Timeline 1895 - 1897
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1895 Jan 1, J.
Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI),
was born.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1895 Jan 2, Count Folke
Bernadotte, statesman (Red Cross, UN), was born in Sweden.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1895 Jan 5, French Capt. Alfred
Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. He
was ultimately vindicated. Dreyfus, a Jew falsely accused of spying for
the Germans, was imprisoned alone on Devil’s Island until 1899.
(AP, 1/5/98)(SSFC, 12/15/02, p.L5)
1895 Jan 7, The new government of
Hawaii placed the country under martial law following news of a planned
revolt. Queen Lili’uokalani was convicted of treason and sentenced to 5
years in prison. She was released after serving 2 years under house
arrest.
(ON, 11/02, p.7)
1895 Jan 10, Benjamin Louis Paul
Godard (45), composer, died.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1895 Jan 13, J.R. Seeley (b.1834),
English essayist and historian, died. His essay Ecce Homo, published
anonymously in 1866, and afterwards acknowledged by him, was widely
read, and prompted many replies, being deemed an attack on Christianity.
(WSJ, 12/8/08,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Seeley)
1895 Jan 24, Hawaii’s Queen
Lili’uokalani formally abdicated her throne and swore allegiance to the
Republic of Hawaii.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1895 Jan 31, Jose Marti and others
left NYC for invasion of Spanish Cuba.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1895 Feb 1, John Ford was born.
(Sean O’Feeney) (Academy Award-winning director: The Informer [1935],
The Grapes of Wrath [1940], How Green Was My Valley [1941], The Quiet
Man [1952].
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1895 Feb 2, George Halas, National
Football League co-founder, was born.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1895 Feb 4, The 1st rolling lift
bridge opened in Chicago.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1895 Feb 6, George Herman "Babe"
Ruth, baseball's most dominant player, was born in Baltimore. He played
with the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Boston Braves and
was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season.
(USAT, 1/29/97, p.1D)(AP, 2/6/97)(HN, 2/6/99)
1895 cFeb 6, Silas Burroughs
(b.1846), American-born co-founder of the British pharmaceutical firm
Burroughs Wellcome (1880), died in Monte Carlo. His sudden death made
Henry Wellcome the sole owner of the company.
(http://tinyurl.com/7jhqv)
1895 Feb 8, Tchaikovsky's "Swan
Lake," premiered in Petersburg.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1895 Feb 9, Volleyball was
invented by W.G. Morgan in Massachusetts. A game called "mintonette"
was created by William George Morgan, physical director at the YMCA in
Holyoke, Mass., to accommodate players who thought basketball was too
strenuous. The objective was to hit a basketball over a rope. It was
the predecessor to volleyball.
(SFC,11/15/97, p.C4)(HNQ, 11/26/99)(MC, 2/9/02)
1895 Feb 11, Georgetown became
part of Wash, DC.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1895 Feb 13, A moving picture
projector was patented.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1895 Feb 14, Nigel Bruce, actor
(Dr Watson in Sherlock Holmes movies), was born in Baja, Mexico.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1895 Feb 14, Oscar Wilde’s final
play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," opened at the St. James’
Theatre in London.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1895 Feb 15, 23 cm (9") of snow
fell on New Orleans.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1895 Feb 18, Semjon Timoshenko,
Russian marshal, inspector-general (WW II), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1895 Feb 20, Frederick Douglass
(77), Abolitionist and escaped slave, died in Washington, D.C. In 1881
Douglass authored "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass."
(AP, 2/19/98)(MC, 2/20/02)(ON, 7/02, p.8)
1895 Feb 21, The NC Legislature
adjourned for the day to mark the death of Frederick Douglass.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1895 Feb 24, The Cuban War of
Independence began. [see Oct 10, 1868]
(HN, 2/24/98)
1895 Feb 26, Michael Owens of
Toledo, OH., patented a glass-blowing machine.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1895 Feb 27, Rudolf von Eschwege,
German fighter pilot with 20 victories in World War I, was born. He was
the only German fighter pilot on the Macedonian Front.
(Internet)
1895 Feb 28, Guiomar Novaes,
pianist (Brazilian Order of Merit), was born in Brazil.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1895 Feb 28, Marcel Pagnol, French
playwright, director (Marchands de Gloire), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1895 Mar 2, Berthe Morisot
(b.1841) French impressionist painter, died of pneumonia.
(NMWA, 12/04, p.10)
1895 Mar 3, General Matthew
Ridgeway, U.S. Army leader in World War II and Korea, was born.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1895 Mar 3, Ragnar Frisch,
economist (1st Nobel prize in economy-1969), was born in Norway.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1895 Mar 4, Gustav Mahler's 2nd
Symphony, premiered in Berlin.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1895 Mar 5, Henry Creswicke
Rawlinson (85), soldier and scholar, died in England. In 1835 he had
begun examining the ancient inscriptions on the rock of Behistun in the
Kurdish foothills of the Zagros mountain range and found that they had
been made to honor Darius the Great, Persian ruler in the 5th century
BCE. He deciphered text from Old Akkadian cuneiform. In 2004 Lesley
Adkins authored “Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost
Languages of Babylon.”
(www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/rawlinson_henry.html)
(ON, 4/04, p.9)(WSJ, 12/21/04, p.D8)
1895 Mar 9, Leopold von
Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer (Masochism), died.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1895 Mar 15, Bone Mizell, the
famed cowboy of Florida, appeared before a judge for altering cattle
brands.
(HN, 3/15/00)
1895 Mar 15, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen left their ship Fram in an attempt to reach the North
Pole by dogsled. [see Jun 17, 1896]
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1895 Mar 17, Shemp Howard,
comedian (3 Stooges, Bank Dick), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1895 Mar 18, Some 200 blacks left
Savannah, Ga., for Liberia.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1895 Mar 19, Los Angeles Railway
was established to provide streetcar service.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1895 Mar 22, Auguste and Louis
Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris; this
is generally regarded as the first-ever public display of a movie
projected onto a screen. [see Dec 28] One of their first films was
"L'Arrivee d'un Train en Gare."
(AP, 3/22/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
1895 Mar 24, Arthur Murray,
American dancer, was born.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1895 Mar 26, King Alfonso planted
a pine sapling in Madrid and started Spain's Arbor Day.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1895 Mar 28, Spencer W. Kimball,
12th Prophet of the Mormon Church, was born.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1895 Mar 31, Vardis A. Fisher, US
author (Darkness & Deep), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1895 Mar 31, John Jay McCloy,
lawyer, banker (Sec of War 1941-45, High Commissioner for Germany, pres
Chase Manhattan), was born.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1895 Mar, In Ireland Bridget
Cleary (26) disappeared from her home in County Tipperary. Her burned
body was found several days later. Her husband, father and several
relatives and friends were charged with murder. Prosecutors maintained
that she was burned because her husband believed her to be a
changeling. In 2000 Angela Bourke authored "The Burning of Bridget
Cleary: A True Story," and Joan Hoff and Marion Yeates authored ""The
Cooper’s Wife Is Missing: The Trials of Bridget Cleary."
(SFEC, 9/10/00, BR p.5)
1895 Apr 1, Alberta Hunter, blues
singer, was born.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1895 Apr 3, Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, composer, was born in Firenze (Florence), Italy.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1895 Apr 5, Start of Sherlock
Holmes' "Adventure of 3 Students."
(MC, 4/5/02)
1895 Apr 5, Playwright Oscar Wilde
lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who’d
accused the writer of homosexual practices.
(AP, 4/5/97)
1895 Apr 11, Anaheim, Ca.,
completed it's new electric light system.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1895 Apr 13, Start of Sherlock
Holmes "Adventure of Solitary Cyclist."
(MC, 4/13/02)
1895 Apr 14, 1st performance of
Gustav Mahler's (incomplete) 2nd Symphony.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1895 Apr 15, Josephine Blatt of
the US made a record hip-and-harness lift of 3564 lb.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1895 Apr 17, China and Japan
signed the peace treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over
control of the Korean peninsula.
(HN, 4/17/98)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)
1895 Apr 23, Russia, France, and
Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1895 Apr 24, Joshua Slocum
(1844-1909), a Canadian-American sailor, began a voyage around the
world from Boston in a 37-foot rebuilt fishing boat called the Spray.
He ended on Jun 27, 1898, at Newport, Rhode Island. His record was not
beaten until 1938. In 1899 Slocum authored "Sailing Alone Around the
World."
(www.millicentlibrary.org/slocum.htm)(WSJ, 3/9/00,
p.A27)(WSJ, 6/21/08, p.W8)
1895 Apr 24, S. Constantine
Timoshenko, Russian marshal, people's commissioner, was born.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1895 Apr 29, Malcolm Sargent,
English conductor (Promenade Concerts), was born.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1895 May 2, Lorenz Milton Hart,
lyricist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1895 May 6, Legendary
silent-screen star Rudolph Valentino was born in Castellaneta, Italy.
(AP, 5/6/97)
1895 May 8, Edmund Wilson,
American critic and essayist, was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1895 May 8, China ceded Taiwan to
Japan under the Apr 17 Treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over
control of the Korean peninsula. Japanese occupation ended in 1945.
(HN, 5/8/98)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)(SSFC,
2/18/07, p.G5)
1895 May 11, William Grant Still
was born. He is considered the Dean of black African composers.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1895 May 19, Johns Hopkins,
merchant and philanthropist, was born.
(HN, 5/19/01)
1895 May 20, The 1st commercial
movie performance was at 153 Broadway in NYC.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1895 May 20, The US income tax was
declared unconstitutional.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1895 May 23, The New York Public
Library had its origins with an agreement combining the city’s existing
Astor and Lenox libraries.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(AP, 5/23/97)
1895 May 24, Samuel I. Newhouse,
US millionaire publisher (Parade, Vogue, Glamour), was born.
(HN, 5/24/98)(MC, 5/24/02)
1895 May 25, Playwright Oscar
Wilde was convicted of a morals charge in London; he was sentenced to
two years in prison.
(AP, 5/25/08)
1895 May 25, Ahmed Djevdet Pasja
(73), Turkish minister of Justice, died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1895 May 26, Dorothea Lange,
documentary photographer, was born.
(HN, 5/26/01)
1895 May 26, Paul Lukas, actor
(Watch on the Rhine, Sphynx), was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1895 May, Newspaper cartoonist
Richard Felton Outcault introduced a new and "distinctly different"
cartoon to the readers of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. "At the
Circus in Hogan's Alley" set the standard for modern newspaper comic
strips with a zany cast of recurring characters in boisterous plots
printed in a color supplement. Americans loved the cartoon, especially
the character Mickey Dugan, the goofy-looking boy described as having
big ears, a gap-toothed grin and a long yellow nightshirt. By the
summer of 1896, "The Yellow Kid" was so closely identified with
Pulitzer's newspaper that the term "yellow journalism" was coined to
describe the new style of sensationalistic reporting that characterized
the World and many of its competitors.
(HN, 5/18/99)
1895 Jun 4, Dino Conte Grandi,
Italy’s delegate to League of Nations, was born.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1895 Jun 10, Hattie McDaniel was
born in Wichita, Kansas. She was the first African-American actress to
win an Oscar which she won for her role as a maid in Gone With the
Wind.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0567408/)
1895 Jun 11, Nikolai A. Bulganin,
premier of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1958, was born.
(HN, 6/11/99)
1895 Jun 11, The 1st auto race was
held.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1895 Jun 11, Charles E. Duryea
received the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a
gasoline-driven automobile.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1895 Jun 24, Jack Dempsey,
American boxer, was born. He later became world heavyweight champion
with a record of 62-1-0 and 49knockouts.
(HN, 6/24/99)
1895 Jul 4, The words to "America
the Beautiful" appeared for the first time in "The Congregationalist",
a Boston magazine; the author was Katherine Lee Bates (1819-1910), a
Wellesley professor, who penned it in 1893. It has often been suggested
that this song be adopted as the national anthem of the US since it is
easier to sing than the "The Star Spangled Banner." In 1904 Clarence
Barbour adapted it to the melody of Samuel Ward’s “Materna” (1890).
Bates’ final version was completed in 1911. In 2001 Lynn Sherr authored
"America the Beautiful."
(WSJ, 9/28/01, p.W13)(SSFC, 10/21/01, Par p.8)(AH,
10/04, p.26)
1895 Jul 5, Gordon Jacob, composer
(William Byrd Suite), was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1895 Jul 10, Carl Orff, composer
(Carmina Burana/Antigonae; Mozart prize 1969), was born in Munich,
Germany.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1895 Jul 12, Kirsten Flagstad,
Norwegian opera singer, was born.
(HN, 7/12/01)
1895 Jul 12, R. Buckminster Fuller
(d.1983), architect and engineer, was born. "The more we learn the more
we realize how little we know."
(AP, 7/1/97)(HN, 7/12/01)
1895 Jul 12, Oscar Hammerstein II,
lyricist who worked with Richard Rodgers, was born in NYC.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1895 Jul 14, William Leefe
Robinson, the first man to win the Victoria Cross for shooting down a
German Zeppelin, was born.
(HN, 7/14/98)
1895 Jul 15, Stephen Stambulov,
ex-prime minister of Bulgaria was murdered by Macedonian rebels.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1895 Jul 24, Robert Graves, poet
and novelist (Goodbye to All That, I Claudius), was born.
(HN, 7/24/02)
1895 Jul 26, Gracie Allen,
vaudeville, screen, radio and television personality, wife and foil of
George Burns, was born.
