1899

For the Netflix series, see 1899 (TV series).

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century 19th century 20th century
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
Years:	1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902

1899 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1899 MDCCCXCIX
Ab urbe condita	2652
Armenian calendar	1348 ԹՎ ՌՅԽԸ
Assyrian calendar	6649
Baháʼí calendar	55–56
Balinese saka calendar	1820–1821
Bengali calendar	1306
Berber calendar	2849
British Regnal year	62 Vict. 1 – 63 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar	2443
Burmese calendar	1261
Byzantine calendar	7407–7408
Chinese calendar	戊戌年 (Earth Dog) 4595 or 4535     — to — 己亥年 (Earth Pig) 4596 or 4536
Coptic calendar	1615–1616
Discordian calendar	3065
Ethiopian calendar	1891–1892
Hebrew calendar	5659–5660
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1955–1956
- Shaka Samvat	1820–1821
- Kali Yuga	4999–5000
Holocene calendar	11899
Igbo calendar	899–900
Iranian calendar	1277–1278
Islamic calendar	1316–1317
Japanese calendar	Meiji 32 (明治３２年)
Javanese calendar	1828–1829
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4232
Minguo calendar	13 before ROC 民前13年
Nanakshahi calendar	431
Thai solar calendar	2441–2442
Tibetan calendar	阳土狗年 (male Earth-Dog) 2025 or 1644 or 872     — to — 阴土猪年 (female Earth-Pig) 2026 or 1645 or 873

1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1899th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 899th year of the 2nd millennium, the 99th year of the 19th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1890s decade. As of the start of 1899, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

January 1899

January 1: Cuba free.

• January 1
  • Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
  • Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City.
• January 2 –
  • Bolivia sets up a customs office in Puerto Alonso, leading to the Brazilian settlers there to declare the Republic of Acre in a revolt against Bolivian authorities.
  • The first part of the Jakarta Kota–Anyer Kidul railway on the island of Java is opened between Batavia Zuid (Jakarta Kota) and Tangerang.
• January 3 – Hungarian Prime Minister Dezső Bánffy fights an inconclusive duel with his bitter enemy in parliament, Horánszky Nándor.
• January 4 –
  • U.S. President William McKinley's declaration of December 21, 1898, proclaiming a policy of benevolent assimilation of the Philippines as a United States territory, is announced in Manila by the U.S. commander, General Elwell Otis, and angers independence activists who had fought against Spanish rule.
  • The American Society of Landscape Architects, still in existence 123 years later, is founded.
• January 5 – A fierce battle is fought between American troops and Filipino defenders at the town of Pililla on the island of Luzon. The Filipinos retreat to the mountains at Tanay.
• January 6 – Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
• January 7 – The Lucky Star, and an English comic opera composed by Ivan Caryll and produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company premieres at the Savoy Theatre in London for the first of 143 performances.
• 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, with provisions for a provincial legislature with 138 Christian deputies and 50 Muslim deputies.
  • George F. Hoar, a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, speaks out in the Senate against American expansion into the Philippines. The text of Hoar's is sent by cable to Hong Kong at a cost of $4,000, and is later cited by Ambassador John Barrett on January 13, 1900, as an incitement to Filipino attacks on U.S. troops.
• January 10 – The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded, at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• January 11 – The Steel Plate Transferrers' Association, the first labor union for workers skilled in siderography (the engraving and mass reproduction of steel plates for newspaper printing) is established After changing its name to the International Association of Siderographers, it has 80 members at its peak. It dissolves in 1991, with only eight members left. Stewart, Estelle May (1936). Handbook of American trade-unions: 1936 edition. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Government Printing Office.
• January 12 – A massive rescue by the Lynmouth Lifeboat Station, using 100 men and requiring the transport of the lifeboat Louisa over land and then out to sea, succeeds in saving all 18 men aboard. The event is later made famous in the children's book The Overland Launch.
• January 13 – The Canadian Northern Railway is established, on January 13, 1899
• January 14 –
  • The White Star Line ship RMS Oceanic, at the time the largest British ocean liner up to that time, is launched from the Irish port of Belfast in front of over 50,000 people. It will begin its maiden voyage on September 6.
  • The British four-masted sailing ship Andelana capsizes during a storm in Commencement Bay off the coast of the U.S. Washington, with the loss of all 17 of her crew.
• January 15 – The name of Puerto Rico is changed by the new U.S. military government to "Porto Rico". It will not be changed back until May 17, 1932.
• January 16 – Eduardo Calceta is appointed as Chief of the Army (Jefe General) of the rebel Phillipine Republic army by Emilio Aguinaldo.
• January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
• January 18 – The General Assembly of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania begins the task of filling the U.S. Senate seat of Matthew Quay, who had recently resigned after being indicted on criminal charges. After 79 ballots and three months, no candidate has a majority, and the General Assembly refuses to approve the governor's appointment of a successor, and the seat remains vacant for more than two years. The Pennsylvania experience later leads to the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to provide for U.S. Senators to be directly elected by popular vote, rather than by the state legislatures.
• January 19 –
  • The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed (it is disbanded in 1956).
  • Future film producer Samuel Goldwyn, born in Poland and later a resident of Germany and England, arrives in the United States at age 16 as Szmuel Gelbfisz.
• January 20 – The Schurman Commission is created by U.S. President William McKinley to study the issue of the American approach to he sovereignty of the Philippines, ceded to the U.S. on December 10 by Spain. The five-man group, chaired by Cornell University President Jacob Schurman, later concludes that the Philippines will need to become financially independent before a republic can be created.
• January 21
  • Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.
  • The Malolos Constitution is ratified in the Province of Bulacan by the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines.

January 21: Opel car.

