1900

As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2100. The year 1900 also marked the Year of the Rat on the Chinese calendar.

Events

January

* January 2
** The first electric bus becomes operational in New York City.
** U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy, to promote American trade with China.
* January 3 – The United States Census estimates the country's population to be about 70 million people.
* January 4 – Strikes in Belgium and Germany lead to mining riots.
* January 5 – Dr. Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University announces a theory about the cause of the Earth's magnetism.
* January 6 – Second Boer War: Boers attempt to end the Siege of Ladysmith, which leads to the Battle of Platrand.
* January 8 – President William McKinley of the United States places Alaska under military governance.
* January 9 - The first through passenger train goes from Cairo to Khartoum.
* January 14
** Puccini's opera ''Tosca'' premieres in Rome, Italy.
** The U.S. Senate accepts the British-German Treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the American Samoa portion of the Samoan Islands.
* January 17 – Brigham H. Roberts of Utah is not seated by the U.S. House of Representatives because of his polygamy.
* January 23 – 5,000 Austrian miners go on strike.

* January 24
** Second Boer War – Battle of Spion Kop: Boer troops defeat the British Army.
** Newcastle Badminton Club, world's oldest, forms in England

* January 26 – The Labor League Conference opens in Sydney, Australia, with plans to form a Federal Labor Party. This is spelled "Labor" even in Australia.
* January 27 – Boxer Rebellion: Foreign diplomats in Peking, Qing Dynasty China, demand that the Boxer rebels be disciplined.
* January 29 – The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs is organized in Philadelphia with eight founding teams.
* January 30 – Governor William Goebel of Kentucky is shot by several assassins.
* January 31 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of the Mat Salleh Rebellion in North Borneo, is shot dead in Tambunan.

February

* February 1 – Western Australia announces its refusal to join the Australian Federation unless it is given five more years of fiscal freedom.
* February 3
** Governor William Goebel of Kentucky dies of wounds after being shot by several assassins on January 30. Goebel, who had prevailed in a dispute over the winner of the election in November 1899, had been sworn in on his deathbed. The former Secretary of State of Kentucky Caleb Powers is later found guilty in the conspiracy to kill Goebel.
** Strikers in Aachen, Vienna, and Brussels demand an eight-hour working day and higher wages.
* February 5 – The United Kingdom and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal across Central America in Nicaragua.
* February 6 – The International Arbitration Court at The Hague is created, when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
* February 7 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco fell ill with bubonic plague, originating the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904, the first epidemic of the disease in the continental United States.
* February 8 – Second Boer War: British troops are defeated by the Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
* February 9 – Dwight F. Davis creates the Davis Cup tennis tournament.
* February 14 – Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg – 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
* February 15 – Second Boer War: The Siege of Kimberley is lifted.
* February 16 – The Southern Cross expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink achieved a new Farthest South of 78° 50'S, making the first landing at the Great Ice Barrier.
* February 17 – Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg – British troops defeat the Boers.
* February 27
** The British Labour Party is officially established, at a meeting in the Congregational Memorial Hall in London, and Ramsay MacDonald is appointed as its first secretary.
** Second Boer War: British military leaders accept the unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.
** FC Bayern, Germany's most successful football club, is founded in Munich.

March

* March 2 – Groups of officials inspect towns around Australia in order to find a location for the new Federal capital.
* March 5 – Two U.S. Navy cruisers are sent to Central America to protect American interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
* March 6
** London "baby-farmer" Ada Williams is hanged at Newgate Prison for murdering a 21-month old girl.
** A coal mine explosion in West Virginia kills 50 miners.
* March 7 – A fire at Buckingham Palace in London destroys part of its roof.
* March 8 – Londoners celebrate as Queen Victoria makes a rare public appearance in the city.
* March 9 – Women in Germany demand the right to participate in university entrance exams.
* March 14
**Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's Laws of Heredity.
**The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
* March 16 – British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land on Crete on which the ruins of the Palace of Knossos stand. He begins to unearth some of the palace three days later.
* March 18 – AFC Ajax, a successful football club in Netherlands, is founded in Amsterdam.
* March 23 – Dr. Karl Landsteiner first reports his discovery of an accurate means for classifying a system of blood type, which will universally be referred to as the ABO blood group system and for which he will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930.
* March 24 – The Mayor of New York, Van Wyck, breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that will link Manhattan with Brooklyn.
* March 27 – The arrival of a Russian naval fleet in Korea causes concern to the Imperial Japanese government.
* March 28 – Over 1,000 tonnes of waste are removed from demolished buildings in Sydney, Australia, in areas affected by an outbreak of the bubonic plague.

April

* April 1
** The Irish Guards are formed by Queen Victoria.
** King George of Greece becomes absolute monarch of Crete.
* April 4 – An anarchist shoots at The Prince of Wales during his visit to Belgium.

* April 14 – The Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, opens in Paris.
* April 22 – Battle of Kousséri: French forces secure their domination of Chad. Warlord Rabih az-Zubayr is defeated and killed.
* April 26 – The Hull-Ottawa fire in Canada kills seven and leaves 15,000 homeless.
* April 30 – Illinois Central engineer Casey Jones crashes his train just north of Vaughan, Mississippi, and earns a spot in American folklore.

