text:
Historical events from 1 January 1900 to 31 December 1912
Page last modified 8/5/2020
(-9999) = Day count to end of World War Two in Europe (day zero = Tuesday). Easter Sundays derived from https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm
For dates from 1/1/1913 click here
1/1/1913, Wednesday (-11,815) Film censorship began in Britain.
25/12/1912, Wednesday (-11,822) Italy sent troops to Albania to suppress unrest there.
18/12/1912. Wednesday (-11,829) The Piltdown Man was discovered in Sussex, claimed to be the fossilised skull and other remains of the earliest known European man. On 21/11/1953 it was revealed as a hoax, the skull was that of an orang-utan.
16/12/1912, Monday (-11,831) The Balkan Peace Conference began in London.
8/12/1912, Sunday (-11,839) The German Kaiser held a secret meeting with his military chiefs. It was agreed that the Schlieffen Plan, to quickly conquer France before turning east on Russia, should not be delayed much beyond 1914 because after that swifter Russian mobilisation would cause a collapse of the German Eastern Front before France fell. . The Schlieffen Plan, named after Graf Schlieffen, Chief of the German General Staff 1890-1905, was to attack France through Belgium, by-passing the heavily-fortified Franco-German frontier. German troops defending this frontier were to be reduced, possibly even allowing for French advances into Germany here. However the German advance through Belgium would then swing eastwards to the south west of Paris and come round to hit the French Army in the rear. Schlieffen allowed for ten German divisions to hold the Russian front until France could be crushed (six weeks allowed for this task); also for a British Expeditionary Force of 100,000 to assist the French.
7/12/1912, Saturday (-11,840) (Astronomy) Sir George Howard Darwin, English astronomer, was born in Cambridge.
6/12/1912, Friday (-11,841)
5/12/1912, Thursday (-11,842) Italy, Germany and Austria renewed their Triple alliance for a further six years.
4/12/1912. Wednesday (-11,843) Turkey concluded an armistice with Bulgaria and Serbia; Greece also ceased fighting.
30/11/1912, Saturday (-11,847) Bulgaria and Turkey signed an armistice.
28/11/1912. Thursday (-11,849) Albanian independence was proclaimed and confirmed in London on 20/12/1912 in principle and the new state's borders were confirmed on 29/7/1913. However these borders included less than half of the ethnic Albanians.
27/11/1912. Wednesday (-11,850) France and Spain agreed on their respective spheres of influence in Morocco.
23/11/1912, Saturday (-11,854)
19/11/1912, Tuesday (-11,858) (Biology) Rumanian-US physiologist George Emil Palade was born in Iasi, Rumania. In 1956 he discovered the that the small bodies within cells now known as ribosomes, are mostly RNA. It was soon afterwards found that this was where the cell manufactures proteins.
18/11/1912. Monday (-11,859) The Serbs occupied Monastir.
16/11/1912. Saturday (-11,861) Suffragettes, who had walked from Edinburgh to London, presented a petition to the Prime Minister.
11-16/11/1912. First International Motor Show, at Olympia.
12/11/1912, Tuesday (-11,865)
8/11/1912. Friday (-11,869) The Greeks occupied Salonika. This was during the First Balkan War, and ended 482 years of Turkish occupation.
5/11/1912, Tuesday (-11,872) (1) The British Board of Film Censors was appointed.
(2) Woodrow Wilson was elected US President, the first Democrat President for 20 years. The Republican vote was split between Roosevelt and Taft, allowing Wilson to win with only 42% of the vote.
(3) Women gained the vote in the US States of Arizona, Kansas and Wisconsin.
4/11/1912, Monday (-11,873) Pauline Trigere, fashion designer, was born in Paris.
3/11/1912. Sunday (-11,874) (1) Turkey appealed for mediation in the war with Italy, by the great European powers.
(2) Alfredo Stroessner, President of Paraguay, was born.
2/11/1912, Saturday (-11,875) An explosion on the battleship USS Vermont near Norfolk, Virginia killed 2 and injured 4.
1/11/1912. Friday (-11,876) The Greeks occupied Samothrace.
28/10/1912, Monday (-11,880) Birth of Sir Richard Doll, British cancer specialist who proved the link between cigarette smoking and cancer.
23/10/1912. Wednesday (-11,885) The Greeks routed the Turks at Sarandaporos.
19/10/1912. Saturday (-11,889) Allied Balkan armies invaded Turkey.
18/10/1912. Friday (-11,890) (Greece-Turkey, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia) The Ottoman Turks agreed to cede Tripoli and Cyrenaica (now Libya) to Italy, at the Peace of Lausanne. Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia declared war on Turkey. The Greek Army had been well-equipped under Venizelos, and the Turks were pushed back, to the point where Istanbul itself was threatened; the city was only saved by bad weather making the roads impassable and a cholera outbreak, halting military operations.
16/10/1912, Wednesday (-11,892)
15/10/1912, Tuesday (-11,893) Turkey made peace with Italy at Ouchy.
14/10/1912. Monday (-11,894) (1) President Roosevelt was shot and seriously wounded by a demented man in Milwaukee.
(2) The Turks invaded Serbia. Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria issued ultimatums to Turkey demanding the demobilisation of the Turkish Army in the Balkans.
8/10/1912. Tuesday (-11,900) Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
1/10/1912, Tuesday (-11,907) Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia prepared to fight Turkey.
30/9/1912, Monday (-11,908) Russia mobilised its forces in response to unrest in the Balkans.
29/9/1912, Sunday (-11,909) British and French forces quelled riots on Samos, after Turkey withdrew troops from there.
28/9/1912, Saturday (-11,910) A week of rallies and speeches in Ulster ended with a pledge to defeat Home Rule. Sir Edward Carson vowed to fight Home Rule, collecting 471,414 signatures, some people signing in their own blood. See 9/5/1912.
23/9/1912. Monday (-11,915) Mack Sonnett released the first Keystone Cops film.
21/9/1912, Saturday (-11,917) Ian McGregor, chairman of British Steel and British Coal, was born.
5/9/1912, Thursday (-11,933) Composer John Cage was born
4/9/1912, Wednesday (-11,934) The first tube train collision in London, 22 were injured.
1/9/1912, Sunday (-11,937) French troops quelled an uprising in Morocco.
27/8/1912. Tuesday (-11,942) Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first went into print as a magazine serial.
26/8/1912. Monday (-11,943) (Weather) Britain's heaviest August rainfall on record occurred at Norwich, where six inches fell in twelve hours. Floods in East Anglia made 10,000 homeless.
23/8/1912, Friday (-11,946)
20/8/1912, Tuesday (-11,949) (Space exploration) US physicist Edward Mills Purcell was born in Taylorville, Illinois. In 1951 he was among the first to observe the 21 cm line caused by hydrogen atoms in space.
19/8/1912. Monday (-11,950) William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, born on 10/4/1829, died aged 83. He was succeeded as leader of the Salvation Army on 21/8/1912 by Mr Bramwell Booth.
13/8/1912, Tuesday (-11,956)
11/8/1912, Sunday (-11,958) In Morocco, Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicated.
10/8/1912, Saturday (-11,959) The Republic of China's provisional government enacted its election law, creating a lower house of Parliament, and limiting voting rights to male citizens aged over 21, had two years residency in their district, and met property and educational restrictions.
9/8/1912. Friday (-11,960) Earthquake in Constantinople, Turkey, killed 6,000.
8/8/1912, Thursday (-11,961) The Pope issued an encyclical about abuse of the indigenous tribes in the Putumayo region of Peru.
7/8/1912. Wednesday (-11,962) Japan and Russia reached agreement on their spheres of influence in Mongolia and Manchuria.
6/8/1912, Tuesday (-11,963) U.S. President Taft asked Congress to fix maximum tolls for the Panama Canal.
5/8/1912, Monday (-11,964) In Chicago, the Progressive Party, nicknamed the "Bull Moose" Party to rival the Republican elephant and Democrat donkey, called itself to order as its founding convention opened at noon.
4/8/1912, Sunday (-11,965) Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat, was born to a wealthy family in Stockholm. He is famed for saving Jews scheduled for Nazi death camps by giving them Swedish documentation, enabling them to flee to that neutral country. In 1945 he was taken from Budapest as the Soviets occupied the city; he was suspected of espionage and his fate has never been determined.
3/8/1912. Saturday (-11,966) The Ottoman Turks granted Albania limited autonomy.
2/8/1912, Friday (-11,967) Tibetans were routed by Chinese soldiers at Lhasa.
1/8/1912, Thursday (-11,968) The Jungfrau rail tunnel, Switzerland, 7.5 km long, opened.
31/7/1912, Wednesday (-11,969) Milton Friedman, US economist and Nobel Prize winner in 1976, was born in Brooklyn, New York.
30/7/1912, Tuesday (-11,970) In Japan, Meiji Emperor Mutsuhito died aged 60, after a 45-year reign during which Imperial power was restored to Japan (the Meiji Restoration). He was succeeded by his son, Yoshihito, aged 33, who reigned until 1926.
28/7/1912. Sunday (-11,972)
24/7/1912, Wednesday (-11,976) Emma Cons, British social worker and philanthropist, died at Hever, Kent (born 4/3/1838 in London).
23/7/1912, Tuesday (-11,977) In the US, the 'Modesty League' protested against tight dresses.
22//7/1912. Monday (-11,978) To counter the growing German naval threat, the British Admiralty recalled warships from the Mediterranean to begin patrols in the North Sea.
21/7/1912, Sunday (-11,979) Second reading of the Franchise Bill, giving all men over 21 the vote.
18/7/1912, Thursday (-11,982)
15/7/1912. Monday (-11,985) National Insurance, or social payments, devised by Lloyd George, began in Britain.
14/7/1912. Sunday (-11,986) Woody Guthrie, US folk singer, was born in Oklahoma.
13/7/1912, Saturday (-11,987) (Aviation) J Vedrines, France, set a new aviation speed record of 106.12 mph.
12/7/1912, Friday (-11,988) 12,000 Ulstermen demonstrated against Home Rule for Ireland.
11/7/1912, Thursday (-11,989) Immingham Docks, Lincolnshire, were opened by King George V. Construction had begun in 1906.
6/7/1912, Saturday (-11,994) The 5th Olympic Games opened in Stockholm.
3/7/1912, Wednesday (-11,997) The Board of Trade Inquiry into the Titanic disaster found Captain Smith (who went down with his ship) guilty of negligence.
2/7/1912, Tuesday (-11,998) Serbia allied with Greece and Bulgaria against Ottoman Turkey, see 29/5/1912.
1/7/1912, Monday (-11,999) The first Royal Command Performance took place at the Palace Theatre, London, watched by King George V and Queen Mary.
28/6/1912, Friday (-12,002) The suffragettes began a window-smashing campaign at Post Offices and Labour Exchanges.
26/6/1912, Wednesday (-12,004) The first Alexandra Day.
25/6/1912, Tuesday (-12,005) Asquith was attacked in the Commons over the force-feeding of suffragettes on hunger strike in prison.
23/6/1912, Sunday (-12,007) (1) A bridge over the Niagara Falls collapsed, killing 47.
(2) Alan Mathison Turing, British mathematician who invented the Turing Machine, was born. He was the son of Julius and Sara Turing.
17/6/1912. Monday (-12,013) Discovery of the production of synthetic rubber on a commercial scale.
16/6/1912. Sunday (-12,014) Enoch Powell was born in Stechford, Birmingham.
14/6/1912, Friday (-12,016) King Frederick VIII of Denmark died after a 6-year reign, aged 69. He was succeeded by his son, 41-year old Christian X, who reigned until 1947.
8/6/1912. Saturday (-12,022) In Los Angeles, Carl Lemmie founded Universal Studios.
6/6/1912, Thursday (-12, 024) A huge volcanic eruption began at Mount Katmai, Alaska, creating the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.
31/5/1912. Friday (-12,030) (1) The first motor car museum was opened in London, at 175 Oxford Street. The oldest exhibits were an 1861 Crompton steam car and an 1894 Bremer petrol car. In March 1914 the museum moved to the Crystal Palace. However when the First World War broke out the space was needed for storage; some cars were returned to their owners but others were left on open waste ground near Charing Cross Station and allowed to disintegrate.
(2) US marines landed in Cuba to suppress a slave revolt.
30/5/1912, Thursday (-12,031) Wilbur Wright, older of the two Wright Brothers who invented the airplane, died aged 45 of typhoid fever at Dayton, Ohio. Wilbur had become ill on 4/5/1912 while on a business trip to Boston. On 17/12/1903 Wilbur became the second man to pilot an airplane, after his brother Orville made the first flight.
29/5/1912, Wednesday (-12,032) Greece signed an anti-Ottoman alliance with Bulgaria. Serbia joined the alliance on 2/7/1912.
28/5/1912, Tuesday (-12,033) The Titanic enquiry in the US gave a verdict of negligence.
27/5/1912, Monday (-12,034) Sam Snead, US golfer, was born.
26/5/1912, Sunday (-12,035), The UK was paralysed by a transport strike.
20/5/1912, Monday (-12,041)
16/5/1912, Thursday (-12,045) MPs backed a Bill that would disestablish the Church in Wales, despite opposition by church leaders.
15/5/1912, Wednesday (-12,046) Crown Prince Christian, brother of King Haakon VII of Norway, was proclaimed as King Christian X of Denmark
14/5/1912, Tuesday (-12,047) August Strindberg, playwright, died in Stockholm, Sweden.
10/5/1912, Friday (-12,051)
9/5/1912, Thursday (-12,052) In Britain the Liberal Government's plans to give Ireland Home Rule came closer this day when the House of Commons gave the Home Rule Bill a second reading, voting for it by 360 votes to 266. Tory MPs were firmly opposed and the Liberals relied on Irish Nationalist and Labour MPs to get the Bill passed. The Parliament Act, passed in 1911, ensured Conservative opposition in the House of Lords would not block the Bill. Ireland might have Home Rule by 1914. However the Home Rule issue had sharpened divisions between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Belfast, with its flourishing shipbuilding industry, was now the largest city in Ireland, and both merchants and workers there were opposed to rule from Dublin. Sir Edward Carson, a Dublin-born Protestant, planned to recruit some 80,000 armed volunteers to fight for Ulster to remain in the UK, see 28/9/1912.
8/5/1912, Wednesday (-12,053) Pilot Lieutenant Samson, flying a Short S38, made the first ever take off from a moving ship. The HMS Hibernia, off Weymouth, was moving at 10 knots.
7/5/1912, Tuesday (-12,054)
5/5/1912. Sunday (-12,056) The first issue of Pravda, meaning Truth, appeared in Russia.
4/5/1912. Saturday (-12,057) The Italians occupied the island of Rhodes, formerly held by the Ottoman Turks.
30/4/1912, Tuesday (-12,061) Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer and first to make a controlled flight in 1903, died in Dayton, Ohio.
20/4/1912, Saturday (-12,071) Bram Stoker, Dublin-born creator of Dracula in 1897, died aged 65 in London.
19/4/1912, Friday (-12,072) The U.S. Hydrographic Office and representatives of the steamship lines agreed that the winter time course of ships would be 270 miles south of the course taken by the Titanic, adding between 9 and 14 hours to the trip. The new route would be 3,080 miles rather than 2,858 miles.
18/4/1912, Thursday (-12,073) The liner Carpathia arrived in New York, carrying survivors of the Titanic disaster.
17/4/1912, Wednesday (-12,074) The Lena massacre: Russian soldiers fired into a crowd of gold miners, who had gone on strike in Siberia to demand a reduction in the workday and improved food and sanitation. According to official figures, 270 miners were killed and another 250 wounded, and the dead were buried in a mass grave.
16/4/1912, Tuesday (-12,075) (1) The Channel was first flown by a woman, Harriet Quimby.
(2) The Daily Herald began publication in London.
15/4/1912. Monday (-12,076) The Titanic, steaming too fast through a sea full of icebergs, sank on her maiden voyage. Of the 2,340 passengers and crew, 1,513 perished in the icy seas; only 732 survived. The first lifeboat to get away was almost empty, occupied only by the director of the line and their friends. Many first class passengers got priority over cheaper 'steerage' passengers. However there was also heroism; John Jacob Astor stayed behind after ensuring his bride was on a lifeboat, and the band, who played hymns as the ship sank beneath it. With 16 watertight compartments the Titanic, 270 metres long, was considered 'unsinkable' and so only had enough lifeboat places for 1,178. Before she sailed from Southampton on 10/4/1912, an engineer stated 'God himself could not sink this ship'. Off Newfoundland, a lookout reported an iceberg, the First Officer ordered a turn to port, and the Titanic missed the berg, but an underwater projection of ice struck her below the waterline, ripping open five of the sixteen watertight compartments. With this many compartments flooded, the ship began to sink, flooding further compartments. Many passengers could not accept that the ship was sinking, and only 800 only got aboard the lifeboats, and one lifeboat was sucked under as the Titanic sank. However later theories suggest that the real cause was poor rivets, that popped, causing a seam along the ship to split open.
14/4/1912, Sunday (-12,077) China's President Yuan Shih-kai issued a manifesto asking the five separate race groups in the nation to unite through intermarriage.
13/4/1912, Saturday (-12,078) In Britain the Royal Flying Corps, forerunner of the Royal Air Force, was formed.
12/4/1912, Friday (-12,079) Clara Barton (born 25/12/1812 near Oxford, Massachusetts) died at Glen Echo, Maryland. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, having worked in Europe with the Red Cross there to alleviate the suffering caused by the Franco-Prussian War.
11/4/1912. Thursday (-12,080) Irish Home Rule Bill introduced to the UK Parliament.
10/4/1912, Wednesday (-12,081) Troops were called out to quell riots in Wigan.
9/4/1912. Tuesday (-12,082) (Ireland) Major demonstration by 200,000 people against Irish Home Rule Bill in Belfast.
7/4/1912, Sunday (-12,084) Easter Sunday.
4/4/1912. Thursday (-12,087) (China) A Chinese republic was declared in Tibet.
1/4/1912, Monday (-12,090) (Technology) Pyotr Nicolaievich Lebedev, Russian physicist, died in Moscow.
31/3/1912. Sunday (-12,091) (Ireland) Major demonstration in Dublin for Irish Home Rule; 100,000 present.
30/3/1912. Saturday (-12,092) By the Treaty of Fez, Morocco became a French protectorate. This Treaty was terminated on 2/3/1956.
29/3/1912. Friday (-12,093) (Antarctic) Captain Robert Falcon Scott died in his tent in Antarctica, returning from his expedition to the South Pole.
28/3/1912, Thursday (-12,094) In the Boat Race, both Oxford's and Cambridge's boats sank. The race was re-run.
27/3/1912. Wednesday (-12,095) British Labour leader and Prime Minister 1976-1979,, James Callaghan, was born in Portsmouth.
26/3/1912, Tuesday (-12,096) Tennessee Williams, US playwright, was born (died 1983).
25/3/1912, Monday (-12,097)
24/3/1912, Sunday (-12,098) (Biology) Biochemist Sidney Walter Fox was born in Los Angeles, California.
23/3/1912, Saturday (-12,099) (Space exploration) Wernher von Braun, German rocket scientist, was born in Wirsitz.
21/3/1912, Thursday (-12,101) (London) The London Museum was opened, in Kensington Palace, by King George V.
17/3/1912, Sunday (-12,105) (Antarctic) Lawrence Oates died heroically during the return journey from the South Pole. On his 32nd birthday he left the tent, saying, 'I am just going outside, and I may be some time'.
16/3/1912, Saturday (-12,106) (USA) Thelma Nixon, wife of America's 37th President, was born in Ely, Nevada, as Thelma Ryan.
15/3/1912, Friday (-12,107)
13/3/1912, Wednesday (-12,109) (Bulgaria, Greece-Turkey, Yugoslavia) Under Russian influence (wanting to undermine Austro-Hungary), Serbia and Bulgaria buried their territorial rivalries for the time being (but see 29/6/1913), and, along with Greece and Montenegro, formed the Balkan League. Originally directed against the large multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire (which contained many ethnic Serbs within its borders), the League redirected its efforts against Ottoman Turkey, ultimately aiming to oust the Turks entirely from all its European territories. Serbia and Bulgaria signed a mutual defence pact. Balkan nationalism was on the rise. The pact also divided northern Macedonia between them. It was assumed that southern Macedonia would be divided between Bulgaria and Greece. On 30/5/1913 the Treaty of London divided up the Balkans amongst the members of the Balkan League, leaving Ottoman Turkey with only a sliver of European territory immediately west of Istanbul.
12/3/1912, Tuesday (-12,110) The Girl Guide movement was founded in America by Juliette Gordon Low.
10/3/1912, Sunday (-12,112)
8/3/1912, Friday (-12,114) The foundation stone of London's County Hall was laid.
7/3/1912. Thursday (-12,115) Henri Semiet made the first non-stop flight from London to Paris, taking three hours.
6/3/1912, Wednesday (-12,116) The National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) introduced the Oreo cookie.
5/3/1912, Tuesday (-12,117) British police raided the offices of the Women's Social and Political Union.
4/3/1912, Monday (-12,118) 96 women were arrested after a suffragette raid on the House of Commons.
3/3/1912, Sunday (-12,119) Mexican General Pascual Orozco, who had helped Francisco I. Madero win the revolution of 1911 and become President of Mexico, declared a revolt against the Madero government after having been denied a major role. Orozco and his followers, the "Orozquistas", then assisted Victoriano Huerta in overthrowing Madero.
2/3/1912, Saturday (-12,120) As rioting broke out in response to the fall of the Manchu Dynasty in China, Beijing was placed under martial law. Foreign troops arrived the next day to protect the citizens of their respective nations.
1/3/1912, Friday (-12,121) (1) Suffragettes smashed windows in the West End of London. Co-ordinated attacks by groups of women with stones or hammers hidden under their muffs saw a trail of destruction emerge within 20 minutes from Oxford Street to The Strand and Piccadilly; two women also threw stones at 10 Downing Street. 120 were arrested, including Emmeline Pankhurst. Suffragette militancy had increased after they saw the Government grant concessions to striking railworkers and miners, after strikes had escalated into civil disorder.
(2) The first parachute jump from a moving plane was made, over Missouri, USA, by Albert Berry. He jumped at 1500 feet over Jefferson Barracks, St Louis.
29/2/1912, Thursday (-12,122) Military revolt in Beijing.
28/2/1912, Wednesday (-12,123) (Innovation-Military) The Austrian, Gunter Burstyn, patented an armoured vehicle that preceded the Tank. Although it did not have the continuous track that enabled Tanks to traverse trenches and shell-holed ground, it did have front and rear ancillary wheels on long pivots held above ground. These could be lowered to lever the vehicle up and over steep edges.
14/2/1912. Wednesday (-12,137) Arizona became the 48th state of the USA.
12/2/1912, Monday (-12,139) The Chinese Manchu dynasty came to an end when the weeping Empress, Dowager Longyu, read out an edict of abdication on behalf of the 5-year-old Chinese boy-Emperor, Pu-Yi. However the Imperial family were allowed to continue to live in the Forbidden City, with a stipend of US$ 4 million a year.
11/2/1912, Sunday (-12.140) The Niger-Chad border was delineated by the Governors-General of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa.
10/2/1912. Saturday (-12,141) Charles Lister. Lord Joseph Lister, surgeon and discoverer of antiseptics, died aged 84 at Walmer, Kent.
6/2/1912, Tuesday (-12,145) Eva Braun, mistress of Adolf Hitler, was born.
30/1/1912, Tuesday (-12,152) The UK House of Lords rejected Irish Home Rule Bill.
18/1/1912, Thursday (-12,164) British explorer Captain Scott reached the South Pole, with his companions Lawrence Oates, Lieutenant Bowers, Edward Wilson, and Edgar Evans, only to find that Roald Amundsen had beaten them by 35 days, leaving a tent behind for proof. All five died on the return journey. Amundsen, with his fast dog sleds, had possessed superior equipment.
10/1/1912, Wednesday (-12,172) The first flying boat, designed by Glenn Curtis, made its maiden voyage at Hammondsport, New York.
8/1/1912, Monday (-12,174) (South Africa) The Africa National Congress (ANC) was formed in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It was originally known as the South Africa Native National Congress (SANNC), changing its name in 1923. Its aim was to restore the Zulu Nation, which had been reduced to virtual slavery by the British after the war of 1879. Pixley ka Isaka Seme was one of the founders, along with Alfred Mangena, D Montsoia and RW Msimang.
6/1/1912. Saturday (-12,176) (USA) New Mexico became the 47th State of the USA.
4/1/1912, Thursday (-12,178) (Geology) Clarence Edward Dutton, US geologist, died in Eaglewood, New Jersey.
3/1/1912, Wednesday (-12,179) The UK Cabinet was divided over votes for women. Ulster Unionists said they would ignore Irish Home Rule.
2/1/1912, Tuesday (-12,180)
1/1/1912. Monday (-12,181) (1) The Republic of China was officially proclaimed.
(2) The British Post office took over the National Telephone Company, for the sum of £12,515,264.
(3) Harold 'Kim' Philby, the British traitor who spied for Soviet intelligence, was born.
31/12/1911. Sunday (-12,182) Marie Curie received her second Nobel prize, unprecedented in the history of the award.
29/12/1911, Friday (-12,184) Chinese revolutionary Dr Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925) became the first President of the Republic of China.
14/12/1911. Thursday (-12,199) (1) The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beat the British team, led by Captain Scott, to the South Pole. The British relied on motorised transport and ponies, the Norwegians on dog sleds. Captain Scott arrived at the South Pole on 17/1/1912 to find the Norwegians had beaten him to it. Scott set out with 11 men from Cape Evans, Antarctica, on 24/10/1911; his motorised sledges soon broke down, and the ponies had to be shot due to the cold. Therefore the hardest part of Scott's journey, the part from the final food dump (left for the return journey) to the South Pole, 240 kilometres, and back, had to be done on foot with barely a month's provision for the five men attempting the journey. On the return journey blizzards slowed Scott's team, reducing their daily rations.
(2) Miss Eleanor Davies Colley, MB London, became the first woman to be admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons.
13/12/1911, Wednesday (-12,200) The P & O liner Delhi foundered with the Princess Royal on board, but she and most of the other passengers on board were rescued.
12/12/1911, Tuesday (-12,201) King George V was crowned Emperor of India, and founded the city of New Delhi, as new capital to replace Calcutta.
11/12/1912, Monday (-12,200) (Aviation) R Garros, France, set a new aviation record of 18,406 feet.
10/12/1911, Sunday (-12,203)
7/12/1911, Thursday (-12,206) China abolished men's pigtails.
6/12/1911. Wednesday (-12,207) Russia announced that Mongolia was a Russian protectorate.
2/12/1911, Saturday (-12,211) Chinese Republicans captured Nanking.
29/11/1911, Wednesday (-12,214) The US journalist Joseph Pulitzer died.
14/11/1911, Tuesday (-12,229) The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872 – 1928) reached the South Pole ahead of Scott.
13/11/1911. Monday (-12,230) Bonar Law became leader of the Tory Party, succeeding Arthur James Balfour.
12/11/1911. Sunday (-12,231) Rev. Chad Varah, founder of The Samaritans, was born
11/11/1911. Saturday (-12,232) The British King and Queen left Britain for the sea voyage to India. On 12/12/1911 there was a splendid ceremony at the Delhi Durbar, at which it was announced that henceforth Delhi would be the capital of India in place of Calcutta.
10/11/1911, Friday (-12,233) The first regular civil airmail service began between Hounslow (London) and Paris. Mail was surcharged at 2s 6d an ounce, of which the airline received b2s. The high price deterred customers, and an average of only 46 letters a day were carried.
9/11/1911, Thursday (-12,234) A squadron of soldiers, the 18th Hussars, with rifles, patrolled the streets of Tonypandy, south Wales, after clashes between striking miners and the police, in which the police had been stoned.
8/11/1911, Wednesday (-12,235) Arthur Balfour, Conservative leader, resigned.
7/11/1911, Tuesday (-12,236) (Jewish) Walter Schlomo Gross, Jewish journalist, was born.
6/11/1911, Monday (-12,237) Madero made himself President of Mexico.
5/11/1911. Sunday (-12,238) Italy announced that it had taken from Turkey the territories of Libya, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica.
4/11/1911, Saturday (-12,239) Germany settled the Morocco crisis with France. Germany agreed to allow France a free hand in Morocco, in exchange for territory in the Congo.
3/11/1911, Friday (-12,240) Death of Norman Jay Colman, the first US Secretary of Agriculture (born 16/5/1827).
1/11/1911. Wednesday (-12,242) (1) The world's first air raid. The Italian, Lt Guilio Gavotti, took off from Tripoli and dropped a 2 kg bomb on the Turks at Ain Zara, Tripolitania; he then dropped three more such bombs on Turkish troops at Tagiura. A second air raid on Ain Zara three days later brought a strong protest from the Turks that the Italians were contravening the Geneva Convention, and considerable world-wide discussion ensued on the ethics of air bombardment.
(2) The first edition of Woman's Weekly was published. See 2/11/1903, Daily Mirror as woman's newspaper. See also 2/11/1924, first British crossword.
30/10/1911, Monday (-12,244) Guided by the Regent, Prince Chun, the Emperor Pu Yi granted China a constitution. This was to combat growing support for the rebel Republican army of Sun Yat Sen.
29/10/1911. Sunday (-12,245) (1) First stone of the Drury Lane Theatre laid.
(2) Joseph Pulitzer, US newspaper publisher who instituted an annual journalism prize, died.
28/10/1911, Saturday (-12,246)
27/10/1911, Friday (-12,247) After a bank robbery in Paris, the three criminals involved made the first ever getaway in a motor car.
26/10/1911, Thursday (-12,248) Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, was born.
25/10/1911. Wednesday (-12,249) The last horse bus ran in London, from London Bridge station to Moorgate Street.
23/10/1911. Monday (-12,251) (1) First aerial reconnaissance in warfare. The Italian Captain Piazza, during the Italian Turkish war of 1910-11, took off from Tripoli and flew over Turkish troops camped at Aziza.
(2) Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
20/10/1911. Friday (-12,254) Italy defeated the Turks at Tripoli, Libya.
18/10/1911, Wednesday (-12,256) Wrigleys launched their Spearmint Gum in the UK. They set up a factory in Wembley in 1927, moving to Plymouth in 1970.
11/10/1911. Wednesday (-12,263) Earthquake in California killed 700.
10/10/1911, Tuesday (-12,264) The Imperial Manchu Dynasty, which had ruled China since 1644, was forced to abdicate 'voluntarily' and a Kuomintang Republic was proclaimed at Wuchang, under Sun Yat-Sen.
9/10/1911, Monday (-12,265) The King George V, Britain's biggest battleship to date, was launched.
6/10/1911. Friday (-12,268) Barbara Castle, British Labour politician, was born.
4/10/1911. Wednesday (-12,270) Britain's first escalators were introduced, connecting the District and Piccadilly lines at Earl's Court station in London.
30/9/1911. Saturday (-12,274) Italian troops attacked the Turks in Tripoli harbour.
