date: October 9

text: October 9 – Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani is elected as the new Patriarch of Antioch, leader of the Syriac Catholic Church, subject to the approval of Pope Leo XIII, which is made on November 28.


date: October 31

section: Religion & Belief

text: October 31 – The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem, is dedicated after the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire presents the area, said to be the site of the Virgin Mary's home, to Germany's Roman Catholics.

source_section: Events › October


date: June 19

section: Economy & Finance

text: June 19 – Food processing giant Nabisco is founded in Chicago by merger as the National Biscuit Company.

source_section: Events › June


date: March 24

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: March 24 – Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile, when he buys a Winton automobile that has been advertised in Scientific American.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 26

text: March 26 – The Sabie Game Reserve in South Africa is created, as the first officially designated game reserve.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – In Essen, German company Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk RWE is founded.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 29

text: April 29 – The Paris Auto Show, the first large-scale commercial vehicle exhibition show, is held in Tuileries Garden.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The Gornergrat railway opens, connecting Zermatt to the Gornergrat in Switzerland.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The Kubok Obschestva Velosipednoy Ezdy (Bicycle Riders Society Cup) first Grand Prix in Russia is staged with seven cars near Saint Petersburg, on a route from Alexandrovskaya to Strelna and back again for a total distance of 25 mi, and is won by Pavel Belyaev.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – In Canada, the "9 O'Clock Gun" is fired for the first time at Stanley Park in Vancouver, and goes on to become a daily tradition to serve as a time signal for ships in port and for local residents to set their timepieces at exactly 9:00 p.m. local time.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The American ferryboat Berkeley, the only means prior to 1937 for motor vehicles to travel directly across San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, is launched. Its role will be superseded in 1937 by the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Chinese soldiers attack a party of British engineers at the Marco Polo Bridge on the Beijing to Hankou railway.


text: October 24 – Augustus Herring, hired by civil engineer Octave Chanute to design and help test heavier-than-air flying machines, reportedly makes a flight near St. Joseph, Michigan, traveling slightly above the ground for a level distance of more than 70 ft in 10 seconds.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The French Chamber of Deputies votes to extend a loan of 200,000,000 francs for the construction of railroads in French Indochina.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first official land speed record in an automobile, averaging over in France.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Penny postage goes into effect throughout the British Empire, setting the cost of mailing a letter to most British colonies at one pence. Rates remain the same for mail to Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony.


date: May 28

section: Science & Discovery

text: May 28 – Secondo Pia takes the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin and discovers that the image on the Shroud itself appears to be a photographic negative.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 7

text: June 7 – William Ramsay and Morris Travers discover neon at their laboratory at University College London, after extracting it from liquid nitrogen.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – "The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont" first appear in The Wide World Magazine, as its August 1898 issue goes on sale.

source_section: Events › July


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of an element that they name radium.


date: August 28

section: Health & Medicine

text: August 28 – American pharmacist Caleb Bradham names his soft drink Pepsi-Cola.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Geert Adriaans Boomgaard of Groningen in the Netherlands becomes the world's first validated supercentenarian.

source_section: Events › September


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Italy sends an ultimatum to the Sultan of Morocco concerning treatment of Italian residents.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The French government decrees a ban on imports of fruit and plants from the United States.


date: February 23

section: Crime & Justice

text: February 23 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France, after writing J'Accuse…!.

source_section: Events › February


date: October 3

text: October 3 – U.S. Senator Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania is arrested for conspiracy to defraud the People's Bank of Philadelphia.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – An anarchist, suspected of plotting the assassination of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, is arrested in Egypt at Alexandria.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The first of the two Tsavo Man-Eaters is shot by John Henry Patterson; the second is killed 3 weeks later, after 135 railway construction workers have been killed by the lions.


text: December 15 – A warrant issued in Paris for the arrest of Count Ferdinand Esterhazy in connection with the Dreyfus case.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – King Umberto of Italy commutes the sentences of all prisoners who had been given the death penalty.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – French serial killer Joseph Vacher is executed at Bourg-en-Bresse.


date: February 12

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: February 12 – The automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Spanish–American War: The explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba, for reasons never fully established, killing 266 men. The event precipitates the United States' declaration of war on Spain, two months later.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – An explosion in Santa Cruz, California, kills 13 workers, at the California Powder Works.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Tuone Udaina, the last known speaker of the Dalmatian language, is killed in an explosion.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – En route from New York to Le Havre, the ocean liner collides with another ship and sinks with the loss of 549 lives. It is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in history


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The American steam boat Walkatomica, which has made regular runs for travelers along the Gulf Coast of Florida since 1885, is destroyed by fire while in port in Tallahassee.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – A collision between two Japanese steamers at sea kills 60 Japanese sailors.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – In the U.S., the collapse of a theater under construction in Detroit kills 11 workmen.


text: November 5 – In China, an admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy and 40 sailors are denied permission by the Chinese government to proceed from Tientsin to Beijing.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The wreck of the ship Atalanta off the coast of the U.S. state of Oregon kills 28 of the 30 crew aboard.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – All 115 people aboard the American steamer SS Portland are killed when the ship founders off of the coast of Cape Cod.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The wreck of the British steamer SS Clan Drummond in the Bay of Biscay kills 37 people on board.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – A fire at a factory in the Russian city of Vilana (modern-day Vilnius in Lithuania) kills 15 women and girls, most of whom die after jumping from the windows.


date: November 26

section: Climate & Environment

text: November 26 – A two-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston, severely impacting the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The Swiss village of Airolo is buried in an avalanche.


