Timeline 1905-1907
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1905 Jan 2, Sir Michael Tippett, British composer, was born in London. His childhood was divided among England, France and Italy. His work included the oratorio "Vision of St. Augustine."
(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A19)
1905 Jan 2, After a six-month siege, Russians surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1905 Jan 3, Ray Milland (Reginald Truscott-Jones) Academy Award-winning actor: The Lost Weekend [1945], We’re Not Dressing, Star-Spangled Rhythm, Lady in the Dark, Let’s Do It Again, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1905 Jan 5, Representatives of 35 state Audubon organizations incorporated as the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals.
(T&L, 10/1980, p.12)(MC, 1/5/02)
1905 Jan 9, (Old Style calendar) On what would become known as "Bloody Sunday," Russian Orthodox Father George Gapon led a procession in St. Petersburg of some 200,000 who were marching on the Winter Palace to present their grievances to Czar Nicholas. Troops on the scene panicked, firing into the crowd and killing hundreds, thus igniting the Revolution of 1905. Across Russia, government officials were attacked, peasants seized private estates and workers’ strikes virtually paralyzed the economy. In St. Petersburg, a council (soviet) of workers’ delegates threatened to take over the government. Nicholas consented to the adoption of a constitution and election of a parliament (Duma). The first Duma met in 1906. [see Jan 22]
(HNQ, 10/1/00)
1905 Jan 14, Jane Lathrop Stanford drank from a bottle of mineral water at her Nob Hill home in SF and became violently ill. Analysis of the water revealed strychnine. [see Feb 28]
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1905 Jan 18, Joseph Bonanno (d.2002), later NYC mafia boss, was born in Castellmare del Golfo, Sicily.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)
1905 Jan 18, Edward Henry Corbould (b.1815), English artist, died.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.W11)(www.corbould.com/artists/ehc/ehc.html)
1905 Jan 21, Christian Dior, fashion designer (long-skirted look), was born in Normandy, France.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1905 Jan 22, (New Style calendar) On what would become known as “Bloody Sunday," Russian Orthodox Father George Gapon led a procession in St. Petersburg of some 200,000 who were marching on the Winter Palace to present their grievances to Czar Nicholas. Troops on the scene panicked, firing into the crowd and killing hundreds, thus igniting the Revolution of 1905. Across Russia, government officials were attacked, peasants seized private estates and workers’ strikes virtually paralyzed the economy. In St. Petersburg, a council (soviet) of workers’ delegates threatened to take over the government. Nicholas consented to the adoption of a constitution and election of a parliament (Duma). The first Duma met in 1906. [see Jan 9]
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(HNQ, 10/1/00)(AP, 1/22/07)
1905 Jan 24, In Vilnius a mass worker strike began and lasted to Jan 29.
(LHC, 1/24/03)
1905 Jan 26, Maria Augusta von Trapp (d.1987), Austrian singer, inspired "Sound of Music," was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp)(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.B6)
1905 Jan 26, The biggest diamond ever discovered was the 3,106 carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond)(BBC, 6/17/21)
1905 Jan 27, Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1905 Jan 31, John O'Hara, novelist (Appointment at Samarra), was born in Pottstown, Penn.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1905 Feb 1, Germany contested French rule in Morocco.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1905 Feb 2, Ayn Rand (d.1982), writer and social philosopher (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, as Alisa Rosenbaum. Her work espoused the political-economic philosophy of Objectivism, capitalism and what she called "rational selfishness." She graduated from the University of Leningrad in 1924 and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a citizen in 1931. In Objectivism, the individual alone and his acts of self-interest are seen as the positive driving force of society. Rand rejected ideologies of altruism and self-sacrifice. Her novels "Fountainhead" (1943) and "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) and a number of non-fiction works brought wide recognition to her and her theories. Rand founded the journal The Objectivist in 1962. She died in 1982. "Upper classes are a nation’s past; the middle class is its future." "So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money?"
(AP, 4/30/97)(AP, 5/13/98)(HNPD, 9/27/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand)
1905 Feb 7, Ulf Svante von Euler-Chelpin, Swedish physiologist, was born.
(HN, 2/7/01)
1905 Feb 7, Congress granted statehood to Oklahoma. New Mexico and Arizona were the only remaining territories. [see 1907]
(HN, 2/7/99)
1905 Feb 7, The Dominican Republic signed a treaty turning over customs collection to US.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1905 Feb 8, A cyclone hit Tahiti and adjacent islands killing some 10,000 people.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1905 Feb 15, Harold Arlen (d.1986), composer, arranger and pianist, was born as Hyman Arluck. His work included "Stormy Weather" and "It’s Only a Paper Moon." He was born Hyman Arluck, the son of a Jewish cantor. In 1996 Edward Jablonski wrote his second biography titled: "Harold Arlen: Rhythm. Rainbows, and Blues."
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A7)(HN, 2/15/01)(MC, 2/15/02)
1905 Feb 15, The 1st race meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. was run.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1905 Feb 15, Lewis Wallace (77), US politician, general, writer (Ben Hur), artist and inventor, died. His paintings included "The Conspirators," a depiction of those accused in the assassination of Pres. Lincoln. He had 8 registered US patents and was accomplished at playing and making violins. His home in Crawfordsville, Indiana, is now a museum.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)(MC, 2/15/02)
1905 Feb 16, 1st US Esperanto club was organized in Boston. Dr. Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof (1859-1917), a Polish ophthalmologist, invented the artificial language in 1885.
(MC, 2/16/02)(SFCM, 6/8/03, p.18)
1905 Feb 17, Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (b.1857), the brother of Tsar Alexander III, was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Sergei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia)(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
1905 Feb 20, The US Supreme Court upheld a Massachusetts' requirement for all adults in Cambridge to be vaccinated for smallpox. The court resolved the issue of mandatory vaccinations, ruling 7-2 in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that they were constitutional.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts)(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A10)(NY Times, 9/9/21)
1905 Feb 21, France violated the 1880 Treaty of Madrid by demanding control in Morocco of the Sultan's army and police. These demands were made without consulting Germany. In the “Morocco Crisis" German Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow sent the Kaiser to visit Tangier on March 31 to see if France would mobilize.
(http://www.worldwar1.com/tlmorcri.htm)
1905 Feb 21, The Mukden campaign of the Russo-Japanese War, began. In one of the largest battles ever fought up to that time, some 750,000 Japanese and Russian soldiers engaged in the battle for Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War. The 3-week battle pitted 400,000 Japanese and 350,000 Russians stretched over a front extending more than 90 miles. More than 100,000 were left dead or injured as the Russians began a retreat toward Harbin on March 9.
(HN, 2/21/98)(HNQ, 4/23/99)
1905 Feb 22, Japan 1st claimed the volcanic islets they called Takeshima, located between Japan and Korea, where they are known as Tokdo (Dokdo). Japan illegally incorporated Dokdo as its territory through an administrative measure of one of its prefectures.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.14)
1905 Feb 23, The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago by lawyer Paul Percy Harris and 3 friends. Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. When fellow club members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless, Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like dust, defying the laws of gravity by being kicked up on both sides of the wheel. The service club did not admit women until the 1980s.
(http://tinyurl.com/28kd23m)(AP, 2/23/98)(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.70)
1905 Feb 24, Russian Minister of Agriculture, Alexi Yermolov offered the Czar a new constitution.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1905 Feb 25, Adele Davis, nutritionist, was born.
(HN, 2/25/01)
1905 Feb 27, Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1905 Feb 28, Jane Lathrop Stanford, the wife of Leland Stanford, died of suspected arsenic poisoning at the Moana Hotel in Honolulu. A coroner’s jury confirmed the result. Her body was returned to the mainland under the care of David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford Univ. An examination by Stanford physicians claimed no trace of strychnine and set heart attack as cause of death. A will signed 19 months earlier had left the bulk of her $30 million estate to Stanford Univ. In 2003 Robert Cutler authored "The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford." [see Jan 14]
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)(SFC, 11/20/03, p.A21)
1905 Mar 3, US Forest Service formed. President Theodore Roosevelt successfully lobbied Congress to create the Forest Service and appointed Gifford Pinchot, a fellow conservationist, to run the agency. Pinchot had studied forestry in Europe and worked for the U.S. government in various forestry positions since 1896. He stayed with the Forest Service until 1910 and contributed greatly to its early development and national attitudes towards conservation with his enthusiasm. In 1912, he helped former President Roosevelt found the Bull Moose Party. He later went on to serve as governor of Pennsylvania. His autobiography "Breaking New Ground," was published in 1947, a year after his death.
(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A22)(HNQ, 4/20/01)(SC, 3/3/02)
1905 Mar 3, The Russian Czar agreed to create an elected assembly.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1905 Mar 4, The inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt.
http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html
1905 Mar 4, Gerhart Hauptmann's "Elga" premiered in Berlin.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1905 Mar 5, Russians began to retreat from Mukden in Manchuria.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1905 Mar 8, The peasant revolt in Russia was reported to be spreading to Georgia.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1905 Mar 9, Peter Quennell, biographer, was born.
(HN, 3/9/01)
1905 Mar 9, Rex Warner, English poet, writer (Wild Goose Chase), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1905 Mar 9, Archeologists unearthed the royal tombs of Yua and Tua in Egypt.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1905 Mar 10, Japanese Army captured Mukden, later Shenyang, China.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1905 Mar 11, The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1905 Mar 13, Margaretha Zelle made her debut as the oriental dancer "Mata Hari," in Paris.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)
1905 Mar 15, Berthold Schenck von Stauffenberg was born. He later attempted to assassinate Hitler.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1905 Mar 17, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York and by 1916, they had become the parents of six children.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)(HNPD, 10/11/99)
1905 Mar 19, Albert Speer, German architect, minister of Armament (NSDAP), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1905 Mar 22, Ruth Page, US choreographer, ballet leader (Diaghilev, Pygmalion), was born.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1905 Mar 24, Jules Verne (b.1828), French sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days), died in Amiens.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/verne.htm)
1905 Mar 25, Rebel battle flags that were captured during the war were returned to the South.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1905 Mar 26, Viktor Emil Frankl, psychiatrist (Man's Search for Meaning), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1905 Mar 28, Marlin Perkins, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), was born in Carthage, Mo.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1905 Mar 29, Annunzio Mantovani, orchestra leader (Mantovani), was born in Venice, Italy.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1905 Apr 1, US Leather was removed from the Dow Jones. It was succeeded by Central Leather Co. It was one of the nation’s largest shoemakers in the first decades of this century.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)
1905 Apr 1, Berlin and Paris were linked by telephone.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1905 Apr 2, Kurt Adler (d.1988), American conductor, was born. "Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right."
(HN, 4/2/01)(AP, 8/25/99)
1905 Apr 2, Serge Lifar, dancer and opera director, was born.
(HN, 4/2/01)
1905 Apr 6, W. Warrick Cardozo, physician and pioneer researcher on Sickle Cell Anemia, was born.
(HN, 4/6/99)
1905 Apr 9, J. William Fulbright, U.S. senator from Arkansas, was born. He opposed the Vietnam War.
(HN, 4/9/99)
1905 Apr 12, Hippodrome arena opened in NYC.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1905 Apr 12, French Dufaux brothers tested a helicopter.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1905 May 15, Joseph Cotton, actor, was born in Petersburg, Va.
(AP, 5/15/05)
1905 Apr 16, A Japanese baseball team from Waseda Univ. in Tokyo came to the West Coast for a 3-month 26-game tour. They played their opening game against Stanford and lost 9-1. Their manager, Prof. Iso Abe, is called the "father of modern baseball in Japan." They won 9 of their 26 games.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.C1)
1905 Apr 19, Tom Hopkinson, British writer, was born.
(HN, 4/1901)
1905 Apr 21, Edmund G "Pat" Brown, (Gov-D-Calif), was born.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1905 Apr 24, Robert Penn Warren, first U.S. poet laureate, was born.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1905 May 6, In San Francisco lobbyists from the Automobile Club of America brokered a probationary deal to allow cars in Golden Gate Park during daylight hours limited to a speed of 8mph.
(SSFC, 10/10/21, p.A8)
1905 May 16, Henry Fonda (d.1982), actor, was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. He starred in "Grapes of Wrath" and "On Golden Pond."
(HN, 5/16/99)(AP, 5/16/07)
1905 May 24, Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist (And Quiet Flows the Don), was born. He won a Nobel Prize in 1965.
(HN, 5/24/01)(MC, 5/24/02)
1905 May 25, Binnie Barnes, London, actress (Adventures of Marco Polo, Diamond Jim), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1905 May 25, Joseph C. Harsch, newscaster (Background), was born in Toledo, OH.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1905 May 26, There was a pogrom against Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1905 May 27, Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima. [see May 28]
(MC, 5/27/02)
1905 May 28, A Japanese fleet under Adm. Heihachiro Togo defeated a Russian fleet under Adm. Zinovi Petrovich Rozhestvensky in the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian fleet lost 22 ships out of 38 to the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima Straits. In 2002 Constantine Pleshakov authored "The Tsar’s Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A27)(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1905 May 29, Fela Sowande, composer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, Jan [Johannes] Teulings, Dutch actor, director (That Joyous Eve), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, There was a pogrom against Jewish community in Brisk, Lithuania.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, Leon Francis Victor Caron (55), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, The Russian ship Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off an eastern Korean island after the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war. In 2018 a South Korean company claimed to have found the sunken warship. The company speculated about 200 tons of gold bars and coins worth 150 trillion won ($132 billion) would still likely be aboard the ship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Dmitrii_Donskoi)(AP, 7/19/18)
1905 Jun 7, Norway declared independence from Sweden. Their union had been in effect in since 1814.
(SC, 6/7/02)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1905 Jun 8, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.
(AP, 6/8/05)
1905 Jun 10, 1st forest fire lookout tower placed in operation was at Greenville, Me.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1905 Jun 10, Japan and Russia agreed to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1905 Jun 11, Pennsylvania Railroad debuted the fastest train in world (NY-Chicago in 18 hrs).
(SC, 6/11/02)
1905 Jun 21, Jean-Paul Sartre (d.1980), French philosopher and existentialist, was born. He won the Nobel Prize in 1964 but declined it. His works include "The Road to Freedom."
(HN, 6/21/98)(AP, 2/15/00)
1905 Jun 27, The battleship Potemkin succumbed to a mutiny on the Black Sea.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1905 Jun 29, Archibald Wright “Moonlight" Graham (1876-1965) of the New York Giants played for two innings in right field in his only professional baseball game on this day and was promptly forgotten until 1989 when the movie “Field of Dreams" was released. “Moonlight" never got to bat, instead he was left on deck, a late substitute in a lopsided 11-1 win. Graham completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1908. He obtained his license the following year and began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_Graham)
1905 Jun 29, Russian troops intervened as riots erupt in ports all over the country, leaving many ships looted.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1905 Jun, In Pittsburgh, Penn., the world's 1st theater geared exclusively for motion pictures opened.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)
1905 Jul 1, John Hay (b.1838), American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, died in New Hampshire. He served as Lincoln's secretary from 1861 until 1864. In 2013 John Taliaferro authored “All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt."
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.81)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hay)
1905 Jul 2, Jean-Rene Lacoste, tennis champ, alligator shirt designer, was born in France.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1905 Jul 4, Lionel Trilling (d.1975), literary critic and educator, was born. His work included "The Liberal Imagination" and "Sincerity and Authenticity." He wrote the 1947 novel "Middle of the Journey."
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)(HN, 7/4/01)
1905 Jul 4, Elisee Reclus (b.1830), French geographer and anarchist, died in Belgium. His books included “La Nouvelle Géographic universelle, la terre et les hoinmes" (1875-1894), a 19 volume work that crowned his as the father of modern geography.
(http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/ReclusElisee.htm)
1905 Jul 7, The International Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the "Red Scare" that started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with the newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining energies so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history "We Shall Overcome."
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1905 Jul 8, The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrendered to Rumanian authorities.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1905 Jul 10, Ivie Anderson, jazz singer, was born.
(HN, 7/10/01)
1905 Jul 17, Edgar Snow, American author and journalist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
(www.umkc.edu)
1905 Jul 19, Boyd Neel, conductor (Story of an Orch), was born in Blackheath, Kent England.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1905 Jul 22, Boris Alexandrov, conductor (Red Army Song/Dance Ensemble), was born.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1905 Jul 25, Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-British novelist, essayist (Nobel 1981), was born.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of War William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement, which reinforced American and Japanese influence and spelled doom for Korean sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere in the ongoing US rape of the Philippines in return for the US agreement not to interfere with Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Jul 29, Dag Hammerarskjold, Nobel Peace Prize (1961) winning secretary-general of the United Nations (1953-1961), was born in Sweden.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1905 Jul 29, Stanley Kunitz, poet, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1905 Aug 3, Maggie Kuhn, social activist and founder of "The Gray Panthers," was born.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1905 Aug 3, Dolores Del Rio, actress (What Price Glory?), was born in Mexico.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1905 Aug 17, John Hay Whitney, publisher (NY Herald Tribune 1961-67), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1905 Aug 19, Fitzhugh Lee, US pilot, vice-admiral (WW II, Navy Cross), was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1905 Aug 19, Roald Amundsen and his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear, which confirmed their crossing the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey. Amundsen continued by dogsled to the Yukon while his crew completed their journey at Point Bonita, California, just outside the Golden Gate.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1905 Aug 20, Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist, was born.
(HN, 8/20/00)
1905 Aug 24, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, blues singer, was born. He was a major influence on Elvis Presley.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1905 Aug 30, Ty Cobb made his major league batting debut, playing for the Detroit Tigers, hitting a double in his first at-bat in a game against the NY Highlanders. The Tigers won, 5-3.
(AP, 8/30/00)
1905 Aug 31, Sanford Meisner, influential acting teacher, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1905 Sep 1, Alberta and Saskatchewan became the 8th and 9th Canadian provinces.
(Econ, 9/10/05, p.37)(AP, 9/1/06)
1905 Sep 4, Mary Renault (Mary Challans), author who wrote about her wartime experiences in "The Last of the Wine" and "The King Must Die," was born. She also wrote "Funeral Games."
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1905 Sep 5, Arthur Koestler (d.1983), Hungarian novelist and essayist, was born. He wrote about communism in “Darkness at Noon" (1941) and “The Ghost in the Machine."
(HN, 9/5/98)(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.5)(WSJ, 8/26/06, p.P8)
1905 Sep 5, The Russian-Japanese War ended as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, signed the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieved virtually all of its original war aims.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HN, 9/5/98)
1905 Sep 9, In Daly City, Ca., Battling Nelson, the "Durable Dane," kayoed Jimmy Britt in the 18th round at the Sickles St. Arena of James W. Coffroth. A film of the event recorded by the Miles Brothers made over $100,000.
(SMTS, 10/1/86, p.22)(Ind, 3/22/03, 5A)(SFC, 5/3/14, p.C2)
1905 Sep 13, U.S. warships headed to Nicaragua on behalf of American William Albers, who was accused of evading tobacco taxes.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1905 Sep 14, Pierre de Brazza (b.1852), Franco-Italian explorer, died and was buried in Algeria. He was born in Italy and later naturalized French. Brazza single-handedly opened up for France entry along the right bank of the Congo that eventually led to French colonies in West Africa. In 2006 his remains were exhumed and moved to a mausoleum in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.
(Econ, 10/7/06, p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Savorgnan_de_Brazza)
1905 Sep 18, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Oakland California, actor (Jack Benny Show), was born.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1905 Sep 18, Greta Garbo (d.1990), actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in "Anna Christie" and "Ninotchka," was born in Stockholm.
(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 9/18/01)
1905 Sep 22, Race riot in Atlanta, Georgia killed 10 blacks and 2 whites.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1905 Sep 25, Red Smith, sportscaster and columnist, was born in Green Bay Wisc.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1905 Sep 27, Annalen der Physik published a fourth paper by Albert Einstein, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?," in which Einstein developed an argument for arguably the most famous equation in the field of physics: E = mc². Einstein considered the equivalency equation to be of paramount importance because it showed that a massive particle possesses an energy, the "rest energy", distinct from its classical kinetic and potential energies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annus_Mirabilis_Papers)
1905 Sep 30, British director Michael Powell ("The Red Shoes") was born in Bekesbourne, Kent, England.
(AP, 9/30/05)
1905 Oct 4, Orville Wright piloted the first flight longer than 30 minutes. The flight lasted 33 minutes, 17 seconds and covered 21 miles.
(HN, 10/4/98)
1905 Oct 5, Orville and Wilbur Wright's "Flyer III" flew 38.5 km in 38.3 minutes.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1905 Oct 6, Tennis great Helen Wills Moody was born in Berkeley, Calif.
(AP, 10/6/05)
1905 Oct 13, Henry Irving (b.1838), British actor, died in England. In 2008 Michael Holroyd authored “A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families." Irving was the first actor to be awarded a British knighthood (1895).
(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.W6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry)
1905 Oct 14, Eugene Fodor, Hungarian-born travel writer, was born.
(HN, 10/14/00)
1905 Oct 15, Charles P. Snow (d.1980), English novelist (Death Under Sail), was born. He pointed out that the university’s separate worlds have ceased to talk to one another. The "uni" in the university has become meaningless as the institution, possessing more and more power as government funds were pumped into it for research, turned into a loose confederation of disconnected mini-states, instead of an organization devoted to the joint search for knowledge and truth.
(V.D.-H.K.p.142)(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, Claude Debussy's "La Mer," premiered.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, US President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal", joining others in the US who opposed women voters. The president said, "We all know how much further women go than men in their social rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."
(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 5, Winsor McCay (1871-1934), cartoonist, debuted his “Little Nemo In Slumberland" in the NY Herald. An art book reproducing over 100 of his best pages in full broadsheet was published in 2005.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.E1)(www.bpib.com/illustrat/mccay.htm)
1905 Oct 20, A Great General Strike in Russia began and lasted 11 days.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1905 Oct 20, Russian tsar allowed Polish people to speak Polish.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1905 Oct 26, Norway signed a treaty of separation with Sweden and chose Prince Charles of Denmark as the new king; he became King Haakon VII.
(HN, 10/26/98)
1905 Oct 29, Henry Green, novelist, was born. His work included "Living" and "Party Going."
(HN, 10/29/00)
1905 Oct 29, Hottentot chief Hendrik Witbooi was fatally injured.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1905 Oct 30, G.B. Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1905 Oct 30, Czar Nicholas II of Russia issued the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and elections in an attempt to avert the burgeoning support for revolution. Nicholas II also accepted the 1st Duma (Parliament)
(HN, 10/30/00)(MC, 10/30/01)
1907 Nov 4, Faygo was founded in Detroit as Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works by Russian immigrants Ben and Perry Feigenson. The original flavors of Faygo were based on cake frosting recipes used by the Feigensons in Russia. The brothers ran the company until the mid-1940s, when they turned it over to their sons. In the 1950s the company created a series of radio and television advertisements featuring a fictional cowboy called the Faygo Kid, who was portrayed in animation for television commercials for Faygo Old-Fashioned Root Beer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faygo)
1905 Nov 9, Erika Mann, German-US author (Other Germany) and daughter of Thomas Mann, was born.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1905 Nov 10, Sailors revolted in Kronstadt, Russia.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1905 Nov 14, David Belasco's "Girl of Golden West," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1905 Nov 18, George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1905 Nov 18, The Norwegian Parliament elected Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of Norway. Prince Charles took the name Haakon VII.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1905 Nov 19, Tommy Dorsey, band leader, was born in Shenandoah, Pa.
(AP, 11/19/05)
1905 Nov 19, 100 people drowned in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sank.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1905 Nov 22, British, Italian, Russian, French and Austrian-Hungarian fleet attacked the Grecian Isle of Lesbos.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1905 Nov 25, Jules Massenet's opera "Thais" had its 1st American performance.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1905 Nov 26, George Emlyn Williams, Welsh actor and playwright (portrayed Charles Dickens), was born.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1905 Nov 28, Arthur Griffith formed Sinn Fein in Dublin. Sinn Fein is Gaelic for "we ourselves," but also for "ourselves alone." This political party became the unofficial political wing of militant Irish groups in their struggle against British rule.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_F%C3%A9in)
1905 Nov, Eugene Schmitz, president of the SF Musicians Union, was re-elected mayor of SF for a third 2-year term. His Union Labor Party captured every seat on the Board of Supervisors. A victory parade left the SF Chronicle Building clock tower on fire. Political boss Abe Ruef and his Supervisors were now able to extract vast amounts of graft from any company needing to do business in the city.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)(SFC, 7/11/15, p.C1)
1905 Dec 1, Charles Finney, American author (Circus of Dr Lao), was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1905 Dec 1, Twenty officers and 230 guards were arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia for the revolt at the Winter Palace.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1905 Dec 5, Otto Preminger, director and producer (Laura, Exodus), was born in Austria.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1905 Dec 7, Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-US astronomer (moons of Uranus, Neptune), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1905 Dec 9, Richard Strauss' opera "Salome," premiered in Dresden. Soprano Marie Wittich delegated the dance of the seven veils to a member of the corps de ballet.
(http://operetta.stanford.edu/Strauss/Salome/main.html)(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.D8)
1905 Dec 9, The French Assembly National voted for separation of church and state. Laicite was enshrined in law to keep religion out of public bodies while protecting freedom of private worship.
(http://tinyurl.com/yyvx2d)(WSJ, 4/25/03, W13)(Econ, 9/5/15, p.57)
1905 Dec 16, The US entertainment trade publication Variety came out with its first weekly issue.
(AP, 12/16/97)
1905 Dec 24, Howard Hughes (d.1976), American industrialist, film producer, director and aviator, was born.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1905 Dec 29, Charles Tyson Yerkes (b.1837), financier, died in New York City. His estate was valued at $4 million. Yerkes developed Chicago’s streetcar system. His life was immortalized in Theodore Dreiser's Cowperwood trilogy: “The Financier’ (1912), “The Titan’ (1914), and “The Stoic" (1947). In 2006 John Franch authored the biography “Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)(www.chicago-l.org/figures/yerkes/)
1905 Dec 30, Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho was killed by an assassin's bomb. The former Gov. of Idaho, was blown up by a booby-trapped gate in front of his home in Caldwell, Idaho. Three Western Federation of Miners leaders in Colorado, Charles Moyer, George Pettibone and William Haywood, were "legally kidnapped" to Idaho and put on trial for the murder. The event and surrounding circumstances were described by J. Anthony Lukas in his 1997 book: "Big Trouble."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)(HN, 12/30/98)
1905 James Burnham (d.1987), political activist and author, was born in Chicago.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1905 Harry Harlow (d.1981), psychologist, was born in Fairfield, Iowa.
(CW, 6/03, p.51)
1905 The Gallery VII Salon d’Automne in France featured the Fauves. It featured works by Matisse, the acknowledged leader, along with Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and others. Louis Vauxelles described 2 classic marble sculptures as "Donatello chez les fauves" (D. among the wild beasts).
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)
1905 The expressionist art group "Die Bruecke" (the Bridge) was formed by German painters that included Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A17)
1905 Matisse painted his "Femme au Chapeau," (Woman with the Hat). It later became part of the Elise S. Haas collection bequeathed to the SFMOMA.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, SFE Mag. p.21)
1905 Picasso painted his "Boy in a Collar." In 1995 it sold for $12.1 mil. He also painted his "Sitting Harlequin." He also painted "Boy with a Pipe" in this Rose Period. The etching "la Toilette de la Mere" was made. In 2004 Sotheby started auction bidding at $70 million for "Boy with a Pipe." It sold for a record $104 million.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 3/29/97, p.E1)(SFC, 7/29/99, p.E6)(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.A18)
1905 G. B. Shaw wrote his play, "Man and Superman." It portrays the concept of a comic Mozartian intellectual charming the devils of the underworld, the only place where his Don Juan really feels comfortable. "Major Barbara" was also written.
(V.D.-H.K.p.237)(WSJ, 1/26/96, A-1)
1905 Sigmund Freud authored "Three Contributions to the Theology of Sexuality." It misinformed generations about the nature of the female orgasm.
(NW, 6/30/03, p.44)(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A16)
1905 Ernst Haeckel published "Wanderbilder," writings and illustrations on biology from his extensive travels.
(NH, 12/98, p.58)
1905 H.E. Marshall authored “Our Island Story," a history of Britain for children.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.44)
1905 Baroness Emmuska Orczy authored her novel “The Scarlet Pimpernal," set in the French Revolution.
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.P10)
1905 C. Rawling published "The Great Plateau" [Tibet].
(NH, 5/96, p.68)
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish author, won the Nobel Prize and wrote the third work of his trilogy "With Fire and Sword." It was preceded by "Pan Michael" and "The Deluge." The first 2 books were made into films during the 1960s and 1970s. Filming of the 3rd work began in 1997.
(SFC,11/18/97, p.E2)(SFC, 7/8/99, p.E3)
1905 Mark Twain wrote his pamphlet "King Leopold’s Soliloquy" in support of reform in the Congo. US Sec. of State Elihu Root was pressured to take action on the Congo.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.11)
1905 Booker T. Washington wrote "Tuskegee and Its People."
(NH, 2/97, p.82)
1905 Max Weber (1864-1920), German sociologist, authored “The Protestant Ethnic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Weber argued that Protestants, in particular Calvinists, drove the emergence of capitalism due to a strong work ethic.
(Econ, 11/16/13, p.73)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.57)
1905 H.G. Wells (1866-1946) authored his novel “Kipps," the story of an oppressed draper’s apprentice and his rise under the English class system.
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.W8)
1905 Edith Wharton authored her 2nd novel "The House of Mirth," in which Lily Bart attempts to monetize her beauty and gambles on Wall Street.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.8)(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W8)
1905 Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender newspaper. The paper helped ignite the move of tens of thousands of southern black sharecroppers north to Chicago and other cities. His nephew, John Sengstacke, took over the paper in 1940 and expanded it from a weekly to a daily.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.B1)
1905 Mark Sullivan wrote the Collier Mag. expose of the newspapers that lobbied to defeat a patent-medicine truth-in-labeling bill before the Mass. state legislature. The newspapers received tens of millions of dollars in ad revenues from the snake-oil salesmen.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1905 The El Tovar Hotel, designed by Charles Whittlesey, opened at the edge of the Grand Canyon. It was named after Pedro de Tobar, a member of the 1540 Coronado expedition.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.16)
1905 The American Political Science Association held its first meeting.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.C2)
1905 The Sons of Daniel Boone was founded by Daniel Beard.
(HNQ, 7/1/98)
1905 The Stanford-Binet intelligence test was first developed.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1905 Bertha Kinsky von Sutner became the first woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. She had founded European pacifist organizations with her husband, Artur,
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.28)
1905 Robert Koch (b.1843), German physician, bacteriologist, and medical researcher, won a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
(HN, 12/11/00)(MC, 12/11/01)
1905 The New York Giants with the help of pitcher Christy Mathewson won the World Series under manager John McGraw.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)
1905 The big football game between Stanford and UC Berkeley was banned from San Francisco due to the riots that often followed. 18 football players died nationwide from game injuries in this year.
(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.14)
1905 August Vollmer, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, was named town marshal of Berkeley, Ca. In 2017 criminologist Willard Oliver authored “August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing."
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A1)(SFC, 4/24/17, p.C1)
1905 The US federal government built the Klamath Project, a series of reservoirs and lakes on the California-Oregon border. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation began draining the Klamath Basin to help farmers. The Audubon Society lobbied Pres. Roosevelt to preserve some of the area, a major Pacific flyway for birds, and in 1908 he agreed.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A15)
1905 A US federal law made it a felony to use corporate or union money to influence directly a state election.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.34)
1905 East Coasters including Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and Frederic Remington set up the American Bison Society. In 1907 they sent 15 animals by rail to the new Wichita Bison Refuge in Oklahoma. The society met for the last time in 1935. The society was revitalized in 2005 to secure the ecological future of the animal. In 2009 Steven Rinella authored “American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon."
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.82)
1905 Teddy Roosevelt established the million-acre Siskiyou Forest Reserve in Oregon.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T8)
1905 California ceded Yosemite Valley to the federal government.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1905 The SF Chronicle launched an all-out crusade against the Japanese warning that an invasion of “the little brown men" constituted a grave peril to California.
(SFC, 8/23/14, p.C2)
1905 Rueben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970), anthropologist aka Rube Goldberg, was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle as a sports cartoonist. He became renowned as the comic inventor of complex machines to do simple tasks. In 1948 he received a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg)(SFC, 3/16/18, p.D7)
1905 In Marin County, Ca., US Rep. William Kent, heir to a Chicago meat-packing fortune, purchased 612 acres of old-growth redwood forest from the Tamalpais Land & Water Co. for $45,000.
(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A1)
1905 In southern California the town of Vernon was founded at a rail crossing along the Los Angeles River as an industrial city in LA County. In 2011 it had about 1,800 businesses employing some 50,000 workers, but only 96 actual residents.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.34)
1905 In SF a reform movement began led by former mayor James Phelan and Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt sent special prosecutor Francis Heney to investigate graft in SF.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1905 In San Francisco the Burdette Building was built at 90 Second St. and opened as a saloon. It was the only structure for block to survive the 1906 SF earthquake.
(SSFC, 4/11/10, p.C2)
1905 In San Francisco the Bell Theater was completed at 1125 Market St. It was later renamed the Embassy Theater. The theater later also known as the American, The Rialto and the Rivoli. It was red-tagged after the October 17, 1989, earthquake.
(SSFC, 8/9/15, DB p.46)
1905 In San Francisco the 8-story Grant Building 1095 Market Street was completed. It was named after Joseph D. Grant, a local financier and industrialist. The interior was ravaged by the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake and major renovations were made.
(SFC, 1/16/10, p.D1)
1905 The Sentinel Building was constructed in San Francisco just before the earthquake. The 8-story steel-framed "flatiron" structure with a copper dome at Columbus and Kearney was designed by Salfield & Kohlberg for the notorious political boss Abe Reuf. Reuf was later sent to San Quentin for his transgressions. In 1973 film director Francis Ford Coppola purchased the building for $500,000. In 1970 the building was named as a city landmark.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.A20)(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.C2)(SSFC, 12/27/09, DB p.46)
1905 In SF a building at 700 Montgomery St. was constructed in late classical style for the Columbus Savings Bank. It survived the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A14)
1905 In SF a 16,000 square-foot, Italianate-style mansion was built at 2820 Scott St. In 1915 it was elegantly embellished for a visit by Marie, the queen of Romania. In 2005 it was acquired by the Paige family, owners of the Paige Glass Co.
(SFC, 3/8/08, p.F2)
1905 In San Francisco’s Dogpatch area the Edwardian style house at 1061 Tennessee was built. In 2009 half of it was offered for sale as an 1,159 square-foot condo at $679,000.
(SFC, 10/28/09, p.C2)
1905 In San Francisco the 2-storey, Gothic style St. Francis Lutheran Church was built at 152 Church St.
(SSFC, 6/22/14, p.C2)
1905 In San Francisco the first Hindu temple in the West was built on Webster St. by the Vedanta Society of Northern California under the direction of Swami Trigunatita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. In 1908 a third floor was added with towers and domes by architect Joseph Leonard.
(SFC, 8/6/21, p.C2)
1905 Frank W. Epperson (1804-1983) invented the Popsicle on a cold night in San Francisco. In 1923 Epperson remembered his frozen soda water mixture and began a business producing Epsicles in seven fruit flavors.
(www.icecreamusa.com/popsicle/history/)
1905 San Francisco’s bubonic plague appeared to be eradicated following the killing of tens of thousands of rats and the fumigation of Chinatown. The death toll reached 113.
(SFC, 9/20/14, p.C2)
1905 US General Leonard Wood (b.1860) took over as military commander of the Philippines.
(www.wood.army.mil/MGLeonardwood.htm)
1905 W.E.B. Dubois and other black leaders organized the Niagara Movement. it followed the National Citizen’s Rights Association, which was organized by Homer Plessey's lawyer, Albion Tourgee. Tourgee’s biography was written by Otto Olsen: "Carpetbagger’s Crusade: The Life of Albion Winegar Tourgee."
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-6)
1905 Alonzo Herndon, a former slave, purchased two black benevolent associations for $140 and created Atlanta Mutual, which sold burial insurance to Atlanta’s black community. The company grew to become Atlanta Life Financial Group.
(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A8)
1905 Mary Anderson of Alabama received a patent for a streetcar windshield wiper. Her effort was the result of a trip to NYC in 1903 where she watched drivers coping with the weather.
(WSJ, 5/9/05, p.R10)
1905 In Denver Sarah Breedlove (Madame C.J. Walker) began selling in earnest her own Wonderful Hair Grower product. She settled the company in Indianapolis in 1910 and incorporated it in 1911. In 1912 she forced her way to the podium to address the National Negro Business League at its annual meeting, even though Booker T. Washington refused to recognize her.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.30)
1905 In Nevada the Virginia Street Bridge was built over the Truckee River in Reno. In 2014 it was set for demolition and reconstruction as part of the Truckee River flood project.
(SFC, 5/28/14, p.E2)
1905 New York City’s Columbus Circle became the first example of traffic going round a circle in a defined direction. In 1897 Holroyd Smith in London had proposed a "gyratory" traffic flow, with traffic going round the circle in a defined direction. Eugene Henard (1849-1923), French architect and a highly influential urban planner, called the concept carrefours a girations (gyratory crossroads), now known as roundabouts.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_H%C3%A9nard)(Econ, 4/23/15, p.43)
1905 Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, gave the Lincoln Life Insurance Co. the right to use the family name.
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.J5)
1905 Burrows, Marsh & McLennan was formed by Henry W. Marsh and Donald R. McLennan in Chicago becoming the world's largest insurance agency with annual premiums of $3 million ($59 million consumer price index adjusted). It was renamed Marsh & McLennan in 1906. In 1997, the company merged with Johnson & Higgins.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_&_McLennan)
1905 Senior executives of Equitable Life Insurance attempted to displace James Hyde, son of founder Henry Hyde, from leadership. In 2003 Patricia Beard authored "After the Ball," an account of the affair.
(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1905 Charles Evans Hughes supervised a New York state investigation into the insurance industry.
(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1905 Alliance Furniture was founded in Jamestown, NY, by a group of 8 partners of Swedish heritage. The company manufactured high-quality dining-room furniture until at least the 1950s.
(SFC, 6/18/08, p.G3)
1905 The De Forest Wireless and Telegraph Company established its KPH Radio station in San Francisco and began broadcasting from the Palace Hotel. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. In 1912 Marconi bought the station and chose Bolinas for its transmitter.
(SFC, 7/13/05, p.B2)
1905 The Hearst Corp. acquired Cosmopolitan magazine.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1905 Standard Rope & Twine Co. collapsed. It was succeeded by Standard Cordage Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R46)
1905 Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana, produced an electric car, the Victoria Phaeton, that could be charged at home.
(Econ, 10/9/10, p.22)
1905 Some automakers introduced motor trucks and ignition locks; and auto plants were opened in Canada.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1905 Winton Motors acquired Cleveland Cap Screw Co., which became the subsidiary Electric Welding Co.
(F, 10/7/96, p.67)
1905 The R.T. Davis Milling Co. began making an Aunt Jemima rag doll set that included Aunt Jemima, her husband Uncle Mose, and children Wade and Diana.
(SFC,10/22/97, Z1 p.7)
1905 The Wright Brother’s Flyer III became the world’s first practical airplane, but attracted little attention.
(NPub, 2002, p.7)
1905 Einstein presented his theory of relativity declaring that the very measurement of time intervals is affected by the motion of the observer. He proposed that light is itself quantized, or particle-like, to explain how electrons were emitted when light hit certain metals. He presented four papers, the first on Brownian motion, the second was on the composition of light, the third proposed the Special Theory of Relativity, and the fourth established the equivalence of mass and energy (see Sep 27). Einstein presented 5 papers this year, one of which was titled “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on its Energy Content?" This paper provided an incomplete proof of E=mc2, an equation that had already been know for a few years. In 2008 Hans C. Ohanian authored “Einstein’s Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius."
(NH, 3/05, p.72)(www.aip.org/history/einstein/great1.htm)(WSJ, 9/5/08, p.A13)
1905 Sylanus Bowser modified his 1885 kerosene pump into a self-regulating gasoline pump.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1905 Gustav Carlson invented plywood.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.B3)
1905 A Mayo Clinic researcher found that analyzing quick-frozen tissue could tell surgeons whether a growth is cancerous while the patient was still on the operating table.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1905 Nettie Stevens, geneticist, showed that sex was associated with the X chromosome.
