1897
1897 (
MDCCCXCVII) was a
common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).
 |
A typical gold mining operation, on Bonanza Creek |
*
January 1 -
Brooklyn, New York merges with
New York City.
*
January 4 - A
British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the
Oba of Benin. This leads to a
Punitive Expedition against
Benin.
*
January 23 -
Elva Zona Heaster found dead in
Greenbrier County,
West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
*
February 2 -
Harrisburg, the
Pennsylvania state capitol, is destroyed by fire.
*
February 10 - Freedom of religion is pronounced in
Madagascar*
February 18 -
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 18 -
Dracula, a novel by Irish author
Bram Stoker is published.
*
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."
*
June 22 - Queen
Victoria celebrates her
Diamond Jubilee*
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.
*
July 17 -
Klondike Gold Rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in
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 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
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 -
Natal annexes
Zululand.
*
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
*
J. J. Thomson discovers the
electron as a
subatomic particleJanuary-March
*
January 3 -
Marion Davies, American actress (d.
1961)
*
January 21 -
René Iché, French sculptor (d.
1954)
*
January 23 -
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect and anti-Nazi activist (d.
2000)
*
January 28 -
Ivan Stedeford, British Industrialist (d.
1975)
*
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 21 -
Sean Heuston, Irish rebel (d.
1916)
*
February 27 -
Marian Anderson, American contralto (d.
1993)
*
March 1 -
Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the
Bahá'í Faith (d.
1957)
*
March 4 -
Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur (d.
1969)
*
March 5 -
Set Persson, Swedish communist politician (d.
1960)
*
March 15 -
Jackson Scholz, American sprinter (d.
1986)
*
March 20 -
Ruby Muhammad, African Americans' rights activist
*
March 24 -
Wilhelm Reich, Austrian psychotherapist (d.
1957)
*
March 27 -
Gloria Swanson, American actress (d.
1983)
*
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 (d.
1970)
*April 19 -
Constance Talmadge, American actress (d.
1973)
*
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 2 -
J. Fred Coots, American songwriter (d.
1985)
*
May 14 -
Sidney Bechet, American musician (d.
1959)
*
May 17 -
Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist,
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 laureate (d.
1987)
*
June 19 -
Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist,
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 (d.
1937 - presumed)
*
July 29 - Sir
Neil Ritchie, British general (d.
1983)
*
August 2 -
Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d.
1974)
*
August 5 -
Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (d.
1972)
*
August 28 -
Charles Boyer, French actor (d.
1978)
*
September 1 -
Andy Kennedy, Northern Irish footballer (d.
1963)
*
September 8 -
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 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, Korean Crown Prince (d.
1970)
*
October 29 -
Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi propagandist (d.
1945)
*
November 9 -
Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, British chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1978)
*
November 15 -
Sacheverell Sitwell, English author (d.
1988)
*
November 17 -
Frank Fay, American actor and first husband of
Barbara Stanwyck (d.
1961)
*
November 18 -
Patrick Blackett, English physicist,
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)
*
February 4 -
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)
