[WARNING LONG POST}
1903 - 1904
The Years of the Russo-Japaness War had started. Civil Rights, Sufferage, and other ideas started to appear. The ground had been layed for the World to change how it looked at poltics, and at other people. But this was just the rough beginning to a road of strange things to come.
1903 Jan 2, President Theodore Roosevelt closed a post office in Indianola, Mississippi for refusing to hire a black postmistress.
1903 Jan 2, The first electronic message was sent across the 2,610 mile Pacific Cable from Honolulu to SF.
1903 Jan 3, The Bulgarian government renounced the treaty of commerce tying it to Austro-Hungarian empire.
1903 Jan 10, Argentina banned the importation of American beef, because of sanitation problems.
1903 Jan 19, Guglielmo Marconi broadcast the first transatlantic radio message from his station (Marconi Beach) on Cape Cod. It was beamed to King Edward of England from President Theodore Roosevelt. [see 1901]
1903 Jan 24, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert created a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border.
1903 Feb 11, Congress passed the Expedition Act, giving antitrust cases priority in the courts.
1903 Feb 14, US Congress created the Department of Commerce and Labor to help stabilize the economy. It was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in 1913.
1903 Feb 19, The Austria-Hungary government decreed a mandatory two year military service.
1903 Feb 20, Pope Leo XIII celebrated 25 years as the Pope.
1903 Feb 24, The United States signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Pres. Roosevelt leased the site for 2,000 gold coins a year, about $4,080 in 2002.
1903 Mar 2, The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel featured 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1903 Mar 3, North Carolina became the 1st state requiring registration of nurses.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1903 Mar 12, The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1903 Mar 14, The Senate ratified the Hay-Herran Treaty which guaranteed the U.S. the right to build a canal at Panama. The treaty promised Colombia $8 million plus $225,000 annually for a zone 5.2 miles wide.
(HN, 3/14/98)(ON, 1/00, p.2)
1903 Mar 15, The British completed the conquest of Nigeria, 500,000 square miles are now controlled by the United Kingdom.
(HN, 3/15/99)
1903 Mar 19, The U.S. Senate ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1903 Mar 23, The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1903 Mar 29, A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1903 Mar 31, New Zealand aviator Richard Pearse flew a self-made, bamboo-framed, mono-winged airplane in Waitohi.
(NW, 3/17/03, p.20)
1903 Mar, Orville and Wilbur Wright first attempted to file a patent on their Flying Machine. This patent application, describing only the basic aerodynamics and control surfaces of the aircraft, not the engine, was turned down by the U.S. Patent Office for lack of clarity. [see 1906]
(HNQ, 3/19/01)
1903 Apr 6, French Army Nationalists were revealed for forging documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dreyfus, an officer accused of giving plans for France's defense to Germany.
(HN, 4/6/99)
1903 Apr 14, Dr. Harry Plotz in NYC discovered a vaccine against typhoid.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1903 May 19, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson bet $50 that he could cross the US from San Francisco in his $2,500 Winton touring car. He and his mechanic reached NYC July 26.
(SFC, 6/16/03, p.A1)
1903 May 23, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off to cross the US from San Francisco in his $2,500 Winton touring car with his mechanic Sewell Croker. They reached NYC July 26.
1903 Jun 11, King Alexander and Queen Draga of Belgrade were almost assassinated by members of the Serbia army.
1903 Jun 15, Barney Oldfield (1878-1946), race car driver, drove a Ford 999 at a record mile per minute.
(Ind, 10/6/01, 5A)
1903 Jun 16, Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1903 Jun 16, Pepsi Cola company formed. [see 1902]
(MC, 6/16/02)
1903 Jun 18, 1st transcontinental auto trip began in SF and arrived in NY 3-months later. [see Jul 26]
(MC, 6/18/02)
1903 Jun 19, The young school teacher, Benito Mussolini, was placed under investigation by police in Bern, Switzerland.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1903 Jun 25, Marie Curie announced her discovery of radium. [see Apr 20, 1902]
(HN, 6/25/01)
1903 Jun 29, The British government officially protested Belgian atrocities in the Congo. Missionaries, such as William Sheppard of Virginia, had provided information that soldiers of Leopold’s private army turned over the right hand of villagers they had killed in order to account for their used bullets. Leopold’s 19,000 man private army held hostage the wives of workers to force men to work.
