Died: William Hugh Smith, 72, Governor of Alabama during Reconstruction, 1868 to 1870, former Alabama legislator who joined the Union Army
Bolivia set up a customs office in Puerto Alonso, leading to the Brazilian settlers there to declare the Republic of Acre in a revolt against Bolivian authorities.
U.S. President William McKinley's declaration of December 21, 1898, proclaiming a policy of benevolent assimilation of the Philippines as a United States territory, was announced in Manila by the U.S. commander, General Elwell Otis, and angered independence activists who had fought against Spanish rule.
A fierce battle was fought between American troops and Filipino defenders at the town of Pililla on the island of Luzon. The Filipinos retreated to the mountains at Tanay.
After a successful revolt against the Ottoman Empire by the inhabitants of the island of Crete, the area, which would join Greece, got its first constitution, with provisions for a provincial legislature of 138 Christian deputies and 50 Muslim deputies.
George F. Hoar, a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, spoke out in the Senate against American expansion into the Philippines. The text of Hoar's was sent by cable to Hong Kong at a cost of $4,000, and would later be cited by Ambassador John Barrett on January 13, 1900, as an incitement to Filipino attacks on U.S. troops.[1]
Jonathan B. Turner, 93, U.S. educational reformer and champion of land grant universities, co-founder of the University of Illinois
William A. Russell, 67, U.S. Congressman and industrialist who was the first president of the International Paper Company
The Steel Plate Transferrers' Association, the first labor union for workers skilled in siderography (the engraving and mass reproduction of steel plates for newspaper printing) was established. After changing its name to the International Association of Siderographers, it would have 80 members at its peak. It would dissolve in 1991, with only eight members left. Stewart, Estelle May (1936). Handbook of American trade-unions: 1936 edition. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Government Printing Office.
A massive rescue by the Lynmouth Lifeboat Station, using 100 men and requiring the transport of the lifeboat Louisa over land and then out to sea, succeeded in saving all 18 men aboard.[2] The event would later be made famous in the children's book The Overland Launch.
Died: Nelson Dingley Jr., 66, U.S. politician and Congressman for Maine since 1881, author of the Dingley Act for increased tariffs
The White Star Line ship RMS Oceanic, at the time the largest British ocean liner up to that time, was launched from the Irish port of Belfast in front of over 50,000 people. It would begin its maiden voyage on September 6.
The British four-masted sailing ship Andelanacapsized during a storm in Commencement Bay off the coast of the U.S. Washington, with the loss of all 17 of her crew.[4]
Born:
Carlos Romulo, Filipino diplomat, President of the United Nations General Assembly; in Camiling, Luzon, U.S. Philippine territory (d. 1985)
Died: Jedediah Hotchkiss, 70, American military cartographer for the Confederacy during the American Civil War
The General Assembly of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania began the task of filling the U.S. Senate seat of Matthew Quay, who had recently resigned after being indicted on criminal charges. After 79 ballots and three months, no candidate would have a majority, and the General Assembly would refuse to approve the governor's appointment of a successor. The seat would remains vacant for more than two years. The Pennsylvania experience later led to the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to provide for U.S. Senators to be directly elected by popular vote, rather than by the state legislatures.
Future film producer Szmuel Gelbfisz, born in Poland and later a resident of Germany and England, arrived in the United States at the age of 16. He would later Americanize his name to Samuel Goldwyn, co-founder of the company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
The Schurman Commission was created by U.S. President William McKinley to study the issue of the American approach to he sovereignty of the Philippines, ceded to the U.S. on December 10 by Spain. The five-man group, chaired by Cornell University President Jacob Schurman, later concluded that the Philippines would need to become financially independent before a republic could be created.
Gyula Mándi, Hungarian footballer who played for the national team 1921 to 1934, then managed the Hungarian national team 1950-1956 and the Israeli national team 1959-1963; in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (d. 1969)
[Mubarak Al-Sabah]], the emir of Kuwait, signed 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.
The city of Ponce, Puerto Rico was saved from disaster by seven firemen and one volunteer civilian who disobey orders and stop "El Polverin", a fire near the U.S. Army's store of explosive artillery. The "Monument to the Heroes of El Poverin" was later erected in their honor.
U.S. Representative George Henry White of North Carolina, the only African-American in Congress at the time, delivered his first major speech, speaking out against disenfranchisement of black voters and proposing that the number of representatives from a U.S. state should be based on the number of persons of voting age who actually cast ballots, rather than population. "[7]
Camille Jenatzy of France became the first man to drive an automobile more than 80 kilometers per hour, almost breaking the 50mph barrier when he reaches an unprecedented speed of 80.35 kilometres per hour (49.93mph) in his CGA Dogcart racecar. Jenatzy's speed was more than 20% faster than the January 17 mark of 66.65 kilometres per hour (41.41mph) set by Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat.
