1899 CE

Japan promulgates its commercial code, the Shōhō, to take effect on June 16. The Eden Theatre in La Ciotat, a commune in France near Marseille, lays a claim to being the first cinema as brothers Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière present their short film, L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat ("The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station") to 250 surprised spectators. American boxer James J. Jeffries wins the world heavyweight boxing championship when he knocks out Cornish-born Bob Fitzsimmons at Coney Island, New York.

In the 1890s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 9 – After a successful revolt against the Ottoman Empire by the inhabitants of the island of Crete, the area, which joins Greece, gets its first constitution.source
January 12 – The French government passes a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, 423 to 124.source
January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.source
January 23 – Mubarak Al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, signs the Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899, a secret treaty with the British Empire to accept protectorate status for the Middle Eastern sheikdom in return for British protection of Kuwaiti territory.source
January 23 – Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic, a declaration of independence against the U.S. military government of the Philippines.source
January 23 – Malolos Constitution is proclaimed in Malolos, Bulacan, establishing the First Philippine Republic. Emilio Aguinaldo inaugurated as President of the Republic.Philippines source
February 2 – The participants in the Australian Premiers' Conference agree that Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.source
February 6 – By a vote of 57 to 27, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate to end the Spanish–American War.source
12 February – The majority of the Kingdom of Spain's remaining territories in the Pacific are sold to the German Empire through the German–Spanish Treaty.Spain source
February 18 – The National Assembly of France elects a new President to serve the remainder of the late President Faure's term. Senate president Émile Loubet wins the vote against prime minister Jules Méline.source
February 26 – Kálmán Széll replaces Dezső Bánffy as Prime Minister of Hungary.source
March 1 – Juan Lindolfo Cuestas resumes office as President of Uruguay after stepping down for 24 days to allow Senate President José Batlle y Ordóñez to serve as acting president.source
March 15 – The cabinet of Spain's Prime Minister Silvestri approves the ratification of the treaty to end the Spanish–American War. The Queen Regent of Spain signs the treaty two days later.source
24 March - The Puna de Atacama dispute is resolved.Chile source
April 11 – U.S. President William McKinley declares the Spanish–American War to be at an end as the Treaty of Paris between the U.S. and Spain goes into effect. Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam are ceded to the U.S. and Cuba becomes an American protectorate.source
April 19 – France adds the Kingdom of Laos, a protectorate since 1893, to the existing colony of French Indochina.source
May 18 – The First Hague Peace Conference, initiated by Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, is opened in The Hague by Willem de Beaufort, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.source
May 31 – The Bloemfontein Conference commences between Paul Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner in the Orange Free State, but ends in failure after six days.source
June 15 – Sweden's Department of Foreign Affairs hosts a conference for delegates from Germany, Denmark, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Russia and Sweden to make agreements on fishing in the Arctic Ocean, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.source
June 18 – The Federación Libre de Trabajadores is created in Puerto Rico as a resistance movement against the United States.source
June 21 – "Treaty 8", the most comprehensive of the eleven Numbered Treaties, is signed between the British Crown on behalf of Canada, with various Cree groups of the First Nations, ceding 320,000 sq mi of land in the northern parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, as well as a portion of the Northwest Territories, to the Canadian government.source
June 22 – Pelloux's patience with the obstruction to his public safety provisions snaps and he issues an unconstitutional royal decree. The decree was fiercely obstructed by the Socialist Party of Italy (PSI) and Extreme Left. More moderate politicians like Giuseppe Zanardelli and Giovanni Giolitti also join the opposition.Italy source
14 July: Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias proclaims the First Republic of Acre, breaching the terms of the Treaty of Ayacucho between Brazil and Bolivia.Brazil source
July 15 – Japan's first comprehensive copyright law takes effect and, on the same day, Japan agrees to join the Berne Convention.Japan source
July 17 – The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation takes effect, ending extraterritoriality and the unequal status of Japan in foreign commerce.source
August 4 – Japan rescinds its policy of extraterritoriality privileges to western nations that had operated consular courts to try cases against western nationals under western law.source
August 17 – Emperor Gojong of Korea issues the 9-article International Declaration declaring that, as "the great emperor of Korea", he has "infinite military authority" as well as absolute power to enact laws.source
August 20 – The Kiram–Bates Treaty is signed in the Philippines, with U.S. forces recognizing the autonomy of local governments in the Sulu Archipelago (within the Mindanao island group) in return for the Sultan's assistance in suppressing attacks on U.S. forces.source
August 30 – After taking over the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic, Santiago de los Caballeros, revolutionists proclaim Horacio Vásquez as the nation's President in rebel-controlled territory. At the same time in the capital at Santo Domingo, president Wenceslao Figuereo steps down after only five weeks in office.source
October 1 – Possession of the Mariana Islands is formally transferred from Spain to Germany, which purchased the archipelago (with the exception of Guam) from Spain for 837,500 German gold marks and become part of German New Guinea.source
26 November - Legislative electionPortugal source
14 December – Walther Hauser is elected president by the Swiss Federal Assembly.Switzerland source