(HN, 6/29/98)(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7,8)
1903 Jul 2, Olav V, King of Norway (1957), was born in England.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1903 Jul 3, The first cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. Teddy Roosevelt placed the atoll of Midway Island under Navy supervision. The Commercial Pacific Cable Co. (later AT&T) set cable across the Pacific via Midway Island and the first around the world message was sent. The message took 9 minutes to circle the globe. [see Jul 4]
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)(HN, 7/3/98)
1903 Jul 4, Pacific Cable (SF, Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opened. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt opened the first Pacific communications cable by sending a message around the world. Roosevelt sent a message around the world, and the message came back to him in 12 minutes. [see Jul 3]
(Maggio, 98)(HNQ, 7/6/01)
1903 Jul 20, Pope Leo XIII died. He served 25 years, four months and 17 days.
(AP, 10/15/03)
1903 Jul 23, The Ford Motor Company sold its first automobile, the Model A.
1903 Aug 4, Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto of Venice was elected Pope Pius X.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1903 Sep 8, Between 30,000 and 50,000 Bulgarian men, women and children were massacred in Monastir by Turkish troops seeking to check a threatened Macedonian uprising.
1903 Sep 17, Turks destroyed the town of Kastoria in Bulgaria, killing 10,000 civilians.
1903 Oct 10, Philippe Bunau-Varilla met with Pres. Roosevelt in Washington and told him that a group in Panama was planning a rebellion. He asked that the US prevent any Colombian troops from landing to break the rebellion, but received no specific answer.
1903 Oct 13, Boston defeated Pittsburgh in baseball’s first World Series. In 2003 Roger I. Abrams authored "The First World Series and the Baseball Fanatics of 1903;" Louis P. Masur authored "Autumn Glory: Baseball's First World Series;" and Bob Ryan authored "When Boston Won the World Series."
1903 Oct 20, The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, ruled in favor of the United States. The deciding vote was Britain’s, which embittered Canada. The United States gained ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.
1903 Nov 2, London’s Daily Mirror was first published.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1903 Nov 3, There was a Revolution in Panama composed of Panamanian fired departments and some 500 Colombian mercenary troops purchased for some $100,000 by Philippe Bunau-Varilla’s Panama Canal Company. The US created Panama so that a canal could be built and maintained
(HFA, '96, p.42)(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A8)(AP, 11/3/97)(ON, 1/00, p.2)
1903 Nov 4, After a one-day coup, in which an American warship offshore prevented Columbia from quelling the revolt and the only casualty was a Chinese shopkeeper and a donkey, Panama declared her independence. A jubilant President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the new republic three days later. The Panama Canal, a cornerstone of Roosevelt's aggressive foreign policy, was completed in 10 years.
1903 Nov 6, Panama declared its independence from Colombia.
(ON, 1/00, p.3)
1903 Nov 7, President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the new Panama republic.
(HNPD, 11/18/98)(ON, 1/00, p.3)
1903 Nov 17, Vladimir Lenin’s efforts to impose his own radical views on the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split the Party into two factions, the Bolsheviks, who supported Lenin, and the Mensheviks. The followers of the Marxist revolutionary line espoused by V.I. Lenin called themselves the majority, or Bolsheviks, and referred to their rivals as the minority, or Mensheviks. The Mensheviks took a less radical position, seeking cooperation with middle-class parties. The two factions grew into separate parties, with Bolshevism becoming the strategy that led to the overthrow of Russian czarism and the establishment of soviet power in the revolutions of 1917. The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the Russian Communist Party in 1918 and the word Bolshevik was finally dropped from the official title of the Soviet Communist Party in 1956.