(NH, 6/01, p.32)
1905 H.F. Osborn, noted dinosaur expert, first identified fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.13)(WSJ, 9/13/96, p.A8)
1905 Pete Aguereberry discovered gold in Death Valley and worked his Eureka Mine for 40 years.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1905 The Salton Sea in southern California was formed by a broken Colorado River diversion dyke. Prior to this time it had been called the Salton Sink. It flowed unimpeded for the next 15 months.
(AAM, 3/96, p.87)(SFC, 7/7/96, zone 1 p.5)(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A22)
1905 California banned the collection of condor eggs. By 1982 only 22 condors were left in the state. In 1987 government biologists caught the last of 5 wild condors. Between 1992 and 2004 161 condors were released of which about half survived.
(CW, Winter 04, p.26)
1905 New York City began using a garbage incinerator to generate electricity to light the Williamsburg Bridge.
(www.astc.org/exhibitions/rotten/timeline.htm)
1905 In Argentina Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up a bank in Santa Cruz province.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1905 Baron Edouard Empain of Belgium built the model city of Heliopolis near Cairo, Egypt, with his own elaborate, Indian-inspired palace as its main attraction.
(AP, 5/4/05)
1905 Herbert Austin began making cars at Longbridge near Birmingham, England. The site later became the main factory of MG Rover.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.53)
1905 Chinese revolutionary Song Jiaren met with Sun Yat-Sen in Tokyo and became a founding member of the Revolutionary Alliance, a forerunner of the Nationalist Party.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.67)
1905 Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement, Czech bicycle makers, began making cars. They later merged with Skoda Pilsen.
(www.skoda-auto.com/global/history/company)
1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II organized a trans-Atlantic yacht race that was won by Charlie Barr, skipper of the Atlantic. His record crossing was 12 days 4 hrs and 1 min. Scott Cookman in 2002 authored "Atlantic: The Last Great Race of Princes."
(WSJ, 5/3/02, p.W12)
1905 Adolph Menzel (b.1815), German painter, died. He combined elements of many styles and was considered the greatest artist in Germany at the time and was Prussia’s foremost historical artist. He was considered Germany’s French Impressionist.
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A20)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1905 The neo-Gothic Parliament building was constructed in Budapest, Hungary.
(Sm, 3/06, p.79)
1905 Japan imposed protectorate status on Korea. Hirobumi Ito was installed in Seoul as resident general and took charge of all governmental affairs. Japan named Durham White Stevens as the foreign advisor to Kojong.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)
1905 Mexico’s Islas Marias penal colony was founded. It was about 112 kms (70 miles) from the mainland Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta. The Maria Madre island penal colony was ordered closed in 2019.
(AP, 11/24/11)(AP, 2/18/19)
1905 In Mexico Pres. Diaz and his finance minister, Jose Limantour, set a silver-gold parity of 32:1, that proved to be a deflationary mistake on the eve of revolution.
(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A12)
1905 In Southwest Africa (later Namibia) the Nama tribe joined the Herero uprising against German settlers stealing their land, cattle and women.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
1905 Norway established independence from Denmark after 400 years of servitude. (Fresno Bee, 11/29/94)
1905 Russia attacked Japan but was easily defeated. [see May 28]
(V.D.-H.K.p.286)
1905 Revolution broke out in Russia and nationalist feelings ignited in the Baltic states.
(Compuserve, Online Encyclopedia)
1905 Over 1 million Russians staged a general strike demanding political reforms.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1905 Nestle S.A. originated in a merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company for milk products established in 1866 by the Page Brothers in Cham, Switzerland, and the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé Company set up in 1866 by Henri Nestlé to provide an infant food product.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9)
1905 In Europe Jean Lanfray, a Swiss laborer, murdered his wife and children after drinking 2 glasses of absinthe.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A3)
1905 Cecil Rhodes brought about the construction of a 650 foot iron bridge to connect Zambia and Zimbabwe near victoria Falls.
(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.C4)
1905-1911 Iran’s Constitutional Revolution took place. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament in Persia (Iran).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baskerville)
1905-1914 The great ostrich feather craze for the adornment of women’s hats, gowns, capes, gloves and shoes took place over this period. In 2008 Sarah Stein authored “Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce."
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.A19)
1905-1956 Margaret Lee Runbeck, American author: "Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling."
(AP, 11/8/99)
1905-1961 Dag Hammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-General: "A successful lie is doubly a lie; an error which has to be corrected is a heavier burden than the truth."
(AP, 8/6/98)
1905-1967 Patrick Kavanaugh, Irish poet, author of "Raglan Road," which Joan Osborne later put to the music of the song "At the Dawning of the Day."
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A24)
1905-1970 John Henry O'Hara, journalist, novelist and short story writer. Prof. Frank MacShane (d.1999) later authored a biography on O'Hara.
(WUD, 1994, p.1001)(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C8)
1905-1974 Jane Ace, American radio personality: "I'm a ragged individualist."
(AP, 10/22/99)
1905-1975 Ivy Baker Priest, former U.S. treasurer Thought for Today: "We seldom stop to think how many peoples’ lives are entwined with our own. It is a form of selfishness to imagine that every individual can operate on his own or can pull out of the general stream and not be missed."
(AP, 6/16/98)
1905-1978 Ilka Chase, author, actress and humorist: "You can always spot a well-informed man—his views are the same as yours."
(AP, 12/23/97)
1905-1978 Phyllis McGinley, American poet and author: "Time is the thief you cannot banish." "God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul. But because I happen to be a parent of almost fiercely maternal nature, I praise casualness. It seems to me the rarest of virtues." "History must always be taken with a grain of salt. It is, after all, not a science but an art."
(AP, 12/22/97)(AP, 5/9/98)(AP, 10/24/98)
1905-1979 Barnett Newman, New York painter. Late in his life he began making abstract sculpture. His last piece was called "Zim Zum I" (1969).
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A17)
1905-1989 Robert Penn Warren, American author, poet and critic: "What is man but his passion?"
(AP, 2/18/98)
1905-1995 Hobby, Oveta Culp, U.S. public official and publisher; b. Killeen, Tex. She was (1943-45) the first director of the Women’s Army Corps and served (1953-55) as the first secretary of the Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare. She was editor (1952-53, 1955-83), president (1955-65) and (1965-83) chairman of the board of the Houston Post.
(HNQ, 8/18/99)
1906 Jan 7, Harry Houdini’s fame as the "King of Handcuffs" was assured when he escaped from the Washington, D.C., jail cell of President James Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau. For the next 20 years, Houdini astounded worldwide audiences with illusions such as the "Upside-Down Water Torture Cell" and straitjacket escapes. Houdini died on October 31, 1926.
(HN, 3/24/98)(HNPD, 3/24/00)
1906 Jan 8, Upton Sinclair signed a contract with Doubleday Page, which published "The Jungle." The hero was a newlywed Lithuanian immigrant who found work in a Chicago meatpacking plant. The novel that exposed the intolerable working conditions in the Chicago slaughterhouses. Early chapters were published serially in Appeal to Reason, a Midwestern socialist newspaper.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(ON, 10/20/11, p.6)
1906 Jan 11, Albert Hoffmann, Switzerland, chemist (discovered LSD in 1943), was born.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1906 Jan 12, The Dow Jones Industrial average surged over 100 for the first time.
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.C-1)
1906 Jan 12, Henny Youngman (d.1998), comedian, was born in London.
(SFC, 2/25/98, p.C2)
1906 Jan 13, The Golden Gate Hotel opened on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nev..
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F4)
1906 Jan 15, Aristotle Onassis, Greek tycoon, who married Jackie Kennedy, was born.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1906 Jan 16, Marshall Field (71), Chicago department store founder, died in NYC.
(AP, 1/16/06)
1906 Jan 22, Willa Brown-Chappell, pioneering aviator, was born.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1906 Jan 25, Major Gen. Joseph Wheeler II (70), Confederate, US General, died. He led a cavalry division in the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898. As a Confederate brigadier and then major general, "Fightin’ Joe" Wheeler commanded the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Mississippi and, later, the Army of Tennessee. Captured in May 1865, he went on to have a prosperous postwar life, serving as a U.S. congressman for eight terms. After his Spanish-American War service, Wheeler retired from the army as a brigadier general of U.S. Regulars. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
(HNQ, 2/13/02)(MC, 1/25/02)
1906 Jan 31, A magnitude 8.8 quake off the coast of Ecuador and Colombia. It generated a tsunami that killed at least 500 people.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1906 Jan, Lee De Forest filed a patent for diode vacuum tube detector, a two-electrode device for detecting electromagnetic waves, a variant of the Fleming valve invented two years earlier. A year later, he filed a patent for a 3-electrode device that was a much more sensitive detector of electromagnetic waves. It was granted US Patent 879,532 in February 1908 and paved the way for the radio and television industry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_De_Forest)(SSFC, 6/26/11, p.42)
1906 Jan, The steamer Valencia from SF ran aground at bluffs on the west side of Vancouver Island. Many of the passengers and crew made it to shore, but none of the 126 survived due to exposure.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.C8)
1906 Jan, Britain’s liberals won a landslide victory. Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1936-1908) led the Liberals to a massive election victory in the UK on a promised program of reform.
(http://tinyurl.com/gse4h5h)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.58)
1906 Feb 1, 1st federal penitentiary building completed in Leavenworth, Kansas.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1906 Feb 2, A Papal encyclical denounced the separation of church & state.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1906 Feb 4, Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer who discovered Pluto, was born.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1906 Feb 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (d.1945), German Protestant theologian, was born. "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."
(AP, 8/27/00)(HN, 2/4/01)
1906 Feb 4, The New York Police Department began finger print identification.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1906 Feb 5, Actor John Carradine was born in New York City.
(AP, 2/5/06)
1906 Feb 7, Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, the last emperor of China, was born in Beijing.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C16)(AP, 2/7/06)
1906 Feb 8, Chester F. Carlson, physicist, was born. He invented xerography, the electrostatic dry-copy process.
(HN, 2/8/01)
1906 Feb 8, Henry Roth, writer, was born. His work included "Call it Sleep."
(HN, 2/8/01)
1906 Feb 9, Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (33), son of former slaves, died of TB in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1906 Feb 9, Natal proclaimed a state of siege in Zulu uprising.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1906 Feb 10, Britain's 1st modern and largest battleship, the "HMS Dreadnought," was launched.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1906 Feb 15, British Labour Party organized.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1906 Feb 17, Alice Lee Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt's irrepressible eldest daughter, married Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio in an elaborate White House ceremony. Heedless of social convention, Alice's behavior routinely shocked her family and friends. Once the president, when confronted with another of Alice's escapades, remarked, "I can do one of two things, I can run the country or control Alice. I cannot do both." Nevertheless, the world public was captivated with the first daughter, who seemed to embody the ideal Gay Nineties woman. In spite of its promising beginning, Alice's 25-year marriage to Longworth was not a happy one, but Alice reigned as the grande dame of Washington, D.C. society for another 50 years.
(HNPD, 2/16/99)
1906 Feb 19, In Michigan W.K. Kellogg & Charles Bolin incorporated the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. Will Kellogg spent 2/3 of the company budget to advertise Corn Flakes.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E4)(ON, 2/05, p.10)
1906 Feb 20, Russian troops seized large portions of Mongolia.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1906 Feb 23, Johann Hoch, US murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1906 Feb 28, Bugsy Siegel, gangster who created casinos in Las Vegas, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1906 Mar 3, Vuia I aircraft, built by Romanian Traja Vuia, was tested in France.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1906 Mar 4, John McAllister Schofield, a Union general in the Civil War and onetime commanding general of the army, died in St. Augustine, Fla., at age 74.
(AP, 3/4/06)
1906 Mar 6, Lou Costello (d.1959), American film comedian, was born in Paterson, NJ. He paired with Bud Abbott in numerous films and the famous "Who's on First" routine.
(HN, 3/6/99)(MC, 3/6/02)
1906 Mar 10, 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Sonatine."
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Mar 10, London Underground opened Bakerloo line from Baker Street to Waterloo Line.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Mar 10, A coal dust explosion killed 1,060 at Courrieres, France.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Mar 11, The Simplified Spelling Board was announced with Andrew Carnegie funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City. In August Pres. Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order mandating simplified spelling in all government administrative documents.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board)
1906 Mar 13, Susan B. Anthony (b.1820), abolitionist and advocate of black suffrage as well as the rights of women to vote, died. Eleanor Roosevelt suggested that Susan B. Anthony should be added to the four faces of Mount Rushmore. Eleanor Roosevelt later suggested that social reformer and woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony should be included with the images of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, but her suggestion was not accepted.
(AP, 3/13/99)(HNQ, 4/17/00)
1906 Mar 17, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muck-rake in his hand" in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington, DC, as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of investigative journalism.
(AP, 3/17/06)(www.gwu.edu/~smpa/faculty/documents/Harvard.pdf)
1906 Mar 18, Roy L. Johnson, US admiral (WW II-Pacific Ocean), was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1906 Mar 19, Adolf Eichmann, Nazi Gestapo officer, was born. He was captured in Argentina and put on trial in Israel.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1906 Mar 19, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's "Quattro Rusteghi," premiered in Munich.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1906 Mar 20, George B. Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1906 Mar 20, Army officers in Russia mutinied at Sevastopol.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1906 Mar 21, John D. Rockefeller III, billionaire philanthropist (oil), was born.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1906 Mar 21, Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1906 Mar 24, "Census of the British Empire" showed England ruled 1/5 of the world.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1906 Mar 25, Alan John Percivale Taylor (d.1990), English historian, was born. He pioneered the presentation of the history lecture on British television.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._P._Taylor)
1906 Mar 25, Jean Sablon, French crooner, was born.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1906 Mar 29, E. Power Biggs, organist, composer (CBS), was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, England.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1906 Mar 31, G.B. Shaw's German version of "Caesar and Cleopatra," premiered in Berlin.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1906 Mar, Matisse first exhibited his 6x8 foot untraditional, pastoral canvas “Le Bonheur de vivre" at the Salon des Independants in Paris. It was purchased from the salon by Leo and Gertrude Stein.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.P12)
1906 Mar, In San Francisco Shreve & Co., a high-end jeweler, moved into a 12-story steel frame building at 200 Post St. The structure survived the upcoming earthquake. In 1992 the company was bought by Schiffman’s of North Carolina. In 2015 the company lost its lease and was in search of a new home.
(SSFC, 4/26/15, p.C1)
1906 Apr 4, John Cameron Swayze, newscaster (Timex, Hindenburg), was born in Wichita, Ks.
(AP, 4/4/06)
1906 Apr 14, Pres. Roosevelt made a speech about “Man With the Much Rake" during a ceremony at the laying of the corner stone of the House of Representatives."
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 16, In Michigan 2 freighters collided and sank in the Soo passage near Sault Ste. Marie. The crews of the Sexonia and the Eugene Zimmerman escaped.
(SFC, 4/17/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 16, In Pennsylvania 3 men were shot dead in a riot among striking coal miners at Windber. An appeal was made to Gov. Pennypacker for troops.
(SFC, 4/17/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 6, 1st animated cartoon was copyrighted.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1906 Apr 7, A general act was issued by the international conference of Algeciras, Spain. Thirteen powers participated in the deliberations on the Moroccan question, and despite strong German objections, agreed to entrust to France and Spain the management of the Moroccan police. The powers also made arrangements regarding Morocco's state bank, system of taxation, customs administration, and public works.
(www.bartleby.com/67/1378.html)
1906 Apr 9, The third modern Olympic games opened in Athens and marked the 10th anniversary of the modern Olympics.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1906 Apr 10, A report from Russia said 7 soldiers were killed during a rebellion at the garrison in Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). On April 17 it was reported that 315 soldiers were killed in a fight between mutineers and loyal troops.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 11, Einstein introduced his Theory of Relativity. [see 1905]
(MC, 4/11/02)
1906 Apr 11, James A. Bailey (58), circus showman (Barnum & Bailey), died.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1906 Apr 13, Samuel Beckett (d.1989), Irish (French) novelist-playwright, Nobel Prize winner in 1969, (Waiting for Godot), was born. He settled in France and wrote in French and then translated to English. Sometimes he reversed the process. His work included "Act Without Words" (1956), "Happy Days" (1960-61), "Rough for Theater II" (1976), "Catastrophe" (1982) and "What’s There" (1983). Also the prose trilogy "Molloy," "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable." In 1996 James Knowlson wrote his study of Beckett: "Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett." "We are all born mad. Some of us remain so."
(V.D.-H.K.p.369)(SFEC, 10/27/96, BR p.5)(HN, 4/13/98)(AP, 10/3/98)
1906 Apr 13, An explosion on the US battleship Kearsarge killed 7 men. The vessel was off Culebra Island in the Caribbean Sea when the explosion in the forward turret occurred. 2 more deaths were soon reported with 10 sailors in serious conditions.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 13, There was a mutiny on the Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos and Vasco da Gama.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1906 Apr 14, Russian writer Maxim Gorky was in NYC raising funds for the revolt in Russia. He had just been ordered out of 2 respectable hotels due to his relationship with Russian actress Mlle. Andreivea.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A7)
1906 Apr 14, Pres. Roosevelt made a speech about “Man With the Muck Rake" during a ceremony at the laying of the corner stone for the House of Representatives."
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 15, A mob in Springfield, Mo., took 3 black men from a county jail, lynched them and burned their bodies. 2 of the men were being held under suspicion of murder and the 3rd was accused of assaulting a white domestic. Gov. Folk ordered out state militia to patrol the streets.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 15, Nine European steamships arrived in NYC with some 11,839 immigrants. Another 8 ships were expected the next day with a similar number of immigrants. The facilities at Ellis Island could only handle 5,000 newcomers per day.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 17, Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect, presented his design plans for San Francisco modeled on the Parisian plans by Baron Georges-Eugene Haussman.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1906 Apr 17, A boiler explosion on the British battleship Prince of Wales killed 3 sailors as it underwent speed trials in the Mediterranean.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 17, In France the wife of a miner who had refused to strike was attacked by 150 women in her home in the Pas de Calais district.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 18, At 5:12 a.m. the San Francisco 8.2 earthquake occurred. Seismologists in 1977 reduced the magnitude to 7.9. 28,000 buildings were destroyed and 498 blocks leveled. One quarter of the city burned. About 700 people died. The massive earthquake was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles and as far inland as Nevada. It caused severe damage and loss of life in the San Francisco Bay area, and a three-day fire spawned by the shaking reduced 4.7 square miles of the city to blackened ruins. Military officials estimated $400 million of damage and a total of 700-800 killed. Modern research estimates that closer to 3,000 of San Francisco's 400,000 inhabitants lost their lives. Sweeney Observatory in Goldengate Park was destroyed. Some 30,000 people were left homeless and lived in GG Park for up to a year and a half. The quake was centered in Olema. Old City Hall at Fulton and Larkin was destroyed. The Fairmont Hotel was severely damaged just 2 months before it was scheduled to open. In 2001 Dan Kurzman authored "Disaster: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906." In 2005 Philip Fradkin authored “The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself."
(SFC, 4/4/96, p.A-106)(SFC, 4/8/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)(AP, 4/18/97)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5,7)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W31)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A13)(SFC, 4/22/01, BR p.3)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)(SFC, 4/7/05, p.B1)(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.F1)
1906 Apr 18, SF Mayor Schmitz issued a proclamation that authorized police "to Kill any and all persons found engaged in looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime."
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C3)
1906 Apr 18, Dennis Sullivan, SF Fire Chief, was severely injured when the chimney of the California Hotel crashed into the adjoining firehouse. Sullivan died of his injuries on April 22. In the 1920s a firechief residence was built in his honor at 870 Bush St. A pond on the Potrero Hill potato farm of John Center provided water that saved the Mission district from the earthquake fire. Residents on Russian Hill saved 5 homes on Green Street between Jones and Leavenworth from fire and dynamite crews. The "Portals of the Past" monument in Golden Gate Park is a marble remnant from a mansion destroyed by the earthquake and fire.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A26)(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)(SFC, 12/29/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A8)(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 18, San Francisco firefighters, with the assistance of the US Navy, managed to drag a single fire hose from a pumper in the bay, over the shoulder of Telegraph Hill, over a mile to the Jackson Street warehouses. Navy Lt. Frederick Freeman led efforts that saved Anson Hotaling’s Whiskey warehouses at 451 and 455 Jackson street. Nearby Jones Alley was later renamed Hotaling Way.
(http://web.mac.com/danruden/APHotaling/About_Us.html)(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.N4)(SFC, 8/30/14, p.D1)
1906 Apr 18, 500 hundred or more people were estimated to have died at Howard and Sixth in San Francisco where the Brunswick House, the Ohio House, the Lormor and Nevada House all collapsed. They had been built to fill “Pioche’s Lake," a sunken area created by the Hayward Earthquake of 1868.
(SFC, 6/8/13, p.C4)
1906 Apr 18, The SF earthquake killed 119 people at Agnews State Hospital in San Jose.
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.A21)
1906 Apr 19, Pierre Curie, French physicist, chemist (Nobel 1903), died. Curie, was hit by a truck and killed as he crossed a street in Paris.
(ON, 3/00, p.2)(MC, 4/19/02)
1906 Apr 20, In San Francisco Navy Lt. Frederick Freeman led his sailors in holding a line against advancing flames at Chestnut and Lombard and Pier 27 saving the city’s northeast waterfront. In 2005 Dennis Smith authored “San Francisco Is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires."
(SFC, 8/30/14, p.C2)
1906 Apr 22, Eddie Albert (d.2005), film and TV star (Green Acres), was born in Rock Island, Ill, and grew up in Minneapolis.
(SFC, 5/28/05, p.A2)
1906 Apr 22, A new baseball rule put the umpire in sole charge of all game balls.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1906 Apr 22, The SF Health Office reported that about 500 bodies had been recovered from the earthquake and fire. Insurance losses were estimated at $175 million and total losses at $300 million.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A8)
1906 Apr 22, Dennis Sullivan, SF Fire Chief, severely injured in the April 18 earthquake, died of his injuries.
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A8)
1906 Apr 23, Maria Arnoldo, [Adrianus Broeders], photographer, writer, was born.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1906 Apr 23, The Belgian training ship Count de Smet de Naey foundered off Prawle Point, England. The captain and 33 on board were drowned.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 24, William Joyce was born. He was the British traitor, who during World War II gave anti-British broadcasts known as 'Lord Haw-Haw.'
(HN, 4/24/99)
1906 Apr 25, William Joseph Brennan Jr., future Supreme Court Justice (1956-90), was born in Newark, New Jersey.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A8)(AP, 4/25/07)
1906 Apr 25, J.H. Metcalf discovered asteroid #599: Luisa.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1906 Apr 26, Gracie Allen (Mrs. George Burns), comedienne (George Burns Show), was born.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1906 Apr 28, Bartholomeus J "Bart" Bok, Dutch-US astronomer (Milky Way), was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1906 Apr 28, Kurt Gödel (d.1978), Austrian mathematician, was born in the Moravian city of Brno. Godel later developed his incompleteness theorem showing that within any logical system, no matter how rigidly structured, there are always questions that cannot be answered with certainty, contradictions that may be discovered, and errors that may lurk.
(V.D.-H.K.p.340)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.D2)
1906 Apr, William J. Seymour, a black preacher, (b.1870) began evangelizing for his apostolic Faith Mission from 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The Azusa Street revival contributed to a new diaspora of missionaries who anticipated that global evangelization would be achieved by gospel preaching accompanied by miraculous signs and wonders.
(www.ag.org/enrichmentjournal/199904/026_azusa_3.cfm)
1906 Apr, In Serbia General Gruuios, the Premier and Minister of War, resigned because King Peter refused to adopt his suggestion and dismiss the regicide officials.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 May 8, Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director, was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1906 May 10, Russia's Duma (Parliament) met for the 1st time.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1906 May 17, Opera singer Zinka Milanov was born in Zagreb, Croatia.
(AP, 5/17/06)
1906 May 19, The Federated Boys’ Clubs, the forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of America, were organized.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1906 May 22, Orville and Wilbur Wright were awarded U.S. Patent 821,393 for "new and useful improvement in Flying Machines." They had hired a patent attorney to refine their 1903 application. The first successful powered flight of the Wright Flyer took place on December 17, 1903.
(HNQ, 3/19/01)
1906 May 23, Henrik Ibsen (78), Norwegian playwright and poet died in Christiania, Norway.
(AP, 5/23/06)
1906 May 26, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt approved the US Congress chartered the Archaeological Institute of America.
(www.archaeological.org/pdfs/AIA_Congressional_CharterA5S.pdf)
1906 May 29, Terence Hanbury White (T.H. White), novelist (The Sword in the Stone, England Have My Bones), was born in Bombay, India.
(HN, 5/29/01)(SC, 5/29/02)
1906 May 31, France and Germany signed an accord in which France agreed to yield control of the Moroccan police, but otherwise retained effective control of Moroccan political and financial affairs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Moroccan_Crisis)
1906 May 31, In Madrid, Spain, an anarchist bomb exploded under the wedding carriage King Alfonso and Queen Ena. 20 people were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/b45gm)
1906 May, In California a suspicious fire destroyed the Chinese fishing village of Point Alones on the Monterey Bay. The Chinese were not allowed to rebuild.
(SFC, 11/5/10, p.A1)
1906 Jun 3, Josephine Baker, dancer, singer, Parisian nightclub owner, was born to an Indian and African mother and a Creole father in St. Louis. She was a talented singer and dancer who got her show business start with the Dixie Steppers vaudeville troupe and was the first black, female American entertainer to achieve international stardom. She left home at 13 to tour on the southern vaudeville circuit, later appeared on Broadway and was noted in New York as a comedienne. Frustrated by the racism she encountered in her homeland, Baker moved to France in 1925 and joined the Folies Bergere. Her sensuous performances with La Revue Negre earned her rave reviews and admiring fans. She returned to America in 1935 after 10 years in France only to find that racial barriers still prevented her from attaining the same status she enjoyed in Europe. She appeared in New York's Ziegfeld Follies but, when she did not achieve any success there she returned to France, became a citizen, and married a Frenchman. During World War II, Baker became active in undercover work for the French Resistance movement. She later adopted twelve orphans from around the world, calling them her "Rainbow Tribe." Josephine Baker died in France in 1975 and was buried in Paris with full military honors.
(HNQ, 6/3/98)(HN, 6/3/98)(HNQ, 12/28/98)
1906 Jun 8, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed the American Antiquities Act, first proposed in 1882. It was used to set aside American resources by executive order. Roosevelt had urged the passage of the Antiquities Act to allow the president to designate areas of scientific, historic or archeological significance as national monuments without the approval of Congress.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquities_Act)(Arch, 1/06, p.4)
1906 Jun 14, Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist, was born.
(HN, 6/14/01)
1906 Jun 19, Earl Bascom (rodeo showman and inventor: first side-delivery rodeo chute, first hornless bronc saddle, first one-handed bareback rigging), was born.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1906 Jun 22, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author, wife of Charles Lindbergh (Gifts from the Sea), was born.
(HN, 6/22/01)
1906 Jun 22, Billy Wilder, movie director, was born. He directed "The Lost Weekend" and "The Apartment" and won an Oscar for "Stalag 17."
(HN, 6/22/99)
1906 Jun 24, Pierre Fournier, cellist (Paris Conservatoire), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1906 Jun 25, A love triangle came to a violent end atop New York's Madison Square Garden as architect Stanford White, the building's designer, was shot to death by Harry Thaw, for an alleged tryst White had with Thaw's wife, Florence Evelyn Nesbit. Thaw, tried for murder, was acquitted by reason of insanity. At the time this was called "The Crime of the Century."
(HN, 6/25/99)(AP, 6/25/06)
1906 Jun 26, Ferenc Szisz won the first French Grand Prix. Szisz won the race in a 13 liter, 90 horsepower Renault. The car was not particularly powerful compared to other cars in the race, but it did have the important advantage of removable tire-carrying rims. The removable rims meant tire changes took a speedy four minutes compared to the regular 15 minutes required with fixed rim tires. Szisz finished a little over a half hour ahead of the second-place car.
(HNQ, 7/25/00)(AHDD, p.26)
1906 Jun 28, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was born.
(HN, 6/28/01)
1906 Jun 29, The US Congress enacted the Hepburn Act, which prohibited railroads from offering discounted rates to large shippers and authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum freight charges for railroads. Pres. Roosevelt had personally appealed for its passage.
(AH, 6/07, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_Act)
1906 Jun 30, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The meat inspection act was inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle. The large meatpackers supported the law because it put inspection costs on the government and imposed costly regulations on smaller competitors.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(WSJ, 3/8/06, p.A21)(AP, 6/29/06)
1906 Jul 1, In San Francisco St. Ignatius College held a formal inauguration ceremony for a new campus site, its 4th, at Hayes and Shrader. Since the earthquake 18 SI Jesuits took up temporary residence at the 57-room mansion of Mrs. Bertha Welch at 1090 Eddy Street.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1906 Jul 2, Hans Bethe, physicist (Nobel 1967), peace worker, was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1906 Jul 3, George Sanders, actor (All About Eve-Academy Award 1950), was born in Russia.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1906 Jul 4, Great Britain, France & Italy granted independence to Ethiopia.
(Maggio, 98)
1906 Jul 7, Leroy "Satchel" Page, baseball pitcher for the Negro Leagues and the Major League, was born.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1906 Jul 7, In England Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), British politician and statesman and the former mayor of Birmingham (1873-1876), led an 80-car rally in the city for 17 miles to celebrate his July 8, 70th birthday.
(http://tinyurl.com/z4b89k5)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.45)
1906 Jul 8, Philip C. Johnson, architect, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1906 Jul 12, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was found innocent in France of his earlier court-martial for spying for Germany. Dreyfus had served over 4 years on Devil’s Island before a top French court rehabilitated his name in what came to be called the Dreyfus Affair.
(PC, 1992, p.664)(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A16)
1906 Jul 14, Tom Carvel, ice cream mogul (Carvels), was born.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1906 Jul 15, Richard W. Armour, humorist, author of "Twisted Tales from Shakespeare," was born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1906 Jul 18, S.I. Hayakawa, (Sen-R-CA), educator (Language in Action), was born.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1906 Jul 17, American playwright Clifford Odets was born in Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/18/06)
1906 Jul 23, Marston Bates, American zoologist and author of "The Nature of Natural History," was born.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1906 Jul 23, Pogroms took place against Jews in Odessa.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1906 Jul 27, Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager, was born.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1906 Jul, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to editor William Allen White in which he called Upton Sinclair “hysterical, unbalanced and untruthful" in reference to Sinclair’s criticism of the Chicago meat packing plants.
(WSJ, 3/8/06, p.A21)
1906 Aug 5, John Houston, film director of such movies as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon," was born in Nevada, Mo.
(HN, 8/5/98)(MC, 8/5/02)
1906 Aug 7, In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."
(HN, 8/7/99)
1906 Aug 11, In France, Eugene Lauste received the first patent for a talking film.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1906 Aug 13, At Fort Brown, Texas, some 10-20 armed men engaged an all-Black Army unit in a shooting rampage that left one townsperson dead and a police officer wounded. A 1910 inquiry placed guilt on the soldiers and Pres. Roosevelt ordered all 167 discharged without honor. In 1970 John Weaver (d.2002) authored "The Brownsville Raid," an account of the incident that led the Army to exonerate all 167 men.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
1906 Aug 15, The 1st freight delivery tunnel system began underneath Chicago.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1906 Aug 16, A magnitude 8.6 earthquake in Valparaiso, Chile, left an estimated 20,000 people dead.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Z1 p.5)(AP, 6/22/02)
1906 Aug 19, Philo T. Farnsworth (d.1971), inventor (electronic TV), was born in Beaver County, Utah.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarnsworth.htm)
1906 Aug 21, Friz Freleng, animator (Bugs Bunny-Emmy 1982), was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1906 Aug 22, The 1st Victor Victrola was manufactured.
(MC, 8/22/02)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.G4)
1906 Aug 26, Christopher Isherwood, English novelist and playwright, was born. He wrote "Goodbye to Berlin" (Berlin Stories), the inspiration for the play "I am a Camera" and the musical and film "Cabaret." [1904 also given as birth year]
(WUD, 1994 p.755)(HN, 8/26/00)
1906 Aug 26, Albert Bruce Sabin, U.S. virologist, born in Poland. In 1955, he developed an oral vaccine against polio.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1906 Aug 28, John Betjeman (d.1984), poet laureate of England (1972-1984), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman)
1906 Sep 1, Papua New Guinea was placed under Australian administration, which continued to 1973.
(www.hubert-herald.nl/PapuaNewGuinea.htm)(Econ, 5/28/11, SR p.17)
1906 Sep 2, Giuseppe Giacosa (b.1847), Italian songwriter (libretti opera Puccini), died.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1906 Sep 3, Joe Gans (1874-1910), born as Joseph Gant, defended his lightweight boxing title against Battling Nelson in Goldfield, Nevada. He was the first African-American World Boxing Champion, reigning continuously as World Lightweight Champion from 1902 to 1908. In 2012 William Gildea authored “The Longest Fight: In the Ring with Joe Gans, Boxing’s First African-American Champion."
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gans)
1906 Sep 8, Robert Turner invented the automatic typewriter return carriage.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1906 Sep 11, Mohandas Gandhi addressed a meeting in Johannesburg on social protest against the Asiatic Law Amendment, a new law by the province of Transvaal that made it compulsory for all Indians over age 8 to register with the government and carry ID cards. In the India Opinion he published articles on what he called Satyagraha (Truth Force): "the vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one's self."
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1906 Sep 12, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, composer, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. [see Sep 25]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1906 Sep 19, Addressing the annual dinner of The Associated Press in New York, Mark Twain said there were "only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe ... the sun in the heavens and The Associated Press down here."
(AP, 9/19/00)
1906 Sep 22, Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 21 people. In 2001 Mark Bauerlein authored "Negrophobia," an account of the riots.
(HN, 9/22/98)(WSJ, 6/12/01, p.A20)
1906 Sep 24, Victor Herbert's musical "Red Mill," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1906 Sep 24, Devils Tower, the first US National Monument, was designated by President Theodore Roosevelt. Devils Tower is a volcanic rock formation, rising 867 feet over a base of gray igneous rock at 1,700 feet, located in the Black Hills of Wyoming.
(SSFC, 6/18/06, p.G5)(www.nps.gov/deto/)
1906 Sep 25, Dimitri Shostakovich (d.1975), Soviet composer who wrote 15 symphonies, was born. His work included the Violin Concerto No. 2. [see Sep 12]
(WUD, 1994, p.1320)(SFC, 1/30/98, p.E5)(HN, 9/25/98)
1906 Sep 28, US troops reoccupied Cuba. They stayed until 1909.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1906 Sep 7-1906 Sep 19, Dr. Frederick Cook (1865-1940) and Ed Barrill explored the foothills of Mt. McKinley, Alaska. Cook soon claimed to have taken a picture of his companion, Edward Barrill, from the summit of Mt. McKinley. In 1909 his book “To the Top of the Continent" was published. In 1923 Cook was convicted of mail fraud for selling worthless oil stocks to unsuspecting investors. In 1998 it was reported that the photo was a fake, and that the 2 men never reached the summit.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A3)(ON, 3/06, p.6)
1906 Sep-1907 Mar, In San Francisco 5,610 fir and redwood shacks were built during this period to provide housing for earthquake refugees. They were placed in rows at 26 official tent camps and rented for $2 per month. The units cost the city about $150 each. In South Park nineteen two-story tenements were built.
(SSFC, 1/24/10, DB p.42)(SFC, 4/20/19, p.C3)
1906 Oct 1, In Finland the Parliament Act came into force. It replaced the old Diet dating back to the 17th century with a 200-seat unicameral Parliament and introduced universal suffrage.
(http://web.eduskunta.fi/Resource.phx/parliament/aboutparliament/presentation/history.htx)
1906 Oct 3, The first conference on wireless telegraphy in Berlin adopted SOS as warning signal.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1906 Oct 6, Janet Gaynor, film actress, was born.
(HN, 10/6/00)
1906 Oct 8, Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrated a machine in London that put permanent waves in hair. The client wore a dozen brass curlers, each weighing two pounds, for the six-hour process.
(HN, 10/8/00)
1906 Oct 9, Joseph F. Glidden, inventor (barbed wire), died.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1906 Oct 11, The San Francisco school board ordered the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage. To counter local prejudice David Starr Jordan, Stanford’s 1st president, David Pike Bowie, a San Mateo Japanophile, and Japanese General Consul Kisaburo Ueno soon formed a chapter of the Japan Society to foster bilateral understanding. The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States. In 2017 the SF school board voted to rescind the rule.
(HN, 10/11/98)(SFC, 10/29/05, p.B7)(AP, 10/11/06)(SFC, 1/23/17, p.C1)
1906 Oct 14, Hannah Arendt, historian (Origins of Totalitarianism), was born in Germany.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1906 Oct 16, Cleanth Brooks, Kentucky-born writer and educator, was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)
1906 Oct 18, James Brooks, US mural painter (Acquisition of Long Island), was born.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1906 Oct 19, The crew of Roald Amundsen aboard Gjoe, a converted herring boat, arrived off the coast of San Francisco following their crossing of the Northwest Passage in a 26-month journey.
(SFC, 10/19/06, p.B1)
1906 Oct 22, Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (One in White, Darkness at Noon), was born.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1906 Oct 22, 3000 blacks demonstrated and rioted in Philadelphia.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1906 Oct 22, Paul Cezanne (b.1839), French post-impressionist painter, died in Aix-en-Provence. In 202 Alex Danchev authored “Cezanne: A Life."
(AP, 10/22/06)(SSFC, 11/4/12, p.F1)
1906 Oct 23, Gertrude Ederle, swimmer (Olympic-gold-1924), was born in NYC.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1906 Oct 25, US inventor Lee de Forest patented the "Audion," a 3-diode amplification valve which proved a pioneering development in radio and broadcasting.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1906 Oct 25, The Peter Iredale, a British 278-foot 4-mast bark, wrecked on Clatsop Beach, but the whole crew survived. The only enemy shell to strike Oregon soil during WW II landed near the wreck.
(PC, Smith-Western)
1906 Oct 31, Louise Talma, composer (Summer Sounds), was born in Arcachon, France.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1906 Oct 31, George Bernard Shaw's "Caesar & Cleopatra," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1906 Nov 2, Luchino Visconti, film director, was born in Milan, Italy. His work included “Obsession" and “Death in Venice."
(HN, 11/2/00)(AP, 11/2/06)
1906 Nov 6, Republican Charles Evans Hughes was elected governor of New York, defeating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. In 1910 he was appointed to the US Supreme Court and served until 1916. In 1930 he was appointed as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and served until 1941.
(AP, 11/6/99)(SFC, 10/6/05, p.A15)
1906 Nov 9, President Theodore Roosevelt left Washington D.C. for a 17 day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico, becoming the first president to make an official visit outside of the U.S.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1906 Nov 9, Arthur Rudolph, Nazi-turned-American rocket engineer, was born.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1906 Nov 14, Louise Brooks, silent film star, was born. She became a symbol of the 1920s flapper.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1906 Nov 15, Curtis E. Le May, air force general and VP candidate, was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1906 Nov 17, Soichiro Honda, founder and CEO of Honda Motor Co., was born in Japan.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1906 Nov 18, Anarchists bombed Rome’s St. Peter’s Cathedral.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1906 Nov 20, George Bernard Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1906 Nov 21, In San Juan, President Theodore Roosevelt pledged citizenship for Puerto Rican people.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1906 Nov 21, China prohibited opium trade.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1906 Nov 22, The Canadian steamship J.H. Jones went down during a storm on Lake Huron, near Lion's Head, Ontario, with 30 people on board. Only one body was ever found. In 2018 wreckage of the ship was found.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9lde8cu)(SFC, 9/17/18, p.A2)
1906 Nov 22, The "S-O-S" distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1906 Nov 28, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien and Tommy Burns fought to no decision in a 20-round draw in a world heavyweight title bout in Los Angeles.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1906 Nov 30, President Theodore Roosevelt publicly denounced segregation of Japanese school children in San Francisco.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1906 Nov, Aloysius Alzheimer (1864-1915), German psychiatrist, first described the symptoms of a progressive neurodegenerative disease that caused memory loss, dementia and ultimately death following the death of his patient, Auguste Deter (56). She was the first person to have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.B1)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.72)(Econ, 9/12/15, p.74)
1906 Dec 2, Peter Carl Goldmark (d.1977), engineer, was born in Budapest, Hungary. He developed the first commercial color television and the long-playing phonograph record.
