New Things
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Opel Motors, aspirin, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, the paperclip, Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, The Bronx Zoo, FC Barcelona, A.C. Milan, Oxo beef stock cubes, The Miele Company
The first international Peace Conference ends, with the signing of the First Hague Convention.
RMS Oceanic sails on her maiden voyage – at 17,272 gross tons and 704 ft, the largest ship afloat.
Wars
The Philippine—American War and Second Boer War begin
Leaders
Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
Four-month-old Sobhuza II begins his 82-year reign as King of Swaziland.
And
The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska, leading to the Nome Gold Rush.
The Newsboys’ strike in New York takes place.
Alfred Dreyfus is pardoned in France.
There is a snowball fight on the steps of the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee during the Great Blizzard of 1899
Births
Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, Shia Ayatollah (d. 1992)
Fred Astaire, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1987)
Miguel Ãngel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (d. 1959)
Harold Bennett, British actor (d. 1981)
Jack Beresford, British Olympic rower (d. 1977)
Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet official (d. 1953)
Gertrude Berg, American actress (d. 1966)
Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (d. 1943)
Humphrey Bogart, American actor (d. 1957)
Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978)
Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (d. 1937)
James Cagney, American actor (d. 1986)
Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
Hoagy Carmichael, American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader (d. 1981)
Vera Caspary, American screenwriter, novelist, playwright (d. 1987)
Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (d. 1978)
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist politician, leader of the Iron Guard (d. 1938)
Billy Cotton, British entertainer, bandleader (d. 1969)
Noël Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
George Cukor, American film director (d. 1983)
Jibanananda Das, Indian poet, writer, novelist and essayist in Bengali (d. 1954)
Alfred Denning, Baron Denning, English lawyer, judge and Master of the Rolls (d. 1999)
Karl Diebitsch, German fashion designer (1985)
Thomas A. Dorsey, American musician (d. 1993)
Duke Ellington, African-American jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)
King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
John Gilbert, American actor (d. 1936)
Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
Ernest Hemingway, American author, journalist (d. 1961)
Alfred Hitchcock, British-born American film director (d. 1980)
Waite Hoyt, American baseball player (d. 1984)
Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi national poet (d. 1976)
Percy Lavon Julian, American scientist (d. 1975)
Erich Kästner, German writer (d. 1974)
Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
Andrei Platonovich Klimentov, Russian-born Soviet writer (d. 1951)
Walter Lantz, American animator, creator of Woody Woodpecker (d. 1994)
Lao She, Chinese author (d. 1966)
Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (d. 1938)
Seán Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1971)
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
Iskander Mirza, 1st President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
Colleen Moore, American actress (d. 1988)
Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born American writer (d. 1977)
Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (d. 1968)
George O’Brien, American actor (d. 1985)
Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (d. 1985)
Francis Poulenc, French composer (d. 1963)
Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (d. 1981)
Nevil Shute, English author (d. 1960)
King Sobhuza II of Swaziland (d. 1982)
Paul-Henri Spaak, 31st Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1972)
Doris Speed, British actress (d. 1994)
Dorothy C. Stratton, American director of the SPARS during World War II (d. 2006)
Gloria Swanson, American actress (d. 1983)
Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter (d. 1991)
Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (d. 1979)
P. L. Travers, Australian-born British actress, journalist and author (d. 1996)
Juan Trippe, American airline pioneer, entrepreneur (d. 1981)
E. B. White, American writer (d. 1985)
Earl Whitehill, American baseball player (d. 1954)
Deaths
Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1874)
Horatio Alger, Jr., American writer (b. 1832)
Eugenio Beltrami, Italian mathematician (b. 1835)
Erebus Black, English occultist (b. 1851)
Emma Hardinge Britten, British writer (b. 1823)
Robert Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)
Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
Augustin Daly, American theatrical impresario, playwright (b. 1838)
Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, Russian Grand Duke, younger brother of Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1871)
Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin, Swiss national, international women’s rights activist, pacifist (b. 1826)
Garret Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States (b. 1844)
Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician (b. 1833)
Thomas Henry Ismay, British owner of the White Star Line (b. 1837)
Emilio Jacinto, Filipino poet, revolutionary (b. 1875)
Princess Kaʻiulani, last monarch of Hawaii (b. 1875)
Vincas Kudirka, Lithuanian doctor, poet, and national hero (b. 1858)
Henry Ware Lawton, American general (b. 1843)
Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)
Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, Sudanese political, religious leader (killed in battle) (b. 1846)
King Ngwane V of Swaziland (b. 1876)
Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (b. 1837)
Romualdo Pacheco, Governor of California (b. 1831)
Gregorio del Pilar, Filipino general (killed in battle) (b. 1875)
Percy Pilcher, British aviation pioneer, glider pilot (b. 1866)
Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American industrialist (b. 1842)
Paul Reuter, German-born news agency founder (b. 1816)
Giovanni Segantini, Italian painter (b. 1858)
Alfred Sisley, French Impressionist landscape painter (b. 1839)
Johann Strauss, Jr., Austrian composer (b. 1825)
Cornelius Vanderbilt II, American railway magnate (b. 1843)
William Henry Webb, American industrialist, philanthropist (b. 1816)