date: April 23

text: April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)

source_section: Births › April


date: June 16

section: Births

text: June 16 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1992)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Gubby Allen, Australian-born English cricketer, cricket administrator (d. 1989)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Juscelino Kubitschek, 21st President of Brazil (d. 1976)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Shia cleric, 1st Supreme Leader of Iran (d. 1989)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Carlo Gnocchi, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (d. 1956)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Strom Thurmond, American politician (d. 2003)

source_section: Births › December


date: February 18

section: Deaths

text: February 18 – Albert Bierstadt, German-born American painter (b. 1830)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Edward Henry Cooper, British army officer and politician (b. 1827)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Breaker Morant, Australian soldier (executed) (b. 1864)


date: March 7

text: March 7 – Pud Galvin, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1856)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – John Peter Altgeld, American politician, 20th Governor of Illinois (b. 1847)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Wade Hampton III, Confederate soldier and South Carolina politician (b. 1818)


date: May

text: May – Harriet Abbott Lincoln Coolidge, American philanthropist, author and reformer (b. 1849)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Louis J. Weichmann, American witness to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1842)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Albert, King of Saxony, member of the House of Wettin (b. 1828)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Swami Vivekananda, Indian religious leader (b. 1863)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Maria Goretti, Italian Roman Catholic virgin, martyr and saint (b. 1890)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Rudolf Virchow, German scientist, politician (b. 1821)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – John Wesley Powell, American explorer (b. 1834)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Prudente de Morais, 3rd President of Brazil (b. 1841)


date: January 1

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Venezuelan crisis: After agreeing to arbitration in Washington, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy reach a settlement with Venezuela resulting in the Washington Protocols. The naval blockade that began in 1902 ends.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Having abolished the Sokoto Caliphate in West Africa, the new British administration accepts the concession of its last vizier.

source_section: Events › March


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Britain take over the Fulani Empire.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 3

text: August 3 – The Kruševo Republic is proclaimed in Ottoman Macedonia; it is crushed 10 days later.

source_section: Events › August


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Separation of Panama from Colombia: With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent of Colombia.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 13

text: November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.


date: January 10

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, and marking the end of the Aceh War that had lasted almost 30 years.


date: April 19

text: April 19–21 (April 6–8 O.S.) – The first Kishinev pogrom, beginning on Easter Day, takes place in Kishinev, capital of the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire. At least 47 Jews are killed during mob rioting encouraged by blood libel articles in the press and led by priests.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev is killed in a skirmish with the Ottoman army.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 24

text: May 24 – The Paris–Madrid race for automobiles begins, during which at least eight people are killed; the French government stops the event at Bordeaux and impounds all of the competitors' cars.


date: June 11

text: June 11 (May 29 O.S.) – King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga of Serbia are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 30

text: July 30–August 23 (July 17–August 10, O.S.) – The Second Congress of the All-Russian Social Democratic Labour Party is held in exile in Brussels, transferring to London.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople.


date: May 18

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai), India opens.

source_section: Events › December


date: August 4

section: Religion & Belief

text: August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").


date: January 19

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been made in 1901).


date: March 3

text: March 3 – The British Admiralty announces plans to build the Rosyth Dockyard as a naval base at Rosyth in Scotland.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople–Baghdad Railway.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian senate later rejects the treaty.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – The Ford Motor Company is founded.


date: July 1

text: July 1–19 – The first Tour de France is held; Maurice Garin wins it.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The first stock-car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.

source_section: Events › September


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The English-language South China Morning Post newspaper is first published in Hong Kong.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine, the Wright Flyer, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented and successful powered and controlled heavier-than-air flight.


text: Compression Rheostat, the predecessor of industrial automation and industrial equipment parts brand Rockwell Automation, is founded in Wisconsin.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: American motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson is founded in Wisconsin.


text: The first box of Crayola crayons is made and sold for five cents. It contains eight colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.


date: June 27

section: Science & Discovery

text: June 27 – American socialite Aida de Acosta, 19, becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots Santos-Dumont's motorized dirigible, "No. 9", from Paris to Château de Bagatelle in France.


date: April 29

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: April 29 – The 30-million-m 3 Frank Slide rockslide kills 70–90 in Frank, Alberta.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – United States Cartridge Company explosion: The explosion of two explosives storage magazines destroys 70 homes, killing 22 residents of Tewksbury, Massachusetts.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The Paris Métro train fire at Couronnes results in 84 deaths.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 Fast Mail train at Stillhouse Trestle, near Danville, Virginia, kills 11 people and inspires a ballad.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – is wrecked on a reef outside Melbourne, Australia, causing one of the world's first major oil spills.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – The Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago kills 600.


section: Climate & Environment

text: April 29 – The 7.0 Manzikert earthquake affects eastern Turkey, leaving 3,500 dead.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon is nearly destroyed by a cloud burst that results in a flash flood that kills about 238 people.


date: March 2

section: Culture & Society

text: March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The University of Puerto Rico is founded.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Atlético Madrid is founded as a professional association football club in Spain.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Românul de la Pind, the longest-running newspaper by and about Aromanians until World War II, is founded.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Grêmio FBPA is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil.


date: September

text: September – Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas opens as Southwest Texas Normal School.


date: October 1

text: October 1–13 – First modern World Series: The Boston Americans defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates in eight games.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in the U.K.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – The National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden) is founded.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Georg Elser, German carpenter and attempted assassin of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 27

text: January 27 – John Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Vincente Minnelli, American stage and film director (d. 1986)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Germán Busch, 36th President of Bolivia (d. 1939)

source_section: Births › March


date: June 25

text: June 25 – George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Habib Bourguiba, 1st president of Tunisia (d. 2000)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Abul A'la Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 22

text: October 22 – George Beadle, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Lars Onsager, Norwegian-born American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – C. F. Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 28

text: December 28 – John von Neumann, Hungarian-born American mathematician (d. 1957)


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician, physicist (b. 1819)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Sir Charles Duffy, Irish-born Australian politician, 8th Premier of Victoria (b. 1816)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Ronglu, Manchu political and military leader of the late Qing dynasty (b. 1836)


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Gotse Delchev, Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician, Prime Minister of the Philippines (b. 1864)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1867)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Harriet Lane, Acting First Lady of the United States (b. 1830)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic and editor (b. 1849)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (b. 1822)


