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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, Presisdent McKinley.

• January 1 – The National Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority is founded.
• 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 is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
• February 10 – Freedom of religion is proclaimed in Madagascar.
• February 18 – Benin is put to the torch by the Punitive Expedition.
• February 26 – The Sigma Pi Fraternity is founded.
• 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 – The Ordinance of April 5, equalizing German and Czech in Bohemia, is signed in Austria-Hungary (see Count Kasimir Felix Badeni).
• April 24 – The first ever Challenge Cup final is played at Headingley.
• April 27 – Grant's Tomb is dedicated in New York.
• May 1 – The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, for 6 months, illuminated by many electric lights.
• May 10 – The Snaefell Mining Disaster occurs in the Isle of Man.
• May 16 – The Teatro Massimo is built in Palermo, the largest opera theatre in Italy, the 3rd largest in Europe.
• 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 – American miners begin a strike, which successfully establishes the United Mine Workers Union and brings about the 8-hour work day to mines.
• June 2 – Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he is dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."
• June 12 – The world's first Fingerprint Bureau opens in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, after the Council of the Governor General approves a committee report that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal records.
• June 22 – Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
• June 22 The assassination of British colonial officers Rand and Ayerst in Pune, Maharashtra, India on their way back from a Government house party celebrating the diamond jubilee coronation anniversary of Queen Victoria, by the Chapekar brothers and Ranade, who were later caught and hanged. Considered the first martyrs to the cause of India's freedom from Britain. The film 22 June 1897 is based on the incident.

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 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the 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 – Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.
• August 21 – The Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, MI by Ransom E. Olds.
• August 29 – The 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 – Lattimer Massacre: A sheriff's posse kills more than 19 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 12 -The Battle of Saragarhi one of history's most famous last stands was fought between twenty-one Sikhs of the 36th Sikh of the Sikh Regiment of British India, defending an army post, against 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen. The battle occurred in the North-West Frontier Province Afghanistan, now a part of Pakistan, which then formed part of British India.
• 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 of the radical paper Tocsin is published .
• October 6 – Ethiopia uses the tricolor flag: green is for the land, yellow for gold, and red is symbolic of strength and the blood shed.
• October 12 – The USS Baltimore (Cruiser # 3, later CM-1) is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.
• October 12 – The City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil was created. The construction of the first Brazilian Planned City was completed successfully, an immigration of 1,000,000 people was estimated.
• October 13 – The HMS Canopus (1898), a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England (will be deployed widely in World War I).
• October 23 – The Kappa Delta Sorority is founded.
• November 1 – Juventus F.C. is founded in Turin.
• November 25 - Spain grants Puerto Rico autonomy

• December 9 – The 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.
• The word "computer", meaning an electronic calculation device, is first used.
• The 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 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the nucleus).
• The Ayrshire Yeomanry Cavalry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, adopts the sub-title Earl of Carrck's Own in honour of the future King Edward VII.
• Karl Lueger becomes mayor of Vienna.
• The Philippine Revolution is settled with Spanish promises to reform.
• Zhejiang University is founded.
• Hiram Percy Maxim develops the muffler in conjunction with the suppressor.

Births

January–June

• January 3
  • Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)
  • Pola Negri – Polish born actress ( d. 1987)
• 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 1 – Denise Robins (aka Francesca Wright, Ashley French, Harriet Gray, Julia Kane) British romance novelist (d. 1985)
• 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 (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 2 - Minor Hall, American jazz musician (d. 1959)
• March 4 – Lefty O'Doul, American 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 17 – Thornton Wilder, American dramatist (d. 1975)
• 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 (The Three Stooges) (d. 1975)
• June 22 – Edmund A. Chester, American broadcaster and journalist (d. 1973)

July–December

• July 7 – Mikhail Kovalyov, Soviet Army 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 WWII general (d. 1983)
• August 2 – Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1974)
• August 5 – Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (d. 1972)
• August 10 – John Galbreath, American businessman (d. 1988)
• August 11 – Enid Blyton, British children's writer (d. 1968)
• 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, American 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 7 – Elijah Muhammad, co-founder of the Nation of Islam (d. 1975)
• October 8 – Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian-American film and theatre director (d. 1987)
• 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
  • Harvey Hendrick, American baseball player (d. 1941)
  • 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 (d. 1961)
• 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 (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 (born 1836)
• February 19 – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (born 1815)
• March 11 – Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer (born 1851)
• March 19 – Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, Irish-born traveler (born 1810)
• April 1 – Jandamarra, Aborigine who led armed insurrections against white settlement in Australia
• April 3 – Johannes Brahms, German composer (born 1833)
• April 10 – Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (born 1851)
• May 4 – Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria (born 1847)
• May 7 – Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (born 1822)
• May 10 – Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary (born 1863)
• May 23 – Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju, Indian rajah (born 1850)

July–December

• August 8 – Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Spanish politician and historian (born 1828)
• August 31 – Louisa Lane Drew, actress & theater manager (b. 1820)
• September 9
  • Richard Holt Hutton, English writer and theologian (born 1826)
  • Ferenc Pulszky, Hungarian politician (born 1814)
• September 21 – Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (born 1819)
• September 27 – Charles Denis Bourbaki, French military leader (born 1816)
• September 30 – St Thérèse de Lisieux, French Catholic saint (born 1873)
• October 9 – Jan Heemskerk, prime minister of the Netherlands (born 1818)
• October 27 – Alexander Milton Ross, Canadian abolitionist(born 1832)
• October 29 – Henry George, American economist (born 1839)
• November – Francisco Gonzalo Marin, Cuban poet and freedom fighter (born 1863)
• November 3 – Thomas Lanier Clingman, American "Prince of Politicians" (born 1812)
• November 17 – George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (born 1820)
• November 18 – Henry Doulton, English pottery manufacturer (born 1820)
• November 19 – William Seymour Tyler, American educator and historian (born 1810)
• November 20 – Ernest Giles, Australian explorer (born 1835)
• December 17 – Alphonse Daudet, French writer (born 1840)
• December 28 – William Corby, American Catholic priest (born 1833)
• date unknown – Owon, Korean painter (born 1843)
• Jamal-al-Din Afghani, Iranian teacher and writer (born 1838)

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