1899 establishments in Michigan

Events

January 1899

* January 1
** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City.
* January 2 –
** Bolivia sets up a customs office in Puerto Alonso, leading to the Brazilian settlers there to declare the Republic of Acre in a revolt against Bolivian authorities.
**The first part of the Jakarta Kota–Anyer Kidul railway on the island of Java is opened between Batavia Zuid ( Jakarta Kota) and Tangerang.
* January 3 – Hungarian Prime Minister Dezső Bánffy fights an inconclusive duel with his bitter enemy in parliament, Horánszky Nándor.
* January 4 –
**U.S. President William McKinley's declaration of December 21, 1898, proclaiming a policy of benevolent assimilation of the Philippines as a United States territory, is announced in Manila by the U.S. commander, General Elwell Otis, and angers independence activists who had fought against Spanish rule.
**The American Society of Landscape Architects, still in existence 123 years later, is founded.
* January 5 – A fierce battle is fought between American troops and Filipino defenders at the town of Pililla on the island of Luzon. The Filipinos retreat to the mountains at Tanay.
* January 6 – Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India.
* January 7 – ''The Lucky Star'', an English comic opera composed by Ivan Caryll and produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company premieres at the Savoy Theatre in London for the first of 143 performances.
* January 8 – The Association football club SK Rapid Wien is founded in Vienna.
* January 9 –
**After a successful revolt against the Ottoman Empire by the inhabitants of the island of Crete, the area, which joins Greece, gets its first constitution, with provisions for a provincial legislature with 138 Christian deputies and 50 Muslim deputies.
** George F. Hoar, a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, speaks out in the Senate against American expansion into the Philippines. The text of Hoar's is sent by cable to Hong Kong at a cost of $4,000, and is later cited by Ambassador John Barrett on January 13, 1900, as an incitement to Filipino attacks on U.S. troops.
* January 10 – The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is founded, at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
* January 11 – The Steel Plate Transferrers' Association, the first labor union for workers skilled in siderography (the engraving and mass reproduction of steel plates for newspaper printing) is established. After changing its name to the International Association of Siderographers, it had 80 members at its peak. It dissolves in 1991, with only eight members left.
* January 12 – A massive rescue by the Lynmouth Lifeboat Station, using 100 men and requiring the transport of the lifeboat ''Louisa'' over land and then out to sea, succeeds in saving all 18 men aboard. The event is later made famous in the children's book ''The Overland Launch''.
* January 13 – The Canadian Northern Railway is established, on January 13, 1899
* January 14 –
**The White Star Line ship RMS ''Oceanic'', at the time the largest British ocean liner up to that time, is launched from the Irish port of Belfast in front of over 50,000 people. It will begin its maiden voyage on September 6.
**The British four-masted sailing ship ''Andelana'' capsizes during a storm in Commencement Bay off the coast of the U.S. state of Washington, with the loss of all 17 of her crew.
* January 15 – The name of Puerto Rico is changed by the new U.S. military government to "Porto Rico". It will not be changed back until May 17, 1932.
* January 16 – Eduardo Calceta is appointed as Chief of the Army (''Jefe General'') of the rebel Philippine Republic army by Emilio Aguinaldo.
* January 17 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
* January 18 – The General Assembly of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania begins the task of filling the U.S. Senate seat of Matthew Quay, who had recently resigned after being indicted on criminal charges. After 79 ballots and three months, no candidate has a majority, and the General Assembly refuses to approve the governor's appointment of a successor, and the seat remains vacant for more than two years. The Pennsylvania experience later leads to the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to provide for U.S. Senators to be directly elected by popular vote, rather than by the state legislatures.
* January 19 –
**The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed (it is disbanded in 1956).
**Future film producer Samuel Goldwyn, born in Poland and later a resident of Germany and England, arrives in the United States at the age of sixteen as Szmuel Gelbfisz.
* January 20 – The Schurman Commission is created by U.S. President William McKinley to study the issue of the American approach to he sovereignty of the Philippines, ceded to the U.S. on December 10 by Spain. The five-man group, chaired by Cornell University President Jacob Schurman, later concludes that the Philippines will need to become financially independent before a republic can be created.
* January 21
** Opel Motors opens for business in Germany.
** The Malolos Constitution is ratified in the Province of Bulacan by the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines.

