March 16 » In Melbourne the representatives of five colonies adopted a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.
April 21 » Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
April 22 » Spanish–American War: The USSNashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
June 21 » The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.
August 23 » The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London.
November 3 » France withdraws its troops from Fashoda (now in Sudan), ending the Fashoda Incident.
Day of death August 29, 1898
The temperature on August 29, 1898 was about 15.1 °C. The airpressure was 76 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 73%. Source: KNMI
January 1 » New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.
February 15 » The battleship USSMaine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing 274. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
June 17 » The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
July 3 » A Spanish squadron, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is defeated by an American squadron under William T. Sampson in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
July 4 » En route from New York to Le Havre, the SS La Bourgogne collides with another ship and sinks off the coast of Sable Island, with the loss of 549 lives.
July 25 » Spanish-American War: The American invasion of Spanish-held Puerto Rico begins, as United States Army troops under General Nelson A. Miles land and secure the port at Guánica.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Sim Mostert, "Genealogy Pot en Smit", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/genealogie_pot_smit/I6537.php : accessed September 25, 2026), "KLAAS SMIT (1898-1898)".
Copy warning
Genealogical publications are copyright protected. Although data is often retrieved from public archives, the searching, interpreting, collecting, selecting and sorting of the data results in a unique product. Copyright protected work may not simply be copied or republished.
Please stick to the following rules
Request permission to copy data or at least inform the author, chances are that the author gives permission, often the contact also leads to more exchange of data.
Do not use this data until you have checked it, preferably at the source (the archives).
State from whom you have copied the data and ideally also his/her original source.