(HN, 11/17/98)(HNQ, 3/17/00)
1903 Nov 18, The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed, granting the United States a strip of land across the Isthmus of Panama and the right to build and fortify the Panama Canal. Building an interoceanic canal was not a new idea at the turn of the 20th century, but U.S. acquisition of California in 1848 and territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean after the Spanish-American War made the canal crucial to American foreign policy. In January 1903, the Hay-Herran Treaty with Colombia--Panama was a part of Colombia--would have given the United States the land and the right to build a canal across Panama, but Colombia refused to ratify the treaty. Subsequently, Panamanian rebels--encouraged by American agents--rose against Colombia on November 3, 1903. After a one-day coup, in which an American warship offshore prevented Colombia from quelling the revolt and the only casualty was a donkey, Panama declared her independence. A jubilant President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the new republic three days later. The Panama Canal, a cornerstone of Roosevelt's aggressive foreign policy, was completed in 10 years.
(HNPD, 11/18/98)(ON, 1/00, p.3)
1903 Dec 9, The Norwegian parliament voted unanimously for female suffrage.
1903 Dec 14, William Ennis became the 1st cop to die in electric chair.
1903 Dec 15, The British Parliament placed a 15-year ban on whale fishing in Norway.
1903 Dec 17, Erskine Caldwell, U.S. novelist, was born.
1903 Dec 17, The Wright brothers' Flyer I flew for 12 seconds in the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The brothers were the sons of a Dayton, Ohio, bishop (Church of the United Brethren). Orville Wright made the first powered, controlled and sustained flight. Orville, lying prone at the plane's controls, flew a distance of 120 feet in 12 seconds. Wilbur ran beside Flyer's wing tip until it was airborne to keep the wing from dragging in the sand. Four sustained flights were made on this day. The 4th flight lasted fifty-nine seconds. The momentous events of that day received little press attention, since the reticent Wright brothers feared their ideas would be stolen by rival aviators. It was not until 1908, after making many refinements to their flying machine, that the Wrights embarked on a series of public demonstrations that finally earned them worldwide acclaim. A one-hour PBS documentary covered their life as part of "The American Experience."
1903 Dec 19, The Williamsburg suspension bridge opened between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1903 In NYC the Manhattan Bridge opened.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.T4)
1903 The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opened its first building at 10 Broad St.
1903 The hot fudge sundae was first served.
(SFC, 3/7/98, p.E3)
1903 The Baltimore Orioles baseball team was moved to New York where it became the NY Yankees.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.W7)
1903 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt set aside the 5 acres of Pelican Island off the east coast of Florida to protect pelicans and other birds from hunters. This began the wildlife refuge system that grew to 537 national wildlife refuges in 2001.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A2)
1903 There was a stock market panic this year as Pres. Teddy Roosevelt began to establish himself as the first great "trust buster."
(SFC,10/27/97, p.B2)
1903 Hawaii’s popularly elected territorial legislature first petitioned to become a state and repeated the request at least 17 times. [see 1919]
(HNQ, 2/23/02)
1903 King C. Gillette replaced the cut-throat razor with his safety razor blade.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.111)
1903 Henry Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Co. and sold the first Model A.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1903 William Harley and the 3 Davidson brothers: Arthur (20), Walter and William (21), started out in a Milwaukee basement to produce their first motorized bike. In 1999 Brock Yates published "Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul."
1903 Buick Motors was established.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1903 The Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co. was established in Evansville, Ind.
(WSJ, 12/20/96, p.A1)
1903 The Buffalo Pottery Company opened in Buffalo. It was established by the Larkin Co., a soap manufacturer, to make premiums for its customers.