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – The Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Ismael Montes becomes President of Bolivia.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Panama and Uruguay establish diplomatic relations.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – 1904 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Theodore Roosevelt announces his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States will intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 12

text: January 12 – The Herero Wars in German South West Africa begin.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 8

text: February 8–9 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise Japanese naval attack on Port Arthur (Lüshun) in Manchuria starts the Russo-Japanese War.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 31

text: March 31 – British expedition to Tibet: The Battle of Guru – British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

source_section: Events › March


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolay Bobrikov, the Russian Governor-General of Finland, in Helsinki.

source_section: Events › June


date: July

text: July – Pavlos Melas enters Macedonia with a small unit of men during the Macedonian Struggle.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Battle of Waterberg: Lothar von Trotha defeats the Herero people in German South West Africa, and drives them into the Omaheke desert, starting the Herero and Namaqua genocide.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Russo-Japanese War: A Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Russo-Japanese War: Dogger Bank incident – The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats, in the North Sea.

source_section: Events › October


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land is discovered from the Scotia.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).


date: May 5

text: May 5 – British expedition to Tibet: Hundreds of Tibetans attack the British camp at Changlo, and hold the advantage for a while, before being defeated by superior weapons, and losing at least 200 men.

source_section: Events › May


date: August 3

text: August 3 – British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa, Tibet.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.

source_section: Events › September


date: September

text: September – Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The settlement at Grytviken, on the British South Atlantic island territory of South Georgia, is established by Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen, as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Joseph F. Smith announces the Second Manifesto in General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah Territory, prohibiting the practice of polygamy, which has continued to be sanctioned by some of its leaders in violation of the 1890 Manifesto officially banning the practice.


date: April 8

text: April 8–10 – Aleister Crowley writes The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema, in Cairo.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The Abbey Theatre in Dublin opens.


section: Economy & Finance

text: Global cosmetics companies are founded in Paris (France): Coty, by François Coty, and Garnier, by Alfred Amour Garnier.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 7

text: January 7 – The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by SOS.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – United States Army engineers begin work on the Panama Canal.


text: May 4 – Charles Rolls and Henry Royce meet for the first time, in Manchester England to agree production of Rolls-Royce motor cars; the first produced under their joint names are launched in December.


text: May 5 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Great Western Railway of England 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro possibly becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The first 2,000 of 62,000 contracted Chinese coolies arrive at Durban in South Africa from Qinhuangdao to relieve the shortage of unskilled labourers in the Transvaal Colony gold mines, recruited and shipped by the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation (CEMC), of which Herbert Hoover is a director.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – A continuous track tractor is patented by David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham in England.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Griffin Park football ground, home of Brentford F.C., opens in London.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – John Voss sails the rigged dugout canoe Tilikum into the River Thames in England after a 3-year voyage from Victoria, British Columbia, westabout.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Loftus Road football stadium opens in London.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.


text: November 16 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming patents the first thermionic vacuum tube, the two-electrode diode ("oscillation valve" or Fleming valve).


date: November 24

text: November 24 – A continuous track tractor is successfully demonstrated by the Holt Manufacturing Company in the United States. The "caterpillar track" will come to revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Halford Mackinder presents a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" to the Royal Geographical Society of London in which he formulates the Heartland Theory, originating the study of geopolitics.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – New Zealand dolphin Pelorus Jack is individually protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, later called Himalia, at California's Lick Observatory.


date: October 1

section: Health & Medicine

text: October 1 – Phi Delta Epsilon, the international medical fraternity, is founded by Aaron Brown and 8 of his friends, at Cornell University Medical College.


date: October

text: Late October – The first members of what will become the Bloomsbury Group move to the Bloomsbury district of London; they will be joined about November 8 by the future novelist Virginia Woolf.


date: June 28

section: Crime & Justice

text: June 28 – The original icon of Our Lady of Kazan is stolen and subsequently destroyed in Russia.


date: August

text: Summer – Henri Matisse paints Luxe, Calme et Volupté at Saint-Tropez; it will be considered the starting point of Fauvism.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Pavlos Melas is encircled at Statista and killed during the Macedonian Struggle.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The St. Petersburg Soviet urges a run on the banks; the attempt fails, and the executive committee is arrested.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Ålesund fire destroys most buildings in the town of Ålesund, Norway, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroys over 1,500 buildings in 31 hours.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The Great Fire of Toronto destroys much of the city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Russo-Japanese War: Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 mi km off Port Arthur, and sinks Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons with 496 crew, and Yashima. On the same day, the Japanese protected cruiser Yoshino sinks after being accidentally rammed by the armored cruiser Kasuga, killing over 270 crew, including Captain Sayegi and his second-in-command, Commander Hirowateri. Japan will keep the loss of Yashima secret for over a year.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.


text: June 28 – Danish ocean liner runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing approximately 627 people, many of whom are Russian-Polish and Scandinavian emigrants.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – 1904 Kresna earthquakes: two earthquakes strike near Kresna, Bulgaria, killing at least 200 people.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The 1904 Moscow tornado occurs.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Anton Chekhov's last play, The Cherry Orchard, opens at the Moscow Art Theatre directed by Constantin Stanislavski.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly debuts at La Scala in Milan, to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia, to huge success.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – S.L. Benfica, one of the biggest Association Football clubs in Portugal, is founded as Sport Lisboa.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square, after The New York Times.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – German Association football club FC Schalke 04 is established.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Alpha Gamma Delta, which becomes an international sorority, is founded by 11 women at Syracuse University.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – The International Alliance of Women is founded.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – The original "Bloomsday", the day James Joyce first walks out with his future wife Nora Barnacle (whom he first met on June 10), to the Dublin suburb of Ringsend. He sets the action of his novel Ulysses (1922) on this date.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – English Association football club Hull City A.F.C. is established.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The third Modern Olympic Games open in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, as part of the World's Fair.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Faroese Association football club Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag is established.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – An early study on the relationship between alcohol and cardiovascular disease is published in the United States.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Swedish Association football club IFK Göteborg is founded, becoming the 39th IFK-association.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, is founded on the campus of New York University.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – German journalist Anna Rüling, in a speech to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin, makes the first known public statement of the socio-legal problems faced by lesbians.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School, through the superintendence of American C. A. O'Reilley.


date: October

text: October – The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, predecessor of Bethune–Cookman University, is opened in Florida by Mary McLeod Bethune.


text: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.


text: The Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum opens in Berlin for the display of fine art.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer and dancer (The Wizard of Oz) (died 1987)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1988)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Sir Keith Holyoake, 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1983)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Dr. Seuss, American children's author (The Cat in the Hat) (died 1991)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Mao Bangchu, Republic of China air force general (died 1987)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist (died 1990)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Chancellor of West Germany (died 1988)

source_section: Births › April


date: April 22

text: April 22 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (died 1967)


