1898 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: William McKinley
• Vice President: Garret Hobart
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed
• Congress: 55th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• 1 January - New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island.
• 15 February - explodes and sinks in Havana harbor, Cuba, killing 266 men. Popular opinion blames Spain and helps precipitate the Spanish–American War.
• 22 February - Naoum Mokarzel establishes Al-Hoda which will become the longest-running Arabic newspaper in the U.S.
• 24 March - Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that had been advertised in Scientific American.
• 28 March - After an investigation, the U.S. Navy publicly concludes that was sunk by a mine, further pushing sentiment towards war.
• 30 March - The 5.8–6.4 Mare Island earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing $350,000 in damage.

  April–June

• April 5 – Annie Oakley promotes the service of women in combat situations with the United States military. On this day, she writes a letter to President McKinley "offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should war break out with Spain." In the history of women in the military, there are records of female U.S. Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers who enlisted using male pseudonyms, but Oakley's letter represents possibly the earliest political move towards women's rights for combat service in the United States military.
• April 20 - President William McKinley signs a Joint Resolution with Cuba and a declaration of War against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War. The declaration is accepted five days later.
• April 21 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and captures a Spanish merchant ship.
• April 25 – Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21.
• April 29: Union Razor Company, which today is known as KA-BAR Knives, founded in Tidioute, Pennsylvania.
• May 1 – Spanish–American War – Battle of Manila Bay: Commodore Dewey destroys the Spanish squadron. The first battle of the war, as well as the first battle in the Philippines Campaign.
• May 10 – Prescott National Forest is established.
• May 12 – Bombardment of San Juan, the first major battle of the Puerto Rico Campaign during the Spanish–American War.
• June 1 – The Trans-Mississippi Exposition World's Fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska.

  July–September

• July 1 – Spanish–American War: Battle of San Juan Hill – American forces capture the San Juan Heights near Santiago de Cuba. Theodore Roosevelt memorably leads the charge of the Rough Riders.
• July 3
• * Spanish–American War: Battle of Santiago de Cuba – The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron.
• * Joshua Slocum completes a 3-year solo circumnavigation of the world.
• July 7 – The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands.
• July 17 – Spanish–American War: – Battle of Santiago Bay: Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
• July 25 – Spanish–American War: The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with a landing at Guánica Bay.
• August 13 – Spanish–American War: Hostilities end between American and Spanish forces in Cuba.

  October–December

• October 3 – Battle of Sugar Point: Ojibwe tribesmen defeat U.S. government troops in northern Minnesota.
• October 6 – The Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity is founded at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
• November 10 - The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898: A coup d'état by white supremacists.
• November 26 – A 2-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston, Massachusetts, and severely impacts the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns.
• December 10 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish–American War.
• December 23 - Guam transferred to the United States Navy control on December 23, 1898, by Executive Order 108-A from 25th President William McKinley

  Undated

• Wakita is founded in the Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma.
• As a result of the merger of several small oil companies, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controls 84% of the United States's oil and most American pipelines.

  Ongoing

• Gay Nineties
• Progressive Era
• Lochner era

  Births

• January 1 - Tony DeMarco, dancer
• January 7 - Robert LeGendre, American pentathlete and dentist
• January 23 - Randolph Scott, film actor
• February 3 - Lil Hardin Armstrong, African American jazz musician
• February 6 - Melvin B. Tolson, African American Modernist poet, educator, columnist, trade unionist and politician
• March 3 - Thomas R. Underwood, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1951 to 1952
• March 4 - Robert Schmertz, folk musician and architect
• April 1 - William James Sidis, child prodigy
• April 3 - George Jessel, comedic entertainer
• April 9 - Paul Robeson, African American bass singer and civil rights activist
• May 5
• * Elsie Eaves, civil engineer
• * Blind Willie McTell, African American blues singer/guitarist
• June 19 - James Joseph Sweeney, first Catholic Bishop of Honolulu from 1941
• July 2
• * George J. Folsey, cinematographer
• * Anthony McAuliffe, general
• July 9 - Al Bedner, American football player
• July 14 - Happy Chandler, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1955 to 1959
• July 22
• * Stephen Vincent Benét, poet and fiction writer
• * Alexander Calder, sculptor and artist
• August 26 - Peggy Guggenheim, art collector
• August 28 - Malcolm Cowley, novelist, poet, literary critic and journalist
• September 9 - Styles Bridges, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1937 to 1961
• September 10 - Waldo Semon, inventor
• September 26 - George Gershwin, composer
• October 3 - Morgan Farley, actor
• October 7 - Joe Giard, baseball player
• October 16 - William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975
• November 13 - Wallace F. Bennett, U.S. Senator from Utah from 1951 to 1974
• November 16 - Warren Sturgis McCulloch, neurophysiologist and cybernetician
• November 17 - William A. Blakley, U.S. Senator from Texas in 1961
• December 5 - Grace Moore, operatic soprano
• December 9 - Emmett Kelly, clown
• December 14 - Lillian Randolph, African American actress and singer
• December 24 - Baby Dodds, African American jazz drummer
• December 27 - Hilda Vaughn, actress

  Deaths

• January 3 – Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Confederate brigadier general, Texas governor and president of Texas A&M University
• January 7 – Joseph O'Dwyer, physician
• February 17 – Frances Willard, educator, temperance reformer and women's suffragist
• March 6 – Hugh J. Jewett, politician and president of the Erie Railroad from 1874 to 1884.
• March 17 – Blanche Bruce, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1875 to 1881
• March 18 – Matilda Joslyn Gage, feminist
• May 22 – Edward Bellamy, novelist
• July 8 – Soapy Smith, con artist and gangster
• July 11 – Omar D. Conger, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1881 to 1887
• July 17 – John Stuart Williams, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1879 to 1885
• September 2 – Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• September 14 – William Seward Burroughs I, inventor of the adding machine
• September 21 – William W. Eaton, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1875 to 1881
• September 26 – Fanny Davenport, actress
• September 28 – Thomas F. Bayard, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1869 to 1885 and Secretary of State from 1885 to 1889
• October 12 – John M. Forbes, merchant, philanthropist and abolitionist, president of the Michigan Central and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroads
• October 31 – Joseph R. West, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1871 to 1877
• November 8 – Robert Franklin Armfield, U.S. Representative from North Carolina
• November 19 – Don Carlos Buell, United States Army officer who fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War
• December 15 – Calvin S. Brice, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1891 to 1897
• December 18 – Thomas W. Osborn, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1868 to 1873