(HN, 12/2/00)(AP, 12/2/06)
1906 Dec 3, The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1906 Dec 6, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge flew a powered, man-carrying kite that carried him 168 feet in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1906 Dec 8, Richard Llewellyn, author (How Green Was My Valley), was born.
(HN, 12/8/00)
1906 Dec 9, Grace Hopper, mathematician and computer pioneer, was born.
(HN, 12/9/00)
1906 Dec 10, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. This was the first Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 12/10/97)(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C3)
1906 Dec 12, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt nominated Oscar Straus to be secretary of commerce and labor; Straus became the first Jewish Cabinet member.
(AP, 12/12/07)
1906 Dec 30, Sir Carol Reed (d.1976) British movie director ("The Third Man," "Our Man in Havana," "Oliver!") was born in London.
(AP, 12/30/06)
1906 Dec 14, First U1 submarine was brought into service in Germany.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1906 Dec 19, H. Allen Smith, Ill, humorist, author (Low Man on Totem Pole), was born.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1906 Dec 19, Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist arty and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982, was born in the Ukraine.
(HN, 12/19/98)(MC, 12/19/01)
1906 Dec 24, Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, Mass.
(AP, 12/24/97)
1906 Dec 27, Oscar Levant, American composer and actor, was born in Pittsburgh.
(AP, 12/27/06)
1906 Dec 28, Alexander Cassatt (b.1839), president of the Pennsylvania Railroad since June 9, 1899, died. He was succeeded as by James McCrea. Cassatt was the older brother of artist Mary Cassatt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cassatt)
1906 Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (d.2002) was born in Ladora, Iowa. She later became a newspaperwoman and wrote the 1st 23 Nancy Drew children’s mysteries under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.
(WSJ, 5/30/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.A13)
1906 William Empson, English critic and poet, was born. He wrote the book "Seven Types of Ambiguity," in which he attempted to translate the new ideas of physics into literary criticism.
(WUD, 1994, p.468)(SFEC, 8/17/97, Z1 p.3)
1906 Billy Wilder, American film director, was born in (Austria). In 1999 Ed Sikow published "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder."
(SFEC, 2/7/99, BR p.5)
1906 Auguste Rodin began his sculpture "Large Left Clenched Hand With Figure."
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A16)
1906 Georges Braque painted "Olive Tree Near L’Estaque." It sold for $4.4 mil in 1998. He also did the landscape "La Ciotat."
(WSJ, 5/21/98, p.A15)
1906 Cezanne painted "Le Cabanon de Jourdan" in the year of his death.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)
1906 Andre Derain painted "The Dance," a jungle scene with 3 dancers and a sinuous snake.
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)
1906 Matisse painted "The Joy of Life." Matisse and Picasso met in this year and this work bugged Picasso, who answered with hard-core cubism.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.12)
1906 Claude Monet painted "Water Lilies." His last great series was devoted to the water lilies of the pond in his Japanese garden in Giverney. This series of paintings lasted to 1916 and became increasingly abstract. One of the 1906 Water Lilies paintings sold for $22.5 mil in 1999.
(DPCP 1984)(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W16)
1906 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted the corpulent "Portrait of Gertrude Stein" and the landscape "Gosol." In 1996 the landscape sold for $3.4 million. In 1947 it was acquired by the New York Met. He also did "Head of a Peasant (Joseph Fontdevila)," "Woman Combing Her Hair," and "Self-Portrait With Palette." His colossal female nude predecessors to the 1907 "Demoiselles d’Avignon" were also done. In this year Picasso hooked up with Georges Braque to launch Cubism.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(SFC, 11/15/96, p.C5)(SFC, 3/29/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)
1906 John Singer Sargent painted his "Self-Portrait."
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A20)
1906 Maurice de Vlaminck painted "The Seine at Chatou." In 2002 it was valued at an estimated $4.4-5.8 million.
(WSJ, 3/15/02, p.W14)
1906 Langdon Mitchell wrote his play "The New York Idea."
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1906 William Vaughan Moody wrote his play "The Great Divide."
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1906 Henry Adams, American historian, published his autobiography, "The Education of Henry Adams." In 1999 the Modern Library cited the work as the century's best English-language work of non-fiction.
(V.D.-HK.p.266)(SFC, 4/29/99, p.C5)
1906 Ambrose Bierce (1842-c1914), American writer, published “The Cynic’s Word Book." It was expanded and republished in 1911 as “The Devil’s Dictionary."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Dictionary)
1906 Svante Arrhenius published his book "Worlds in the Making," in which he welcomed the additional heat generated by additional carbon in the atmosphere fueling the greenhouse effect.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.57)
1906 H. Elves and A. Henry published their classic work on dendrology: "The Trees and Shrubs of Great Britain and Ireland."
(NH, 6/96, p.46)
1906 Hermann Hesse published "Beneath the Wheel," a novel about an overly zealous and diligent student who is driven to self-destruction.
(iUniv. 7/2/00)
1906 Jack London authored his novella “Before Adam," in which he envisioned 3 distinct hominids living in the mid-Pleistocene.
(Arch, 5/05, p.59)
1906 Percival Lowell, astronomer, published "Mars and Its Canals."
(NH, 10/96, p.74)(NH, 12/96, p.22)
1906 Edmund Morel wrote "Red Rubber: the Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo in the year of Grace 1906."
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.9)
1906 Felix Salten (1869-1945), Austrian writer, authored the novel “Josephine Mutzenbacher," the fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, a notorious pornographic novel. In 1923 he authored “Bambi."
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.102)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Salten)
1906 The multi-volume "Flora Brasiliensis," the definitive volume on Brazilian botany commissioned in 1817 by Maximilian I of Austria, was published.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1906 The autobiography of Lew Wallace (1827-1905) was published.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)
1906 American Vitagraph studios of NYC produced the film “Daniel Boone," featuring Florence Lawrence (born as Florence Annie Bridgewood) and her mother Lotta Lawrence. By the following year Florence had appeared in 38 Vitagraph productions.
(ON, 4/06, p.5)
1906 Charles Looff, the carousel demigod, built a carousel that was placed in the SF Playland-at-the-Beach.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A20)
1906 Arnold Schoenberg composed his first Chamber Symphony. It preceded his atonal evolution.
(WSJ, 9/17/98, p.A20)
1906 The 16-story, Beaux-Arts-style Knickerbocker Hotel opened in NYC at Broadway and 42nd. It was financed by Jacob Astor. The hotel closed in 1921 and was converted to apartments and textile showrooms. In the 1950s it was converted to an office tower. In 2006 it was purchased by Istithmar Hotels, an investment arm of Dubai’s royal family, with plans to restore it as a luxury hotel.
(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.G5)
1906 In New York City Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) financed the building of the Pierpont Morgan Library, a research library and museum at 29 E. 36th St. It was designed by McKim, Mead and White.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.B10)
1906 The Hotel Nevada opened in Las Vegas shortly after the rail lines from Los Angeles and Salt Lake City met nearby.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.B1)
1906 The 85-foot Mile Rocks lighthouse at the entrance to the SF Bay was completed. In 1965 the Coast Guard decided to replace it with a cheaper automated light station.
(SFC, 6/29/13, p.C2)
1906 In San Francisco the belt and suspender factory at 130 Bush was constructed shortly after the earthquake. The 10-story building was built on a 20x80 foot lot. Its story was documented in the 1996 book by L.G. Segedin: "130 Bush, An Illustrated Story About Four Buildings and a Monument in San Francisco."
(SFEC, 1/5/97, BR p.1)
1906 In San Francisco a restaurant was built at 441 Pine and featured a scabbard-wearing man holding a serving platter with a boar’s head over his head. In 2014 it was demolished to make way for a 19-story office tower.
(SSFC, 11/9/14, p.C2)
1906 In San Francisco the 16-story Whittell Building was constructed at 166 Geary Street.
(SSFC, 12/19/10, p.C2)
1906 In SF Purcell’s Negro dance hall opened at 550 Pacific St. and Sid LeProtti began playing there. It w3as one of the first buildings erected following the earthquake and fire.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D7)(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1906 The California Federation of Women’s clubs began a campaign to mark the missionary route of El Camino Real with cast-iron bells. They were installed along El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma and included a route along the east side of the SF Bay. The first bell was erected in San Diego. SF got the 13th bell. By 1913 at least 450 bells had been installed. The project was rejuvenated in 1963 and again in 2004.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A15)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 12/20/09, p.C1)
1906 Giuseppe and Mike Gallo founded the Gallo Wine Company in California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1906 The Pagani Brothers established a winery in Sonoma, Ca. In 1970 the Lee family opened Kenwood Vineyards on the site. Some of the Kenwood grapes came from vineyards on Jack London’s original ranch in Glen Ellen.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.F3)
1906 Baldassare Forestiere (1879-1946), Sicilian immigrant, began creating his 10-acre Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, Ca.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D11)(www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Forestierebio.html)
1906 The SF earthquake created a boom for wood and the town of Freestone in Sonoma, Ca., quickly grew to 10,000 people as a lumber and railroad town.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T5)
1906 In San Francisco Horace C. Guittard moved the family coffee, tea and spices business briefly to Commercial St. after the original factory was destroyed in the earthquake, and then soon moved to Main Street with the main focus on chocolate.
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.M6)
1905 Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel bought Union Iron Works, located at Pier 70 in SF, for $1 million. He used the facility to build 66 destroyers and 18 submarines for WWI.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A11)
1905 The National Steel and Ship building Company (NASSCO) in San Diego was founded as a small machine shop. In 1997 the employee-owned company encompassed 147 acres with a work force of 5,000 for ship design, construction and repair.
(IBCC, 10/97, #9)
1905 The Sonoma Brewing Company was established in Sonoma, Ca.
(SFEM,7/28/96, p.25)
1905 Wells Fargo fell under the control of Edward Harriman, a railroad entrepreneur, who moves its headquarters to NYC and merged with Nevada National Bank.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1906 Robert Moran, shipbuilder and mayor of Seattle, Wa., began construction of his 54-room mansion, Rosario, on Orcas Island, where he had purchased 7,800 acres. Construction was begun after Moran had completed the building of the U.S.S. Nebraska for the Navy.
(AAM, 3/96, p.36-39)
1906 Modern Pentecostalism began at a revival meeting at a church on Azuza St. in Los Angeles. It began as a multiracial movement but soon split along racial lines into the white Assemblies of God and the black Church of God in Christ. By 1996 an estimated 20 million Pentecostal Christians were in the US.
(SFC, 10/14/96, p.A17)
1906 The Chicago Lighthouse was founded by a group of women volunteers who were both blind and sighted and offered housing, clothing and food assistance to people who were blind.
(www.thechicagolighthouse.org/default.asp?page=aboutus)
1906 The Cat Fanciers Association split from the American Cat Association and began offering its own shows.
(Smith., 4/1995, p.132)
1906 The first chocolate brownie recipe was published by American cookbook author, Fannie Merritt Farmer. They were named after Celtic pixies. Farmer in 1905 first adapted her chocolate cookie recipe to a bar cookie baked in a rectangular pan.
(http://tinyurl.com/83xc8n6)
1906 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon. He descended to the bottom in 1908 and declared it a national monument.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
1906 Pres. Roosevelt appointed Oscar Solomon as Sec. of Commerce. Solomon was the 1st Jewish person to hold a US cabinet position.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C3)
1906 US colleges set up the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the behest of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
(Econ, 8/16/14, p.21)
1906 The US established a provisional government in Cuba as revolution threatened.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A7)
1906 The US Bureau of Chemistry, a precursor to the FDA, was created.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1906 American Life and Accident Insurance Co. was founded in Kentucky.
(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A9)
1906 The Louisiana McIlhenny family were awarded a trademark for the word Tabasco, which was also the name of their popular pepper sauce.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D11)
1906 The Alaska capital was moved from Sitka to Juneau.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Z1 p.2)
1906 The Alaska Packers Assoc. bought the square-rigged Balclutha ship and renamed it Star of Alaska. It carried workers to the Chignick Cannery and transported them back after the salmon season.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
1906 In Alaska a fire burned down most of downtown Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1906 Cemex opened a cement factory near Davenport, Ca., under a lease to mine limestone until 2067.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A14)
1906 A.P. Giannini saved $80,000 from the Bank of Italy building before it burned and reopened after the earthquake and fire before the other SF banks.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1906 Gay and Robinson joined other sugar planters in the California & Hawaiian Sugar Co. with operations in the SF Bay Area. C&H Sugar took over a waterfront mill in Crockett, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.I3)(SSFC, 3/20/05, p.D11)
1906 Alfred C. Fuller founded the Fuller Brush Company in Hartford, Conn., with $375 in savings and expanded sales using a door-to-door sales force. It was bought out in 1968 by Consolidated Foods for $53 million and then sold to CPAC in 1994 for $17 million.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/3/99, p.B1)
1906 In Hawaii the Kohala Ditch, a massive irrigation system, opened on the Big Island. Seventeen workers from Japan died during its construction.
(SSFC, 9/3/17, p.M5)
1906 Upton Sinclair wrote a letter to Pres. Roosevelt urging him to send an inspector into the Chicago packing houses.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A7)
1906 The Illinois Cabinet Co. was founded. It was later purchased by General Electric, renamed to Illinois Cabinet Works, and used to make cabinets for GE television sets.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.G2)
1906 US Steel Corp. begat a company town in Indiana named Gary after Elbert Henry Gary, the chairman of the board.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A3)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.27)
1906 The Michigan State Telephone Co. published a telephone directory using yellow paper for the first time, thus producing the first Yellow Pages.
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W7)(www.oldtelephonebooks.com/pages/varieties)
1906 Gov. James Kimble of Mississippi denounced black men as fiends and argued that lynching was the only way to control a barbarous race.
(WSJ, 1/14/02, p.A16)
1906 The Red Wing Union Stoneware Co. began operating in Red Wing, Minnesota. In 1936 it became Red Wing Potteries, which closed in 1967.
(SFC, 1/2/08, p.G3)
1906 James Cannon, textile tycoon, founded his North Carolina company town Kannapolis.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.30)
1906 The B.F. Huntley Furniture Co. opened in Winston-Salem, NC. It had been organized as the Oakland Furniture Co. in 1898. In 1929 it was purchased by the Simmons Co., then based in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.G5)
1906 In St. Louis Annie Turnbo (b.1869) registered the "Poro" tradename to cover her Wonderful Hair Grower product. Poro was a Mende (West African) term for a devotional society.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.30)
1906 The Haloid Co. was founded in Rochester, New York (home of Kodak). It was a photographic paper supplier and later became the Xerox Corp.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox)(WSJ, 8/17/95, p.C-1)
1906 The Capital building in Harrisburg, Pa., featured a dome modeled on St. Peter’s in Rome.
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.D6)
1906 The John C. Bell building was completed in Philadelphia, Pa. It was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(SFC, 1/13/14, p.A4)
1906 Ex-Lax, the laxative, was first sold. Its main ingredient, phenolphthalein, was later found to be a cancer risk and it was yanked from the shelves in 1997. The laxative qualities of the chemical were thought to be first discovered accidentally by Hungarians in 1902 who considered using it as an additive in wine.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1906 J.P. Morgan brought in Theodore Vail to organize the AT&T telephone system.
(I&I, Penzias, p.214)
1906 The Commercial Pacific Cable Co. (later AT&T) planted ironwood trees on Midway Island after setting cable across the Pacific.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)
1906 Charles F. Kettering designed the first cash register powered by an electric motor.
(www.ncr.com/history/history.htm)
1906 The Planters Nut and Chocolate Co. was formed. The company's symbol, Mr. Peanut, was created ten years later.
(SFC, 1/20/99, Z1 p.2)
1906 Wagon builders John, William and Augustus Mack came out with a 10-ton truck.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E4)
1906 The twins Francis and Freelan Stanley won acclaim when their Stanley Steamer set a world speed record at Ormond Beach, Fla., at 127.66 mph.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1906 There were 72,000 recorded divorces in the US. A 7-fold increase in 40 years.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.39)
1906 Paul Laurence Dunbar (b.1872), US poet, died. His verse and short stories were written in black dialect.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(WSJ, 1/21/00, p.W2)
1906 Stanford White (b.1852), architect, was shot and killed by the millionaire husband of his former teenage mistress. The incident was later featured in E.L. Doctorow’s novel 1975 "Ragtime" and the 1955 movie "The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing." White’s story was later told by Suzannah Lessard in her 1996 book: "The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family."
(SFEC, 10/13/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.C21)
1906 Ludwig Boltzmann (b.1844), Austrian atomic physics engineer, died. His Vienna tombstone read "Entropy is the logarithm of probability." He hanged himself at the seaside resort of Duino.
(WUD, 1994, p.167)(WSJ, 7/28/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 8/16/98, Z1 p.8)
1906 Joseph Malaby Dent (1849-1926), British bookbinder turned publisher, began Everyman’s Library, a collection of low cost classic books.
(WSJ, 1/9/06, p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Dent)
1906 In Britain a Trade Disputes Act was passed. It aimed to protect striking workers from retaliation through the courts [see 1900].
(Econ, 5/22/10, p.60)
1906 In England the Manchester engineer Henry Royce and millionaire’s son Charles Rolls built the first Rolls-Royce car.
(WSJ, 10/28/97, p.B1)
1906 David Casement, a British consul, was sent to Brazil, first as consul in Pará, then transferred to Santos, and lastly promoted to consul-general in Rio de Janeiro. When he was attached as a consular representative to a commission investigating murderous rubber slavery by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company, effectively controlled by the archetypal rubber baron Julio Cesar Arana and his brother, Casement had the occasion to do work among the Putumayo Indians of Peru similar to that which he had done in the Congo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement)
1906 In Germany the 1st gay periodical "Der Eigene" was published.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, DB p.66)
1906 Alfred Lothar Wegener (26), German meteorologist, joined an expedition to survey Greenland’s glacier-fringed coast.
(ON, 9/04, p.8)
1906 A coalition of clerical grandees, progressive intellectuals and bazaar traders forced the shah of Iran to promulgate Iran’s first constitution and establish a parliament.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.85)
1906 Boris Schatz (d.1932) founded a visionary art school in Jerusalem and became known for his trademark white robe and pet peacock. Born in Lithuania and trained in Paris he was a Jewish artist and occasional boxer who discovered Zionism and abandoned the European art scene for Jerusalem, then a Mideastern backwater.
(AP, 5/23/10)
1906 The Cemex company was founded in Mexico with the opening of Cementos Hidalgo. In 1920 Cementos Portland Monterrey began operations and in 1931 the 2 companies merged to become Cementos Mexicanos.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemex)
1906 Morgan Shuster (1877-1960), an American lawyer, was appointed Secretary of Public Instruction in the Philippines and a member of the Philippine Commission.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_Shuster)
1906 The Ottoman register listed 194 eunuchs and 500 women in the imperial harem. Two years later they were gone.
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.51)
1906-1911 Petr Stolypin served as prime minister of Russia until he was executed. In 2001 Abraham Ascher authored the biography: "P.A. Stolypin."
(WSJ, 5/16/01, p.A21)
1906-1916 In Daly City, Ca., businesses made gas out of oil at 731 Schwerin St.
(SFC, 3/2/09, p.B1)
1906-1926 Saudi forces captured the Al Hasa, Asir and Al Hijaz regions, unifying much of Arabia under Saudi rule.
(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1906-1930 The Heintz Art Metal Shop of Buffalo, N.Y., owned by Otto L. and Edwin Heintz, made decorative wares over this period.
(SFC, 4/1/98, Z1 p.7)
1906-1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian: "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."
(AP, 8/27/00)
1906-1956 The career of George Jean Nathan, drama critic and companion of H.L. Mencken. In 1998 Charles S. Angoff published "The World of George Jean Nathan: Essays Reviews & Commentary."
(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR p.4)
1906-1967 Franz Waxman, German composer. He left Nazi Germany to work in Hollywood and wrote the score to Billy Wilder's film "Sunset Boulevard."
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.W10)
1906-1972 Oscar Levant, pianist-composer-actor: "Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember."
(AP, 1/23/00)
1906-1973 Lon Chaney Jr., son of actor Lon Chaney. In 1998 Don G. Smith published "Lon Chaney Jr., Horror Film Star, 1906-1973."
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.6)
1906-1975 Hannah Arendt, German-born American historian and philosopher: "Real stories, in distinction from those we invent, have no author. Although history owes its existence to men, it is not ‘made’ by them." "Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." "It is quite gratifying to feel guilty if you haven't done anything wrong: How noble! Whereas it is rather hard and certainly depressing to admit guilt and to repent."
(AP, 5/7/97)(AP, 8/15/98)(AP, 6/30/99)
1906-1978 Gilbert Highet, Scottish-born American author and educator: "What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?"
(AP, 11/4/97)
1906-1989 Richard Armour: "Shake and shake / The catsup bottle. / None will come, / And then a lot’ll."
(AP, 2/28/98)
1906-1996 Sir Laurens van der Post, South African author: "Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right."
(AP, 4/29/01)
1907 Jan 1, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in 1 day.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1907 Jan 1, The Pure Food and Drug Act became law in the United States
(HN, 1/1/99)
1907 Jan 4, George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" scene from "Man and Superman" premiered in London.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1907 Jan 6, Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician, educationist, opened her 1st school, Children’s House (Casa dei Bambini), in San Lorenzo, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)(SFC, 1/6/07, p.B1)
1907 Jan 15, 3-element vacuum tube was patented by Dr. Lee De Forest.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1907 Jan 22, The Richard Strauss opera "Salome" made its American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC; its racy content (including the Dance of the Seven Veils) sparked outrage.
(AP, 1/22/07)
1907 Jan 23, Hediki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949), was born.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1907 Jan 26, US Congress passed the Tillman Act, which prohibited corporations from making direct campaign contributions to federal election candidates. It was named for Sen. Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, a democrat from South Carolina.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.D9)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.A8)(AP, 1/26/07)
1907 Jan 26, John Millington Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World" opened at the Abbey Theater in Dublin. Many Irish nationalists found it so offensive that they embarked on a semi-organized campaign to bring down the production.
(SFC, 12/30/06, p.E1)(www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10167)
1907 Feb 3, James A. Michener (d.1997), American novelist, was born. His work included "Tales of the South Pacific." "Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries."
(AP, 2/4/97)(HN, 2/3/01)
1907 Feb 5, Norton Simon, publishing executive (Simon & Schuster), was born.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1907 Feb 8, Revolution broke out in Argentina.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1907 Feb 10, It was reported that SF Mayor Schmitz had agreed to close the city's "oriental schools" and allow Asian children to attend white schools following a meeting with Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Feb 11, William J. Levitt, U.S. businessman and community builder, was born. He led the postwar housing revolutions with his Levittowns.
(HN, 2/11/99)
1907 Feb 11, The passenger ship Larchmont was steaming through a winter storm in heavy seas, 4 miles southwest of Watch Hill, Rhode Island when she was rammed by the coal carrying schooner Harry P. Knowles, which had drifted off course in the blizzard. The Larchmont sank in 10 minutes and only 19 men including the captain, George McVey survived the ordeal.
(http://rhodeisland-philatelic.com/rhodeisland/postcard120.htm)
1907 Feb 12, Bodies continued to wash ashore from the steamer Larchmont, which had collided the previous with a schooner off New England's Block Island. The vessel's quartermaster, James E. Staples, claimed a loss of 332.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1907 Feb 13, English suffragettes stormed the British Parliament and 60 women were arrested.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1907 Feb 16, Fernando Previtali, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1907 Feb 17, Colonel Olcott died in Madras, India during his last trip there to give his annual Theosophical Society presidential address .
(Smith., 5/95, p.127)
1907 Feb 18, 600,000 tons of grain were sent to Russia to relieve the famine there.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1907 Feb 18, In SF according to an agreement between Mayor Schmidt, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and the SF School Board, Japanese children under 16 were to be admitted to the city’s public schools, skilled and unskilled laborers from Japan were to be banned from entering the US and American laborers were to be excluded from Japan.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Feb 20, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons" from being admitted to the US.
(AP, 2/20/07)
1907 Feb 21, Wystan Hugh Auden (d.1973), English born American poet, critic and playwright, was born. He wrote the libretto for Benjamin Britten’s first music drama (1941), "Paul Bunyan." He died in Austria after suffering from Touraine-Solente-Gole in which the skin of the forehead, face, scalp, hands, and feet becomes thick and furrowed. "Political history is far too criminal and pathological to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villains from fiction." His work included "The Age of Anxiety." In 1998 Norman Page published "Auden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years."
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AHD, 86)(WSJ, 2/12/96, p.A-13)(WSJ, 1/8/98, p.A7)(AP, 4/15/98)(WSJ, 4/23/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.8)(HN, 2/21/01)
1907 Feb 22, It was reported that workers at the refugee camp in San Francisco’s Ingleside district had agreed the comply with a directive by commander C.M. Wallenberg to work one day per week for the betterment of the camp or miss their allotment of free tobacco.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Feb 22, The 1st cabs with taxi meters began operating in London.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1907 Feb 26, Concerns about a growing influx of foreigners, mostly Europeans, prompted Congress to create what became known as the Dillingham Commission, which examined the impact of immigrants on America. The panel later recommended curtailing immigration from southern and eastern Europe through use of quotas, higher entry fees, literacy tests and other restrictions.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1907 Feb 26, Members of US Congress raised their own salaries to $7500.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Feb 26, Royal Oil and Shell merged to form British Petroleum (BP).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Feb 28, Milton Caniff, cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates), was born in Hillsboro, Ohio.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1907 Feb, In San Francisco Dr. Edward Robeson Taylor (1838-1923) married Eustice Jeffers (27), the daughter of an old friend. Taylor, a lawyer and a doctor, was named mayor of the city on July 16.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robeson_Taylor)(SFC, 11/6/07, p.B5)
1907 Mar 1, There were only 15,000 Jews left in Odessa, Russia. The attacks on the Jews continued as more and more evacuated.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1907 Mar 2, Georges Feydeaus' "La Puce à l'Oreille" premiered in Paris, France.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Mar 2, General Louis Botha was named premier of Transvaal.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Mar 5, The 2nd Russian Duma, which included 7 Lithuanians, began work. The Duma stayed in session until June 15.
(LHC, 3/5/03)
1907 Mar 6, In California Gov. James Gillett signed amendments to the Pharmacy and Poison Act making it a crime to sell opiates of cocaine in the state without a prescription.
(SSFC, 3/4/07, p.E1)
1907 Mar 7, Rolf Jacobsen, Norwegian poet, was born.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1907 Mar 9, Henry Leland Clarke, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1907 Mar 9, Indiana enacted the nation’s 1st involuntary sterilization law based on eugenics. It was intended "to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists." More than 30 states ended up passing compulsory sterilization laws that were eventually overturned or repealed. In 2004 Christine Rosen authored "Preaching Eugenics."
(NH, 7/02, p.12)(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.D10)(AP, 3/9/07)
1907 Mar 11, President Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1907 Mar 14, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan.
(AP, 3/14/07)
1907 Mar 15-1907 Mar 16, Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the world to attain full political rights.
(http://electionresources.org/fi/)
1907 Mar 16 The British cruiser Invincible, the world’s largest, was completed at Glasgow shipyards.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1907 Mar 19, It was reported that all but 2 San Francisco supervisors admitted accepting bribes from United Railroads street-car company, several telephone companies and the Gas and Electric Company.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Mar 20, A San Francisco grand jury returned a 66-count indictment against Abe Ruef and two executives of a Bell system telephone company who had bribed him.
(SFC, 7/18/15, p.C2)
1907 Mar 21, US Marines arrived in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)(AP, 3/21/07)
1907 Mar 22, James Gavin, U.S. Army General, was born. He commanded the 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, Operation Market-Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 Mar 22, Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 Mar 23, Daniele Bovet, Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist, was born.
(HN, 3/23/01)
1907 Mar 28, Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg (65), composer, died.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1907 Mar 31, Romanian Army put down a Moldavian farmers' revolt.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1907 Apr 13, Harold E. Stassen (d.2001), later 3-term governor, was born on a truck farm in W. St. Paul.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)(MC, 4/13/02)
1907 Apr 14, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, dictator of Haiti, was born.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1907 Apr 16, Joseph-Armand Bombardier, inventor of the snowmobile, was born in Valcourt, Quebec, Canada.
(www.museebombardier.com/en/content/jab/biographie1907_1925.htm)
1907 Apr 17, The Ellis Island immigration center in New York Harbor processed a record 11,747 immigrants, part of a record 1,004,756 for the year. Between 1820 and 1970, the year 1907 saw the largest number of immigrants to the U.S., 1,285,349. Between 1905 and 1915, the annual immigration numbers topped 1 million six times.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)(HNQ, 8/12/99)
1907 Apr 18, Miklos Rozsa, movie composer (Atomic Cafe, Fedora), was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1907 Apr 18, SF Board of supervisors, a year after the city’s 1906 earthquake, set the official death toll for the disaster at 478. Let evidence showed more that 3,400 fatalities.
(SFC, 1/15/05, p.B1)
1907 Apr 18, The Fairmont Hotel opened in SF, exactly one year after the 1906 earthquake. It was designed by Julia Morgan and named after mining magnate James Graham Fair.
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.F1)
1907 Apr 25, Paula Trueman, actress (Gran-Billy), was born in NYC.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1907 Apr 26, The Jamestown, Va., Tercentenary Exposition opened.
(www.jamestown2007.org/past-1907.cfm)(Econ, 5/1/07, p.40)
1907 Apr 29, Fred Zinnemann (d.3/14/97), Hollywood film director, was born in Vienna. His films included “A Hatful of Rain," “The Sundowners," “The Nun’s Story," “From Here to Eternity," “Julia" and “A Man for All Seasons" (1966) with Paul Scofield.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)(AP, 4/29/07)
1907 Apr, William Edgar Geil (42), travel writer from Doylestown, Pa., arrived on his 2nd trip to China in Shanhaiaguan. He planned to follow the Great Wall of China from one end to the other and write a detailed account of the structure.
(ON, 2/09, p.10)
1907 May 1, Kate Smith (d.1986), singer, was born in Washington, DC.
(AP, 5/1/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith)
1907 May 5, San Francisco streetcar workers of the Carmen’s Union went on strike after Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, refused to accept a $3 per 8-hour day wage. Calhoun induced the strike and hired James Farley to break the union. The strike ended up leaving 31 people dead.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.D9)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B1)
1907 May 7, In San Francisco a gunfight erupted during the electrical workers strike in what came to be known as "Bloody Tuesday." City union street car workers fought with scabs and 4 people were killed and 20 seriously injured.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.B3)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 May 9, Baldur von Schirach, German writer, Nazi Youth leader, convicted war criminal, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1907 May 10, Paul Dukas' opera "Ariane et Barbe Bleue," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1907 May 12, Katherine Hepburn, actress (The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen), was born in Hartford, CT.
(HN, 5/12/01)(AP, 5/12/07)
1907 May 12, Leslie Charteris, English-US detective writer (The Saint), was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1907 May 12, A. Kopff discovered asteroids #633, Zelima, and #634, Ute.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1907 May 12, J.K. Huysmans (59), writer, died.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1907 May 13, Daphne du Maurier (d.1989), author (Rebecca), was born in England.
(HN, 5/13/01)(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.W4)
1907 May 15, In San Francisco Abe Reuf pleaded guilty to charges of extortion.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 May 22, Lord Laurence Olivier, English actor, was born in Dorking, Surrey. He made Shakespeare movies and was knighted in 1947.
(HN, 5/22/99)(AP, 5/22/07)
1907 May 25, U Nu, premier Burma (1948-58, 1960-62), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1907 May 26, John Wayne, American actor, was born as Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. He became famous for his western and World War II movies.
(HN, 5/26/99)(AP, 5/26/07)
1907 May 27, Rachel Carson (d.1964), biologist and writer (Silent Spring, The Sea Around Us), was born. "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."
(AP, 12/29/98)(HN, 5/27/01)
1907 May 27, Bubonic Plague broke out again in San Francisco.
(HN, 5/27/98)(SFC, 9/20/14, p.C2)
1907 May 28, Patrick Browne, British Lord justice of appeal, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1907 May 29, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, critic, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1907 May 31, Taxis began running in NYC. [see Aug 13]
(MC, 5/31/02)
1907 May, The idea of a day set apart every year to honor motherhood is credited to Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, who, in 1907, suggested the wearing of carnations on the second Sunday in May to honor mothers. Her enthusiastic campaign for a nationwide observance attracted enough public support that President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May 1914 the first national Mother’s Day.
(HNPD, 5/9/00)
1907 Jun 1, Frank A. Whittle, England inventor (jet engine), was born. (MC, 6/1/02)
1907 Jun 1,27 degrees F (-33 degrees C) in Sarmiento, Argentina, a South American record.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1907 Jun 4, Automatic washer and dryer was introduced.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1907 Jun 6, Bill Dickey, professional baseball player, was born.
(HN, 6/6/01)
1907 Jun 11, Paul Mellon (d.1999), art lover, horse breeder (1964 Gold Baton), and philanthropist, was born to Andrew W. Mellon and Nora McMullen. Andrew Mellon was a financier and longtime secretary of the treasury. Mellon donations created the Yale Center for British Art, the Bollingen Prize for poetry, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A22)(SC, 6/11/02)
1907 Jun 12, A committee from the Vista Grande Improvement Club (Daly City, Ca.) was appointed to arrange for a volunteer fire department and a fire alarm system.
(DCFD, Centennial, 2007)
1907 Jun 14, Women in Norway won the right to vote.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1907 Jun 16, The Russian czar dissolved the Duma in St. Petersburg.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1907 Jun 20, Lillian Hellman (d.1984), American author and playwright (The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic), was born. "Success and failure are not true opposites and they’re not even in the same class; they’re not even a couch and a chair."
(AP, 1/28/01)(HN, 6/20/01)
1907 Jun 21, American newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps founded the United Press Associations, a forerunner of United Press International.
(AP, 6/21/07)
1907 Jun 22, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author (Gift from the Sea), was born.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1907 Jun 26, Russia’s nobility demanded drastic measures to be taken against revolutionaries.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1907 Jun 27, John McIntire, actor (Naked City, Wagon Train, Virginian), was born in Spokane, Wash.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1907 Jun 27, Valerie Cossart (d.1994), actress (The Hartmans), was born in London.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0181961/)
1907 Jun, Pablo Picasso stumbled on the African and Oceanic collection at the Ethnographic Museum of the Trocadero in Paris, as he was working on "Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon." The experience from that point on put an African influence on much of his work.
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A20)(Econ, 2/11/06, p.81)
1907 Jul 1, World's 1st air force was established as part of the US Army.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1907 Jul 1, The Asiatic Registration Act became law in the province of Transvaal, SA.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1907 Jul 3, A Papal decree forbade the modernization of theology.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1907 Jul 4, Heavy weight champ Tommy Burns (1881-1955) knocked out Bill Squires of Australia in the first round in Colma, Ca.
(http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Tommy_Burns)
1907 Jul 6, Artist Frida Kahlo (d.1954) was born in Coyoacan, Mexico.
(SFC, 4/18/96, E-1)(SFC, 7/14/96, p.C11)(AP, 7/6/07)
1907 Jul 7, Robert Heinlein (d.1988), science-fiction author, was born in Butler, Miss. "Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil."
(V.D.-H.K.p.383)(AP, 5/25/99)(AP, 7/7/07)
1907 Jul 8, SF Mayor Eugene Schmitz was sentenced to 5 years in San Quentin for graft and bribery, but the conviction was later overturned. Others were forced out of office for accepting bribes from the telephone company, gas company, trolley company, local skating rinks and boxing promoters. Dr. Charles A. Boxton (d.1927) admitted to taking bribes and was granted immunity by District Attorney W.H. Langdon for his testimony. Boxton was then appointed temporary mayor for one week in place of Mayor Schmitz and then resigned. The Native Sons of California promptly struck Boxton from their rolls. Schmitz was later elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. One of the bribes was a $200,000 payment to the SF supervisors from Patrick Henry Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, which operated nearly all of the city’s public transit lines.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.E8)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1907 Jul 8, George W. Romney, later governor of Michigan, was born into a Mormon family in Chihuahua, Mexico. He later was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination until he admitted that he had been "brainwashed" by the military on the Vietnam War.
(HN, 7/8/98)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)
1907 Jul 8, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1907 Jul 15, The London Electrobus Company began picking up passengers in the world’s biggest trials of battery-powered buses. The service collapsed in 1909. It suffered from an investment scam led by Baron de Martigny, a Canadian music-hall artist, the front man for Edward Lehwess, a German lawyer and con-artist. In 1906 Lehwess had sold the company a worthless patent that caused investors to demand the return of some 80,000 pounds.
(Econ, 9/8/07, TQ p.10)
1907 Jul 16, Orville Redenbacher (d.1995), agronomist and popcorn entrepreneur, was born in Brazil, Indiana. "Do one thing and do it better than anyone."
(AH, 10/01, p.36)(AP, 7/16/07)
1907 Jul 16, Barbara Stanwyck (d.1990), Oscar winning actress, was born in New York as Ruby Stevens.
(HN, 7/16/98)(AP, 7/16/07)
1907 Jul 16, The SF supervisors, under pressure from graft prosecutors, named Edward Robeson Taylor (67), a doctor and lawyer, as mayor. He quickly replaced 16 of 18 supervisors, forced the police chief to quit and replaced many city officials with honest and competent men.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.B5)
1907 Jul 18, Florenz Ziegfeld's "Follies of 1907," premiered in NYC. [see Jul 8]
(MC, 7/18/02)
1907 Jul 24, In Boise, Id., the last day of the Bill Haywood trial over the 1905 murder of former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg. Haywood, president of the Western Federation of Miners, was defended by Clarence Darrow.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)
1907 Jul 25, Jack Gilford, actor (Save the Tiger, Cocoon, Arthur 2), was born in NYC.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1907 Jul 25, Johnny Hodges, jazz musician, was born.
(HN, 7/25/02)
1907 Jul 28, Earl Silas Tupper, founder of Tupperware, was born.
(HN, 7/28/01)
1907 Jul 28, Vivian Vance, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), was born in Cherryvale, Ks.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1907 Aug 1, The US Air Force had its beginnings as the US Army Signal Corps established an aeronautical division in charge of "all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines and all kindred subjects."
(AP, 8/1/07)
1907 Aug 2, Fire Chief George Edmonds called roll call at Poket’s Hall for the 45 members of the newly organized Vista Grande Fire Dept. members were ordered to respond to calls with their own buckets until equipment could be purchased. The area population (Daly city, Ca.) was estimated at 2,900.
(DCFD, Centennial, 2007)
1907 Aug 3, Irene Tedrow, actress (Lucy-Dennis the Menace, Mr. Novak), was born in Denver, Colo.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1907 Aug 8, Benny Carter, jazz musician, composer and bandleader, was born in New York.
(AP, 8/8/07)
1907 Aug 13, Alfred Alwin Felix Krupp, arms manufacturer, was born in Essen, Germany.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1907 Aug 13, The 1st taxicab began operating in NYC. [see May 31]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1907 Aug 14, "Ha-Tikva" was adopted as official Zionist hymn.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1907 Aug 15, Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim (b.1831), widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century, died in Berlin.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Joachim)
1907 Aug 21, Dr. Roy K. Marshall, TV scientist (Nature of Things), was born in Glen Carbon, Ill.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1907 Aug 26, Harry Houdini escaped from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 sec.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1907 Aug 26, In San Bruno, Ca., the Olympic Club held its first annual motor meet at the Tanforan race track. 10,000 spectators and 700 machines showed up for the auto and motorcycle races.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Aug 28, Two Seattle teenagers began a telephone message service that grew to become the United Parcel Service (UPS). Jim Casey (19) and Claude Ryan founded the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Wash. In 1913 the company merged with Evert McCabe and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. In 1919 the company expanded beyond Seattle and changed their name to United Parcel Service (UPS).
