearer, American film sound engineer (d. 1971)
• November 18 – Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (d. 1985)
• November 19 – Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, Shia Ayatollah (d. 1992)
• November 21 – Jobyna Ralston, American actress (d. 1967)
• November 22 – Hoagy Carmichael, American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader (d. 1981)
• November 23 – Manuel dos Reis Machado, Brazilian martial arts Master (d. 1974)
• November 24 – Soraya Tarzi, Afghan feminist and queen (d. 1968)
• November 26
  • Mona Bruns, American actress on the stage, films, radio, and television (d. 2000)
  • Richard Hauptmann, German murderer of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. (d. 1936)
  • Maurice Rose, American general (d. 1945)
• November 29 – Emma Morano-Martinuzzi, Italian supercentenarian, oldest living person in Europe.

December

• December 14 – DeFord Bailey, American country musician (d. 1982)
• December 2
  • John Barbirolli, English conductor (d. 1970)
  • Ray Morehart, American baseball player (d. 1989)
• December 3 – Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1965)
• December 8 – John Qualen, Canadian-American actor (d. 1987)
• December 9 – Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (d. 1937)
• December 15 – Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• December 16
  • Noël Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
  • Aleksander Zawadzki, former President of Poland (d. 1964)
• December 18 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
• December 25
  • Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
  • Frank Ferguson, American actor (d. 1978)
• December 28 – Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (d. 1943)
• December 29 – Nie Rongzhen, Chinese Communist military leader (d. 1992)
• December 31 – Friedrich Panse, German psychiatrist (d. 1973)

Date unknown

• Claire Huchet Bishop, author of The Five Chinese Brothers with the illustrator Kurt Wiese and The Man Who Lost His Head with the illustrator Robert McCloskey (d. 1993)
• Burr Shafer, American cartoonist (d. 1965)

Deaths

January–June

• January 16 – Emilio Castelar y Ripoll, President of the First Spanish Republic (b. 1832)
• January 23 – Romualdo Pacheco, Governor of California (b. 1831)
• January 31 – Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, Princess-consort of Bulgaria (b. 1870)
• February 6
  • Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
  • Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1874)
• February 16 – Félix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)
• February 25 – Paul Reuter, German-born news agency founder (b. 1816)
• March 3 – William P. Sprague, American politician from Ohio (b. 1827)
• March 6 – Princess Kaʻiulani, last monarch of Hawaii (b. 1875)
• April 1 – Charles C. Carpenter, American admiral (b. 1834)
• April 5 – T. E. Ellis, Welsh politician (b. 1859)
• April 7 – Pieter Rijke, Dutch physicist (b. 1812)
• April 16 – Emilio Jacinto, Filipino poet and revolutionary (b. 1875)
• April 22 – Johann Köler, Estonian painter (b. 1826)
• May 24 – William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher, British law lord (b. 1817)
• June 3 – Johann Strauss, Jr., Austrian composer (b. 1825)
• June 4 – Eugenio Beltrami, Italian mathematician (b. 1835)
• June 7 – Augustin Daly, American theatrical impresario and playwright (b. 1838)
• June 10 – Ernest Chausson, French composer (b. 1855)

July–December

• July 18 – Horatio Alger, Jr., American writer (b. 1832)
• July 21 – Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician (b. 1833)
• July 27 – Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, German chess-master (b. 1818)
• August 4 – Karl, Freiherr von Prel, German philosopher (b. 1839)
• Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1871)
• August 16 – Robert Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)
• September 2 – Ernest Renshaw, British tennis player (b. 1861)
• September 12 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, American railway magnate (b. 1843)
• September 17 – Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American industrialist (b. 1842)
• October 2 – Percy Pilcher, British aviation pioneer & glider pilot (b. 1866)
• October 30 – William Henry Webb, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1816)
• November 16
  • Vincas Kudirka, Lithuanian doctor, poet, and national hero (b. 1858)
  • Julius Hermann Moritz Busch, German publicist (b. 1821)
• November 21 – Garret Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States (b. 1844)
• November 23 – Thomas Henry Ismay, British owner of the White Star Line (b. 1837)
• November 24 – Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, Sudanese political and religious leader (killed in battle) (b. 1846)
• December 2 – Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (killed in battle) (b. 1875)
• December 10 – King Ngwane V of Swaziland (b. 1876)
• December 19 – Henry Ware Lawton, American general (b. 1843)
• December 22 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)

unknown date

• Emma Hardinge Britten, British writer (b. 1823)

References