1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 1 - Brooklyn, New York merges with New York City.
• January 4 - A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosheri, son-in-law of the Oba of Benin. This leads to a Punitive Expedition against Benin.
• February 2 - Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania state capitol, is destroyed by fire.
• 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.
• April 5 - "Ordinance of April 5," equalizing German and Czech in Bohemia, signed in Austria-Hungary (see Kasimir Felix Graf von Badeni).
• April 27 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated.
• 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."
• 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.
• 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.

• Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
• 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

Births

January

• January 3 - Marion Davies, actress (d. 1961)
• January 23 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, architect (d. 2000)

February

• February 4 - Ludwig Erhard, politician.
• February 10 - John F. Enders, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1985)
• February 10 - Dame Judith Anderson, actress (d. 1992)
• February 11 - Yves de La Casiniere , composer
• February 27 - Marian Anderson, contralto (d. 1993)

March

• March 4 - Lefty O'Doul , baseball star, restauranteur (d. 1969)
• March 5 - Soong May-ling aka Madame Chiang Kai-Shek (d. 2003)
• March 15 - Jackson Scholz, American sprinter (d. 1986)
• March 24 - Wilhelm Reich, psychotherapist (d. 1957)
• March 26 - David McCallum Sr., concertmaster violinist and father of David McCallum (d. 1972)
• March 27 - Gloria Swanson, actress (d. 1983)
• March 28 - Sepp Herberger, football coach (d. 1977)
• March 29 - Ruby Muhammad, wife of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad

April

• April 7 - Walter Winchell, broadcaster, journalist (d. 1972)
• April 9 - John B. Gambling, radio talk-show host (d. 1974)
• April 26 - Olga Tschechowa , actress (d. 1980)
• April 26 - Douglas Sirk, director (d. 1987)
• April 26 - Eddie Eagan, US sportsman
• April 27 - Mary, Princess Royal

May

• May 14 - Sidney Bechet, jazz musician (d. 1959)
• May 18 - Frank Capra, producer, director, writer (d. 1991)
• May 19 - Frank Luke, World War I fighter ace (d. 1918)
• May 21 - Nikola Avramov, painter (d. 1945)

June

• June 7 - George Szell, Hungarian conductor (d. 1970)
• June 10 - Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia (d. 1918)
• June 13 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner

July

• July 11 - Blind Lemon Jefferson
• July 24 - Amelia Earhart, aviator

August

• August 2 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1974)
• August 28 - Charles Boyer, actor

September

• September 8 - Jimmie Rodgers
• September 12 - Irene Joliot-Curie, scientist
• September 23 - Walter Pidgeon, actor (d. 1984)
• September 25 - William Faulkner, novelist
• September 26 - Pope Paul VI (d. 1978)

October-November

• October 3 - Louis Aragon, French writer (d. 1982)
• October 15 - Johannes Sikkar, Estonian statesman (d. 1960)
• November 23 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, writer (d. 1999)

December

• December 18 - Fletcher Henderson, jazz musician (d. 1952)
• December 30 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author

Deaths

• March 19 Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie - traveler
• April 3 - Johannes Brahms, composer
• September 9 - Richard Holt Hutton, English writer and theologian
• September 21 - Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian
• October 27- Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, mother of Queen Mary
• October 29 - Henry George, economist
• November 20 - Ernest Giles, Australian explorer