• 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.
  • 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 British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
• January 24 – The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, one of the oldest medical schools in the United States, is founded.
• January 25 – The city of Ponce, Puerto Rico is saved from disaster by seven firemen and one volunteer civilian who disobey orders and stop "El Polverin", a fire near the U.S. Army's store of explosive artillery. A "Monument to the Heroes of El Poverin is later erected in their honor.
• January 26 –
  • U.S. Representative George Henry White of North Carolina, the only African-American in Congress at the time, delivers his first major speech, speaking out against disenfranchisement of black voters and proposing that the number of representatives from a U.S. state should be based on the number of persons of voting age who actually cast ballots, rather than population. "
  • German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun, who will later share the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi, receives British Patent No. 1899-1862 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, almost breaking the 50 mph barrier when he reaches an unprecedented speed of 80.35 kilometres per hour (49.93 mph) in his CGA Dogcart racecar. Jenatzy's speed is more than 20% faster than the January 17 mark of 66.65 kilometres per hour (41.41 mph) set by Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat.
• January 28
  • At a time when U.S. Senators are elected by the state legislature rather than directly, wealthy businessman William A. Clark is elected U.S. Senator after offering bribes to most of the members. The U.S. Senate refuses to seat him after evidence of the bribery is revealed.
  • 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, now in the Republic of Kosovo.
• January 29 – A lawyer for the estate of John W. Keely, and inventor who had persuaded investors in his Keely Motor Company that an automobile could be created that would operate from Keely's "induction resonance motion motor" that had achieved perpetual motion, reveals that the late Mr. Keely's motor had been a fraud, and that the widow knew nothing of it.
• January 30 – Dimitar Grekov is appointed as Prime Minister of Bulgaria by King Ferdinand I, but removed from office less than 10 months later on October 13.
• January 31 – Cherokee Nation voters in the Indian Territory (later the U.S. state of Oklahoma) approve a proposition to allot Cherokee lands and to dissolve the Cherokee government, but the U.S. Congress never ratifies the results.

February 1899

• February 1 –
  • Ranavalona III, who had been the Queen of Madagascar until being deposed on February 28, 1897, is sent into exile by French colonial authorities, along with the rest of the royal family. She departs on the ship Yang-Tse on a 28-day trip to Marseilles.
  • The Suntory whiskey distiller in Japan is opened by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka as a store selling imported wines.
• February 2 – The participants in the Australian Premiers' Conference, held in Melbourne, agree that Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• February 3 – Kansas University's new college basketball team, coached by the game's inventor, Dr. James Naismith, plays its first game, and is defeated by the YMCA team of Kansas City, Kansas, 16 to 5.
• February 4 –
  • The Philippine–American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
  • Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" is first published, appearing in The Times of London. A response to the United States occupation of the Philippine Islands, and exhorting members of the White race to be responsible for benevolent civilizing of the world's "non-white" people, the poem is reprinted in The New York Sun the next day.
• 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. U.S. Army General Arthur MacArthur Jr. directs troops of the U.S. Army Eighth Corps to victory over Filipino troops commanded by General Antonio Luna. In the two-day battle, 55 U.S. soldiers and 238 Filipino soldiers are killed.
• February 6 – A peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate by a vote of 57 to 27 to end the Spanish–American War.
• February 7 – Elections are held in Greece for the 235 seats of the Hellenic Parliament. Supporters of the late Charilaos Trikoupis win 110 seats, 8 short of a majority, and Trikoupis's successor, Georgios Theotokis forms a government as Prime Minister.
• February 8 – Protesting against the government of Russia breaks out at Saint Petersburg University and mounted police violently respond to the group, causing a riot.
• February 9 – The Dodge Commission exonerates the U.S. Department of War from responsibility in the United States Army beef scandal, where meatpacking companies supplied low-grade, putrefied beef to American soldiers during the Spanish American War and caused an unquantified number of cases of food poisoning. While War Secretary Russell Alger is not accused of criminal negligence, the Commission implies that he was incompetent and he is later forced to resign.
• February 10 –
  • U.S. Army troops, supported by bombardment from the warships Charleston and Monandock, defeat Filipino forces in the Battle of Caloocan and get control of the Manila to Dagupan railway. Colonel W. S. Metcalfe is later accused by some of his men of having ordered the shooting of Filipino soldiers taken prisoner.
  • Future U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his fiancee Lou Henry, both 224, are married at her parents' home in Monterey, California, and depart the next day for a 14-month stay in China, where Hoover works as a mining engineer.
• February 11 – The coldest temperature recorded up to that time in the continental United States is set as Fort Logan, Montana records a low of −61 °F (−52 °C).
• February 12 – The Great Blizzard of 1899 strikes the east coast of the United States, causing subzero temperatures as far south as southern Florida for two days and destroying the citrus fruit crop that year.
• February 13 – In New York, the White Star ocean liner SS Germanic, already laden with ice and snow during its voyage from Liverpool, becomes even more weighed down after disembarking its passengers when the New York City blizzard strikes. With 3,600,000 pounds (1,600,000 kg) of added weight, the ship begins to list sideways and additional weight enters cargo doors that had been opened for refueling. Germanic remains on the bottom New York Harbor for more than a week while salvaging goes on, then requires refurbishing for three months, but becomes operational again.
• February 14 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress, for use in federal elections.
• 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. The manifesto is viewed as unconstitutional and a coup d'état by many Finns, who have come to consider their country a separate constitutional state in its own right, in union with the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the manifesto also fails to elaborate the criteria that a law has to meet in order to be considered to concern Russian imperial interests, and not an internal affair of Finland (affairs over which the Diet's authority is supposed have remained unaltered), leaving it to be decided by the autocratic Emperor. This results in Finnish fears that the Diet of Finland may be overruled arbitrarily.
• 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 the island's capital, 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, Per Savio and Ole Must, who become the first humans to spend the night in Antarctica. Over the next 12 days, the rest of the 31-man crew brings in supplies builds a temporary settlement.
• February 18 – The National Assembly of France elects a new President to fill out the remainder of the late President Faure's term. Senate President Émile Loubet wins the vote, 483 to 278, 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. President Andrade orders General Augusto Lutowsky to crush the rebellion and 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.
• February 21 –
  • Gdadebo II, the Alake of Egba in what is now southeast Nigeria, signs an agreement with the British Governor of Lagos Colony to lease lands for construction of a new railway from Aro to Abeokuta.
  • The British freighter SS Jumna, with the capacity to carry more than 500 people, but hauling a load of coal with minimal crew, is last seen passing Rathlin Island at Northern Ireland. Bound from Scotland to deliver a shipment of coal to Uruguay, it never arrives and is never seen again.
  • The Vicksburg National Military Park is established in Mississippi to preserve the battlefield of the Battle of Vicksburg that was fought in 1863 during the American Civil War.
• February 22 – Convention Hall, which later hosts two national political conventions, opens in Kansas City, Missouri with a concert by the band of John Philip Sousa. The building burns down less than 14 months later.
• February 23 – In France, Paul Déroulède and Jules Guérin of the right-wing Ligue des Patriotes attempt to persuade General Georges-Gabriel de Pellieux to lead a coup d'etat during the funeral of the late president Félix Faure in order to overthrow President Loubet. General Pellieux refuses to participate. Later in the year, Déroulède and Guérin are indicted for conspiracy against the government and banished from France.
• February 24 – The works of Catholic priest and theologian Herman Schell, including the recently published Der Katholicismus als Princip des Fortschritts and Die neue Zeit und der alte Glaubeare placed by the Roman Catholic Church on its Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of banned books.
• 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, Maj. James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.
• February 26 – Dezső Bánffy resigns as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary, at the time a partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is succeeded by Kálmán Széll.
• February 27 – Japanese immigration to South America, primarily the nation of 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 – U.S. President William McKinley approves a law increasing the pension to American Civil War veterans, both Union and Confederate, to $25.00 per month.