(SFC, 7/22/99, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Parcel_Service)
1907 Aug 30, Shirley Booth (Thelma Booth Ford) was born in New York City. Booth was best known from 1950s television as the zany maid Hazel. She won a Tony, an Oscar, the Cannes Festival award and numerous critics' commendations for her role as the slovenly Lola Delany in 'Come Back, Little Sheba'. Booth went on to act in more films including 'The Matchmaker' which was a precursor to the musical 'Hello Dolly!'
(MC, 8/30/01)
1907 Aug 31, William Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1907 Aug 31, England, Russia and France formed their Triple Entente.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1907 Aug, Mayor Eugene Schmitz and others were forced out of office for accepting bribes from the telephone company, gas company, trolley company, local skating rinks and boxing promoters. Dr. Charles A. Boxton (d.1927) admitted to taking bribes and was granted immunity by District Attorney W.H. Langdon for his testimony. Boxton was then appointed temporary mayor for one week in place of Mayor Schmitz and then resigned. The Native Sons of California promptly struck him from their rolls.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.E8)
1907 Sep 1, Walter Reuther, labor leader, was born in Wheeling, W.Va. He merged the American Federation of Labor with the Congress of International Organizations
(HN, 9/1/99)(AP, 9/1/07)
1907 Sep 3, Carl Anderson, physicist, was born in NYC. He won the 1936 Nobel prize for his discovery of the positron.
(HN, 9/3/00)
1907 Sep 3, Loren Eiseley, professor of Anthropology (Animal Secrets), was born in Lincoln, Nebraska.
(www.american-buddha.com)
1907 Sep 4, In Washington state five hundred white working men in Bellingham gathered to drive a community of South Asian migrant workers (Sikhs) out of the city. Within ten days the entire South Asian population departed town.
(http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/bham_history.htm)
1907 Sep 4, Edvard Hagerup Grieg (64), Norwegian composer (Peer Gynt Suite), died.
(WUD, 1994, p.622)(MC, 9/4/01)
1907 Sep 7, The British liner RMS Lusitania set out on its maiden voyage, from Liverpool, England, to New York, arriving six days later. The Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine in 1915.
(AP, 9/7/07)
1907 Sep 8, Pius X published his anti-modernism encyclical Pasceni dominici gregis.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1907 Sep 10, Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus Nieman, and her husband A.I. Nieman opened the retail firm Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas. By 2002 the firm had 32 US stores.
(SSFC, 9/9/07, p.G3)(AP, 9/10/07)
1907 Sep 10, Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest US National Forest, was established as part of the National Forest System in a presidential proclamation made by Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908 it was joined with the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve, established in 1902.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongass_National_Forest)
1907 Sep 13, The RMS Lusitania arrived in New York, completing its maiden voyage from England.
(AP, 9/13/07)
1907 Sep 15, Fay Wray (d.2004), film actress, was born in Alberta, Canada. She became best known for her 1933 performance in “King Kong."
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.B7)
1907 Sep 17, Warren Earl Burger, the 15th chief justice of the United States (1969-86), was born in St. Paul, Minn.
(AP, 9/17/07)
1907 Sep 19, US Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was born in Suffolk, Va.
(AP, 9/19/07)
1907 Sep 23, Jarmila Novotna, soprano (Met Opera) and president of Czechoslovakia (1957-68), was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1907 Sep 25, Jean Sibelius' 3rd Symphony premiered.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1907 Sep 26, Anthony F. Blunt, British historian and spy for USSR, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1907 Sep 26, New Zealand went from being a colony to a dominion within the British Empire.
(AP, 9/26/07)
1907 Sep 29, The foundation stone was laid for Washington National Cathedral, which wasn't fully completed until 1990.
(AP, 9/29/07)
1907 Sep 29, Gene Autry (d.1998), singing cowboy and baseball executive, was born in Tioga, Texas.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/29/07)
1907 Sep, The Cosmopolitan magazine published the epic poem “A Wine of Wizardry" by George Sterling (1869-1926). The poem and accompanying essay by Ambrose Bierce sparked critical reaction across the continent. Sterling, Jack London’s best friend, was the scion of a Long Island whaling family and worked in an East Bay real estate firm.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.M4)
1907 Sep, By this time some 55 new cases of bubonic plague were identified in San Francisco and the issue became a national concern.
(ON, 1/00, p.6)
1907 Sep, In Chicago the Marshall Field store under John G. Shedd, (1850–1926) was expanded to cover the whole block on State St. bounded by Wabash, Washington and Randolph.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Field%27s)
1907 Oct 1, The Plaza Hotel opened in NYC at 5th Av and 59th Str.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.T4)(AP, 10/1/07)
1907 Oct 7, Helen MacInnes, writer, was born.
(HN, 10/7/00)
1907 Oct 11, The freighter Cyprus foundered during a storm on Lake Superior, while on its second voyage hauling iron ore from Superior, Wis., to Buffalo, NY. All but one of the Cyprus' 23 crew members died. The 420-foot shipwreck was found in 2007, 8 miles north of Deer Park, Mich., where a single survivor had reached shore. The ship was built in Lorain, Ohio, and launched on Aug. 17, 1907.
(AP, 9/10/07)
1907 Oct 13, Yves Allégret, French film director, was born. His work included "Dédée d'Anvers" and "Une si jolie petite plage."
(HN, 10/13/00)
1907 Oct 17, Guglielmo Marconi began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1907 Oct 21, The Panic of 1907 began with a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co. of New York. News soon emerged that it was caught up in a scam by bankers Augustus Heinze and Charles Morse, who had borrowed and embezzled vast sums to corner the market in shares of United Copper.
(AP, 10/21/07)(Econ, 4/12/14, p.53)
1907 Oct 22, President Theodore Roosevelt visited The Hermitage, the Nashville, Tenn., home of the late President Andrew Jackson. Years later, Maxwell House claimed that Roosevelt had praised a cup of its coffee during this visit by saying it was "good to the last drop."
(AP, 10/22/07)
1907 Oct 22, The five Ringling brothers of Baraboo, Wisconsin, bought out Barnum & Bailey Circus to form the Greatest Show on Earth.
(HN, 10/22/98)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A10)
1907 Oct 27, Union Station in Washington, D.C., opened.
(AP, 10/27/07)
1907 Oct 27, The first trial in the Eulenberg Affair ended in Germany. Prince Philip Eulenberg was an aristocrat and former diplomat who was an old friend of the Kaiser’s. Others were jealous of Eulenberg’s position. Maximilian Harden, editor of the magazine Die Zunkunft, began to print a series of articles in the fall of 1906 which alleged that Eulenberg and other highly placed men were homosexuals.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1907 Oct 28, Edith Head, fashion designer for MGM, was born.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1907 Oct, By general agreement the first mention of the word “brassiere" appeared in Vogue magazine.
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.E1)
1907 Nov 5, Moncure D. Conway (b.1832), American clergyman and author, died. "It is the darling delusion of mankind that the world is progressive in religion, toleration, freedom, as it is progressive in machinery."
(AP, 3/19/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncure_D._Conway)
1907 Nov 7, General Electric was re-instated as a component of the Dow Jones. Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. was removed from the Dow Jones. GE had entered the appliance business this year.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
1907 Nov 13, The 1st helicopter was piloted by French engineer Paul Cornu (1881-1944). The copter hovered a foot off the ground for 20 seconds [see Apr 12, 1905].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cornu)(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)
1907 Nov 14, William Steig, children author ("Shrek"), was born in New York.
(AP, 11/14/07)
1907 Nov 14, Astrid Lindgren (d.2002), children's writer, was born near Vimmerby, Sweden. Her books included “Pippi Longstocking."
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17)(AP, 11/14/07)
1907 Nov 15, Count Claus Schenck von Stauffenberg, German anti fascist colonel, was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1907 Nov 16, Burgess Meredith, actor, was born in Cleveland. He died Sep 10, 1997 at 89. He played the Penguin on TV’s Batman and numerous films in a 60 year film career.
(HIR, 9/11/97, p.5B)(SFC, 9/11/97, p.A18)
1907 Nov 16, The Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico was established as a national monument. People of the Mogollon culture lived in these cliff dwellings from the 1280s through the early 1300s.
(SSFC, 9/21/08, p.E6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_Cliff_Dwellings_National_Monument)
1907 Nov 16, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were unified to make Oklahoma, which was made the 46th state. Black settlers founded some 30 towns before statehood was achieved. Osage Indian Reservation became Osage County, one of the largest in the US.
(WSJ, 11/10/97, p.A1)(NG, 5/95, p.92)(HN, 11/16/98)(SFCM, 3/9/08, p.20)
1907 Nov 20, Henri-Georges Clouzot, French director (Le salaire de la peur), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 21, Jim Bishop, author (The Day Lincoln was Shot), was born.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1907 Nov 21, The Cunard liner Mauritania set a new speed record for steamship travel, 624 nautical miles in a one day run.
(HN, 11/21/02)
1907 Nov 21, Gaetano Braga (78), composer, died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1907 Nov 26, The Russian Duma lent support to Czar in St. Petersburg, who claimed that he had renounced autocracy.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1907 Nov 27, Lyon Sprague de Camp (d.2000), US sci-fi author (Goblin Tower, Hand of Zei), was born.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1907 Nov 28, Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist, novelist, was born. His work included “The Conformist" and “Conjugal Love."
(HN, 11/28/00)
1907 Nov 28, Future movie producer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Mass.
(AP, 11/28/07)
1907 Nov 28, Stanislaw Wyspianski (b.1869), Polish playwright, painter and poet, died in Krakow. He created a series of symbolic, national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Wyspia%C5%84ski)
1907 Nov 30, Jacques Barzun, French author, was born. Hi books included “The House of Intellect" (1959).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Barzun)
1907 Nov, Edward Robeson Taylor (1838-1923), appointed in July as interim mayor of SF, was elected to the office.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.B5)
1907 Dec 2, Spain and France agreed to enforce Moroccan measures adopted in 1906.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1907 Dec 3, George M. Cohan's musical "Talk of the Town," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1907 Dec 6, The worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, W.Va.
(AP, 12/6/07)
1907 Dec 7, The first Christmas Seals to help the fight against tuberculosis were sold, in Wilmington, Del. [Some sources say Dec. 9].
(AP, 12/7/07)
1907 Dec 8, Oscar II (78), the king of Sweden and former king of Norway, died in Stockholm.
(AP, 12/8/07)
1907 Dec 9, US Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office. Proceeds went to fight tuberculosis. The fists US Christmas seals were issued by the Red Cross in a program founded by a Delaware woman to support a TB sanitarium [see Dec 7].
(AP, 12/9/97)(SFC, 12/23/98, Z1 p.3)
1907 Dec 10, Rumor Godden, English novelist (Black Narcissus), was born.
(HN, 12/10/00)
1907 Dec 13, In Argentina the Ministry of Agriculture struck oil while drilling for water in Comodoro Rivadavia.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1907 Dec 16, US Navy battleships, which came to be known collectively as the "Great White Fleet," set sail from Hampton Roads, Va., on a 14-month round-the-world voyage at the order of President Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted to demonstrate American sea power.
(AP, 12/16/07)
1907 Dec 17, A Bhutan royal dynasty was founded. Gongsa Ugyen Wangchuck became the first hereditary king of Bhutan.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T6)(SSFC, 12/14/14, p.N3)
1907 Dec 17, William Thompson (b.1824), Belfast-born mathematical physicist and engineer, (aka Lord Kelvin), died in Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Kelvin)
1907 Dec 18, Christopher Fry, playwright (Ring Around the Moon), was born in Bristol, England.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1907 Dec 19, A gas explosion killed 239 workers in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pa.
(AP, 12/19/97)(MC, 12/19/01)
1907 Dec 21, Oskar Lassar (58), German dermatologist, died.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1907 Dec 22, Actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft was born in Croydon, England.
(AP, 12/22/07)
1907 Dec 23, The 1st all-steel passenger railroad coach was completed at Altoona, Pa.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1907 Dec 24, I.F. Stone (d.1989), American investigative journalist, was born in Philadelphia. "Those who nobly set out to be their brother's keeper sometimes end up by becoming his jailer. Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie."
(AP, 10/17/99)(AP, 12/24/07)
1907 Dec 25, Cab Calloway, band leader and first Jazz singer to sell a million records, was born.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1907 Dec 26, Albert Gore Sr. (d.1998), later US Representative and Senator from Tennessee, was born in Granville, Tenn.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.C14)
1907 Dec 26, William Kent (d.1928) donated 298 acres for the Muir Woods National Monument. US Rep. William Kent, heir to a Chicago meat-packing fortune, had moved to Marin County, Ca., in the late 1800s. His donations also included parkland on Mount Tamalpais.
(SFCM, 1/20/02, p.22)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A13)(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A1)
1907 Dec 28, The WSJ reported on the photographs of Mars by Dr. Lowell at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Lowell identified markings in the photos as evidence of great canals constructed for irrigation.
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.B1)
1907 Dec 29, Robert C. Weaver (d.1997), the first African American to serve on a president’s cabinet, was born. He advised Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt on Housing, Education and Employment. [see Jan 13,18, 1966]
(HN, 12/29/00)
1907 Dec 30, The Mills Commission issued its final report, concluding that Abner Doubleday was the inventor of the sport of baseball, a claim Doubleday himself had never made. Few, if any, sports historians take this finding seriously.
(AP, 12/30/07)
1907 Dec 31, For 1st time a ball was dropped at Times Square to signal new year.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1907 Dec 31, Gustav Mahler conducted the Metropolitan Opera.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1907 Dec, The US stock market, spurred by a "bear raid," took a nose-dive and set off a widespread panic. Many banks failed.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1907 Dec, There was stock market panic this year when the Knickerbocker Trust Co. failed. J.P. Morgan took charge and forbade the NY stock market to close and raised $25 million in 15 minutes to add liquidity. He summoned the most important bankers to devise a plan to abort the panic and no depression was induced. Morgan also called on clergymen to preach sermons of confidence. The crises led the government to create the Federal Reserve System (1913). Morgan got bankers to agree to settle accounts among themselves with clearinghouse certificates rather than cash and thus increased the money supply. The story was later recounted by John Steele Gordon in his 1999 book "The Great Game."
(SFC,10/27/97, p.B2)(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A22)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ, 12/13/99, p.A32)
1907 Dec, Banker J.P. Morgan saved the US financial system by putting his own money on the line in the Panic of 1907. In the Panic of 1907 J.P. Morgan, who ran US Steel, bought the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. and trustbuster Theodore Roosevelt agreed not to object to the buyout. Elbert H. Gary was the chairman of US Steel.
(WSJ,2/13/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)(WSJ, 7/16/01, p.A10)
1907 Robert Young (d.1998), film and TV actor, was born in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/23/98, p.C4)
1907 Marc Chagall painted his "Self Portrait with Seven Fingers."
(WSJ, 5/11/95, p. A-14)
1907 Arthur Wesley Dow painted "Rain in May."
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.C12)
1907 Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) painted the portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I." The painting was stolen in 1938 when the Nazis took Austria. Her niece, Maria Altman (1917-1994), fought for the recovery of family paintings and won their return. In 2006 the portrait sold for a record $135 million to cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder. Adele Bloch-Bauer (d.1925) was the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist in Vienna. In 2012 Anne-Marie O’Connor authored “The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer."
(SFC, 6/19/06, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt)(Econ, 2/19/11, p.96)(SSFC, 3/18/12, p.F5)
1907 Matisse painted his "Red Madras Headdress" which featured his wife as the model. The painting later became part of the Albert C. Barnes collection. [see 1925, Barnes] Matisse also painted "Blue Nude" in this year.
(WSJ, 11/28/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 7/9/01, p.A26)
1907 The play "Playboy of the Western World" by John Millington Synge was first produced at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, Ireland.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)
1907 August Strindberg completed his anti-naturalistic play "The Ghost Sonata."
(WS, 6/27/01, p.A12)
1907 Charles Caffin wrote "Story of American Painting."
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.50)
1907 Alfred Stieglitz made his photogravure "The Steerage." It was later acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
(WM, www,1999)
1907 "Chapters of Brazil Colonial History, 1500-1800" by Joao Capistrano de Abreu (1853-1927) was first published. The Oxford Library of Latin America published a new edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1907 Henri Bergson wrote "Creative Evolution." He saw evolution activated by a creative inner experience that he called the "elan vital," the power of life to overcome fixed and rigid forms.
(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A22)
1907 "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad was published.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A3)
1907 Edmund Gosse authored “Father and Son" a memoir about loss of faith.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.91)
1907 P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), Belgian playwright and essayist, authored “The Intelligence of Flowers."
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
1907 The first Hopalong Cassidy book was published. Clarence Mulford began his Cassidy stories in 1905. The first Cassidy movie with William Boyd was released in 1935. The series moved on to radio and TV.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)
1907 Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), Christian theologian and Baptist minister, authored “Christianity and the Social Crisis."
(WSJ, 5/11/07, p.W11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rauschenbusch)
1907 Alfred Russel Wallace wrote his book "Is Mars Habitable."
(NH, 12/96, p.28)
1907 H.G. Wells (1866-1946) authored “The War in the Air." It was serialized and published in 1908. It is notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and concepts, such as the use of the airplane for the purpose of warfare and the coming of World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_in_the_Air)
1907 Edith Wharton (1862-1937) authored her novella "Madame de Treymes."
(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.P8)(www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/6741/chronology.html)
1907 Harold Bell Wright (1872-1944), who had traveled to the Ozarks for his health, published his novel “The Shepherd of the Hills." In 1960 performances of a stage version began at the Old Mill Theatre in Branson, Missouri. During the first quarter of the twentieth century the novels of Wright outsold every other American writer.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.48)(www.branson.com/branson/shepherd/history.htm)
1907 Mikhail Fokine used Saint-Saens cello dirge for his dance "The Swan," made for dancer Anna Pavlova. It became "The Dying Swan" in the New World.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.E1)
1907 Gustav Mahler composed his Symphony No. 8, nicknamed "Symphony of a Thousand" because it is usually performed by hundreds of players. The devil is evoked in the last half of the work.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.F3)
1907 In SF a 14-story, 71,345-square-foot building, designed by George Applegarth, was completed at Market and New Montgomery. In 2007 it sold for some $26 million.
(SFC, 5/22/07, p.C6)
1907 The US Customs House in NYC was constructed.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.T4)
1907 The Flemish Gothic skyscraper at 90 West Street, NYC, designed by Cass Gilbert, was completed
(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.D6)
1907 A brick building was constructed on Cornelia Street in East Rutherford, NJ, to serve as the headquarters for Becton Dickinson Corp. In 1977 the executive offices were moved to Paramus, NJ.
(Echo, 12,2007)
1907 The St. Louis "New" Cathedral on Lindell Blvd. was begun. It was not finished until the 1990s and grew to possess the largest collection of mosaic art in the world.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.T5)
1907 Fred Swanton, a local entrepreneur in Santa Cruz, CA., opened the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, DB p.64)
1907 Frederick Meyer, a cabinet maker from Germany, founded the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, Ca. In 1922 he purchased the 4-acre Treadwell estate in Oakland to accommodate growth. In 1936 the school was renamed the California College of the Arts and Crafts and in 2003 it became California College of the Arts.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.M2)
1907 Mario Ciampi, architect, was born in San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.F1)
1907 The "Sundial" sculpture by M. Earl Cummings was created. It was a half-sphere mounted on a turtle and set in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A20)
1907 Cartoonist Harry Conway Fisher started his Mutt and Jeff cartoon strip while working as a photographic layout person at the SF Chronicle. The strip returned to the Chronicle in 1951.
(SFC, 4/6/01, Wba p.4)
1907 In San Francisco the 2-story Fox Building at 225-227 Front St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.C2)
1907 In San Francisco the 4-story building at 137 New Montgomery St., designed by Henry Schulze, was completed. Two stories were added after the Pacific Telephone building arrived on the block.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.C4)
1907 In San Francisco a 3-story building was built at 201 O’Farrell St. It was designed by Arthur Lamb. Marquard’s Little Cigar Store opened on the corner with a classic neon marquee.
(SSFC, 12/23/12, p.C5)
1907 In San Francisco a 2-story commercial building, designed by Sylvan Schnaittacher, was erected at 77 New Montgomery St. In 1920 3 stories, designed by Mel Schwartz, were added.
(SSFC, 2/20/11, p.C2)
1907 In SF the city’s International Hotel, destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, was rebuilt at 848 Kearny. By the 1920s it became part of the 10-block Filipino American enclave known as Manilatown.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1907 In SF the building at 261 Columbus, designed by Oliver Everett, was completed. It later became the home of City Lights Bookstore.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.B2)
1907 In SF a 14-story, 71,345-square-foot building, designed by George Applegarth, was completed at Market and New Montgomery. In 2007 it sold for some $26 million.
(SFC, 5/22/07, p.C6)
1907 In SF the Elevated Shops building was constructed at 150 Powell St. It later became the wrapping for 29 condominiums.
(SFC, 9/20/06, p.B5)
1907 In SF the Del Monte cannery was constructed on Jefferson St. It closed in 1937. In 1963 Leonard Martin (d.2002 at 81) acquired the building and converted it to a shopping complex.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17)
1907 In SF the 1st municipal stadium, later known as the Polo Fields, and Speedway Meadow were constructed in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1907 In SF The Haslett Warehouse was constructed at Beach and Hyde. In 1998 plans were being made to convert the 198,000-sq-ft building to an expensive hotel.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1907 In SF the 9-story Williams Building was completed at 3rd and Mission.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A18)
1907 In San Francisco a 2-story industrial building was built at 944 Folsom St. It was renovated in 1936. Boyd, a lighting manufacturer, purchased the building in 1995 and renovated it again as the Boyd Building.
(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.C2)
1907 In SF Archbishop Patrick Riordan established the Catholic Settlement and Humane Bureau at 1028 Market St. to help care for orphans, minors and destitute mothers recover from the earthquake. It later became the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of SF.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1907 The elegant showroom, later called The Great American Music Hall, opened on O’Farrell St.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, DB p.34)
1907 The Colonial Dames organization donated the sculpture of the tortoise with a sundial on its back, that stands in front of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A13)
1907 Frank Aleamon Leach, head of the San Francisco Mint, was promoted to director-general of all US mints.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1907 The SF bribery trial against Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, ended with a hung jury.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B1)
1907 The San Francisco Brewing Company established a facility at 155 Columbus Ave, South San Francisco.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1907 In San Francisco some 600 new houses were built on the 440-foot-tall Bernal Hill as people erected homes there following the 1906 earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, p.A2)
1907 Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams met as students at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.6)
1907 The Univ. of Arizona Cow Barn was constructed, wearing the ornamental scalloped gables of a Spanish mission church.
(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.32)
1907 The MacDowell Colony was founded in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to nurture the arts by providing creative individuals with an inspiring environment. It was founded in honor of composer Edward MacDowell (d.1908).
(WSJ, 3/20/06, p.B1)(www.macdowellcolony.org/history.html)
1907 The Organization of American Historians was founded as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association.
(www.oah.org/members/mbrinfo.html)
1907 Frederick H. Meyer founded the California Guild of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley. In 1922 it was renamed the California College of Arts and Crafts and moved to Oakland.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.C3)
1907 Carlotta Monterey, later the 3rd wife of Eugene O’Neill, playwright, was Miss California.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.1)
1907 The first official perfect US bowling game was rolled.
(WSJ, 5/31/06, p.A1)
1907 The Hague Convention of this year prohibited the taking of war booty and instituted what some considered the first wartime environmental protections.
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A6)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)
1907 A Federal Meat Inspection Act was passed.
(WSJ, 12/16/97, p.A1)
1907 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt continued to establish himself as the first great "trust buster." He won a ban on corporate contributions.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.B2)(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)
1907 The US Dept. of Justice sent an investigator to Arkansas following complaints from Italy’s ambassador regarding immigrants trapped by debts on plantations. Charges of peonage were never pursued.
(Econ 5/27/17, p.28)
1907 The US $10 gold coin featured the head of Victory wearing an Indian headdress designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)
1907 The City Council of Fort Dodge, Iowa, passed legislation that required everybody between the ages of 25 and 45 to get married.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, z-1 p.2)
1907 In Oakland, Ca., the Lionel J. Wilson was completed at 1423 Broadway.
(SFC, 10/27/14, p.D3)
1907 In San Francisco the 156-room Cadillac Hotel was built in the Tenderloin district on the corner of Eddy and Leavenworth. In 1977 it was converted to nonprofit single-room occupancy. In 2015 the Tenderloin Museum opened inside the hotel on 3,200 square feet of commercial space leased for 30 years.
(SFC, 7/16/15, p.A9)
1907 In San Francisco the Royal Globe Insurance Co. building was built at 201 Sansome. It was designed by Howell and Stokes.
(SSFC, 5/31/15, p.C2)
1907 In San Francisco a two-story glass warehouse was constructed at 50 Green St. It was designed by architects Willis Polk and George Wright.
(SSFC, 9/21/14, p.C2)
1907 Realty Estate Syndicate, created by Francis Marion Smith and partner Frank C. Havens, built the opulent Key Room Inn at Broadway and West Grand Ave. in Oakland, Ca., on Key Route train lines serving San Francisco. The hotel was demolished in 1932.
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
1907 The SF bribery trial against Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, ended with a hung jury.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B1)
1907 In San Francisco Recreation Park was built on the block surrounded by Valencia, Guerrero, 14th and 15th streets. It became the home of the San Francisco Seals until 1930, except for one season in 1914, when they moved to a new field in the Inner Richmond nad found it was cold there.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1907 In San Francisco the 6-story Legallet Building, designed by architect Albert Pissis, was completed at 615 Battery St.
(SSFC, 1/19/14, p.B3)
1907 In San Francisco the 4-story building at 137 New Montgomery St., designed by Henry Schulze, was completed. Two stories were added after the Pacific Telephone building arrived on the block.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.C4)
1907 In SF the building at 261 Columbus, designed by Oliver Everett, was completed. It later became the home of City Lights Bookstore.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.B2)
1907 The Sunset View Cemetery was established in Lawndale (Colma), Ca.
(www.colmahistory.org/History.htm)
1907 The San Francisco Brewing Company established a facility at 155 Columbus Ave, South San Francisco.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1907 In San Francisco some 600 new houses were built on the 440-foot-tall Bernal Hill as people erected homes there following the 1906 earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, p.A2)
1907 In San Francisco a 2-story industrial building was built at 944 Folsom St. It was renovated in 1936. Boyd, a lighting manufacturer, purchased the building in 1995 and renovated it again as the Boyd Building.
(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.C2)
1907 In San Francisco a building was constructed at 2575 Mission St. In its early years it housed an ice cream shop, a candy shop and then a bakery. In 1951 it began serving drinks as the Clock Bar. Ten years later dentist Ralph Mancuso bought the business, renamed it Doc’s Clock and installed a Doc’s Clock neon marquee. In 2017 the bar closed and moved to 2417 Mission St., but the vintage neon sign stayed behind.
(SFC, 6/8/17, p.A11)
1907 San Francisco renamed Japan Street in the Excelsior district to Avalon Avenue. Nearby street India became Peru and China became Excelsior.
(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C3)
1907 Swimmer Arthur Cavill landed at the San Francisco Presidio an hour and 18 minutes from his departure at Lime Point in Marin.
(SSFC, 7/24/11, DB p.42)
1907 An explosion at the Trojan Powder factory in the SF Bay town of San Lorenzo, Ca. killed at least one person.
(http://www.sanlorenzoheritage.org/history/slzintro.htm)(SFC, 10/10/14, p.A1)
1907 Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington state became the first national park opened to car traffic and attendance soared.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A6)
1907 The family of Lt. Col. George Armistead, commander at Fort McHenry in 1814, donated the fort’s flag to the Smithsonian Museum. It had inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner.
(WSJ, 7/3/02, p.B1)
1907 Charles Ives, composer, founded Ives & Myrick, an insurer that he headed from 1916-1930.
(WSJ, 9/1/00, p.W2)
1907 The New York Currier & Ives partnership, formed in 1857, closed down with an inventory of 7,000 titles.
(WSJ, 12/19/00, p.A19)
1907 The Murphy Oil Company was founded in Arkansas.
(F, 10/7/96, p.60)
1907 The Detroit auto show began when a group of dealers held a show in a city park. The show was largely a regional event showcasing Detroit automakers until 1989, when the name was changed to the North American International Auto Show and Toyota and Nissan used it to introduce their new luxury brands.
(AP, 1/12/14)
1907 The Detroit-based Anderson Electric Car Company began producing the Detroit Electric car and continued to 1939. During this period the company built 13,000 electric cars. The Detroit Electric brand was revived again in 2008 to produce modern all-electric cars by Detroit Electric Holding Ltd. of the Netherlands.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric)
1907 The first retail drive-in gasoline facility opened in St. Louis.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1907 Clarence Birdseye, an Amherst biology student, began selling bobcat and coyote hide from traders in New Mexico, purchased for fifty cents, to furriers in New York for a dollar and a quarter. In 1912 he moved to Labrador to farm foxes and trade furs.
(ON, 8/12, p.5)
1907 Clayton S. Reaser purchased a 5-year old Pennsylvania furniture company named Gettysburg Manufacturing Co. and renamed it Reaser Furniture Manufacturing Co.
(SFC, 1/10/07, p.G2)
1907 Hermann Minkowski, mathematician, proposed a new geometry that added time to the three dimensions of space.
(NG, March 1990, J. Boslough p. 118)
1907 Leo Baekeland of Yonkers, NY, invented Bakelite, a hard plastic. [see 1909]
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1907 Whiting & Davis Co. of Plainville, Mass., established in 1896, developed a chain mail mesh machine about this time and became the world’s largest manufacturer of mesh products.
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.G4)(http://bagladyemporium.com/BLU/index.php?n=Main.WhitingDavisCo)
1907 Lee De Forest patented the "Audion tube," a sensitive receiver for radio signals. He also invented the first method for putting sound on film.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A8)
1907 The phenomenon of electroluminescence was first observed in a piece of Silicon Carbide (SiC) by Henry Joseph Round (1881-1966), an English electronics engineer.
(Econ, 9/23/06, TQ p.26)(www.wavicle.biz/led_history.html)
1907 In France the physicist Georges Claude discovered that high voltage electricity shot through certain gases radiated a colored light. He patented a neon tube in 1909.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T6)
1907 The leak from the diverted water of the Colorado River that formed the Salton Sea in southern California was finally plugged.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A22)
1907 The 1st Black American was elected a Rhodes scholar.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.A1)
1907 "Buffalo clover... nearly knee-high... afforded a rich pasture." An image of the fertile frontier penned by historian S.P. Hildreth in 1788. After 1907 the clover was unseen until 1989 when it emerged in some topsoil delivered to a botanist’s backyard.
(NG, Jan. 94, p.144)
1907 The American Museum of Natural History purchased a collection of 35 Maori preserved and tattooed heads. A Maori representative in 1998 sought to bring them back to New Zealand.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B3)
1907 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev (b.1834), Russian chemist, died. He formulated the periodic table of elements in 1869 and authored the 1st modern chemistry text in Russia. In 2001 Paul Strathern authored "Mendeleyev’s Dream," a history of chemistry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.324)(HN, 2/8/01)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1907 In Argentina Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up another bank. They sold their ranch in Patagonia to a beef syndicate and went to Bolivia where they were gunned down by soldiers after robbing a mine payroll.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1907 The Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild'sche Stiftung fur Nervenkranke foundation was set up in Vienna to pay hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill. It was expropriated by the Nazis in 1938 and taken over by the second newly independent republic in 1956.
(Econ., 2/29/20, p.42)
1907 In Britain the current Old Bailey building was built. It stands on the site of the old Newgate Jail.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T11)
1907 Britain urged the adoption of Daylight Savings Time (DST) to conserve fuel and provide more hours to train soldiers. British architect and golfer William Willet authored a pamphlet deploring the waste of daylight.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.D8)
1907 The British forced the abolition of slavery on the new Sultan of Zanzibar and Lamu Island went into an economic decline.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.T7)
1907 Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) became the first woman to receive the British Order of Merit.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.6)
1907 India’s Tata firm opened an office in London to buy supplies for its Indian operations.
(Econ, 9/10/11, p.61)
1907 Explorations under Louis Deleporte and the French School of the Far East began at the ancient city of Angkor. Found artifacts were shared between France and Cambodia.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)(SFC, 2/4/04, p.D10)
1907 The Royal Alexandria Theater was built in Toronto, Canada.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.C21)
1907 A great cantilever bridge collapsed in Quebec killing 75 workers.
(MT, Summer/04, p.7)
1907 Glenn Curtiss, of New York, joined with Alexander Graham Bell, F.W. Baldwin, Thomas Selfridge, and John McCurdy, working in Nova Scotia, to found the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) to developing a practical flying machine.
(ON, 12/11, p.10)
1907 Vaclav Trojan, Czech composer, was born. His works include "Cathedral in Ruins," the opera "Rondabout" and a variety of film music such as Jiri Trnka’s puppet films: Spalicek, the Emperor’s Nightingale, Prince Bajaja, Old Bohemian Legends and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(BAAC PN, Chambers, 1/8/96)
1907 Howard Carter obtained the patronage of George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon to finance his archeological excavations in Egypt.
(ON, 5/00, p.6)
1907 In Egypt a mummy known as KV55 was found. It was named after the number of the tomb where it was found in the Valley of the Kings. In 2010 DNA and CT scanning identified the mummy as that of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1350-1336BC).
(AP, 3/12/10)
1907 In France the bowling game of petanque or boule assumed its current form after possible origins in ancient Greece or Egypt. Similar to bocce ball it is played on a dirt court with baseball sized steel balls. In 1998 it was seeking Olympic recognition. The French version was born near Marseille as a sport for the masses. In 1959 France held the 1st annual petanque world championship.
(WSJ, 1/5/98, p.20)(WSJ, 8/30/07, p.A7)
1907 In France Eugene Schuller created a hair dye in the kitchen of his Paris apartment and named it Aureale. In 1939 the business was renamed L’Oreal.
(SFC, 9/22/17 p.D8)
1907 In Germany Johannes Klepper licensed, improved and marketed a folding kayak.
(Hem, 9/04, p.50)
1907 In Germany in Berlin the Hotel Adlon on the Unter den Linden was founded by Lorenz Adlon. It was burned to the ground during WW II and reconstructed in 1997.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
1907 A 4-year German campaign ended against the cattle-herding Hereros of Southwest Africa (later Namibia). It was later estimated that tens of thousands of Hereros were butchered, with only some 15,000 surviving. Many historians called the killings the first genocide of the 20th century. Some 300 skulls were believed taken from the Herero and ethnic Nama who died in German-run prison camps over the four-year conflict. In 2011 a Namibian delegation reclaimed about 20 human skulls used by colonial-era scientists, who sought to prove the racial superiority of whites over blacks.
(AFP, 9/26/11)
1907 Carl Hagenbeck established the world’s first zoo to free animals from cages in Hamburg, Germany.
(Hem., Oct. ‘95, p.25)
1907 On the Isle of Man the motorbike race for the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, was started.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.T13)
1907 Iran's parliament recruited Morgan Shuster (1877-1960), an American lawyer, to run the state treasury. The vice-regent of Persia expelled Shuster from office in December 1911 against the will of the Persian parliament.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_Shuster)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.67)
1907 In Italy the first orchestra pit at the La Scala opera house in Milan was constructed. Conductor Arturo Toscanini celebrated by performing Wagner’s Gotterdammerung.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala)(Econ 6/24/17, p.75)
1907 In Korea some dozen civilian leaders started a national campaign to raise money to ease the national debt to Japan, which was its colonial ruler. About 1/6th of the total debt was donated.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)
1907 In Korea the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Inchon. The doomed revolt ultimately left some 14,000 Koreans dead as well as 160 Japanese.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_army)(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1907 Royal Dutch combines its oil operations with Shell Transport & Trading Co.
(WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A14)
1907 A Russian monk named Ilarion authored “In the Mountains of the Caucasus," which extolled the recitation of the “Jesus Prayer." This triggered the “name-deifier" dispute among the Orthodox. In 2009 Jean-Michael Kantor an d Loren Graham authored “Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity."
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.90)
1907 Stalin (1879-1953) organized an armed robbery on 2 coaches carrying treasure to the state bank in central Tbilisi, Georgia. He delivered his gains to Lenin. In 2007 Simon Sebag Montefiore authored “Young Stalin."
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.88)
1907 Britain and Russia carved Iran into spheres of influence. Russia and Great Britain signed the convention of St. Petersburg, in which Afghanistan was declared outside Russia's sphere of influence.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1907 Ricardo Anckermann (b.1842), ethnic German artist who painted in Mallorca, Spain, died.
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.D7)
1907 In Sudan the first primary school for girls was founded by the Bedris family. It grew to become the private Ahfad University.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A12)
1907-1908 Constantin Brancusi created his "blocky" sculpture "The Kiss."
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)(SFC, 10/26/96, p.B6)
1907-1909 Murray Levick was the naturalist on the Ernest Shackleton south polar expedition. [see 1908]
(NH, 8/96, p.36)
1907-1914 George Washington Goethals, US major general and engineer, was the chief engineer of the Panama Canal.
(WUD, 1994, p.606)
1907-1915 The Lucerna Palace in Prague, Czechoslovakia, was built by Vaclav Havel, grandfather of the Czech president of 1997.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)
1907-1917 "A Life of Picasso Vol. II" by John Richardson (1996) covers this period of the painter’s life.
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A20)
1907-1934 HJ was a mark used by A.G. Harley Jones, operator of the Royal Vienna Art Pottery in the Staffordshire district of England at this time.
(SFC, 7/9/97, Z1 p.3)
1907-1958 Mike Todd, American movie producer: "I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation."
(AP, 12/5/98)
1907-1964 Opera stars of this period were featured on a 1997 video "The Art of Singing: Golden Voices of the Century" by NVC Arts on Atlantic Records.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A20)
1907-1971 James Ramsey Ullman, American author: "To know a little less and to understand a little more: that, it seems to me, is our greatest need."
(AP, 8/21/97)
1907-1972 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Polish-born scholar: "He who is swift to believe is swift to forget."
(AP, 5/1/01)
1907-1977 Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist: "The door to the past is a strange door. It swings open and things pass through it, but they pass in one direction only. No man can return across that threshold, though he can look down still and see the green light waver in the water weeds."
(AP, 4/24/99)
1907-1978 Charles Eames, an American polymath artist. Together with his wife he designed numerous objects, furniture and made more than 75 films.
(SFC, 6/6/96, E1)
1907-1982 Jacques Tatisheff, French film actor and director. In 2000 David Bellow authored the biography "Jacques Tati."
(WSJ, 8/1/00, p.A20)
1907-1989 Laurence Olivier, British actor: "I take a simple view of living. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it."
(AP, 3/18/98)
1907-1990 Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel, American theologian, author and educator: "Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have."
(AP, 1/31/01)
1907-1996 Sir Frank Whittle, British engineer. He first patented the idea of a jet engine in 1930.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A20)
1907-1997 Dora Maar, fashion and portrait photographer. In 1935 she met Pablo Picasso in Paris and began a 7-year affair.
(SFC, 5/1/99, p.E1)
1907-1997 Henriette Wyeth, painter, daughter of American master N.C. Wyeth. Her work included "Death and the Child." She was the sister of painter Andrew Wyeth. Two other sisters, Carolyn and Ann, were also painters.
(SFC, 4/4/97, p.A25)(WSJ, 6/2/98, p.A20)
Go to 1908-1909
Return to home
1905 Jan 2, Sir Michael Tippett, British composer, was born in London. His childhood was divided among England, France and Italy. His work included the oratorio "Vision of St. Augustine."
(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A19)
1905 Jan 2, After a six-month siege, Russians surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1905 Jan 3, Ray Milland (Reginald Truscott-Jones) Academy Award-winning actor: The Lost Weekend [1945], We’re Not Dressing, Star-Spangled Rhythm, Lady in the Dark, Let’s Do It Again, X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes, was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1905 Jan 5, Representatives of 35 state Audubon organizations incorporated as the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals.