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1978)

source_section: Births › May


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1971)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Umberto II of Italy, 4th and last King of Italy (died 1983)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, 2nd Prime Minister of India (died 1966)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)


date: January 2

text: January 2 – James Longstreet, American Confederate Civil War general (born 1821)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Samuel G. Havermale, American Methodist minister (born 1824)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Laura Vicuña, Chilean Roman Catholic holy figure and blessed (born 1891)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio (born 1837)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of King George III (born 1819)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Bonaventura Gargiulo, Italian Capuchin friar and Roman Catholic bishop (born 1843)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Charles Elwood Brown, U.S. Representative from Ohio (born 1834)


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French politician, 29th Prime Minister of France (born 1846)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 15

text: August 15 – John Henry Kinkead, American businessman and politician, 1st Governor of Alaska and 3rd Governor of Nevada (born 1826)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Lafcadio Hearn, Greek-Irish Japanese author (born 1850)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: September 27

text: September 27 – David Grant Colson, American politician, U.S. Representative from Kentucky (born 1861)


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Princess Srivilailaksana of Suphanburi, daughter of King Rama V and Pae Bunnag (born 1868)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Mary of the Passion, French Roman Catholic religious sister, missionary and blessed (born 1839)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Mélanie Calvat, French Roman Catholic nun, Marian visionary and saint (born 1831)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Japan formally repossesses Port Arthur, and renames it Ryojun, holding it for the next 40 years. The area will revert in 1945 to China, and become the Lushunkou District.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 17

text: January 17 – In France, Prime Minister Émile Combes and his cabinet announce their resignations after being implicated in the Affair of the Cards (L'Affaire des Fiches), a system set up by the War Ministry to purge the French Army officers corps of Jesuits.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – The Dominican Republic signs an agreement with the United States to allow the U.S. to administer the collection of customs taxes for Santo Domingo for 50 years, with the U.S. to assume responsibility for payment of the Republic's debts to foreign nations from Dominican income. The agreement is done as an exercise of the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – The Nelson Act is passed into law in the United States, providing for racial segregation of schools in the Alaska Territory.


date: January

text: Elections are held in Hungary for the Országgyűlés, the Kingdom's parliament within Austria-Hungary. Voters overwhelmingly reject the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister István Tisza, that has ruled Hungary since 1875. The Liberals lose 118 of their 277 seats, but Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary ignores the results and keeps Tisza in power.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Sir Wilfrid Laurier introduces a resolution in the Canadian parliament proposing that two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, be created out of the Northwest Territories.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia announces the creation of an elected assembly, the Duma, to represent the people of the Russian Empire in an advisory capacity, although the real power to make laws will remain with the Tsar and the cabinet of ministers.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The title Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is officially recognised by King Edward VII by a royal warrant.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The British Imperial Penny Post is extended to include Australia.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Japan's Prime Minister Katsura Tarō asks U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to moderate peace discussions to end the Russo-Japanese War.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 7

text: June 7 – The Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, declares dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden, giving Norway full independence.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Alfred Deakin takes office as the new Prime Minister of Australia.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Taft–Katsura agreement is reached in Tokyo.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – The Russian Council appointed by Tsar Nicholas II meets at Peterhof and approves a plan for a national Duma, the first representative assembly in the Empire.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen forms the first chapter of Tongmenghui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchu dynasty.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established from the southwestern part of the Northwest Territories.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Russo-Japanese War: Treaty of Portsmouth – In New Hampshire, a treaty mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is signed by Japan and Russia. Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin together with port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The Partition of Bengal is made by Lord Curzon to separate the region of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu territories until its reunification in 1911.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 26

text: October 26 Sweden–Norway agrees to the repeal of the union with Norway, forming the two modern-day countries.


date: October 30

text: October 30 (October 17 Old Style) – October Manifesto: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is forced to announce the granting of his country's first constitution (the Russian Constitution of 1906), conceding a national assembly (State Duma) with limited powers.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Russification of Finland: The application of the February Manifesto, removing the veto of the Diet of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland over matters considered by the Emperor to concern Russian imperial interests, is interrupted by the new November Manifesto. The Senate of Finland is ordered to put forward a proposal for parliamentary reform, based on unicameralism and universal and equal suffrage.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Norway holds a plebiscite on the monarchy, resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly independent country.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 ("Eulsa Treaty") effectively makes Korea a protectorate of Japan.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – The Tampere conference, where Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time, is held in Tampere, Finland.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 1

text: January 1 – In a major defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Russian General Anatoly Stessel surrenders Port Arthur, located on mainland China, to the Japanese.


date: January 22

text: January 22 (January 9 O.S.) – The Bloody Sunday massacre of peaceful Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg takes place, leading to an unsuccessful uprising.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Rioting breaks out in Warsaw, at this time under Russian Imperial rule with a Russian Governor-General.


date: January

text: Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on demonstrators in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, killing 73 people and injuring 200.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – A simultaneous uprising begins at six cities in Argentina against the government of President Manuel Quintana.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Eliel Soisalon-Soininen, the Chancellor of Justice of the Grand Duchy of Finland (at this time part of the Russian Empire) is assassinated at Helsingfors (Helsinki).


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, the Governor-General of Moscow and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, is assassinated.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – In the Russo-Japanese War, the Battle of Mukden begins in Manchuria.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese capture of Mukden (modern-day Shenyang) completes the rout of Russian armies in Manchuria.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The Theriso revolt begins in Crete as about 1,500 people led by Eleftherios Venizelos demand unification with Greece.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – A violent strike by the Teamsters' Union begins in Chicago.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – German General Lothar von Trotha commander of troops in Germany's colony of Südwestafrika (modern-day Namibia), orders the extermination of the Nama people within the colony's borders, ultimately killing 10,000. Von Trotha's proclamation Aan de oorlogvorende Namastamme, proclaims that "The Nama who chooses not to surrender and lets himself be seen in German territory will be shot, until all are exterminated."