date: January 13

section: Culture & Society

text: January 13 – Novelist Émile Zola's open letter to the President of the French Republic on the Dreyfus affair, J'Accuse…!, is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper L'Aurore, accusing the government of wrongfully imprisoning Alfred Dreyfus and of antisemitism.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Vladimir Lenin creates the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Minsk.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Association football and sports club BSC Young Boys is established in Bern, Switzerland, as the Fussballclub Young Boys.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Thousands of Chinese scholars and Beijing citizens seeking reforms protest in front of the capital control yuan.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The first games of the Italian Football Federation are played, in which Genoa play against Torino.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The German Federation football club SV Darmstadt 98 is formed.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The Guangxu Emperor announces the creation of what would later become Peking University.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama is founded in Rio de Janeiro.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Vienna University of Economics and Business is founded, under the name K.u.K. Exportakademie.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – The Sinfonia Club, later to become the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity, is founded at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston by Ossian Everett Mills.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The Michigan–Michigan State football rivalry begins in U.S. college football as Michigan University defeats Michigan Agricultural College, 39 to 0.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – At the age of 16, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky creates his first composition, the unfinished piano fragment "Tarantella". The piece will remain undiscovered for 72 years and will first be performed in 2021, more than 120 years after it was composed.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The Fork Union Military Academy is founded, in Fork Union, Virginia.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The Universidad Literaria y Cientifica de Filipinas, the first Filipino operated university and the precursor to the University of the Philippines, is established shortly after the proclamation of the First Philippine Republic.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The Academia Militar, precursor to the Philippine Military Academy, is founded at Malolos by decree of Philippine Republic President Emilio Aguinaldo.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – In U.S. college football, Harvard University defeats Yale University, 17 to 0, to close the season unbeaten.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Prince George of Greece arrives in Crete as its High Commissioner, and is escorted by the flagships of four nations.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull by Anton Chekhov opens.


text: The first volume of the Linguistic Survey of India is published in Calcutta.

source_section: Events › Unknown dates


date: January 13

section: Births

text: January 13 – Kaj Munk, Danish playwright, Lutheran pastor and martyr (d. 1944)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian and Soviet film director (d. 1948)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist and politician (d. 1980)

source_section: Births › February


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Paul Robeson, African-American actor, singer and political activist (d. 1976)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Julius Evola, Italian philosopher (d. 1974)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Armand Hammer, American entrepreneur, art collector (d. 1990)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Josef Terboven, German Nazi politician, Reichskommissar for Norway 1940–1945 (d. 1945)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)

source_section: Births › July


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Howard Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1968)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 16

text: October 16 – William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1980)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Benjamin Fondane, Romanian-French Symbolist poet, critic and existentialist philosopher (d. 1944)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Liu Shaoqi, President of China (d. 1969)


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)


date: December 20

text: December 20 – Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)

source_section: Births › December


date: January 3

section: Deaths

text: January 3 – Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Confederate brigadier general, Texas governor, and president of Texas A&M University (b. 1838)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Charles Pelham Villiers, longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons (b. 1802)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Abdul Samad of Selangor, Malaysian ruler, 4th Sultan of Selangor (b. 1804)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – George Müller, Prussian evangelist, founder of the Ashley Down orphanage (b. 1805)


date: March 11

text: March 11 – William Rosecrans, California congressman, Register of the U.S. Treasury (b. 1819)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian university founder (b. 1817)


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Louis-François Richer Laflèche, Roman Catholic Bishop of Trois-Rivières, Native American missionary (b. 1818)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Félicien Rops, Belgian artist (b. 1833)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1807)


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Empress Elisabeth of Austria, empress consort of Austria, queen consort of Hungary (assassinated) (b. 1837)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, medical doctor and diplomat (b. 1827)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Sir George Grey, 11th Premier of New Zealand (b. 1812)


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Louise of Hesse-Kassel, German princess, queen consort of Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1817)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Charbel Makhluf, Lebanese Maronite, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic monk, priest and saint (b. 1828)


date: January 9

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: 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.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – The French government passes a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, 423 to 124.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.


date: January 23

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The participants in the Australian Premiers' Conference agree that Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.


date: February 6

text: 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.


date: February 18

text: 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.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Kálmán Széll replaces Dezső Bánffy as Prime Minister of Hungary.


date: March 1

text: 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_section: Events › March


date: April 11

text: 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_section: Events › April


date: April 19

text: April 19 – France adds the Kingdom of Laos, a protectorate since 1893, to the existing colony of French Indochina.


date: May 18

text: 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_section: Events › May


date: May 31

text: 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.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Under the terms of the Samoa Tripartite Convention, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States form a colonial government to administer a protectorate over the islands of Samoa. The government lasts less than nine months, and Germany annexes the western part of Samoa on March 1, 1900, leaving the U.S. to control what becomes American Samoa.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 15

text: 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.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – The Federación Libre de Trabajadores is created in Puerto Rico as a resistance movement against the United States.


date: June 21

text: 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 320000 sqmi 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.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Spain cedes its last Pacific Ocean colonies, the Caroline Islands (later part of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Ladrone islands of Ladrone (later part of the Mariana Islands), and Palau, to Germany.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation takes effect, ending extraterritoriality and the unequal status of Japan in foreign commerce.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 4

text: 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_section: Events › August


date: August 17

text: 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.


date: August 30

text: 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.


date: October 1

text: 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_section: Events › October


date: February 5

section: Conflict & Security

text: 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_section: Events › February


date: February 11

text: February 11 – In the Philippines, the city of Iloilo is captured by troops led by U.S. Army Brigadier General Marcus P. Miller.