29/9/1911. Friday (-12,275) (Italy, Greece, N Africa) Italy declared war on Turkey, having been assured of the neutrality of other European countries. The Italian Navy bombarded Preveza, and Italian forces landed at Tripoli and in Cyrenicia. This was in retaliation for the alleged mistreatment of Italians in Libya. The Italians expected the Arabs to welcome them as liberators from Turkish rule, but instead the Arabs sided with the Turks in resisting Italian rule. In May 1912 Italy invaded some islands off Turkey, including Rhodes, to put further pressure on Turkey. Then Italy had some unexpected good fortune when in 1912 Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece started the Balkan War against Turkey, forcing the Ottomans to surrender Libya to Italy. However Arab resistance continued and despite a permanent Italian garrison of 50,000 troops Italian rule only covered Tripoli and other major towns. At least, though, Italy could now claim to have its own African colony.
24/9/1911, Sunday (12,280) Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician, was born.
14/9/1911, Thursday (-12,290) Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin was assassinated when a police double agent shot him at the opera in Kiev; he died on 18/9/1911. He had held the post for 6 years; his predecessor managed only one year, in the turmoil of Russian politics. He was ruthless and simply crushed any opposition, which made him unpopular and he fell out with the Tsar, Nicholas, also his Council of Ministers and the Duma (Parliament).
9/9/1911, Saturday (-12,295) The first experimental airmail service in Britain began, operating between Hendon aerodrome and Windsor, 19 miles . The service was discontinued on 26/9/1911.
6/9/1911. Wednesday (-12,298) The British TUC condemned the use of troops in strikes.
5/9/1911, Tuesday (-12,299) The first adult literacy school in the United States began, when Cora Wilson Stewart, school superintendent for Rowan County, Kentucky, began what she called the Moonlight Schools. The night classes at the county's 50 schools took place so long as the Moon was bright enough for students to safely travel. She had expected that 150 might come; however, 1,200 signed up.
4/9/1911. Monday (-12,300) Flooding along China's Yangtze River killed 100,000 people.
1/9/1911, Friday (-12,303)
29/8/1911, Tuesday (-12,306) John Charnley, British surgeon, was born (died 1982)
28/8/1911, Monday (-12,307) A heat wave sent the mortality rate in London soaring to 19 per 1,000.
27/8/1911. Sunday (-12,308) At Hamburg the German Kaiser made his 'place in the sun' speech, foreshadowing a large increase in the German navy. Britain responded by increasing its navy, although Anglo-German relations remained friendly.
26/8/1911, Saturday (-12,309) A heatwave killed 2,500 children in London.
24/8/1911, Thursday (-12,311)
23/8/1911, Wednesday (-12,312) Violent anti-Semitic riots in Wales.
22/8/1911, Tuesday (-12,313) The Mona Lisa was stolen from The Louvre, Paris.
21/8/1911, Monday (-12,314)
18/8/1911. Friday (-12,317) In the UK, the Official Secrets Bill got Royal Assent.
17-19/8/1911. Railway strike in the UK. Armed troops were called out to assist the police in safeguarding the nation's food supplies. Food convoys left main railway goods junctions under heavy guard.
16/8/1911, Wednesday (-12,319) E F Schumacher, German economist and statistician, was born (died 1977).
15/8/1911, Tuesday (-12,320)
14/8/1911, Monday (-12,321) South Wales miners ended their strike after 14 months.
13/8/1911, Sunday (-12,322) Rioting broke out in Liverpool after Tom Mann and other trade unionists held mass meetings near St George's Hall.
12/8/1911, Saturday (-12,323)
10/8/1911, Thursday (-12,325) In the House of Lords Tory peers abstained, thereby allowing passage of the controversial budget delayed from a year ago. MPs salaries were now £400 a year.
9/8/1911, Wednesday (-12,326) (Aviation) Captain Felix, France, set a new aviation record of 10,466 feet.
8/8/1911. Tuesday (-12,327) Violence flared in Liverpool's streets as a nationwide strike continued. The strike by railwaymen, dockers, and other transport workers threatened a nationwide famine, and warships stood by to help merchant ships off Liverpool to unload. 50,000 troops stood by in Liverpool.
5/8/1911, Saturday (-12,330) The entire Kowloon to Canton railway opened.
3/8/1911. Thursday (-12,332) Aeroplanes were put to military use, when Italian planes reconnoitred the Turkish lines near Tripoli.
1/8/1911. Tuesday (-12,334) Germany began to fortify Heligoland, a small island in the North Sea.
28/7/1911, Friday (-12,338) The French Chief of Staff resigned over the Dreyfus Affair.
21/7/1911, Friday (-12,345) Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, warned Germany not to threaten British interests in the western Mediterranean, or Gibraltar. See 1/7/1911. Germany denied such ambitions, but Britain began preparing for war with Germany.
20/7/1911, Thursday (-12,346) 20 rioters in Wales shot dead by troops.
19/7/1911, Wednesday (-12,347) The Liver Building in Liverpool was opened.
18/7/1911, Tuesday (-12,348) Hermann Adler, British chief rabbi (born 30/5/1839) died.
15/7/1911, Saturday (-12,351)
10/7/1911, Monday (-12,356) Russia warned Germany that it supported France in the Morocco crisis.
9/7/1911, Sunday (-12,357) (Astronomy) John Archibald Wheeler was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He coined the term Black Hole to describe an object so massive not even light can escape.
8/7/1911, Saturday (-12,358) (Aviation) M Loridan, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 10.,423 feet.
6/7/1911, Thursday (-12,360)
5/7/1911. Wednesday (-12,361) (France) Birth of Georges Pompidou, in Montboudif, Auvergne. He was French President from 1969 until his death in 1974.
4/7/1911, Tuesday (-12,362) (Aviation) The first air cargo was delivered; a box of Osram lamps.
2/7/1911, Sunday (-12,364)
1/7/1911, Saturday (-12,365) (1) The Shops Act provided for a half-day holiday for shop workers.
(2) (Morocco, France-Germany) Germany sent the gunboat Panther to Agadir, Morocco, to protect German commercial interests there from French expansion in Morocco. Britain was concerned about Germany's ambitions in Africa so close to Gibraltar. See 21/7/1911.
30/6/1911, Friday (-12,366) In London, the population of Barnet was 11,335; in 1901 it had been 3,375.
28/6/1911, Wednesday (-12,368) Japan signed a commercial treaty with France.
23/6/1911. Friday (-12,373) Coronation of King George V.
22/6/1911, Thursday (-12,374) Liverpool's Liver Clock, called 'Great George', began showing the time.
21/6/1911, Wednesday (-12,375) The ship RMS Olympic completed its first transatlantic trip, arriving in New York after a voyage of 5 days, 16 hours and 42 minutes.
20/6/1911, Tuesday (-12,376) Britain's first trolley bus ran, in Leeds.
19/6/1911, Monday (-12,377)
17/6/1911. Saturday (-12,379) In the UK, 60,000 women demonstrated for women's suffrage, marching through London to a meeting at the Albert Hall.
16/6/1911. Friday (-12,380) The French army occupied Fez, in Morocco.
12/6/1911, Monday (-12,384) (Aviation) A Leblanc, France, set a new aviation speed record of 77.68 mph.
9/6/1911, Wednesday (-12,387) Carry Amelia Nation, US campaigner for abstention from alcohol, died aged 64.
8/6/1911, Thursday (-12,388) The Birkbeck Bank, London, crashed.
7/6/1911. Wednesday (-12,389) A severe earthquake shook Mexico City, killing over 100.
3/6/1911, Saturday (-12,392)
31/5/1911. Wednesday (-12,396) The Titanic was launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
30/5/1911, Tuesday (-12,397) The Indianapolis motor race was first held.
29/5/1911, Monday (-12,398) W S Gilbert, English poet and dramatist, died aged 75.
28/5/1911, Sunday (-12,399)
27/5/1911, Saturday (-12,400) Hubert Humphrey, US politician, was born (died 1978).
26/5/1911, Friday (-12,401) The German Reichstag granted the former French territory of Alsace-Lorraine its own legislature and a large measure of autonomy.
25/5/1911, Thursday (-12,402) (1) The Mexican dictator Portofirio Diaz was ousted after 45 years rule.
(2) (Aviation) Britain passed the Aerial Navigation Act, giving powers to ban hostile flights.
18/5/1911. Thursday (-12,409) The composer Gustav Mahler died of heart disease in Austria, aged 51.
16/5/1911, Tuesday (-12,411) The Victoria Memorial in London was unveiled.
15/5/1911, Monday (-12,412) (1) (USA) After a long legal battle the US Supreme Court ordered that Standard Oil be broken up into 34 smaller companies, including Mobil Oil, Chevron and Exxon. Standard Oil had become a huge monopoly through trust agreements signed by its leader John D Rockerfeller in 1882, that gave it control over 75% of US refining capacity, 90% of US pipelines, and 15% of creude oil products. Standard Oil also had interests in gas, copper, iron, steel, shipping, banks, and railroad companies. The State of Ohio challenged this monopoly in Court , and in 1890 US Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, giving the Federal US Government the power to regulate corporate trusts that extended across State boundaries, In the 1904 Presidential Election Theodore Roosevelt began a trust-busting campaign, culminating in the 1911 Supreme Court decision against Standard Oil.
(2) King George V and his cousin the Kaiser reasserted their friendship.
13/5/1911, Saturday (-12,414)
12/5/1911. Friday (-12,415) Display of military aviation at Hendon. The Festival of Empire opened at Crystal Palace.
11/5/1911, Thursday (-12,416) The Mexican rebel Francisco Madero established a new capital at Ciudad Juarez.
9/5/1911, Tuesday (-12,418) The British Parliament agreed to Home Rule for Ireland.
30/4/1911, Sunday (-12,427) Women got the vote in Portugal.
16/4/1911, Sunday (-12,441) Easter Sunday. Guy Burgess, English civil servant who spied for the Russians, was born in Devonport. He died in August 1963 in a Moscow hospital.
8/4/1911, Saturday (-12,449) (Biology) Melvin Calvin was born in St Paul, Minnesota, USA. In 1945 he investigated photosynthesis in plants using carbon-14.
7/4/1911, Friday (-12,450) The House of Commons gave a second reading to a Bill giving copyright during an author's lifetime and for 50 years after their death.
6/4/1911, Thursday (-12,451) (Biology) Feodor Lynen, medical researcher, was born in Munich., Germany.
5/4/1911, Wednesday (+12,452) Gordon Jones, actor, was born in Alden, Iowa, USA.
4/4/1911, Tuesday (-12,453) (1) The Duke of Marlborough and other former pupils at Eton opposed the abolition of birching at the school.
(2) Massachusetts refused to give women the right to vote.
3/4/1911, Monday (-12,458) Japan and Britain signed a commercial treaty.
31/3/1911. Friday (-12,457) UK shop-workers won the fight for a 60-hour week.
26/3/1911, Sunday (-12,462) Tennessee Williams, US playwright, was born in Columbus, Mississippi.
25/3/1911, Saturday (-12,463) Jack Ruby, American nightclub owner, and killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born as Jack Rubenstein in Chicago (died 1967).
24/3/1911. Friday (-12,464) Denmark abolished the death penalty.
21/3/1911, Tuesday (-12,467)
18/3/1911, Saturday (-12,470) Italian Prime Minister Luzzatti resigned.
17/3/1911. Friday (-12,471) In Norway, Anna Rogstadt took her place as the country's first woman MP.
14/3/1911, Tuesday (-12,474)
10/3/1911. Friday (-12,478) France adopted Greenwich Mean Time as standard time across the country.
9/3/1911, Thursday (-12,479) The British Government announced that five more battleships were to be built.
7/3/1911, Tuesday (-12,4812) (Atomic) New Zealand physicist Ernest Lord Rutherford (1871-1937) discovered the atomic nucleus. He conducted an experiment in which he fired alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a sheet of gold foil just 0.0004 mm thick, with detectors placed around the sheet, Some particles passed through but some were deflected or even bounced back. This suggested that atoms had a small region of strong central resistance in a much less dense area occupied by the electrons.
24/2/1911, Friday (-12,492) The Reichstag voted to increase the German Army by half a million men.
23/2/1911, Thursday (-12,493) Quanah Parker, 65, Principal Chief of the Comanche Nation, died.
22/2/1911, Wednesday (-12,494) Canada voted to remain a part of the British Empire.
21/2/1911, Tuesday (-12,495) Japan and the US signed a commercial treaty in Washington.
20/2/1911, Monday (-12,496)
18/2/1911. Saturday (-12,498) The first official airmail flight. Henri Pecquet flew a load of 6,000 letters and cards 5 miles from Allahabad, India, to Naini Junction, where they were transferred to the railway.
17/2/1911, Friday (-12,499) The city of Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, was incorporated.
16/2/1911, Thursday (-12,500) The first Monte Carlo car rally started.
11/2/1911, Saturday (-12,505)
6/2/1911. Monday (-12,510) (1) Ronald Reagan, American Republican and 40th President, was born in Tampico, Illinois.
(2) The Labour Party elected Ramsay MacDonald as its leader, replacing Kier Hardie.
(3) A large part of Constantinople was destroyed in a fire.
5/2/1911, Sunday (-12,511) Revolution in Haiti was suppressed after its leader, General Montreuil Guillaume, was captured by government troops and shot.
4/2/1911, Saturday (-12,512) Rolls Royce adopted the Sprit of Ecstasy statuette on their cars, made in Derby, England.
1/2/1911, Wednesday (-12,515) HMS Thunderer, the last battleship to be built on the Thames, was launched from the old Thames Ironworks at Silvertown.
25/1/1911. Wednesday (-12,522) US troops were sent to Rio Grande in the Mexican Civil War.
21/1/1911. Saturday (-12,526) The first Monte Carlo Rally began. It was won, seven days later, by Henri Rougier from France.
20/1/1911, Friday (-12,527) Ecuador refused to allow the Hague Tribunal to arbitrate in its boundary dispute with Peru.
19/1/1911, Thursday (-12,528)
18/1/1911. Wednesday (-12,529) US pilot Eugene Ely, in a Curtiss aircraft, made the first landing on the deck of a ship; the cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay.
17/1/1911, Tuesday (-12,530) Sir Francis Galton, English scientist and writer on eugenics, died aged 88.
16/1/1911, Monday (-12,531) Major oil find in Borneo.
11/1/1911, Wednesday (-12,536) (1) The Jehovah's Witnesses released their film, The Photodrama of Creation, in New York. By the end of 1911 nine million people had seen it, mainly in N America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
(2) 18 killed in riots in Bombay, India.
3/1/1911. Tuesday (-12,544) The siege of Sydney Street took place when 1,000 police and soldiers besieged three anarchists suspected of killing three policemen at a house in London's East End. 2 Anarchists were killed as the house caught fire; the ringleader, 'Peter the Painter', escaped.
20/12/1910. Tuesday (-12,558) Liberals and Tories tied in the UK general election. Liberals and Conservatives got 272 seats each (from 397 Liberal MPs). The Liberals under Herbert Asquith remained in power with the backing of 42 Labour MPs and 84 Irish Nationalists. The Tories lost support because their blocking of the Budget landed Britain with a £10 million debt. If the House of Lords still blocked the Budget, Asquith threatened to create 300 new peers to ensure it passed, a measure reluctantly agreed to by King George V. Reform of the powers of the House of Lords has now become a major political issue. This issue sidelined Liberal policies for home rule for Wales and Scotland. In the event, World War One also delayed home rule for Ireland.
18/12/1910. Sunday (-12,560) Mr Tom Sopwith won a £4,000 aviation prize by flying from Eastchurch, Sheppey, to Beaumont, Belgium. He covered the 177 miles in 3 ½ hours.
11/12/1910, Sunday (-12,567) In elections for the Greek National Assembly, supporters of Venizelos received 300 seats out of 364.
10/12/1910, Saturday (-12,568) In the UK, the Liberal agenda included Irish Home Rule and abolition of the House of Lords.
9/12/1910, Friday (-12,569) The Turks suppressed an Arab uprising in Palestine.
8/12/1910, Thursday (-12,570) (Aviation) G Legagneux, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 10,171 feet.
5/12/1910, Monday (-12,573) A convoy of barges on the River Volga sank, killing 350 workmen.
3/12/1910. Saturday (-12,575) (1) The first neon lighting was used, at the Paris Motor Show. In 1910, in Britain, an Austin car, 'Ascot' model, cost £420. It had 15 horsepower, and the hood, windscreen, windshield, and headlights were extra.
(2) Mary Baker Eddy, American founder of the Christian Scientists, died.
(3) France occupied the Moroccan port of Agadir.
23/11/1910, Wednesday (-12,585) The American Dr Hawley Crippen was hanged in London's Pentonville Prison for the murder of his wife, Cora.
20/11/1910, Sunday (-12,588) (Mexico) Francisco Madero began a rebellion against the corrupt and repressive regime of Porfirio Diaz.
19/11/1910, Saturday (-12,589) Alessandro Mussolini, father of the Italian dictator, died, aged 56.
18/11/1910, Friday (-12,590) Suffragettes attacked the House of Commons; 119 people were arrested.
14/11/1910. Monday (-12,594) (1) There were more than 100 arrests when suffragettes tried to storm the House of Commons.
(2) Pilot Eugene Ely, in a Curtiss biplane, made the first take-off from a ship, the US light cruiser Birmingham, at anchor in Chesapeake Bay.
7/11/1910, Monday (-12,601) Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, died.
31/10/1910, Monday (-12,610) (Aviation) R Johnston, USA, set a new aviation altitude record of 9,711 feet.
30/10/1910. Sunday (-12,609) Henri Durant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross in 1863, died.
29/10/1910, Saturday (-12,610) A J Ayer, British philosopher, was born (died 1989).
26/10/1910, Wednesday (-12,613)
23/10/1910, Sunday (-12,616) Vajiravudh (1881-1925) was crowned Rama VI, King of Thailand.
22/10/1910. Saturday (-12,617) American born Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife Belle Elmore. The trial began on 18/10/1910. Born in Michigan, USA, Crippen achieved notoriety as a poisoner. He graduated from Michigan University, and married. He then moved to England where he worked as a dentist and medicine salesman. After a party at his home in Holloway, London, on 31/1/1910, he poisoned his wife. The police began inquiries after he brought a young typist, Ethel Le Neve, to live in the house. The couple fled, and the remains of Crippen's wife Belle were found in the cellar on 14/7/1910. Crippen was caught after the captain of the ocean liner Montrose radioed a message about two suspicious passengers to Scotland Yard. He was arrested on SS Montrose on 31/7/1910, with Ethel dressed as a boy. He was charged on 29/8/1910. This was the first time radio had been used to track down a criminal. Crippen was hanged on 23/11/1910 at Pentonville Prison, still protesting his innocence.
21/10/1910, Friday (-12,618)
20/10/1910, Thursday (-12,619) (Maritime) The Titanic's sister ship, RMS Olympic, was launched from the Harland and Wolf shipyard in Belfast. She didn't sink, earning the nickname 'Old Reliable'.
19/10/1910, Wednesday (-12,620) (Astronomy) Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian astronomer, was born in Lahore. In 1931 he predicted that white dwarf stars can only exist if their mass is below 1.4x the Sun, now known as the Chandrasekhar's Limit.
11/10/1910, Tuesday (-12,628)
3/10/1910, Monday (-12,636) (Portugal) A revolution in Portugal ousted King Manoel II after a 2-year reign. The monarch, set up in 1128, ended. He and his mother left for England, where he died in 1932, and Portugal became a Republic under 67-year-old Teofilo Braga, on 7/10/1910.
2/10/1910, Sunday (-12,637) (Space Exploration) The asteroid Interamnia, seventh largest in the Solar System (300 km in diameter) was discovered by Italian astronomer Vincenzo Cerulli from an observatory in Teramo.
1/10/1910, Saturday (-12,638) (1) (Railway Tunnels) The Ricken rail tunnel, Switzerland, 8.603 km long, opened on the Wattwil-Uznach line.
(2) Bonnie Parker, US outlaw of the Bonnie and Clyde duo, was born in Rowena, Texas.
(3) The line from the tip of Kowloon, Hong Kong, to the Sino-British border opened, see 5/8/1911.
30/9/1910, Friday (-12,639) US terrorist J.B. McNamara planted a time bomb in a passage beneath the headquarters of the Los Angeles Times newspaper, with 16 sticks of dynamite set to explode after working hours. Two other bombs were placed outside the homes of the Times owner and the secretary of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association. The bomb outside the Times building detonated shortly after 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, triggering an explosion of natural gas lines and setting a fire that killed 20 newspaper employees.
29/9/1910, Thursday (-12,640) US artist Winslow Homer died at his studio in Maine.
23/9/1910, Friday (-12,646) (Aviation) First crossing of the Alps by aeroplane.
19/9/1912, Monday (-12,650) The first scheduled international airline service began, when Count Zeppelin's airships started a regular service between Hamburg, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark, and on to Malmo, Sweden.
17/9/1910, Saturday (-12,652) A London doctor stated that if lunacy kept increasing at the current rate, the sane would be outnumbered by the insane within 40 years.
16/9/1910, Friday (-12,653) (Innovation) Ole Evinrude patented the outboard motor.
12/9/1910. Monday (-12,657) The world's first policewoman, Alice Stebbins Wells, formerly a social worker, joined the Los Angeles Police.
29/8/1910, Monday (-12,671) Dr Crippen was charged with murder.
28/8/1910. Sunday (-12,672) (Eastern Europe, Turkey)Montenegro declared independence from Turkey under King Nicholas I, 69, who ruled for 9 years.
27/8/1910. Saturday (-12,673) (1) Thomas Edison, in New Jersey, demonstrated talking movie pictures for the first time in his New Jersey laboratory. He used a device that was part phonograph, part camera, to record sounds and pictures simultaneously. He predicted that moving pictures with sound in colour would soon be possible.
(2) Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who dedicated her life to the relief of the poor in India, was born in Skopje (Yugoslavia), of Albanian parents.
26/8/1910, Friday (-12,674) (Medical) William James, US psychologist, was born in Chocorua, new Hampshire.
24/8/1910, Wednesday (-12,676)
22/8/1910. Monday (-12,678) Japan formally annexed Korea.
21/8/1910, Sunday (-12,679) First meeting of the Greek National Assembly (officially opened by the King on 14/9/1910).
17/8/1910, Wednesday (-12,683)
14/8/1910, Sunday (-12,686) A fire at the World Exhibition, Brussels, destroyed some paintings.
13/8/1910. Saturday (-12,687) Florence Nightingale, born 12/5/1820, died in London aged 90. See 16/3/1908, 29/11/1907, and 4/11/1854.
12/8/1910, Friday (-12,688) Yusof bin Ishak, first President of Singapore 1965–70, was born in Perak State (died 1970)
11/8/1910. Thursday (-12,689) Mr Drexel set a new aviation altitude record, reaching 6,750 feet in a Bleriot monoplane.
3/8/1910. Wednesday (-12,697) Muslim Druzes killed 100 Jews in Palestine.
31/7/1910, Sunday (-12,700) The murderer Dr Crippen was arrested aboard the SS Montrose just before docking in Quebec. He was the first criminal to be captured by the use of wireless.
27/7/1910. Wednesday (-12,704) (Greece) Turkey threatened Greece with war if it accepted Cretan representatives in Parliament.
12/7/1910, Tuesday (-12,719) (Road Travel) Charles Stewart Rolls, aviator and co-founder of Rolls Royce, died at an air crash in Bournemouth.
9/7/1910, Saturday (-12,722) (Aviation) Walter Brookins set a new aviation altitude record of 6,175 feet. By flying over a mile high, he won a prize of US$ 5,000.
7/7/1910, Thursday (-12,724) (Aviation) H Latham, France set a new aviation altitude record of 4,540 feet.
5/7/1910, Tuesday (-12,726) (Railways) The St Moritz to Tirano railway, Italy, opened.
4/7/1910. Monday (-12,727) Russia recognised Japanese occupation of Korea in return for a free hand in Manchuria.
1/7/1910. Friday (-12,730) South Africa became a dominion of the British Empire.
28/6/1910. Tuesday (-12,733) Westminster Cathedral, Catholic, was consecrated.
23/6/1910, Thursday (-12,738) Jean Anouilh, French dramatist, was born (died 1987).
22/6/1910, Wednesday (-12,739) John Hunt, leader of the successful expedition to climb Everest in 1953, was born.
20/6/1910, Monday (-12,741)
19/6/1910. Sunday (-12,742) Father's Day was instituted in the USA.
18/6/1910, Saturday (-12,743) The city of Glendale, Arizona, was incorporated.
17/6/1910, Friday (-12,744) The United States Lighthouse Service was created as federal agency to regulate lighthouses throughout the nation. The office of the Commissioner was transferred to the United States Coast Guard in 1935.
16/6/1910, Thursday (-12,745) A cloudburst in Hungary added to existing flood waters, killing 800 people in villages in the Kronstadt district, another 180 in Temesvar and 100 in Moldava.
15/6/1910, Wednesday (-12,746) Captain Scott set out on his ill-fated second expedition to the South Pole, on the ship Terra Nova.
14/6/1910, Tuesday (-12,747) The University of the Philippines Los Baños was opened as a college of agriculture, with 50 students taught by Dr. Edwin Copeland.
13/6/1910, Monday (-12,748) Mary Whitehouse, General Secretary of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, was born.
12/6/1910, Sunday (-12,749) Torrential rains caused floods throughout central Europe. The Ahr River overflowed in Germany, killing 200 people around Oberammergau.
11/6/1910, Saturday (-12,750) Jacques Cousteau, French underwater explorer who invented the aqualung, was born in Saint Andre, Gironde, France.
10/6/1910, Friday (-12,751) Sir Charles Hardinge, British Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was appointed as the Viceroy of India, succeeding the Earl of Minto.
9/6/1910, Thursday (-12,752) The first trials of aircraft reconnaissance. During a record-breaking2 ½ hour, 145 km, flight from Camp de Chalons, Mourmelon, to Vincennes, Captain Marconnet, squeezed between the pilot and the engine, took aerial photographs of the territory below.
7/6/1910, Tuesday (-12,754)
5/6/1910, Sunday (-12,756) Death of American short-story writer O. Henry (real name William Sydney Porter).
4/6/1910, Saturday (-12,757) Christopher Cockerell, who invented the amphibious hovercraft, was born in Cambridge.
3/6/1910, Friday (-12,758) Ecuador and Peru withdrew their troops from the border between the two nations as the first step in the mediation of their dispute.
2/6/1910. Thursday (-12,759) Mr C S Rolls flew from Dover to Calais and back without landing in France, taking 90 minutes for the whole return journey.
1/6/1910, Wednesday (-12,760) The first white settlements on the banks of Alaska's Iditarod River were made when a steamer brought gold prospectors to within 13 km of a gold strike. By August, there were two towns, each with 2,000 people: Iditarod and Flat.
31/5/1910. Tuesday (-12,761) (1) The colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony united to form the Union of South Africa, see 31/5/1902.
(2) Lord Baden Powell's sister, Agnes, announced the formation of the Girl Guides.
(3) Elizabeth Blackwell, English-born American doctor, the first woman to gain an MD degree in 1849, from Geneva College, New York State, died. Despite hostility during her education and career, she succeeded in opening up the field of medicine to women. She retired to Hastings, UK, where she died.
29/5/1910, Sunday (-12,763)
27/5/1910, Friday (-12,765) Robert Koch, German bacteriologist and Nobel Prize Winner who discovered the tuberculosis bacillus, died.
26/5/1910, Thursday (-12,766) Pope Pius X issued the encyclical Editio Saepe. This angered many German Protestants because of its derogatory comments about Luther and the Reformation. On 11/6/1910, after protests by Prussia, the Pope expressed regrets over the encyclical and ordered bishops in Germany to stop circulating it.
18/5/1910. Wednesday (-12,774) (1) The first Air Traffic Conference opened in Paris.
(2) The Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet; some people feared disaster.
12/5/1910, Thursday (-12,780) Dorothy Hodgkin, British chemist, was born (died 1994).
11/5/1910, Wednesday (-12,781) An explosion at a coal mine in Whitehaven cut off 132 men underground. They had to be abandoned; in fact none of them probably survived the explosion anyway.
10/5/1910, Tuesday (-12,782) In Britain the House of Commons resolved that the House of Lords should have no power to veto money Bills, limited power to postpone other Bills, and that the maximum lifetime of a Parliament should be reduced from seven to five years.
8/5/1910, Sunday (-12,784)
6/5/1910. Friday (-12,786) Accession of King George V, 44, to the British throne. His coronation was on 22/6/1911. He succeeded Edward VII, who died aged 68, from pneumonia. The funeral of Edward VII was on 20/5/1910.
5/5/1910. Thursday (-12,787) (Earthquake) Earthquake in Nicaragua killed 500.
4/5/1910. Wednesday (-12,788) Lloyd George introduced a National Health Insurance Bill.
3/5/1910, Tuesday (-12,789) (Medical) Howard Taylor Ricketts, US pathologist, died in Mexico City from the typhus he caught whilst researching the disease.
1/5/1910, Sunday (-12,791) The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was launched. It was an organisation of African-American Liberals; it published Crisis, edited by W E B Du Bois.
28/4/1910. Thursday (-12,794) (Aviation) M Paulham flew from London to Manchester, winning the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for the first person to accomplish this.
27/4/1910, Wednesday (-12,795) In Britain the 'People's Budget' was passed again by the Commons; after three hours of debate it was also passed by the Lords, and received Royal Assent.
26/4/1910, Tuesday (-12,796) Bjornstjerne Bjornson, Norwegian writer, died (born 8/12/1832).
25/4/1910, Monday (-12,797) King Albert I opened the World Exhibition in Brussels.
23/4/1910, Saturday (-12,799) (Aviation) H Latham, France, set a new aviation speed record of 48.21 mph.
21/4/1910. Thursday (-12,801) Mark Twain, American author, died in Reading, Connecticut, aged 74.
11/4/1910, Monday (-12,811) (Australia) Labour won the Australian general elections.
5/4/1910. Tuesday (-12,817) France banned kissing on its railways, because it caused delays.
(2) (Railways) A Trans-Andean railway from Mendoza, Argentina to Los Andes, Chile was completed.
4/4/1910, Monday (-12,818) The first Commons reading of a Bill to abolish the Lords' power of veto.
3/4/1910, Sunday (-12,819) While in Rome, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would not meet with Pope Leo XIII because of the Vatican's request that Roosevelt not meet first with local Methodists. In March, former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks declined an audience for the same reason.
2/4/1910. Saturday (-12,820) A German scientist made artificial rubber.
30/3/1910, Wednesday (-12,823)
28/3/1910. Monday (-12,825) The first seaplane took off, from near Marseilles. Called the Hydravion, it was designed by Frenchman Henri Fabre. It flew 1,650 feet.
27/3/1910. Sunday (-12,826) Easter Sunday. Mount Etna in Italy erupted.
26/3/1910, Saturday (-12,827) (Aviation) Plans for Aeropolis, an aerodrome at le Bourget, Paris, were announced.