March 1899

• 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 – Mount Rainier National Park is established, in the U.S. state of Washington.
• March 3 –
  • Guglielmo Marconi conducts radio beacon experiments on Salisbury Plain in England and notices that radio waves are being reflected back to the transmitter by objects they encounter, one of the early steps in the potential for developing radar.
• March 4 – Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay, Queensland. A 12 meter high wave reaches up to 5 km inland, leaving over 400 dead (the deadliest natural disaster in Australia's history).

March 6: Aspirin.

• March 5 – George B. Selden sells the rights to his patent for an internal combustion engine to the Electric Vehicle Company, and he and the company then claim a royalty on all automobiles using such an engine.
• March 6 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin, and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.
• March 7 – The Provisional Law on the Judiciary is issued in the Philippines to provide for the selection of a Chief Justice.
• March 8 – The Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 (predecessor of Eintracht Frankfurt Association football club) is founded.
• March 9 – Japan promulgates its commercial code, the Shōhō, to take effect on June 16. The Shōhō, as amended applies to Japanese business today.
• March 10 –
  • The U.S. state of Delaware enacts its general corporation act that makes it the most important jurisdiction in United States corporate law.
  • At the Battle of Balantang, the U.S. Army sustains 400 casualties in an attack by Philippine troops under the command of Pascual Magbanua.
• March 11 –
  • A wireless distress signal is sent for the first time by a patrol boat to aid the endangered British cruiser Elbe. The Morse code distress signal is heard by the lighthouse near Ramsgate Lifeboat Station, which sends a lifeboat to the rescue.
  • Waldemar Jungner files the patent application for the first alkaline battery and receives Swedish patent number 11132.
• March 12 – Encinal County, Texas, created on February 1, 1856, near the U.S. city of Laredo on the condition that it would create a county seat, is discontinued and annexed into neighboring Webb County. The largest town in the area, Bruni, has less than 400 people.
• March 13 – Chelan County, Washington is created from Okanogan and Kittitas counties for the area around Wenatchee.
• March 14 –
  • After a civil war breaks out in Samoa between Malietoa Tanumafili I (recognized by Germany, the UK and the U.S.) and rebels who recognize Mata'afa Iosefo as the island's king, the USS Philadelphia takes control of the capital at Apia.
  • Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II takes direct command of the Imperial Navy.
• March 15 – Santa Cruz County is established in the southeast corner of Pima County around the city of Nogales (built across from the border of the larger Mexican city of Nogales, Sonora) in the U.S. territory of Arizona.
• March 16 – Memorial ceremonies are held for the burial of the late German hero Otto von Bismarck and his wife, Johanna von Puttkamer with their re-interment at the Bismarck Mausoleum, now a tourist attraction at Friedrichsruh in Aumühle. Bismarck, who had died on July 30, had been buried along with his wife at the estate of his home in Varzin, now the city of Warcino in Poland.
• March 17 – Eighty-six people are killed in a fire at the Windsor Hotel in New York City.
• March 18 – Phoebe, the ninth-known moon of the planet Saturn is discovered by U.S. astronomer William Pickering from analysis of photographic plates made by a Peruvian observatory seven months earlier, the first discovery of a satellite photographically.
• March 19 –
  • One of the first labor unions for government employees is formed with the organization in Denmark of the Copenhagen Municipal Workers' Union
  • The Battle of Taguig takes place in the Philippines as the USS Laguna de Bay bombards the Katipunan stronghold.
• March 20 – At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
• March 24 – George Dewey is made Admiral of the U.S. Navy.
• March 27
  • Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.
  • Philippine–American War – Battle of Marilao River: Filipino forces under the personal command of Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines, fail to prevent troops of the United States Army crossing the river.
• March 29 – The First Philippine Republic relocates its capital from Malolos to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija as the government flees an invasion of U.S. forces.
• March 30 – The German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations, to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights.
• March 31 – Philippine–American War: Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.

