1905 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer

Events

• 5 February – General strike in Belgian coal fields begins.
• 10 February – Belgian Labour Party provides striking miners with 12.5 francs each in strike pay.

• 1 March – Art association Kunst van Heden founded in Antwerp.
• 11 March – General strike in the coal fields ends.

• 27 April – Opening of the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège.
• 30 April – First international football fixture between Belgium and the Netherlands held in Antwerp; Dutch win 1–4.

• 1 May – Season of events to celebrate 75th anniversary of Belgian independence opened.
• 7 May – Belgians win international football fixture against France in Brussels, 7–0.

• 23 June – Strikes for shorter hours in Ghent textile mills.

• 26 July – Law promulgated making Sunday an obligatory day of rest in trade and industry.
• 27 July – Edward Joris arrested in Istanbul for his part in the Yıldız assassination attempt.

• 1 to 6 August – 1905 European Rowing Championships held on the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal in Ghent.
• 12 August – King opens new sports stadium in Antwerp.

• 27 September – King ceremonially opens Arcade du Cinquantenaire in Brussels.

• 12 October – First stone of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussels laid.

• 5 November – Independent committee of enquiry into abuses in the Congo Free State, set up in response to the publication of the Casement Report the previous year, releases its findings.
• 6 November – Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège closes.
• 12 November – Formal opening of the Belgian-engineered Beijing–Hankou railway.
• 25 November – Christian democrats obtain episcopal recognition as a Catholic organisation.
• 30 November – Walloon Congress in Liège to promote the culture of French-speaking Belgium and to oppose the movement for greater use of Dutch in public life.

Publications

• Ernest Closson, Chansons populaires des provinces belges
• Alphonse Dubois, Remarques sur l'ornithologie de l'État indépendant du Congo
• Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert, La Renaissance septentrionale et les premiers maitres des Flandres
• Godefroid Kurth, La Patrie Belge: 75è Anniversaire de l'Indépendance Nationale
• Joseph Van den Gheyn, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, vol. 5.
• Joseph Van den Gheyn, La préhistoire en Belgique

• Mark Twain, King Leopold's Soliloquy
• Émile Verhaeren, ''Les heures d'après-midi''

Art and architecture

• 15 July to 2 November – Retrospective of Belgian art, 1830-1905, Brussels

• Constantin Meunier, The Docker

• Victor Horta, Magasins Waucquez
• Gédéon Bordiau and Charles Girault, Arcade du Cinquantenaire, Brussels

Births

• 15 January – Jean Van Buggenhout, cyclist
• 10 March – René Bernier, composer
• 28 March – Jenny Toitgans, athlete
• 1 April – Gaston Eyskens, politician
• 3 April – Georges Lemaire, cyclist
• 10 April – Edgard Viseur, athlete
• 4 May – Désiré Acket, painter
• 21 June – Alfred De Taeye, politician
• 6 July – Suzanne Spaak, resistance operative
• 22 October – Maurice Geldhof, cyclist
• 17 November – Astrid of Sweden, Queen of the Belgians
• 27 November – Daniel Sternefeld, composer
• 18 December – Jane Graverol, painter

Deaths

• 9 March – Paul Costermans, deputy governor general of the Congo Free State, by his own hand
• 4 April – Constantin Meunier, painter and sculptor
• 9 April – Léon d'Andrimont, politician
• 23 April – Théodore Nilis, colonial official
• 6 August – Léo Errera, plant physiologist
• 10 August – Georges Nagelmackers, engineer and entrepreneur
• 17 November – Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, heir presumptive to the Belgian throne.
• 12 December – Reimond Stijns, writer