(T&L, 10/1980, p.12)(MC, 1/5/02)
1905 Jan 9, (Old Style calendar) On what would become known as "Bloody Sunday," Russian Orthodox Father George Gapon led a procession in St. Petersburg of some 200,000 who were marching on the Winter Palace to present their grievances to Czar Nicholas. Troops on the scene panicked, firing into the crowd and killing hundreds, thus igniting the Revolution of 1905. Across Russia, government officials were attacked, peasants seized private estates and workers’ strikes virtually paralyzed the economy. In St. Petersburg, a council (soviet) of workers’ delegates threatened to take over the government. Nicholas consented to the adoption of a constitution and election of a parliament (Duma). The first Duma met in 1906. [see Jan 22]
(HNQ, 10/1/00)
1905 Jan 14, Jane Lathrop Stanford drank from a bottle of mineral water at her Nob Hill home in SF and became violently ill. Analysis of the water revealed strychnine. [see Feb 28]
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1905 Jan 18, Joseph Bonanno (d.2002), later NYC mafia boss, was born in Castellmare del Golfo, Sicily.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)
1905 Jan 18, Edward Henry Corbould (b.1815), English artist, died.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.W11)(www.corbould.com/artists/ehc/ehc.html)
1905 Jan 21, Christian Dior, fashion designer (long-skirted look), was born in Normandy, France.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1905 Jan 22, (New Style calendar) On what would become known as “Bloody Sunday," Russian Orthodox Father George Gapon led a procession in St. Petersburg of some 200,000 who were marching on the Winter Palace to present their grievances to Czar Nicholas. Troops on the scene panicked, firing into the crowd and killing hundreds, thus igniting the Revolution of 1905. Across Russia, government officials were attacked, peasants seized private estates and workers’ strikes virtually paralyzed the economy. In St. Petersburg, a council (soviet) of workers’ delegates threatened to take over the government. Nicholas consented to the adoption of a constitution and election of a parliament (Duma). The first Duma met in 1906. [see Jan 9]
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(HNQ, 10/1/00)(AP, 1/22/07)
1905 Jan 24, In Vilnius a mass worker strike began and lasted to Jan 29.
(LHC, 1/24/03)
1905 Jan 26, Maria Augusta von Trapp (d.1987), Austrian singer, inspired "Sound of Music," was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp)(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.B6)
1905 Jan 26, The biggest diamond ever discovered was the 3,106 carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond)(BBC, 6/17/21)
1905 Jan 27, Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1905 Jan 31, John O'Hara, novelist (Appointment at Samarra), was born in Pottstown, Penn.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1905 Feb 1, Germany contested French rule in Morocco.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1905 Feb 2, Ayn Rand (d.1982), writer and social philosopher (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, as Alisa Rosenbaum. Her work espoused the political-economic philosophy of Objectivism, capitalism and what she called "rational selfishness." She graduated from the University of Leningrad in 1924 and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a citizen in 1931. In Objectivism, the individual alone and his acts of self-interest are seen as the positive driving force of society. Rand rejected ideologies of altruism and self-sacrifice. Her novels "Fountainhead" (1943) and "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) and a number of non-fiction works brought wide recognition to her and her theories. Rand founded the journal The Objectivist in 1962. She died in 1982. "Upper classes are a nation’s past; the middle class is its future." "So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money?"
(AP, 4/30/97)(AP, 5/13/98)(HNPD, 9/27/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand)
1905 Feb 7, Ulf Svante von Euler-Chelpin, Swedish physiologist, was born.
(HN, 2/7/01)
1905 Feb 7, Congress granted statehood to Oklahoma. New Mexico and Arizona were the only remaining territories. [see 1907]
(HN, 2/7/99)
1905 Feb 7, The Dominican Republic signed a treaty turning over customs collection to US.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1905 Feb 8, A cyclone hit Tahiti and adjacent islands killing some 10,000 people.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1905 Feb 15, Harold Arlen (d.1986), composer, arranger and pianist, was born as Hyman Arluck. His work included "Stormy Weather" and "It’s Only a Paper Moon." He was born Hyman Arluck, the son of a Jewish cantor. In 1996 Edward Jablonski wrote his second biography titled: "Harold Arlen: Rhythm. Rainbows, and Blues."
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A7)(HN, 2/15/01)(MC, 2/15/02)
1905 Feb 15, The 1st race meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. was run.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1905 Feb 15, Lewis Wallace (77), US politician, general, writer (Ben Hur), artist and inventor, died. His paintings included "The Conspirators," a depiction of those accused in the assassination of Pres. Lincoln. He had 8 registered US patents and was accomplished at playing and making violins. His home in Crawfordsville, Indiana, is now a museum.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)(MC, 2/15/02)
1905 Feb 16, 1st US Esperanto club was organized in Boston. Dr. Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof (1859-1917), a Polish ophthalmologist, invented the artificial language in 1885.
(MC, 2/16/02)(SFCM, 6/8/03, p.18)
1905 Feb 17, Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (b.1857), the brother of Tsar Alexander III, was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Sergei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia)(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
1905 Feb 20, The US Supreme Court upheld a Massachusetts' requirement for all adults in Cambridge to be vaccinated for smallpox. The court resolved the issue of mandatory vaccinations, ruling 7-2 in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that they were constitutional.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts)(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A10)(NY Times, 9/9/21)
1905 Feb 21, France violated the 1880 Treaty of Madrid by demanding control in Morocco of the Sultan's army and police. These demands were made without consulting Germany. In the “Morocco Crisis" German Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow sent the Kaiser to visit Tangier on March 31 to see if France would mobilize.
(http://www.worldwar1.com/tlmorcri.htm)
1905 Feb 21, The Mukden campaign of the Russo-Japanese War, began. In one of the largest battles ever fought up to that time, some 750,000 Japanese and Russian soldiers engaged in the battle for Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War. The 3-week battle pitted 400,000 Japanese and 350,000 Russians stretched over a front extending more than 90 miles. More than 100,000 were left dead or injured as the Russians began a retreat toward Harbin on March 9.
(HN, 2/21/98)(HNQ, 4/23/99)
1905 Feb 22, Japan 1st claimed the volcanic islets they called Takeshima, located between Japan and Korea, where they are known as Tokdo (Dokdo). Japan illegally incorporated Dokdo as its territory through an administrative measure of one of its prefectures.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.14)
1905 Feb 23, The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago by lawyer Paul Percy Harris and 3 friends. Montague M. Bear, an engraver and member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, sketched a wagon wheel with 13 spokes. When fellow club members began to complain that the design was static and lifeless, Bear added flourishes that made the wheel appear to ride on a bed of clouds. Unfortunately, some members felt the clouds looked like dust, defying the laws of gravity by being kicked up on both sides of the wheel. The service club did not admit women until the 1980s.
(http://tinyurl.com/28kd23m)(AP, 2/23/98)(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.70)
1905 Feb 24, Russian Minister of Agriculture, Alexi Yermolov offered the Czar a new constitution.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1905 Feb 25, Adele Davis, nutritionist, was born.
(HN, 2/25/01)
1905 Feb 27, Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1905 Feb 28, Jane Lathrop Stanford, the wife of Leland Stanford, died of suspected arsenic poisoning at the Moana Hotel in Honolulu. A coroner’s jury confirmed the result. Her body was returned to the mainland under the care of David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford Univ. An examination by Stanford physicians claimed no trace of strychnine and set heart attack as cause of death. A will signed 19 months earlier had left the bulk of her $30 million estate to Stanford Univ. In 2003 Robert Cutler authored "The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford." [see Jan 14]
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)(SFC, 11/20/03, p.A21)
1905 Mar 3, US Forest Service formed. President Theodore Roosevelt successfully lobbied Congress to create the Forest Service and appointed Gifford Pinchot, a fellow conservationist, to run the agency. Pinchot had studied forestry in Europe and worked for the U.S. government in various forestry positions since 1896. He stayed with the Forest Service until 1910 and contributed greatly to its early development and national attitudes towards conservation with his enthusiasm. In 1912, he helped former President Roosevelt found the Bull Moose Party. He later went on to serve as governor of Pennsylvania. His autobiography "Breaking New Ground," was published in 1947, a year after his death.
(WSJ, 2/25/97, p.A22)(HNQ, 4/20/01)(SC, 3/3/02)
1905 Mar 3, The Russian Czar agreed to create an elected assembly.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1905 Mar 4, The inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt.
http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html
1905 Mar 4, Gerhart Hauptmann's "Elga" premiered in Berlin.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1905 Mar 5, Russians began to retreat from Mukden in Manchuria.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1905 Mar 8, The peasant revolt in Russia was reported to be spreading to Georgia.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1905 Mar 9, Peter Quennell, biographer, was born.
(HN, 3/9/01)
1905 Mar 9, Rex Warner, English poet, writer (Wild Goose Chase), was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1905 Mar 9, Archeologists unearthed the royal tombs of Yua and Tua in Egypt.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1905 Mar 10, Japanese Army captured Mukden, later Shenyang, China.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1905 Mar 11, The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1905 Mar 13, Margaretha Zelle made her debut as the oriental dancer "Mata Hari," in Paris.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)
1905 Mar 15, Berthold Schenck von Stauffenberg was born. He later attempted to assassinate Hitler.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1905 Mar 17, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York and by 1916, they had become the parents of six children.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)(HNPD, 10/11/99)
1905 Mar 19, Albert Speer, German architect, minister of Armament (NSDAP), was born.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1905 Mar 22, Ruth Page, US choreographer, ballet leader (Diaghilev, Pygmalion), was born.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1905 Mar 24, Jules Verne (b.1828), French sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days), died in Amiens.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/verne.htm)
1905 Mar 25, Rebel battle flags that were captured during the war were returned to the South.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1905 Mar 26, Viktor Emil Frankl, psychiatrist (Man's Search for Meaning), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1905 Mar 28, Marlin Perkins, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), was born in Carthage, Mo.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1905 Mar 29, Annunzio Mantovani, orchestra leader (Mantovani), was born in Venice, Italy.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1905 Apr 1, US Leather was removed from the Dow Jones. It was succeeded by Central Leather Co. It was one of the nation’s largest shoemakers in the first decades of this century.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)
1905 Apr 1, Berlin and Paris were linked by telephone.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1905 Apr 2, Kurt Adler (d.1988), American conductor, was born. "Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right."
(HN, 4/2/01)(AP, 8/25/99)
1905 Apr 2, Serge Lifar, dancer and opera director, was born.
(HN, 4/2/01)
1905 Apr 6, W. Warrick Cardozo, physician and pioneer researcher on Sickle Cell Anemia, was born.
(HN, 4/6/99)
1905 Apr 9, J. William Fulbright, U.S. senator from Arkansas, was born. He opposed the Vietnam War.
(HN, 4/9/99)
1905 Apr 12, Hippodrome arena opened in NYC.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1905 Apr 12, French Dufaux brothers tested a helicopter.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1905 May 15, Joseph Cotton, actor, was born in Petersburg, Va.
(AP, 5/15/05)
1905 Apr 16, A Japanese baseball team from Waseda Univ. in Tokyo came to the West Coast for a 3-month 26-game tour. They played their opening game against Stanford and lost 9-1. Their manager, Prof. Iso Abe, is called the "father of modern baseball in Japan." They won 9 of their 26 games.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.C1)
1905 Apr 19, Tom Hopkinson, British writer, was born.
(HN, 4/1901)
1905 Apr 21, Edmund G "Pat" Brown, (Gov-D-Calif), was born.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1905 Apr 24, Robert Penn Warren, first U.S. poet laureate, was born.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1905 May 6, In San Francisco lobbyists from the Automobile Club of America brokered a probationary deal to allow cars in Golden Gate Park during daylight hours limited to a speed of 8mph.
(SSFC, 10/10/21, p.A8)
1905 May 16, Henry Fonda (d.1982), actor, was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. He starred in "Grapes of Wrath" and "On Golden Pond."
(HN, 5/16/99)(AP, 5/16/07)
1905 May 24, Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist (And Quiet Flows the Don), was born. He won a Nobel Prize in 1965.
(HN, 5/24/01)(MC, 5/24/02)
1905 May 25, Binnie Barnes, London, actress (Adventures of Marco Polo, Diamond Jim), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1905 May 25, Joseph C. Harsch, newscaster (Background), was born in Toledo, OH.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1905 May 26, There was a pogrom against Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1905 May 27, Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima. [see May 28]
(MC, 5/27/02)
1905 May 28, A Japanese fleet under Adm. Heihachiro Togo defeated a Russian fleet under Adm. Zinovi Petrovich Rozhestvensky in the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian fleet lost 22 ships out of 38 to the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima Straits. In 2002 Constantine Pleshakov authored "The Tsar’s Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A27)(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1905 May 29, Fela Sowande, composer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, Jan [Johannes] Teulings, Dutch actor, director (That Joyous Eve), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, There was a pogrom against Jewish community in Brisk, Lithuania.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, Leon Francis Victor Caron (55), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1905 May 29, The Russian ship Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off an eastern Korean island after the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war. In 2018 a South Korean company claimed to have found the sunken warship. The company speculated about 200 tons of gold bars and coins worth 150 trillion won ($132 billion) would still likely be aboard the ship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Dmitrii_Donskoi)(AP, 7/19/18)
1905 Jun 7, Norway declared independence from Sweden. Their union had been in effect in since 1814.
(SC, 6/7/02)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1905 Jun 8, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.
(AP, 6/8/05)
1905 Jun 10, 1st forest fire lookout tower placed in operation was at Greenville, Me.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1905 Jun 10, Japan and Russia agreed to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1905 Jun 11, Pennsylvania Railroad debuted the fastest train in world (NY-Chicago in 18 hrs).
(SC, 6/11/02)
1905 Jun 21, Jean-Paul Sartre (d.1980), French philosopher and existentialist, was born. He won the Nobel Prize in 1964 but declined it. His works include "The Road to Freedom."
(HN, 6/21/98)(AP, 2/15/00)
1905 Jun 27, The battleship Potemkin succumbed to a mutiny on the Black Sea.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1905 Jun 29, Archibald Wright “Moonlight" Graham (1876-1965) of the New York Giants played for two innings in right field in his only professional baseball game on this day and was promptly forgotten until 1989 when the movie “Field of Dreams" was released. “Moonlight" never got to bat, instead he was left on deck, a late substitute in a lopsided 11-1 win. Graham completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1908. He obtained his license the following year and began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_Graham)
1905 Jun 29, Russian troops intervened as riots erupt in ports all over the country, leaving many ships looted.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1905 Jun, In Pittsburgh, Penn., the world's 1st theater geared exclusively for motion pictures opened.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)
1905 Jul 1, John Hay (b.1838), American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, died in New Hampshire. He served as Lincoln's secretary from 1861 until 1864. In 2013 John Taliaferro authored “All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt."
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.81)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hay)
1905 Jul 2, Jean-Rene Lacoste, tennis champ, alligator shirt designer, was born in France.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1905 Jul 4, Lionel Trilling (d.1975), literary critic and educator, was born. His work included "The Liberal Imagination" and "Sincerity and Authenticity." He wrote the 1947 novel "Middle of the Journey."
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W15)(HN, 7/4/01)
1905 Jul 4, Elisee Reclus (b.1830), French geographer and anarchist, died in Belgium. His books included “La Nouvelle Géographic universelle, la terre et les hoinmes" (1875-1894), a 19 volume work that crowned his as the father of modern geography.
(http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/ReclusElisee.htm)
1905 Jul 7, The International Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the "Red Scare" that started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with the newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining energies so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history "We Shall Overcome."
(HNQ, 10/16/00)(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A24)(HN, 7/7/01)
1905 Jul 8, The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrendered to Rumanian authorities.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1905 Jul 10, Ivie Anderson, jazz singer, was born.
(HN, 7/10/01)
1905 Jul 17, Edgar Snow, American author and journalist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
(www.umkc.edu)
1905 Jul 19, Boyd Neel, conductor (Story of an Orch), was born in Blackheath, Kent England.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1905 Jul 22, Boris Alexandrov, conductor (Red Army Song/Dance Ensemble), was born.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1905 Jul 25, Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-British novelist, essayist (Nobel 1981), was born.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of War William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement, which reinforced American and Japanese influence and spelled doom for Korean sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere in the ongoing US rape of the Philippines in return for the US agreement not to interfere with Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Jul 29, Dag Hammerarskjold, Nobel Peace Prize (1961) winning secretary-general of the United Nations (1953-1961), was born in Sweden.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1905 Jul 29, Stanley Kunitz, poet, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1905 Aug 3, Maggie Kuhn, social activist and founder of "The Gray Panthers," was born.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1905 Aug 3, Dolores Del Rio, actress (What Price Glory?), was born in Mexico.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1905 Aug 17, John Hay Whitney, publisher (NY Herald Tribune 1961-67), was born.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1905 Aug 19, Fitzhugh Lee, US pilot, vice-admiral (WW II, Navy Cross), was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1905 Aug 19, Roald Amundsen and his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear, which confirmed their crossing the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey. Amundsen continued by dogsled to the Yukon while his crew completed their journey at Point Bonita, California, just outside the Golden Gate.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 4/18/00, p.A16)(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
1905 Aug 20, Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist, was born.
(HN, 8/20/00)
1905 Aug 24, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, blues singer, was born. He was a major influence on Elvis Presley.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1905 Aug 30, Ty Cobb made his major league batting debut, playing for the Detroit Tigers, hitting a double in his first at-bat in a game against the NY Highlanders. The Tigers won, 5-3.
(AP, 8/30/00)
1905 Aug 31, Sanford Meisner, influential acting teacher, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1905 Sep 1, Alberta and Saskatchewan became the 8th and 9th Canadian provinces.
(Econ, 9/10/05, p.37)(AP, 9/1/06)
1905 Sep 4, Mary Renault (Mary Challans), author who wrote about her wartime experiences in "The Last of the Wine" and "The King Must Die," was born. She also wrote "Funeral Games."
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1905 Sep 5, Arthur Koestler (d.1983), Hungarian novelist and essayist, was born. He wrote about communism in “Darkness at Noon" (1941) and “The Ghost in the Machine."
(HN, 9/5/98)(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.5)(WSJ, 8/26/06, p.P8)
1905 Sep 5, The Russian-Japanese War ended as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, signed the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieved virtually all of its original war aims.
(AP, 9/5/97)(HN, 9/5/98)
1905 Sep 9, In Daly City, Ca., Battling Nelson, the "Durable Dane," kayoed Jimmy Britt in the 18th round at the Sickles St. Arena of James W. Coffroth. A film of the event recorded by the Miles Brothers made over $100,000.
(SMTS, 10/1/86, p.22)(Ind, 3/22/03, 5A)(SFC, 5/3/14, p.C2)
1905 Sep 13, U.S. warships headed to Nicaragua on behalf of American William Albers, who was accused of evading tobacco taxes.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1905 Sep 14, Pierre de Brazza (b.1852), Franco-Italian explorer, died and was buried in Algeria. He was born in Italy and later naturalized French. Brazza single-handedly opened up for France entry along the right bank of the Congo that eventually led to French colonies in West Africa. In 2006 his remains were exhumed and moved to a mausoleum in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.
(Econ, 10/7/06, p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Savorgnan_de_Brazza)
1905 Sep 18, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Oakland California, actor (Jack Benny Show), was born.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1905 Sep 18, Greta Garbo (d.1990), actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in "Anna Christie" and "Ninotchka," was born in Stockholm.
(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 9/18/01)
1905 Sep 22, Race riot in Atlanta, Georgia killed 10 blacks and 2 whites.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1905 Sep 25, Red Smith, sportscaster and columnist, was born in Green Bay Wisc.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1905 Sep 27, Annalen der Physik published a fourth paper by Albert Einstein, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?," in which Einstein developed an argument for arguably the most famous equation in the field of physics: E = mc². Einstein considered the equivalency equation to be of paramount importance because it showed that a massive particle possesses an energy, the "rest energy", distinct from its classical kinetic and potential energies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annus_Mirabilis_Papers)
1905 Sep 30, British director Michael Powell ("The Red Shoes") was born in Bekesbourne, Kent, England.
(AP, 9/30/05)
1905 Oct 4, Orville Wright piloted the first flight longer than 30 minutes. The flight lasted 33 minutes, 17 seconds and covered 21 miles.
(HN, 10/4/98)
1905 Oct 5, Orville and Wilbur Wright's "Flyer III" flew 38.5 km in 38.3 minutes.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1905 Oct 6, Tennis great Helen Wills Moody was born in Berkeley, Calif.
(AP, 10/6/05)
1905 Oct 13, Henry Irving (b.1838), British actor, died in England. In 2008 Michael Holroyd authored “A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families." Irving was the first actor to be awarded a British knighthood (1895).
(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.W6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry)
1905 Oct 14, Eugene Fodor, Hungarian-born travel writer, was born.
(HN, 10/14/00)
1905 Oct 15, Charles P. Snow (d.1980), English novelist (Death Under Sail), was born. He pointed out that the university’s separate worlds have ceased to talk to one another. The "uni" in the university has become meaningless as the institution, possessing more and more power as government funds were pumped into it for research, turned into a loose confederation of disconnected mini-states, instead of an organization devoted to the joint search for knowledge and truth.
(V.D.-H.K.p.142)(HN, 10/15/00)(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, Claude Debussy's "La Mer," premiered.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 15, US President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal", joining others in the US who opposed women voters. The president said, "We all know how much further women go than men in their social rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."
(MC, 10/15/01)
1905 Oct 5, Winsor McCay (1871-1934), cartoonist, debuted his “Little Nemo In Slumberland" in the NY Herald. An art book reproducing over 100 of his best pages in full broadsheet was published in 2005.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.E1)(www.bpib.com/illustrat/mccay.htm)
1905 Oct 20, A Great General Strike in Russia began and lasted 11 days.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1905 Oct 20, Russian tsar allowed Polish people to speak Polish.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1905 Oct 26, Norway signed a treaty of separation with Sweden and chose Prince Charles of Denmark as the new king; he became King Haakon VII.
(HN, 10/26/98)
1905 Oct 29, Henry Green, novelist, was born. His work included "Living" and "Party Going."
(HN, 10/29/00)
1905 Oct 29, Hottentot chief Hendrik Witbooi was fatally injured.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1905 Oct 30, G.B. Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1905 Oct 30, Czar Nicholas II of Russia issued the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and elections in an attempt to avert the burgeoning support for revolution. Nicholas II also accepted the 1st Duma (Parliament)
(HN, 10/30/00)(MC, 10/30/01)
1907 Nov 4, Faygo was founded in Detroit as Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works by Russian immigrants Ben and Perry Feigenson. The original flavors of Faygo were based on cake frosting recipes used by the Feigensons in Russia. The brothers ran the company until the mid-1940s, when they turned it over to their sons. In the 1950s the company created a series of radio and television advertisements featuring a fictional cowboy called the Faygo Kid, who was portrayed in animation for television commercials for Faygo Old-Fashioned Root Beer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faygo)
1905 Nov 9, Erika Mann, German-US author (Other Germany) and daughter of Thomas Mann, was born.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1905 Nov 10, Sailors revolted in Kronstadt, Russia.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1905 Nov 14, David Belasco's "Girl of Golden West," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1905 Nov 18, George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1905 Nov 18, The Norwegian Parliament elected Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of Norway. Prince Charles took the name Haakon VII.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1905 Nov 19, Tommy Dorsey, band leader, was born in Shenandoah, Pa.
(AP, 11/19/05)
1905 Nov 19, 100 people drowned in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sank.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1905 Nov 22, British, Italian, Russian, French and Austrian-Hungarian fleet attacked the Grecian Isle of Lesbos.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1905 Nov 25, Jules Massenet's opera "Thais" had its 1st American performance.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1905 Nov 26, George Emlyn Williams, Welsh actor and playwright (portrayed Charles Dickens), was born.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1905 Nov 28, Arthur Griffith formed Sinn Fein in Dublin. Sinn Fein is Gaelic for "we ourselves," but also for "ourselves alone." This political party became the unofficial political wing of militant Irish groups in their struggle against British rule.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_F%C3%A9in)
1905 Nov, Eugene Schmitz, president of the SF Musicians Union, was re-elected mayor of SF for a third 2-year term. His Union Labor Party captured every seat on the Board of Supervisors. A victory parade left the SF Chronicle Building clock tower on fire. Political boss Abe Ruef and his Supervisors were now able to extract vast amounts of graft from any company needing to do business in the city.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)(SFC, 7/11/15, p.C1)
1905 Dec 1, Charles Finney, American author (Circus of Dr Lao), was born.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1905 Dec 1, Twenty officers and 230 guards were arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia for the revolt at the Winter Palace.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1905 Dec 5, Otto Preminger, director and producer (Laura, Exodus), was born in Austria.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1905 Dec 7, Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-US astronomer (moons of Uranus, Neptune), was born.
(MC, 12/7/01)
1905 Dec 9, Richard Strauss' opera "Salome," premiered in Dresden. Soprano Marie Wittich delegated the dance of the seven veils to a member of the corps de ballet.
(http://operetta.stanford.edu/Strauss/Salome/main.html)(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.D8)
1905 Dec 9, The French Assembly National voted for separation of church and state. Laicite was enshrined in law to keep religion out of public bodies while protecting freedom of private worship.
(http://tinyurl.com/yyvx2d)(WSJ, 4/25/03, W13)(Econ, 9/5/15, p.57)
1905 Dec 16, The US entertainment trade publication Variety came out with its first weekly issue.
(AP, 12/16/97)
1905 Dec 24, Howard Hughes (d.1976), American industrialist, film producer, director and aviator, was born.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1905 Dec 29, Charles Tyson Yerkes (b.1837), financier, died in New York City. His estate was valued at $4 million. Yerkes developed Chicago’s streetcar system. His life was immortalized in Theodore Dreiser's Cowperwood trilogy: “The Financier’ (1912), “The Titan’ (1914), and “The Stoic" (1947). In 2006 John Franch authored the biography “Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.
(WSJ, 8/29/06, p.D5)(www.chicago-l.org/figures/yerkes/)
1905 Dec 30, Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho was killed by an assassin's bomb. The former Gov. of Idaho, was blown up by a booby-trapped gate in front of his home in Caldwell, Idaho. Three Western Federation of Miners leaders in Colorado, Charles Moyer, George Pettibone and William Haywood, were "legally kidnapped" to Idaho and put on trial for the murder. The event and surrounding circumstances were described by J. Anthony Lukas in his 1997 book: "Big Trouble."
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)(HN, 12/30/98)
1905 James Burnham (d.1987), political activist and author, was born in Chicago.
(WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1905 Harry Harlow (d.1981), psychologist, was born in Fairfield, Iowa.
(CW, 6/03, p.51)
1905 The Gallery VII Salon d’Automne in France featured the Fauves. It featured works by Matisse, the acknowledged leader, along with Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and others. Louis Vauxelles described 2 classic marble sculptures as "Donatello chez les fauves" (D. among the wild beasts).
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)
1905 The expressionist art group "Die Bruecke" (the Bridge) was formed by German painters that included Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A17)
1905 Matisse painted his "Femme au Chapeau," (Woman with the Hat). It later became part of the Elise S. Haas collection bequeathed to the SFMOMA.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, SFE Mag. p.21)
1905 Picasso painted his "Boy in a Collar." In 1995 it sold for $12.1 mil. He also painted his "Sitting Harlequin." He also painted "Boy with a Pipe" in this Rose Period. The etching "la Toilette de la Mere" was made. In 2004 Sotheby started auction bidding at $70 million for "Boy with a Pipe." It sold for a record $104 million.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 3/29/97, p.E1)(SFC, 7/29/99, p.E6)(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.A18)
1905 G. B. Shaw wrote his play, "Man and Superman." It portrays the concept of a comic Mozartian intellectual charming the devils of the underworld, the only place where his Don Juan really feels comfortable. "Major Barbara" was also written.
(V.D.-H.K.p.237)(WSJ, 1/26/96, A-1)
1905 Sigmund Freud authored "Three Contributions to the Theology of Sexuality." It misinformed generations about the nature of the female orgasm.
(NW, 6/30/03, p.44)(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A16)
1905 Ernst Haeckel published "Wanderbilder," writings and illustrations on biology from his extensive travels.
(NH, 12/98, p.58)
1905 H.E. Marshall authored “Our Island Story," a history of Britain for children.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.44)
1905 Baroness Emmuska Orczy authored her novel “The Scarlet Pimpernal," set in the French Revolution.
(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.P10)
1905 C. Rawling published "The Great Plateau" [Tibet].
(NH, 5/96, p.68)
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish author, won the Nobel Prize and wrote the third work of his trilogy "With Fire and Sword." It was preceded by "Pan Michael" and "The Deluge." The first 2 books were made into films during the 1960s and 1970s. Filming of the 3rd work began in 1997.
(SFC,11/18/97, p.E2)(SFC, 7/8/99, p.E3)
1905 Mark Twain wrote his pamphlet "King Leopold’s Soliloquy" in support of reform in the Congo. US Sec. of State Elihu Root was pressured to take action on the Congo.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.11)
1905 Booker T. Washington wrote "Tuskegee and Its People."
(NH, 2/97, p.82)
1905 Max Weber (1864-1920), German sociologist, authored “The Protestant Ethnic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Weber argued that Protestants, in particular Calvinists, drove the emergence of capitalism due to a strong work ethic.
(Econ, 11/16/13, p.73)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.57)
1905 H.G. Wells (1866-1946) authored his novel “Kipps," the story of an oppressed draper’s apprentice and his rise under the English class system.
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.W8)
1905 Edith Wharton authored her 2nd novel "The House of Mirth," in which Lily Bart attempts to monetize her beauty and gambles on Wall Street.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.8)(WSJ, 3/14/09, p.W8)
1905 Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender newspaper. The paper helped ignite the move of tens of thousands of southern black sharecroppers north to Chicago and other cities. His nephew, John Sengstacke, took over the paper in 1940 and expanded it from a weekly to a daily.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.B1)
1905 Mark Sullivan wrote the Collier Mag. expose of the newspapers that lobbied to defeat a patent-medicine truth-in-labeling bill before the Mass. state legislature. The newspapers received tens of millions of dollars in ad revenues from the snake-oil salesmen.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1905 The El Tovar Hotel, designed by Charles Whittlesey, opened at the edge of the Grand Canyon. It was named after Pedro de Tobar, a member of the 1540 Coronado expedition.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.16)
1905 The American Political Science Association held its first meeting.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.C2)
1905 The Sons of Daniel Boone was founded by Daniel Beard.
(HNQ, 7/1/98)
1905 The Stanford-Binet intelligence test was first developed.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1905 Bertha Kinsky von Sutner became the first woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. She had founded European pacifist organizations with her husband, Artur,
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.28)
1905 Robert Koch (b.1843), German physician, bacteriologist, and medical researcher, won a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
(HN, 12/11/00)(MC, 12/11/01)
1905 The New York Giants with the help of pitcher Christy Mathewson won the World Series under manager John McGraw.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A27)
1905 The big football game between Stanford and UC Berkeley was banned from San Francisco due to the riots that often followed. 18 football players died nationwide from game injuries in this year.
(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.14)
1905 August Vollmer, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, was named town marshal of Berkeley, Ca. In 2017 criminologist Willard Oliver authored “August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing."
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A1)(SFC, 4/24/17, p.C1)
1905 The US federal government built the Klamath Project, a series of reservoirs and lakes on the California-Oregon border. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation began draining the Klamath Basin to help farmers. The Audubon Society lobbied Pres. Roosevelt to preserve some of the area, a major Pacific flyway for birds, and in 1908 he agreed.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A8)(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.A15)
1905 A US federal law made it a felony to use corporate or union money to influence directly a state election.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.34)
1905 East Coasters including Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and Frederic Remington set up the American Bison Society. In 1907 they sent 15 animals by rail to the new Wichita Bison Refuge in Oklahoma. The society met for the last time in 1935. The society was revitalized in 2005 to secure the ecological future of the animal. In 2009 Steven Rinella authored “American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon."
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.82)
1905 Teddy Roosevelt established the million-acre Siskiyou Forest Reserve in Oregon.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T8)
1905 California ceded Yosemite Valley to the federal government.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1905 The SF Chronicle launched an all-out crusade against the Japanese warning that an invasion of “the little brown men" constituted a grave peril to California.
(SFC, 8/23/14, p.C2)
1905 Rueben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970), anthropologist aka Rube Goldberg, was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle as a sports cartoonist. He became renowned as the comic inventor of complex machines to do simple tasks. In 1948 he received a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg)(SFC, 3/16/18, p.D7)
1905 In Marin County, Ca., US Rep. William Kent, heir to a Chicago meat-packing fortune, purchased 612 acres of old-growth redwood forest from the Tamalpais Land & Water Co. for $45,000.
(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A1)
1905 In southern California the town of Vernon was founded at a rail crossing along the Los Angeles River as an industrial city in LA County. In 2011 it had about 1,800 businesses employing some 50,000 workers, but only 96 actual residents.
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.34)
1905 In SF a reform movement began led by former mayor James Phelan and Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt sent special prosecutor Francis Heney to investigate graft in SF.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1905 In San Francisco the Burdette Building was built at 90 Second St. and opened as a saloon. It was the only structure for block to survive the 1906 SF earthquake.
(SSFC, 4/11/10, p.C2)
1905 In San Francisco the Bell Theater was completed at 1125 Market St. It was later renamed the Embassy Theater. The theater later also known as the American, The Rialto and the Rivoli. It was red-tagged after the October 17, 1989, earthquake.
(SSFC, 8/9/15, DB p.46)
1905 In San Francisco the 8-story Grant Building 1095 Market Street was completed. It was named after Joseph D. Grant, a local financier and industrialist. The interior was ravaged by the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake and major renovations were made.
(SFC, 1/16/10, p.D1)
1905 The Sentinel Building was constructed in San Francisco just before the earthquake. The 8-story steel-framed "flatiron" structure with a copper dome at Columbus and Kearney was designed by Salfield & Kohlberg for the notorious political boss Abe Reuf. Reuf was later sent to San Quentin for his transgressions. In 1973 film director Francis Ford Coppola purchased the building for $500,000. In 1970 the building was named as a city landmark.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.A20)(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.C2)(SSFC, 12/27/09, DB p.46)
1905 In SF a building at 700 Montgomery St. was constructed in late classical style for the Columbus Savings Bank. It survived the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A14)
1905 In SF a 16,000 square-foot, Italianate-style mansion was built at 2820 Scott St. In 1915 it was elegantly embellished for a visit by Marie, the queen of Romania. In 2005 it was acquired by the Paige family, owners of the Paige Glass Co.
(SFC, 3/8/08, p.F2)
1905 In San Francisco’s Dogpatch area the Edwardian style house at 1061 Tennessee was built. In 2009 half of it was offered for sale as an 1,159 square-foot condo at $679,000.
(SFC, 10/28/09, p.C2)
1905 In San Francisco the 2-storey, Gothic style St. Francis Lutheran Church was built at 152 Church St.
(SSFC, 6/22/14, p.C2)
1905 In San Francisco the first Hindu temple in the West was built on Webster St. by the Vedanta Society of Northern California under the direction of Swami Trigunatita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. In 1908 a third floor was added with towers and domes by architect Joseph Leonard.
(SFC, 8/6/21, p.C2)
1905 Frank W. Epperson (1804-1983) invented the Popsicle on a cold night in San Francisco. In 1923 Epperson remembered his frozen soda water mixture and began a business producing Epsicles in seven fruit flavors.
(www.icecreamusa.com/popsicle/history/)
1905 San Francisco’s bubonic plague appeared to be eradicated following the killing of tens of thousands of rats and the fumigation of Chinatown. The death toll reached 113.
(SFC, 9/20/14, p.C2)
1905 US General Leonard Wood (b.1860) took over as military commander of the Philippines.
(www.wood.army.mil/MGLeonardwood.htm)
1905 W.E.B. Dubois and other black leaders organized the Niagara Movement. it followed the National Citizen’s Rights Association, which was organized by Homer Plessey's lawyer, Albion Tourgee. Tourgee’s biography was written by Otto Olsen: "Carpetbagger’s Crusade: The Life of Albion Winegar Tourgee."
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-6)
1905 Alonzo Herndon, a former slave, purchased two black benevolent associations for $140 and created Atlanta Mutual, which sold burial insurance to Atlanta’s black community. The company grew to become Atlanta Life Financial Group.
(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A8)
1905 Mary Anderson of Alabama received a patent for a streetcar windshield wiper. Her effort was the result of a trip to NYC in 1903 where she watched drivers coping with the weather.
(WSJ, 5/9/05, p.R10)
1905 In Denver Sarah Breedlove (Madame C.J. Walker) began selling in earnest her own Wonderful Hair Grower product. She settled the company in Indianapolis in 1910 and incorporated it in 1911. In 1912 she forced her way to the podium to address the National Negro Business League at its annual meeting, even though Booker T. Washington refused to recognize her.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.30)
1905 In Nevada the Virginia Street Bridge was built over the Truckee River in Reno. In 2014 it was set for demolition and reconstruction as part of the Truckee River flood project.
(SFC, 5/28/14, p.E2)
1905 New York City’s Columbus Circle became the first example of traffic going round a circle in a defined direction. In 1897 Holroyd Smith in London had proposed a "gyratory" traffic flow, with traffic going round the circle in a defined direction. Eugene Henard (1849-1923), French architect and a highly influential urban planner, called the concept carrefours a girations (gyratory crossroads), now known as roundabouts.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_H%C3%A9nard)(Econ, 4/23/15, p.43)
1905 Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, gave the Lincoln Life Insurance Co. the right to use the family name.
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.J5)
1905 Burrows, Marsh & McLennan was formed by Henry W. Marsh and Donald R. McLennan in Chicago becoming the world's largest insurance agency with annual premiums of $3 million ($59 million consumer price index adjusted). It was renamed Marsh & McLennan in 1906. In 1997, the company merged with Johnson & Higgins.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_&_McLennan)
1905 Senior executives of Equitable Life Insurance attempted to displace James Hyde, son of founder Henry Hyde, from leadership. In 2003 Patricia Beard authored "After the Ball," an account of the affair.
(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1905 Charles Evans Hughes supervised a New York state investigation into the insurance industry.
(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1905 Alliance Furniture was founded in Jamestown, NY, by a group of 8 partners of Swedish heritage. The company manufactured high-quality dining-room furniture until at least the 1950s.
(SFC, 6/18/08, p.G3)
1905 The De Forest Wireless and Telegraph Company established its KPH Radio station in San Francisco and began broadcasting from the Palace Hotel. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. In 1912 Marconi bought the station and chose Bolinas for its transmitter.
(SFC, 7/13/05, p.B2)
1905 The Hearst Corp. acquired Cosmopolitan magazine.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1905 Standard Rope & Twine Co. collapsed. It was succeeded by Standard Cordage Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R46)
1905 Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana, produced an electric car, the Victoria Phaeton, that could be charged at home.
(Econ, 10/9/10, p.22)
1905 Some automakers introduced motor trucks and ignition locks; and auto plants were opened in Canada.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1905 Winton Motors acquired Cleveland Cap Screw Co., which became the subsidiary Electric Welding Co.
(F, 10/7/96, p.67)
1905 The R.T. Davis Milling Co. began making an Aunt Jemima rag doll set that included Aunt Jemima, her husband Uncle Mose, and children Wade and Diana.
(SFC,10/22/97, Z1 p.7)
1905 The Wright Brother’s Flyer III became the world’s first practical airplane, but attracted little attention.
(NPub, 2002, p.7)
1905 Einstein presented his theory of relativity declaring that the very measurement of time intervals is affected by the motion of the observer. He proposed that light is itself quantized, or particle-like, to explain how electrons were emitted when light hit certain metals. He presented four papers, the first on Brownian motion, the second was on the composition of light, the third proposed the Special Theory of Relativity, and the fourth established the equivalence of mass and energy (see Sep 27). Einstein presented 5 papers this year, one of which was titled “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on its Energy Content?" This paper provided an incomplete proof of E=mc2, an equation that had already been know for a few years. In 2008 Hans C. Ohanian authored “Einstein’s Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius."
(NH, 3/05, p.72)(www.aip.org/history/einstein/great1.htm)(WSJ, 9/5/08, p.A13)
1905 Sylanus Bowser modified his 1885 kerosene pump into a self-regulating gasoline pump.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1905 Gustav Carlson invented plywood.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.B3)
1905 A Mayo Clinic researcher found that analyzing quick-frozen tissue could tell surgeons whether a growth is cancerous while the patient was still on the operating table.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1905 Nettie Stevens, geneticist, showed that sex was associated with the X chromosome.
(NH, 6/01, p.32)
1905 H.F. Osborn, noted dinosaur expert, first identified fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.13)(WSJ, 9/13/96, p.A8)
1905 Pete Aguereberry discovered gold in Death Valley and worked his Eureka Mine for 40 years.
(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.C5)
1905 The Salton Sea in southern California was formed by a broken Colorado River diversion dyke. Prior to this time it had been called the Salton Sink. It flowed unimpeded for the next 15 months.