Born: Béla Guttmann, Hungarian-born soccer football coach who survived the Holocaust; in Budapest (d. 1981)
At a time when U.S. Senators were elected by the state legislature rather than by ballot, wealthy businessman William A. Clark was elected U.S. Senator after offering bribes to most of the members. The U.S. Senate would refuse to seat him after evidence of the bribery was revealed.[9]
The League of Peja, organized by Haxhi Zeka to lobby for a Kosovar Albanian state within the Ottoman Empire, attracted 450 delegates to its first convention, held at the city of Peja, now in the Republic of Kosovo.[10]
A lawyer for the estate of John W. Keely, an inventor who had persuaded investors in his Keely Motor Company that an automobile could be created that would operate from Keely's "induction resonance motion motor" that had achieved perpetual motion, revealed that the late Mr. Keely's motor had been a fraud, and that the widow knew nothing of it.[11]
Cherokee Nation voters in the Indian Territory (later the U.S. state of Oklahoma) approved a proposition to allot Cherokee lands and to dissolve the Cherokee government, but the U.S. Congress never ratified the results.
"Canadian Pacific Railway", by Donald M. Bain, in Encyclopedia of North American Railroads. ed. by William D. Middleton, et al. (Indiana University Press, 2007) p. 197
Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, Perpetual Motion (Adventures Unlimited Press, 2015) p.146
The following events occurred in February 1899:
Ranavalona III, who had been the Queen of Madagascar until being deposed on February 28, 1897, was sent into exile by French colonial authorities, along with the rest of the royal family. She departed on the ship Yang-Tse on a 28-day trip to Marseilles.[1]
The Suntory whisky distiller in Japan was opened by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka as a store selling imported wines.
The participants in the Australian Premiers' Conference, held in Melbourne, agreed that Australia's new capital, Canberra, should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
Born: Herbie Faye, American vaudeville, film and TV comedian known for The Phil Silvers Show; in New York City (d. 1980)
Lao She (pen name for Shu Qingchun), Chinese novelist and playwright who was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution; in Beijing (committed suicide, 1966)
The first major battle of the Philippine–American War concluded with the capture by the U.S. of the San Juan River Bridge that connects Manila and San Juan. U.S. Army General Arthur MacArthur Jr. led troops of the U.S. Army Eighth Corps to victory over Filipino troops commanded by General Antonio Luna. In the two-day battle, 55 U.S. soldiers and 238 Filipino soldiers were killed.[5]
Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 24, German noble who was a grandson of Queen Victoria of the British Empire, and heir to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, died after a brief illness. His father, Duke Alfred, would die 17 months later; the Duchy would be abolished along with the German monarchy in 1918.
Protesting against the government of Russia broke out at Saint Petersburg University and mounted police violently responded to the group, causing a riot.[6]
The Dodge Commission exonerated the U.S. Department of War from responsibility in the United States Army beef scandal, where meatpacking companies supplied low-grade, putrefied beef to American soldiers during the Spanish American War and caused an unquantified number of cases of food poisoning. While War Secretary Russell Alger was not accused of criminal negligence, the Commission implied that he was incompetent and he was later forced to resign.[7]
U.S. Army troops, supported by bombardment from the warships Charleston and Monandock, defeated Filipino forces in the Battle of Caloocan and got control of the Manila to Dagupan railway. Colonel W. S. Metcalfe would later be accused by some of his men of having ordered the shooting of Filipino soldiers taken prisoner.[8]
Future U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his fiancée Lou Henry, both 24, were married at her parents' home in Monterey, California, and departed the next day for a 14-month stay in China, where Hoover works as a mining engineer.
The coldest temperature recorded up to that time in the continental United States was set as Fort Logan, Montana records a low of −61°F (−52°C).[9]
Died: Teuku Umar, 44, Indonesian guerrilla leader who led the Acehnese Rebellion against the Netherlands colonial government of the Dutch East Indies, was killed in an ambush.
The Great Blizzard of 1899 struck the east coast of the United States, causing subzero temperatures as far south as southern Florida for two days and destroying the citrus fruit crop that year.
In New York, the White Star ocean liner SS Germanic, already laden with ice and snow during its voyage from Liverpool, became even more weighed down after disembarking its passengers when the New York City blizzard struck. With 3,600,000 pounds (1,600,000kg) of added weight, the ship began to list sideways and additional weight entered cargo doors that had been opened for refuelling. Germanic remained on the bottom New York Harbor for more than a week while salvaging goes on, then requ couldrefurbishing for three months, but became operational again.[10]
The February Manifesto was issued by the Emperor of Russia, decreeing that a veto by the Diet of Finland could be overruled in legislative matters concerning the interest of all Russia, including autonomous Finland. The manifesto was viewed as unconstitutional and a coup d'état by many Finns, who had come to consider their country a separate constitutional state in its own right, in union with the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the manifesto also failed to elaborate the criteria that a law had to meet in order to be considered to concern Russian imperial interests, and not an internal affair of Finland (affairs over which the Diet's authority was supposed to have remained unaltered), leaving it to be decided by the autocratic Emperor. This resulted in Finnish fears that the Diet of Finland could be overruled arbitrarily.
