1899

Events

January

• January 1
• * Spanish 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.
• * In Samoa, followers of Mataafa, claimant to the rule of the island's subjects, burn the town of Upolu in an ambush of followers of other claimants, Malietoa Tanus and Tamasese, who are evacuated by the British warship HMS Porpoise.
• * Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as Governor of New York at the age of 39.
• January 3 - A treaty of alliance is signed between Russia and Afghanistan.
• January 5 - A fierce battle is fought between American troops and Filipino defenders at the town of Pililla on the island of Luzon.
• The collision of a British steamer and a French steamer kills 12 people on the English Channel.
• January 6 - Baron Curzon takes office as the Governor-General of British India.
• January 7 - Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the Philippine insurrection against the U.S. occupation, issues a proclamation calls on Filipinos to continue the fight for liberty. President McKinley dispatches USS Princeton and USS Yorktown to Manila.
• January 8 - The Association football club SK Rapid Wien is founded in Vienna.
• January 9 -
• *After a successful revolt against the Ottoman Empire by the inhabitants of the island of Crete, the area, which joins Greece, gets its first constitution.
• *A crash between two trains on the Lehigh Valley Railroad kills 16 people and injures 20 in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
• January 10 - The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded, at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• January 12 - The French government passes a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, 423 to 124.
• January 13 - The Canadian Northern Railway is established.
• January 14
• * The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner is launched from the Belfast shipyards in Ireland. At 17,272 gross register tons and, she is the largest ship afloat at this time.
• * The British four-masted sailing ship Andelana capsizes during a storm in Commencement Bay off the coast of the U.S. state of Washington, with the loss of all 17 of her crew.
• *U.S. Navy Captain Richard P. Leary becomes the military governor of Guam.
• January 15 - The General Federated Union, representing 100,000 laborers in the U.S. state of New York, is formed from a merger of the Central Labor Union and the Central Labor Federation.
• January 17 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
• January 19 - The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed as part of a convention between the British and Egyptian governments. The Sudan colony will be disbanded in 1956.
• January 21

• * Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.
• * The Malolos Constitution is ratified by the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines.
• *Lord Kitchener is appointed as the British Governor of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
• January 22 - The leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne, to discuss the confederation of Australia as a whole.
• January 23
• * Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic, a declaration of independence against the U.S. military government of the Philippines.
• * Mubarak 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.
• * The New York Stock Exchange has the largest day of business in its history, with 1,527,644 shares of stock changing hands.
• * Because of illness, King Oscar of Sweden and Norway entrusts the government to Crown Prince Gustav.
• * The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
• January 24 - The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is founded.
• January 26 - German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun, who will later share the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi, receives a British patent for his wireless radio invention "Telegraphy without directly connected wire".
• January 27 -
• *Camille Jenatzy of France becomes the first man to drive an automobile more than 80 kilometers per hour, when he reaches a speed of 80.35 kph in his CGA Dogcart racecar. Jenatzy's speed is more than 20% faster than the previous record.
• *The Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire decrees that all high officials in the Russian-administered Grand Duchy of Finland shall be required to be fluent in the Russian language.
• January 28 -
• *The League of Peja, organized by Haxhi Zeka to lobby for a Kosovar Albanian state within the Ottoman Empire, attracts 450 delegates to its first convention, held at the city of Peja.
• *Konstantin Stoilov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria and his cabinet ministers resign in a disagreement over self-government for Macedonia.
• *The premiers of the various states of Australia, along with the premier of Tasmania, meet in a conference at Melbourne to discuss the question of a federation of the states.
• January 29 - A gas eplosion kills 14 people in the Spanish city of Cartagena.
• January 30 -
• *A steamer arrives at Barcelona in Spain after having started out with 1,300 Spanish soldiers who had withdrawn from Cuba. Of the group, 350 are seriously ill and 56 died during the trip.
• *Speaker Howard E. Wright of the California State Assembly resigns the speakership after surviving a motion of expulsion by the members. Only 10 had been in favor of expelling Wright because of charges of bribery, and 60 opposed.
• January 31 -
• *Dimitar Grekov forms a new government in Bulgaria.
• *The French Senate passes the trade agreement with Italy by a vote of 248 to 40.

