February 12 – The automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world’s first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway.[1]
February 15 – Spanish–American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba, for reasons never fully established, killing 266 men. The event precipitates the United States’ declaration of war on Spain, two months later.
April 5 – 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.”[4]
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.[8]
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
June 28 – Effective date of the Curtis Act of 1898 which will lead to the dissolution of tribal and communal lands in Indian Territory and ultimately the creation of the State of Oklahoma in 1907.
August 13 – 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 25 – 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece, leading to the establishment of the autonomous Cretan State.
September 2 – Battle of Omdurman (Mahdist War): British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio 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.[14]
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.[16]
October 5 – At the Battle of Sugar Point in the Indian Wars, a group of Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians 19 Ojibwe (referred to at the time as Chippewa Indians) warriors, led by Bugonaygeshig, defeat a U.S. Army Infantry troops in northern Minnesota, with seven U.S. troops killed and 19 wounded. Bugonayegeshig, whom the American soldiers were sent to capture, escapes and is never apprehended.[17]
In the downsizing of the U.S. Army by 50 percent after the end of the Spanish-American War, 29 generals are honorably discharged.[18]
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.
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.[23]
October 14 – 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.[26]
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.[27] 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 9:00 p.m. local time.[29]
October 16 – 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.[31]
The last Spanish soldiers in Puerto Rico, led by General Ortega, depart on ships to return to Spain.[34]
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.[34]
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 (21 m) in 10 seconds.[35]
Chinese soldiers attack a party of British engineers at the Marco Polo Bridge on the Beijing to Hankou railway.[34]
A collision between two Japanese steamers at sea kills 60 Japanese sailors.[34]
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.[34]
October 27 – The Court of Cassation in Paris hears arguments from lawyers regarding a new trial in the Dreyfus case.[34] 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.[37]
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.”[38]
France’s Court of Cassation grants a rehearing on the Dreyfus case.[34]
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and his wife arrive at Jerusalem in Ottoman-ruled Palestine and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[34]
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.[34]
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.[34]
Count Ōkuma Shigenobu, Japan’s Prime Minister, announces his resignation along with that of his cabinet of ministers.[34]
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.[34]
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.[34]
The Wilmington insurrection 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.[34]
November 17 – Fighting begins in Pana, Illinois, between striking white coal miners and black miners hired to replace them.[34]
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.[34]
November 19 – In U.S. college football, Harvard University defeats Yale University, 17 to 0, to close the season unbeaten.[34]
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.[39]
November 24 – Italy sends an ultimatum to the Sultan of Morocco concerning treatment of Italian residents.[39]
President Alfaro of Ecuador suspends the government and assumes a dictatorship over the South American nation.[39]
The French government decrees a ban on imports of fruit and plants from the United States.[39]
December 2 – The French Chamber of Deputies declines to endorse the policies of Prime Minister Charles Dupuy, with the vote failing 228 to 243.[39]
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.[39]
President Zelaya of Nicaragua appoints a new cabinet free of ministers from El Salvador or Honduras.[39]
The wreck of the British steamer SS Clan Drummond in the Bay of Biscay kills 37 people on board.[39]
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.[39]
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.[39]
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.[40]
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.[40]
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.[40]
^“Last Spanish Ruler in Porto Rico Dies”. Democrat and Chronicle. February 25, 1930. Retrieved 29 November 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. 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.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
