pendence. 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.
21/9/1903. The first Wild West movie, Kit Carson, opened in the USA. It was 21 minutes long.
12/8/1903, The Colombian Senate rejected US plans for a Canal at Panama, see 3/11/1903.
4/7/1903, President Roosevelt of the USA inaugurated the Pacific Communications Cable with a global message.
21/3/1903, 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.
14/3/1903. The US Senate ratified construction of the Panama Canal.
3/3/1903. The USA passed a bill to limit immigration and ban ‘undesirables’.
15/2/1903, 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.
22/1/1903. The USA and Colombia signed a treaty to allow construction of the Panama Canal. See 3/11/1903.
1902, (see also Prisons) Death of John Peter Atgeld (born 1847), who was a prison reformer ahead of his time. A German-born lawyer in Chicago, he was concerned about how the poor found it difficult to access justice. He was elected Governor of Illinois in 1892 and succeeded in passing laws regulating child labour and loosening the monopolies enjoyed by railways and tramways companies. He pardoned three anarchists imprisoned since 1886, and condemned President Cleveland for sending in troops to disrupt a railway strike. However he was then vilified by the press as a ‘Illinois Jacobin’ and was defeated when seeking re-election in 1896.
31/12/1902, 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.
15/10/1902, US President Roosevelt threatened to send in troops to end a miner’s strike.
26/7/1902, Charles Adams, US historian (born 24/1/1835) died.
28/6/1902, The USA authorised the construction of the Panama Canal.
20/5/1902, Cuba gained dependence, from US military rule, see 1/1/1899.
12/5/1902, A miners strike began in the USA.
18/1/1902. A US Commission chose Panama as the site for a new canal.
18/11/1901. The US journalist and statistician George Gallup was born in Jefferson, Iowa.
29/10/1901, Anarchist Leon Czolgosz was executed by electrocution for assassinating US President McKinley
24/10/1901, Ann Edson Taylor rode over the Niagara Falls in a padded barrel, and lived to tell the tale.
12/10/1901, President Theodore Roosevelt renamed the Executive Mansion as The White House.
4/7/1901, 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.
21/5/1901, Fitz-John Porter, US soldier (born 31/8/1822) died.
25/2/1901, ‘Zeppo’ Marx, the youngest of the Marx Brothers, who became their agent, was born in New York City as Herbert.
10/1/1901, Major oil discovery in Texas, USA.
2/12/1900, The US Supreme Court declared that Puerto Ricans did not qualify for US citizenship.
8/9/1900, Over 5,000 were killed when a hurricane hit Galveston, Texas.
21/6/1900, In the US, the Republican Party Convention renominated McKinley for Presidency and Theodore Roosevelt for vice-Presidency.
16/4/1900. The world’s first book of stamps was issued, in the USA.
8/4/1900, In the first major event associated with the introduction of Buddhism to the United States, Buddha's birthday was celebrated in an elaborate ceremony in San Francisco. The Buddhist mission had begun 