The research vessel SS Southern Cross, on an Antarctic expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink, arrived at Cape Adare and began unloading 90 sledge dogs— the first ever on the continent-- and two Norwegian Sámi crewmen, Per Savio and Ole Must, who became the first humans to spend the night in Antarctica. Over the next 12 days, the rest of the 31-man crew brought in supplies builds a temporary settlement.
Leo Najo (Leonardo Alaniz), Mexican-born American baseball player and the first Mexican national signed by a U.S. major league team, as well as one of the original inductees (in 1936) into the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame; in Doctor Coss, Nuevo León (d. 1978)
The National Assembly of France elected a new President to fill out the remainder of the late President Faure's term. Senate President Émile Loubet won the vote, 483 to 278, against Prime Minister Jules Méline.[11]
In Venezuela, the former Minister of War, Major General Ramón Guerra, angry with the reforms of President Ignacio Andrade, proclaimed the state of Guárico as an independent territory. President Andrade ordered General Augusto Lutowsky to crush the rebellion and Guerra fled to Colombia, but would later come back as Minister of War.[12]
Discussions among members of a joint Anglo-American commission, set up by U.S. President William McKinley and Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier to resolve the Alaska boundary dispute, ended abruptly after it was clear that the U.S. would not make any concessions. In response, Laurier made clear that Canada would make no further concessions with the U.S. in trade.[13]
Gdadebo II, the Alake of Egba in what was now southeast Nigeria, signed an agreement with the British Governor of Lagos Colony to lease lands for construction of a new railway from Aro to Abeokuta.
The British freighter SS Jumna, hauling a load of coal with minimal crew, was last seen passing Rathlin Island at Northern Ireland. Bound from Scotland to deliver a shipment of coal to Uruguay, it never arrived and would never seen again.[14]
Convention Hall, which would later host two national political conventions, opened in Kansas City, Missouri with a concert by the band of John Philip Sousa. The building would burn down less than 14 months later.
Born:
Joseph Le Brix, French aviator known for making the first airplane flight (on October 15, 1927) across the South Atlantic Ocean as part of his round-the-world flight in 1927 and 1928; in Baden, Morbihan département (killed in plane crash 1931)
In France, Paul Déroulède and Jules Guérin of the right-wing Ligue des Patriotes attempted to persuade General Georges-Gabriel de Pellieux to lead a coup d'état during the funeral of the late president Félix Faure in order to overthrow President Loubet. General Pellieux refused to participate. Later in the year, Déroulède and Guérin would be indicted for conspiracy against the government and banished from France.
The works of Catholic priest and theologian Herman Schell, including the recently published Der Katholicismus als Princip des Fortschritts and Die neue Zeit und der alte Glaube were placed by the Roman Catholic Church on its Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of banned books.
In an accident at Grove Hill, Harrow, London, England, Edwin Sewell became the world's first driver of a gasoline-powered vehicle to be killed. His passenger, Major James Richer, died of injuries three days later.[15]
Died: Paul Reuter (pen name for Israel Beer Josaphat), 82, German-born British journalist who founded the Reutersnews agency in 1851
Japanese immigration to South America, primarily the nation of Peru, began as the ship Sakura Maru departed from Yokohama with 790 men employed by the Morioka-shokai Sugar Company. The group arrived in Callao on April 3.[16]
Born: Charles Best, American-born Canadian medical scientist and assistant to Frederick Banting in the discovery of insulin; in West Pembroke, Maine (d. 1978)
U.S. President William McKinley approved a law increasing the pension to American Civil War veterans, both Union and Confederate, to $25.00 per month.[17]
March 1899
The following events occurred in March 1899:
March 1, 1899 (Wednesday)
In Afghanistan, Capt. George Roos-Keppel made a sudden attack on a predatory band of Chamkannis that had been raiding in the Kurram Valley, and captures 100 prisoners with 3,000 head of cattle.
Guglielmo Marconi conducted radio beacon experiments on Salisbury Plain in England and noticed that radio waves were being reflected back to the transmitter by objects they encountered, one of the early steps in the potential for developing radar.[18]
Cyclone Mahina killed over 400 people in Australia after striking Bathurst Bay in Queensland. A 37 feet (11m) high wave reached up to 3 miles (4.8km) inland, claiming most of the lives in the deadliest natural disaster in Australia's history.
March 5, 1899 (Sunday)
George B. Selden sold the rights to his patent for an internal combustion engine to the Electric Vehicle Company. He and the company then claimed a royalty on all automobiles using such an engine.[19]
The U.S. state of Delaware enacted its general corporation act that would make it the most important jurisdiction in United States corporate law.
At the Battle of Balantang, the U.S. Army sustained 400 casualties in an attack by Philippine troops under the command of Pascual Magbanua.
March 11, 1899 (Saturday)
A wireless distress signal was sent for the first time by a patrol boat to aid the endangered British cruiser Elbe. The Morse code distress signal was heard by the lighthouse near Ramsgate Lifeboat Station, which sent a lifeboat to the rescue.[22]
Encinal County, Texas, created on February 1, 1856, near the U.S. city of Laredo on the condition that it would create a county seat, was discontinued and annexed into neighboring Webb County.[24] The largest town in the area, Bruni, had less than 400 people.
