| January 1 | Australia declares independence from federation of U.K. colonies |
| January 1 | Commonwealth of Australia established |
| January 8 | NSW score 918 all out vs South Australia in 560 minutes |
| January 9 | NSW (918) defeat S Australia (157 and 156) by innings and 605 |
| January 10 | Oil discovered in Texas |
| January 18 | Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Graves De Communi Re |
| January 21 | Clyde Fitch's "Climbers," premieres in New York City |
| January 22 | After 63 years England stops sale of Queen Victoria postage stamps series and begins King Edward VII series |
| January 24 | 1st games played in baseball's American League |
| January 24 | Emily Hobhouse view lord Kitcheners concentration camp at Bloemfontein |
| January 31 | Boer general John Smuts and De la Rey conqueror Mud river Transvaal |
| January 31 | Chekhov's "Three Sisters" opens at Moscow Art Theater |
| January 31 | Winnipeg Victorias sweep Montreal Shamrocks in 2 for Stanley Cup |
| February 2 | Female Army Nurse Corps established as a permanent organization |
| February 3 | Dutch troops under General Van Heutsz conquer Batu Ilie on Sumatra |
| February 5 | Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster) patented by Ed Prescot |
| February 5 | Pierpont Morgan forms U.S. Steel Corp |
| February 7 | Queen Wilhelmina marries Prince Heinrich von Mecklenburg-Schwerin |
| February 12 | Dutch Penitentiary children's law proclaimed |
| February 18 | H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner |
| February 20 | 1st territorial legislature of Hawaii convenes |
| February 25 | George Cohan's musical "Governor's Son," premieres in New York City |
| February 25 | U.S. Steel Corp organized under J. P. Morgan |
| February 27 | NL Rules Committee decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes except after two strikes |
| March 2 | Hawaii's 1st telegraph company opens |
| March 3 | Congress creates National Bureau of Standards, in Department of Commerce |
| March 4 | 1st advanced copy of inaugural speech (Jefferson-National Intelligencer) |
| March 4 | President William McKinley inaugurated for 2nd term as president |
| March 4 | Term of George H. White, last of post-Reconstruction congressmen, ends |
| March 11 | Cincinnati Enquirer reports Baltimore manager John McGraw signed Cherokee Indian Tokohoma, who is really black 2nd baseman Charlie Grant |
| March 12 | Ground is broken for Boston's 1st AL ballpark (Huntington Ave Grounds) |
| March 14 | 1st performance of Anton Bruckner's 6th Symphony in A |
| March 15 | Horse racing is banned in San Francisco, last race Mar 16th |
| March 17 | Free thinking-Democratic Union forms in Netherlands |
| March 23 | Dame Nellie Melba, reveals secret of her now famous toast |
| March 25 | 55 die as Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown Iowa |
| April 7 | SDAP demands general voting right/abolishing First Chamber |
| April 15 | 1st British motorized burial |
| April 19 | 5th Boston Marathon won by Jim Caffrey of Canada in 2:29:23.6 |
| April 19 | James J Caffrey wins Boston marathon (2:29:23.6) |
| April 24 | 1st AL game, Chicago beats Cleveland Blues 8-2, 3 other games rained out |
| April 25 | Erve Beck hits American League's 1st home run |
| April 25 | In last of 9th, Detroit Tigers, trailing by 13-4, score 10 runs to win one of greatest comebacks in baseball (1st game in Detroit) |
| April 25 | New York becomes 1st state requiring auto license plates ($1 fee) |
| April 28 | 1st soccer game between Belgium (8) and Netherlands (0) |
| April 28 | Cleveland's Bock Baker gives up a record 23 singles as White Sox beat Blues (Cleveland Blues!) 13-1 |
| April 29 | 27th Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on His Eminence wins in 2:07.75 |
| April 29 | Anti semitic riot in Budapest |
| May 1 | Detroit Tigers commit 12 errors against Chicago White Sox |
| May 1 | Herb McFarland hit 1st grand slam in American League |
| May 1 | Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo |
| May 3 | Fire destroyed 1,700 buildings in Jacksonville, Florida |
| May 8 | In their long-delayed AL home opener, Boston defeats Philadelphia 12-4 |
| May 9 | Australia opens its 1st parliament in Melbourne |
| May 9 | Cleveland's Earl Moore no-hits Chicago White Sox 9 inn but loses in 10th 4-2 |
| May 12 | President McKinley visits San Francisco |
| May 16 | Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Priory School" |
| May 23 | 35th Belmont: H Spencer aboard Commando wins in 2:21 |
| May 23 | Indians score 9 runs after 2 outs in 9th to beat Senators 14-13 |
| May 23 | Ottawa Mint Act receives Royal Assent |
| May 23 | U.S. captures leader of Philippine rebels, Emilio Aguinaldo |
| May 28 | 26th Preakness: Fred Landry aboard The Parader wins in 1:47.2 |
| May 28 | Laws against phosphor matches enacted (inhibition white phosphorous) |
| May 30 | Hall of Fame for Great American on NYU campus dedicated |
| May 30 | Memorial Day 1st observed in U.S. |
| June 2 | Benjamin Adams arrested for playing golf on Sunday, New York |
| June 9 | New York Giants get record 31 hits to beat Cincinnati Reds 25-13 |
