in Martinique erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000. May 13 – Alfonso XIII of Spain begins his reign. May 20 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. May 22 – The White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. May 29 – The London School of Economics is opened by Lord Rosebery. May 31 – The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War. June June 2 – The Anthracite Coal Strike begins in the United States. June 13 – Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, predecessor of global consumer goods brand 3M, begins trading as a mining venture at Two Harbors in the United States. June 15 – The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City. June 16 – The Commonwealth Franchise Act in Australia grants women's suffrage in federal elections for resident British subjects (with certain ethnic minorities excepted), making Australia the first independent country to grant women the vote at a national level, and the first country to allow them to stand for Parliament. June 26 – Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit, an order bestowed personally by the British monarch on up to 24 distinguished Empire recipients. July July – James Stevenson-Hamilton is appointed warden of the Sabie Game Reserve in South Africa. July 2 – Philippine–American War ends. July 5 – Erik Gustaf Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden. July 8 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation is established within the U.S. Geological Survey. July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania kills 112 miners. July 11 Lord Salisbury retires as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The British Order of the Garter is conferred on Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. July 14 – St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses. July 21 – Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro. July 22 – Felix Pedro discovers gold in modern-day Fairbanks, Alaska. August August 1 – 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia. August 9 – Coronation of Edward VII as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India at Westminster Abbey in London. August 22 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile, a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut. August 22 – A 7.7 earthquake shakes