1900 CE

The Galveston hurricane devastates Texas, killing about 8,000 people; The Siege of the International Legations becomes the climax of the Boxer Rebellion; The 1900 Summer Olympics are held in Paris; The Exposition Universelle showcases innovation in Paris; The Russian invasion of Manchuria heightens tensions in East Asia; The Thanksgiving Day Disaster kills 23 during San Francisco's Big Game; The Zeppelin LZ 1 makes its first flight; The Battle of Paardeberg marks a major Second Boer War victory; Umberto I of Italy is assassinated.

In the 1900s, the 20th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 14 – The U.S. Senate accepts the British-German Treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the American Samoa portion of the Samoan Islands.source
  • 30 January - Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias is restored to the governorship of Acre.Brazilsource
  • February 5 – The United Kingdom and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal across Central America in Nicaragua.source
  • February 6 – The International Arbitration Court at The Hague is created, when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.source
  • 16 February – In Washington, British Ambassador Lord Pauncefote, and German Ambassador Baron Theodor von Holleben meet Secretary of State Hay at the State Department, and exchange ratifications of the Samoan Treaty signed by all three nations. "Secretary Hay retained for the United States the copy of the treaty which was ratified by the United States Senate. He handed to Lord Pauncefote and to Herr von Holleben copies of the treaty bearing the signatures of the President and himself", reported the New York Times. Similar proceedings take place in London and Berlin with the foreign ministers and ambassadors, completing the Tripartite Convention of 1899. Under the treaty, the Pacific islands of Samoa are divided between the U.S. (as American Samoa) and Germany (later the Independent State of Samoa).Germanysource
  • March 13 – A Joint Diplomatic Delegation consisting of Abraham Fischer and C.H. Wessels for the Orange Free State and A.D.W. Wolmarans for the South African Republic, with J.M. de Bruin as secretary, embarks at Lourenço Marques for Europe and the United States, seeking international intervention in the South African War and aid for the beleaguered Boer republics.South Africasource
  • 27 April – August Hermann Ferdinand Carl Goos is appointed Minister for Iceland.Icelandsource
  • May 18 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.source
  • May 24 – Second Boer War: The British annex the Orange Free State, as the Orange River Colony.source
  • June 10 – Second round of the Italian general election. The Pelloux government fails to win a majority of seats. The "ministerial" left-wing bloc of the Historical Left led by Giovanni Giolitti remains the largest in Parliament, winning 296 of the 508 seats. The model of strong government advocated by the conservative Sidney Sonnino is discredited. More moderate politicians like Zanardelli and Giolitti resort back to more "conciliatory" politics.Italysource
  • June 14 – The Reichstag approves the second of the German Naval Laws allowing expansion of the Imperial German Navy.source
  • June 21 – Military governor Gen. MacArthur issues a proclamation providing amnesty to those who fought against the United States since the previous year, giving a 90-day period for them to swear an allegiance to the colonial government.Philippinessource
  • July 9 – The Federation of Australia is enacted, marking the unification of its colonies into a single country.source
  • September 12 – Admiral Fredrik von Otter becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.source
  • October 9 – The Cook Islands become a territory of the United Kingdom.source
  • October 24 – 1900 United Kingdom general election: voting concludes with the Unionists led by the Marquess of Salisbury re-elected.source
  • October 25 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.source
  • November 6 – 1900 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent William McKinley is re-elected by defeating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan in a rematch.source
  • November 7 – 1900 Canadian federal election: Liberal incumbent Sir Wilfrid Laurier is reelected by defeating Conservative leader Sir Charles Tupper again after having done that in the 1896 Canadian federal election.source
  • 7 November – The Treaty of Washington is signed, clarifying the Spanish Empire's cession of the Philippines as agreed by the 1898 Treaty of Paris.Spainsource
  • 25 November – Legislative election: The Regeneration Party of Prime Minister Ernesto Hintze Ribeiro wins an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, taking 104 of the 138 seats available. The Progressive Party wins 28 seats to finish as the second largest party.Portugalsource
  • December 19 – Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia, John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government, and is forced to resign.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 6 – Second Boer War: Boers attempt to end the Siege of Ladysmith, which leads to the Battle of Platrand.source
  • 15 January —The New Zealand Mounted Rifles rout a Boer assault at Slingersfontein, South Africa.New Zealandsource
  • January 24 – Second Boer War: Battle of Spion Kop – Boer troops defeat the British Army.source
  • January 27 – Boxer Rebellion: Foreign diplomats in Peking, Qing dynasty China, demand that the Boxer rebels (who oppose foreign interests in the country) be disciplined.source
  • January 31 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of the Mat Salleh Rebellion in North Borneo, is shot dead in Tambunan.source
  • February 8 – Second Boer War: British troops defeat the Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.source
  • February 15 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Kimberley is lifted.source