* January 22 – The leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne, to discuss the confederation of Australia as a whole.
* January 23
** Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in, as President of the First Philippine Republic.
**Mubarak Al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, signs the Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899 a secret treaty with the British Empire to accept protectorate status for the Middle Eastern sheikdom in return for British protection of Kuwaiti territory.
** The British Southern Cross Expedition crosses the Antarctic Circle.
* January 24 – The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, one of the oldest medical schools in the United States, is founded.
* January 25 – The city of Ponce, Puerto Rico is saved from disaster by seven firemen and one volunteer civilian who disobey orders and stop "El Polverin", a fire near the U.S. Army's store of explosive artillery. A "Monument to the Heroes of El Poverin" is later erected in their honor.
* January 26 –
**U.S. Representative George Henry White of North Carolina, the only African-American in Congress at the time, delivers his first major speech, speaking out against disenfranchisement of black voters and proposing that the number of representatives from a U.S. state should be based on the number of persons of voting age who actually cast ballots, rather than population. "
**German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun, who will later share the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi, receives British Patent No. 1899-1862 for his wireless radio invention "Telegraphy without directly connected wire".
* January 27 – Camille Jenatzy of France becomes the first man to drive an automobile more than 80 kilometers per hour, almost breaking the 50 mph barrier when he reaches an unprecedented speed of in his CGA Dogcart racecar. Jenatzy's speed is more than 20% faster than the January 17 mark of set by Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat.
* January 28
**At a time when U.S. Senators are elected by the state legislature rather than by ballot, wealthy businessman William A. Clark is elected U.S. Senator after offering bribes to most of the members. The U.S. Senate refuses to seat him after evidence of the bribery is revealed.
**The League of Peja, organized by Haxhi Zeka to lobby for a Kosovar Albanian state within the Ottoman Empire, attracts 450 delegates to its first convention, held at the city of Peja, now in the Republic of Kosovo.
* January 29 – A lawyer for the estate of John W. Keely, an inventor who had persuaded investors in his Keely Motor Company that an automobile could be created that would operate from Keely's "induction resonance motion motor" that had achieved perpetual motion, reveals that the late Mr. Keely's motor had been a fraud, and that the widow knew nothing of it.
* January 30 – Dimitar Grekov is appointed as Prime Minister of Bulgaria by King Ferdinand I, but removed from office less than 10 months later on October 13.
* January 31 – Cherokee Nation voters in the Indian Territory (later the U.S. state of Oklahoma) approve a proposition to allot Cherokee lands and to dissolve the Cherokee government, but the U.S. Congress never ratifies the results.