April 1899

• April 11 – The Treaty of Paris (1898) between the US and Spain goes into effect; Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam are ceded to the US.
• April 15 – Students at the University of California, Berkeley steal the Stanford Axe from Stanford University, yelling at leaders following a baseball game, thus establishing the Axe as a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.
• April 26 – Jean Sibelius's First Symphony premiers in Helsinki, Finland.

May 1899

• May 3 – The Ferencvárosi TC Association football club is founded in Budapest.
• May 10 – Finnish farmworker Karl Emil Malmelin killed seven people with an axe at the Simola croft in the village of Klaukkala.
• May 13 – The Esporte Clube Vitória Association football club is founded in Salvador, Brazil.
• May 14 – The three time world champion Club Nacional de Football is founded in Montevideo, Uruguay.
• May 18 – The First Hague Peace Conference is opened in The Hague by Willem de Beaufort, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
• May 30 – Female outlaw Pearl Hart robs a stage coach 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona.
• May 31 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition is launched.

June 1899

• June 1 – The Bloemfontein Conference commences between Paul Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner in the Orange Free State
• June 5 – Filpino army general Antonio Luna is assassinated.
• June 9 – American boxer James J. Jeffries knocks out Cornish-born Bob Fitzsimmons in the 11th round and wins the world heavyweight championship in a bout at Coney Island, New York.
• June 12 – The New Richmond tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 and injuring more than 200.
• June 17 – David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry, with the publication of his book Grundlagen der Geometrie, released on this date at Göttingen.
• June 19 – Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations premieres in London.
• June 20 – Right-wing nationalist movement Action Française formed in France
• June 22–27 – The highest ever recorded individual cricket score, 628 not out, is made by A. E. J. Collins. This record stood until 2016.
• June 25 – Three Denver newspapers publish a story (later proved to be a fabrication) that the Chinese government under the Guangxu Emperor is going to demolish the Great Wall of China.
• June 27 – The paperclip is patented by Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian inventor.
• June 30 – Mile-a-Minute Murphy earns his nickname after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for one-mile (1.6 km) in under a minute, on Long Island.

July 1899

• July 1 – The International Council of Nurses is founded in London, at a meeting of the Matron's Council of Great Britain and Ireland.
• July 11 – Giovanni Agnelli founds the car company Fiat.
• July 14 – The first Republic of Acre is declared in South America.
• July 17
  • America's first juvenile court is established in Chicago.
  • NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
  • Battle of Togbao: The French Bretonnet–Braun mission is destroyed in Chad, by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr.
  • The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation takes effect, ending extraterritoriality and the unequal status of Japan in foreign commerce.
• July 21 – The Newsboys' strike takes place, when the Newsies of New York go on strike (until August 2).
• July 27 – Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska, leading to the Nome Gold Rush.
• July 29 – The first international Peace Conference ends, with the signing of the First Hague Convention.
• July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends successfully.
• July 31 – Duke of York Island, outside Antarctica, is discovered by explorer Carsten Borchgrevink and the British Southern Cross Expedition.

August 1899

• August 3 – The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago.
• August 10 – Marshall "Major" Taylor wins the world 1-mile (1.6 km) professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.
• August 17 – The San Ciriaco hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.
• August 28 – At least 512 are killed when a debris hill from the Sumitomo Besshi copper mine at Niihama, Shikoku, Japan, collapses after heavy rain; 122 houses, a smelting factory, hospital and many other facilities are destroyed.
• August 31 – The Olympique de Marseille association football club is founded in France.

September 1899

• September 6 – The White Star Line's transatlantic ocean liner RMS Oceanic sails on her maiden voyage. At 17,272 gross register tons and 704 ft (215 m), she is the largest ship afloat, following scrapping of the SS Great Eastern a decade earlier.
• September 13 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m or 17,057 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
• September 13 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.
• September 18 – Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag is registered for copyright, as ragtime music enjoys mainstream popularity in the United States.
• September 19 – Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned in France.

October 1899

• October 9–14 – The Hanover Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany is held in Hanover.
• October 11 – The Second Boer War: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
• October 13 – Second Boer War: The siege of Mafeking begins.
• October 14 – Second Boer War: Kimberley comes under siege by the Boers.
• October 20 – Second Boer War – Battle of Talana Hill: In the first major clash of the conflict, near Dundee, Natal, the British Army drives the Boers from a hilltop position, but with heavy casualties, including their commanding general Sir Penn Symons.
• October 30 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Ladysmith begins.
• October 30 – The Augusta High School Building is completed in Augusta, Kentucky; Augusta Methodist College shuts down.

November 1899

• November 4 – The Alpha Sigma Tau sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
• November 8 – The New York Zoological Society opens the Bronx Zoological Park to the public, in New York City.
• November 15 – The American Line's SS St. Paul becomes the first ocean liner to report her imminent arrival by wireless telegraphy, when Marconi's station at The Needles contacts her 66 nautical miles (122 km) off the coast of England.
• November 24 – Mahdist War – Battle of Umm Diwaykarat: A decisive British and Egyptian victory ends the war in the Sudan.
• November 29 – The FC Barcelona association football club is founded.

