Timeline 1901
Return to home
1901 Jan 1,
The 1st annual Mummers parade was held in Philadelphia.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A10)
1901 Jan 1, The Commonwealth of
Australia was proclaimed. Although independent it still recognized
Britain’s royalty as its head of state. The governor-general, the
representative of the queen, is nominated by the prime minister and
appointed by the British monarch.
(AP, 1/1/98)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A7)
1901 Jan 3, Ngo Dinh Diem,
South Vietnamese president (1955-63), was born.
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1901 Jan 7, New York stock
exchange trading exceeded two million shares for the first time in
history.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1901 Jan 10, The Automobile
Club of America installed signs on major highways.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1901 Jan 10, In Corsicana the
Lucas Gusher flowing at the rate of 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per
day, blew in. Pattillo Higgins, a self-taught geologist, became
interested in Spindletop Hill, just south of Beaumont, Texas in
1889. Believing that Spindletop covered a vast pool of oil, Higgins
joined two other men in 1892 to form the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and
Manufacturing Company--one of the first oil companies in Texas.
Higgins, lacking proper drilling equipment, failed in his efforts,
and the Gladys City Company leased land to a team led by Austrian
mining engineer Captain Anthony Lucas in 1899. By 1902, 285 wells
were operating on Spindletop Hill and over 600 oil companies had
been chartered, but overproduction ruined the field. By 1903 the
boom was over and within 10 years Spindletop Hill was practically a
ghost town. Spindletop enjoyed a resurgence in 1926 when technology
made possible the recovery of more oil through deeper drilling.
(HNPD, 1/10/99)(WSJ, 6/29/99, p.A12)
1901 Jan 16, Fulgencio Batista
(d.1973), later president and dictator of Cuba (1933-44, 1952-59),
was born. He was overthrown by Fidel Castro and died in Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista)
1901 Jan 22, Britain's Queen
Victoria died at age 82. She was the monarch of Great Britain and
Ireland and Empress of India, and died after presiding over her vast
empire for nearly 64 years--the longest reign in British history.
Born in 1819, the only child of George III's fourth son, Victoria
became queen in 1837. In 1840, she married Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Although the match was a political one, the two
were devoted to each other, having nine children before Albert's
death in 1861. Through dynastic marriages, Victoria's descendants
are connected to almost all 20th-century Europe's royal houses.
During Victoria's long reign the monarchy lost much of its political
power to Parliament, but she was the beloved symbol of the Victorian
Era--a golden age of British history. In 2000 Christopher Hibbert
authored "Queen Victoria: A Personal History."
(AP, 1/22/98)(HNPD, 1/22/99)(WSJ, 12/29/00, p.W6)
1901 Jan 22, After 63 years
England stopped the sale of Queen Victoria postage stamps series
& began the King Edward VII series.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1901 Jan 23, A great fire
ravaged Montreal, resulting in $2.5 million in property lost.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1901 Jan 23, First female
intern was accepted at a Paris hospital.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1901 Jan 27, Giuseppe Verdi
(b.1813), opera composer, died at the Grand Hotel in Milan, Italy,
at age 87. In 1993 Mary Jane Phillips-Matz authored "Verdi."
(SFEM, 9/10/00, p.20)(AP, 1/27/01)(WSJ, 4/11/03,
p.W7)
1901 Jan 28, Byron Bancroft
Johnson announced that the American League would play the 1901
baseball season as a major league and would not renew its membership
in the National Agreement. The new league would include Baltimore
and Washington, DC, recently abandoned by the National League. The
league would also invade 4 cities where National League teams
existed: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The 8 charter
teams included: the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago
White Stockings, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers,
Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators.
(ON, 6/09,
p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League)
1901 Jan 30, Women
Prohibitionists smashed 12 saloons in Kansas.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1901 Jan 31, Chekhov's "Three
Sisters" opened at Moscow Art Theater.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1901 Feb 1, Clark Gable,
American actor, was born. He is famous for his roles in Mutiny on
the Bounty and Gone With the Wind.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)(HN, 2/1/99)
1901 Feb 2, Jascha Heifetz
(d.1987), US violin virtuoso (Carnegie Hall), was born in Vilnius,
Lithuania.
(www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002800/Jascha-Heifetz.html)
1901 Feb 2, Mexican government
troops were badly beaten by Yaqui Indians.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1901 Feb 5, Loop-the-loop
centrifugal RR (roller coaster) was patented by Ed Prescot.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1901 Feb 5, J. Pierpont Morgan
formed US Steel Corp. [see Feb 25]
(MC, 2/5/02)
1901 Feb 10, Stella Adler,
actress and teacher, was born.
(HN, 2/10/01)
1901 Feb 17 Gustav Mahler
(1860-1911) conducted the Viennese premiere of his Second Symphony,
which also saw the first public performance of his early work Das
klagende Lied, in a revised two-part form.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler)
1901 Feb 20, Rene Dubos,
French-US microbiologist who developed the first commercial
antibiotic, was born in France. He authored "Health & Disease."
(HN, 2/20/01)(MC, 2/20/02)
1901 Feb 20, Louis I. Kahn,
architect, was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1901 Feb 21, Stephen M. White
(b.1853), former US Senator from California (1893-1899), died. He is
remembered as the “Father of Los Angeles Harbor.”
(GenIV, Winter
04/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_M._White)
1901 Feb 23, Britain and
Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa [later
Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland [later Malawi].
(HN, 2/23/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593,990)
1901 Feb 25, [Herbert] Zeppo
Marx, comedian, actor (Marx Brothers), was born in NYC.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1901 Feb 25, United States
Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan Charles Schwab and
Andrew Carnegie. Morgan combined Federal Steel and Carnegie Steel to
form US Steel. It was the biggest corporate merger of the time. As
president of US Steel Schwab acquired the Bethlehem Steel. In 1904
Schwab resigned his position at US Steel to run Bethlehem Steel.
(AP, 2/25/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ, 5/12/03,
p.A6)(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.A15)
1901 Feb 26, Boxer Rebellion
leaders Chi-Hsin (Chi-hsui) and Hsu-Cheng-Yu were publicly executed
in Peking.
(HN, 2/26/98)(SC, 2/26/02)
1901 Feb 28, Linus Pauling,
American chemist, was born in Portland, Oregon. He won the Nobel
Prize for chemistry (1954) and a Nobel Peace Prize (1962) for his
arguments for nuclear disarmament. He also advocated major doses of
vitamin C to maintain health.
(HN,
2/28/99)(http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1962/pauling-bio.html)
1901 Feb, The steamer Rio de
Janeiro piled up on rocks at Fort Point at the bay entrance of San
Francisco and 130 people died.
