Directory

1897 CE

19 zinc miners die of carbon monoxide poisoning at Snaefell Mine on the Isle of Man. The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle. Juventus FC is founded as an association football club in Turin.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 16 – The French conquer the island of Raiatea and capture the rebel chief Teraupo'o, ending the Leeward Islands War and bringing all of the Society Islands under their control.source
  • February 27 – The French military governor of Madagascar, Joseph Gallieni, exiles Queen Ranavalona III to Réunion, abolishing the monarchy the next day.source
  • April 23 – Representatives of the Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation and U.S. Dawes Commission sign the Atoka Agreement, which becomes an important precursor for creating the State of Oklahoma.source
  • May 19 – Oscar Wilde is released from prison in England, and goes into voluntary exile on the continent.source
  • July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattlesource
  • September 20 – Greece and Turkey sign a peace treaty to end the Greco-Turkish War.source
  • October 12 – The city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil is created. The construction of the second Brazilian planned city is completed successfully; an immigration of 1,000,000 people is estimated.source
  • October 12 – The Korean Empire is proclaimed, marking the end of the Joseon dynasty after just over 500 years.source
  • November 25 – Spain grants Puerto Rico autonomy.source
  • December 14 – Pact of Biak-na-Bato: The Philippine Revolution is settled, with Spanish promises to reform.source
  • December 30 – Natal annexes Zululand.source

Conflict & Security

  • April 18 – The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 breaks out.source
  • April 27–6 May – Greco-Turkish War of 1897: Battle of Velestino.source
  • July 26–August 2 – Siege of Malakand: British troops are besieged by Pashtun tribesmen in Malakand, on the Northwest frontier of British India (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan).source
  • September 10 – Lattimer massacre: A sheriff's posse kills 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.source
  • September 11 – After months of searching, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last king of Kaffa, bringing an end to that ancient kingdom.source
  • September 12 – Battle of Saragarhi: Twenty-one Sikhs of the 36th Sikhs regiment of the British Indian Army defend an army post to the death, against 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen, in the Tirah Campaign on the Northwest frontier of the British Raj (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan).source
  • October 5 – After a long siege, Brazilian government troops take Canudos in north Brazil, crushing Antônio Conselheiro and his followers.source
  • October 6 – Ethiopia adopts the tricolor flag: green is for the land, yellow for gold, and red is symbolic of strength and the blood shed.source
  • Karl Lueger becomes mayor of Vienna.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a punitive expedition against Benin.source
  • February 18 – Benin is put to the torch by the British Army's Benin Expedition. Ovonramwen, Oba of Benin, is exiled from his kingdom and the Benin Bronzes are carried off to London.source
  • October 12 – (Cruiser # 3, later CM-1) is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 10 – Freedom of religion is proclaimed in Madagascar.source
  • March 22 – Emilio Aguinaldo unseats Andrés Bonifacio at the Tejeros Convention, becoming the new head of the Filipino revolutionary group Katipunan.source
  • July 31 – Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.source
  • August 29 – The First Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, Switzerland.source
  • September 21 – Francis P. Church responds (anonymously) to a letter to the editor of The Sun (New York City) that is known as the famous "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter.source
  • The pan-African anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("God Bless Africa") is composed as a Xhosa hymn by South African teacher Enoch Sontonga.source

Economy & Finance

  • April 15 – Yamaichi Securities founded in Japan; it will cease trading a hundred years later.source
  • December 12 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is incorporated.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 22 – In this date's issue of the journal Engineering, the word computer is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device.source
  • April 19 – The first Boston Marathon is held in the United States, with fifteen men competing, and is won by John McDermott.source
  • May 11 – A patent is awarded for the invention of the first automotive muffler, with the granting by the U.S. Patent Office of application number 582,485 to Milton Reeves and his brother Marshall T. Reeves, of the Reeves Pulley Company of Columbus, Indiana.source
  • May 22 – The Blackwall Tunnel, at this time the longest underwater road tunnel in the world, is opened for traffic beneath the River Thames in the East End of London by the Prince of Wales.source
  • August 21 – The Olds Motor Vehicle Co. is founded in Lansing, Michigan, by Ransom E. Olds.source
  • August 31 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.source
  • September 1 – The Tremont Street subway is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.source
  • Dos Equis beer is first brewed in Mexico, in anticipation of the new century. "Dos equis" is Spanish for "two x", a reference to the 20th Century (XX in Roman numerals)source
  • The first electric bicycle is invented.source

Science & Discovery

  • April 30 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.source
  • May 6 – John Jacob Abel announces the successful isolation of epinephrine (adrenaline), in a paper read before the Association of American Physicians.source
  • July 25 – Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush, where he will write his first successful stories.source
  • October 13 – , a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England; she will be deployed widely in World War I.source

