# 1899 in Belgium

Events in the year 1899 in Belgium.

## Incumbents

* Monarch: Leopold II
* Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer (to 23 January); Jules Vandenpeereboom (25 January to 5 August); Paul de Smet de Naeyer (from 5 August)

## Events

* 24 January – Unable to broker a coherent government policy on demands for proportional representation, Paul de Smet de Naeyer hands over the premiership to his colleague Jules Vandenpeereboom
* 14 February – Belgian Antarctic Expedition research vessel Belgica freed from Antarctic ice.
* 28–30 June – Violent protests in Brussels demanding introduction of universal manhood suffrage with proportional representation.
* 29 July – Belgium among the 26 signatories to the Hague Convention
* 31 July – Jules Vandenpeereboom offers his resignation as prime minister due to the failure of his government to pass its proposed legislation for proportional representation.
* 23 October – Thomas Louis Heylen succeeds Jean-Baptiste Decrolière as bishop of Liège
* 5 November – Belgian Antarctic Expedition arrives back in Antwerp on board research ship Belgica
* 24 November – Bill introducing proportional representation on the D'Hondt method passed in the lower house by 70 votes to 63 with 8 abstentions.
* 3 December – Antoon Stillemans, bishop of Ghent, suspends Adolf Daens as a diocesan priest due to his political activism for the Christene Volkspartij.
* 30 December – Act introducing proportional representation published as law.

## Publications
### Periodicals

* Annales de le Société d'archéologie de Bruxelles, vol. 13

### Reference

* Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 15.

### Books

* Stephane Mallarmé, Poésies (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
* Pol de Mont, Poètes belges d’expression française
* Max Rooses (ed.), Het schildersboek: Nederlandsche schilders der negentiende eeuw, vol. 3.
* Stijn Streuvels, Lenteleven
* Édouard van den Corput, Utilité des embellissements de Bruxelles: Nécessité de l'agrandissement territorial de la capital de la Belgique
* Emile Vandervelde, L'Alcoolisme et les conditions de travail en Belgique
* Émile Verhaeren, Les visages de la vie (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
* Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Histoires souveraines, with ornaments by Théo van Rysselberghe (Brussels, Edmond Deman)

## Art and architecture
### Architecture

* Victor Horta, Maison du Peuple, Brussels
* Paul Saintenoy, Old England (department store), Brussels

### Art

* Constantin Meunier, The Horse at the Pond

## Births

* 25 January – Paul-Henri Spaak, statesman (died 1972)
* 21 February – Clara Clairbert, soprano (died 1970)
* 28 February – Jacqueline Dyris, actress (died 1962)
* 20 March – Albert-Émile de Beauffort, colonial administrator (died 1983)
* 17 April – Gérard Debaets, cyclist (died 1959)
* 12 May – Maurice Carême, poet (died 1978)
* 17 May – Paul Ooghe, soldier (died 2001)
* 24 May – Henri Michaux, writer (died 1984)
* 21 June – Jean Hénault, athlete (died 1983)
* 30 June – Jean-Marie Plum, composer (died 1944)
* 22 July – Elisabeth van der Noot d'Assche, aristocrat (died 1974)
* 24 August – Albert Claude, Nobel Prize-winning biologist (died 1983)
* 29 September – Gaspard Lemaire, Olympic swimmer (died 1979)
* 20 October – Marnix Gijsen, writer (died 1984)
* 3 November – Julien Vervaecke, cyclist (died 1940)
* 8 November – Ernest Adam, politician (died 1985)
* 15 November – Auguste Pelsmaeker, footballer (died 1976)
* 20 December – Emile Brichard, cyclist (died 2004)
* 31 December – Richard Declerck, politician (died 1986)

## Deaths

* 17 January – Camille Everardi (born 1824), baritone and voice teacher
* 1 March – Abraham Mayer (born 1816), physician
* 12 March – Edmond De Schampheleer (born 1824), artist
* 1 April – Clara de Hirsch (born 1833), businesswoman
* 28 May – Charles Piot (born 1812), archivist
* 14 July – Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin (born 1832), Orientalist
* 27 August – Emmanuel Hiel (born 1834), writer
* 4 September – Théodore Baron (born 1840), painter
* 6 September – Jean Baptiste Carnoy (born 1836), priest-scientist
* 27 November – Guido Gezelle (born 1830), priest-poet
* 27 December – Henri Evenepoel (born 1872), artist