Santa Cruz County was established in the southeast corner of Pima County around the city of Nogales (built across from the border of the larger Mexican city of Nogales, Sonora) in the U.S. territory of Arizona.
March 16, 1899 (Thursday)
Memorial ceremonies were held for the burial of the late German hero Otto von Bismarck and his wife, Johanna von Puttkamer with their re-interment at the Bismarck Mausoleum, now a tourist attraction at Friedrichsruh in Aumühle. Bismarck, who had died on July 30, had been buried along with his wife at the estate of his home in Varzin, now the city of Warcino in Poland.
Phoebe, the ninth-known moon of the planet Saturn was discovered by U.S. astronomer William Pickering from analysis of photographic plates made by a Peruvian observatory seven months earlier, the first discovery of a satellite photographically.
The Eden Theatre in La Ciotat, a small city in France near Marseilles, laid a claim to being the first cinema by 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") to 250 spectators surprised. The action film showed a steam train pulling into La Ciotat station, passengers coming out of the cars, and departing passengers climbing on.[27]
The coronation of Malietoa Tanumafili I as King of Samoa took place. He had become the Malieota of the South Pacific island when his father died on August 22.[28]
March 23, 1899 (Thursday)
The U.S. cruiser USS Philadelphia and the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Porpoise and HMS Royalist bombarded rebel-held villages in Samoa after an attack on Apia.[28]
Died: Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin, 73, Swiss feminist and founder (in 1868) of the Association internationale des femmes, the first international women's organization
March 25, 1899 (Saturday)
The rowing team of Cambridge University won the annual boat race against Oxford University for the first time in a decade, finishing ahead of Oxford by 3 1⁄4 lengths on the Thames. Oxford had won the race nine times in a row from 1890 to 1898.
Born: Burt Munro, New Zealand motorcycle racer and holder of the world speed record (183.59 miles per hour (295.46km/h)) for an engine less than 1,000 cc, still standing after being set in 1967; in Invercargill (d. 1978)
August A. Busch Jr., American beer brewery magnate who built the Anheuser-Busch company into the world's largest brewery during his term as chairman, 1946 to 1975, owner of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team from 1953 until his death; in St. Louis
James V. Allred, U.S. politician, Governor of Texas 1935-1939, and federal judge from 1949 until his death; in Bowie, Texas (d. 1959)
March 30, 1899 (Thursday)
The British steamer Stella sank in the English Channel with the loss of 80 people after wrecking against Les Casquets, a group of rocks near the Channel Islands.[28]
March 31, 1899 (Friday)
The United Kingdom announced that it had completed the purchase of rights to occupy the Kingdom of Tonga.[28]
Born: Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian fascist leader, founder of the Pērkonkrusts ("Thunder Cross") organization, later a collaborator during the German Nazi invasion; in Riga, Russian Empire (d. 1968)
Born: Maria Redaelli-Granoli, Italian supercentenarian, at 113 the oldest person in Europe for four months until her death; in Lombardy (d. 2013)
April 4, 1899 (Tuesday)
Cuba's General Assembly voted to disband the Cuban army and to accept U.S. sovereignty.[28]
The German Imperial Navy warship SMS Jaguar, which would be scuttled after losing the 1914 Siege of Tsingtao, began service.
April 5, 1899 (Wednesday)
A team of five European geologists and 30 African laborers set out from Northern Rhodesia to explore the minerals of central Africa for the British company Tanganyika Concessions, Ltd. (TCL). Discovering that the most valuable copper deposits were in the Congo Free State, TCL made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase full rights from King Leopold of Belgium.
Born: Elsie Thompson, at 113 the second-oldest living American for three months preceding her death; in Pennsylvania (d. 2013)
Died: Garret Parry, 52, Irish pipe player and entertainer
April 7, 1899 (Friday)
The Shootout at Wilson Ranch, the last major gunfight of the Wild West era in the U.S., took place in Tombstone, Arizona. Brothers William Halderman and Thomas Halderman, killed two lawmen. They would later be hanged on November 16, 1900.
In Uganda, King Chwa II Kabalega of the Bunyoro kingdom, a leader of the fight against British colonial occupation, was taken prisoner after being shot in a battle near Hoima. Kabalega was exiled to the Seychelles in the South Pacific ocean and remained there until 1923.
The Greek ship Maria sank after a collision with the British steamer Kingswell in the Mediterranean and 45 people drowned.[28]
The Battle of Santa Cruz began 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 were dead.
Seven people were 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 by the company.[28] Five of the dead were black, including the wife of one of the non-union miners, along with one white miner and a white sheriff's deputy.