  • February 15 – The Siege of Kimberley is relieved by a cavalry division under General John French.South Africasource
  • February 17 – Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg – British troops defeat the Boers.source
  • February 27 – Second Boer War: British military leaders accept the unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.source
  • 15 March - The Brazilian government sends troops to arrest rebel leader Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias and restore the Republic of Acre to Bolivia.Brazilsource
  • March 29 – Uproar in the Italian Chamber of Deputies on procedural machinations by the Chamber's president to pass the controversial Public Security Bill. The Constitutional Opposition of Giuseppe Zanardelli joins the Extreme Left (Socialists, Republicans and Radicals). The next day the Extreme Left disrupts the session and the Chamber is adjourned.Italysource
  • April 7 – Resistance fighters led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano launch a failed surprise attack against the U.S. troops, under Col. Edward Godwin, in Cagayan de Misamis, Mindanao;Philippinessource
  • April 22 – Battle of Kousséri: French forces secure their domination of Chad. Warlord Rabih az-Zubayr is defeated and killed.source
  • May 17 – Second Boer War: The British Army relieves the Siege of Mafeking.source
  • May 17 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers destroy three villages near Peking and kill 60 Chinese Christians.source
  • May 21 – The Chinese province of Manchuria is invaded by the Russian Empire.source
  • May 28 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers attack Belgians in the Fengtai railway station.source
  • May 31 – Boxer Rebellion: Peacekeepers from various European countries arrive in China, where they eventually unite with Japanese forces.source
  • June 5 – Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.source
  • June 11 – 1899–1900 peasant unrest in Bulgaria starts to turn passive.source
  • June 17 – Boxer Rebellion: Battle of Dagu Forts – Naval forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture the Taku Forts, on the Hai River estuary in China.source
  • June 20 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers gather about 20,000 people near Peking, and kill hundreds of European citizens, including the German ambassador.source
  • June 20 – August 14 — Siege of the International LegationsChinasource
  • 30 June – At Pier 8 in Hoboken, New Jersey, cotton bales and barrels of turpentine and oil catch fire around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In less than 15 minutes, high winds spread the blaze a quarter of a mile along the port and on to the four German steamships moored there. The Saale and the Main, each with 150 crew on board, are destroyed, and the SS Bremen is heavily damaged. On the Saale, the portholes are too narrow for the men inside to escape, and most on board burned to death. The huge liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse is saved by being towed into the Hudson River. Despite the best efforts of the Hoboken and New York fire departments to save the piers and the ships, respectively, 326 people are killed.Germanysource
  • August 14 – Boxer Rebellion: An international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the European hostages.source
  • September 13 – Philippine–American War: Battle of Pulang Lupa – Filipino resistance fighters defeat a detachment of American soldiers.source
  • September 17 – Philippine–American War: Battle of Mabitac – Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat the Americans.source
  • 28 October – Sergeant Cesáreo García leads a failed insurrection in Badalona called the Carlist Sublevation.Spainsource
  • November 29 – Herbert Kitchener succeeds Frederick Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in South Africa and implements a scorched earth strategy.source
  • December 5 – The final Anglo-Ashanti War, "War of the Golden Stool", is declared over. Most of the British troops and Governor James Willcocks depart the city of Kumasi.source
  • December 24 – Boxer Rebellion Demands: The foreign powers present their 12 conditions for reform to the Chinese Imperial government, including the payment of a large indemnity.source
  • Russian Invasion of Northern and Central Manchuria (1900)Chinasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 2 – U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.source
  • January 2 – John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.United Statessource
  • January 15 — Li Hongzhang, Viceroy of Liangguang, visited Hong Kong and met with Governor Henry Arthur Blake.Chinasource
  • February 16 – The British-sponsored Southern Cross Expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink achieves a new Farthest South of 78° 50'S, making the first landing at the Great Ice Barrier.source
  • March 5 – Two U.S. Navy cruisers are sent to Central America to protect American interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.source
  • March 16 – British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land on Crete on which the ruins of the Palace of Knossos stand. He begins to unearth some of the palace three days later.source
  • 23 April–12 May – the Automobile Club of Great Britain stages a Thousand Mile Trial, a reliability motor rally over a circular route from London to Edinburgh and return.Scotlandsource
  • May – American explorer Robert Peary is the first person to sight Kaffeklubben Island.source
  • May–June — Tour of Pacific islands by Prime Minister Richard Seddon. Tonga, Niue, Fiji and the Cook Islands are visited.New Zealandsource
  • June 10–28 — Seymour ExpeditionChinasource
  • July 12 – The new German cruise liner SS Deutschland breaks the record for the Blue Riband on her maiden transatlantic voyage with an average speed of 22.4 kn.source
  • 8 August – Natal – Park Rynie to Umzinto, 10 mi 40 ch.South Africasource
  • 'Moira O'Neill' published Songs of the Glens of Antrim.Irelandsource
  • Russian polar expedition of 1900–02Russiasource

