Timeline 1908 1909
Return to home
1908 Jan 1, The
1st time-ball signifying new year was dropped at Times Square, NYC.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1908 Jan 4, Angela Maria "Geli"
Raubal, Austrian nude model, Hitler's cousin and lover, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Antony Winkler Prins
(70), writer (Grolier Encyclopedia), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 8, A subway linking New
York’s Brooklyn and Manhattan opened.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1908 Jan 9, French philosopher and
feminist Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris.
(AP, 1/9/08)
1908 Jan 9, Count Zeppelin
announced plans for his airship to carry 100 passengers.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1908 Jan 9, Italians reported that
Somaliland was under siege by the Abyssinians.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1908 Jan 11, The Grand Canyon
National Monument was created with a proclamation by President Theodore
Roosevelt. It became a national park in 1919.
(AP, 1/11/08)
1908 Jan 12, A wireless message
was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in
Paris.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1908 Jan 15, Edward Teller
(d.2003), US physicist known as the "Father of the H-bomb," was born in
Budapest. In 2001 he authored his "Memoirs."
(HN, 1/15/99)(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A21)(SFC, 9/10/03,
p.A1)
1908 Jan 18, Jacob Bronowsky,
British mathematician, cultural historian, was born.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1908 Jan 20, The Sullivan
Ordinance barred women from smoking in public facilities in the United
States.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1908 Jan 21, New York City's Board
of Aldermen passed an ordinance that effectively prohibited women from
smoking in public. two weeks later the measure was vetoed by Mayor
George B. McClellan Jr.
(AP, 1/21/08)
1908 Jan 22, Katie Mulcahey became
the first woman to run afoul of New York City's just-passed ban on
females smoking in public. Declaring, "No man shall dictate to me,"
Mulcahey served a night in jail after being unable to pay a $5 fine.
(AP, 1/22/08)
1908 Jan 23, Edward Alexander
MacDowell (b.1860), US composer (Indian Suite), died in NYC.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049692)
1908 Jan 24, This is considered
the starting date of the Boy Scouts movement in England. Lt. General
Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, had achieved fame as a hero in the Boer War
and applied his methods of training British soldiers in South Africa in
woodcraft and survival methods to young English boys in the early
1900s. The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in 1910 and united
with two previously existing organizations, the Sons of Daniel Boone,
founded by Daniel Beard in 1905 and Ideals of the Woodcraft Indians,
founded by Ernest Seton in 1902.
(AP, 1/24/08)(HNQ, 11/12/01)
1908 Jan, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
created Pinnacles National Monument in California. The area was
expanded in 2000 for the 7th time and covered 24,000 acres in San
Benito and Monterey counties.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.C1)
1908 Feb 1, Movie producer and
animator George Pal was born in Austria-Hungary.
(AP, 2/1/08)
1908 Feb 1, Carlos I (44), King of
Portugal (1889-1908), assassinated by mob.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1908 Feb 3, The US Supreme Court,
in Loewe v. Lawlor, ruled the United Hatters Union had violated the
Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott of Danbury
Hatters of Connecticut.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1908 Feb 11, Phillipe Dunne,
screenwriter and director, was born. His films included "How Green Was
My Valley."
(HN, 2/11/01)
1908 Feb 12, The first
round-the-world automobile race began in New York City. It ended in
Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas
Speedway Flyer, was declared the winner over teams from Germany and
Italy. The Flyer was made by the E.R. Thomas Motor Co. of Buffalo, NY,
was initially driven by Montague Roberts and George Schuster. Roberts
dropped out in Wyoming. Schuster took over as captain and chief driver
from San Francisco, which was reached on March 24.
(AP, 2/12/08)(ON, 4/08, p.8,9)
1908 Feb 14, Russia and Britain
threatened action in Macedonia if peace was not reached soon.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1908 Feb 17, Walter Lanier “Red”
Barber, baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn
Dodgers and the New York Yankees, was born in Columbus, Miss.
(HN, 2/17/01)(AP, 2/17/08)
1908 Feb 18, The 1st US postage
stamps in rolls were issued.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1908 Feb 24, Japan officially
agreed to restrict immigration to the U.S.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1908 Feb 25, The 1st tunnel under
Hudson River (railway tunnel) opened. The McAdoo Tunnel was completed
March 8, 1904, but only officially opened on this date.
(PCh, 1992, p.655)(MC, 2/25/02)
1908 Feb 27, Baseball’s sacrifice
fly was adopted. It was repealed in 1931 and reinstated in 1954.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1908 Feb 27, The forty-sixth star
was added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma’s admission to
statehood.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1908 Feb 29, The artist known as
Balthus was born in Paris.
(AP, 2/29/08)
1908 Mar 2, An international
conference on arms reduction opened in London.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 2, Gabriel Lippman
introduced the new three-dimensional color photography at the Academy
of Sciences.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 4, The New York board of
education banned the act of whipping students in school.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1908 Mar 4, A fire at Lake View
School in Collinwood, Ohio, claimed the lives of 172 children and three
adults.
(AP, 3/4/08)
1908 Mar 5, Rex Harrison, actor
(My Fair Lady), was born in Lancashire, England.
(AP, 3/5/08)
1908 Mar 7, Anna Magnani, Italian
actress (Awakening, Roma), was born in Rome.
(AP, 3/7/08)
1908 Mar 7, Cincinnati Mayor Mark
Breith stood before city council and announced that, "women are not
physically fit to operate automobiles."
(MC, 3/7/02)
1908 Mar 8, The House of Commons,
London, turned down the women’s suffrage bill.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1908 Mar 11, Lawrence Welk,
orchestra leader, was born in Strasburg, ND.
(HN, 3/11/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1908 Mar 13, Walter Annenberg
(d.2002), publisher (Triangle-TV Guide), Ambassador to GB, was born in
Milwaukee, the 6th of 9 children.
(SFC, 10/2/02, p.A2)(AP, 3/13/08)
1908 Mar 13, Jerusalem’s
inhabitants saw their first automobile owned by Charles Glidden of
Boston.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1908 Mar 15, 1st performance of
Maurice Ravel's "Rhapsodie Espagnole."
(MC, 3/15/02)
1908 Mar 16 The Chinese released
the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1908 Mar 19, Maryland banned
Christian Scientists from practicing medicine unless they had a medical
diploma.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1908 Mar 20, Frank Stanton,
broadcasting pioneer and the president of CBS for 26 years, was born in
Muskegon, Mich.
(AP, 3/20/08)
1908 Mar 20, Michael Redgrave
(d.1985), actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes), was born in Bristol,
England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Redgrave)
1908 Mar 21, Frenchman Henri
Farman carried a passenger in a bi-plane for the first time.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1908 Mar 22, Louis L’Amour
(d.1998), American author, was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. He
wrote 116 western novels.
(HN, 3/22/97)(USAT, 6/10/98, p.1D)(MC, 3/22/02)
1908 Mar 23, Joan Crawford,
American actress, was born. She is best known for her role in Mildred
Pierce.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1908 Mar 23, In San Francisco
Durham White Stevens (56), Japan’s foreign advisor to Korea, was shot
by a Korean nationalist. Stevens died 2 days later from internal
injuries. Chang In Hwan and Chun Myung Un had attacked Stevens as he
approached the ferry landing. Chun was released from prison in June,
1908, and fled the country. Chang was convicted of 2nd degree
manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was paroled after
10 years.
(AH, 10/07, p.54-58)
1908 Mar 25, Bridget D'Oyly Carte,
British theater and hotel director, was born.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1908 Mar 25, David Lean (d.1991),
British film director (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia),
was born in Croydon, England.
(HN, 3/25/01)(AP, 3/25/08)
1908 Mar 28, Automobile owners
lobbied Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing
and federal registration.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1908 Apr 2, Buddy Ebsen (d.2003),
actor-dancer, was born in Belleville, Ill. He played Jed Clampett in
the popular television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
(AP,
4/2/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Ebsen)
1908 Apr 5, Bette Davis (d.1989),
film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve), was born. "Love is not enough.
It must be the foundation, the cornerstone -- but not the complete
structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding."
(AP, 7/15/99)(HN, 4/5/01)
1908 Apr 5, Herbert von Karajan,
Nazi, conductor (Berlin Philharmonic), was born in Austria.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 5, George Schick,
conductor (Chicago Symphony), was born in Prague, Czech.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 5, Japanese Army reached
the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
(HN, 5/5/97)
1908 Apr 7, Percy Faith, conductor
(Summer Place), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1908 Apr 11, Karel Ancerl, Czech
conductor (Prague, Toronto), was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Apr 11, Leo Rosten, writer,
humorist, was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Apr 12, Fire devastated the
city of Chelsea, Massachusetts.
(AP, 4/12/08)
1908 Apr 18, Joseph Keilberth,
German conductor (Bayreuther Festspiele), was born.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1908 Apr 21, Arctic explorer
Frederick A. Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole a year
ahead of Peary. Many historians suspect that neither explorer
succeeded. The term "Dr. Cook weather" refers to an incident where Dr.
Cook once left a chilly New York baseball game after which the city
papers trumpeted; "Game called, even too cold for Dr. Cook." Cook's
assertion was later proved false. [see Apr 6, 1909]
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)(MC,
4/21/02)
1908 Apr 25, Edward R. Murrow, war
correspondent and newscaster, was born. He hosted See It Now and Person
to Person. During World War II broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow
became known for opening his radio reports from London with the
ominous-sounding "This is London." He later turned to television,
becoming the host of a celebrity interview show called Person to
Person, and was named head of the U.S. Information Agency in 1961.
(HNQ, 3/29/99)(HN, 4/25/99)
1908 Apr 28, In SF a fire began
just before midnight at a stable at 475 11th St. 48 horses belonging to
F.M. Barrett, a lumber drayman, were killed.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
1908 Apr, The Wooster Company, a
private water provider (Daly City, Ca.), allowed the first hydrants to
be installed on its water system.
(DCFD, Centennial, 2007)
1908 Apr, Hootch Simpson, a saloon
keeper in Skidoo, Ca. (Death Valley), shot and killed Joe Arnold, the
town banker. Simpson was hung and buried the next morning, but was dug
up and re-hung for a newspaper reporter.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1908 May 2, The original version
of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," with music by Albert Von
Tilzer and lyrics by Jack Norworth, was copyrighted by Von Tilzer's
York Music Co. It sealed the popularity of Cracker Jacks, a popcorn
candy.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AH, 10/01, p.34)(WSJ, 3/22/08, p.W16)
1908 May 5, Rex Harrison, actor,
was born. He starred in My Fair Lady.
(HN, 5/5/99)
1908 May 5, Jacques Massu, French
general (Algeria), was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1908 May 6, The Great White Fleet,
sent by Pres. Roosevelt on an around-the-world voyage, arrived in SF.
The fleet left San Francisco on July 7.
(SFC, 5/6/08, p.B3)
1908 May 9, Dirk Fock became
governor of Suriname.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1908 May 10, Carl Albert, speaker
of the House of Representatives, was born.
(HN, 5/10/98)
1908 May 10, The first Mother’s
Day observance took place during church services in Grafton, W.Va., and
Philadelphia. In 1997 Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia first proposed the
idea that all mothers wear a carnation on the 2nd Sunday of May.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1908 May 12, George Bernard Shaw's
"Getting Married," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1908 May 12, Wireless Radio
Broadcasting was patented by Nathan B. Stubblefield.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1908 May 14, 1st passenger flight
in an airplane.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1908 May 20, Jimmy Stewart, actor,
was born in Indiana, Pa. He is best remembered for his roles in "It's a
Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
(WSJ, 5/20/97, p.A18)(HN, 5/20/99)(AP, 5/20/08)
1908 May 21, The SF Chronicle
reported that and quarantine had been lifted and that the remaining
refugees in Lobos Square have been ordered to leave by June 1. Some
1,050 lived there in 394 cottages.
(SSFC, 5/18/08, DB p.58)
1908 May 22, The SF Chronicle
reported that US Army Pvt. William Bulwada had been found guilty and
sentenced to 5 years in prison for having applauded for and shaken
hands with anarchist Emma Goldman, pending approval by Gen. Funston.
(SSFC, 5/18/08, DB p.58)
1908 May 22, The Wright brothers
registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1908 May 23, John Bardeen,
physicist, co-inventor of the transistor, was born.
(HN, 5/23/01)
1908 May 23, Part of the Great
White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1908 May 23, A dirigible exploded
over the SF Bay. 16 passengers fell but none died.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1908 May 25, David Lean, British
director (Lawrence of Arabia), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1908 May 25, Theodore Roethke
(d.1963), American poet, was born in Saginaw, Mich.
(AP, 5/25/08)(MT, Summer 01, p.3)
1908 May 25, In SF an ink thrower
spoiled a gown worn by Mrs. J. Magnin of 1606 Jackson St. The ink
thrower continued to strike over a dozen society figures, despite
police efforts to catch him.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, DB p.58)
1908 May 25, Argentina’s opera
house Teatro Colon, modeled after Milan’s La Scala opened in Buenos
Aires. In 2006 it closed for refurbishment. A 2008 finish date was
missed and officials hoped to have it reopen in 2010.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
1908 May 26, Robert Morley,
British character actor, was born in Semley, England.
(AP, 5/26/08)
1908 May 26, The first major oil
strike in the Middle East took place as engineers working for British
entrepreneur William Knox D'Arcy and led by George B. Reynolds hit a
gusher more than 1,100 feet below ground in Masjid-i-Suleiman, Persia
(Iran). The Anglo-Persian Oil Co. Struck oil in Iran.
(WSJ, 9/13/99, p.R4)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)(AP, 5/26/08)
1908 May 27, Harold Rome (d.1993),
American composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater, was born
in Hartford, Connecticut.
(www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibit_home_page.asp?exhibitId=238)
1908 May 28, Ian Fleming (d.1964),
author of James Bond novels, was born in Mayfair, London. He also wrote
the children’s book "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1964).
(HN,
5/28/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitty_Chitty_Bang_Bang)(AP,
5/28/08)
1908 May 30, Hannes Alfvén,
Swedish, Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist, was born.
(HN, 5/30/01)
1908 May 30, Mel
Blanc (d.1989), voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig in
Warner Brothers cartoons, was born in San Francisco. When he died he
had "That's All Folks" inscribed on his tombstone.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, Z1 p.8)(AP, 5/30/08)
1908 May 30, 1st federal workmen's
compensation law was approved.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1908 May 31, Actor Don Ameche was
born in Kenosha, Wis.
