The Hawaiian flag was formally lowered and the American flag raised over Iolani Palace, marking the official U.S. annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.

The American cruiser USS Charleston seized Guam from Spain without a fight, the island's Spanish garrison unaware war had even begun.

Empress Dowager Cixi's forces rounded up leaders of China's Hundred Days' Reform, ending a brief attempt to modernize the crumbling Qing state.

Clive Staples Lewis, future author of 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and Christian apologetics, was born in Belfast, Ireland.

The Curies, working with Gustave Bémont, announced the discovery of a new radioactive element they named radium in a paper to the French Academy of Sciences.