1899
| File:Decade.png ( 1890s: ) 1899 link | |
|---|---|
| File:United Fruit map.png The banana empire United Fruit Company founded | |
| year 1899 |
Events
- January 1 - Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
- January 6 – Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
- January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
- January 19 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed (it is disbanded in 1956).
- January 21 – Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.
- 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.
- 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 4 - The 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 12–14 – Great Blizzard of 1899: Freezing temperatures and snow extend well south into North America, including southern Florida; it is the latest in a series of disasters to Florida's citrus industry.
- 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.
- March 6 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin, and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.
- 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.
- 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.
- May 18 – The First Hague Peace Conference is opened in The Hague by Willem de Beaufort, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
- June 20 – Right-wing nationalist movement Action Française formed in France
- July 11 – Giovanni Agnelli founds the car company Fiat.
- July 17 NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
- July 17 The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation takes effect, ending extraterritoriality and the unequal status of Japan in foreign commerce.
- July 29 – The first international Peace Conference ends, with the signing of the First Hague Convention.
- August 3 – The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago.
- 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 19 – Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned in France.
- 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 30 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Ladysmith begins.
- November 24 – Mahdist War – Battle of Umm Diwaykarat: A decisive British and Egyptian victory ends the war in the Sudan.
Uncertain Date
The United Fruit Company, an American corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas), and which soon maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called banana republics, such as Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala, was founded.