(HN, 7/26/01)
1895 Aug 10, The 1st Queen's Hall
Promenade Concert featured Wagner's "Rienzi."
(MC, 8/10/02)
1895 Aug 19, John Wesley Hardin
was gunned down.
(MesWP)
1895 Aug 20, Start of Sherlock
Holmes "Adventure of Norwood Builder."
(MC, 8/20/02)
1895 Aug 24, Richard Cushing, the
director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, was born.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1895 Sep 3, The first professional
American football game was played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania between the
Latrobe Young Men’s Christian Association and the Jeannette Athletic
Club. Latrobe wins 12-0.
(HN, 9/3/00)
1895 Sep 8, Adam Opel (58), German
manufacturer of sewing machines and bicycles, died. In 1899 the firm
acquired a car factory.
(MC, 9/8/01)(www.histomobile.com)
1895 Sep 18, John G. Diefenbaker,
conservative prime minister (13th) of Canada from 1957 to 1963, was
born in Neustadt, Ontario.
(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 9/18/01)
1895 Sep 18, D.D. Palmer of
Davenport, Iowa, founded the 1st "college" of chiropractic near a duck
farm in Iowa.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1895 Sep 18, The Montana State
Capital Site Commission received the four property deeds from developer
Peter Winne for the new seat of government in Helena.
(HIR, 9/11/97, p.5A)
1895 Sep 21, Juan de la Cierva,
aeronautical engineer who invented the autogyro, was born.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1895 Sep 21, The Duryea Motor
Wagon Company, the 1st auto manufacturer, opened.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1895 Sep 22, Paul Muni, actor
(Academy Award 1936-Angel on My Shoulder), was born in Juarez.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1895 Sep 28, Louis Pasteur
(b.1822), French chemist (Pasteurization), died at 72. In 1995 Gerald
Geison (d.2001) authored "The Private Science of Louis Pasteur.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.D6)(MC, 9/28/01)
1895 Oct 1, Romanians in
Constantinople were massacred.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1895 Oct 2, The 1st cartoon comic
strip was printed in a newspaper. [see May, 1895]
(MC, 10/2/01)
1895 Oct 4, Buster Keaton (Joseph
F. Keaton), star of silent film comedies including Sherlock, Jr. and
The General, was born in Piqua, Kan. He is considered a legendary
presence in the history of cinema. Nicknamed 'The Great Stone Face', he
graduated to full-length films in the 1920s, which featured his amazing
stunts rivaled only by Chaplin.
(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)(MC, 10/4/01)
1895 Oct 4, Hattie McDaniel,
actress (Gone With the Wind, Academy Award), was born.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1895 Oct 4, Richard Sorge, German
spy for USSR in Tokyo (WW II), was born.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1895 Oct 4, The first U.S. Open
golf tournament was held, at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island.
At the US Amateur Golf Championship at Newport, R.I., officials ruled
against the prone position use of a pool cue to sink a put.
(AP, 10/4/97)(SFC, 11/29/97, p.C3)
1895 Oct 6, Caroline Gordon,
writer, was born. Her work included "The Strange Children."
(HN, 10/6/00)
1895 Oct 8, Juan Peron,
Argentinean dictator, was born. He served as President from
1946-55 and 1973-74.
(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)
1895 Oct 17, Doris Humphrey,
modern dance choreographer, was born.
(HN, 10/17/00)
1895 Oct 19, Lewis Mumford,
American social critic who wrote "The City in History," was born.
(HN, 10/19/98)
1895 Oct 22, David Belasco's
"Heart of Maryland," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1895 Oct 31, Basil H. Liddell
Hart, English military historian and publicist, was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1895 Nov 5, Walter Gieseking,
German pianist and composer, was born.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1895 Nov 5, US state of Utah
accepted female suffrage.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1895 Nov 5, George B. Selden of
Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road
Engine."
(AP, 11/5/07)
1895 Nov 5, King Edward VII said
"We are all Socialists nowadays."
(MC, 11/5/01)
1895 Nov 8, Wilhelm Konrad von
Röntgen (50), German physicist, discovered X-rays.
(ON, 11/04,
p.6)(www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/beamline/25/2/25-2-assmus.pdf)
1895 Nov 10, John Knudsen
Northrop, aircraft designer (Northrop Air), was born.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1895 Nov 13, 1st shipment of
canned pineapple from Hawaii.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1895 Nov 16, Paul Hindemith
(d.1963), composer and violinist, was born in Hanau, Germany. His work
included "Cardillac."
(WUD, 1994, p.672)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(MC, 11/16/01)
1895 Nov 17, Grace Carolyn
Swanson, the mother of future Playboy Magazine publisher Hugh Hefner,
was born in Holdrege, Nebraska.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1895 Nov 19, Frederick E.
Blaisdell patented the pencil.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1895 Nov 25, Wilhelm Kempff,
pianist (Unter dem Zimbelstern), was born in Juterbog, Germany.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1895 Nov 26, Bertil Lindblad,
Swedish astronomer (Milky Way system), was born.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1895 Nov 26, Hawaiian Sugar
Planters Assn. formed.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1895 Nov 27, Alfred Nobel,
explosives magnate, signed his last will and testament at the
Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, setting aside his estate to establish
the Nobel Prize after his death (see Dec 10, 1896). He named Ragnar
Sohlman (25), his favorite lab assistant, as his executor and Rudolf
Lilljequist as co-executor.
(http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/will-full.html)(ON, 4/07, p.6)
1895 Nov 28, Jose Iturbi, pianist
(Pequena danza Espanola), was born in Valencia, Spain.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1895 Nov 28, America's first auto
race between gasoline-powered automobiles was staged on Thanksgiving
Day. The race, sponsored by the Chicago Times Herald, was to be run
along a 52-mile course of muddy, frozen streets from Jackson Park to
Waukegan, Illinois. The race attracted 80 entries but only six
starters. James Franklin Duryea drove his brother’s car (Charles Edgar
Duryea) in the first automobile race from Chicago to Waukegan over 52
miles of snowy roads at an average 7.5 mph. He collected $2,000 from
the Chicago Times-Herald. It took him 7 hours and 53 minutes to
complete the round trip. The average speed was 7 mph. 80 cars entered
the race, 6 started and 2 finished. J. Frank Duryea, driving the Duryea
at an average speed of 5 mph, crossed the finish line 10 hours and 23
minutes after the start. One other participant was forced to drop out
of the race, suffering from hypothermia.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E3)(AP, 11/28/97)(DTnet,
11/28/97)(HNPD, 11/28/98)
1895 Nov 29, Busby Berkeley,
director, was born. His work included "42nd Street."
(HN, 11/29/00)
1895 Dec 7, Sir Milton Margay,
first Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, was born.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1895 Dec 14, Britain’s King George
VI (d.1952), was born. He rule from 1936-1952.
(HN, 12/14/98)(MC, 12/14/01)
1895 Dec 17, Anti-Saloon League of
America was formed in Washington, DC.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1895 Dec 28, The French Lumiere
Brothers showed the first commercial moving pictures in Paris to a
small audience of around 40 people. This event is considered to mark
the birth of the movie industry.
(NPR, 12/28/95)
1895 Frank Raymond Leavis, English
literary critic, was born. He edited the journal "Scrutiny." In 1997
Ian McKillop published his biography: "F.R. Leavis: A Life in
Criticism."
(WSJ, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1895 English landscape painter
Francis Barraud painted "His Master’s Voice." The work featured his
dog, Nipper, listening to a gramophone. It was commissioned by the
Gramophone Co. The Philadelphia Victor Talking machine Co. acquired
rights to use it as a trademark and it first appeared in the US in 1903.
(SFC, 2/19/96, zz-1 p.2)
c1895 Degas painted "Jockeys."
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)
c1895 Elizabeth Jane Gardner,
American artist, painted “The Shepherd David” and exhibited it at the
Paris Salon of 1895. She was the 1st American woman to exhibit in the
Paris Salon.
(NMWA, 12/04, p.28)
1895 Ethel Reed, graphic artist,
designed the cover for the Arabella & Araminta Stories.
(Smith., 5/95, p.36, illus.)
1895 John Singer Sargent painted
"Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children."
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A14)
1895 Kate Sowerby painted "A
Portrait of a Bulldog."
(SFEM, 10/18/98, p.15)
1895 A Parisian artist and 5
assistants completed a 15,400-sq.-foot circular painting of Jerusalem
at the moment of Christ’s crucifixion after 4 years of work. It went on
display at the St. Anne Museum in St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T10)
1895 The American best seller book
list 1st appeared. Fiction by George du Maurier and Arthur Conan Doyle
appeared on the list.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A1)
1895 Stephen Crane (b.1871)
published "The Red Badge of Courage."
(SFEC, 8/23/98, BR p.3)
1895 Theodore Fontane (1819-1898),
German novelist and poet, authored Effi Briest, the last of the great
19th-century novels of adultery.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effi_Briest)
1895 Thomas Hardy published "Jude
the Obscure." "The bold sexual content of Jude caused a Victorian
outcry that prompted Hardy to abandon narrative writing for verse."
(V.D.-H.K.p.279)(SFC, 11/1/96, p.C3)
1895 H.G. Wells wrote "The Time
Machine." In 1960 it was made into a film.
(NH, 4/97, p.6)(NH, 4/97, p.7)
1895 George Whitefield Chadwick,
composer and long time director of the New England Conservatory of
Music, began work on the first of 4 "Symphonic Sketches," completed in
1904.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.D3)
1895 A.A.B. Peterson, aka Banjo
Paterson, (1864-1941) wrote his poem Waltzing Matilda while on holiday
in Queensland, Australia. The name referred to a slang term for
drifting around the outback with a bedroll (your matilda) slung over
the shoulder. Christina Macpherson adopted the poem to the Scottish
tune “Thou Bonnie Wood o’ Craigielea.” He later had his image pictured
on Australia's $10 bill.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.8)(NG, 8/04, p.24)
1895 Oscar Wilde wrote his play
"An Ideal Husband."
(WSJ, 5/9/96, p.A-16)(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A20)
1895 Henry James was hissed by a
theater audience at the presentation of his first and only play.
Cynthia Ozick described the event in an essay in her 1996 book: "Fame
& Folly."
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-18)
1895 John Philip Sousa composed
his march "El Capitan."
(SI-WPC, 12/6/96)
1895 The National Trust started in
the Lake District of NY state to "hold places of national interest and
natural beauty for the benefit of the nation."
(SFCM, 3/17/02, p.18)
1895 The first Mormon missionaries
went to Russia.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A12)
1895 The Biltmore House in
Asheville N.C. boasted all the new electrical conveniences.
(WSJ, 10/25/96, p.B10)
1895 Cornelius Vanderbilt built
his 70-room mansion, the Breakers, in Newport, Rhode Island. [Cornelius
died in 1877, it must have been William]
(USAT, 5/8/98, p.3D)
1895 Booker T. Washington
addressed a crowd at an exposition in Atlanta and expounded on the need
for self-reliance among Blacks.
(WSJ, 11/16/98, p.A36)
1895 The first pizza joint in
Manhattan opened for business.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.129)
1895 Emile Levassor won the Paris
to Bordeaux auto race. Later in auto racing a yellow flag with a red
stripe came to mean oil on the track.
(SFC, 8/24/96, p.E1)(SFC, 7/3/97, p.D4)
1895 US Congress passed
corrective legislation for the counterfeiting or possession of
counterfeit stamps.
(http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/history.shtml)
1895 Captain Michael A. Healy
(b.1839) was stripped of his command in the US Revenue Cutter Service
and his position with the Arctic Patrol, in which he served for 21
years. During his service he ferried reindeer across the Bering Strait
to Alaska provide a food source for the Inuit.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.E15)
1895 The New York Stock Exchange
first proposed that companies distribute an annual statement of
earnings to shareholders.
(WSJ, 1/8/96, p.C-1)
c1895 Capital flows between Europe
and America reversed with a net credit to America. In 2003 Thomas
Kessner authored "Capital City," the story of New York’s rise to a
world financial center.
(WSJ, 4/2/03, p.D8)
1895 George Henderson founded
Dorchester Pottery outside Boston. Charles A. Hill, his brother-in-law,
was the plant manager and decorator. It went out of business in 1979.
(SFC, 6/17/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.G3)
1895 Diebold Co. introduced its
Tisco time lock and safe. It was advertised as “anti-dynamite” and
production continued to 1900.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.P9)
1895 William Randolph Hearst
(1863-1951) bought the New York Morning Journal for $180,000 and moved
from SF to NYC. He soon renamed it the New York Journal. In 2008
Kenneth Whyte authored “The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of
William Randolph Hearst,” an account of Heart’s first three years in
NYC.
(SFEM, 11/8/98, p.16)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)(WSJ,
12/27/08, p.W8)
1895 Sears Roebuck issued its 1st
catalog. Within 2 years it was advertising 6,000 items.
(WSJ, 12/17/03, p.B1)
c1895 John E. Wells was editor and
publisher of the Caldwell (Kansas) Weekly Advance.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)
1895 King Camp Gilette imagined an
inexpensive double-edged razor that could be discarded after a few
shaves.
(WSJ, 2/13/98, p.A13)
1895 Charlie Fey, a German
immigrant, sold the first Liberty Bell nickel slot machine, to a San
Francisco saloon keeper.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.8)
1895 By this year the US produced
more steel than did Great Britain.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-26)
1895 Bastian Brothers was founded
in Rochester, NY, as a jewelry store. It later expanded to manufacture
custom award pins, medals and similar items.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.G7)
c1895 In Chicago the Fairbank’s
Company introduced “Fairbank’s Fairy Soap.” The brand disappeared in
the 1930’s when the company was bought out. Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank
had begun producing soap following his involvement in the lard-rending
business in the 1880s.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.G5)
1895 The Montgomery Ward catalog
offered the game of Tiddledy Winks for 20 cents.