February 1899

* February 1 –
**Ranavalona III, who had been the Queen of Madagascar until being deposed on February 28, 1897, is sent into exile by French colonial authorities, along with the rest of the royal family. She departs on the ship ''Yang-Tse'' on a 28-day trip to Marseilles.
**The Suntory whisky distiller in Japan is opened by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka as a store selling imported wines.
* February 2 – The participants in the Australian Premiers' Conference, held in Melbourne, agree that Australia's capital ( Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
* February 3 – Kansas University's new college basketball team, coached by the game's inventor, Dr. James Naismith, plays its first game, and is defeated by the YMCA team of Kansas City, Kansas, 16 to 5.
* February 4 –
**The Philippine–American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
**Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" is first published, appearing in ''The Times'' of London. A response to the United States occupation of the Philippine Islands, and exhorting members of the White race to be responsible for benevolent civilizing of the world's "non-white" people, the poem is reprinted in ''The New York Sun'' the next day.
* February 5 – The first major battle of the Philippine–American War concludes with the capture by the U.S. of the San Juan River Bridge that connects Manila and San Juan. U.S. Army General Arthur MacArthur Jr. directs troops of the U.S. Army Eighth Corps to victory over Filipino troops commanded by General Antonio Luna. In the two-day battle, 55 U.S. soldiers and 238 Filipino soldiers are killed.
* February 6 – A peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate by a vote of 57 to 27 to end the Spanish–American War.
* February 7 – Elections are held in Greece for the 235 seats of the Hellenic Parliament. Supporters of the late Charilaos Trikoupis win 110 seats, 8 short of a majority, and Trikoupis's successor, Georgios Theotokis forms a government as Prime Minister.
* February 8 – Protesting against the government of Russia breaks out at Saint Petersburg University and mounted police violently respond to the group, causing a riot.
* February 9 – The Dodge Commission exonerates the U.S. Department of War from responsibility in the United States Army beef scandal, where meatpacking companies supplied low-grade, putrefied beef to American soldiers during the Spanish American War and caused an unquantified number of cases of food poisoning. While War Secretary Russell Alger is not accused of criminal negligence, the Commission implies that he was incompetent and he is later forced to resign.
* February 10 –
**U.S. Army troops, supported by bombardment from the warships ''Charleston'' and ''Monandock'', defeat Filipino forces in the Battle of Caloocan and get control of the Manila to Dagupan railway. Colonel W. S. Metcalfe is later accused by some of his men of having ordered the shooting of Filipino soldiers taken prisoner.
**Future U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his fiancée Lou Henry, both 24, are married at her parents' home in Monterey, California, and depart the next day for a 14-month stay in China, where Hoover works as a mining engineer.
* February 11 – The coldest temperature recorded up to that time in the continental United States is set as Fort Logan, Montana records a low of .
* February 12 – The Great Blizzard of 1899 strikes the east coast of the United States, causing subzero temperatures as far south as southern Florida for two days and destroying the citrus fruit crop that year.
* February 13 – In New York, the White Star ocean liner SS ''Germanic'', already laden with ice and snow during its voyage from Liverpool, becomes even more weighed down after disembarking its passengers when the New York City blizzard strikes. With of added weight, the ship begins to list sideways and additional weight enters cargo doors that had been opened for refuelling. ''Germanic'' remains on the bottom New York Harbor for more than a week while salvaging goes on, then requires refurbishing for three months, but becomes operational again.
* February 14 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress, for use in federal elections.
