theater of the Opéra-Comique. The 80th birthday of Queen Victoria is celebrated throughout the British Empire. May 25 – Pope Leo XIII issues the encyclical Annum sacrum, declaring 1900 to be a Holy Year and directing Roman Catholic churches worldwide to carry out the consecration of all human beings to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A fire in the Candian city of Saint John, New Brunswick, destroys 150 buildings and renders over 1,000 people homeless. May 26 – The guns of the British warship HMS Scylla, commanded by Captain Percy Scott, hit their targets 56 out of 70 times after Percy and his crew solve the problem of aiming a ship cannon on rolling seas. May 27 – Rangers F.C., commonly called the Glasgow Rangers and one of the most successful soccer football teams in the Scottish Football League, is incorporated. Maurice Ravel's Shéhérazade Overture, is given its first public performance, May 28 – General Vicente Álvarez forms the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga in the Philippines on a peninsula on the island of Mindanao. The nation exists until 1903 when it is consolidated by the U.S. to the rest of the Philippine territory. May 29 – The Spanish system of courts in the Philippines, closed since the American occupation began, is revived under U.S. sovereignty and regulation. May 30 – Female outlaw Pearl Hart robs a stage coach southeast of Globe, Arizona. May 31 – The Harriman Alaska Expedition is launched. The Bloemfontein Conference commences between Paul Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner in the Orange Free State, but ends in failure after six days. June 1899 June 2 – American outlaws Robert L. Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry A. Longabaugh ("The Sundance Kid") commit their first armed robbery as "The Wild Bunch", stopping a Union Pacific train near Wilcox, Wyoming, with accomplices Harvey Logan and Elzy Lay, and steal more than $30,000 worth of cargo. June 3 – France's Court of Cassation orders a reopening of the 1894 conviction for treason of French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus after evidence of a wrongful conviction is made public, and directs that Dreyfus be returned to France after five years of imprisonment on Devil's Island off of the coast of South America. The United States and Spain resume diplomatic relations, as U.S. President McKinley receives the Duke of Arcos as the new Minister for Spain. June 4 – The President of France, Émile