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Japanese victory in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive battle fought between fleets of battleships; Russian personnel losses were 216 officers and 4,614 men killed; with 278 officers and 5,629 men taken as prisoners of war (POWs). Interned in neutral ports were 79 officers and 1,783 men. Escaping to Vladivostok and Diego-Suarez were 62 officers and 1,165 men. Eight battleships and three coastal battleships were either sunk, scuttled or captured. The Japanese lost three torpedo boats and 117 officers and men killed, with 583 officers and men wounded.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Theodoros Deligiannis, Prime Minister of Greece, is assassinated.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – In New Zealand, the first known suicide attack by a civilian (as opposed to sacrifices made in military combat) takes place in Murchison.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Sixty members of the crew of the USS Bennington are killed in an explosion of the U.S. Navy gunboat in the harbor at San Diego.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – At Basel in Switzerland, the International Zionist Conference delegates vote to reject the British offer of land in Uganda for a Jewish homeland.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The peace conference to end the Russo-Japanese War between Russia and Japan begins at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The millennia-old imperial examination system for the civil service is abolished in Qing dynasty China.


date: October 29

text: October 29 (October 16 O.S.) – In the Russian Empire:


date: October

text: Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on a meeting at a street market in Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, killing 94 and injuring over 200 people.


date: November

text: November–December – Russian Revolution of 1905: In the Baltic governorates, workers and peasants burn and loot hundreds of Baltic German manors. The Imperial Russian Army thereafter executes and deports thousands of looters.


date: December 7

text: December 7–18 – Moscow Uprising: A Bolshevik-led revolt is suppressed by the army.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – In support of the Moscow Uprising, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kiev stages a mass uprising, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in the city, December 12–16.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The French ship Anjou is wrecked off of the coast of the uninhabited Auckland Island, located 290 mi from the nearest inhabited land in New Zealand. The castaways live on the isle for more than three months until being rescued on May 7.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – A Japanese expedition takes control of the Russian island of Sakhalin after a short battle.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Near Point Barrow, Alaska, the crew of the Norwegian ship Gjoa, led by Roald Amundsen, make the breakthrough of finding the long-sought "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Under the supervision of five editors, work begins on the comprehensive Catholic Encyclopedia, subtitled "An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church." The first volume will appear in 1907.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Russia's Committee of Ministers votes to grant religious freedom to the subjects of the Russian Empire.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – The U.S. Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case of Swift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire establishes the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day. The decision is publicly announced the next day, which is more commonly celebrated.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin, as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The city of Bend, Oregon, plotted out in 1900 by Alexander Drake, is incorporated as a town for local logging companies, and will have a population of 536 in 1910. By the year 2020, it will have almost 100,000 residents.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Simplon Tunnel through the Alps is opened to railway traffic.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Hundreds of people are killed in Spain in the collapse of a dam holding back a reservoir near Madrid.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acre of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks are auctioned to form what becomes Downtown Las Vegas.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The first running takes place of the Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in England, the world's oldest motorsport event to be staged continuously on its original course.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – is laid down in the United Kingdom, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The Wright brothers' third aeroplane (Wright Flyer III) stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting, the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.


date: October

text: The Circum-Baikal Railway is brought into permanent operation, completing through rail communication on the Trans-Siberian Railway.


text: November 28 – The Mataafa Storm buffets the Great Lakes region. Named after the ', a boat sunk outside of the Duluth Ship Canal, the storm ultimately destroys 29 vessels, leading to 29 deaths and shipping losses of US$3.567 million (1905 dollars).


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Norsk Hydro, predecessor of Equinor, a state-run energy product and grid brand in Scandinavia, is founded in Norway.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The Lick Observatory announces the discovery on 3 December 1904 of a sixth moon of Jupiter, made by their astronomer Charles D. Perrine.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Mata Hari introduces her exotic dance act in the Musée Guimet, Paris.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Albert Einstein submits his paper "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light", in which he explains the photoelectric effect using the notion of light quanta, for publication.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The largest ocean liner in the world at this time, the German SS Amerika is launched.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral dissertation, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions (submitted July 30 to the University of Zurich).


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen" ("On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid, as Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat"), based on his doctoral research, delineating a stochastic model of Brownian motion.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", establishing his theory of special relativity.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – A solar eclipse takes place, with greatest visibility in North Africa.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", in which he puts forward the idea of mass–energy equivalence by publishing the equation E = mc 2 (published November 21).


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The Switzerland national football team plays its first international game, losing to France, 1 to 0.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Jane Stanford, the co-founder with her husband Leland of Stanford University, is fatally poisoned while visiting the Moana Hotel in Hawaii.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – China's Empress Regent Cixi (Tzu Hsi) abolishes further use in executions of the nation's three most cruel torture execution methods, lingchi ("death by a thousand cuts"), gibbeting (similar to crucifixion, hanging until dying of exposure, thirst or starvation), and desecration of a dying person.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Ernest Henry Starling introduces the word "hormone" into the English language.


text: Alfred Einhorn introduces novocaine.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 1

text: February 1 – U.S. Senator John H. Mitchell of Oregon is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges arising from a scandal involving land grants in the state and illegally using his influence for private clients.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Six of the 11 crew of the British Royal Navy submarine HMS A5 are killed by a pair of explosions caused by gasoline fumes in port in Ireland.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The popular fictional character Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief, is introduced in France.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst interrupt a Liberal Party (UK) rally at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, and choose imprisonment when convicted, the first militant action of the suffragette campaign.


date: October

text: October – Fauvist artists, led by Henri Matisse and André Derain, first exhibit their works, at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.


text: Pathé Frères colors black and white films by machine.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – A series of three 41 m ft high tsunamis kill 61 people in Norway, after a rockslide sweeps down Mount Ramnefjell and crashes into Lake Lovatnet.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – 23 of the 26 crew of the British barque Kyber die when the ship is wrecked off England's Land's End.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The Grover Shoe Factory disaster kills 58 employees in Brockton, Massachusetts, when a boiler explodes and the factory building collapses.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – A coal mine explosion at Zeigler, Illinois, kills 50 miners.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The body of John Paul Jones, "Father of the American Navy", is located in Paris almost 113 years after his death.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – A coal mine explosion in Russia kills 500 employees at the Ivan Colliery at Kharsisk.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited train is derailed in an apparent act of sabotage, killing 21 people.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The Danish Navy training ship Georg Stage is accidentally sunk in port in Copenhagen after English steamship Ancona collides with it, killing 22 teenage recruits.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – National Colliery disaster at Wattstown in the Rhondda valley of Wales: an underground explosion kills 120, with just one survivor.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Fourteen employees of a department store in Albany, New York are killed when the building collapses suddenly.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The sinking of the Japanese ferry Kinjo Maru kills 160 people after the British ship HMS Baralong collides with it in the Sea of Japan.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – In India, the 1905 Kangra earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, kills 20,000 and destroys most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – A tornado strikes Laredo, Texas and kills 100.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The 1905 Snyder tornado destroys the town of Snyder, Oklahoma, killing 97.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Hundreds of people die in the flooding of Guanajuato in Mexico.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The 1905 Bolnai earthquake (8.4 magnitude) strikes Mongolia, the second-largest on record here.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The 7.2 Calabria earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Baroness Emma Orczy's play The Scarlet Pimpernel, the forerunner of her novel, opens at the New Theatre in London, beginning a run of 122 performances and numerous revivals.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – "The greatest ball of the Gilded Age" is held by James Hazen Hyde, the heir to the fortune of the founder of the Equitable Life Assurance Association, at New York City's Sherry Hotel, spending $200,000 for a "Louis XV costume ball."