Conflict & Security

February 5 – The first major battle of the Philippine–American War concludes with the capture by the U.S. of the San Juan River Bridge that connects Manila and San Juan.source
February 11 – In the Philippines, the city of Iloilo is captured by troops led by U.S. Army Brigadier General Marcus P. Miller.source
14 March – Kaiser Wilhelm II takes direct command of the Imperial Navy.Germany source
March 16 – In the U.S. at Palmetto, Georgia, a lynch mob kills four African-American suspects who had been arrested on suspicion of arson.source
March 19 – The Battle of Taguig takes place in the Philippines as the USS Laguna de Bay bombards the Katipunan stronghold.source
March 31 – In the Philippine–American War, Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.source
April 7 – The Shootout at Wilson Ranch, the last major gunfight of the Wild West era in the U.S., takes place in Tombstone, Arizona. Brothers William Halderman and Thomas Halderman, kill two lawmen. They will be hanged on November 16, 1900.source
April 9 – The Battle of Santa Cruz begins in the Philippines between U.S. Army troops and nationalists of the First Philippine Republic. After a two-day battle, 93 Filipino fighters and one American soldier are dead.source
April 9 – In Uganda, King Chwa II Kabalega of the Bunyoro kingdom, a leader of the fight against British colonial occupation, is taken prisoner after being shot in a battle near Hoima. Kabalega is exiled to the Seychelles and remains there until 1923.source
April 14 – British Army troops in Hong Kong attack the Walled City of Kowloon, based on intelligence that Chinese Imperial Army troops have been stationed behind the walls to subvert Britain's 1898 lease.source
May 2 – The Kingdom of Siam (modern-day Thailand) cedes its province of Luang Prabang (now Laos) to France.source
May 8 – In the French West African colony of Niger, Paul Voulet massacres the Hausa inhabitants of the village of Birni-N'Konni in retaliation for the continued resistance of Queen Sarraounia.source
May 14 – Prime Minister Pelloux resigns over his Chinese policy. Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Felice Napoleone Canevaro had demanded that the Chinese Empire grant it a lease for a naval coaling station at China's Sanmen Bay (known as "San-Mun Bay" to the Italians) similar to the lease the German Empire had secured in 1898 at Kiautschou Bay. China refused to comply and Italy had to withdraw its ultimatum, becoming the first and only Western power to fail to achieve its territorial goals in China. The fiasco was an embarrassment that gave Italy – still stung by its defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian Empire in the Battle of Adowa in 1896 – the appearance of a third-rate power. Pelloux and his fellow cabinet ministers stated that Canevaro had acted without informing them, and it was widely believed that king Umberto I was the one who had given Canevaro the orders to acquire a concession in China. Pelloux forms a new government, the most decisively conservative since 1876, without Canevaro.Italy source
May 19 – The U.S. Army captures Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost island in the Philippines.Philippines source
June 26 – Joseph Chamberlain sets into motion the Second Boer War after receiving an appeal from the British Cape Colony in South Africa to help British subjects oppressed in the Transvaal Republic.source
June 28 – In Nigeria, British authorities publicly hang King Ologbosere Irabor outside of the courthouse at Benin City, after he was convicted of ordering the massacre of a party dispatched by the British consul.source
July 17 – In the Battle of Togbao in Chad, the French Bretonnet–Braun mission is destroyed by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr.source
August 13 – The battle for the Philippine city of Angeles begins. The U.S. captures the area, the future site of Clark Air Force Base, by August 16.source
September 15 – Preparing for an attack on Britain's Cape Colony from the neighboring Transvaal Republic, Robert Baden-Powell arrives at the border town of Mafeking and begins recruiting volunteers and stockpiling munitions to prepare for an attack and siege.source
22 September – Following a court-martial, Admiral Patricio Montojo, who had surrendered the Philippines to the U.S. to end the Spanish–American War, is relieved of all commands and placed on the reserve list.Spain source
September 26 – General Manuel Guzman Alvarez of the Venezuelan state of Sucre joins with General Cipriano Castro in a revolt against the Venezuelan government.source
28 September: Prime Minister Richard Seddon asks Parliament to approve the offer to the imperial government of a contingent of mounted rifles and the raising of such a force if the offer were accepted and thus becoming the first British Colony to send troops to the Boer war. The first New Zealand Army contingent leaves for South Africa before the end of the year.New Zealand source
October 14 – The Boer invasion of the Cape Colony begins with the siege of Kimberley.source
October 17 – The Thousand Days' War begins in Colombia as Colombian Liberal Party soldiers led by General Rafael Uribe Uribe, with support from Venezuela, begin a fight against the government of National Party president Manuel Antonio Sanclemente. The war will continue for 1,130 days.source
October 18 – The Boxer Rebellion begins in China as the Battle of Senluo Temple is fought between more than 4,000 Imperial Chinese Army troops and at least 1,000 rebels from the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists.source
October 20 – In the first major clash of the Second Boer War, the Battle of Talana Hill, the British Army drives the Boers from a hilltop position, but with heavy casualties, including their commanding general Sir Penn Symons.source
October 29 – The Battle of Kouno ends after two days in Chad, as French Army Captain Émile Gentil leads a force of 344 troops against a much larger force of Sudanese Arabs, led by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. Gentil routs the Sudanese.source
November 5 – The U.S. Army wins the battle to capture the Philippine Republic's capital at Angeles City, after nearly three months of fighting. It also captures the Philippine stronghold of Magalang.source
November 20 – Lieutenant-General John French arrives at the Colesberg in the Cape Colony front to co-ordinate the defense of the British colonies in South Africa against the Boer attack and conducts a series of distracting maneuvers that succeed in preventing the South African Republic from attempting an invasion of the Cape Colony.South Africa source
December 11 – Second Boer War: Battle of Magersfontein – Boers defeat British forces trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.source
Victoria wins the Sheffield ShieldAustralia source
28–30 June – Violent protests in Brussels demanding introduction of universal manhood suffrage with proportional representation.Belgium source