20/3/1910, Sunday (-12,833)
11/3/1910, Friday (-12,842) A dam burst in The Rhondda, Wales, sweeping away 500 children; 494 were rescued.
10/3/1910. Thursday (-12,843) (1) D W Griffith made the first Hollywood film. He discovered an obscure location near Los Angeles called Hollywood where the light was very good, for shooting the film Old California; the film industry then took off rapidly here.
(2) The world's first night aeroplane flight was made, in Argentina by Aubrun.
9/3/1910, Wednesday (-12,844) Madame. Ekaterina Breshkovskaya, 66, sometimes referred to as the "Grandmother of the Russian Revolution" was convicted on charges of conspiracy and sentenced to exile in Siberia, but her co-defendant Nikolai Tchaikovsky was acquitted.
8/3/1910. Tuesday (-12,845) The French Baroness de Laroche became the first woman pilot.
7/3/1910, Monday (-12,846) (Electricity) Neon lighting was patented by Georges Claude. Neon was only discovered in 1898.Other gases can be added to give different colours; a trace of argon makes blue light, and adding helium makes white or yellow light.
23/2/1910. Wednesday (-12,858) The Dalai Lama and several noted Tibetans fled from Lhasa to India, as Chinese troops occupied Tibet.
21/2/1910, Monday (-12,860) Douglas Bader, World War Two fighter pilot and squadron leader, was born in London.
20/2/1910, Sunday (-12,861) Egypt's Christian PM, Butros Ghali, was assassinated by a Nationalist.
19/2/1910. Saturday (-12,862) Manchester United played their first Football League match at their new stadium, Old Trafford
16/2/1910. Wednesday (-12,865) Madame Curie succeeded in isolating one tenth of a milligram of Polonium, which was more radioactive than Radium. She named the element after her native Poland.
9/2/1910, Wednesday (-12,872) J L Monod, French biochemist, was born (died 1976).
8/2/1910. Tuesday (-12,873) W Boyce founded the Boy Scout movement in America.
5/2/1910, Saturday (-12,876)
2/2/1910, Wednesday (-12,879) The British army was concerned about a possible shortage of horses if war should break out with Germany.
1/2/1910. Tuesday (-12,880) Britain's first Employment Exchanges were set up. The 80 Exchanges were flooded by people seeking work. See 1/1/1910.
31/1/1910. Monday (-12,881) (1) Britain and Russia intervened as political unrest shook Iran.
(2) Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen poisoned his wife Belle Elmore, music hall singer, then cut her in small pieces and buried her in the cellar. See 22/10/1910. Telling suspicious friends of Elmore that she had gone to America, Dr Crippen brought secretary Ethel Le Neuve, 27, into his house as his lover.
(3) China abolished slavery. In 1906 Chou Fu, Viceroy at Nanking, called on the Emperor of China to abolish slavery. At that time all Chinese citizens had to belong to one of four classes. These were 1) the Bannermen (ruling class, 2) Free Chinese subjects, 3) Outcasts, 4) Slaves; there were severe penalties for not fulfilling the duties of their class. Fu's recommendations were finally accepted in 1910, despite opposition from Manchu nobles. However the former slaves were still compelled to live in their master's households for the rest of their lives, although as 'free labourers'.
26/1/1910. Wednesday (-12,886) Thousands fled their homes in Paris as the Seine flooded. The river rose 8 metres above normal, causing 400 million Francs damage (over Euro 1 billion in 2015 prices).
15/1/1910. Saturday (-12,897) UK General Election. German rearmament, the power of the Lords, and Irish Home Rule were major issues. The Liberals won with a reduced majority of 275 seats, against Labour with 40, the Irish nationalists with 82, and the Unionists with 273 seats.
7/1/1910. Friday (-12,905) (Aviation) H Latham, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 3,281 feet.
4/1/1910, Tuesday (-12,908) The first Juvenile Courts in Britain opened in London.
1/1/1910, Saturday (-12,911) Britain passed the Labour Exchange Act, see 1/2/1910.
31/12/1909, Friday (-12,912) (1) Henry Ferguson made the first aeroplane flight from Irish soil, at Hillsborough near Belfast.
(2) New York's Manhattan Bridge opened; it cost US$ 31 million to build.
30/12/1909, Thursday (-12,913) The first aeroplane flight of over 100 miles was made.
23/12/1909. Thursday (-12,920) Prince Albert took the oath of fidelity of the Belgian constitution and became King Albert I of Belgium. He was born on 8/4/1875 at Brussels. He died from a fall whilst rock climbing at Namur on 17/2/1934.
20/12/1909, Monday (-12,923) The first cinema opened in Ireland, the Volta in Dublin.
19/12/1909, Sunday (-12,924) Juan Gomez seized power in Venezuela.
18/12/1909, Saturday (-12,925)
17/12/1909, Friday (-12,926) Albert I, 34, succeeded his uncle Leopold II as King of Belgium, who died, aged 74, this day. Leopold II had ruled for nearly 41 years and amassed great personal wealth from his exploitation of the Congo. Albert I ruled until 1934.
16/12/1909, Thursday (-12,927) US marines forced the resignation of President Jose Zelaya of Nicaragua.
10/12/1909, Friday (-12,933) Herbert Asquith, British Prime Minister, promised self-rule for Ireland in a speech at the Royal Albert Hall.
7/12/1909, Tuesday (-12,936) A proclamation was read on the steps of the Royal Exchange, London, announcing the creation of the self-governing Union of South Africa.
1/12/1909, Wednesday (-12,942) (Aviation) H Latham, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 1,486 feet.
30/11/1909, Tuesday (-12,943) The House of Lords threw out a Budget by Liberal Chancellor Lloyd George they considered too left-wing. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith now faced a General Election. The controversial Budget proposed taxing the highest 10,000 earners with incomes over £5,000 a year in Britain an extra 6d in the £ income tax, over and above the rate of 1 shilling 2d in the £ paid by all earners above £2,000 a year, a rise from 1 shilling in the £. Unearned income was also to be taxed at 1s 2d in the £. Death duties were to be doubled. The tax money would fund rearmament and old age pensions. The Tories described the Budget as a tax on the propertied classes. On 3/12/1909 King Edward VII dissolved Parliament, and taxes on alcohol, tobacco and cars were suspended as no Budget had been passed. For half a century it had been accepted that the unelected Lords could not veto a money Bill from the elected Commons, but the Tories argued this Bill had too many non-financial measures to come under this rule.
28/11/1909, Sunday (-12,945) In France, a law was passed giving pregnant women 8 weeks maternity leave.
23/11/1909, Tuesday (-12,950) (Sea, canal) The New Kings Dock at Swansea opened.
16/11/1909, Tuesday (-12,957) The first aviation enterprise in the world was founded. It was the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts AG, better known as DELAG.
14/11/1909. Sunday (-12,959) The US President, William Taft, announced that a naval base would be built on Hawaii at Pearl Harbour to protect the US from attack from Japan.
13/11/1909, Saturday (-12,960) Two bombs were thrown at the Viceroy of India, The Earl of Minto.
5/11/1909. Friday (+12,968) The first Woolworth store opened in Britain, in Lord Street, Liverpool.
31/10/1909, Sunday (-12,973) (1) The National University of Ireland, Dublin, came into being.
(2) Queens University, Belfast, came into being.
26/10/1909, Tuesday (-12,978) Ahn Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist and independence activist, shot dead Hirobumi Ito, the Japanese colonial governor of Korea, on a station platform at Harbin.
22/10/1909. Friday (-12,982) Elise Deroche, who used the self-created title Baronne de la Roche, became the first woman to fly solo.
21/10/1909, Thursday (-12,983) Halley's Comet was sighted from Cambridge Observatory, UK.
18/10/1909, Monday (-12,986) (Aviation) Comte de Lambert, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 984 feet.
16/10/1909, Saturday (-12,988) The first commercial airline began. Count Zeppelin's Deutsche Luftschiffahrt Aktiengesellschaft, or Delag, flew airships between the major German cities.
6/10/1909, Wednesday (-12,998) Dudley Buck, US composer, died (born 10/3/1839).
2/10/1909. Saturday (-13,002) The first Rugby match at Twickenham was played – Harlequins versus Richmond.
28/9/1909. Tuesday (-13,006) London confirmed that suffragettes were being force-fed.
20/9/1909, Monday (-13,014) The South Africa Act received the Royal Assent.
18/9/1909, Saturday (-13,016) Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first Prime Minister, was born in Ankroful. He was President from independence in 1957 until an army coup sent him into exile in Guinea in 1966.
11/9/1909, Saturday (-13,023) Halley's Comet was first observed, at Heidelberg.
4/9/1909. Saturday (-13,030) The first Boy Scout rally took place at Crystal Palace, south London. The Boy Scout movement was begun in 1908 by Baden Powell; he set up a Scout camp for 20 boys on Brownsea Island in 1908. In 1910 the Scout movement spread to the USA, and became so successful that in 1911 Baden-Powell left the army to develop it; the Scout movement received a Royal Charter in 1912.
30/8/1909, Monday (-13,035) Floods in Mexico killed 1,400.
29/8/1909, Sunday (-13,036) (Aviation) H Latham, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 509 feet.
26/8/1909, Thursday (-13,039)
24/8/1909, Tuesday (-13,041) (Aviation) Bleriot set a new aviation speed record of 46.18 mph.
23/8/1909, Monday (-13,042) (Aviation) G Curtiss, USA, set a new aviation speed record of 43.38 mph.
22/8/1909, Sunday (-13,043) 5 US workers died in steel industry riots.
16/8/1909, Monday (-13,049) The Conservative leader Arthur Balfour argued that giving equal rights to South African Black people would undermine White civilization.
11/8/1909, Wednesday (13,054) The first SOS signal was sent, by wireless.
2/8/1909. Monday (-13,063) (Aviation) The US military accepted its first heavier-than-air flying machine, built by the Wright Brothers.
1/8/1909, Sunday (-13,064) (Spain) End of the 'Tragic Week' in Barcelona; from 26/7/1909 over 100 civilians had been killed and many buildings destroyed in rioting in Barcelona.
30/7/1909, Friday (-13,066) (1) (Britain) Northcote Parkinson, British author, historian and journalist, best known for stating Parkinson's Law that work expands to fill the time available, was born.
(2) (Earthquake) Earthquake in Mexico; Acapulco destroyed.
27/7/1909, Tuesday (-13,069) (South Africa) MPs gave the South African Union Bill its second reading, but deplored the fact that the Bill would deny the Black population the right to vote.
26/7/1909, Monday (-13,070) (Spain) A general strike began in Barcelona, lasting until 26/9/1909. There was rioting across Catalonia.
25/7/1909. Sunday (-13,071) (Aviation) Louis Bleriot became the first man to fly across the English Channel. He flew from Les Barques near Calais to Northfall Meadow near Dover Castle, covering 26 miles in 43 minutes. Aged 37, born on 1/7/1872 in Cambrai, France, Bleriot won £1,000 for his flight, in a plane designed by himself, a prize awarded by the Daily Mail for the first person to perform this feat. Bleriot died in August 1936. The British now realised that the Channel was less of a defensive barrier than it used to be.
24/7/1909, Saturday (-13,072) (France) Aristide Briand became French PM.
18/7/1909, Sunday (-13,078) Don Carlos, claimant to the Spanish throne, died (born 30/3/1848).
16/7/1909, Friday (-13,080) (Iran) Ali Kuh Khan, leader of the Bakhtari tribe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhtiari_people
deposed Ali Shah, the Shah of Persia. The Russian Army then invaded northern Persia, occupying the city of Tabriz, ostensibly on behalf of the deposed Shah. They antagonised the Bakhtari. Ali Kuh Khan replaced the Shah with his son, 12-year-old Ahmad.
7/7/1909, Wednesday (-13,089) (Railway Tunnels) The Tauern rail tunnel, Austria, 8.551 km long, opened on the Bad Gastein-Spittal line.
6/7/1909, Tuesday (-13,090) (Russia) Andrei Gromyko, President of the USSR, was born near Minsk, to a peasant family.
2/7/1909, Friday (-13,094) Fritz Haber succeeded in sustaining his ammonia production process for 5 hours, proving that it could produce commercial quantities of ammonia.
29/6/1909. Tuesday (-13,097) 120 suffragettes arrested outside the Houses of Parliament, London.
26/6/1909. Saturday (-13,100) King Edward VII opened the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
20/6/1909, Sunday (-13,106) The German Army adopted the Zeppelin as its first air arm.
12/6/1909. Saturday (-13,114) Natal voted for union with South Africa.
11/6/1909. Friday (-13,115) Earthquake killed 60 in Provence, France.
9/6/1909, Wednesday (-13,117)
7/6/1909. Monday (-13,119) France joined the arms race by announcing it was to spend £120 million on new naval ships.
6/6/1909, Sunday (-13,120) Isaiah Berlin, Russian-British political philosopher, was born.
1/6/1909, Tuesday (-13,125) The Seattle World Fair opened.
27/5/1909, Thursday (-13,130) (Clothes, Fashion) The first electric washing machine, the Thor was patented by Alva Fisher for the Hurley Washing Machine Company.
24/5/1909, Monday (-13,133) (Education, University) Bristol University received a Royal Charter.
23/5/1909, Sunday (-13,134) US police broke up a lecture given by the anarchist Emma Goldman.
7/5/1909, Friday (-13,150) Edwin Land, American inventor of the Polaroid lens and the instant camera, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
30/4/1909, Friday (-13,157) (Netherlands) Juliana, Queen of the Netherlands, was born to Princess Wilhelmina.
29/4/1909. Thursday (-13,158) A radical budget presented by the Liberal government of Britain, under David Lloyd-George, chancellor of the Exchequer, angered the Tories. It contained provisions for a new 'supertax' of 6d in the pound on the 10,000 people in Britain with incomes of over £5,000 a year, to pay for old age pensions and re-armament. The standard rate of income tax remained at 9d in the pound for income up to £2,000 and one shilling per pound for income above that. Luxury taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and petrol also rose. The idea was to shift taxation from the workers as producers of wealth to its possessors, the wealthy bosses.
28/4/1909, Wednesday (-13,159) (Aviation) The Aerial League of Australia held its first meeting.
27/4/1909, Tuesday (-13,160) (Turkey) Mehmed V (1844-1918) succeeded his father, Abdul Hamid II (born 1842, died 1918; Sultan from 1876 – 1909) as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
25/4/1909, Sunday (-13,162)
24/4/1909, Saturday (-13,163) The Turkish Army coup of 13/4/1909 was suppressed, and its leaders executed.
23/4/1909. Friday (-13,164) Moslem fanatics backed by the sultan massacred at least 30,000 Armenians.
22/4/1909, Thursday (-13,165) In Westminster a Bill was introduced to abolish censorship in plays.
20/4/1909, Tuesday (-13,167)
19/4/1909. Monday (-13,168) Turkey recognised Bulgarian independence. On 27/4/1909, Germany, Austria, and Italy also recognised Bulgarian independence.
18/4/1909, Sunday (-13,169) Joan of Arc was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church; she was canonised in 1920.
17/4/1909, Saturday (-13,170) The first patent for a catalytic converter on a car internal combustion engine was filed by Michel Frenkel, a French chemist. He used a ceramic honeycomb with 30g of platinum; modern convertors use the same principle but with a thinner lighter metal honeycomb and only need 3g of platinum, rhodium or palladium. Carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are catalysed with extra oxygen into carbon dioxide and water.
13/4/1909, Tuesday (-13,174) Army insurrection in Constantinople. The First Army Corps deposed Hussein Hilmi Pasha. See 24/4/1909.
11/4/1909, Sunday (-13,176) Easter Sunday.
10/4/1909. Saturday (-13,177) British forces landed at Tabriz, Iran, as famine caused fears of unrest.
9/4/1909, Friday (-13,178) The first closed-top double-decker buses ran in Britain, in Widnes. In London there were police restrictions against roofed-in upper decks and such buses did not run there until 2/10/1925.
7/4/1909, Wednesday (-13,180)
6/4/1909. Tuesday (-13,181) Commander Peary of the USA became the first person to reach the North Pole, with a Black assistant, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos.. It was his sixth attempt in 15 years.
5/4/1909, Monday (-13,182) The Aerial League of the British Empire was founded, to promote British superiority in the air.
4/4/1909, Sunday (-13,183) The Young Turk, Mahmud Shevket, entered Constantinople, and imposed his will on the National Assembly and the Old Turks.
3/4/1909, Saturday (-13,184) Pascual Cervera, Spanish Admiral, died (born 18/2/1839).
30/3/1909, Tuesday (-13,188) New York's Queensboro Bridge opened; it cost US$ 17 million to build.
25/3/1909, Thursday (-13,193) Egypt imposed press censorship, to control the Nationalists.
24/3/1909, Wednesday (-13,194) Clyde Barrow, one of the Bonnie and Clyde outlaws, was born in Toledo, Texas.
21/3/1909, Sunday (-13,197) Reginald McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, caused dismay in the House of Commons when he stated that the UK Government had underestimated Admiral von Tirpitz's programme to expand the German navy.
19/3/1909, Friday (-13,199) Britain's first international aircraft exhibition opened.
16/3/1909, Tuesday (-13,202) The first meeting of the Port of London Authority.
15/3/1909. Monday (-13,203) The new Selfridges (American-owned) store opened on a 6 acre site in Oxford Street, London.
4/3/1909, Thursday (-13,214) William Taft was inaugurated as US President.
28/2/1909, Sunday (-13,218) Professor Linus Pauling, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize winner, was born.
26/2/1909, Friday (-13,220) Artist Emmanuel Poire, pseudonym Caran D'Ache (lead pencil), born 1858, died.
25/2/1909, Thursday (-13,221) (Atomic) Lev Andreevich Artsimovich, Soviet physicist, was born in Moscow. He developed the Tokamak fusion design.
24/2/1909. Wednesday (-13,222) (1) Serbia made demands on Austria for Bosnia-Hercegovina.
(2) Colour films were shown to the public for the first time, in Brighton.
21/2/1909, Sunday (-13,225) Ferdinand I of Bulgaria visited Russia to obtain the financial aid he needed to pay Ottoman Turkey an indemnity for Bulgarian independence.
17/2/1909. Wednesday (-13,229) (1) A Royal Commission on Britain's Poor Laws said no more children should live in workhouses. In urban areas, up to a third of older people also died in Poor Law institutions, which included children's homes, infirmaries and lunatic asylums as well as workhouses. The Old Age Pension, which started on 1/1/1909, should ease the financial destitution of poorer older people.
(2) Geronimo, the last Apache chief to surrender, died at his ranch on an Oklahoma reservation, aged 90.
13/2/1909, Saturday (-13,233) (Turkey) In Turkey, Kiamil Pasha, 76-year-old Ottoman Grand Vizier, was deposed and replaced by Hussein Hilmi Pasha.
9/2/1909. Tuesday (-13,237) In London a court ruled that a woman could not have a divorce even if her husband had deserted her.
8/2/1909, Monday (-13,238) The UK Government announced that six more Dreadnought battleships were to be built for the Navy.
7/2/1909, Sunday (-13,239)
22/1/1909, Friday (-13,255) U Thant, diplomat and Secretary General to the United Nations, was born in Pantanaw, Burma.
21/1/1909. Thursday (-13,256) Tennessee adopted alcohol prohibition.
18/1/1909. Monday (-13,259) New Zealand brewers abolished barmaids and banned women from buying alcohol in bars.
16/1/1909. Saturday (-13,261) The magnetic south pole was found by Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was knighted later the same year.
12/1/1909. Tuesday (-13,265) Turkey accepted Austria's offer of 2.5 million Turkish Pounds for Bosnia-Hercegovina.
11/1/1909. Monday (-13,266) Four murderers were publicly guillotined in northern France.
5/1/1909. Tuesday (-13,272) (1) Hindus and Moslems rioted in Calcutta.
(2) The Colombian Government formally recognised Panamanian independence.
1/1/1909. Friday (-13,276) In Britain, men and women over 70 began to draw Old Age Pensions. The rate was 5 shillings (25p) a week. See 7/5/1908.
31/12/1908, Thursday (-13,277) (1) Wilbur Wright set a new aeroplane flight duration time of 2 hours 20 minutes.
(2) Simon Weisenthal, noted hunter of Nazi war criminals, was born; he died in 2005.
30/12/1908, Wednesday (-13,278)
29/12/1908, Tuesday (-13,279) Dr Magnus Pyke, nutritional scientist, was born.
28/12/1908. Monday (-13,280) An earthquake killed more than 75,000 people in Messina, Sicily, over half the population. This was the most violent earthquake ever recorded in Europe.
24/12/1908, Thursday (-13,284) In Paris, President Armand Fallieres opened the first international aviation show.
22/12/1908. Tuesday (-13,286) In New York, Katie Mulcaney became the first woman arrested under a new law prohibiting women from smoking in public.
21/12/1908, Monday (-13,287) The Port of London Authority was constituted.
20/12/1908, Sunday (-13,288)
19/12/1908, Saturday (-13,289) (Aviation) Port Aviation, the world's first aerodrome, wad completed, 12 miles from Paris.
18/12/1908, Friday (-13,290) Wilbur Wright became the first man to attain the height of 360 feet in a plane.
17/12/1908, Thursday (-13,291) Birth of US chemist Willard Frank Libby, who developed radio-carbon dating.
14/12/1908, Monday (-13,294)
10/12/1908. Thursday (-13,298) (1) Ernest Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on radioactivity and the atom.
(2) In Britain, the National Farmers Union was founded.
9/12/1908, Wednesday (-13,299) Germany introduced restrictions on the hours that women and children could work in factories.
6/12/1908, Sunday (-13,302)
2/12/1908. Wednesday (-13,306) In China, the child emperor Pu Yi succeeded to the throne, aged 2. His father, the Regent Prince Chun, held the real power. Pu Yi was forced to abdicate in 1912 aged 5 as Republican forces gained strength in China.
1/12/1908, Tuesday (-13,307) Italy demanded that Austria pay compensation for the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, see 7/10/1908.
28/11/1908. Saturday (-13,310) The Court of Appeal in Britain ruled that Unions could not use their funds for political purposes. Many Labour MPs depended on sponsorship by the Unions.
26/11/1908, Thursday (-13,312) Charles (Lord) Forte, hotelier, was born. He opened Newport Pagnell services on the M1 in 1959, and died in 2007.
19/11/1908, Thursday (-13,319) A court in St Petersburg was adjourned when the prosecuting council refused to deal with Russia's first female barrister.
15/11/1908. Sunday (-13,323) (1) Death of the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi, at 37 years of age. Her suspicious demise (she was not unhealthy) greatly reduced the chances of a smooth transition to a constitutional monarchy in China.
(2) Austria sent troops to the Serbian frontier.
14/11/1908, Saturday (-13,324) Joseph McCarthy, US politician and lawyer noted for his purge against Communists, was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin.
13/11/1908, Friday (-13,325) C Vann Woodward, US historian, was born (died 1992).
11/11/1908, Wednesday (-13,327)
9/11/1908, Monday (-13,329) Britain's first woman Mayor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, was elected, at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
8/11/1908, Sunday (-13,330) (Electrical) William Edward Ayrton, English electrical physicist, (born 14/9/1847 in London) died in London.
7/11/1908, Saturday (-13,331) The British Navy launched its biggest battleship to date, the HMS Collingwood.
6/11/1908, Friday (-13,332) A cotton workers strike in Lancashire ended after seven weeks with the workers accepting a pay cut.
3/11/1908. Tuesday (-13,335) William Howard Taft, Republican candidate, was elected 27th President of the USA.
1/11/1908, Sunday (-13,337) Edward Caird, British religious writer, died (born 22/3/1835).
28/10/1908, Wednesday (-13,341) Enver Hoxha, Stalinist dictator of Yugoslavia from the end of World War Two till his death in 1985, was born. He declared the country atheist in 1967.
25/10/1908, Sunday (-13,344) Lewis Campbell, British classical scholar (born 3/9/1830) died.
24/10/1908. Saturday (-13,345) The suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel were jailed.
23/10/1908, Friday (-13,346) (Science) Pavel E Cherenkov, physicist, was born in St Petersburg, Russia.
21/10/1908. Wednesday (-13,348) (1) The Prime Minister of Britain, Herbert Asquith, announced emergency measures to deal with unemployment. The jobless were to be recruited into the Post Office, the dockyards, and the Army Special Reserve.
(2) (Aviation, Women's Rights) Over London the suffragettes made the first ever leaflet raid, hiring an airship and throwing out leaflets demanding 'Votes for Women!'.
16/10/1908, Friday (-13,353) (1) The first powered aeroplane flight in Britain, at Farnborough, piloted by the American Samuel Franklin Cody. He flew 1,390 feet in 27 seconds.
(2) A new harbour at Dover was opened as part of a national system of defence.
15/10/1908, Thursday (-13,354) The Royal College of Surgeons decided to allow women to obtain the Licence in Dental Surgery.
14/10/1908, Wednesday (-13,355) (USA) George Harold Brown, US engineer, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
12/10/1908, Monday (-13,357)
9/10/1908, Friday (-13,360) Jacques Tati, French comedian who created Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, was born.
8/10/1908. Thursday (-13,361) The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame's children's book, was published. It was still in print in 2001.
7/10/1908. Wednesday (-13,362) (East Europe, Greece-Turkey) Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, taking advantage of instability within the Ottoman Empire. Though formally part of the Ottoman Empire, its Serb-Croat population favoured union with Serbia. Other European countries were shocked at Austria's move. Serbia was especially angry that Serbs in the region had not got autonomy. However Russia agreed with Austria not to oppose this annexation in return for Austria supporting the opening of the Dardanelles to Russian warships. Turkey accepted cash compensation for the loss of Bosnia and Hercegovina on 12/1/1909. See 1/12/1908.
6/10/1908. Tuesday (-13,363) Crete declared itself independent of Turkey and joined Greece.
5/10/1908. Monday (-13,364) (East Europe, Greece-Turkey) Prince Ferdinand declared Bulgaria independent of Ottoman Turkey; Bulgaria had been under Ottoman rule since the late 1300s. Russia wanted Turkey weak so as not to block its plans for expansion.
29/9/1908. Tuesday (-13,370) In Switzerland, the international conference on worker's rights banned night shifts for children under 14.
24/9/1908, Thursday (-13,375) Persons over 70 in Britain began applying for pensions, see 1/1/1909.
18/9/1908, Friday (-13,381) (Railways) The railway from Oroya to Huanco opened.
17/9/1908. Thursday (-13,382) (Aviation) The first plane crash fatality occurred when a passenger of Orville Wright died. The fatality was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, of the US signal corps, and the accident happened near Fort Meyer, Virginia, when a propeller broke in mid-flight and the plane plunged 150 foot to the ground.
16/9/1908. Wednesday (-13,383) (Road Traffic) Buick and Oldsmobile merged to form General Motors.
15/9/1908, Tuesday (-13,384) John Collins, English literary critic, died (born 26/3/1848).
14/9/1908, Monday (-13,385)
13/9.1908, Sunday (-13,386) (Germany) In Germany the Social Democrats staged a rally at Nuremberg.
12/9/1908, Saturday (-13,387) (Britain) Winston Churchill married Clementine Hosier.
7/9/1908, Monday (-13,392) (Britain) Frederick Blayes, English classical scholar, died in Southsea (born Hampton Court Green 29/9/1818).
5/9/1908, Saturday (-13,394)
1/9/1908, Tuesday (-13,398) (Railways) The Hejaz railway opened between Damascus and Medina – see railways, Saudi Arabia, 1864, for more details.
31/8/1908, Monday (-13,399) (Railways) The Haifa to Derraa railway opened. It closed in 1949.
27/8/1908, Thursday (-13,403) (USA) Lyndon Baines Johnson, American Democrat and 36th President, was born in Johnson City, Texas.
25/8/1908, Tuesday (-13,405) Henri Becquerel, French scientist who studied radioactivity, died (born 1852).
23/8/1908, Sunday (-13,407) The Battle of Marrakesh. Abd-al-Aziz IV, Sultan of Morocco, was defeated by his elder brother, Mulay Hafid, who had been proclaimed Sultan in May.
19/8/1908, Wednesday (-13,411) King Leopold II of Belgium, under pressure from other European monarchs, handed over control of the Belgian Congo (Congo Free State), later known as Zaire, to the Belgian State. Leopold had ruled the region autocratically for 24 years. The region had been explored by Henry Stanley, the expedition financed by a European consortium headed by King Leopold. This consortium sought to make financial gains from the Congo's agricultural and mineral wealth, including ivory, rubber and palm oil. Trade agreements were made with the Congo's tribal leaders and by 1884 Leopold claimed the colony as a personal possession. The rest of Europe consented to this claim. However by the 1890s Leopold saw fit to treat the Congo's inhabitants as he liked; slavery was introduced, many brutalities were committed and under his rule the Congo population fell to 8 million, an estimated drop of 70%. The Brussels parliament agreed to pay Leopold 120 million Francs for the territory, and it became the Belgian Congo until independence in 1960.
18/8/1908, Tuesday (-13,412) (Biology) English plant pathologist Frederick Charles Bawden was born in North Tawton.
17/8/1908, Monday (-13,413)
15/8/1908, Saturday (-13,415) Winston Churchill announced his engagement to Clementine Hosier.
14/8/1908, Friday (-13,416) (1) An airship blew up over London, killing one person.
(2) The first international beauty contest was held at the Pier Hippodrome, Folkestone, Kent. Contestants included six English, three French, one Irish, and one Austrian.
12/8/1908, Wednesday (-13,418) (Price, Roads, USA) The Model T Ford began rolling off the production line. Priced at US$ 825, the cost was kept low by mass production using standardised parts. Instead of one man assembling an entire car, each worker preformed just one task as the car moved along a conveyor belt. By this production line method, the time to assemble a car was cut from 14 hours to 2. To motivate his workforce, Henry Ford raised wages from US$ 2.34 for a 9 hour day to US$ 5 for an 8 hour day. Productivity improvements meant Ford could reduce the car's price to US$ 300. Over 15 million Model Ts were built and by the time production ceased in 1927 half the cars in the US were Fords.
6/8/1908, Thursday (-13,424) The British Admiralty stated that the new battleships being built by the Germans would be the most heavily armed in the world.
5/8/1908, Wednesday (-13,425) Harold Holt, Australian Prime Minister 1966-7 who backed US intervention in Vietnam and sent Australian troops there, was born.
4/8/1908, Tuesday (-13,426) (USA) William Boyd Allison, US legislator, died in Dubuque, Iowa (born 2/3/1829 in Perry, Ohio).
26/7/1908, Sunday (-13,435) (1) The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, was established in Washington DC. Before this date the US Department of Justice often called on Secret Service 'operatives' to help in its investigations. These operatives were well trained and dedicated but expensive. They reported not to the Attorney General but to the chief of the Secret Service. Bonaparte created a special agents force, to report not to the chief of the Secret Service but to the Chief Examiner, Stanley Finch, later head of the FBI. This force of 34 agents later became a permanent part of the Department of Justice.
(2) Salvadore Allende, President of Chile 1970-3, was born.
