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Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Walter Lyon (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Aram J. Pothier (Republican) (until month and day unknown), William Gregory (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Nelson W. Fisk (Republican) (until October 6), Henry C. Bates (Republican) (starting October 6)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Robert Craig Kent (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Edward Echols (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
1 January – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island.
15 February – USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor, Cuba, killing 266 men. Popular opinion blames Spain and helps precipitate the Spanish–American War.
22 February – Naoum Mokarzel establishes Al-Hoda which will become the longest-running Arabic newspaper in the U.S.
24 March – Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that had been advertised in Scientific American.
28 March – After an investigation, the U.S. Navy publicly concludes that USS Maine was sunk by a mine, further pushing sentiment towards war.
30 March – The 5.8–6.4 MwMare Island earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing $350,000 in damage.
April–June[]
April 5 – Annie Oakley promotes the service of women in combat situations with the United States military. On this day, she writes a letter to President McKinley "offering the government the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' who would provide their own arms and ammunition should war break out with Spain."[1] In the history of women in the military, there are records of female U.S. Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers who enlisted using male pseudonyms, but Oakley's letter represents possibly the earliest political move towards women's rights for combat service in the United States military.
April 20 – President William McKinley signs a Joint Resolution with Cuba and a declaration of War against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War. The declaration is accepted five days later.
April 21 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
April 25 – Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21 (later backdating this one more day to April 20).
April 29: Union Razor Company, which today is known as KA-BAR Knives, founded in Tidioute, Pennsylvania.
May 1 – Spanish–American War – Battle of Manila Bay: Commodore Dewey destroys the Spanish squadron. The first battle of the war, as well as the first battle in the Philippines Campaign.
May 10 – Prescott National Forest is established.
May 12 – Bombardment of San Juan, the first major battle of the Puerto Rico Campaign during the Spanish–American War.
June 1 – The Trans-Mississippi ExpositionWorld's Fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska.
July–September[]
July 1: Battle of San Juan Hill
July 1 – Spanish–American War: Battle of San Juan Hill – American forces capture the San Juan Heights near Santiago de Cuba. Theodore Roosevelt memorably leads the charge of the Rough Riders.
July 3
Spanish–American War: Battle of Santiago de Cuba – The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron.
Joshua Slocum completes a 3-year solo circumnavigation of the world.
July 7 – The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands.
July 17 – Spanish–American War: – Battle of Santiago Bay: Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
August 13 – Spanish–American War: Hostilities end between American and Spanish forces in Cuba.
October–December[]
October 3 – Battle of Sugar Point: Ojibwe tribesmen defeat U.S. government troops in northern Minnesota.
October 6 – The Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity (then the Sinfonia Club) is founded at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
November 10 – The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898: A coup d'état by white supremacists.
November 26 – A 2-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston, Massachusetts, and severely impacts the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns.
December 23 - Guam transferred to the United States Navy control on December 23, 1898, by Executive Order 108-A from 25th President William McKinley
Undated[]
Wakita is founded in the Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma.
As a result of the merger of several small oil companies, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controls 84% of the United States's oil and most American pipelines.
July 8 – Soapy Smith, con artist and gangster (born 1860)
July 11 – Omar D. Conger, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1881 to 1887 (born 1818)
July 17 – John Stuart Williams, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1879 to 1885 (born 1818)
September 2 – Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1807)
September 14 – William Seward Burroughs I, inventor of the adding machine (born 1855)
September 21 – William W. Eaton, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1875 to 1881 (born 1816)
September 26 – Fanny Davenport, actress (born 1850)
September 28 – Thomas F. Bayard, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1869 to 1885 and Secretary of State from 1885 to 1889 (born 1828)
October 12 – John M. Forbes, merchant, philanthropist and abolitionist, president of the Michigan Central and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroads (born 1813)
October 31 – Joseph R. West, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1871 to 1877 (born 1822)
November 8 – Robert Franklin Armfield, U.S. Representative from North Carolina (born 1829)
November 19 – Don Carlos Buell, United States Army officer who fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War (born 1818)
December 15 – Calvin S. Brice, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1891 to 1897 (born 1845)
December 18 – Thomas W. Osborn, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1868 to 1873 (born 1833)