Exploration & Expansion

January 23 – The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.source
14 February – Belgian Antarctic Expedition research vessel Belgica freed from Antarctic ice.Belgium source
February 17 – The research vessel SS Southern Cross, on an Antarctic expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink, arrives at Cape Adare and begins unloading 90 sledge dogs – the first ever on the continent – and two Norwegian Sámi crewmen, who become the first humans to spend the night in Antarctica. Over the next 12 days, the rest of the 31-man crew builds a temporary settlement.source
February 21 – The British freighter SS Jumna is last seen passing Rathlin Island off Northern Ireland. Bound from Scotland to deliver a shipment of coal to Uruguay with minimal crew, it never arrives and is never seen again.source
February 27 – Japanese immigration to South America, primarily Peru, begins as the ship Sakura Maru departs from Yokohama with 790 men employed by the Morioka-shokai Sugar Company. The group arrives in Callao on April 3.source
March 9 – Japan promulgates its commercial code, the Shōhō, to take effect on June 16.Japan source
March 24 – The U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, acting as arbitrator of a boundary dispute between Argentina and Chile, awards the disputed territory to Chile.source
April 4 – The British Antarctic Expedition reports discovery of new land in the Weddell Sea at a latitude of 71 36" S.source
April 5 – A team of prospectors sets out from Northern Rhodesia to explore the minerals of central Africa for the British company Tanganyika Concessions (TCL). Discovering that the most valuable copper deposits are in the Congo Free State, TCL makes an unsuccessful attempt to purchase full rights from King Leopold of Belgium.source
1 May – Transvaal – Potgietersrus to Pietersburg, 39 mi.South Africa source
May 15 – A clue to the fate of the British freighter Pelican, which disappeared in October 1897 along with 40 crew, is found in a message in a bottle that washes ashore at Portage Bay, Alaska.United States source
May 31 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition is launched.source
June 15 – The French expedition to liberate Chad, arrives at Kouno, where the commander, Henri Bretonnet, meets with the Gaourang II, the Muslim Sultan of Bagirmi.source
July 4 – The most famous skeleton of a dinosaur ever found intact, a diplodocus, is discovered at the Sheep Creek Quarry near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The expedition team, financed by Andrew Carnegie for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and led by William Harlow Reed, bestows the name "Dippy" on the Diplodocus carnegii. It becomes well known after Carnegie has plaster cast replicas made for donation to museums all over the world.source
July 10 – British colonial authorities in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan give control of the Red Sea port of Suakin to Sudan, after having agreed that Egypt would have the right to administer commerce there.source
July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends.source
July 31 – Duke of York Island, off Antarctica, is discovered by the Southern Cross Expedition.source
September 13 – Halford Mackinder, Cesar Ollier and Josef Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian, the highest peak of Mount Kenya.source
November 5 – The Belgian Antarctic Expedition is concluded.source
November 13 - Hunan province opens to foreign trade for the first time.China source
George Washington Lambert wins the Wynne Prize for landscape painting or figure sculpture for his landscape Across the Blacksoil PlainsAustralia source
Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft began archaeological excavations of Babylon.Germany source
British expedition led by Carstens Borchgrevink, including several New Zealanders, establishes first base in Antarctica, at Cape AdareNew Zealand source

Religion & Belief

January 27 – The Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire decrees that all high officials in the Russian-administered Grand Duchy of Finland shall be required to be fluent in the Russian language.source
April 17 – The first elections for the 10-member Legislative Council of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), limited to European candidates and voters.source
27 April – The Apostolic Church of Queensland receives formal recognition as a religious denomination.Australia source
1 May - Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission at Calcutta.India source
May 11 –Pope Leo XIII declares that 1900 will be a jubilee year.source
June 11 – Pope Leo XIII issues a declaration of the consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The consecration follows the issuance of his papal encyclical Annum sacrum, declaring 1900 to be a Holy Year and directing all Roman Catholic churches in the world to implement the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart during the period of June 9 to June 11, 1899.source
July 1 – The International Council of Nurses is founded in London.source
October 23 – The Philippine Independent Church is formed at a conference in Paniqui, to separate from the Roman Catholic Church.Philippines source
November 30 – The first women to serve, in uniform, in the armed forces of any nation begins service as part of the Canadian Militia Expeditionary Force to Cape Town to serve in the Boer War. Georgina Fane Pope and three other women are enlisted as army nurses.source
3 December – Antoon Stillemans, bishop of Ghent, suspends Adolf Daens as a diocesan priest due to his political activism for the Christene Volkspartij.Belgium source
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis - Dom CasmurroBrazil source
9–14 October – The Hanover Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany is held.Germany source
Monarch – Umberto I (1878–1900)Italy source
Fours – A. Luoisson, H. Nalder, A. Bishop and W. Barnett (skip) (Christchurch)New Zealand source