date: February 3

text: February 3 – The first performance of A Shropshire Lad, the setting to music of the 1896 set of 63 poems of A. E. Housman by Arthur Somervell as a song-cycle, takes place at Aeolian Hall in London.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Prince A. Morrow begins the movement in the U.S. for sex education, with the founding of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Rotary International is founded in Chicago in the U.S.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Jimmy Walsh knocks out Monte Attell, in a controversial six-round bout in Philadelphia, to win recognition of the World Bantamweight Championship by the National Boxing Association, despite being disqualified by the referee.


date: May 4

text: May 4 –The first world championship of professional wrestling takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition opens in Portland, Oregon.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – British Princess Margaret of Connaught marries Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Skåne, the future King Gustaf VI Adolf.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Austrian Football Club FC Admira Wacker is founded as SK Admira Wien in Vienna.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – "Pomp and Circumstance" is first played as a graduation march, after Yale University music professor Samuel Sanford invited its composer, Sir Edward Elgar, to receive an honorary degree.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The Automobile Association is founded in the United Kingdom.


date: July 12

text: July 12 –The University of Sheffield is officially opened by King Edward VII in England.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Crystal Palace F.C. is founded in London.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Da-Qing Bank, predecessor of Bank of China, is founded in Peiping.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Turkish Association football team Galatasaray is founded in Istanbul.


text: October 1 – A Czech worker, František Pavlík, is bayoneted to death during a demonstration for a Czech university in Brno. This event is the motivation for a piano sonata, 1. X. 1905, by Leoš Janáček, which premieres on 27 January 1906.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The Institute of Musical Art, predecessor of the Juilliard School, opens in New York City.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow is first performed, at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Nihal Atsız, Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet (d. 1975)

source_section: Births › January – March


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author, philosopher (The Fountainhead) (d. 1982)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Hugh Beadle, Rhodesian lawyer, politician and judge (d. 1980)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Raymond Cattell, British-born American psychologist (d. 1998)


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Paul Hasluck, Australian statesman, 17th Governor-General of Australia (d. 1993)

source_section: Births › April – June


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Pat Brown, American lawyer, politician and 32nd Governor of California (d. 1996)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Floyd Gottfredson, American cartoonist, primarily known for the Mickey Mouse comic strip (d. 1986)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer, politician, 5th President of India (d. 1977)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Hans Urs von Balthasar, Swiss theologian and Catholic priest (d. 1988)

source_section: Births › July – September


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician, cryptologist (d. 1980)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-born British novelist and social philosopher (d. 1983)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, African-American actor (d. 1977)


text: October 11 – Fred Trump, American real estate developer (d. 1999)

source_section: Births › October – December


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Ivory Coast (d. 1993)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Johannes Ludovicus Paquay, Belgian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1828)

source_section: Deaths › January–February


date: February 8

text: February 8 – John Leary, American businessman, politician, and civic leader (b. 1837)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Lew Wallace, American writer (Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) (b. 1827)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí Moreno, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1831)

source_section: Deaths › March–April


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Jules Verne, French science fiction author (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas) (b. 1828)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Maria Assunta Pallotta, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (b. 1878)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Upon the death of U.S. social activist Ann Reeves Jarvis In West Virginia, her daughter Anna Jarvis resolves to campaign across the United States for a proposed "Mother's Day".


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Ceferino Namuncurá, Argentine Roman Catholic lay brother and blessed (b. 1886)

source_section: Deaths › May–June


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Italian Roman Catholic prelate and blessed (b. 1839)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Małgorzata Szewczyk, Polish Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (b. 1828)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – John Hay, American diplomat, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)

source_section: Deaths › July–August


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Muhammad Abduh, Egyptian philosopher, jurist (b. 1849)


text: September 18 – George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet and Christian minister (b. 1824)

source_section: Deaths › September–October


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Sir Henry Irving, English actor (b. 1838)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.

source_section: Events › January–February


date: April 23

text: April 23 – In the Russian Empire, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

source_section: Events › March–April


date: May 27

text: May 27 – The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.

source_section: Events › May–June


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by right-wing naval officer and public official Arvid Lindman.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.

source_section: Events › July–August


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new electoral law is ratified, guaranteeing full women's suffrage, the first in modern Europe. Women can also stand in national elections.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – The National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) of Iran convenes for the first time.

source_section: Events › September–October


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Transvaal Colony is granted responsible self-government by Britain.

source_section: Events › November–December


date: December 13

text: December 13 – The United Kingdom, France and Italy sign an agreement to preserve, in Ethiopia, the integrity of the ancient empire of Abyssinia.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Two British members of a poll tax collecting expedition are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. This leads to the Second Occupation of Cuba, which lasts until 1909.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.


date: January 16

text: January 16–April 7 – The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.


text: February 11 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.


text: Construction begins on the modern-day Great Mosque of Djenné.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a mining trust, is created in the Belgian Congo.


text: The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The first autombile racing Grand Prix is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy) on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Cunard liner is launched in Glasgow, as the world's largest ship.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The RMS Mauretania is launched on the River Tyne, becoming the world's largest ship.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools (it is resolved by next year).


text: The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party under the leadership of Leo Kereselidze successfully robs the Dusheti treasury of the Russian Empire, one of the largest expropriations of the time.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – The strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.


text: October 28 – A train falls off a drawbridge in New Jersey, drowning 53 people, and results in what is widely considered the first ever press release.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale), and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – The San Francisco Earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – 1906 Aleutian Islands earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.35 occurs off the Rat Islands in Alaska.


text: August 16 – 1906 Valparaíso earthquake: A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves nearly 4,000 dead and approximately 20,000 injured.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The 7.9 1906 Manasi earthquake in Xinjiang, China, kills nearly 300 people.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its premiere at the Saalbau Essen in Germany conducted by the composer.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Morral affair: The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24 bystanders.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha, to characterize the nonviolence movement in South Africa.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; it is the first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is first shown, at the Melbourne Athenaeum in Australia.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party in Dhaka in the British Raj; it becomes a driving force for the creation of an independent Pakistan.


