1897

Events

• January 4 - A British expedition under General James Phillips is ambushed and killed in Benin on the orders of Oba (King) Ovonramwen. Only two Britons survive the so-called "Benin Massacre".
• February 9 to 18 - The Benin Expedition, a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson, takes place in revenge for the killings of James Phillips' party. This results in the brutal massacre of much of the indigenous Beninese population, the burning of Benin City, and the eventual absorption of Benin into British Nigeria.
• March 3 - John Brown Gordon resigns from the United States Senate for the second time.
• March 4 - William McKinley takes office as the 25th President of the United States.
• Unknown - End of the Queensland Aboriginal Genocide.

Births

Villain births

• January 11 - James A. Colescott
• January 22 - Arthur Greiser
• January 23 - Subhas Chandra Bose
• February 5 - Miyuki Ishikawa
• April 24 - Michael Lippert
• May 12 - Earle Nelson
• July 11 - Bull Connor
• July 14 - Plaek Phibunsongkhram
• August 31 - Otto Dietrich
• September 15 - Kurt Daluege
• September 20 - Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
• October 7 - Elijah Muhammed
• October 29 - Joseph Goebbels
• November 21 - Vito Genovese
• November 24 - Charles "Lucky" Luciano
• November 30 - Feliksas Baltusis-Zemaitis

Deaths

Villain deaths

• February 12 - Jesús Jiménez zamora

Victim Deaths

• January 4 - James Phillips, Copland Crawford, Kenneth Campbell, 247 other victims of the Benin Massacre