  February

• February 1
• * Ranavalona III, who had been the Queen of Madagascar until being deposed on February 28, 1897, is sent into exile by English colonial authorities, along with the rest of the royal family.
• * The 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.
• February 2 -
• *The participants in the Australian Premiers' Conference agree that Australia's capital should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• *The Tsar of Russia donates $500,000 for the relief of famine suffered by peasants in the Empire.
• February 4 - The Philippine–American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
• February 5 - The 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.
• February 6 -
• *By 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.
• *An investigation by the U.S. government determines that more than 10,000 cans of meat that had been purchased for use by troops in Cuba had been rancid.
• February 7 - Following conviction at court-martial for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" arising from his accusations against Major General Nelson A. Miles, U.S. Commissioner General Charles P. Eagan is suspended from duty for six years by President McKinley.
• February 8 - The Congressional commission for investigation of conduct of the Spanish–American War sends its report to the President.
• February 10 - U.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.
• February 11 - In the Philippines, the city of Iloilo is captured by troops led by U.S. Army Brigadier General Marcus P. Miller.
• February 12 -
• *The cornerstone for the Aswan Dam is set down in Egypt.
• *In the U.S., a fire kills 17 women at a cottage at the South Dakota State Insane Asylum in Yankton, South Dakota.
• *An avalanche kills 12 Italian workers in the U.S. at Silver Plume, Colorado.
• February 13 -
• *Cipriano Castro starts the Restorative Liberal Revolution by leading 60 people from exile to cross the Colombia–Venezuela border to defeat Ignacio Andrade's government.
• *A blizzard strikes the east coast of the U.S., shutting down all train service in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
• *An earthquake strikes in the U.S. and is felt in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio, but causes no casualties.
• February 14 - The U.S. Senate votes, 26 to 22, against the permanent annexation of the Philippine Islands as U.S. territory.
• February 15 - The 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.
• February 16
• * Félix Faure, the President of France since 1895, dies of a stroke in his office while engaged in sexual activity with his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil.
• * Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the first Association football club in Iceland, is established in Reykjavík.
• February 17 - The 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.
• February 18 - The National Assembly of France elects a new President to serve the remainder of the late President Faure's term. Senate president Émile Loubet wins the vote against prime minister Jules Méline.
• February 19 - In 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.
• February 20 - 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, end abruptly after it is clear that the U.S. will not make any concessions. In response, Laurier makes clear that there will be no further concessions with the U.S. in trade.
• *The Russian Imperial government removes the privileges of the parliament of Finland.
• February 21
• * The British freighter SS Jumna is last seen passing Rathlin Island off Northern Ireland. Bound from Scotland to deliver a shipment of coal to Uruguay with minimal crew, it never arrives and is never seen again.
• *Under threat of bombardment by the British Royal Navy, Sultan of Oman revokes his concession to the French Navy for a coaling station.
• * The Vicksburg National Military Park is established in Mississippi to preserve the battlefield of the Battle of Vicksburg.
• February 23 - Because of distrubances at the funeral of the late President Faure, parliament members Paul Déroulède, Lucien Millevoye and Marcel Habert are arrested.
• February 25 - In an accident at Grove Hill, Harrow, London, England, Edwin Sewell becomes the world's first driver of a petrol-driven vehicle to be killed; his passenger, Major James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.
• February 26 - Kálmán Széll replaces Dezső Bánffy as Prime Minister of Hungary.
• February 27 - Japanese immigration to South America, primarily Peru, begins as the ship Sakura Maru departs from Yokohama with 790 men employed by the Morioka-shokai Sugar Company. The group arrives in Callao on April 3.
• February 28 - General Juan Reyes, leader of the Nicaraguan insurgency, surrenders at Bluefields to the commanders of USS Marietta and HMS Intrepid.