(SFC, 7/1/98, Z1 p.6)
1903 The Postal car was equipped with a heater.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1903 The 1st trolley with an electric 3rd rail was installed in Scranton, Pa.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.B8)
1903 Major silver and gold deposits were found at Goldfield, Nevada.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)
1903 John Muir influenced the conservation policy of President Theodore Roosevelt during a 1903 camping trip to Yosemite. Naturalist and forest conservation advocate, Muir was largely responsible for the establishment of national parks such as Sequoia and Yosemite. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Scottish immigrant Muir worked on mechanical inventions, but when an industrial accident blinded him in one eye, he abandoned that career and devoted himself to nature. As early as 1876, Muir encouraged the federal government to establish a forest conservation program. The Sequoia and Yosemite parks were created in 1890 and two eloquent articles by Muir swayed public opinion in favor of federally protected national forests.
(HNPD, 1/2/99)
1903 Rasputin, the Russian monk and confidant of the Romanovs, came to St. Petersburg as an ascetic holy man and claimed to be inspired by visions of the Virgin Mary.
(WSJ, 3/25/96, p.A-15)
1903-1906 The United Shoe Manufacturing Plant was built. It was pioneering reinforced concrete structure in Beverly, Mass., devised by the engineer Ernest L. Ransome. He patented a way to embed twisted square iron rods in concrete.
(WSJ, 10/2/97, p.A16)
1903-1907 William Randolph Hearst served two terms in Congress.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1903-1909 In SF infantry barracks were built on Ruger St. in the Presidio to provide quarters for troops being shipped to cover the US expansion into the Pacific.
1904 Jan 2, U.S. Marines were sent to Santo Domingo to aid the government against rebel forces.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1904 Jan 4, The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the Gonzales v. Williams case that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and can enter the U.S. freely, yet stopped short of awarding citizenship.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1904 Jan 5, American Marines arrived in Seoul, Korea to guard U.S. legation there.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1904 Jan 6, A Japanese railway in Korea refused to transport Russian troops.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1904 Jan 11, British troops massacred 1,000 dervishes in Somaliland.
(HN, 1/11/99)
1904 Feb 3, Colombian troops clashed with U.S. Marines in Panama.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1904 Feb 4, Russia offered Korea to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.
1904 Feb 5, The American’s remove troops from the Cuban territories.
1904 Feb 6, Japan's foreign minister severed all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.
1904 Feb 8, The Russo-Japanese War began. In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disabled seven Russian warships. During the war, Russia suffered a series of stunning defeats to Japan; the fighting ended with an agreement mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
1904 Feb 9, Japanese troops landed near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.
1904 Feb 10, Russia and Japan declared war on each other.
1904 Feb 11, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed strict neutrality for the U.S. in the Russo-Japanese War.
1904 Feb 23, US acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1904 Feb 23, Japan guaranteed Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance.
1904 Mar 2, "Official Playing Rules of Professional Base Ball Clubs" was adopted.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1904 Mar 4, Russian troops began to retreat toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese advanced in Korea.
1904 Mar 7, The Japanese bombed the Russian town of Vladivostok.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1904 Mar 8, The Bundestag in Germany lifted the ban on the Jesuit order of priests.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
1904 Mar 22, The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1904 Mar 24, Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1904 Apr 19, Much of Toronto was destroyed by fire.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1904 Apr 30, At 1:06 p.m. President Theodore Roosevelt officially opened the St. Louis World’s Fair commemorating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Although the Fair was originally scheduled to open in 1903, the opening was delayed for a year while the elaborate fairgrounds were completed. Visitors were awed by 142 miles of exhibits shown in palatial buildings like Festival Hall the centerpiece of the fair boasting an auditorium seating 3,500 and the largest pipe organ in the world. Other wonders seen at the St. Louis World’s Fair were the Liberty Bell, ice cream cones. Food vendors, Arnold Fornachou (ice cream) and Ernest Hamwi (sweet, rolled wafers), collaborated for the ice cream cones. In 1903 Italo Marconi received a patent for pastry cornets to hold ice cream. Charles Menches sold ice cream at the fair and an anonymous Syrian sold the zalabia pastry in the next booth.