(AAM, 3/96, p.87)(SFC, 7/7/96, zone 1 p.5)(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A22)
1905 California banned the collection of condor eggs. By 1982 only 22 condors were left in the state. In 1987 government biologists caught the last of 5 wild condors. Between 1992 and 2004 161 condors were released of which about half survived.
(CW, Winter 04, p.26)
1905 New York City began using a garbage incinerator to generate electricity to light the Williamsburg Bridge.
(www.astc.org/exhibitions/rotten/timeline.htm)
1905 In Argentina Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up a bank in Santa Cruz province.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1905 Baron Edouard Empain of Belgium built the model city of Heliopolis near Cairo, Egypt, with his own elaborate, Indian-inspired palace as its main attraction.
(AP, 5/4/05)
1905 Herbert Austin began making cars at Longbridge near Birmingham, England. The site later became the main factory of MG Rover.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.53)
1905 Chinese revolutionary Song Jiaren met with Sun Yat-Sen in Tokyo and became a founding member of the Revolutionary Alliance, a forerunner of the Nationalist Party.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.67)
1905 Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement, Czech bicycle makers, began making cars. They later merged with Skoda Pilsen.
(www.skoda-auto.com/global/history/company)
1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II organized a trans-Atlantic yacht race that was won by Charlie Barr, skipper of the Atlantic. His record crossing was 12 days 4 hrs and 1 min. Scott Cookman in 2002 authored "Atlantic: The Last Great Race of Princes."
(WSJ, 5/3/02, p.W12)
1905 Adolph Menzel (b.1815), German painter, died. He combined elements of many styles and was considered the greatest artist in Germany at the time and was Prussia’s foremost historical artist. He was considered Germany’s French Impressionist.
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A20)(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1905 The neo-Gothic Parliament building was constructed in Budapest, Hungary.
(Sm, 3/06, p.79)
1905 Japan imposed protectorate status on Korea. Hirobumi Ito was installed in Seoul as resident general and took charge of all governmental affairs. Japan named Durham White Stevens as the foreign advisor to Kojong.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)
1905 Mexico’s Islas Marias penal colony was founded. It was about 112 kms (70 miles) from the mainland Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta. The Maria Madre island penal colony was ordered closed in 2019.
(AP, 11/24/11)(AP, 2/18/19)
1905 In Mexico Pres. Diaz and his finance minister, Jose Limantour, set a silver-gold parity of 32:1, that proved to be a deflationary mistake on the eve of revolution.
(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A12)
1905 In Southwest Africa (later Namibia) the Nama tribe joined the Herero uprising against German settlers stealing their land, cattle and women.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
1905 Norway established independence from Denmark after 400 years of servitude. (Fresno Bee, 11/29/94)
1905 Russia attacked Japan but was easily defeated. [see May 28]
(V.D.-H.K.p.286)
1905 Revolution broke out in Russia and nationalist feelings ignited in the Baltic states.
(Compuserve, Online Encyclopedia)
1905 Over 1 million Russians staged a general strike demanding political reforms.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1905 Nestle S.A. originated in a merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company for milk products established in 1866 by the Page Brothers in Cham, Switzerland, and the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé Company set up in 1866 by Henri Nestlé to provide an infant food product.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9)
1905 In Europe Jean Lanfray, a Swiss laborer, murdered his wife and children after drinking 2 glasses of absinthe.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A3)
1905 Cecil Rhodes brought about the construction of a 650 foot iron bridge to connect Zambia and Zimbabwe near victoria Falls.
(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.C4)
1905-1911 Iran’s Constitutional Revolution took place. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament in Persia (Iran).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baskerville)
1905-1914 The great ostrich feather craze for the adornment of women’s hats, gowns, capes, gloves and shoes took place over this period. In 2008 Sarah Stein authored “Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce."
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.A19)
1905-1956 Margaret Lee Runbeck, American author: "Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling."
(AP, 11/8/99)
1905-1961 Dag Hammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-General: "A successful lie is doubly a lie; an error which has to be corrected is a heavier burden than the truth."
(AP, 8/6/98)
1905-1967 Patrick Kavanaugh, Irish poet, author of "Raglan Road," which Joan Osborne later put to the music of the song "At the Dawning of the Day."
(WSJ, 3/17/99, p.A24)
1905-1970 John Henry O'Hara, journalist, novelist and short story writer. Prof. Frank MacShane (d.1999) later authored a biography on O'Hara.
(WUD, 1994, p.1001)(SFC, 11/18/99, p.C8)
1905-1974 Jane Ace, American radio personality: "I'm a ragged individualist."
(AP, 10/22/99)
1905-1975 Ivy Baker Priest, former U.S. treasurer Thought for Today: "We seldom stop to think how many peoples’ lives are entwined with our own. It is a form of selfishness to imagine that every individual can operate on his own or can pull out of the general stream and not be missed."
(AP, 6/16/98)
1905-1978 Ilka Chase, author, actress and humorist: "You can always spot a well-informed man—his views are the same as yours."
(AP, 12/23/97)
1905-1978 Phyllis McGinley, American poet and author: "Time is the thief you cannot banish." "God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul. But because I happen to be a parent of almost fiercely maternal nature, I praise casualness. It seems to me the rarest of virtues." "History must always be taken with a grain of salt. It is, after all, not a science but an art."
(AP, 12/22/97)(AP, 5/9/98)(AP, 10/24/98)
1905-1979 Barnett Newman, New York painter. Late in his life he began making abstract sculpture. His last piece was called "Zim Zum I" (1969).
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A17)
1905-1989 Robert Penn Warren, American author, poet and critic: "What is man but his passion?"
(AP, 2/18/98)
1905-1995 Hobby, Oveta Culp, U.S. public official and publisher; b. Killeen, Tex. She was (1943-45) the first director of the Women’s Army Corps and served (1953-55) as the first secretary of the Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare. She was editor (1952-53, 1955-83), president (1955-65) and (1965-83) chairman of the board of the Houston Post.
(HNQ, 8/18/99)
1906 Jan 7, Harry Houdini’s fame as the "King of Handcuffs" was assured when he escaped from the Washington, D.C., jail cell of President James Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau. For the next 20 years, Houdini astounded worldwide audiences with illusions such as the "Upside-Down Water Torture Cell" and straitjacket escapes. Houdini died on October 31, 1926.
(HN, 3/24/98)(HNPD, 3/24/00)
1906 Jan 8, Upton Sinclair signed a contract with Doubleday Page, which published "The Jungle." The hero was a newlywed Lithuanian immigrant who found work in a Chicago meatpacking plant. The novel that exposed the intolerable working conditions in the Chicago slaughterhouses. Early chapters were published serially in Appeal to Reason, a Midwestern socialist newspaper.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(ON, 10/20/11, p.6)
1906 Jan 11, Albert Hoffmann, Switzerland, chemist (discovered LSD in 1943), was born.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1906 Jan 12, The Dow Jones Industrial average surged over 100 for the first time.
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.C-1)
1906 Jan 12, Henny Youngman (d.1998), comedian, was born in London.
(SFC, 2/25/98, p.C2)
1906 Jan 13, The Golden Gate Hotel opened on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nev..
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F4)
1906 Jan 15, Aristotle Onassis, Greek tycoon, who married Jackie Kennedy, was born.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1906 Jan 16, Marshall Field (71), Chicago department store founder, died in NYC.
(AP, 1/16/06)
1906 Jan 22, Willa Brown-Chappell, pioneering aviator, was born.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1906 Jan 25, Major Gen. Joseph Wheeler II (70), Confederate, US General, died. He led a cavalry division in the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898. As a Confederate brigadier and then major general, "Fightin’ Joe" Wheeler commanded the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Mississippi and, later, the Army of Tennessee. Captured in May 1865, he went on to have a prosperous postwar life, serving as a U.S. congressman for eight terms. After his Spanish-American War service, Wheeler retired from the army as a brigadier general of U.S. Regulars. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
(HNQ, 2/13/02)(MC, 1/25/02)
1906 Jan 31, A magnitude 8.8 quake off the coast of Ecuador and Colombia. It generated a tsunami that killed at least 500 people.
(AP, 2/27/10)
1906 Jan, Lee De Forest filed a patent for diode vacuum tube detector, a two-electrode device for detecting electromagnetic waves, a variant of the Fleming valve invented two years earlier. A year later, he filed a patent for a 3-electrode device that was a much more sensitive detector of electromagnetic waves. It was granted US Patent 879,532 in February 1908 and paved the way for the radio and television industry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_De_Forest)(SSFC, 6/26/11, p.42)
1906 Jan, The steamer Valencia from SF ran aground at bluffs on the west side of Vancouver Island. Many of the passengers and crew made it to shore, but none of the 126 survived due to exposure.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.C8)
1906 Jan, Britain’s liberals won a landslide victory. Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1936-1908) led the Liberals to a massive election victory in the UK on a promised program of reform.
(http://tinyurl.com/gse4h5h)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.58)
1906 Feb 1, 1st federal penitentiary building completed in Leavenworth, Kansas.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1906 Feb 2, A Papal encyclical denounced the separation of church & state.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1906 Feb 4, Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer who discovered Pluto, was born.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1906 Feb 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (d.1945), German Protestant theologian, was born. "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."
(AP, 8/27/00)(HN, 2/4/01)
1906 Feb 4, The New York Police Department began finger print identification.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1906 Feb 5, Actor John Carradine was born in New York City.
(AP, 2/5/06)
1906 Feb 7, Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, the last emperor of China, was born in Beijing.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C16)(AP, 2/7/06)
1906 Feb 8, Chester F. Carlson, physicist, was born. He invented xerography, the electrostatic dry-copy process.
(HN, 2/8/01)
1906 Feb 8, Henry Roth, writer, was born. His work included "Call it Sleep."
(HN, 2/8/01)
1906 Feb 9, Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (33), son of former slaves, died of TB in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1906 Feb 9, Natal proclaimed a state of siege in Zulu uprising.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1906 Feb 10, Britain's 1st modern and largest battleship, the "HMS Dreadnought," was launched.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1906 Feb 15, British Labour Party organized.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1906 Feb 17, Alice Lee Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt's irrepressible eldest daughter, married Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio in an elaborate White House ceremony. Heedless of social convention, Alice's behavior routinely shocked her family and friends. Once the president, when confronted with another of Alice's escapades, remarked, "I can do one of two things, I can run the country or control Alice. I cannot do both." Nevertheless, the world public was captivated with the first daughter, who seemed to embody the ideal Gay Nineties woman. In spite of its promising beginning, Alice's 25-year marriage to Longworth was not a happy one, but Alice reigned as the grande dame of Washington, D.C. society for another 50 years.
(HNPD, 2/16/99)
1906 Feb 19, In Michigan W.K. Kellogg & Charles Bolin incorporated the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. Will Kellogg spent 2/3 of the company budget to advertise Corn Flakes.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E4)(ON, 2/05, p.10)
1906 Feb 20, Russian troops seized large portions of Mongolia.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1906 Feb 23, Johann Hoch, US murderer, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1906 Feb 28, Bugsy Siegel, gangster who created casinos in Las Vegas, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1906 Mar 3, Vuia I aircraft, built by Romanian Traja Vuia, was tested in France.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1906 Mar 4, John McAllister Schofield, a Union general in the Civil War and onetime commanding general of the army, died in St. Augustine, Fla., at age 74.
(AP, 3/4/06)
1906 Mar 6, Lou Costello (d.1959), American film comedian, was born in Paterson, NJ. He paired with Bud Abbott in numerous films and the famous "Who's on First" routine.
(HN, 3/6/99)(MC, 3/6/02)
1906 Mar 10, 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Sonatine."
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Mar 10, London Underground opened Bakerloo line from Baker Street to Waterloo Line.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Mar 10, A coal dust explosion killed 1,060 at Courrieres, France.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1906 Mar 11, The Simplified Spelling Board was announced with Andrew Carnegie funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City. In August Pres. Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order mandating simplified spelling in all government administrative documents.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board)
1906 Mar 13, Susan B. Anthony (b.1820), abolitionist and advocate of black suffrage as well as the rights of women to vote, died. Eleanor Roosevelt suggested that Susan B. Anthony should be added to the four faces of Mount Rushmore. Eleanor Roosevelt later suggested that social reformer and woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony should be included with the images of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, but her suggestion was not accepted.
(AP, 3/13/99)(HNQ, 4/17/00)
1906 Mar 17, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the muck-rake in his hand" in a speech to the Gridiron Club in Washington, DC, as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of investigative journalism.
(AP, 3/17/06)(www.gwu.edu/~smpa/faculty/documents/Harvard.pdf)
1906 Mar 18, Roy L. Johnson, US admiral (WW II-Pacific Ocean), was born.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1906 Mar 19, Adolf Eichmann, Nazi Gestapo officer, was born. He was captured in Argentina and put on trial in Israel.
(HN, 3/19/99)
1906 Mar 19, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's "Quattro Rusteghi," premiered in Munich.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1906 Mar 20, George B. Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion," premiered in London.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1906 Mar 20, Army officers in Russia mutinied at Sevastopol.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1906 Mar 21, John D. Rockefeller III, billionaire philanthropist (oil), was born.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1906 Mar 21, Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1906 Mar 24, "Census of the British Empire" showed England ruled 1/5 of the world.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1906 Mar 25, Alan John Percivale Taylor (d.1990), English historian, was born. He pioneered the presentation of the history lecture on British television.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._P._Taylor)
1906 Mar 25, Jean Sablon, French crooner, was born.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1906 Mar 29, E. Power Biggs, organist, composer (CBS), was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, England.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1906 Mar 31, G.B. Shaw's German version of "Caesar and Cleopatra," premiered in Berlin.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1906 Mar, Matisse first exhibited his 6x8 foot untraditional, pastoral canvas “Le Bonheur de vivre" at the Salon des Independants in Paris. It was purchased from the salon by Leo and Gertrude Stein.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.P12)
1906 Mar, In San Francisco Shreve & Co., a high-end jeweler, moved into a 12-story steel frame building at 200 Post St. The structure survived the upcoming earthquake. In 1992 the company was bought by Schiffman’s of North Carolina. In 2015 the company lost its lease and was in search of a new home.
(SSFC, 4/26/15, p.C1)
1906 Apr 4, John Cameron Swayze, newscaster (Timex, Hindenburg), was born in Wichita, Ks.
(AP, 4/4/06)
1906 Apr 14, Pres. Roosevelt made a speech about “Man With the Much Rake" during a ceremony at the laying of the corner stone of the House of Representatives."
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 16, In Michigan 2 freighters collided and sank in the Soo passage near Sault Ste. Marie. The crews of the Sexonia and the Eugene Zimmerman escaped.
(SFC, 4/17/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 16, In Pennsylvania 3 men were shot dead in a riot among striking coal miners at Windber. An appeal was made to Gov. Pennypacker for troops.
(SFC, 4/17/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 6, 1st animated cartoon was copyrighted.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1906 Apr 7, A general act was issued by the international conference of Algeciras, Spain. Thirteen powers participated in the deliberations on the Moroccan question, and despite strong German objections, agreed to entrust to France and Spain the management of the Moroccan police. The powers also made arrangements regarding Morocco's state bank, system of taxation, customs administration, and public works.
(www.bartleby.com/67/1378.html)
1906 Apr 9, The third modern Olympic games opened in Athens and marked the 10th anniversary of the modern Olympics.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1906 Apr 10, A report from Russia said 7 soldiers were killed during a rebellion at the garrison in Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). On April 17 it was reported that 315 soldiers were killed in a fight between mutineers and loyal troops.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 11, Einstein introduced his Theory of Relativity. [see 1905]
(MC, 4/11/02)
1906 Apr 11, James A. Bailey (58), circus showman (Barnum & Bailey), died.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1906 Apr 13, Samuel Beckett (d.1989), Irish (French) novelist-playwright, Nobel Prize winner in 1969, (Waiting for Godot), was born. He settled in France and wrote in French and then translated to English. Sometimes he reversed the process. His work included "Act Without Words" (1956), "Happy Days" (1960-61), "Rough for Theater II" (1976), "Catastrophe" (1982) and "What’s There" (1983). Also the prose trilogy "Molloy," "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable." In 1996 James Knowlson wrote his study of Beckett: "Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett." "We are all born mad. Some of us remain so."
(V.D.-H.K.p.369)(SFEC, 10/27/96, BR p.5)(HN, 4/13/98)(AP, 10/3/98)
1906 Apr 13, An explosion on the US battleship Kearsarge killed 7 men. The vessel was off Culebra Island in the Caribbean Sea when the explosion in the forward turret occurred. 2 more deaths were soon reported with 10 sailors in serious conditions.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 13, There was a mutiny on the Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos and Vasco da Gama.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1906 Apr 14, Russian writer Maxim Gorky was in NYC raising funds for the revolt in Russia. He had just been ordered out of 2 respectable hotels due to his relationship with Russian actress Mlle. Andreivea.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.A7)
1906 Apr 14, Pres. Roosevelt made a speech about “Man With the Muck Rake" during a ceremony at the laying of the corner stone for the House of Representatives."
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 15, A mob in Springfield, Mo., took 3 black men from a county jail, lynched them and burned their bodies. 2 of the men were being held under suspicion of murder and the 3rd was accused of assaulting a white domestic. Gov. Folk ordered out state militia to patrol the streets.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 15, Nine European steamships arrived in NYC with some 11,839 immigrants. Another 8 ships were expected the next day with a similar number of immigrants. The facilities at Ellis Island could only handle 5,000 newcomers per day.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 Apr 17, Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect, presented his design plans for San Francisco modeled on the Parisian plans by Baron Georges-Eugene Haussman.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1906 Apr 17, A boiler explosion on the British battleship Prince of Wales killed 3 sailors as it underwent speed trials in the Mediterranean.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 17, In France the wife of a miner who had refused to strike was attacked by 150 women in her home in the Pas de Calais district.
(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A15)
1906 Apr 18, At 5:12 a.m. the San Francisco 8.2 earthquake occurred. Seismologists in 1977 reduced the magnitude to 7.9. 28,000 buildings were destroyed and 498 blocks leveled. One quarter of the city burned. About 700 people died. The massive earthquake was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles and as far inland as Nevada. It caused severe damage and loss of life in the San Francisco Bay area, and a three-day fire spawned by the shaking reduced 4.7 square miles of the city to blackened ruins. Military officials estimated $400 million of damage and a total of 700-800 killed. Modern research estimates that closer to 3,000 of San Francisco's 400,000 inhabitants lost their lives. Sweeney Observatory in Goldengate Park was destroyed. Some 30,000 people were left homeless and lived in GG Park for up to a year and a half. The quake was centered in Olema. Old City Hall at Fulton and Larkin was destroyed. The Fairmont Hotel was severely damaged just 2 months before it was scheduled to open. In 2001 Dan Kurzman authored "Disaster: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906." In 2005 Philip Fradkin authored “The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself."
(SFC, 4/4/96, p.A-106)(SFC, 4/8/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)(AP, 4/18/97)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5,7)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W31)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A13)(SFC, 4/22/01, BR p.3)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)(SFC, 4/7/05, p.B1)(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.F1)
1906 Apr 18, SF Mayor Schmitz issued a proclamation that authorized police "to Kill any and all persons found engaged in looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime."
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C3)
1906 Apr 18, Dennis Sullivan, SF Fire Chief, was severely injured when the chimney of the California Hotel crashed into the adjoining firehouse. Sullivan died of his injuries on April 22. In the 1920s a firechief residence was built in his honor at 870 Bush St. A pond on the Potrero Hill potato farm of John Center provided water that saved the Mission district from the earthquake fire. Residents on Russian Hill saved 5 homes on Green Street between Jones and Leavenworth from fire and dynamite crews. The "Portals of the Past" monument in Golden Gate Park is a marble remnant from a mansion destroyed by the earthquake and fire.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A26)(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)(SFC, 12/29/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A8)(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 18, San Francisco firefighters, with the assistance of the US Navy, managed to drag a single fire hose from a pumper in the bay, over the shoulder of Telegraph Hill, over a mile to the Jackson Street warehouses. Navy Lt. Frederick Freeman led efforts that saved Anson Hotaling’s Whiskey warehouses at 451 and 455 Jackson street. Nearby Jones Alley was later renamed Hotaling Way.
(http://web.mac.com/danruden/APHotaling/About_Us.html)(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.N4)(SFC, 8/30/14, p.D1)
1906 Apr 18, 500 hundred or more people were estimated to have died at Howard and Sixth in San Francisco where the Brunswick House, the Ohio House, the Lormor and Nevada House all collapsed. They had been built to fill “Pioche’s Lake," a sunken area created by the Hayward Earthquake of 1868.
(SFC, 6/8/13, p.C4)
1906 Apr 18, The SF earthquake killed 119 people at Agnews State Hospital in San Jose.
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.A21)
1906 Apr 19, Pierre Curie, French physicist, chemist (Nobel 1903), died. Curie, was hit by a truck and killed as he crossed a street in Paris.
(ON, 3/00, p.2)(MC, 4/19/02)
1906 Apr 20, In San Francisco Navy Lt. Frederick Freeman led his sailors in holding a line against advancing flames at Chestnut and Lombard and Pier 27 saving the city’s northeast waterfront. In 2005 Dennis Smith authored “San Francisco Is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires."
(SFC, 8/30/14, p.C2)
1906 Apr 22, Eddie Albert (d.2005), film and TV star (Green Acres), was born in Rock Island, Ill, and grew up in Minneapolis.
(SFC, 5/28/05, p.A2)
1906 Apr 22, A new baseball rule put the umpire in sole charge of all game balls.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1906 Apr 22, The SF Health Office reported that about 500 bodies had been recovered from the earthquake and fire. Insurance losses were estimated at $175 million and total losses at $300 million.
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A8)
1906 Apr 22, Dennis Sullivan, SF Fire Chief, severely injured in the April 18 earthquake, died of his injuries.
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.A8)
1906 Apr 23, Maria Arnoldo, [Adrianus Broeders], photographer, writer, was born.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1906 Apr 23, The Belgian training ship Count de Smet de Naey foundered off Prawle Point, England. The captain and 33 on board were drowned.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A9)
1906 Apr 24, William Joyce was born. He was the British traitor, who during World War II gave anti-British broadcasts known as 'Lord Haw-Haw.'
(HN, 4/24/99)
1906 Apr 25, William Joseph Brennan Jr., future Supreme Court Justice (1956-90), was born in Newark, New Jersey.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A8)(AP, 4/25/07)
1906 Apr 25, J.H. Metcalf discovered asteroid #599: Luisa.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1906 Apr 26, Gracie Allen (Mrs. George Burns), comedienne (George Burns Show), was born.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1906 Apr 28, Bartholomeus J "Bart" Bok, Dutch-US astronomer (Milky Way), was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1906 Apr 28, Kurt Gödel (d.1978), Austrian mathematician, was born in the Moravian city of Brno. Godel later developed his incompleteness theorem showing that within any logical system, no matter how rigidly structured, there are always questions that cannot be answered with certainty, contradictions that may be discovered, and errors that may lurk.
(V.D.-H.K.p.340)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.D2)
1906 Apr, William J. Seymour, a black preacher, (b.1870) began evangelizing for his apostolic Faith Mission from 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The Azusa Street revival contributed to a new diaspora of missionaries who anticipated that global evangelization would be achieved by gospel preaching accompanied by miraculous signs and wonders.
(www.ag.org/enrichmentjournal/199904/026_azusa_3.cfm)
1906 Apr, In Serbia General Gruuios, the Premier and Minister of War, resigned because King Peter refused to adopt his suggestion and dismiss the regicide officials.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1906 May 8, Roberto Rossellini, Italian film director, was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1906 May 10, Russia's Duma (Parliament) met for the 1st time.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1906 May 17, Opera singer Zinka Milanov was born in Zagreb, Croatia.
(AP, 5/17/06)
1906 May 19, The Federated Boys’ Clubs, the forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of America, were organized.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1906 May 22, Orville and Wilbur Wright were awarded U.S. Patent 821,393 for "new and useful improvement in Flying Machines." They had hired a patent attorney to refine their 1903 application. The first successful powered flight of the Wright Flyer took place on December 17, 1903.
(HNQ, 3/19/01)
1906 May 23, Henrik Ibsen (78), Norwegian playwright and poet died in Christiania, Norway.
(AP, 5/23/06)
1906 May 26, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt approved the US Congress chartered the Archaeological Institute of America.
(www.archaeological.org/pdfs/AIA_Congressional_CharterA5S.pdf)
1906 May 29, Terence Hanbury White (T.H. White), novelist (The Sword in the Stone, England Have My Bones), was born in Bombay, India.
(HN, 5/29/01)(SC, 5/29/02)
1906 May 31, France and Germany signed an accord in which France agreed to yield control of the Moroccan police, but otherwise retained effective control of Moroccan political and financial affairs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Moroccan_Crisis)
1906 May 31, In Madrid, Spain, an anarchist bomb exploded under the wedding carriage King Alfonso and Queen Ena. 20 people were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/b45gm)
1906 May, In California a suspicious fire destroyed the Chinese fishing village of Point Alones on the Monterey Bay. The Chinese were not allowed to rebuild.
(SFC, 11/5/10, p.A1)
1906 Jun 3, Josephine Baker, dancer, singer, Parisian nightclub owner, was born to an Indian and African mother and a Creole father in St. Louis. She was a talented singer and dancer who got her show business start with the Dixie Steppers vaudeville troupe and was the first black, female American entertainer to achieve international stardom. She left home at 13 to tour on the southern vaudeville circuit, later appeared on Broadway and was noted in New York as a comedienne. Frustrated by the racism she encountered in her homeland, Baker moved to France in 1925 and joined the Folies Bergere. Her sensuous performances with La Revue Negre earned her rave reviews and admiring fans. She returned to America in 1935 after 10 years in France only to find that racial barriers still prevented her from attaining the same status she enjoyed in Europe. She appeared in New York's Ziegfeld Follies but, when she did not achieve any success there she returned to France, became a citizen, and married a Frenchman. During World War II, Baker became active in undercover work for the French Resistance movement. She later adopted twelve orphans from around the world, calling them her "Rainbow Tribe." Josephine Baker died in France in 1975 and was buried in Paris with full military honors.
(HNQ, 6/3/98)(HN, 6/3/98)(HNQ, 12/28/98)
1906 Jun 8, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed the American Antiquities Act, first proposed in 1882. It was used to set aside American resources by executive order. Roosevelt had urged the passage of the Antiquities Act to allow the president to designate areas of scientific, historic or archeological significance as national monuments without the approval of Congress.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquities_Act)(Arch, 1/06, p.4)
1906 Jun 14, Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist, was born.
(HN, 6/14/01)
1906 Jun 19, Earl Bascom (rodeo showman and inventor: first side-delivery rodeo chute, first hornless bronc saddle, first one-handed bareback rigging), was born.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1906 Jun 22, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author, wife of Charles Lindbergh (Gifts from the Sea), was born.
(HN, 6/22/01)
1906 Jun 22, Billy Wilder, movie director, was born. He directed "The Lost Weekend" and "The Apartment" and won an Oscar for "Stalag 17."
(HN, 6/22/99)
1906 Jun 24, Pierre Fournier, cellist (Paris Conservatoire), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1906 Jun 25, A love triangle came to a violent end atop New York's Madison Square Garden as architect Stanford White, the building's designer, was shot to death by Harry Thaw, for an alleged tryst White had with Thaw's wife, Florence Evelyn Nesbit. Thaw, tried for murder, was acquitted by reason of insanity. At the time this was called "The Crime of the Century."
(HN, 6/25/99)(AP, 6/25/06)
1906 Jun 26, Ferenc Szisz won the first French Grand Prix. Szisz won the race in a 13 liter, 90 horsepower Renault. The car was not particularly powerful compared to other cars in the race, but it did have the important advantage of removable tire-carrying rims. The removable rims meant tire changes took a speedy four minutes compared to the regular 15 minutes required with fixed rim tires. Szisz finished a little over a half hour ahead of the second-place car.
(HNQ, 7/25/00)(AHDD, p.26)
1906 Jun 28, Maria Goeppert Mayer, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was born.
(HN, 6/28/01)
1906 Jun 29, The US Congress enacted the Hepburn Act, which prohibited railroads from offering discounted rates to large shippers and authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum freight charges for railroads. Pres. Roosevelt had personally appealed for its passage.
(AH, 6/07, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_Act)
1906 Jun 30, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The meat inspection act was inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle. The large meatpackers supported the law because it put inspection costs on the government and imposed costly regulations on smaller competitors.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(WSJ, 3/8/06, p.A21)(AP, 6/29/06)
1906 Jul 1, In San Francisco St. Ignatius College held a formal inauguration ceremony for a new campus site, its 4th, at Hayes and Shrader. Since the earthquake 18 SI Jesuits took up temporary residence at the 57-room mansion of Mrs. Bertha Welch at 1090 Eddy Street.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1906 Jul 2, Hans Bethe, physicist (Nobel 1967), peace worker, was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1906 Jul 3, George Sanders, actor (All About Eve-Academy Award 1950), was born in Russia.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1906 Jul 4, Great Britain, France & Italy granted independence to Ethiopia.
(Maggio, 98)
1906 Jul 7, Leroy "Satchel" Page, baseball pitcher for the Negro Leagues and the Major League, was born.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1906 Jul 7, In England Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), British politician and statesman and the former mayor of Birmingham (1873-1876), led an 80-car rally in the city for 17 miles to celebrate his July 8, 70th birthday.
(http://tinyurl.com/z4b89k5)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.45)
1906 Jul 8, Philip C. Johnson, architect, was born.
(HN, 7/8/01)
1906 Jul 12, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was found innocent in France of his earlier court-martial for spying for Germany. Dreyfus had served over 4 years on Devil’s Island before a top French court rehabilitated his name in what came to be called the Dreyfus Affair.
(PC, 1992, p.664)(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A16)
1906 Jul 14, Tom Carvel, ice cream mogul (Carvels), was born.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1906 Jul 15, Richard W. Armour, humorist, author of "Twisted Tales from Shakespeare," was born.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1906 Jul 18, S.I. Hayakawa, (Sen-R-CA), educator (Language in Action), was born.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1906 Jul 17, American playwright Clifford Odets was born in Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/18/06)
1906 Jul 23, Marston Bates, American zoologist and author of "The Nature of Natural History," was born.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1906 Jul 23, Pogroms took place against Jews in Odessa.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1906 Jul 27, Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager, was born.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1906 Jul, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to editor William Allen White in which he called Upton Sinclair “hysterical, unbalanced and untruthful" in reference to Sinclair’s criticism of the Chicago meat packing plants.
(WSJ, 3/8/06, p.A21)
1906 Aug 5, John Houston, film director of such movies as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon," was born in Nevada, Mo.
(HN, 8/5/98)(MC, 8/5/02)
1906 Aug 7, In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."
(HN, 8/7/99)
1906 Aug 11, In France, Eugene Lauste received the first patent for a talking film.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1906 Aug 13, At Fort Brown, Texas, some 10-20 armed men engaged an all-Black Army unit in a shooting rampage that left one townsperson dead and a police officer wounded. A 1910 inquiry placed guilt on the soldiers and Pres. Roosevelt ordered all 167 discharged without honor. In 1970 John Weaver (d.2002) authored "The Brownsville Raid," an account of the incident that led the Army to exonerate all 167 men.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
1906 Aug 15, The 1st freight delivery tunnel system began underneath Chicago.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1906 Aug 16, A magnitude 8.6 earthquake in Valparaiso, Chile, left an estimated 20,000 people dead.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Z1 p.5)(AP, 6/22/02)
1906 Aug 19, Philo T. Farnsworth (d.1971), inventor (electronic TV), was born in Beaver County, Utah.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarnsworth.htm)
1906 Aug 21, Friz Freleng, animator (Bugs Bunny-Emmy 1982), was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1906 Aug 22, The 1st Victor Victrola was manufactured.
(MC, 8/22/02)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.G4)
1906 Aug 26, Christopher Isherwood, English novelist and playwright, was born. He wrote "Goodbye to Berlin" (Berlin Stories), the inspiration for the play "I am a Camera" and the musical and film "Cabaret." [1904 also given as birth year]
(WUD, 1994 p.755)(HN, 8/26/00)
1906 Aug 26, Albert Bruce Sabin, U.S. virologist, born in Poland. In 1955, he developed an oral vaccine against polio.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1906 Aug 28, John Betjeman (d.1984), poet laureate of England (1972-1984), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman)
1906 Sep 1, Papua New Guinea was placed under Australian administration, which continued to 1973.
(www.hubert-herald.nl/PapuaNewGuinea.htm)(Econ, 5/28/11, SR p.17)
1906 Sep 2, Giuseppe Giacosa (b.1847), Italian songwriter (libretti opera Puccini), died.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1906 Sep 3, Joe Gans (1874-1910), born as Joseph Gant, defended his lightweight boxing title against Battling Nelson in Goldfield, Nevada. He was the first African-American World Boxing Champion, reigning continuously as World Lightweight Champion from 1902 to 1908. In 2012 William Gildea authored “The Longest Fight: In the Ring with Joe Gans, Boxing’s First African-American Champion."
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gans)
1906 Sep 8, Robert Turner invented the automatic typewriter return carriage.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1906 Sep 11, Mohandas Gandhi addressed a meeting in Johannesburg on social protest against the Asiatic Law Amendment, a new law by the province of Transvaal that made it compulsory for all Indians over age 8 to register with the government and carry ID cards. In the India Opinion he published articles on what he called Satyagraha (Truth Force): "the vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one's self."
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1906 Sep 12, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, composer, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. [see Sep 25]
(MC, 9/12/01)
1906 Sep 19, Addressing the annual dinner of The Associated Press in New York, Mark Twain said there were "only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe ... the sun in the heavens and The Associated Press down here."
(AP, 9/19/00)
1906 Sep 22, Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 21 people. In 2001 Mark Bauerlein authored "Negrophobia," an account of the riots.
(HN, 9/22/98)(WSJ, 6/12/01, p.A20)
1906 Sep 24, Victor Herbert's musical "Red Mill," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1906 Sep 24, Devils Tower, the first US National Monument, was designated by President Theodore Roosevelt. Devils Tower is a volcanic rock formation, rising 867 feet over a base of gray igneous rock at 1,700 feet, located in the Black Hills of Wyoming.
(SSFC, 6/18/06, p.G5)(www.nps.gov/deto/)
1906 Sep 25, Dimitri Shostakovich (d.1975), Soviet composer who wrote 15 symphonies, was born. His work included the Violin Concerto No. 2. [see Sep 12]
(WUD, 1994, p.1320)(SFC, 1/30/98, p.E5)(HN, 9/25/98)
1906 Sep 28, US troops reoccupied Cuba. They stayed until 1909.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1906 Sep 7-1906 Sep 19, Dr. Frederick Cook (1865-1940) and Ed Barrill explored the foothills of Mt. McKinley, Alaska. Cook soon claimed to have taken a picture of his companion, Edward Barrill, from the summit of Mt. McKinley. In 1909 his book “To the Top of the Continent" was published. In 1923 Cook was convicted of mail fraud for selling worthless oil stocks to unsuspecting investors. In 1998 it was reported that the photo was a fake, and that the 2 men never reached the summit.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A3)(ON, 3/06, p.6)
1906 Sep-1907 Mar, In San Francisco 5,610 fir and redwood shacks were built during this period to provide housing for earthquake refugees. They were placed in rows at 26 official tent camps and rented for $2 per month. The units cost the city about $150 each. In South Park nineteen two-story tenements were built.
(SSFC, 1/24/10, DB p.42)(SFC, 4/20/19, p.C3)
1906 Oct 1, In Finland the Parliament Act came into force. It replaced the old Diet dating back to the 17th century with a 200-seat unicameral Parliament and introduced universal suffrage.
(http://web.eduskunta.fi/Resource.phx/parliament/aboutparliament/presentation/history.htx)
1906 Oct 3, The first conference on wireless telegraphy in Berlin adopted SOS as warning signal.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1906 Oct 6, Janet Gaynor, film actress, was born.
(HN, 10/6/00)
1906 Oct 8, Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrated a machine in London that put permanent waves in hair. The client wore a dozen brass curlers, each weighing two pounds, for the six-hour process.
(HN, 10/8/00)
1906 Oct 9, Joseph F. Glidden, inventor (barbed wire), died.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1906 Oct 11, The San Francisco school board ordered the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage. To counter local prejudice David Starr Jordan, Stanford’s 1st president, David Pike Bowie, a San Mateo Japanophile, and Japanese General Consul Kisaburo Ueno soon formed a chapter of the Japan Society to foster bilateral understanding. The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States. In 2017 the SF school board voted to rescind the rule.
(HN, 10/11/98)(SFC, 10/29/05, p.B7)(AP, 10/11/06)(SFC, 1/23/17, p.C1)
1906 Oct 14, Hannah Arendt, historian (Origins of Totalitarianism), was born in Germany.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1906 Oct 16, Cleanth Brooks, Kentucky-born writer and educator, was born.
(HN, 10/16/00)
1906 Oct 18, James Brooks, US mural painter (Acquisition of Long Island), was born.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1906 Oct 19, The crew of Roald Amundsen aboard Gjoe, a converted herring boat, arrived off the coast of San Francisco following their crossing of the Northwest Passage in a 26-month journey.
(SFC, 10/19/06, p.B1)
1906 Oct 22, Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (One in White, Darkness at Noon), was born.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1906 Oct 22, 3000 blacks demonstrated and rioted in Philadelphia.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1906 Oct 22, Paul Cezanne (b.1839), French post-impressionist painter, died in Aix-en-Provence. In 202 Alex Danchev authored “Cezanne: A Life."
(AP, 10/22/06)(SSFC, 11/4/12, p.F1)
1906 Oct 23, Gertrude Ederle, swimmer (Olympic-gold-1924), was born in NYC.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1906 Oct 25, US inventor Lee de Forest patented the "Audion," a 3-diode amplification valve which proved a pioneering development in radio and broadcasting.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1906 Oct 25, The Peter Iredale, a British 278-foot 4-mast bark, wrecked on Clatsop Beach, but the whole crew survived. The only enemy shell to strike Oregon soil during WW II landed near the wreck.
(PC, Smith-Western)
1906 Oct 31, Louise Talma, composer (Summer Sounds), was born in Arcachon, France.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1906 Oct 31, George Bernard Shaw's "Caesar & Cleopatra," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1906 Nov 2, Luchino Visconti, film director, was born in Milan, Italy. His work included “Obsession" and “Death in Venice."
(HN, 11/2/00)(AP, 11/2/06)
1906 Nov 6, Republican Charles Evans Hughes was elected governor of New York, defeating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. In 1910 he was appointed to the US Supreme Court and served until 1916. In 1930 he was appointed as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and served until 1941.
(AP, 11/6/99)(SFC, 10/6/05, p.A15)
1906 Nov 9, President Theodore Roosevelt left Washington D.C. for a 17 day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico, becoming the first president to make an official visit outside of the U.S.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1906 Nov 9, Arthur Rudolph, Nazi-turned-American rocket engineer, was born.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1906 Nov 14, Louise Brooks, silent film star, was born. She became a symbol of the 1920s flapper.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1906 Nov 15, Curtis E. Le May, air force general and VP candidate, was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1906 Nov 17, Soichiro Honda, founder and CEO of Honda Motor Co., was born in Japan.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1906 Nov 18, Anarchists bombed Rome’s St. Peter’s Cathedral.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1906 Nov 20, George Bernard Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1906 Nov 21, In San Juan, President Theodore Roosevelt pledged citizenship for Puerto Rican people.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1906 Nov 21, China prohibited opium trade.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1906 Nov 22, The Canadian steamship J.H. Jones went down during a storm on Lake Huron, near Lion's Head, Ontario, with 30 people on board. Only one body was ever found. In 2018 wreckage of the ship was found.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9lde8cu)(SFC, 9/17/18, p.A2)
1906 Nov 22, The "S-O-S" distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1906 Nov 28, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien and Tommy Burns fought to no decision in a 20-round draw in a world heavyweight title bout in Los Angeles.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1906 Nov 30, President Theodore Roosevelt publicly denounced segregation of Japanese school children in San Francisco.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1906 Nov, Aloysius Alzheimer (1864-1915), German psychiatrist, first described the symptoms of a progressive neurodegenerative disease that caused memory loss, dementia and ultimately death following the death of his patient, Auguste Deter (56). She was the first person to have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
(WSJ, 5/13/97, p.B1)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.72)(Econ, 9/12/15, p.74)
1906 Dec 2, Peter Carl Goldmark (d.1977), engineer, was born in Budapest, Hungary. He developed the first commercial color television and the long-playing phonograph record.