Economy & Finance

January 15 – The General Federated Union, representing 100,000 laborers in the U.S. state of New York, is formed from a merger of the Central Labor Union and the Central Labor Federation.source
January 23 – The New York Stock Exchange has the largest day of business in its history, with 1,527,644 shares of stock changing hands.source
January 31 – The French Senate passes the trade agreement with Italy by a vote of 248 to 40.source
February 1 – The Suntory whisky distiller and worldwide alcoholic and soft drink brand of Japan is established by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka as a store selling imported wines.source
May 4 – Cape Town based food packaging company Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company is founded in London.South Africa source
May 27 – Rangers F.C., one of the most successful teams in the Scottish Football League, is incorporated.source
June 15 – Cycle & Carriage, now one of the largest investment companies in Singapore, is founded, initially to sell bicycles and motor vehicles.source
July 7 – The Great Lakes Towing Company is incorporated by John D. Rockefeller and William G. Mather to acquire more than 150 tugboats to control shipping in four of the North American Great Lakes and quickly builds a monopoly on Great Lakes traffic.source
July 17 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.source
July 24 – In the first trade treaty signed by the U.S. after the passage of the Dingley Act, France and the United States sign an agreement for a 20% reduction of France's existing tariffs on 635 items, in return for the U.S. reduction between 5% and 20% of duty fees on 126 items.source
July 27 – Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska, leading to the Nome Gold Rush.United States source
22 November – J. P. Suhr & Søn is dissolved.Denmark source
Oxo beef stock cubes are introduced, by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.source
Giros-Loucheur Group, predecessor of Vinci, a worldwide construction and infrastructure industry, founded in France.source
The Horch car company is established at Ehrenfeld (Cologne) by August Horch and his partner Salli Herz.Germany source
Unknown date – Morinaga Confectionery was founded, as predecessor name was Morinaga Western Confectionery.Japan source
Kauri gum exports peak at 11,116 tons.New Zealand source
Lauritz Jenssen, businessperson and politician (born 1837)Norway source
Monthey-Champéry-Morgins established.Switzerland source

Technology & Infrastructure

January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.source
January 26 – German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun, who will later share the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi, receives a British patent for his wireless radio invention "Telegraphy without directly connected wire".source
February 1 – Telephone service begins between Tokyo and Osaka.Japan source
February 12 – The cornerstone for the Aswan Dam is set down in Egypt.source
March 3 – Guglielmo Marconi conducts radio beacon experiments on Salisbury Plain and notices that radio waves are being reflected back to the transmitter by objects they encounter, one of the early steps in the development of radar.source
March 6 – In Berlin, Felix Hoffmann patents Aspirin and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.source
March 11 – Waldemar Jungner files the patent application for the first alkaline battery and receives a Swedish patent.source
March 11 – The world's first wireless distress signal is sent by wireless telegraphy (in Morse code) to the East Goodwin light vessel when German cargo-carrying barquentine Elbe runs aground in fog in the English Channel.source
March 21 – The Eden Theatre in La Ciotat, a commune in France near Marseille, lays a claim to being the first cinema as brothers Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière present their short film, L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat ("The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station") to 250 surprised spectators.source
March 27 – Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.source
April 29 – In the U.S., several hundred miners capture a railroad train at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, arm themselves with guns and dynamite, and advance on the town of Wardner, Idaho, destroying property of mining ccompanies that employ non-unon labor.source
May 1 – Britain's Prime Minister announces in the House of Commons that the government has not been able to reach an agreement with Cecil Rhodes on plans for a Cape Town to Cairo railroad across Africa.source
May 4 – German inventor John Matthias Stroh applies for the patent for his new invention, the "Stroh violin". A British patent is granted on March 24, 1900.source
June 27 – A patent for a form of paperclip is applied for by Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler but it is never put into production.source
June 30 – 'Mile-a-Minute Murphy' earns his nickname after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for 1 mi in under a minute, on Long Island. Murphy pedals his bike one mile in 57.8 seconds for an average speed of 62.28 miles per hour.source
July 8 – The Lorelei Fountain is unveiled in The Bronx in New York City.source
July 11 – In Turin, Giovanni Agnelli and eight investors form the Italian automobile manufacturer F.I.A.T., producers of the Fiat motor vehicles.source
July 11 – The automobile manufacturer Fiat, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, is established in Turin by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. The company would become the major car making industry of Italy. The first Fiat plant opened in 1900 with 35 staff making 24 cars.Italy source
16 July: Roberto Landell de Moura performs the first public demonstration of his Wave Transmitter.Brazil source
July 20 – Park Row Building in New York City is completed. It is the world's tallest building until 1908.source
20 July – The opening of Badu Station in Taihoku Prefecture.Taiwan source
August 5 – Automotive mechanic Henry Ford incorporates the Detroit Automobile Company. While the company failed, it establishes Detroit, Michigan, as the site for U.S. car manufacturing and provided a model for the Ford Motor Company.source
19 August – A bill to construct the proposed Dortmund-Rhine Canal in Germany fails overwhelmingly in the lower house of parliament.Germany source
September 19 – The patent for the first water meter is granted to Edwin Ford.source
September 28 – Austrian auto designer Ferdinand Porsche attracts worldwide attention when his first car, the Porsche P1, wins the Berlin Road Race 18 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.source
October 19 – Boer troops commanded by Johannes Kock capture the railway station in Elandslaagte and cut the telegraph line between the British Army headquarters at Ladysmith and its station at Dundee.source
November 8 – The Bronx Zoological Park opens in New York City.source
November 14 – The first aerial crossing of the Mediterranean Sea is made by Louis Capazza and Alphonse Fondère in Capazza's balloon.source
November 15 – The American Line's SS St. Paul becomes the first ocean liner to report her imminent arrival by wireless telegraphy.source
November 21 – The Boers cut off all telegraph lines and seize the railway connecting Estcourt to the rest of the Cape Colony.South Africa source
Men – Arthur Duncan (Wellington) – first titleNew Zealand source
Construction of St Andrew's Church in Lisbon.Portugal source

