Federal government edit

• President: William McKinley (R-Ohio)
• Vice President: Garret Hobart (R-New Jersey) (until November 21), vacant (starting November 21)
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine) (until March 4), David B. Henderson (R-Iowa) (starting December 4)
• Congress: 55th (until March 4), 56th (starting March 4)

January edit

• January 1 – Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
• January 10 – The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island.

February edit

• February 4 – The 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 10 – Spanish–American War: The U.S. receives the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico as a result of the Treaty of Paris.
• February 12–14 – Great Blizzard of 1899: Freezing temperatures and snow extend well south into North America, including southern Florida. It is the latest in a series of disasters to Florida's citrus industry.
• February 14 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

March edit

• March 2 – In Washington state, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
• March 24 – George Dewey is made Admiral of the Navy.

April edit

• April 13 – Tahoe National Forest is established in California.
• April 15 – Students at the University of California, Berkeley steal the Stanford Axe from Stanford University yell leaders following a baseball game, thus establishing the Axe as a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.

May edit

• May 31 – The launch of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.

June edit

• June 7 – Temperance movement crusader Carrie Nation enters a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas, and proceeds to destroy all the alcoholic beverages with rocks.
• June 12 – New Richmond Tornado: A tornado completely destroys the town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, killing 117 people and injuring more than 200.
• June 25 – Three Denver, Colorado newspapers publish a story (later proved to be a fabrication) that the Chinese government under the Guangxu Emperor is going to demolish the Great Wall of China.
• June 30 – Mile-a-Minute Murphy earns his famous nickname this day, after he becomes the first man to ride a bicycle for one mile in under a minute on Long Island.

July edit

• July 17 – America's first juvenile court is established in Chicago.
• July 19 – The Newsboys Strike takes place when the Newsies of New York City go on strike (strike lasts until August 2).
• July 30 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition ends successfully.

August edit

• August 3 – The John Marshall Law School is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• August 10 – Major Taylor wins the world 1-mile professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.^[1]
• August 17 – A hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, completely destroying the town of Diamond City.

September edit

• September 6 – Open Door Policy is a term in foreign affairs initially used to refer to the United States policy established in the late-nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century, as enunciated in Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Note,
• September 14 – Henry H. Bliss becomes the first person to be killed by a motor vehicle in the United States. Upon disembarking from a streetcar in New York City, an electric-powered taxicab strikes and crushes him and he dies from his injuries the following morning.

October edit

• October 30 – The Augusta High School Building is completed in Augusta, Kentucky; Augusta Methodist College shuts down.

November edit

• November 4 – The Alpha Sigma Tau sorority is founded in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
• November 8 – The Bronx Zoo opens in New York City.
• November 21 – Vice President Garret Hobart dies of heart failure.

December edit

• December 2 – Philippine–American War – Battle of Tirad Pass: ("The Filipino Thermopylae") General Gregorio del Pilar and his troops are able to guard the retreat of Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo before being wiped out.
• December 25 – The 6.7 M_w San Jacinto earthquake shook the Inland Empire area of Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing six deaths and $50,000 in damage.

Undated edit

• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Manteo, which was originally laid out as the Dare county seat in 1870.
• Gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska.
• Public Archives Commission established.^[2]

Ongoing edit

• Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• Philippine–American War (1899–1902)
• Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) Boxer Rebellion#Allied intervention.2C the Boxer War.2C and the aftermath