(AP, 5/31/08)
1908 May, Eugene V. Debs, the
Socialist Party candidate for president in the US, began his national
campaign in the courthouse square of Girard, Kansas. The town was the
home of the national socialist newspaper "Appeal to Reason" edited by
J.A. Wayland.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-16)
1908 Jun 4, Rosalind Russell
(d.1976), actress (Mame, Take a Letter Darling), was born in Waterbury,
Connecticut.
(www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Ro-Sc/Russell-Rosalind.html)
1908 Jun 8, King Edward VII of
England visited Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve
relations between the two countries.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1908 Jun 10, Ernst B. Chain,
German chemist, bacteriologist (penicillin, Nobel 1945), was born.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1908 Jun 12, Otto Skorzeny,
German-Austrian SS colonel who led glider rescue of Mussolini, was born.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1908 Jun 12, Lusitania crossed the
Atlantic in record 4 days 15 hours (NYC).
(MC, 6/12/02)
1908 Jun 13, Swimmer F. Riehl
demonstrated a kite attached to himself before the crew of the
battleship Connecticut in the SF Bay. It carried him through the water
for more than half a mile.
(SSFC, 6/8/08, DB p.58)
1908 Jun 18, William Howard Taft
was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in
Chicago.
(AP, 6/18/08)
1908 Jun 21, Nikolai A.
Rimsky-Korsakov (64), prolific Russian composer, orchestrator
(Scheherazade, The Tsar's Bride, The Legend of the Invisible City of
Kitezh), died in Lyubensk.
(AP, 6/21/08)
1908 Jun 21, Mulai Hafid again
proclaimed himself the true sultan of Morocco.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1908 Jun 24, The 22nd and 24th
president (1893-1897) of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died in
Princeton, N.J., at age 71. In 1988 Richard E. Welch authored "The
Presidencies of Grover Cleveland."
(SFEC, 1/12/97, Z 3 p.4)(AP, 6/24/97)(ON, 10/99,
p.12)
1908 Jun 26, Shah Muhammad Ali’s
forces squelched the reform elements of Parliament in Persia.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1908 Jun 29, American composer
Leroy Anderson (d.1975), known for light orchestral pieces such as "The
Typewriter" and "The Syncopated Clock," was born in Cambridge, Mass.
(AP,
6/29/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Anderson)
1908 Jun 30, An explosion near the
Tunguska River in Siberia incinerated some 300 sq. km. that encircled
the impact of an estimated 60 meter diameter stony meteorite. It
flattened some 40,000 trees over 900 sq. miles and caused damage
equivalent to a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb. The explosion in Siberia,
which knocked down trees in a 30-mile radius and struck people
unconscious some 40 miles away, is believed by some scientists to be
caused by a falling fragment from a meteorite.
(NH, 9/97, p.85)(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A15)(HN,
6/30/98)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.123)
1908 Jun, Japanese immigration to
Brazil began when 781 Japanese arrived on the ship Kasato Maru. Nearly
800 Japanese set sail on the "Kasato Maru" ship from Kobe in search of
better living conditions and arrived at Santos Port only to find a
grueling life working on farmland.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A8)(AFP, 4/24/08)
1908 Jul 1, Estee Lauder, CEO of
Estee Lauder's cosmetics, was born.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1908 Jul 2,
Thurgood Marshall (d.1993), first African-American US Supreme Court
Justice, was born in Baltimore. He served on the US Supreme Court from
1967-1991. As a civil rights lawyer in the 1950s he maintained a
confidential relationship with the FBI.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A3)(HN, 7/2/98)(AP, 7/2/08)
1908 Jul 3, M.F.K. Fisher, food
writer, was born.
(HN, 7/3/01)
1908 Jul 3, In San Francisco the
coroner and his deputies celebrated the opening of the new morgue at
368 Fell St.
(SSFC, 6/29/08, DB p.58)
1908 Jul 3, Joel Chandler Harris
(59), author and creator of Uncle Remus, died in Atlanta.
(AP, 7/3/08)
1908 Jul 6, Robert Peary's
expedition sailed from NYC for north pole.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1908 Jul 7, Great White Fleet left
SF Bay.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1908 Jul 7, The Democratic
National Convention opened in Denver.
(AP, 7/7/08)
1908 Jul 8, Nelson Aldrich
Rockefeller, businessman and philanthropist, was born in Bar Harbor,
Maine. The liberal Republican served as governor of New York and then
as vice president of the United States under Pres. Gerald Ford
(1974-77).
(AP, 7/8/08)
1908 Jul 9, Minor White, abstract
photographer, was born.
(HN, 7/9/01)
1908 Jul 10, William Jennings
Bryan was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention
in Denver.
(AP, 7/10/08)
1908 Jul 12, Milton Berle
(d.2002), comedian, was born as Mendel Berlinger in New York City.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A15)(AP, 7/12/08)
1908 Jul 12, The Missouri Gazette
began publishing under Joseph Charless.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M5)
1908 Jul 14, The short film "The
Adventures of Dollie," the first movie directed by D.W. Griffith,
opened in New York.
(AP, 7/14/08)
1908 Jul 18, Lupe Velez (d.1944),
film star, was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Her over 40 films
included “The Gaucho” (1927).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0892473/)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=mArs7CMZYtg)
1908 Jul 22, Claire Falkenstein
(1908-1997), sculptor and painter, was born to a pioneer family in Coos
Bay, Or. Her father, Louis Frederick Falkenstein, was a timber
executive.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A22)
1908 Jul 22,
Amy Vanderbilt (d.1974), American journalist, etiquette expert was born
in New York City. "One face to the world, another at home makes for
misery."
(AP, 5/12/97)(AP, 7/22/08)
1908 Jul 23, In Turkey Ottoman
Sultan Abdulhamid II (1842-1918) capitulated to the Committee of Union
and Progress (CUP)m which led a rebellion against the authoritarian his
regime. The revolutionary organization was popularly known as the Young
Turks. Since then, the term has been applied to other insurgent groups
within organizations or political parties.
(HNQ,
11/4/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II)
1908 Jul 26, US Attorney General
Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency
that was a forerunner of the FBI. Until this time Pinkerton had served
as the America’s unofficial national law enforcement agency.
(AP, 7/26/97)(ON, 7/06, p.12)
1908 Jul 26, Salvador Allende
Gossens, Chile's last elected president (1970-73), was born.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1908 Jul 27, Joseph Mitchell
(d.1996), writer for The New Yorker, was born. He pursued the "general
of nuisance: flops, drunks, con-artists, panhandlers, gin-mill owners
and their bellicose bartenders..."
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A19)(HN, 7/27/01)
1908 Jul 30, An around the world
automobile race ended in Paris. The American Thomas Speedway Flyer, was
declared the winner over teams from Germany and Italy. In 1966 driver
George Schuster authored “The Longest Auto Race.” The restored Flyer
was later displayed at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
(ON, 4/08, p.10)(AP, 7/30/08)
1908 Jul, African-American Matthew
Alexander Henson, born on August 8, 1866, and four Inuits accompanied
U.S. Naval Commander Robert E. Peary on the third attempt to reach the
North Pole. Henson became an Arctic expert during Peary’s first two
failed expeditions. Henson’s strength, knowledge of the Eskimo language
and dog driving skills made him an essential member of the team.
Whether Peary’s party actually reached the North Pole or missed it by
as much as 60 miles due to a navigational miscalculation remains
controversial to this day.
(HNPD, 8/8/98)
1908 Aug 3, Col. Allan Allensworth
(1842-1914) filed the site plan for the first African-American town,
Allensworth, California. Allensworth had purchased 800 acres in Tulare
County along the Sante Fe rail line and planned a settlement to be
governed, financed and operated by black people. The town flourished
for a decade and then began to crumble. In 1976 it was transformed into
a 240-acre state park.
(HN, 8/3/98)(SFC, 1/8/07, p.A1)
1908 Aug 4, Bronson Howard
(b.1842), playwright and Detroit-born founder of the American
Dramatist’s Club, died in New Jersey.
(www.theatredatabase.com/19th_century/bronson_howard_001.html)
1908 Aug 5, Miriam Rothschild,
English scientist and writer, was born.
(HN, 8/5/00)
1908 Aug 8, Arthur J. Goldberg
(d.1990), labor lawyer, UN ambassador, Supreme Court justice (1962-65),
was born in, Chicago, Illinois. He was instrumental in the merger of
the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations.
(HN, 8/8/98)(AP, 8/8/08)
1908 Aug 11, Britain’s King Edward
VII met with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1908 Aug 12, Henry Ford’s first
Model T rolled off the assembly line. It’s later advertising slogan was
"Gets Ya There, and Gets Ya Back." From when it was first put on the
market in 1908 to when it was discontinued in 1927, some 15 million of
the Ford Model T were built. The model T featured steering on the left
side of the car for a better line of sight when passing other cars.
(HN, 8/12/98)(SFEC, 11/8/98, Z1 p.8)(HNQ,
4/5/99)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)
1908 Aug 14, A race war broke out
in Springfield, Illinois. Angry over reports that a black man had
sexually assaulted a white woman, a white mob wanted to take a recently
arrested suspect from the city jail and kill him. Most blacks had fled
the city, but as the mob swept through the area, they captured and
lynched a black barber, Scott Burton, who had stayed behind to protect
his home. Rioting continued the next day leaving a total of two blacks
and 5 whites dead and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
property destroyed. Some 4,000 state militiamen were required to quell
the riot, which helped inspire the creation of the NAACP the following
year.
(www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht329622.html)(AP,
8/14/08)(WSJ, 1/20/08, p.A12)
1908 Aug 17, The San Francisco
Bank of Italy opened new HQ at Clay and Montgomery.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1908 Aug 18, Edgar Faure (d.1988),
thriller writer, PM of France (1952, 52-56), was born.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1908 Aug 20, The American Great
White Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1908 Aug 22, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, photographer, was born in Chanteloup, France.
(HN, 8/22/00)(MC, 8/22/02)
1908 Aug 25, The National
Association of Colored Nurses was formed.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1908 Aug 26, Tony Pastor (b.1837),
singer and actor, died. He is considered to be the father of American
vaudeville.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9058682/Tony-Pastor)
1908 Aug 27, Lyndon B. Johnson,
the 36th president of the United States (1963-1969), was born near
Stonewall, Texas.
(AP, 8/27/97)(HN, 8/27/98)
1908 Aug 28, Roger Tory Peterson,
author, was born. His work included the innovative bird book "A Field
Guide to Birds."
(HN, 8/28/00)
1908 Aug 30, Actor Fred MacMurray
(d.1991) was born in Kankakee, Ill.
(AP,
8/30/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_MacMurray)
1908 Aug 31, William Saroyan
(d.1981), American writer, was born outside Fresno, Ca., to Armenian
parents. "He was a prolific and bombastic writer who never threw
anything away." He was a native of Fresno, Ca. and his unpublished
materials, held by the Saroyan Foundation, were turned over to Stanford
Univ. in 1996. His work included "The Human Comedy."
(HFA, ‘96, p.36)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A1)(WUD, 1994,
p.1269)(HN, 8/31/00)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M1)
1908 Sep 3, James Barries "What
Every Woman Knows," premiered in London.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1908 Sep 3, Orville Wright began
two weeks of flight trials that impressed onlookers with his complete
control of his new Type A Military Flyer. In addition to setting an
altitude record of 310 feet and an endurance record of more than one
hour, he had carried aloft the first military observer, Lieutenant
Frank Lahm.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 4, Richard Wright
(d.1960), novelist who wrote about the abuses of blacks in white
society, best known for “Native Son” (1940), was born near Natchez,
Miss.
(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.61)(AP, 9/4/08)
1908 Sep 6, Paul Lavalle,
bandleader, was born in Beacon, NY.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1908 Sep 7, Michael E.
DeBakey, heart surgery pioneer, was born in Lake Charles, La.
(www.fact-index.com)
1908 Sep 9, Orville Wright made
the 1st 1-hr airplane flight at Fort Myer, Va.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 9, Russia grabbed part of
Poland.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1908 Sep 12, Winston Churchill
married Clementine Hozier.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1908 Sep 16, General Motors was
formed in Flint, Mich., by William Durant.
(AP, 9/16/08)
1908 Sep 17, Orville Wright’s
passenger on a test flight was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. They were
circling the landing field at Fort Myer, Va., when a crack developed in
the blade of the aircraft’s propeller. Wright lost control of the Flyer
and the biplane plunged to the ground. Selfridge became powered
flight’s first fatality, and Wright was seriously injured in the crash.
But despite the tragic mishap, the War Department awarded the contract
for the first military aircraft to Wright.
(HNPD, 9/16/98)
1908 Sep 19, Gustav Mahler's 7th
Symphony, premiered in Prague.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1908 Sep 20, Alexander
Mitscherlich, German psychotherapist, was born.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1908 Sep 20, Pablo Martin Melitou
de Sarasate y Navascuez, composer, died at 64.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1908 Sep 22, Bulgaria declared
independence from Ottoman Empire (Turkey).
(MC, 9/22/01)
1908 Sep 23, One of baseball's
most famous blunders occurred in a game between the New York Giants and
the visiting Chicago Cubs. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the
ninth and two runners out, the Giants batted in what should have been
the winning run. However, Fred Merkle, who was on first base, began to
leave the field apparently without bothering to tag second; the Cubs
then claimed to have forced Merkle out. Merkle was eventually ruled
out, negating the winning run and leaving the game tied. The Cubs won a
rematch game on Oct. 8 and with it, the National League pennant;
Chicago then went on to win the World Series.
(AP, 9/23/08)
1908 Sep 26, An ad for the Edison
Phonograph appeared in "The Saturday Evening Post". The phonograph
offered buyers free records by both the Democratic and Republican US
presidential candidates.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1908 Sep 30, David Oistrakh,
violinist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, was born in Odessa,
Russia (Ukraine).
(HN, 9/30/00)(MC, 9/30/01)
1908 Sep, Bones of the 10,000
year-old Bison bison antiquus were initially discovered by cowboy
George McJunkin (1851-1922) in eastern New Mexico.