December 1899

• December 2
  • Philippine–American War – Battle of Tirad Pass ("The Filipino Thermopylae"): General Gregorio del Pilar and his troops are able to guard the retreat of Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo, before being wiped out.
  • During the new moon, a near-grand conjunction of the classical planets and several binocular Solar System bodies occur. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are all within 15° of each other, with Venus 5° ahead of this conjunction and Jupiter 15° behind. Accompanying the classical planets in this grand conjunction are Uranus (technically visible unaided in pollution-free skies), Ceres and Pallas.
• December 10
  • Four-month-old Sobhuza II begins his 82-year reign as King of Swaziland, on the death of his father, Ngwane V; his grandmother Labotsibeni Mdluli serves as queen regent.
  • The college fraternity Delta Sigma Phi is founded at the City College of New York, by Charles A. Tonsor Jr. and Meyer Boskey.
• December 11 – Second Boer War – Battle of Magersfontein: Boers defeat British forces trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.
• December 15 – Glasgow School of Art opens its new building, the most notable work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
• December 16
  • The Association football club A.C. Milan is founded in Italy.
  • Augusta High School in Augusta, Kentucky burns down, due to a heating plant failure.
• December 26 – Pinnacle Rock, a Balancing rock in Cumberland Gap, falls down.
• December 31
  • The last day of the 1890s.

Date unknown

First flight of the Zeppelin LZ 1 airship

• Ferdinand Zeppelin builds the first successful airship.
• The significance of Chinese oracle bones is discovered.
• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Manteo, which was originally laid out as the Dare County seat in 1870.
• Riro, last of the Kings of Easter Island, on a visit to Valparaíso, Chile, dies either from alcohol poisoning, or an assassination plot by the Chilean government.
• Oxo beef stock cubes are introduced, by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company.
• Alfred R. Tucker becomes Bishop of Uganda.
• The German company Miele is founded.
• Torii Shoten, as predecessor of Suntory, as alcoholic drink and soft drink brand on worldwide, was founded in Osaka, Japan.
• Giros-Loucheur Group, as predecessor of Vinci, a construction and infrastructure industry on worldwide, founded in France.
• Timken Roller Bearing Company, as predecessor of parts brand on worldwide, Timken was founded in Missouri, United States.
• The 1899–1923 cholera pandemic occur in the Europe, Asia and Africa (Old World), right behind the 1846–1860 cholera pandemic in Russia

Births

January

Antal Páger

Max Theiler

• January 1 – Jack Beresford, British Olympic rower (d. 1977)
• January 3 – Karl Diebitsch, German fashion designer (1985)
• January 6
  • Alphonse Castex, French rugby union player (d. 1969)
  • Heinrich Nordhoff, German automotive engineer (d. 1968)
  • Elsie Steele, British supercentenarian (d. 2010)
• January 7 – Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)
• January 8 – S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (d. 1959)
• January 11 – Eva Le Gallienne, English actress (d. 1991)
• January 12 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
• January 14
  • Fritz Bayerlein, German general (d. 1970)
  • Carlos Romulo, Filipino diplomat (d. 1985)
• January 15 – Goodman Ace, American actor, comedian and writer (d. 1982)
• January 17
  • Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
  • Nevil Shute, English-born novelist (d. 1960)
• January 20 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese television development pioneer (d. 1990)
• January 21
  • Gyula Mándi, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 1969)
  • John Bodkin Adams, British physician acquitted of murder (d. 1983)
• January 23 – Alfred Denning, Baron Denning, English lawyer, judge and Master of the Rolls (d. 1999)
• January 25 – Paul-Henri Spaak, 31st Prime Minister of Belgium and international statesman (d. 1972)
• January 27 – Béla Guttmann, Hungarian-born Association football coach (d. 1981)
• January 29 – Antal Páger, Hungarian actor (d. 1986)
• January 30 – Max Theiler, South African virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1972)

February

Café Filho

Ramon Novarro

Lillian Disney

• February 2 – Herbie Faye, American actor (d. 1980)
• February 3
  • Café Filho, 18th President of Brazil (d. 1970)
  • Lao She, Chinese author (d. 1966)
  • Doris Speed, British actress (d. 1994)
  • Mildred Trotter, American forensic anthropologist (d. 1991)
• February 4 – Virginia M. Alexander, African-American physician (d. 1949)
• February 6 – Ramon Novarro, Mexican-born American actor (d. 1968)
• February 7 – Earl Whitehill, American baseball player (d. 1954)
• February 10 – Cevdet Sunay, 5th President of Turkey (d. 1982)
• February 15
  • Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
  • Lillian Disney, American artist (d. 1997)
  • Gale Sondergaard, American actress (d. 1985)
• February 17
  • Jibanananda Das, Indian poet, writer, novelist and essayist in Bengali (d. 1954)
  • Leo Najo, American baseball player (d. 1978)
• February 18 – Sir Arthur Bryant, British historian (d. 1985)
• February 19 – Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, German scientist (d. 1961)
• February 22
  • Joseph Le Brix, French aviator, naval officer (d. 1931)
  • Margarito Flores García, Mexican Roman Catholic priest, martyr and saint (d. 1927)
  • George O'Hara, American actor (d. 1966)
  • Ian Clunies Ross, Australian scientist (d. 1959)
  • Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1986)
• February 23 – Erich Kästner, German writer (d. 1974)
• February 24 – Mikhail Gromov, Soviet aviator (d. 1985)
• February 26
  • Alec Campbell, Australian WWI soldier, last Australian Gallipoli veteran (d. 2002)
  • Max Petitpierre, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1994)
• February 27 – Charles Best, Canadian medical scientist (d. 1978)

March

King Frederick IX of Denmark

Gloria Swanson

• March 4 – Harry R. Wellman, University of California president (d. 1997)
• March 8
  • Eric Linklater, American author (d. 1974)
  • Elmer Keith, American rancher, author, and firearms enthusiast (d. 1984)
• March 11 – King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
• March 13 – John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
• March 18 – Jean Goldkette, French-born musician (d. 1962)
• March 21 – Panagiotis Pipinelis, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1970)
• March 24 – Dorothy C. Stratton, American director of the SPARS during World War II (d. 2006)
• March 25 - Burt Munro, New Zealand motorcycle racer (d. 1978)
• March 27 – Gloria Swanson, American actress (d. 1983)
• March 28
  • August Anheuser Busch, Jr., American founder of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Company (d. 1989)
  • Harold B. Lee, 11th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1973)
• March 29
  • James V. Allred, American politician, 33rd Governor of Texas (d. 1959)
  • Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet official (d. 1953)