Religion & Belief

  • 6 January – In Merionethshire, for the first time in centuries, the sword of the Gorsedd bards is solemnly unsheathed. "The chief bard invoked the blessing of God on British arms in South Africa, and announced that the sword would not be sheathed again till the triumph of the forces of righteousness over the hordes of evil."Walessource
  • 3 May — The first Roman Catholic seminary in New Zealand, Holy Cross College, Mosgiel, is established.New Zealandsource
  • 8 May — Sankt Lukas Stiftelsen is founded by Isabelle Brockenhuus-Løwenhielm and pastor Vilhelm Kold from Indre Mission.Denmarksource
  • May – Two spiritualist newspapers, La Luz del Porvenir and Unión Espiritista Kardecista de Cataluña merge to form the paper Luz y unión.Spainsource
  • June 25 – Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, where they have been sealed since the early 11th century.source
  • August 9 – Funeral of King Umberto I; he was buried in the Pantheon in Rome.Italysource
  • 31 October – the United Free Church of Scotland is formed by union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • Bernt Julius Muus, Lutheran minister (born 1832)Norwaysource
  • Date unknown – The Swedish branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is organized by Emilie Rathou.Swedensource

Economy & Finance

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 20 — Thomas Lambert received a patent for the first indestructible type of cylinder records.source
  • 7 May - The first line of electric trams in São Paulo starts operating.Brazilsource
  • June 3 – First round of the Italian general election.Italysource
  • July 2 – The first zeppelin airship flight, by Zeppelin LZ 1, is carried out over Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen, Germany.source
  • July 19 – The first line of the Paris Metro opens.source
  • 1 September – The German-American Telegraph Company opens the first direct line between Germany and the United States. At 7,917 kilometres or 4,919 miles, the line was the longest transatlantic cable to that time, running from Emden to New York City, via the Azores Islands.Germanysource
  • 23 October — The country's first electric tram service begins, between Roslyn and Maori Hill in Dunedin.New Zealandsource
  • October or November – The first sound recordings made in Portugal are produced in Porto by engineer William Darby, who creates a series of gramophone discs documenting sounds of local music as part of a European recording campaign for the Gramophone Company.Portugalsource
  • December 23 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first use of amplitude modulation (the basis for AM radio) for wireless transmission of the human voice, from Cobb Island (Maryland).source
  • December 28 – The first steel produced by electrometallurgy (from an electric furnace) is delivered.source
  • Boxers attacks on Chinese Eastern RailwayChinasource
  • The opening of the Moscow Paveletsky railway stationRussiasource
  • Two redesigned 6th Class 4-6-0 steam locomotives are placed in service by the Cape Government Railways. In 1912 they would be designated Class 6F on the South African Railways.South Africasource

