What happened in 1899

World5

• Feb 4The Philippine–American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
• Mar 15The cabinet of Spain's Prime Minister Silvestri approves the ratification of the treaty to end the Spanish–American War. The Queen Regent of Spain signs the treaty two days later.
• May 4German inventor John Matthias Stroh applies for the patent for his new invention, the "Stroh violin". A British patent is granted on March 24, 1900.
• Oct 18The 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.
• The 1899–1923 cholera pandemic begins, spreading to Europe, Asia and Africa.

Japan2

• Feb 1The 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.
• Jul 17NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.

North America18

• Feb 6By 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.
• Mar 2Mount Rainier National Park is established in the U.S. state of Washington.
• Mar 20At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
• May 20The American Physical Society is founded at a meeting at Columbia University.
• Jun 10Under 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.
• Jun 18The Federación Libre de Trabajadores is created in Puerto Rico as a resistance movement against the United States.
• Jul 8The Lorelei Fountain is unveiled in The Bronx in New York City.
• Jul 20Park Row Building in New York City is completed. It is the world's tallest building until 1908.
• Aug 8The San Ciriaco hurricane strikes Puerto Rico and leaves 250,000 people homeless. The official death toll is later listed as 3,369 people.
• Sep 11Northern Arizona University is founded in Flagstaff, as Northern Arizona Normal School.
• Sep 29The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is founded in the U.S. by Spanish–American War veteran James C. Putnam as the American Veterans of Foreign Service.
• Nov 8The Bronx Zoological Park opens in New York City.
• Nov 21Garret 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.
• Nov 30The 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.
• Timken Roller Bearing Company, predecessor of worldwide parts brand Timken, is founded in Missouri.

3 more in the app

Europe17

• Jan 23The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
• Feb 16Félix Faure, the President of France since 1895, dies of a stroke in his office while engaged in sexual activity with his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil.
• Feb 17The 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.
• Apr 11U.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.
• Apr 14British 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.
• Jun 11Pope 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.
• Jun 19Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations are premiered in London.
• Jun 26Joseph 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.
• Jul 1The German domestic appliance company Miele is founded.
• Jul 1The International Council of Nurses is founded in London.
• Jul 11In Turin, Giovanni Agnelli and eight investors form the Italian automobile manufacturer F.I.A.T., producers of the Fiat motor vehicles.
• Jul 14The first Republic of Acre is declared by former Spanish journalist Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias in the Amazon jungle in South America, and lasts for nine months.
• Jul 31Duke of York Island, off Antarctica, is discovered by the Southern Cross Expedition.
• Nov 29The FC Barcelona association football club is founded.
• Giros-Loucheur Group, predecessor of Vinci, a worldwide construction and infrastructure industry, founded in France.

2 more in the app

USSR / Russia2

• Feb 15The February Manifesto is issued by the Emperor of Russia, decreeing that a veto by the Diet of Finland may be overruled in legislative matters concerning the interest of all Russia, including autonomous Finland.
• Nov 7(October 26 Old Style) – Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya receives its Russian metropolitan première at the Moscow Art Theatre.

Asia10

• Jan 21The Malolos Constitution is ratified by the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines.
• Jan 23Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic, a declaration of independence against the U.S. military government of the Philippines.
• Feb 5The 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.
• Feb 10U.S. Army troops, supported by bombardment from the warships Charleston and Monadnock, defeat Filipino forces in the Battle of Caloocan and get control of the Manila to Dagupan railway.
• Mar 26In 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.
• Mar 31In the Philippine–American War, Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.
• Apr 9The 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.
• Jun 5Lieutenant 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.
• Jun 15Cycle & Carriage, now one of the largest investment companies in Singapore, is founded, initially to sell bicycles and motor vehicles.
• Dec 2Philippine–American War – Battle of Tirad Pass ("The Filipino Thermopylae"): General Gregorio del Pilar and his troops are able to guard the retreat of Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo, before being wiped out.

Middle East2

• Jan 23Mubarak 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.
• Nov 25The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat, a decisive British and Egyptian victory, ends the Mahdist War in the Sudan, as the Khalifa of Sudan, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, is killed.

Latin America7

• Jan 1Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
• Feb 13Cipriano Castro starts the Restorative Liberal Revolution by leading 60 people from exile to cross the Colombia–Venezuela border to defeat Ignacio Andrade's government.
• Feb 19In Venezuela, the former Minister of War, Major General Ramón Guerra, angry with the reforms of President Ignacio Andrade, proclaims the state of Guárico as an independent territory. Andrade orders General Augusto Lutowsky to crush the rebellion. Guerra flees to Colombia but later comes back as Minister of War.
• Jul 26The President of the Dominican Republic, dictator Ulises Heureaux, is assassinated during a visit to the city of Moca.
• Oct 17The Thousand Days' War begins in Colombia as Colombian Liberal Party soldiers led by General Rafael Uribe Uribe, with support from Venezuela, begin a fight against the government of National Party president Manuel Antonio Sanclemente. The war will continue for 1,130 days.
• Oct 24The sinking of the ship Cisneros by the Colombian Navy warship Hércules drowns more than 200 Liberal rebels during the Battle of Magdalena River.
• Nov 13In Colombia's Thousand Days' War, the Battle of Bucaramanga ends with a victory of conservative forces over Liberal Party rebels.

Africa19

• Jan 19The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed as part of a convention between the British and Egyptian governments. The Sudan colony will be disbanded in 1956.
• Jan 21Lord Kitchener is appointed as the British Governor of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
• Jun 19The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is created, to be 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 becomes administered as part of the British Empire.
• Aug 12South 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.
• Sep 15Preparing 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.
• Oct 11In South Africa, the Second Boer War between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State begins as the Boers invade the British colony of Natal.
• Oct 13The Second Boer War extends into the British Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern-day Botswana) as the siege of Mafeking begins.
• Oct 20In 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.
• Oct 21The Battle of Elandslaagte is fought in Natal, as the British Army recaptures the railway station from Boers, then proceeds toward the fortress of Ladysmith. South African General Jan Kock is fatally wounded in the battle and dies 10 days later.
• Oct 26Indirect fire is used for the first time in battle. British gunners in the Second Boer War fire a cannon on a high trajectory toward the Boer Army, with the objective of having the shell come down on the enemy.
• Oct 30The Battle of Ladysmith begins as British troops at the Ladysmith fort attempt to make a preemptive strike against a larger force of South African Republic and Orange Free State troops that is gradually surrounding the fort. After sustaining 400 casualties and having 800 men captured, the British retreat to the fort where a 118-day siege begins on November 2.
• Nov 28The British Army sustains heavy losses in the Battle of Modder River, despite routing the Boers.
• Dec 10Battle of Stormberg: The British Army makes a disastrous attempt to surprise the Boer position in Natal and suffers 687 losses.
• Dec 11Second Boer War: Battle of Magersfontein – Boers defeat British forces trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.
• Dec 15Battle of Colenso: Britain's General Buller loses 1,097 officers and men in Natal, the third serious British reverse in South Africa in this "Black Week".

4 more in the app

Oceania2

• Mar 4Cyclone 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).
• Mar 14After a civil war breaks out in Samoa between Malietoa Tanumafili I (recognized by Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.) and rebels who recognize Mata'afa Iosefo as the island's king, the USS Philadelphia takes control of the capital at Apia.