(WSJ, 12/17/03, p.B1)
1895 The J&E Stevens Co. began
making Rival toy stoves. The mass-produced cast-iron toys were sold
with a coal bucket, a tea kettle, frying pan and cooking pot. The
company was in business until the 1930s.
(SFC, 3/19/97, z1 p.3)
1895 The US Bowling Congress began
keeping league records.
(WSJ, 5/24/08, p.A7)
1895 US Cordage failed and was
again reorganized. Standard Rope & Twine eventually became
successor to its operations.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R46)
1895 In Wisconsin Frank Grove,
James Clark, J. Howard Jenkins and George Jones co-founded OshKosh
B’Gosh.
(SSFC, 8/20/06, p.M4)
1895 Philosopher John Dewey
founded the Dept. of Education at the Univ. of Chicago. Closure of the
dept. was announced in 1997.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.19)
1895 Prof. Emile Pierre van
Ermengem of Belgium identified the bacterium Bacillus botulinus.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.54)
1895 While searching for gold in
Montana’s Yogo Gulch, Jake Hoover found sapphires. Hoover found little
gold in the Yogo Creek and Gulch, however, the small, translucent blue
pebbles that frequently cluttered the riffles of his sluice box turned
out to be gem-quality sapphires. From 1898 to 1923, the Yogo Dike
yielded 16 million carats of sapphire-2.4 million carats of gem quality.
(HNQ, 5/13/98)
1895 Richard Wetherill, a young
cowboy and amateur archeologist, discovered the Keet Seel Anasazi ruins
in northern Arizona. Shards of broken pottery marked the site and some
say that Keet Seel in Navajo means "place of broken pottery."
(Hem., 5/97, p.80)
1895 John Hardin (b1853),
gunslinger, was shot in the back of the head by gunslinger, John
Selman. Hardin used a .38 caliber Colt six-shooter and killed 44 men
during his life. The book "The last Gunslinger" by Richard C. Marohn
tells his story.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.E1,3)
1895 Etienne Leopold Trouvelot
(b.1827), French artist, amateur entomologist and immigrant to the US,
died. In 1869 he imported gypsy-moth eggs to set up a silk production
project in the backyard of his Medford, Mass., home. The moth became a
national pest.
(WSJ, 5/1/01, p.A24)(SSFC, 5/22/05, Par p.4)
1895 Paul Otlet (1868-1944),
Belgian librarian, met future Nobel Prize winner Henri La Fontaine, who
joined him in planning to create the Mundaneum, a master bibliography
of all the world’s published knowledge. Otlet and LaFontaine eventually
persuaded the Belgian government to support their project, proposing to
build a “city of knowledge” that would bolster the government’s bid to
become host of the League of Nations.
(www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17mund.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1)
1895 Chinese authorities
discovered a consignment of some 1000 revolvers hidden in casks of
cement that had been shipped by the Scientific Agricultural Society, a
group organized by Sun Yat-sen aiming to overthrow the Qing emperor.
(ON, 10/08, p.6)
1895 Winston Churchill was
garrisoned in Havana, Cuba, and began smoking cigars at age 22. On
leave for several months from his unit, the 4th Hussars, he reported on
the events for the Daily Graphic.
(SFEM, 12/15/96, p.15)(HNQ, 1/25/01)
1895 In Paris, France, the Castel
Beranger at 14 Rue la Fontaine, designed by Hector Guimard (1867-1942),
was completed. The Art Nouveau building was nicknamed “Castel Derange”
(Mad Castle).
(WSJ, 1/6/06, p.P16)
1895 The Central Market Hall was
built in Budapest, Hungary.
(Sm, 3/06, p.82)
1895 Bank Rakyat (BRI) was founded
by the Dutch in Indonesia as an institution for the elite. In 1983 the
state bank reorganized and began lending successfully to poor people.
(Econ, 11/5/05, Survey p.10)
1895 The Heian Shrine was built in
Kyoto, Japan as a 2/3 replica of the Imperial Palace. It was built to
commemorate the 1,100th anniversary of Kyoto and exhibits regal Heian
architecture.
(Hem., 2/96, p.57)
1895 Japan’s Nara National Museum
was established.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1895 Japan began administering
Senkaku Island between Okinawa and Taiwan. The US took over after WW II
but returned them to Japan in 1972.
(SFEC, 10/8/96, A8)
1895 Modern-day Kenya became part
of the British East African Protectorate.
(WSJ, 1/30/08, p.A18)
1895 Work began on a rail line
between Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, and became the Lunatic Express from
media speculation that the planners were insane. [see 1905]
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C4)(AP, 10/19/05)
1895 In Nigeria a massacre
occurred in Nembe over palm oil.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)
1895 In Senegal French
authorities, fearing his growing influence, exiled religious leader
Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba to their other colonial holdings in West Africa.
(AP, 4/22/03)
1895 Abdullah Hassan, the “Mad
Mullah” of Somaliland, returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca with
inspiration to defy the British in emulation of the Mahdi in Sudan.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.20)
1895 In South Africa Barney
Barnato, a mining magnate, bought a block of land at the corner of
Eloff and Commissioner streets in Johannesburg to develop a world-class
hotel. His untimely death and the Boer War delayed the opening of the
Carlton Hotel to 1906.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A22)
1895 Cecil Rhodes supported the
Jameson Raid to help rebellious British settlers in the Dutch Transvaal.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W19)
1895-1896 Prince Henri d’Orleans encountered the
dwarf T’rung people of Burma during a journey to the sources of the
Irrawaddy River.
(CW, Fall ‘03, p.9)
1895-1905 The Central Station of Antwerp, Belgium,
was built. It looks like a Baroque church and is often referred to as
the Railway Cathedral.
(www.aviewoncities.com/antwerp/centralstation.htm)
1895-1935 The C.A. Lehmann & son Co. ran a
porcelain factory in Kuhla, Thuringia.
(SFC, 8/19/98, Z1 p.6)
1895-1937 Ninety-three men were hanged at
California’s Folsom Prison.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)
1895-1946 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Bauhaus member, founds
new Bauhaus in Chicago.
(V.D.-H.K.p.363)
1895-1956 Michael Arlen, English novelist: "Any man
should be happy who is allowed the patience of his wife, the tolerance
of his children and the affection of waiters."
(AP, 9/27/98)
1895-1972 Edmund Wilson, American literary critic,
becomes a major literary figure for his analysis of writers such as
Hemingway, Eliot, Joyce, Lawrence, James, Fitzgerald, and other
modernists.
(WSJ, 4/26/95, p.A-14)
1895-1978 William Grant Still, the first important
black symphonic composer.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A20)
1895-1979 Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, American religious
leader: "Freedom is the right to do what you ought to do."
(AP, 5/22/00)
1895-1982 Anna Freud, Austrian-born psychoanalyst:
"Creative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad
training."
(AP, 5/12/98)
1895-1985 Robert Graves, English poet: "There's no
money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either."
(AP, 4/8/99)
1895-1986 Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian author and
philosopher: "To seek fulfillment is to invite frustration."
(AP, 6/19/98)
1895-1991 Martha Graham, founder of the Graham Modern
Dance Company.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)
1896 Jan 4, Utah was
admitted to the Union as the 45th state.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1896 Jan 5, An Austrian
newspaper (Wiener Presse) reported the discovery by German physicist
Wilhelm Roentgen of a type of radiation that came to be known as
"X-rays."
(AP, 1/5/98)
1896 Jan 7, Fanny Farmer published
her 1st cookbook.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1896 Jan 8, Jaromir Weinberger,
composer (Bird's Opera, Schwanda der Duddelsacpfeifer), was born in
Prague, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1896 Jan 12, The 1st X-ray photo
on record in the US was made by Dr. Henry Louis Smith at Davidson, NC.
Dr. Henry Smith shot a bullet into the hand of a dead human body and
made a 15 minute x-ray exposure to reveal the bullet.
(SFEC, 6/14/98, Z1 p.8)(MC, 1/12/02)
1896 Jan 15, Matthew B. Brady
(73), US Civil War photographer, died in the charity ward of a New York
hospital at age 73. His project "Gallery of Illustrious Americans"
included many leading figures of his time. In 1955 James D. Horan
authored "Matthew Brady, Historian with a Camera." In 1946 Roy Meredith
authored "Mr. Lincoln’s Camera man, Matthew B. Brady."
(ON, 1/00, p.12)(ON, 12/06, p.10)
1896 Jan 20, George Burns
(d.3/9/96), vaudeville comedian and actor, was born Nathan Birnbaum in
New York City. He hosted radio and television show with his wife Gracie
Allen before going into movies like The Sunshine Boys. "By the time
you're 80 years old, you've learned everything. You only have to
remember it."
(WSJ, 3/11/96, p. A1)(AP, 1/20/98)(HN, 1/20/99)
1896 Feb 1, Puccini’s opera "La
Boheme" premiered in Turin.
(AP, 2/1/97)
1896 Feb 8, Georges Feydeau's "Le
Dindon," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1896 Feb 11, Oscar Wilde's
"Salome," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1896 Feb 14, Theodor Herzl
published "Der Judenstaat."
(MC, 2/14/02)
1896 Feb 18, Andre Breton
(d.1966), French writer, founder and principal provocateur of the
surrealist movement, was born. An exhaustive biography was published in
1995 by Mark Polizzotti titled: Revolution of the Mind: The Life of
Andre Breton.
(WSJ, 8/1/95, p.A-9)(MC, 2/18/02)
1896 Feb 23, Tootsie Roll was
introduced by Leo Hirschfield.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1896 Feb 28, Philip Showalter
Hench, physician (cortisone-Nobel), was born in Pittsburgh.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1896 Feb 29, A person born on this
day would have celebrated their first birthday in 1904. The year 1896
was a leap year, thus February had 29 days. The next leap year was not
until 1904. Leap years, which have 366 days instead of the common 365,
are those years divisible by four, except centesimal (those ending in
00) years unless they are divisible by 400. Therefore, three of every
four centesimal years are common years, including 1900.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1896 Feb, Teddy Roosevelt, Police
Commissioner of NYC, closed all the police lodging houses on the advice
of Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914), Danish-born author and photographer.
(WSJ, 8/25/08, p.A11)
1896 Feb, Georges Melies, a French
professional magician, purchased a film projector from Robert Paul, an
English camera maker. He then designed his own camera based on the
projector and began making movies in March.
(ON, 1/00, p.8)
1896 Mar 1, The Battle of Adowa
(Adwa, Adua) began in Ethiopia between the 80,000 forces of Negus
Menelik, Emperor Menelik II, and 18-20,000 Italian troops. The Italians
suffered a crushing defeat. Menalik II and his wife Taitu led Ethiopia
to independence from Italy. In 2000 Haile Gerima made a 90 minute
documentary of the event, "Adwa: An African Victory."
(Civilization, July-Aug. 1995, p.40-47)(WSJ,
5/16/96, p.A-12)(CNT, Nov.,1994, p.244)(AP, 3/1/98)(SFC, 5/15/00,
p.D3)(SC, 3/1/02)
1896 Mar 2, Bone Mizell, the famed
cowboy of Florida, was sentenced to two years of hard labor in the
state pen for cattle rustling. He would only serve a small portion of
the sentence.
(HN, 3/2/00)
1896 Mar 6, Charles B. King rode
his "Horseless Carriage," the 1st auto in Detroit.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1896 Mar 7, Gilbert and Sullivan's
last operetta "Grand Duke," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1896 Mar 10, Bob Fitzsimmons KO’d
much larger Jim Corbett to win world Heavy Weight championship and
said, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
(MC, 3/10/02)
1896 Mar 13, The 1st
telephone station in Vilnius began operating.
(LHC, 3/13/03)
1896 Mar 17, Adolph Ochs in
Tennessee received a telegram from Harry Alloway that the New York
Times available for acquisition.
(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.17)
1896 Mar 20, U.S. Marines landed
in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1896 Mar 23, Umberto Giordano's
opera "Andrea Chénier" premiered in Milan.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1896 Mar 25, The 1st modern
Olympic Games officially opened in Athens. Greece was on the old Julian
calendar at this time. The revival was masterminded by Baron Pierre de
Coubertin of France. [see Apr 6]
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.81)(www.forthnet.gr/olympics)
1896 Mar 28, The opera "Andrea
Chenier," by Umberto Giordano, premiered in Milan, Italy.
(AP, 3/28/97)
1896 Mar, Brahms spent time in
Vienna with the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed.p.193)
1896 Apr 2, Theodore Robinson
(b.1852), American Impressionist painter, died in NYC.
(WSJ, 10/1/04, p.W2)(http://97.1911encyclopedia.org)
1896 Apr 4, Arthur Murray,
ballroom dance instructor, was born.
(HN, 4/4/01)
1896 Apr 4, Robert Sherwood,
playwright, was born.
(HN, 4/4/01)
1896 Apr 4, Tristan Tzara, [Samuel
Rosenfeld] French poet (Approximate Man), was born.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1896 Apr 6, The first modern
Olympic Games formally opened in Athens, Greece, after a lapse of 1,500
years. 13 countries besides Greece participated. [see Mar 25] Pierre de
Coubertin (d.1937) administered the Games and subsequent ones until
1924.
