This Year in History:
1898
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
On this day in 1898, French writer Emile Zola’s inflammatory newspaper editorial, entitled “J’accuse,” is printed. The letter exposed a military cover‑up regarding Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus, a French army…
On this day in 1898, French writer Emile Zola is brought to trial for libel for “J’Accuse,” his newspaper editorial attacking the French army over the Dreyfus affair. On January…
A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing more than 260 of the 350‑plus American crew members aboard.…
The USS Maine explosion started the Spanish American War, Galileo was born, the teddy bear was introduced and inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, and the Canadian flag changed in This Day…
President William McKinley asks Congress to declare war on Spain on April 11, 1898. In 1895, Cuba, located less than 100 miles south of the United States, attempted to overthrow…
At Manila Bay in the Philippines, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the Spanish‑American War. Nearly 400 Spanish sailors were killed and…
On this day in 1898, Thomas Edison sues the American Mutoscope Company, claiming that the studio has infringed on his patent for the Kinetograph movie camera. Thomas Edison, born in…
During the Spanish‑American War, Filipino rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo proclaim the independence of the Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. By mid‑August, Filipino rebels and U.S. troops had…
On June 22, 1898, Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the great World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front, is born in Osnabruck, Germany. A student at…
As part of its campaign to capture Spanish‑held Santiago de Cuba on the southern coast of Cuba, the U.S. Army Fifth Corps engages Spanish forces at El Caney and San…
A disgruntled city engineer in Skagway, Alaska, murders “Soapy” Smith, one of the most notorious con men in the history of the West. Born in Georgia in 1860, Jefferson Randolph…
Novelist Emile Zola flees France on this day in 1898 to escape imprisonment after being convicted of libel against the French army in the notorious Dreyfus affair. Zola was a…
During the Spanish‑American War, U.S. forces launch their invasion of Puerto Rico, the approximately 110‑mile‑long, 35‑mile‑wide island that was one of Spain’s two principal possessions in the Caribbean. With little resistance…
English sculptor Henry Moore is born in Castleford, Yorkshire, on July 30, 1898. The son of a coal miner, he overcame early criticism of his work to become one of…
The brief and one‑sided Spanish‑American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Manila in the…
The hired assassin Jim Miller briefly joins the Texas Rangers, demonstrating how thin the line between outlaw and lawmen often was in the West. Many lawmen in the Old West…
Only one year after Spain granted Puerto Rico self‑rule, American troops raise the U.S. flag over the Caribbean nation, formalizing U.S. authority over the island’s one million inhabitants. In July…
A powerful early winter storm batters the New England coast on this day in 1898, killing at least 450 people in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. It was Thanksgiving Day…
In France, the Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Spanish‑American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire. The Spanish‑American War had its origins in the…