* February 15 – The February Manifesto is issued by the Emperor of Russia, decreeing that a veto by the Diet of Finland may be overruled in legislative matters concerning the interest of all Russia, including autonomous Finland. The manifesto is viewed as unconstitutional and a coup d'état by many Finns, who have come to consider their country a separate constitutional state in its own right, in union with the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the manifesto also fails to elaborate the criteria that a law has to meet in order to be considered to concern Russian imperial interests, and not an internal affair of Finland (affairs over which the Diet's authority is supposed have remained unaltered), leaving it to be decided by the autocratic Emperor. This results in Finnish fears that the Diet of Finland may be overruled arbitrarily.
* February 16 –
**Félix Faure, the President of France since 1895, dies of a stroke in his office while engaged in sexual activity with his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil.
**Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, the first Association football club in Iceland, is established in the island's capital, Reykjavík.
* February 17 – The research vessel SS ''Southern Cross'', on an Antarctic expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink, arrives at Cape Adare and begins unloading 90 sledge dogs— the first ever on the continent and two Norwegian Sámi crewmen, Per Savio and Ole Must, who become the first humans to spend the night in Antarctica. Over the next 12 days, the rest of the 31-man crew brings in supplies builds a temporary settlement.
* February 18 – The National Assembly of France elects a new President to fill out the remainder of the late President Faure's term. Senate President Émile Loubet wins the vote, 483 to 278, against Prime Minister Jules Méline.
* February 19 – In Venezuela, the former Minister of War, Major General Ramón Guerra, angry with the reforms of President Ignacio Andrade, proclaims the state of Guárico as an independent territory. President Andrade orders General Augusto Lutowsky to crush the rebellion and Guerra flees to Colombia, but later comes back as Minister of War.
* February 20 – Discussions among members of a joint Anglo-American commission, set up by U.S. President William McKinley and Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier to resolve the Alaska boundary dispute, end abruptly after it is clear that the U.S. will not make any concessions. In response, Laurier makes clear that there will be no further concessions with the U.S. in trade.
* February 21 –
** Gdadebo II, the Alake of Egba in what is now southeast Nigeria, signs an agreement with the British Governor of Lagos Colony to lease lands for construction of a new railway from Aro to Abeokuta.
**The British freighter SS ''Jumna'', with the capacity to carry more than 500 people, but hauling a load of coal with minimal crew, is last seen passing Rathlin Island at Northern Ireland. Bound from Scotland to deliver a shipment of coal to Uruguay, it never arrives and is never seen again.
**The Vicksburg National Military Park is established in Mississippi to preserve the battlefield of the Battle of Vicksburg that was fought in 1863 during the American Civil War.
* February 22 – Convention Hall, which later hosts two national political conventions, opens in Kansas City, Missouri with a concert by the band of John Philip Sousa. The building burns down less than 14 months later.
* February 23 – In France, Paul Déroulède and Jules Guérin of the right-wing Ligue des Patriotes attempt to persuade General Georges-Gabriel de Pellieux to lead a coup d'état during the funeral of the late president Félix Faure in order to overthrow President Loubet. General Pellieux refuses to participate. Later in the year, Déroulède and Guérin are indicted for conspiracy against the government and banished from France.
* February 24 – The works of Catholic priest and theologian Herman Schell, including the recently published ''Der Katholicismus als Princip des Fortschritts'' and ''Die neue Zeit und der alte Glaube''are placed by the Roman Catholic Church on its Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of banned books.
* February 25 – In an accident at Grove Hill, Harrow, London, England, Edwin Sewell becomes the world's first driver of a petrol-driven vehicle to be killed; his passenger, Maj. James Richer, dies of injuries three days later.
* February 26 – Dezső Bánffy resigns as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary, at the time a partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is succeeded by Kálmán Széll.
* February 27 – Japanese immigration to South America, primarily the nation of Peru, begins as the ship ''Sakura Maru'' departs from Yokohama with 790 men employed by the Morioka-shokai Sugar Company. The group arrives in Callao on April 3.
* February 28 – U.S. President William McKinley approves a law increasing the pension to American Civil War veterans, both Union and Confederate, to $25.00 per month.