text: HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association is officially founded as a sports club in Palestine, predecessor of Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel).


text: January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)

source_section: Births › January–February


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious, resistance leader (executed 1945)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII (d. 1982)

source_section: Births › March–April


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)


date: April 25

text: April 25 – William J. Brennan Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1997)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Ivan Neill, British Army officer and Irish Unionist politician (d. 2001)

source_section: Births › July–August


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – John Huston, American film director, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1987)


text: August 5 – Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Joaquín Balaguer, 41st, 45th, & 49th President of the Dominican Republic, writer (d. 2002)

source_section: Births › September–October


date: September 26

text: September 26 – José Figueres Ferrer, 32nd, 34th, & 38th President of Costa Rica (d. 1990)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Hannah Arendt, German political theorist (d. 1975)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general, vice-presidential candidate (d. 1990)

source_section: Births › November–December


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Grace Hopper, American computer scientist, naval officer (d. 1992)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception Brando, Italian Roman Catholic nun, saint (b. 1856)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Giuseppina Gabriella Bonino, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed (b. 1843)


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and publisher (b. 1872)


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Samuel Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Carl Schurz, German revolutionary, American statesman (b. 1829)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Richard Seddon, 15th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1845)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Carlos Pellegrini, 11th President of Argentina (b. 1846)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 6

text: August 6 – George Waterhouse, 7th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1824)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Ezequiél Moreno y Díaz, Colombian Roman Catholic priest, saint (b. 1848)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (b. 1826)


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Charles Pfizer, German-American chemist, co-founder of Pfizer (b. 1824)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook, British politician (b. 1814)


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Josephine Butler, British feminist, social reformer (b. 1828)


date: March 15

text: March 15–16 – Elections to the new Parliament of Finland are the first in the world for a national assembly with woman candidates, as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied; 19 women are elected.

source_section: Events › March


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The Second Hague Peace Conference opens at The Hague.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Orange River Colony gains autonomy, as the Orange Free State.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907 brings the government and military of the protectorate of Korea more firmly under Japanese control.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the Anglo-Russian Entente in Saint Petersburg, bringing a pause in The Great Game in Central Asia, and establishing the Triple Entente.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 26

text: September 26 – New Zealand and Newfoundland become dominions of the British Empire.

source_section: Events › September


date: October

text: October – A committee of the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language, made up of academics including Otto Jespersen, Wilhelm Ostwald and Roland Eötvös, meet in Paris to select a language for international use. The committee ultimately decides to reform Esperanto.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 16

text: November 16 – President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims that Oklahoma has become the 46th U.S. state.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Ugyen Wangchuck becomes the first Druk Gyalpo (king of Bhutan).

source_section: Events › December


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Dimitar Petkov, is assassinated by an anarchist in Sofia.


date: August 24

text: August 24–31 – The International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam meets in the Netherlands.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – The Hague Convention is revised by the (second) Hague Peace Conference (effective 26 January 1910), focussing on naval warfare.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Černová massacre: Fifteen people are shot during the consecration of a Catholic church in Hungary (modern-day Slovakia).


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Santa María School massacre: In Chile, soldiers fire at striking mineworkers gathered in the Santa María School in Iquique; over 2,000 are killed.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Al Ahly SC is founded in Cairo by Omar Lotfi, as a gathering place for Egyptian students' unions in the struggle against colonization; it is the first association football club officially founded in Egypt or Africa.

source_section: Events › April


date: September 7

text: September 7 – British Cunard Line passenger liner sets out on her maiden voyage, from Liverpool (England) to New York City.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Shastri Yagnapurushdas consecrates the murtis of both Sahajanand Swami and Gunatitanand Swami in a single central shrine, thus establishing the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, later a United Nations affiliate organization.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Pope Pius X promulgates the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis, opposing modernism in the Catholic Church.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Persil laundry detergent is first marketed by Henkel of Düsseldorf, Germany, the first to combine bleach with detergent commercially.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – A major United States financial crisis is averted when J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, James Stillman, Henry Clay Frick and other Wall Street financiers create a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange, ending the bank panic of 1907.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – SKF, a worldwide mechanical parts manufacturing brand is founded in Gothenburg, Sweden.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The first taxicabs with taximeters begin operating in London.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Hershey Park opens in Hershey, Pennsylvania.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The first Minas Geraes-class battleship is laid down for Brazil, by Armstrong Whitworth on the River Tyne, in England, triggering the South American dreadnought race.


date: June 10

text: June 10–August 10 – The Peking to Paris motor race is won by Prince Scipione Borghese, driving a 7-litre 35/45 hp Itala.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The London Electrobus Company starts running the first ever service of battery-electric buses between London's Victoria Station and Liverpool Street.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Guglielmo Marconi initiates commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.


text: James M. Spangler invents the first Hoover vacuum cleaner.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The Autochrome Lumière is the first commercial color photography process.


text: The triode thermionic amplifier invented by Lee de Forest, starting the development of electronics as a practical technology.


date: March

text: The Diamond Sūtra, a woodblock printed Buddhist scripture dated 868, is discovered by Aurel Stein in the Mogao Caves in China; it is "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book".


date: November 16

text: November 16 – British Cunard Line passenger liner RMS Mauretania, the world's largest and fastest at this date, sets out on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York.


text: The Moine Thrust Belt in Scotland is identified, one of the first to be discovered anywhere.


text: Indiana, in the United States, becomes the world's first legislature to place laws permitting compulsory sterilization for eugenic purposes on the statute book.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Tiflis bank robbery: Bolsheviks attack a cash-filled bank coach in the centre of Tiflis, Georgia, killing 40 people.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Guardians of the Irish Crown Jewels notice that they have been stolen.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Uruguay abolishes capital punishment.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The French warship Jean Bart sinks off the coast of Morocco.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The steamship Larchmont collides with the Harry Hamilton in Long Island Sound; 183 lives are lost.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – The English mail steamship Berlin is wrecked off the Hook of Holland; 142 lives are lost.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The Austrian Lloyd steamship Imperatrix, from Trieste to Bombay, is wrecked on Cape of Crete and sinks; 137 lives are lost.


text: The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt results in possibly as many as 11,000 deaths.