April

Walter Lantz

Duke Ellington

• April 1 – Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian fascist leader (d. 1968)
• April 3 – Maria Redaelli-Granoli, Italian supercentenarian, oldest person in Europe (d. 2013)
• April 4 – Hillel Oppenheimer, German-born Israeli botanist (d. 1971)
• April 5
  • Nicolae Cambrea, Romanian general (d. 1976)
  • Elsie Thompson, American supercentenarian (d. 2013)
• April 7 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972)
• April 9 – Hans Jeschonnek, German general (d. 1943)
• April 16 – Osman Achmatowicz, Polish chemist (d. 1988)
• April 19 – George O'Brien, American actor (d. 1985)
• April 20 – Alan Arnett McLeod, Canadian soldier (d. 1918)
• April 21 – Percy Lavon Julian, American scientist (d. 1975)
• April 22 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born American writer (d. 1977)
• April 23 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• April 24 – Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (d. 1986)
• April 26 – John Fearns Nicoll, British colonial governor (d. 1981)
• April 27 – Walter Lantz, American animator, creator of Woody Woodpecker (d. 1994)
• April 29
  • Duke Ellington, African-American jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)
  • Mary Petty, American illustrator (d. 1976)

May

Fred Astaire

Suzanne Lenglen

• May 3 – Aline MacMahon, American actress (d. 1991)
• May 6 – Billy Cotton, British entertainer, bandleader (d. 1969)
• May 8
  • Arthur Q. Bryan, American actor, voice actor, comedian and radio personality (d. 1959)
  • Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
• May 10
  • Fred Astaire, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1987)
  • Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (d. 1979)
• May 12 – Indra Devi, Baltic-born yogi, and actress (d. 2002)
• May 15 – Jean-Étienne Valluy, French general (d. 1970)
• May 17 – Carmen de Icaza, Spanish writer (d. 1979)
• May 18 – Ronald Armstrong-Jones, Welsh barrister (d. 1966)
• May 20 – John Marshall Harlan II, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1971)
• May 23 – Jeralean Talley, American supercentenarian (d. 2015)
• May 24
  • Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
  • Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi national poet (d. 1976)
• May 26 – Ruth Bird, English historian and schoolteacher. (d. 1987)
• May 30 – Irving Thalberg, American film producer (d. 1936)

June

Fritz Albert Lipmann

• June 1 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, British mathematician (d. 1963)
• June 2 – Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (d. 1981)
• June 3 – Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1972)
• June 4 – Arthur Barker, American criminal, son of Ma Barker (d. 1939)
• June 9 – Signe Amundsen, Norwegian operatic soprano (d. 1987)
• June 11 – Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1972)
• June 12 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1986)
• June 13 – Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (d. 1978)
• June 16 – Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)
• June 18 – John Warburton, British actor (d. 1981)
• June 24 – Bruce Marshall, Scottish writer (d. 1987)
• June 25 – Arthur Tracy, American singer (d. 1997)
• June 26
  • Odus Mitchell, American football player and coach (d. 1989)
  • Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
• June 27 – Juan Trippe, American airline pioneer, entrepreneur (d. 1981)
• June 29 – Edward Twining, British diplomat, Governor of North Borneo and of Tanganyika (d. 1967)
• June 30
  • Madge Bellamy, American actress (d. 1990)
  • Harry Shields, American jazz clarinettist (d. 1971)

July

George Cukor

James Cagney

Ernest Hemingway

• July 1
  • Thomas A. Dorsey, American musician (d. 1993)
  • Charles Laughton, English-American stage, film actor (d. 1962)
  • Konstantinos Tsatsos, President of Greece (d. 1987)
• July 4 – Austin Warren, American literary critic, author, and professor of English (d. 1986)
• July 5 – Marcel Achard, French playwright, scriptwriter (d. 1974)
• July 6 – Susannah Mushatt Jones, American supercentenarian, Last remaining American born in the 19th century (d. 2016)
• July 7
  • George Cukor, American film director (d. 1983)
  • Jesse Wallace, American naval officer, 29th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1961)
• July 10 – John Gilbert, American actor (d. 1936)
• July 11
  • Frank R. Walker, American admiral (d. 1976)
  • E. B. White, American writer (d. 1985)
• July 12 – E. D. Nixon, African-American civil rights leader and union organizer (d. 1987)
• July 15 – Seán Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1971)
• July 16 – Božidar Jakac, Slovene Expressionist, Realist and Symbolist painter, printmaker, art teacher, photographer and filmmaker (d. 1989)
• July 17 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (d. 1986)
• July 18 – Floyd Stahl, American collegiate athletic coach (d. 1996)
• July 20 – Paul Christoph Mangelsdorf, American botanist and agronomist (d. 1989)
• July 21
  • Hart Crane, American poet (suicide 1932)
  • Ernest Hemingway, American author, journalist (suicide 1961)
• July 22 – King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (d. 1982)
• July 23 – Gustav Heinemann, President of Germany (d. 1976)
• July 24 – Chief Dan George, Canadian actor, writer and tribal chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation (d. 1981)
• July 29
  • Walter Beall, American baseball player (d. 1959)
  • Alice Terry, American film actress (d. 1987)