(HN, 5/2/98)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)(SFC, 6/24/00, p.B3)
1904 Apr 30, The St. Louis World’s Fair popularized the all-American hamburger. The fair lasted 7 months and inspired the phrase "Meet Me in St. Louis." Cass Gilbert designed the art museum in Foret park, the only building left over from the fair. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition the temperatures in St. Louis soared and hot-tea vendor Richard Blechynden began pouring his tea over ice thus the invention of iced-tea. The fair popularized sausage in a bun, the hot dog with prepared mustard and the ice cream cone.
(SFC, 8/18/96, Z1 p.2)(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par p.19)(SFC, 10/12/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Z1 p.8)(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.C3)
1904 although invented in Waco, Texas in the 1880s, Dr Pepper first received national exposure at the St. Louis World's Fair.
(HNQ, 10/25/00)
1904 May 5, Denton True Young (Cy Young) of the Boston Red Sox pitched the American League's first perfect game as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0.
(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A23)(AP, 5/5/04)
1904 May 8, U.S. Marines landed in Tangier to protect the Belgian legation.
(HN, 5/8/98)
1904 May 11, Andrew Carnegie donated $1.5M to build a peace palace.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1904 May 14, The first Olympic games to be held in the United States opened in St. Louis. Some 1,500 athletes competed from 13 countries. The US won 80 of 100 gold medals. At the Olympics the game of golf was played for the last time due to lack of general appeal. The 3rd modern Olympics were held at the St. Louis World’s Fair. A separate competition was held for “uncivilized tribes” in what was billed as “Anthropology Days.”
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.4)(AP, 5/14/97)(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A6)(PCh, 1992, p.658)(WSJ, 8/11/04, p.B1)
1904 May 18, Brigand Raizuli kidnapped American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.
(HN, 5/18/98)
1904 Jun 6, The National Tuberculosis Association was organized in Atlantic City, NJ.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1904 Jun 8, U.S. Marines landed in Tangiers, Morocco, to protect U.S. citizens.
(HN, 6/8/99)
1904 Jul 21, After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway was completed. [see Jul 31]
(MC, 7/21/02)
1904 Jul 23, By some accounts, the ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. [see Sep 22, 1903]
(AP, 7/23/99)
1904 Jul 31, The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast, was completed. [see Jul 21]
(HN, 7/31/98)
1904 Aug 6, The Japanese army in Korea surrounded a Russian army retreating to Manchuria.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1904 Aug 11, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1904 Aug 12, Aleksei N. Romanov, son of Tsar Nicolas II, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1904 Aug 14, The Hereros rebelled against the German colonialists. The cattle-herding tribe of German South West Africa (later Namibia), were the first genocide victims of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent General Lothar von Trotha to put down the Herero uprising. Trotha drove the Hereros into the desert and then issued a formal "extermination order" authorizing the slaughter of all who refused to surrender. Out of some 80,000 Hereros, 60,000 died in the desert. Of the 15,000 who surrendered, half of those died in prison camps. Some 9,000 escaped to neighboring countries. In 2004 a senior German government official apologized for the genocide during a ceremony in Namibia marking the 100th anniversary of the uprising.
(HNPD, 4/14/99)(AP, 8/14/04)
1904 Aug 16, NYC began building the Grand Central Station.
1904 Aug 24, In the field battle at Liaoyang, China, some 200,000 Japanese faced 150,000 Russians. The Japanese defeated the Russians in October.
1904 Sep 4, Dali Lama signed a treaty allowing British commerce in Tibet.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1904 Sep 9, Mounted police were 1st used in NYC.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1904 Sep 11, The battleship Connecticut, launched in New York, introduced a new era in naval construction.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1904 Sep 15, Wilbur Wright made his 1st controlled half-circle while in flight.
(
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/user/fact_sept.htm)
1904 Sep 19, Gen. Nogi's assault on Port Arthur: 16,000 Japanese casualties.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1904 Sep 20, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew a circle in their Flyer II.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1904 Sep 25, A New York City police officer ordered a female passenger in an automobile on Fifth Avenue to stop smoking a cigarette. A male companion was arrested and later fined two dollars for "abusing" the officer.