| June 11 | Cook Islands annexed and proclaimed part of New Zealand |
| June 14 | 1st golf championship is played |
| June 15 | 7th U.S. Golf Open: Willie Anderson shoots a 331 at Myopia Hunt Club, Massachusetts |
| June 20 | Charlotte Manye is 1st native African to graduate from a U.S. college |
| June 24 | 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso, 19, opens in Paris |
| June 24 | Jewish National Fund starts |
| July 2 | Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner Montana |
| July 12 | Cy Young wins his 300th game |
| July 15 | New York Giant Christy Mathewson no-hits St. Louis, 5-0 |
| July 22 | Serbia reactivates diplomatic relations with Montenegro |
| July 31 | Abraham Kuyper becomes premier of Netherlands |
| August 1 | Burial within San Francisco City limits prohibited |
| August 5 | Peter O'Connor of Ireland, sets then long jump record at 24' 11 3/4" |
| August 9 | 34-35 degrees N/98-99 degrees W open for U.S. colonization |
| August 10 | Chicago White Sox Frank Isbell strands record 11 teammate base runners |
| August 12 | Boer general Kritzinger driven out of Cape colony |
| August 14 | SS Islander hits iceberg near Alaska and sinks killing 70 |
| August 15 | Arch Rock, danger to Bay shipping, blasted with 30 tons of nitro |
| August 20 | Fawcett committee visits Mafeking concentration camp in Cape Colony |
| August 21 | 21st U.S. Mens Tennis: William Larned beats Beals C Wright (62 68 64 64) |
| August 21 | Joe McGinnity, suspended from NL for punching and spitting on an ump |
| August 22 | Cadillac Co forms |
| August 30 | Hubert Cecil Booth patents vacuum cleaner |
| September 1 | Construction begins on New York Stock Exchange |
| September 2 | Vice President Theodore Roosevelt advises, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" |
| September 3 | Boer General Smuts enters Kiba Drift in Cape Colony |
| September 5 | National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues forms |
| September 6 | President William McKinley, shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at Pan American Exposition in Buffalo NY, he dies 8th days later |
| September 7 | Peace of Peking - Ends Boxer Rebellion in China |
| September 12 | Arabs attack Gedara, Palestine |
| September 17 | Battle at Blood River Port: Boer General Botha beats Major Goughs cavalry |
| September 17 | Battle at Elands River Port: Boer General Smuts destroys unit 17th Lancers |
| September 19 | 11 baseball games canceled due to funeral of President William McKinley |
| September 26 | Great Britain annexes Gold Coast (Ghana) |
| September 28 | Guerrilla's assault unarmed U.S. soldiers in Balangiga Phil, 38 killed |
| October 2 | 1st Royal Naval submarine launched at Barrow |
| October 12 | Theodore Roosevelt renames "Executive Mansion," "The White House" |
| October 14 | Justin Huntly McCarthy's "If I were King," premieres in New York City |
| October 18 | Belgium's Louise of den Plas begins activities towards women rights |
| October 19 | Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March," premieres in Liverpool |
| October 19 | Santos-Dumont proves airship maneuverable by circling Eiffel Tower |
| October 24 | 1st woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel (Anna Taylor) |
| October 26 | 1st use of "getaway car" occurs after holding up a shop in Paris |
| October 27 | 1st complete performance of Debussy's "Nocturnes" |
| October 30 | Battle at Bakenlaagte: Lt-colonel Bensons unit vs Boers |
| November 4 | Clyde Fitch' "Way of the World," premieres in New York City |
| November 11 | Maurice Ravel composition "Jeux d'eau" premieres |
| November 15 | James J. Jeffries TKOs Gus Ruhlin in 6 for heavyweight boxing title |
| November 16 | 3 autos race on Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, fastest speed achieved by Henry Fournier who drives a mile in 51 4/5 seconds |
| November 20 | Opera "Griselidis" is produced (Paris) |
| November 21 | Richard Strauss' opera "Feuersnot," premieres in Dresden |
| November 27 | Army War College forms in Washington D.C. |
| November 27 | Gerhart Hauptmanns "Der rote Hahn," premieres in Berlin |
| November 28 | Gustav Mahler's 4th Symphony in G, premieres |
| November 29 | East 182nd Street in Bronx is paved and opened |
| December 2 | Gillette patents 1st disposable razor |
| December 2 | King Camp Gillette begins selling safety razor blades |
| December 3 | Milwaukee is dropped from the AL and replaced by St. Louis Browns |
| December 4 | Anne Russell's "Girl and the judge," premieres in New York City |
| December 10 | 1st Nobel Peace Prizes (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy) |
| December 11 | Marconi sends 1st transatlantic radio signal, Cornwall to Nfld |
| December 12 | Marconi receives 1st transatlantic radio signal, England to US |
| December 13 | Test debut of S F Barnes vs. Australia SCG, took 5-65 in 1st innings |
| December 14 | 1st table tennis tournament is held (London Royal Aquarium) |
| December 16 | Boer general Kritzinger captured |
| December 25 | Battle at Tweefontein Orange-Free state: Boers surprise attack Brits |
BrainyHistory