(HN, 12/2/00)(AP, 12/2/06)
1906 Dec 3, The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1906 Dec 6, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge flew a powered, man-carrying kite that carried him 168 feet in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1906 Dec 8, Richard Llewellyn, author (How Green Was My Valley), was born.
(HN, 12/8/00)
1906 Dec 9, Grace Hopper, mathematician and computer pioneer, was born.
(HN, 12/9/00)
1906 Dec 10, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. This was the first Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 12/10/97)(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C3)
1906 Dec 12, US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt nominated Oscar Straus to be secretary of commerce and labor; Straus became the first Jewish Cabinet member.
(AP, 12/12/07)
1906 Dec 30, Sir Carol Reed (d.1976) British movie director ("The Third Man," "Our Man in Havana," "Oliver!") was born in London.
(AP, 12/30/06)
1906 Dec 14, First U1 submarine was brought into service in Germany.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1906 Dec 19, H. Allen Smith, Ill, humorist, author (Low Man on Totem Pole), was born.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1906 Dec 19, Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist arty and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982, was born in the Ukraine.
(HN, 12/19/98)(MC, 12/19/01)
1906 Dec 24, Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, Mass.
(AP, 12/24/97)
1906 Dec 27, Oscar Levant, American composer and actor, was born in Pittsburgh.
(AP, 12/27/06)
1906 Dec 28, Alexander Cassatt (b.1839), president of the Pennsylvania Railroad since June 9, 1899, died. He was succeeded as by James McCrea. Cassatt was the older brother of artist Mary Cassatt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cassatt)
1906 Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (d.2002) was born in Ladora, Iowa. She later became a newspaperwoman and wrote the 1st 23 Nancy Drew children’s mysteries under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.
(WSJ, 5/30/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.A13)
1906 William Empson, English critic and poet, was born. He wrote the book "Seven Types of Ambiguity," in which he attempted to translate the new ideas of physics into literary criticism.
(WUD, 1994, p.468)(SFEC, 8/17/97, Z1 p.3)
1906 Billy Wilder, American film director, was born in (Austria). In 1999 Ed Sikow published "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder."
(SFEC, 2/7/99, BR p.5)
1906 Auguste Rodin began his sculpture "Large Left Clenched Hand With Figure."
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A16)
1906 Georges Braque painted "Olive Tree Near L’Estaque." It sold for $4.4 mil in 1998. He also did the landscape "La Ciotat."
(WSJ, 5/21/98, p.A15)
1906 Cezanne painted "Le Cabanon de Jourdan" in the year of his death.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)
1906 Andre Derain painted "The Dance," a jungle scene with 3 dancers and a sinuous snake.
(WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)
1906 Matisse painted "The Joy of Life." Matisse and Picasso met in this year and this work bugged Picasso, who answered with hard-core cubism.
(NW, 5/13/02, p.12)
1906 Claude Monet painted "Water Lilies." His last great series was devoted to the water lilies of the pond in his Japanese garden in Giverney. This series of paintings lasted to 1916 and became increasingly abstract. One of the 1906 Water Lilies paintings sold for $22.5 mil in 1999.
(DPCP 1984)(WSJ, 11/19/99, p.W16)
1906 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted the corpulent "Portrait of Gertrude Stein" and the landscape "Gosol." In 1996 the landscape sold for $3.4 million. In 1947 it was acquired by the New York Met. He also did "Head of a Peasant (Joseph Fontdevila)," "Woman Combing Her Hair," and "Self-Portrait With Palette." His colossal female nude predecessors to the 1907 "Demoiselles d’Avignon" were also done. In this year Picasso hooked up with Georges Braque to launch Cubism.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(SFC, 11/15/96, p.C5)(SFC, 3/29/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)
1906 John Singer Sargent painted his "Self-Portrait."
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A20)
1906 Maurice de Vlaminck painted "The Seine at Chatou." In 2002 it was valued at an estimated $4.4-5.8 million.
(WSJ, 3/15/02, p.W14)
1906 Langdon Mitchell wrote his play "The New York Idea."
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1906 William Vaughan Moody wrote his play "The Great Divide."
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1906 Henry Adams, American historian, published his autobiography, "The Education of Henry Adams." In 1999 the Modern Library cited the work as the century's best English-language work of non-fiction.
(V.D.-HK.p.266)(SFC, 4/29/99, p.C5)
1906 Ambrose Bierce (1842-c1914), American writer, published “The Cynic’s Word Book." It was expanded and republished in 1911 as “The Devil’s Dictionary."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Dictionary)
1906 Svante Arrhenius published his book "Worlds in the Making," in which he welcomed the additional heat generated by additional carbon in the atmosphere fueling the greenhouse effect.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.57)
1906 H. Elves and A. Henry published their classic work on dendrology: "The Trees and Shrubs of Great Britain and Ireland."
(NH, 6/96, p.46)
1906 Hermann Hesse published "Beneath the Wheel," a novel about an overly zealous and diligent student who is driven to self-destruction.
(iUniv. 7/2/00)
1906 Jack London authored his novella “Before Adam," in which he envisioned 3 distinct hominids living in the mid-Pleistocene.
(Arch, 5/05, p.59)
1906 Percival Lowell, astronomer, published "Mars and Its Canals."
(NH, 10/96, p.74)(NH, 12/96, p.22)
1906 Edmund Morel wrote "Red Rubber: the Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo in the year of Grace 1906."
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.9)
1906 Felix Salten (1869-1945), Austrian writer, authored the novel “Josephine Mutzenbacher," the fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, a notorious pornographic novel. In 1923 he authored “Bambi."
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.102)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Salten)
1906 The multi-volume "Flora Brasiliensis," the definitive volume on Brazilian botany commissioned in 1817 by Maximilian I of Austria, was published.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1906 The autobiography of Lew Wallace (1827-1905) was published.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)
1906 American Vitagraph studios of NYC produced the film “Daniel Boone," featuring Florence Lawrence (born as Florence Annie Bridgewood) and her mother Lotta Lawrence. By the following year Florence had appeared in 38 Vitagraph productions.
(ON, 4/06, p.5)
1906 Charles Looff, the carousel demigod, built a carousel that was placed in the SF Playland-at-the-Beach.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A20)
1906 Arnold Schoenberg composed his first Chamber Symphony. It preceded his atonal evolution.
(WSJ, 9/17/98, p.A20)
1906 The 16-story, Beaux-Arts-style Knickerbocker Hotel opened in NYC at Broadway and 42nd. It was financed by Jacob Astor. The hotel closed in 1921 and was converted to apartments and textile showrooms. In the 1950s it was converted to an office tower. In 2006 it was purchased by Istithmar Hotels, an investment arm of Dubai’s royal family, with plans to restore it as a luxury hotel.
(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.G5)
1906 In New York City Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) financed the building of the Pierpont Morgan Library, a research library and museum at 29 E. 36th St. It was designed by McKim, Mead and White.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.B10)
1906 The Hotel Nevada opened in Las Vegas shortly after the rail lines from Los Angeles and Salt Lake City met nearby.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.B1)
1906 The 85-foot Mile Rocks lighthouse at the entrance to the SF Bay was completed. In 1965 the Coast Guard decided to replace it with a cheaper automated light station.
(SFC, 6/29/13, p.C2)
1906 In San Francisco the belt and suspender factory at 130 Bush was constructed shortly after the earthquake. The 10-story building was built on a 20x80 foot lot. Its story was documented in the 1996 book by L.G. Segedin: "130 Bush, An Illustrated Story About Four Buildings and a Monument in San Francisco."
(SFEC, 1/5/97, BR p.1)
1906 In San Francisco a restaurant was built at 441 Pine and featured a scabbard-wearing man holding a serving platter with a boar’s head over his head. In 2014 it was demolished to make way for a 19-story office tower.
(SSFC, 11/9/14, p.C2)
1906 In San Francisco the 16-story Whittell Building was constructed at 166 Geary Street.
(SSFC, 12/19/10, p.C2)
1906 In SF Purcell’s Negro dance hall opened at 550 Pacific St. and Sid LeProtti began playing there. It w3as one of the first buildings erected following the earthquake and fire.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D7)(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1906 The California Federation of Women’s clubs began a campaign to mark the missionary route of El Camino Real with cast-iron bells. They were installed along El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma and included a route along the east side of the SF Bay. The first bell was erected in San Diego. SF got the 13th bell. By 1913 at least 450 bells had been installed. The project was rejuvenated in 1963 and again in 2004.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A15)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.B1)(SSFC, 12/20/09, p.C1)
1906 Giuseppe and Mike Gallo founded the Gallo Wine Company in California.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D1)
1906 The Pagani Brothers established a winery in Sonoma, Ca. In 1970 the Lee family opened Kenwood Vineyards on the site. Some of the Kenwood grapes came from vineyards on Jack London’s original ranch in Glen Ellen.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.F3)
1906 Baldassare Forestiere (1879-1946), Sicilian immigrant, began creating his 10-acre Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, Ca.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D11)(www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Forestierebio.html)
1906 The SF earthquake created a boom for wood and the town of Freestone in Sonoma, Ca., quickly grew to 10,000 people as a lumber and railroad town.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T5)
1906 In San Francisco Horace C. Guittard moved the family coffee, tea and spices business briefly to Commercial St. after the original factory was destroyed in the earthquake, and then soon moved to Main Street with the main focus on chocolate.
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.M6)
1905 Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel bought Union Iron Works, located at Pier 70 in SF, for $1 million. He used the facility to build 66 destroyers and 18 submarines for WWI.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A11)
1905 The National Steel and Ship building Company (NASSCO) in San Diego was founded as a small machine shop. In 1997 the employee-owned company encompassed 147 acres with a work force of 5,000 for ship design, construction and repair.
(IBCC, 10/97, #9)
1905 The Sonoma Brewing Company was established in Sonoma, Ca.
(SFEM,7/28/96, p.25)
1905 Wells Fargo fell under the control of Edward Harriman, a railroad entrepreneur, who moves its headquarters to NYC and merged with Nevada National Bank.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1906 Robert Moran, shipbuilder and mayor of Seattle, Wa., began construction of his 54-room mansion, Rosario, on Orcas Island, where he had purchased 7,800 acres. Construction was begun after Moran had completed the building of the U.S.S. Nebraska for the Navy.
(AAM, 3/96, p.36-39)
1906 Modern Pentecostalism began at a revival meeting at a church on Azuza St. in Los Angeles. It began as a multiracial movement but soon split along racial lines into the white Assemblies of God and the black Church of God in Christ. By 1996 an estimated 20 million Pentecostal Christians were in the US.
(SFC, 10/14/96, p.A17)
1906 The Chicago Lighthouse was founded by a group of women volunteers who were both blind and sighted and offered housing, clothing and food assistance to people who were blind.
(www.thechicagolighthouse.org/default.asp?page=aboutus)
1906 The Cat Fanciers Association split from the American Cat Association and began offering its own shows.
(Smith., 4/1995, p.132)
1906 The first chocolate brownie recipe was published by American cookbook author, Fannie Merritt Farmer. They were named after Celtic pixies. Farmer in 1905 first adapted her chocolate cookie recipe to a bar cookie baked in a rectangular pan.
(http://tinyurl.com/83xc8n6)
1906 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon. He descended to the bottom in 1908 and declared it a national monument.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
1906 Pres. Roosevelt appointed Oscar Solomon as Sec. of Commerce. Solomon was the 1st Jewish person to hold a US cabinet position.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C3)
1906 US colleges set up the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the behest of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
(Econ, 8/16/14, p.21)
1906 The US established a provisional government in Cuba as revolution threatened.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A7)
1906 The US Bureau of Chemistry, a precursor to the FDA, was created.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1906 American Life and Accident Insurance Co. was founded in Kentucky.
(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A9)
1906 The Louisiana McIlhenny family were awarded a trademark for the word Tabasco, which was also the name of their popular pepper sauce.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D11)
1906 The Alaska capital was moved from Sitka to Juneau.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Z1 p.2)
1906 The Alaska Packers Assoc. bought the square-rigged Balclutha ship and renamed it Star of Alaska. It carried workers to the Chignick Cannery and transported them back after the salmon season.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
1906 In Alaska a fire burned down most of downtown Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1906 Cemex opened a cement factory near Davenport, Ca., under a lease to mine limestone until 2067.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A14)
1906 A.P. Giannini saved $80,000 from the Bank of Italy building before it burned and reopened after the earthquake and fire before the other SF banks.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1906 Gay and Robinson joined other sugar planters in the California & Hawaiian Sugar Co. with operations in the SF Bay Area. C&H Sugar took over a waterfront mill in Crockett, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.I3)(SSFC, 3/20/05, p.D11)
1906 Alfred C. Fuller founded the Fuller Brush Company in Hartford, Conn., with $375 in savings and expanded sales using a door-to-door sales force. It was bought out in 1968 by Consolidated Foods for $53 million and then sold to CPAC in 1994 for $17 million.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/3/99, p.B1)
1906 In Hawaii the Kohala Ditch, a massive irrigation system, opened on the Big Island. Seventeen workers from Japan died during its construction.
(SSFC, 9/3/17, p.M5)
1906 Upton Sinclair wrote a letter to Pres. Roosevelt urging him to send an inspector into the Chicago packing houses.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A7)
1906 The Illinois Cabinet Co. was founded. It was later purchased by General Electric, renamed to Illinois Cabinet Works, and used to make cabinets for GE television sets.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.G2)
1906 US Steel Corp. begat a company town in Indiana named Gary after Elbert Henry Gary, the chairman of the board.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A3)(Econ, 7/11/15, p.27)
1906 The Michigan State Telephone Co. published a telephone directory using yellow paper for the first time, thus producing the first Yellow Pages.
(WSJ, 11/24/07, p.W7)(www.oldtelephonebooks.com/pages/varieties)
1906 Gov. James Kimble of Mississippi denounced black men as fiends and argued that lynching was the only way to control a barbarous race.
(WSJ, 1/14/02, p.A16)
1906 The Red Wing Union Stoneware Co. began operating in Red Wing, Minnesota. In 1936 it became Red Wing Potteries, which closed in 1967.
(SFC, 1/2/08, p.G3)
1906 James Cannon, textile tycoon, founded his North Carolina company town Kannapolis.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.30)
1906 The B.F. Huntley Furniture Co. opened in Winston-Salem, NC. It had been organized as the Oakland Furniture Co. in 1898. In 1929 it was purchased by the Simmons Co., then based in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.G5)
1906 In St. Louis Annie Turnbo (b.1869) registered the "Poro" tradename to cover her Wonderful Hair Grower product. Poro was a Mende (West African) term for a devotional society.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.30)
1906 The Haloid Co. was founded in Rochester, New York (home of Kodak). It was a photographic paper supplier and later became the Xerox Corp.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox)(WSJ, 8/17/95, p.C-1)
1906 The Capital building in Harrisburg, Pa., featured a dome modeled on St. Peter’s in Rome.
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.D6)
1906 The John C. Bell building was completed in Philadelphia, Pa. It was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(SFC, 1/13/14, p.A4)
1906 Ex-Lax, the laxative, was first sold. Its main ingredient, phenolphthalein, was later found to be a cancer risk and it was yanked from the shelves in 1997. The laxative qualities of the chemical were thought to be first discovered accidentally by Hungarians in 1902 who considered using it as an additive in wine.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1906 J.P. Morgan brought in Theodore Vail to organize the AT&T telephone system.
(I&I, Penzias, p.214)
1906 The Commercial Pacific Cable Co. (later AT&T) planted ironwood trees on Midway Island after setting cable across the Pacific.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)
1906 Charles F. Kettering designed the first cash register powered by an electric motor.
(www.ncr.com/history/history.htm)
1906 The Planters Nut and Chocolate Co. was formed. The company's symbol, Mr. Peanut, was created ten years later.
(SFC, 1/20/99, Z1 p.2)
1906 Wagon builders John, William and Augustus Mack came out with a 10-ton truck.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E4)
1906 The twins Francis and Freelan Stanley won acclaim when their Stanley Steamer set a world speed record at Ormond Beach, Fla., at 127.66 mph.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1906 There were 72,000 recorded divorces in the US. A 7-fold increase in 40 years.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.39)
1906 Paul Laurence Dunbar (b.1872), US poet, died. His verse and short stories were written in black dialect.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(WSJ, 1/21/00, p.W2)
1906 Stanford White (b.1852), architect, was shot and killed by the millionaire husband of his former teenage mistress. The incident was later featured in E.L. Doctorow’s novel 1975 "Ragtime" and the 1955 movie "The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing." White’s story was later told by Suzannah Lessard in her 1996 book: "The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family."
(SFEC, 10/13/96, BR p.3)(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.C21)
1906 Ludwig Boltzmann (b.1844), Austrian atomic physics engineer, died. His Vienna tombstone read "Entropy is the logarithm of probability." He hanged himself at the seaside resort of Duino.
(WUD, 1994, p.167)(WSJ, 7/28/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 8/16/98, Z1 p.8)
1906 Joseph Malaby Dent (1849-1926), British bookbinder turned publisher, began Everyman’s Library, a collection of low cost classic books.
(WSJ, 1/9/06, p.D4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Dent)
1906 In Britain a Trade Disputes Act was passed. It aimed to protect striking workers from retaliation through the courts [see 1900].
(Econ, 5/22/10, p.60)
1906 In England the Manchester engineer Henry Royce and millionaire’s son Charles Rolls built the first Rolls-Royce car.
(WSJ, 10/28/97, p.B1)
1906 David Casement, a British consul, was sent to Brazil, first as consul in Pará, then transferred to Santos, and lastly promoted to consul-general in Rio de Janeiro. When he was attached as a consular representative to a commission investigating murderous rubber slavery by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company, effectively controlled by the archetypal rubber baron Julio Cesar Arana and his brother, Casement had the occasion to do work among the Putumayo Indians of Peru similar to that which he had done in the Congo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement)
1906 In Germany the 1st gay periodical "Der Eigene" was published.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, DB p.66)
1906 Alfred Lothar Wegener (26), German meteorologist, joined an expedition to survey Greenland’s glacier-fringed coast.
(ON, 9/04, p.8)
1906 A coalition of clerical grandees, progressive intellectuals and bazaar traders forced the shah of Iran to promulgate Iran’s first constitution and establish a parliament.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.85)
1906 Boris Schatz (d.1932) founded a visionary art school in Jerusalem and became known for his trademark white robe and pet peacock. Born in Lithuania and trained in Paris he was a Jewish artist and occasional boxer who discovered Zionism and abandoned the European art scene for Jerusalem, then a Mideastern backwater.
(AP, 5/23/10)
1906 The Cemex company was founded in Mexico with the opening of Cementos Hidalgo. In 1920 Cementos Portland Monterrey began operations and in 1931 the 2 companies merged to become Cementos Mexicanos.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemex)
1906 Morgan Shuster (1877-1960), an American lawyer, was appointed Secretary of Public Instruction in the Philippines and a member of the Philippine Commission.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_Shuster)
1906 The Ottoman register listed 194 eunuchs and 500 women in the imperial harem. Two years later they were gone.
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.51)
1906-1911 Petr Stolypin served as prime minister of Russia until he was executed. In 2001 Abraham Ascher authored the biography: "P.A. Stolypin."
(WSJ, 5/16/01, p.A21)
1906-1916 In Daly City, Ca., businesses made gas out of oil at 731 Schwerin St.
(SFC, 3/2/09, p.B1)
1906-1926 Saudi forces captured the Al Hasa, Asir and Al Hijaz regions, unifying much of Arabia under Saudi rule.
(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1906-1930 The Heintz Art Metal Shop of Buffalo, N.Y., owned by Otto L. and Edwin Heintz, made decorative wares over this period.
(SFC, 4/1/98, Z1 p.7)
1906-1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian: "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."
(AP, 8/27/00)
1906-1956 The career of George Jean Nathan, drama critic and companion of H.L. Mencken. In 1998 Charles S. Angoff published "The World of George Jean Nathan: Essays Reviews & Commentary."
(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR p.4)
1906-1967 Franz Waxman, German composer. He left Nazi Germany to work in Hollywood and wrote the score to Billy Wilder's film "Sunset Boulevard."
(WSJ, 3/5/99, p.W10)
1906-1972 Oscar Levant, pianist-composer-actor: "Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember."
(AP, 1/23/00)
1906-1973 Lon Chaney Jr., son of actor Lon Chaney. In 1998 Don G. Smith published "Lon Chaney Jr., Horror Film Star, 1906-1973."
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.6)
1906-1975 Hannah Arendt, German-born American historian and philosopher: "Real stories, in distinction from those we invent, have no author. Although history owes its existence to men, it is not ‘made’ by them." "Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." "It is quite gratifying to feel guilty if you haven't done anything wrong: How noble! Whereas it is rather hard and certainly depressing to admit guilt and to repent."
(AP, 5/7/97)(AP, 8/15/98)(AP, 6/30/99)
1906-1978 Gilbert Highet, Scottish-born American author and educator: "What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?"
(AP, 11/4/97)
1906-1989 Richard Armour: "Shake and shake / The catsup bottle. / None will come, / And then a lot’ll."
(AP, 2/28/98)
1906-1996 Sir Laurens van der Post, South African author: "Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right."
(AP, 4/29/01)
1907 Jan 1, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in 1 day.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1907 Jan 1, The Pure Food and Drug Act became law in the United States
(HN, 1/1/99)
1907 Jan 4, George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" scene from "Man and Superman" premiered in London.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1907 Jan 6, Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician, educationist, opened her 1st school, Children’s House (Casa dei Bambini), in San Lorenzo, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)(SFC, 1/6/07, p.B1)
1907 Jan 15, 3-element vacuum tube was patented by Dr. Lee De Forest.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1907 Jan 22, The Richard Strauss opera "Salome" made its American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC; its racy content (including the Dance of the Seven Veils) sparked outrage.
(AP, 1/22/07)
1907 Jan 23, Hediki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949), was born.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1907 Jan 26, US Congress passed the Tillman Act, which prohibited corporations from making direct campaign contributions to federal election candidates. It was named for Sen. Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, a democrat from South Carolina.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.D9)(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.A8)(AP, 1/26/07)
1907 Jan 26, John Millington Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World" opened at the Abbey Theater in Dublin. Many Irish nationalists found it so offensive that they embarked on a semi-organized campaign to bring down the production.
(SFC, 12/30/06, p.E1)(www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10167)
1907 Feb 3, James A. Michener (d.1997), American novelist, was born. His work included "Tales of the South Pacific." "Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries."
(AP, 2/4/97)(HN, 2/3/01)
1907 Feb 5, Norton Simon, publishing executive (Simon & Schuster), was born.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1907 Feb 8, Revolution broke out in Argentina.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1907 Feb 10, It was reported that SF Mayor Schmitz had agreed to close the city's "oriental schools" and allow Asian children to attend white schools following a meeting with Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Feb 11, William J. Levitt, U.S. businessman and community builder, was born. He led the postwar housing revolutions with his Levittowns.
(HN, 2/11/99)
1907 Feb 11, The passenger ship Larchmont was steaming through a winter storm in heavy seas, 4 miles southwest of Watch Hill, Rhode Island when she was rammed by the coal carrying schooner Harry P. Knowles, which had drifted off course in the blizzard. The Larchmont sank in 10 minutes and only 19 men including the captain, George McVey survived the ordeal.
(http://rhodeisland-philatelic.com/rhodeisland/postcard120.htm)
1907 Feb 12, Bodies continued to wash ashore from the steamer Larchmont, which had collided the previous with a schooner off New England's Block Island. The vessel's quartermaster, James E. Staples, claimed a loss of 332.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1907 Feb 13, English suffragettes stormed the British Parliament and 60 women were arrested.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1907 Feb 16, Fernando Previtali, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1907 Feb 17, Colonel Olcott died in Madras, India during his last trip there to give his annual Theosophical Society presidential address .
(Smith., 5/95, p.127)
1907 Feb 18, 600,000 tons of grain were sent to Russia to relieve the famine there.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1907 Feb 18, In SF according to an agreement between Mayor Schmidt, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and the SF School Board, Japanese children under 16 were to be admitted to the city’s public schools, skilled and unskilled laborers from Japan were to be banned from entering the US and American laborers were to be excluded from Japan.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Feb 20, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons" from being admitted to the US.
(AP, 2/20/07)
1907 Feb 21, Wystan Hugh Auden (d.1973), English born American poet, critic and playwright, was born. He wrote the libretto for Benjamin Britten’s first music drama (1941), "Paul Bunyan." He died in Austria after suffering from Touraine-Solente-Gole in which the skin of the forehead, face, scalp, hands, and feet becomes thick and furrowed. "Political history is far too criminal and pathological to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villains from fiction." His work included "The Age of Anxiety." In 1998 Norman Page published "Auden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years."
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AHD, 86)(WSJ, 2/12/96, p.A-13)(WSJ, 1/8/98, p.A7)(AP, 4/15/98)(WSJ, 4/23/98, p.A16)(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.8)(HN, 2/21/01)
1907 Feb 22, It was reported that workers at the refugee camp in San Francisco’s Ingleside district had agreed the comply with a directive by commander C.M. Wallenberg to work one day per week for the betterment of the camp or miss their allotment of free tobacco.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Feb 22, The 1st cabs with taxi meters began operating in London.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1907 Feb 26, Concerns about a growing influx of foreigners, mostly Europeans, prompted Congress to create what became known as the Dillingham Commission, which examined the impact of immigrants on America. The panel later recommended curtailing immigration from southern and eastern Europe through use of quotas, higher entry fees, literacy tests and other restrictions.
(AP, 2/26/07)
1907 Feb 26, Members of US Congress raised their own salaries to $7500.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Feb 26, Royal Oil and Shell merged to form British Petroleum (BP).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Feb 28, Milton Caniff, cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates), was born in Hillsboro, Ohio.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1907 Feb, In San Francisco Dr. Edward Robeson Taylor (1838-1923) married Eustice Jeffers (27), the daughter of an old friend. Taylor, a lawyer and a doctor, was named mayor of the city on July 16.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robeson_Taylor)(SFC, 11/6/07, p.B5)
1907 Mar 1, There were only 15,000 Jews left in Odessa, Russia. The attacks on the Jews continued as more and more evacuated.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1907 Mar 2, Georges Feydeaus' "La Puce à l'Oreille" premiered in Paris, France.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Mar 2, General Louis Botha was named premier of Transvaal.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Mar 5, The 2nd Russian Duma, which included 7 Lithuanians, began work. The Duma stayed in session until June 15.
(LHC, 3/5/03)
1907 Mar 6, In California Gov. James Gillett signed amendments to the Pharmacy and Poison Act making it a crime to sell opiates of cocaine in the state without a prescription.
(SSFC, 3/4/07, p.E1)
1907 Mar 7, Rolf Jacobsen, Norwegian poet, was born.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1907 Mar 9, Henry Leland Clarke, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1907 Mar 9, Indiana enacted the nation’s 1st involuntary sterilization law based on eugenics. It was intended "to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists." More than 30 states ended up passing compulsory sterilization laws that were eventually overturned or repealed. In 2004 Christine Rosen authored "Preaching Eugenics."
(NH, 7/02, p.12)(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.D10)(AP, 3/9/07)
1907 Mar 11, President Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1907 Mar 14, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan.
(AP, 3/14/07)
1907 Mar 15-1907 Mar 16, Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the world to attain full political rights.
(http://electionresources.org/fi/)
1907 Mar 16 The British cruiser Invincible, the world’s largest, was completed at Glasgow shipyards.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1907 Mar 19, It was reported that all but 2 San Francisco supervisors admitted accepting bribes from United Railroads street-car company, several telephone companies and the Gas and Electric Company.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Mar 20, A San Francisco grand jury returned a 66-count indictment against Abe Ruef and two executives of a Bell system telephone company who had bribed him.
(SFC, 7/18/15, p.C2)
1907 Mar 21, US Marines arrived in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)(AP, 3/21/07)
1907 Mar 22, James Gavin, U.S. Army General, was born. He commanded the 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, Operation Market-Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 Mar 22, Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
(HN, 3/22/97)(AP, 3/22/99)
1907 Mar 23, Daniele Bovet, Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist, was born.
(HN, 3/23/01)
1907 Mar 28, Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg (65), composer, died.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1907 Mar 31, Romanian Army put down a Moldavian farmers' revolt.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1907 Apr 13, Harold E. Stassen (d.2001), later 3-term governor, was born on a truck farm in W. St. Paul.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A24)(MC, 4/13/02)
1907 Apr 14, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, dictator of Haiti, was born.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1907 Apr 16, Joseph-Armand Bombardier, inventor of the snowmobile, was born in Valcourt, Quebec, Canada.
(www.museebombardier.com/en/content/jab/biographie1907_1925.htm)
1907 Apr 17, The Ellis Island immigration center in New York Harbor processed a record 11,747 immigrants, part of a record 1,004,756 for the year. Between 1820 and 1970, the year 1907 saw the largest number of immigrants to the U.S., 1,285,349. Between 1905 and 1915, the annual immigration numbers topped 1 million six times.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)(HNQ, 8/12/99)
1907 Apr 18, Miklos Rozsa, movie composer (Atomic Cafe, Fedora), was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1907 Apr 18, SF Board of supervisors, a year after the city’s 1906 earthquake, set the official death toll for the disaster at 478. Let evidence showed more that 3,400 fatalities.
(SFC, 1/15/05, p.B1)
1907 Apr 18, The Fairmont Hotel opened in SF, exactly one year after the 1906 earthquake. It was designed by Julia Morgan and named after mining magnate James Graham Fair.
(SSFC, 2/4/07, p.F1)
1907 Apr 25, Paula Trueman, actress (Gran-Billy), was born in NYC.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1907 Apr 26, The Jamestown, Va., Tercentenary Exposition opened.
(www.jamestown2007.org/past-1907.cfm)(Econ, 5/1/07, p.40)
1907 Apr 29, Fred Zinnemann (d.3/14/97), Hollywood film director, was born in Vienna. His films included “A Hatful of Rain," “The Sundowners," “The Nun’s Story," “From Here to Eternity," “Julia" and “A Man for All Seasons" (1966) with Paul Scofield.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)(AP, 4/29/07)
1907 Apr, William Edgar Geil (42), travel writer from Doylestown, Pa., arrived on his 2nd trip to China in Shanhaiaguan. He planned to follow the Great Wall of China from one end to the other and write a detailed account of the structure.
(ON, 2/09, p.10)
1907 May 1, Kate Smith (d.1986), singer, was born in Washington, DC.
(AP, 5/1/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith)
1907 May 5, San Francisco streetcar workers of the Carmen’s Union went on strike after Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, refused to accept a $3 per 8-hour day wage. Calhoun induced the strike and hired James Farley to break the union. The strike ended up leaving 31 people dead.
(SFC, 9/13/02, p.D9)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B1)
1907 May 7, In San Francisco a gunfight erupted during the electrical workers strike in what came to be known as "Bloody Tuesday." City union street car workers fought with scabs and 4 people were killed and 20 seriously injured.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.B3)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 May 9, Baldur von Schirach, German writer, Nazi Youth leader, convicted war criminal, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1907 May 10, Paul Dukas' opera "Ariane et Barbe Bleue," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1907 May 12, Katherine Hepburn, actress (The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen), was born in Hartford, CT.
(HN, 5/12/01)(AP, 5/12/07)
1907 May 12, Leslie Charteris, English-US detective writer (The Saint), was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1907 May 12, A. Kopff discovered asteroids #633, Zelima, and #634, Ute.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1907 May 12, J.K. Huysmans (59), writer, died.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1907 May 13, Daphne du Maurier (d.1989), author (Rebecca), was born in England.
(HN, 5/13/01)(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.W4)
1907 May 15, In San Francisco Abe Reuf pleaded guilty to charges of extortion.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 May 22, Lord Laurence Olivier, English actor, was born in Dorking, Surrey. He made Shakespeare movies and was knighted in 1947.
(HN, 5/22/99)(AP, 5/22/07)
1907 May 25, U Nu, premier Burma (1948-58, 1960-62), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1907 May 26, John Wayne, American actor, was born as Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. He became famous for his western and World War II movies.
(HN, 5/26/99)(AP, 5/26/07)
1907 May 27, Rachel Carson (d.1964), biologist and writer (Silent Spring, The Sea Around Us), was born. "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."
(AP, 12/29/98)(HN, 5/27/01)
1907 May 27, Bubonic Plague broke out again in San Francisco.
(HN, 5/27/98)(SFC, 9/20/14, p.C2)
1907 May 28, Patrick Browne, British Lord justice of appeal, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1907 May 29, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, critic, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1907 May 31, Taxis began running in NYC. [see Aug 13]
(MC, 5/31/02)
1907 May, The idea of a day set apart every year to honor motherhood is credited to Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, who, in 1907, suggested the wearing of carnations on the second Sunday in May to honor mothers. Her enthusiastic campaign for a nationwide observance attracted enough public support that President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May 1914 the first national Mother’s Day.
(HNPD, 5/9/00)
1907 Jun 1, Frank A. Whittle, England inventor (jet engine), was born. (MC, 6/1/02)
1907 Jun 1,27 degrees F (-33 degrees C) in Sarmiento, Argentina, a South American record.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1907 Jun 4, Automatic washer and dryer was introduced.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1907 Jun 6, Bill Dickey, professional baseball player, was born.
(HN, 6/6/01)
1907 Jun 11, Paul Mellon (d.1999), art lover, horse breeder (1964 Gold Baton), and philanthropist, was born to Andrew W. Mellon and Nora McMullen. Andrew Mellon was a financier and longtime secretary of the treasury. Mellon donations created the Yale Center for British Art, the Bollingen Prize for poetry, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A22)(SC, 6/11/02)
1907 Jun 12, A committee from the Vista Grande Improvement Club (Daly City, Ca.) was appointed to arrange for a volunteer fire department and a fire alarm system.
(DCFD, Centennial, 2007)
1907 Jun 14, Women in Norway won the right to vote.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1907 Jun 16, The Russian czar dissolved the Duma in St. Petersburg.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1907 Jun 20, Lillian Hellman (d.1984), American author and playwright (The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic), was born. "Success and failure are not true opposites and they’re not even in the same class; they’re not even a couch and a chair."
(AP, 1/28/01)(HN, 6/20/01)
1907 Jun 21, American newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps founded the United Press Associations, a forerunner of United Press International.
(AP, 6/21/07)
1907 Jun 22, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author (Gift from the Sea), was born.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1907 Jun 26, Russia’s nobility demanded drastic measures to be taken against revolutionaries.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1907 Jun 27, John McIntire, actor (Naked City, Wagon Train, Virginian), was born in Spokane, Wash.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1907 Jun 27, Valerie Cossart (d.1994), actress (The Hartmans), was born in London.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0181961/)
1907 Jun, Pablo Picasso stumbled on the African and Oceanic collection at the Ethnographic Museum of the Trocadero in Paris, as he was working on "Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon." The experience from that point on put an African influence on much of his work.
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A20)(Econ, 2/11/06, p.81)
1907 Jul 1, World's 1st air force was established as part of the US Army.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1907 Jul 1, The Asiatic Registration Act became law in the province of Transvaal, SA.
(ON, 9/03, p.1)
1907 Jul 3, A Papal decree forbade the modernization of theology.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1907 Jul 4, Heavy weight champ Tommy Burns (1881-1955) knocked out Bill Squires of Australia in the first round in Colma, Ca.
(http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Tommy_Burns)
1907 Jul 6, Artist Frida Kahlo (d.1954) was born in Coyoacan, Mexico.
(SFC, 4/18/96, E-1)(SFC, 7/14/96, p.C11)(AP, 7/6/07)
1907 Jul 7, Robert Heinlein (d.1988), science-fiction author, was born in Butler, Miss. "Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil."
(V.D.-H.K.p.383)(AP, 5/25/99)(AP, 7/7/07)
1907 Jul 8, SF Mayor Eugene Schmitz was sentenced to 5 years in San Quentin for graft and bribery, but the conviction was later overturned. Others were forced out of office for accepting bribes from the telephone company, gas company, trolley company, local skating rinks and boxing promoters. Dr. Charles A. Boxton (d.1927) admitted to taking bribes and was granted immunity by District Attorney W.H. Langdon for his testimony. Boxton was then appointed temporary mayor for one week in place of Mayor Schmitz and then resigned. The Native Sons of California promptly struck Boxton from their rolls. Schmitz was later elected to the SF Board of Supervisors. One of the bribes was a $200,000 payment to the SF supervisors from Patrick Henry Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, which operated nearly all of the city’s public transit lines.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.E8)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1907 Jul 8, George W. Romney, later governor of Michigan, was born into a Mormon family in Chihuahua, Mexico. He later was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination until he admitted that he had been "brainwashed" by the military on the Vietnam War.
(HN, 7/8/98)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/25/07, p.A4)
1907 Jul 8, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1907 Jul 15, The London Electrobus Company began picking up passengers in the world’s biggest trials of battery-powered buses. The service collapsed in 1909. It suffered from an investment scam led by Baron de Martigny, a Canadian music-hall artist, the front man for Edward Lehwess, a German lawyer and con-artist. In 1906 Lehwess had sold the company a worthless patent that caused investors to demand the return of some 80,000 pounds.
(Econ, 9/8/07, TQ p.10)
1907 Jul 16, Orville Redenbacher (d.1995), agronomist and popcorn entrepreneur, was born in Brazil, Indiana. "Do one thing and do it better than anyone."
(AH, 10/01, p.36)(AP, 7/16/07)
1907 Jul 16, Barbara Stanwyck (d.1990), Oscar winning actress, was born in New York as Ruby Stevens.
(HN, 7/16/98)(AP, 7/16/07)
1907 Jul 16, The SF supervisors, under pressure from graft prosecutors, named Edward Robeson Taylor (67), a doctor and lawyer, as mayor. He quickly replaced 16 of 18 supervisors, forced the police chief to quit and replaced many city officials with honest and competent men.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.B5)
1907 Jul 18, Florenz Ziegfeld's "Follies of 1907," premiered in NYC. [see Jul 8]
(MC, 7/18/02)
1907 Jul 24, In Boise, Id., the last day of the Bill Haywood trial over the 1905 murder of former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg. Haywood, president of the Western Federation of Miners, was defended by Clarence Darrow.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, BR p.1,6)
1907 Jul 25, Jack Gilford, actor (Save the Tiger, Cocoon, Arthur 2), was born in NYC.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1907 Jul 25, Johnny Hodges, jazz musician, was born.
(HN, 7/25/02)
1907 Jul 28, Earl Silas Tupper, founder of Tupperware, was born.
(HN, 7/28/01)
1907 Jul 28, Vivian Vance, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), was born in Cherryvale, Ks.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1907 Aug 1, The US Air Force had its beginnings as the US Army Signal Corps established an aeronautical division in charge of "all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines and all kindred subjects."
(AP, 8/1/07)
1907 Aug 2, Fire Chief George Edmonds called roll call at Poket’s Hall for the 45 members of the newly organized Vista Grande Fire Dept. members were ordered to respond to calls with their own buckets until equipment could be purchased. The area population (Daly city, Ca.) was estimated at 2,900.
(DCFD, Centennial, 2007)
1907 Aug 3, Irene Tedrow, actress (Lucy-Dennis the Menace, Mr. Novak), was born in Denver, Colo.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1907 Aug 8, Benny Carter, jazz musician, composer and bandleader, was born in New York.
(AP, 8/8/07)
1907 Aug 13, Alfred Alwin Felix Krupp, arms manufacturer, was born in Essen, Germany.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1907 Aug 13, The 1st taxicab began operating in NYC. [see May 31]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1907 Aug 14, "Ha-Tikva" was adopted as official Zionist hymn.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1907 Aug 15, Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim (b.1831), widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century, died in Berlin.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Joachim)
1907 Aug 21, Dr. Roy K. Marshall, TV scientist (Nature of Things), was born in Glen Carbon, Ill.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1907 Aug 26, Harry Houdini escaped from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 sec.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1907 Aug 26, In San Bruno, Ca., the Olympic Club held its first annual motor meet at the Tanforan race track. 10,000 spectators and 700 machines showed up for the auto and motorcycle races.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W3)
1907 Aug 28, Two Seattle teenagers began a telephone message service that grew to become the United Parcel Service (UPS). Jim Casey (19) and Claude Ryan founded the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Wash. In 1913 the company merged with Evert McCabe and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. In 1919 the company expanded beyond Seattle and changed their name to United Parcel Service (UPS).