24/7/1908, Friday (-13,437) Sultan Abdulhamid II, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was forced to implement reforms by the Young Turk (Jonturkler) Movement. This included the reinstatement of the 1876 constitution and the recall of Parliament, both suspended under the Sultan's autocratic rule. The Young Turk Movement began in 1889 when a group of medical students at the Istanbul Academy started a campaign to overthrow the Sultan. The Movement spread to other colleges, and the authorities tried to suppress it; they exiled many Young Turks to Paris, where they continued to plan for a revolution.
16/7/1908, Thursday (-13,445) Fire at Moorgate tube station.
13/7/1908, Monday (-13,448) (1) An explosion 1,000 x greater than Hiroshima flattened 80 million trees over 800 square miles near the River Tungaska, Siberia. It is thought to have been a meteor or comet.
(2) The 4th Olympic games opened at the newly-built White City stadium in west London. The Games were originally scheduled for Rome, but Italy was facing financial issues, including costs arising from a 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius (7/4/1906). The Finnish team made a political point by refusing to carry the Russian flag; the Olympic Committee refused to allow them to carry their own flag, so they marched flagless. Also some athletes with Irish Republican sympathies refused to compete in the British team.
12/7/1908, Sunday (-13,449)
10/7/1908, Friday (-13,451) (1) The British announced the deployment of a new torpedo, with a four mile range and a speed of four knots.
(2) Britain passed the Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act, giving non-contributory pensions for those over 70. See 1/1/1909.
9/7/1908, Thursday (-13,452) (Sea and Canal) The Royal Edward Dock, Avonmouth, Bristol opened.
8/7/1908. Wednesday (-13,453) The German Navy was catching up in strength with the British, according to the 'World Navy List'.
6/7/1908, Monday (-13,455)
3/7/1908, Friday (-13,458) In Ottoman Turkey, Major Ahmed Niyazi revolted against the provincial authorities, under the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II. The rebellion quickly spread to other army divisions, forcing concessions by the Sultan.
2/7/1908, Thursday (-13,459) Thurgood Marshall, US lawyer, was born (died 1993)
30/6/1908. Tuesday (-13,461) (Women's' Rights) Suffragettes attempted to present a petition to the UK Prime Minister. When he refused, windows at his residence were broken.
27/6/1908, Saturday (-13,464)
24/6/1908, Wednesday (-13,467) Grover Cleveland, American Democrat, 22nd and 24th President, between 1865 and 1897, died in Princeton, New Jersey.
23/6/1908, Tuesday (-13,468) Mohammed Ali Shah of Persia mounted a successful coup with the help of the Cossack brigade; he then imposed martial law in Tehran.
22/6/1908, Monday (-13,469) Six Black people accused of murder were lynched in the USA.
21/6/1908, Sunday (-13,470) (1) A crowd of 230,000 in Hyde Park demonstrated for votes for women.
(2) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer, died at Lyubensk.
17/6/1908, Wednesday (-13,474)
13/6/1908, Saturday (-13,478) (Women's' Rights) Suffragettes staged a march from The Embankment to the Albert Hall.
12/6/1908. Friday (-13,479) London's Rotherhithe Tunnel opened. It runs between Rotherhithe and Stepney.
11/6/1908, Thursday (-13,480)
10/6/1908, Wednesday (-13,481) The Gravehals rail tunnel, Norway, 5.5 km long, opened.
9/6/1908, Tuesday (-13,482) King Edward VII of Britain met Tsar Nicholas II of Russia at Reval, Russia. The Tsar agreed to introduce social reform in Macedonia (which was still nominally under Ottoman Turkish control).
6/6/1908. Saturday (+13,485) France passed a law decreeing that divorce was automatic after three year's separation.
4/6/1908. Thursday (-13,487) An attempt was made to assassinate Major Alfred Dreyfus.
2/6/1908, Tuesday (-13,489) (Britain) Sir Redvers Buller, British General, died (born 1839).
28/5/1908, Thursday (-13,494) Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was born in London.
26/5/1908. Tuesday (-13,496) (1) Significant oil fields were found in Persia (Iran), the first oil strike in the Middle East.
(2) The US State of North Carolina introduced Prohibition, banning alcohol.
23/5/1908, Saturday (-13,499) Famine in Uganda killed 4,000.
22/5/1908, Friday (-13,500) W G Hoskins, English historian, was born (died 1992)
16/5/1908, Saturday (-13,506) The UK launched its first diesel submarine, called D-1, from Barrow in Furness.
14/5/1908, Thursday (-13,508) The Franco-British exhibition opened on 200 acres of land at Wood Lane, north of Shepherd's Bush, London. The site, called White City, was served by an extension of the Central Line from Shepherds Bush. The Prince of Wales opened the exhibition, which was also used for the 1908 Olympic Games.
11/5/1908, Monday (-13,511) The foundation stone of the Liver Building, Liverpool, was laid.
10/5/1908. Sunday (-13,512) Mother's Day was first celebrated in the USA.
7/5/1908. Thursday (-13,515) Old Age Pensions were introduced in Britain, at 5 shillings (25p) a week, by Prime Minister Asquith, for people over 70. A married couple would get 7 shillings 6d. Only those earning under ten shillings a week were eligible. See 1/1/1909. At this time, renting a single room cost 2s 6d a week, a half cwt (25kg) of coal cost 6d, 4 loaves of bread cost 6d, a quarter lb (110g) of tea cost 6d, a quart of milk cost 3d, a half lb of sugar cost 1d, 7lbs of potatoes cost 3d, 1lb of cheese cost 2d, and a half lb of meat cost 3d. Total cost, 5 shillings.
19/4/1908, Sunday (-13,533) Easter Sunday.
13/4/1908, Monday (-13,539) Floods in China killed 2,000.
12/4/1908, Sunday (-13,540) Herbert Asquith was appointed Prime Minister, replacing Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who had resigned through ill-health. David Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer.
11/4/1908, Saturday (-13,541) Tel Aviv, Israel, was founded by 60 settlers.
8/4/1908. Wednesday (-13,544) In the US, President Roosevelt issued an injunction allowing Blacks to use the same train carriages as Whites in the South.
5/4/1908, Saturday (-13,547) (Britain) Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, English Prime Minister, died (born 7/9/1836).
2/4/1908, Thursday (-13,550) The destroyer HMS Tiger collided with the cruiser HMS Berwick near the Isle of Wight, killing 35 sailors.
1/4/1908, Wednesday (-13,551) The Territorial Army was officially founded, as the Territorial Force, by Lord Haldane.
24/3/1908, Tuesday (-13,559) John Colvin, Governor of the North-West Provinces of India, died.
21/3/1908, Saturday (-13,562) (1) Frenchman Henri Farman piloted the world's first passenger flight, over Paris.
(2) Abraham Maslow, US psychologist, was born (died 1970).
16/3/1908. Monday (-13,567) Florence Nightingale, aged 87, was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Born in 1820 to a middle class family in Derbyshire, she became interested in hygienic care for the sick after visiting a German religious hospital in 1850 which specialised in hygiene and care. In 1854 she was disturbed by terrible reports of the conditions in military hospitals there. She took 37 nurses and arrived at the hospital at Scutari, arriving on 4/11/1854. The military did not at first take her seriously, but her determination won through and she reduced the hospital's death rate from 42% to just 2%. After the Crimean War she trained nurses in London and worked to improve the care for the sick.
12/3/1908, Thursday (-13,571) Edmondo de Amicis, Italian writer, died in Bordighera (born 21/10/1846 in Oneglia).
7/3/1908, Saturday (-13,576) Germany launched its first Dreadnought battleship.
4/3/1908. Wednesday (-13,579) The whip was banned as a means of corporal punishment in US schools.
29/2/1908, Saturday (-13,583) Onnes, a Dutch scientist in Leyden, announced he had liquefied helium.
24/2/1908. Monday (-13,588) Japan and the USA agreed to limit Japanese migration to the US. President Roosevelt was concerned at working-class migration into the US following an influx of Chinese coolies. Chinese migration began to fall from its peak of 107,000 a year; Japanese migration only began more recently and in 1900 there were only 25,000 Japanese in the whole of the USA.
23/2/1908, Sunday (-13,589) Sir William McMahon, Australian Liberal and 25th Prime Minister, was born.
20/2/1908, Thursday (-13,592) The Russian General Stossel was sentenced to death for surrendering to the Japanese.
13/2/1908, Thursday (-13,599) Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was encouraging anti-Semitism.
11/2/1908, Tuesday (-13,601) (Women's' Rights) Suffragettes attempted to force entry to the House of Commons.
10/2/1908, Monday (-13,602) Mustapha Kamal of Egypt died.
9/2/1908, Sunday (-13,603)
8/2/1908. Saturday (-13,604) Czar Nicholas II ordered Russian troops to the Iranian border after Turkey made incursions into Iran.
7/2/1908, Friday (-13,605) In Britain the Liberal newspaper Tribune ceased publication.
4/2/1908, Tuesday (-13,608)
1/2/1908, Saturday (-13,611) (Portugal) Carlos I, King of Portugal, was assassinated along with his son, Prince Luiz, by soldiers after a failed revolution. He was succeeded by his 18-year old younger son, Manoel II.
31/1/1908, Friday (-13,612) (Medical) Karl von Voit, physiologist, was born in Munich, Germany.
30/1/1908. Thursday (-13,613) Mohandas Ghandi, who led a campaign against the requirement for all Asian people to register, was released from a South African prison by General Smuts.
28/1/1908, Tuesday (-13,615)
27/1/1908, Monday (-13,616) Austria announced plans to build a railway south towards Salonika, to assist trade and extend Austro-Hungarian political influence.
26/1/1908, Sunday (-13,617) The first Boy Scout troop was registered, in Glasgow.
25/1/1908, Saturday (-13,618) Louise de la Ramee, English novelist (pen name Ramee) died aged 67.
24/1/1908, Friday (-13,619)
23/1/1908, Thursday (-13,620) A 7,000 mile telegraph line from Britain to India began operations.
22/1/1908. Wednesday (-13,621) The British Labour Party decided to adopt Socialism.
20/1/1908, Monday (-13,623)
17/1/1908, Friday (-13,626) (Women's' Rights) Suffragettes raided 10 Downing Street, London, during a Cabinet meeting.
16/1/1908. Thursday (-13,627) The first issue of Scouting For Boys, Baden-Powell's fortnightly journal of the scouting movement, was published.
15/1/1908, Wednesday (-13,628) Edward Teller, who invented the Hydrogen Bomb, was born in Budapest.
10/1/1908, Friday (-13,633)
9/1/1908, Thursday (-13,634) Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer and philosopher, was born (died 1986).
8/1/1908, Wednesday (-13,635) Count Von Zeppelin announced plans to build an airship capable of carrying 100 people.
7/1/1908, Tuesday (-13,636) Sir Frederick Gibberd, town planner who designed Harlow New Town, was born (died 1984). He also designed Didcot power station (1968), the Intercontinental Hotel at Hyde Park Corner, London (1975), Liverpool's Catholic cathedral (1967), and the Regent's Park Mosque (1977).
6/1/1908, Monday (-13,637) 2,000 textile workers went on strike in Oldham, Lancashire.
5/1/1908, Sunday (-13,638) (Crime) Serious prisoner mutiny at Dartmoor Prison; several warders injured.
3/1/1908, Friday (-13,640)
1/1/1908. Wednesday (-13,642) The US state of Georgia introduced prohibition, banning alcohol.
31/12/1907. Tuesday (-13,643) 167 Duma (Parliament) deputies jailed for treason in Russia. See 14/10/1907.
26/12/1907, Thursday (-13,648) The first session of the Indian National Congress was halted after clashes between moderates and extremists.
17/12/1907, Tuesday (-13,657) Lord Kelvin, physicist and inventor, died.
16/12/1907, Monday (-13,658) The US sent a fleet of 16 battleships on a round-the-world tour, to demonstrate the military might of the USA.
15/12/1907, Sunday (-13,659) The new Shah of Persia attempted to depose the new liberal Chief Minister. However, popular protests forced him to reverse this move.
14/12/1907, Saturday (-13,660) In St Petersburg, 38 soldiers were sentenced to life imprisonment for surrendering to the Japanese at Port Arthur.
13/12/1907, Friday (-13,661) The liner Mauretania ran aground at Liverpool.
12/12/1907, Thursday (-13,662) Dinizulu, King of the Zulus, surrendered to the British; a Zulu rebellion had been triggered by the imposition of a poll tax.
11/12/1907, Wednesday (-13,663) Fire destroyed the Parliament buildings at Wellington, New Zealand.
10/12/1907. Tuesday (-13,664) Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the first time it had been awarded to an English writer.
9/12/1907, Monday (-13,665)
8/12/1907, Sunday (-13,666) King Oscar II of Sweden died, aged 78, after a 35-year reign; he also ruled Norway until 1905. His eldest son, Gustav V, 49, became King, and ruled until 1950.
7/12/1907, Saturday (-13,667) The first congress of the Egyptian Nationalist movement, under Mustafa Kamil.
6/12/1907, Friday (-13,668) The USA suffered its worst mine disaster. 361 died at Monongah, West Virginia.
3/12/1907, Tuesday (-13,671)
29/11/1907. Friday (-13,675) Florence Nightingale, aged 87, the 'Lady with the Lamp', was presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII for her work during the Crimean War, see 4/11/1854.
28/11/1907, Thursday (-13,676) Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist, was born (died 1990).
20/11/1907, Wednesday (-13,684)
16/11/1907. Saturday (-13,688) (1) Suffragettes shouted down Herbert Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer, at a meeting in Warwickshire. An Act was passed in 1907 allowing women to sit as councillors, but they still lacked the vote. Despite divisions within the Women's Social and Political Union, with some members seeing Mrs Pankhurst as too domineering, the campaign for female suffrage continued unabated.
(2) Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th State of the USA.
15/11/1907, Friday (-13,689) Moncure Conway, author, died in Paris (born 17/3/1832 in Virginia, USA).
14/11/1907, Thursday (-13,690) The Third Duma met in Russia; it sat until 1912. Elected on a restricted franchise, it suppressed revolutionary activities.
13/11/1907, Wednesday (-13,691) In France, Mr Paul Cornu built a prototype helicopter, or 'direct lifter' as he called it. It rose 4 feet into the air and stayed there for 60 seconds.
1/11/1907, Friday (-13,703) The first women councillors were elected in England, in local elections.
26/10/1907, Saturday (-13,709) The UK's Territorial Army was conceived by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane.
24/10/1907, Thursday (-13,711) (Earthquake) Severe earthquake hit Calabria, southern Italy.
21/10/1907, Monday (-13,724) George Bodley, English architect, died in Water Eaton, Oxford (born 1827).
18/10/1907, Friday (-13,717) Plans were announced for an International Court of Justice, to be set up in The Hague.
14/10/1907, Monday (-13,721) Third parliament (Duma) formed in St Petersburg. See 31/12/1907.
11/10/1907, Friday (-13,724) The British luxury liner Lusitania broke the record for crossing the Atlantic by 11 hours 46 minutes, making the crossing to New York in just 4 days, 19 hours, and 52 minutes. With 1,200 passengers and 650 crew, she averaged 24 knots.
10/10/1907, Thursday (-13,725) Demonstrations and strikes in Budapest, Hungary, as Parliament opened there, demanding universal adult suffrage.
6/10/1907, Sunday (-13,729) Henry Brampton, English judge, died in London (born in Hitchin 14/9/1817).
4/10/1907, Friday (-13,731) Riots in India were blamed on a visit by UK MP Kier Hardie to the colony
26/9/1907, Thursday (-13,739) New Zealand became a dominion. It had become a colony of Britain in 1840. A series of wars between the British and the native Maoris ended with peace in the 1870s. Full independence was achieved in 1947.
13/9/1907, Friday (-13,752) The British ocean liner Lusitania arrived in New York on her maiden voyage, having crossed the Atlantic in a record 5 days, at average speed 23 knots.
12/9/1907, Thursday (-13,753) Louis Macneice, Irish poet, was born (died 1963).
10/9/1907, Tuesday (-13,755) Britain's first military airship flew successfully at Farnborough.
4/9/1907, Wednesday (-13,761) Edward Greig, Norwegian composer, died in Bergen.
31/8/1907, Saturday (-13,765) (Britain, Russia, France-Germany) The UK and Russia agreed an entente, defining spheres of influence in Persia, Tibet, and Afghanistan. There was an implicit agreement that Britain would not allow Russia to control the Bosporus, and the entente opened up the London money markets to Russia, allowing it to recover from the Japanese defeat of 1904/5. France was also part of this agreement, forming a Triple Entente to contain the newly unified Prussian-dominated Germany.
30/8/1907, Friday (-13,766) (Computing) John William Mauchly was born in Cincinatti, Ohio. In 1946, along with John Prosper Eckert, he completed ENIAC, the first all-purpose computer.
13/8/1907, Tuesday (-13,783) (1) An Anglo-Russian agreement recognised Afghanistan as an independent Kingdom; a Republic since 1973.
(2) Two civilians were killed by British troops in Belfast. The docks strike in Belfast had been called by James Larkin the dockworkers union leader in May 1907, in response to pay rates as low as 10 shillings a week, and he had urged mill workers to join the strike. A local magistrate, Major Martin Thackeray, attempted to read the Riot act to a crowd of 500 strikers who were throwing stones at police, but he had to admit he was inaudible. Four soldiers were injured by stones. Unrest grew and on 11/8/1907 a police van was ambushed on Grosvenor Road. A crowd of 2,000 gathered and attacked a barracks. The Government sent in 2,600 soldiers as well as 80 cavalry and 500 police. Some soldiers smashed doors and windows of homes. Whilst stationed to protect workers in the Catholic Falls Road area, soldiers shot dead a woman looking for her child and a man returning from his work.
10/8/1907, Saturday (-13,786)The world's longest and hardest motor race, from Beijing to Paris, ended with victory by Prince Borghese of Italy, who completed the 8,000 mile course in 62 days. He faced desert, swamps, mountains, a bushfire, and a Belgian policeman who stopped him for speeding.
4/8/1907, Sunday (-13,792) The French navy bombarded the Moroccan port of Casablanca, after anti-Western demonstrations there.
3/8/1907, Saturday (-13,793) Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II met at Swinemunde to discuss the Baghdad Railway.
2/8/1907, Friday (-13,794) Dr Herbert Tidswell, a Devon GP, spoke out at a meeting of the British Medical Association about the undesirability of allowing children to smoke. He claimed smoking could cause cancer, but other doctors were unconvinced that moderate smoking was dangerous.
30/7/1907, Tuesday (-13,797) British troops sent in to quell rioting in Belfast.
25/7/1907. Thursday (-13,802) (1) Sir Robert Baden-Powell's experimental camp, to test the feasibility of scouting, was set up on Brownsea Island, near Poole; 20 boys attended. The Boy Scout's association was created on 29/7/1909. The camp closed for the winter on 9/8/1907.
(2) Japan made Korea a protectorate. The Korean Emperor Kojong (I T'ae Wang) who had ruled since 1864 abdicated 19/7/1907, aged 55 under pressure from Japan, who was occupying Korea.
19/7/1907, Friday (-13,816) Kojong, Emperor of Korea for 43 years, aged 55, abdicated under pressure from the Japanese, who were occupying his country.
15/7/1907, Monday (-13,812) London's first electric buses began operating, between Victoria and Liverpool Street. Unfortunately the electric bus industry was riddled with swindlers promising false returns to investors, and petrol and diesel buses took over.
14/7/1907, Sunday (-13,813) (Chemistry) Sir William Henry Perkin, English chemist, died in Sudbury, Middlesex.
8/7/1907, Monday (-13,819) Sophus Bugge, Norwegian scholarly writer, died (born 5/1/1833)
6/7/1907. Saturday (-13,821) Brooklands motor racing track, near Weybridge, Surrey, opened. It closed in 1939.
1/7/1907, Monday (-13,826) The US established the world's first air force. The aeronautical division of the US Army's Signal Office was set up under the command of Captain Chandler. The force consisted of one officer, one NCO, and one enlisted man. It had one aircraft, which had to be capable of flying for one hour at 36 mph. The biplane was delivered to Fort Meyer, Virginia, for test flights in August 1908. It crashed in September 1908 and a new Wright Flyer was ordered. This was delivered on 2/8/1909. By 1914 the US air force had just 6 planes.
17/6/1907, Monday (-13,840) (Road) Brooklands, the world's first motor racing circuit, opened at Weybridge, Surrey. The circuit is 3.75 miles long.
16/6/1907. Sunday (-13,841) The Russian parliament (Duma) was dissolved by Tsar Nicholas II on grounds of treason after reactionary parties attempted to force concessions. An electoral reform in Russia increased the representation of the propertied classes, and reduced the representation of national minorities.
14/6/1907, Friday (-13,843) (1) Norway gave women the vote (General Elections).
(2) The UK Government announced a Bill to curb the House of Lords.
6/6/1907. Thursday (-13,851) (1) Persil washing powder went on sale for the first time, in Dusseldorf, Germany.
(2) The British Government said it would never leave India.
1/6/1907, Saturday (-13,856) Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of jet propulsion, was born in Coventry.
28/5/1907, Tuesday (-13,860) The first Isle of Man TT motorcycle race was held. The average speed of the winner was 38 mph.
27/5/1907, Monday (-13,861) Rachel Louise Carson, marine biologist and US author, author of Silent Spring, was born.
26/5/1907, Sunday, (-13,862) John Wayne, actor, was born.
25/5/1907. Saturday (-13,863) (1) In Finland, the world's first Parliament with women members opened.
(2) The first 24-hour motor race, the Endurance Derby, was held in Philadelphia. The winning car covered a distance of 791 miles.
19/5/1907, Sunday (-13,869) (Britain) Sir Benjamin Baker, British engineer, died in Pangbourne, Berkshire (born 1840).
16/5/1907, Thursday (-13,872) (1) Nairobi was chosen as capital of British East Africa (Kenya) because of its location on the Mombasa-Uganda railway.
(2) Spain signed the Cartagena Pact with Britain and France, to counter a perceived German threat to annex the Balearic and Canary Islands.
14/5/1907, Tuesday (-13,874) Muhammad Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan, was born (died 1974).
13/5/1907, Monday (-13,875) Daphne du Maurier, English novelist, was born in London.
9/5/1907, Thursday (-13,879)
2/5/1907, Thursday (-13,886) (1) Rioting in Rawalpindi and East Bengal, India.
(2) King Edward VII of Britain met the French President in Paris.
30/4/1907, Tuesday (-13,888) King Edward VII of Britain visited Rome and The Vatican.
28/4/1907, Sunday (-13,890)
25/4/1907, Thursday (-13,893) The UK's Channel Tunnel Bill was defeated because of War Office opposition and lack of popular support.
24/4/1907, Wednesday (-13,894) Winston Churchill, Colonial Under-Secretary, was made a Privy Councillor.
17/4/1907, Wednesday (-13,901) A record all time high of 11,747 immigrants arrived at Ellis Island, New York, this day.
15/4/1907. Monday (-13,903) Japan handed Manchuria back to China under the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese war.
14/4/1907, Sunday (-13,904) Francois Duvalier, Haitian President and dictator, was born.
8/4/1907, Monday (-13,910) Britain and France confirmed the independence of Siam (Thailand).
3/4/1907. Wednesday (-13,915) Russia reported that 20 million people were starving in the worst famine on record.
31/3/1907, Sunday (-13,918) Easter Sunday.
30/3/1907, Saturday (-13,919) The first commercially produced aircraft was delivered to its purchaser, marking the start of the world's aviation industry. Paris sculptor Leon Delagrange ordered the biplane from Voisin Freres, Billancourt, France.
29/3/1907, Friday (-13,920) A train derailed near Colton, California; 26 were killed and about 100 injured.
26/3/1907, Tuesday (-13,923)
23/3/1907, Saturday (-13,926) (Medical) Daniele Bovet was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. In 1936 he discovered the effectiveness of sulphanilamide in treating streptococci.
22/3/1907, Friday (-13,927) (1) 75 suffragettes jailed in Britain for refusing to pay fines.
(2) Mohandas Ghandi 1869-1948) started a civil disobedience campaign in South Africa. He was campaigning against a rule that all Indians in South Africa had to be finger-printed and carry an ID certificate at all times. Ghandi had spoken to the British Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, whom assured Ghandi he disagreed with this law. However Transvaal was soon to become self-governing so this reassurance was of little significance. The Transvaal jailed Ghandi, when he refused to comply with the new rules, but he was soon more of a problem to them inside jail than out. Jan Smuts, Attorney General for Transvaal, had secret discussions with Ghandi, a compromise was reached, and Ghandi released.
18/3/1907, Monday (-13,931) Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist, died in Paris (born in Paris 29/10/1827).
15/3/1907, Friday (-13,934) The Finns elected their first woman MP; in Britain, women still had not got the vote.
11/3/1907, Monday (-13,938) (Bulgaria) The Bulgarian Prime Minister was assassinated by a disaffected youth, who had been dismissed from a post in one of the country's agricultural posts.
9/3/1907, Saturday (-13,940) John Alexander Dowie, Scottish evangelist and faith healer (born 25/5/1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland) died in Chicago, Illinois.
8/3/1907, Friday (-13,941) Keir Hardie's Women's Enfranchisement Bill was defeated in the House of Commons.
6/3/1907, Wednesday (-13,943)
5/3/1907, Tuesday (-13,944) Second Parliament (Duma) met in St Petersburg.
4/3/1907, Monday (-13,945) (Atomic) Soviet physicist Vladimir Iosifovich was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine. In 1945 he designed an improved particle accelerator.
1/3/1907, Friday (-13,948)
28/2/1907, Thursday (-13,949) Britain's Royal Navy ordered three more Dreadnought warships.
27/2/1907, Wednesday (-13,950) London's Central Criminal Court (The Old Bailey) was opened on the site of Newgate Prison, by King Edward VII.
26/2/1907. Tuesday (-13,951) President Roosevelt put the US army in charge of building the Panama Canal.
24/2/1907, Sunday (-13,953)
22/2/1907, Friday (-13,955) The first taxi cabs with meters began operating in Britain.
21/2/1907, Thursday (-13,956) W H Auden, English poet, was born.
20/2/1907, Wednesday (-13,957) (Chemistry) Ferdinand Frederic Henri Moissan died, probably as a result of his experiments with fluorine, see 1886.
16/2/1907, Saturday (-13,961) Giosue Carducci, Italian poet (born 27/7/1836) died.
13/2/1907, Wednesday (-13,964) A large crowd of suffragettes stormed the Houses of Parliament as they attempted to hand a petition to the Government. It took a battalion of mounted police five hours to subdue the demonstration; 57 suffragettes were arrested, including Emmeline and Christine Pankhurst, but 15 of them did manage to enter the Commons.
12/2/1907, Tuesday (-13,965) In the UK, the Liberal Government put Home Rule for Ireland on the agenda, along with better public housing.
11/2/1907, Monday (-13,966) (London) Explosion at the chemical research department, Woolwich Arsenal, caused much damage.
28/1/1907, Monday (-13,980) 164 miners died in a pit explosion at Saarbrucken, Germany.
24/1/1907, Thursday (-13,984) Alexander Russell Alger, US soldier and politician (born 27/2/1836 in Lafayette, Ohio) died in Washington DC.
23/1/1907, Wednesday (-13,985) In the UK, Lloyd George advocated reducing the power of the House of Lords.
22/1/1907, Tuesday (-13,986) In London, a strike by music hall artists disrupted theatre performances.
20/1/1907, Wednesday (-13,988) Agnes Clerke, English astronomer, died (born 10/2/1842).
14/1/1907. Monday (-13,994) (Earthquake) Major quake hit Kingston, Jamaica. Most of the city was destroyed and over 1,000 died. On 22/1/1907 the islands British Governor rejected an offer of food and medical aid from the US navy.
11/1/1907, Friday (-13,997) Pierre Mendes-France, French politician, was born (died 1982)
10/1/1907, Thursday (-13,998) Austria passed a Bill giving the vote to all males aged 24 and over.
5/1/1907, Saturday (-14,003)
3/1/1907, Thursday (-14,005) (Russia) The Prefect of St Petersburg was assassinated at the Institute of Experimental Medicine.
2/1/1907, Wednesday (-14,006) Anti-clerical laws in France forbade the crucifix in schools.
1/1/1907, Tuesday (-14,007) In China, 4 million people were starving due to heavy rains and crop failure.
30/12/1906, Sunday (-14,009) (India) In India the Muslim League was founded, to call for separate Muslim areas and counter the Pan-Indian ideals of the Indian National Congress. The separate Muslim electoral areas were delivered under the Indian Councils Act of 1909. Ultimately this paved the way for the Partition of India in 1947.
26/12/1906, Wednesday (-14,013) (Science) German physicist Ernst August Friedrich Ruska was born in Heidelberg.
25/12/1906, Tuesday (-14,014) Suffragettes in London's Holloway Prison refused Christmas meals.
24/12/1906, Monday (-14,015) (Maritime) the first radio programme aimed at seamen was broadcast from the US coast.
19/12/1906. Wednesday (-14,020) (Russia) Birth of Leonid Brezhnev. He was born in Kamenskoye (now Dneprodzerzhinsk), in the Ukraine.
14/12/1906. Friday (-14,025) The German navy acquired its first submarine, the U1.
13/12/1906, Thursday (-14,026) A revolt of the Centre Party in the German Reichstag opposed spending on colonial wars. Von Bulow dissolved the Reichstag; in subsequent elections the Socialists lost ground.
12/12/1906, Wednesday (-14,027) In South Africa, the Transvaal was given autonomy with White male suffrage.
9/12/1906, Sunday (-14,030) Ferdinand Brunetiere, French writer, died (born 19/7/1849).
6/12/1906, Thursday (-14,033) Self-government was granted to Transvaal and the Orange River Colony.
5/12/1906, Wednesday (-14,034) Russian Admiral Niebogatov went on trial, accused of surrendering ships to the Japanese.
4/12/1906, Tuesday (-14,035) (Medical) Robert Wallace Wilkins was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1950 he developed the use of reserpine for the treatment of high blood pressure.
3/12/1906, Monday (-14,036) (Football) AC Torino football club was founded.
2/12/1906, Sunday (-14,037) (Sound) Hungarian-US physicist Peter Mark Goldmark was born in Budapest. In 1948 he developed the first long-playing record in the USA.
1/12/1906. Saturday (-14,038) The world's first purpose-built picture palace, the Cinema Omnia Pathe, opened in Paris.
30/11/1906, Friday (-14,039) (Britain) The Prince of Wales opened the new Cotton Exchange in Liverpool.
26/11/1906, Monday (-14,043) US President Theodore Roosevelt returned to the USA from Central America, becoming the first American President to travel abroad whilst in office. On his 17-day trip aboard the US battleship Louisiana he visited Puerto Rico then went on to Panama to see how the construction of the Panama Canal was progressing.
22/11/1906, Thursday (-14,049) Stolypin introduced agrarian reforms in Russia.
21/11/1906, Wednesday (-14,048) In Glasgow, a man died when 200,000 gallons of hot whisky burst out of vats.