Health & Medicine

  • August 10 – At the Bayer pharmaceutical company, pharmacist Felix Hoffmann successfully synthesizes acetylsalicylic acid, after isolating a compound from a plant of the Spiraea family; the company markets it under the brand name "Aspirin".source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 15 – Drillers near Bartlesville, Oklahoma strike oil for the first time, in the designated "Indian Territory", on land leased from the Osage Indians. The gusher, at the Nellie Johnstone Number One well, leads to rapid population growth.source
  • May 10 – 19 zinc miners die of carbon monoxide poisoning at Snaefell Mine on the Isle of Man.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 7 – A cyclone destroys Darwin, Australia.source
  • June 12 – 1897 Assam earthquake: An earthquake of magnitude of 8.0 rocks Assam, India, killing over 1,500 people.source

Culture & Society

  • January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.source
  • January 8 – Lady Flora Shaw, future wife of Governor General Lord Lugard, officially proposes the name "Nigeria" in a newspaper contest, to be given to the British Niger Coast Protectorate.source
  • January 31 – The Czechoslovak Trade Union Association is founded in Prague.source
  • February 26 – The Sigma Pi fraternity is founded in Vincennes, Indiana.source
  • March 13 – San Diego State University is founded.source
  • May 14 – The Stars and Stripes Forever, an American patriotic march by John Philip Sousa, is performed for the first time.source
  • May 14 – (or May 15) – The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, WhK) is founded in Berlin as an LGBT campaigning organization, the first such in history.source
  • May 26 – Irish-born theatrical manager Bram Stoker's contemporary Gothic horror novel Dracula is first published (in London); it will influence the direction of vampire literature for the following century.source
  • May 31 – On Decoration Day (later Memorial Day) the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial is dedicated in Boston. The bronze bas relief by Augustus St. Gaudens depicts the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of black Civil War soldiers.source
  • June 18 – Kyoto University is officially established in Japan.source
  • June 22 – The British Empire celebrates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, marking the 60th year of her reign. No other British monarch will celebrate such a jubilee until Victoria's great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II in 2012.source
  • October 23 – The Kappa Delta sorority is founded in Farmville, Virginia.source
  • November 1 – Juventus FC is founded as an association football club in Turin.source
  • December 9 – The first issue of the feminist newspaper La Fronde is published by Marguerite Durand in Paris.source
  • December 12 – The comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids debuts in the New York Journal.source
  • December 28 – The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.source
  • Alexander Scriabin publishes his Piano Sonata no. 2 "Sonata-Fantasia" in G sharp minorsource
  • Zhejiang University is founded in China.source
  • Émile Durkheim publishes his classic study Suicide.source

Births

  • January 23 – Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian political leader, led the Indian National Army (d. 1945?)source
  • February 8 – Zakir Husain, Indian politician, 3rd President of India (d. 1969)source
  • February 10 – John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)source
  • April 24 – Manuel Ávila Camacho, Mexican general, politician, and 45th President of Mexico, 1940-1946 (d. 1955)source
  • April 25 – Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, British princess (d. 1965)source
  • May 18 – Frank Capra, American film producer, director and writer (d. 1991)source
  • May 27 – John Cockcroft, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)source
  • August 15 – Jane Ingham, English botanist and scientific translator (d. 1982)source
  • September 12 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1956)source
  • September 25 – William Faulkner, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)source
  • November 18 – Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)source
  • November 19 – Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of American President Theodore Roosevelt, killed in action as fighter pilot (d. 1918)source
  • November 24 – Lucky Luciano, Sicilian-American Mafia boss Salvatore Lucania (d. 1962)source
  • December 14 – Margaret Chase Smith, American politician, U.S. Senator from Maine ( d. 1995 )source

Deaths

  • March 6 – Sir Thomas Elder, Australian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1818)source
  • March 10 – Savitribai Phule, Indian social reformer and poet (b. 1831)source
  • May 10 – Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary (b. 1863)source
  • May 21 – Gregorio Luperón, Dominican revolutionary leader (b. 1839)source
  • July 1 – Ropata Wahawaha, New Zealand Māori military leader (b. c.1820)source
  • July 11 – S. A. Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897 begins. The ill-fated expedition to fly over the Arctic results in the death of the entire team within months.source
  • August 8 – Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, incumbent Prime Minister of Spain and historian (assassinated) (b. 1828)source
  • August 31 – Louisa Lane Drew, English-born American actress, theater manager (b. 1820)source
  • September 27 – George M. Robeson, American politician (b. 1829)source
  • September 30 – Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, French Roman Catholic and Discalced Carmelite nun, saint (b. 1873)source
  • October 19 – George Pullman, American inventor and industrialist (b. 1831)source
  • October 28 – Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead, British colonial governor (b. 1824)source
  • October 29 – Henry George, American economist (b. 1839)source
  • November 15 – Lucinda Barbour Helm, American women's religious activist (b. 1839)source