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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 particle

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January 3 - Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)

January 21 - René Iché, French sculptor (d. 1954)

January 23 - Subhash Chandra Bose, Indian political leader (d. 1945(?))

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)

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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 12 - Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977)

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 (d. 1975)

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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)

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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)

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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)

September 30 - St Therese of Lisieux, Catholic saint (b. 1873)

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)

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