text: The steamship Congo collides at the mouth of the Ems River with the German steamship Nerissa; 7 lives are lost.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – The sinks after colliding with the lumber schooner San Pedro, off Shelter Cove, California, resulting in 88 deaths.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – The partially completed superstructure of the Quebec Bridge collapses entirely, claiming the lives of 76 workers.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Monongah Mining disaster: A coal mine explosion kills 362 workers in Monongah, West Virginia.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The largest sailing ship ever built, the 7-masted U.S.-owned Thomas W. Lawson, is wrecked in the Isles of Scilly.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – An explosion in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 M w earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000.

source_section: Events › January


text: c. March 28 – The volcano Ksudach erupts, in the Kamchatka Peninsula.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The "Mud March", the first large procession organised by The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), takes place in London.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The first university sports federation in Europe is established in Hungary, with the participation or support of the associations of ten universities and colleges.


date: March

text: Pablo Picasso completes his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – The 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party convenes in secret in London.

source_section: Events › May


date: August 28

text: August 28 – UPS is founded by James E. (Jim) Casey in Seattle, Washington.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – The Deutscher Werkbund is founded in Germany.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Pierre Mendès France, French politician, 142nd Prime Minister of France (d. 1982)

source_section: Births › January


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian religious historian, writer (d. 1986)

source_section: Births › March


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (d. 1954)

source_section: Births › July


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction author (d. 1988)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – John G. Trump, American electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist (d. 1985)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Ramon Magsaysay, 7th President of the Philippines (d. 1957)


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Walter Reuther, American labor union leader and president of the United Auto Workers (d. 1970)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Warren E. Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Lewis F. Powell Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1998)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (d. 1931)


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and businessman (d. 1998)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Víctor Paz Estenssoro, 45th President of Bolivia (d. 2001)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Sergio Méndez Arceo, 7th Mexican bishop of Cuernavaca 1953–1982, and advocate of Liberation theology (d. 1991).


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Cab Calloway, American jazz singer and bandleader (d. 1994)

source_section: Births › December


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Preston Leslie, 26th Governor of Kentucky and 9th territorial Governor of Montana (b. 1819)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Henry Steel Olcott, American officer, theosophist (b. 1832)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – C. W. Alcock, English footballer, journalist, and football promoter (b. 1842)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Frank Manly Thorn, American lawyer, politician, government official, essayist, journalist, humorist, inventor, and 6th Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (b. 1836)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States (b. 1847)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Hod Stuart, Canadian professional ice hockey player, killed in diving accident (b. 1879)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Qiu Jin, Chinese revolutionary, feminist and poet, executed (b. 1875)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-American Beaux-Arts sculptor (b. 1848)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Sully Prudhomme, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1839)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Raphael Kalinowski, Polish Discalced Carmelite friar and saint (b. 1835)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish writer, painter and architect (b. 1869)


date: December 17

text: December 17 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born physicist and engineer (b. 1824)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: April 8

text: April 8 – H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.

source_section: Events › April


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a future President of Finland, meets the 13th Dalai Lama in Shanxi, China, becoming only the third European to be granted an audience with him.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Young Turk Revolution: The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) issues a formal ultimatum to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, to restore the constitution of 1876 within the Ottoman Empire; it is restored the following day.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 24

text: August 24 – After an intense power struggle, Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco is deposed and is succeeded by his brother Abd al-Hafid.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire; Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 3

text: November 3 – 1908 United States presidential election: Republican candidate William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan, 321 electoral votes to 162.

source_section: Events › November


text: November 15 – King Leopold II of Belgium formally relinquishes his personal control of the Congo Free State (becoming Belgian Congo) to Belgium, following evidence collected by Roger Casement of maladministration.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Women's suffrage is passed in Victoria, Australia.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Emperor Puyi ascends the Chinese throne at age 2 in succession to his uncle. He will reign for 3 years, then again for 11 days, and finally for 11 years as a puppet emperor.

source_section: Events › December


date: March 23

text: March 23 – American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is assassinated in San Francisco by two Korean immigrants, unhappy with his recent support for the increasing Japanese presence in Korea.

source_section: Events › March


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire: Major Ahmed Niyazi, with 200 followers (Ottoman troops and civilians), begins an open revolution by defecting from the 3rd Army Corps in Macedonia, decamping into the hill country.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – The Bosnian crisis begins, after the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman Empire.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The British Nimrod Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand for Antarctica on the Nimrod.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The first Scout troop outside the U.K. is formed in Gibraltar.


date: March

text: A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France, by Otto Hauser.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.


date: May 14

text: May 14–October 31 – The Franco-British Exhibition (1908) is held in London.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 26

text: May 26 – At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Robert Peary sets sail for the North Pole.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Penny Post is established between the United Kingdom and United States.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race, begins.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Bank of Communications, a major financial services provider in China, is founded in Beijing.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Kohlerer-Bahn by Bleichert opens in Bolzano, South Tyrol, the first modern aerial enclosed cable car solely for passenger service.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – comes into force internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy).


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time, demonstrating controlled powered flight in Europe.


text: August 8 – The Hoover Company of Canton, Ohio, acquires manufacturing rights to the upright portable vacuum cleaner patented on June 22 by James M. Spangler.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – “Fantasmagorie”, an animated short film by Émile Cohl, which is widely regarded as the first animated cartoon is officially released.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The first Minas Geraes-class Dreadnought battleship for Brazil, Minas Geraes, is launched at Armstrong Whitworth's yard on the River Tyne in England, catalysing the "South American dreadnought race".

source_section: Events › September


text: October 1 – Official launch of Henry Ford's Ford Model T automobile, the first having left the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan, on September 27. The initial price is set at US$850.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Olivetti, the well-known typewriter and business equipment company, is founded in Italy.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Construction begins on the , at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean and is the 46th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 130.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – French aviator Henri Farman makes the world's first flight with a passenger, Léon Delagrange.


date: March

text: Clifford W. Beers's memoir of psychiatric abuse, A Mind That Found Itself, was published.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Central America, North America, Atlantic Ocean and Africa and is the 33rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.


date: June 30

text: June 30 (June 17 OS) – The Tunguska event near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire, is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment, at an altitude of 5 – 10 above the Earth's surface.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – French aviator Léon Delagrange makes the world's first flight with a female passenger, his partner and fellow sculptor Thérèse Peltier.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – The Christian Science Monitor newspaper is first published, in the United States.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – A hybrid solar eclipse is visible from Atlantic Ocean and is the 23rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Lisbon Regicide: King Carlos I of Portugal and Prince Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Western bandits Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are supposedly killed in Bolivia, after being surrounded by a large group of soldiers. There are many rumors to the contrary however, and their grave sites are unmarked.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – A fire breaks out at the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, killing 171 people.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Collinwood school fire near Cleveland, Ohio kills 175.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Sunshine rail disaster: A rear-end collision of two trains in Melbourne, Australia kills 44 people and injures more than 400.