Science & Discovery

January 14 – The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched from the Belfast shipyards in Ireland. At 17,272 gross register tons and 704 ft, she is the largest ship afloat at this time.source
January 19 – Future film producer Samuel Goldwyn, born in Poland and later a resident of Germany and England, arrives in the United States at the age of sixteen as Szmuel Gelbfisz.United States source
March 18 – Phoebe, the ninth-known moon of the planet Saturn is discovered by U.S. astronomer William Pickering from analysis of photographic plates made by a Peruvian observatory, the first discovery of a satellite photographically.source
2 April – The Hamburg America Line cruise ship SS Graf Waldersee begins its maiden voyage.Germany source
April 21 – The nova V606 Aquilae is first observed from Earth as seen within the constellation Aquila.source
June 17 – David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry, with the publication of his book Grundlagen der Geometrie, released at Göttingen.source
June 27 – A. E. J. Collins, a 13-year-old schoolboy, makes the highest-ever recorded individual score in cricket, 628 not out. His record will stand for 117 years.source
27 June – The paperclip is patented by Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor.Norway source
8 October – The word "wowser" is first used by John Norton, editor of the Melbourne Truth newspaper.Australia source
October 19 – Robert H. Goddard receives his inspiration to develop the first rocket capable of reaching outer space, after viewing his yard from high in a tree and imagining "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet."source
November – Momijigari, the oldest extant Japanese film, is shot an open space behind the Kabuki-za in Tokyo.Japan source
December 2 – 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.source
Chinese oracle bones from the former capital site of Yinxu are identified by academic Wang Yirong as carrying Shang dynasty writing.China source
250 yards – W. Kingston (Otago)New Zealand source
The Bus is introduced in StockholmSweden source

Health & Medicine

January 1 – In Samoa, followers of Mataafa, claimant to the rule of the island's subjects, burn the town of Upolu in an ambush of followers of other claimants, Malietoa Tanus and Tamasese, who are evacuated by the British warship HMS Porpoise.source
January 23 – Because of illness, King Oscar of Sweden and Norway entrusts the government to Crown Prince Gustav.source
February 1 – Ranavalona III, who had been the Queen of Madagascar until being deposed on February 28, 1897, is sent into exile by English colonial authorities, along with the rest of the royal family.source
February 4 – A new coercive Public Safety bill is introduced by the government of Luigi Pelloux and adopted by Parliament. The law made strikes by state employees illegal; gave the executive wider powers to ban public meetings and dissolve subversive organisations; revived the penalties of banishment; and preventive arrest for political offences, and; tightened control of the press by making authors responsible for their articles and declaring incitement to violence a crime. The Radicals and Socialist start an obstructionist campaign using the filibuster: points of order, endless speeches and other procedural delaying tactics.Italy source
March 1 – Sankyo Pharmaceutical established in Yokohama, as predecessor of Daiichi Sankyo.Japan source
March 19 – A tornado outbreak in the southern U.S. kills multiple people.source
March 21 – A report documented that bubonic plague reached Medina and another report noted that at least 21 cases of the plague.source
March – The annual Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition opens. Anna Ancher's A Vaccination has already prior to the opening of the exhibition been sold to a Swedish collector, a fact reported in several newspapers.Denmark source
The Transvaal government orders Asiatics to move into Locations specified by the government before 1 July.South Africa source
May 11 – The country adopts PHT as its standard time at exactly 12:00 a.m., prior to the adoption, each location in the country observed its own solar mean time.Philippines source
20 July – A rabid dog attacks a group of children in Pontarddulais. In August, eight of them are sent to the Pasteur Institute in Paris to be inoculated.Wales source
August 12 – South African Republic General Jan Smuts makes a final initiative to avert the outbreak of what will become the Second Boer War, meeting in Pretoria with the British chargé d'affaires, Conyngham Greene.source
December 21 – Leonard Wood arrives in Havana to become the new Governor-General of Cuba.United States source
The 1899–1923 cholera pandemic begins, spreading to Europe, Asia and Africa.source
The Government legislates that from 1900 Labour Day will be a public holiday.New Zealand source