March 1899

* March 1 – In Afghanistan, Capt. George Roos-Keppel makes a sudden attack on a predatory band of Chamkannis that have been raiding in the Kurram Valley, and captures 100 prisoners with 3,000 head of cattle.
* March 2 – Mount Rainier National Park is established, in the U.S. state of Washington.
* March 3 – Guglielmo Marconi conducts radio beacon experiments on Salisbury Plain in England and notices that radio waves are being reflected back to the transmitter by objects they encounter, one of the early steps in the potential for developing radar.
* March 4 – Cyclone Mahina strikes Bathurst Bay, Queensland. A 12 meter high wave reaches up to 5 km inland, leaving over 400 dead (the deadliest natural disaster in Australia's history).

* March 5 – George B. Selden sells the rights to his patent for an internal combustion engine to the Electric Vehicle Company, and he and the company then claim a royalty on all automobiles using such an engine.
* March 6 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin, and Bayer registers its name as a trademark.
* March 7 – The Provisional Law on the Judiciary is issued in the Philippines to provide for the selection of a Chief Justice.
* March 8 – The Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 (predecessor of Eintracht Frankfurt Association football club) is founded.
* March 9 – Japan promulgates its commercial code, the Shōhō, to take effect on June 16. The Shōhō, as amended applies to Japanese business today."Commercial and Corporate Law in Japan", by Harald Baum and Eiji Takahashi, in ''History of Law in Japan Since 1868'' (Brill, 2005) p. 355
* March 10 –
**The U.S. state of Delaware enacts its general corporation act that makes it the most important jurisdiction in United States corporate law.
**At the Battle of Balantang, the U.S. Army sustains 400 casualties in an attack by Philippine troops under the command of Pascual Magbanua.
* March 11 –
**A wireless distress signal is sent for the first time by a patrol boat to aid the endangered British cruiser ''Elbe''. The Morse code distress signal is heard by the lighthouse near Ramsgate Lifeboat Station, which sends a lifeboat to the rescue.
**Waldemar Jungner files the patent application for the first alkaline battery and receives Swedish patent number 11132.
* March 12 – Encinal County, Texas, created on February 1, 1856, near the U.S. city of Laredo on the condition that it would create a county seat, is discontinued and annexed into neighboring Webb County. The largest town in the area, Bruni, has less than 400 people.
* March 13 – Chelan County, Washington is created from Okanogan and Kittitas counties for the area around Wenatchee.
* March 14 –
**After a civil war breaks out in Samoa between Malietoa Tanumafili I (recognized by Germany, the UK and the U.S.) and rebels who recognize Mata'afa Iosefo as the island's king, the USS ''Philadelphia'' takes control of the capital at Apia.
**Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II takes direct command of the Imperial Navy.
* March 15 – Santa Cruz County is established in the southeast corner of Pima County around the city of Nogales (built across from the border of the larger Mexican city of Nogales, Sonora) in the U.S. territory of Arizona.
* March 16 – Memorial ceremonies are held for the burial of the late German hero Otto von Bismarck and his wife, Johanna von Puttkamer with their re-interment at the Bismarck Mausoleum, now a tourist attraction at Friedrichsruh in Aumühle. Bismarck, who had died on July 30, had been buried along with his wife at the estate of his home in Varzin, now the city of Warcino in Poland.
* March 17 – A fire kills 86 people at the Windsor Hotel in New York City.
* March 18 – Phoebe, the ninth-known moon of the planet Saturn is discovered by U.S. astronomer William Pickering from analysis of photographic plates made by a Peruvian observatory seven months earlier, the first discovery of a satellite photographically.
* March 19 –
**One of the first labor unions for government employees is formed with the organization in Denmark of the Copenhagen Municipal Workers' Union
**The Battle of Taguig takes place in the Philippines as the USS ''Laguna de Bay'' bombards the Katipunan stronghold.
* March 20 – At Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
* March 21 – The Eden Theatre in La Ciotat, a small city in France near Marseilles, lays a claim to being the first cinema as brothers Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière present their short film, ''L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat'' ("The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat") to 250 surprised spectators. The action film shows a steam train pulling into La Ciotat station, passengers coming out of the cars, and departing passengers climbing on.
* March 22 – The coronation of Malietoa Tanumafili I as King of Samoa takes place. He had become the Malieota of the South Pacific island when his father died on August 22.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (June 1899), pp. 539-542
* March 23 – The U.S. cruiser USS ''Philadelphia'' and the Royal Navy cruisers HMS ''Porpoise'' and HMS ''Royalist'' bombard rebel-held villages in Samoa after an attack on Apia.
* March 24 –
**The U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, acting as arbitrator of a boundary dispute between Argentina and Chile, awards the disputed territory to Chile.
**George Dewey is made Admiral of the U.S. Navy.
* March 25 – The rowing team of Cambridge University wins the annual boat race against Oxford University for the first time in a decade, finishing ahead of Oxford by 3 1⁄4 lengths on the Thames. Oxford had won the race nine times in a row from 1890 to 1898.
* March 26 – In the first major action in the Malolos Campaign in the Philippine–American War, 90 Filipino soldiers are killed in the Battle of the Meycauayan bridge
* March 27
** Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmits a radio signal across the English Channel.
** In the Battle of Marilao River, Filipino forces under the personal command of Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the Philippines, fail to prevent troops of the United States Army crossing the river.
* March 28 – Alfred Martineau becomes the new French colonial governor of French Somaliland in northeast Africa, now the Republic of Djibouti
* March 29 – The First Philippine Republic relocates its capital from Malolos to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija as the government flees an invasion of U.S. forces.
* March 30 – The British steamer ''Stella'' sinks in the English Channel with the loss of 80 people after wrecking against Les Casquets, a group of rocks near the Channel Islands.
* March 31 –
**The United Kingdom announces that it has completed the purchase of rights to occupy the Kingdom of Tonga.
**In the Philippine–American War, Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.

