The Paul M. Potter theater production The Conquerors premieres on Broadway at the Empire Theatre, but its initial showing is unpopular and described in one newspaper as "a deliberate endeavor to pander to debased tastes."
Two horse-drawn streetcar lines in Ghent, Belgium, are merged to for SA des Tramways Electriques de Gand in a switch to trams with electric motors.
January 5– China and Germany come to an agreement on the cession of Chinese territory at Kiao-Chau Bay to German control.
January 9– In Malaysia, the British North Borneo Chartered Company successfully attacks a fort at Ranau with a mission of ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion by capturing Mat Salleh and his followers, but finds that the rebels had abandoned the fort and moved to a more secure location in the interior of Tamburan.
January 10– The trial begins for Ferdinand Esterhazy, an officer in the French Army accused of spying for the German Empire and for committing treason for which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted in 1894. Esterhazy is acquitted the next day in proceedings closed to the public.
Li Hongzhang (Li Hung Chang) returns to office as the Grand Secretary of China, similar to a Prime Minister of China.
Voters in the U.S. state of Louisiana approve a constitutional convention to debate the disenfranchising of illiterate African-Americans, without affecting the rights of illiterate White voters.
An official investigation implicates Vice-President Pereira of Brazil, and 20 other people from the military and the congress, in a conspiraccy to assassinate President Prudente de Morais.
January 14– U.S. Senator Samuel Hoar of Massachusetts introduces a bill proposing an amendment to postpone the presidential inauguration day from March 4 to April 30.
Ugandan monarch and rebel Mwanga II of Buganda is defeated by British colonial authorities after having made an attempt to regain the throne which he lost on August 9, 1897.
Walter Eli Clark is appointed as the Governor of the U.S. District of Alaska by President McKinley.
January 16–Charles Pelham Villiers, who represented Wolverhampton in the British House of Commons since 1835, dies in office 10 days after having celebrated 63 consecutive years as Member of Parliament, a record that continues to stand more than 130 years later.
January 17– President Sanford B. Dole of the Republic of Hawaii arrives in the U.S. on an official tour and to meet with Congressional officials about U.S. annexation of the Republic
An expedition led by French officer Marius Gabriel Cazemajou in Africa accomplishes the securing of a French protectorate over the Kebbi Emirate in Niger, as well as Kebbi's tributary chiefdoms of the Dendi, Maouri and Djerma people.
The longest running college ice hockey rivalry, between Harvard University and Brown University, begins as Brown defeats Harvard, 6 goals to 0.
January 20– Delegations from multiple British colonies in Australia being a convention to discuss a federation of the governments into a single British Commonwealth.
January 21–Joseph McKenna is confirmed as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a voice vote in the U.S. Senate, and takes his seat on the bench five days later.
January 24– Two days after suspending operations because of rioting in Paris out of the Dreyfus case, the French Chamber of Deputies votes confidence in the French government by a margin of 376 to 133.
January 25– The editor of the German humor magazine Kladderadatsch is sentenced to two months in prison for publishing a cartoon that insulted Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The United Mine Workers of America labor union and representatives of U.S. bituminious coal companies in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, agree to a uniform eight-hour workday, effective April 1, 1898, with a 10 cent per ton increase in wages.
President Dole of Hawaii is welcomed in Washington, D.C. as a guest of U.S. President William McKinley.
Nineteen days before the destruction of the battleship USS Maine, an investigative report to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy warns that in ships where the coal bunker is stored next to the artillery magazines, there is a danger that if the coal is overheated and spontaneously catches fire, the magazines are at a risk of exploding.
The Banca per il Trentino-Alto Adige, now the main component of Italy's Gruppo Cassa Centrale Banca, is founded in the Italian city of Trento.
Indian independence activist and self-proclaimed prophet Birsa Munda is released from prison in British India after two years and returns to the Bengal Province to reorganize his followers.
The only known bones of the dinosaur species "Capitalsaurus", originally referred to as "Creosaurus" and "Dryptosaurus", are discovered by construction workers excavating a sewer at the intersection of Washington, D.C.'s First Street and F Street SE.
The first complete organized baseball game in Puerto Rico (at the time, a colony of Spain) is played, as the Puerto Rican team Borinquen defeats Alemendares, a team of Cuban and Puerto Rican players, 9 to 3 in a game at Santurce. The two teams had played an incomplete game on January 11 with Borinquen ahead 3 to 0 before the game ended.
The elliptical galaxy IC 3370, located at least 156 million light years from Earth, is discovered by American astronomer Lewis A. Swift in the area of the sky occupied by the constellation Centaurus.
January 31– Nineteen people are drowned when the British mail packet ship Channel Queen is wrecked off of the British island of Guernsey.
The Red Tuesday bushfires break out in the Australian town of Gippsland, Victoria, desstroying 2,000 buildings, killing 12 people and leaving 2,500 others homeless.