(PacDis, Fall/’96, p.14)
1901 Mar 1, At the Pan American
Exposition in Buffalo, NY, the electric current was turned on at the
Agricultural building by Henry Rustin, chief of the Mechanical and
Electricity Bureau, and the 4000 lamps on the exterior of the
building blazed into radiant beauty. The Exposition, which opened
informally on May 1, was held on a 342 acre site between Delaware
Park Lake on the south, the New York Central railroad tracks on the
north, Delaware Avenue on the east, and Elmwood Avenue on the west.
The fair featured the latest technologies, including electricity and
the baby incubator building, and attracted nearly 8 million people.
A 400-foot electric tower was the centerpiece.
(WSJ, 6/5/01,
p.A23)(http://panam1901.bfn.org/thisday/marcharchives.html)
1901 Mar 2, Congress passed the
Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for
withdrawal of U.S. troops.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1901 Mar 2, Hawaii's 1st
telegraph company opened.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1901 Mar 3, Congress created
the National Bureau of Standards in Department of Commerce.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1901 Mar 4, Charles Goren,
world expert on the game of bridge, was born.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1901 Mar 4, 1st advanced copy
of an inaugural speech was published by the Jefferson-National
Intelligencer.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1901 Mar 4, William McKinley
was inaugurated president for the second time. Theodore Roosevelt
was inaugurated as vice president. The team ran on the issue of
keeping the Philippines as a colony.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1901 Mar 4, Term of George H.
White, last of post-Reconstruction congressmen, ended.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1901 Mar 6, A would-be assassin
tried to kill Wilhelm II in Bremen, Germany.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1901 Mar 7, Blacks were found
to be still enslaved in certain parts of South Carolina.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1901 Mar 13, Benjamin Harrison
(67), 23rd president of the United States (1889-1893), died in
Indianapolis.
(AP, 3/13/97)(MC, 3/13/02)
1901 Mar 14, 1st performance of
Anton Bruckner's 6th Symphony in A.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1901 Mar 17, Eisaku Sato,
premier of Japan (Nobel 1974), was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1901 Mar 19, Jo Mielziner, set
designer (Carousel, Death of a Salesman), was born in Paris.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1901 Mar 22, Japan proclaimed
that it was determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1901 Mar 23, Dame Nellie Melba
revealed secret of her now famous toast.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1901 Mar 23, The world learned
that Boers were starving to death in British concentration camps.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1901 Mar 23, A group of U.S.
Army soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston captured Emilio
Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1901 Mar, The 2-year old
Oldsmobile plant in Detroit was destroyed by fire.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 Apr 1, US Steel was added
to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Mr. Morgan bought out Andrew
Carnegie’s steel business and combined it with Federal Steel,
American Steel & Wire and several other companies to form US
Steel Corp. Judge Gary became its first chairman.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-46)(WSJ, 11/25/96, p.C1)
1901 Apr 1, The American Cotton
Oil Company, General Electric, Federal Steel, American Steel &
Wire Co. and Pacific Mail Steamship Co. were removed as components
of the Dow Jones. Amalgamated Copper, International Paper
(preferred), US Steel (common and preferred) and American Smelting
& Refining were added.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45,46)
1901 Apr 3, Richard D'Oyly
Carte, promoter (Gilbert & Sullivan operas), died.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1901 Apr 5, Chester Bowles,
ambassador, writer (Conscience of a Liberal), was born in Mass.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1901 Apr 5, Melvyn Douglas,
[Hesselberg], actor (Hud, Ghost Story), was born in Macon, Ga.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1901 Apr 10, The Journal, a
Hearst newspaper, printed an editorial that declared "If bad
institutions and bad men can be got rid of only by killing, then the
killing must be done." Hearst ordered the presses stopped but a
number of papers had already hit the streets.
(AH, 10/01, p.24)
1901 Apr 11, Adriano Olivetti,
Italian engineer, manufacturer (typewriter), was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1901 Apr 11, Glenway Wescott,
writer, was born.
(HN, 4/11/01)
1901 Apr 15, The 1st British
motorized burial took place.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1901 Apr 25, Erve Beck hit the
1st home run in the American League.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1901 Apr 25, In last of 9th,
Detroit Tigers, trailing by 13-4, score 10 runs to win one of the
greatest comebacks in baseball (1st game in Detroit).
(SS, 4/25/02)
1901 Apr 25, New York became
the first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was
one dollar. The first automobile license plates were issued in
Paris, France in 1893. The first American city to require drivers to
be licensed and register their vehicle was Boston, but the trend
quickly spread.
(AP, 4/25/98)(HNQ, 7/18/00)
1901 Apr 29, Hirohito, emperor
of Japan (1926-1989), was born.
(HN, 4/29/99)(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 Apr 29, In the 27th
Kentucky Derby: Jimmy Winkfield on His Eminence won in 2:07.75.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 Apr 29, Anti Semitic riot
took place in Budapest.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1901 May 7, Gary Cooper, film
actor (High Noon, Friendly Persuasion), was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1901 May 12, Pres. McKinley
visited SF.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1901 May 23, American forces
captured Philippine rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1901 May 25, Milenko Zivkovic,
composer, was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1901 May 28, Laws against
phosphor matches were enacted.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1901 May 1901, Walter Reed (49)
led the Yellow Fever Commission, a 4-man team, to Cuba to search for
the cause of the disease. 200 American soldiers had died from the
disease over the previous 18 months. Aristides Agramonte,
pathologist, James Carroll, bacteriologist, and Jesse W. Lazear,
entomologist, were the other team members. Cuban Dr. Carlos Finlay
believed that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes.
(ON, 10/01, p.7)
1901 Jun 1, John van Druten,
English playwright (I am a Camera), was born.
(HN, 6/1/01)
1901 Jun 2, Michael Todd,
producer (Around the World in 80 Days), was born.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1901 Jun 6, Sukarno (d.1970),
Indonesia's 1st president (1949-1966), was born in Surabaya, Java.
(Internet)
1901 Jun 7, M. Wolf discovered
asteroid #471, Papagena.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1901 Jun 9, George Price,
cartoonist, was born.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1901 Jun 10, Frederick Loewe,
songwriter, was born.
(HN, 6/10/01)
1901 Jun 11, Cook Islands were
annexed & proclaimed a part of New Zealand.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1901 Jun 12, Cuba agreed to
become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1901 Jun 24, Harry Partch,
composer, was born.
