1897

Events

January

• January 2 - The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
• January 4 - A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a punitive expedition against Benin.
• January 7 - A cyclone destroys Darwin, Australia.
• January 8 - Lady Flora Shaw, future wife of Governor General Lord Lugard, officially proposes the name "Nigeria" in a newspaper contest, to be given to the British Niger Coast Protectorate.
• January 22 - In this date's issue of the journal Engineering, the word computer is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device.
• January 31 - The Czechoslovak Trade Union Association is founded in Prague.

  February

• February 10 - Freedom of religion is proclaimed in Madagascar.
• February 16 - The French conquer the island of Raiatea and capture the rebel chief Teraupo'o, ending the Leeward Islands War and bringing all of the Society Islands under their control.
• February 18 - Benin is put to the torch by the British Army's Benin Expedition. Ovonramwen, Oba of Benin, is exiled from his kingdom and the Benin Bronzes are carried off to London.
• February 26 - The Sigma Pi fraternity is founded in Vincennes, Indiana.
• February 27 - The French military governor of Madagascar, Joseph Gallieni, exiles Queen Ranavalona III to Réunion, abolishing the monarchy the next day.

  March

• March 13 - San Diego State University is founded.
• March 22 - Emilio Aguinaldo unseats Andrés Bonifacio at the Tejeros Convention, becoming the new head of the Filipino revolutionary group Katipunan.

  April

• April 15
• * Drillers near Bartlesville, Oklahoma strike oil for the first time, in the designated "Indian Territory", on land leased from the Osage Indians. The gusher, at the Nellie Johnstone Number One well, leads to rapid population growth.
• * Yamaichi Securities founded in Japan; it will cease trading a hundred years later.
• April 18 - The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 breaks out.
• April 19 - The first Boston Marathon is held in the United States, with fifteen men competing, and is won by John McDermott.
• April 23 - Representatives of the Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation and U.S. Dawes Commission sign the Atoka Agreement, which becomes an important precursor for creating the State of Oklahoma.
• April 27–6 May - Greco-Turkish War of 1897: Battle of Velestino.
• April 30 - J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton, at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.

  May

• May 6 - John Jacob Abel announces the successful isolation of epinephrine, in a paper read before the Association of American Physicians.
• May 10 - 19 zinc miners die of carbon monoxide poisoning at Snaefell Mine on the Isle of Man.
• May 11 - A patent is awarded for the invention of the first automotive muffler, with the granting by the U.S. Patent Office of application number 582,485 to Milton Reeves and his brother Marshall T. Reeves, of the Reeves Pulley Company of Columbus, Indiana.
• May 14
• * The Stars and Stripes Forever, an American patriotic march by John Philip Sousa, is performed for the first time.
• * - The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is founded in Berlin as an LGBT campaigning organization, the first such in history.
• May 19 - Oscar Wilde is released from prison in England, and goes into voluntary exile on the continent.
• May 22 - The Blackwall Tunnel, at this time the longest underwater road tunnel in the world, is opened for traffic beneath the River Thames in the East End of London by the Prince of Wales.
• May 26 - Irish-born theatrical manager Bram Stoker's contemporary Gothic horror novel Dracula is first published ; it will influence the direction of vampire literature for the following century.
• May 31 - On Decoration Day the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial is dedicated in Boston. The bronze bas relief by Augustus St. Gaudens depicts the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of black Civil War soldiers.

  June

• June 12 - 1897 Assam earthquake: An earthquake of magnitude of 8.0 rocks Assam, India, killing over 1,500 people.
• June 18 - Kyoto University is officially established in Japan.
• June 22 - The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria is celebrated in the United Kingdom. No other British monarch will celebrate such a jubilee until Elizabeth II in 2012.

  July

• July 11 - S. A. Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897 begins. The ill-fated expedition to fly over the Arctic results in the death of the entire team within months.
• July 17 - The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle
• July 25 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush, where he will write his first successful stories.
• July 26-August 2 - Siege of Malakand: British troops are besieged by Pashtun tribesmen in Malakand, on the Northwest frontier of British India.
• July 31 - Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.