May

* May – American explorer Robert Peary is the first person to sight Kaffeklubben Island.
* May 1 – Scofield Mine disaster: An explosion of blasting powder in a coal mine in Scofield, Utah, United States, kills 200 people.
* May 14 – The second Olympic Games, Paris 1900, open (as part of the Paris World Exhibition).
* May 17
** Second Boer War: The British Army relieves the Siege of Mafeking.
** Boxer Rebellion: Boxers destroy three villages near Peking, and kill 60 Chinese Christians.
** L. Frank Baum's ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is published in Chicago, the first of Baum's Oz books, chronicling the fictional Land of Oz for children.
* May 18 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
* May 21 – Russia invades Manchuria.
* May 23 – Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in 1863, as the first African American to have been awarded this medal.
* May 24 – Second Boer War: The British annex the Orange Free State, as the Orange River Colony.
* May 28 – Boxer Rebellion: The Boxers attack Belgians, in the Fengtai railway station.
* May 29 – N'Djamena, the capital city of Chad, is founded as ''Fort-Lamy'', by French commander Émile Gentil.
* May 31 – Boxer Rebellion: Peacekeepers from various European countries arrive in China, where they join with Japanese forces.

June

* June 1 – American temperance agitator Carrie Nation begins her crusade to demolish saloons.
* June 5 – Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.
* June 14 – The Reichstag approves the second of the German Naval Laws allowing expansion of the Imperial German Navy.
* June 17 – Boxer Rebellion – Battle of Dagu Forts: Naval forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture the Taku Forts, on the Hai River estuary in China.
* June 20 – Boxer Rebellion: Boxers gather about 20,000 people near Peking, and kill hundreds of European citizens, including the German ambassador.
* June 25 – The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, where they have been sealed since the early 11th century.
* June 30 – Hoboken Docks fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line, spreads to German passenger ships '', ,'' and ''.'' The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.

July

* July 2
** The first zeppelin flight is carried out over Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
** Jean Sibelius's tone poem ''Finlandia'' receives its première with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
* July 9 – Queen Victoria gives her royal assent to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act.
* July 12 – A German cruise liner, the SS ''Deutschland'', breaks the record for the Blue Riband for the first time with an average speed of .
* July 19 – The first line of the Paris Métro is opened.
* July 23– 25 – The First Pan-African Conference is held in London.
* July 25 – The Robert Charles Riots break out in New Orleans.
* July 29 – King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci in Monza.

August

* August — The first ''Michelin Guide'' is published in France.
* August 14 – Boxer Rebellion: An international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the European hostages.

September

* September 8 – The 1900 Galveston hurricane kills about 6,000–12,000 people.
* September 12 – Admiral Fredrik von Otter becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.
* September 13 – Philippine–American War – Battle of Pulang Lupa: Filipino resistance fighters defeat a detachment of American soldiers.
* September 17 – Philippine–American War – Battle of Mabitac: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat the Americans, under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham.
* September 25 – In the British general election, the recently formed Labour Party gains two seats. Winston Churchill is also elected to Parliament for the first time.

October

* October 9 – The Cook Islands become a territory of the United Kingdom.
* October 19 – Max Planck discovers the law of black-body radiation (Planck's law), by introducing the notion of light quanta, leading in 1905 to Albert Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect and beginning the Quantum Revolution.
* October 25 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.

November

* November 3 – The first Auto show in the United States opens at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
* November 6 – 1900 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent William McKinley is reelected by defeating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan in a rematch.
* November 29 – Herbert Kitchener succeeds Frederick Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in South Africa and implements a scorched earth strategy.

December

* December 14 – Max Planck announces his discovery of the law of black body emission, marking the birth of quantum physics.
* December 19 – Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia – British human rights activist Emily Hobhouse arrives in Cape Town, South Africa.
* December 31 – A large standing stone at Stonehenge falls over, the most recent time this has happened.

Date unknown

* Australasian prospector Albert Fuller Ellis identifies phosphate deposits on the Pacific Islands of Nauru and Banaba Island (Ocean Island).
* Milton S. Hershey introduces the milk chocolate Hershey bar in the United States.
* In New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., Louis Lassen of Louis' Lunch makes the first modern-day hamburger sandwich.
* The Indian Civil Service, which administers the Presidencies and provinces of British India, consists of fewer than 3,500 overwhelmingly European officials, with power over a native population of some 300 million.
* Four out of every 1,000 residents of British India die of cholera each year.

Births

January

* January 1
** Mieczysław Batsch, Polish footballer (d. 1977)
** Paola Borboni, Italian film actress (d. 1995)
** Xavier Cugat, Cuban bandleader (d. 1990)
** Hub van Doorne, Dutch businessman (d. 1979)
** Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat, saved Jewish WWII refugees (d. 1986)
* January 2
** William Haines, American actor (d. 1973)
** Mansaku Itami, Japanese film director (tuberculosis) (d. 1946)
** Józef Klotz, Polish footballer (d. 1941)
** Una Ledingham, British physician, known for research on diabetes in pregnancy (d. 1965)
* January 3
**Maurice Jaubert

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