April 11, 1899 (Tuesday)
U.S. President William McKinley declared the Spanish-American War to be at an end as the Treaty of Paris between the U.S. and Spain went into effect. Ratifications were exchanged between McKinley and French Ambassador Jules Cambon on behalf of Spain. Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam were ceded to the U.S. and Cuba became an American protectorate.[28]
Born: Percy L. Julian, African-American research chemist who was the first to synthesize hormones from plant sterols, making the way for mass production of progestrone, testosterone, cortisone and physostigmine; in Montgomery, Alabama (d. 1975)
Died: Lascăr Catargiu, 75, four-time prime minister of Romania between 1866 and 1895
The British freighter City of York departed from the U.S. port of San Francisco with a crew of 27 and a cargo of Oregon timber bound for Fremantle in Australia, but never reached its destination, wrecking on the reefs at Rottnest Island on July 12.
April 14, 1899 (Friday)
British Army troops in Hong Kongattacked the Walled City of Kowloon on orders of colonial Governor Henry Blake, based on intelligence that Chinese Imperial Army troops had been stationed behind the walls to subvert Britain's 1898 lease. By April 19, the British commander discovered that the Chinese troops had already departed and that only 150 civilians remained.
Britain formally claimed possession of the "New Territories" as an extension of its lease of Hong Kong to cover the area south of the Sham Chun River and 230 island in Kowloon Bay.
In aid of the Royal Niger Company, the British Army began an invasion of Esanland, in southwestern Nigeria, to halt the resistance of the Esan chiefs still resistant to European rule. After Benin King Ologbosere was overcome, the British attacked the kingdom at Ekpoma.
The steamship General Whitney sank off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. While everyone on board escaped in lifeboats, one of the boats capsized, drowning the captain and 16 other crew.
Born: Sir John Nicoll, British colonial governor of Singapore, 1952-1955, and colonial secretary of Hong Kong, 1949-1952; in Wimbledon Common, London (d. 1981)
The United Kingdom and the Russian Empire signed the Anglo-Russian Agreement formalizing their spheres of influence in China, essentially agreeing that Britain would not seek railway concessions north of the Great Wall of China, and Russia would avoid doing the same in the Yangtze River valley in southern China.[30]
April 29, 1899 (Saturday)
Camille Jenatzy of Belgium became the first person to drive faster than 100 kilometers per hour, powering his electric CITA Number 25 racecar, La Jamais Contente at 105.88 kilometres per hour (65.79mph) at a track at Achères, near Paris.
Born:
Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy Ellington), African-American jazz musician and bandleader; in Washington, DC (d. 1974)
In the Philippines, the U.S. established a protectorate over the Republic of Negros, a semi-independent government for Negros Island, separate from the rest of the Philippine Islands. The Republic would exist until its annexation to the rest of the U.S. territory on April 20, 1901.
Died: Lewis Baker, 66, U.S. politician and diplomat who served as the U.S. Minister to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua from 1893 to 1897; from anemia
May 1, 1899 (Monday)
U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey reported that 10 officers and crew of the ship USS Yorktown been taken prisoner by the Philippine republic.[31]
The thoroughbred horse Manuel, ridden by Fred Taral, won the 25th running of the Kentucky Derby.
Inventor John Matthias Stroh applied for the patent for his new invention, the "Stroh violin", a stringed musical instrument with an amplifying horn attached. British Patent No. GB9418 was granted on March 24, 1900.
In the French West African colony of Niger, French Army Captain Paul Voulet carried out the massacre of the Hausa inhabitants of the village of Birni-N'Konni in retaliation for the continued resistance of Queen Sarraounia.
Born: Fred Astaire, American dancer, actor and singer on stage and in film; as Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska (d. 1987)
May 11, 1899 (Thursday)
Alberto Santos-Dumont attempted the first test flight of his Airship No. 2, but rain cooled the hydrogen during the ship's inflation and a gust of wind blew it into nearby trees, where it was destroyed.[34]
Died: William Porcher Miles, 76, American politician and secessionist, one of several U.S. Congressmen (1857-1860) who left to become a member of the Confederate House of Representatives during the American Civil War
May 12, 1899 (Friday)
The first trade union for railway employees in Sweden, the Svenska Järnvägsmannaförbundet (Sweden Railworkers' League) was founded. It would last until its 1970 mergers into a labor union of Swedish government employees.
Born: Indra Devi, Latvian-born India and U.S. yoga instructor who brought yoga to China and the U.S.; as Evgeniya Peterson in Riga, Livonia Governate, Russian Empire (d. 2002)
A clue to the fate of the British freighter Pelican, which disappeared in October 1897 along with 40 crew, was found in a message in a bottle that washed ashore at Portage Bay in the U.S. state of Washington.
In the Philippines, U.S. Army troops captured the city of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, where Philippine Republic president Aguinaldo had moved his capital, but found that the insurgents had already left.