(NH, 2/97, p.17)
1908 Oct 1, The Ford Model T, the
first car for millions of Americans, hit the market. Each car cost
$825. Over 15 million Model Ts were eventually sold, all of them black.
The Model T automobile cost $850 when it was first introduced to the
public. Ford lowered the price of automobiles—previously regarded as a
toy of the rich—by maintaining control of raw materials and using new
mass production techniques. The price of this two-seater,
affectionately known as the "tin Lizzy," fluctuated over the years,
dipping below $300 in 1924. Electric lights and an optional electric
starter were among the few improvements over the years. The model was
discontinued in 1927 after more 15,000,000 had been produced.
(CFA, ‘96, p.56)(AP, 10/1/97)(HN, 10/1/98)(HNQ,
7/11/00)
1908 Oct 5, Joshua Logan, stage
and film director ("Picnic," "Bus Stop," "South Pacific"), was born in
Texarkana, Texas.
(AP, 10/5/08)
1908 Oct 6, Carol Lombard,
American comedienne and actress who was nominated for an Oscar for My
Man Godfrey, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Lombard started during
the silent movie era revealed herself to be a wonderful amusing and
witty actress after the advent of the talkies and quickly became one of
the top box office draws of the 1930's in such films as 'My Man
Godfrey'. Clark Gable was married to Lombard. (My Man Godfrey, Mr.
& Mrs. Smith, Made for Each Other).
(HN, 10/6/98)(MC, 10/5/01)
1908 Oct 6, Sammy Price, jazz
pianist, was born.
(HN, 10/6/00)
1908 Oct 6, Austria annexed Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1908 Oct 10, The Chicago Cubs won
Game 1 of the World Series with a 10-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers
at Bennett Park.
(AP, 10/10/08)
1908 Oct 11, The Chicago Cubs took
a 2-0 lead in the World Series, defeating the visiting Detroit Tigers
6-1 at the West Side Grounds.
(AP, 10/11/08)
1908 Oct 12, The Detroit Tigers
beat the Chicago Cubs 8-3 in Game 3 of the World Series, played in
Chicago.
(AP, 10/12/08)
1908 Oct 13, The Chicago Cubs won
Game 4 of the World Series, defeating the Detroit Tigers 3-0 to take a
3-1 Series lead.
(AP, 10/13/08)
1908 Oct 14, The E.M.
Forster novel "A Room With a View" was first published.
(AP, 10/14/08)
1908 Oct 14, The Chicago Cubs won
the World Series as they defeated the Detroit Tigers in Game 5, 2-0, at
Bennett Park.
(AP, 10/14/08)
1908 Oct 15, John Kenneth
Galbraith, economist, writer and diplomat, was born in Canada. His work
included "A History of Economics" and "Affluent Society" (1958). He won
the Hillman Award in 1958. In 2005 Richard Parker authored the
biography “John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His
Economics.”
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)(HN, 10/15/00)(WSJ, 2/22/05,
p.D10)
1908 Oct 16, The first airplane
flight in England was made at Farnsborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S.
citizen.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1908 Oct, Georgia’s nearly
all-white electorate voted by a 2 to 1 margin to abolish its system of
peonage as of March 1909.
(WSJ, 3/29/08, p.W8)
1908 Nov 3, Republican William
Howard Taft was elected the 27th president, outpolling William Jennings
Bryan. James Sherman was the VP.
(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)
1908 Nov 4, The Brooklyn Academy
of Music opened in NYC.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1908 Nov 6, Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid were killed. [see 1907 Bolivia]
(MesWP)
1908 Nov 8, Victorien Sardou (77),
French opera author (Madame Sans-Gene), died.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1908 Nov 12, Harry Blackmun
(d.1999), later Supreme Court Justice, was born in Nashville, Ill., and
grew up in St. Paul, Minn.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A15)(AP, 11/12/08)
1908 Nov 13, In SF the corruption
trial of Abe Reuf was interrupted by the shooting of Assistant District
Attorney Francis J. Heney by Morris Haas, an ex-convict whom Heney had
offended in a former graft trial. Heney was expected to survive. Haas
committed suicide 2 days later.
(SSFC, 11/9/08, DB p.58)
1908 Nov 14, Joseph McCarthy was
born. He became an anti-Communist Senator from Wisconsin who gave the
name "McCarthyism" to his communist witch-hunts. In 1999 William F.
Buckley Jr. published "The Redhunter," a historical novel about Joe
McCarthy.
(HN, 11/14/98)(WSJ, 7/22/99, p.A24)
1908 Nov 14, Harrison Sallisbury,
journalist for The New York Times, was born.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1908 Nov 14, Oscar Strauss'
musical "The Chocolate Soldier," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1908 Nov 14, Albert Einstein
presented his quantum theory of light.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1908 Nov 15, China's Empress
Dowager Cixi died two weeks short of her 73rd birthday.
(AP, 11/15/08)
1908 Nov 16, Conductor Arturo
Toscanini made his debut with the New York Metropolitan Opera as he led
a performance of Verdi's "Aida."
(AP, 11/16/08)
1908 Nov 17, Lydia Thompson
(b.1838), English-born vaudeville actress, died.
(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Thompson)
1908 Nov 18, Imogene Coca d.2001),
later co-star with Sid Caesar of the 1950s "Your Show of Shows" TV
program, was born in Philadelphia.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A29)(AP, 11/18/08)
1908 Nov 20, Alistair Cooke
(d.2004), English journalist, who hosted "Masterpiece Theater," was
born in Salford, England.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.A2)(AP, 11/20/08)
1908 Nov 21, Elizabeth G. Speare,
writer of historical novels for children, was born.
(HN, 11/21/00)
1908 Nov 22, Michael Balfour,
historian, was born.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1908 Nov 24, Harry Kemelman, US
detective author (rabbi omnibus), was born.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1908 Nov 25, The first issue of
The Christian Science Monitor was published.
(AP, 11/25/08)
1908 Nov 28, Claude Levi-Strauss,
French anthropologist, was born.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1908 Nov 28, 154 men died in a
coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pa.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1908 Nov 29, Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr., later New York Congressman, was born in New Haven, Conn.
(AP, 11/29/08)
1908 Nov 30, SF Police Chief
William J. Biggy disappeared off a police boat in the SF Bay. The chief
was last seen vomiting over the side of the launch. He had been under
pressure since the shooting of prosecutor Francis J. Heney 2 weeks
earlier. Biggy’s body was pulled from the bay 2 weeks later.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.54)(SFC,
2/17/09, p.A10)
1908 Dec 1, The US Dept. of
Agriculture as of this day restricted opium imports to the US based on
morphine content. Opium with under 3% morphine, which included opium
for smoking, was restricted. This severely impacted the customs revenue
in San Francisco and created an uproar in the city’s Chinatown. The law
became effective as of April 1, 2009.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p.58)(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1908 Dec 1, The Italian Parliament
debated the future of the Triple Alliance and asked for compensation
for Austria’s action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1908 Dec 2, Emp. Zxuan Tong
(Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, 2 1/2 years old) ascended the dragon throne and
became China's Last Emperor.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.A24)(MC, 12/2/01)
1908 Dec 3, Edward Elgar's 1st
Symphony in A premiered.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1908 Dec 6, First flight of the
Silverdart with Canadian JAD McCurdy at the controls.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1908 Dec 9, A child labor bill
passed German Reichstag forbidding work for children under age 13.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1908 Dec 10, Oliver Messian,
French composer, was born. His work included "Quartet for the End of
Time."
(HN, 12/10/00)
1908 Dec 12, Luis Peraza (d.1974),
Venezuelan dramatist, was born.
(www.dramateatro.arts.ve/ensayos/n_0011/milagros_santana_11.html)
1908 Dec 13, The Dutch took two
Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1908 Dec 14, The first truly
representative Turkish Parliament opened.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1908 Dec 17, Willard Frank Libby,
American chemist who won a Nobel Prize (1960) for his part in creating
the carbon-14 method in dating ancient findings, was born.
(HN, 12/17/98)(MC, 12/17/01)
1908 Dec 23, Yousuf Karsh,
portrait photographer (Life Magazine), was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1908 Dec 26, Jack Johnson
(1878-1946) of Texas knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become the
1st black world heavyweight boxing champion. He was not officially
given the title until 1910 when he beat Jim Jeffries in Las Vegas. In
1913 Johnson fled the US because of trumped up charges of violating the
Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state
lines for prostitution. Johnson held the title until 1915. In 1920 he
returned to the US, was arrested and served a one year sentence in
Leavenworth in Kansas, where he was appointed athletic director of the
prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer))(ON, 4/09, p.7)
1908 Dec 28, Some 70,000-100,000
people died in the Messina earthquake in Sicily. The government hired a
number of steamships, including the Florida, to ship survivors to
America.
(WUD, 1994, p.899)(WSJ, 2/8/99,
p.A21)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1908 Dec 29, A patent was granted
for a 4-wheel automobile brake in Clintonville, Wisc.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1908 Dec 31, Simon Wiesenthal,
survivor of the Nazi Holocaust who dedicated his life to tracking down
former Nazis, was born.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1908 Balthazar Klossowski was born
in Paris. He later became known as the artist Balthus. In 1919 his
mother, Baladine, moved with her 2 sons to Switzerland and became the
lover of the German poet Rainier Maria Rilke, who became a mentor to
the boy. In 1999 Nicholas Fox Weber published: "Balthus: A Biography."
(WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)
1908 James Stewart, actor, was
born.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, zone 1 p.2)
1908 Victor Vasarely, the father
of op art, was born in Pecs, Hungary.
(Hem., 6/98, p.128)
1908 Braque and Picasso began
vying with one another in their artwork and ended up by teaching
everyone to see the world in an entirely new way. Picasso created his
oil painting "Three Women" this year.
(V.D.-H.K.p.361)(SFC, 10/30/01, p.B1)
1908 Kees Van Dongen painted his
seated nude "The Maid’s Bed."
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)
1908 Natalia Goncharova, Russian
artist, painted "Bleaching Linen" and "Self Portrait With Yellow
Lilies."
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.W6)(WSJ, 10/5/05, p.D14)
1908 Claude Monet made his last
trip abroad to Venice with his wife Alice and made a number of
paintings.
(WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A14)
1908 Rene Lalique was making glass
perfume bottles for Francois Coty.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)
1908 James Nelson Barker created
his dramatization of historical American life in “The Indian Princess,”
probably the first dramatic version of the story of Pocahontas. The
operatic melodrama premiered in Philadelphia.
(http://tinyurl.com/2uwj9y)
1908 Arnold Bennet, English
writer, published “the Old Wives’ Tale,“ later regarded as his finest
novel.
(WSJ, 8/22/08, p.W8)
1908 Elsa Bernstein (d.1949),
Austrian-Jewish playwright (Ernst Rosmer), authored "Maria Arndt." The
1st English production was made in 2002.
(WSJ, 3/11/02, p.A16)
1908 Walter H. Gaskell
(1847-1914), English physiologist, published "The Origin of
Vertebrates."
(NH, 2/97, p.24)
1908 Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967)
published his 1st edition of Modern Electrics. The purpose was to
increase the popularity of science among the general public.
(ON, 11/05, p.10)
1908 Kenneth Grahame (1859-1952)
of Edinburgh, Scotland, wrote the classic British children’s book "Wind
in the Willows." It was made into a movie in 1997.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.D3)(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W8)
1908 George Trumbull Ladd,
president of Yale Univ., authored “In Korea with Marquis Ito.” Ladd
endorsed Japan’s protectorate status over Korea whose people he
described as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.
(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1908 Percival Lowell published the
results of his observations of Mars titled: "Mars as the Abode of
Life." He recorded no fewer than 180 canals.
(Smith., 8/95, p.72)(NH, 10/96, p.74)
1908 The novel "Anne of Green
Gables" by L.M. Montgomery was published.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1908 Free atonality commenced with
the finale of the Second Quartet by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).
(WSJ, 1/31/02, p.A16)
1908 Chicago’s Robie House, 5757
S. Woodlawn Ave., was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was completed
in 1910.
(WSJ, 10/22/04,
p.W2)(www.wrightplus.org/robiehouse/robiehouse.html)
1908 The Berkeley, Ca., City Hall
was built in a Beaux Arts style. In 1977 a new City Hall was completed.
In 2002 voters rejected a bond to fix it and in 2007 it faced $35
million in renovation and retrofit costs.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.B1)
1908 Charles and Henry Greene
designed a Pasadena, Ca., home for David and Mary Gamble (of Proctor
and Gamble fame) in the Craftsman style. The Gamble House was later
named a National Historic Landmark.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, p.T4)(http://gamblehouse.org/)
1908 In SF the 12-story Crocker
Bank went up at the Montgomery, Pine and Bush intersection. In the
1980s 10 floors were taken off to make air space for the Crocker
Galleria.
(SSFM, 10/12/02, p.13)
1908 In SF the 14-story Adam Grant
Building was completed at 114 Sansome St. The Beaux Arts style building
was designed by architects Howard & Galloway.
(SSFC, 2/8/09, p.B3)
1908 In SF the Humboldt Bank
building at 785 Market St. was completed. The 19-story building
featured a Beaux-Arts style and dome by the Meyer & O’Brien
architectural firm.
(SFCM, 6/8/08, p.6)
1908 In San Francisco the 6-story
Maskey Building, designed by Haves and Toepke, was completed. In 1983
it was demolished, but 4 of the façade’s 6 bays were restored as
the front of a 6-story wing of an office tower at 48 Kearny St.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.B2)
1908 In SF the triangular,
11-story Phelan building was built at 760-784 Market St.
(SFC, 2/13/07, p.C3)
1908 In San Francisco a new Home
Telephone building, designed by Coxhead & Coxhead, was built at 333
Grant St. It was declared a landmark in 1981 and in 2004 opened with 39
condominiums on the upper 6 floors.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.E1)
1908 In San Francisco St. Boniface
Church was built on Golden Gate Ave.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A26)
1908 In San Francisco the Cliff
House bar Phineas T. Barnacle (PTB) was built. A new section was added
in 1914.
(SFC, 3/28/01, Food p.5)
1908 In San Francisco the 3-story
First Chinese Baptist Church was built at 15 Waverly Place. It was
designed by G.E. Burlingame and incorporated clincker bricks giving the
structure a medieval air.