The Passion Play of Oberammergau, the first motion picture licensed under Thomas Edison's system, premieres at the Eden Musee theater in New York City. While the promoters claim that the 19-minute film had been made in Oberammergau in Germany, investigative reporters later find that the film had been made on the rooftop of the Grand Central Palace in New York City.
February 2– The Kingdom of Prussia forbids the importation of fruit from the United States because of sanitary concerns.
In a battle in the Spanish colony of the Philippines, three Spanish Navy gunboats shell and destroy the Moro rebels' villages of Bonto, Buaya, Ragayan, Minbalay and Macro, and 32 Moros are killed.
The city of San Martín de los Andes is founded in Argentina as part of a claim over Chilean territory, and later becomes an Argentine tourist destination.
Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, Spain's minister to the United States, resigns after his letter criticizing President McKinley is published. Luis Polo de Bernabé is appointed to succeed Dupuy de Lome.
The United Kingdom's Parliament is opened with the reading of a speech approved by Queen Victoria.
The first U.S. Embassy in Russia is established in Saint Petersburg with Ethan Hitchcock as ambassador to the Russian Empire.
The spiral galaxy IC 2163, which is in collision with NGC 2207 as part of the "Cosmic Owl" pairing and which is 80 million light-years from Earth is discovered by British astronomer Herbert Alonzo Howe in the region of the constellation Canis Major
An automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree, killing Lindfield and making him the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway.
The comic strip Casey's Corner, created by Richard F. Outcault and notable for being the first newspaper comic strip to feature continuity and a story line, as well as focusing on African-American characters, makes its debut in the New York World before moving to the New York Evening Journal two months later.
The Australian ship Amy is wrecked at Thiroul, New South Wales, during a cyclone and her crew of 8 all drown, while six of the eight crew of the French fishing boat Gazelle are killed when the vessel is struck by the British ship SS Columbia in the English Channel.
February 16– the French ocean liner Flachat sinks off of the coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 49 passengers and 38 crew.
February 19– The U.S. Department of the Navy declines a request by Spanish officials in Cuba to allow a joint investigation of the explosion of the USS Maine.
February 20– In a referendum, voters in Switzerland approve a measure to allow the federation government to nationalize the nation's railroads.
France's government denies that it has any intention of usurping British territory in Africa.
February 23–Émile Zola is sentenced to one year's imprisonment in France fo, after writing J'Accuse…!, an attack on the Esterhazy court-martial, and is fined 3,000 French francs.
February 24– The French Chamber of Deputies passes a resolution of confidence in the government of Prime Minister Jules Méline by a large majority.
February 25– The Spanish cruiser Vizcaya leaves New York harbor and sails to Havana 10 days after the destruction of the USS Maine.
The U.S. Senate votes, 50 to 19, to deny the seat to which Henry Cornett of Oregon had been elected.
Spain's Cortes votes to approve an appropriation of one million Spanish pesetas for the kingdom's navy in the Spanish-American War.
Contracts are signed at Beijing for joint British and German loan to China at 4 1/2% interest per annum, with the principal to be paid in full by 1943.
March
March 1– Troops in Costa Rica are ordered to the nation's border with Nicaragua in preparation for a war.
March 9– U.S. President William McKinley signs the bill appropriating $50,000,000 for national defense for the Spanish-American War immediately after the U.S. Senate approves the measure unanimously. The Houde of Representatives had unanimously approved the bill the day before.
March 10– At Zoar, Ohio, the Society of Separatists votes to disband its commune after 50 years of communistic life, and the accumulation of three million dollars of property.
The sinking of the Newfoundland steamer Greenland kills all 48 of the crew.
By a vote of 207 to 7, the Italian Chamber of Deputies overwhelmingly adopts a resolution recommending political censure of former premier Francesco Crispi for ethics arising from the Banca Romana scandal. Crispi resigns his seat in the Chamber two days later.
More than 100 officers of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet are arrested on charges of bribery and corruption, along with numerous civilian dockyard officials, and Admiral Kopyloff is dismissed.
The entire cabinet of the Spanish territory of Porto Rico resigns.
The House of Commons of the United Kingdom votes, 243 to 138, to reject an amendment to the Irish land laws that would have been favorable to tenants and evicted tenants.
Parliamentary elections are held in Denmark and the Radical Party secures a majority.
Annie Oakley promotes the service of women in combat situations, with the United States military. On this day, she writes a letter to President William McKinley "offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should war break out with Spain."*U.S. consul-general Lee, the highest ranking diplomatic officer in Cuba, is ordered by the U.S. State Department to return.
Spain's Foreign Minister Gullon replies to a joint appeal for peace from the Six Powers of Europe, and declares that the Spanish government has "reached the limit of international policy in conceding the demands and allowing the pretensions of the United States.