date: March 16

text: 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.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The Battle of Taguig takes place in the Philippines as the USS Laguna de Bay bombards the Katipunan stronghold.


date: March 26

text: 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.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – In the Philippine–American War, Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.


date: April 7

text: 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.


date: April 9

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: April 14

text: 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.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The Kingdom of Siam (modern-day Thailand) cedes its province of Luang Prabang (now Laos) to France.


date: May 8

text: 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.


date: June 5

text: 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.


date: June 26

text: 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.


date: June 28

text: 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.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – In the Battle of Togbao in Chad, the French Bretonnet–Braun mission is destroyed by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr.


date: August 13

text: 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.


date: September 15

text: 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_section: Events › September


date: September 26

text: September 26 – General Manuel Guzman Alvarez of the Venezuelan state of Sucre joins with General Cipriano Castro in a revolt against the Venezuelan government.


date: October 18

text: 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.


date: October 20

text: 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.


date: October 29

text: 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.


date: November 5

text: 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_section: Events › November


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Second Boer War: Battle of Magersfontein – Boers defeat British forces trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 23

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: January 23 – The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 17

text: 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.


date: February 21

text: 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.


date: February 27

text: 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.


date: March 24

text: 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.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The British Antarctic Expedition reports discovery of new land in the Weddell Sea at a latitude of 71 36" S.


date: April 5

text: 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.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition is launched.


date: June 15

text: 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.


date: July 4

text: 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.


date: July 10

text: 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.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Duke of York Island, off Antarctica, is discovered by the Southern Cross Expedition.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Halford Mackinder, Cesar Ollier and Josef Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian, the highest peak of Mount Kenya.


date: October 15

text: 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.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The Belgian Antarctic Expedition is concluded.


date: January 27

text: 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.


date: April 17

text: 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.


date: May 11

text: May 11 –Pope Leo XIII declares that 1900 will be a jubilee year.


date: June 11

text: 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.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The International Council of Nurses is founded in London.


date: November 30

text: 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.


date: January 15

text: 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.


date: January 23

text: 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.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – The French Senate passes the trade agreement with Italy by a vote of 248 to 40.


date: February 1

text: 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.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Rangers F.C., one of the most successful teams in the Scottish Football League, is incorporated.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Cycle & Carriage, now one of the largest investment companies in Singapore, is founded, initially to sell bicycles and motor vehicles.


date: July 7

text: 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.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.


date: July 24

text: 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.


text: Oxo beef stock cubes are introduced, by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: Giros-Loucheur Group, predecessor of Vinci, a worldwide construction and infrastructure industry, founded in France.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.


date: January 26

text: 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".


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The cornerstone for the Aswan Dam is set down in Egypt.


date: March 3

text: 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.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – In Berlin, Felix Hoffmann patents Aspirin and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Waldemar Jungner files the patent application for the first alkaline battery and receives a Swedish patent.


text: 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.


date: March 21

text: 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.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.


date: April 29

text: 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.


date: May 1

text: 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.


date: May 4

text: 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.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – A patent for a form of paperclip is applied for by Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler but it is never put into production.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – 'Mile-a-Minute Murphy' earns his nickname after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for 1 mi km 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.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – The Lorelei Fountain is unveiled in The Bronx in New York City.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – In Turin, Giovanni Agnelli and eight investors form the Italian automobile manufacturer F.I.A.T., producers of the Fiat motor vehicles.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Park Row Building in New York City is completed. It is the world's tallest building until 1908.


date: August 5

text: 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.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – The patent for the first water meter is granted to Edwin Ford.


date: September 28

text: 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.


date: October 19

text: 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.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – The Bronx Zoological Park opens in New York City.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The first aerial crossing of the Mediterranean Sea is made by Louis Capazza and Alphonse Fondère in Capazza's balloon.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The American Line's becomes the first ocean liner to report her imminent arrival by wireless telegraphy.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner is launched from the Belfast shipyards in Ireland. At 17,272 gross register tons and 704 ft m, she is the largest ship afloat at this time.


date: March 18

text: 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.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The nova V606 Aquilae is first observed from Earth as seen within the constellation Aquila.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry, with the publication of his book Grundlagen der Geometrie, released at Göttingen.


text: 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.


text: 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."


date: December 2

text: 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.


date: January 1

text: 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.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Because of illness, King Oscar of Sweden and Norway entrusts the government to Crown Prince Gustav.


date: February 1

text: 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.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – A tornado outbreak in the southern U.S. kills multiple people.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – A report documented that bubonic plague reached Medina and another report noted that at least 21 cases of the plague.


date: August 12

text: 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.


text: The 1899–1923 cholera pandemic begins, spreading to Europe, Asia and Africa.


date: February 7

text: 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.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Because of distrubances at the funeral of the late President Faure, parliament members Paul Déroulède, Lucien Millevoye and Marcel Habert are arrested.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Finnish farmworker Karl Emil Malmelin kills seven people with an axe at the Simola croft in the village of Klaukkala.


date: June 2

text: 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.


date: September 9

text: 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.


date: September 19

text: 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.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – (October 26 Old Style) – Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya receives its Russian metropolitan première at the Moscow Art Theatre.


date: November 20

text: 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.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – The collision of a British steamer and a French steamer kills 12 people on the English Channel.


date: January 14

text: 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.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – A gas explosion kills 14 people in the Spanish city of Cartagena.


date: February 12

text: 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.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – A fire kills 86 people at the Windsor Hotel in New York City.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – The British steamer Stella sinks in the English Channel with the loss of 80 people after wrecking against Les Casquets.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – The Greek ship Maria sinks after a collision sith the British steamer Kingswell in the Mediterranean and 45 people drown.