(SSFC, 4/5/09, p.B2)
1908 In San Francisco the Pagoda
Palace Theater opened on the corner or Powell and Union streets in
North Beach. The theater closed in 1994 and remained vacant to 2009
when plans were approved for converting the building into condominium
dwellings and a Mexican restaurant.
(SFC, 1/9/09, p.B1)
1908 In San Francisco a Seth
Thomas street clock was erected on Columbus. In 1977 it was moved
across the street to 450 Columbus, in front of the new Matteucci &
Co. jewelry store. In 1999 it was hit by a truck and crashed to the
ground.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A1,15)
1908 In San Francisco Southern
Pacific built a hospital at Fell and Baker to treat employees. It was
sold to Upjohn pharmaceuticals in 1968 and was later converted to
senior housing.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.E8)
1908 The Murphy windmill in San
Francisco’s Golden Gate Park began pumping water as the largest of its
kind in the world.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F3)
1908 Guido Deiro was sent to the
United States to introduce the "fizarmonica systema piano" at the
Alaskan Exposition in Seattle, Washington and is credited with naming
the instrument " piano accordion." His brother Pietro Deiro was the
first to play the accordion in San Francisco.
(www.guidodeiro.com)
1908 In SF the private Katherine
Delmar Burke School was established in the Seacliff area.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.A17)
1908 In San Francisco the
California Historical Society fell apart. It had earlier merged with
the California Genealogical Society and prospective members had to
produce a genealogical chart to qualify for membership.
(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.55)
1908 In San Francisco John’s
Grill on Ellis St. was established.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C1)
1908 James Casey got elected to
the SF Board of Supervisors for the express purpose of fixing the
roads. He induced Santa Clara, San Mateo and SF to pass resolutions
asking that Mission St.-El Camino Real be made a state highway.
(GTP, 1973, p.66)
1908 In San Francisco some 900
elderly men and women, many from the old Almshouse, moved into a newly
rebuilt Relief Home for the Aged and Infirm, later rebuilt and renamed
as Laguna Honda Home.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1908 In SF Hugh Lazzari founded
the Lazzari Fuel Co. It grew to become the nation’s largest distributor
of mesquite charcoal.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)
1908 In SF the Emporium reopened
at 841 Market St. It featured a new dome designed by Albert Pissis. The
original was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires. It
closed in 1996, but the original facade was kept for the new Westfield
San Francisco Centre, which opened in 2006.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.D1)
1908 San Francisco's 1st drag bar
opened.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A1)
1908 Some 14,000 building permits
were issued this year in SF as the city recovered from the 1906
earthquake.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.B3)
1908 Pacific Gas and Electric co.
acquired a gas-making company in Daly City, Ca. Wastes contained
lamp-black, a finely powdered carbon, and thick, sticky tars containing
cancer-causing compounds.
(SFC, 3/2/09, p.B1)
1908 Gustave Niebaum, San
Francisco multimillionaire, died.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.27)
1908 In Detroit, Mich., Wayne’
State’s Old Main was expanded with a back wing for gymnasiums,
laboratories and shops.
(WSUAN, Winter 1997, p.7)
1908 On the East Side of Detroit
St. George's Lithuanian parish on Westminster Avenue was organized by
Father Casimir Valaitis (1864-1941) and the St. George Society. In 1949
a new site was selected, due to newly planned freeway, on Schaefer
Road, near Grand River Avenue. Because of the fact that St. George's
was then being used as a 'Mission’, Chancery personnel chose "Divine
Providence" was their new name. A new freeway against forced a move and
on Nov 23, 1973, a new church was dedicated at West Nine Mile and Beech
Roads, in the western suburb of Southfield.
(www.lithuanian-american.org/bridges/iss799/detroit.html)
1908 The Goldfield Hotel was
completed in Goldfield, Nevada, to accommodate a gold-mining frenzy. In
2004 the hamlet had shrunk to 356 people from 25,000 at its peak.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)
1908 In Fort Worth, Texas, the
Cowtown Coliseum was built.
(HT, 4/97, p.49)
1908 The Hydrox cookie was
created by a company that became Sunshine Biscuits Inc. Keebler
acquired Sunshine in 1996 and Kellogg acquired Keebler in 2001. In 2003
Kellogg stopped making the Hydrox cookie.
(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.A10)
1908 Mary Baker Eddy founded the
Christian Science Monitor in Boston.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.A17)
1908 Olive Dame Campbell came to
the Appalachian Mountains with her minister husband and began
researching the local music. Her music collection was published in 1915
by English musicologist Cecil Sharp. Their work laid the basis for the
John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown N.C.
(WSJ, 6/7/01, p.A20)
1908 Pierre Cartier, a French
jeweler, acquired the blue Hope Diamond.
(THC, 12/3/97)
1908 The French dip sandwich got
its start at Phillipe’s Original Sandwich Shop in Los Angeles.
(SFEC,12/797, p.T3)
1908 Willis & Geiger outfitted
Teddy Roosevelt for journeys to Alaska and Africa.
(NH, 9/96, p.17)
1908 The first organized dog-sled
race in Alaska was a 408 mile roundtrip from Nome to Candle
(Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.37)
1908 The Chicago Cubs won the
Baseball World Series.
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)
1908 The Univ. of Pittsburgh
introduced the 1st football jerseys with numbers on the back. Coach
Amos Alonzo Stagg of the Univ. of Chicago instituted numbered jerseys
for football players in 1913.
(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)(SFEC, 12/5/99, Z1 p.5)
1908 The Vanderbilt Cup was won by
the Old 16, the first American car to win an int’l. racing competition.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A8)
1908 The marathon of the Olympic
Games was changed from 24 to 26 miles so that the finish line would
fall in front of the Royal Box in England. The length was set at 26
miles 385 yards.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, Z1 p.2)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.81)
1908 The US won a gold medal in
the men’s metric mile.
(WSJ, 9/12/00, p.A24)
1908 At the Olympic games in
England, Russia objected to separate medal totals and flag-flying for
athletes from Finland, die to its control over Finland. The Finns
marched with no flag.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)
1908 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt
criticized the courts for interpreting the Sherman Antitrust Act
narrowly, and urged more federal supervision pf corporations.
(WSJ, 1/14/08, p.R2)
1908 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt
declared parts of the Klamath Basin the first federal wildlife refuge.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.B4)
1908 Pres. Roosevelt formally
established the National Bison Range in Montana.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1908 American battleships of the
Great White Fleet visited San Francisco on their "round-the-world
cruise to show Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick." Fort Baker under Gen.
Frederick Funston was opened to the public to view the fleet’s entry.
(The Park, Summer "95)
1908 The National Child Labor
Committee estimated that one of every four miners was a child between
the ages of 7 and 16. Lewis W. Hine photographed young Pennsylvania
coal miners, who worked from dawn to dusk. Early-20th-century reformers
crusaded against many social problems caused by America's rapid
industrialization and urbanization, including child labor.
Teacher-turned-photographer Lewis Hine documented industrial child
labor for the National Child Labor Committee. Disguised to evade
suspicious employers, Hine captured some of the most powerful images in
the history of documentary photography.
(HNPD, 2/19/99)
1908 The US Supreme Court ruled
that player-piano rolls based on copyrighted music are not a copyright
violation but a piece of machinery. [see 1909]
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.E1)
1908 A Chicago Auto Show was held.
Walter P. Chrysler saw his first "Locomobile" at the show.
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)
1908 Marquis Mills Converse
founded the Converse shoe company. In 1917 the All-Stars basketball
shoe was introduced. In 1923 it was renamed the Chuck Taylor All-Star.
In 2003 the company was sold to Nike.
(WSJ, 7/10/03, p.A6)
1908 William Crapo Durant
(1861-1947) a salesman who founded GM with 25 companies incorporated
General Motors and acquired Buick, Oldsmobile and Oakland, which would
later be renamed Pontiac. He was not a good manager and was kicked out
from GM in 1920. He then started Durant Motors, but with no success.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1908 Frederic J. Fisher
(1878-1941) and his brother Charles (1880-1963) established the Fisher
Body Co. They sold their operations to GM in 1926.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1908 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1908 Ford Model T as the number 8 favorite car. The Model T
was the first car to feature interchangeable parts.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 3/15/97, p.E3)
1908 Sears, Roebuck & Co.
introduced self-built house kits in a specialty catalog.
(WSJ, 10/31/05, p.B1)
1908 Gideon Sundback, Swedish-born
engineer working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New
Jersey, designed a new fastener, the “Plako,” for use in the placket of
a woman’s skirt.
(ON, 7/04, p.5)
1908 William Henry Hoover, an
inventive janitor and founder of the Hoover Vacuum Co., produced the
Model O, the first commercially successful portable electric vacuum
cleaner. The Hoover Historical Center in North Canton, Ohio, was
devoted to carpet-cleaning history.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T3)
1908 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish
chemist, proposed the idea of "panspermia," the idea that our solar
system was inoculated with living organisms from outside the galaxy.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.34)
1908 George Ellery Hale, American
astronomer, studied the Zeeman effect from sunspots, which were splits
in the Fraunhofer lines, and always observed when a line spectrum was
placed between the poles of a strong electromagnet.
(SCTS, p.92)
1908 F.B. Taylor, American
geologist, proposed that the rifting and displacement of the continents
had caused the circum-Pacific ring to form and the Tethyan ranges to be
pushed up. He attributed the action to the supposed capture of the moon
from outer space in the Cretaceous period.
(DD-EVTT, p.188)
1908 Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes, Dutch
physicist, was the first to liquefy helium.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A15)
1908 Jacques Brandenberger, a
Swiss chemist, came up with cellophane when he tried to invent a
stain-proof tablecloth. [2nd source says 1912]
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1908 Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
was isolated from seaweed.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.E3)
1908 The Harvard Graduate School
of Business Administration was established (the world's first MBA
program) with a faculty of 15, 33 regular students, and 47 special
students.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.68)(www.hbs.edu/about/history.html)
1908 Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa
Valley inked a long term contract to provide altar wine to the Catholic
archdiocese of San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.F3)
1908 Argentine ants were 1st
noticed in California. They had reached New Orleans by 1891 and became
successful because their colonies did not fight each other and their
nests contained multiple queens and males.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A1)
1908 Some 14,000 building permits
were issued this year in SF as the city recovered from the 1906
earthquake.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.B3)
1908 The Dry Tortugas, west of Key
West, Florida, was declared protected bird preserve and feeding ground.
(NH, 4/97, p.37)
1908 The Wichita National Bison
Range opened in Oklahoma and received 15 bison from New York.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1908 An Italian expedition on
Crete discovered a terra cotta artifact with an unknown script. It was
dated to about 1700 BC and became known as the Phaistos Disc (Phaestos
Disc). [see 1600 BCE]
(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.M6)
1908 Edward H. Thompson explored
the sacred well at Chichen Itza in the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula using
deep-sea diving equipment.
(NH, 11/96, p.47)
1908 Avrom Goldfadn (b.1840),
poet, playwright and composer, died in NYC. He is known as the Father
of Yiddish theater.
(http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/tmr/tmr09/tmr09007.htm)
1908 Belle Gunness (48),
reportedly died in a fire at her farm in Laporte, Indiana. Many locals
believed Gunness, dubbed Lady Bluebeard, staged her death and had
killed at least 25 people before the fire.
(AP, 4/27/08)
1908 John T. Wilson, the founder
of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Ways Employees, was shot and
killed in a family dispute. The union workers maintained railroad
tracks.
(WSJ, 10/27/97, p.B1)
1908 Ernest Shackleton's polar
exploration team established a staging platform to Antarctica at Cape
Royds, Ross Island. A prefab cabin was built big enough for 15 men.
(WSJ, 3/30/05, p.D12)
1908 Helena Rubinstein, following
her success in Australia, moved to London and opened a beauty salon.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.29)
1908 The great Piltdown skull and
mandible hoax began in England when a worker discovered a large skull
fragment in a shallow gravel pit along a drive to Barkham Manor near
the town of Piltdown. He gave the fragment to Charles Dawson, a lawyer
and amateur paleontologist who was managing the property. [see 1912]
(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.30)(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.15)
1908 In Cambodia the seaside town
of Kep (Kep-sure-Mer) was founded during the French colonial era. It
was all but destroyed during the civil strife of the 1970s.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.E4)
1908 Assiniboine Park was built in
Winnipeg, Canada.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1908 King Leopold II (d.1909)
turned the Congo over to Belgium for a large sum of money. It was later
estimated that the population of Congo dropped by 10 million people
during the period of Leopold’s rule and its immediate aftermath. In
1998 Adam Hochschild published "King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed,
Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1908 Robert Schreiber founded Les
Echos as a marketing brochure. It grew to become France's premier
financial and corporate newspaper.
(www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Groupe-Les-Echos-Company-History.html)
1908 Archie Lindo (d.1990),
Jamaican playwright, was born.
(http://tinyurl.com/389252)
1908-1950 Cesare Pavese, Italian novelist: "The only
joy in the world is to begin."
(AP, 3/16/99)
1908-1965 Edward R. Murrow, American broadcast
journalist: "Most of us probably feel we couldn’t be free without
newspapers, and that is the real reason we want the newspapers to be
free."
(AP, 2/26/98)
1908-1969 Daisy and Violet Hilton were Siamese twins
who performed during the 20s, 30s and 40s. The 1997 Broadway production
"Side Show," written by Bill Russell and composed by Henry Krieger, was
based on their lives.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, DB p.35,37)
1908-1979 Nelson A. Rockefeller, politician and
Standard Oil heir. His biography was written in 1996 by Cary Reich: The
Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908-1956.
(WSJ, 10/31/96, p.A21)
1908-1975 Louis Jordan,
band-leader-vocalist-saxophonist, his autobiography was published in
1994 by John Chilton (U-M Press). He performed from the mid-20s to the
mid-50s in a bouncy, humorous, smoothly polished style.
(MT, 10/94, U-M Press, p.14)
1908-1981 William Saroyan: "In the time of your
life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the
misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite variety
and mystery of it."
(AP, 10/25/97)
1908-1984 Sylvia Ashton-Warner, New Zealander author
and educator: "Love has the quality of informing almost everything—even
one’s work."
(AP, 4/18/98)
1908-1986 Harriette Arnow, American author: "If a
religion is unpatriotic, it ain’t right."
(AP, 5/5/97)
1908-1990 Pauline Frederick, American broadcast
journalist: "When a man gets up to speak, people listen, then look.