20/11/1906. Tuesday (-14,049) Charles Rolls and Henry Royce formed the car company Rolls Royce Ltd.
15/11/1906, Thursday (-14,054) Japan launched what was then the world's largest battleship, the Satsuma.
12/11/1906, Monday (-14,057) (Aviation) A Santos-Dumas of France set an aviation speed record of 25.65 mph.
11/11/1906, Sunday (-14,058) (Aviation) The first balloon crossing of the Alps. A balloon piloted by Murillo and Cresti lifted off from Milan and passed over Mont Blanc, highest peak of the Alps.
9/11/1906, Friday (-14,060) (Education-Schools) Dorothea Beale died (born 21/3/1831), As Principal of Cheltenham Ladies College (opened 1854) from 1858, she did much to improve its standing, and new buildings were erected there from 1873 onwards.
6/11/1906. Tuesday (-14,063) Sylvia Pankhurst, suffragette, released from prison.
5/11/1906, Monday (-14,064) (Space exploration) Fred Lawrence Whipple was born in Red Oak, Indiana. In 1949 he suggested that comets are 'dirty snowballs' consisting of water ice and ammonia ice with rock dust.
2/11/1906. Friday (-14,067) Jewish revolutionary Leon Trotsky was exiled for life to Siberia.
30/10/1906, Tuesday (-14,070) Gathorne Cranbrook, British statesman, died (born 1/10/1814).
25/10/1906, Thursday (-14,075) Georges Clemenceau became PM in France.
24/10/1906. Wednesday (-14,076) 11 suffragettes were jailed for demonstrating in London, after refusing to pay £10 fines, or even acknowledge the court. Prison achieved martyrdom for the women.
23/10/1906, Tuesday (-14,077) Women suffragettes demonstrated in the outer lobby of the House of Commons. 10 were arrested and charged the following day.
22/10/1906, Monday (-14,078) (1) The painter Paul Cezanne died in Aix en Provence, France (born 19/1/1839).
(2) Elise Deroche became the first woman to fly solo.
20/10/1906, Saturday (-14,080)
18/10/1906, Thursday (-14,082) (Chemistry) Friedrich Konrad Beilstein, Russian chemist, died in St Petersburg.
17/10/1906. Wednesday (-14,083) First transmission of a picture by telegraph.
16/10/1906. Tuesday (-14,084) British New Guinea became part of Australia.
9/10/1906. Tuesday (-14,091) Death of Joseph Glidden in the USA; he invented barbed wire.
7/10/1906, Sunday (-14,093) The Shah opened the Persian Assembly.
5/10/1906. Friday (-14,095) In Russia, 1,000 prisoners a day were being exiled to Siberia.
3/10/1906. Wednesday (-14,097) SOS was established as an international distress signal, at the Berlin Radio Conference, replacing the earlier CDQ call sign, sometimes wrongly explained as Come Damn Quick.
1/10/1906, Monday (-14,099) The Karawanken rail tunnel, between Austria and Yugoslavia, 8 km long, opened.
20/9/1906, Thursday (-14,110) (1) The Mauretania, Atlantic passenger liner, was launched.
(2) In China, an imperial edict ordered the end of the use of heroin within 10 years.
19/9/1906, Wednesday (-14,111) (Medical) Ernst Chain was born in Berlin, Germany. Along with Howard Florey (born Adelaide, Australia, 24/9/1908) he developed, in 1940, the use of penicillin as an antiobiotic.
17/9/1906, Senor Pedro Montt, President-elect, took up office in Chile.
9/9/1906. Sunday (-14,121) 100 Jews massacred in Siedlce, Poland.
30/8/1906, Thursday (-14,131) A new express rail service linking Cork and Waterford with London via the new ports of Rosslare and Fishguard was inaugurated.
28/8/1906, Tuesday (-14,133) John Betjeman, poet, was born (died 1984).
24/8/1906, Friday (-14,137) Kidney transplants were carried out on dogs, at a medical conference in Toronto, Canada.
16/8/1906. Thursday (-14,143) (Chile, Earthquake) Severe earthquake killed 3,000 in Valparaiso, Chile. 100,000 were left homeless.
15/8/1906, Wednesday (-14,146) 'Bloody Wednesday' in Poland. 80 people were killed in terrorist attacks by socialists against Russian occupation of the country. Pilsudsky had visited Japan in 1904 and secured their backing in the fight against Russia; Japan was fighting Russia in the Far East.
13/8/1906, Monday (-14,148) Pearl Craigie, US novelist, died (born 3/11/1867).
9/8/1906, Thursday (-14,152) The Boer War Commission reported that corruption and incompetence in conducting the war cost Britain over £1 million.
8/8/1906 Wednesday (-14,153) Churchill and others protested at the excessive noise made by motor traffic.
4/8/1906, Saturday (-14.157) The Italian liner Silvio was wrecked off Spain; 200 drowned.
1/8/1906, Wednesday (-14,160) The new Belfast City Hall was opened.
23/7/1906, Monday (-14,169) 1,000 Zulu rebels surrendered to British troops in South Africa.
22/7/1906, Sunday (-14,170) Captain Dreyfus was formally reinstated in the French Army and given the Legion of Honour.
21/7/1906, Saturday (-14,171) In Russia, the Duma (Parliament) was dissolved and martial law set up. The Cadets withdrew to Finland where they issued the Viborg manifesto, calling on Russians to refuse to pay taxes.
19/7/1906, Thursday (-14,173) (South Africa) Alfred Beit, South African financier, died.
15/7/1906, Sunday (-14,177) A Commons Commission recommended providing school meals, and a separate Ministry for Wales.
12/7/1906, Thursday (-14,180) In France, Captain Dreyfus was rehabilitated after being publicly disgraced 11 years earlier over spying and treason charges. Dreyfus had been imprisoned on Devil's Island.
9/7/1906, Monday (-14,183) The Wochein rail tunnel, Yugoslavia, 6.5 km long, opened.
8/7/1906, Sunday (-14,184) Philip Johnson, architect, was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
7/7/1906, Saturday (-14,185) Britain's first hot air balloon race.
4/7/1906, Wednesday (-14,188)
2/7/1906, Monday (-14,190) (Astronomy) German physicist Hans Bethe was born in Strasbourg. In 1938 he proposed that stellar fusion of hydrogen into helium was how the Sun produced energy.
1/7/1906, Sunday (-14,191) (1) A train crash at Salisbury, UK, caused by excessive speed. Speed limits were now rigorously enforced and rail speed record attempts now ceased.
(2) A loaf of bread cost 5d (2p). A pound of beef cost 8d (3p). The average weekly wage was 19 shillings (95p).
29/6/1906, Friday (-14,193) (USA) US Congress passed a Bill creating the Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.
26/6/1906, Tuesday (-14,196) The first grand prix took place at Le Mans. The race was over 12 laps of a 65-mile triangular circuit at Le Mans. The race was won by Hungarian Ference Szisz, driving a Renault at an average speed of 63 mph.
23/6/1906, Saturday (-14,199) A deputation demanding votes for women, representing 500,000 women, met the British Prime Minister.
22/6/1906, Friday (-14,200) US President Roosevelt sued John D Rockerfeller's Standard Oil Company for operating a monopoly.
21/6/1906. Thursday (-14,201) The Russian Parliament, the Duma, was exiled. On 23/6/1906 it called on Russians to refuse to pay taxes.
20/6/1906, Wednesday (-14,202) Catherine Cookson, British writer, was born.
14/6/1906, Thursday (-14,208) In the UK, a Parliamentary Bill was proposed to ban women from dangerous sports after a woman died in a parachuting accident.
10/6/1906, Sunday (-14,212) The SOS distress signal was used for the first time, when the Cunard liner Slavonia was wrecked off the Azores.
7/6/1906. Thursday (-14,215) The Lusitania, the world's biggest liner, was launched in Glasgow.
5/6/1906, Tuesday (-14,217) Germany decided to build more battleships.
4/6/1906, Monday (-14,218) Britain, France and Italy guaranteed the independence of Ethiopia.
1/6/1906, Friday (-14,222) (Railway Tunnel) The Simplon I rail tunnel, 20.5 km long, linking Switzerland and Italy, opened.
28/5/1906. Monday (-14,225) (Russia) The Russian government decided to redistribute 25 million acres of land to peasants.
26/5/1906. Saturday (-14,227) The rebuilt Vauxhall Bridge over the Thames was reopened.
24/5/1906. Thursday (-14,229) Czar Nicholas II granted universal male suffrage but refused an amnesty for political prisoners as suggested by the Duma.
23/5/1906, Wednesday (-14,230) The Norwegian poet Henry Ibsen died.
22/5/1906, Tuesday (-14,231) The last British troops left the Dominion of Canada.
19/5/1906, Saturday (-14,234) Joao Franco became Prime Minister of Spain, with dictatorial powers.
12/5/1906, Saturday (-14,241) The Russian Duma and the Tsar disputed over the release of political prisoners.
11/6/1906, Friday (-14,242) Isvolsky became Russian Foreign Secretary.
10/5/1906. Thursday (-14,243) The first Russian Parliament, or Duma, met in St Petersburg. There was deadlock as the Cadet's party opposed the Fundamental Laws.
8/5/1906, Tuesday (-14,245) The US allowed Alaska to elect a delegate to Congress; they arrived in December.
6/5/1906, Sunday (-14,247) (1) British soldiers killed 60 Zulus at Durban.
(2) Tsar Nicholas II promulgated the Fundamental Law of the Russian Empire, reaffirming autocratic rule.
5/5/1906, Saturday (-14,248) In Russia, Count Witte was replaced by the more conservative Ivan Goremykin.
30/4/1906, Monday (-14,253)
28/4/1906, Saturday (-14,255) (Mathematics) Austrian-US mathematician Kurt Godel was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia.
27/4/1906. Friday (-14,256) China reluctantly granted Britain control of Tibet, following the occupation of the capital Lhasa by British troops.
24/4/1906, Tuesday (-14,259) The Nazi collaborator William Joyce, or 'Lord Haw Haw', was born in Brooklyn, New York City.
21/4/1906, Saturday (-14,262) The Great Fire of San Francisco, started by the earthquake on 18/4/1906, ended.
20/4/1906, Friday (-14,263) An Australian wombat, the oldest known marsupial, died in London Zoo aged 26.
19/4/1906, Thursday (-14,264) Pierre Curie, French scientist who discovered Radium, was run over and killed in Paris.
18/4/1906. Wednesday (-14,265) (Earthquake, USA) Major earthquake hit San Francisco. Over 1,000 people were killed and large fires threatened upmarket homes on Nob Hill, after the water mains were destroyed in the quake. Overall, 3,000 acres of the city were devastated. The fire did more damage than the quake, it took 3 days to bring the blaze under control and 490 blocks were destroyed.
17/4/1906. Tuesday (-14,266) The British Labour Party called for universal female suffrage.
15/4/1906, Sunday (-14,268) Easter Sunday.
13/4/1906, Friday (-14,270) Samuel Beckett, Irish playwright, was born.
11/4/1906, Wednesday (-14,272) (Japan) Having occupied Taiwan since the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, Japan now appointed military commander Sakuma Samata to 'control and pacify' the island's aboriginal population. Tribal land was confiscated and entire villages forcibly relocated; resistance was countered by collective punishment. Villages were bombed and hit with nerve gas, And concentration camps set up behind electrified fences.
9/4/1906, Monday (-14,274) The Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell was born in London.
8/4/1906, Sunday (-14,275) D Auguste, the first recorded Alzheimer's victim, died (born 1850).
7/4/1906. Saturday (-14,276) (1) The Conference of Algecieras ended.
(2) Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying the town of Ottaiano. Hundreds died. Over 105 were killed when the church of San Guiseppe collapsed in Naples. The weight of ash killed many more as roofs collapsed.
6/4/1906, Friday (-14,277) Poet Laureate, John Betjeman, was born in London.
5/4/1906, Thursday (-14,278) Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany dismissed Count Friedrich Holstein, a key advisor in the Foreign Department, ending fears of a German war with France over Morocco.
4/4/1906, Wednesday (-14,279) Elections were held for the first Duma (Parliament) in Russia.
2/4/1906, Monday (-14,281
20/3/1906. Tuesday (-14,294) Russian army officers were killed by soldiers in a mutiny at Sevastopol, Crimea.
19/3/1906, Monday (-14,295) Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi responsible for the execution of millions of European Jews during World War II, was born in Solingen.
16/3/1906 Friday (-14,298) Japanese railways were nationalised.
14/3/1906. Wednesday (-14,300) The British Parliament accepted the principle of old age pensions.
13/3/1906, Tuesday (-14,301) Susan B Anthony, American pioneer of women's suffrage, died aged 86.
11/3/1906, Sunday (-14,303) 1,200 miners died in a pit explosion in northern France.
9/3/1906, Friday (-14,305) David Smith, sculptor, was born (died 1965).
8/3/1906. Thursday (-14,306) The British government stated that the British Empire covered 11.5 million square miles, one fifth of the world's land area, and had a population of 400 million, a quarter of the world total. The Empire had grown by a third in the last 25 years.
7/3/1906. Wednesday (-14,307) Finland extended suffrage to all tax paying men and women aged over 24.
6/3/1906, Tuesday (-14,308) An avalanche at Roger's Pass in the US buried a train. By the time the train was dug out, 62 people had died.
2/3/1906, Friday (-14,312) Tsar Nicholas II ceded some power to the Russian Parliament.
19/2/1906. Monday (-14,323) The American, William Kellogg, formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company of Michigan to market to the public the breakfast cereal he had invented as a health food for mental patients 30 years earlier with his brother John Kellogg. John, a Seventh Day Adventist, had claimed the new food would curb the sex drive but the latest adverts failed to mention that.
14/2/1906, Wednesday (-14,328) 54 were arrested as suffragettes fought police outside the British Parliament.
10/2/1906, Saturday (-14,332) Britain launched the revolutionary new battleship Dreadnought. She made every other warship obsolete, outgunning and outranging them all. Her new steam turbine propulsion made her much faster than older ships. This marked the start of a keen naval arms race between Britain and Germany. Germany now realised that the latest class of battleships were too big to pass through the Kiel Canal. The Russo-Japanese War demonstrated the need for such battleship innovation, as naval battles were now fought at long range, using torpedoes, and torpedo boats therefore had to be destroyed at a distance with accurate long-range artillery.
9/2/1906, Friday (-14,333) Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet and novelist (born 27/6/1872 in Dayton, Ohio) died of tuberculosis. Son of a former slave, his poetry did much to describe the everyday lives of Black Americans.
8/2/1906, Thursday (-14,334) Birth of Chester Carlson, who invented the photocopier.
7/2/1906. Wednesday (-14,335) Pu Yi, last Emperor of China, was born in Beijing.
5/2/1906, Monday (-14,337)
4/2/1906, Sunday (-14,338) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian who was part of the group who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler, was born.
3/2/1906. Saturday (-14,339) Japan decided to double the size of its navy by 1908.
2/2/1906. Friday (-14,340) 530 injured in Paris in dispute over Church property.
1/2/1906, Thursday (-14,341) The Government dropped plans for a fast motor road between London and Brighton.
31/1/1906, Wednesday (-14,342) (Earthquake) Magnitude 8.9 earthquake hit the Colombia and Ecuador coasts.
29/1/1906, Monday (-14,344) Christian IX of Denmark died, aged 87. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick VIII, aged 62, who ruled until 1912.
27/1/1906. Saturday (-14,346) The River Thames caught fire as oil on the surface ignited.
17/1/1906, Wednesday (-14,356) In France, Clement Fallieres was elected president, through the influence of Georges Clemenceau.
16/1/1906. Tuesday (-14,357) The Algecieras Conference – see 28/8/1904.
15/1/1906, Monday (-14,358) Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping tycoon, was born in Smyrna, Turkey.
14/1/1906, Sunday (-14,359)
13/1/1906, Saturday (-14,360) (Technology) Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist, died in St Petersburg.
12/1/1906, Friday (-14,361) The Liberals won a landslide victory in the British general elections. Labour under Keir Hardie also made gains. The Liberals had 399 seats, up from 184 in the 1900 election. The Conservatives retained 156 seats, down from 402. Labour gained 29 seats; a secret Liberal-Labour pact gave the Labour candidate a free run against the Tories in key constituencies. Labour's share of the vote was just 4.8%, but this was treble their 1900 share. In December 1905 the new Liberal Government got the Trades Disputes Bill passed by the (Conservative-dominated) House of Lords, reversing the House of Lords ruling in the Taff Vale case (1901), which had meant trades unions were liable for losses to the employer caused by strikes.
9/1/1906, Tuesday (-14,364)
3/1/1906, Wednesday (-14,370) (Astronomy) William Wilson Morgan was born in Bethesda, Tennessee, USA. He first demonstrated that the Milky Way galaxy has a spiral structure, like M31.
2/1/1906. Tuesday (-14,371) (1) New French Darraq racing car set a speed record of 108 mph.
(2) The Sultan of Brunei agreed to hand over administration of Brunei to the British.
1/1/1906, Monday (-14,372) (1) General Von Moltke was made head of the German armed forces.
(2) In Britain the Lunacy Commission reported that on this date 121,979 persons were certified as insane.
30/12/1905, Saturday (-14,374) A revolt in Moscow was brutally suppressed.
24/12/1905. Sunday (-14,380) The US industrialist Howard Hughes was born.
23/12/1905, Saturday (-14,381) (1) (Australia) Australia passed the Aborigines Act. It provided for the removal of indigenous Australian children aged under 6, and their 'integration' into White society through education and work placements – usually menial labour, in practice.
(2) The final of the earliest known beauty contest in Britain was held at Newcastle on Tyne.
19/12/1905. Tuesday (-14,385) London County Council set up a motorised ambulance service for traffic accident victims.
16/12/1905, Saturday (-14,388) The first civilian motor ambulance was delivered to the South West Ambulance Station of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Built to order by James and Browne of 395 Oxford Street London for £465, it was used to transport scarlet fever patients from their homes to isolation hospitals, from 11/2/1906.
14/12/1905, Thursday (-14,390) UK Trade Unions called for universal suffrage, an eight hour working day, and old age pensions.
11/12/1905, Monday (-14,393) (USA) Edward Atkinson, US economist, died in Boston (born 10/2/1827 in Brookline, Massachusetts).
9/12/1905, Saturday (-14,395) In France, the Church and State were legally separated.
7/12/1905. Thursday (-14,397) Russian revolutionaries occupied the fortress at Kiev, Ukraine.
6/12/1905, Wednesday (-14,398) Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen landed at Fort Egbert, Alaska, after a 2 ½ year exploration of America's arctic coast.
5/12/1905. Tuesday (-14,399) The roof of Charing Cross Station collapsed, killing six people.
4/12/1905, Monday (-14,400) British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour resigned.
3/12/1905, Sunday (-14,401) British troops quelled a riot at Georgetown, British Guyana.
2/12/1905, Saturday (-14,402)
1/12/1905, Friday (-14,403) 20 Russian army officers and 230 guards were arrested at St Petersburg after a plot to kill the Tsar was uncovered.
30/11/1905, Thursday (-14,404) (Aviation) The Aero Club of America was formed in New York City.
28/11/1905. Tuesday (-14,406) (1) Austria gained universal suffrage.
(2) Sinn Fein was founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffith.
23/11/1905, Thursday (-14,411) (Medical) Sir John Burdon-Sanderson, physiologist, died (b0rn 21/12/1828).
19/11/1905, Sunday (-14,415) The British steamer Hilda was wrecked off St Malo killing 128.
18/11/1905. Saturday (-14,416) Prince Carl of Denmark was chosen to be King Haakon VII of Norway.
14/11/1905, Tuesday (-14,420) Robert Whitehead, who invented the naval torpedo in 1866, died in Berkshire.
12/11/1905, Sunday (-14,422) (1) Russia imposed martial law in Poland
(2) In the UK, Queen Alexandra launched an appeal for the unemployed.
8/11/1905. Wednesday (-14,426) In Odessa, Russia, 1,000 Jews were killed when a mob of 50,000 went on the rampage stabbing Jewish men, women, and children.
2/11/1902, Thursday (-14,432) (Medical) Rudolf Albert von Kolliker, Swiss anatomist and physiologist, died in Wurzburg, Bavaria.
1/11/1905. Wednesday (-14,433) Police closed George Bernard Shaw's play, Mrs Warren's Profession, because of its portrayal of prostitution.
30/10/1905. Monday (-14,435) (1) Aspirin went on sale in the UK for the first time.
(2) (Russia) Czar Nicholas II of Russia, on advice from Sergei Yulevitch Witte, issued a decree to turn his country from an absolute aristocracy into a semi-constitutional monarchy in an attempt to quell growing popular unrest, issuing the October Manifesto. However by the end of 1906 Czar Nicholas, with the opposition divided as to the acceptability of his reforms, was able to resume autocratic rule again.
26/10/1905. Thursday (-14,439) (Scandinavia) Norway and Sweden ended their union. King Oscar II of Sweden formally abdicated the crown of Norway.
25/10/1905, Wednesday (-14,440) (1) (Russia) The first meeting of the Soviet (Council) of Workers Deputies met in St Petersburg. There was widespread disorder across Russia, with a train strike preventing the British Ambassador leaving St Petersburg.
(2) (Britain) Lord Roseberry called for a future Liberal Government to challenge the power of the House of Lords.
24/10/1905, Tuesday (-14,441)
23/10/1905, Monday (-14,442) (Science) Swiss-US physicist Felix Bloch was born in Zurich, In 1927 he proved that some electrons could travel through a crystal array without being scattered.
22/10/1905, Sunday (-14,443) (Astronomy) Karl Jansky was born in Norman, Oklahoma. In 1931 his experiments with an improvised radio aerial led to the birth of radio astronomy. Some radio emissions were found to be coming from the Milky Way.
21/10/1905, Saturday (-14,444) (1) (Russia) A railway strike began in Russia, which became nation-wide by 25/10/1905. By the end of October this had become a general strike across Russia.
(2) (Rail Travel) A 110 km line of gauge 0.75 metres opened from Famagusta (Cyprus) via Nicosia to Morphou. It closed on 31/12/1951.
18/10/1905, Wednesday (-14,447) (Road traffic) Kingsway and Aldwych, London, opened.
14/10/1905. Saturday (-14,451) The suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and Annie Kenney opted to go to prison for seven days rather than pay a fine for assaulting a policeman. The assault was at a political meeting at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, where a leading Liberal politician, Sir Edward Grey, was making a speech.
13/10/1905, Friday (-14,452) Sir Henry Irving, the first British actor to receive a knighthood, gave his final performance in Bradford, Yorkshire, before collapsing and dying in the arms of his dresser at the Midland Hotel.
5/10/1905. Thursday (-14,460) (Aviation) Orville Wright became the first man to fly an aircraft for 38 minutes. He flew in a 24.5 mile circular course at Dayton, Ohio.
28/9/1905, Thursday (-14,467) (Atomic) Albert Einstein published what is now known as his Special Theory of Relativity. This argued that light travelled at a constant speed for all observers regardless of position or motion, that e = mc2, and that time slowed down as one approached lightspeed.
25/9/1905, Monday (-14,470) Jacques Cavaignac, French politician, died (born 21/5/1853).
19/9/1905, Tuesday (-14,476) (1) Britain and Germany held simultaneous war manoeuvres.
(2) (Children) Doctor Thomas Barnardo, who set up over 112 homes for deprived children from 1867, died aged 60 at Surbiton, SW London.
18/9/1905. Monday (-14,477) Greta Garbo, the Swedish shop-girl who became a famous film star, was born.
11/9/1905, Monday (-14,484) Figures were released showing rural lunacy on the rise; this was attributed to the tedium of living in the countryside.
9/9/1905. Saturday (-14,486) (Earthquake) Severe earthquake killed thousands in Calabria, Italy.
8/9/1905, Friday (-14,487) In Britain, 1,997,000 people now belonged to Trades Unions.
7/9/1905, Thursday (-11,488)
5/9/1905. Tuesday (-14,490) (1) The Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire) was signed, ending the Russo-Japanese war. Japan acquired south Sakhalin from Russia, also the Russian leasehold territories in South Manchuria. Russia also recognised Japanese dominance in Korea, which led to Japan formally annexing Korea as a colony in 1910. Russia refused to pay any indemnities, sparking angry demonstrations in Tokyo. This Treaty marked the start of Japanese expansion into China, which aroused unease in Washington.
(2) Hundreds died in clashes between Armenians and Tartars.
4/9/1905, Monday (-14,491)) (Africa) Pierre Paul Brazza, French explorer of Africa and founder of the French Congo (Brazzaville), died (born 26/1/1852).
3/9/1905, Sunday (-14,492) (Atomic) Physicist Carl David Anderson was born in New York City, USA. In 1932 he discovered the positron, a positively-charged antimatter version of the electron. This proved correct the 1928 prediction of Paul Dirac (1902-1984), that negative-energy particles corresponding to our positive energy ones should exist.
2/9/1905. Saturday (-14,493) Russia suffered its worst famine since 1891.
1/9/1905, Friday (-14,494)
30/8/1905, Wednesday (-14,496) (Canada) Alberta was constituted a province of Canada, created out of part of the North West Territories.
29/8/1905. Tuesday (-14,497) Russia and Japan agreed peace. An armistice was arranged for 31/8/1905. A peace treaty was signed between Russia and Japan on 5/9/1905 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA.
25/8/1905, Friday (-14,501) The mutineers from the battleship Potemkin were sentenced. Eight were condemned to death. Heavy taxation, Russia's defeat by Japan, and the Czar's opposition to constitutional government were causing resentment.
13/8/1905, Sunday (-14,513) A referendum in Norway found 80% agreed with the separation from Sweden.
12/8/1905, Saturday (-14,514) Under Russian direction a pogrom of Jews occurred in Bialystock, Poland; 38 were killed and over 200 wounded.
11/8/1905, Friday (-14,515) (Biology) Austrian-American biochemist Erwin Chargaff was born in Czernowitz. He demonstrated in the 1940s that for DNA the number of adenine and thymine bases, and the number of cytosine and guanine bases, were equal. This was an important clue to the structure of DNA.
8/8/1905, Tuesday (-14,518)
1/8/1905, Tuesday (-14,525) The founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, began a 2,000 mile crusade round Britain.
31/7/1905. Monday (-14,526) The Russian governor of Sakhalin Island surrendered to the Japanese.
29/7/1905, Saturday (-14,528) Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish Secretary-General of the United Nations, was born in Jonkoping.
24/7/1905, Monday (-14,533) (Germany, Russia) Kaiser William II of Germany and Czar Nicholas II of Russia signed the Treaty of Bjorko at a meeting in Finland. This proposed a mutual defence pact between the two countries if either was attacked by another European power. However the Russian Foreign Office opposed the Treaty because it threatened Russia's relationship with France, upon whom Russia was dependent for aid. The German Chancellor, Von Bulow also opposed the Treaty, and Franco-German tension over the Morocco crisis left the Treaty dead in the water.
18/7/1905, Tuesday (-14,539) (Railways) The first railway in Togo opened; from Lome 45 km to Anecho.
16/7/1905. Sunday (-14,541) Commander Peary of the USA set out on his second expedition to the North Pole.
12/7/1905, Wednesday (-14,545) (Britain) In Britain, the Princess of Wales gave birth to a son, Prince John.
11/7/1905, Tuesday (-14,546) 124 miners died in a pit disaster in Glamorgan, south Wales.
10/7/1905, Monday (-14,547) A UK Parliamentary reshuffle meant 22 fewer Irish MPs.
9/7/1905, Sunday (-14,548) (London) Large Labour demonstration in Hyde Park, London.
8/7/1905. Saturday (-14,549) The crew of the battleship Potemkin surrendered to the Romanians after a mutiny. Romania refused to extradite them back to Russia because it said the mutiny was a political act. The mutiny began as the battleship was watching the rioters in the city of Odessa. A sailor complained about bad food and was shot. The crew mutinied, on 27/6/1905, and threw the captain and several officers overboard; the remaining 8 officers joined the mutiny. A steamer laden with coal was seized and the coal transferred to the Potemkin.
3/7/1905. Monday (-14,554) Russian troops killed more then 6,000 people in Odessa to restore order after a general strike.
1/7/1905, Saturday (-14,556) (1) The Colonial Office considered a plan to relocate Britain's 'surplus population' in various parts of the Empire.
(2) Albert Einstein propounded the Theory of Relativity.
29/6/1905. Thursday (-14,558) The inaugural meeting of the Automobile Association took place at the Trocadero Restaurant in London, attended by 50 motorists.
27/6/1905, Tuesday (-14,560) Mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin, see 8/7/1905.
23/6/1905, Friday (-14,564) Tsar Nicholas II broke his promise regarding an elected assembly.
21/6/1905, Wednesday (-14,566) Jean Paul-Sartre, French dramatist and novelist, was born in Paris.
19/6/1905. Monday (-14,568) The world's first all motion picture cinema opened in Pittsburgh. For 10 cents admission there was a film, Poor But Honest, followed by The Baffled Burglar, accompanied by a melody on the harp by Madame Durocher.
18/6/1905, Sunday (-14,569) A group of striking textile workers from Lodz, Poland, were fired upon by Cossacks and soldiers, killing five. This led to several days of rioting, in which (official figures) 151 were killed, including 55 Poles, 79 Jews and 17 Germans. The Polish middle classes feared more unrest and over the next year some 33,000 applied for passports to emigrate from Poland.
14/6/1905, Wednesday (-14,573)
7/6/1905. Wednesday (-14,580) Norway declared independence from Sweden (see 4/11/1814). Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Norway had been a self-governing subject of the Swedish Crown. In 1905 the provincial parliament voted to cut off relations with Sweden, and a plebiscite backed the move by 386,208 to 184 votes. In 1397 Margaret I succeeded in uniting Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In 1527 Gustav I cancelled that union, and Norway was ruled by Denmark until 1814, when it was ceded to Sweden under the Treaty of Kiel. Calls for Norwegian independence grew, especially after the adoption of universal suffrage in 1898.
6/6/1905, Tuesday (-14,581) Theophile Delcasse, French Foreign Minister since 1898, resigned under pressure from Germany.
4/6/1905, Sunday (-14,583)
3/6/1905. Saturday (-14,584) Cossacks charged at rioting crowds in St Petersburg.
2/6/1905, Friday (-14,585) (Road travel) The Royal Mail horse drawn parcel post coach from London to Brighton was replaced by a faster motor coach service.
27/5/1905. Saturday (-14,591) The Russian fleet was annihilated by the Japanese at the Battle of Tsushima. Tsar Nicholas II had sent a fleet of 38 ships on an 18-month voyage from the Baltic to the Far East, including 7 battleships and 6 cruisers. This was met in the Tsushima Straits by Admiral Togo who commanded a fleet of similar size. Battle began on the afternoon of the 27 May and recommenced at dawn on the 28th. All but 3 of the 38 Russian ships were sunk or captured; Japanese losses were just 3 torpedo boats. The Russian fleet was too late to save Port Arthur in any case, which had surrendered to Japan on 2/1/1905. Along with the humiliating defeat at Mukden (10/3/1905) the Tsar now had to accept a humiliating treaty allowing extensive Japanese territorial gains in northern China. The rest of the world now had to accept Japan as a major power, although until 1854 Japan had been a feudal state closed to the rest of the world.
