1898 in the United States

1898 in the United States
Years:	1895 1896 1897 – 1898 – 1899 1900 1901
Flag
45 stars (1896–1908)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1898 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: William McKinley (R-Ohio)
• Vice President: Garret Hobart (R-New Jersey)
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine)
• Congress: 55th

Events

January–March

February 15: USS Maine explodes

• January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island.
• February 15 – The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor, Cuba, killing 266 men. Popular opinion blames Spain and helps precipitate the Spanish–American War.
• February 22 – Naoum Mokarzel establishes Al-Hoda which will become the longest-running Arabic newspaper in the U.S.
• March 24 – Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that had been advertised in Scientific American.
• March 28 – After an investigation, the U.S. Navy publicly concludes that the USS Maine was sunk by a mine, further pushing sentiment towards war.

April–June

• April 5 – Annie Oakley promotes the service of women in combat situations with the United States military. On this day, she writes a letter to President McKinley "offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should war break out with Spain."^[1] In the history of women in the military, there are records of female U.S. Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers who enlisted using male pseudonyms, but Oakley's letter represents possibly the earliest political move towards women's rights for combat service in the United States military.
• April 22 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
• April 25 – Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21 (later backdating this one more day to April 20).
• April 29: Union Razor Company, which today is known as KA-BAR Knives, founded in Tidioute, Pennsylvania.
• May 1 – Spanish–American War – Battle of Manila Bay: Commodore Dewey destroys the Spanish squadron. The first battle of the war, as well as the first battle in the Philippines Campaign.
• May 12 – Bombardment of San Juan, the first major battle of the Puerto Rico Campaign during the Spanish–American War.
• June 1 – The Trans-Mississippi Exposition World's Fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska.

July–September

July 1: Battle of San Juan Hill

• July 1 – Spanish–American War: Battle of San Juan Hill – American forces capture the San Juan Heights near Santiago de Cuba. Theodore Roosevelt memorably leads the charge of the Rough Riders.
• July 3
  • Spanish–American War: Battle of Santiago de Cuba – The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron.
  • Joshua Slocum completes a 3-year solo circumnavigation of the world.
• July 7 – The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands.
• July 17 – Spanish–American War – Battle of Santiago Bay: Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
• July 25 – Spanish–American War: The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with a landing at Guánica Bay.
• August 12 – Spanish–American War: Hostilities end between American and Spanish forces in Cuba.

October–December

• October 3 – Battle of Sugar Point: Ojibwe tribesmen defeat U.S. government troops in northern Minnesota.
• October 6 – The Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity (then the Sinfonia Club) is founded at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
• November 10 - The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898: A coup d'état by white supremacists.
• November 26 – A 2-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston, Massachusetts, and severely impacts the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns.
• December 10 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish–American War.

Undated

• Wakita is founded in the Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma.
• As a result of the merger of several small oil companies, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controls 84% of the United States's oil and most American pipelines.

Ongoing

• Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)

Births

• March 3 – Thomas R. Underwood, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1951 till 1952. (died 1956)
• July 14 – Happy Chandler, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1955 till 1959. (died 1991)
• September 9 – Styles Bridges, United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1937 to 1961. (Died in 1961)
• November 13 – Wallace F. Bennett, United States Senator from Utah from 1951 till 1974. (Died in 1993)
• November 17 – William A. Blakley, United States Senator from Texas in 1961. (Died in 1976)
• December 9 – Emmett Kelly, clown (died 1979)

Deaths

• March 17 – Blanche Bruce, United States Senator from Mississippi from 1875 till 1881. (born 1841)
• July 11 – Omar D. Conger, United States Senator from Michigan from 1881 till 1887. (born 1818)
• July 17 – John Stuart Williams, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1879 till 1885. (born 1818)
• September 21 – William W. Eaton, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1875 till 1881. (born 1816)
• September 28 – Thomas F. Bayard, United States Senator from Delaware from 1869 till 1885 and U.S. Secretary of State from 1885 till 1889. (born 1828)
• October 31 – Joseph R. West, United States Senator from Louisiana from 1871 till 1877. (born 1822)
• November 19 – Don Carlos Buell, United States Army officer who fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War (born 1818)
• December 15 – Calvin S. Brice, United States Senator from Ohio from 1891 till 1897. (born 1845)
• December 18 – Thomas W. Osborn, United States Senator from Florida from 1868 till 1873. (born 1833)

See also

• List of American films of the 1890s

References

External links

• Media related to 1898 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons