Queen Victoria dies at her Osborne House palace on the Isle of Wight January 22 at age 81 after a reign of nearly 64 years in which the United Kingdom has grown from a nation of 25 million to one of 37 million. The queen's son will reign until 1910 as Edward VII; now 59, he has formed a liaison with Alice Keppel, whose husband, George, has no objection (neither does Queen Alexandra), and she will remain the king's only mistress until his death.

Former Serbian king Milan IV (or II) (Obrenevic) dies at Vienna February 11 at age 46.

The Russian minister of propaganda is assassinated February 27 at age 41 in reprisal for his repression of student agitators. Russian revolutionary Konstantinova Nadeshda Krupskaya, 32, becomes secretary of the Bolshevik faction of the Social Democratic Party, a post she will hold until 1917.

The essay "Lebensraum" ("Living Space") by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, 56, relates human groups to the areas where they have developed, noting that nations tend to expand or contract their boundaries with their rational capabilities. A misinterpretation of Ratzel's essay will be used to justify territorial aggression by Germany in the 1930s (seeHaushofer, 1924).

Afghanistan's barakzai dynasty emir Abdur Rahman Khan dies at his native Kabul October 1 at age 57 (approximate) after a 21-year reign in which he has crushed a revolt of the powerful Ghilzai tribe, pacified the country, reached an agreement with Russia on the demarcation of his northwestern border, and maintained a balance in dealing with British India and the St. Petersburg government. He has imported machinery for manufacturing consumer goods, agricultural tools, and munitions, brought in foreign experts, and established the nation's first modern hospital. His eldest son sets out to improve relations with the country's tribal chiefs and will reign until February 1919 as Amir Habibullah Khan, establishing Afghanistan's first secondary schools (for boys only, but Afghans are probably 98 percent illiterate), working to improve public health, importing more machinery for local industry, establishing the first public works program to improve the infrastructure, and making other attempts at modernization despite opposition from religious leaders.

Britain's viceroy to India George Nathaniel Curzon creates the North-West Frontier Province between the Punjab and Afghanistan; now 41, he works to pacify the region.

Former Italian colonial governor of Eritrea Gen. Oreste Baratieri dies at Sterzing in the Austro-Hungarian Tyrol August 7 at age 59.

The Second Boer War continues in South Africa. Lord Kitchener builds a chain of blockhouses to combat guerrilla activities and starts destroying Boer farms (see 1900 1). Boer forces invade the Cape Colony in October under James Hertzog, 35, and Christian de Wet, 47, coming within 50 miles of Cape Town, but British troops repel the Boers, and when their commander in chief Louis Botha, 39, raids Natal he has no success. Gen. Sir Redvers H. Buller is removed from his command October 21 after having made a tactless speech in response to his critics (see 1902).

The Commonwealth of Australia created January 1 joins New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and West Australia.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, 35, captures the Filipino leader emilio aguinaldo in March, but guerrillas massacre an American garrison on the island of Samar in September.

Former president Benjamin Harrison dies at Indianapolis March 13 at age 67; former Union Army general Fitz-John Porter at morristown new jersey, N.J., May 21 at age 78.

The Platt Amendment provides that Cuba cede to the United States some territory suitable for naval facilities and for informal U.S. control over Cuban affairs (see 1898). Introduced February 25 by Connecticut-born U.S. Senator Orville H. Platt, 73, (R. Conn.) as an attachment to a military appropriations bill, it passes the Senate and is signed into law by william mckinley (see 1902).

"speak softly and carry a big stick," says Vice President Roosevelt September 2 in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair, laying down a rule for U.S. foreign policy: "There is a homely adage which runs, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.' If the American nation will speak softly and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far."

President McKinley is shot at point-blank range September 6 with a .32 caliber Ivor Johnson revolver fired by Polish-born anarchist Leon Czolgosz, 28, during the president's visit to the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, N.Y. The wounds are not properly dressed, McKinley dies of gangrene September 14 at age 58, and Teddy Roosevelt at age 42 becomes the youngest chief executive in the nation's history (Mark Hanna in Cleveland calls him "that damned cowboy"). McKinley is the third U.S. chief executive to be assassinated, his death arouses the country to the need for more security, and the Secret Service of the Treasury Department that was established in 1865 to combat counterfeiters is ordered to provide 24-hour protection not only for the president but for all future presidents and visiting heads of state. Anarchist Emma Goldman is accused of having had a hand in the assassination of President McKinley (see 1893); Goldman has actually renounced the use of violence as a tactic but is stripped of her U.S. citizenship (seeMother Earth, 1906).

The Peace of Beijing (Peking) September 7 ends the Boxer Rebellion that began last year. Diplomat Li Hong Zhang (Li Hung-Chang) dies November 7 at age 88, having negotiated the accord that obliges China to pay indemnities to the world powers (see 1902).

-Zoe