(SFC, 7/14/96, p.T1)(AP, 4/6/97)(ON, 8/07, p.5)
1896 Apr 6, James Connolly, a
self-educated 27-year-old American, won the first gold medal at the
1896 Olympic games in Athens. Connolly‘s event, the triple jump, which
was then called the hop, step, and jump, was the first final of the
games. The U.S. Olympic team hadn’t realized that the Greeks followed
the Hellenic calendar, so they arrived not days in advance but just a
few hours before the opening ceremonies. Despite being hastily
prepared, Connolly competed last and beat his opponents‘ distances by
more than three feet. He went on to become a successful author of 25
novels. [see Mar 25]
(HNQ, 4/8/00)
1896 Apr 14, John Philip Sousa's
opera, "El Capitan," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1896 Apr 15, The first modern
Olympic Games closed in Athens. 164 of the 241 competitors were from
Greece. The remaining represented 13 countries, the largest
international participation of any sporting event up to that time.
(ON, 8/07, p.5)
1896 Apr 20, 1st public film
showing in US John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1896 Apr 23, The Vitascope system
for projecting movies onto a screen was demonstrated in New York City.
Motion pictures premiered in New York City. It was developed by Thomas
Armat and C. Francis Jenkins and marketed by Thomas Edison.
(AP, 4/23/97)(HN, 4/23/99)(Sm, 3/06, p.105)
1896 Apr 25, Fight in Central
Dance Hall started a fire in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1896 Apr 25, In Kansas a tornado
swept through several counties killing at least 9 people in Clay
County. 27 farms were destroyed.
(SFC, 4/25/09, p.D12)
1896 Apr 27, Wallace Hume
Carothers (d.1937), American chemist, was born. Carothers became a
brilliant organic chemist who, in addition to first developing nylon,
also helped lay the groundwork for Neoprene.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Carothers)
1896 Apr 27, Rogers Hornsby
(d.1963), among the greatest hitters in baseball history, was born in
Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Hornsby)
1896 Apr 28, Heinrich von
Treitschke, German historian, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1896 May 1, Mark Clark, American
general, was born. He commanded the Fifth Army in Italy during World
War II.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1896 May 1, Nasr-ed-Din (65), shah
of Persia, was murdered.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1896 May 6, Samuel P. Langley
(1834-1906), American physicist and aviation pioneer, launched the
first reasonably large, steam-powered model aircraft.
(NPub, 2002,
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pierpont_Langley)
1896 May 7, Dr. Henry Howard
Holmes (b.1860), serial killer, was hanged to death in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmantown, New
Hampshire, to a devout Methodist family, Holmes spent much of his
childhood torturing animals. He later graduated from the University of
Michigan with a medical degree. Holmes financed his education with a
series of insurance scams whereby he requested coverage for nonexistent
people and then presented corpses as the insured. In 1886, Holmes moved
to Chicago to work as a pharmacist. A few months later, he killed the
elderly owner of the store but told everyone that the man had left him
in charge. With a new series of cons, Holmes raised enough money to
build a giant, elaborate home across from the store. The home, which
Holmes called "The Castle," had secret passageways, fake walls, and
trapdoors. Young women in the area, along with tourists who had come to
see the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and had rented out rooms in
Holmes' castle, suddenly began disappearing. Medical schools purchased
many human skeletons from Dr. Holmes during this period but never asked
how he obtained the anatomy specimens. Holmes was finally caught after
attempting to use another corpse, his assistant Benjamin Pitezel, in an
insurance scam. He confessed, saying, "I was born with the devil in me.
I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet
can help the inspiration to sing." Reportedly, authorities discovered
the remains of over 200 victims on his property.
(www.thecrimeweb.com/hhholmes.htm)
1896 May 9, The 1st horseless
carriage show in London featured 10 models.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1896 May 15, A tornado killed 78
in Texas.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1896 May 16, The US Supreme Court
upheld the State of Louisiana Separate Car Act in Plessy vs. Ferguson.
The Plessy v. Ferguson decision allowed that as long as accommodation
existed, segregation did not constitute discrimination, establishing
the doctrine of "separate but equal." The ruling that was overturned in
the 1954 Brown case, which involved elementary education. The Court
ruled unanimously that segregation in public education was a denial of
the equal protection of the laws. [see May 18]
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-6)(HNQ, 1/26/99)
1896 May 18, The US Supreme Court
ruled 7 to 1 to give states the authority to segregate people according
to race. [see May 16]
(AP, 5/18/03)(ON, 11/03, p.6)
1896 May 20, Clara Schumann,
composer and wife of Robert Schumann, died in Frankfort, Germany.
(BLW, Geiringer, 1963 ed. p. 191)
1896 May 25, Jan N. Bakhuizen van
den Brink, theologist, church historian, was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1896 May 26, The Dow Jones
Industrial Average [DJIA] was first published. Charles H. Dow set up an
index of 12 industrial companies that began at 40.94. Of the current 30
stocks in the Dow Jones, only General Electric was in the original
group. The 12 companies included: The American Cotton Oil Company,
American Sugar Refining Company, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, General
Electric Co., Laclede Gas Light Co., National Lead, North American Co.,
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co., U.S. Leather, U.S. Rubber Co.
(WSJ, 1/8/96, p.C-1)(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)
1896 May 26, Nicholas II, the last
Czar of Russia, was crowned.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1896 May 27, 255 people were
killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., and East St. Louis, Ill.
(AP, 5/27/97)
1896 May 29, George L. Funke,
botanist (Flower Physiology), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1896 May 30, 1st car accident
occurred when Henry Wells hit a bicyclist in NYC.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1896 Jun 4, Henry Ford made a
successful pre-dawn test run of his horseless carriage, called a
quadricycle, through the streets of Detroit. The quadricycle consisted
of a simple motor mounted on a buggy frame. Before Ford began to
produce the automobiles that made him famous, he had been an
unimpressive student from a Michigan farming family. But he began to
demonstrate skill and interest in mechanical work, and left farming and
business school behind to work with machines. He learned about steam
engines at his job with Westinghouse, and later worked as an engineer
for Edison Electric Illuminating Company. As Ford Motors developed, he
hoped to emulate Edison. Ford died in 1947 a fabulously wealthy and
influential businessman.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HNQ, 6/4/98)
1896 Jun 7, Vivien Kellems, TV
hostess (The Power of Women), was born.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1896 Jun 7, Robert Mulliken, US
chemist, physicist (Nobel 1966), was born.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1896 Jun 7, G. Harpo & F.
Samuelson left NY to row the Atlantic. The trip took 54 days.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1896 Jun 8, The 1st car was stolen.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1896 Jun 11, US Assay Office in
Deadwood, South Dakota, was authorized.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1896 Jun 16, Jean Peugeot, French
auto manufacturer, was born.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1896 Jun 18, Blanche Sweet, film
actress, was born.
(HN, 6/18/01)
1896 Jun 19, Bessie Wallis
Warfield Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, divorcee, was born.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1896 Summer, W.B. Yeats and Arthur
Symons make a trip to the Aram Islands off the west coast of Ireland.
(WSJ, 12/6/95, p.A-18)
1896 Jun 24, Booker T. Washington
became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from
Howard University.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1896 Jun 26, The 1st movie theater
in US opened and charged 10 cents for admission.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1896 Jun 30, W.S. Hadaway patented
an electric stove.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1896 Jun, Marconi filed patent
papers in England for his wireless invention.
(ON, 11/99, p.10)
1896 Jul 1, Harriet Beecher Stowe
(85), US author (Uncle Tom's Cabin), died.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1896 Jul 7, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Chicago. The National Democratic Party
formed to run a slate of candidates in 1896 because the Democratic
Party had been taken over by the free-silver faction, which called for
the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the 16 to 1 ratio. They
also condemned trusts, monopolies, high protective tariffs and the use
of injunctions against labor. The "sound money" or gold Democrats
withdrew from the party convention, organized the National Democratic
Party and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois its presidential
candidate. The gold plank in the Republican Party caused a similar
split, with free-silver Republicans bolting the party and forming the
National Silver Republicans, who endorsed the Democratic Party
candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan. Republican William
McKinley won the presidential election.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNQ, 8/23/99)
1896 Jun 8, William Jennings Bryan
propelled himself to presidential candidacy when he stood before the
Democratic Convention and made his famous "Cross of Gold" speech. The
paramount issue in the 1896 presidential election was one of
economics—the U.S. government promised to pay the holder of one dollar
bill one dollar in gold. Democrats, farmers and westerners demanded
that the government redeem paper money in silver as well, while
Republicans and easterners protested that this policy would destroy the
economy. It was on this dull, technical issue that 36-year-old William
Jennings Bryan, a former congressman from Nebraska, launched his
national political career. When he made his "Cross of Gold" speech, the
Democrats had no strong presidential candidate. His dramatic words—"You
shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you
shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!"—electrified his
audience and resulted in his nomination for president in 1896. [see Jul
9]
(HNQ, 6/8/98)(MC, 7/8/02)
1896 Jul 14, The Pacific Mail
$680,000 Steamship Colombia was destroyed on rocks near Pescadero, Ca.
(Ind, 7/20/02, 5A)(Ind, 8/10/02, 5A)
1896 Jun 15, The Meiji Sanriku
tsunami struck Japan and caused some 27,000 deaths.
(CW, Spring ‘99,
p.28)(http://eklektikos.org/Science.html)
1896 Jul 16, Trygve Lie, first
secretary-general of the United Nations, was born.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1896 Jul 16, William Hamilton
Gibson, illustrator, author, novelist, died.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1896 Jun 17, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen met up with English explorer Frederick Jackson at
Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1896 Jul 19, A.J. Cronin, Scottish
novelist (The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom), was born.
(HN, 7/19/01)
1896 Jul 21, Mary Church Terrell
founded the National Association of Colored Women in Washington, D.C.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1896 Jul 25, An estimated 5,000
cyclists gathered in SF to demonstrate for better roads.
(Ind, 8/2/03, p.5A)
1896 Jul 28, The city of Miami,
Fla., was incorporated.
(AP, 7/28/97)
1896 Aug 7, Ernesto Lecuona,
composer (Malaguena), was born in Havana, Cuba.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1896 Aug 8, Marjorie Kinnan
Rawlings (d.1953), author of "The Yearling," was born.
(HN, 8/8/00)
1896 Aug 9, Leonide Massine,
Russian-born US choreographer (Diaghilev Ballet Russe 1914-20), was
born.
(WUD, 1994, p.882)(MC, 8/9/02)
1896 Aug 9, Jean Piaget,
psychologist who did pioneering work on the development of children's
intellectual faculties, was born.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1896 Aug 9, Otto Lilienthal,
German aerodynamic engineer, made his last glide when his glider No. 11
was upset by a sudden gust of wind and he was unable to regain control.
Lilienthal broke his back in the crash and died the next day in a
Berlin clinic. He had made more than 2,000 test flights in gliders and
convinced many people that flight was possible and set the stage for
early aviation. He once wrote that "we must fly and fall, fly and fall
until we can fly without falling." He also influenced flight theory by
using bird flight as a model for the basis of aviation.
(HNPD, 8/9/98)
1896 Aug 11, Harvey Hubbell
patented an electric light bulb socket with a pull chain.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1896 Aug 12, Gold was discovered
near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. [see Aug 16,17] After word
reached the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans
headed to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.
(HN, 8/12/01)
1896 Aug 13, The New-York Times
Company under Adolph Ochs purchased the New-York Times Publishing
Company. The control of the New York Times has rested with the
Sulzberger and Ochs clans since this year. Adolph S. Ochs purchased a
failing newspaper and turned it into the prestigious New York Times.
Natives of Chattanooga, Adolph and Milton Ochs later assembled over
2,700 acres along the slopes of Lookout Mountain, site of the Civil War
Battle of Chattanooga, and donated the land for a Nat’l. Park.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)(NH, 8/96, p.78)(HT, 4/97,
p.59) (SFEM, 1/16/00, p.20)
1896 Aug, 16, A white man from
California named George Carmack, a fellow not employed at anything in
particular, was hiking around northwest Canada’s Yukon River area with
his two Indian brothers-in-law "Skookum Jim" Mason and "Tagish
Charley." The three found gold on Rabbit Creek, a stream that feeds the
Yukon River near Dawson, Alaska. [see Aug 12,17]
(CFA, '96, p.88)(HN, 8/19/01)
1896 Aug 17, A prospecting party
discovered gold in Alaska, a finding that touched off the Klondike gold
rush. [see Aug 12,16]
(AP, 8/17/97)
1896 Aug 18, Adolph Ochs (39)
took over the New York Times. He served as publisher until 1935.
(HN, 8/18/00)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D3)
1896 Aug 18, The northern
California Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods railroad was completed. It
was 8 ½ miles long. The Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railroad
attracted visitors to what later became known as Stinson Beach. The
railway continued operating to 1930.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A17)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A13)(SFC,
2/24/09, p.B1)
1896 Aug 19, Adolph Oaks
proclaimed the journalistic principles for the New-York Times: "to give
the news impartially, without fear of favor, regardless of party, sect
or interests involved." He soon launched the "Review of Books and Arts"
and a new "Illustrated Sunday Magazine."
(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.22,23)
1896 Aug 20, Dial telephone was
patented.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1896 Aug 20, Fridtjof Nansen and
Hjalmar Johansen arrived back in Norway following a 3 year Arctic
venture. In 1898 Nansen published “Farthest North,” a best-selling
account of his adventure. In 1922 Nansen was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Peace.