Science & Discovery

  • January 5 – Dr. Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University discovers the cause of the Earth's magnetism.United Statessource
  • 13 January – Peter Waage, chemist and professor (born 1833)Norwaysource
  • March 14 – Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's laws of heredity.source
  • March 23 – Karl Landsteiner first reports his discovery of an accurate means for classifying a system of blood type, which will universally be referred to as the ABO blood group system and for which he will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930.source
  • 28 May – A solar eclipse occurs with the path of totality crossing north-central Portugal.Portugalsource
  • May — Phosphate discovered on Nauru – mining begins later in the year.New Zealandsource
  • 17 October – Natural gas is found at Roma in QueenslandAustraliasource
  • October 19 – Max Planck first states Planck's law of black-body radiation to a meeting of the German Physical Society in Berlin, marking the birth of modern quantum mechanics. He restates it on December 14.source
  • December 14 – History of quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents his groundbreaking paper on quantum theory to the German Physical Society in Berlin.source
  • 14 December – On a date now considered to be the birthday of quantum mechanics, Max Planck presents his paper Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung in Normalspektrum (On the Theory of the Law of Energy Distribution in Normal Spectrum) at a meeting of the German Physical Society in Berlin.Germanysource
  • December 17 – The Prix Guzman, first and only prize ever offered for communication with extraterrestrial life, is announced in Paris. A prize of 100,000 francs is provided, except for communication with Mars, which is considered too easy.source
  • December 27 – Emily Hobhouse arrives in Cape Town.South Africasource
  • The launching of the cruiser AuroraRussiasource

Health & Medicine

  • January 17 – Brigham H. Roberts is refused a seat in the United States House of Representatives because of his polygamy.United Statessource
  • January 25 - Plague is officially declared in Rosario.Argentinasource
  • 1 September - Number of deaths from "Plague" in Rio decreases and the outbreak is limited to the city.Brazilsource
  • October 29 – Sir Rodmond Roblin becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing Hugh John Macdonald.Canadasource
  • November 8 – Prime Minister Giuseppe Saracco signs the decree establishing the Saredo Inquiry, officially known as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Naples (Reale Commissione d’Inchiesta per Napoli), presided by senator Giuseppe Saredo, tasked with investigating corruption and bad governance of the city of Naples and to investigate how huge amounts of money that had been poured into Naples after the cholera epidemic of 1884 had vanished without noticeable benefit for the city's poor.Italysource
  • 1 December – A census of the German Empire was taken. Provisional figures showed a population of 56,345,014.Germanysource
  • 3 December – Population Census: There were 2,239,881 inhabitants in Norway.Norwaysource
  • World population: 1,640,000,000source
  • 1 out of every 100 residents of India die of cholera each year.Indiasource

