1899

Events

• January 1 - End of Spanish rule in Cuba.
• January 1 - Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City
• January 3 - The first known use of the word "automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times
• January 17 - United States takes possession of Wake Island
• January 19 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed
• January 21 - Opel Motors opens for business
• January 22 - Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation
• February 2 - The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne agrees Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• February 4 - 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 14 - Voting machines are approved by the United States Congress for use in federal elections.
• March 2 - In Washington State, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
• March 6 - Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.
• March 20 - At Sing Sing, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.
• October 11 - Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
• December 2 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.

• David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry with the publication of his book Grundlagen der geometrie.
• Gordon Douglas is ordained as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar. He is the first westerner to be ordained in the Theravada tradition.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1899 in literature
• 1899 in music
• 1899 in sports

Births

• January 7 - Francis Poulenc, composer
• January 10 - Axel Eggelbrecht, journalist (d. 1991)
• January 11 - Eva LeGallienne, actress (d. 1991)
• January 12 - Paul Hermann Müller, chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948 (d. 1965)
• January 15 - Goodman Ace, actor, comedian, writer (d. 1982)
• January 17 - Al Capone, gangster, nicknamed "Scarface" (d. 1947)
• January 17 - Nevil Shute, author (d. 1960)
• February 6 - Ramon Novarro, actor (d. 1968)
• February 15 - Georges Auric, composer, member of Les Six
• February 23 - Erich Kästner, lyricist and narrator (d. 1974)
• February 23 - Elisabeth Langgässer, lyricist, narrator and novelist (d. 1950)
• February 27 - Charles Best, medical scientist (d. 1978)
• March 11 - King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
• March 18 - Jean Goldkette, jazz musician (d. 1962)
• April 22 - Vladimir Nabokov, (writer)
• April 29 - Duke Ellington, jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)
• May 10 - Fred Astaire, singer, dancer, actor (d. 1987)
• May 10 - Dimitri Tiomkin, composer (d. 1979)
• May 12 - Indra Devi, yogi (d. 2002)
• May 24 – Suzanne Lenglen, tennis great (d. 1938)
• June 13 - Carlos Chávez, composer
• June 30 - Harry Shields, jazz musician (d. 1971)
• July 5 - Marcel Achard, play and scriptwriter
• July 7 - George Cukor, film director (d. 1983)
• July 11 - E. B. White, (writer)
• July 15 - Sean Lemass, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1971)
• July 21 - Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
• August 13 - Alfred Hitchcock, (film director)
• August 24 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer
• September 9 - Brassaï, photographer
• September 9 - Waite Hoyt, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1984)
• November 15 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
• November 17 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer (d. 1971)
• December 2 - John Barbirolli, conductor (d. 1970)
• December 18 - Peter Wessel Zapffe
• December 25 - Humphrey Bogart, actor (d. 1957)
• December 28 - Eugeniusz Bodo, famous Polish actor (killed in 1943)

Deaths

• February 25 - Paul Julius Reuter, founder of the Reuters News Agency
• June 3 - Johann Strauss II, composer
• July 21 - Robert G. Ingersoll, American political leader, American Civil War Colonel
• August 16 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist
• September 12 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, railway magnate

Heads of State

• China - Guāngxù Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (1875-1908)
• Denmark - Christian IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906)
• France -
  1. Félix Faure, President of France (1895-1899)
  2. Émile Loubet, President of France (1899-1906)
• Germany - Wilhelm II, German Kaiser (1888-1918)
• Holy See - Pope Leo XIII, Bishop of Rome (1878-1903)
• Japan - Mutsuhito, Meiji Emperor (1867-1912)
• Norway - Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway (1872-1905)
• Ottoman Empire - Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909)
• Russia - Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia (1894-1917)
• Spain - Alfonso XIII of Spain, King of Spain (1886-1931)
• United Kingdom - Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (1837-1901)
• United States - William McKinley, President of the United States (1897-1901)