More Information About 1899

Year 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).

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: Cuba free.

• 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 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 21: Opel car.

• 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.
• 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 6: Aspirin.

• 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 Navy.

April - June

• 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.^[2]
• 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.
• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• 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.

Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War

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.

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. ^[3]

Births

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 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 - 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 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)
• 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)
• August 4 - Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
• 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 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 19 - Miguel Ã�ngel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• October 20 - Evelyn Brent, American actress (d. 1975)
• 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)
• 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)
• date unknown - 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)
• 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 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, 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)

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Notes

1. ^ "Calendar in year 1899 (Russia)" (Julian calendar, starting Tuesday), webpage: Julian-1899 (Russia used the Julian calendar until 1919).
2. ^ Inventors: Paperclip
3. ^ Island at the End of the World By Steven R. Fischer p. 153