When a woman gets up, people look; then, if they like what they see,
they listen."
(AP, 3/4/01)
1908-1990 George Giusti, Italian graphic artist,
influenced by Paul Klee. He believed that "art does not reproduce the
visible, it makes visible." He was born in Milan and moved to the US in
1939. He designed numerous covers for Fortune, Graphis, and Holiday
magazine covers.
(Hem., Oct. ‘95, p.13)
1908-1993 Thurgood Marshall, American jurist. He was
the first Negro appointed to the US Supreme Court (1967).
(HFA, ‘96, p.32)(AHD, 1971, p.801)(SFC, 12/3/96,
p.A3)
1908-1996 General Witold Urbanowicz, Polish fighter
ace. He destroyed 28 German and Japanese fighter planes and fought in
combat over Poland, in the Battle of Britain and in China.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A20)
1908-1998 Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent and
novelist, was born in St. Louis. She married Ernest Hemingway in 1940.
Her books included "The Honeyed Peace," "The Trouble I’ve Seen," and
"Travels with Myself and Another" (1979).
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.B8)
1908-1998 Silvio Caldas, one of Brazil’s best-loved
singers, sang in a deep, husky voice. He recorded over 500 records and
his favorite was "Chao de Estrelas" by Orestes Barbosa.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A21)
1909 Jan 1, Barry Goldwater
(d.1998), Republican senator for Arizona and presidential contender,
was born in Phoenix, son of Baron and Josephine Goldwater. His
grandfather was an immigrant Polish peddler and founder of the
Goldwater department store chain.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)(MC, 1/1/02)
1909 Jan 3, Victor Borge (d.2000
at 91), musical humorist, was born as Borge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen. In
1953 he opened his "Comedy in Music" at the Golden Theater on Broadway
and played for 849 performances .
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.B5)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1909 Jan 9, The Silver Dart made
the 1st manned flight in Canada. It was funded by the Aerial Experiment
Association, founded by Alexander and Mabel Bell.
(ON, 1/03, p.5)
1909 Jan 9, A Polar exploration
team led by Ernest Shackleton reached 88 degrees, 23 minutes south
longitude, 162 degrees east latitude. They were 97 nautical miles short
of the South Pole, but the weather is too severe to continue.
(HN, 1/9/01)
1909 Jan 15, In San Francisco
police arrested Miss Frances Smith, attired in a jaunty sailor costume,
and Miss May Burke as they strolled down Montgomery street. Smith was
charged with masquerading in male attire and Burke was charged with
vagrancy.
(SSFC, 1/10/10, DB p.42)
1909 Jan 16, Ethel Merman, U.S.
singer and actress, was born. She was known as the "Queen of Broadway."
[2nd source says 1908]
(HN, 1/16/99)(MC, 1/16/02)
1909 Jan 16, One of Ernest
Shackleton's polar exploration teams reached the Magnetic South Pole.
(HN, 1/16/00)
1909 Jan 21-22, An earthquake in
Morocco's northern region, near Tetouan, killed up to 100.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1909 Jan 22, Hariette Lake (aka
Ann Sothern, d. 2001), film and TV actress, was born in Valley City,
North Dakota.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A23)
1909 Jan 22, U Thant, Secretary
General of United Nations General Assembly (1962-1972), was born in
Burma. He played a major role in the Cuban crisis.
(HN, 1/22/99)(MC, 1/22/02)
1909 Jan 23, The steamship
Florida, with 850 Italian immigrant passengers, collided off Long
Island with the luxury liner Republic, a steamship under Captain Sealby
of the White Star Line. Jack Binns (26), a Marconi telegraph operator
on the Republic, sent and received messages for hours into the crises
and helped save 550 Republic passengers plus 192 crew. Only 6 people
died in the collision. The event was made into a 1999 TV documentary
"Rescue at Sea" as part of the American Experience PBS series.
(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)(ON, 7/04, p.6)
1909 Jan 28, The United States
ended direct control over Cuba.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1909 Feb 1, U.S. troops left Cuba
after installing Jose Miguel Gomez as president.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1909 Feb 3, Simone Weil (d.1943),
French philosopher, member of the French resistance in WWII, was born.
"All sins are attempts to fill voids." "Man alone can enslave man."
(HN, 2/3/01)(AP, 12/10/97)(AP, 8/23/98)
1909 Feb 3, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt signed Executive Order 1019 which established a bird
sanctuary of some of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
(SFC, 6/15/06,
p.A2)(www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=12526)
1909 Feb 4, California law
segregated Japanese schoolchildren.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1909 Feb 5, Hendrik Baekeland,
Belgian-born inventor, presented a paper to the NY chapter of the
American Chemical Society entitled: “The Synthesis, Constitution, and
Uses of Bakelite.”
(ON, 9/05, p.12)
1909 Feb 9, Dean Rusk, was born.
He was Secretary of State (1961-1969) under presidents John F. Kennedy
and Lyndon B. Johnson.
(HN, 2/9/99)(MC, 2/9/02)
1909 Feb 9, The 1st US federal
legislation prohibiting narcotics was directed at opium.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1909 Feb 9, France agreed to
recognize German economic interests in Morocco in exchange for
political supremacy.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1909 Feb 12, The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded
by 60 people gathered in NYC to discuss recent race riots and how to
fight discrimination. They were initially known as the National Negro
committee and signed a proclamation known as “The Call.” It was based
on the Niagara movement of 1905. Mary White Ovington (1865-1951) was
one of the founders.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-6)(SFEC,12/797, BR p.6)(AP,
2/12/98)(SFC, 2/12/09, p.A1)
1909 Feb 15, In San Francisco
anarchist Emma Goldman spoke to large audiences in Lyric Hall, at Turk
and Larkin streets. She gave 2 lectures: “The Devil Exonerated” and
“The Psychology of Violence.”
(SSFC, 2/15/09, DB p.50)
1909 Feb 16, The SF Citizens
Health Committee declared SF free of bubonic plague.
(ON, 1/00, p.7)
1909 Feb 16, 1st subway car with
side doors went into service in NYC.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1909 Feb 16, Serbia mobilized
against Austria and Hungary.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1909 Feb 17, Marjorie Lawrence,
soprano (Venus-Tannhauser), was born in Australia.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1909 Feb 17, A government
commission reported that the tobacco industry was controlled by six men
with 86 firms that were worth $450 million.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1909 Feb 17, Apache chief Geronimo
died of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill,
Okla.
(HN, 2/17/99)
1909 Feb 18, Wallace Stegner,
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (Angle of Repose), was born.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1909 Feb 20, F.T. Marinetti
(1876-1944), Italian poet, published the 1st Futurist Manifesto in the
Paris newspaper Le Figaro. It included the statement: “We want to
glorify war - the only cure for the world…”
(SFEC, 1/3/99, DB p.27)(WSJ, 10/23/08,
p.A15)(www.unknown.nu/futurism/)
1909 Feb 22, The Great White Fleet
returned to Norfolk, Va., from an around-the-world show of naval power.
1st US fleet to circle the globe.
(HN, 2/22/98)(MC, 2/22/02)
1909 Feb 23, Shrove Tuesday. The
Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Society, the 1st African-American Mardi
Gras organization, first marched in the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade.
Members had marched in the Mardi Gras as early as 1901, but their first
appearance as Zulus came in 1909, with William Story as King.
(www.mardigras.org/Calc.html)(http://tinyurl.com/ylqbwbj)
1909 Feb 24, August Derleth,
writer (Still is the Summer Night, The Shield of the Valiant), was born.
(HN, 2/24/01)
1909 Feb 26, Diplomats gathered in
Shanghai agreed to set up the International Opium Commission. This was
the first international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.15)
1909 Feb 27, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt established the Farallon Islands, 28 miles off the coast of
San Francisco, as a wildlife refuge.
(SFC, 2/17/05,
p.A1)(www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/conFedBird.htm)
1909 Feb 28, Stephen Spender
(d.1995), English poet, critic, was born.
(HN, 2/28/01)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.81)
1909 Feb 28, President Roosevelt
became the first U.S. president to visit the Austrian embassy.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1909 Mar 1, David Niven, actor
(Casino Royale, Eye of the Devil), was born in Kirriemuir Angus,
Scotland.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1909 Mar 1, 1st US university
school of nursing established, University of Minnesota.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1909 Mar 2, Great Britain, France,
Germany and Italy asked Serbia to set no territorial demands.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1909 Mar 4, Harry Helmsley
(d.1997), billionaire New York landlord (Empire State Building), was
born in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Helmsley)(http://tinyurl.com/ropqy)
1909 Mar 8, Pope Pius X lifted the
church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1909 Mar 4, President Taft was
inaugurated as 27th President during a 10" snowstorm.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1909 Mar 4, US prohibited the
interstate transportation of game birds.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1909 Mar 6, Gerhart Hauptmann's
"Griselda," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1909 Mar 8, Anthony Donato,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1909 Mar 8, An F4 tornado hit
Brinkley, Arkansas, killing 49 people. It was but one of 7 to touch
down on the state this day.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.C10)
1909 Mar 8, Pope Pius X lifted the
church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1909 Mar 10, Kathryn McLean
(Forbes), author (Mama's Bank Account), was born.
(HN,
3/10/01)
1909 Mar 18, Einar Dessau of
Denmark used a short-wave transmitter to converse with a government
radio post about six miles away in what is believed to have been the
first broadcast by a "ham" operator.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1909 Mar 23, Theodore Roosevelt
began an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and
National Geographic Society.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1909 Mar 23, British Lt.
Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1909 Mar 26, August Strindberg's
"Bjalb-jarle-ti" premiered in Stockholm.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1909 Mar 26, Russian troops
invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as the Shah in place of the
constitutional government.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1909 Mar 28, Nelson Algren
(d.1981, novelist (The Man with the Golden Arm, A Walk on the Wild
Side), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Algren)
1909 Mar 30, The Queensboro
Bridge, the first double decker bridge, opened and linked the New York
boroughs of Manhattan and Queens.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/98)
1909 Mar 31, Gustav Mahler
conducted the NY Philharmonic for 1st time.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1909 Apr 1, A US federal opium law
went into effect. In SF Internal Revenue agents prepared for the law by
seizing and destroying all the opium cans they find in the Chinese
quarter.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)
1909 Apr 1, Eddie Duchin, society
pianist, bandleader (Eddie Duchin Orch), was born in Mass.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1909 Apr 1, The ornate Italian
style embassy building at 2600 16th St. in Washington DC was completed.
It was designed by George Oakley Totten Jr. under the direction of Mrs.
Henderson, wife of Sen. John B. Henderson. It was constructed by the
George A. Fuller Co. In 1924 it was sold to the Lithuanians and became
their foreign embassy.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1909 Apr 6, 1st credit union
formed in US.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1909 Apr 6, Explorers Robert E.
Peary, Matthew A. Henson and four Inuits became the first men to reach
the North Pole along with 4 Eskimos. Peary used Ellesmere Island as a
base for his expedition to the North Pole. The north coast of Ellesmere
lies just 480 miles from the Pole. He was accompanied by Matthew
Henson, an African-American, who had spent 18 years in the Arctic with
Peary. The claim was disputed by skeptics and in 1988 the original
navigational records were uncovered from the dog-sled voyage indicating
that Peary probably never got closer than 121 miles from the North
Pole. In 1989 the Navigation Foundation upheld that Peary reached the
North Pole.
(NG, 6/1988, 754, 757)(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC,
10/2/99, p.A20)(AP, 4/6/08)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B4)
1909 Arctic explorer Frederick A.
Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole a year ahead of Peary.
Many historians suspect that neither explorer succeeded. The term “Dr.
Cook weather” refers to an incident where Dr. Cook once left a chilly
New York baseball game after which the city papers trumpeted; “Game
called—even too cold for Dr. Cook.” Cook's assertion was later proved
false.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B8)(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)
1909 Apr 10, Algernon Charles
Swinburne (b.1837), English poet, died.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1909 Apr 13, Eudora Welty
(d.2001), Southern writer, was born in Jackson, Miss. Her books
included “Delta Wedding” and “The Optimist's Daughter” (1972). In
1998 Ann Waldron published "Eudora Welty: A Writer’s Life."
(SFEC, 11/22/98, BR p.4)(SFEC, 12/6/98, BR p.8)(HN,
4/13/01)
1909 Apr 13, William Edgar Geil
(1865-1925), travel writer from Doylestown, Pa., returned to the US
following his 2nd trip to China. He had traveled 1800 miles along the
Great Wall of China gathering notes and photos, which he soon published
in a 393-page volume titled “The Great Wall of China.”
(ON, 2/09, p.10)(http://tinyurl.com/dhtulo)
1909 Apr 13, In Turkey a
counter-coup, led by a certain Dervish Vahdeti, began Istanbul and
continued for a few days. It was put down by Hareket Ordusu (The Army
of Action) constituted with troops stationed in the Balkans, which
rapidly departed from Salonika. Among the officers who entered the
capital was a young captain named Mustafa Kemal. 74 soldiers were
killed in the incident. The “March 31” incidents actually started on 13
April 1909, a day corresponding to 31 March 1325 in the Rumi calendar
in use at the time in Turkey for official timekeeping.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31_March_Incident)
1909 Apr 17, In San Francisco 5
bodies were recovered and probably eight or ten others buried in the
ruins of an early morning fire which destroyed the St. George hotel, a
lodging house for laborers at Howard and Eighth streets, and eight
other small buildings.
(www.gendisasters.com/data1/ca/fires/sanfrancisco-stgeorgehotelfire1909.htm)
1909 Apr 18, Joan of Arc was
declared a saint.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1909 Apr 19, The new Orpheum
Theater opened in San Francisco, Ca.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, DB p.45)
1909 Apr 21, Rollo May,
psychologist, was born.
(HN, 4/21/01)
1909 Apr 27, In Turkey April 27
Reshad Efendi, the brother of Sultan Abdulhamid II, was proclaimed
Sultan Mehmed V.
(HN,
4/27/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II)
1909 Apr 29, Tom Ewell, [S Yewell
Tompkins], actor (Tom Ewell Show, 7 Yr Itch), was born in Ky.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1909 Apr 30, Juliana, queen of the
Netherlands, was born. She fled during the Nazi occupation and
abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix.