25/5/1905, Thursday (-14,593) Europe's first flight by a heavier-than-air machine.
24/5/1905, Wednesday (-14,594) Anti-Semitic riots in Warsaw, many Jews killed.
18/5/1905, Thursday (-14,600)
16/5/1905, Tuesday (-14,602) Bob Hope, US comedian, was born.
12/5/1905, Friday (-14,606) A Bill to give British women the right to vote failed; it was talked out of time. Under Parliamentary rules, a Bill is lost if MPs are still debating it when the House is due to adjourn.
1/5/1905, Monday (-14,617) In talks lasting until the 5th May, Paul Rouvier, French Prime Minister, failed to settle the Moroccan Question with Germany.
30/4/1905, Sunday (-14,618) (Russia) Tsar Nicholas II guaranteed freedom of conscience and freedom of worship in Russia.
29/4/1905, Saturday (-14,619) Rudolf Schwartz, Viennese conductor who survived the Nazi concentration camps to become conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, was born.
26/4/1905, Wednesday (-14,622)
24/4/1905, Monday (-14,624) (Crime, Punishment) China 'de-barbarised' its death penalty procedure. By Imperial Edict, the body was no longer cut up and the head exhibited for public view.
23/4/1905, Sunday (-14,625) Easter Sunday.
9/4/1905, Sunday (-14,639) A judge decided the public had no right of way to Stonehenge.
4/4/1905, Tuesday (-14,644) An earthquake in Lahore, India, killed over 10,000 people.
2/4/1905, Sunday (-14,646) The Simplon Railway Tunnel officially opened.
1/4/1905, Saturday (-14,647) (Africa) The Victoria Falls Bridge (Zimbabwe – Zambia) was completed.
31/3/1905, Friday (-14,648) (Britain, France-Germany, Morocco) Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany arrived in Tangier, Morocco, to give a speech in favour of Moroccan independence. This was intended to humiliate France, who saw Morocco as their own protectorate, and to test the closeness of the Franco-British entente. Germany intended to subsequently 'grant France limited control in Morocco', a move supposed to bring France closer to Germany and away from Britain. However Germany was surprised by the forcefulness with which British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey backed France; Germany was further isolated from France, Britain and hence Russia too. This event paved the way for the Agadir crisis of 1911.
30/3/1905, Thursday (-14,649) President Roosevelt was asked to mediate in the Far East war between Japan and Russia.
24/3/1905, Friday (-14,655) Jules Verne, French science fiction writer, died in Amiens aged 77.
15/3/1905, Wednesday (-14,664) Fierce storms in Cornwall killed 23 as winds reached 100 mph.
14/3/1905, Tuesday (-14,665) (Football) Chelsea football club, London, was founded.
12/3/1905, Sunday (-14,667)
10/3/1905, Friday (-14,669) The Japanese defeated the 200,000 strong Russian army at Mukden.
9/3/1905, Thursday (-14,670) Russia agreed to pay £65,000 compensation for the Dogger Bank incident of 1904.
6/3/1905, Monday (-14,673)
3/3/1905, Friday (-14,676) Czar Nicholas II agreed to form a Consultative Assembly.
2/3/1905, Thursday (-14,677) (Britain) Dr Gore was installed as the first Bishop of Birmingham.
1/3/1905, Wednesday (-14,678) Britain announced that spending on the navy was to increase by 350%.
28/2/1905, Tuesday (-14,679) George Boutwell, US statesman, died in Groton, Massachusetts (born in Brookline, Massachusetts 28/1/1818).
23/2/1905, Thursday (-14,684) The Rotary Club was founded by Paul Harris and others, in offices in Dearborn, Chicago.
19/2/1905, Sunday (-14,688) The Japanese began fighting the Russians for control of Mukden.
18/2/1905, Saturday (-14,689) Jay Cooke, US financier, died (born 10/8/1821).
17/2/1905, Friday (-14,690) (1) A typhus outbreak occurred in London's East End.
(2) Grand Duke Sergei was killed in Moscow by an assassin's bullet.
15/2/1905, Wednesday (-14,692) Harold Arlen, musician, was born in New York.
13/2/1905, Monday (-14,694) The Japanese laid siege to Vladivostock.
11/2/1905, Saturday (-14,696) 11 Frenchmen landed in Crystal Palace from a hot air balloon after crossing the Channel.
10/2/1905. Friday (-14,697) The state of Wisconsin passed a tax on bachelors aged over 30.
9/2/1905, Thursday (-14,698) In Britain, the Board of Education called for greater thrift amongst schoolchildren.
7/2/1905, Tuesday (-14,700)
2/2/1905, Thursday (-14,705) The Russian writer Maxim Gorky was released from prison.
1/2/1905, Wednesday (-14,706) The General Strike that began in Warsaw (27/1/1905) now spread to Czestochowa and the Dabrowa Basin.
31/1/1905, Tuesday (-14,707)
27/1/1905, Friday (-14,711) A General Strike began in Warsaw in support of socialism and workers' rights. The army was brought in to suppress the strike and 29 companies of infantry along with 5 squadrons of cavalry and 4 Cossack companies killed (official figures) 64 strikers, a further 29 dying of their wounds later. In fact some 200 were killed and 270 wounded.
26/1/1905. Thursday (-14,712) The world's largest diamond was found at the Premier Mines in Pretoria, South Africa, by Captain Wells. The Cullinan Diamond weighed over one and a quarter pounds.
25/1/1905, Wednesday (-14,713) Czar Nicholas II promised reforms.
24/1/1905, Tuesday (-14,714)
22/1/1905. Sunday (-14,716) Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg when 140,000 striking workers were fired on and 105 killed as they marched on the Winter Palace to protest peacefully at Tsar Nicholas II's regime. The workers movement had begun on 16/1/1905 as a local strike but soon grew to encompass over 100,000 workers. They planned to present to the Tsar a petition calling for universal suffrage, equality for all classes, an 8-hour day, civil liberties and release of political prisoners. The workers were led by priest Georgi Gapon. Workers in St Petersburg elected a 'Soviet' ('Council' in Russia), to debate matters such as pay and working conditions. This event sparked the Russian Revolution.
21/1/1905, Saturday (-14,717) Christian Dior, French designer, was born in Granville.
20/1/1905, Friday (-14,718) Herbert Bowden, British politician, was born.
19/1/1905. Thursday (-14,719) 75,000 Russian workers went on strike amid growing civil disturbances, and anti-monarchist sentiments, fuelled by defeats by Japan.
17/1/1905, Tuesday (-14,721)
16/1/1905, Monday (-14,722) In Russia the Putilov Works was hit by a strike in support of four workers who had been dismissed. See 22/1/1905.
15/1/1905, Sunday (-14,723) Edward Teller, who developed the Hydrogen Bomb in 1952, was born to Jewish parents in Budapest.
14/1/1905, Saturday (-14,724) Ernst Abbe, German physicist (born 1840) died in Jena.
11/1/1905, Wednesday (-14,727) The price of a third class transatlantic liner ticket was £6.
7/1/1905, Saturday (-14,731) The US Senate approved the first government appointment of a Black man, as head of South Carolina Customs Services.
1/1/1905. Sunday (-14,737) (1) Russians defending Port Arthur finally capitulated to the Japanese; the effort had cost the lives of 60,000 Japanese troops.
(2) The Trans-Siberian railway officially opened. Its aim was to facilitate trade between Russia and China. Furs, grain, and cattle from Siberia would be traded for tea, silk, and cotton from China.
29/12/1904, Thursday (-14,740)
28/12/1904, Wednesday (-14,741) The first weather reports by wireless telegraphy were published in London.
27/12/1904, Tuesday (-14,742) The Abbey Theatre in Dublin opened, on the site of the former Mechanics Institute in Abbey Sttreet; the first State subsidised theatre in the world. The Irish State saw the theatre as a focus for nationalist literature and drama.
26/12/1904, Monday (-14,743) After months of unrest and riots in Russia, Tsar Nicholas II made decrees to improve the lot of the peasants.
25/12/1904, Sunday (-14,744) (Science) German-Canadian physicist Gerhard Hertzberg was born in Hamburg, Germany. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel prize for his work on the geometry of molecules in gases.
15/12/1904, Thursday (-14,754) In London, British politician Joseph Chamberlain called for curbs on immigration; he said they were responsible for crime and disease.
13/12/1904. Tuesday (-14,756) London's Metropolitan Railway went electric.
5/12/1904. Monday (-14,764) The Japanese destroyed the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.
1/12/1904, Thursday (-14,768) The Great World Fair, at St Louis, USA, closed, having had millions of visitors from all over the world.
30/11/1904, Wednesday (-14,769) The Japanese made headway against the Russians at Port Arthur, at the cost of 12,000 casualties.
29/11/1904, Tuesday (-14,770) A large increase in unemployment in Britain. Over 520,000 people in England and Wales were on Poor Relief, more than at any time since 1888, and a further 250,000 were reduced to living in workhouses, an 11% increase on 1903. Low wages meant a third of the population at or below the poverty line. Half the population of Scotland and a sixth of Londoners lived more than two people to a room.
28/11/1904, Monday (-14,771) Rebels in South West Africa were beaten by the Germans, see 3/10/1904.
25/11/1904, Friday (-14,774)
22/11/1904, Tuesday (-14,777) (Atomic) Hannes Alfven of Sweden was born. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for work in plasma physics.
21/11/1904, Monday (-14,778) A typhoon off Mindanao, The Philippines, rendered 30,000 people homeless.
20/11/1904, Sunday (-14,779)
18/11/1904, Friday (-14,781) (1) In Poland the illegal Polish Peasant Union (Polski Zwiazek Ludowy, PZL) was formed. It demanded a political voice for the workers and peasants.
(2) Gold was discovered in Rhodesia.
17/11/1904, Thursday (-14,782) First UK underwater voyage of a submarine was made, under the Solent from Southampton to the Isle of Wight.
16/11/1904, Wednesday (-14,783)
14/11/1904, Monday (-14,785) Michael Ramsey, 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, was born (died 1988)
13/11/1904, Sunday (-14,786) In the Plac Gryzbowski, Warsaw, a serious worker uprising took place. In clashes with the police and army, 6 were killed, 27 wounded and hundreds arrested.
8/11/1904. Tuesday (-14,791) US President Theodore Roosevelt won a second term in the elections.
2/11/1904. Wednesday (-14,797) The British newspaper The Mirror was founded by Alfred Harmsworth. Originally sold as a woman's paper for 1d, it was subsequently relaunched as the Daily Illustrated Mirror and retailed at ½ d.
1/11/1904, Tuesday (-14,798) George Bernard Shaw's play John Bull's Other Island had its premier.
31/10/1904. Monday (-14,799) The radio valve was invented by John Fleming at London University.
27/10/1904. Thursday (-14,803) The first section of the New York subway opened. Trains ran from City Hall to Broadway and 145th Street.
24/10/1904, Monday (-14,806), Four French officers were charged with lying in the Dreyfus case.
22/10/1904, Saturday (-14,808) The 'Dogger Bank' incident nearly caused war between Britain and Russia. The Russian Baltic fleet sank two Hull trawlers on the Dogger bank. The Russian Commander, Admiral Rozhdestvensky, later claimed he thought they were Japanese torpedo boats, sent under false flags to attack, but there was widespread disbelief and indignation in Britain. The Russians were fearful of Japanese attack and on edge, guns ready; they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a flotilla of small boats. However when they realised their mistake they did not stop to help but steamed off into the night. The people of Hull were furious and demanded the British navy chase after the Russians to 'teach them a lesson'. Only French diplomatic intervention prevented the incident from escalating further. The Russian fleet was on its was to fight the Japanese navy in the Pacific. Russia expressed regret and provided compensation.
13/10/1904, Thursday (-14,817) Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud published his Interpretation of Dreams.
12/10/1904, Wednesday (-14,818) The Polish Archbishop, Wincenty Popiel, condemned socialism as being subversive of all institutions.
10/10/1904. Monday (-14,820) Kurdish tribesmen massacred Armenians in Turkey.
8/10/1904, Saturday (-14,822) (Chemistry) Alexander Winkler, German chemist, died in Dresden.
7/10/1904, Friday (-14,823) Isabella Bird Bishop, the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Geographical Society of London, died today aged 73. A sickly child, the family doctor advised her to travel and she did, widely, firstly to the western USA. Her last trip aboard was to Morocco in 1901. She established missionary hospitals in India and China.
6/10/1904, Thursday (-14,824)
4/10/1904, Tuesday (-14,826) Death of French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty.
3/10/1904. Monday (-14,827) France and Spain agreed that northern Morocco was recognised as a Spanish zone of influence.
2/10/1904, Sunday (-14,828) Graham Greene, novelist, was born (died 1991).
1/10/1904, Saturday (-14,829) (Atomic) Austrian-British physicist Otto Robert Frisch was born in Vienna. He developed the fission theory, in 1939, for the bombardment of uranium by neutrons.
20/9/1904. Tuesday (-14,840) The US Army rejected heavier than air flying machines.
16/9/1904, Friday (-14,844) (Innovation) Willis Carrier filed US patent no. 808897 for air conditioning. The basic idea of air conditioning had been known since Roman times, when it was noted that cool vapour rose from water thrown on hot stones. In 1902 a Brooklyn printer, Sackett-Williams, told Carrier that he had a problem with changing heat and humidity altering the colours unpredictably on his printing. Willis Carrier designed the first air conditioning unit, which weighed 30 tons. Dust control was added in 1906.
7/9/1904, Wednesday (-14,853) A treaty between the UK and Tibet gave Britain trading posts in Tibet and a promise that the Dalai Lama would not cede territory to a foreign power such as Russia. See 2/8/1904.
1/9/1904, Thursday (-14,859) (Canada) Earl Grey was appointed Governor-General of Canada.
29/8/1904, Monday (-14,862) The 3rd Olympic Games opened in St Louis, Missouri.
28/8/1904. Sunday (-14,863) A treaty was concluded in London whereby France would allow the British freedom of action in Egypt in return for the British allowing the French a free hand in Morocco. For many years the nominally independent Sultanate of Morocco had been losing power as it became increasingly dependent on French, Spanish, and German business and subsidies for financial security. In October 1904 the French also concluded a secret treaty with the Spanish. This disturbed Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany who saw his country being squeezed out of North Africa. Wilhelm II therefore landed at Tangier on 31 March 1905. The sultan sided with the Germans and serious friction with the French resulted. On 161/1906 the Algecieras Conference was held. German claims were backed by Austria whilst French claims were backed by Britain. Germany failed to curb France's privileged position in Morocco. See 8/4/1904.
24/8/1904, Wednesday (-14,867) The Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, was born in Sichuan Province.
20/8/1904, Saturday (-14,871)
17/8/1904, Wednesday (-14,874) In the UK, the Postmaster General reported that postcard usage increased by 25% in 1903.
16/8/1904, Tuesday (-14,875) Britain protested to Russia about attacks on neutral merchant shipping.
11/8/1904, Thursday (-14,880) (Namibia) The Herero of Namibia were defeated by the Germans at Hamakari. Survivors were driven into the Kalahari Desert where waterholes had been poisoned. The Herero were reduced from a population of 80,000 to around 15,000. Survivors were placed in slave labour camps.
7/8/1904, Sunday (-14,884) Ralph Johnson Bunche, who became the first Black person to hold an important position at the US State Department, was born. He helped found the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the 1949 Arab-Israeli truce.
4/8/1904. Thursday (-14,887) The first Atlantic weather forecast was received by radio telegraph.
3/8/1904, Wednesday (-14,888) Tibet's religious leader, the Dalai Lama, fled Lhasa as Lord Curzon's forces entered the city.
2/8/1904, Tuesday (-14,889) The British had faced resistance by Tibetans against colonial expansion. On this day the British, successful against Tibet, entered Lhasa. See 7/9/1904. Britain was concerned about growing Russian influence over Tibet. In May 1904 the last serious Tibetan resistance, in the Karo Pass, had been overcome. 3,000 Tibetans had taken up position behind a wall connecting two forts fired on advancing British, Sikh and Ghurkha forces. However the Sikhs outflanked the Tibetans whilst the Ghurkhas climbed a precipice to fire down on them. The Tibetans fled, leaving 400 dead.
1/8/1904, Monday (-14,890) Birth of American jazzman Count Basie.
30/7/1904, Saturday (-14,892)
28/7/1904, Thursday (-14,894) In Poland the Interior Minister, Plehve, was assassinated by the socialist revolutionary, Sazonov.
27/7/1904, Wednesday (-14,895) Anton Dolin, English ballet dancer, was born in Sussex.
25/7/1904, Monday (-14,897)
23/7/1904, Saturday (-14,899) The first ice cream cone was commercially sold, by Charles Menches in Missouri. See 13/12/1903.
22/7/1904, Friday (-14,900) Wilson Barrett, playwright, died (born in Essex 18/2/1846).
21/7/1904, Thursday (-14,901) The Trans-Siberian Railway was finally completed. The 4,607 miles of track took 13 years to lay.
20/7/1904, Wednesday (-14,902) (Sea and Canal) The new Kings Dock at Swansea was inaugurated.
17/7/1904, Sunday (-14,905) The foundation stone of the Anglican Liverpool Cathedral was laid by King Edward VII.
15/7/1904, Friday (-14,907) (Light) Pavel Chenenkov was born in Voronezh, Russia. In 1934 he discovered that a particle travelling at close to the speed of light in a vacuum through a liquid or transparent solid travels faster than the speed of light in that medium, light is emitted. This is now known as Cherenkov radiation.
14/7/1904, Thursday (-14,908) Paul Kruger, leader of the Boer Republic of Transvaal during the Boer War, died.
12/7/1904, Tuesday (-14,910) Britain and Germany signed a five-year treaty, to resolve disputes through arbitration rather than by military means.
7/7/1904, Thursday (-14,915) James Cagney, film director, was born in New York.
5/7/1904, Tuesday (-14,917) The composer Edward Elgar was knighted.
4/7/1904. Monday (-14,918) Work began on the 40 mile-long Panama Canal. It opened on 15/8/1914.
3/7/1904. Sunday (-14,919) The Hungarian-born Zionist Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) died in Vienna. He was a journalist, and the founder of Zionism. He rejected territories such as Uganda for a Jewish homeland, insisting on Palestine.
2/7/1904, Saturday (-14,920) Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, born 17/1/1860 in Taganrog, died in Germany whilst being treated for tuberculosis.
1/7/1904, Friday (-14,921) The third Olympic Games opened in St Louis, USA.
26/6/1904. Sunday (-14,926) Japanese forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the Russians at Telissu.
23/6/1904, Thursday (-14,929) US President Roosevelt was nominated by his party for a further term.
22/6/1904, Wednesday (-14,230) The Cape to Cairo railway opened.
9/6/1904, Thursday (-14,943) (1) First meeting of the Ladies Automobile Club.
(2) First concert by the London Symphony Hall.
26/5/1904, Thursday (-14,957) George Formby, Lancashire comedian who played the ukulele and was famous for his song Cleaning Windows, was born.
25/5/1904. Wednesday (-14,958) In a major battle of the Russo-Japanese war at Nanshan, near Port Arthur, 4,500 Japanese and 3,000 Russians died. Oku sealed off Port Arthur by land and sea.
24/5/1904, Tuesday (-14,959) (Innovation) Engineer and inventor Friedrich Seimens died.
21/5/1904, Saturday (-14,962) (Football) The Football Federation (FIFA) was founded in Paris, to obtain greater control of the game at international level.
11/5/1904. Wednesday (-14,972) Spanish painter Salvador Dali was born in Figueras, Upper Catalonia.
10/5/1904, Tuesday (-14,973) Sir Henry Morton Stanley, British explorer in Africa and journalist, died in London.
4/5/1904. Wednesday (-14,979) Charles Rolls and Henry Royce agreed to join forces in the motor trade. Charles Rolls had set a new land speed record of 93 mph in Phoenix Park in Dublin in 1904, and now agreed to sell cars produced by Royce. Rolls had won the Thousand-Mile Trial of 1900, which had popularised motoring in Britain. Henry Royce was an electrical engineer from Manchester who produced his first car on 1/4/1904, a ten horsepower model praised for its excellent running.
2/5/1904. Monday (-14,981) Bing Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, as Harry Lillis Crosby.
1/5/1904. Sunday (-14,982) (1) The Battle of the Yalu marked the start of the Russo-Japanese War.
(2) The Czech composer Antonin Dvorvak died.
30/4/1904, Saturday (-14,983) The St Louis Exhibition opened.
29/9/1904, Friday (-14,984)
24/4/1904, Sunday (-14,989) The French President Emile Loubert and Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse visited King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. The Papacy was annoyed at the visit.
23/4/1904, Saturday (-14,990) The US acquired the assets of the French Panama Canal Company.
22/4/1904. Friday (-14,991) (1) Britain passed a Bill legalising peaceful picketing during strikes.
(2) Robert Oppenheimer, US scientist who developed the US atomic bomb at Los Alamos, was born in New York City.
21/4/1904, Thursday (-14,992)
14/4/1904. Thursday (-14,999) The first attempt to produce 'talking pictures' was made at the Fulham Theatre, London, using cinematography and a phonograph.
13/4/1904. Wednesday (-15,000) Russia lost its flagship battleship Petropavlosk and 600 men to a mine in an ill-fated sortie from Port Arthur.
12/4/1904, Tuesday (-15,001)
9/4/1904, Saturday (-15,004) (1) A train ran from Plymouth to London non-stop in less than 4 ½ hours, a record speed.
(2) Isabella II, Queen of Spain, died.
8/4/1904. Friday (-15,005) Entente Cordiale set up between Britain and France. Each country recognised the other's colonial interests. France agreed not to interfere in Egypt and England agreed not to interfere in Morocco. Germany, which also wanted control in Morocco, felt threatened by this entente. Britain had become unpopular with many countries after the Boer War, and needed friends; relations with France had been strained since the Fashoda incident in 1898. Now both Britain and France felt anxious over the rise of the German economy and military might, especially its navy. The entente meant Britain's navy could concentrate on defending the North Sea whilst France's monitored the Mediterranean. See 28/8/2904.
5/4/1904, Tuesday (-15,008)
3/4/1904, Sunday (-15,010) Easter Sunday.
2/4/1904, Saturday (-15,011) Arthur Griffith proposed that Ireland should separate from England, but retain the same King.
1/4/1904, Friday (-15,012) Sid Field, English actor was born (died 1950).
31/3/1904, Thursday (-15,013) British forces under MacDonald killed some 300 Tibetans attempting to halt a British mission to Tibet.
30/3/1904, Wednesday (-15,014) By-election in Melbourne, Australia, caused by electoral irregularities in the 1903 General Election.
29/3/1904, Tuesday (-15,015) Richmond Park in south-west London was opened to the public.
28/3/1904, Monday (-15,016) (Denmark) The British King and Queen visited Copenhagen.
26/3/1904, Saturday (-15,018) Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece, was born.
24/3/1904, Thursday (-15,020) Sir Edwin Arnold, British poet, died (born 10/6/1832).
22/3/1904, Tuesday (-15,022) In the USA, the Daily Illustrated Mirror carried the world's first colour picture in a newspaper.
17/3/1904, Thursday (-15,027) (Britain) George William Frederick Charles, Duke of Cambridge, died (born 26/3/1819).
16/3/1904, Wednesday (-15,028) The first books of stamps were issued by the GPO in Britain. They contained 24 one-penny stamps.
12/3/1904, Saturday (-15,032) (Railways) The first main line electric train in Britain left Liverpool for Southport.
8/3/1904, Tuesday (-15,036) (1) (Railways) The first rail tunnel under the Hudson River, New York, was completed (it did not open officially until 25/1/1908). The tunnel connected New Jersey with Manhattan.
(2) (Railways) The Denver and Salt Lake railway opened,between Ogden and Lucin, USA.
6/3/1904, Sunday (-15,038) (Japan) Japan bombarded Vladivostok.
5/3/1904, Saturday (-15,039) (Jewish) A new enquiry into the Dreyfus case began in France.
3/3/1904, Thursday (-15,041)
2/3/1904, Wednesday (-15,042) Theodor Seuss Geisel, author of children's books, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1/3/1904, Tuesday (-15,043) Glenn Miller, American trombonist, was born in Clarinda, Indiana.
20/2/1904, Saturday (-15,053) Alexei Kosygin, Soviet Communist leader and Prime Minister, was born in Leningrad.
14/2/1904, Sunday (-15,059) (Geology) Charles Beecher, UA palaeontologist, died (born in Dunkirk, New York 9/10/1856).
11/2/1904, Thursday (-15,062) (Chemistry) Russian chemist Vladimir Markovnikov died in Moscow.
10/2/1904, Wednesday (-15,063) Night attack by the Japanese crippled the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.
9/2/1904, Tuesday (-15,064)
8/2/1904, Monday (-15,065) (Japan) The Russo-Japanese war broke out. This was provoked by Russian penetration into Manchuria and Korea. By 1898 Russia had secured the Pacific ice-free port of Port Arthur and had linked it to the Trans-Siberian railway going to Vladivostock and beyond. Japan ousted the Russians from Seoul, Korea.
The Russian army numbered 1,000,000 peacetime standing, plus 4,500,000 reserves; the Japanese army only comprised 150,000 men with 900,000 reserves. However the Russians faced a huge logistical problem because most of their forces had to be transported from Europe. The Trans-Siberian railway, still incomplete, was not up to the job. In an effort to resist the |Japanese they sent their Baltic Fleet around the Cape to the Pacific; en route they sank two British North Sea trawlers, thinking they were Japanese warships. See 30/1/1902. Fighting started when the Japanese attacked Port Arthur without warning, sinking two battleships and a cruiser, trapping the rest of the fleet in port. Only after this event did Japan declare war on Russia.
7/2/1904. Sunday (-15,066) A major fire destroyed much of the centre of Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
6/2/1904. Saturday (-15,067) Maryland disenfranchised Black voters.
5/2/1904, Friday (-15,068)
3/2/1904, Wednesday (-15,070) The Irish Nationalist leader John Redmond called for Home Rule.
2/2/1904, Tuesday (-15,071) Christabel Pankhurst entered the Free Trade Hall in Manchester where Liberal MP Winston Churchill was due to speak. She called for an amendment on women's suffrage, and was ejected.
1/2/1904, Monday (-15,072) Britain agreed with France to remain neutral if there was war between Russia and Japan.
29/1/1904, Friday (-15, 075)
22/1/1904, Friday (-15,082) The Norwegian city of Alesund burned down, leaving 12,000 homeless.
21/1/1904, Thursday (-15,083) Christian Dior, French fashion designer, was born.
18/1/1904, Monday (-15,086) Cary Grant, US film actor, was born in Bristol, England, as Alexander Archibald Leach.
12/1/1904. Tuesday (-15,092) (1) (Road Traffic) Henry Ford set a new car speed record of 91.37 mph. The record was set on frozen Lake St Clair near Detroit.
(2) (Namibia) Uprising in the Namibian town of Okahandja against German rule. Kaiser Wilhelm II sent 14,000 troops under Lieutenant-General Lothar vn Trotha (who had previously suppressed the Boxer Rebellion in China) to quell the revolt.
11/1/1904, Monday (-15,093) British troops massacred 1,000 rebels in Somaliland, who were under the command of the 'Mad Mullah'.
10/1/1904, Sunday (-15,094)
9/1/1904, Saturday (-15,095) George Balanchine, ballet choreographer, was born (died 1983).
8/1/1904, Friday (-15,096) Pope Pius X banned women from wearing low-cut dresses in the presence of Church dignitaries.
1/1/1904, Friday (-15,103) The Motor Car Bill became Law in the UK. It required cars to display a number plate at front and rear, and to be registered with the local county or borough council. Drivers had to have an annually-renewable driving licence, costing 5 shillings (25p). This licence could be suspended or withdrawn by the courts. A motorist had to stop and assist the police at the scene of an accident. A new offence of 'driving recklessly or negligently' was created. A new speed limit of 20 mph was introduced. The first motor vehicle registration plate was issued in Britain. It was 'A1', issued to Earl Russell for his 'Napier'.
17/12/1903. Thursday (-15,118) The Wright Brothers made the first successful controlled heavier-than-air flight. The flight, over the sand dunes at Kill Devil Hill, near Kittyhawk, North Carolina, lasted for 12 seconds at a height of 8 to 12 feet and an air speed of 30 to 35 mph. The flight was 120 foot long. Three subsequent flights were made, the longest being 59 seconds and 852 foot long, before their craft was damaged by a sudden gust of wind.
13/12/1903. Sunday (-15,122) Ice cream cones were patented by Italo Marcione of New York. See 23/7/1904.
11/12/1903, Friday (-15,124) The first wildlife preservation society was formed in Britain. It was called The Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire.
10/12/1903. Thursday (-15,125) Marie Curie, aged 33, won the Nobel Prize jointly with her husband for the discovery of radioactivity.
1/12/1903, Tuesday (-15,134)
18/11/1903, Wednesday (-15,147) Panama granted the canal strip to US, by treaty ratified on 26/2/1904.
17/11/1903. Tuesday (-15,148) Vladimir Lenin emerged as leader of the Bolsheviks within the Russian Social Democratic party. A walk-out by disgruntled Jewish Social Democrats gave him the slight majority he needed. The opposition Mensheviks (minority) feared Lenin would suppress free debate and institute a one man dictatorship.
12/11/1903, Thursday (-15,153) The Lebaudy brothers made a fully controlled dirigible flight, navigating 37 miles from Moisson to Paris.
10/11/1903. Tuesday (-15,155) (1) 10,000 Chinese troops moved into Manchuria.
(2) Car windscreen wipers were patented by Mary Anderson.
3/11/1903. Tuesday (-15,162) Panama revolted and declared itself independent from Colombia. At precisely 6pm the rebels bribed the Colombian garrison to surrender, the USS Nashville steamed into Panama harbour, and Panama proclaimed its independence. On 6/11/1903 the US recognised Panamanian independence. On 12/8/1903 the Colombian Senate had rejected US plans for a canal at Panama. On 18/11/1903 the US and Panama signed a treaty to build the Canal. See 22/1/1903. On 2/11/1903 the US sent three warships to Panama.
2/11/1903. Monday (-15,163) The Daily Mirror was first published in London, Britain, intended as a daily paper for women. See 1/11/1911, Woman's Weekly first published.
1/11/1903, Sunday (-15,164) Theodor Mommsen, writer, died aged 87.
31/10/1903, Saturday (-15,165) Hampden Park, home of Glasgow's Queen's Park football ground, was opened.
24/10.1903, Saturday (-15,172)
19/10/1903, Monday (-15,177) At 62 Nelson Street, Chorlton in Medlock, near Manchester, the home of Emmeline Pankhurst, the WSPU (Women's Social and Political Union) was officially founded; its motto 'Deeds not Words, to fight for female suffrage. In 1987 it became the Pankhurst Centre.