Crime & Justice

  • March 27 — Li Hongzhang, Viceroy of Liangguang, provinces reported to the central government that some of the gangsters in Hong Kong wanted to attack the provincial capital, and secretly demanded that the Governor of Hong Kong to ban.Chinasource
  • July 1 – Gen. Artemio Ricarte and his companion are arrested by the civil guards in Manila following reports of his planned insurgency. Ricarte would be deported to Guam the following year.Philippinessource
  • 16 August – A German excavation at the Tel Amran ibn Ali, near the Babylonian temple at Etemenanki (near modern Al Hillah, Iraq), German excavators unearth a glazed amphora with 10,000 coins dating from the 7th century BC.Germanysource
  • 27 October – Notorious murderer Jimmy Governor is apprehended near Wingham, New South Wales.Australiasource
  • Louis Tytgadt, Beguines at WorkBelgiumsource
  • Wellington Cup winner: Djin DjinNew Zealandsource
  • Charles Rennie Mackintosh designs the White Dining Room for Catherine Cranston's tearooms in Ingram Street, Glasgow.Scotlandsource
  • The Tramp and the Crap Game silent film is released.United Statessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 6 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia, United States, kills 50 miners.source
  • April 26 – Two-thirds of Hull, Quebec, is destroyed in a fire.Canadasource
  • May 1 – Scofield Mine disaster: An explosion of blasting powder in a coal mine in Scofield, Utah, kills 200 people.source
  • 9 May – The Sierra Nevada is wrecked off Portsea, Victoria; 23 lives are lost.Australiasource
  • June 30 – Hoboken Docks fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, spreads to German passenger ships SS Saale, SS Main and SS Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.source
  • June 30 – Hoboken Docks Fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line spreads to German passenger ships SS Saale, SS Main, and SS Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.United Statessource
  • 5 August — 18 people die in a boating tragedy on the Mōtū River.New Zealandsource
  • August 12 – Train wreck at Castel Giubileo along the Florence-Rome railway with twenty victims and a hundred injured. A failure to report a broken-down train, caused a rear-end collision. The crashed train was transporting the foreign delegations who had just attended the funeral of King Umberto I and the subsequent coronation of Victor Emmanuel III.Italysource
  • 15 December – all three keepers of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse are drowned.Scotlandsource
  • December 16 – The German training frigate Gneisenau, with 450 naval cadets on board, sinks in a storm during exercises off of the Spanish coast at Málaga, drowning 136.source
  • 16 December – The German training frigate Gneisenau, with 450 naval cadets on board, sinks in a storm during exercises off of the Spanish coast at Malaga, drowning 136.Germanysource
  • Fire in the General Staff BuildingRussiasource

Climate & Environment

  • March to May – Record rainfall and flooding affect the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of Western AustraliaAustraliasource
  • 2 July – Snow falls to extremely low levels in New South Wales, being recorded as low as Forbes.Australiasource
  • September 8 – The 1900 Galveston hurricane, killing around 8,000 people. It is the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history.source
  • September 8 – The Galveston Hurricane makes landfall at Galveston, Texas, eventually killing 6,000–12,000 in the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.United Statessource
  • 21 December – Delting disaster: four fishing boats with 22 crew from the Shetland villages of Mossbank and Firth (in the parish of Delting) are lost in a storm.Scotlandsource
  • Exceptionally heavy and frequent rains during the winter across the centre of the country produce the wettest year for which reliable records are available at Santiago and Valparaíso, both of which receive more than twice their normal rainfall, with Quinta Normal recording 819.7 mm Paskoff, Roland P.; ‘Geomorphological Processes and Characteristic Landforms in the Mediterranean Regions of the World’; Mediterranean Type Ecosystems; in Ecological Studies, Volume 7, 1973, pp 53–60Chilesource
  • See 1900–01 New Zealand cricket seasonNew Zealandsource