Died: Charles R. Buckalew, 77, U.S. Senator 1863-1869 and U.S. Representative 1887-1891, American politician and diplomat, ambasador to Ecuador 1858-1861
May 20, 1899 (Saturday)
Jacob German, a New York City cab driver, became the first motor vehicle operator in the U.S. to be arrested for speeding when he was caught driving his electric taxi 12 miles per hour (19km/h), more than twice the speed limit on Lexington Avenue.[36]
The crew of the Royal Navy ship HMS Narcissus sighted a large sea creature estimated to be 150 feet (46m) long in the Mediterranean Sea near Algeria and reported that it propelled itself by means of "an immense number of fins", as well as being able to spout water from several points on its body. The creature was not seen again after the lone encounter.[37]
The unrecognized República Selvática— the "Jungle Republic"-- was proclaimed by Peruvian Army Colonel Emilio Vizcarra in three provinces in Northern Peru located within the Amazon rainforest, Loreto, San Martín and Ucayali.[38] The "republic" would be reincorporated into Peru after Vizcarra's death on February 27, 1900.
May 23, 1899 (Tuesday)
Major General Henry W. Lawton and his troops arrived in Manolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, after a 120-mile march in 20 days that had captured 28 towns with a loss of only six men.[35]
Born: Jeralean Talley, American supercentenarian who was recognized as the oldest living person in the world from April 6 to June 17 of 2015, dying 25 days after her 116th birthday; in Montrose, Georgia
The 80th birthday of Queen Victoria was celebrated throughout the British Empire.[35]
Born:
Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player who won eight Grand Slam singles tennis titles (including six victories at Wimbledon 1919 to 1923, and 1925) and eight 13 titles in double and mixed doubles for the same period; in Paris (died of anemia, 1938)
Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Annum sacrum, declaring 1900 to be a Holy Year and directing Roman Catholic churches worldwide to carry out the consecration of all human beings to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
A fire in the Canadian city of Saint John, New Brunswick, destroyed 150 buildings and rendered over 1,000 people homeless.[35]
The guns of the British warship HMS Scylla, commanded by Captain Percy Scott, hit their targets 56 out of 70 times after Scott and his crew solved the problem of aiming a ship cannon on rolling seas.[39]
May 27, 1899 (Saturday)
Rangers F.C., commonly called the Glasgow Rangers and one of the most successful soccer football teams in the Scottish Football League, was incorporated.
General Vicente Álvarez formed the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga in the Philippines on a peninsula on the island of Mindanao. The nation would exist until 1903 when it would be consolidated by the U.S. to the rest of the Philippine territory.
May 29, 1899 (Monday)
The Spanish system of courts in the Philippines, closed since the American occupation began, was revived under U.S. sovereignty and regulation.[35]
Born: Irving Thalberg, American film producer of more than 400 movies and Academy Award winner known for Mutiny on the Bounty, Grand Hotel, The Broadway Melody; in Brooklyn, New York City (died of pneumonia, 1936)
France's Court of Cassation ordered a reopening of the 1894 conviction for treason of French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus after evidence of a wrongful conviction was made public, and directed that Dreyfus be returned to France after five years of imprisonment on Devil's Island off of the coast of South America.[35]
The United States and Spain resumed diplomatic relations, as U.S. President McKinley received the Duke of Arcos as the new Minister for Spain.[35]
Died: Johann Strauss, 73, Austrian dance music composer known for the waltz tune The Blue Danube, and writer of hundreds of dance melodies for waltzes, polkas and quadrilles
June 4, 1899 (Sunday)
The President of France, Émile Loubet, was assaulted at the Longchamp Racecourse while watching the annual Grand Steeplechase. His attacker, Fernand de Christiani, beat him with a cane while Loubet was sitting in the grandstand. De Christiani received a four-year prison sentence nine days later.
General Antonio Luna, Commander of the Philippine Revolutionary Army, was assassinated along with his chief aide, Colonel Paco Román, after being lured to Cabanatuan by President Emilio Aguinaldo.
June 6, 1899 (Tuesday)
The U.S. military government of the Philippines directed that the 1885 Alien Contract Labor Law, which prohibited the importation of foreign workers into the United States, be applied to bringing persons other than Americans into the Philippines.
Saint Gemma Galgani experienced stigmata in the form of wounds corresponding to those sustained by Jesus Christ during his crucifixion. Her family physician concluded that Galgani's stigmata were actually self-inflicted wounds from a sewing needle.[40]
Under the terms of the Samoa Tripartite Convention, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States formed a colonial government to administer a protectorate over the islands of Samoa, with each nation providing an administrative consul to decide on the island's relations with foreign powers. The government would last less than nine months, and Germany annexed the western part of Samoa on March 1, 1900, leaving the U.S. to control what was now American Samoa.
Died: French classical composer Ernest Chausson, 44, was killed not long after his career began to flourish, when his bicycle crashed into a brick wall as he was riding down a hill. The death was ruled to be an accident, although later biographers would speculate that Chausson committed suicide.
Hiram M. Hiller Jr., William Henry Furness III and Alfred Craven Harrison Jr. set off on their third research expedition to gather archeological, cultural, zoological, and botanical specimens for museums, with a focus on South Asia and Australia.
