1899 in Belgium

Events in the year 1899 in Belgium.

• Monarch: Leopold II^[1]
• Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer (to 23 January); Jules Vandenpeereboom (25 January to 5 August); Paul de Smet de Naeyer (from 5 August)

• 24 January – Unable to broker a coherent government policy on demands for proportional representation, Paul de Smet de Naeyer hands over the premiership to his colleague Jules Vandenpeereboom
• 14 February – Belgian Antarctic Expedition research vessel Belgica freed from Antarctic ice.
• 28–30 June – Violent protests in Brussels demanding introduction of universal manhood suffrage with proportional representation.^[2]
• 29 July – Belgium among the 26 signatories to the Hague Convention
• 31 July – Jules Vandenpeereboom offers his resignation as prime minister due to the failure of his government to pass its proposed legislation for proportional representation.
• 23 October – Thomas Louis Heylen succeeds Jean-Baptiste Decrolière as bishop of Liège
• 5 November – Belgian Antarctic Expedition arrives back in Antwerp on board research ship Belgica
• 24 November – Bill introducing proportional representation on the D'Hondt method passed in the lower house by 70 votes to 63 with 8 abstentions.
• 3 December – Antoon Stillemans, bishop of Ghent, suspends Adolf Daens as a diocesan priest due to his political activism for the Christene Volkspartij.^[3]
• 30 December – Act introducing proportional representation published as law.^[4]

Periodicals

• Annales de le Société d'archéologie de Bruxelles, vol. 13

Reference

• Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 15.

Books

• Stephane Mallarmé, Poésies (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
• Pol de Mont, Poètes belges d’expression française
• Max Rooses (ed.), Het schildersboek: Nederlandsche schilders der negentiende eeuw, vol. 3.^[5]
• Stijn Streuvels, Lenteleven
• Édouard van den Corput, Utilité des embellissements de Bruxelles: Nécessité de l'agrandissement territorial de la capital de la Belgique
• Emile Vandervelde, L'Alcoolisme et les conditions de travail en Belgique
• Émile Verhaeren, Les visages de la vie (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
• Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Histoires souveraines, with ornaments by Théo van Rysselberghe (Brussels, Edmond Deman)^[6]

Architecture

• Victor Horta, Maison du Peuple, Brussels
• Paul Saintenoy, Old England (department store), Brussels

Art

• Constantin Meunier, The Horse at the Pond

• 25 January – Paul-Henri Spaak, statesman (died 1972)
• 21 February – Clara Clairbert, soprano (died 1970)
• 28 February – Jacqueline Dyris, actress (died 1962)
• 20 March – Albert-Émile de Beauffort, colonial administrator (died 1983)
• 17 April – Gérard Debaets, cyclist (died 1959)
• 12 May – Maurice Carême, poet (died 1978)
• 17 May – Paul Ooghe, soldier (died 2001)
• 24 May – Henri Michaux, writer (died 1984)
• 21 June – Jean Hénault, athlete (died 1983)
• 30 June – Jean-Marie Plum, composer (died 1944)
• 22 July – Elisabeth van der Noot d'Assche, aristocrat (died 1974)
• 24 August – Albert Claude, Nobel Prize-winning biologist (died 1983)
• 29 September – Gaspard Lemaire, Olympic swimmer (died 1979)
• 20 October – Marnix Gijsen, writer (died 1984)
• 3 November – Julien Vervaecke, cyclist (died 1940)
• 8 November – Ernest Adam, politician (died 1985)
• 15 November – Auguste Pelsmaeker, footballer (died 1976)
• 20 December – Emile Brichard, cyclist (died 2004)
• 31 December – Richard Declerck, politician (died 1986)

• 17 January – Camille Everardi (born 1824), baritone and voice teacher
• 1 March – Abraham Mayer (born 1816), physician
• 12 March – Edmond De Schampheleer (born 1824), artist
• 1 April – Clara de Hirsch (born 1833), businesswoman
• 28 May – Charles Piot (born 1812), archivist
• 14 July – Charles-Joseph de Harlez de Deulin (born 1832), Orientalist
• 27 August – Emmanuel Hiel (born 1834), writer
• 4 September – Théodore Baron (born 1840), painter
• 6 September – Jean Baptiste Carnoy (born 1836), priest-scientist
• 27 November – Guido Gezelle (born 1830), priest-poet
• 27 December – Henri Evenepoel (born 1872), artist