(HN, 4/30/99)
1909 May 1, Walter Reed Hospital
opened in Washington DC as an 80-bed Army medical center. In 2005 it
was scheduled for closure.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.A13)
1909 May 5, Carlos Baker,
biographer, was born.
(HN, 5/5/01)
1909 May 7, Edwin Herbert Land,
inventor of the Polaroid Land Camera, was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1909 May 9, In San Francisco 135
delegates of the anti-Japanese Laundry League took steps at a
convention at Golden Gate Hall, 222 Van Ness Ave., to boycott all
Japanese enterprises on the Pacific Coast.
(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1909 May 10, Maybelle Carter,
country singer (Johnny Cash Show), was born in Nickelsville, Va.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1909 May 13, A. Kopff discovered
asteroid #681, Gorgo.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1909 May 14, Texan Samuel Franklin
Cody became the first to make a powered airplane flight beyond one mile
in the United Kingdom. Cody, no relation to William F. "Buffalo Bill"
Cody, used his name and talents to create his own "Wild West" show that
toured Europe. Despite the fact he could read nor write, Cody designed
a series of kites, including a huge man-lifting version that could be
used for battle reconnaissance. Cody built a large biplane for the
British army, which he flew beyond a mile on May 14, 1909. His second
flight of the day crashed. Cody died in 1913 when another of his planes
broke apart in midair.
(HNQ, 3/12/99)
1909 May 15, James Mason, actor
(The Desert Fox, Lolita, Bloodline, Boys From Brazil), was born in
England.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1909 May 17, White firemen on
Georgia RR struck to protest the hiring of blacks.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1909 May 18, George Meredith (81),
English poet, writer (Diana of Crossways), died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1909 May 18, Isaac M F
Albéniz (48), Spanish pianist, composer, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1909 May 19, San Francisco Mayor
Edward Taylor wrote a letter to Pres. Taft testifying to the valuable
aid of the federal government in the city’s recent campaign against
bubonic plague.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, DB p.50)
1909 May 21, Sister Maria
Innocentia Hummel, artist, was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1909 May 29, Neil R[onald] Jones,
US sci-fi author (Space War, Twin Worlds), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1909 May 30, Benny Goodman was
born. He became a great clarinet player, and big band leader and was
known as the "King of Swing."
(HN, 5/30/99)
1909 May 30, Reuben Siegel laid
the cornerstone of the 1st home in Tel-Aviv.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1909 May 31, The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its
first conference at the United Charities Building in NYC.
(HN, 5/31/98)(MC, 5/31/02)
1909 May, Biograph released the 11
minute film “Resurrection” directed by D.W. Griffith (34). It featured
Florence Lawrence and was based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0001016/)(ON, 4/06, p.6)
1909 Jun 1, Pres. William Howard
Taft touched a key in Washington, DC, sending a signal to Seattle,
opening the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Expo at the Seattle World’s Fair, as
well as a signal to NYC initialing the New York to Seattle Automobile
Race.
(AH, 6/03, p.18)
1909 Jun 1, Guido Deiro, European
vaudeville star, introduced the "fizarmonica systema piano" at the
Alaskan Exposition in Seattle, Washington. He was contracted by the
Ranco Antonio Accordion Company of Italy and is credited with naming
the instrument " piano accordion." His brother Pietro Deiro was the
first to play the accordion in San Francisco.
(www.guidodeiro.com)
1909 Jun 6, Isaiah Berlin (d.1997)
was born in Riga. He became a professor at Oxford and wrote numerous
essays on the history of political ideas and concepts of liberty. The
family moved to Britain in 1919.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.C14)
1909 Jun 7, Virginia Apgar,
American physician and medical researcher, was born.
(HN, 6/7/01)
1909 Jun 7, Peter Rodino,
Congressman from New York, was born. He served as chairman of the
Watergate hearings.
(HN, 6/7/99)
1909 Jun 7, Jessica Tandy, actress
(Birds, Cocoon, Batteries Not Included), was born in London.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1909 Jun 7, Cleveland Industrial
Exposition opened.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1909 Jun 10, An SOS signal was
transmitted for the first time in an emergency as the Cunard liner SS
Slavonia was wrecked off the Azores.
(HN, 6/10/99)
1909 Jun 14, Burl Ives, folk
singer, actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), was born in Hunt, Ill.
(MC, 6/14/02)
1909 Jun 16, Jim Thorpe made his
pro baseball pitching debut for Rocky Mount (ECL) with a 4-2 win. This
later caused him to forfeit his Olympic medals.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1909 Jun 16, In San Francisco the
Gjoe, explorer Roald Amundsen’s converted herring boat, was passed as a
gift to the people of San Francisco. He had used the vessel to cross
the Northwest Passage in 1905 and had arrived in SF in 1906. In 1972
the Gjoe was returned to Norway and a commemorative sculpture was left
next to the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach.
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)(SSFC, 6/14/09, DB p.50)
1909 Jun 20, Errol Flynn, actor
who starred in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Captain Blood" among
many other movies, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1909 Jun 20, The first honeymoon
in a balloon.
(HFA, ‘96, p.32)
1909 Jun 22, In San Francisco
customs inspectors seized 149 tins of opium, evidently smuggled in
since a law prohibiting possession of opium for smoking went into
effect in April. 16 tins ere found at in the basement of Mow Lee’s
store at 76 Dupont St. The rest was found at a Chinese lodging house at
704 Jackson St.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, DB p.50)
1909 Jun 23, A Ford Model T
crossed the finish line in the NYC to Seattle Automobile Race after 22
days and 55 minutes to claim the Guggenheim Cup and a $2,000 first
prize. A Shamut came in 17 hours later to win the 2nd-place prize of
$1500. An Acme car came in on June 29 to claim a $1000 3rd prize. The
Ford was later disqualified for having switched engines enroute.
(AH, 6/03, p.23)
1909 Jun 24, Milton Katims,
conductor, violist (NBC Orchestra), was born in NYC.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1909 Jun 26, Col. Tom Parker,
Elvis Presley's manager, was born. He was never a colonel.
(HN, 6/26/99)
1909 Jun 27, Gianandrea Gavazzeni,
composer, conductor, was born.
(MC, 6/27/02)
1909 Jun 28, Eric Ambler, British
mystery writer (The Dark Frontier, Uncommon Danger), was born.
(HN, 6/28/01)
1909 Jul 2, Fritz Haber and Carl
Bosch of the BASF company succeeded in combining nitrogen from the air
with hydrogen from coal to make ammonia.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.29)
1909 Jul 3, Stavros Niachos, Greek
shipping magnate, was born.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1909 Jul 5, Andrei Gromyko,
diplomat, USSR President (1985-89), was born. [see Jul 18]
(MC, 7/5/02)
1909 Jul 8, The 1st official
evening baseball game was played in Grand Rapids. Mich. Grand Rapids
defeated Zanesville 11 to 10. In 2000 David W. Anderson authored "More
than Merkle: A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season in
Human History."
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)(SFEC, 4/16/00, Par p.18)
1909 Jul 11, Simon Newcomb,
celestial mechanics authority, died.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1909 Jul 12, "Curly" Joe DeRita
(Joseph Wardell) (The Three Stooges: The Outlaw is Coming, Snow White
and the Three Stooges, Have Rocket, Will Travel; died July 3, 1993),
was born.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1909 Jul 12, In San Francisco the
New Chutes opened to the public in the block surrounded by Fillmore,
Turk, Eddy and Webster. Amusements included a artificial lake that
receives boats from chutes. Fortune tellers, shooting galleries and
other attractions led to the Flea Theater.
(SSFC, 7/12/09, DB p.42)
1909 Jul 18, Andrei Gromyko, USSR
diplomat and President (1985-89), was born. [see Jul 5]
(MC, 7/18/02)
1909 Jul 25, Draugas, "The
Friend," a Lithuanian newspaper, began publishing in Chicago.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1909 Jul 25, French aviator Louis
Bleriot (1872-1936) made the first crossing of the English Channel from
Calais to the grounds of Dover Castle in a powered aircraft, winning a
£1,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail. Piloting his Type
XI monoplane at an average of 39 miles per hour, Blériot made
the trip of 23.2 miles in just under 36 minutes.
(AP, 7/25/97)(HNPD, 7/25/98)(ON, 6/07, p.9)
1909 Jul 26, The SS Waratah left
Durban, South Africa, with 211 passengers and crew. The steamship,
enroute from Melbourne to London, was due in Cape Town 3 days later,
but never arrived.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.94)
1909 Jul 27, Gianandrea Gavazzeni,
conductor, was born.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1909 Jul 27, Orville Wright tested
the U.S. Army's first airplane, flying himself and a passenger for 1
hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds over Fort Myer, Virginia.
(AP, 7/27/97)(HN, 7/27/02)(MC, 7/27/02)
1909 Jul 28, Malcolm Lowry,
novelist (Under the Volcano), was born.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1909 Jul 29, Chester Himes, author
(Cotton Comes to Harlem, If He Hollers, Let Him Go), was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1909 Jul 30, C. Northcote
Parkinson (d.1993), historian and author, was born. Author of
Parkinson's Law: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its
completion."
(HN, 7/30/01)(AP, 3/10/02)
1909 Jul, Imprisoned English
suffragette Marion Dunlop refused to eat. Prison officials, afraid that
she might die and become a martyr to her cause, released her. Soon
after, so many suffragettes had adopted the same tactics that prison
authorities began force-feeding the women. Mary Leigh told her own
story of being force-fed in the September 1909 edition of The
Suffragette. The hunger strike was one of the most formidable weapons
in the arsenal of suffragettes in Britain and America. [see Sep, Mary
Leigh]
(HNPD, 10/23/98)
1909 Aug 2, The 1st Lincoln head
pennies were minted. It was 95% copper and was the first US coin to
depict the likeness of a president.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, Par p.21)(SFC, 12/29/96, Z1 p.2)(MC,
8/2/02)(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)
1909 Aug 2, The Wright Flyer was
formally accepted by the US Army in exchange for $30,000. It was
designated Signal Corps Airplane No. 1, the world’s first military
airplane.
(www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/Military_Flyer/WR11.htm)
1909 Aug 3, Walter Van Tilberg,
Western novelist, was born. He wrote "The Ox-Bow Incident."
(HN, 8/3/00)
1909 Aug 4, Baseball umpire Tim
Hurst instigated a riot by spitting at A's 2nd baseman Eddie Collins,
who had questioned a call. This lead to Hurst's banishment.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1909 Aug 7, US issued the 1st
Lincoln penny. [see Aug 2]
(MC, 8/7/02)
1909 Aug 7, Alice Huyler Ramsey
(22) arrived in San Francisco on a ferry boat after driving a 1909
Maxwell Model DA across the country. She had left New York on June 9 on
the first ever cross-country trip by a woman.
(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D3)
1909 Aug 8, In Australia Sister
Mary MacKillop (b.1842) died. She had founded the Sisters of St Joseph
at age 24 and spent her life educating the poor and taking learning to
the harsh Outback. In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI recognized a miracle in
which she apparently cured a woman of cancer, paving the way to making
her Australia’s first saint.
(AFP,
12/20/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacKillop)
1909 Aug 10, George W. Crockett,
first African-American lawyer with the U.S. Department of Labor, was
born.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1909 Aug 10, Leo Fender, inventor
of the first mass-produced electric guitar, was born.
(HN, 8/10/00)
1909 Aug 11, The SOS distress
signal was first used by an American ship, the Arapahoe, off Cape
Hatteras, N.C.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1909 Aug 19, The Indianapolis
Motor Speedway opened with a 2.5 mile race track. It was founded in
1906 and the 1st 500 race was held in 1911.
(MC, 8/19/02)(Internet)
1909 Aug 21, C. Dillon Douglas, US
Secretary of Treasury (1961-65), was born in Geneva, Switz.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1909 Aug 24, Workers started
pouring concrete for Panama Canal.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1909 Aug 25, Ruby Keeler, dancer
(Dames, 42nd Street), was born in Halifax, NS.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1909 Aug 29, World’s 1st air race
was held in Rheims France. American Glenn Curtiss won.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1909 Aug 31, The A.J. Reach Co.
patented the cork-centered baseball.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1909 Sep 6, American explorer
Robert Peary sent word that he had reached the North Pole five months
earlier. [see Apr 6]
(AP, 9/6/97)
1909 Sep 7, Elia Kazan (d.2003)
was born as Alia Kazanjoglous in Constantinople to Anatolian Greek
parents. Kazan became a producer, screenwriter and director who won
directing Oscars for "Gentleman’s Agreement" and "On the Waterfront."
(HN, 9/7/98)(AP, 9/29/03)(SFC, 9/29/03, p.A18)
1909 Sep 9, San Francisco held a
parade in honor of its work horses. Some 2000 horses and 986 drivers
paraded down Market Street before thousands of spectators.
(SSFC, 9/6/09, p.46)
1909 Sep 9, Kwame Nkrumah,
communist and premier of the Gold Coast and president of Ghana
(1960-66), was born.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1909 Sep 13, Herbert Berghof,
actor (Belarus File), was born in Vienna, Austria.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1909 Sep 22, David Reisman,
sociologist, was born. He authored "The Lonely Crowd."
(HN, 9/22/00)
1909 Sep 22, In Oakland, Ca., Fung
Joe Guey made the first West Coast flight of a heavier than air motor
driven airplane at Piedmont Heights. He flew for half a mile some
15-feet above the ground.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1909 Sep 25, The first National
Aeronautic Show opened at Madison Square Garden.
(HN, 9/25/98)
1909 Sep 28, Al Capp (Alfred
Gerald Caplin), cartoonist, was born in New Haven, Ct. From 1934 until
1977, Capp wrote and drew the cartoon, "Li’l Abner", with its cast of
wonderful characters, Mammy and Pappy Yokum, their son Abner, the
lovely Daisy Mae, Fearless Fosdick and the lovable Schmoos. Al Capp
even invented a holiday, Sadie Hawkins Day. "Don't be a pal to your
son. Be his father. What child needs a 40-year-old for a friend?"
(HN, 9/28/98)(AP, 11/11/99)(MC, 9/28/01)
1909 Sep, Suffragette Mary Leigh
told her own story of being force-fed in the September edition of The
Suffragette. "On Saturday afternoon the wardress (female prison guard)
forced me onto the bed and two doctors came in. While I was held down a
nasal tube was inserted. It is two yards log, with a funnel at the
end...The end is put up the right and left nostril on alternative days.