(ON, 7/05, p.5)
1896 Aug 21, Roark Bradford,
writer, humorist (Ol' Man Adan an' His Chillun), was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1896 Aug 24, Thomas Brooks was
shot and killed by an unknown assailant, beginning a six year feud with
the McFarland family.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1896 Aug 26, North American Co.
was removed the Dow Jones and US Cordage was added.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45,46)(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1896 Aug 29, The Chinese-American
dish chop suey was invented in New York City by the chef to visiting
Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang. [see 1878]
(SFC, 6/9/96, Zone 1 p.2)(SFEC, 1/12/97, zone 3
p.4)(AP, 8/29/97)
1896 Aug, The New York Tribune
reported that excessive heat and lack of rainfall in the southern
states had hurt the cotton crop; and that elsewhere grain in shock and
stack had been injured by excessive rain. A help wanted ad requested a
skilled dressmaker for one dollar and fifty cents per day.
(HFA, ‘96, p.37)
1896 Aug, The new chief of French
military intelligence, Lt Colonel Picquart, reported to his superiors
that he had found evidence to the effect that the real traitor in the
Dreyfus case was a Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. Picquart was
silenced by being transferred, in November 1896, to the southern desert
of Tunisia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus)
1896 Sep 10, Elsa Schiaparelli,
French fashion designer, was born.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1896 Sep 21, General Horatio
Kitchener's army occupied Dongola, Sudan. Gen’l. Herbert Kitchener led
the British conquest of the Sudan. The "kit bag," another name for a
knapsack, was named after him.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, Z1 p.8)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(MC,
9/21/01)
1896 Sep 23, Louis-Gilbert Duprez,
composer, died at 89.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1896 Sep 24, American author F.
Scott Fitzgerald (d.1940) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He wrote
about the "Jazz Age" between World War I and World War II. He published
his first novel in 1920, "This Side of Paradise," and gained instant
acclaim and celebrity, marrying Zelda Sayre shortly afterward. In 1924,
Fitzgerald wrote what has become his best-known novel, "The Great
Gatsby." Although it was not especially popular at the time, as more
readers began to appreciate the novel for its perspective of how
materialism drives people, it became an American classic. As years
passed, Fitzgerald battled alcoholism and his wife sought treatment for
her mental illness. He died in Hollywood at age 45 in 1940. "If you're
strong enough, there are no precedents."
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AP, 9/24/97)(HNPD, 9/24/98)(HN,
9/24/98)(AP, 8/16/99)
1896 Sep 27, Sam Ervin,
(Sen-D-NC), Watergate committee chairman, was born.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1896 Oct 1, The U.S. Post Office
established Rural Free Delivery, with the first routes in West Virginia.
(AP, 10/1/97)
1896 Oct 3, William Morris
(b.1834), English artist and writer, died. In 1995 Fiona MacCarthy
authored the biography: “William Morris.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris)(WSJ,
1/21/07, p.P9)
1896 Oct 7, Elijah Muhammad, US,
leader of Nation of Islam, was born.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1896 Oct 7, Nicholas and Alexandra
of Russia made a state visit to France and with Pres. Felix Faure laid
the cornerstone for the Pont Alexandre III.
(WSJ, 6/26/96, p.A16)
1896 Oct 11, Richard Etheridge
(d.1900) and his life-saving team rescued the hurricane survivors of
the E.S. Newman on Pea Island, North Carolina. Pea Island later became
part of Hatteras Island.
(ON, 1/02, p.2)
1896 Oct 11, Anton Bruckner
(b.1824), Austrian composer (Te Deum, Wagner Symphony), died at 72.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Bruckner)
1896 Oct 14, Lilian Gish, American
actress, was born.
(HN, 10/14/98)
1896 Oct 18, H.L. Davis, novelist
and poet, was born.
(HN, 10/18/00)
1896 Oct 22, Charles Glenn King,
biochemist, was born. He later discovered vitamin C.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1896 Oct 28, Howard Hansen,
composer, was born in Wahoo, Nebraska. He became the director of the
Eastman School of music.
(HN, 10/28/00)(MC, 10/28/01)
1896 Oct 30, Ruth Gordon, actress
(Rosemary's Baby, Harold & Maude), was born in Mass.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1896 Oct 30, Kaspar Wicki, Swiss
inventor, received Swiss patent Nr. 13329 for a key configuration for
the concertina, that made fingering identical in any key.
(WSJ, 12/7/07,
p.W4)(www.concertina.com/gaskins/wicki/)
1896 Oct 31, Ethel Waters, actress
and blues singer, was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1896 Nov 1, The 1st bare women
breast (Zulu) appeared in National Geographic Mag.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1896 Nov 3, Republican William
McKinley was elected 25th president. He defeated Democrat William
Jennings Bryan for the presidency. McKinley and Garret Hobart supported
the gold standard while The Democrats supported the free coinage of
silver. Marcus Hanna, an Ohio industrialist, led the fund-raising for
McKinley and personally underwrote the cost of winning this 1st modern
presidential campaign. In 1929 Thomas Beer authored a biography of
Hanna.
(AP, 11/3/97)(SFC, 10/28/98, Z1 p.7)(HN,
11/3/98)(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.B1)
1896 Nov 3, J.H. Hunter patented
portable weighing scales.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1896 Nov 6, Jim Jordan, radio
comedian (Fibber McGee), was born in Peoria, Il.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1896 Nov 10, U.S. Rubber Co. was
removed from the Dow Jones and Pacific Mail Steamship Co. was added.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45,46)
1896 Nov 11, Charles "Lucky"
Luciano, NYC Mafia gangster, was born in Sicily.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1896 Nov
14, Mamie G. Doud Eisenhower (d.1969), 1st lady (1953-61) of Pres.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), was born in Boone, Iowa.
(www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/me34.html)
1896 Nov 16, Lawrence Tibbett,
baritone (Metropolitan Opera 1923-50), was born in Bakersfield Calif.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1896 Nov 16, Oswald Mosley, baron
and British Nazi, was born.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1896 Nov 19, Start of Sherlock
Holmes "Adventure of Sussex Vampire."
(MC, 11/19/01)
1896 Nov 22, George Washington
Gale Ferris, inventor (Ferris wheel), died.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1896 Nov 25, Virgil Thompson,
American composer, was born. His work included "Four Saints in Three
Acts" and "The Mother of Us All."
(HN, 11/25/00)
1896 Nov 26, Coach Amos Alonzo
Stagg of Univ. of Chicago created the football huddle.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)(MC, 11/26/01)
1896 Nov 26, Russia disclosed a
plan to seize Constantinople if Britain intervenes in Crete.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1896 Nov 27, Richard Strauss'
"Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spake Zarathustra) debuted in Frankfurt.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1896 Dec 1, 1st certified public
accountants received certificates in NY.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1896 Dec 2, Georgi Zukov, Soviet
general during World War II who captured Berlin, was born.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1896 Dec 6, Ira Gershwin (d.1983),
lyricist ('S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm), was born. Together with his
brother, George, he wrote 14 Broadway musicals. Many of his 700 songs
were written with other composers.
(SFC, 12/4/96, p.E1)(SFC, 5/10/97, p.E1)
1896 Dec 7, Stuart Davis, painter,
was born.
(HN, 12/7/00)
1896 Dec 10, Alfred Nobel (63),
Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony on this date, died. By the time of his
death Nobel had acquired a massive fortune. In his will, he left
instructions that the bulk of his estate should endow the annual Nobel
prizes for those who had most contributed to the areas of physics,
chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. In 1968, a sixth award for
economics was established [see Nov 27, 1895]. The Nobel Peace
Prize is therefore awarded on December 10. The first of the Nobel
Prizes was presented in 1901 according to instructions in his will. At
his death he was one of the richest men in the world, he also felt it
would be wrong to leave his fortune to relatives. "Inherited wealth is
a misfortune which merely serves to dull man's faculties."
(WUD, 1994 p.969)(HNPD, 10/21/98)(AP, 12/10/06)
1896 Dec 14, James H. Doolittle,
American Air Force general, was born. He commanded the first bombing
mission over Japan. His Tokyo raid was a great boost for American war
morale.
(HN, 12/14/99)
1896 Dec 23, US Cordage was
removed from the Dow Jones and replaced by its successor Standard Rope
& Twine Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45,46)
1896 Dec 23, Giuseppe Tomasi di
Lampedusa, Sicilian writer (The Leopard), was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1896 Dec 25, "Stars & Stripes
Forever" was written by John Philip Sousa.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1896 Dec 31, The Teatro Amazonas
opened in Manaus, Brazil. It was built by the rubber barons over 15
years with everything imported from Europe.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T12)
1896 Roger Huntington Sessions,
composer, was born. His work included the opera "The Trial of Lucullus."
(WUD, 1994, p.1395)(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A20)
1896 Peter Carl Faberge, master
jeweler and goldsmith, began work on the Imperial Coronation Easter Egg
(1896-1908), an enameled, diamond-studded golden egg about 5 inches
long that opens to reveal a three-inch-long replica of the carriage
that took the czarina to her coronation in1896.
(SFC, 5/234/96, p.D1,10)
1896 Paul Gauguin made his
sculpture "Tahitian Girl."
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.62)
1896 George Bernard Shaw wrote his
comedy play "You Can Never Tell."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1896 Brooks Adams wrote "The Law
of Civilization and Decay."
(WSJ, 8/11/97, p.A12)
1896 Colonel C.E. Caldwell
authored “Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice.
(www.buy.com/prod/small-wars-their-principles-and-practice/q/loc/106/30156775.html)
1896 In Germany Magnus Hirschfeld
under a pseudonym published the pamphlet "Sappho und Sokrates," that
examined same sex love.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, DB p.47)
1896 A.E. Housman, British poet,
had his work "A Shropshire Lad" published. The 1997 play "The Invention
of Love," by Tom Stoppard was based on Housman’s life.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Par, p.10)(WSJ, 10/27/97, p.A20)
1896 Rev. Charles Shelton authored
the novel "In His Steps," which included the phrase "What would Jesus
Do?" (WWJD).
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A4)
1896 The Ida Tarbell biography of
Madame Roland, a republican sympathizer during the French Revolution,
was published.
(WSJ, 3/28/08, p.W5)
1896 H.G. Wells wrote "The Island
of Dr. Moreau."
(WSJ, 8/23/96, p.A8)
1896 Andrew Dickson White,
scientist and the 1st president of Cornell Univ., authored "History of
the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom." He argued that
his fellow Protestants kept mankind in darkness and tried to prevent
him from establishing Cornell as a secular Univ.
(WSJ, 10/8/99, p.W15)
1896 The first production of
Puccini’s opera "La Boheme" was performed in Turin.
(SFC, 5/26/96, SFEM p.4)
1896 "Yellow journalism" was named
after the color comic featuring the Yellow Kid that ran in the Hearst
New York Journal and the Pulitzer New York World.
(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.21)
1896 Henry Flagler built the Palm
Beach Inn, later called the Breakers, in Palm Beach, Florida, as he
developed the area.
(WSJ, 6/24/08,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Flagler)
1896 Col. Griffith J. Griffith
donated over 3,000 acres to California. In 2008 efforts began to
formally preserve the 4,218-acre Griffith Park as a Los Angeles
historic cultural monument.
(SFC, 7/23/08, p.B12)
1896 The Mountain Copper Co. of
Great Britain bought the Iron Mountain Mine in Northern California and
developed it into the only big copper producer on the Pacific Coast.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1896 In SF the Anchor Brewing Co.
was founded and brewed beer at Pacific Ave. and Larkin St. It later
moved to 8th and Bryant and then to Kansas and 17th before settling on
Mariposa St. by Potrero Hill.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.4)
1896 Brooks Brothers introduced
button down collars after observing polo players button down their
collar points to keep them from flapping during play.
(WSJ, 6/23/03, p.B1)
1896 Cody, Wyoming, was founded.
It was named after William "Buffalo Bill" Cody in the hopes that his
reputation would bring settlers. Cody guards the eastern gate to
Yellowstone, the country’s first official national park, accessed
through the Wapiti Valley of the Shoshone National Forest, the first
such forest. Buffalo Bill guided hunting parties, and even Yale
paleontologist O.C. Marsh, through the Yellowstone and Big Horn Basin
area as early as 1871. Although he played a limited role in the
founding of the town that would eventually bear his name (at his
suggestion), he contributed much to its development.
(HNQ, 5/19/01)
1896 William Ashley "Billy" Sunday
(1863-1935) was well known in America as a professional baseball player
prior to becoming an evangelist in 1896. Sunday, who was born in Ames,
Iowa, was among the top professional baseball players from 1883 to
1890, playing for National League teams in Chicago, Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh. Sometimes called a sensationalist, the unconventional
Sunday became a traveling evangelist in 1896, was ordained a
Presbyterian minister in 1903 and went on to have a great following.
(HNQ, 8/27/99)
1896 The Minneapolis Millers won
the Western League baseball pennant. All the stars of the team were
soon drafted by the National League and the following year it became
one of the worst teams in the Western League.
(ON, 6/09, p.10)
1896 Wyatt Earp spent some
time refereeing boxing matches, including the 1896 heavyweight title
fight between Bob Fitzsimmons and Tom Sharkey. In a controversial and
highly-disputed decision, Earp charged Fitzsimmons with a foul and
awarded the fight to Sharkey. The two famed western lawmen, Bat
Masterson and Wyatt Earp became known for their involvement in sporting
events years after the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Former Dodge
City lawman William Barclay "Bat" Masterson went on to become a sports
writer. He died at his desk in 1921.