April 1899

* April 1 – The Second Battle of Vailele takes place in Samoa as rebels loyal to King Mata'afa Iosefo force the retreat of American and British troops assisting Samoans loyal to Prince Tanumafili.
* April 2 – The Hamburg America Line cruise ship SS ''Graf Waldersee'' begins its maiden voyage.
* April 3 – The ship ''Sakura Maru'' brings 790 Japanese immigrants to the Peruvian port of Callao as the first persons from Japan to be accepted to live in South America.
* April 4 –
**Cuba's General Assembly voted to disband the Cuban army and to dissolve to accept U.S. sovereignty.
**The German Imperial Navy warship SMS ''Jaguar'', which will be scuttled after losing the 1914 Siege of Tsingtao, begins service.
* April 5 – A team of five European geologists and 30 African laborers sets out from Northern Rhodesia to explore the minerals of central Africa for the British company Tanganyika Concessions, Ltd. (TCL). Discovering that the most valuable copper deposits are in the Congo Free State, TCL makes an unsuccessful attempt to purchase full rights from King Leopold of Belgium.
* April 6 – In an elaborate military ceremony, 336 of the 385 American soldiers killed in the Spanish–American War are interred at the Arlington National Cemetery.
* April 7 – The Shootout at Wilson Ranch, the last major gunfight of the Wild West era in the U.S., takes place in Tombstone, Arizona. Brothers William Halderman and Thomas Halderman, kill two lawmen. They will later be hanged on November 16, 1900.
* April 8 – ''The Victors'', the famous fight song for University of Michigan sports, is premiered at Ann Arbor, Michigan by John Philip Sousa and his band. A student orchestra had played the music three days earlier for a smaller student audience.
* April 9 –
**In Uganda, King Chwa II Kabalega of the Bunyoro kingdom, a leader of the fight against British colonial occupation, is taken prisoner after being shot in a battle near Hoima. Kabalega is exiled to the Seychelles in the South Pacific ocean and remains there until 1923.
**The Greek ship ''Maria'' sinks after a collision with the British steamer ''Kingswell'' in the Mediterranean and 45 people drown.
**The Battle of Santa Cruz begins in the Philippines between U.S. Army troops and nationalists of the First Philippine Republic. After a two day battle, 93 Filipino fighters and one American soldier are dead.
* April 10 – Seven people are shot and killed in a gun battle at the Springside Mine at Pana, Illinois, between striking white union coal miners, and African-Americans hired as strikebreakers by the company. Five of the dead are black, including the wife of one of the non-union miners, along with one white miner and a white sheriff's deputy.
* April 11 – U.S. President William McKinley declares the Spanish-American War to be at an end as the Treaty of Paris between the U.S. and Spain goes into effect. Ratifications are exchanged between McKinley and French Ambassador Jules Cambon on behalf of Spain. Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam are ceded to the U.S. and Cuba becomes an American protectorate.
* April 12 – Bolivia's President Severo Fernández is overthrown in a military coup d'état led by General José Manuel Pando.
* April 13 – The British freighter ''City of York'' departs from the U.S. port of San Francisco with a crew of 27 and a cargo of Oregon timber bound for Fremantle in Australia, but never reaches its destination, wrecking on the reefs at Rottnest Island on July 12.
* April 14 – British Army troops in Hong Kong attack the Walled City of Kowloon on orders of colonial Governor Henry Blake, based on intelligence that Chinese Imperial Army troops have been stationed behind the walls to subvert Britain's 1898 lease. By April 19, the British commander discovers that the Chinese troops had already departed and that only 150 civilians remain.
* April 15 – Students at the University of California, Berkeley steal the Stanford Axe from Stanford University, yelling at leaders following a baseball game, thus establishing the Axe as a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.
* April 16 –
** Voting is held in Spain for the 402 seats of the Congreso de los Diputados, and the Conservative Union wins a majority with 233 members. Voting for the Senate of Spain takes place on April 30.
**Britain formally claims possession of the "New Territories" as an extension of its lease of Hong Kong to cover the area south of the Sham Chun River and 230 island in Kowloon Bay.
* April 17 – The first elections for the 10-member Legislative Council of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), limited to European candidates and voters.
* April 18 – The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 goes into effect, creating 32 counties of Ireland (six which would become Northern Ireland) and abolishes the counties corporate of Carrickfergus and Drogheda.
* April 19 – France adds the Kingdom of Laos, a protectorate since 1893, to the existing colony of French Indochina.
* April 20 – The controversial ballet ''Le Cygne'', choreographed by Madame Mariquita and written by Catulle Mendès, premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, but is considered by critics to be too sexually explicit.
* April 21 – The nova V606 Aquilae is first observed from Earth as seen within the constellation Aquila. It fades within six months.
* April 22 – In aid of the Royal Niger Company, the British Army begins an invasion of Esanland, in southwestern Nigeria, to halt the resistance of the Esan chiefs still resistant to European rule. After Benin King Ologbosere is overcome, the British attack the kingdom at Ekpoma.
* April 23 – The steamship ''General Whitney'' sinks off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. While everyone on board escapes in lifeboats, one of the boats capsizes, drowning the captain and 16 other crew.
* April 24 – The Scottish ship ''Loch Sloy'' is wrecked off the coast of Australia's Kangaroo Island, drowning 32 of the 35 people on board.
* April 25 – Voting is held for the 169-seat National Assembly in Bulgaria, and the Radoslava Party wins a majority.
* April 26 – Jean Sibelius's '' First Symphony'' premieres in Finland at Helsinki.
* April 27 – In Australia, the Apostolic Church of Queensland receives formal recognition as a religious denomination.
* April 28 – The United Kingdom and the Russian Empire sign the Anglo-Russian Agreement formalizing their spheres of influence in China, essentially agreeing that Britain will not seek railway concessions north of the Great Wall of China, and Russia will avoid doing the same in the Yangtze River valley in southern China.
* April 29 – Camille Jenatzy of Belgium becomes the first person to drive faster than 100 kilometers per hour, powering his electric CITA Number 25 racecar, ''La Jamais Contente'' at at a track at Achères, near Paris.
* April 30 – In the Philippines, the U.S. establishes a protectorate over the Republic of Negros, a semi-independent government for Negros Island, separate from the rest of the Philippine Islands. The Republic exists until its annexation to the rest of the U.S. territory on April 20, 1901.