The sensation is most painful--the drums of the ears seem to be
bursting and there is a horrible pain in the throat and the breast. The
tube is pushed down 20 inches. I am on the bed pinned down by
wardresses, one doctor holds the funnel end, and the other doctor
forces the other end up the nostrils. The one holding the funnel end
pours the liquid down--about a pint of milk...egg and milk is sometimes
used." [see July, Marion Dunlop]
(HNPD, 10/23/99)
1909 Sep, An air show was held in
Brescia, Italy. In 2002 Peter Demetz authored "The Air Show at Brescia,
1909."
(WSJ, 11/15/02, p.W10)
1909 Oct 2, Orville Wright set an
altitude record, flying at 1,600 feet. This exceeded Hubert Latham’s
previous record of 508 feet.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1909 Oct 3, Herblock (Herbert
Block, d.2001), political cartoonist, was born.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1909 Oct 4, The Cunard liner
"Lusitania" crossed the Atlantic in four days, 15 hours and 52
minutes.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1909 Oct 6, Pres. William Taft
visited San Francisco.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.50)
1909 Oct 9, Jacques Tati, French
actor and director, was born.
(HN, 10/9/00)
1909 Oct 13, Herblock (Herbert
Lawrence Block), multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist,
was born.
(HN, 10/13/00)
1909 Oct 16, Carl Laemmle,
director of the Independent Motion Pictures Company of America (IMP)
confirmed that he had stolen Florence Lawrence, the “Biograph Girl,”
from his competitor.
(ON, 4/06, p.6)
1909 Oct 26, General Oliver Otis
Howard (b.1830), former Union Civil War commander, co-founder of Howard
Univ., and Indian Commissioner, died in Burlington, Vermont. His books
included “My Life and Experiences among Our Hostile Indians” (1907).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_O._Howard)
1909 Oct 26, Hirobumi Ito
(b.1841), Japan’s resident general in Seoul, was gunned down in Harbin
in Russian-controlled Manchuria by Korean assassin Chang Ahn Gun.
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/INV_JED/ITO_HIROBUMI_PRINCE_1841_1909_.html)
1909 Oct 28, Francis Bacon,
English artist, was born. He painted expressionist portraits.
(HN, 10/28/00)
1909 Oct, Britain’s Secret Service
Bureau, the first incarnation of the Security Service, was established
in to combat Imperial Germany's espionage operations in the United
Kingdom. Captain Vernon G.W. Kell of the South Staffordshire Regiment
and Captain Mansfield Cumming of the Royal Navy were nominated to head
the new Bureau. In 1914 it came under the branch known as MO5, which
was subdivided into eight sub-sections. Its chief, Major Vernon Kell,
was given responsibility for MO5(g). It was renamed as MI5 in January
1916 and was incorporated into a new Directorate of Military
Intelligence.
(www.mi5.gov.uk/output/origins.html)
1909 Nov 1, In San Francisco a ban
on cows went into effect, except for a narrow district that was set
apart for handling cattle to be slaughtered. A new ordnance made it
unlawful to keep more than 2 cows and provided that when 2 cows are
kept within city limits, at least an acre of land must be provided for
their pasturage.
(SSFC, 3/22/09, DB p.50)
1909 Nov 3, James "Scotty" Reston,
New York Times reporter, editor and columnist, was born in Clydebank,
Scotland.
(HN, 11/3/00)(MC, 11/3/01)
1909 Nov 4, Opera "Il Segreto di
Susanna" was produced in Munich.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1909 Nov 8, Katherine Hepburn,
American actress, was born. She won four Oscars. Her movies included
"Bringing Up Baby," "The Philadelphia Story" and "The African Queen."
(HN, 11/8/00)
1909 Nov 8, Alberto Erede, Italian
conductor, was born.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1909 Nov 10, Ludvig Schytte (61),
composer, died.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1909 Nov 11, Robert Ryan, actor
(Billy Budd, Dirty Dozen, Longest Day), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1909 Nov 11, Construction began on
the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1909 Nov 11, J.M. Synge's
"Tinker's Wedding," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1909 Nov 13, Eugene Ionesco,
Romanian-born dramatist, was born. His work included "The Bald Soprano"
and "Rhinoceros." [see Nov 26, 1909 and Nov 26, 1912]
(HN, 11/13/00)
1909 Nov 14, In San Francisco Yee
Yup was shot down by Gee Gong, a former employee in the laundry of the
dead man. The On Yicks have now killed 4 members of the Yee family,
while the Yee family have but one death to their credit. It was feared
that the murder would escalate family rivalries in Chinatown.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, DB p.46)
1909 Nov 15, M. Metrot took off in
a Voisin bi-plane from Algiers, making the first manned flight in
Africa.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1909 Nov 18, John Herndon Mercer
[Johnny Mercer] (d.1976), songwriter, was born in Savannah, Ga. John
Herndon Mercer died on Jun 25, 1976, and was buried in Boneventure
Cemetery in Savannah, Ga.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)(HN, 11/18/00)
1909 Nov 18, US invaded Nicaragua
and later overthrew Pres Zelaya.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1909 Nov 19, Peter Drucker,
management guru, was born. His work led to business questions and
answers that came to be known as "the theory of the business."
(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.A20)
1909 Nov 23, Wright brothers
formed a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of
airplanes.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1909 Nov 26, Eugene Ionesco
(d.1994), Romanian-born French dramatist, was born. [see Nov 13, 1909
and Nov 26, 1912]
(AP, 11/26/02)
1909 Nov 27, James Agee, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author, was born. His work included "A Death in the
Family."
(HN, 11/27/00)
1909 Nov 27, U.S. troops land in
Bluefields, Nicaragua, to protect American interests there.
(HN, 11/27/99)
1909 Nov, Mohandas Gandhi returned
to South Africa from a trip to England to lobby the government to help
repeal the Registration Act. He founded a communal farm named "Tolstoy"
to help support a few members of his Satyagrahi movement.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1909 Dec 1, President Taft severed
official relations with Nicaragua’s Zelaya government, and declared
support for the revolutionaries.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1909 Dec 1, The 1st Israeli
kibbutz, Deganya Alef, a collective agricultural settlement, was
founded in Palestine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(MC, 12/1/01)
1909 Dec 2, J.P. Morgan acquired
majority holdings in Equitable Life Co. This was the largest
concentration of bank power to date.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1909 Dec 5, George Taylor made the
first manned glider flight in Australia in a glider that he designed
himself.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1909 Dec 7, Dr. Leo H. Baekeland
patented Bakelite, the 1st completely synthetic plastic thermosetting
plastic. [see 1907]
(HNQ, 5/8/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)(MC, 12/7/01)
1909 Dec 9, Douglas Fairbanks Jr,
actor (Ghost Story), was born in NYC.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1909 Dec 9, The 1st US monoplane
was flown by Henry W. Walden at Long Island, NY.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1909 Dec 10, Red Cloud, Sioux
Indian chief, died.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1909 Dec 12, Mildred Linton
(d.2003) was born in Ottumwa, Iowa. She became a film star in the 1930s
under the name Karen Morley.
(SFC, 4/21/03, p.B5)
1909 Dec 14, Edward L. Tatum,
American molecular geneticist (Nobel 1958), was born.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1909 Dec 14, The Labor Conference
in Pittsburgh ended with a "declaration of war" on U.S. Steel.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1909 Dec 15, San Francisco’s
Palace Hotel re-opened. It had survived the 1906 earthquake but was
gutted by the following fire.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C4)(SFC, 8/22/09, p.A10)
1909 Dec 19, U.S. socialist women
denounced suffrage as a movement of the middle class.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1909 Dec 28, The first manned,
controlled, powered flight in the whole continent of
Africa and the entire southern hemisphere was successfully carried out
by the Frenchman
Albert Kimmerling (d.6/12/1912) at East London, South Africa using a
Voisin bi-plane.
(Internet)
1909 Dec, Whitcomb Judson died in
Muskegon, Michigan.
(ON, 7/04, p.5)
1909 Dec, Frederic Remington
(b.1861), American Western painter and sculptor, died. His work
included "The Fight for the Water Hole," "The Call for Help" (1908),
and "Shotgun Hospitality" (1908).
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1213)(HN, 10/4/00)
1909 Robert Lewis (d.1997),
director and teacher of actors, was born in Brooklyn.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A22)
1909 Walter Van Tilburg Clark,
American Western novelist, was born. His work included "The Ox-Bow
Incident."
(WUD, 1994 p.272)(SFC, 4/8/00, p.A23)
1909 Peter Drucker, management
analyst, was born in Austria and grew up in Vienna. A summary of his
work by Jack Beatty, "The World According to Peter Drucker," was
published in 1998.
(WSJ, 1/12/98, p.A19)
1909 Anthony Tudor, choreographer,
was born in London. His work added a human dimension to the most
demanding movement.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1909 Jazz saxophonist Lester Young
(d.1959), aka "Prez," was born in Mississippi.
(SFC, 4/14/01, p.B3)
1909 Matisse made his bronze "Head
of Fernande."
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)
1909 George Bellows painted "Stag
at Sharkeys," depicting a pair of boxers. He also did "Pennsylvania
Station Excavation."
(WSJ, 8/21/02, p.D8)(WSJ, 9/24/02, p.D8)
1909 Marc Chagall painted "The Red
Nude," an early work with touches of Fauvism.
(WSJ, 5/11/95, p. A-14)
1909 Adolf Hitler painted a series
of views around Linz, Austria, including the watercolor "Mountain
Chapel."
(WSJ, 7/24/02, p.D12)
1909 Henri Matisse painted
“Dance,” commissioned for the stairwell of a Moscow mansion.
(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.D11)
1909 Rose Cecil O’Neill
(1874-1944), illustrator, drew the 1st Kewpie doll for an issue of
Ladies Home Journal. By 1911 they were being produced as dolls and
figurines.
(www.lambiek.net/oneill_rose.htm)(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1909 The Musicalist movement in
art began with the work of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky.
(Exc, 6/96, p.118)
1909 Picasso sculpted the head
"Fernande," the first cubist sculpture. His paintings this year
included "Femme Nue," which featured his lover Fernande Olivier and
“Houses on the Hill” (Horta de Ebro).
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.42)(WSJ, 2/12/99, p.W9)(WSJ,
5/13/04, p.D10)
1909 John Sloan, American painter,
painted Chinese Restaurant.
(WSJ, 6/6/95, p.A-14)
1909 Norman Angell (1872-1967),
English journalist, authored “Europe's Optical Illusion,” in which he
argued that war was going out of fashion due to the growing integration
of the global economy. In 1910 it was expanded and retitled as “The
Great Illusion.”
(www.flipkart.com/great-illusion-sir-norman-angell/1602069387-gtx3f30mib)
1909 Jean Cocteau (19) published
his 1st book of poems: "La Lampe d'Aladin."
(SFC, 10/6/03, p.D8)
1909 Ferenc Molnar (1878-1952),
Hungarian dramatist and writer, wrote “Liliom,” which later was turned
into the musical “Carousel” (1945). During WWII he emigrated to the US.
(SFC, 12/31/08,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Molnar)
1909 George Bernard Shaw wrote his
comedy play "Misalliance." His play "Pygmalion" was first produced.
(WSJ, 9/18/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A3)
1909 Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944),
Russian philosopher and economist, authored “Vekhi,” in which he
describes the sorry state of the Russian intelligentsia.
(Econ, 8/9/08,
p.25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Bulgakov)
1909 Francis Hodgson Burnett wrote
the classic children’s story "The Secret Garden." It was published in
1910.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.E1)(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1909 Louis Dollo (1857-1931),
Belgian paleontologist, wrote "La Paleontologie Ethologique." Dollo’s
law: complex physical features lost during evolution are seldom
regained.
(NH, 6/96, p.24)(NH, 4/1/04, p.12)
1909 Freud authored his
speculative monograph on Leonardo da Vinci and invented psychobiography.
(SFC, 8/30/03, p.D6)
1909 Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
authored her first book, “The Montessori Method,” to explain the
origins and applications of her educational theories.
(ON, 3/07, p.5)
1909 Beatrix Potter (1866-1943),
English writer, authored the children’s novel “The Tale of Ginger and
Pickles.” The book tells the story of shopkeepers Ginger, a tomcat, and
Pickles, a terrier. Margaret Thatcher later regarded it as the only
business book worth reading.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Ginger_and_Pickles)(Econ,
1/23/10, p.65)
1909 The Ballet Russes of Serge
Diaghilev exploded onto the stage of the Chatelet in Paris.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1909 Webern composed his "Five
Movements for String Orchestra."
(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1909 Sophie Tucker, cabaret
singer, appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies.
(SFC, 3/13/97, p.E3)
1909 A new Alcatraz lighthouse was
built. The 1854 original was removed to make way for the Alcatraz
Prison.
(SFC, 6/2/04, B1)
1909 The Point Cabrillo lighthouse
was built north of Mendocino in northern California. The Coast Guard
retired the fog signal 1972.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.G10)
1909 In NYC the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Tower was completed. The 50-story building was the tallest in
the world for 4 years. It copied the Campanile in the Piazza San Marco
in Venice that collapsed in 1902.
(HT, 5/97, p.24)
1909 Florence Nightingale Graham
(b.1878) reopened a NYC 5th Ave beauty salon and developed her own
Venetian line of beauty preparations, following a failed partnership.
She took the name of Elizabeth Arden.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.29)
1909 John H. Roth, the oldest
ceramic pictorial souvenir firm, was founded in Peoria, Ill.
(SFC, 7/3/96, z-1 p.7)
1909 Harry V. Warehime established
Hanover Pretzel Company in Pennsylvania with a single recipe, Hanover
Olde Tyme Pretzels.
(http://factorytoursusa.com/full.htm)
1909 In Hershey, Pennsylvania,
Milton Hershey and his wife Catherine established the Milton Hershey
School for the "maintenance, support and education of as many poor,
white orphan boys as it could afford." The racial restriction ended in
1970. By 2002 the 1200-student school had an endowment of some $5.4
billion.
(WSJ, 8/12/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/26/02, p.B3)
1909 In California Stanley
Ketchell, middleweight champion, fought with Jack Johnson, the first
Negro heavyweight world’s champion in Daly City. Johnson knocked
Ketchell out.
