What happened in 1898

World8

• Jan 22A total eclipse of the Sun is observed throughout British India.
• Mar 9U.S. President William McKinley signs the bill appropriating $50,000,000 for national defense for the Spanish-American War immediately after the U.S. Senate approves the measure unanimously. The Houde of Representatives had unanimously approved the bill the day before.
• Apr 21Spanish–American War:
• May 24In China, British troops take possession of Wei-Hai-Wei (now Weihai in the Shandong province after an agreement to lease of territory.
• Jun 9The British government arranges a 99-year rent of extended territories of Hong Kong from China.
• Jun 21In the Spanish–American War, the United States captures Guam, making it the first overseas territory of the U.S.
• Aug 9Spanish–American War: Hostilities end between American and Spanish forces in Cuba.
• Aug 13Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila – By prior agreement, the Spanish commander surrenders the city of Manila in the Philippines to the United States, in order to keep it out of the hands of Filipino rebels, ending the war.

North America22

• Jan 1New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the world's second most populated city. The city, initially called the City of Greater New York, is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. Robert Anderson Van Wyck, from Manhattan borough, becomes the new city's first Mayor.
• Jan 30The first complete organized baseball game in Puerto Rico (at the time, a colony of Spain) is played, as the Puerto Rican team Borinquen defeats Alemendares, a team of Cuban and Puerto Rican players, 9 to 3 in a game at Santurce. The two teams had played an incomplete game on January 11 with Borinquen ahead 3 to 0 before the game ended.
• Mar 30The entire cabinet of the Spanish territory of Porto Rico resigns.
• Apr 25Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21 (later backdating this one more day to April 20).
• May 12In the Spanish–American War, the Puerto Rican Campaign begins with the Bombardment of San Juan by the U.S. Navy, while members of the U.S. Army First Infantry engage in the first land skirmish with Spain in the war as they land at Port Canbanas in Cuba.
• May 31The American battleships USS Massachusetts and USS Iowa, and the cruiser USS New Orleans, battle the Spanish armored cruiser and flagship Cristobal Colon off of the coast of Santiago de Cuba, and fire shells taking out three of the four Spanish gun batteries.
• Jun 13The Yukon Territory is formed in Canada, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
• Jun 19Food processing giant Nabisco is founded in Chicago by merger as the National Biscuit Company.
• Jun 22Direct cable communication is established between Washington DC and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
• Jul 17Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Santiago Bay, troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
• Jul 25Spanish–American War: The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins, with a landing at Guánica Bay.
• Aug 12The United States formally annexes the Territory of Hawaii in a formal ceremony of the lowering of the Republic of Hawaii flag from in front of the Iolani Palace and the raising of the American flag.
• Oct 16The island of Puerto Rico is turned over by Spain to the United States. Ángel Rivero Méndez, the 149th and last Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, yields the office and turns over the keys to all military installations in the capital, San Juan to U.S. Army Captain Henry A. Reed, and General John R. Brooke becomes the new American military governor.
• Oct 24The last Spanish soldiers in Puerto Rico, led by General Ortega, depart on ships to return to Spain.
• Nov 9In the U.S., the racial violence in Phoenix, South Carolina, comes to an end after 12 African-Americans have been lynched.

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Europe18

• Jan 13Novelist 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.
• Feb 10The Autonomy Charter of Puerto Rico, approved on November 25, 1897, goes into effect, with Spain granting limited self-government to its colony at the island of Puerto Rico.
• Feb 23Émile Zola is sentenced to one year's imprisonment in France fo, after writing J'Accuse…!, an attack on the Esterhazy court-martial, and is fined 3,000 French francs.
• Apr 23Spanish–American War: A conference of senior Spanish Navy officers led by naval minister Segismundo Bermejo decide to send Admiral Pascual Cervera's squadron to Cuba and Puerto Rico.
• Apr 25In Essen, German company Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk RWE is founded.
• May 8The first games of the Italian Football Federation are played, with Genoa meeting Torino.
• May 27The territory of Guangzhouwan is leased by China to France, according to the Treaty of 12 April 1892, as the Territoire de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, forming part of French Indochina.
• Jun 10Tuone Udaina, the last known speaker of the Dalmatian language, is killed in an explosion.
• Aug 23The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, sets sail from London.
• Aug 25At least 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece, leading to the establishment of the autonomous Cretan State.
• Aug 26The Principality of Liechtenstein by decree of its ruler, Prince Johann II, replacing the Austro-Hungarian krone with its own minted coin and currency, the Liechtenstein krone (or crown) of equal value, and worth 100 Liechtenstein heller. The krone coins are taken out of circulation 22 years later, on August 28, 1920, and Liechtenstein reforms in its currency again on May 26, 1924, introducing the Liechtenstein franc.
• Sep 10Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni assassinates Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Geneva, as an act of propaganda of the deed.
• Oct 1The Vienna University of Economics and Business is founded, under the name K.u.K. Exportakademie.
• Dec 9The 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.
• Dec 10The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish–American War.