U.S. President McKinley replies to another note from the Six Powers stating that peace with Spain will be preserved only if Spain's war against Cuba ceases.
Elections are held for the Senate of Spain with an increase of the government party's majority.
In a message to Congress, President McKinley asks authority "to intervene in Cuba by force to re-establish peace and order in the island," short of a formal declaration of war against Spain.
April 12– In testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, former Consul to Cuba Lee says that Spanish officials in Havana were aware of a plot to destroy the Maine.
The U.S. House of Representatives votes, 322 to 19, to endorse a recommendation for President McKinley to intervene in Cuba.
Spain's cabinet approves extraordinary war credits.
April 14– In anticipation of war with the U.S., the Spanish cabinet decides to move up the date fro the opening of the Cortes from April 25 to April 20.
The U.S. Army orders that most of its troops be concentrated along the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans, Mobile and Tampa.
The U.S. Navy charters the American Line passenger steamers SS St. Louis, SS St. Paul, SS Paris and SS New York.
April 16– The U.S. Senate votes, 67 to 21, in favor of U.S. intervention in Cuba; 51 to 37, in favor of a resolution in favor of the independence of the rebel Republic of Cuba; and 88 to 0 for a disclaimer of any intention to exercise sovereignty over the island except for pacification.
The House of Representatives agrees to most of the Senate's Cuban resolutions, but declines to endorse the rebel Republic of Cuba, which the Senate agrees to before the bill goes to President McKinley.
Commodore Howell is placed in command of the North Atlantic partrol during the war, with four ships USS Yosemite, USS Prairie, USS Yankee and USS Dixie.
U.S. Presdident McKinley sends an ultimatum to Spain demanding the withdrawal of all Spanish Army and Navy troops from the island and requires an answer before noon Washington time on April 23, on threat of war.
Spain's Cortes meets in an emergency session in Madrid to respond to the possibility of war as the Queen Regent reads a speech to the parliament from the throne. Spain's minister to Washington requests and receives his passport from the Department of State
The Spanish government severs diplomatic relations with the U.S. before U.S. Minister to Spain Woodford can deliver the U.S. Ultimatum. Woodford turns over papers to the British Embassy.
The United Kingdom proclaims its neutrality in the Spanish-American War. Similar declarations are made by Argentina, Colombia, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Uruguay.
The U.S. Postmaster-General orders that no more mail be sent from the United States to addresses in Spain.
In the first U.S. action in the Spanish-American War, the U.S. Navy ships New York, Puritan and Cincinnati bomb the earthworks and guns defending Matanzas in Cuba.
The first "bread riots" in Italy break out a Bari in southern Italy on the Adriatic coast.
A treaty is signed between Nicaragua and Costa Rica to call a cease-fire in fighting between the two Central American nations.
Portugal announces its neutrality in the war between Spain and the United States.
The Spanish Navy cruisers Maria Teresa, Almirante Oquendo, Vizcaya and Cristobal Colon depart from the Spanish bast the Cape Verde Islands, along with the destroyers Pluton, Terror and Furor.
May
May 1–Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Manila Bay, the U.S. Navy fleet, led by Commodore Dewey destroys the Spanish squadron, in the first battle of the war, as well as the first battle in the Philippines Campaign. Among the 12 ships sunk are the cruisers Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Don Juan de Austria, Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo's Isla de Luzón, Reina Cristina and Velasco, and the gunboat Marques del Duero. While the Americans sustain no losses except for six men wounded, more than 600 Spanish troops are killed or wounded.
U.S. Commodore Dewey oversees the severing of the telegraphic cable between Manila and Hong Kong, the destruction of the fortifications of Manila Pay, and the taking of the Spanish Naval station at Cavite.
Bread riots in Italy extend to Naples, Ravenna, and Ferrara, while at the village of Bognia Cavallo, three rioters are killed by government troops.
Thousands of Chinese scholars and Beijing citizens seeking reforms protest in front of the capital controlyuan.
The Italian government calls reserve troops to duty to suppress the bread riots in Milan and elsewhere.
As Spain's Cortes reopens, Prime Minister Praxedes Sagasta and his ministers are called on to explain why the Spanish fleet was defeated at the Battle of Manila Bay.
The Brazilian Congress opens at Rio de Janeiro.
May 4– The German Reichstag votes, 177 to 83, to revise court-martial procedures.
May 5– Rioting begins in Spain over the high prices of food.
Ensign Worth Bagley and four sailors on USS Winslow become the first Americans fatalities in the war when they are struck by an exploding shell fired by Spanish Navy gunboats at the U.S. Navy vessels Winslow, Wilmington and Hudson during an American blockade of the harbor at Cardenas in Cuba.
An American sailor becomes the fifth American death in the war while he and other sailors are cutting the telegraphic cable at Cienfuegos in Cuba.
