title: 1905 in Belgium
text: # 1905 in Belgium
  
  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 $begins.^{:768}$
  * 10 February – Belgian Labour Party provides striking miners with 12.5 francs each in strike $pay.^{:769}$
  
  ### March
  
  * 1 March – Art association Kunst van Heden founded in $Antwerp.^{:769}$
  * 11 March – General strike in the coal fields $ends.^{:768}$
  
  ### April
  
  * 27 April – Opening of the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège.
  * 30 April – First international football fixture between Belgium and the Netherlands held in Antwerp; Dutch win $1–4.^{:768}$
  
  ### May
  
  * 1 May – Season of events to celebrate 75th anniversary of Belgian independence $opened.^{:768}$
  * 7 May – Belgians win international football fixture against France in Brussels, $7–0.^{:768}$
  
  ### June
  
  * 23 June – Strikes for shorter hours in Ghent textile $mills.^{:768}$
  
  ### July
  
  * 26 July – Law promulgated making Sunday an obligatory day of rest in trade and $industry.^{:769}$
  * 27 July – Edward Joris arrested in Istanbul for his part in the Yıldız assassination attempt.
  
  ### 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 $Antwerp.^{:768}$
  
  ### 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.
  
  ### 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 $findings.^{:769}$
  * 6 November – Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège closes.
  * 12 November – Formal opening of the Belgian-engineered Beijing–Hankou $railway.^{:768}$
  * 25 November – Christian democrats obtain episcopal recognition as a Catholic $organisation.^{:768}$
  * 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 $life.^{:770}$
  
  ## 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.
  
  ### 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
  