(AP, 9/25/98)
1904 Sep 28, A woman was placed under arrest for smoking a cigarette on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1904 Oct, 1, Forty orphans (aged 2-6), shipped west in the company of nuns by a New York Foundling Hospital, arrived at the Arizona copper mining towns of Clifton and Morenci. Anglo townspeople opposed their adoption by Mexican American citizens, terrorized the adopting families and took some of the children for themselves. In 1999 Linda Gordon authored "The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction;" Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith authored "Frontier Children," which described the "orphan train" plan to transport poor city-bred children to a healthier life out west.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, Par p.6)
1904 Oct 4, 1st day of NYC subway, 350,000 people rode the 9.1 mile tracks. [see Oct 24, 27]
(MC, 10/4/01)
1904 Oct 20, Bolivia and Chile signed a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognized Chile's possession of Bolivia's nitrate-rich coastal province of Antofagasta, but provided for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica on the coast.
1904 Oct 21, Panamanians clashed with U.S. Marines in Panama in a brief uprising.
(HN, 10/21/98)
1904 Oct 22, The Russian Baltic fleet mistakenly fired on British fishing ships near Dogger Bank killing 2 fishermen. The fleet was in fear of Japanese torpedo boats.
1904 Oct 24, The 1st NY subway opened. [see Oct 4, 27]
(MC, 10/24/01)
1904 Oct 27, The first rapid transit subway, the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), opened in New York City. It ran from the Brooklyn Bridge uptown to Broadway at 145th Street with a fare of one nickel. [see Oct 4]
(AP, 10/27/97)(HN, 10/27/98)(MC, 10/27/01)
1904 Oct 28, The St. Louis, Missouri, police tried a new investigation method—fingerprints.
1904 Nov 4, Harvard Stadium became the 1st stadium built specifically for football.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1904 Nov 8, Theodore Roosevelt (R) defeated Alton B. Parker (D) in US presidential elections. Roosevelt had succeeded the assassinated William McKinley.
(HN, 11/6/98)(AP, 11/8/04)
1904 Nov 9, 1st airplane flight to last more than 5 minutes.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1904 Nov 21, Motorized omnibuses replaced horse-drawn cars in Paris.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1904 Nov 23, Russo-German talks broke down because of Russia's insistence to consult France.
1904 Nov 27, German colonial army defeated Hottentots at Warmbad in Southwest Africa.
1904 Nov 28, The pivotal capture by the Japanese of 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur occurred during the bloodiest battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The battle of November 28-December 5, 1904, resulted in Japanese forces taking the strategic 203 Meter Hill, allowing them to bombard and sink the Russian fleet in the harbor at Port Arthur. Russia surrendered the city of Port Arthur to Japan on January 1, 1905.
(HNQ, 9/20/99)
1904 Dec 1, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis closed after seven months and some 20 million visitors.
(AP, 12/1/04)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1904 Dec 6, Theodore Roosevelt confirmed the Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary).
(MC, 12/6/01)
1904 Dec 16, Japanese warships quit Port Arthur in order to cut off the Russian Baltic fleet’s advance.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1904 Dec 24, German SW Africa abolished the slavery of young children.
1904 Dec 28, Farmers in Georgia burned two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1904 Dec 28, The 1st daily wireless weather forecasts were published in London.
1904 Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), writer, political philosopher and lecturer, muckraking author published "The Shame of the Cities." He was hailed as an "American Socrates" because he raised rather than answered questions and jolted his audiences into awareness. He was a leader of the form of journalism that won the sobriquet "muckraking" from Theodore Roosevelt. Steffens sought to reveal the shortcomings of the popular dogmas that equated economic success with moral worth and national progress with individual self-interest.
(HNQ, 10/4/98)
1904 Ida Tarbell (d.1944), journalist, published the 2-volume "History of the Standard Oil Company." It revealed the illegal means used by John D. Rockefeller to gain a monopoly and control oil prices and began as a series in McClure's Magazine in 1902. This led to a federal investigation and the 1911 order by the Supreme Court for the breakup of Standard Oil.
