1897
|
'''1897''' was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).
Events
January 1 - Brooklyn, New York merges with New York City.
January 4 - A United Kingdom|British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the Oba of Benin. This leads to a Punitive Expedition against Benin City|Benin.
February 2 - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania state capitol, is destroyed by fire.
February 18- Benin City|Benin is put to the torch by the Punitive Expedition.
March 4 - William McKinley succeeds Grover Cleveland as President of the United States.
March 13 - San Diego State University founded.
April 5 - "Ordinance of April 5," equalizing German and Czech in Bohemia, signed in Austria-Hungary (see Kasimir Felix Graf Badeni).
April 27 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated.
May 19 - Oscar Wilde is released from prison.
June 2 - Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, is quoted by the ''New York Journal'' as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."
July 17 - Klondike Gold Rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle, Washington|Seattle.
July 25 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
July 31 - First ascent of Mount Saint Elias, second highest peak in the United States and Canada.
August 29 - First Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, Switzerland.
September 1 - The Boston, Massachusetts|Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America.
September 10 - In the Lattimer Massacre, a sheriff's posse killes more than nineteen unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.
September 11 - After months of searching, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kingdom of Kaffa|Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom.
December 9 - First issue of the feminist newspaper ''La Fronde'' is published by Marguerite Durand.
December 28 - The play ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.
December 30 - KwaZulu-Natal Province|Natal annexes Zululand.
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
France allows women to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
First use of the word computer meaning an electronic calculation device.
Coseley Urban District Council formed
Dos Equis first brewed in anticipation of new century
Births
January-March
January 3 - Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)
January 23 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect and anti-Nazi activist (d. 2000)
February 4 - Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1977)
February 7 - Quincy Porter, American composer (d. 1966)
February 10 - John F. Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)
February 10 - Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)
February 27 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (d. 1993)
March 1 - Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith (d.1957)
March 2 - Violet Baudelaire, heiress to the Baudelaire inheritance (d.1980)
March 4 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur (d. 1969)
March 15 - Jackson Scholz, American sprinter (d. 1986)
March 24 - Wilhelm Reich, Austrian psychotherapist (d. 1957)
March 28 - Sepp Herberger, German football coach (d. 1977)
April-June
April 1 - Nita Naldi, American film actress (d. 1961)
April 7 - Walter Winchell, American broadcast journalist (d. 1972)
April 9 - John B. Gambling, American radio talk-show host (d. 1974)
April 19 - Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman
April 23 - Lester B. Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1972)
April 25 - Mary, Princess Royal of England (d. 1965)
April 26 - Douglas Sirk, German-born director (d. 1987)
April 26 - Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder (d. 1967)
May 14 - Sidney Bechet, American musician (d. 1959)
May 17 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
May 18 - Frank Capra, American producer, director, and writer (d. 1991)
May 19 - Frank Luke, American World War I pilot (d. 1918)
May 21 - Nikola Avramov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1945)
May 27 - John Cockcroft, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
May 29 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (d. 1957)
June 7 - George Szell, Hungarian conductor (d. 1970)
June 10 - Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia (d. 1918)
June 13 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (d. 1973)
June 16 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
June 19 - Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
June 19 - Moe Howard, American comedian and actor, Three Stooges member (d.1975)
July-September
July 20 - Tadeus Reichstein, Polish-born chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)
July 24 - Amelia Earhart, American aviator
July 29 - Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (d. 1983)
August 2 - Max Weber (politician)|Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1974)
August 28 - Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978)
September 8 - Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers, American singer (d. 1933)
September 12 - Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1956)
September 17 - Earl Webb, baseball player (d. 1965)
September 23 - Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984)
September 25 - William Faulkner, American writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
September 26 - Pope Paul VI (d. 1978)
September 26 - Arthur Rhys Davids, English pilot (d.1917)
October-December
October 3 - Louis Aragon, French author (d. 1982)
October 15 - Johannes Sikkar, Estonian statesman (d. 1960)
October 20 - Yi Un|Yi, Eun, Korean Crown Prince (d. 1970)
October 29 - Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi propagnadist (d. 1945)
November 9 - Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, British chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
November 15 - Sacheverell Sitwell, English author (d. 1988)
November 18 - Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett|Patrick Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
November 23 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Bengali author (d. 1999)
December 18 - Fletcher Henderson, American musician (d. 1952)
December 30 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (d. 1976)
Deaths
February 4 - Charles Bendire|Major Charles Bendire, U.S. Army captain and ornithologist (b. 1836)
February 19 - Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (b. 1815
March 19 - Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, Irish-born traveler (b. 1810)
April 3 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)
September 9 - Richard Holt Hutton, English writer and theologian (b. 1826)
September 21 - Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (b. 1819)
October 29 - Henry George, American economist (b. 1839)
November 19 - William Seymour Tyler, American educator and historian (b. 1810)
November 20 - Ernest Giles, Australian explorer (b. 1835)
December 17 - Alphonse Daudet, French writer (b. 1840)
Jang Seung-eop, Korean painter (b. 1843)
|