date: April 10

text: 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.


date: April 13

text: 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.


date: April 23

text: 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.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The Scottish ship Loch Sloy is wrecked off the coast of Australia's Kangaroo Island, drowning 32 people on board.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – A train wreck near Reading, Pennsylvania kills 28 people and injures 50.


date: July 12

text: 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.


date: August 6

text: 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.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Llest Colliery explosion at Pontyrhyl in the South Wales coalfield of the U.K. kills 19 miners.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – At least 512 people are killed when a debris hill from the Sumitomo Besshi copper mine at Niihama, Shikoku, Japan, collapses.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – The Dominion Line steamer Scotsman sinks in the Strait of Belle Isle, killing 15 women and children.


date: October 26

text: 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.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – An explosion kills 32 coal miners at the Carbon Hill mines in Carbonado, Washington.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – More than 40 schoolchildren from Belgium drown in the capsizing of a boat near the French town of Frelinghien.


text: December 22 – A fire kills 16 children in Quincy, Illinois.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – 40 coal miners are killed in an explosion near Brownsville, Pennsylvania.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The wreck of the British steamship Ariosto off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina drowns 21 of the crew.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The Tsar of Russia donates $500,000 for the relief of famine suffered by peasants in the Empire.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – An avalanche kills 12 Italian workers in the U.S. at Silver Plume, Colorado.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – An earthquake strikes in the U.S. and is felt in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio, but causes no casualties.


text: 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.


date: March 4

text: 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).


date: April 8

text: April 8 – A flood caused by the collapse of an ice gorge in the Yellowstone River drowns 12 people near Glendive, Montana.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – A tornado in the U.S. kills numerous people in Kirksville and Newtown, Missouri.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The New Richmond tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 and injuring more than 200.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – The village of Herman, Nebraska, with a population of 319, is destroyed by a tornado and 40 people are killed.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – A tornado kills 13 people in the U.S. village of Herman, Nebraska.


date: August 8

text: 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.


date: September 30

text: 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.


text: 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.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – The Association football club SK Rapid Wien is founded in Vienna.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded, at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is founded.


date: January 28

text: 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.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the first Association football club in Iceland, is established in Reykjavík.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Mount Rainier National Park is established in the U.S. state of Washington.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 (predecessor of Eintracht Frankfurt) is founded.


date: April 20

text: 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.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The Ferencvárosi TC Association football club is founded in Budapest.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – The Esporte Clube Vitória football club is founded in Salvador, Brazil.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The three time world champion Club Nacional de Football is founded in Montevideo, Uruguay.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Britain's Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone for the Victoria and Albert Museum.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The American Physical Society is founded at a meeting at Columbia University.


date: May 24

text: 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.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Maurice Ravel conducts the first public performance of his Shéhérazade, ouverture de féerie in Paris.


date: June 9

text: 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.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations are premiered in London.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Swiss-born American boxer Frank Erne wins the world lightweight championship by defeating champion George "Kid" Lavigne in Buffalo, New York.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Marshall "Major" Taylor wins the world 1 mi km professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Olympique de Marseille association football club is founded in France.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Northern Arizona University is founded in Flagstaff, as Northern Arizona Normal School.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The Alpha Sigma Tau sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The college fraternity Delta Sigma Phi is founded at the City College of New York.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Glasgow School of Art, the most notable work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, opens.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – John Bodkin Adams, British physician acquitted of murder (d. 1983)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Paul-Henri Spaak, 31st Prime Minister of Belgium and 2nd secretary general of NATO (d. 1972)


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Duke Ellington, African-American jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)

source_section: Births › May


text: May 20 – John Marshall Harlan II, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1971)


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Ernest Hemingway, American author, journalist (suicide 1961)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious leader, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Alfred Hitchcock, British-born American film director (d. 1980)


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Alma Reville, English screenwriter, wife of Alfred Hitchcock (d. 1982)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist politician, leader of the Iron Guard (d. 1938)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Tom C. Clark, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1977)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Richard Hauptmann, German murderer of Charles Lindbergh Jr. (d. 1936)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Noël Coward, English actor, playwright and composer (d. 1973)

source_section: Births › December


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Romualdo Pacheco, 77, the only Hispanic Governor of the U.S. state of California (in 1875); (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › January–February


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Alfred Sisley, 59, French impressionist landscape painter, died of throat cancer (b. 1839)


date: February 16

text: 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.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician; see Lie group.(b. 1842)


date: February 25

text: 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.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Princess Kaʻiulani, last monarch of Hawaii (b. 1875)

source_section: Deaths › March–April


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Sir John Mowbray, 1st Baronet, British MP and Father of the House of Commons since 1898 (b. 1815)


date: July 16

text: July 16 – William Preston Johnston, 68, American college administrator and first president of Tulane University (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › July–August


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, Russian Grand Duke, younger brother of Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1871)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Grant Allen, Canadian science writer and novelist (b. 1848)

source_section: Deaths › September–October


date: November 21

text: 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_section: Events › November


text: November 21 – Garret Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States (b. 1844)

source_section: Deaths › November–December


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (killed in battle) (b. 1875)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Henry Ware Lawton, American general (killed in action) (b. 1843)


year_label: 19 CE

text: Emperor Tiberius expels the Egyptians from Rome, and deports 4,000 Jews from Sicily.

source_section: Events › 19 AD › Roman Empire


text: Gondophares becomes king of the Saces.

source_section: Events › 19 AD › Asia


text: Maroboduus, king of the Marcomanni, is deposed by Catualda. This ends the threat to the Romans from Germanic tribes until the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Rome places them under its protection.