(HNQ, 9/20/98)
1896 Jane Addams visited Russia.
Tolstoy berated her as an absentee landlord.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A16)
1896 Dr. Herman Hollerith,
inventor of a tabulating machine (1889), founded the Tabulating Machine
Company. In 1911 it became part of CTR. In 1924 CTR was renamed IBM.
(www.answers.com/topic/herman-hollerith)
1896 F.W. Rueckheim & Brother
of Chicago received a trademark for "Cracker Jack." The popcorn and
peanuts covered with molasses syrup sold for a nickel a box in 1899.
(HFA, ‘96, p.67)(SFC, 7/29/98, p.)(SFC, 7/29/98, Z1
p.23)(AH, 10/01, p.34)
1896 The US Army took over the
operation of Yellowstone National Park.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.T5)
1896 Students at the Univ. of
Michigan demanded a new and more representative yearbook than the one
controlled by the administrators and faculty. Thus began the Ensian.
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.9)
1896 Orville H. Gibson founded his
Kalamazoo musical instrument manufacturing company. In 1904 it was
incorporated as the Gibson Mandolin Guitar Co.
(SFC, 10/5/05, p.G3)
1896 The Luce Furniture Co. began
operations in Grand Rapids, Mich., and continued to 1930. In 1912 it
claimed to be the largest shipper of Mission dining room furniture in
the country. The company reorganized and reopened from 1935 to 1938.
(SFC, 1/28/09, p.G2)
1896 Fred Macey opened his own
furniture factory in Grand Rapids, Mich. His company made rolltop desks
and other furniture. In 1905 he merged with Wernicke Furniture to form
Macey-Wernicke Co., which name was simplified in 1908 to Macey Co. It
went out of business in 1940.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.G3)
1896 Budweiser introduced Michelob
beer as "draught beer for connoisseurs."
(WSJ, 5/27/08,
p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelob)
1896 J. Frank and Charles Duryea
launched the American automobile industry after being the first to
produce more than one vehicle off the same model, the Duryea Motor
Wagon. They built 13 gasoline powered autos and put them on sale in
Springfield, Mass.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1896 An ad in Horseless Age, the
first automotive trade journal, posted an ad for the Duryea Motor Wagon
Company.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1896 Samuel Langley, the first
Secretary of the Smithsonian Museum, launched a pilotless plane from a
floating platform and saw it fly nearly 4,00 feet.
(WSJ, 6/12/96, p.A14)
1896 A. Belopolsky, Russian
astronomer, discovered that the fainter component of the star Castor is
itself a double star with a period of three days.
(SCTS, p.162)
1896 Henri Becquerel discovered
radioactivity. The work was elaborated upon by Marie and Pierre Curie.
Becquerel found that minerals containing the element uranium emit a
peculiar type of radiation that is invisible to the eye but which
darkens photographic plates even when they are wrapped in black paper.
(NG, May 1985, , p.642)(SCTS, p.117)
1896 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish
chemist, explained the "greenhouse effect" in an article of the April
issue of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine. This
article included a table of predictions as to how warming the planet
could expect latitude by latitude.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.29,58)
1896 Franz Pfaff, American
physician, discovered that the oily residue in poison oak was
responsible for the painful rash.
(PacDis, Fall/’96, p.32)
1896 NYC selected William Temple
Hornaday to head a new zoo. It opened in 1899 and Hornaday bred there a
herd of bison.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1896 Floodwaters swept coffins
from the California Folsom Prison cemetery into the American River.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)
1896 The Olivet Memorial Park
non-denominational cemetery was established in Lawndale (Colma), Ca.
(www.colmahistory.org/History.htm)
1896 Charles Field Haviland,
US-born porcelain manufacturer, died. In 1876 he took over the Alluaud
factory, one of the oldest porcelain factories in Limoges, France.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1896 In Afghanistan Emir Abdul
Rachman converted the eastern kafirs to Islam by force.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W12)
1896 Argentina became the first
nation to adopt fingerprint identification.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Zone 1 p.5)
c1896 In Brazil police were sent
to Canudos but were repelled by the settlement in what came to be call
the First Military Expedition to Canudos. The government feared a
threat to the national order and sent the Second Military Expedition of
550 soldiers, who were also repelled by the settlement. In the Third
Military Expedition 1,500 troops under Colonel Antonio Moreira Cesar,
aka The Ground Trembler" and "The Beheader," were defeated at Canudos
and the colonel was killed.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1896 Sir Charles Tupper,
Conservative Party, served as the 6th Prime Minister of Canada.
(CFA, ‘96, p.81)
1896 Erland Nordenskiold, a
Swedish scientist, explored the Milodon Cave in Patagonia, Chile. He
found a large piece of leather with gray-red hair and declared it to
have been the hide of a Milodon, a giant sloth, extinct for 8,000
years. The site was later made famous in the Bruce Chitin book: In
Patagonia.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, p.T6)
1896 Chinese cinema was born a
year after it was invented in France.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.69)
1896 Chinese agents tricked Sun
Yat-sen (1866-1925), Chinese revolutionary, into entering the Chinese
Legation in London. They planned to ship him secretly back to China
where a reward for his arrest amounted to half a million dollars. The
story was made public by the London press and the Legation was forced
to release him. In 1911 Sun Yat-sen played an important role in the
overthrow of the Qing dynasty and came to be revered as the “Father of
Modern China.”
(ON, 10/08, p.7)
1896 In England Alfred Harmsworth,
later Lord Northcliffe, launched the Daily Mail newspaper.
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.C6)
1896 A French cinematic society
held a screening in Turin, Italy.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.E10)
1896 The Schafer & Vater
porcelain factory began operating about this time in Rudolstadt,
Germany, and continued operations to 1962.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.G3)
1896 In Hungary the first subway
in Europe was installed under Andrassy Ut in downtown Pest.
(WSJ, 12/26/96, p.A4)
1896 Bewley’s Oriental Cafes
opened a shop on Westmoreland Street in Dublin, Ireland. It later
became a hangout for James Joyce. It was scheduled to close in 2004.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F2)
1896 Maria Montessori (22)
graduated from the Univ. of Rome’s school of medicine, the 1st woman to
earn a medical degree in Italy.
(ON, 3/07, p.3)
1896 Numico was founded by
Martinus van der Hagen, a Dutch inventor, after he won the exclusive
right to make infant formula out of cow’s milk.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.59)
1896 Theodore Herzl called for a
Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1896 F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co.
was founded in Switzerland.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.A10)
1896 Moises Saba Amigo arrived in
Mexico from Aleppo, Syria. He was part of a large migration of Jews
known as "Turcos" from Syria and Palestine whose passports were issued
by Ottoman Turkey. He started peddling dry goods and moved up to a
chain of stores, then textiles. The family savings were put into real
estate. The Saba family were billionaires by 1997.
(WSJ, 8/22/97, p.A10)
1896 Cecil Rhodes rode unarmed
into the Matopos Hills [later Zimbabwe] in the midst of an Ndebele
uprising to negotiate peace. He told the Ndebele chiefs that he wanted
to be buried there and asked them to guard his grave.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A13)
1896-1897 The Barbour Gymnasium, dedicated
exclusively for women’s use, was built at the Univ. of Mich. in Ann
Arbor. It was designed by Detroit architect John Scott and was built
for $50,000. It was demolished in the spring of 1977 to make way for an
addition to the chemistry buildings.
(LSA., Fall 1995, p.10,15,16)
1896-1911 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Liberal Party, served
as the 7th Prime Minister of Canada.
(CFA, ‘96, p.81)
1896-1936 The SS Tahoe, a 169-foot steamer, carried
passengers and cargo to the California and Nevada towns around Lake
Tahoe. The ship was scuttled in Glenbrook Cove in 1940.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.B1)
1896-1940 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, American
author of novels and short stories. "It is in the 30s that we want
friends. In the 40s we know they won’t save us any more than love did."
(HFA, ‘96, p.38)(AHD, 1971, p.497)(AP, 4/27/97)
1896-1951 Peter Cheyney, English author: "The line of
least resistance was always the most difficult line in the long run."
(AP, 11/4/98)
1896-1965 Dawn Powell, American writer, was the
author of 15 novels.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.5)
1896-1969 Gorham Munson, American author and editor:
"We are all more average than we think."
(AP, 4/18/97)
1896-1985 Ruth Gordon, American actress and
playwright: "I think there is one smashing rule: ‘Never face the facts."
(AP, 2/6/97)
1896-1989 Virgil Thomson, American composer and
critic. He wrote his autobiography in 1966. "The clearest statement of
principle goes bad if it is repeated too often. It ceases to be a
statement and becomes a slogan."
(WUD, 1994, p.1477)(AP, 1/22/98)
1896-1990 Dodie Smith, English playwright: "Noble
deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression."
(AP, 3/8/01)
1896-1974 David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexican painter,
muralist.
(SFC, 4/18/96, E-1)
1896-1978 Harry Winston, jeweler to the stars. He
purchased the Hope diamond in 1949 and later donated it to the
Smithsonian Institute.
(WSJ, 2/14/96, p.A-1)
1896-1981 E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, Broadway songwriter,
wrote the lyrics of over 500 songs by 48 composers including such hits
as "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," "April in Paris," "Only a Paper
Moon," "Old Devil Moon," and "Over the Rainbow."
(MT, 10/94, P. Ephross, p.15)
1896-1982 Helen Merrell Lynd, American sociologist
and author: "Our whole life is an attempt to discover when our
spontaneity is whimsical, sentimental irresponsibility and when it is a
valid expression of our deepest desires and values." "One of the
sources of pride in being a human being is the ability to bear present
frustrations in the interests of longer purposes."
(AP, 3/25/98)(AP, 6/29/98)
1896-1992 The Olympiad’s Greatest Moments was a 16-hr
video package that featured highlights of all the summer games since
1896 in eight 2-hr videotapes.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Par, p.9)
1897 Jan 1, Brooklyn merged with
NY to form the present NYC. [see Jan 1, 1898]
(MC, 1/1/02)
1897 Jan 3, Marion (Cecilia
Douras) Davies actress: Runaway Romany, When Knighthood Was in Flower,
The Patsy, Show People, Going Hollywood, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1897 Jan 14, The 6,960-m (22,834')
Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina was 1st climbed.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1897 Jan 22, Rosa Ponselle, opera
diva (Norma, La Forza del Destino), was born.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1897 Jan 22, Eighty-two British
soldiers held off attacks by 4,000 Zulu warriors at the Battle of
Rorke's Drift in South Africa.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1897 Jan 23, In San Francisco Fong
Ching (32), known as the king of Chinatown, was killed by two gunmen at
the Wong Lung barbershop at 819 Washington St. Nobody was ever
convicted. “Little Pete” had led the Sam Yup Tong and was rumored to
have killed 50 men.
(SFC, 2/17/09, p.A10)
1897 Feb 2, Fire destroyed the
Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg. A new statehouse was
dedicated on the same site nine years later.
(AP, 2/2/97)
1897 Feb 5, The Indiana House of
Representatives unanimously passed a measure redefining the area of a
circle and the value of pi. The bill died in the state Senate.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1897 Feb 6, Ebenezer C. Brewer,
British writer (Dictionary of Phrase & Fable), died.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1897 Feb 10, John F. Enders,
virologist, was born.
(HN, 2/10/01)
1897 Feb 17, The US National
Congress of Mothers was founded in Washington, D.C. It later became the
National congress of Parents and Teachers known as the PTA (Parent
Teachers Association).
(USAT, 2/14/97, p.13D)(SFC, 2/22/96, p.A20)(AP,
2/17/98)
1897 Feb 27, Miriam Anderson, was
born. She became a world renown opera singer and civil rights pioneer,
and is best remembered for singing "My Country Tis of Thee" in front of
the Lincoln Memorial.
(HN, 2/27/02)
1897 Feb, Adolph Ochs of the
New-York Times published for the 1st time his slogan "All the News
That's Fit to Print."
(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.23)
1897 Mar 2, President Cleveland
vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for
immigrants.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1897 Mar 4, Lefty O’Doul (d.1969),
baseball star, was born in SF in the old Butchertown neighborhood south
of Market. He played for the SF Seals, and spent 11 years in the major
leagues with the Phillies, Dodgers, Yankees and Giants before returning
to manage the Seals and the Pacific Coast League. He was the National
League batting champ in 1929 with the Phillies and again in 1932 with
the Brooklyn Dodgers.
(SFC, 3/5/96, p.C1)(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A9)
1897 Mar 4, William McKinley was
sworn in as the 25th president.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1897 Mar 5, Mei-ling Soong
(d.2003, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, was born on Hainan Island, China. As
wife of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek she was instrumental in enlisting
U.S. sympathy and relief for China in World war II.
(www.nndb.com/people/978/000086720/)(HN, 6/5/99)
1897 Mar 9, Premiere of (parts of)
Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony in Berlin.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1897 Mar 24, Wilhelm Reich
(d.1957), Austrian-US psychoanalyst (character analysis), was born. In
1999 Farrar, Straus & Giroux published: "American Odyssey: Letters
and Journals 1940-1947."
(WUD, 1994, p.1209)(MC, 3/24/02)
1897 Apr 3,
Johannes Brahms (63), German composer, conductor (Hungarian Dances),
died.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B11)(MC, 4/3/02)
1897 Apr 6 & 16, Frank M.
Chapman, ornithologist with the American Museum of Natural History,
observed large numbers of flying hawks over Veracruz, Mexico.
(NH, 10/96, p.37)
1897 Apr 7, Walter Winchell,
American newscaster and newspaper columnist, was born in Harlem, NYC.