Crime & Justice

2 February – Halfdan Egedius, painter and illustrator (born 1877)Norway source
February 7 – Following conviction at court-martial for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" arising from his accusations against Major General Nelson A. Miles, U.S. Commissioner General Charles P. Eagan is suspended from duty for six years by President McKinley.source
February 23 – Because of distrubances at the funeral of the late President Faure, parliament members Paul Déroulède, Lucien Millevoye and Marcel Habert are arrested.source
March 20 – At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.source
May 10 – Finnish farmworker Karl Emil Malmelin kills seven people with an axe at the Simola croft in the village of Klaukkala.source
June 2 – American outlaws Robert L. Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry A. Longabaugh ("The Sundance Kid") commit their first armed robbery as "The Wild Bunch", stopping a Union Pacific train near Wilcox, Wyoming, with accomplices Harvey Logan and Elzy Lay, and steal more than $30,000 worth of cargo.source
July 5 – In Brandon, Manitoba, housemaid Hilda Blake shoots her mistress twice; the first shot misses, but the second bullet pierces the mistress's right lung. Blake was later hanged for murder.Canada source
September 9 – Dreyfus affair: In the retrial of his court-martial, Alfred Dreyfus is again found guilty of treason and sentenced to serve the remaining 10 years of his prison sentence on Devils Island, notwithstanding that the real culprit has previously admitted to his actions.source
September 14 – Henry H. Bliss becomes the first person to be killed by a motor vehicle in the United States. Upon disembarking from a streetcar in New York City, an electric-powered taxicab strikes and crushes him and he dies from his injuries the following morning.United States source
17 September – The career of bandit John Francis Peggotty ends in the town of Meningie, South Australia, when Peggotty's intended victim shoots both the bandit and the ostrich. The body of the ostrich is found, but Peggotty is never seen again.Australia source
September 19 – Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned in France by the Ministry of War. He is released from prison at Rennes the following day but not fully exonerated until 1906.source
27 October – Louise Masset, an unmarried mother, murders her 3-year old son in a bathroom at the Dalston Junction railway station in London. She will be found guilty on 18 December and hanged at Newgate Prison three weeks later.United Kingdom source
November 7 – (October 26 Old Style) – Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya receives its Russian metropolitan première at the Moscow Art Theatre.source
November 20 – The U.S. Supreme Court issues its decision in Brown v. New Jersey (175 U.S. 172) and upholds the constitutionality of the "struck jury" method of selecting jurors.source
Victor Horta, Maison du Peuple, BrusselsBelgium source
100 yards – George Smith (Auckland)New Zealand source
Christian Workers Union of Sweden (1899)Sweden source

Disasters & Accidents

4 January - Fire from a quarantined Indian made vessel gutted 300 homes and numerous British owned factories in Fort Kochi.India source
January 5 – The collision of a British steamer and a French steamer kills 12 people on the English Channel.source
January 14 – The British four-masted sailing ship Andelana capsizes during a storm in Commencement Bay off the coast of the U.S. state of Washington, with the loss of all 17 of her crew.source
January 29 – A gas explosion kills 14 people in the Spanish city of Cartagena.source
February 12 – In the U.S., a fire kills 17 women at a cottage at the South Dakota State Insane Asylum in Yankton, South Dakota.source
March 17 – A fire kills 86 people at the Windsor Hotel in New York City.source
29 March – A French barque, Le Maréchal Lannes, is wrecked off Grassholm, with the loss of its crew of 25.Wales source
March 30 – The British steamer Stella sinks in the English Channel with the loss of 80 people after wrecking against Les Casquets.source
April 9 – The Greek ship Maria sinks after a collision sith the British steamer Kingswell in the Mediterranean and 45 people drown.source
April 10 – Seven people are shot and killed in a gun battle at the Springside Mine at Pana, Illinois, between striking white union coal miners and African-Americans hired as strikebreakers.source
April 13 – The British freighter City of York departs from San Francisco with a crew of 27 and a cargo of timber bound for Fremantle, but never reaches its destination, wrecking on the reefs at Rottnest Island.source
April 23 – The steamship General Whitney sinks off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. While everyone on board escapes in lifeboats, one of the boats capsizes, drowning the captain and 16 other crew.source
April 24 – The Scottish ship Loch Sloy is wrecked off the coast of Australia's Kangaroo Island, drowning 32 people on board.source
24 April – The 1,280-ton barque Loch Sloy hits rocks off Kangaroo Island and sinks, killing 31 persons.Australia source
May 13 – A train wreck near Reading, Pennsylvania kills 28 people and injures 50.source
May 25 – A fire in Saint John, New Brunswick, destroys 150 buildings and renders over 1,000 people homeless.Canada source
16 June – Penicuik House gutted by fire.Scotland source
July 12 – The British freight ship City of York sinks after striking reefs at Rottnest Island, due to a misunderstanding of signal flare fired from the island's lighthouse. The ship, which was nearing the end of a voyage from San Francisco to Fremantle, Western Australia, evacuates its men in two lifeboats, but one of the boats overturns and 11 men, including the captain, drown.source
August 18 – Llest Colliery explosion at Pontyrhyl in the South Wales coalfield of the U.K. kills 19 miners.source
September 21 – The Dominion Line steamer Scotsman sinks in the Strait of Belle Isle, killing 15 women and children.source
13 October – The Røvær accident: A storm kills 30 people at sea near Haugesund.Norway source
October 26 – The foundering of the British steamer Zurich off of the coast of Norway kills 16 of the 17 crew aboard, with only the captain surviving.source
2 November: The first aviation fatality in New Zealand. Balloonist David Maloney (alias Captain Charles Lorraine) is blown out to sea after taking off from Lancaster Park. The balloon crashes into the sea and although Maloney is seen to survive by the time rescuers arrive there is no sign of him and his body is never found.New Zealand source
December 9 – An explosion kills 32 coal miners at the Carbon Hill mines in Carbonado, Washington.source
December 22 – More than 40 schoolchildren from Belgium drown in the capsizing of a boat near the French town of Frelinghien.source
December 22 – A fire kills 16 children in Quincy, Illinois.source
December 24 – The wreck of the British steamship Ariosto off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina drowns 21 of the crew.source
December 28 – The bodies of the officers and men killed on the 1898 explosion of the battleship USS Maine are reinterred at the Arlington National Cemetery.United States source