text: Last year (6th) of Tianfeng era of the Chinese Xin Dynasty.


text: A triumphal arch is built for Germanicus Julius Caesar in Saintes.


text: First flying machine, according to the Hanshu.


text: King Vonones I is removed to Cilicia and kept under house arrest. He escapes, but is caught and killed by a retired Roman legion veteran.

source_section: Events › 19 AD › Parthia


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Tiberius Gemellus, grandson of Tiberius (d. c. 38 AD)

source_section: Births › 19 AD


text: October 10 – Germanicus, Roman general (b. 15 BC)

source_section: Deaths › 19 AD


text: Cotys III (or Cotys VIII), Roman client king of Thrace


text: Germanicus Julius Caesar, commander in chief of the Roman legions in the East and beloved by the legionaries, falls ill and dies. On his deathbed he accuses Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, the governor of Syria, of poisoning him.


text: Vonones I, king of the Parthian Empire


text: Agrippina the Elder accuses Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso of having assassinated her husband Germanicus Julius Caesar in Antioch. However, there is no credible evidence and the charge is never proven. (In ancient times, when medical science was not advanced, poison was usually suspected whenever a young, healthy person died suddenly. There was no way to pinpoint and trace the substance after death; therefore, it was considered a quick, easy and non-traceable form of homicide.)


text: A part of Rome burns; Emperor Commodus orders the city to be rebuilt, under the name Colonia Commodiana.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Osroes II, controlling Media, claims the throne of the Parthian Empire. King Vologases IV of Parthia puts down the rebellion and restores order.

source_section: Events › By place › Parthia


text: The Campaign against Dong Zhuo begins. During the Battle of Xingyang, Cao Cao's army is defeated by Dong Zhuo.

source_section: Events › By place › China


text: A Roman road crosses the Alps, by the Simplon Pass.


text: At the climax of his power, the freedman Marcus Aurelius Cleander appoints 25 men as Roman consuls. Amongst these is Lucius Septimius Severus, who later becomes emperor during the Year of the Five Emperors).


text: The percentage of silver in the Egyptian denarius is lowered from 90% to 70%.

source_section: Events › By topic › Economic


text: Egypt (under Roman rule) is impoverished due to an inflation rate of 100% during the previous decade.


text: Cleomedes teaches that the moon does not glow on its own, but rather reflects sunlight.

source_section: Events › By topic › Art and Science


text: Luoyang is burned and plundered by the forces of Dong Zhuo. The court is moved to Chang'an.


text: First year of the Chuping era of the Chinese Han Dynasty.


text: Quintus Egnatius Proculus, Roman politician (approximate date)

source_section: Births


text: Ma Su, Chinese general and strategist of the Shu Han state (d. 228)


text: Liu Yin (or Xiuran), Chinese general of the Shu Han state (d. 269)


text: Gaius Furius Sabinius Aquila Timesitheus, Roman praetorian prefect (d. 243)


text: Wang Ji (or Boyu), Chinese general of the Cao Wei state (d. 261)


text: March 6 – Liu Bian, Chinese emperor (poisoned by Dong Zhuo) (b. 176)

source_section: Deaths


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Marcus Aurelius Cleander, Roman praetorian prefect


text: Athenagoras of Athens, Greek Christian apologist (b. 133)


text: Julius of Rome, Roman politician (executed by Commodus)


text: Zhou Bi, Chinese official (executed by Dong Zhuo)


text: Emperor Seimu of Japan, according to legend.


text: Xun Shuang, Chinese politician and writer (b. 128)


date: January 14

text: 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_section: Events › January


date: February 5

text: 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_section: Events › February


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The International Arbitration Court at The Hague is created, when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Second Boer War: The British annex the Orange Free State, as the Orange River Colony.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The Reichstag approves the second of the German Naval Laws allowing expansion of the Imperial German Navy.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Federation of Australia is enacted, marking the unification of its colonies into a single country.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Admiral Fredrik von Otter becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Cook Islands become a territory of the United Kingdom.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 24

text: October 24 – 1900 United Kingdom general election: voting concludes with the Unionists led by the Marquess of Salisbury re-elected.


text: October 25 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.


date: November 6

text: 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_section: Events › November


date: November 7

text: 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.


text: 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_section: Events › December


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Second Boer War: Boers attempt to end the Siege of Ladysmith, which leads to the Battle of Platrand.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Second Boer War: Battle of Spion Kop – Boer troops defeat the British Army.


date: January 27

text: 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.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of the Mat Salleh Rebellion in North Borneo, is shot dead in Tambunan.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Second Boer War: British troops defeat the Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Kimberley is lifted.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg – British troops defeat the Boers.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Second Boer War: British military leaders accept the unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Battle of Kousséri: French forces secure their domination of Chad. Warlord Rabih az-Zubayr is defeated and killed.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Second Boer War: The British Army relieves the Siege of Mafeking.


text: May 17 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers destroy three villages near Peking and kill 60 Chinese Christians.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Chinese province of Manchuria is invaded by the Russian Empire.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers attack Belgians in the Fengtai railway station.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Boxer Rebellion: Peacekeepers from various European countries arrive in China, where they eventually unite with Japanese forces.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – 1899–1900 peasant unrest in Bulgaria starts to turn passive.


date: June 17

text: 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.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers gather about 20,000 people near Peking, and kill hundreds of European citizens, including the German ambassador.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci in Monza.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Boxer Rebellion: An international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the European hostages.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Philippine–American War: Battle of Pulang Lupa – Filipino resistance fighters defeat a detachment of American soldiers.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Philippine–American War: Battle of Mabitac – Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat the Americans.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Herbert Kitchener succeeds Frederick Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in South Africa and implements a scorched earth strategy.


date: December 5

text: 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.


date: December 24

text: 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.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.


date: February 16

text: 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.


date: March 5

text: 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_section: Events › March


date: March 16

text: 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.


date: May

text: May – American explorer Robert Peary is the first person to sight Kaffeklubben Island.


date: July 12

text: 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 km/h.


date: June 25

text: 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.


date: March 20

text: March 20 — Thomas Lambert received a patent for the first indestructible type of cylinder records.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The first zeppelin airship flight, by Zeppelin LZ 1, is carried out over Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen, Germany.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – The first line of the Paris Metro opens.


date: December 23

text: 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).


