under George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, Philippines.
24/4/1898. The United States declared war on Spain as a result of the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbour on 15 February 1898. Fighting began in the Philippine Islands at the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898, where Commodore George Dewey destroyed a Spanish fleet. The war ended when the USA and Spain signed a peace treaty in Paris on 10 December 1898. As a result Spain lost control over the remains of its empire, including Cuba.
20/4/1898, The US demanded the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Cuba.
27/3/1898, Gloria Swanson, American silent-film star, was born.
15/2/1898. The US warship Maine blew up in Havana harbour, Cuba. Spanish sabotage was suspected. The USA declared war on Spain on 24/4/1898.
1/1/1898. The boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Richmond, Manhattan, and The Bronx united to form Greater New York.
19/2/1897. The Women’s Institute organisation was founded at Stoney Creek in Ontario by Mrs Hoodless. The first W I meeting was on 25/9/1897. The W I idea was brought to England by a Mrs Watt during World War One.
13/1/1897, Mr and Mrs Bradley Martin, members of New York’s ‘top 400’, threw an extremely extravagant party in which the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria was made into a replica of Versailles. This event, in the face of an economic recession, attracted much criticism in the popular press, and the Martins fled to England.
26/6/1896. The world’s first permanent cinema opened in New Orleans; admission was 10 cents. Britain’s first cinema opened in Islington on 5/8/1901, and charged between 6d and 3s for entry. However by World War One most cinemas were only charging 3d or 6d. The first drive in cinema opened on 6/6/1933 in Camden, New Jersey, and could hold 400 cars.
4/1/1896. Utah became the 45th State of the USA.
17/12/1895. Relations between the US and Britain were under severe strain because of a border dispute between Guiana and Venezuela.
26/8/1895. A hydroelectric plant designed by Nikola Tesla and built by Westinghouse opened at Niagara Falls.
1/1/1895, J Edgar Hoover, American criminologist and founder of the FBI, was born in Washington DC.
14/12/1894. Eugene Debs, President of the American Railway Union, was jailed for 6 months for ignoring an injunction to end the Pullman strike. The strike began on 11/5/1894 when the Pullman Company reduced wages but did not cut rents for workers living in company housing. The strike turned violent with riots and burning or railroad cars. Attorney-General Richard Olney obtained an injunction to end the strike on the grounds it was obstructing the mail, and when this was ignored federal troops arrived in Chicago to enforce the court order. By 10/7/1894 the strike was broken.
22/11/1894. The USA and Japan signed a commercial treaty.
1/5/1894. David Coxey, who led a march of 100,000 unemployed to the capital, Washington, to demand economic reform, was arrested.
2/3/1894, Jubal Anderson Early, US Confederate General (born 3/11/1816 in Franklin County, Virginia) died in Lynchburg, Virginia.
3/1/1894, Elizabeth Peabody, American educator and founder in 1960 of the first kindergarten in the US, died aged 89.
20/2/1893, Pierre Beauregard, American Confederate General, died.
15/12/1892, Paul Getty, US oil tycoon, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
17/8/1892. Mae West, US film actress, was born in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of a boxer.
1/1/1892. New York opened an immigration office on Ellis Island to cope with the flood of immigrants to the USA. Many were fleeing political and religious persecution in Russia and Central Europe. Named after Samuel Ellis, who owned the island in the 1770s, the new facility replaced older cramped facilities at The Battery on Manhattan Island.
7/4/1891, Phineas T Barnum, American circus showman, died aged 80.
4/3/1891, US Congress passed the Copyright Act, to protect authors, composers and artists.
14/2/1891, William Sherman, Union Army commander in the American Civil War, died in New York City.
6/8/1890. In New York’s Auburn prison, the el