1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

• January 1 - End of Spanish rule in Cuba.
• January 1 - Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City.
• January 3 - The first known use of the word "automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times.
• January 6 - Lord Curzon becomes a viceroy of India.
• January 17 - United States takes possession of Wake Island.
• January 19 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
• January 21 - Opel Motors opens for business.
• January 22 - Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.

February

• February 2 - The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne agrees Australia's capital (Canberra) should be located between Sydney and Melbourne.
• February 4 - Philippine-American War begins as hostilities break out in Manila.
• February 6 - Spanish-American War: A peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
• February 14 - Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

March

• 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 - In Washington State, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
• March 6 - Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.
• March 20 - At Sing Sing, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.

June

• June 22-June 27 - the highest ever recorded cricket score, 628 not out, is made by A. E. J. Collins.
• June 25 - Three Denver newspapers publish a story that the Chinese government is going to demolish the Great Wall of China - later proved to be a fabrication.

July

• July 19 - The Newsboys of New York, USA go on strike (strike lasts until August 2). more info
• July 29 - The First Peace Conference ends with the signing of the Hague Convention.

September

• September 19 ? Alfred Dreyfus pardoned.

October

• October 11 - Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.

December

• December 2 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
• December 26 ? Battle of Mafeking begins.

• David Hilbert creates the modern concept of geometry with the publication of his book Grundlagen der geometrie.
• Gordon Douglas is ordained as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar. He is the first westerner to be ordained in the Theravada tradition.

Births

January

• January 7 - Francis Poulenc, composer (d. 1963)
• January 10 - Axel Eggelbrecht , journalist (d. 1991)
• January 11 - Eva LeGallienne , actress (d. 1991)
• January 12 - Paul Hermann Müller, chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948 (d. 1965)
• January 15 - Goodman Ace, actor, comedian, writer (d. 1982)
• January 17 - Al Capone, gangster, nicknamed "Scarface" (d. 1947)
• January 17 - Nevil Shute, author (d. 1960)

February

• February 6 - Ramon Novarro, actor (d. 1968)
• February 15 - Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
• February 22 - Dechko Uzunov, painter (d. 1986)
• February 23 - Erich Kästner, German writer (d. 1974)
• February 23 - Elisabeth Langgässer , lyricist, narrator and novelist (d. 1950)
• February 27 - Charles Best, medical scientist (d. 1978)

March

• March 11 - King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
• March 18 - Jean Goldkette, jazz musician (d. 1962)

April

• April 1 - Gustavs Celmins, politician (d. 1968)
• April 7 - Robert Casadesus, French pianist (d. 1972)
• April 22 - Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born writer (d. 1977)
• April 24 - Oscar Zariski, mathematician (d. 1986)
• April 27 - Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
• April 28 - Harold B. Lee, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1973)
• April 29 - Duke Ellington, American jazz musician, bandleader (d. 1974)

May

• May 10 - Fred Astaire, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1987)
• May 10 - Dimitri Tiomkin, composer (d. 1979)
• May 12 - Indra Devi, yogi (d. 2002)
• May 15 - Jean Etienne Valluy, French general (d. 1970)
• May 24 ? Suzanne Lenglen, tennis player (d. 1938)

June

• June 2 - Lotte Reiniger, German and later British silhouette animator (d. 1981)
• June 13 - Carlos Chávez, composer (d. 1978)
• June 30 - Harry Shields, jazz musician (d. 1971)

July

• July 5 - Marcel Achard, play and scriptwriter
• July 7 - George Cukor, film director (d. 1983)
• July 11 - E. B. White, English writer
• July 15 - Sean Lemass, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1971)
• July 17 - James Cagney, actor (d. 1986)
• July 21 - Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
• July 21 - Ernest Hemingway, American writer and recipient of the Nobel prize for literature (d. 1961)

August

• August 4 - Ezra Taft Benson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
• August 13 - Alfred Hitchcock, British film director (d. 1980)
• August 24 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)

September-October

• September 9 - Brassaï, photographer
• September 9 - Waite Hoyt, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1984)
• September 14 - José Mojica , Mexican singer and film actor (d. 1974)
• October 19 - Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemalan writer (d. 1974)

November

• November 15 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan (d. 1969)
• November 17 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer (d. 1971)
• November 18 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (d. 1985)

December

• December 2 - John Barbirolli, conductor (d. 1970)
• December 15 - Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• December 16 - Noel Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music (d. 1973)
• December 18 - Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
• December 25 - Humphrey Bogart, actor (d. 1957)
• December 28 - Eugeniusz Bodo, famous Polish actor (killed in 1943)

Deaths

• January 23 - Romualdo Pacheco, 12th Governor of California
• February 25 - Paul Julius Reuter, founder of the Reuters News Agency
• June 3 - Johann Strauss II, composer
• July 21 - Robert G. Ingersoll, American political leader, American Civil War Colonel
• August 16 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist
• September 12 - Cornelius Vanderbilt II, railway magnate
• November 24 - Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, Sudanese political and religious leader (killed in battle)
• December 22 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)