* 1861 – Stanislas de Guaita, French occultist ( d. 1897 )

* 1897 – Humberto Mauro, Brazilian director and screenwriter ( d. 1983 )

Australia resoundingly won the 1897 – 98 series by 4 – 1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott.

* 1897 – Anglo-Afghan War: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand states adjacent to India's North West Frontier Province.

* 1897 – Karl-Otto Koch, German SS officer ( d. 1945 )

* 1897 – Max Weber, Swiss politician ( d. 1974 )

* 1897 – Jandamarra, Indigenous-Australian resistance leader ( b. c. 1873 )

* 1897 – Franco-Hova Wars: The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.

* 1897 – Maurice Fernandes, Guyanese cricketer ( d. 1981 )

During the Invasion of the Kuril Islands, Akira Nakamura ( b. 1897 ) was captured by the Soviet army and his elder son Takeshi Nakamura ( 1925 – 1945 ) was killed in the battle.

), Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 3 vol., Berlin, 1897 – 1898.

* 1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.

* 1897 – The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.

* 1897 – The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

* 1897 – Ardito Desio, Italian topographer ( d. 2001 )

* 1897 – Claire Windsor, American actress ( d. 1972 )

* 1975 – Fredric March, American actor ( b. 1897 )

* 1994 – Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani scientist and scholar ( b. 1897 )

Oldtiden og den ældre Middelalder, pp. 570 – 735 ( Copenhagen, 1897 – 1905 ).

* 1897 – The Aurora, Texas UFO incident

* 1897 – Thornton Wilder, American dramatist ( d. 1975 )

* 1897 – Enid Blyton, English author ( d. 1968 )

* 1897 – Louise Bogan, American poet ( d. 1970 )

* January 26 – Lucky Luciano, American gangster ( b. 1897 )

Charles " Lucky " Luciano ( pronounced ; born Salvatore Lucania November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962 ), was an Italian-born, naturalized American mobster born in Sicily.

* Salvatore Lucania ( 1897 – 1962 ), also known as Charlie ' Lucky ' Luciano, Sicilian-American mafioso

He also wrote lyrics for the one-act comic opera, Weather or No ( 1896 ), which played as a companion piece to The Mikado at the Savoy Theatre, as well as several other Savoy operas, such as Mirette ( 1894 ), His Majesty, or The Court of Vignolia ( 1897 ), The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein ( 1897 ) and The Lucky Star ( 1899 ).

* 1897 – Constance Talmadge, American actress ( d. 1973 )

* 1897 – John W. Galbreath, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Darby Dan Farm ( d. 1988 )

* 1928 – Rex Cherryman, American actor ( b. 1897 )

* 1897 – Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist ( d. 1941 )

* 1962 – Milt Franklyn, American composer and arranger ( b. 1897 )

* 1897 – Walter Winchell, American broadcaster and journalist ( d. 1972 )

Benjamin Lee Whorf ( April 24, 1897 – July 26, 1941 ) was an American linguist and fire prevention engineer.

On November 24, 1897, French naval authorities found three Americans on Clipperton working for the American Guano Company, who had raised the American flag on the island.

The Little Bears ( 1893 – 96 ) was the first American comic with recurring characters, while the first color comic supplement was published by the Chicago Inter-Ocean sometime in the latter half of 1892, followed by the New York Journals first color Sunday comic pages in 1897.

Sockalexis, a Native American, had played in Cleveland 1897 – 99.

* Commodore ( shipwreck ), a steamer lost to a maritime disaster in 1897 that occurred off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida, of which American novelist Stephen Crane was a surviving passenger

* 1897 – Nunnally Johnson, American screenwriter and producer ( d. 1977 )

* 1954 – Fred Rose, American songwriter and music publishing executive ( b. 1897 )

* 1897 – Margaret Chase Smith, American politician ( d. 1995 )

* 1897 – Drew Pearson, American journalist ( d. 1969 )

* 1897 – Alma Rubens, American actress ( d. 1931 )

* 1897 – Louis Buchalter, American organized crime figure ( d. 1944 )

* 1897 – William S. Bowdern, American Jesuit Roman Catholic priest ( d. 1983 )

Frank L. Baum published “ Mother Goose in Prose ” in 1897, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, and American Fairy Tales in 1901.

* 1897 – Marian Anderson, American contralto ( d. 1993 )