(HN, 4/7/97)(MC, 4/7/02)
1897 Apr 12, Prof. Edward Drinker
Cope (b.1840), paleontologist, died in Pennsylvania. He had discovered
many hitherto unknown dinosaur species. He willed his bones to science
and by 1994 was settled in the Univ. of Pennsylvania’s Museum of
Archeology and Anthropology and proposed as a type specimen for Homo
sapiens. In 1999 David Rains Wallace authored "The Bonehunter's
Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Feud of the
Gilded Age," which covered the feud between Cope and Othniel Charles
Marsh.
(WSJ, 11/1/94,
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Drinker_Cope)
1897 Apr 17, Thornton Wilder
(d.1975), novelist and playwright, was born. His work included "Our
Town" and "The Bridge of San Luis Rey."
(HN, 4/17/99)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
1897 Apr 19, 1st performance of
Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande."
(MC, 4/19/02)
1897 Apr 19, The first Boston
Marathon was run from Ashland, Mass., to Boston. Winner John J.
McDermott ran the course in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1897 Apr 22, NYC Jewish newspaper
"Forward" began publishing.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1897 Apr 23, Lucius du Bignon
Clay, was born. He was the U.S. military governor of occupied Berlin
following WW II, who promoted German self government.
(HN, 4/23/99)(MC, 4/23/02)
1897 Apr 27, Grant's Tomb was
dedicated.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1897 Apr 30, Physicist Joseph John
Thomson described the electron as a particle of negative charge whose
motion constitutes electricity at a meeting of the Royal Institution in
London. J.J. Thomson worked on cathode rays and identified electrons,
charged particles smaller than the hydrogen atom.
(SFC, 5/1/97, p.A7)s(NG, May 1985, , p.642)
1897 Apr, The Jewish Daily Forward
began publishing. It was a socialist and secular paper in Yiddish
founded by Russian immigrant Abraham Cahan.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A16)
1897 May 14, Sidney Bechet
(d.1951), jazz clarinetist and soprano saxophone player, was born.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1897 May 14, "Stars and Stripes
Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time in
Philadelphia.
(HN, 5/14/01)
1897 May 14, Guglielmo Marconi
made the first communication by wireless telegraph.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1897 May 18, Frank Capra, movie
director, was born. He is best remembered for "It's A Wonderful Life."
(HN, 5/18/99)
1897 May 18, A public reading of
Bram Stoker’s new novel, "Dracula, or, The Un-dead," was staged at the
Royal Lyceum Theatre in London, an event that roughly coincided with
the book’s publication.
(WUD, 1994 p.432)(AP, 5/18/97)
1897 May 18, Paul Dukas
"L'Apprenti Sorcier Pruimtabak on the Market" premiered.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1897 May 18, An Irish Music
Festival was 1st held in Dublin.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1897 May 29, Erich Wolfgang
Korngold, movie composer (Violanta), was born in Brno, Austria.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1897 May 29, Ignace Lilien,
composer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1897 Jun 2, Responding to rumors
that he was dying or perhaps even dead, humorist Mark Twain, 61, was
quoted by the New York Journal in London as saying that "the report of
my death was an exaggeration."
(AP, 6/2/97)
1897 Jun 7, George Szell,
conductor (Metropolitan 1942-45), was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1897 Jun 12, Anthony Eden, British
prime minister (1955-1957), was born. He helped establish the Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
(HN, 6/12/99)
1897 Jun 12, Possibly the most
severe quake in history struck Assam, India. Shock waves were felt over
an area size of Europe.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1897 Jun 14, Dr. Karl Wolfert and
his mechanic were killed in Germany when their dirigible, powered by a
Daimler car engine, crashed on its 4th flight.
(ON, 3/03, p.10)
1897 Jun 15, May Belle Elsas
(d.2003), opera singer and actress, was born in NYC. She changed her
name to Mary Ellis when she joined the Metropolitan Opera at age 18.
(SFC, 2/3/03, p.B4)
1897 Jun 16, The government signed
a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1897 Jun 19, Moe Howard, comic
actor, one of the Three Stooges, was born.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1897 Jun 19, Charles Cunningham
Boycott (b.Mar 12, 1832) English land agent in Ireland, died in
England. He was a faulty estate manager whose tenants "boycotted" him
into poverty; when the crops failed and the farmers went broke, he
unsympathetically gave them the choice of paying immediately or being
evicted. The farmers retaliated and his staff quit. His family was
isolated. This tactic gave us the word whose last name became part of
the English language.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Charles-Cunningham-Boycott)
1897 Jun 21, In Austria a giant
Ferris wheel, designed by Walter Bassett of England, opened in Vienna.
It was built in the Wurstelprater amusement park to commemorate the
50th anniversary of the accession of Emperor Franz Joseph to the
Habsburg throne.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/3tawph)
1897 Jun 23, Winifred
Wagner-William, German organizer (Bayreuth Wagner Festival), was born.
(MC, 6/23/02)
1897 Jul 14, Swede Saloman
Andrée (43) and 2 accomplices, Knute Fraenkle and Nils
Strindberg, in the Ornen balloon were forced down after 64 hours in the
first expedition to fly by balloon across the North Pole. Their attempt
to return ended on White Island. Their fate was only discovered Aug
5-6, 1930, by Norwegian whalers.
(HNQ, 5/22/01)(ON, 11/01, p.11)
1897 Jul 15, The gold-laden ship
Excelsior from Alaska landed in San Francisco. Seattle mayor W.D. Wood
was visiting and immediately resigned his job, hired a ship, and
organized an expedition from SF to the Yukon territory.
(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1897 Jul 15, W. Sheldon of NY
patented a seed counter for retail seed sales.
(SFC, 4/13/05, p.G4)
1897 Jul 17, The Steamer Portland
arrived into Seattle from Alaska with 68 prospectors carrying more than
a ton of gold. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer announced that men with
gold from Alaska were landing. This unleashed the Klondike gold rush
and tens of thousands headed for the Yukon. The Klondike gold rush gave
America and Canada a psychological boost in getting the economy moving
again after the terrible depression that followed the 1893 crash.
(CFA, ‘96, p.88)(Hem., 7/95, p.79)(CFA, ‘96,
p.89)(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A20)
1897 Jul 21, The Tate Gallery
opened in England.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1897 Jul 24, Amelia Earhart was
born in Kansas. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
and disappeared in the South Pacific while trying to fly around the
world. Her sister Muriel (d.1998 at 98) wrote a biography of Amelia
titled: "Courage Is the Price."
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.E2)(HN,
7/24/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart)
1897 Jul 24, African-American
soldiers of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps arrived in St. Louis,
Mo., after completing a 40-day bike ride from Missoula, Montana.
(HN, 7/24/99)
1897 Jul 31, The commercial treaty
between Britain and the German zollverein (established in 1865) was
denounced by Britain and pronounced to end in one year.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A2)
1897 Aug 8, Anarchist Miguel
Angiolillo assassinated Spanish PM Antonio Canovas del Castillo at
Santa Agueda, Spain. Práxides Mateo Sagasta became prime
minister of Spain.
(NG, 11/04,
p.76)(www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronpr.html)
1897 Aug 10, A modern version of
aspirin was developed. The active ingredient of aspirin was invented by
a German worker for Bayer. [see 1853]
(WSJ, 6/17/96 p.A5)(PBS, 8/10/97)
1897 Aug 16, Robert Ringling,
circus master, was born.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1897 Aug 28, Charles Boyer
(d.1978), French actor of film and stage, was born. Films included
"Algiers,'' “Fanny,” and "Gaslight.''
(RTH, 8/28/99)
1897 Aug 31, Thomas Edison
patented his movie camera (Kinetograph).
(MC, 8/31/01)
1897 Aug 31, General Kitchener
occupied Berber, North of Khartoum.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1897 Sep 1, The first section of
Boston’s subway system was opened. The Park St. Station in Boston was
the nation’s first subway station. The Boylston Street subway opened in
1897.
(AP, 9/1/97)(BS, 5/3/98, p.5R)(HNQ, 5/17/99)
1897 Sep 2, "McCall's" magazine
was 1st published.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1897 Sep 5, A.C. Nielson, founder
of the Nielson Ratings, was born.
(HN, 9/5/00)
1897 Sep 10, Police shot at
striking mine workers in Pennsylvania and 20 people were killed.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1897 Sep 11, A strike by some
75,000 coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia ended
after 10 weeks. Concessions included an eight-hour work day,
semi-monthly pay, and the abolition of company stores (which were
famous for over charging workers). The day before, about 20 miners were
killed when sheriff's deputies opened fire on them in Pennsylvania.
(AP, 9/11/97)(MC, 9/11/01)
1897 Sep 12, Irene Joliot-Curie,
French physicist (neutron, Nobel 1935), was born.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1897 Sep 18, Alberto Santos-Dumont
crashed his 1st dirigible into trees at the Zoological Gardens in Paris.
(ON, 3/03, p.10)
1897 Sep 20, Alberto Santos-Dumont
successfully flew his repaired motorized dirigible around the
Zoological Gardens in Paris.
(ON, 3/03, p.10)
1897 Sep 21, The New York Sun ran
its famous editorial that answered a question from 8-year-old Virginia
O’Hanlon: "Is there a Santa Claus?" Francis P. Church wrote, in part:
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love
and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and
give to your life its highest beauty and joy."
(AP, 9/21/97)
1897 Sep 23, The 1st frontier days
rodeo celebration in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was held. By 1998 it had become
the world’s largest outdoor rodeo.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T3)(MC, 9/23/01)
1897 Sep 25, William Faulkner
(d.1962), American author, was born in New Albany, Miss. "The poet’s
voice need not merely be the record of man; it can be one of the props,
the pillars to help him endure and prevail."
(AP, 9/25/97)
1897 Sep 26, Pope Paul VI
(Giovanni Battista Montini), the 262nd pope of the Roman Catholic
Church, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1897 Sep, Eight whaling ships with
273 men became trapped in ice off Point Barrow, Alaska, in an early
freeze. Lt. David Henry Jarvis of the Revenue Cutter Service, the
forerunner of the US Coast Guard, led a 1500-mile expedition overland
from Nelson Island Point Barrow with a herd of reindeer to the stranded
men.
(ON, 1/01, p.1)
1897 Sep, In Brazil Antonio
Conselheiro, the founding leader of Canudos, died of dysentery.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1897 Oct 4, George Bernard Shaw's
"The Devil's Disciple," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1897 Oct 5, In Brazil after a
4-month battle government forces defeated the settlement of Canudos.
Pres. Prudente de Morais sent 8,000 soldiers with Krupp cannons,
dynamite and machine guns in the Fourth Military Expedition to overcome
the settlement led by Antonio Conselheiro.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1897 Oct 8, Journalist Charles
Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, began charting trends of
stocks and bonds.
(HN, 10/8/00)
1897 Oct 8, Emperor Karl Joseph I
named Gustav Mahler director of Vienna Opera.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1897 Oct 15, Aaron and Samuel
Bloch carried the 1st US Mail Pouch.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1897 Oct 22, The world's 1st car
dealer began business in London.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1897 Oct 24, The first comic strip
appeared in the Sunday color supplement of the New York Journal called
the 'Yellow Kid.' [see May 1895,1896]
(HN, 10/24/00)
1897 Oct 28, Hans Speidel, Nazi
chief-staff and NATO-supreme commander, was born.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1897 Oct 29, Joseph G. Goebbels,
German Nazi Propaganda Minister who died of suicide in Hitler’s bunker,
was born.
(HN, 10/29/98)
1897 Nov 3, David Schwarz of
Austria crashed his 156-foot aluminum powered airship with 2 propellers
on its maiden flight.
(ON, 3/03, p.11)
1897 Nov 13, The first metal
dirigible was flown from Tempelhof Field in Berlin.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1897 Nov 15, Sacheverell Sitwell,
English poet and author (People's Palace), was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1897 Nov 19, The Great "City Fire"
in London.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1897 Nov 23, Willie "The Lion"
Smith, jazz and ragtime pianist, was born.
(HN, 11/23/00)
1897 Nov 23, A pencil sharpener
was patented by J.L. Love.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1897 Nov 25, Spain granted Puerto
Rico autonomy.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1897 Dec 1, Stephen J. Field
(1816-1899), US Supreme Court Justice, left office after serving on the
court for 34 years.
(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/38/print)
1897 Dec 3, Kate O'Brien, Irish
writer (Without My Cloak), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1897 Dec 12, Lillian Smith,
Southern writer and civil rights activist, was born.
(HN, 12/12/00)
1897 Dec 12, "The Katzenjammer
Kids," the pioneering comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks, made its
debut in the New York Journal.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1897 Dec 16, The 1st submarine
with an internal combustion engine was demonstrated.
(MC, 12/16/01)
1897 Dec 26, Peter French shot and
killed sodbuster, Ed Oliver, after Oliver drew a gun on him. French
confessed to the murder but was acquitted.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T5)
1897 Dec 28, Edmond Rostand’s play
on Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), French poet, was unveiled at the
Theatre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris. Cyrano’s noted nose was an
invention of the poet Theophile Gautier introduced in an 1844 book.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, DB p.3)(AP, 12/28/97)
1897 Dec 31, Brooklyn, N.Y., spent
its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York
City.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1897 The 1890 Vincent van Gogh
painting "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" was sold to Alice Ruben, a Danish art
collector, for $58. In 1990 Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito paid $82.5
million for the painting.
(BS, 5/3/98, Par p.26)
1897 Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
helped found the Vienna Secessionist art movement. He was chosen as its
1st president. It rebelled against the sentimental academic painting of
the 19th century.