(HN, 6/24/01)
1901 Jun 24, The 1st exhibition
by Pablo Picasso (19) opened in Paris.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1901 Jun 29, Nelson Eddy,
baritone (Met opera, film star, duets with Jeanette MacDonald), was
born in Providence, RI.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1901 Jun, Robert Leroy Parker
and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
settled in the Cholila Valley of southwestern Argentina after
fleeing US Pinkerton agents. They bought a 12,000-acre ranch with
stolen loot.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/p5amt)
1901 Jul 1, Continental Tobacco
Co. and International Paper (preferred) were removed as components
of the Dow Jones.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R46)
1901 Jul 3, Members of The Wild
Bunch, including Kid Curry, committed their last American robbery
near Wagner, Montana, taking $65,000 from a Great Northern train.
Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and his lover Etta Place had already
fled to New York where a picture of Etta and Sundance was taken. The
trio by this time were settled in Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy)
1901 Jul 4, William H. Taft,
later the 27th president of the United States, became the American
territorial governor of the Philippines. Taft soon appointed Prof.
Bernard Moses secretary of public instruction for the Philippines.
Taft, who had been solicitor general of the U.S. under President
Benjamin Harrison, was a federal circuit court judge when President
William McKinley appointed him to serve as president of the U.S.
Philippines Commission in 1900-01. Later in 1901, President Theodore
Roosevelt named Taft the first civil governor of the Philippines
Islands, a post he held for four years. Roosevelt named Taft
secretary of war in 1904. A Republican, Taft was president from 1909
to 1913 and Supreme Court Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930. He was
born in 1857 and died on March 8, 1930, shortly after his
resignation from the court.
(HN, 7/4/98)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.13)(HNQ, 2/18/00)
1901 Jul 4, Julian Scott
(b.1846), American artist, died alone and penniless. He had achieved
fame for his paintings of Civil War events. His work included “The
Death of General Kearny” (1884) and “The Death of General Sedgwick”
(1887). In 1997 Robert J. Titterton authored “Julian Scott: Artist
of the Civil War and Native America.”
(AH, 2/03,
p.40)(http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2943183)
1901 Jul 13, Santos-Dumont flew
his powered dirigible around the Eiffel Tower but failed to make it
in an allotted half hour time frame to win a 100,000 franc prize.
(ON, 3/03, p.11)
1901 Jul 14, Gerald Raphael
Finzi, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1901 Jul 15, Over 74,000
Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1901 Jun 20, Charlotte M. Manye
of South Africa became the first native African to graduate from an
American University.
(HN, 6/20/00)
1901 Jul 25, A fire destroyed
the Byron Hot Springs Hotel in Byron, Ca. A new hotel, designed by
James and Merritt Reid, was built to replace it. It burned down in
1912 and was replaced in 1914 with a new design by James Reid.
(SSFC, 11/9/08,
p.A7)(www.byronhotsprings.com/TimeTable.html)
1901 Jul 28, Alfred Renton
Bryant Bridges (d.1990), aka Harry Bridges, American labor leader
who headed the West Coast Longshoremen’s Union, was born in
Australia.
(SFC, 7/27/01, p.A21)(HN, 7/28/98)
1901 Jul 28, Rudy Vallee,
singer (Vagabond Dreams, My Time Is Your Time), was born in Vermont.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1901 Aug, Arthur Conan Doyle
published the 1st installment of his book "Hound of the
Baskervilles" in The Strand Magazine. It was later reported that he
had stolen the idea for the novel from his friend Bertram Fletcher
Robinson. A 1st edition copy with dust jacket sold at auction for
$131,541 in 1998.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W14)(WSJ, 9/20/00, p.A24)(ON,
3/06, p.12)
1901 Aug 3, John Stennis,
Sen-D-Miss, was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1901 Aug 4, Louis Armstrong,
jazz trumpet player, was born. Laurence Bergreen in 1997 wrote a
biography titled: "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life." [see Jul
4, 1900]
(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR p.4)(HN, 8/4/01)
1901 Aug 8, Ernest Orlando
Lawrence (d.1958), winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize for physics, was
born.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1901 Aug 8, Santos-Dumont flew
his powered dirigible around the Eiffel Tower a 2nd time but sprang
a leak and caught suspension wires in his propeller blades.
(ON, 3/03, p.11)
1901 Aug 17, Henri Tomasi,
composer (Don Juan de Manara), was born in Marseilles, France.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1901 Aug 20, Fawcett committee
visited Mafeking concentration camp in Cape Colony.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1901 Aug 25, Clara Maass (25),
army nurse, sacrificed her life to prove that the mosquito carries
yellow fever.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1901 Aug 26, Maxwell Taylor,
U.S. general and diplomat, born. As commanding general of the 8th
Army in 1953, he directed U.N. forces during the latter stages of
the Korean War.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1901 Aug 27, In Havana, Cuba,
U.S. Army physician James Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to
feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of
yellow fever. Days later, Carroll developed a severe case of yellow
fever, helping his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove that
mosquitoes can transmit the sometimes deadly disease.
(MC, 8/27/02)(ON, 10/01, p.8)
1901 Aug 30, Hubert Cecil Booth
patented the vacuum cleaner. [see 1869]
(MC, 8/30/01)
1901 Aug, Major Walter Reed,
M.D., visited Dr. Carlos Finlay in Havana, who informed him that the
mosquito Culex fasciatus was the most likely transmitter of yellow
fever.
(ON, 10/01, p.7)
1901 Sep 2, Adolph Rupp,
basketball coach at the University of Kentucky who achieved a record
876 victories, was born.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1901 Sep 2, Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big
stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair. He also is noted
for saying: "If a man’s got to, he’s got to."
(AP, 9/2/97)(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)
1901 Sep 3, Eduard A. van
Beinum, musician and conductor (Amsterdam Concertgebouw), was born.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1901 Sep 3, Boer General Smuts
entered Kiba Drift in Cape Colony.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1901 Sep 3, Miss Ellen Stone, a
Protestant missionary from Haverhill, Mass., was kidnapped in
Bulgaria by a Macedonian revolutionary gang, who demanded $110,000
in gold. Katerina Tsilka, her pregnant Bulgarian companion, was also
kidnapped and gave birth during her captivity to a baby girl. In
2003 Teresa Carpenter authored "The Miss Stone Affair: America's
First Modern Hostage Crisis."
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.M4)
1901 Sep 5, Pres. McKinley
announced a new policy of reciprocal trade agreements with foreign
nations to encourage markets for American goods.
(AH, 10/01, p.24)
1901 Sep 6, At the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz (28) made
his way along a reception line filing past President William
McKinley. Concealed within a handkerchief, Czolgosz held a
.32-caliber revolver. As he came face to face with the president, he
fired two shots through the handkerchief, striking McKinley in the
chest and the abdomen. McKinley died eight days after the shooting
and became the third American president assassinated. He was
succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz, explaining
that he "thought it would be a good thing for the country to kill
the President," was put to death by electrocution 45 days later.