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The first steel produced by electrometallurgy (from an electric furnace) is delivered.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's laws of heredity.


date: March 23

text: 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.


date: October 19

text: 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.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – History of quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents his groundbreaking paper on quantum theory to the German Physical Society in Berlin.


date: December 17

text: 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.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia, United States, kills 50 miners.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Scofield Mine disaster: An explosion of blasting powder in a coal mine in Scofield, Utah, kills 200 people.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Hoboken Docks fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, spreads to German passenger ships , and . The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.


date: December 16

text: 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.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The 1900 Galveston hurricane, killing around 8,000 people. It is the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.


date: January

text: c. January – The first Michelin Guide is published for French motorists.


date: February 27

text: 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.


text: February 27 – FC Bayern, Germany's most successful football club, is founded in Munich.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, opens in Paris.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The second Olympic Games, Paris 1900, open (as part of the Paris World Exhibition).


date: May 17

text: 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.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – N'Djamena, the capital city of Chad, is founded as Fort-Lamy by French commander Émile Gentil.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria makes a morganatic marriage with Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – 25 – The First Pan-African Conference is held in London.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1971)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Sir John McEwen, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1980)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Beryl May Dent, English mathematical physicist (d. 1977)

source_section: Births › May


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian-born British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English naval officer and last Viceroy of India (assassinated) (d. 1979)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French aviator and writer (d. 1944)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Arturo Umberto Illia, 34th President of Argentina (d. 1983)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Sir Hans Krebs, German-born British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1981)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Urho Kekkonen, 8th President of Finland (d. 1986)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 17

text: September 17 – J. Willard Marriott, American entrepreneur, founder of Marriott International (d. 1985)


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Miguel Alemán Valdés, 46th President of Mexico, 1946–1952 (d. 1983)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Margaret Mitchell, American novelist (Gone With The Wind) (d. 1949)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Margaret Brundage, American illustrator (Weird Tales) (d. 1976)

source_section: Births › December


date: January 5

text: January 5 – William A. Hammond, American military physician, neurologist, and 11th Surgeon General of the United States Army (1862–1864) (b. 1828)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: January 20

text: January 20 – John Ruskin, English writer, artist, and social critic (b. 1819)


text: March 29 – Cyrus K. Holliday, cofounder of Topeka, Kansas, 1st president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (b. 1826)


date: April 30

text: 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.


text: June 5 – Stephen Crane, American author (b. 1871)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Gregorio Grassi, Italian Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic martyr and saint (b. 1833)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Wilhelm Liebknecht, German Social Democratic politician (b. 1826)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian-born chess player, first undisputed World Champion (b. 1836)


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Japanese politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1840)


text: August 25 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, writer (b. 1844)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Arsenio Martínez-Campos, Spanish general, revolutionary, and Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1831)


text: September 23 – William Marsh Rice, American philanthropist, university founder (b. 1816)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – John Sherman, American politician (b.1823)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal, Prussian field marshal (b. 1810)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.

source_section: Events › January


text: January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime Minister of Australia.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Viceroy of India Lord Curzon creates the new North-West Frontier Province in the north of the Punjab region, bordering Afghanistan.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Edward VII opens his first parliament of the United Kingdom.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – The Hawaii Territory Legislature convenes for the first time.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – The United Kingdom and Germany agree on the frontier between German East Africa and Nyasaland.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The United Kingdom, Germany and Japan protest the Sino-Russian agreement on Manchuria.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The United States Congress passes the Platt Amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The First Philippine Republic is formally dissolved, after president Emilio Aguinaldo calls all Filipino forces to lay down arms and cease hostilities.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The Caste War of Yucatán in Mexico officially ends, although Mayan skirmishers continue sporadic fighting for another decade.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 9

text: May 9 – The first Australian Parliament opens in Melbourne.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Cuba becomes a United States protectorate.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 4

text: July 4 – William Howard Taft becomes Governor-General of the Philippines.

source_section: Events › July–August


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Vice President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th president of the United States, upon President William McKinley's death.

source_section: Events › September


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 is passed by the new Parliament of Australia as the basis of a White Australia policy.

source_section: Events › December


text: December 3 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the United States House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Lord Kitchener reports that Christiaan de Wet has shot one of the "peace" envoys, and flogged two more, who had gone to his commando to ask the Burgher citizens of South Africa to halt fighting.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Chi-hsui and Hsu-cheng-yu, Boxer Rebellion leaders, are executed in Peking.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The Sultan of Turkey orders 50,000 troops to the Bulgarian frontier because of unrest in Macedonia.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Irish nationalist demonstrators are ejected by police from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 6

text: March 6 – In Bremen, an assassination attempt is made on Wilhelm II, German Emperor.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Anti-Semitic rioting breaks out in Budapest.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – British peace campaigner Emily Hobhouse reports on the high mortality and cruel conditions in the Second Boer War concentration camps.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – The Boxer Rebellion in Qing dynasty China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Philippine–American War: Balangiga massacre: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty United States soldiers in a surprise attack in the town of Balangiga.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Leon Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair for the assassination of William McKinley in Buffalo, New York on September 6.

