1899

Events from the year 1899 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: William McKinley (R-OH)
* Vice President: Garret Hobart (R-NJ) (until November 21), vacant (starting November 21)
* Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (IL)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) (until March 4), David B. Henderson (R-IA) (starting December 4)
* Congress: 55th (until March 4), 56th (starting March 4)
==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 Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, and the Philippines as a result of the Treaty of Paris.
* February 11 – 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, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
* March 24 – George Dewey is made Admiral of the 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 (later proved to be a fabrication) 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 (strike lasts until August 2).
* 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 of heart failure.
===December===
* December 2 – Philippine–American War: Battle of Tirad Pass: ("The Filipino Thermopylae") 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 Mw San Jacinto earthquake shook the Inland Empire area of Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing six deaths and $50,000 in damage.
==Memoriam==
* January 23 – Daniel O'Connell, journalist, poet and writer (aged 50; Sausalito, CA, USA)
* January 26 – Augustus Hill Garland, U.S. Senator from Arkansas 1885–1889 (aged 66; Washington, DC, USA)
* March 1 – Philip W. McKinney, 41st Governor of Virginia (aged 66; Farmville, VA, USA)
* March 18 – Othniel Charles Marsh, paleontologist (aged 67; New Haven, CT, USA)
* March 19 – Patrick Walsh, Irish-born U.S. Senator from Georgia 1894–1895 (aged 59; Augusta, GA, USA)
* April 9 – Stephen Johnson Field, jurist (aged 82; Washington, DC, USA)
* April 10 – Horace Tabor, U.S. Senator from Colorado in 1883 (aged 68; Denver, CO, USA)
* April 22 – Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., founder of the Kentucky Derby (aged 53; Memphis, TN, USA)
* April 24 – Richard J. Oglesby, U.S. Senator from Illinois 1873–1878 (aged 74; Elkhart, IL, USA)
* June 7 – Augustin Daly, dramatist and theater manager (aged 60; Paris, France)
* June 15 – Richard P. Bland, politician, lawyer, and educator (aged 63; Lebanon, MO, USA)
* July 7 – George Washington Julian, politician, lawyer, and writer (aged 82; Irvington, IN, USA)
* July 18 – Horatio Alger, Unitarian minister and author (aged 67; Natick, MA, USA)
* August 8 – Lucy Pickens, socialite, known during and after her lifetime as the "Queen of the Confederacy" (aged 67; Edgewood, SC, USA)
* August 22 – Caspar Buberl, Bohemian-born sculptor (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
* September 9 – James B. Eustis, U.S. Senator from Louisiana 1876–1879 and 1885–1891 (aged 65; Newport, RI, USA)
* September 12 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, businessman (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 5 – James Harlan, U.S. Senator from Iowa 1865–1866 (aged 79; Mount Pleasant, IA, USA)
* October 18 – Gussie Davis, African American songwriter (aged 35; Whitestone, NY, USA)
* October 28 – Ottmar Mergenthaler, German-born inventor (aged 45; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* October 30 – William H. Webb, shipbuilder and philanthropist (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 21 – Garret Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States from 1897 to 1899 (aged 55; Paterson, NJ, USA)
* November 25 – Robert Lowry, Baptist minister and hymn writer (aged 73; Plainfield, NJ, USA)
* December 22 – Dwight L. Moody, preacher and publisher (aged 62; Northfield, MA, USA)
==External links==
* 1899 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 12