(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.W14)(WSJ, 7/11/01, p.A15)
1897 Claude Monet
painted "The Cliffs of Dieppe." In 1998 it was
stolen from the French Fine Arts Museum of Nice.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.B7)
1897 Giovanni Segantini painted
"Primavera sulle alpi," a Divisionist landscape. It was valued at $4-6
million in 1999.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.B8)
1897 Bert Corgan published his
autobiography "Mining Camp Lawyer."
(WW, 12/96)
1897 Mark Twain published
"Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World, " his last
travelogue.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.C3)
1897 Edith Wharton wrote "The
Decoration of Houses."
(WSJ, 12/9/97, p.A20)
1897 Arthur Schnitzler wrote his
play "Reigen." The name meant round dance and represented a circle of
sexual encounters. It was premiered in Vienna in 1920 and was promptly
closed down by police. A 1998 adaptation by David Hare featured Nicole
Kidman and AIain Glen in "The Blue Room."
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A21)
1897 Alfred Stieglitz invited Fred
Holland Day to contribute to Camera Notes.
(Civilization, July-Aug. 1995, p.40-47)
1897 West Point military academy
adopted the motto: "Duty, Honor, Country."
(SFEC, 5/7/00, Par p.7)
1897 US Marine Band Conductor
Francesco Fanciulli was arrested and charged for insubordination after
refusing to play any more Sousa marches.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A12)
1897 The recording giant EMI was
founded.
(Sky, 9/97, p.54)
1897 Anson Phelps Stokes, an
eccentric business man in the Reese River Valley, built Stokes Castle
in Austin, Nevada. He built the 92-mile Nevada Central Railroad from
Battle Mountain to Austin.
(SFCM, 3/28/04, p.43)(ACC, 2004)
1897 The yellow brick King’s
County Courthouse in Hanford, Ca., was built in neo-classical revival
style.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T3)
1897 The US Army began building
Fort Michie on Great Gull Island to protect the eastern approaches to
Long Island Sound.
(NH, 10/02, p.12)
1897 In Le Roy, New York, Pearle
Wait, a carpenter, and his wife May, made a concoction of gelatin and
fruit flavor that they named Jell-O.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A2)
1897 The American Cat Association
was founded to promote the welfare of cats and their owners.
(Smith., 4/1995, p.136)
1897 The American Negro Academy
was founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and other black intellectuals.
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 37)
1897 Old Del Monte golf course in
Monterey, Ca., opened.
(Hem, 6/96, p.137)
1897 James J. Corbett lost his
boxing title to Robert Fitzsimmons.
(HNQ, 6/20/00)
1897 In Wyoming the first annual
Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo was held. By 1998 it had become the
world’s largest outdoor rodeo.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T3)
1897 Pres. Grover Cleveland
established a forest reserve in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington
state with sharp restrictions on commercial logging. 3 years later
McKinley remanded a third of the reserve back to open logging.
(NG, 7/04, p.66)
1897 The US Library of Congress’s
Jefferson Building opened to the public.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A6)
1897 The US Supreme Court ruled
that "Seamen are... deficient in that full and intelligent
responsibility for their acts that is accredited to ordinary adults."
The court added that sailors "had to be protected from themselves and
therefore were not subject to the Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment
that prohibited involuntary servitude." This in essence condoned the
practice of "shanghaiing." The practice was later described by Bill
Picklehaupt in his 1997 book "Shanghaied in San Francisco."
(SFC,1/22/97, p.E5)
1897 The USS Constitution (aka Old
Ironsides) was put into dry-dock.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A11)
1897 The American Federation of
Labor backed literacy requirements for immigrants.
(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A8)
1897 The suffragette movement
started in England as a peaceful protest. The movement turned militant
in 1903. Women in England won the right to vote in 1918.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.G7)
1897 The Chicago Teachers Club met
to protest the sale of cigarettes as "poison laden and corrupting."
(Hem., 7/96, p.28)
1897 In NYC Col. Fred Grant
withdrew from the Board of Police Commissioners as a protest against
the methods employed by the NY police to gain evidence.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A2)
1897 In northern California Lime
Point Military Reservation was renamed Fort Baker in honor of Col.
Edward D. Baker, who was killed leading a regiment of Union troops in
the Civil War. The former US Senator from Oregon was active in
California politics in the 1850s.
(The Park, Summer "95)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.B4)
1897 Marcus Hanna was elected to
the US Senate. Hanna, an Ohio industrialist, led the 1896 fund-raising
for Pres. McKinley and personally underwrote the cost of winning the
1st modern presidential campaign. In 1929 Thomas Beer authored a
biography of Hanna.
(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.B1)
1897 American Telephone &
Telegraph Co. began to use wooden poles when it put up a communication
line from Washington DC to Norfolk, Va.
(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.A1)
1897 BD was founded in 1897 in New
York City by Maxwell Becton and Farleigh S. Dickinson, Sr. The company
sold glass hypodermic syringes for $2.50. "It was Maxwell Becton’s kind
gesture in closing a shade to block the glare of the sun in Dickinson’s
eyes that brought the two men together."
(Horizon, Fall ‘95, p.12)(EIH, BDID, SLC, 1981)(cc:
mail 3/3/97)(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A6)
1897 Chicago Gas was one of a host
of utilities absorbed by Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co. as part of a
massive industry consolidation.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1897 Olds Motor Vehicle Co. was
the first auto maker to organize in Lansing, Michigan. R.E. Olds called
his first car the Oldsmobile.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1897 The Sears Roebuck catalog
offered a gun for 68 cents.
(WSJ, 12/17/03, p.B1)
1897 The Singer sewing machine
company built a huge factory in Russia.
(SFC, 5/16/01, p.D4)
1897 The Stanley Rule & Level
Co. of in New Britain, Conn., began making 6-inch folding rulers. They
introduced a 4-inch one in 1907.
(SFC, 11/1/03, p.E4)
1897 The Sterling China Co.
started working in Sebring, Ohio. In 1904 it changed its name to
Limoges China and in the 1940s added "American" to its name. It
experimented with some unusual glazes in the 1930s, including a green
one called "Emerald Glow."
(SFC, 1/29/97, z-1 p.2)
1897 Orison Swett Marden founded
Success magazine. The magazine began as a nonfiction monthly featuring
biographical sketches and articles espousing the virtue of success, and
contributions by such notables as Theodore Dreiser, Booker T.
Washington, Edward Everett Hale, Mary A. Livermore, and Julia Ward
Howe. In 1911 it merged with the National Post.
(www.proquest.com/products_umi/descriptions/American-Popular-Culture-42.shtml)
1897 Alexander Winton organized
the Winton Motor Carriage Co. in Cleveland.
(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1897 Victor Durand Jr.,
French-born glassmaker, started the Vineland Glass Manufacturing Co. in
Vineland, NJ.
(SFC, 3/31/99, Z1 p.6)
1897 Ransom E. Olds started the
Olds Motor Vehicle Co. In 2004 the last Oldsmobile Alero rolled of a GM
assembly line in Lansing, Mich.
(SFC, 4/28/04, p.C1)
1897 Gilbert Loomis was the first
car-owner to purchase auto insurance for his vehicle. The premium was
$7.50 for $1,000 worth of liability insurance.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1897 Otto H.L. Wernicke moved his
Wernicke Furniture Co. from Minneapolis, Minn., to Grand Rapids, Mich.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.G3)
1897 Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934)
patented (pat no. 580,035) what was to become the "Telharmonium" or
"Dynamophone." It can be considered the first significant electronic
musical instrument. The 1st fully completed model was presented to the
public (1906) in Holyoke, Mass.
(www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/telharmonium/)(Econ, 9/3/05, p.77)
1897 Lord Kelvin calculated the
age of the earth on the assumption that it had cooled from an initial
molten state. His work indicated an age of between 200 and 400 million
years for the earth.
(DD-EVTT, p.32)
1897 R.D. Oldham, English
seismologist, recognized the three main kinds of seismic waves recorded
by his instruments. They are the primary waves (P waves) of the
push-pull kind, like sound waves, secondary waves (s-waves) in which
the vibrations are at right angles to the direction in which the shock
wave is moving, and longitudinal waves (l-waves) which move over the
earth’s surface.
(DD-EVTT, p.77)
1897 The world’s first offshore
oil well was drilled just east of Santa Barbara, Ca.
(SSFC, 10/29/06, p.F6)
1897 Robert Peary, Arctic
explorer, took 6 Eskimos from Greenland back to NYC as living museum
specimens. In 2000 Kenn Harper authored "Give Me My Father’s Body," the
story of Minik, one of the 6 Eskimos, who died in 1918 in a New
Hampshire lumber camp at age 28.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, Par p.8)
1897 The Red River in Fargo North
Dakota crested at 39.1 feet. The record was broken in 1997.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.A3)
1897 The Ellis Island immigration
center was destroyed by fire.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1897 Belgium established the
Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa following the World Fair of
this year. It was a result of the country’s colonial venture in the
Belgian Congo, later Zaire, later Democratic Republic of Congo. The
museum was founded as a showcase for business opportunities on the
Congo.
(SFC, 2/21/98,
p.E1)(www.africamuseum.be/museum/about)
1897 Belo Horizonte was founded in
the state of Minas Gerais as the first modern planned city of Brazil.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.9)
1897 British officer Capt. H.
Deasy encountered migrating chirus in Tibet and named the local
Antelope Plain.
(NH, 5/96, p.50)
1897 The Royal Pigeon Racing
Association formed in England. In 2004 it began drug testing among its
members for the use of steroids in their pigeons.
(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)
1897 Isaac Pitman (b.1813),
inventor of Pitman shorthand, died in Britain.
(WSJ, 8/20/04, p.A1)
1897 Alphonse Daudet (b.1840),
French novelist, died. In 2002 Julian Barnes translated writings from
his last 12 years, "In the Land of Pain," in which he conveyed his
thoughts on pain from his tertiary-stage syphilis.
(WUD, 1994 p.369)(WSJ, 1/24/03, p.W9)
1897 St. Theresa of Lisiex, known
to her followers as The Little Flower, died.
(SFC, 1/11/00, p.A15)
1897 Ragnar Sohlman, executor of
Alfred Nobel’s will, moved Nobel’s stock certificates and papers out of
France to Sweden, and thus beyond the jurisdiction of French courts.
(ON, 4/07, p.7)
1897 The Greeks were defeated by
Turkey at Velestino in their war over the independence of Crete.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A13)
1897 Japan’s Kyoto National Museum
was established.
(Hem, 9/04, p.46)
1897 Ottoman authorities
disbanded a reactivated League of Prizren, executed its leader and
banned Albanian language books.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1897 Benin City, capital of Edo
state, Nigeria, was burned and ransacked by the British after the Bini
killed a British diplomatic mission. 16th century brass plaques were
looted from the royal palace and sold to the British Museum.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.D8)
1897 The first Zionist Congress
was held in Basel, Switzerland.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.1)
1897-1898 Paul Gauguin created his painting "D'ou
venons-nous? Que sommmes-nous? Ou allons-nous?" (Where do we come from?
What Are We? Where are we going?)
(WSJ, 4/12/04, p.D8)
1897-1901 William McKinley is the 25th President of
the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1897-1902 The Jesup North Pacific Expedition was made
to study the biological and cultural connections between peoples on
each side of the Bering Strait. It was one of the first instances where
a camera was used in such a study.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
1897-1904 Henry-Louis de La Grange, French writer,
focused on these years in Vienna in writing his multivolume biography
of Gustav Mahler titled: Vienna: The Years of Challenge. Vol. 1 in
English was released in 1973. A 3-volume French edition came out
between 1979-1984. A new 4-volume English was launched in 1995.
(WSJ, 6/9/95, p.A-12)(SFEC, 6/7/98, DB p.37)
1897-1946 John Steuart Curry, American painter, was
known as a regionalist for his paintings of Kansas. Many of his best
works were actually done in Westport, Conn. He became artist in
residence at the Univ. of Wisconsin, the first to hold such an academic
position in the US.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.E1)
1897-1955 Bernard De Voto, American author,
journalist and critic: "History abhors determinism, but cannot tolerate
chance." Determinism refers to the notion that a cause precedes every
event.
(AP, 8/20/97)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M5)
1897-1957 Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer. He went
into exile in 1938 and wrote film music in Hollywood.
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.W10)
1897-1957 The Griswold Manufacturing Co. of Erie,
Pa., made cast-iron skillets, pans and other kitchen items over this
time.
(SFEC, 10/9/96, z1 p.8)
1897-1966 Lillian Smith, American writer and social
critic: "Education is a private matter between the person and the world
of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or
college." "The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which
hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are
released from making."
(AP, 11/13/97)(AP, 8/8/99)
1895-1972 L.P. Hartley, British author: "The past is
a foreign country; they do things differently there."
(AP, 7/1/00)
1897-1973 Catherine Drinker Bowen, American author:
"I speak the truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and
I dare a little more, as I grow older."
(AP, 3/23/98)
1897-1980 Dorothy Day, American activist and founder
of the Catholic worker newspaper: "How much did I hear of religion as a
child? Very little, and yet my heart leaped when I heard the name of
God. I do believe every soul has a tendency toward God." "The best
thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up."
(AP, 6/8/97)(AP, 8/18/99)(WSJ, 3/26/03, p.D8)
1897-1988 George Sakier, designer. He designed the
Myriad pattern of Fostoria Glass. he also designed packaging,
furniture, bath fixtures, and painted abstract landscapes.
(SFC, 6/12/96, Z1 p.5)
Go to 1898-1899