source_section: Events › October


date: May 28

text: May 28 – D'Arcy Concession: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar of Persia grants British businessman William Knox D'Arcy a concession giving him an exclusive right to prospect for oil.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Discovery Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott sets sail from Britain on the RRS Discovery to explore the Ross Sea in Antarctica.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – U.S. Steel is incorporated by industrialist J. P. Morgan, as the first billion-dollar corporation.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Panic of 1901: The New York Stock Exchange crashes.


text: Splošno slovensko žensko društvo, the first women's organisation in Slovenia, is founded.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: AB Lux, as the predecessor of Electrolux, founded in Sweden.


text: The Bulgarian Women's Union is founded.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The United Kingdom Census 1901 is taken. The number of people employed in manufacturing is at its highest-ever level.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – is the first Cunard Line ship to receive a wireless radio set.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The 1,282 foot (390 m) covered bridge crossing the Saint John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The world's first passenger-carrying trolleybus in regular service operates on the Biela Valley Trolleybus route at Königstein, Germany.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The first claimed powered flight is made, by German-born American aviator Gustave Whitehead, in his Number 21, in Connecticut.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner, in the United Kingdom.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The British Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty is signed by the United Kingdom and United States, allowing the U.S. to build the Panama Canal under its sole control.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu, England, to St. John's, Newfoundland; it is the letter "S" in Morse code.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The final spike is driven into the Mombasa–Victoria–Uganda Railway, in modern-day Kisumu, Kenya.


text: American businessman William S. Harley draws up plans for his first prototype motorcycle.


text: German engineer Richard Fiedler invents the modern flamethrower, the Kleinflammenwerfer.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The 1901 Census of India is taken, the fourth, and first reliable, census of the British Raj.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Peter O'Connor sets the first International Association of Athletics Federations recognised long jump world record, of 24 ft 11¾ ins (7.61m). The record will stand for 20 years.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The American yacht Columbia defeats the British Shamrock in the America's Cup yachting race in New York.


text: The okapi is observed for the first time by Europeans (previously known only to African natives).


text: New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward invents the spiral hairpin.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Auguste Deter is first examined by German psychiatrist Dr. Alois Alzheimer, leading to a diagnosis of the condition that will carry Alzheimer's name.


text: American retail pharmacy Walgreens is founded in Chicago.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The first United Kingdom Fingerprint Bureau is established at Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London, by Edward Henry.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – In Amherst, New York, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine; she will confess to at least 31 killings.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – 81 miners are killed in an accident at Universal Colliery, Senghenydd in South Wales.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – 1901 Caister lifeboat disaster: a life-boat capsizes on service on the east coast of England during a great storm; nine of the twelve crew on board are killed. This gives ride to the lifeboatmen's motto "Never turn back."


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The Middelburg peace conference fails in South Africa, as Boers continue to demand autonomy.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – A 7.2 Black Sea earthquake occurs off the northeast coast of Bulgaria, with a maximum intensity of X (Extreme). A destructive tsunami affects the province of Dobrich.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters (Три сeстры, Tri sestry) is premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The State funeral of Queen Victoria, held at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, UK, is attended by many European royals, including Kaiser Wilhelm II and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The first large-scale showing of Van Gogh's paintings takes place in Paris, as 71 are shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, 11 years after his death.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The Club Atlético River Plate is founded in Argentina.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The first showing of Picasso's paintings in Paris as the 19-year-old Spanish artist exhibits his work at Ambroise Vollard's gallery.


text: June 24 – English Association Football Club Brighton & Hove Albion is formed by John Jackson to replace the amateur Brighton and Hove Rangers, following a meeting at the Seven Stars Hotel on Ship Street, Brighton.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres is founded in Copenhagen.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later renamed Minor League Baseball), is formed in Chicago.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The Sigma Phi Epsilon college fraternity is founded in Richmond, Virginia.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is premiered in Moscow with the composer playing the solo part.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The Alpha Sigma Alpha fraternity is founded at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm, on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.


text: The Intercollegiate Prohibition Association is established in Chicago.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – C. L. R. James, Trinidad-born writer, journalist (d. 1989)

source_section: Births › January


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (d. 1994)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Teresa Demjanovich, American Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (d. 1927)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Eisaku Satō, Prime Minister of Japan, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1975)


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist (d. 1981)

source_section: Births › April


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Tage Erlander, Swedish politician, 25th prime minister of Sweden (d. 1985)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese film director and special effects designer (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Learie Constantine, Trinidad-born cricketer and race relations campaigner (d. 1971)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Adelaide Hall, American jazz singer, entertainer (d. 1993)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Fernando Tambroni, Italian politician, 36th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1963)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist (d. 1978)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Albert, 4th duc de Broglie, French politician, 28th Prime Minister of France (b. 1821)

source_section: Deaths › January–February


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Elisha Gray, American inventor, appliance manufacturer (b. 1835)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She is 81 years old and, having ruled for nearly 64 years, will be the second longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, "Bertie", the longest-serving Prince of Wales to this time, succeeds his mother at the age of 59, reigning as King Edward VII, of the United Kingdom and in innovation the British Dominions and also becoming Emperor of India.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Sir Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator, politician and 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1819)