June 15, 1899 (Thursday)
Sweden's Department of Foreign Affairs hosted 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.[43]
Japan's commercial code, the Shōhō, went into effect after having been promulgated on March 9. The Shōhō, as amended, applies to Japanese business today.[21] The new code replaced the Kyu-shoho that had come into force on July 1, 1893.
The United States and Barbados signed a trade treaty.[35]
David Hilbert created the modern concept of geometry, with the publication of his book Grundlagen der Geometrie, released on this date at Göttingen.[44]
The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was created in northeast Africa to be as a territory to be administered jointly by Egypt and the United Kingdom, through an Egyptian governor-general appointed with consent of the UK, although in practice it became administered as part of the British Empire. The arrangement would continue for more than 50 years until the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 and the granting of independence to the Republic of Sudan in 1956.
The Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand) and the Russian Empire signed a Declaration of Jurisdiction, Trade and Navigation at Bangkok.[47]
Died: Henry B. Plant, 79, American transportation entrepreneur who founded the Plant System of railways in southern Georgia and the Plant Steamship Line of steamships
Three Denver newspapers published a story (later proved to be a fabrication) that the Chinese government under the Guangxu Emperor was going to demolish the Great Wall of China.
Born: Arthur Tracy, Ukrainian-born American vocalist who gained fame on stage, film and radio as "The Street Singer"; as Abba Avrom Tracovutsky in Kamenetz-Podolsky (d. 1997)
A. E. J. Collins, a 13-year-old schoolboy, completed four afternoons of cricket with the highest-ever recorded individual score, 628 not outs. Collins would never play first-class cricket, being killed in action in 1914 during World War One, but his record would stand for 117 years until a 15-year old boy in India, Pranav Dhanawade, would score 1,009 not out in 2016.
In Nigeria, British authorities publicly hanged King Ologbosere Irabor outside of the courthouse at Benin City, days after he was captured and convicted of ordering the massacre of a party dispatched by the British consul.[51]
June 29, 1899 (Thursday)
The mayor of Muskegon, Michigan, James Balbirnie, was assassinated by a disappointed office-seeker, J. W. Tayer, who then killed himself.[45]
Mile-a-Minute Murphy earned his nickname after he became the first man to ride a bicycle for one-mile (1.6km) in under a minute. Murphy accomplished his feat on Long Island of the U.S. state of New York while being paced by a Long Island Railroad engine, pedaling his bike one mile in 57.8 seconds for an average speed of 62.28 miles per hour.[45]
Died: E. D. E. N. Southworth (Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth), 79, popular American novelist known for The Hidden Hand and the creation of the heroine Capitola Black
Died: General Horatio Wright, 79, American engineer, U.S. Army officer in the American Civil War, Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (b. 1820)
The most famous skeleton of a dinosaur ever found intact, a Diplodicus, was discovered at the Sheep Creek Quarry in the western United States near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The expedition team, financed by Andrew Carnegie for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and led by William Harlow Reed, bestowed the name "Dippy" on the Diplodicus carnegii, which would become well-known after Carnegie had plaster casts made for distribution to museums around the world..
The 1895 Trade and Navigation agreement between the Japanese and Russian empires went into effect, with each country given "a full freedom of ship and cargo entrance to all places, ports, and rivers on the other country's territory."[54]
An assassin attempted to kill Milan Obrenović, who had been King of Serbia before abdicating in 1889, and had more recently been appointed by his son, King Alexander, as Commander-in-chief of the Serbian Army. General Obrenović was uninjured, but built a campaign to seek out and arrest the radicals in Serbia.
The Great Lakes Towing Company (GLT), now part of The Great Lakes Group, was 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 (Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Superior) and quickly built a monopoly on Great Lakes traffic.
In the U.S., the Lorelei Fountain, sculpted by Ernst Herter from white marble, was unveiled in the Bronx in New York City across from the Bronx County Courthouse.
July 9, 1899 (Sunday)
The Latin American Plenary Council, called by Pope Leo XIII on December 25 for the Roman Catholic bishops of lands in Central America and South America to address the question of "how to guard the interests of the Latin race", closes in Rome after six weeks. The bishops agreed that Catholics should not "celebrate with heretics" (specifically, non-Catholics) in religious ceremonies or attend heretic church services, on pain of excommunication; that every republic in Latin America should have "a truly Catholic University" for education in the "sciences, literature and the good arts"; that missionary work to the Indian populations was "the grave duty of the ecclesiastical as well as civil authority to carry civilization to the tribes that remain faithless"; and that priests should be encouraged to study at the Pius Latin American Seminary in Rome.[55]
July 10, 1899 (Monday)
British colonial authorities in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan gave control of the Red Sea port of Suakin to Sudan, after having agreed on January 19 that Egypt would have the right to administer commerce there.
Born: John Gilbert, American actor and popular silent movie star (died of heart attack, 1936)
Died:
Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, 28, Tsarevich and heir to the throne of Russia as younger brother of Tsar Nicholas II, died of an apparent cerebral hemorrhage
In Turin in Italy, Giovanni Agnelli and eight investors formed the Italian automobile manufacturer F.I.A.T. (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, the Italian Automobile Manufacturers of Turin), producers of the Fiat motor vehicles.