18/10/1903, Sunday (-15,178) Panamanian revolutionaries in New York purchased fabric from Macey's to create the new Panamanian flag. Mr Bunau-Varilla, a French engineer who had worked on the now-bankrupt French Panama canal construction company, was named as the first Panamanian ambassador to the US, despite not being a resident of Panama.
17/10/1903, Saturday (-15,179) Following the Colombian Senate's refusal, in August 1903, of the US's offer (June 1902) to buy the Panama Canal Zone for US$ 10 million, Panamanian dissidents travelled to Washington and agreed to stage a US backed secession of Panama from Colombia. The date for this secession was set for 3/11/1903 at 6pm, local time. The Panamanians were led by Dr Manuel Amador. President Roosevelt was angered by the Colombian rebuttal, and was said to have referred to 'those contemptible little creatures in Bogota'.
15/10/1903, Thursday (-15,181)
13/10/1903, Tuesday (-15,183) The first US baseball World Series was won by Boston Red Sox.
12/10/1903, Monday (-15,184) The shipbuilders Cammel and Laird agreed to merge.
10/10/1903. Saturday (-15,186) (Women's Rights) Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women's Social and Political Union to fight for female emancipation in Britain."Deeds not Words" was the motto of the new group, after efforts to persuade some MPs to back Parliamentary reform bore no fruit.
6/10/1903, Tuesday (-15,190) Manchester University formally opened.
1/10/1903, Thursday (-15,195) The Russian railway system was linked to European railways.
21/9/1903, Monday (-15,205) The first Wild West movie, Kit Carson, opened in the USA. It was 21 minutes long.
18/9/1903, Friday (-15,208) (Britain) Alexander Bain, Scottish educationalist, died in Aberdeen 18/9/1903 (born in Aberdeen, 11/6/1818).
17/9/1903, Thursday (-15,209) (1) Turks massacred 10,000 in Macedonia.
(2) In the UK, Joseph Chamberlain resigned over tariff reform. Chamberlain wanted preferential tariffs for Empire countries to maintain the unity of the British Empire. However the Duke of Devonshire, C T Ritchie, Lord Balfour of Burleigh and Lord George Hamilton preferred global free trade.
16/9/1903, Wednesday (-15,210) Franz Joseph of Austria proposed to bring Hungarian Army regiments in under a unified military command. This provoked opposition from the Magyars.
14/9/1903, Monday (-15,212)
12/9/1903, Saturday (-15,214) Maxwell Close, Irish geologist, died (born 1822).
11/9/1903, Friday (-15,215) A pogrom at Czetochowa, Poland, many Jews were killed.
8/9/1903, Tuesday (-15,218) (1) Turks massacred 50,000 Bulgarians.
(2) The TUC in Britain opposed the Government's tariff policy favouring Empire imports.
1/9/1903, Tuesday (-15,225) (1) The Albula rail tunnel, Norway, 6 km long, opened.
(2) The UK banned sugar imports from Denmark, Argentina, and Russia as part of a policy for preference for Empire imports. The TUC opposed this policy.
(3) Macedonian rebels blew up a Hungarian steamer, killing 29.
31/8/1903, Monday (-15,226) Unrest continued in the Balkans, with atrocities committed by all sides.
28/9/1903, Friday (-15,229)
27/8/1903, Thursday (-15,230) Donald George Bradman, Australian cricketer, was born.
26/8/1903, Wednesday (-15,231) Women got the vote in Connecticut State elections.
25/8/1903, Tuesday (-15,232) A Royal Commission into the Boer War criticised poor campaign planning and revealed that 100,000 British lives were lost.
22/8/1903. Saturday (-15,235) Lord Salisbury, four times Conservative Prime Minister, died, aged 73.
19/8/1903. Wednesday (-15,238) At the sixth Zionist conference in Basle, Switzerland, there were arguments over whether to set up a Jewish State in Uganda.
14/8/1903, Friday (-15,243) The UK Parliament approved a scheme to help Irish tenant famers buy their own land. Public funds would be used to pay the difference between what tenants could afford and what landlords will accept. The scheme was to remove some causes of Irish Nationalist agitation, at a time when agriculture was prospering, with wages rising and exports of linen weaving, spinning, brewing and distilling were growing.
12/8/1903, Wednesday (-15,245) The Colombian Senate rejected US plans for a Canal at Panama, see 3/11/1903.
9/8/1903, Sunday (-15,248) Pope Pius X was crowned before a crowd of 70,000 in Rome.
2/8/1903, Sunday (-15,255) The revolutionary organisation VMRO (Vnutrasnja Makedonska Revolucionarska Organizacija, or Internal Revolutionary Macedonian Organisation) staged the Illinden Uprising against Ottoman rule. They hoped to bring in the major European powers, but the rebellion was badly organised and its leader, Gotse Delchev, was captured and executed before it even began. The European powers avoided involvement in the uprising and it was brutally suppressed by the Ottomans. However post-event the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia forced the Ottoman Government to pay compensation to Macedonia and allow in foreign observers.
31/7/1903, Friday (-15,257) Alexander Graham Bell's proposition that radium could be used to treat cancer appeared in the US journal, Science.
22/7/1903, Wednesday (-15,266) Cassius Clay, US politician, died (born 19/10/1818).
21/7/1903, Tuesday (-15,267) The Irish Land Purchase Act was passed. This gave incentives for landlords to sell holdings to the irish Land Commission, which would collect annuities from tenants rather than rent.
20/7/1903, Monday (-15,268) (1) The UK Government announced it was to send large numbers of troops to India.
(2) Leo XIII (Gioacchino Vincenzo Pecci), Pope since 1878, died aged 93.
17/7/1903, Friday (-15,271) James Whistler, painter, died aged 70.
15/7/1903, Wednesday (-15,273) Walter Dumeaux Edmonds, US novelist, was born in Booneville, New York.
14/7/1903, Tuesday (-15,274) The UK Government rejected calls for penalties for drunk driving, driving tests and vehicle inspection.
12/7/1903, Sunday (-15.276)
11/7/1903, Saturday (-15,277) The world's first power boat race was staged by the Cork Yacht Club in Ireland.
10/7/1903, Friday (-15,278) Kenneth Clarke, UK Conservative politician, was born (died 1983).
9/7/1903, Thursday (-15,279)
7/7/1903, Tuesday (-15,281) Britain's falling birth-rate would result in a halt to population growth in 18 years.
6/7/1903, Monday (-15,282) (Britain, France) French President Emile Loubet, and Theophile Delcasse, visited London to begin the Entente Cordiale.
5/7/1903, Sunday (-15,283)
4/7/1903, Saturday (-15,284) President Roosevelt of the USA inaugurated the Pacific Communications Cable with a global message.
3/7/1903, Friday (-15,285) The UK and Japan demanded that Russia withdraw from Manchuria.
2/7/1903, Thursday (-15,286) Sir Alec Douglas Home, Conservative Prime Minister, was born in London.
1/7/1903, Wednesday (-15,287) (1) The aviator Amy Johnson was born in Hull.
(2) The first Tour de France cycle race began. It was sponsored by Henri Desgrange, the proprietor of a French newspaper, L'Auto, to poach readers from a rival publication, Le Velo, which already staged what were till then the biggest cycle races in France, Bordeaux to Paris and Paris to Brest. The Tour de France, announced in January 1903, was to be 2,500 km long, taking 19 days to complete. Just 21 of the 60 entrants completed the race, competing for prize money totalling 20,000 Francs.
25/6/1903, Thursday (-15,293) Birth of the author George Orwell, in Motihari, Bengal, India. He was born as Eric Arthur Blair.
17/6/1903, Wednesday (-15,301) Thomas William Allies, English historical writer, died in London (born 22/2/1813 in Midsomer Norton, near Bristol).
16/6/1903. Tuesday (-15,302) The Ford Motor Company was founded. Also this day the name Pepsi-Cola was registered with the US patent office.
15/6/1903, Monday (-15,303) (Yugoslavia) The Serbian Assembly elected Prince Peter, 59, to succeed Alexander I, who had been assassinated on 11/6/1903 along with his wife and several courtiers.
14/6/1903, Sunday (-15,304) (Medical) Karl Gegenbaur, German anatomist, died in Heidelberg.
12/6/1903, Friday (-15,306)
11/6/1903, Thursday (-15,307) (Yugoslavia) King Alexander Obrenovic of Serbia and Queen Draga were assassinated in Belgrade by army officers. King Alexander had been pro-Austrian and this outraged Serbs who, under the Black Hand organisation, wanted to take control of 'Serb' lands from Austria (including those such lands inhabited by Bosnian, Macedonians and Croats). The Black Hand were strong in the Serbian military and the Serbian Government had been reluctant to remove them, despite pressure from other European countries to do so, for fear of provoking their own assassination.
106/1903, Wednesday (-15,308) Luigi Cremona, Italian mathematician, died (born 7/12/1830).
8/6/1903, Monday (-15,310) The French bombarded the town of Figig, Algeria, in retaliation for native attacks on French colonialists.
4/6/1903, Thursday (-15,314) A Russian decree restricted Jewish ownership of property.
29/5/1903, Wednesday (-15,320) Bob Hope, comedian, was born.
28/5/1903. Thursday (-15,321) Earthquake in Constantinople killed 2,000 people.
23/5/1903, Saturday (-15,326) A Packard car left San Francisco for New York, completing the first successful transcontinental drive across the United States. The journey took 52 days, owing to the poor state of the roads, which limited car usage at the time.
21/5/1903. Thursday (-15,328) Joseph Chamberlain, the colonial secretary, founded the Tariff League to promote a preferential trading system within the British Empire.
19/5/1903, Tuesday (-15,330)
15/5/1903, Friday (-15,334) (Iran, Russia) British Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne announced that Britain would strongly resist the establishment of any fortified base by another power on the Persian Gulf. This was aimed at countering expansionist plans by Russia.
8/5/1903, Friday (-15,341) Death of the French Impressionist painter Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin, on the Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, aged 54. He was born in Paris in 1848 and spent a short time with Vincent Van Gogh. He died of syphilis. Gauguin had given up a successful career on the Paris stock exchange at 35 to pursue painting, at which he was self-taught.
4/3/1903, Monday (-15,345) (Britain, France) King Edward VII of Britain concluded a visit to Paris, during which Anglo-French relations were strengthened.
2/5/1903, Saturday (-15,347) The US paediatrician, Dr Benjamin Spock, was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
29/4/1903, Wednesday (-15,350) (Earthquake) Earthquake in Van, Turkey, killed 860.
22/4/1903, Wednesday (-15,357) (USA) The new New York Stock Exchange opened at 18 Broad Street.
19/4/1903, Sunday (-15,360) A pogrom began in Kishinev, in which 50 Jews were killed.
14/4/1903, Tuesday (-15,365) (1) In New York, the typhus vaccine was discovered by Dr Harry Plotz.
(2) Bulgarians massacred 165 Muslims in Macedonia.
12/4/1903, Sunday (-15,367) Easter Sunday. The world's first municipal motor bus service began, between Eastbourne railway station and Meads, Sussex.
6/4/1903, Monday (-15,373) The Dreyfus documents were proved to be forgeries by the army, in Paris.
29/3/1903, Sunday (-15,381) A regular news service began between New York and London began, using Marconi's wireless.
24/3/1903, Tuesday (-15,386) (Biology) Adolf Friedrich Butenandt was born in Bremerhaven, Germany. In 1929 he isolated estrone, a female sex hormone.
23/3/1903, Monday (-15,387) (Aviation) US patent no. 821393 was filed for the first aeroplane. The patent was filed by Orville Wright (1871-1948), and his brother Wilbur Wright (1867-1912). They tried to sell the aeroplane but without a demonstration flight people were sceptical of the notion that heavier-than-air machines could fly.
22/3/1903, Sunday (-15,388) Niagara Falls dried up due to a drought.
21/3/1903, Saturday (-15,389) In the US, the grievances that caused the 1902 miners' strike were resolved with a 10% pay rise and shorter working day, The mine owners, however, refused to recognise the United Mine Workers Union.
18/3/1903, Wednesday (-15,392) An anti-clerical French Government dissolved all religious orders.
16/3/1903, Monday (-15,394) Trial of Jack the Ripper.
15/3/1903, Sunday (-15,395) The British completed the conquest of northern Nigeria.
14/3/1903, Saturday (-15,396) The US Senate ratified construction of the Panama Canal.
13/3/1903, Friday (-15,397) Nikolaas Beets, Dutch poet, died in Utrecht (born in Haarlem 13/9/1814).
12/3/1903, Thursday (-15,398) The University of Puerto Rico was officially founded.
6/3/1903, Friday (-15,404) In response to the growing German navy, construction began on a huge new British naval base at Rosyth.
4/3/1903, Wednesday (-15,406) (Biology) William Clouser Boyd was born in Dearborn, USA. In 1956 he classified the human races by blood type, finding that the Basques were the last of an earlier European people.
3/3/1903, Tuesday (-15,407) The USA passed a bill to limit immigration and ban 'undesirables'.
26/2/1903, Thursday (-15,412) (1) In the UK, a Commons Debate called for curbs on immigration.
(2) Richard Gatling, US inventor of the rapid-fire gun, died aged 84.
23/2/1903, Monday (+15,415) The US signed a deal with Cuba to lease 45 square miles of land at Guantanamo Bay for 2,000 gold coins (about US$ 4,000) a year. Fidel Castro later refused to accept this money.
22/2/1903, Sunday (-15,416) The world's first ships newspaper was published, on the liner Etruria.
21/2/1903, Saturday (-15,417) Red rain fell in southern England, coloured by dust from the Sahara.
15/2/1903, Sunday (+15,423) (USA) The first teddy bear was sold from Michtom's candy store, New York. The origin of teddy bears was that in 1902 on a hunting trip by President Theodore Roosevelt, his assistants tied a bear to a tree so he could shoot it; Roosevelt refused such unsporting conduct and set the bear free instead.
10/2/1903, Tuesday (-15,428) Two new roads in London were named; Kingsway, after King George VII, and Aldwych.
6/2/1903, Friday (-15,432) (Road, Rail) In the UK, a Royal Commission was set up to find a solution to London's traffic jams. Options included new electric tramways, but these would take up valuable road space, or new tube lines, following the success of the 'twopenny tube' opened in 1900 from Shepherds Bush to Bank (now the Central Line).
3/2/1903, Tuesday (-15,435) The British captured Kano from Nigerian rebels.
22/1/1903, Thursday (-15,447) The USA and Colombia signed a treaty to allow construction of the Panama Canal. See 3/11/1903.
18/1/1903, Sunday (-15,451) Henri Blowitz, journalist, died (born in Bohemia 28/12/1825).
17/1/1903, Saturday (-15,452) Quintin Hogg, polytechnic founder, died.
16/1/1903, Friday (-15,453) (Road traffic) The first saloon car, the Duryea, appeared at the Stanley Motor Show.
15/1/1903, Thursday (-15,454)
14/1/1903. Wednesday (-15,455) (Road traffic) The Motor Car Act in the UK required British drivers to have licences. It set the minimum age as 17 for cars and 14 for motor cycles; prior to this the youngest driver was a 6 year old, Master Ernest Bond of Bishopston, Bristol, whose father had designed a motor bike specially for him. See 14/1/1893 for the world's first driving licences, in France. See also 13/3/1935, driving tests in the UK.
13/1/1903, Tuesday (-15,456) (Weather) The Society Islands in the Pacific were hit by a hurricane; 5,000 were killed.
12/1/1903, Monday (-15,457) (Atomic) Igor Vasilevich Kurchatov was born in Sim, Russia. In 1946 he became director of the first Soviet nuclear reactor.
4/1/1903, Sunday (-15,465) British forces under General Manning landed at Obbia to attack the army of Mohammed bin Abdullah, the so-called ;Mad Mullah'.
2/1/1903. Friday (-15,467) President Roosevelt closed a Post Office in Missouri for refusing to employ a Black postmistress.
1/1/1903, Thursday (-15,468) King George VII was proclaimed Emperor of India.
31/12/1902, Wednesday (-15,469) (1) In a test of the Monroe doctrine, British and German naval ships seized the Venezuelan navy and shelled a fort in Caracas, to enforce payment for property seized without compensation during the 1899 revolution. The US pressurised the two countries to end the blockade and refer the matter to the international court in The Hague.
(2) (Railways) The railway from Djibouti was completed as far as Dire Dawa.
16/12/1902, Tuesday (-15,484) An earthquake in Turkestan killed 4,000.
10/12/1902. Wednesday (-15,490) (1) Major Ronald Ross of the British army won the Nobel Prize for medicine because of his work relating malaria to mosquitoes.
(2) (Egypt) The large dam at Aswan, Egypt, was completed. At 130 foot high, with a 114 mile long lake, it had taken four years to build.
9/12/1902. Tuesday (-15,491) The Swiss Government agreed to build the Simplon Railway Tunnel.
1/12/1902, Monday (-15,499) (Road Traffic) The first patent for disc brakes, GB 26407/1902, was filed in the UK by Frederick William Lanchester (1868-1946) of Warwickshire.
23/11/1902, Sunday (-15,507) (Medical) Walter Reed, US military surgeon, died in Washington DC.
22/11/1902. Saturday (-15,508) In Germany, the steel magnate Friedrich Krupp (1854-1902), head of Germany's largest manufacturing firm and the richest man in the country, died unexpectedly of a stroke. He was aged 48. Friedrich's father Alfred had founded the Krupp Company but Friedrich had been in charge since the age of 33 when his father died.
8/11/1902, Saturday (-15,522) The Kaiser arrived in London on a 12-day State Visit to try and improve Anglo-German relations.
1/11/1902, Saturday (-15,529) (France, Italy) Italy signed the Franco-Italian entente with Italy. Italy assured France it would remain neutral if France was attacked.
31/10/1902, Friday (-15,530) The Pacific Cable was completed at Suva.
28/10/1902, Tuesday (-15,533)
26/10/1902, Sunday (-15,535) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American leader of the women's suffrage movement, died aged 86.
25/10/1902, Saturday (-15,536) Frank Norris, US novelist, died.
24/10/1902, Friday (-15,537) The Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala began a 2-day eruption.
23/10/1902, Thursday (-15,538) Irish MPs protested violently in the Houses of Parliament, London.
22/10/1902, Wednesday (-15,539) The North British Hotel opened at Edinburgh's Waverley Railway Station.
21/10/1902, Tuesday (-15,540)
17/10/1902, Friday (-15,544) The first Cadillac car, made in Detroit, was sold in the USA.
16/10/1902. Thursday (-15,545) The first Borstal institution opened, at the village of Borstal near Rochester, Kent.
15/10/1902, Wednesday (-15,546) US President Roosevelt threatened to send in troops to end a miner's strike.
10/10/1902, Friday (-15,551)
7/10/1902, Tuesday (-15,554) George Rawlinson, English historian (born 23/11/1812) died.
6/10/1902. Monday (-15,555) A railway between Bulawayo and Salisbury was completed. It ran a total of 2000 miles down to Cape Town.
5/10/1902, Sunday (-15,556) Ray Kroc, businessman who developed the McDonalds chain, was born (died 1984)
3/10/1902, Friday (-15,558)
30/9/1902. Tuesday (-15,561) Rayon, or artificial silk, was patented by Samuel Slocum.
29/9/1902. Monday (-15,562) The writer Emile Zola, and valiant champion of Captain Dreyfus, died, accidentally, gassed by charcoal fumes.
28/9/1902, Sunday (-15,563) 15,000 requests a week for South African gold mining permits.
27/9/1902, Saturday (-15,564) A British Crown ordinance authorised White settlement of the east African uplands.
25/9/1902, Thursday (-15,566)
23/9/1902, Tuesday (-15,568) John Wesley Powell, US geologist (born 24/3/1834) died.
22/9/1902. Monday (-15,569) (1) Czar Nicholas II abolished the nominal independence of Finland and appointed a Russian Governor-General.
(2) The earliest British airship, 75 foot long, built by Stanley Spencer, made its maiden flight of 30 miles from Crystal Palace, London.
21/9/1902, Sunday (-15,570) Sir Allen Lane, English publisher who founded Penguin books and brought about the paperback revolution, was born.
20/9/1902, Saturday (-15,571) Stevie Smith, poet and novelist, was born (died 1971)
16/9/1902, Tuesday (-15,575)
14/9/1902. Sunday (-15,577) In Dublin, 20,000 protested against strict law and order measures imposed by the British Government under a State of Emergency.
13/9/1902. Saturday (-15,578) Britain's first conviction on fingerprint evidence was obtained by the Metropolitan Police in a case at the Old Bailey against Harry Jackson.
10/9/1902, Wednesday (-15,581)
7/9/1902, Sunday (-15,584) The whole of Australia was asked to pray for rain after seven years of drought. Rain did fall 3 days later.
6/9/1902, Saturday (-15,585) (Environment) Whale hunt in the Shetlands. 166 were caught.
5/9/1902, Friday (-15,586) (Medical) Rudolf Carl Virchow, German pathologist, died in Berlin.
4/9/1902, Thursday (-15,587)
3/9/1902, Wednesday (-15,588) The Trades Unions Congress voted in London to back independent Labour Parliamentary candidates rather than rely on local alliances with Liberals.
2/9/1902, Tuesday (-15,589) Edward Egglestone, US author (born 10/12/1837 in Vevay, Indiana) died in Lake George, New York.
1/9/1902. Monday (-15,590) (1) The AA (Automobile Association) organised a motor car trial to demonstrate the reliability of the new machines. 63 cars drove from Crystal Palace, south London, to Folkestone and back. Most completed the 139 mile route successfully, and the AA logged the performance of each car.
(2) A State of Emergency was declared in Dublin.
31/8/1902, Sunday (-15,591)
30/8/1902, Saturday (-15,592) Labour MP Kier Hardie protested at the Taff Vale court decision.
29/8/1902, Friday (-15,593) A cholera epidemic in Egypt killed over 9,000.
18/8/1902, Monday (-15,604) The Shah of Persia arrived in London on a State Visit.
11/8/1902, Monday (-15,611) King Edward VII gave Osborne House, where Queen Victoria had died, to the nation.
10/8/1902, Sunday (-15,612) (Chemistry) Arne Wilhelm Tiselius, Swedish chemist, was born in Stockholm.
9/8/1902, Saturday (-15,613) King Edward VII, born 9/11/1841, was crowned in Westminster Abbey. The coronation had been delayed from June because the King had appendicitis.
8/8/1902, Friday (-15,614) The British Academy, London, was granted a Royal Charter.
7/8/1902, Thursday (-15,615) (Germany) Rudolf Bennigsen, German politician, died (born in Luneburg 10/7/1824).
4/8/1902, Monday (-15,618) The Greenwich foot tunnel under the Thames opened. It replaced a ferry that had existed here since 1676.
28/7/1902, Monday (-15,625) Karl Popper, scientist, was born (died 1994).
26/7/1902, Saturday (-15,627) Charles Adams, US historian (born 24/1/1835) died.
12/7/1902, Saturday (-15,641) (1) Arthur Balfour (Conservative) succeeded Lord Salisbury as Tory Prime Minister.
(2) Kitchener returned to a heroes' welcome in London.
11/7/1902, Friday (-15,642) (Atomic) Samuel Goudsmit, physicist, was born in The Hague, Netherlands. In 1925, along with George Uhlenbeck (born Batavia, Indonesia, 6/12/1900), he formulated the hypothesis of the electron spin.
10/7/1902, Thursday (-15,643) Kurt Alder, German chemist, was born.
8/7/1902, Tuesday (-15,645)
5/7/1902, Saturday (-15,648) Edward VII paid for 450,000 impoverished Britons to celebrate his coronation with a free dinner.
4/7/1902, Friday (-15,649) The US suppressed a rebellion in the Philippines.
3/7/1902. Thursday (-15,650) (1) In Britain, a House of Lords ruling restricted betting to the sites of sporting events.
(2) After riots in Russia which killed several thousand people, Czar Nicholas II offered to talk to the people.
1/7/1902, Tuesday (-15,652)
30/6/1902, Monday (-16,653) At the Colonial Conference in London, a principle of Imperial Preference was agreed; that Britain and the colonies should set preferential tariffs for each other's goods.
29/6/1902. Sunday (-15,654) The French car maker Marcel Renault won the first Paris to Vienna motor race.
28/6/1902, Saturday (-15,655) The USA authorised the construction of the Panama Canal.
26/6/1902, Thursday (-15,657)
24/6/1902, Tuesday (-15,659) King Edward VII contracted appendicitis, delaying his coronation (scheduled for 26 June), see 9/8/1902.
23/6/1902. Monday (-15,660) (1) Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Alliance.
(2) Albert Einstein began work in the Swiss Patent Office.
21/6/1902, Saturday (-15,662)
19/6/1902, Thursday (-15,664) (Britain) John Acton, British historian, died (born 10/1/1834 in Naples, Italy.
18/6/1902, Wednesday (-15,665) Samuel Butler, English writer, died (born 4/12/1835).
10/6/1902, Tuesday (-15,673) (Germany) Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony from 1873 (born 23/4/1828) died.
3/6/1902, Tuesday (-15,680) (France, Christian) In France, Rene Waldbeck-Rousseau resigned, despite having a majority on the Chamber, over disputes with extremists. He was succeeded by Emile Combes, who pursued a strongly anti-clerical policy.
31/5/1902. Saturday (-15,683) (South Africa') The Boer War ended with the Peace of Vereeniging. (See 11/10/1899). The Boers accepted the sovereignty of the British Crown over Transvaal and the Orange Free State but gained the promise of self government. This came in 1910 with the Government of South Africa Act, see 31/5/1910. The Boers also received £3 million to repair and restock their farms. At first the Boers were winning, farmers humiliating the British Army. However towards the end only 80,000 Boers were fighting 450,000 elite British troops, the Boers relying on mobility and guerrilla tactics. Under Lord Kitchener, the British countered the Boers by herding them off their land into concentration camps where 20,000, one in three inmates, died of disease and starvation. These camps did much to damage Britain's reputation in the world.
29/5/1902. Thursday (-15,685) The London School of Economics and Political Sciences was opened by Lord Rosebery.
28/5/1902. Wednesday (-15,686) British marched against the 'Mad Mullah' in East Africa.
24/5/1902, Saturday (-15,690) Empire Day was celebrated for the first time (Queen Victoria's birthday).
21/5/1902, Wednesday (-15,693) Marcel Lajos Breuer, architect, was born (died 1981)
20/5/1902, Tuesday (-15,694) Cuba gained dependence, from US military rule, see 1/1/1899.
18/5/1902, Sunday (-15,696)
16/5/1902, Friday (-15,698) (Spain) In Spain, King Alfonso XIII was enthroned, on his 16th birthday and coming of age.
15/5/1902, Thursday (-15,699) (Ethiopia) Britain and Abyssinia signed a Treaty defining the frontier between Abyssinia and Sudan. Abyssinia also agreed to allow Britain to construct a railway through its territory connecting Sudan and Uganda.
14/5/1902, Wednesday (-15,700) Following a severe financial crisis in Portugal, a law was passed reducing the value of bonds and dividends of bond holders.
12/5/1902, Monday (-15,702) (1) The Court of Appeal reversed the legal decision of 22/4/1902, and allowed barmaids to work in pubs, following protests by pub landlords, barmaids and the public.
(2) A miners strike began in the USA.
8/5/1902. Thursday (-15,706) Mount Pelee on Martinique erupted, destroying the city of St Pierre and killing 30,000 people in just three minutes.
1/5/1902, Thursday (-15,713) A tornado killed 416 in Dacca, India.
25/4/1902, Friday (-15,719) A heavy fall of ash from Mont Pelee, Martinique, occurred. This was a prelude to the major eruption of 8/5/1902.
22/4/1902, Tuesday (-15,722) Magistrates in Glasgow ruled that female barmaids must be replaced by men, because of the moral hazards of pubs. Pubs employing female staff would not have their licences renewed. See 12/5/1902.
16/4/1902, Wednesday (-15,728) Over 20,000 people protested in Dublin against British rule.
15/4/1902, Tuesday (-15,729) In Russia, socialist revolutionaries assassinated the Interior Minister, Sipyagin. He was succeeded by Viacheslav Plehve, who suppressed the peasants revolt and attacked the Armenian Church.
14/4/1902, Monday (-15,730)
13/4/1902. Sunday (-15,731) A new record car speed of 74 mph was set in Paris.
12/4/1902, Saturday (-15,732) Following British successes against the Boers in South Africa, Kitchener met with Boer leaders for peace negotiations.
11/4/1902, Friday (-15,733) Fred Gaisberg, of the Gramophone Company, made the first recordings of Caruso.
10/4/1902, Thursday (-15,734)
9/4/1902 Wednesday (-15,735) In London, the Underground Electric Railways Company was formed.
8/4/1902. Tuesday (-15,736) Russia signed an agreement with China, promising to withdraw its troops from Manchuria.
7/4/1902. Monday (-15,737) The Texas Oil Company, or Texaco, was founded.
3/4/1902, Thursday (-15,741) (Road Traffic) The patent for Tarmac road surfacing was filed by Edgar Purnell Hooley of Nottingham, England. John Loudon Macadam, Scottish engineer and General Surveyor of Roads in England from 1827, first tried to improve road surfaces by using crushed stone. This was a major improvement on dirt roads, which could soon become impassable after heavy rain. However they too were problematical in bad weather, and the stones could puncture the tyres of the new automobiles. In 1901 Edgar Hooley, County Surveyor of Nottinghamshire, noticed that a stretch of road at Denby, Derbyshire, was rut-free. He found that a barrel of tar had fallen off a dray, and that waste slag from a nearby blast furnace has been used to cover the tar. Hooley patented the idea but failed to develop it financially. The patent was bought by Sir Alfred Hickman, a steelworks owner in Wolverhampton.
1/4/1902, Tuesday (-15,743) (Crime) The treadmill was abolished in British prisons.
30/3/1902, Sunday (-15,745) Easter Sunday.
29/3/1902, Saturday (-15,746) Sir William Walton, English composer, was born in Oldham, Lancashire, to musical parents.
26/3/1902. Wednesday (-15,749) Statesman and colonial administrator, Cecil John Rhodes, died aged 48 in Cape Town.
23/3/1902, Sunday (-15,752) Major reform of schools in England and Wales. County Councils and large urban authorities took over responsibility for education from several thousand school boards and managers of voluntary schools. However non-conformist churches objected to the use of public money to finance Anglican and Catholic schools, which would retained considerable autonomy in their curricula.
4/3/1902, Tuesday (-15,771) In the US, the AAA (American Automobile Association) was founded.
1/3/1902, Saturday (-15,774) (Communism) Lenin published a pamphlet entitled "What is to be Done", outlining his ideas for liberating the working masses through a Communist Revolution.
27/2/1902, Thursday (-15,776) John Steinbeck, American author and Nobel Prize Winner who wrote The Grapes of Wrath, was born in Salinas, California.
26/2/1902, Wednesday (-15,777) In the North Kilkenny by-election, brought about by the resignation of the sitting MP Patrick McDermott of the Irish Parliamentary Party, Joseph Devlin stood unopposed, retaining the seat for the IPP.
