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 is 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.
• February 26 - 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 - "Ordinance of April 5," equalizing German and Czech in Bohemia, signed in Austria-Hungary (see Count Kasimir Felix 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.
• May 16 - The Teatro Massimo was built in Palermo, the largest Opera Theatre in Italy, the 3° 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 strike begins. The strike successfully establishes the United Mine Workers Union and bring 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 - 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 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.
• Karl Lueger becomes mayor of Vienna.

Births

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 (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, 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 - (claimed birthdate) 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 (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 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 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 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 (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 7 - Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (b. 1822)
• May 10 - Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary (b. 1863)
• May 23 - Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju, Indian rajah (b. 1850)

July-December

• August 8 - Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Spanish politician and historian (b. 1828)
• 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 27 - Charles Denis Bourbaki, French military leader (b. 1816)
• September 30 - St Thérèse de Lisieux, French Catholic saint (b. 1873)
• October 9 - Jan Heemskerk, prime minister of the Netherlands (b. 1818)
• October 29 - Henry George, American economist (b. 1839)
• November - Francisco Gonzalo Marin, Cuban poet and freedom fighter (b. 1863)
• November 3 - Thomas Lanier Clingman, American "Prince of Politicians" (b. 1812)
• November 17 - George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (b. 1820)
• November 18 - Henry Doulton, English pottery manufacturer (b. 1820)
• 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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