Climate & Environment

February 2 – The Tsar of Russia donates $500,000 for the relief of famine suffered by peasants in the Empire.source
February 12 – An avalanche kills 12 Italian workers in the U.S. at Silver Plume, Colorado.source
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.United States source
February 13 – An earthquake strikes in the U.S. and is felt in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio, but causes no casualties.source
February 13 – A blizzard strikes the east coast of the U.S., shutting down all train service in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.source
February 13 – In New York, the White Star ocean liner SS Germanic, already laden with ice and snow during its voyage from Liverpool, becomes even more weighed down after disembarking its passengers when the New York City blizzard strikes. With 3,600,000 lbs of added weight, the ship begins to list sideways and additional weight enters cargo doors that have been opened for refuelling. Germanic remains on the bottom of New York Harbor for more than a week while salvaging goes on, then requires refurbishing for three months, but becomes operational again.United States source
March 4 – Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay, Queensland. A 12-meter-high wave reaches up to 5 km inland, leaving over 400 dead (one of the deadliest natural disasters in Australia's history).source
4 March – Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay in Queensland. Approximately 400 persons are killed, and the pearling fleet is sunk. A storm surge of up to 14 metres sweeps 5 kilometres inland.Australia source
April 8 – A flood caused by the collapse of an ice gorge in the Yellowstone River drowns 12 people near Glendive, Montana.source
April 27 – A tornado in the U.S. kills numerous people in Kirksville and Newtown, Missouri.source
1 May – the National Trust acquires its first part of Wicken Fen, making it the UK's oldest wetland nature reserve.United Kingdom source
June 12 – The New Richmond tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 and injuring more than 200.source
June 12 – New Richmond Tornado: A tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 people and injuring more than 200.United States source
July 13 – A tornado kills 13 people in the U.S. village of Herman, Nebraska.source
August 8 – The San Ciriaco hurricane strikes Puerto Rico and leaves 250,000 people homeless. The official death toll is later listed as 3,369 people.source
August 17 – A hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.United States source
September 30 – The 1899 Ceram earthquake kills 3,864 people on Seram Island, through a tsunami after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The villages of Paulohy-Samasuru and Mani, with a combined population of 2,400 people, are swept away by a 29 foot wave.source
11 October – Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State, erupts.United Kingdom source
December 25 – The 6.7 Mw San Jacinto earthquake shook the Inland Empire area of Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing six deaths and $50,000 in damage.United States source
A particularly severe flood hits many water areas in Finland. The water level of many lakes, such as lake Saimaa, reach extraordinary heights, which are marked on the coastal cliffs to this day. In Finland the flood is called the Oathbreaker's flood because it coincided with severe dissatisfaction with the emperor Nicholas II among the Finns.source