date: July 11

text: July 11–12 – The steamship Amalthea, housing 80 British strikebreakers in Malmö harbour, Sweden, is bombed by Anton Nilson; 1 is killed, 20 injured.


date: July 27

text: July 27–28 – The 1908 Hong Kong typhoon sinks the passenger steamer Ying King, causing 421 deaths.*July 29 - The White Star Line company begins the construction of the Titanic


date: September 17

text: September 17 – At Fort Myer, Virginia, Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash. The pilot, Orville Wright, is severely injured in the crash but recovers.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The 7.1 Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 75,000 and 200,000.


text: This is the coldest recorded year since 1880, according to NASA reports.

source_section: Events › Undated


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first race inclusive sorority is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys begins publication in London. The book eventually sells over 100 million copies, and effectively begins the worldwide Boy Scout movement.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Panathinaikos A.O., a well-known professional multi-sports club of Greece, is founded in Athens.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – The State Normal and Industrial School for Women, precursor to James Madison University, is founded in Harrisonburg, Virginia.


text: March 4 – The Pretoria branch of Transvaal University College, precursor to the University of Pretoria, is established.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Football Club Internazionale is founded in Milan, Italy.


date: March

text: Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopædia begins publication in London.


date: July 13

text: July 13–25 – The 1908 Summer Olympics are held in London. (Originally scheduled to be in Rome, but changed due to the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 1906. Figure skating events are held in London from October 28–29.)


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Feyenoord, the first Dutch football club to win the UEFA Champions League, is founded at Rotterdam, Netherlands


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Italian Dorando Pietri wins the Olympic marathon (run from Windsor Castle to London) in one of the most dramatic arrivals in Olympic history, only to be disqualified soon afterwards for receiving assistance; victory is awarded to Irish-American Johnny Hayes.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is founded in the United States.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – American Messenger Company, predecessor of United Parcel Service, is founded in Washington (state).


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Classes begin at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, established under the terms of Franklin's will.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – The University of Omaha, precursor of the University of Nebraska Omaha, is founded as a private non-sectarian college.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – William Hartnell, British actor (died 1975)

source_section: Births › January


text: January 15 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-born American physicist (died 2003)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Amintore Fanfani, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (died 1999)

source_section: Births › February


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born British World War II SOE operative (died 1952)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 20

text: May 20 – James Stewart, American actor (died 1997)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Azam Khan, Pakistani general and Governor of East Pakistan (died 1994)

source_section: Births › July


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Thurgood Marshall, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1993)


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Arthur Goldberg, American politician, diplomat and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1990)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (died 2001)


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Viktor Ambartsumian, Soviet Armenian astrophysicist (died 1996)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier, twice winner of the Victoria Cross (died 1994)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Arturo Frondizi, 35th President of Argentina (d. 1995)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Giovanni Leone, 68th Prime Minister of Italy, 6th President of Italy (died 2001)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born French anthropologist (died 2009)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Wilhelm Busch, German painter, poet (born 1832)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: February 29

text: February 29 – John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, 1st Governor-General of Australia (born 1860)


text: February 29 – Pat Garrett, Sheriff in the Old West; shot Billy the Kid in 1881 (born 1850)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Sidney Hill, English philanthropist (born 1829)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1836)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Sir Redvers Buller, British general, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1839)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, Governor-General of Canada, founder of the Stanley Cup (born 1841)


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (born 1844)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Demetrius Vikelas, 1st President of the International Olympic Committee (born 1835)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì, 12th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1839)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Frank Robison, American baseball executive, early owner of the St. Louis Cardinals (born 1852)


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican educator, poet and activist (born 1846)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The Guangxu Emperor of China dies, probably poisoned. The following day, his aunt and the power behind the throne, Empress Dowager Cixi, dies.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Jacob Parrott, the first person to receive the American Medal of Honor, one of six presented on March 25, 1863, to the heroes of the Great Locomotive Chase during the American Civil War (born 1843)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.

source_section: Events › January–February


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The International Joint Commission on US-Canada boundary waters is established.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The Paris Film Congress opens. It is an attempt to create a cartel of leading European producers similar to the MPPC in the United States.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed in Bangkok.

source_section: Events › March–April


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. He proceeds to leave Persia for the Russian Empire, reportedly seeking the assistance of Nicholas II of Russia in regaining the throne.

source_section: Events › July–August


date: January 28

text: January 28 – The last United States troops leave Cuba, after being there since the Spanish–American War of 1898.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.


date: April 13

text: April 13 (March 31 by Eastern reckoning) – A countercoup begins in the Ottoman Empire.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Adana massacre: Ottoman Turks kill 15,000–30,000 Armenian Christians, in the Adana Vilayet.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – French forces capture Abéché, capital of the Wadai Empire in central Africa.

source_section: Events › May–June


date: July 1

text: July 1 – In London, Indian nationalist student Madan Lal Dhingra assassinates Curzon Wyllie, political aide to the Secretary of State for India.


date: July 25

text: July 25–August 2 – "Tragic Week" (La Semana Trágica/la Setmana Tràgica): The city of Barcelona experiences a workers' uprising.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated by An Jung-geun, an activist of the Korean independence movement, at the Harbin railway station in Manchuria.

source_section: Events › September–October


date: November 18

text: November 18 – In Nicaragua, 500 revolutionaries (including 2 Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya. The United States responds by sending 2 warships.

source_section: Events › November–December


date: December 14

text: December 14 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth, to create the Australian Capital Territory.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The British Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, led by Ernest Shackleton, arrives at the farthest south reached by any prior expedition, at 88°23' S, prior to turning back due to diminishing supplies.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Members of the Nimrod Expedition claim to have found the magnetic South Pole (but the location recorded may be incorrect).


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and four Inuit explorers – Ootah, Ooqueah, Seegloo and Egigingwah – come within a few miles of the North Pole.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The remains of the Báb are placed in the Baháʼí Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa, at this time within the Ottoman Empire.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – The city of Tel Aviv (known in its first year as Ahuzat Bayit) is founded by the Jewish community, on the outskirts of Jaffa (at this time in the Ottoman Empire).


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – The Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act is passed in the United States Congress.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (modern-day BP) is incorporated.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Einar Dessau uses a shortwave radio transmitter in Denmark.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Construction begins on the RMS Titanic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.


text: July 25 – Louis Blériot is the first man to fly across the English Channel (thus a large open body of water) in a heavier-than-air craft.