The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill to amend the U.S. Constitution for direct elections for Senators, at that time performed by the individual state legislatures.
The second round of the election in France for the 585 seats of the Chambre des députés is held for 161 offices where no candidate had received a majority of the vote on May 8. The Progressive Republicans party of Prime Minister Jules Méline retains its plurality, maintaining 254 seats, but Méline's government collapses on June 28.
The sinking of the schooner Jane Gray kills 35 people, most of Americans seeking gold and are traveling to the Yukon Territory of Canada.
Former U.S. President Benjamin Harrison is selected by the Venezuelan government to appear for the South American nation in its boundary arbitration with the UK over the border with British Guiana.
The German Federation football club SV Darmstadt 98 is formed.
May 23– The second trial of Émile Zola begins in France and adjurns on the same day.
May 24– In China, British troops take possession of Wei-Hai-Wei (now Weihai in the Shandong province after an agreement to lease 288 square miles (750km2) of territory .
May 25– The American diplomatic mission at Tongzhou in Beijing in China is looted and burned by a mob.
May 27– The territory of Guangzhouwan is leased by China to France, according to the Treaty of 12 April 1892, as the Territoire de Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, forming part of French Indochina.
Prime Minister Rudini of the Kingdom of Italy forms a new cabinet, three days after his prior government collapsed.
Philippine independence fighters defeat Spanish troops in a battle on the Zapote River.
June
The original flag of the Philippines as conceived by General Emilio Aguinaldo. The blue is of a lighter shade than the later mandated royal blue; the sun has eight points as in modern times but many more rays and it has a mythical face
Rebels in Turkestan attack a Russian military post in the area kill 20 soldiers.
On orders of Admiral William T. Sampson, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson and seven volunteers sail the collier Merrimac into the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, blow up the ship and sink it to block the channel, and are taken as prisoners of war.
June 4– The first U.S. military expedition to the Philippines as ships depart from Honolulu in the U.S. territory of Hawaii.
June 5– Representatives of Japan and Russia sign a protocol to guarantee the continued independence of the Empire of Korea.
June 6– The U.S. Navy bombards the outer fortifications of Santiago de Cuba without any damages to the American vessels.
The Japanese Diet is dissolved and new elections are scheduled for August 10.
Two U.S. Marines officers and two privates, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel R. W. Huntington, are killed in an attack by Spanish toops at Guantanamo Bay.
In the Chamber of Deputies, the French government of Prime Minister Jules Méline loses a vote of confidence. Méline resigns on June 28.
In a battle on Guantanamo Bay, the Spanish Army suffers 200 killed and wounded.
June 15– Prime Minister Méline of France and his cabinet resign, and Meline attempts to form a new cabinet.
June 17– President Félix Faure of France asks former premier Alexandre Ribot to form a new ministry, but Ribot announces the next day that he cannot form a new coalition.
June 18– Prime Minister Rudini of Italy and his cabinet resign after the failure of the government formed three weeks earlier.
Delegates from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua meet a Managua to form a constitution for the proposed Central American Federation.
At the launching of the British Royal Navy battleship Albion at Blackwall, 37 spectators are drowned when the platform they are standing on is wrecked.
The U.S. cruiser USS Charleston forces the Spanish Army to surrender the Ladrones Islands in the Philippines.
In a battle between the U.S. Army "Rough Riders" (commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood and Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt) against a larger force of Spanish Army soldiers at Sevilla in Puerto Rico, 16 Americans are killed and 41 more wounded before the Spanish troops retreat.
An expedition to the Arctic, commanded by the Norwegian exploer Captain Sverdrup, departs from Christiania (now Oslo) on the ship Fram.
A British Arctic Expedition, commanded by Walter Wllman, departs from Tromsoe in Norway.
June 27– The second round of voting is held for members of the Reichstag in Germany in districts where no candidate had attained a majority in the June 13 first round.
The Curtis Act of 1898 takes effect and will lead to the dissolution of tribal and communal lands in Indian Territory and ultimately the creation of the State of Oklahoma in 1907.
Okuma Stagaki forms a new government as Japanese Prime Minister.
Henri Brisson becomes Prime Minister of France when he completes organization of a cabinet of ministers.
June 29– General Pelloux forms a new cabinet as Prime Minister of Italy.
June 30– The French Chamber of Deputies votes its confidence in the new Brisson government.
Spanish troops attempt to retake San Juan and fight in battle for two days against the U.S. troops under General lawton. At the en of the battle, the U.S. Army sustains 230 troops, including 22 officers, while another 1,284 are wounded and 79 are missing in action.
Newspaper publication comes to a halt in all Chicago daily papers as the stereotypers' union goes on strike. The strike lasts through the end of July 5.
