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1899 in the United States

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This article is intended to provide an overview of notable events from the year 1899 in the United States.

1899 $5 silver certificate
"The beautiful Indian maidens", promotional poster, c. 1899
W. H. Shipman House, Hilo, Hawaii, built in 1899

Incumbents

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Federal government

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Garret Hobart (R-New Jersey) (until November 21)
vacant (starting November 21)
Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine) (until March 4)
David B. Henderson (R-Iowa) (starting December 4)

Events

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January

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by 1899 the age of outlaws and gunslingers was at an end

  • January 1 – Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
  • January 4 – The American Society of Landscape Architects, still in existence 125 years later, is founded.
  • January 9 – 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 speech 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.[1]
  • 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 will have 80 members at its peak. It dissolves in 1991, with only eight members left.[2]
  • January 15 – The name of Puerto Rico is changed by the new U.S. military government to "Porto Rico".[3] It will not be changed back until May 17, 1932.
  • January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island.
  • 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 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, so the seat remains vacant for more than two years. The Pennsylvania experience later leads to the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to provide for U.S. Senators to be directly elected by popular vote, rather than by the state legislatures.
  • January 19 – Future film producer Samuel Goldwyn, born in Poland and later a resident of Germany and England, arrives in the United States at the age of sixteen as Szmuel Gelbfisz.
  • January 20 – The Schurman Commission is created by President William McKinley to study the American approach to the 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 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 this 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.[4]
  • January 28 – At a time when U.S. Senators are elected by the state legislature rather than by ballot, wealthy businessman William A. Clark is elected senator by the Montana state legislature after offering bribes to most of its members. The U.S. Senate refuses to seat him after evidence of the bribery is revealed.[5]
  • January 29 – A lawyer for the estate of John W. Keely, an 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" which had achieved perpetual motion, reveals that the late Mr. Keely's motor has been a fraud, and that the widow knew nothing of it.[6]
  • 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

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  • 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.[7]
  • 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 9 – The Dodge Commission exonerates the U.S. Department of War from responsibility in the United States Army beef scandal. 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.[8]
  • February 10
    • Spanish–American War: The U.S. receives the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico as a result of the Treaty of Paris.
    • Future U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his fiancée Lou Henry, both 24, 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 this time in the continental United States is set as Fort Logan, Montana, records a low of −61 °F (−52 °C).[9]
  • 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 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 have been opened for refuelling. Germanic remains on the bottom of New York Harbor for more than a week while salvaging goes on, then requires refurbishing for three months, but becomes operational again.[10]
  • February 14 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
  • 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 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.[11]

March

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April

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May

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  • May 1 – U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey reports that 10 officers and crew of the ship USS Yorktown have been taken prisoner by the Philippine republic.[15]
  • May 4 – The thoroughbred horse Manuel, ridden by Fred Taral, wins the 25th running of the Kentucky Derby.
  • May 15 – A clue to the fate of the British freighter Pelican, which disappeared in October 1897 along with 40 crew, is found in a message in a bottle that washes ashore at Portage Bay, Alaska.
  • May 20 – Jacob German, a cab driver, becomes the first motor vehicle operator in the U.S. to be arrested for speeding when he is caught driving his electric taxi 12 miles per hour (19 km/h), more than twice the speed limit on Lexington Avenue.[16]
  • May 30 – Female outlaw Pearl Hart robs a stage coach 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona.
  • May 31 – The launch of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.

June

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July

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  • July 10 – The Allegan meteorite, a 50 lb (23 kg) H chondrite crashes to Earth and lands in southwestern Michigan's Allegan County.
  • July 17 – America's first juvenile court is established in Chicago.
  • July 19
  • July 20 – A white lynch mob in Tallulah, Louisiana kills five white Italian shopkeepers from Sicily who have opened stores in the town to sell produce and meat, after accusations that the Sicilians were driving the American stores out of business. None of the suspects in the lynching are prosecuted.[19]
  • July 22 – The torture and lynching of Frank Embree takes place in Fayette, Missouri, after Embree, a black 19-year-old man, is accused by a mob of raping a white 14-year-old girl. Shortly after Embree has received 100 lashes from a whip, a photographer takes Embree's photo, followed by another one after Embree's hanging.[20]
  • July 23 – Washington, D.C. retires its short-lived cable car system, the day after Columbia Railway Company converts exclusively to electric powered cars
  • July 27 – Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska, leading to the Nome Gold Rush.[21]
  • July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends successfully.

August

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  • August 1 – A hurricane destroys all but nine homes in the town of Carrabelle, Florida
  • August 2 – The first attack on an offshore oil installation in the United States takes place near Montecito, when a mob of outraged citizens demolishes an oil rig.[22]
  • 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.[23]
  • August 11 – The "Black Heavyweight Championship" of boxing is won by Frank Childs, defeating Klondike Haynes.
  • August 16
    • Hobson City, Alabama, the oldest exclusively African American municipality in the United States, is incorporated in Calhoun County.
    • Western outlaw Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum is badly wounded in an attempt to commit a train robbery. He is captured the next day, has an arm amputated, and is executed by hanging in 1901.
  • August 17 – A hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.
  • August 18 – Rasmus Midgett of the United States Life-Saving Service single-handedly saves the 10 surviving crew of the freighter SS Priscilla
  • August 22 – The earliest major motorcycle race in the U.S. takes place at the Harford Avenue Colosseum in Baltimore, Maryland. The team of Henri Fournier and Charles Henshaw wins the race.
  • August 23 – In Darien, Georgia, the "Delegal riot" takes place when hundreds of armed African-American residents surround the McIntosh County Jail to prevent the transfer of Henry Delegal, a black man charged with rape, to prevent the possibility of Delegal being lynched. The Georgia State militia is sent in to disband the rioters and to oversee Delegal's safe transfer. Delegal is later acquitted of the rape charge.
  • August 25 – Two convicted murderers, Cyrus A. Brown and Matthew Craig, become the first white men to be legally executed in the modern-day U.S. state of Oklahoma. The two are hanged together at Muskogee.