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USSR / Russia1

• Mar 13Vladimir Lenin creates the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Minsk.

Asia7

• May 1Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Manila Bay, the U.S. Navy fleet, led by Commodore Dewey destroys the Spanish squadron, in the first battle of the war, as well as the first battle in the Philippines Campaign. Among the 12 ships sunk are the cruisers Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Don Juan de Austria, Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo's Isla de Luzón, Reina Cristina and Velasco, and the gunboat Marques del Duero. While the Americans sustain no losses except for six men wounded, more than 600 Spanish troops are killed or wounded.
• Jun 5Representatives of Japan and Russia sign a protocol to guarantee the continued independence of the Empire of Korea.
• Jun 11The Guangxu Emperor of China announces the creation of what will later become Peking University.
• Jun 12Philippine Declaration of Independence: After 333 years of Spanish dominance, General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.
• Sep 21Empress Dowager Cixi of China engineers a coup d'état, marking the end of the Hundred Days' Reform; the Guangxu Emperor is arrested.
• Oct 19The 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.
• Nov 5Negros Revolution: Filipinos on the island of Negros revolt against Spanish rule and establish the short-lived Republic of Negros.

Middle East1

• Oct 31The 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.

Latin America8

• Feb 1The electoral college of Colombia meets to select a new president, after voters had selected the electors on December 5. Of the 2,045 members, 1,606 or more than 78% vote for Manuel Antonio Sanclemente of the Partido Nacional.
• Feb 8José María Reina Barrios, President of Guatemala, is assassinated by Edgar Zollinger, a British businessman who shoots Reina Barrios with a.38 caliber revolver. Vice President Manuel Estrada Cabrera then takes office as president.
• Feb 15Spanish–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.
• Apr 21The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the captures a Spanish merchant ship, Buenaventura.
• Jul 1Spanish–American War: Battle of San Juan Hill – United States troops (including Buffalo Soldiers and Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders) take a strategic position close to Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
• Jul 3Spanish–American War: Battle of Santiago de Cuba – The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron, and four U.S. Navy battleships (Brooklyn, Oregon, Iowa and Texas) stop the Spanish Navy ships Infanta Maria Teresa, Almirante Ogucudo and Vizcaya from fleeing the harbor, while Cristobal Colon, Furor and Pluton are wrecked. Admiral Cevera and more than 700 Spanish officers and men are taken as prisoners of war.
• Jul 21General Miles departs from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with nine warships and 3,400 men to invade Puerto Rico.
• Nov 7The final meeting of the Cuban Assembly of the República de Cuba en Armas, which had been founded in 1895 during the Cuban War of Independence, is called to order by General Calixto García in the city of Santa Cruz del Sur. Domingo Méndez Capote is elected as president of the assembly.

Africa2

• Sep 2Battle of Omdurman (Mahdist War): British and Egyptian troops led by Major General Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. 11,000 Sudanese are killed and 1,600 wounded in the battle, with fewer than 50 on the British side killed.
• Sep 18Fashoda Incident: A powerful flotilla of British gunboats arrives at the French-occupied fort of Fashoda on the White Nile, leading to a diplomatic stalemate, until French troops are ordered to withdraw on November 3.

Oceania2

• Feb 1The Red Tuesday bushfires break out in the Australian town of Gippsland, Victoria, desstroying 2,000 buildings, killing 12 people and leaving 2,500 others homeless.
• Aug 22King Malietoa Laupepa dies, prompting the outbreak of the Second Samoan Civil War as Laupepa's son Malietoa Tanumafili I and a rival claimant, Mataʻafa Iosefo.