Spanish–American War: Battle of Santiago de Cuba– The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron, and four U.S. Navy battleships (Brooklyn, Oregon, Iowa and Texas) stop the Spanish Navy ships Infanta Maria Teresa, Almirante Ogucudo and Vizcaya from fleeing the harbor, while Cristobal Colon, Furor and Pluton are wrecked. Admiral Cevera and more than 700 Spanish officers and men are taken as prisoners of war.
By a vote of 42 to 21, the U.S. Senate approves a bill to annex the Republic of Hawaii and the legislation is sent to the House of Representatives.
A prisoner exchange teakes place at Santiago as Lieutenant Hobson and his seven volunteers are exchanged for Spanish prisoners.
July 7– The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands as President McKinley signs the resolution. The President dispatches the U.S. Navy cruiser Philadelphia to Honolulu to raise the American flag over the islands.
July 10– Spanish Navy Admiral Cervera and other officers taken as prisoners of war at Santiago arrive for incarceration at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The prisoners are then transported to Annapolis, Maryland for imprisonment on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy.
The government of Haiti refuses to allow the U.S. to establish a weather station on its territory.
July 29 The Irish local government bill passes its third reading in the House of Lords and is sent to the Queen for royal assent.–
July 30– Pope Leo XIII issues a papal encyclical urging the people of Scotland to return from the Church of Scotland to the Roman Catholic Church.
July 31– Spanish troops in the Philippines attack a U.S. Army force at Malate, killing nine U.S. soldiers and seriously wounding nine others, while Spanish losses are heavy.
August 1– American inventor William Abner Eddy files for a patent for the what is now called the "Malay kite", a diamond shaped, two-stick kite that became the standard for kite flying for decades, and began marketing it as the "Eddy Kite". He would be granted U.S. Patent No. 646,375 on March 27, 1900.
August 2– The Empress Dowager of China announces that she has relieved the Emperor of all power, and appointed Hung Chang as her chief adviser.
A team of American mountaineers led by William O. Owen become the first people to reach the top of the 13,775 feet (4,199m) tall Grand Teton mountain in Wyoming.
A train crash on the Turin-Genoa railway in Italy kills 13 people and injures 20 others after the crew of a freight train is overcome by smoke in the Giovi Tunnel and the freight locomotive slams into a passenger stopped at Piano Orizzontale dei Giovi between Pontedecimo and Busalla.
The United States formally annexes the Territory of Hawaii in a formal ceremony of the lowering of the Republic of Hawaii flag from in front of the Iolani Palace and the raising of the American flag.
A preliminary peace agreement is signed between the United States and Spain at the Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., ending U.S.-Spain hostilities in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Spanish–American War: Battle of Manila– By prior agreement, the Spanish commander surrenders the city of Manila in the Philippines to the United States, in order to keep it out of the hands of Filipino rebels, ending the war.
August 14– The Colombian government agrees to Italy's demands in resolving the Cerruti claim after a squadron of Italian warships approaches the coast.
August 15– Portugals's Prime Minister Jose Luciano de Castro resigns along with his cabinet of ministers.
August 16– At the Royal Surgical Hospital at Kiel University, German neurosurgeon August Bier carries out the first surgical operation using spinal anesthesia, injecting 15 milligrams of a 0.5% cocaine solution into the spinal canal of an unidentified worker who had sustained a severe fracture of the left ankle, complicated by infection. The patient remains fully conscious during the surgery but reports that he is not in pain.
In the war by Britain and Egypt against Sudan, the Mahdist Sudani ship Ismailah carries out an operation to place naval mines on the White Nile river, near Omdurman. One the Sudani mines explodes while it is being placed, destroying the Ismailah.
In the British Solomon Islands, Britain's High Commissioner for the Western Pacific issues a proclamation that the Reef Islands of Anuda and Fataka shall be under British protection, as well as the Trevannion Islands and the Duff Group.
The 10,735 feet (3,272m) high Mount Balfour in Canada, on the border of Alberta and British Columbia is climbed for the first time, with three members of the Appalachian Mountain Club (C. L. Noyes, C.S. Thompson, and G.M. Weed) making the successful attempt.
In the Philippines, as the Spanish war against the Philippine insurgents and the U.S. Army and Navy draws to a close, the last Spanish troops surrender Spain's last Philippine territory, the District of Morong, to the Katipunan Filipino revolutionaries.
The siege of Masbate is fought in the Philippines between the Spanish colonial Army and the Pulahan insurgents on Mabate Island The Spanish governor of Mabate, Don Luis Cubero, leaves along with his 1,000 troops while Pulahan rebel leaders Pedro Quipte and Riego de Dios destroy the Masbate and declare the island to be liberated.
At Vienna, the Austrian and Hungarian premiers in Austria-Hungary begin a conference on the subject of the Ausleich, setting the relationship of the powers in the Dual Monarchy.