Culture & Society

  • January 14 – Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.source
  • c. January – The first Michelin Guide is published for French motorists.source
  • February 2 – The Daily Bulletin (now Manila Bulletin) is established as the second oldest existing English language newspaper.Philippinessource
  • February 27 – The British Labour Party is officially established, at a meeting in the Congregational Memorial Hall in London, and Ramsay MacDonald is appointed as its first secretary.source
  • February 27 – FC Bayern, Germany's most successful football club, is founded in Munich.source
  • 31 March — The Ministry of Education is created via a budget act as the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts.Spainsource
  • April 14 – The Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, opens in Paris.source
  • May 10 – Prince Yoshihito, the future Emperor Taishō, marries Sadako Kujō.Japansource
  • May 14 – The second Olympic Games, Paris 1900, open (as part of the Paris World Exhibition).source
  • May 14–October 28 - Argentina participates for the first time in the Olympic Games.Argentinasource
  • 14 May – 28 October – The 1900 Summer Olympics takes place in Paris, France. Germany finishes seventh in the overall medal table with four gold medals, two silver and two bronze.Germanysource
  • May 17 – L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is published in Chicago, the first of Baum's Oz books, chronicling the fictional Land of Oz for children.source
  • May 29 – N'Djamena, the capital city of Chad, is founded as Fort-Lamy by French commander Émile Gentil.source
  • July 1 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria makes a morganatic marriage with Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.source
  • July 23 – 25 – The First Pan-African Conference is held in London.source
  • 11 August - The football club Associação Atlética Ponte Preta is founded.Brazilsource
  • 2 November – The first Romanian opera, Petru Rareș by Eduard Caudella is performed for the first time.Romaniasource
  • December 19 – Port and shipyard workers in Genoa declare a general strike after prefect Camillo Garroni closed the Camera del Lavoro (Labour Exchange). Prime minister Giuseppe Saracco revokes the prefect's decision after personally negotiating with a working-class delegation. Twenty thousand workers participated in the strike, that ended on the 23nd. Saracco's handling of the strike brought him criticism from the Left for being too repressive and from the Right for being too permissive.Italysource
  • Iran at the 1900 Summer Olympics.Iransource

Births

  • January 10 - Teodoro Picado Michalski, President 1944-1948 (died 1960)Costa Ricasource
  • January 27 – Hyman G. Rickover, American admiral (died 1986)source
  • February 5 – Adlai Stevenson II, American politician (died 1965)source
  • February 22 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish film director (died 1983)source
  • April 5 – Spencer Tracy, American actor (died 1967)source
  • May 10 – Beryl May Dent, English mathematical physicist (died 1977)source
  • June 17 – Martin Bormann, German Nazi official (died 1945)source
  • June 25 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English naval officer and last Viceroy of India (assassinated) (died 1979)source
  • June 29 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French aviator and writer (died 1944)source
  • August 4 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, British queen consort of George VI (died 2002)source
  • August 4 - Arturo Umberto Illia, President of Argentina 1963–66 (died 1983)Argentinasource
  • September 3 – Urho Kekkonen, 8th President of Finland (died 1986)source
  • October 7 – Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi official, SS head (died 1945)source
  • October 19 – Bill Ponsford, Australian cricketer (died 1991)source
  • October 23 – Douglas Jardine, English cricketer (died 1958)source
  • 4 November – Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, politician, lawyer, sociologist and economist (died 1954).Romaniasource
  • November 14 – Aaron Copland, American composer (died 1990)source
  • Juanita Ángeles, silent film actress (died unknown)Philippinessource

Deaths

  • January 20 – John Ruskin, English writer, artist, and social critic (born 1819)source
  • March 6 – Gottlieb Daimler, German inventor, automotive pioneer (born 1834)source
  • March 10 – Delfina Herbosa de Natividad, one of the three women who seamed together the Flag of the Philippines (born 1879)Philippinessource
  • April 30 – Casey Jones, American railway engineer (born 1864)source
  • April 30 – Casey Jones dies in fatal train accident after his locomotive, No. 382, plows into the caboose and two fully loaded boxcars of corn and hay of locomotive No. 83.source
  • June 5 – Stephen Crane, American author (born 1871)source
  • July 29 – King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci in Monza.source
  • July 30 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second son of Queen Victoria (born 1844)source
  • August 12 – Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian-born chess player, first undisputed World Champion (born 1836)source
  • August 13 – Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher and poet (born 1853)source
  • August 23 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, second Prime Minister of Japan (born 1840)Japansource
  • August 25 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, writer (born 1844)source
  • 23 September – Arsenio Martínez Campos, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1831)Spainsource
  • October 22 – John Sherman, American politician (b.1823)source
  • October 28 – Max Müller, German philologist, Orientalist (born 1823)source
  • November 22 – Sir Arthur Sullivan, English composer (born 1842)source
  • November 30 – Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (born 1854)source
  • ? – Hasan-Ali Khan Amir Nezam Garrusi, Iranian diplomat, politician, calligrapher and writer.Iransource