  August

• August 10 - At the Bayer pharmaceutical company, pharmacist Felix Hoffmann successfully synthesizes acetylsalicylic acid, after isolating a compound from a plant of the Spiraea family; the company markets it under the brand name "Aspirin".
• August 21 - The Olds Motor Vehicle Co. is founded in Lansing, Michigan, by Ransom E. Olds.
• August 29 - The First Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, Switzerland.
• August 31 - Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.

  September

• September 1 - The Tremont Street subway is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.
• September 10 - Lattimer massacre: A sheriff's posse kills 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.
• September 11 - After months of searching, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom.
• September 12 - Battle of Saragarhi: Twenty-one Sikhs of the 36th Sikhs regiment of the British Indian Army defend an army post to the death, against 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen, in the Tirah Campaign on the Northwest frontier of the British Raj.
• September 20 - Greece and Turkey sign a peace treaty to end the Greco-Turkish War.
• September 21 - Francis P. Church responds to a letter to the editor of The Sun that is known as the famous "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter.

  October

• October 5 - After a long siege, Brazilian government troops take Canudos in north Brazil, crushing Antônio Conselheiro and his followers.
• October 6 - Ethiopia adopts the tricolor flag: green is for the land, yellow for gold, and red is symbolic of strength and the blood shed.
• October 12
• * The Korean Empire is proclaimed, marking the end of the Joseon dynasty after just over 500 years.
• * The city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil is created. The construction of the second Brazilian planned city is completed successfully; an immigration of 1,000,000 people is estimated.
• * is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.
• October 13 -, a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England; she will be deployed widely in World War I.
• October 23 - The Kappa Delta sorority is founded in Farmville, Virginia.

  November

• November 1 - Juventus FC is founded as an association football club in Turin.
• November 25 - Spain grants Puerto Rico autonomy.

  December

• December 9 - The first issue of the feminist newspaper La Fronde is published by Marguerite Durand in Paris.
• December 12
• * The comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids debuts in the New York Journal.
• * Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is incorporated.
• December 14 - Pact of Biak-na-Bato: The Philippine Revolution is settled, with Spanish promises to reform.
• December 28 - The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.
• December 30 - Natal annexes Zululand.

  Date unknown

• The first electric bicycle is invented.
• Karl Lueger becomes mayor of Vienna.
• Zhejiang University is founded in China.
• Émile Durkheim publishes his classic study Suicide.
• The pan-African anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga.
• Dos Equis beer is first brewed in Mexico, in anticipation of the new century. "Dos equis" is Spanish for "two x", a reference to the 20th Century
• Alexander Scriabin publishes his Piano Sonata no. 2 "Sonata-Fantasia" in G sharp minor

  Births

January–February

• January 3
• * Marion Davies, American actress
• * Pola Negri, Polish-born American actress
• January 6 - Ferenc Szálasi, 37th prime minister of Hungary
• January 8 - Dennis Wheatley, English writer
• January 11 - Georges Stuttler, French footballer
• January 14 - Hasso von Manteuffel, German general, politician
• January 23
• * Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian political leader, led the Indian National Army
• * Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect, anti-Nazi activist
• January 26 - Yakov Alksnis, Soviet aviator, commander of the Red Army Air Forces
• January 28 - Ivan Stedeford, British industrialist
• February 1 - Denise Robins, British romance novelist
• February 4 - Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany
• February 8 - Zakir Husain, Indian politician, 3rd President of India
• February 9 - Charles Kingsford Smith, Australian aviator famous for his trans-Pacific flight
• February 10
• * Judith Anderson, Australian-born British actress
• * John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• February 19 - Elizabeth Rummel, German-Canadian mountaineer and environmental activist
• February 21 - Celia Lovsky, Austrian-born American actress
• February 25 - Peter Llewelyn Davies, British publisher, inspiration for Peter Pan
• February 27
• * Marian Anderson, African-American contralto
• * Ferdinand Heim, World War II German general