At least 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece, leading to the establishment of the autonomous Cretan State.
The Sudanese Mahdi ships Safia and Tawfiqiyeh tow bares and more than 2,000 Sudanese soldiers up the Blue Nile to make an attack against the French-held town of Fashoda.
August 27– By order of the Tsar of Russia, the Russian Foreign Minister proposes an international conference among the major world powers to discuss disarmament.
The worldwide Zionist congress convenes at Basel in Switzerland to discuss creation of a Jewish nation, preferably in the area where the kingdoms of Israel and Judaea ahd existed.
August 29– The British Trade Union Congress meets at Bristol.
August 30– Walter Wellman's arctic expdedition returns to Tromso in Norway.
The freighter Allegheny arrives at Montauk Point with U.S. Army troops returning from Santiago de Cuba, and officials discover that 14 of the passengers died during the trip in what is described as more of a train "cattle car" than a hospital ship.
The South Wales coal strike in Britain is ended with an agreement between miners and employers at Cardiff.
The U.S. Navy releases all Spanish prisoners of war who had been incarcerated at Annapolis or at Seavey's Island.
French Army Colonel Henry commits suicide in prison after admitting that he had forget a letter that had led to the wrongful conviction of Captain Dreyfuss for treason.
The Congress of Ecuador suspends further sessions and the cabinet resigns
September
September 1– Sir Henry McCallum is appointed Governor of Newfoundland, at the time a separate nation from the Dominion of Canada.
Battle of Omdurman (Mahdist War): British and Egyptian troops led by Major General Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. 11,000 Sudanese are killed and 1,600 wounded in the battle, with fewer than 50 on the British side killed.
Philippine insurgents invade the southern Philippine Islands.
September 3– France's Minister of War Cavaignac resigns in protest of the revision of the Dreyfus conviction and is succeeded by General Zurlinden.
September 4– British and Egyptian troops enter Khartoum after the triumph at Omduran and raise their flags over the royal palace in proclamation of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
September 5– Queen Wilhelmina becomes the new Queen of the Netherlands.
September 6– Rioting of Muslims in Candia, on the island of Crete, is responded to by a bombardment of the town by British gunboats.
September 7– Li Hung Chang is dismissed from his position as the premier of the Chinese Empire because of his partiality to Russia over other nations in being awarded concessions to build a railroad.
September 8– Manuel Estrada Cabrera is elected as President of Guatemala.
September 11– A hurricane in the British West Indies kills more than 500 people, as well as destroying thousands of buildings and leaving more than 50,000 people homeless.
September 12– A typohhon in central Japan kills around 100 people.
A new record for highest altitude attained by a human is set above London's Crystal Palace as the aircraft reaches 27,500 feet (8,400m) above the Earth.
September 20– Spain begins its evacuation of Spanish troops from Puerto Rico.
The nations of Colombia and Italy sever all diplomatic relations after Italian warships had arrived off of the Colombian coast.
Chile issues an ultimatum to Argentina on settling the dispute over their common boundary at Altagama. On October 2, Argentina rejects all four demands made by Chile
September 29– The prohibition on the sale and distribution of liquor in Canada passes by a small majority in a referendum.
September 30– The Chancellor of Austria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire loses a vote of confidence by 10 votes, but the opposition decides against asking his resignation.
October 4– The American steam boat Walkatomica, which has made regular runs for travelers along the Gulf Coast of Florida since 1885, is destroyed by fire while in port in Tallahassee.
U.S. President McKinley announces that all remaining Spanish military personnael must leave Puerto Rico by October 18, and all in Cuba must leave by December 1. In response, Spanish Army General Blanco permits Spanish soldiers to remain in Cuba.
In the downsizing of the U.S. Army by 50 percent after the end of the Spanish-American War, 29 generals are honorably discharged.
Civil courts in the U.S. Territory of the Philippines, closed since the United States had captured the territory from Spain and started its occupation on August 13, are reopened under the supervision of the U.S. Military Governor.
During the Paris exposition on France, 60,000 workers, including those employed at the exposition, walk out on strike.
October 8– Britain and France release their official correspondence on their negotiations respecting the Upper Nile river.
Turkey consents to the evacuation of its forces from the Greek island of Crete but asks for a modification of the conditions demanded by the Six Powers.
The "Battle of Virden" takes place in the coal mining town of Virden, Illinois, when strikebreakers of the Thiel Detective Service Company exchange gunfire with armed members of the United Mine Workers of America. Thirteen people are killed and 35 wounded in the fight. In all, eight UMWA miners and five strikebreakers die from their injuries. The train, attempting to bring about 100 African-American coal miners to Virden, departs without disembarking its passengers.
The sinking of the Atlantic Transport steamer Mohegan drowns 116 of the 161 people on board.