25/2/1902. Tuesday (-15,778) (1) In the USA, Herbert Cecil Booth founded the Vacuum Cleaner Company Ltd.
(2) Boers routed the British army at Klerksdorp.
24/2/1902, Monday (-15,779) London's first telephone service began operating.
20/2/1902, Thursday (-15,783)
19/2/1902. Wednesday (-15,784) France made smallpox vaccinations compulsory.
18/2/1902,Tuesday (-15,785) In Britain, a petition demanding votes for women was presented to Parliament by over 37,000 female textile workers.
17/2/1902, Monday (-15,786) A general strike in Barcelona and nearby towns led to military reprisals that left 40 dead.
16/2/1902, Sunday (-15,787)
15/2/1902. Saturday (-15,788) The Berlin underground railway opened.
14/2/1902, Friday (-15,789) Lord Rosebery declared he would never give Ireland its independence.
13/2/1902, Thursday (-15,790) The UK Government refused to let a German committee visit the South African Boer concentration camps.
9/2/1902, Sunday (-125,794) Sir George Cox, English religious writer, died (born 10/1/1827).
7/2/1902, Friday (-15,796) Thomas Cooper, English painter, died (born 26/9/1803).
6/2/1902, Thursday (-15,797) (Africa, Railways) France agreed with Ethiopia to finance a railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa. Britain and Italy both protested.
5/2/1902, Wednesday (-15,798) Robert Adamson, Scottish philosopher (born 19/1/1852) died.
4/2/1902. Tuesday (-15,799) The US aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan. He made a historic solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927.
2/2/1902, Sunday (-15,801)
31/1/1902, Friday (-15,803) The number of smallpox victims in London rose to 2,273.
30/1/1902. Thursday (-15,804) Japan and the UK concluded a mutual defence alliance. See 8/2/1904 and 23/8/1914. Each country agreed not to sign treaties with third nations without consulting the other; if one country was attacked the other guaranteed to remain neutral, and furthermore if a second country attacked, each would aid the other. Each needed an ally in the region. British interests in China were threatened by other countries, especially Germany, whilst Japan was under threat from Russian expansion in Manchuria.
28/1/1902, Tuesday (-15,806) London's population reached 6,581,372, according to the 1901 census.
25/1/1902, Saturday (-15,809) Russia abolished the death penalty.
24/1/1902, Friday (-15,810) (Mathematics) Oskar Morgenstern, German-US mathematician, was born in Silesia (Poland).
22/1/1902, Wednesday (-15,812)
20/1/1902, Monday (-15,814) The beginnings of Saudi Arabia. The Bedouin warrior, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, 20-year old Emir of the Wahhabi, seized Riyadh, capital of the Nejd. He became a focus for the Arab nationalist movement.
19/1/1902, Sunday (-15,815) Maria Cristina, Infanta of Portugal and Spain, died aged 68/
18/1/1902. Saturday (-15,816) A US Commission chose Panama as the site for a new canal.
17/1/1902. Friday (-15,817) (1) Earthquake in Mexico City killed 300.
(2) The first issue of The Times Literary Supplement was published.
14/1/1902, Tuesday (-15,820) In Britain, over 300 Trades Unions supported universal state pensions.
9/1/1902. Thursday (-15,825) New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.
8/1/1902, Wednesday (-15,826) Georgi Malenkov, Soviet politician, was born in Orenburg.
7/1/1902, Tuesday (-15,827) Following the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, the Chinese Imperial Court returned to Beijing.
5/1/1902, Sunday (-15,829) (Cosmetics) Helena Rubenstein established the world's first 'beauty salon' in Melbourne, Australia. Born in Cracow Poland, around 1870,Ms Rubenstein was the eldest of 8 children; when she moved to Australia in 1894, possibly to escape an arranged marriage desired by her father. Here she marketed a cream that allegedly cured everything from warts to double chins, as well as poor skin; her salon even had an 'operating theatre'. The business boomed, and she went on to market her product in London and Paris, and then when World War One broke out she moved to New York. She died in 1964, her estate worth an estimated US$ 60 million.
2/1//1902. Thursday (-15,832) Women's foot-binding was outlawed in China.
27/12/1901. Friday (-15,838) Marlene Dietrich, German actress, was born.
26/12/1901, Thursday (-15,839) The Uganda Railway was completed, linking Mombasa with Lake Victoria.
25/12/1901, Wednesday (-15,840) The Boers gained victory in South Africa, at Tweefontein.
23/12/1901, Monday (-15,842)
21/12/1901. Saturday (-15,844) In Norway, women voted for the first time (municipal elections).
20/12/1901, Friday (-15,845) Robert Van de Graaff, inventor of the Van de Graaff generator, was born.
17/12/1901, Tuesday (-15,848)
14/12/1901, Saturday (-15,851) Paul I, King of Greece, was born.
13/12/1901, Friday (-15,852) British geologist J.W. Gregory began his expedition to the fossil beds of Lake Eyre in South Australia, Eyre would later write of his findings in his book The Dead Heart of Australia.
12/12/1901. Thursday (-15,853) The first transatlantic wireless message (the letter 'S', three dots in Morse, was continually transmitted) was sent from a164 foot aerial at Poldhu, Cornwall to Signal Hill, St John's, Newfoundland, a distance of 1,800 miles, where it was received by Marconi on an aerial suspended from a kite. Three previous transmission attempts, in which the aerial had been raised by balloon, were unsuccessful, thwarted by bad weather.
11/12/1901, Wednesday (-15,854) The American Federation of Catholic Societies was founded at a meeting in Cincinnati after members amended the initial proposal to exclude women from a federation of all the Roman Catholic societies in the United States.
10/12/1901. Tuesday (-15,855) (Chemistry) Nobel prize first awarded. Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel had invented a powerful new explosive, called dynamite. He thought that, if two armies could annihilate each other in an instant, war would become impractical, an idea similar to the MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) concept that kept the peace during the Cold War of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Nobel made a fortune from his new explosive and when he died in 1896 he left most of that fortune to a Foundation to award prizes annually to those who in the preceding year have most benefitted mankind. The first Nobel Prize was worth US$ 30,000. They are awarded in Stockholm and Oslo, in the categories of literature, chemistry, physics, medicine and peace. The first ever Nobel Prize was shared between Jean Henri Dunant (founder of the Red Cross) and Frederic Passy (founder of the French Society for the Friends of Peace).
7/12/1901, Saturday (-15,858) Japan abandoned negotiations with Russia, and started to arrange an alliance with Britain.
5/12/1901. Thursday (-15,860) Walt Disney was born.
3/12/1901. Tuesday (-15,862) (Clothes, Fashion) King Camp Gillette (1855-1932) patented his first safety razor..
30/11/1901, Saturday (-15,865) Edward John Eyre, explorer of the centre of Australia and later Governor of New Zealand, then St Vincent and then Jamaica, died aged 86.
26/11/1901, Tuesday (-15,869) Britain and Italy agreed a frontier between Eritrea and the Sudan.
25/11/1901, Monday (-15,870) Prince Hirobumi Ito of Japan, whilst visiting St Petersburg, sought Russian acceptance of Japanese claims in Korea.
18/11/1901. Monday (-15,877) The US journalist and statistician George Gallup was born in Jefferson, Iowa.
15/11/1901. Friday (-15,880) (Medical) The first practical hearing aid, the Acousticon, was patented by Miller Reese Hutchinson of New York. Earlier devices such as the ear trumpet were bulky and impractical. Reese's idea was to have a battery powered device that could be set to the wearer's own preferences; it converted the desired sounds into electrical impulses that were transmitted to a carbon speaker in the earpiece that turned the electricity back into sound. Unwanted sounds could be filtered out.
12/11/1901. Tuesday (-15,883) (Weather) More than 200 died as gales swept Britain.
10/11/1901. Sunday (-15,885) (India) The North-West Frontier province was incorporated into India.
9/11/1901, Saturday (-15,886) The Sultan of Turkey accepted a French ultimatum to stop interfering with French interests in Turkey.
3/11/1901, Sunday (-15,892) Leopold III, King of Belgium from 1934, was born the son of King Albert I.
1/11/1901. Friday (-15,894) In Chicago, Dr J E Gilman announced an X-Ray treatment for breast cancer.
29/10/1901, Tuesday (-15,897) Anarchist Leon Czolgosz was executed by electrocution for assassinating US President McKinley
28/10/1901, Monday (-15,898) Race riots in America over the Presidential dinner on 21/10/1901. The event was condemned by racist Whites as 'a breach of etiquette'. In 1900 Mr Washington had formed the 'National Negro Business League' to promote entrepreneurialism amongst Black people.
27/10/1901, Sunday (-15,899) (Germany, UK) Negotiations on an Anglo-German alliance broke down, after the British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, made an anti-German speech in Edinburgh.
26/10/1901, Saturday (-15,900)
24/10/1901, Thursday (-15,902) Ann Edson Taylor rode over the Niagara Falls in a padded barrel, and lived to tell the tale.
23/10/1901, Wednesday (-15,903) (1) In South Africa, General Buller was sacked for indiscretion.
(2) Alberto Santos Dumont, Brazilian aviator (see 19/10/1906) collected a prize for the first officially-observed powered flight in Europe. He flew his airship from St Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back, taking 30 minutes.
22/10/1901, Tuesday (-15,904)
20/10/1901, Sunday (-15,906) (Aviation) The Aero Club of the United Kingdom was founded in London.
19/10/1901, Saturday (-15,907) (Aviation) Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont circumnavigated the Eiffel Tower in his airship, winning an aviation prize, see 23/10/1901.
16/10/1901, Wednesday (-15,910) A Black teacher, Booker T Washington, dined with President Roosevelt at the White House. See 28/10/1901.
12/10/1901, Saturday (-15,914) President Theodore Roosevelt renamed the Executive Mansion as The White House.
6/10/1901, Sunday (-15,920) Father James Cullen held the first Annual General meeting of the Pioneer Association in Dublin, aimed at promoting temperance. He believed that England was using alcoholism to keep Ireland subdued.
2/10/1901. Wednesday (-15,924) (Maritime, Military) Vickers launched the British Navy's first submarine. HMS Holland I, 105 tons, was designed for coastal duties. Earlier submarine designs had been tried, but the idea did not work until metal could be used for ships hulls, Now all major world powers had submarines, setting the scene for future underwater warfare. The idea was dismissed as 'underhand, underwater, and damned un-English' by Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. The petrol engine was dangerous; later submarines used diesel engines. Mice were kept on board, to give warning of dangerous levels of petrol fumes. The crew breathed compressed air, and stayed under for 4 hours. The Royal Navy concentrated on using submarines for inshore patrols whereas other navies, especially Germany, developed longer-distance craft. This disparity was a severe handicap to Britain during the First World War; only the development of sophisticated counter measures saved Britain from starvation as German U-boats sunk supply ships.
1/10/1901, Tuesday (-15,925) (1) Partap Singh Kairon, India politician and Chief Minister of the Punjab from 1956 to 1964, was born (assassinated 1965).
(2) Abdurrahman Khan, Amir of Kabul, died and was succeeded by his son Habibula.
30/9/1901. Monday (-15,926) France made it compulsory to register cars capable of more than 20 mph.
29/9/1901, Sunday (-15,927) Enrico Fermi, atomic physicist, was born in Rome, Italy.
25/9/1901. Wednesday (-15,931) Britain annexed the Asante Kingdom (Ghana) as part of the Gold Coast.
18/9/1901, Wednesday (-15,938) Venezuelan forces who had invaded Colombia were routed at La Hacha.
17/9/1901, Tuesday (-15,939) Sir Francis Chichester, British yachtsman and aviator, was born in Barnstaple, Devon.
16/9/1901, Monday (-15,040)
14/9/1901. Saturday (-15,942) US President William McKinley died in Buffalo, eight days after being shot by an anarchist. Born in Niles, Ohio, on 29/1/1843, McKinley became a teacher and then a brevet major when the Civil War broke out. After the War he studied law and opened a law office in Canton, Ohio. In 1876 McKinley was elected as a Republican to the US House of Representatives and in 1891 became Governor of Ohio. Six years later he became President and earned a reputation as one of the most peace-loving leaders in US history. On the afternoon of 6/9/1901 he was shot at point blank range by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who was sentenced to death and executed at Auburn Prison, New York, on 29/10/1901. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was then sworn in as 26th president, the youngest at 42.
13/9/1901, Friday (-15,943) (India) Sir Sheshadri Aiyar, Indian statesman, died (born 1845). He did much to develop Mysore State.
11/9/1901, Wednesday (-15,945)
9/9/1901. Monday (-15,947) The bespectacled short painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec died in Malrome from a paralytic stroke, aged 36.
8/9/1901, Sunday (-15,948) Hendrik Verwoerd, South African Prime Minister who was responsible for the policy of apartheid, was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was stabbed to death 2 days before his 65th birthday.
7/9/1901. Saturday (-15,949) The Peace of Peking ended the Boxer Rising in China. It was signed by a Manchu prince, Li Hung-Chang, and eleven European powers. Under this Treaty, ten Chinese officials were to be executed and 100 others punished, China gave formal apologies, Chinese civil service exams were suspended in 45 cities (so as to penalise the Chinese middle class), the European Legation quarter was to be expanded and fortified, and permanently garrisoned with troops, and key railway posts were to be manned by Western troops to ensure access to Beijing from the sea, and a large indemnity was to be paid by China.
6/9/1901, Friday (-15,950) Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot US President Mc Kinley at a public reception in Buffalo; he died on the 14/9/1901.
4/9/1901. Wednesday (-15,952) In the Taff Vale Railway case, the House of Lords ruled that Trades Unions were liable for financial losses of companies affected by industrial action. As a result of this case the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants must pay the Taff Vale Railway Company £32,000 in costs and damages. This decision confirmed the ruling of High Court Judge Mr Justice Fairwell, later overturned in the Court of Appeal. A future Labour Government was to reverse this ruling.
30/8/1901. Friday (-15,957) Scotsman Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner. The motor and pump were so large they were mounted on a horse-drawn cart whilst a tube that might be over 200 metres long was used for suction. Booth later introduced a clear tube so clients could see the dirt being sucked out of their house.
21/8/1901. Wednesday (-15,966) In Detroit, USA, the Cadillac motor company was founded.
16/8/1901, Friday (-15,971) Edmond Audran, French composer, died in Paris (born in Lyons 11/4/1842).
12/8/1901, Monday (-15,975) The British Government was defeated in an effort to limit working hours.
9/8/1901. Friday (-15,978) Colombian troops invaded Venezuela.
8/8/1901, Thursday (-15,979) Ernest Lawrence, US physicist who invented the first subatomic particle accelerator and the first colour TV tube, and won the Nobel Physics prize in 1939, was born.
7/8/1901, Wednesday (-15,980) In South Africa, Kitchener announced that all Boers who failed to surrender by 15 September would be permanently banished from the territory.
4/8/1901. Sunday (-15,983) Gold was discovered in the South African Rand.
1/8/1901, Thursday (-15,986) The Commons voted an extra £12.5 million for naval and war budgets.
31/7/1901, Wednesday (-15,987) Jean Dubuffet, French artist, was born in Le Havre, France.
17/7/1901, Wednesday (-16,001) (USA) Daniel Butterfield, US soldier, died (born 1831).
9/7/1901, Tuesday (-16,009) Barbara Cartland, British writer of romantic novels, was born.
8/7/1901, Monday (-16,010) France set a speed limit of 10 kph for cars in urban areas.
4/7/1901, Thursday (-16,014) (Philippines, USA) The US Republican, Taft, was appointed Governor of the Philippines, replacing a former military government with civilian rule. He announced an amnesty for all former rebels who took an oath of allegiance to the USA.
2/7/1901. Tuesday (-16,016) 400 died in New York heatwave.
1/7/1901, Monday (-16,017) (1) The population of Ealing, west London, was 47,510. In 1814 the population had been 8,407; in 1871, 18,169.
(2) (France, Christian) France enacted its anti-clerical Association Law, which outlawed all religious institutions not formally registered with the State.
30/6/1901, Sunday (-16,018) (Aviation) Herr Berson and Professor Suring set a new balloon altitude record of 35,435 feet.
29//6/1901, Saturday (-16,019)
28/6/1901, Friday (-16,020) The British Academy was founded, for the promotion of studies of moral and political sciences.
27/6/1901, Thursday (-16,021) (Atomic) Atomic physicist Merle Tuve was born in the USA.
24/6/1901, Monday (-16,024) The first Picasso exhibition opened in Paris.
17/6/1901, Monday (-16,031) Lloyd George spoke out against starvation, lack of hygiene, and poor conditions in the concentration camps in South Africa, where Britain was detaining the Boers. The camps had originally been set up to feed Boers displaced from their farms by the fighting; in February 1901 their function changed to interning Boer men who might fight a guerrilla war. The camps now contained some 75,000 people, mostly women and children.
16/6/1901, Sunday (-16,032) The liner Lucania was used for trials of wireless telegraphy at sea.
14/6/1901, Friday (-16,034)
12/6/1901, Wednesday (-16,036) A new Constitution for Cuba was drawn up, giving the US extensive rights that made the island virtually a US protectorate.
11/6/1901, Tuesday (-16,037) New Zealand annexed the Cook Islands.
10/6/1901, Monday (-16,038) Robert Buchanan, British novelist, died (born 18/8/1841).
9/6/1901, Sunday (-16,039) Sir Walter Besant, English author, died in Hampstead, London (born in Portsmouth 14/8/1836).
6/6/1901, Thursday (-16,042) Sukarno, President of Indonesia, was born.
29/5/1901, Wednesday (-16,050) Lord Salisbury, in a confidential memo, decided against developing an alliance between Britain and Germany.
24/5/1901, Friday (-16,055) 78 miners died in a pit disaster in Caerphilly, Wales.
23/5/1901, Thursday (-16,056) Edward Rubbra, composer, was born (died 1986).
22/5/1901, Wednesday (-16,057)
21/5/1901, Tuesday (-16,058) Fitz-John Porter, US soldier (born 31/8/1822) died.
20/5/1901, Monday (-16,059) End of US military rule in Cuba.
18/5/1901, Saturday (-16,061) Vincent du Vigneaud, US biochemist, was born.
15/5/1901, Wednesday (-16,064) The British Admiralty decided to build three large battleships.
14/5/1901, Tuesday (-16,065) End of a General Strike in Barcelona, Spain, that had begun on 7/5/1901.
13/5/1901, Monday (-16,066) Lord Salisbury spoke against the idea of Irish Home Rule.
12/5/1901, Sunday (-16,867) (Atomic) Christopher Hinton was born in Tisbury, England. In 1956 he opened Calder Hall reactor in England, the first large-scale nuclear plant designed for peaceful purposes.
9/5/1901, Thursday (-16,070) The first Federal Parliament met in Melbourne, Australia.
1/5/1901, Wednesday (-16,078) In Britain, miners threatened to strike unless there was a cut in the coal export tax.
30/4/1901, Tuesday (-16,079) The game of ping pong was created by James Gibb.
29/4/1901, Monday (-16,080) (Japan) Birth of Crown Prince Hirohito. Later Emperor of Japan.
24/4/1901, Wednesday (-16,085) 200 were killed in an explosion at a chemical factory in Griesheim, Germany.
8/4/1901, Monday (-16,101) (New Guinea, Christian) James Chalmers, Scottish missionary to New Guinea, died (born 1841).
7/4/1901, Sunday (-16,102) Easter Sunday.
5/4/1901, Friday (-16,104)
2/4/1901, Tuesday (-16,107) (China, Russia) A proposed agreement between Russia and China for Russian occupation of Manchuria was cancelled by China, after Chinese appeals for support from Britain, Japan and Germany. For details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchuria
1/4/1901, Monday (-16,108) (Chemistry) Francois Marie Raoult, French physical chemist, died in Grenoble, Isere.
31/3/1901, Sunday (-16,109) (Road Traffic) The first Mercedes car was built. Its inventor, the German, Gottleib Daimler, named it after his daughter. The car had a maximum speed of 53 mph.
28/3/1901, Thursday (-16,112)
25/3/1901, Monday (-16,115) (Road Traffic) In Britain, the world's first diesel motor went on show.
24/3/1901, Sunday (-16,116) Charlotte M Yonge, novelist, died, aged 78.
19/3/1901, Tuesday (-16,121) The Boer leader, Botha, rejected Kitchener's peace terms.
17/3/1901, Sunday (-16,123) Anti-Czarist protests by students in St Petersburg were broken up by Cossack troops.
13/3/1901, Wednesday (-16,127) Benjamin Harrison, American Republican and 23rd president from 1889 to 1893, died in Indianapolis, Indiana.
12/3/1901, Tuesday (-16,128) Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, opened.
8/3/1901, Friday (-16,132) Peter Benoit, composer, died in Antwerp (born in Flanders 17/8/1834).
6/3/1901, Wednesday (-16,134) Anarchists attempted to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm, who escaped with face wounds.
5/3/1901, Tuesday (-16,135) In London, police ejected Irish Nationalists from the House of Commons.
4/3/1901, Monday (-16,136) US President McKinley was inaugurated.
2/3/1901, Saturday (-16,138)
28/2/1901, Thursday (-16,140) Dr Linus Pauling, American biochemist and twice winner of the Nobel Prize, was born in Portland, Oregon.
27/2/1901, Wednesday (-16,141) The Russian Propaganda Minister was assassinated after his repression of student agitators.
26/2/1901, Tuesday (-16,142) Two leaders of China's Boxer Rebellion were publically executed in Beijing, ending the 2-year rebellion against foreigners. Japanese soldiers led the men to their death. In January 1901 10,000 allied troops captured Beijing and ended a 56-day Boxer siege of the foreign legations. The Chinese Dowager Tzu Hsi shared the beliefs of the Boxers, the Society of Righteous Harmony Fists, and refused to act against them. She has now fled Beijing; China had to pay an indemnity for the deaths of 1,500 foreigners in the rebellion, and to accept Western troops permanently stationed in Beijing.
25/2/1901, Monday (-16,143) 'Zeppo' Marx, the youngest of the Marx Brothers, who became their agent, was born in New York City as Herbert.
23/2/1901, Saturday (-16,145) The United States Steel Corporation was founded. The US iron and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie (1835-1918) sold the Carnegie Steel Corporation to the US Steel Corporation for the unprecedented sum of US$ 447 million. Carnegie then made several philanthropic donations; beneficiaries included US and Scottish universities.
21/2/1901, Thursday (-16,147) Cuba became a republic.
20/2/1901, Wednesday (-16,148) Louis Isadore Kahn, architect, was born (died 1974).
18/2/1901, Monday (-16,150)
15/2/1901, Friday (-16,153) (Aviation) The Aero Club of Belgium was founded.
14/2/1901, Thursday (-16,154) King Edward VII, aged 59, opened his first UK Parliament.
13/2/1901, Wednesday (-16,155)
12/2/1901, Tuesday (-16,156) Britain extended direct rule from India into the tribal areas of Peshawar, Khyber and Waziristan, scene of much inter-ethnic fighting. Britain was concerned that unrest in these areas, on India's northern frontier, would allow Russia to invade from the north through Afghanistan.
11/2/1901, Monday (-16,157) Death of Milan, father of King Alexander I of Serbia.
10/2/1901, Sunday (-16,158) (Chemistry) German chemist Max Joseph von Petenkofer died near Munich.
9/2/1901, Saturday (-16,159)
7/2/1901, Thursday (-16,161) (Italy) The Italian Government of Guiseppe Saracco was overthrown, for its weak response to a dock strike in Genoa.
6/2/1901. Wednesday (-16,162) Paris installed the first public telephones at railway stations.
5/2/1901. Tuesday (-16,163) The world's first billion-dollar business deal. J Pierpont Morgan bought a billion dollars worth of mines and steel mills.
4/2/1901, Monday (-16,164) Queen Victoria was buried at Windsor, next to Albert.
3/2/1901, Sunday (-16,165) Rosamund Lehmann, novelist, was born (died 1900).
2/2/1901, Saturday (-16,166) (Medical) Rene Jules Dubos was born in Saint Brice, France. In 1939 he developed antibiotics from soil bacteria that killed other bacteria.
27/1/1901, Sunday (-16,172) Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi died in Milan aged 87. His works included La Traviata and Il Travatore.
22/1/1901, Tuesday (-16,177) Queen Victoria died, at of a cerebral haemorrhage Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, aged 81; the longest reigning and longest lived monarch of Britain. Accession of King Edward VII to the British throne. His coronation was on 9/8/1902. King Edward VII was born on 9/11/1840, and was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Crowned at 60 years of age, he proved a popular monarch who gave his name to the Edwardian era. He was made Prince of Wales by his mother when only one month old. His free and easy social life made him a prominent figure in society and he was involved in several scandals. His coronation was elaborate and was a departure from the rather dour image of the monarchy in the latter part of Queen Victoria's reign. Edward VII is remembered as a popular man who tried to ensure peace in Europe, touring European capitals in a diplomatic role. An estimated 500,000 watched the funeral procession of Queen Victoria as it travelled through the silent streets of London, on 2/2/1901. The funeral took place at Windsor.
20/1/1901, Sunday (-16,179) (Innovations) Zenobe Theophile Gramme, Belgian-French inventor, died at Bois Colombes, France.
19/1/1901, Saturday (-16,180) Queen Victoria became seriously ill.
16/1/1901, Wednesday (-16,183) Arnold Bocklin, Swiss painter, died (born in Basel 16/10/1827).
14/1/1901, Monday (-16,185) Russia ceased exiling criminals to Siberia.
10/1/1901, Thursday (-16,189) (USA) Major oil discovery in Texas, USA. The salt dome of Spindletop had been suspected of containing oil since 1865; this day oil was struck; a gush of oil 6 inches wide rose over 200 feet, and was visible for over 10 miles. The population of nearby Beaumont rapidly rose from 10,000 to over 50,000, as oil production at Spindletop reached 100,000 barrels per day. Oil production in the area lasted until 1950.
9/1/1901, Wednesday (-16,190) (Innovations) Meccano was patented by Frank Hornby (1863-1936), England.
6/1/1901, Sunday (-16,193) Philip Amour, one of the first American meat packers to use refrigerated transport and to make canned meat products, died.
2/1/1901, Wednesday (-16,197) The first municipal crematorium was opened in Britain, by the Lord Mayor in Hull.
1/1/1901, Tuesday (-16,198) (Australia) The Commonwealth of Australia was inaugurated, by federating the six states and two territories of the continent. Edmund Barton became the first Prime Minister of Australia.
31/12/1900, Monday (-16,199) (1) At Stonehenge, Stone No. 21 and its lintel fell down.
(2) Wheat acreage in Britain stood at 1.8 million, down from 2.9 million acres in 1880. Cheap imports of wheat from the USA had increased dramatically since the 1870s.
30/12/1900, Sunday (-16,200) 50 died as gales swept Britain.
21/12/1900, Friday (-16,209) Leonhard Blumenthal, Prussian Field-Marshal, died in Quellendorf (born in Schwedt on Oder 30/7/1810).
19/12/1900, Wednesday (-16,211) France granted an amnesty to all those involved in the Dreyfus Affair.
16/12/1900, Sunday (-16,214) France and Italy agreed to respect each other's sphere of influence in North Africa.
15/12/1900, Saturday (-16,215) (South Africa) Soon after Lord Roberts declared that the Boer War was over, British troops in South Africa suffered a surprise defeat and the capture of hundreds of their men by the Boer attackers led by General P.H. Kritzinger. 573 men in four companies of the Northumberland Fusiliers were taken prisoner at the battle of Magaliesberg.
14/12/1900, Friday (-16,216) (Atomic) German physicist Max Planck proposed a quantum theory of energy. This solved the problem with radiation from Black Bodies, which without quantum theory would be theoretically infinite in amount, His theory led Einstein to propose that light also came in discrete packets he called photons. From here De Broglie proposed a theory of particles as waves, this being developed into a theory of particle behaviour based on wave dynamics by Erwin Schrodinger in the 1920s. Meanwhile German physicist Werner Heisenberg created a mathematical equivalent to Schrodinger's theory, but with only linear algebra, not wave theory. US physicist Richard Feynman then created the modern theory of quantum mechanics known as Quantum Electrodynamics, explaining how charged subatomic particles interact within electric and magnetic fields.
13//12/1900, Thursday (-16,217) Britain, France and Italy signed an agreement to preserve, in Ethiopia, the integrity of the ancient empire of Abyssinia.
12/12/1900, Wednesday (-16,218) In London, the War Office announced that the Boer War had cost the lives of over 11,000 soldiers, over two thirds of that number due to disease.
11/12/1900, Tuesday (-16,219) William D. Coleman, the President of Liberia since 1896, resigned under pressure after failing to extend government control further away from the capital. Coleman, from Fayette County, Kentucky, was replaced by Secretary of State Garretson W. Gibson.
10/12/1900. Monday (-16,220) The first Nobel prizes were awarded.
5/12/1900, Wednesday (-16,225)
2/12/1900, Sunday (-16,228) The US Supreme Court declared that Puerto Ricans did not qualify for US citizenship.
1/12/1900, Saturday (-16,229) In Lancashire, 14 died and 2,000 fell ill after drinking beer containing arsenic.
30/11/1900. Friday (-16,230) The Irish writer Oscar Wilde (born Dublin 16/10/1854) died in poverty in Paris under the pseudonym Sebastian Medmoth. Wilde's stage and literary career ended in 1895 when the Marquess of Queensbury, angered by Wilde's friendship with his son, accused Wilde of sodomy. Wilde sued for libel but lost the case and was at once prosecuted for homosexuality. He served two years in gaol 1895-97 before fleeing to France and poverty.
14/11/1900, Wednesday (-16,246) (1) Dr Karl Landsteiner of the Pathological and Anatomical Institute of Vienna announced the discovery of the three major blood groups.
(2) France approved the admission of women to practice at the Bar.
10/11/1900, Saturday (-16,250) (France) The first World Fair closed in Paris; it had been open since 14/4/1900. It had included over 70,000 exhibitors, and co-run with the Olympic Games also in Paris this year. The scale of the event meant that, despite huge numbers of visitors, it was a financial loss, covered by the French Government, Culturally however the event was good for France, promoting art-nouveau, and precipitating a rash of construction projects in France including new boulevards, new Paris rail termini, and the Paris Metro.
9/11/1900, Friday (-16,251) The world's biggest battleship to date, the 15,150 ton Mikasa, was launched from Barrow in Furness, for the Japanese Navy.
8/11/1900, Thursday (-16,252)
6/11/1900, Tuesday (-16,254) In the US, McKinley won the election for the Republicans.
5/11/1900, Monday (-16,255) The Cuban Constitutional Convention began to sit, until 21/2/1901.
2/11/1900, Friday (-16,2528)
31/10/1900, Wednesday (-16,260) In Scotland, the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches merged.
30/10/1900, Tuesday (-16,261) (Biology) Physiologist Ragnar Arthur Granit was born in Helsinki.
29/10/1900, Monday (-16,262) In London, huge crowds greeted returning Boer War soldiers.