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (b. 1844)

source_section: Deaths › March–April


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Shrimad Rajchandra, Indian Jain philosopher, scholar and poet, spiritual mentor of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1867)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1819)

source_section: Deaths › July–August


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Victoria, Princess Royal (b. 1840)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Francesco Crispi, 11th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1819)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Shō Tai, last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Japan (b. 1843)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Assassination of William McKinley: American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies 8 days later.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 14

text: September 14 – William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1843)

source_section: Deaths › September–October


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1814)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Leon Czolgosz, Polish-American assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (executed) (b. 1873)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – The Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – The Pattani Sultanate is abolished by the Siamese authority after the last sultan of Pattani refused new administrative reforms by the Siamese.

source_section: Events › March


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Alfonso XIII of Spain begins his reign.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War, providing for the Transvaal Colony and Orange Free State to transition to self-governing British colonies.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – The Commonwealth Franchise Act in Australia grants women's suffrage in federal elections for resident British subjects (with certain ethnic minorities excepted), making Australia the first independent country to grant women the vote at a national level, and the first country to allow them to stand for Parliament.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Erik Gustaf Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 8

text: July 8 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation is established within the U.S. Geological Survey.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Lord Salisbury retires as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – France attempts to neutralize Triple Alliance, signing agreement with Italy to remain neutral in Africa.

source_section: Events › November


text: The first Korean Empire passports are issued to assist Korean immigration to Hawaii.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Hakkōda Mountains incident: A snowstorm in the Hakkōda Mountains of northern Honshu, Japan, kills 199 during a military training exercise.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Second Boer War: Battle of Tweebosch – South African Boers win their last battle over the British Army, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Clashes between police and Georgian workers led by Joseph Stalin leave 15 dead, 54 wounded, and 500 in prison.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Philippine–American War ends.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Venezuela: President Castro's army overcomes rebels in seven-day battle

source_section: Events › October


date: November 15

text: November 15 – King Leopold II of Belgium survives an attempted assassination in Brussels by Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Agustín Lizárraga discovers Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas".


text: November 15 – The Hanoi exhibition opens in French Indochina.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Discovery Expedition: British explorers Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.

source_section: Events › December


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Coronation of Edward VII as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India at Westminster Abbey in London.

source_section: Events › August


date: February 18

text: February 18 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt prosecutes the Northern Securities Company for violation of the antitrust Sherman Act.

source_section: Events › February


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, predecessor of global consumer goods brand 3M, begins trading as a mining venture at Two Harbors in the United States.


date: December

text: December–February 1903 – Venezuelan crisis: Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela, in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.


text: The capital of French Indochina is moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin).


text: De'Longhi home appliance brand is founded in Treviso, Italy.


text: Daniels Linseed, predecessor of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a global livestock, commodities trading, food processing brand, is founded in Minnesota, United States.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Nathan Stubblefield demonstrates his wireless telephone device in the U.S. state of Kentucky.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The Berlin U-Bahn underground is opened.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Tenor Enrico Caruso makes the first million-selling recording, for the Gramophone Company in Milan.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 13

text: April 13 – A new land speed record of 74 mph km/h is set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet driving a steam car.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile, a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – First Cadillac completed, sold and sent to Buffalo, New York


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – The Commercial Telegraph Agency (TTA, Torgovo-Telegrafnue Agenstvo), predecessor of TASS, is officially established under the Ministry of Finance at Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi sends wireless messages across the Atlantic.


text: Construction of the Paul Doumer Bridge, linking both sections of Hanoi, is completed.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The first science fiction film, the silent A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans La Lune), is premièred at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris, France, by actor/producer Georges Méliès, and proves an immediate success.


text: January 1 – The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's first registered nurse.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Australian officers Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock are executed for the murder of Boer prisoners of war near Louis Trichardt.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – A Circuit Court decision in the United States ends Thomas Edison's monopoly on 35 mm movie film technology.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – A statue of Joan of Arc is unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, the French town which she stormed in 1429.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The first Borstal (youth offenders' institution) opens in Borstal, Kent, U.K.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, Harvey Logan ("Kid Curry"), is captured after a shootout with lawmen in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is sentenced to a $5,000 fine and 20 years hard labor for robbery but escapes custody in 1903.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17 people, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains and the banning of steam locomotives in New York City.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Brazilian aeronaut Augusto Severo de Albuquerque Maranhão and Georges Saché, his French mechanic, are killed when Severo's airship Pax catches fire and explodes a little over 1,000 ft above Paris. Severo and Saché are both killed upon impact with the ground.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills 112 miners.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Shiloh Baptist Church stampede: 115 people are killed in a crush at a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, following a mistaken alarm of fire after an address by Booker T. Washington.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – A five-month strike by the United Mine Workers in the United States ends.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The 7.5 Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – La Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent erupts, devastating the northern portion of the island and killing 2,000 people


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Mount Pelée in Martinique erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – A 7.7 earthquake shakes the border between China and Kyrgyzstan killing 10,000 people.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Mount Pelée again erupts in Martinique, destroying the town of Le Morne-Rouge and causing 1,000 deaths.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century occurs at Santa María in Guatemala; over 6,000 people die.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C., to promote scientific research with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The 1st Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance takes place in Washington, D.C.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 is premiered in Helsinki.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – The London School of Economics is opened by Lord Rosebery.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit, an order bestowed personally by the British monarch on up to 24 distinguished Empire recipients.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Servillia premieres in St. Petersburg


date: November 16

text: November 16 – A newspaper cartoon depicting U.S. President "Teddy" Roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear cub inspires creation of the first teddy bear by Morris Michtom in New York City.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – John A. McCone, American politician, 6th Director of Central Intelligence (d. 1991)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and saint (d. 1975)


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1986)


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 27

text: February 27 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)