Emma Goldman was one of the people blamed for the assassination.
(AP, 9/6/97)(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70) (WSJ, 5/17/95,
p.A-18) (WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(HNPD, 9/6/98)(HN, 9/6/98)
1901 Sep 7, The Peace of Peking
(Beijing) ended the Boxer Rebellion in China.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1901 Sep 9, Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter, died at 36.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1901 Sep 14, President McKinley
died in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by Leon Czolgosz.
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th President
of the United States upon the death of William McKinley, who had
been shot eight days earlier.
(AP, 9/14/97)(HN, 9/14/98)
1901 Sep 15, Sir Howard Bailey,
British engineer, was born. He gave his name to a prefabricated
bridge used extensively during World War II.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1901 Sep 17, At the Battle at
Elands River Port, Boer Gen. Smuts destroyed the 17th Lancers unit .
(MC, 9/17/01)
1901 Sep 26, Leon Czolgosz, who
murdered President William McKinley, was sentenced to death.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1901 Sep 28, Ed Sullivan,
television host was born. [see Sep 28, 1902]
(HN, 9/28/00)
1901 Sep 28, At Balangiga on
Samar Island, Philippine villagers surprised a the US military
Company C, 9th Infantry Regiment. Church bells, used to signal the
attack, were taken by the Americans. 38 of 74 US soldiers were
killed and all the rest but 6 were wounded. Philippine casualties
were estimated at 50-250 with 48 American soldiers killed.
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A6)(SFC, 10/18/03, p.A18)
1901 Sep 29, Enrico Fermi,
Italian-born U.S. physicist who led the group which created the
first man-made nuclear chain reaction, was born.
(HN, 9/29/98)
1901 Sep, US Brig. Gen’l. Jacob
Smith ordered US Marine and Army units to turn the island of Samar
in the Philippines into a "howling wilderness" so that "even birds
could not live there" in retaliation for the Sep 5 attack at
Balangiga. The mission bells of Balangiga were taken as war booty
and later placed in the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo.
A Marine major was court-martialed on murder charges for executing
11 Filipino prisoners but was acquitted after he testified that he
was under orders to shoot every Filipino over age 10. Gen’l. Smith
was found guilty of misconduct and admonished.
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A6)(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1 p.4)
1901 Oct 2, Roy Campbell, poet,
was born. His work included "The Flaming Terrapin."
(HN, 10/2/00)
1901 Oct 2, The 1st Royal Naval
submarine launched at Barrow.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1901 Oct 10, Alberto Giacometti
(d.1966), sculptor and painter, was born in Borgonovo, Switzerland.
He was later quoted saying "there is less reality in the work of
contemporary sculptors than in tin soldiers in toy shop windows."
His biography was written by David Sylvester and titled: "Looking At
Giacometti." Another biography by James Lord was titled:
"Giacometti: A Biography."
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.BR-4)(WSJ, 9/30/96, p.A14)(HN,
10/10/01)(WSJ, 12/19/01, p.A16)
1901 Oct 12, Theodore Roosevelt
renamed the "Executive Mansion," to "The White House."
(HNQ, 6/28/00)(MC, 10/12/01)
1901 Oct 14, Justin Huntly
McCarthy's "If I Were King," premiered in NYC (Francois Villon).
(MC, 10/14/01)
1901 Oct 15, Bernard von
Brentano, German writer (Big Cats), was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1901 Oct 15, Hermann Abs,
director (Deutsche Bank) and Hitler's advisor, was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1901 Oct 16, President Theodore
Roosevelt incited controversy by inviting black leader Booker T.
Washington to the White House.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1901 Oct 19, Arleigh A. Burke,
admiral (WW II, Solomon Islands, Navy Cross), was born in Colorado.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1901 Oct 19, Edward Elgar's
"Pomp and Circumstance" March premiered in Liverpool.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1901 Oct 19, Alberto
Santos-Dumont successfully circled Eiffel Tower in his Santos-Dumont
No. 6 dirigible within a half hour and won a 100,000 franc prize. An
initial ruling said that he failed by 40 seconds because the race
wasn’t finished until he touched ground. A 2nd vote granted him the
win. This proved the airship maneuverable.
(ON, 3/03, p.12)
1901 Oct 20, Adelaide Hall,
cabaret singer, was born.
(HN, 10/20/00)
1901 Oct 22, Charles Huggins,
US physician, was born in Canada.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1901 Oct 22, In Canada the A.J.
Goddard, a Yukon River stern-wheeler, sank during a winter storm in
Lake Laberge, 40 miles north of Whitehorse. 3 men perished in the
sinking, but 2 survived. It had been disassembled and carried it
thought the narrow White Pass in the winter of 1897. In 2008
archeologists found evidence of the ship. In 2009 divers found the
remains of the vessel.
(SFC, 11/30/09,
p.A13)(www.yukon-news.com/news/15560/)
1901 Oct 23, Georg von Siemens,
founder of Deutsche Bank, died.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1901 Oct 24, Anna Edson Taylor
(d.1921), a 43-year-old widow, was the first woman to go safely over
Niagara Falls in a barrel. She made the attempt for the cash award
offered, which she put toward the loan on her Texas ranch. Taylor
died in poverty.
(AP, 10/24/97)(HN, 10/24/98)
1901 Oct 26, Mahalia Jackson,
gospel singer, was born. [see Oct 26, 1911]
(HN, 10/26/00)
1901 Oct 26, 1st use of
"getaway car" occurred after the hold-up of a shop in Paris.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1901 Oct 28, Race riots,
sparked by Booker T. Washington’s visit to the White House, killed
34.
(HN, 10/28/98)
1901 Oct 29, Leon Czolgosz was
electrocuted for the assassination of President McKinley at Auburn
Prison in NY state. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot McKinley on
September 6 during a public reception at the Temple of Music in
Buffalo, N.Y. Despite early hopes of recovery, McKinley died
September 14, in Buffalo.
(AP, 10/29/97)(HN, 10/29/98)(ON, 4/00, p.5)(AH,
10/01, p.30)
1901 Nov 2, Paul Ford, actor
(Phil Silvers Show), was born in Baltimore, Md.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1901 Nov 2, The Pan American
Exposition, held in Buffalo New York, closed. Though it
attracted visitors from throughout the world, bad weather, and the
unfortunate assassination of Pres. William McKinley in September,
affected attendance. The Exposition lost money. The only
structure still standing on the site is the Buffalo & Erie
County Historical Society, formerly the New York State
Building.
