1899

1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

• January 1 – End of Spanish rule in Cuba.
• January 1 – Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
• January 3 – The first known use of the word "automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times.
• January 6 – Lord Curzon becomes a viceroy of India.
• January 17 – United States takes possession of Wake Island.
• January 19 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
• January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business.
• January 22 – Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.

February

• February 2 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne agrees Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• February 4 – Philippine-American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
• February 6 – Spanish-American War: A peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
• February 14 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

March

• March 1 – in Afghanistan Capt. George Roos-Keppel makes a sudden attack on a predatory band of Chamkannis that have been raiding in the Kurram Valley and captures 100 prisoners with 3,000 head of cattle.
• March 2 – In Washington State, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
• March 6 – Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.
• March 20 – At Sing Sing, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.

June

• June 22-June 27 – the highest ever recorded cricket score, 628 not out, is made by A. E. J. Collins.
• June 25 – Three Denver newspapers publish a story that the Chinese government is going to demolish the Great Wall of China – later proved to be a fabrication.

July

• July 19 – The Newsboys of New York, USA go on strike (strike lasts until August 2). more info
• July 29 – The First Peace Conference ends with the signing of the Hague Convention.

September

• September 19 ? Alfred Dreyfus pardoned.

October

• October 11 – Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.

December

• December 2 – Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
• December 26 ? Battle of Mafeking begins.

• David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry with the publication of his book Grundlagen der geometrie.
• Gordon Douglas is ordained as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar. He is the first westerner to be ordained in the Theravada tradition.

Births

January-March

• January 7 – Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)
• January 10 – Axel Eggelbrecht, journalist (d. 1991)
• January 11 – Eva LeGallienne, actress (d. 1991)
• January 12 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
• January 15 – Goodman Ace, American actor, comedian, and writer (d. 1982)
• January 17 – Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
• January 17 – Nevil Shute, English author (d. 1960)
• February 6 – Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (d. 1968)
• February 15 – Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
• February 22 – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1986)
• February 23 – Erich Kästner, German writer (d. 1974)
• February 23 – Elisabeth Langgässer, lyricist, narrator and novelist (d. 1950)
• February 27 – Charles Best, Canadian medical scientist (d. 1978)
• March 11 – King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
• March 18 – Jean Goldkette, Greek-born jazz musician (d. 1962)

April-June

• April 1 – Gustavs Celmins, Latvian fascist leader (d. 1968)
• April 7 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972)
• April 22 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born writer (d. 1977)
• April 24 – Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (d. 1986)
• April 27 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
• April 28 – Harold B. Lee, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1973)
• April 29 – Duke Ellington, American jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)
• May 10 – Fred Astaire, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1987)
• May 10 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (d. 1979)
• May 12 – Indra Devi, Baltic-born yogi and actress (d. 2002)
• May 15 – Jean-Etienne Valluy, French general (d. 1970)
• May 24 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
• June 1 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (d. 1963)
• June 2 – Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (d. 1981)
• June 13 – Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (d. 1978)
• June 30 – Harry Shields, American jazz clarinettist (d. 1971)

July

• July 5 – Marcel Achard, French play and scriptwriter (d. 1974)
• July 7 – George Cukor, film director (d. 1983)
• July 11 – E. B. White, English writer
• July 15 – Sean Lemass, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1971)
• July 17 – James Cagney, actor (d. 1986)
• July 21 – Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
• July 21 – Ernest Hemingway, American writer and recipient of the Nobel prize for literature (d. 1961)

August-October

• August 4 – Ezra Taft Benson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
• August 13 – Alfred Hitchcock, British film director (d. 1980)
• August 24 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
• September 9 – Brassaï, photographer
• September 9 – Waite Hoyt, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1984)
• September 14 – José Mojica, Mexican singer and film actor (d. 1974)
• October 19 – Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemalan writer (d. 1974)

November-December

• November 15 – Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
• November 17 – Douglas Shearer, film sound engineer (d. 1971)
• November 18 – Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (d. 1985)
• December 2 – John Barbirolli, English conductor (d. 1970)
• December 15 – Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• December 16 – Noel Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
• December 18 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
• December 25 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
• December 28 – Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (d. 1943)

Deaths

• January 23 – Romualdo Pacheco, 12th Governor of California (b. 1831)
• February 25 – Paul Julius Reuter, German-born founder of the Reuters News Agency (b. 1816)
• June 3 – Johann Strauss, Jr., Austrian composer (b. 1825
• June 10 – Ernest Chausson, French composer (b. 1855)
• July 21 – Robert G. Ingersoll, American political leader, Civil War colonel (b. 1833)
• August 16 – Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)
• September 12 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, American railway magnate (b. 1843)
• November 24 – Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, Sudanese political and religious leader (killed in battle) (b. 1846)
• December 22 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)