The Spanish-American War was fought between April 21 and August 13, 1898, between the US and Spain and that, essentially, ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and Philippines. This handkerchief features the proclamation, "Remember Well the Maine," which refers to the February 1898 explosion of the USS Maine battleship while it was in Havana Harbor. Even though the battleship's destruction was an internal issue and not caused by the Spanish colony, it triggered the US to enter into war with Spain in April 1898. It was a brief and decisive victory for the US and an armistice was signed on August 12, 1898, which the handkerchief commemorates with "Manila captured August 13, 1898."