page_title: 1899
section_title: January–March
hierarchical_section_title: 1899 / Events / January–March
context_page_description: 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1899th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 899th year of the 2nd millennium, the 99th year of the 19th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1890s decade. As of the start of 1899, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
context_section_description: January 1
  Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
  Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City.
  January 6 – Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
  January 8 – The Association football club SK Rapid Wien is founded in Vienna.
  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 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.
  The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
  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.
  February 16 – Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the first Association football club in Iceland, is established in the island's capital, Reykjavík.
  February 25 – In an accident at Grove Hill, Harrow, London, England, Edwin Sewell becomes the world's first driver of a petrol-driven vehicle to be killed; his passenger, Maj. James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.
  March 1 – In Afghanistan, Capt. George Roos-Keppel makes a sudden attack on a predatory band of Chamkannis that have been raiding in the Kurram Valley, and captures 100 prisoners with 3,000 head of cattle.
  March 2 – Mount Rainier National Park is established, in the U.S. state of Washington.
  March 4 – Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay, Queensland. A 12 meter high wave reaches up to 5 km inland, leaving over 400 dead (the deadliest natural disaster in Australia's history).
  March 6 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin, and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.
  March 8 – The Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 (predecessor of Eintracht Frankfurt Association football club) is founded.
  March 20 – At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.
  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.
  Philippine–American War – Battle of Marilao River: Filipino forces under the personal command of Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines, fail to prevent troops of the United States Army crossing the river.
  March 30 – The German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scie
caption: January 1: Cuba free.
exif: {}