1901 Nov 3, Leopold III, King
of Belgium, was born.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1901 Nov 3, Andre Malraux,
French novelist, was born. His work included "Man's Fate."
(HN, 11/3/00)
1901 Nov 6, Kate Greenaway
(b.1846), English children’s book illustrator, died of breast
cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Greenaway)
1901 Nov 11, Maurice Ravel
composition "Jeux d'eau" premiered.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1901 Nov 17, Dr. Aubre De
Lambert Maynard (d.1999 at 97) was born in Georgetown, Guyana. In
1958 he performed a successful operation on Martin Luther King who
was attacked and had a knife embedded in his sternum. Maynard
authored "Surgeons to the Poor: The Harlem Hospital Story" in 1978.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)
1901 Nov 18, George Horatio
Gallup, American journalist and statistician, was born in Jefferson,
Iowa.
(HN, 11/18/98)(MC, 11/18/01)
1901 Nov 18, The 2nd
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was signed. The U.S. was given extensive
rights by Britain for building and operating a canal through Central
America.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1901 Nov 19, Louis Kahn
(d.1974), architect, was born in Saarama, Estonia. His designs
included the capital building of Bangladesh, completed in 1983.
(PBS, Internet)
1901 Nov 21, Richard Strauss'
opera "Feuersnot," premiered in Dresden.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1901 Nov 22, Joaquin Rodrigo,
Spanish composer (Juglares), was born in Sagunto, Valencia.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1901 Nov 24, Andre Victor
Tchelistcheff, winemaker, was born.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1901 Nov 25, Japanese Prince
Ito arrived in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1901 Nov 25, Josef Gabriel
Rheinberger (62), German composer and music theorist, died.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1901 Nov 26, The Hope diamond
was brought to New York.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1901 Nov 27, The Army War
College was established in Washington, D.C.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1901 Nov 28, Gustav Mahler's
4th Symphony in G premiered.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1901 Nov 29, Cixi (1835-1908),
China’s empress dowager, received a new wood-bodied Duryea
automobile to mark her 66th birthday. She is said to have fortified
her driver, Sun Fuling, with a generous bowl of rice wine. Fuling
promptly lost control of the car and ran over and killed a palace
eunuch.
(Econ, 8/22/09,
p.40)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Dowager_Cixi)
1901 Nov 30, The ferryboat San
Rafael sank in a collision off Alcatraz. The accident served as the
setting for the first chapter in "Sea Wolf" by Jack London.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A18)
1901 Dec 2, King Camp Gillette,
a former bottle-cap salesman, began selling safety razor blades. The
story of Gillette was told in the 1998 book "Cutting Edge" by Gordon
McKibben. Gillette went on to become a millionaire and a utopian
socialist who believed that competition was wasteful.
(WSJ, 2/13/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 7/26/99, p.A22)(MC,
12/2/01)
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney
(d.1966), movie producer and animator, was born in Chicago. Walt
Disney created a cartoon empire with the character Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN,
12/5/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Werner Heisenberg
(d.1976), German physicist, was born. He discovered the uncertainty
principle and won the Nobel Prize in 1932.
(V.D.-H.K.p.337)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Grace Moore,
American soprano (One Night to Live), was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 6, Eliot Porter,
nature photographer, was born.
(HN, 12/6/00)
1901 Dec 11, Marconi sent his
1st transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall to Newfoundland. [see
Dec 12]
(MC, 12/11/01)
1901 Dec 12, Italian scientist
and engineer Guglielmo Marconi received the first long-distance
radio transmission in St. John's, Newfoundland, 2,232 miles.
Electrical engineer John Ambrose Fleming transmitted the Morse code
signal for "s" from across the Atlantic Ocean in England and Marconi
heard it--three short clicks--through a radio speaker. Marconi had
begun experimenting with radiotelegraphy around 1895, and he
realized that messages could be transmitted over much greater
distances by using grounded antennae on the radio transmitter and
receiver. A few years after the successful transmission with
Fleming, Marconi opened the first commercial wireless telegraph
service.
(HNPD, 12/12/98)(MC, 12/12/01)
1901 Dec 24, Clarence King
(b.1842), explorer and geologist, died in Arizona. He lived a double
life as James Todd, the husband of a black woman named Ada (d.1964
at 103). In 2009 Roger K. Miller authored “Passing Strange: A Gilded
Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line.”
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/KHA_KRI/KING_CLARENCE_18421901_.html)(SFC,
2/24/09, p.E3)
1901 Dec 27, Marlene Dietrich
(d.1992), German-born singer and actress best known for her roles in
"Shanghai Express" and "Witness for the Prosecution," was born. "I’m
a realist and so I think regretting is a useless occupation. You
help no one with it. But you can’t live without illusions even if
you must fight for them, such as ‘love conquers all.’ It isn’t true,
but I would like it to be."
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.D-2)(HN, 12/27/98)(AP, 11/23/00)
1901 Linus Pauling (d.1994) was
born in Oregon.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.E1)
1901 Henry Brown Fuller created
his work "Illusions."
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.E8)
1901 Paul Gauguin left Tahiti
for the Marquesas and arrived at Hiva Oa.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T1,6)
1901 Matisse painted "The
Japanese Woman.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.D11)
1901 Pablo Picasso painted
"Woman with a Cap." His work "Casagemas in His Coffin" was a tribute
to a lovelorn friend who committed suicide. He also painted "The
Absinthe Drinker."
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A14)
1901 The Vincent van Gogh
painting "Sunflowers" was presented by art teacher Claude-Emile
Schuffenecker at a Paris exhibition. It sold in 1987 for $40.3
million to the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and was reported
in 1997 to be a possible fake. Van Gogh’s letters refer to only 6
paintings of sunflowers, and the Yasuda painting is a seventh.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.D4)
1901 The play "Three Sisters"
by Anton Chekhov had its premiere.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A12)
1901 Charles Chesnutt (b.1858),
African-American writer, authored his novel "The Marrow of
Tradition."
(HN, 6/20/01)(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A11)
1901 Freud published his
“Psychopathology of Everyday Life.”
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A16)
1901 Rudyard Kipling published
"Kim."
(WSJ, 7/17/98, p.W11)
1901 P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck
(1862-1949), Belgian playwright and essayist, authored “The Life of
the Bee.”
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
1901 Thomas Mann wrote his
novel "Buddenbrooks."
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-5)
1901 Frank Norris wrote "The
Octopus," a depiction of the clash between wheat ranchers and
Southern Pacific railroad in California.
