October 1899

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The following events occurred in October 1899:

• Possession of the Mariana Islands was formally transferred from Spain to Germany, which purchased the archipelago (with the exception of Guam) from Spain for 837,500 German gold marks. The islands became part of German New Guinea.^[1]
• Born: Ernest Haycox, American writer; in Portland, Oregon (d. 1950)^[2]

• Died:
  • Emma Hardinge Britten, 76, British writer and Spiritualist
  • Percy Pilcher, 32, British aviation pioneer and glider pilot, died of injuries sustained in a glider accident on September 30.^[3]

• The boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana was resolved by a binding award from the International Tribunal of Arbitration of five neutral jurists agreed upon by the United Kingdom and the United Venezuelan States.^[4]
• Born: Gertrude Berg, American actress; in New York City (d. 1966)^[5]

• Born: Franz Jonas, President of Austria; in Floridsdorf, Austria-Hungary (d. 1974)

• Born: George, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; at Oranienbaum, Russia (d. 1963)

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• Died: Deodato Arellano, 55, Filipino propagandist, reportedly died on this date of tuberculosis.^[6]

• The South African Republic telegraphed a three-day ultimatum to the United Kingdom, demanding an arbitration of issues and a pullback of troops from the borders between the Republic and the adjoining Cape Colony, Natal and Bechuanaland by October 11.^[7]

• Born: Bruce Catton, American Civil War historian, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History; in Petoskey, Michigan (d. 1978)

• The French Sudan was divided into two smaller administrative units, Middle Niger (which later became the nations of Niger and Gambia) and Upper Senegal (which became the nations of Senegal and Mali).

• In South Africa, the Second Boer War between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State began as the Boers invaded the British colony of Natal.

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• The Second Boer War extended into the British Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern-day Botswana) as the siege of Mafeking began.

• The Boer invasion of the Cape Colony began with the siege of Kimberley.

• Died:
  • Nicolai Hanson, 29, Norwegian zoologist and Antarctic explorer, a member of the Southern Cross Expedition, died in Antarctica and became the first person to be buried there.^[8]
  • Anna Cabot Quincy Waterston, 87, American diarist

• 42-year-old French Army officer and explorer Ferdinand de Béhagle was put to death by Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, prompting a French expedition against Rabih.

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• The Thousand Days' War began in Colombia as Colombian Liberal Party soldiers led by General Rafael Uribe Uribe, with support from Venezuela, began a fight against the government of National Party president Manuel Antonio Sanclemente. The war would continue for 1,130 days.

• The Boxer Rebellion began in China as the Battle of Senluo Temple was fought between more than 4,000 Imperial Chinese Army troops and at least 1,000 rebels from the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists.^[9]

• Boer troops commanded by Johannes Kock captured the railway station in Elandslaagte and cut the telegraph line between the British Army headquarters at Ladysmith and its station at Dundee.
• 17-year-old Robert H. Goddard received his inspiration to develop the first rocket capable of reaching outer space, after viewing his yard from high in a tree and imagining "how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet."^[10]
• Born: Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate; in Guatemala City (d. 1974)^[11]

• In the first major clash of the Second Boer War, the Battle of Talana Hill, the British Army drove the Boers from a hilltop position, but with heavy casualties, including their commanding general Sir Penn Symons, who would die on October 23.

• The Battle of Elandslaagte was fought in Natal, as the British Army recaptured the railway station from the Boers, then proceeded toward the fortress of Ladysmith. South African General Jan Kock was fatally wounded in the battle and would die 10 days later.^[12]
• Died: Herman Coster, 34, Dutch lawyer and State Attorney of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, was killed in action at the Battle of Elandslaagte.

• Died: Ella Brockway Avann, 46, American educator, died after experiencing convulsions.^[13]

• Died: Lieutenant-General Sir William Penn Symons KCB, 56, British Army officer, died of wounds sustained at the Battle of Talana Hill on October 20.^[14]

• President Martinus Theunis Steyn of the South African Republic proclaimed the annexation of the northern portion of the Cape Colony above the Vaal River.^[12]
• The sinking of the ship Cisneros by the Colombian Navy warship Hércules drowned more than 200 Liberal rebels during the Battle of Magdalena River.^[15]
• Born: László Bíró (born László József Schweiger), Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint pen; in Budapest (d. 1985)

• Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler was inaugurated as president of the University of California.^[12]
• Died:
  • Grant Allen, 51, Canadian science writer and novelist, died of liver cancer.^[12][16]
  • Peter Mitchell PC, 75, Canadian lawyer, shipbuilder, politician and Father of Confederation^[12][17]

• Indirect fire was used for the first time in battle.^[18] British gunners in the Second Boer War fired a cannon on a high trajectory toward the Boer Army, with the objective of having the shell come down on the enemy.
• The foundering of the British steamer Zurich off the coast of Norway killed 16 of the 17 crew aboard, with only the captain surviving.^[12]

• Died:
  • Florence Marryat, 66, British author and actress, died of diabetes and pneumonia.^[12][19]
  • Guy Vernor Henry, 60, American military officer, Medal of Honor recipient and former military governor of Puerto Rico, died of pneumonia.^[12][20]

• Died:
  • Ottmar Mergenthaler, 45, German-American inventor of the linotype machine, died of tuberculosis.^[12]
  • John Codman Ropes, 63, American military historian and lawyer^[12]

• The Battle of Kouno ended after two days in Chad, as French Army Captain Émile Gentil led a force of 344 troops against a much larger force of Sudanese Arabs, led by the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. Gentil routed the Sudanese.^[21]
• Born: Akim Tamiroff (born Hovakim Tamiryants),^[22] Armenian actor; in Tiflis or Baku, Russian Empire (d. 1972)^[23]

• The Battle of Ladysmith began as British troops at the Ladysmith fort attempted to make a preemptive strike against a larger force of South African Republic and Orange Free State troops who were gradually surrounding the fort. After sustaining 400 casualties and having 800 men captured, the British retreated back to the fort where a 118-day siege would begin on November 2.
• Died:
  • Sir Arthur Blomfield ARA FRIBA, 70, British architect^[12]
  • William H. Webb, 83, American industrialist and philanthropist^[12]

• Died:
  • Johannes Hermanus Michiel Kock, 64, Boer general and politician, died of wounds sustained at the Battle of Elandslaagte on October 21.
  • Anton Berindei, 61, Wallachian-born Romanian general and politician
  • Henry A. Neely, 69, second bishop of Maine in the Episcopal Church^[12]