Culture & Society

January 10 – The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded, at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.source
14 January – 1899 European Figure Skating Championships takes place in Davos.Switzerland source
January 24 – The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is founded.source
January 28 – The League of Peja, organized by Haxhi Zeka to lobby for a Kosovar Albanian state within the Ottoman Empire, attracts 450 delegates to its first convention, held at the city of Peja.source
February 7 – Keiō and Waseda become Japan's first private universities.Japan source
February 16 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the first Association football club in Iceland, is established in Reykjavík.source
16 February – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur is established in Reykjavík.Iceland source
March 2 – Mount Rainier National Park is established in the U.S. state of Washington.source
16 March – Memorial ceremonies are held for the burial of the late German hero Otto von Bismarck and his wife, Johanna von Puttkamer with their re-interment at the Bismarck Mausoleum, a modern-day tourist attraction at Friedrichsruh in Aumühle. Bismarck, who had died on July 30 last, had been buried along with his wife at the estate of his home in Varzin, the modern-day city of Warcino in Poland.Germany source
March 19 – One of the first labor unions for government employees is formed with the organization in Denmark of the Copenhagen Municipal Workers' Unionsource
April 20 – Catulle Mendès' controversial ballet Le Cygne premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, but is considered by critics to be too sexually explicit.source
April 26 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Symphony No. 1 in Helsinki.source
May 13 – The Esporte Clube Vitória football club is founded in Salvador, Brazil.source
May 14 – The three time world champion Club Nacional de Football is founded in Montevideo, Uruguay.source
May 17 – Britain's Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone for the Victoria and Albert Museum.source
May 20 – The American Physical Society is founded at a meeting at Columbia University.source
May 24 – Jules Massenet's Cendrillon, the first opera based on the fairy tale of Cinderella, premieres in Paris at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.source
May 27 – Maurice Ravel conducts the first public performance of his Shéhérazade, ouverture de féerie in Paris.source
June 9 – American boxer James J. Jeffries wins the world heavyweight boxing championship when he knocks out Cornish-born Bob Fitzsimmons at Coney Island, New York.source
June 19 – Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations are premiered in London.source
July 3 – Swiss-born American boxer Frank Erne wins the world lightweight championship by defeating champion George "Kid" Lavigne in Buffalo, New York.source
August 3 – The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago.source
August 10 – Marshall "Major" Taylor wins the world 1 mi professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.source
26 August: Campo Grande, the current capital of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, is founded.Brazil source
September 11 – Northern Arizona University is founded in Flagstaff, as Northern Arizona Normal School.source
October 1 – Jan Gysbert Hugo Bosman, a.k.a. Bosman di Ravelli, a concert pianist and composer, leaves South Africa for London.South Africa source
November 4 – The Alpha Sigma Tau sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.source
December 10 – Four-month-old Sobhuza II begins his 82-year reign as King of Swaziland.source
December 10 – The college fraternity Delta Sigma Phi is founded at the City College of New York.source
December 15 – Glasgow School of Art, the most notable work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, opens.source
December 16 – Football club A.C. Milan is founded in Milan by English lace-maker Herbert Kilpin and businessman Alfred Edwards among others.Italy source
"Serrana" (opera) by Alfredo KeilPortugal source

Births

12 January – Paul Hermann Müller, chemist (died 1965)Switzerland source
January 17 – Al Capone, American gangster (died 1947)source
January 21 – John Bodkin Adams, British physician acquitted of murder (died 1983)source
March 29 – Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet official (died 1953)source
April 9 – Hans Jeschonnek, German general (died 1943)source
April 22 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born American writer (died 1977)source
April 29 – Duke Ellington, African-American jazz musician, bandleader (died 1974)source
May 8 – Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1992)source
May 24 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (died 1938)source
14 June – Vasile Aftenie, auxiliary bishop of the Greek-Catholic Church, beatified on 2 June 2019 (died 1950).Romania source
July 17 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (died 1986)source
July 21 – Ernest Hemingway, American author, journalist (suicide 1961)source
August 13 – Alfred Hitchcock, British-born American film director (died 1980)source
August 24 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (died 1986)source
November 29 – Abol Hassan Ebtehaj, Iranian politician.Iran source
December 16 – Noël Coward, English actor, playwright and composer (died 1973)source
December 25 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (died 1957)source
28 December – Edgar Neville, author and director (died 1976)Spain source

Deaths

February 6 – Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (born 1831)source
February 16 – Félix Faure, the President of France since 1895, dies of a stroke in his office while engaged in sexual activity with his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil.source
24 February – Emil Welti, politician (born 1825)Switzerland source
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, Major James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.source
March 6 – Princess Kaʻiulani, last monarch of Hawaii (born 1875)source
March 26 – In the first major action in the Malolos Campaign in the Philippine–American War, 90 Filipino soldiers are killed in the Battle of the Meycauayan bridge.source
June 5 – General Antonio Luna, Commander of the Philippine Republican Army, is assassinated along with his chief aide, Colonel Paco Román, after being lured to Cabanatuan by President Emilio Aguinaldo.source
June 5 – Antonio Luna, Filipino general (assassinated) (born 1866)source
June 5 – General Antonio Luna is assassinated in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.Philippines source
July 26 – The President of the Dominican Republic, dictator Ulises Heureaux, is assassinated during a visit to the city of Moca.source
August 6 – Near Stratford, Connecticut, 36 people are killed when a trolley falls off of a trestle and lands upside down in a pond 40 feet below.source
24 August - Jorge Luis Borges, short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator (died 1986)Argentina source
August 28 – At least 512 people are killed when a debris hill from the Sumitomo Besshi copper mine at Niihama, Shikoku, Japan, collapses.source
October 15 – French Army officer Ferdinand de Béhagle is put to death by Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, prompting a French expedition to be led against Rabih.source
November 21 – Garret Hobart, Vice President of the United States since 1897 for President William McKinley, dies of cardiovascular disease. The vacancy in the office will remain unfilled until the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt as Vice President in 1901.source
November 25 – The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat, a decisive British and Egyptian victory, ends the Mahdist War in the Sudan, as the Khalifa of Sudan, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, is killed.source
December 23 – 40 coal miners are killed in an explosion near Brownsville, Pennsylvania.source
? – Anoushiravan Mirza, Qajar prince.Iran source