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DeLome Letter is published
Don Dupuy de Lôme was Spain's ambassador to the United States. In late 1897 he wrote a personal letter to a friend. Unknown persons intercepted and stole the letter, whose wide-ranging insults of such parties as the press, the British, and the Cuban insurgents also touched on President McKinley, essentially calling him spineless. The letter surfaced among Cuban exiles in New York, where, inevitably, William Randolph Hearst's newspaper published it on February 9, 1898. -
Sinking of the USS Maine
On February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor. Some 266 crewmen lost their lives in the incident, which had its roots in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain and was one of the triggers of the Spanish-American War. The explosion was blamed on a mine, but some experts have presented the opinion that the explosion was internal in origin and accidental in nature. -
US Declares War on Spain
On 25 April 1898, the United States Congress declared war upon Spain -
Battle of Manila Bay
The Battle of Manila Bay was the major Asian encounter of the Spanish-American War. U.S. commander of the Asiatic squadron, George Dewey, was given orders to attack the Spanish fleet in the Philippines. In April 1898, Dewey's modern steel squadron easily destroyed the aging Spanish ships without significant American losses. -
Battle of San Juan Hill
The Battle of San Juan Hill (July 1, 1898), led by Theodore Roosevelt, also known as the battle for the San Juan Heights, was a decisive battle of the Spanish–American War. -
Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Peace signed between Spain and the United States to end the Spanish-American War, in Paris on December 10, 1898.
