The following lists events that happened during 1905 in the Kingdom of Belgium.
Incumbents
Monarch: Leopold II Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer
Events
February 5 February – General strike in Belgian coal fields begins.Alain de Gueldre et al., Kroniek van België (Antwerp and Zaventem, 1987). 10 February – Belgian Labour Party provides striking miners with 12.5 francs each in strike pay.
March 1 March – Art association Kunst van Heden founded in Antwerp. 11 March – General strike in the coal fields ends.
April 27 April – Opening of the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège.Liège et l'Exposition universelle de 1905, edited by Christine Renardy (Brussels, 2005). 30 April – First international football fixture between Belgium and the Netherlands held in Antwerp; Dutch win 1–4.
May 1 May – Season of events to celebrate 75th anniversary of Belgian independence opened. 7 May – Belgians win international football fixture against France in Brussels, 7–0.
June 23 June – Strikes for shorter hours in Ghent textile mills.
July 26 July – Law promulgated making Sunday an obligatory day of rest in trade and industry. 27 July – Edward Joris arrested in Istanbul for his part in the Yıldız assassination attempt.Gaïdz Minassian, "The Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Operation 'Nejuik'", in To Kill a Sultan: A Transnational History of the Attempt on Abdülhamid II (1905), edited by Houssine Alloul, Edhem Eldem and Henk de Smaele (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p. 53.
August 1 to 6 August – 1905 European Rowing Championships held on the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal in Ghent. 12 August – King opens new sports stadium in Antwerp.
September 27 September – King ceremonially opens Arcade du Cinquantenaire in Brussels.
October 12 October – First stone of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussels laid.Jean van Cleven, Neogotisch project: H. Hartbasiliek van Koekelberg, Vlaanderen, 40 (1991), pp. 200-201.
November 5 November – Independent committee of enquiry into abuses in the Congo Free State, set up in response to the publication of the Casement Report the previous year, releases its findings. 6 November – Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège closes.Liège et l'Exposition universelle de 1905, edited by Christine Renardy (Brussels, 2005). 12 November – Formal opening of the Belgian-engineered Beijing–Hankou railway. 25 November – Christian democrats obtain episcopal recognition as a Catholic organisation. 30 November – Walloon Congress in Liège to promote the culture of French-speaking Belgium and to oppose the movement for greater use of Dutch in public life.
Publications
La Nation Belge, 1830-1905, conférences jubilaires faites à l’Exposition Universelle et internationale de Liège en 1905 (Liège, Ch. Desoer & Brussels, P. Weissenbruch)
Periodicals La Belgique Artistique et Littéraire begins publication.Vol. 1 at Internet Archive
Scholarship Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 18. Ernest Closson, Chansons populaires des provinces belges (Brussels, Mainz, London, Leipzig) Alphonse Dubois, Remarques sur l'ornithologie de l'État indépendant du Congo Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert, La Renaissance septentrionale et les premiers maitres des Flandres (Brussels, Librarie Nationale d'Art et d'Histoire) Godefroid Kurth, La Patrie Belge: 75è Anniversaire de l'Indépendance Nationale (Namur) Joseph Van den Gheyn, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, vol. 5. Joseph Van den Gheyn, La préhistoire en Belgique (1830-1905) (1905)
Literature Mark Twain, King Leopold's Soliloquy (Boston) Émile Verhaeren, Les heures d'après-midi (Brussels, Edmond Deman)
Art and architecture
Exhibitions 15 July to 2 November – Retrospective of Belgian art, 1830-1905, Brussels
Sculpture Constantin Meunier, The Docker
Buildings Victor Horta, Magasins Waucquez Gédéon Bordiau and Charles Girault, Arcade du Cinquantenaire, Brussels
Births 15 January – Jean Van Buggenhout, cyclist (died 1974) 10 March – René Bernier, composer (died 1984) 28 March – Jenny Toitgans, athlete 1 April – Gaston Eyskens, politician (died 1988) 3 April – Georges Lemaire, cyclist (died 1933) 10 April – Edgard Viseur, athlete 4 May – Désiré Acket, painter (died 1987) 21 June – Alfred De Taeye, politician (died 1958) 6 July – Suzanne Spaak, resistance operative (died 1944) 22 October – Maurice Geldhof, cyclist (died 1970) 17 November – Astrid of Sweden, Queen of the Belgians (died 1935) 27 November – Daniel Sternefeld, composer (died 1986) 18 December – Jane Graverol, painter (died 1984)
Deaths 9 March – Paul Costermans (born 1860), deputy governor general of the Congo Free State, by his own hand 4 April – Constantin Meunier (born 1831), painter and sculptor 9 April – Léon d'Andrimont (born 1836), politician 23 April – Théodore Nilis (born 1851), colonial official 6 August – Léo Errera (born 1858), plant physiologist 10 August – Georges Nagelmackers (born 1845), engineer and entrepreneur 17 November – Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (born 1837), heir presumptive to the Belgian throne. 12 December – Reimond Stijns (born 1850), writer
References