THE EVENING TRIBUNE, San Diego, Feb. 21, 1898

* re. USS Maine explosion disaster
* Spanish-American War prelude
* Havana Harbor , Cuba 

The top of the front page has a one column heading: "THE WRECKED MAINE" with subheads that include: "100 Bodies Missing" and more. (see images) Surprisingly this issue is in good condition being from the "wood pulp" era. Very hard to find issues that are not totally fragile from this era in paper.
Complete with 4 pages, 23 x 19 1/2 inches, small library stamp within the masthead, a few small binding holes along the spine, minor margin wear, generally nice.

Background: The explosion of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, serves as one of the most consequential turning points in American foreign policy, acting as the immediate catalyst for the Spanish-American War and the birth of the United States as a global empire. Driven by the sensationalized, anti-Spanish coverage of "yellow journalism" that captured public fury with the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!" the disaster forced President William McKinley’s hand, leading to a declaration of war in April 1898. This brief conflict shattered Spain’s centuries-old colonial presence in the Western Hemisphere and left the United States in possession of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Beyond the immediate territorial gains, the event fundamentally shifted America’s geopolitical identity away from nineteenth-century isolationism toward active, twentieth-century global interventionism, forever altering the balance of power in both the Caribbean and the Pacific.