(WSJ, 12/15/98, p.B1)(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.R4)(HNQ, 6/22/00)
1904 Max Weber (1864-1920), German sociologist and political economist, authored "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Weber wrote "the modern man is in general, even with the best will, unable to give religious ideas a significance for culture and national character which they deserve." Weber visited the US in this year.
(WSJ, 6/14/95, p.A-14)(WSJ, 8/19/96, p.A11)(WSJ, 11/13/02, p.D10)
1904 In NYC the New York Times was built over the square known as Longacre Square. [see 1913]
(SFEC, 3/1/98, Z1 p.8)
1904 Mary McLeod Bethune, a black American, founded Bethune-Cookman College.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, BR p.5)
1904 The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis was founded. It later became the American Lung Association.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.A1)
1904 Alexander Graham Bell, scientist and inventor, escorted the remains of James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, to the United States for interment in the original Smithsonian building. Smithson was an English scientist who bequeathed his entire estate to the United States to found an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, to be named the Smithsonian Institution. Smithson, who had the mineral smithsonite (carbonate of zinc) named for him, was born in 1765 and died in 1829.
(HNQ, 6/26/99)
1904 Englishman Edmund Morel journeyed to the US and encouraged the formation of an American Congo Reform Association. Its first president was Dr. G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark Univ.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.11)
1904 Radio PH of the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company began broadcasting from the Old Palace Hotel in SF.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A14)
1904 Israel Waldbaum began selling butter and eggs in Brooklyn, New York. By the 1980s the operation had grown to 140 supermarkets and was sold to A&P.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)
1904 The Roosevelt Corollary transformed the Monroe Doctrine from one of nonintervention by European powers in Western Hemispheric affairs to one of intervention by the U.S. Reflecting Roosevelt's "Big Stick" philosophy, the president stated in 1904: "Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power."
(HNQ, 1/4/99)
1904 Alton B. Parker, aka "the Sphinx" or "the Mummy" or "the enigma from New York," ran as a Democrat against Theodore Roosevelt.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.E8)
1904 Silas Swallow was the US presidential candidate for the Prohibition Party. The Anti-Saloon League spearheaded 20th-century prohibitionism and invented modern interest-group politics.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.E3)(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A28)
1904 American Tobacco merged with its holding company, Continental Tobacco Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1904 The Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Car Co. was formed. It would later become Chrysler Corp.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1904 Cleveland Cap Screw introduced the first two-piece engine valve production process based a design by welder Charles Thompson.
(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1904 Uranium became recognized as an energy source.
(WSJ, 3/18/05, p.C1)
1904 California’s population was around 1.4 million. 14% of US homes had a bathtub, 8% had telephones and the total number of US cars was around 8,000.
(SFC, 6/25/04, p.F8)
1904 After a mine disaster near Pittsburgh killed 178 people, industrialist Andrew Carnegie established a fund to honor rescuers known as the Carnegie Hero Fund.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.C-8)(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.B1)
1904 The Congo Reform Association was born in England following the return of Roger Casement from the Congo and his meeting with Edmund Morel.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.9)
1904 In Denmark a new law forced the people to stick with the names they had, as opposed to the previous system where people where named after their fathers first name.
(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A1)
1904 In Germany the O&M Hausser toy company was founded in Ludwigsberg. They used they "Elastolin" trade name for small composition figures that included soldiers of various countries.
(SFC, 1/13/99, Z1 p.6)
1904 In Guatemala the Postal Code created the General Administration of Mail and Telegraphs (GAMT). The system grew to become very inefficient and in the 1980s private delivery businesses began to spring up.
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A15)
1904 Iceland won home rule.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)
1904 Panama adopted the US dollar as its currency.
(WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A1)
1904 In South Africa Soweto (an acronym for southwest townships) was established as a separate, African-only district.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.T4)
1904 In Thailand the Siam Society, a bastion of Thai culture, was founded.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A16)
1904-1905 Japan goes to war against Russia.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