May 1899

* May 1 – U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey reports that 10 officers and crew of the ship USS ''Yorktown'' have been taken prisoner by the Philippine republic.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (June 1899), pp. 664-669
* May 2 – The Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand) cedes its province of Luang Prabang (now Laos) to France.
* May 3 –
**Francisco Silvela becomes the new Prime Minister of Spain after the resignation on March 7 of Práxedes Sagasta in the wake of Spain's loss of its overseas territories during the Spanish-American War.
**The Ferencvárosi TC Association football club is founded in Budapest.
* May 4 –
**The thoroughbred horse Manuel, ridden by Fred Taral, wins the 25th running of the Kentucky Derby.
**Inventor John Matthias Stroh applies for the patent for his new invention, the " Stroh violin", a stringed musical instrument with an amplifying horn attached. British Patent No. GB9418 is granted on March 24, 1900.
* May 5 – The village of Stirling, Alberta is founded in Canada as a Mormon colony of 30 American settlers from Richfield, Utah, led by Theodore Brandley
* May 6 – The first democratic elections in Philippine history are held in for a municipal government for Baliuag in the province of Bulacan.
* May 7 – The capital of the First Philippine Republic is moved by President Emilio Aguinaldo from Manolos to Angeles City
* May 8 – In the French West African colony of Niger

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