September

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  • September 3 – An 8.2 magnitude earthquake shakes the area around Yakutat Bay in Alaska.
  • September 4 – Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, resigns his seat in Congress and the Speaker's office in protest over U.S. President McKinley's support of war with Spain.
  • 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 7 – The first parade of automobiles in the U.S. takes place at Newport, Rhode Island.[24]
  • September 10 – A week after an 8.2 magnitude quake strikes Alaska, a stronger, 8.5 magnitude earthquake shakes Yakutat Bay.
  • 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.
  • September 18 – Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag is registered for copyright.
  • September 27 – Former U.S. President Benjamin Harrison concludes his special assignment of arguing in favor of Britain before the Anglo-Venezuelan arbitration tribunal.
  • September 30 – In Milwaukee, minor league baseball executive Harry Quinn announces an 8-team rival to baseball's 12-team National League, the "American Baseball Association" with an eastern division (New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington) and a western division (Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Detroit).[25]

October

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November

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1899 snowstorm in Washington, D.C.

December

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Undated

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Ongoing

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Births

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Deaths

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Mr. Hoar's Part in the Filipino War". The New York Times. January 15, 1900. p. 1.
  2. ^ Stewart, Estelle May (1936). Handbook of American trade-unions: 1936 edition. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Government Printing Office.
  3. ^ William Dinwiddie, Puerto Rico, its Conditions and Possibilities (Harper & Brothers, 1899) p. 261
  4. ^ George Henry White", in Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007, ed. by Robert A. Brady (U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008) p. 260
  5. ^ Joseph Kinsey Howard, Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome (University of Nebraska Press, 2003) p. 67
  6. ^ Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, Perpetual Motion (Adventures Unlimited Press, 2015) p.146
  7. ^ Kenneth N. Johnson, Kansas University Basketball Legends (Arcadia Publishing, 2013)
  8. ^ "War Department Investigating Commission", by Joseph Smith, in The War of 1898, and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Benjamin R. Beede (Taylor & Francis, 1994) pp. 582-584
  9. ^ "Climate History: The Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899" Archived April 18, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
  10. ^ Ian Collard, The British Cruise Ship An Illustrated History 1844-1939 (Amberley Publishing, 2013)
  11. ^ Anthony B. Cochran, Out of the Storm: A Legacy (Outskirts Press, 2018) p. 252
  12. ^ Harry Barnard, Independent Man: The Life of Senator James Couzens (Wayne State University Press, 2002) p. 53
  13. ^ "Encinal County Abolished" Archived September 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The Laws of Texas, 1897-1902, Volume 11 (Gammel Book Company, 1902) pp.10–11.
  14. ^ The American Monthly Review of Reviews (June 1899), pp. 539-542
  15. ^ The American Monthly Review of Reviews (June 1899), pp. 664-669
  16. ^ Edward Robb Ellis, The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History (Avalon Press, 1966) p. 461
  17. ^ "Lee, Fitz", in African American War Heroes, ed. by James B. Martin (ABC-CLIO, 2014) p. 105
  18. ^ Ismail Hakkı Kadı and A.C.S. Peacock, Ottoman-Southeast Asian Relations (Brill, 2019) p. 385
  19. ^ " 'Corda e Sapone' (Rope and Soap): how the Italians were lynched in the USA" Archived May 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, by Ken Scambray, L'Italo-Americano (December 13, 2012)
  20. ^ Courtney Baker, Humane Insight: Looking at Images of African American Suffering and Death p. 55
  21. ^ Berton, Pierre (1972). Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899. Anchor Canada.
  22. ^ Shashi Shekhar Prasad Singh, Offshore Operations and Engineering (CRC Press, 2019) p. 8-29
  23. ^ "Professional Information". The Major Taylor Society. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  24. ^ "Rhode Island History and Facts of Interest", Rhode Island Secretary of State's Office.
  25. ^ "The New Baseball Circuit— President Quin Announces the Association Teams", The New York Times, October 1, 1899, p. 11
  26. ^ "M'Kinley Now Chicago's Guest; His Cabinet With Him; Reception Committes Escort the Nation's Chief, Minister Mariscal and Premier Laurier", The Chicago Sunday Tribune, October 8, 1899, p. 1
  27. ^ "Milestones of the U.S. Archival Profession and the National Archives, 1800-2011". U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  28. ^ "Dr. Virginia M. Alexander". U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  29. ^ Earl Whitehill
  30. ^ Mary Petty
  31. ^ Arthur Q Bryan
  32. ^ Harry Shields
  33. ^ "Hart Crane | American poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  34. ^ "Gertrude Berg | American actress, producer, and screenwriter". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  35. ^ "Abbreviated Telegrams". Rock Island Argus. October 6, 1899. p. 1. Retrieved April 3, 2015 – via Chronicling America.

Further reading

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