February 28 » Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
April 18 » The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
April 30 » J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London.
June 16 » A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
July 11 » Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.
August 2 » Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand states.
Day of death December 16, 1898
The temperature on December 16, 1898 was about 7.0 °C. The airpressure was 76 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 87%. Source: KNMI
June 17 » The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
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.
July 8 » The death of crime boss Soapy Smith, killed in the Shootout on Juneau Wharf, releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
September 10 » Empress Elisabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.
September 13 » Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
December 26 » Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Paul Potten, "Family tree Potten", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-potten/I815.php : accessed January 23, 2026), "Josephus Wilhelmus Franciscus Potten (1897-1898)".
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