At the age of 16, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky creates his first composition, the unfinished piano fragment "Tarantella". The piece will remain undiscovered for 72 years and will first be performed in 2021, more than 120 years after it was composed.
The French government announces that it has discovered and foiled a plot by military leaders to overthrow the premier and the cabinet of ministers.
The 1898 Major League Baseball season comes to an end with the Boston Beaneaters (now the Atlanta Braves finish in first place in the 12-team National League with a record of 102 wins and 47 losses, six games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles (a 19th century NL team unrelated to the modern American League team) in second place with a 96-53 record. In the final game of the season, Boston defeats Baltimore 10 to 8. Boston had effectively clinched the pennant on October 7 with a 7 to 2 win over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (now the Los Angeles Dodgers), in first place by 5 1/2 games with only 5 games left in the season.
In Canada, the "9 O'Clock Gun" is fired for the first time at Stanley Park in Vancouver, and goes on to become a daily tradition to serve as a time signal for ships in port and for local residents to set their timepieces at exactly 9:00p.m. local time.
The American ferryboatBerkeley, the only means prior to 1937 for motor vehicles to travel directly across San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, is launched. Its role will be superseded in 1937 by the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.
October 18– The University of Chicago college of law conferes the degree of Juris Doctor on U.S. President McKinley during his visit to the Chicago Peace Festival proceedings.
The first residents of the "cooperative socialist colony", created by the Cooperative Brotherhood, arrive at what is now Burley, Washington in Kitsap County, settling on 260 acres (1.1km2) of land purchased by the Brotherhood.
The cabinet of the Prime Minister of Korea resigns.
France demands reparations from China for the murder of Christian missionaries by Chinese rebels, and a guarantee against future attacks.
October 21– General Leonard Wood, the U.S. military governor of Cuba, issues a proclamation guaranteeing personal rights to the Cuban people.
The last Spanish soldiers in Puerto Rico, led by General Ortega, depart on ships to return to Spain.
U.S. President William McKinley extends the deadline for all Spanish troops to leave Cuba. Set to expire on December 1, the last day to depart is extended to January 1, 1899.
Augustus Herring, hired by civil engineer Octave Chanute to design and help test heavier-than-air flying machines, reportedly makes a flight near St. Joseph, Michigan, traveling slightly above the ground for a level distance of more than 70 feet (21m) in 10 seconds.
Chinese soldiers attack a party of British engineers at the Marco Polo Bridge on the Beijing to Hankou railway.
A collision between two Japanese steamers at sea kills 60 Japanese sailors.
The U.S. begins the release and repatriation of Spanish Navy sailors who had been taken as prisoners of war in the Philippines, and sends them back to Spain.
October 27– The Court of Cassation in Paris hears arguments from lawyers regarding a new trial in the Dreyfus case. The Court grants the request on October 29.
A general uprising by Filipinos, led by Adriano Hernández against the remaining Spanish authorities in the Philippines begins in the province of Iloilo on the island of Panay.
U.S. President William McKinley rejects a peace proposal that would result in Spain ceding the island of Luzon to the U.S., in return for Spanish control of the other Philippine Islands. McKinley's message to his five-man negotiating team in Paris is that "Cessation of Luzon alone, leaving the rest of the islands subject to Spanish rule, or to be the subject of future contention, cannot be justified on political, commercial, or humanitarian grounds. The cessation must be the whole archipelago or none."
France's Court of Cassation grants a rehearing on the Dreyfus case.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and his wife arrive at Jerusalem in Ottoman-ruled Palestine and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
October 30– The Imperial Russian government announces that the leaders of the world's major nations have accepted the invitation of the Tsar to take part in a proposed conference on disarmament.
The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem, is dedicated after the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire presents the area, said to be the site of the Virgin Mary's home, to Germany's Roman Catholics.
Count Ōkuma Shigenobu, Japan's Prime Minister, announces his resignation along with that of his cabinet of ministers.
November 3– With increasing violence threatened by rebels in China, the Russian fleet at Port Arthur and the British warships at Wei-Hai-Wei are readied for battle.
Elections are held in the U.S. for all 357 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as for the governors and state legislature of 25 of the 45 states. With 179 needed for a majority, the Republican Party maintains control with 187 seats, despite losing 19; the Democratic party gains 37 to reach 124 seats; the Populist party losses all but five of its 22 seats, and the other 4 seats are controlled by smaller parties. Among Governors elected are Theodore Roosevelt as Governor of the state of New York.
Count Yamagata Aritomo forms a new government as Prime Minister of Japan.
The Wilmington massacre of 1898 begins as a coup d'état by the white Democratic Party of the U.S. state of North Carolina against the Republican Mayor of Wilmington. On the first day, a building housing a negro newspaper is burned and eight African Americans are killed.
