1896 in Belgium

Events in the year 1896 in Belgium.

Incumbents

 * Monarch: Leopold II
 * Prime Minister: Jules de Burlet (until 25 February), Paul de Smet de Naeyer (from 25 February)

Events

 * 7 January – Official founding of the Belgian Automobile Club.
 * 15 April – Law on the making and importation of alcohol replaces duty on the capacity of distillery equipment (adopted in 1833) with a duty on the proportional alcohol content of the distilled product.
 * 25 April – Murder of Delphina-Angelica Borée in Brussels.
 * 14 May – Parish of St Anthony of Padua established in newly expanded Heirnis section of Ghent.
 * 5 July – Belgian general election, 1896
 * 26 July – Provincial elections

Publications

 * Pol de Mont, Dit zijn Vlaamsche wondersprookjes
 * Maurice De Wulf, Études Historiques sur l'Esthétique de Saint Thomas d'Aquin
 * Maurice Maeterlinck, Le Trésor des humbles
 * Édouard van den Corput, Bruxellensia: Croquis artistiques et historiques
 * Emile Vandervelde, L'Evolution industrielle et le collectivisme
 * Émile Verhaeren, Les heures claires (Brussels, Edmond Deman)

Art and architecture

 * Paintings
 * Fernand Khnopff, Caress of the Sphinx

Births

 * 11 February – René Joannes-Powell, athlete (died 1940)
 * 22 February – Paul van Ostaijen, poet (died 1928)
 * 10 April – Jean-Baptiste Piron, soldier (died 1974)
 * 14 August – Julien Lehouck, athlete (died 1944)
 * 10 October – Omer Corteyn, athlete (died 1979)

Deaths

 * 2 January – Walthère Frère-Orban (born 1812), politician
 * 9 January – Guillaume Vogels (born 1836), painter
 * 6 February – Julie Dorus-Gras (born 1805), soprano
 * 3 March – Constant de Deken (born 1852), missionary
 * 6 May – Constantin Héger (born 1809), educator
 * 7 June – Florent Crabeels (born 1829), painter
 * 11 August – Xavier De Cock (born 1818), painter
 * 9 December – Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein (born 1819), genealogist