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1897

Related subjects: Years

Background Information

SOS Children, an education charity, organised this selection. SOS mothers each look after a a family of sponsored children.

Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades: 1860s  1870s  1880s  – 1890s –   1900s   1910s   1920s
Years: 1894 1895 1896 – 1897 – 1898 1899 1900

Year 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1897

January - March

March 4: Pres. McKinley.
  • 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 proclaimed 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 is founded.

April - June

May 1: Tennessee Centennial Exposition in Nashville.
  • April 5 - "Ordinance of April 5," equalizing German and Czech in Bohemia, signed in Austria-Hungary (see Kasimir Felix Graf Badeni).
  • April 24 - The first ever Rugby League Challenge Cup final is played at Headingley.
  • April 27 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated.


  • May 1 - The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, for 6 months, illuminated by many electric lights.
  • May 10 - Snaefell Mining Disaster in the Isle of Man, 1897
  • May 18 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.
  • May 19 - Oscar Wilde is released from prison.
May 18: Dracula by Bram Stoker.
  • June 1 - The miners strike of 1897 begins. The strike would successfully establish the United Mine Workers Union and brought about the 8-hour work day to the mines.
  • 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 12 - World's first Fingerprint Bureau opens in Calcutta (now Kolkata) India after the Council of the Governor General approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal records.
  • June 22 - Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.

July - September

  • 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.
October 6: Ethiopian flag.
  • 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.
  • September 20 - Greece and Turkey sign a peace treaty to end the Greco-Turkish War.
October: USS Baltimore (C-3) in Hawaii.

October - December

  • October 2 - The first issue is published of the radical paper Tocsin.
  • October 6 - Ethiopia uses tricolore flag: green is for the land, yellow for peace, and red is symbolic of strength.
  • October 12 - The USS Baltimore (Cruiser # 3, later CM-1) is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.
  • October 13 - The HMS Canopus (1898), a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England (will be deployed widely in World War I).
  • 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.
Women study at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Undated

  • 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 is formed.
  • Dos Equis is first brewed in anticipation of new century.
  • J. J. Thomson discovers the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1800 times smaller than a proton (in the nucleus).
  • The Ayrshire Yeomanry Cavalry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, adopted the sub-title Earl of Carrck's Own in honour of the future King Edward VII.

Births

1897 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1897
MDCCCXCVII
Ab urbe condita 2650
Armenian calendar 1346
ԹՎ ՌՅԽԶ
Assyrian calendar 6647
Bahá'í calendar 53–54
Bengali calendar 1304
Berber calendar 2847
British Regnal year 60 Vict. 1 – 61 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar 2441
Burmese calendar 1259
Byzantine calendar 7405–7406
Chinese calendar 丙申年十一月廿八日
(4533/4593-11-28)
— to —
丁酉年十二月初八日
(4534/4594-12-8)
Coptic calendar 1613–1614
Ethiopian calendar 1889–1890
Hebrew calendar 5657–5658
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat 1953–1954
 - Shaka Samvat 1819–1820
 - Kali Yuga 4998–4999
Holocene calendar 11897
Igbo calendar
 - Ǹrí Ìgbò 897–898
Iranian calendar 1275–1276
Islamic calendar 1314–1315
Japanese calendar Meiji 30
(明治30年)
Juche calendar N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar 4230
Minguo calendar 15 before ROC
民前15年
Thai solar calendar 2440

January - June

  • 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(?))
    • 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)
    • Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)
  • February 21 - Elizabeth Harrison, daughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Mary Dimmick Harrison (d. 1955)
  • February 27
    • Ferdinand Heim, WWII German general, the "Scapegoat of Stalingrad" (d. 1977)
    • 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 16 - Flora Eldershaw, Australian novelist, critic, and historian (d. 1956)
  • March 20 - Ruby Muhammad, African Americans' rights activist
  • March 24 - Wilhelm Reich, Austrian psychotherapist (d. 1957)
  • March 28 - Sepp Herberger, German football coach (d. 1977)
  • 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)
    • Constance Talmadge, American actress (d. 1973)
  • April 21 - Aiden Wilson Tozer, American Protestant pastor (d. 1963)
  • 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)
    • 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
    • Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, (d.1918)
    • Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (d. 1957)
  • June 7 - George Szell, Hungarian conductor (d. 1970)
  • 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)
    • Moe Howard, American comedian and actor (d. 1975)
  • June 22 - Edmund A. Chester, American Broadcaster and journalist (d. 1973)

July - December

  • July 7 - Mikhail Kovalyov, Soviet Military officer, colonel-general (d. 1967)
  • 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)
    • Arthur Rhys Davids, English pilot (d. 1917)
  • October 2 - Bud Abbott, American actor (d. 1974)
  • 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 17 - George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (b. 1820)
  • November 18 - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
  • November 23 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Bengali author (d. 1999)
  • November 24 - Lucky Luciano, Sicilian-American mafia boss. Considered the builder of the modern mafia. (d. 1962)
  • November 30 - Virginia Henderson, American nurse theorist (d. 1996)
  • December 18 - Fletcher Henderson, American musician (d. 1952)
  • December 30 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (d. 1976)

Deaths

January-June

  • February 4 - Major Charles Bendire, U.S. Army captain and ornithologist (b. 1836)
  • February 19 - Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (b. 1815)
  • March 11 - Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer (b. 1851)
  • March 19 - Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, Irish-born traveler (b. 1810)
  • April 1 - Jandamarra, Aborigine who led armed insurrections against white settlement in Australia.
  • April 3 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (b. 1833)
  • April 10 - Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1851)
  • May 4 - Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria (b. 1847)
  • May 10 - Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary (b. 1863)

July-December

  • September 9
    • Richard Holt Hutton, English writer and theologian (b. 1826)
    • Ferenc Pulszky, Hungarian politician (b. 1814)
  • 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 - Francisco Gonzalo Marin, Cuban poet and freedom fighter (b. 1863)
  • November 3 - Thomas Lanier Clingman, "Prince of Politicians" (b. 1812)
  • 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)
  • December 28 - William Corby, American Catholic priest (b. 1833)
  • date unknown - Owon, Korean painter (b. 1843)
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