1899

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
• End of Spanish rule in Cuba.
• Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
• January 6 - Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
• January 10 - Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• January 17 - 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 Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• February 4 - 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 established - the first football club in Iceland.
• 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 - 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 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 that the Chinese government under the Guangxu Emperor is going to demolish the Great Wall of China - later proved to be a fabrication.
• June 27 - The paperclip is patented by Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor.
• 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.
• The French Bretonnet-Braun mission is destroyed in the battle of Togbao, in Chad, by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr.
• July 19 - The Newsboys Strike takes place when the Newsies of New York, USA, 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 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 - Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
• October 30 - Augusta, KY Augusta High School Building is completed. Augusta Methodist College shuts down.
• November 4 - Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
• November 8 - The Bronx Zoo opens.
• November 29 - F.C. Barcelona is founded.
• December 2 -
• Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought; 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 on December 2-3, 1899, a near-grand conjunction of the classical planets and several binocular Solar System bodies occurred. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn were 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 were Uranus (technically visible unaided in pollution-free skies), Ceres and Pallas.
• December 16
• A.C. Milan is founded.
• Augusta, KY Augusta High School burns down due to a heating plant failure.
• December 26 - Battle of Mafeking begins.
• 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.
• 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 discovered in Nome, Alaska.
• German Trade Union Congress recognizes Collective bargaining.
• Japan gets rif of extraterritoriality.

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. 1962)
• October 19 - Miguel Ángel 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)
• 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 of Hawaii, 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)

Notes