(WSJ, 10/7/97, p.A20)
1901 "The Handbook of American
Indians" was published by the Smithsonian Institute.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.E8)
1901 Dvorak’s fairy-tale
romance opera "Rusalka" was composed.
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-5)
1901 Johann Strauss II composed
a score for the ballet "Cinderella."
(WSJ, 1/27/98, p.A20)
1901 In Alaska E.T. Barnette
opened a trading post on the Chena River. A town formed that came to
be called Chenoa City and was later renamed Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1901 Edith Wharton purchased
113 acres in Lenox, Mass., and built The Mount. The Berkshire Hills
house, modeled on a 17th century design by Christopher Wren, was her
first laboratory for experiments in architecture and interior
design.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.A42)(WSJ, 9/13/02, p.W11)
1901 Pentecostalism was founded
by Reverend Charles F. Parham at the Bethel Bible College in Topeka,
Kansas.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.44)
1901 The Sheraton Moana
Surfrider opened in Waikiki, Hawaii. It looked like a giant wedding
cake on a beach.
(Hem., 4/97, p.25)
1901 Sing Sing, NY, home of
Sing Sing prison, changed its name to Ossining.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
1901 The earliest recorded use
for the term “Buggins's turn” is by Admiral Fisher, later First Sea
Lord, in a letter dated this year. Buggins' turn is a system
by which appointments or awards are made in rotation rather than by
merit.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buggins%27s_turn)
1901 John Jacques, a sporting
goods manager in England, registered the table tennis name
"Ping-Pong," and soon sold the American rights to Parker Brothers.
In 2001 Jerome Charwyn authored "Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins:
Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive."
(WSJ, 11/23/01, p.W8)
1901 After the 1901 baseball
season the Milwaukee Brewers were moved to St. Louis, Mo.
(ON, 6/09, p.11)
1901 Henry Dunant (1828-1910)
won the 1st Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in establishing the
Int’l. Red Cross and the First Geneva Convention covering treatment
of those wounded in war. The prize was shared with Frederic Passy
(1822-1912), French economist, for his efforts toward international
peace.
(ON, 4/08,
p.12)(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1901/passy-bio.html)
1901 Jacobus Henricus van't
Hoff won the first Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on the
relationship of volume, pressure and temperature in gases which
became known as van't Hoff's Law. The 1st Nobel Banquet was held at
the Grand Hotel in Stockholm for 118 male guests.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.C2)
1901 Wilhelm Konrad von
Röntgen (d.1923) won the Nobel in Physics.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1901 Sully Prudhomme won the
1st Nobel Prize in literature.
(SFC, 10/10/01, p.B8)
1901 Congress informally
requested Secret Service Presidential protection following the
assassination of President William McKinley.
(http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/history.shtml)
1901 The Platt Amendment
cemented US influence in Cuba. It provided for informal control over
Cuban affairs and territory for naval facilities.
(WSJ, 2/23/98, p.A20)
1901 In the 1st Hawaiian
territorial elections native candidates of the pro-monarchy Home
Rule Party overwhelmingly defeated the white leaders of the Hawaiian
Republic. Robert Wilcox was elected as the 1st territorial delegate
to the US Congress.
(ON, 11/02, p.7)
1901 US Brig. Gen’l. Jacob
Smith ordered US Marine and Army units to turn the island of Samar
in the Philippines into a "howling wilderness" in retaliation for
the Sep 5 attack at Balangiga. The mission bells of Balangiga were
taken as war booty and later placed in the F.E. Warren Air Force
Base in Cheyenne, Wyo. A Marine major was court-martialed on murder
charges for executing 11 Filipino prisoners but was acquitted after
he testified that he was under orders to shoot every Filipino over
age 10. Gen’l. Smith was found guilty of misconduct and admonished.
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A6)
1901 The US Army did not bother
with laundry facilities until this time. The enlisted man was left
to take care of his laundry as best as possible. Mobile field
laundries were built during WW I. In 1998 a $400,000, 14-ton, mobile
washing machine called LADS was unveiled.
(USAT, 5/4/98, p.3A)
1901 The US tax on a barrel of
beer was reduced from $2 a barrel to $1.60.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1901 The Alabama state
constitution was enacted to reverse gains made by blacks after the
Civil War. It included a prohibition on marriages between blacks and
whites. In 1999 steps were taken to repeal the ban.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A11)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A4)(WSJ,
4/3/02, p.A1)
1901 A California state Pauper
Act was approved.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1901 Battista Bianco, the
mother Giuseppe and Mike Gallo’s father, founded the Bianco Winery
Company in California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1901 California set a duck
hunting bag limit of 50 birds per day.
(Ind, 2/23/02, 5A)
1901 SF Mayor James D. Phelan,
as a private citizen, filed for water rights in Yosemite’s Hetch
Hetchy Valley and at nearby Lake Eleanor.
(SFC, 9/15/02, p.A20)
1901 In Los Angeles the short
Angels Flight railway opened to commuters to negotiate a steep
hillside. It was rebuilt in 1966 and closed in 2001 after a raid car
crashed into another car killing an man (83). The downtown landmark
reopened in 2010.
(SFC, 3/15/10, p.A7)
1901 Arizona ranchers Walter L.
Vail (d.1906) and J.V. Vickers bought the 84-square-mile Santa Rosa
Island, one of the Channel Islands 26 miles off Santa Barbara, Ca.
The Vail & Vickers group sold the island to the US government
for $30 million in 1986 and it became part of Channel Islands
National Park.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.C10)
1901 The Southern Pacific
Railroad imported lettuce seeds from France and introduced them to
coastal valley farmers.
(SFEC, 7/2/00, Z1 p.2)
1901 The Livermore Power and
Water Company produced a carbide filament incandescent light bulb
that proceeded to give light to the Livermore Fire Station # 6 for
at least 100 years.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A19)
1901 Colorado River water first
flowed to California's arid southeast on the Alamo Canal, which
dipped into Mexico. California farmers soon decided they needed a
canal completely within the United States, leading to completion of
the All-American Canal in 1942.
(AP, 3/18/06)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.71)
1901 A fire burned down
downtown Calistoga, Ca.
(SFCM, 2/3/02, p.32)
1901 The Serbian Cemetery, the
Eternal Home Cemetery (Jewish) and the Japanese Cemetery were
established in Lawndale (Colma), Ca.
(www.colmahistory.org/History.htm)
1901 Hiram Stevens Maxim,
inventor of the first true machine gun, was knighted by Queen
Victoria.
(V.D.-H.K.p.267)
1901 House & Garden
magazine began publishing in the US. In 1911 it was acquired by
Conde Nast. In 2007 Conde Nast said it would cease publication
following the December issue.