(GTP, 1973, p.58)
1909 The Pittsburgh Pirates, led
by pitcher Honus Wagner, defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in the World
Series. This marked the last world series appearance by Ty Cobb.
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)
1909 The America Tobacco Company
issued its T-206 baseball card collection, the first to be done in
color. New cards continued to be issued through 1911.
(AH, 6/03, p.50)
1909 Guglielmo Marconi
(1874-1937), Italian engineer, won the Nobel Prize for physics for his
invention of wireless telegraphy.
(ON, 11/99, p.10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1909 Sigmund Freud‘s only visit to
the United States was to accept an honorary degree at Clark University.
G. Stanley Hall, the president of the university in Worcester,
Massachusetts, had invited Freud to "[set] forth your own views" in a
series of lectures at a conference honoring Clark‘s 20th anniversary.
Following a visit to New York City, Freud delivered five lectures at
Clark, all of them in German. He then went on to visit Niagara Falls
and the Adirondacks before returning to Europe.
(HNQ, 6/4/00)
1909 Coco Chanel opened her 1st
shop, a millinery, in Paris.
(WSJ, 10/13/03, p.A1)
1909 Evelyn Walsh McLean (d.1947)
bought the blue Hope Diamond from Pierre Cartier for $180,000.
(THC, 12/3/97)
1909 US Federal taxes were imposed
on corporate income.
(http://tinyurl.com/3c45eg)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.61)
1909 Congress proposed the 16th
Amendment to the Constitution, which proposed an income tax. It was
ratified in 1916.
(WSJ, 6/4/03, p.B1)
1909 Virginia executed 17 people.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.A1)
1909 A US federal copyright law
was passed that allowed composers and music publishers to demand
royalty payments for any public performance of copyrighted material.
Protection was extended to player-piano rolls and the phonograph.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A8)(SFC, 4/8/02, p.E1)
1909 In San Francisco the 4-story
Hugo building was built at 200 Sixth St. It was designed by Theo W.
Lenzen. In 1988 the residential hotel went empty. In 1997 Brian Goggin
installed his “Defenstration” artwork featuring furniture apparently
tumbling from the building’s windows. In 2009 San Francisco used
eminent domain to acquire the property and planned demolition for new
low-income housing.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.C2)
1909 In San Francisco colonial
revival houses were built in the Presidio for non-commissioned officers
along Ord and Riley avenues.
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
1909 The 1,300-seat Columbia
Theater was constructed in SF and named after a major venue destroyed
by the 1906 earthquake. It was designed by Walter Bliss and William
Faville, who also designed the St. Francis Hotel. In 1928 it was
renamed the Geary Theater. It was badly damaged in the 1989 earthquake.
It opened in 1910 with “Father and the Boys.”
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A15)(SFC,
9/15/06, p.E2)
1909 In SF the City of Paris
department store was built on Geary St. facing Union Square. The site
was taken over by Nieman Marcus in 1974.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1909 The Hearst Building in SF was
constructed at Market and Third. It was remodeled in 1937 by Julia
Morgan.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.C5)
1909 In San Francisco the 4-story
Hugo building was built at 200 Sixth St. It was designed by Theo W.
Lenzen. In 1988 the residential hotel went empty. In 1997 Brian Goggin
installed his “Defenstration” artwork featuring furniture apparently
tumbling from the building’s windows. In 2009 San Francisco used
eminent domain to acquire the property and planned demolition for new
low-income housing.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.C2)
1909 In SF the cornerstone of the
Odd Fellows building at Seventh and Market St. was laid. The fraternal
organization had arrived in California in 1849.
(SFC, 11/28/00, p.A21)
1909 In SF a building on Stockton
St. was erected to house the western headquarters of Metropolitan Life
Insurance. In 1990 the Ritz-Carlton Hotel opened there.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.B1,4)
1909 The SF 1863 Cliff House was
rebuilt after a 1907 fire. Emma Sutro Merritt, the daughter of Adolph
Sutro, chose a smaller neoclassic design which lasted to the present.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.B1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)
1909 In SF the 198,000 sq. ft.
Haslett Warehouse near Beach and Hyde was completed by the California
Fruit Canners Assoc. to hold loads of canned goods.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A24)
1909 In SF the First Baptist
Church was built at Waller and Octavia. It was the 5th building of the
congregation that dated back to 1849.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)
1909 In SF St. Mary’s Cathedral
was rebuilt and rededicated.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)
1909 In San Francisco a 6-story
department store, designed by George A. Applegarth, was built at 1019
Market St. The Greek revival structure was framed by Corinthian columns.
(SSFC, 11/22/09, p.C2)
1909 The US Naval Postgraduate
School was established. It relocated to Monterey, Ca. in 1951.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.A10)
1909 In the San Francisco Bay a
minefield was laid north of the Presidio wharf over a period of 4
months to protect the San Francisco harbor.
(SSFC, 10/11/09, DB p.46)
1909 California became its own
Catholic province.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1909 California made betting on
horses illegal.
(Ind, 8/17/02, 5A)
1909 California became the 3rd
state to enact eugenics-related laws.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.D1)
1909 California legalized the
sterilization of convicted sodomites.
(SSFC, 5/11/08, Books p.4)
1909 The California State
Automobile Association produced its first road map. In 2008 it planned
to stop production of paper maps and shift to digital technology.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.D1)
1909 John H. Eagal, manager of the
automobile department of the Studebaker, San Francisco branch, said
“The future of the electric automobile is assured… The past few months
have seen an increase in demand for the electric cars that has been
surprising to manufacturers all over the country.” Studebaker sold
battery-powered cars from 1902 to 1912.
(SSFC, 1/10/10, DB
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Electric)
1909 In San Jose, Ca., Charles
David Herrold (d.1948 at 72), owner of Herrold’s College of Wireless
and Engineering, broadcast his first voice transmissions. By 1912 San
Jose Calling began regularly broadcasts of music and entertainment. The
station later became KQW and then KCBS.
(SSFC, 4/5/09, p.A2)
1909 St. Cloud, Florida, was
founded as a colony for Union veterans. Some prominent investors from
Washington, D.C., doing business as the Seminole Land Investment
Company, secured a purchase option on 32,000 acres of land on the
southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga in Osceola County, Florida. In
response to advertisements in the National Tribune, the nationally
distributed newspaper of the Grand Army of the Republic (a large
organization for Union veterans commonly called the GAR), more than
1,000 former soldiers in blue bought land in St. Cloud sight unseen.
For $50, soon raised to $100, a veteran could purchase a house lot in
the city and five acres in the countryside.
(HNQ, 6/30/01)
1909 The Oregon Caves in the
Siskiyou Mountains was set aside as one of the first national monuments.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.17)
1909 Women workers in New York
City’s shirtwaist industry went on strike for better wages, working
conditions and union recognition. The strike is described in the 1996
book "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Women’s Factory Strike of 1909." by
Joan Dash.
(SFEC, 9/29/96, BR p.10)
1909 Theodore Vail of AT&T
found encouragement in the Lee DeForest’s recent invention of the
Audion, a precursor of the electronic vacuum tube, and promised
transcontinental service to all telephones in time for the 1914
Panama-Pacific Exposition.
(I&I, Penzias, p.215)
1909 John Moody began publishing
his annual railroad bond ratings.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.67)
1909 The Central Pacific Railroad
finally paid off its 30-year bonds issued in 1863.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1909 The first rural mile of
concrete road was paved in the Detroit area at a cost of $13,534.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1909 The San Francisco Murphy Door
& Bed Company created the first "concealed bed." [see 1900]
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A20)
1909 GM acquired Cadillac.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1909 Montgomery Ward went public
as profits reached $1 million for the 1st time.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A12)
1909 The Public Cup Vendor Co. was
incorporated to produce paper cups. By 1919 it was named the Dixie Cup
Co.
(SFC, 4/4/07, p.G2)
1909 The Wright brothers sold a
Military Flyer to the Signal Corps for $30,000.
(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.D5)
1909 Konstantin S. Merezhovsky,
biologist, argued that the chloroplasts in plant cells evolved from
symbionts of foreign origin and coined the term "symbiogenesis" to
describe the merger of different kinds of life forms into new species.
(NH, 6/01, p.40)
1909 The word geriatric was coined.
(SFC, 8/24/96, p.E3)
1909 Wilhelm Johanssen, Danish
botanist, coined the word "gene."
(NH, 6/01, p.30)
1909 The Burgess Shale was
discovered by the geologist Charles D. Walcott. The shale contained
fossils dating back to the Cambrian, 514 million years.
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, R. Gore, p.125)
1909 Earl Douglass discovered
dinosaur bones in eastern Utah.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.T8)
1909 Edward Henry Harriman
(b.1848), American financier and railway magnate, died. In 2000 Maury
Klein authored "The Life and Legend of E.H. Harriman."
(WUD, 1994, p.648)(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A24)
1909 Selfridges, one of London’s
great department stores, was completed with a façade of 22
pillars.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.106)
1909 Woolworths was founded in
Liverpool. In 2008 it began a closing-down sale just before Christmas
after accountants Deloitte were appointed as administrators.
(AFP, 12/11/08)
1909 Carlos Chagas (1879-1934), a
Brazilian doctor, described how a fatal infection, that became known as
Chagas disease, was transmitted as a single cell parasite, Trypanosoma
cruzi, carried by insects that typically bite their sleeping victims on
the face. In 1921 Chagas won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. In 2010
scientists at UC San Francisco reported the development of a protease
inhibitor, K777, which appeared to kill the parasite.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Chagas)(Econ,
4/11/09, p.36)(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.A20)
1909 Canada and the US signed a
Boundary Waters Treaty that set up an Int’l. Joint Commission to deal
with water disputes. Water was allowed to exit Lake Superior through
locks, power plants and gates on the St. Marys River, but in amounts
strictly regulated under the 1909 pact with Canada.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.34)(AP, 8/3/07)
1909 An earthquake occurred in the
Balkans. A. Mohorovicic, a Croatian seismologist, discovered a boundary
between the mantle and the crust. It is called the Mohorovicic boundary
or simply the Moho, lying at about 20 miles below the surface. The
crust is less rigid than the deep mantle and is penetrated by many
irregularities.
(DD-EVTT, p.78-79)
1909 In France the physicist
Georges Claude perfected the neon tube and patented a long lasting
electrode that he developed for it. 2 English chemists had discovered
neon in 1898.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1909 Wilhelm Maybach, German
engineer and industrialist, organized a company with his son Carl to
build aircraft engines, including power plants for the Zeppelin
airships.
(HNQ, 8/28/00)
1909 Italian futurists distributed
their first manifesto. F.T. Marinetti (1876-1944) published the 1st
Futurist Manifesto.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, DB p.27)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E1)
1909 In Japan Michio Suzuki
started a loom works. The company made its first motorcycle in 1954.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1909 Scouting first came to
Lithuania, as part of tsarist Russia. The indigenous Lithuanian Scout
movement began in 1918, when the first Scout troop was founded in
Vilnius by Scouter Petras Jurgela. In 1922, the first Scout General
Assembly united the Lithuanian Scout Movement into the Scout
Association of Lithuania. In 1924, the Scout Association of Lithuania
was registered as a member of the World Bureau. Lithuania was a member
of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1923 to 1940.
(www.experiencefestival.com/world_federation_of_independent_scouts)
1909 The legendary Jesus Malverde,
a Mexican Robin Hood who rode the hills around Culiacan in Sinaloa
State, was supposedly hanged by the government and left to rot. The
legendary crime figure became revered as a saint by many of the
country's drug traffickers. In 2007 housewife Maria Alicia Pulido
Sanchez built him a shrine in Mexico City after her son Marcos Abel
recovered from injuries he suffered in a December 2005 car crash in
just three days when she prayed to a Malverde statue a friend had given
her.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/23/07)
1909 In Palestine mostly Russian
socialist idealists of the Zionist movement set up an armed group,
Hashomer, to protect their new farms and villages from Arab marauders.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.9)
1909 Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944),
Russian philosopher and economist, authored “Vekhi,” in which he
describes the sorry state of the Russian intelligentsia.
(Econ, 8/9/08,
p.25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Bulgakov)
1909 Abdullah Hassan, the “Mad
Mullah” of Somaliland, waged jihad against local tribesmen who had
accepted British rule. He slaughtered a third of the territory’s
inhabitants.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.20)
1909-1912 The E.I. Horsman Co., a New York City doll
company, made Billiken dolls. The doll was like a teddy bear with the
head of a Chinese deity.
(SFC,11/5/97, Z.1 p.3)
1909-1913 William Howard Taft became the 27th
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1909-1914 Alfred Colley Ltd. was a pottery
manufacturer in Staffordshire. They made a China pattern named
Lusitania after an ancient Roman province on the Iberian peninsula.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
1909-1917 T.S. Eliot wrote a number of bawdy poems
that were compiled and with extensive remarks in 1996 by Christopher
Ricks in "Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917."
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)
1909-1918 Mehmed V succeeded Abdul Hamid II in the
Ottoman House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1909-1929 German and British expeditions in Tendaguru
of present day Tanzania, unearth Jurassic dinosaurs as similar and
impressive as those found in North America.
(T.E.-J.B. p.25)
1909-1959 Errol Flynn, American actor: "It isn't what
they say about you, it's what they whisper."
(AP, 2/1/99)
1909-1984 Anna Swir, Polish poet. "A poet should be
as sensitive as an aching tooth."
(SFEC, 11/10/96, DB p.8)
1909-1986 Jacques Gelman, Russian born movie
producer. He produced movies in Mexico that starred the popular comic,
Cantinflas. Between the wars he emigrated to Berlin and then to Paris
where he founded a film distribution company and later settled in
Mexico. In Paris he began collecting art. In Mexico he collected and
commissioned work by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Rufino Tamayo.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.18)
1909-1991 Edwin H. Land, American inventor (Polaroid
cameras): "If you are able to state a problem, it can be solved."
(AP, 3/1/00)
1909-1993 Nguyen Gia Tri, Vietnamese artist, worked
using the laborious lacquer on wood technique.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.E1)
1909-1994 Clement Greenberg, American art critic. In
1998 Florence Rubenfeld published the biography: "Clement Greenberg: A
Life." He held T.S. Eliot’s controversial precept, a "belief in the
long-term objectivity of taste."
(SFEC, 5/24/98, BR p.9)
Go to 1910-1911