August

Alfred Hitchcock

Béla Guttmann

• August 1 – Kamala Nehru, Spouse of Prime Minister of India (d. 1936)
• August 4 – Ezra Taft Benson, 13th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
• August 9
  • Paul Kelly, American stage, film actor (d. 1956)
  • P. L. Travers, Australian-born British actress, journalist and author (d. 1996)
• August 13 – Alfred Hitchcock, British-born American film director (d. 1980)
• August 14 – Alma Reville, English screenwriter and film editor, wife of director Alfred Hitchcock (d. 1982)
• August 16 – Glenn Strange, American actor (d. 1973)
• August 17 – Janet Lewis, American novelist and poet (d. 1998)
• August 19 – Colleen Moore, American actress (d. 1988)
• August 24
  • Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
  • Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1983)
• August 26 – Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter (d. 1991)
• August 27
  • C. S. Forester, English novelist (d. 1966)
  • Byron Foulger, American actor (d. 1970)
• August 28
  • Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978)
• Béla Guttmann, Hungarian footballer and coach (d. 1981)
• Vernon Huber, American rear admiral; 36th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1967)
• August 29 – Lyman Lemnitzer, American general (d. 1988)
• August 30 – Ray Arcel, American boxing trainer (d. 1994)
• August 31 – Boots Adams, American business magnate, president of Phillips Petroleum Company (d. 1975)

September

Macfarlane Burnet

Jimmie Davis

• September 1
  • Andrei Platonovich Klimentov, Russian-born Soviet writer (d. 1951)
  • Takuma Nishimura, Japanese general (d. 1951)
• September 3 – Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)
• September 9
  • Brassaï, French photographer (d. 1984)
  • Waite Hoyt, American baseball player (d. 1984)
• September 11 – Jimmie Davis, American politician and musician, Governor of Louisiana (d. 2000)
• September 13 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist politician, leader of the Iron Guard (d. 1938)
• September 17 – Harold Bennett, British actor (d. 1981)
• September 18 – Ida Kamińska, Polish-Jewish actress, playwright, and translator (d. 1980)
• September 21 – Frederick Coutts, 8th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1986)
• September 23 – Tom C. Clark, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1977)

October

Franz Jonas

Nikolay Bogolyubov

László Bíró

• October 1 – Ernest Haycox, American writer (d. 1950)
• October 3 – Gertrude Berg, American actress (d. 1966)
• October 4
  • Franz Jonas, President of Austria (d. 1974)
  • Trinidad Roxas, 5th First Lady of the Philippines (d. 1995)
• October 5 – George, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1963)
• October 9 – Bruce Catton, American Civil War historian, Pulitzer Prize winner (1954) (d. 1978)
• October 19 – Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• October 20 – Evelyn Brent, American actress (d. 1975)
• October 22 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Soviet and Russian actor (d. 1980)
• October 24
  • Burr Shafer, American cartoonist (d. 1965)
  • László Bíró, Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint pen (d. 1985)
• October 29 – Akim Tamiroff, Armenian actor (d. 1972)
• October 30 – Katarina Marinič, Slovenian supercentenarian (d. 2010)

November

Pat O'Brien

• November 5 – Forrest Lewis, American actor (d. 1977)
• November 6 – Feng Zhanhai, Chinese military leader, government official (d. 1963)
• November 7
  • Yitzhak Lamdan, Russian-born Israeli poet, columnist (d. 1954)
  • Stanisław Swianiewicz, Polish economist and historian (d. 1997)
• November 11 – Pat O'Brien, American actor (d. 1983)
• November 13
  • Vera Caspary, American screenwriter, novelist, playwright (d. 1987)
  • Iskander Mirza, 1st President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
• November 15 – Avdy Andresson, Estonian Minister of War in Exile (d. 1990)
• November 17 – Douglas Shearer, American film sound engineer (d. 1971)
• November 18 – Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American conductor (d. 1985)
• November 19 – Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, Shia Ayatollah (d. 1992)
• November 21 – Jobyna Ralston, American actress (d. 1967)
• November 22
  • Gualtiero De Angelis, Italian actor and voice actor (d. 1980)
  • Hoagy Carmichael, American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader (d. 1981)
• November 23 – Manuel dos Reis Machado, Brazilian martial arts master (d. 1974)
• November 24 – Soraya Tarzi, Afghan feminist, queen (d. 1968)
• November 26
  • Mona Bruns, American stage, film, radio, and television actress (d. 2000)
  • Richard Hauptmann, German murderer of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. (d. 1936)
  • Maurice Rose, American general (d. 1945)
• November 29 – Emma Morano, Italian supercentenarian, oldest Italian ever, last surviving person born in the 1800s (d. 2017)

December

Noël Coward

Martin Luther King Sr.

Humphrey Bogart

• December 1 – Gaetano Lucchese, American gangster, boss of the Lucchese crime family (d. 1967)
• December 2
  • John Barbirolli, English conductor (d. 1970)
  • Ray Morehart, American baseball player (d. 1989)
• December 3 – Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1965)
• December 4 – Sam Newfield, American film director (d. 1964)
• December 8 – John Qualen, Canadian-American actor (d. 1987)
• December 9 – Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (d. 1937)
• December 11 – Joan Stevenson Abbott RRC, Australian World War II army hospital matron (d. 1975)
• December 14 – DeFord Bailey, American country musician (d. 1982)
• December 15 – Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• December 16
  • Noël Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
  • Aleksander Zawadzki, former President of Poland (d. 1964)
• December 18 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
• December 19 – Martin Luther King Sr., American Baptist pastor, missionary, and early figure in the civil rights movement (d. 1984)
• December 20
  • Finn Ronne, Norwegian-American explorer (d. 1980)
  • John Sparkman, American politician (d. 1985)
• December 25
  • Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
  • Frank Ferguson, American actor (d. 1978)
• December 28 – Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (d. 1943)
• December 29 – Nie Rongzhen, Chinese Communist military leader (d. 1992)
• December 31 – Friedrich Panse, German psychiatrist (d. 1973)