• January 9 – John A. Danaher, U.S. Senator from Connecticut 1939–1945 (died 1990).
• January 17 – Al Capone, gangster and crime boss (died 1947).
• February 4 – Virginia M. Alexander, African American physician (died 1949)^[3]
• February 22
  • Dwight Frye, actor (died 1943).
  • George O'Hara, silent film actor and screenwriter (died 1966).
• February 27 – Charles Best, medical scientist (died 1978 in Canada).
• April 11 – Percy Lavon Julian, African American research chemist (died 1975).
• April 28 – Mary Loveless, née Hewitt, immunologist (died 1991).
• April 29 – Duke Ellington, jazz musician and composer (died 1974).
• May 10 – Fred Astaire, né Austerlitz, dancer and singer (died 1987).
• May 15 – Leonard B. Jordan, U.S. Senator from Idaho 1962–1973 (died 1983).
• June 4 – Arthur Barker, son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang (died 1939)
• July 7
  • Anna Baetjer, toxicologist (died 1984).
  • Claude P. Dettloff, photographer (died 1978 in Canada).
• July 6 – Susannah Mushatt Jones, African American supercentenarian, oldest (confirmed) living person 2015–2016 (died 2016).
• July 17 – James Cagney, film actor (died 1986).
• July 21
  • Hart Crane, poet (died 1932)^[4]
  • Ernest Hemingway, fiction writer and journalist (died 1961).
• July 23 – Carl G. Fenner, botanist (died 1991).
• September 9 – Neil Hamilton, actor (died 1984).
• September 11 – Jimmie Davis, country and gospel singer-songwriter and politician (died 2000).
• October 3 – Gertrude Berg, American actress, screenwriter and producer (died 1966)^[5]
• November 5 – Margaret Atwood Judson, historian and author (died 1991).
• November 22 – Hoagy Carmichael, composer and singer (died 1981).
• December 20 – John Sparkman, U.S. Senator from Alabama 1946–1979 (died 1985).
• December 25 – Humphrey Bogart, film actor (died 1957).
• Caroline F. Ware, historian and New Deal activist (died 1990).

• January 23 – Daniel O'Connell, journalist, poet and writer (born 1849)
• January 26 – Augustus Hill Garland, U.S. Senator from Arkansas 1885–1889 (born 1832).
• March 1 – Philip W. McKinney, 41st Governor of Virginia (born 1832).
• March 18 – Othniel Charles Marsh, paleontologist (born 1831).
• March 19 – Patrick Walsh, Irish-born U.S. Senator from Georgia 1894–1895 (born 1840).
• April 10 – Horace Tabor, U.S. Senator from Colorado in 1883 (born 1830).
• April 22 – Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., founder of the Kentucky Derby (born 1846)
• April 24 – Richard J. Oglesby, U.S. Senator from Illinois 1873–1878 (born 1824).
• June 7 – Augustin Daly, dramatist and theater manager (born 1838).
• July 18 – Horatio Alger, Jr., Unitarian minister and author (born 1832).
• August 8 – Lucy Pickens, socialite, known during and after her lifetime as the "Queen of the Confederacy" (born 1832)
• August 22 – Caspar Buberl, Bohemian-born sculptor (born 1834).
• September 9 – James B. Eustis, U.S. Senator from Louisiana 1876–1879 and 1885–1891 (born 1834).
• September 12 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, businessman (born 1843).
• October 4 – Jimmy Logue, Philadelphia based burglar (born 1837).^[6]
• October 5 – James Harlan, U.S. Senator from Iowa 1865–1866 (born 1820).
• October 14 – Anna Cabot Quincy Waterston, writer of poems, novels, hymns, and a diary (born 1812).
• October 18 – Gussie Davis, African American songwriter (born 1863).
• October 28 – Ottmar Mergenthaler, German-born inventor (born 1854).
• October 30 – William H. Webb, shipbuilder and philanthropist (born 1816).
• November 21 – Garret Hobart, 24th vice president of the United States from 1897 to 1899 (born 1844).
• November 25 – Robert Lowry, Baptist minister and hymn writer (born 1826).
• December 22 – Dwight L. Moody, preacher and publisher (born 1837).

• List of American films of the 1890s
• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)

• "Domestic Chronology", Statistician and Economist, San Francisco: Louis P. McCarty, 1905, pp. 227–347, hdl:2027/uc1.b3142275 – via HathiTrust. (Covers events May 1898-June 1905)