1905 in Belgium

← 1904 1903 1902 1905 in Belgium → 1906 1907 1908
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	Other events of 1905 List of years in Belgium

The following lists events that happened during 1905 in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Incumbents

A Belgian postage stamp, 1905

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Paul de Smet de Naeyer

Events

Baedeker map of Brussels, 1905

February

• 5 February – General strike in Belgian coal fields begins.
• 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.
• 30 April – First international football fixture between Belgium and the Netherlands held in Antwerp; Dutch win 1–4.

Programme of the pageant to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence

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.

August

• 1–6 August – 1905 European Rowing Championships held on the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal in Ghent.
• 12 August – King opens new sports stadium in Antwerp.

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.
• 6 November – Closing of the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège takes place.
• 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

Eastern little hornbill from Alphonse Dubois, Remarques sur l'ornithologie de l'État indépendant du Congo (Brussels, 1905)

• 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

Constantin Meunier, The Docker (1905)

Exhibitions

• 15 July to 2 November – Retrospective of Belgian art, 1830-1905, Brussels

Sculpture

• Constantin Meunier, The Docker

Buildings

• Victor Horta, Magasins Waucquez

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
• 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
• 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