1899 in the United States

Incumbents

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

• President: William McKinley
• Vice President: Garret Hobart , vacant
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed , David B. Henderson
• Congress: 55th, 56th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January 1 - Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
• January 10 - The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• January 17 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island.

  February

• 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 10 – Spanish–American War: The U.S. receives the Philippines, Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico as a result of the Treaty of Paris.
• 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.

  March

• March 2 - In Washington State, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
• March 24 - George Dewey is made Admiral of the US Navy.

  April

• April 13 – Tahoe National Forest is established in California.
• April 15 - Students at the University of California, Berkeley steal the Stanford Axe from Stanford University yell leaders following a baseball game, thus establishing the Axe as a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.

  May

• May 31 - The launch of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.

  June

• June 7 - Temperance movement crusader Carrie Nation enters a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas, and proceeds to destroy all the alcoholic beverages with rocks.
• June 12 - New Richmond Tornado: A tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 people and injuring more than 200.
• June 25 - Three Denver, Colorado newspapers publish a story that the Chinese government under the Guangxu Emperor is going to demolish the Great Wall of China.
• June 30 - Mile-a-Minute Murphy earns his famous nickname this day, after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for one mile in under a minute on Long Island.

  July

• July 17 – America's first juvenile court is established in Chicago.
• July 19 - The Newsboys Strike takes place when the Newsies of New York City go on strike.
• July 30 - The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends successfully.

  August

• August 3 - The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• August 10 - Major Taylor wins the world 1-mile professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.
• August 17 - A hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.

  September

• September 6 - Open Door Policy is a term in foreign affairs initially used to refer to the United States policy established in the late-nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century, as enunciated in Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Note,
• September 14 - Henry H. Bliss becomes the first person to be killed by a motor vehicle in the United States. Upon disembarking from a streetcar in New York City, an electric-powered taxicab strikes and crushes him and he dies from his injuries the following morning.

  October

• October 30 - The Augusta High School Building is completed in Augusta, Kentucky; Augusta Methodist College shuts down.

  November

• November 4 - The Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
• November 8 - The Bronx Zoo opens in New York City.
• November 21 - Vice President Garret Hobart dies in office.

  December

• December 2 – Philippine–American War – Battle of Tirad Pass: General Gregorio del Pilar and his troops are able to guard the retreat of Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo before being wiped out.
• December 25 – The 6.7 San Jacinto earthquake shook the Inland Empire area of Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, causing six deaths and $50,000 in damage.

  Undated

• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Manteo, which was originally laid out as the Dare county seat in 1870.
• Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska.
• Public Archives Commission established.

  Ongoing

• Gay Nineties
• Progressive Era
• Lochner era
• Philippine–American War
• Boxer Rebellion Boxer Rebellion#Allied intervention.2C the Boxer War.2C and the aftermath

  Births

• January 9 - John A. Danaher, U.S. Senator from Connecticut 1939-1945.
• January 17 - Al Capone, gangster and crime boss.
• February 4 - Virginia M. Alexander, African American physician
• February 22
• *Dwight Frye, actor.
• *George O'Hara, silent film actor and screenwriter.
• February 27 - Charles H. Best, medical scientist.
• April 11 - Percy Lavon Julian, African American research chemist.
• April 28 - Mary Loveless, née Hewitt, immunologist.
• April 29 - Duke Ellington, jazz musician and composer.
• May 10 - Fred Astaire, né Austerlitz, dancer and singer.
• May 15 - Leonard B. Jordan, U.S. Senator from Idaho 1962-1973.
• June 4 - Arthur Barker, son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang
• July 7
• * Anna Baetjer, toxicologist.
• * Claude P. Dettloff, photographer.
• July 6 - Susannah Mushatt Jones, African American supercentenarian, oldest living person 2015-2016.
• July 17 - James Cagney, film actor.
• July 21
• * Hart Crane, poet.
• * Ernest Hemingway, fiction writer and journalist.
• July 23 - Carl G. Fenner, botanist.
• September 9 - Neil Hamilton, actor.
• September 11 - Jimmie Davis, country and gospel singer-songwriter and politician.
• November 5 - Margaret Atwood Judson, historian and author.
• November 22 - Hoagy Carmichael, composer and singer.
• December 20 - John Sparkman, U.S. Senator from Alabama 1946-1979.
• December 25 - Humphrey Bogart, film actor.
• Caroline F. Ware, historian and New Deal activist.

  Deaths

• January 23 - Daniel O'Connell, journalist, poet and writer
• January 26 - Augustus Hill Garland, U.S. Senator from Arkansas 1885-1889.
• March 1 - Philip W. McKinney, 41st Governor of Virginia.
• March 18 - Othniel Charles Marsh, paleontologist.
• March 19 - Patrick Walsh, Irish-born U.S. Senator from Georgia 1894-1895.
• April 10 - Horace Tabor, U.S. Senator from Colorado in 1883.
• April 22 - Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., founder of the Kentucky Derby
• April 24 - Richard J. Oglesby, U.S. Senator from Illinois 1873-1878.
• June 7 - Augustin Daly, dramatist and theater manager.
• July 18 - Horatio Alger, Jr., Unitarian minister and author.
• August 8 - Lucy Pickens, socialite, known during and after her lifetime as the "Queen of the Confederacy"
• August 22 - Caspar Buberl, Bohemian-born sculptor.
• September 9 - James B. Eustis, U.S. Senator from Louisiana 1876-1879 and 1885-1891.
• September 12 - Cornelius Vanderbilt II, businessman.
• October 5 - James Harlan, U.S. Senator from Iowa 1865-1866.
• October 18 - Gussie Davis, African American songwriter.
• October 28 - Ottmar Mergenthaler, German-born inventor.
• October 30 - William H. Webb, shipbuilder and philanthropist.
• November 21 - Garret Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States from 1897 to 1899.
• November 25 - Robert Lowry, Baptist minister and hymn writer.
• December 22 - Dwight L. Moody, preacher and publisher.