Date unknown

• Otto Klemperer, German physicist (d. 1987)
• Nureddine Rifai, 25th Prime Minister of Lebanon (d. 1980)

Deaths

January–February

Alfred Sisley

Paul Reuter

Emma Hardinge Britten

Antonio Luna

• January 23 – Romualdo Pacheco, 12th Governor of California (b. 1831)
• January 29 – Alfred Sisley, French Impressionist landscape painter (b. 1839)
• January 30 –Harry Bates, English sculptor (b. 1850)
• January 31 – Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, princess consort of Bulgaria (b. 1870)
• February 6
  • Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
  • Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1874)
• February 11 – Teuku Umar, Leader of Acehnese Rebellion (b. 1854)
• February 16 – Félix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)
• February 18 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician; see Lie group.(b. 1842)
• February 23 – Gaëtan de Rochebouët, Prime Minister of France (b. 1813)
• February 25 – Paul Reuter, German-born news agency founder (b. 1816)

March–April

• March 3 – William P. Sprague, American politician from Ohio (b. 1827)
• March 6 – Princess Kaʻiulani, last monarch of Hawaii (b. 1875)
• March 12 – Sir Julius Vogel, Premier of New Zealand (b. 1835)
• March 18 – Othniel Charles Marsh, American palaeontologist (b. 1831)
• March 20 – Martha M. Place, American murderer, first woman executed in the electric chair (b. 1849)
• March 24 – Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin, Swiss national, international women's rights activist, pacifist (b. 1826)
• April 1 – Charles C. Carpenter, American admiral (b. 1834)
• April 5 – T. E. Ellis, Welsh politician (b. 1859)
• April 6 – Garret Parry, Irish piper (b. 1847)
• April 7 – Pieter Rijke, Dutch physicist (b. 1812)
• April 11 – Lascăr Catargiu, 4-time Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1823)
• April 16 – Emilio Jacinto, Filipino poet, revolutionary (b. 1875)
• April 22 – Johann Köler, Estonian painter (b. 1826)

May–June

• May 24 – William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher, British law lord (b. 1817)
• May 25 – Emilio Castelar y Ripoll, President of the First Spanish Republic (b. 1832)
• June 3 – Johann Strauss, Jr., Austrian composer (b. 1825)
• June 4 – Eugenio Beltrami, Italian mathematician (b. 1835)
• June 5 – Antonio Luna, Filipino general (assassinated) (b. 1866)
• June 7 – Augustin Daly, American theatrical impresario, playwright (b. 1838)
• June 10 – Ernest Chausson, French composer (b. 1855)

July–August

Robert Bunsen

Gregorio del Pilar

Frances Laughton Mace

• July 1 – Sir William Flower, British museum curator and surgeon (b. 1831)
• July 16 – Margaretta Riley, British botanist (b. 1804)
• July 18 – Horatio Alger, Jr., American writer (b. 1832)
• July 21 – Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician (b. 1833)
• July 27 – Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, German chess-master (b. 1818)
• August – Frances Laughton Mace, American poet (b. 1836)
• August 4 – Karl, Freiherr von Prel, German philosopher (b. 1839)
• August 9
  • Sir Edward Frankland, British chemist (b. 1825)
  • Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, Russian Grand Duke, younger brother of Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1871)
• August 16 – Robert Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)

September–October

• September 2 – Ernest Renshaw, British tennis player (b. 1861)
• September 12 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, American railway magnate (b. 1843)
• September 13 – Sarah Warren Keeler, American educator of the deaf-mute (b. 1844)
• September 17 – Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American industrialist (b. 1842)
• September 28 – Giovanni Segantini, Italian painter (b. 1858)
• October 2
  • Emma Hardinge Britten, British writer (b. 1823)
  • Percy Pilcher, British aviation pioneer, glider pilot (b. 1866)
• October 7 – Deodato Arellano, Filipino Propagandist (b. 1844)
• October 14
  • Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston, American diarist (b. 1812)
  • Nicolai Hanson, Norwegian zoologist and Antarctic explorer (b. 1870)
• October 22 – Ella Hoag Brockway Avann, American educator (b. 1853)
• October 23 – Sir Penn Symons, British general (died of wounds) (b. 1843)
• October 25 – Grant Allen, Canadian science writer and novelist (b. 1848)
• October 30
  • Sir Arthur Blomfield, British architect (b. 1829)
  • William Henry Webb, American industrialist, philanthropist (b. 1816)
• October 31 – Anton Berindei, Wallachian-born Romanian general and politician (b. 1838)

November–December

Garret Hobart

• November 16
  • Vincas Kudirka, Lithuanian doctor, poet, and national hero (b. 1858)
  • Julius Hermann Moritz Busch, German publicist (b. 1821)
• November 21 – Garret Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States (b. 1844)
• November 23 – Thomas Henry Ismay, British owner of the White Star Line (b. 1837)
• November 24 – Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, Sudanese political, religious leader (killed in battle) (b. 1846)
• November 28 – Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (b. 1837)
• December 2 – Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (killed in battle) (b. 1875)
• December 10 – King Ngwane V of Swaziland (b. 1876)
• December 19 – Henry Ware Lawton, American general (killed in action) (b. 1843)
• December 22
  • Pascual Ortega Portales Chilean painter (b.1839)
  • Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)
  • Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, British landowner and politician (b. 1825)
• December 27 – Erebus Black, English occultist (b. 1851)
• December 31
  • Eugène Bertrand, 65, French comedian and opera house director (b. 1834)
  • Jane Mitchel, Irish nationalist (b. c. 1820)
  • Carl Millocker, 57, Viennese composer (b. 1842)
  • Manuel Carrillo Tablas, 77, Mexican philanthropist and mayor of Orizaba (b. 1822)