Elsewhere in 1898

The Spanish—American War

The Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen.

700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece, leading to the establishment of the autonomous Cretan State.

Émile Zola’s “J’accuse…!” letter is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper L’Aurore, accusing the government of wrongfully imprisoning Alfred Dreyfus and of antisemitism.

Empress Dowager Cixi of China engineers a coup d’état – the Guangxu Emperor is arrested.

Hundreds of demonstrators are killed when General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris orders troops to fire on a rally in Milan, Italy.

Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni assassinates Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Geneva.

The first of the two Tsavo Man-Eaters is shot by John Henry Patterson; the second is killed 3 weeks later, after 135 workers have been killed by the lions.

The British government makes a 99 year rent of Hong Kong from China.

The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands.

New York City is divided into the five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island.

William Ramsay and Morris Travers discover neon.

Marie and Pierre Curie announce discovery of an element they name radium.

Caleb Bradham names his soft drink Pepsi-Cola.

Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)

Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)

Arletty, French model and actress (d. 1992)

Hastings Banda, 1st President of Malawi (d. 1997)

Debaki Bose, Indian actor, director and writer (d. 1971)

Bertolt Brecht, German writer (d. 1956)

Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976)

Violet Carson, British actress (d. 1983)

Sara Carter, American country music singer, musician, and songwriter (d. 1979)

Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer (d. 1959)

Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)

Alfred Eisenstaedt, American photojournalist (d. 1995)

Sergei Eisenstein, Russian and Soviet film director (d. 1948)

Hanns Eisler, German composer (d. 1962)

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)

M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)

Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and automobile manufacturer (d. 1988)

Gracie Fields, British singer, actress and comedian (d. 1979)

Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer and actress (d. 1975)

Lotte Lenya, Austrian actress and singer (d. 1981)

Liu Shaoqi, President of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1969)

Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1936)

George Gershwin, American composer (d. 1937)

John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (d. 1972)

Armand Hammer, American entrepreneur and art collector (d. 1990)

Tamara de Lempicka, Art Deco painter (d. 1980)

C. S. Lewis, British author (d. 1963)

René Magritte, Belgian artist (d. 1967)

Firpo Marberry, American baseball pitcher (d. 1976)

Blind Willie McTell, American singer (d. 1959)

Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)

Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer and manufacturer (d. 1978)

Marilyn Miller, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1936)

Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (d. 1956)

Henry Moore, English sculptor (d. 1986)

Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist and politician (d. 1980)

Harry Patch, British World War I soldier, last Tommy Atkins (d. 2009)

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman (d. 1993)

Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (d. 1937)

Ahmad Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (d. 1930)

Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)

Erich Maria Remarque, German writer (d. 1970)

Paul Robeson, American actor, singer and political activist (d. 1976)

Randolph Scott, American film actor (d. 1987)

William James Sidis, American mathematician (d. 1944)

Preston Sturges, American director and writer (d. 1959)

Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese musician and educator (d. 1998)

Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-American physicist (d. 1964)

Zheng Zhenduo, Chinese author and translator (d. 1958)

Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1976)

Fritz Zwicky, Swiss physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)

Lewis Carroll, British writer, mathematician (Alice in Wonderland) (b. 1832)

Charles Pelham Villiers, longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons (b. 1802)

Andrei Alexandrovich Popov, Russian admiral (b. 1821)

George Müller, Prussian evangelist and founder of the Ashley Down orphanage (b. 1805)

Henry Bessemer, British engineer and inventor (b. 1813)

Aubrey Beardsley, British artist (b. 1872)

Matilda Joslyn Gage, American feminist (b. 1826)

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian university founder (b. 1817)

Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826)

William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1809)

Ferdinand Cohn, German biologist, bacteriologist and microbiologist (b. 1828)

Siegfried Marcus, Austrian automobile pioneer (b. 1831)

Richard Pankhurst, English lawyer, radical and supporter of women’s rights (b. 1834)

Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (b. 1815)

Eugène Boudin, French painter (b. 1824)

Sarah Emma Edmonds, Canadian nurse and spy (b. 1841)

Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (b. 1842)

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, empress consort of Austria, queen consort of Hungary (assassinated) (b. 1837)

Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, medical doctor and diplomat (b. 1827)

George Grey, 11th Premier of New Zealand (b. 1812)

Theodor Fontane, German writer (b. 1819)

Tan Sitong, Chinese revolutionary (executed) (b. 1865)

Louise of Hesse-Kassel, German princess, Queen Consort of Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1817)

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter (b. 1824)

Sir John Fowler, British civil engineer (b. 1817)

Charbel Makhluf, Lebanese monk (b. 1828)