November 17– Fighting begins in Pana, Illinois, between striking white coal miners and black miners hired to replace them.
November 18– The wreck of the ship Atalanta off the coast of the U.S. state of Oregon kills 28 of the 30 crew aboard.
November 19– In U.S. college football, Harvard University defeats Yale University, 17 to 0, to close the season unbeaten.
November 21– At the Paris conference to end the Spanish-American War, the U.S. commissioners offer $20,000,000 for purchase of the Philippines from Spain.
November 24– Italy sends an ultimatum to the Sultan of Morocco concerning treatment of Italian residents.
President Alfaro of Ecuador suspends the government and assumes a dictatorship over the South American nation.
The French government decrees a ban on imports of fruit and plants from the United States.
December 2– The French Chamber of Deputies declines to endorse the policies of Prime Minister Charles Dupuy, with the vote failing 228 to 243.
December 3– The Republic of Nicaragua issues a decree announcing its return to sovereignty as a separate nation after its union with El Salvador and Honduras collapses.
President Zelaya of Nicaragua appoints a new cabinet free of ministers from El Salvador or Honduras.
The wreck of the British steamer SS Clan Drummond in the Bay of Biscay kills 37 people on board.
December 5– A fire at a factory in the Russian city of Vilana (modern-day Vilnius in Lithuania) kills 15 women and girls, most of whom die after jumping from the windows.
December 6– The Chancellor of Germany opens the new session of the Reichstag and asks for an increase in the budget for the German Army.
December 9– The first of the two Tsavo Man-Eaters is shot by John Henry Patterson; the second is killed 3 weeks later, after 135 railway construction workers have been killed by the lions.
December 21– Prince George of Greece arrives in Crete as its High Commissioner, and is escorted by the flagships of four nations.
December 25– Penny postage goes into effect throughout the British Empire, setting the cost of mailing a letter to most British colonies at one pence. Rates remain the same for mail to Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony.
Chief Justice Chambers of the Samoan Supreme Court rules that Malietoa Tanus is entitled to become King of Samoa, and holds that Mataafa is barred by the Treaty of Berlin.
↑Ooi, Keat Gin (2004). "Mat Salleh Rebellion (1894–1905): Resisting foreign intrusion". Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor (3 Volume Set). ABC-CLIO: 862–863. ISBN9781576077702.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
↑Branfill-Cook, Roger (2018). River Gunboats: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-380-3.
↑Richard C. Davis, ed. (1983). "Listing of the National Forests of the United States and Their Dates". Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History(PDF). Vol.2. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company for the Forest History Society. pp.743–788. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 28, 2012.
↑"Polonium (Po)". American Elements: The Materials Science Company.
↑Thorington, J. Monroe (1966) [1921]. "Kicking Horse Pass to Howse Pass". A Climber's Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada. American Alpine Club. pp.136–137. ISBN978-1376169003.
↑Pascual, Timoteo; Guillermo, Liwayway (1978). Morong's 400 Years. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Press.
↑Lawrence, David Russell (2014). "Chapter 5 Liberalism, Imperialism and colonial expansion". The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific. ANU Press. pp.164–168. ISBN9781925022032.
↑Boahen, A. Adu (1987). African Perspectives on Colonialism. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.48. ISBN9780801839313.
↑"Football". The Michigan Alumnus. November 1898. p.60. Archived from the original on April 26, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑Salmon, John S. (1994). A Guidebook to Virginia's Historical Markers. University of Virginia Press. p.48.
↑"Vancouver's Nine O'Clock Gun". Archived from the original on September 12, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑"Last Spanish Ruler in Porto Rico Dies". Democrat and Chronicle. February 25, 1930. Retrieved November 29, 2022– via newspapers.com. Although he served only two days, Rivero was credited with being the last Spanish governor of Porto Rico. He was born here and educated in Spain. He served in the Spanish army until the end of the Spanish-American war and later became an American citizen. Rivero was credited with doing much to create friendly understanding among Spaniards, Porto Ricans and Americans.
↑"New Flying Machine Tried— Prof. A. M. Herring Said to Have Met With Some Success", The South Bend (IN) Tribune, October 25, 1898, p.1 ("St. Joseph, Mich., Oct. 25— Prof. A. M. Herring, who has been working for some time past upon the experiment of a flying machine, yesterday made a successful test of his power-driving flying machine on which he succeeded in making a flight of upwards of 70 feet against a strong northerly wind.")
↑"History, Traditions and General Information". Philippine Military Academy. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2026. The Philippine Military Academy began on October 25, 1898 with the establishment of the Academia Militar in Malolos, Bulacan by virtue of a decree issued by the first president of the young Philippine Republic, General Emilio Aguinaldo.
↑Sonza, Demetrio P. (2001). Adriano Hernandez: A Hero in War and in Peace. Local History and Biography Foundation.
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