The British freight ship City of York sank after striking reefs at Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia, due to a misunderstanding of signal flare fired from the island's lighthouse. The ship, which was nearing the end of a 90-day voyage from the U.S. (San Francisco) to Fremantle, Western Australia, evacuated its 26 crew in two lifeboats, but one of the boats overturned and 11 men, including Captain Phillip Jones, drowned.
Japan's first comprhensive copyright law formed effect and, on the same day, Japan agreed to join the Berne Convention on respect of copyright laws of other nations.
General Emilio Aguinaldo, who had commanded the Filipino resistance against the Spanish government, informed the U.S. Army General Thomas M. Anderson that he intended to assume authority for the Philippine Islands in areas conquered by the Filipinos from the Spaniards.[56]
The first soccer football game in El Salvador between two organized teams took place at the Campo Marte field in Santa Ana, where a local team hosted a team of players from San Salvador. The Santa Ana team wins, 2 to 0.[57]
Born: Božidar Jakac, Slovene Expressionist, Realist and Symbolist painter, printmaker, art teacher, photographer and filmmaker; in Rudolfovo, Austria-Hungary (now Novo Mesto, Slovenia) (d. 1989)
Died:
July 17, 1899 (Monday)
NEC Corporation was organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
The patent for the first sofa bed (a foldable bed frame that can be stored under the cushions of a couch) was taken out by African-American inventor Leonard C. Bailey. He received U.S. Patent No. 629,286 on June 2, 1900.
Died: Horatio Alger, 67, American author of novels for young adults known for his regular theme of "rags-to-riches" of teenage boys who became wealthy through luck or through hard work
July 19, 1899 (Wednesday)
U.S. Secretary of War Russell A. Alger resigned at the request of U.S. President McKinley, following public outrage over the United States Army beef scandal, in which the War Department purchased tainted beef for soldiers during the Spanish-American War.
July 20, 1899 (Thursday)
A white lynch mob in Tallulah, Louisiana carried out the killing of five white Italian shopkeepers from Sicily who had opened stores in the town to sell produce and meat, after accusations that the Sicilians were driving the American stores out of business. None of the suspects in the lynching were prosecuted.[59]
Died: Robert G. Ingersoll, 65, American philosopher and lawyer nicknamed "The Great Agnostic" as a leading proponent of agnosticism
July 22, 1899 (Saturday)
The torture and lynching of Frank Embree took place in the town of Fayette, Missouri, after Embree, a black 19-year-old man, was accused by a mob of raping a white 14-year-old girl. Shortly after Embree had received 100 lashes from a whip, a photographer took Embree's photo, followed by another one after Embree's hanging.[63]
The city of Washington DC retired its short-lived cable car system, the day after Columbia Railway Company converted exclusively to electric powered cars.
In the first trade treaty signed by the U.S. after the passage of the Dingley Act, which authorized the U.S. President to negotiate reductions of tariffs up to 20% if the other side did the same, France and the United States signed an agreement for a 20% reduction of France's existing tariffs on 635 of 654 specific items, in return for the U.S. reduction between 5% and 20% of duty fees on 126 items.[64]
France's Minister of War levied out punishments against officers who participated in the Dreyfus affair, removing General Georges-Gabriel de Pellieux from his duties as Military Governor of Paris, and removing General Oscar de Négrier from the War Council.[65]
The All Cubans, a team of professional baseball players from Cuba, began a barnstorming tour of games against white and black teams, starting with a 12-4 win over a local team at Weehawken, New Jersey.
July 29, 1899 (Saturday)
The first international Peace Conference ended, with the signing of the First Hague Convention.
"War Department Investigating Commission", by Joseph Smith, in The War of 1898, and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Benjamin R. Beede (Taylor & Francis, 1994) pp. 582-584
"Accuses Kansas Colonel; Lieut. Hall, by Affidavits of Others, Charges W.S. Metcalf with Shooting an Unarmed Prisoner", New York Times, November 21, 1899
"Jungner, Ernst Waldemar", in Innovators in Battery Technology: Profiles of 95 Influential Electrochemists, by Kevin Desmond (McFarland Publishing 2016) p. 116
Volkert, Klaus, ed. (2015). David Hilbert: Grundlagen der Geometrie. Springer. p. ix; Grattan-Guinness, Ivor (2005). Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics 1640-1940 Elsevier. p. 713.
"Understanding sacrifice and sanctity in Benin indigenous relgion, Nigeria: a case study", by Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, in Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity, ed. by Jacob K. Olupona (Routledge, 2004) p. 198
"Military Activity in the EEZ: Exclusive or Excluded Right", by Captain Alexander S. Skaridov, in Freedom of Seas, Passage Rights and the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009) p. 251
Henning, Joseph M. (2000). Outposts of Civilization: Race, Religion, and the Formative Years of American-Japanese Relations. New York University Press. p.134.
C. E. Borchgrevink, First on the Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898-1900 (London: George Newnes, Ltd., 1901)
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