(SFC, 7/22/99, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Parcel_Service)
1907 Aug 30, Shirley Booth (Thelma Booth Ford) was born in New York City. Booth was best known from 1950s television as the zany maid Hazel. She won a Tony, an Oscar, the Cannes Festival award and numerous critics' commendations for her role as the slovenly Lola Delany in 'Come Back, Little Sheba'. Booth went on to act in more films including 'The Matchmaker' which was a precursor to the musical 'Hello Dolly!'
(MC, 8/30/01)
1907 Aug 31, William Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker, was born.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1907 Aug 31, England, Russia and France formed their Triple Entente.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1907 Aug, Mayor Eugene Schmitz and others were forced out of office for accepting bribes from the telephone company, gas company, trolley company, local skating rinks and boxing promoters. Dr. Charles A. Boxton (d.1927) admitted to taking bribes and was granted immunity by District Attorney W.H. Langdon for his testimony. Boxton was then appointed temporary mayor for one week in place of Mayor Schmitz and then resigned. The Native Sons of California promptly struck him from their rolls.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.E8)
1907 Sep 1, Walter Reuther, labor leader, was born in Wheeling, W.Va. He merged the American Federation of Labor with the Congress of International Organizations
(HN, 9/1/99)(AP, 9/1/07)
1907 Sep 3, Carl Anderson, physicist, was born in NYC. He won the 1936 Nobel prize for his discovery of the positron.
(HN, 9/3/00)
1907 Sep 3, Loren Eiseley, professor of Anthropology (Animal Secrets), was born in Lincoln, Nebraska.
(www.american-buddha.com)
1907 Sep 4, In Washington state five hundred white working men in Bellingham gathered to drive a community of South Asian migrant workers (Sikhs) out of the city. Within ten days the entire South Asian population departed town.
(http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/bham_history.htm)
1907 Sep 4, Edvard Hagerup Grieg (64), Norwegian composer (Peer Gynt Suite), died.
(WUD, 1994, p.622)(MC, 9/4/01)
1907 Sep 7, The British liner RMS Lusitania set out on its maiden voyage, from Liverpool, England, to New York, arriving six days later. The Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine in 1915.
(AP, 9/7/07)
1907 Sep 8, Pius X published his anti-modernism encyclical Pasceni dominici gregis.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1907 Sep 10, Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus Nieman, and her husband A.I. Nieman opened the retail firm Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas. By 2002 the firm had 32 US stores.
(SSFC, 9/9/07, p.G3)(AP, 9/10/07)
1907 Sep 10, Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest US National Forest, was established as part of the National Forest System in a presidential proclamation made by Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908 it was joined with the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve, established in 1902.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongass_National_Forest)
1907 Sep 13, The RMS Lusitania arrived in New York, completing its maiden voyage from England.
(AP, 9/13/07)
1907 Sep 15, Fay Wray (d.2004), film actress, was born in Alberta, Canada. She became best known for her 1933 performance in “King Kong."
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.B7)
1907 Sep 17, Warren Earl Burger, the 15th chief justice of the United States (1969-86), was born in St. Paul, Minn.
(AP, 9/17/07)
1907 Sep 19, US Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was born in Suffolk, Va.
(AP, 9/19/07)
1907 Sep 23, Jarmila Novotna, soprano (Met Opera) and president of Czechoslovakia (1957-68), was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1907 Sep 25, Jean Sibelius' 3rd Symphony premiered.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1907 Sep 26, Anthony F. Blunt, British historian and spy for USSR, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1907 Sep 26, New Zealand went from being a colony to a dominion within the British Empire.
(AP, 9/26/07)
1907 Sep 29, The foundation stone was laid for Washington National Cathedral, which wasn't fully completed until 1990.
(AP, 9/29/07)
1907 Sep 29, Gene Autry (d.1998), singing cowboy and baseball executive, was born in Tioga, Texas.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/29/07)
1907 Sep, The Cosmopolitan magazine published the epic poem “A Wine of Wizardry" by George Sterling (1869-1926). The poem and accompanying essay by Ambrose Bierce sparked critical reaction across the continent. Sterling, Jack London’s best friend, was the scion of a Long Island whaling family and worked in an East Bay real estate firm.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.M4)
1907 Sep, By this time some 55 new cases of bubonic plague were identified in San Francisco and the issue became a national concern.
(ON, 1/00, p.6)
1907 Sep, In Chicago the Marshall Field store under John G. Shedd, (1850–1926) was expanded to cover the whole block on State St. bounded by Wabash, Washington and Randolph.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Field%27s)
1907 Oct 1, The Plaza Hotel opened in NYC at 5th Av and 59th Str.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.T4)(AP, 10/1/07)
1907 Oct 7, Helen MacInnes, writer, was born.
(HN, 10/7/00)
1907 Oct 11, The freighter Cyprus foundered during a storm on Lake Superior, while on its second voyage hauling iron ore from Superior, Wis., to Buffalo, NY. All but one of the Cyprus' 23 crew members died. The 420-foot shipwreck was found in 2007, 8 miles north of Deer Park, Mich., where a single survivor had reached shore. The ship was built in Lorain, Ohio, and launched on Aug. 17, 1907.
(AP, 9/10/07)
1907 Oct 13, Yves Allégret, French film director, was born. His work included "Dédée d'Anvers" and "Une si jolie petite plage."
(HN, 10/13/00)
1907 Oct 17, Guglielmo Marconi began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1907 Oct 21, The Panic of 1907 began with a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co. of New York. News soon emerged that it was caught up in a scam by bankers Augustus Heinze and Charles Morse, who had borrowed and embezzled vast sums to corner the market in shares of United Copper.
(AP, 10/21/07)(Econ, 4/12/14, p.53)
1907 Oct 22, President Theodore Roosevelt visited The Hermitage, the Nashville, Tenn., home of the late President Andrew Jackson. Years later, Maxwell House claimed that Roosevelt had praised a cup of its coffee during this visit by saying it was "good to the last drop."
(AP, 10/22/07)
1907 Oct 22, The five Ringling brothers of Baraboo, Wisconsin, bought out Barnum & Bailey Circus to form the Greatest Show on Earth.
(HN, 10/22/98)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A10)
1907 Oct 27, Union Station in Washington, D.C., opened.
(AP, 10/27/07)
1907 Oct 27, The first trial in the Eulenberg Affair ended in Germany. Prince Philip Eulenberg was an aristocrat and former diplomat who was an old friend of the Kaiser’s. Others were jealous of Eulenberg’s position. Maximilian Harden, editor of the magazine Die Zunkunft, began to print a series of articles in the fall of 1906 which alleged that Eulenberg and other highly placed men were homosexuals.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1907 Oct 28, Edith Head, fashion designer for MGM, was born.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1907 Oct, By general agreement the first mention of the word “brassiere" appeared in Vogue magazine.
(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.E1)
1907 Nov 5, Moncure D. Conway (b.1832), American clergyman and author, died. "It is the darling delusion of mankind that the world is progressive in religion, toleration, freedom, as it is progressive in machinery."
(AP, 3/19/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncure_D._Conway)
1907 Nov 7, General Electric was re-instated as a component of the Dow Jones. Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. was removed from the Dow Jones. GE had entered the appliance business this year.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
1907 Nov 13, The 1st helicopter was piloted by French engineer Paul Cornu (1881-1944). The copter hovered a foot off the ground for 20 seconds [see Apr 12, 1905].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cornu)(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)
1907 Nov 14, William Steig, children author ("Shrek"), was born in New York.
(AP, 11/14/07)
1907 Nov 14, Astrid Lindgren (d.2002), children's writer, was born near Vimmerby, Sweden. Her books included “Pippi Longstocking."
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17)(AP, 11/14/07)
1907 Nov 15, Count Claus Schenck von Stauffenberg, German anti fascist colonel, was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1907 Nov 16, Burgess Meredith, actor, was born in Cleveland. He died Sep 10, 1997 at 89. He played the Penguin on TV’s Batman and numerous films in a 60 year film career.
(HIR, 9/11/97, p.5B)(SFC, 9/11/97, p.A18)
1907 Nov 16, The Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico was established as a national monument. People of the Mogollon culture lived in these cliff dwellings from the 1280s through the early 1300s.
(SSFC, 9/21/08, p.E6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_Cliff_Dwellings_National_Monument)
1907 Nov 16, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were unified to make Oklahoma, which was made the 46th state. Black settlers founded some 30 towns before statehood was achieved. Osage Indian Reservation became Osage County, one of the largest in the US.
(WSJ, 11/10/97, p.A1)(NG, 5/95, p.92)(HN, 11/16/98)(SFCM, 3/9/08, p.20)
1907 Nov 20, Henri-Georges Clouzot, French director (Le salaire de la peur), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 21, Jim Bishop, author (The Day Lincoln was Shot), was born.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1907 Nov 21, The Cunard liner Mauritania set a new speed record for steamship travel, 624 nautical miles in a one day run.
(HN, 11/21/02)
1907 Nov 21, Gaetano Braga (78), composer, died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1907 Nov 26, The Russian Duma lent support to Czar in St. Petersburg, who claimed that he had renounced autocracy.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1907 Nov 27, Lyon Sprague de Camp (d.2000), US sci-fi author (Goblin Tower, Hand of Zei), was born.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1907 Nov 28, Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist, novelist, was born. His work included “The Conformist" and “Conjugal Love."
(HN, 11/28/00)
1907 Nov 28, Future movie producer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Mass.
(AP, 11/28/07)
1907 Nov 28, Stanislaw Wyspianski (b.1869), Polish playwright, painter and poet, died in Krakow. He created a series of symbolic, national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Wyspia%C5%84ski)
1907 Nov 30, Jacques Barzun, French author, was born. Hi books included “The House of Intellect" (1959).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Barzun)
1907 Nov, Edward Robeson Taylor (1838-1923), appointed in July as interim mayor of SF, was elected to the office.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.B5)
1907 Dec 2, Spain and France agreed to enforce Moroccan measures adopted in 1906.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1907 Dec 3, George M. Cohan's musical "Talk of the Town," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1907 Dec 6, The worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, W.Va.
(AP, 12/6/07)
1907 Dec 7, The first Christmas Seals to help the fight against tuberculosis were sold, in Wilmington, Del. [Some sources say Dec. 9].
(AP, 12/7/07)
1907 Dec 8, Oscar II (78), the king of Sweden and former king of Norway, died in Stockholm.
(AP, 12/8/07)
1907 Dec 9, US Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office. Proceeds went to fight tuberculosis. The fists US Christmas seals were issued by the Red Cross in a program founded by a Delaware woman to support a TB sanitarium [see Dec 7].
(AP, 12/9/97)(SFC, 12/23/98, Z1 p.3)
1907 Dec 10, Rumor Godden, English novelist (Black Narcissus), was born.
(HN, 12/10/00)
1907 Dec 13, In Argentina the Ministry of Agriculture struck oil while drilling for water in Comodoro Rivadavia.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1907 Dec 16, US Navy battleships, which came to be known collectively as the "Great White Fleet," set sail from Hampton Roads, Va., on a 14-month round-the-world voyage at the order of President Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted to demonstrate American sea power.
(AP, 12/16/07)
1907 Dec 17, A Bhutan royal dynasty was founded. Gongsa Ugyen Wangchuck became the first hereditary king of Bhutan.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T6)(SSFC, 12/14/14, p.N3)
1907 Dec 17, William Thompson (b.1824), Belfast-born mathematical physicist and engineer, (aka Lord Kelvin), died in Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Kelvin)
1907 Dec 18, Christopher Fry, playwright (Ring Around the Moon), was born in Bristol, England.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1907 Dec 19, A gas explosion killed 239 workers in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pa.
(AP, 12/19/97)(MC, 12/19/01)
1907 Dec 21, Oskar Lassar (58), German dermatologist, died.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1907 Dec 22, Actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft was born in Croydon, England.
(AP, 12/22/07)
1907 Dec 23, The 1st all-steel passenger railroad coach was completed at Altoona, Pa.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1907 Dec 24, I.F. Stone (d.1989), American investigative journalist, was born in Philadelphia. "Those who nobly set out to be their brother's keeper sometimes end up by becoming his jailer. Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie."
(AP, 10/17/99)(AP, 12/24/07)
1907 Dec 25, Cab Calloway, band leader and first Jazz singer to sell a million records, was born.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1907 Dec 26, Albert Gore Sr. (d.1998), later US Representative and Senator from Tennessee, was born in Granville, Tenn.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.C14)
1907 Dec 26, William Kent (d.1928) donated 298 acres for the Muir Woods National Monument. US Rep. William Kent, heir to a Chicago meat-packing fortune, had moved to Marin County, Ca., in the late 1800s. His donations also included parkland on Mount Tamalpais.
(SFCM, 1/20/02, p.22)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A13)(SFC, 12/17/07, p.A1)
1907 Dec 28, The WSJ reported on the photographs of Mars by Dr. Lowell at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Lowell identified markings in the photos as evidence of great canals constructed for irrigation.
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.B1)
1907 Dec 29, Robert C. Weaver (d.1997), the first African American to serve on a president’s cabinet, was born. He advised Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt on Housing, Education and Employment. [see Jan 13,18, 1966]
(HN, 12/29/00)
1907 Dec 30, The Mills Commission issued its final report, concluding that Abner Doubleday was the inventor of the sport of baseball, a claim Doubleday himself had never made. Few, if any, sports historians take this finding seriously.
(AP, 12/30/07)
1907 Dec 31, For 1st time a ball was dropped at Times Square to signal new year.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1907 Dec 31, Gustav Mahler conducted the Metropolitan Opera.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1907 Dec, The US stock market, spurred by a "bear raid," took a nose-dive and set off a widespread panic. Many banks failed.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1907 Dec, There was stock market panic this year when the Knickerbocker Trust Co. failed. J.P. Morgan took charge and forbade the NY stock market to close and raised $25 million in 15 minutes to add liquidity. He summoned the most important bankers to devise a plan to abort the panic and no depression was induced. Morgan also called on clergymen to preach sermons of confidence. The crises led the government to create the Federal Reserve System (1913). Morgan got bankers to agree to settle accounts among themselves with clearinghouse certificates rather than cash and thus increased the money supply. The story was later recounted by John Steele Gordon in his 1999 book "The Great Game."
(SFC,10/27/97, p.B2)(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A22)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ, 12/13/99, p.A32)
1907 Dec, Banker J.P. Morgan saved the US financial system by putting his own money on the line in the Panic of 1907. In the Panic of 1907 J.P. Morgan, who ran US Steel, bought the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. and trustbuster Theodore Roosevelt agreed not to object to the buyout. Elbert H. Gary was the chairman of US Steel.
(WSJ,2/13/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)(WSJ, 7/16/01, p.A10)
1907 Robert Young (d.1998), film and TV actor, was born in Chicago.
(SFC, 7/23/98, p.C4)
1907 Marc Chagall painted his "Self Portrait with Seven Fingers."
(WSJ, 5/11/95, p. A-14)
1907 Arthur Wesley Dow painted "Rain in May."
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.C12)
1907 Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) painted the portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I." The painting was stolen in 1938 when the Nazis took Austria. Her niece, Maria Altman (1917-1994), fought for the recovery of family paintings and won their return. In 2006 the portrait sold for a record $135 million to cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder. Adele Bloch-Bauer (d.1925) was the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist in Vienna. In 2012 Anne-Marie O’Connor authored “The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer."
(SFC, 6/19/06, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt)(Econ, 2/19/11, p.96)(SSFC, 3/18/12, p.F5)
1907 Matisse painted his "Red Madras Headdress" which featured his wife as the model. The painting later became part of the Albert C. Barnes collection. [see 1925, Barnes] Matisse also painted "Blue Nude" in this year.
(WSJ, 11/28/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 7/9/01, p.A26)
1907 The play "Playboy of the Western World" by John Millington Synge was first produced at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, Ireland.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)
1907 August Strindberg completed his anti-naturalistic play "The Ghost Sonata."
(WS, 6/27/01, p.A12)
1907 Charles Caffin wrote "Story of American Painting."
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.50)
1907 Alfred Stieglitz made his photogravure "The Steerage." It was later acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
(WM, www,1999)
1907 "Chapters of Brazil Colonial History, 1500-1800" by Joao Capistrano de Abreu (1853-1927) was first published. The Oxford Library of Latin America published a new edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1907 Henri Bergson wrote "Creative Evolution." He saw evolution activated by a creative inner experience that he called the "elan vital," the power of life to overcome fixed and rigid forms.
(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A22)
1907 "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad was published.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A3)
1907 Edmund Gosse authored “Father and Son" a memoir about loss of faith.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.91)
1907 P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), Belgian playwright and essayist, authored “The Intelligence of Flowers."
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M2)
1907 The first Hopalong Cassidy book was published. Clarence Mulford began his Cassidy stories in 1905. The first Cassidy movie with William Boyd was released in 1935. The series moved on to radio and TV.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)
1907 Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), Christian theologian and Baptist minister, authored “Christianity and the Social Crisis."
(WSJ, 5/11/07, p.W11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rauschenbusch)
1907 Alfred Russel Wallace wrote his book "Is Mars Habitable."
(NH, 12/96, p.28)
1907 H.G. Wells (1866-1946) authored “The War in the Air." It was serialized and published in 1908. It is notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and concepts, such as the use of the airplane for the purpose of warfare and the coming of World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_in_the_Air)
1907 Edith Wharton (1862-1937) authored her novella "Madame de Treymes."
(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.P8)(www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/6741/chronology.html)
1907 Harold Bell Wright (1872-1944), who had traveled to the Ozarks for his health, published his novel “The Shepherd of the Hills." In 1960 performances of a stage version began at the Old Mill Theatre in Branson, Missouri. During the first quarter of the twentieth century the novels of Wright outsold every other American writer.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.48)(www.branson.com/branson/shepherd/history.htm)
1907 Mikhail Fokine used Saint-Saens cello dirge for his dance "The Swan," made for dancer Anna Pavlova. It became "The Dying Swan" in the New World.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.E1)
1907 Gustav Mahler composed his Symphony No. 8, nicknamed "Symphony of a Thousand" because it is usually performed by hundreds of players. The devil is evoked in the last half of the work.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.F3)
1907 In SF a 14-story, 71,345-square-foot building, designed by George Applegarth, was completed at Market and New Montgomery. In 2007 it sold for some $26 million.
(SFC, 5/22/07, p.C6)
1907 The US Customs House in NYC was constructed.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.T4)
1907 The Flemish Gothic skyscraper at 90 West Street, NYC, designed by Cass Gilbert, was completed
(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.D6)
1907 A brick building was constructed on Cornelia Street in East Rutherford, NJ, to serve as the headquarters for Becton Dickinson Corp. In 1977 the executive offices were moved to Paramus, NJ.
(Echo, 12,2007)
1907 The St. Louis "New" Cathedral on Lindell Blvd. was begun. It was not finished until the 1990s and grew to possess the largest collection of mosaic art in the world.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.T5)
1907 Fred Swanton, a local entrepreneur in Santa Cruz, CA., opened the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, DB p.64)
1907 Frederick Meyer, a cabinet maker from Germany, founded the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, Ca. In 1922 he purchased the 4-acre Treadwell estate in Oakland to accommodate growth. In 1936 the school was renamed the California College of the Arts and Crafts and in 2003 it became California College of the Arts.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.M2)
1907 Mario Ciampi, architect, was born in San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.F1)
1907 The "Sundial" sculpture by M. Earl Cummings was created. It was a half-sphere mounted on a turtle and set in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A20)
1907 Cartoonist Harry Conway Fisher started his Mutt and Jeff cartoon strip while working as a photographic layout person at the SF Chronicle. The strip returned to the Chronicle in 1951.
(SFC, 4/6/01, Wba p.4)
1907 In San Francisco the 2-story Fox Building at 225-227 Front St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.C2)
1907 In San Francisco the 4-story building at 137 New Montgomery St., designed by Henry Schulze, was completed. Two stories were added after the Pacific Telephone building arrived on the block.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.C4)
1907 In San Francisco a 3-story building was built at 201 O’Farrell St. It was designed by Arthur Lamb. Marquard’s Little Cigar Store opened on the corner with a classic neon marquee.
(SSFC, 12/23/12, p.C5)
1907 In San Francisco a 2-story commercial building, designed by Sylvan Schnaittacher, was erected at 77 New Montgomery St. In 1920 3 stories, designed by Mel Schwartz, were added.
(SSFC, 2/20/11, p.C2)
1907 In SF the city’s International Hotel, destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, was rebuilt at 848 Kearny. By the 1920s it became part of the 10-block Filipino American enclave known as Manilatown.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1907 In SF the building at 261 Columbus, designed by Oliver Everett, was completed. It later became the home of City Lights Bookstore.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.B2)
1907 In SF a 14-story, 71,345-square-foot building, designed by George Applegarth, was completed at Market and New Montgomery. In 2007 it sold for some $26 million.
(SFC, 5/22/07, p.C6)
1907 In SF the Elevated Shops building was constructed at 150 Powell St. It later became the wrapping for 29 condominiums.
(SFC, 9/20/06, p.B5)
1907 In SF the Del Monte cannery was constructed on Jefferson St. It closed in 1937. In 1963 Leonard Martin (d.2002 at 81) acquired the building and converted it to a shopping complex.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A17)
1907 In SF the 1st municipal stadium, later known as the Polo Fields, and Speedway Meadow were constructed in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1907 In SF The Haslett Warehouse was constructed at Beach and Hyde. In 1998 plans were being made to convert the 198,000-sq-ft building to an expensive hotel.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1907 In SF the 9-story Williams Building was completed at 3rd and Mission.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A18)
1907 In San Francisco a 2-story industrial building was built at 944 Folsom St. It was renovated in 1936. Boyd, a lighting manufacturer, purchased the building in 1995 and renovated it again as the Boyd Building.
(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.C2)
1907 In SF Archbishop Patrick Riordan established the Catholic Settlement and Humane Bureau at 1028 Market St. to help care for orphans, minors and destitute mothers recover from the earthquake. It later became the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of SF.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1907 The elegant showroom, later called The Great American Music Hall, opened on O’Farrell St.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, DB p.34)
1907 The Colonial Dames organization donated the sculpture of the tortoise with a sundial on its back, that stands in front of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A13)
1907 Frank Aleamon Leach, head of the San Francisco Mint, was promoted to director-general of all US mints.
(ON, 8/12, p.4)
1907 The SF bribery trial against Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, ended with a hung jury.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B1)
1907 The San Francisco Brewing Company established a facility at 155 Columbus Ave, South San Francisco.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1907 In San Francisco some 600 new houses were built on the 440-foot-tall Bernal Hill as people erected homes there following the 1906 earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, p.A2)
1907 Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams met as students at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.
(SFC, 6/3/96, BR p.6)
1907 The Univ. of Arizona Cow Barn was constructed, wearing the ornamental scalloped gables of a Spanish mission church.
(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.32)
1907 The MacDowell Colony was founded in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to nurture the arts by providing creative individuals with an inspiring environment. It was founded in honor of composer Edward MacDowell (d.1908).
(WSJ, 3/20/06, p.B1)(www.macdowellcolony.org/history.html)
1907 The Organization of American Historians was founded as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association.
(www.oah.org/members/mbrinfo.html)
1907 Frederick H. Meyer founded the California Guild of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley. In 1922 it was renamed the California College of Arts and Crafts and moved to Oakland.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.C3)
1907 Carlotta Monterey, later the 3rd wife of Eugene O’Neill, playwright, was Miss California.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.1)
1907 The first official perfect US bowling game was rolled.
(WSJ, 5/31/06, p.A1)
1907 The Hague Convention of this year prohibited the taking of war booty and instituted what some considered the first wartime environmental protections.
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A6)(SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)
1907 A Federal Meat Inspection Act was passed.
(WSJ, 12/16/97, p.A1)
1907 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt continued to establish himself as the first great "trust buster." He won a ban on corporate contributions.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.B2)(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)
1907 The US Dept. of Justice sent an investigator to Arkansas following complaints from Italy’s ambassador regarding immigrants trapped by debts on plantations. Charges of peonage were never pursued.
(Econ 5/27/17, p.28)
1907 The US $10 gold coin featured the head of Victory wearing an Indian headdress designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)
1907 The City Council of Fort Dodge, Iowa, passed legislation that required everybody between the ages of 25 and 45 to get married.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, z-1 p.2)
1907 In Oakland, Ca., the Lionel J. Wilson was completed at 1423 Broadway.
(SFC, 10/27/14, p.D3)
1907 In San Francisco the 156-room Cadillac Hotel was built in the Tenderloin district on the corner of Eddy and Leavenworth. In 1977 it was converted to nonprofit single-room occupancy. In 2015 the Tenderloin Museum opened inside the hotel on 3,200 square feet of commercial space leased for 30 years.
(SFC, 7/16/15, p.A9)
1907 In San Francisco the Royal Globe Insurance Co. building was built at 201 Sansome. It was designed by Howell and Stokes.
(SSFC, 5/31/15, p.C2)
1907 In San Francisco a two-story glass warehouse was constructed at 50 Green St. It was designed by architects Willis Polk and George Wright.
(SSFC, 9/21/14, p.C2)
1907 Realty Estate Syndicate, created by Francis Marion Smith and partner Frank C. Havens, built the opulent Key Room Inn at Broadway and West Grand Ave. in Oakland, Ca., on Key Route train lines serving San Francisco. The hotel was demolished in 1932.
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
1907 The SF bribery trial against Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, ended with a hung jury.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B1)
1907 In San Francisco Recreation Park was built on the block surrounded by Valencia, Guerrero, 14th and 15th streets. It became the home of the San Francisco Seals until 1930, except for one season in 1914, when they moved to a new field in the Inner Richmond nad found it was cold there.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1907 In San Francisco the 6-story Legallet Building, designed by architect Albert Pissis, was completed at 615 Battery St.
(SSFC, 1/19/14, p.B3)
1907 In San Francisco the 4-story building at 137 New Montgomery St., designed by Henry Schulze, was completed. Two stories were added after the Pacific Telephone building arrived on the block.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.C4)
1907 In SF the building at 261 Columbus, designed by Oliver Everett, was completed. It later became the home of City Lights Bookstore.
(SSFC, 5/31/09, p.B2)
1907 The Sunset View Cemetery was established in Lawndale (Colma), Ca.
(www.colmahistory.org/History.htm)
1907 The San Francisco Brewing Company established a facility at 155 Columbus Ave, South San Francisco.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1907 In San Francisco some 600 new houses were built on the 440-foot-tall Bernal Hill as people erected homes there following the 1906 earthquake.
(SSFC, 6/21/09, p.A2)
1907 In San Francisco a 2-story industrial building was built at 944 Folsom St. It was renovated in 1936. Boyd, a lighting manufacturer, purchased the building in 1995 and renovated it again as the Boyd Building.
(SSFC, 1/30/11, p.C2)
1907 In San Francisco a building was constructed at 2575 Mission St. In its early years it housed an ice cream shop, a candy shop and then a bakery. In 1951 it began serving drinks as the Clock Bar. Ten years later dentist Ralph Mancuso bought the business, renamed it Doc’s Clock and installed a Doc’s Clock neon marquee. In 2017 the bar closed and moved to 2417 Mission St., but the vintage neon sign stayed behind.
(SFC, 6/8/17, p.A11)
1907 San Francisco renamed Japan Street in the Excelsior district to Avalon Avenue. Nearby street India became Peru and China became Excelsior.
(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C3)
1907 Swimmer Arthur Cavill landed at the San Francisco Presidio an hour and 18 minutes from his departure at Lime Point in Marin.
(SSFC, 7/24/11, DB p.42)
1907 An explosion at the Trojan Powder factory in the SF Bay town of San Lorenzo, Ca. killed at least one person.
(http://www.sanlorenzoheritage.org/history/slzintro.htm)(SFC, 10/10/14, p.A1)
1907 Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington state became the first national park opened to car traffic and attendance soared.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A6)
1907 The family of Lt. Col. George Armistead, commander at Fort McHenry in 1814, donated the fort’s flag to the Smithsonian Museum. It had inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner.
(WSJ, 7/3/02, p.B1)
1907 Charles Ives, composer, founded Ives & Myrick, an insurer that he headed from 1916-1930.
(WSJ, 9/1/00, p.W2)
1907 The New York Currier & Ives partnership, formed in 1857, closed down with an inventory of 7,000 titles.
(WSJ, 12/19/00, p.A19)
1907 The Murphy Oil Company was founded in Arkansas.
(F, 10/7/96, p.60)
1907 The Detroit auto show began when a group of dealers held a show in a city park. The show was largely a regional event showcasing Detroit automakers until 1989, when the name was changed to the North American International Auto Show and Toyota and Nissan used it to introduce their new luxury brands.
(AP, 1/12/14)
1907 The Detroit-based Anderson Electric Car Company began producing the Detroit Electric car and continued to 1939. During this period the company built 13,000 electric cars. The Detroit Electric brand was revived again in 2008 to produce modern all-electric cars by Detroit Electric Holding Ltd. of the Netherlands.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric)
1907 The first retail drive-in gasoline facility opened in St. Louis.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1907 Clarence Birdseye, an Amherst biology student, began selling bobcat and coyote hide from traders in New Mexico, purchased for fifty cents, to furriers in New York for a dollar and a quarter. In 1912 he moved to Labrador to farm foxes and trade furs.
(ON, 8/12, p.5)
1907 Clayton S. Reaser purchased a 5-year old Pennsylvania furniture company named Gettysburg Manufacturing Co. and renamed it Reaser Furniture Manufacturing Co.
(SFC, 1/10/07, p.G2)
1907 Hermann Minkowski, mathematician, proposed a new geometry that added time to the three dimensions of space.
(NG, March 1990, J. Boslough p. 118)
1907 Leo Baekeland of Yonkers, NY, invented Bakelite, a hard plastic. [see 1909]
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1907 Whiting & Davis Co. of Plainville, Mass., established in 1896, developed a chain mail mesh machine about this time and became the world’s largest manufacturer of mesh products.
(SFC, 7/11/07, p.G4)(http://bagladyemporium.com/BLU/index.php?n=Main.WhitingDavisCo)
1907 Lee De Forest patented the "Audion tube," a sensitive receiver for radio signals. He also invented the first method for putting sound on film.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A8)
1907 The phenomenon of electroluminescence was first observed in a piece of Silicon Carbide (SiC) by Henry Joseph Round (1881-1966), an English electronics engineer.
(Econ, 9/23/06, TQ p.26)(www.wavicle.biz/led_history.html)
1907 In France the physicist Georges Claude discovered that high voltage electricity shot through certain gases radiated a colored light. He patented a neon tube in 1909.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T6)
1907 The leak from the diverted water of the Colorado River that formed the Salton Sea in southern California was finally plugged.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A22)
1907 The 1st Black American was elected a Rhodes scholar.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.A1)
1907 "Buffalo clover... nearly knee-high... afforded a rich pasture." An image of the fertile frontier penned by historian S.P. Hildreth in 1788. After 1907 the clover was unseen until 1989 when it emerged in some topsoil delivered to a botanist’s backyard.
(NG, Jan. 94, p.144)
1907 The American Museum of Natural History purchased a collection of 35 Maori preserved and tattooed heads. A Maori representative in 1998 sought to bring them back to New Zealand.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B3)
1907 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev (b.1834), Russian chemist, died. He formulated the periodic table of elements in 1869 and authored the 1st modern chemistry text in Russia. In 2001 Paul Strathern authored "Mendeleyev’s Dream," a history of chemistry.
(V.D.-H.K.p.324)(HN, 2/8/01)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
1907 In Argentina Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up another bank. They sold their ranch in Patagonia to a beef syndicate and went to Bolivia where they were gunned down by soldiers after robbing a mine payroll.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1907 The Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild'sche Stiftung fur Nervenkranke foundation was set up in Vienna to pay hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill. It was expropriated by the Nazis in 1938 and taken over by the second newly independent republic in 1956.
(Econ., 2/29/20, p.42)
1907 In Britain the current Old Bailey building was built. It stands on the site of the old Newgate Jail.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T11)
1907 Britain urged the adoption of Daylight Savings Time (DST) to conserve fuel and provide more hours to train soldiers. British architect and golfer William Willet authored a pamphlet deploring the waste of daylight.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.D8)
1907 The British forced the abolition of slavery on the new Sultan of Zanzibar and Lamu Island went into an economic decline.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.T7)
1907 Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) became the first woman to receive the British Order of Merit.
(ON, 10/20/11, p.6)
1907 India’s Tata firm opened an office in London to buy supplies for its Indian operations.
(Econ, 9/10/11, p.61)
1907 Explorations under Louis Deleporte and the French School of the Far East began at the ancient city of Angkor. Found artifacts were shared between France and Cambodia.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)(SFC, 2/4/04, p.D10)
1907 The Royal Alexandria Theater was built in Toronto, Canada.
(SFEC, 12/8/96, p.C21)
1907 A great cantilever bridge collapsed in Quebec killing 75 workers.
(MT, Summer/04, p.7)
1907 Glenn Curtiss, of New York, joined with Alexander Graham Bell, F.W. Baldwin, Thomas Selfridge, and John McCurdy, working in Nova Scotia, to found the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) to developing a practical flying machine.
(ON, 12/11, p.10)
1907 Vaclav Trojan, Czech composer, was born. His works include "Cathedral in Ruins," the opera "Rondabout" and a variety of film music such as Jiri Trnka’s puppet films: Spalicek, the Emperor’s Nightingale, Prince Bajaja, Old Bohemian Legends and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(BAAC PN, Chambers, 1/8/96)
1907 Howard Carter obtained the patronage of George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon to finance his archeological excavations in Egypt.
(ON, 5/00, p.6)
1907 In Egypt a mummy known as KV55 was found. It was named after the number of the tomb where it was found in the Valley of the Kings. In 2010 DNA and CT scanning identified the mummy as that of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1350-1336BC).
(AP, 3/12/10)
1907 In France the bowling game of petanque or boule assumed its current form after possible origins in ancient Greece or Egypt. Similar to bocce ball it is played on a dirt court with baseball sized steel balls. In 1998 it was seeking Olympic recognition. The French version was born near Marseille as a sport for the masses. In 1959 France held the 1st annual petanque world championship.
(WSJ, 1/5/98, p.20)(WSJ, 8/30/07, p.A7)
1907 In France Eugene Schuller created a hair dye in the kitchen of his Paris apartment and named it Aureale. In 1939 the business was renamed L’Oreal.
(SFC, 9/22/17 p.D8)
1907 In Germany Johannes Klepper licensed, improved and marketed a folding kayak.
(Hem, 9/04, p.50)
1907 In Germany in Berlin the Hotel Adlon on the Unter den Linden was founded by Lorenz Adlon. It was burned to the ground during WW II and reconstructed in 1997.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
1907 A 4-year German campaign ended against the cattle-herding Hereros of Southwest Africa (later Namibia). It was later estimated that tens of thousands of Hereros were butchered, with only some 15,000 surviving. Many historians called the killings the first genocide of the 20th century. Some 300 skulls were believed taken from the Herero and ethnic Nama who died in German-run prison camps over the four-year conflict. In 2011 a Namibian delegation reclaimed about 20 human skulls used by colonial-era scientists, who sought to prove the racial superiority of whites over blacks.
(AFP, 9/26/11)
1907 Carl Hagenbeck established the world’s first zoo to free animals from cages in Hamburg, Germany.
(Hem., Oct. ‘95, p.25)
1907 On the Isle of Man the motorbike race for the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, was started.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.T13)
1907 Iran's parliament recruited Morgan Shuster (1877-1960), an American lawyer, to run the state treasury. The vice-regent of Persia expelled Shuster from office in December 1911 against the will of the Persian parliament.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_Shuster)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.67)
1907 In Italy the first orchestra pit at the La Scala opera house in Milan was constructed. Conductor Arturo Toscanini celebrated by performing Wagner’s Gotterdammerung.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala)(Econ 6/24/17, p.75)
1907 In Korea some dozen civilian leaders started a national campaign to raise money to ease the national debt to Japan, which was its colonial ruler. About 1/6th of the total debt was donated.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)
1907 In Korea the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Inchon. The doomed revolt ultimately left some 14,000 Koreans dead as well as 160 Japanese.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_army)(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1907 Royal Dutch combines its oil operations with Shell Transport & Trading Co.
(WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A14)
1907 A Russian monk named Ilarion authored “In the Mountains of the Caucasus," which extolled the recitation of the “Jesus Prayer." This triggered the “name-deifier" dispute among the Orthodox. In 2009 Jean-Michael Kantor an d Loren Graham authored “Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity."
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.90)
1907 Stalin (1879-1953) organized an armed robbery on 2 coaches carrying treasure to the state bank in central Tbilisi, Georgia. He delivered his gains to Lenin. In 2007 Simon Sebag Montefiore authored “Young Stalin."
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.88)
1907 Britain and Russia carved Iran into spheres of influence. Russia and Great Britain signed the convention of St. Petersburg, in which Afghanistan was declared outside Russia's sphere of influence.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.A6)
1907 Ricardo Anckermann (b.1842), ethnic German artist who painted in Mallorca, Spain, died.
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.D7)
1907 In Sudan the first primary school for girls was founded by the Bedris family. It grew to become the private Ahfad University.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A12)
1907-1908 Constantin Brancusi created his "blocky" sculpture "The Kiss."
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A5)(SFC, 10/26/96, p.B6)
1907-1909 Murray Levick was the naturalist on the Ernest Shackleton south polar expedition. [see 1908]
(NH, 8/96, p.36)
1907-1914 George Washington Goethals, US major general and engineer, was the chief engineer of the Panama Canal.
(WUD, 1994, p.606)
1907-1915 The Lucerna Palace in Prague, Czechoslovakia, was built by Vaclav Havel, grandfather of the Czech president of 1997.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)
1907-1917 "A Life of Picasso Vol. II" by John Richardson (1996) covers this period of the painter’s life.
(WSJ, 11/13/96, p.A20)
1907-1934 HJ was a mark used by A.G. Harley Jones, operator of the Royal Vienna Art Pottery in the Staffordshire district of England at this time.
(SFC, 7/9/97, Z1 p.3)
1907-1958 Mike Todd, American movie producer: "I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation."
(AP, 12/5/98)
1907-1964 Opera stars of this period were featured on a 1997 video "The Art of Singing: Golden Voices of the Century" by NVC Arts on Atlantic Records.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A20)
1907-1971 James Ramsey Ullman, American author: "To know a little less and to understand a little more: that, it seems to me, is our greatest need."
(AP, 8/21/97)
1907-1972 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Polish-born scholar: "He who is swift to believe is swift to forget."
(AP, 5/1/01)
1907-1977 Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist: "The door to the past is a strange door. It swings open and things pass through it, but they pass in one direction only. No man can return across that threshold, though he can look down still and see the green light waver in the water weeds."
(AP, 4/24/99)
1907-1978 Charles Eames, an American polymath artist. Together with his wife he designed numerous objects, furniture and made more than 75 films.
(SFC, 6/6/96, E1)
1907-1982 Jacques Tatisheff, French film actor and director. In 2000 David Bellow authored the biography "Jacques Tati."
(WSJ, 8/1/00, p.A20)
1907-1989 Laurence Olivier, British actor: "I take a simple view of living. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it."
(AP, 3/18/98)
1907-1990 Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel, American theologian, author and educator: "Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have."
(AP, 1/31/01)
1907-1996 Sir Frank Whittle, British engineer. He first patented the idea of a jet engine in 1930.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A20)
1907-1997 Dora Maar, fashion and portrait photographer. In 1935 she met Pablo Picasso in Paris and began a 7-year affair.
(SFC, 5/1/99, p.E1)
1907-1997 Henriette Wyeth, painter, daughter of American master N.C. Wyeth. Her work included "Death and the Child." She was the sister of painter Andrew Wyeth. Two other sisters, Carolyn and Ann, were also painters.
(SFC, 4/4/97, p.A25)(WSJ, 6/2/98, p.A20)
Go to 1908-1909
