1896 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Jules de Burlet, Paul de Smet de Naeyer

Events

• 7 January – Official founding of the Belgian Automobile Club.
• 15 April – Law on the making and importation of alcohol replaces duty on the capacity of distillery equipment with a duty on the proportional alcohol content of the distilled product.
• 25 April – Murder of Delphina-Angelica Borée in Brussels.
• 14 May – Parish of St Anthony of Padua established in newly expanded Heirnis section of Ghent.
• 5 July – Belgian general election, 1896
• 26 July – Provincial elections

Publications

• Pol de Mont, Dit zijn Vlaamsche wondersprookjes
• Maurice De Wulf, Études Historiques sur l'Esthétique de Saint Thomas d'Aquin
• Maurice Maeterlinck, Le Trésor des humbles
• Édouard van den Corput, Bruxellensia: Croquis artistiques et historiques
• Emile Vandervelde, L'Evolution industrielle et le collectivisme
• Émile Verhaeren, ''Les heures claires''

Art and architecture

• Fernand Khnopff, ''Caress of the Sphinx''

Births

• 11 February – René Joannes-Powell, athlete
• 22 February – Paul van Ostaijen, poet
• 10 April – Jean-Baptiste Piron, soldier
• 14 August – Julien Lehouck, athlete
• 10 October – Omer Corteyn, athlete

Deaths

• 2 January – Walthère Frère-Orban, politician
• 9 January – Guillaume Vogels, painter
• 6 February – Julie Dorus-Gras, soprano
• 3 March – Constant de Deken, missionary
• 6 May – Constantin Heger, educator
• 7 June – Florent Crabeels, painter
• 11 August – Xavier De Cock, painter
• 9 December – Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein, genealogist
• 13 December – Xavier de Theux de Meylandt et Montjardin, bibliophile