1899

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1860s  1870s  1880s  – 1890s –  1900s  1910s  1920s
Years:	1896 1897 1898 – 1899 – 1900 1901 1902

1899 in topic:

Subjects:     Archaeology – Architecture –

Art – Literature (Poetry) – Music – Science

Sports – Rail Transport

Countries:     Australia – Canada – China – France – Germany – Ireland – Mexico – Netherlands – New Zealand – Norway – South Africa – Spain – UK – USA

Leaders:   State leaders – Colonial governors

Category: Establishments – Disestablishments

Births – Deaths – Works

1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday ^[1] of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar).

Contents 1 Events of 1899 1.1 January–March 1.2 April–June 1.3 July–September 1.4 October–December 1.5 Ongoing events 1.6 Undated 2 Births 2.1 January–March 2.2 April–June 2.3 July–September 2.4 October–December 3 Deaths 3.1 January–June 3.2 July–December 4 Notes

Although this year is often held to be the last of the nineteenth century, 1900 is technically the last year according to the "traditional" reckoning.

Events of 1899

January–March

• January 1
  • Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
  • Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
• January 6 – Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
• January 8 – SK Rapid Wien is founded.
• 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.
• January 19 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
• January 20 – South University is founded.
• January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business.

• January 22 – The leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss the confederation of Australia as a whole.
• 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 12–14 – 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 16 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur (the first football club in Iceland). is established.
• 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.^[2]
• March 1 – In Afghanistan, Capt. George Roos-Keppel makes a sudden attack on a predatory band of Chamkannis 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 sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland. A 12 m wave reaches up to 5 km inland, leaving over 400 dead.
• March 6
  • Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin.
  • Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.

• March 8 – The Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 (prequel for Eintracht Frankfurt) is founded.
• March 20 – At Sing Sing, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.
• March 24 – George Dewey is made Admiral of the US Navy.

April–June

• April 15 – Students at the University of California, Berkeley steal the Stanford Axe from Stanford University yell leaders following a baseball game, thus establishing the Axe as a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.
• May 3 – Ferencvarosi Torna Club is founded.
• May 13 – Esporte Clube Vitória is founded in Salvador, Brazil.
• May 14 – Three times world champion Club Nacional de Football is founded.
• May 18 – The First Hague Peace Conference was 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 southeast of Globe, Arizona.
• May 31 – The launch of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.
• June 12 – A tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 and injuring more than 200.
• June 22 – June 27 – The highest ever recorded individual cricket score, 628 not out, is made by A. E. J. Collins.
• June 25 – Three Denver, Colorado 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 famous nickname this day, after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for one mile 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 (strike lasts until August 2).
• July 29 – The first Peace Conference ends with the signing of the Hague Convention.
• July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends successfully.
• August 3 – The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• August 17 – A 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 13 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
• September 19 – Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned.

October–December

• 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 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 Bronx Zoo opens in New York City.
• November 29 – The F.C. Barcelona 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 16
  • The A.C. Milan is founded.
  • Augusta, KY: Augusta High School burns down due to a heating plant failure.
• December 26 – Second Boer War – Battle of Mafeking: The British inflict a crushing defeat on the Boers.
• December 31 – A large standing stone at Stonehenge falls over, the most recent time this has happened.

Ongoing events

• Indian famine of 1899–1900

Undated

• 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 Trade Union Congress recognizes Collective bargaining.
• Japan gets the right of extraterritoriality.
• Riro, the last king of Easter Island, on a visit to Valparaiso, Chile, died either from alcohol poisoning or an assassination plot by the Chilean government.^[4]
• HP Sauce was founded

Births

1899 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1899 MDCCCXCIX
Ab urbe condita	2652
Armenian calendar	1348 ԹՎ ՌՅԽԸ
Bahá'í calendar	55 – 56
Bengali calendar	1306
Berber calendar	2849
Buddhist calendar	2443
Burmese calendar	1261
Byzantine calendar	7407 – 7408
Chinese calendar	戊戌年十一月二十日 (4535/4595-11-20) — to — 己亥年十一月廿九日 (4536/4596-11-29)
Coptic calendar	1615 – 1616
Ethiopian calendar	1891 – 1892
Hebrew calendar	5659 – 5660
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	1955 – 1956
- Shaka Samvat	1821 – 1822
- Kali Yuga	5000 – 5001
Holocene calendar	11899
Iranian calendar	1277 – 1278
Islamic calendar	1316 – 1317
Japanese calendar	Meiji 32 (明治32年)
Korean calendar	4232
Thai solar calendar	2442

January–March

• 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 LeGallienne, 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 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
  • Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
  • Gale Sondergaard, American actress (d. 1985)
• February 17 – Leo Najo, American baseball player (d. 1978)
• February 22
  • George O'Hara, American actor (d. 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 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 – Lavrenty Beria, Soviet official (d. 1953)

April–June

• April 1 – Gustavs Celmins, Latvian fascist leader (d. 1968)
• April 4 – Hillel Oppenheimer, German-born Israeli botanist (d. 1971)
• April 7 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972)
• April 16 – Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist (d. 1988)
• 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)
• 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-Etienne Valluy, French general (d. 1970)
• May 24 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
• June 1 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (d. 1963)
• June 2 – Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (d. 1981)
• June 3 – Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the 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–September

• July 5 – Marcel Achard, French play and scriptwriter (d. 1974)
• July 7
  • George Cukor, American film director (d. 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 writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
• July 22 – King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (d. 1982)
• July 29 – Walter Beall, American baseball player (d. 1959)
• July 30 – Allen Hobbs, 32nd Governor of American Samoa (d. 1960)
• August 4 – Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth 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 24
  • Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
  • Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1983)
• 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 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 Efimov, Russian political cartoonist (d. 2008)

October–December

• October 1 – Ernest Haycox, American writer (d. 1950)
• October 3 – Gertrude Berg, American actress (d. 1966)
• October 5 – Georg, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1963)
• October 9 – Bruce Catton, American Civil War historian, Pulizer 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)
• 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 21 – Jobyna Ralston, American actress (d. 1967)
• November 23 – Manuel dos Reis Machado, Brazilian martial arts Master (d. 1974)
• November 24 – Soraya Tarzi, Afghan feminist and queen (d. 1968)
• 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 9 – Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (d. 1937)
• December 15 – Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• December 16 – Noel Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
• December 18 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
• December 25 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
• 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)

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)
  • Prince Alfred of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. 1874)
• February 16 – Félix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)
• February 25 – Paul Julius Reuter, German-born news agency founder (b. 1816)
• March 3 – William P. Sprague, American politician from Ohio (b. 1827)
• March 6 – Princess Kaiulani, last monarch of Hawaii (b. 1875)
• 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 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 16 – Robert Wilhelm 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 A. 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 22 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)

Notes

1. ↑ "Calendar in year 1899 (Russia)" (Julian calendar, starting Tuesday), webpage: Julian-1899 (Russia used the Julian calendar until 1919).
2. ↑ "Motoring Firsts". National Motor Museum Trust. http://nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/?location_id=151. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
3. ↑ Inventors: Paperclip
4. ↑ Island at the End of the World By Steven R. Fischer p. 153