(WSJ, 11/6/07, p.B1)
1901 Charles R. Walgreen opened
his first pharmacy on Chicago’s South side and made his mark by
diversifying into housewares and hot food.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.A4)
1901 The Indian Motorcycle
Manufacturing Co. of Springfield, Mass., produced the first
commercially marketed gasoline-powered bike in the US. The last
Indian motorcycle was made in 1953. A 2nd generation of the company
started up in 1998 but folded in 2002.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.W14)(SFC, 7/27/04, p.D1)
1901 The Victor Talking Machine
Co. was founded in Camden, NJ. It introduced the Victrola with an
internal horn, rather than an external one, in 1906. The company was
sold to RCA in 1929.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.G4)
1901 The Buffalo Pottery Co.
was founded in Buffalo, NY., by the Larkin Soap Co. to make pottery
used as premiums for customers who bought Larkin soap.
(SFC, 1/10/07, p.G2)
1901 The Dixie Furniture Co.
was organized in Lexington, NC.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.G2)
1901 The Monsanto Chemical
Works was founded in St. Louis, Mo., by John F. Queeny (1859–1933),
a purchasing agent for a wholesale drug company, to manufacture the
synthetic sweetener saccharin, then produced only in Germany.
(www.experiencefestival.com/a/Monsanto_-_Corporate_history/id/5306341)
1901 The Pittsburgh Lamp, Brass
& Glass Co. (Pilabrasgo) began operations and continued to 1926.
(SFC, 2/21/07, p.G3)
1901 Joshua Lionel Cowen (22)
set up a battery-powered toy train to draw customer attention to
goods in a store display window. This marked the beginning of Lionel
Trains.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, Z1 p.8)
1901 Artus Van Briggle (d.1904)
and wife Anne opened their Van Briggle art pottery business in
Colorado Springs, Colo. Their vases were used for flowers and lamp
bases. His best known vases depicted a woman leaning on a lily, a
man curled around the top, and a woman curled around an entire vase.
Their Persian Rose glaze was produced from 1946-1968.
(SFC, 9/7/05,
p.G9)(www.collectics.com/education_vanbriggle.html)
1901 George B. Dorr organized a
group of people into the Hancock County Trustees of Public
Reservations to promote the establishment of what would become
Acadia Nat’l. Park in Maine.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.T6)
1901 In Lanark, Illinois,
Charles Cotta built the Cottamobile, a steam-powered car with
individual chains driving each of 4 wheels.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1901 Henry Ford founded the
Henry Ford Co. but soon left. In 1902 the remaining owners dissolved
operations and formed the Cadillac Co.
(http://home.planet.nl/~nagte017/Cadillactext001.html)
1901 Henry Joy became chairman
of the Packard Motor Car Company.
(MT, Win. ‘96, p.4)
1901 Ferdinand Porsche built an
electric-drive hybrid, the Lohner-Porsche.
(AAM, 3/96, p.93)
1901 Ransom E. Olds (1864-1950)
assembled 425 curved-dash Oldsmobiles and thus became the first mass
producer of gas automobiles. He founded Olds Motor Works that later
became part of General Motors.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 New York State issued the
first license plate.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 In an automobile race on
New York’s Coney Island, S.T. Davis finished in his steam-powered
car in 1 min. and 39 sec. Mr. Riker in an electric car finished in
63 sec. A.C. Bostwick in a gasoline powered car finished in 56 sec.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 Wilhelm Maybach, a German
engineer and industrialist was the chief designer of the first
Mercedes and later went on to build power plants for Zeppelin
airships with his son. Maybach had worked with Gottlieb Daimler
since 1883 on developing efficient internal-combustion engines. The
two formed the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 to build
automobiles. In 1909, he organized a company with his son Carl to
build aircraft engines, including power plants for the Zeppelin
airships.
(HNQ, 8/28/00)
1901 The Cambridge Glass Co.
began making glass in Cambridge, Ohio. It closed in 1954. It
reopened for a short time but closed again in 1958. The company
produced the "Bashful Charlotte" and "Draped Lady" flower frogs.
(SFC, 12/30/96, z-1 p.2)
1901 The Cleveland Cap Screw
Company was established and manufactured cap screws, bolts and
studs. It was the predecessor of the TRW Corp.
(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1901 John W. Nordstrom founded
a shoe store that grew to become Nordstrom Inc., a national apparel
chain.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.C15)(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.B1)
1901 The first espresso coffee
machine was invented.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W9)
1901 The Wright Brothers
constructed new wings for a large glider using existing aerodynamics
tables. The flight was marginal so they tested the tables by
analyzing model wings in a wind tunnel. The tables proved to be
wrong and they painstakingly computer new ones.
(NPub, 2002, p.6)
1901 E.P. Valentine,
antiquarian, removed hundreds of Monacan remains from a burial site
in Virginia later known as the Hayes Creek Mound. The remains were
reburied in 1998.
(Arch, 9/00, p.56)
1901 Robert Falcon Scott made
an expedition to the Antarctic. He noted the phenomena called "Earth
shadows," where long dark arrows would project into the sky early in
the morning. They were later realized by explorer Ernest Shackleton
[1914] to be shadows from the peaks of Mt. Erebus cast across the
western mountains.
(WSJ, 7/1/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)
1901 Arnold Bocklin (b.1827),
German painter who worked in Italy, died.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C7)
1901 In Australia an
immigration act was introduced that became known as the "White
Australia Policy." It allowed custom’s agents to require that an
immigrant write a passage of 50 words in a European language
directed by the officer. The dictation requirement was ended in 1958
and the whole policy was ended in 1973.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A14)
1901 In Britain Winston
Churchill prophetically warned: "The wars of peoples will be more
terrible than those of kings."
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Par. p.6)
1901 A fingerprint system,
developed by Inspector Edward R. Henry of the London Police, was
introduced.
(ON, 4/04, p.11)
1901 English millionaire
William Knox D’Arcy arranged to pay £40,000 in cash and
company stock to the Shah of Tehran, Muzaffar al-Din, for the right
to drill for oil in western Persia. The deal included a pledge,
should commercial production begin, to pay the Persian government
16% of annual profits until 1961.
(ON, 8/08, p.1)
1901 Edmund Dene Morel (28)
quit his London shipping line job and began a full time campaign to
expose the barbarities in the Congo under Leopold II. He started his
own publication, "The West African Mail," an illustrated weekly
journal in 1903 as a forum on West and Central African Questions.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.4)(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7)
1901 Pieces of an ancient Greek
calculating machine, called the Antikythera Mechanism, were
discovered by sponge divers exploring the remains of a shipwreck off
the tiny island of Antikythera. Radiocarbon dating suggested it was
built around 65 BC, but in 2006 newly revealed lettering on the
machine indicate a slightly older construction date of 150 to 100
BC. In 2008 researchers said the device, which originally contained
37 gears, included the cycle of the Greek Olympics.
