| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1899 | USA [fiction] | The US writer Kate (O'Flaherty) Chopin publishes her short novel The Awakening. |
| 1899 | Uruguay [food and drink] | Oxo meat stock cubes are developed at Fray Bentos in Uruguay. |
| 1899 | UK [food and drink] | The British confectioner George Bassett and Co. launches Liquorice All-sorts. |
| 1899 | England [orchestral music] | The English composer Edward Elgar completes his Enigma Variations. |
| 1899 | USA [orchestral music] | The US composer John Philip Sousa completes his march Hands Across the Sea. |
| 1899 | USA [painting] | The US artist John Singer Sargent paints The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs Adeane, and Mrs Tennant. |
| 1899 | France [painting] | The French artist Claude Monet paints Water Lilies, the first of a long series that occupy him for the rest of his life (he dies in 1926). |
| 1899 | USA [painting] | The US artist Winslow Homer paints The Gulf Stream. |
| 1899 | UK [physics] | New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford discovers alpha and beta particles. |
| 1899–1900 | Crete [archaeology] | British archaeologist Arthur John Evans excavates the palace of Knossos, Crete. |
| 1899 | Germany [biology] | German chemist Emil Hermann Fischer shows that proteins are polymers, or large molecules, comprised of amino acids. |
| 1899 | Germany [chemistry] | German chemist Emil Fischer postulates the ‘lock and key’ hypothesis to explain the specificity of enzyme action. |
| 1899 | France [companies and organizations] | Louis and Marcel Renault found the French car company Renault Frères. |
| 1899 | France [solo and chamber music] | The French composer Maurice Ravel completes his piano work Pavane pour une infante défunte/Pavan for a Dead Infanta, which he orchestrates in 1910. |
| 7 January 1899 | France [births and deaths] | Francis Poulenc, French composer, born in Paris, France (–1963). |
| 17 January 1899 | USA [births and deaths] | Al Capone, US gangster, born in Brooklyn, New York City (–1947). |
| 18 February 1899 | France [elections] | Emile Loubet is elected president of France following the death of Félix Faure. |
| 3 June 1899 | Austria [births and deaths] | Johann Strauss, Austrian composer of Viennese waltzes and operettas, dies in Vienna, Austria (74). |
| 21 July 1899 | USA [births and deaths] | Ernest Hemingway, US novelist who writes A Farewell to Arms (1929) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1941), born in Oak Park, Illinois (–1961). |
| 13 August 1899 | England [births and deaths] | Alfred Hitchcock, US film director known for his films of suspense, born in London, England (–1980). |
| 24 August 1899 | Argentina [births and deaths] | Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine poet, short-story writer, and essayist who establishes the modernist Ultraist movement in South America, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (–1986). |
| 9 October 1899 | Transvaal, UK [wars] | Transvaal president Paul Kruger sends an ultimatum to Britain to stop sending troops to southern Africa, or face war. |
| 12 October 1899 | South Africa [Anglo–Boer Wars (1899–1902)] | A Boer ultimatum demanding Britain stop sending troops to southern Africa expires and the Second Anglo-Boer War begins. |
| 16 October - 20 October 1899 | USA, UK [sailing] | In the America's Cup, the US yacht Columbia defeats the British challenger Shamrock, owned by the British businessman Thomas Lipton, by three races to nil. Lipton makes further attempts, all unsuccessful, to win the trophy in 1901, 1903, 1920, and 1930. |
| 25 December 1899 | USA [births and deaths] | Humphrey Bogart, US actor, born in New York City (–1957). |