(http://tinyurl.com/y255xr)(SFC, 7/31/08, p.A15)
1901 A martial arts teacher in
Tellicherry, Kerala, India, opened a training school for circus
performers giving rise to one of India’s first modern circuses.
(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1901 Three German Jewish
businessmen founded a wholesale drug business in Jerusalem. The
operation grew and in 1976 following mergers became Teva
Pharmaceuticals.
(WSJ, 10/28/04, p.A8)
1901 The first western style
steel mill was built at Kitakyushu City on Kyushu Island in Japan.
It led to the local slogan "Smoke is the symbol of prosperity."
(NG, Jan. 94, p.100)
1901 A silver refinery was
established in Torreon in Coahuila state. Land for housing was sold
next to the area in the 1970’s and in 1998 a pediatrician began
noticing high levels of lead among the children. The Met Mex Penoles
plant had created a mountain of slag over the years and poisonous
lead seeped into the blood of thousands of children in the area. In
1999 a plan was announced to evacuate a 20-block area. 393 homes
were to be bulldozed for a 15-acre buffer zone in a $36 million
cleanup program, the largest ever by a Mexican company.
(SFC, 5/6/99, p.C2)(Econ, 9/3/11, p.37)
1901 The Jewish National Fund
was founded to buy and develop land in Palestine (later Israel) for
Jewish settlement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_National_Fund)
1901 Ignacy Jan Paderewski
(1860-1941), Polish composer, built Warsaw’s Hotel Bristol.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski)
1901 In Portugal, the Santa
Justa Elevador, one of the world’s great cast-iron structures, was
built in Lisbon.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T6)
1901 Anton Chekhov (d.1904),
Russian playwright, married German actress Olga Knipper. In 2004
Antony Beevor authored “The Mystery of Olga Chekhova,” the story of
Olga Knipper’s niece and nephew.
(SSFC, 9/11/04, p.M3)
1901 The Russian Orthodox
Church excommunicated writer Leo Tolstoy, a self-described Christian
Anarchist, for blasphemy.
(WSJ, 1/18/08, p.W10)
1901-1902. The so called baseball "war" years
occurred when the upstart American League-formerly the Western
League-challenged the dominance of the National League on the East
Coast. The American League wooed National League stars and became
firmly established as a major league. In January 1903, peace was
achieved in an agreement that gave each of the two leagues equal
importance, established rules regarding two teams in one city,
shifting teams from cities and transfers of players between leagues.
(HNQ,
4/10/99)
1901-1905 Discovery of oil in the nearby
villages of Red Fork and Glenn Pool in 1901 and 1905 launched the
Oklahoma city of Tulsa’s modern era. The city’s population of 1,400
in 1900 reached 18,200 by 1910 and 72,000 by 1920. Tulsa long called
itself "The Oil Capital of the World."
(HNQ, 10/2/98)
1901-1907 William A. Clark (1839-1925), copper
entrepreneur, served as a US Senator from Montana. In 1899 state
legislature selected Clark for a US Senate seat. Political foes in
and out of his party charged that the election had been won by
bribery. Although Clark freely admitted spending several hundred
thousand dollars to elect legislators favorable to his political
ambitions, he stubbornly denied any involvement in corrupt electoral
practices.
(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404701392.html)
1901-1907 Oldsmobile built 7,000 Curved-Dash Olds
vehicles. The cars cost $650 and advertisements bragged that "It
will do the work of six horses."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (b. Oct 27, 1858)
served as the 26th President of the US. He had been elected
Vice-President under McKinley’s 2nd term. His "Gunboat Diplomacy"
was used to exert US influence and deter Europeans from the
Americas.
(AP, 10/27/97)(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/3/04,
p.A12)
1901-1910 The Edwardian period named after
Britain’s Edward VII (r.1902-1910).
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.44)
1901-1912 George Armistead (1847-1912), a British
citizen, served as mayor of Riga, Latvia.
(www.riga-cd.infolatvia.com/notes/note0505.html)
1901-1915 In New Orleans the "Blue Book" was a
directory of some 2,000 prostitutes working in Storyville. It was
printed annually and carried ads.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, Z1 p.8)
1901-1953 Jan Struther, nee Joyce Anstruther,
English poet: "Private opinion creates public opinion... . That is
why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation
are so terrifyingly important."
(AP, 11/12/99)
1901-1958 Ernest Orlando Lawrence. UC-Berkeley
physics professor. He developed the cyclotron for which he won a
Nobel Prize in 1939.
(LHS, 2/12/1998)
1901-1963 Gustav Machaty, Czech filmmaker, was
known for his combination of romance and eroticism.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.E8)
1901-1966 Rafael Larco Hoyle, founder of the Museo
Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera in Lima, Peru.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.C5)
1901-1969 This period is covered in the 1998 book
"A Thread of Years" by John Lukacs.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A20)
1901-1974 Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974), Italian
movie director: "Moral indignation is in most cases two percent
moral, forty-eight percent indignation, and fifty percent envy."
(AP, 10/24/00)
1901-1976 Andre Malraux, French author. His work
included "Man’s Fate" (La Condition Humaine), "The Conquerors"
(about a 1925 uprising in Canton), and "The Royal Way." He worked as
a journalist in Indochina against a corrupt French colonial regime.
In 1997 Curtis Cate wrote the biography "Andre Malraux."
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A16)
1901-1978 Margaret Mead, American anthropologist:
"We must have ... a place where children can have a whole group of
adults they can trust." "It may be necessary temporarily to accept a
lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good."
(AP, 5/20/97)(AP, 10/30/97)
1901-1979 Cornelia Otis Skinner, American actress
and author: "One learns in life to keep silent and draw one’s own
confusions."
(AP, 10//98)
1901-1984 George H. Gallup, American pollster: "I
could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone—the chances
that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a
statistical monstrosity."
(AP, 11/9/97)
1901-1985 A history of the Southern Pacific
Railroad titled: "The Southern Pacific 1901-1985" was written by
Donald Hofsummer.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1901-1986 Chester Bowles, American diplomat,
businessman, author and politician: "Government is too big and
important to be left to the politicians."
(AP, 7/26/97)
1901-1987 Jascha Heifetz, Russian-born American
violinist: "No matter what side of an argument you’re on, you always
find some people on your side that you wish were on the other side."
(AP, 7/24/97)
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1902-1904