1900 Jan 1, A New York editorialist wrote that the 20th century
began in the United States with "a sense of euphoria and self-satisfaction,
a sure feeling that America is the envy of the world."
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70)
1900 Jan 2, Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open
Door Policy to prompt trade with China.
(AP, 1/2/98)
1900 Jan 8, The Boers attacked Ladysmith, but were turned back
by General White in South Africa.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1900 Jan 13, To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph
of Austria-Hungary decreed that German would be the language of the imperial
army.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1900 Jan 14, The Puccini opera "Tosca" received a mixed reception
at its Rome world premiere.
(AP, 1/14/98)
1900 Jan 16, The U.S. Senate consented to the Anglo-German treaty
of 1899 by which the UK renounced its rights to the Samoan Islands.
(HN, 1/16/99)
1900 Jan 27, Hyman Rickover (d.1986), American admiral, was born.
He is considered the "father" of America's nuclear navy and the "Father
of the Atomic Submarine." "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds
discuss events, small minds discuss people."
(HN, 1/27/99)(AP, 5/5/00)
1900 Jan 27, Foreign diplomats in Peking fear revolt and demanded
that the Imperial Government discipline the Boxer Rebels.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1900 Jan 29, The American League, consisting of eight baseball
teams, was organized in Philadelphia with teams from Buffalo, Chicago,
Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
[see Feb 2}
(SFC, 7/7/96, zone 1 p.5)(AP, 1/29/98)
1900 Feb 2, Six cities, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore,
Chicago and St. Louis agreed to form baseball's American League. [see Jan
29]
(HN, 2/2/99)
1900 Feb 4, Jacques Prevert, French poet, screenwriter, was born.
His work included "The Visitors of the Evening" and "The Children of Paradise."
(HN, 2/4/01)
1900 Feb 5, Adlai E. Stevenson II, Illinois governor and American
diplomat, was born. He twice lost to Dwight Eisenhower for presidency of
the United States. "All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular
positions."
(HN, 2/5/99)(AP, 7/4/99)
1900 Feb 5, The United States and Great Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty, giving the United States the right to build a canal in Nicaragua
but not to fortify it.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1900 Feb 6, President McKinley appointed W.H. Taft commissioner
to report on the Philippines.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1900 Feb 8, British General Buller was beaten at Ladysmith, South
Africa as the British fled over the Tugela River.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1900 Feb 14, General Roberts invaded South Africa's Orange Free
State with 20,000 British troops.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1900 Feb 15, The British threatened to use natives in the Boer
War fight.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1900 Feb 22, Sean O'Faolain, Irish short story writer, was born.
(HN, 2/22/01)
1900 Feb 28, After a 119-day siege by the Boers, the English defenders
of Ladysmith, under General Sir George White were relieved.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1900 Feb 20, J.F. Pickering patented his airship.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1900 Mar 2, Kurt Weill, composer (The Threepenny Opera), Brecht
collaborator, was born in Dessau, Germany.
(HN, 3/2/01)(SC, 3/2/02)
1900 Mar 11, British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury (1830-1903)
rejected the peace overtures offered from Boer leader Paul Kruger.
(HN, 3/11/98)(WUD, 1994, p.1262)
1900 Mar 13, George Seferis, Greek poet, was born.
(HN, 3/13/01)
1900 Mar 14, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act for U.S.
currency.
(AP, 3/14/97)(HN, 3/14/98)
1900 Mar 19, President McKinley asserted the need for free trade
with Puerto Rico.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1900 Mar 23, Erich Fromm (d.1980), German-American psychologist,
was born. He wrote "The Sane Society." "Modern man thinks he loses something-time-when
he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the
time he gains-except kill it."
(AP, 4/21/97)(HN, 3/23/99)
1900 Mar 24, Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke ground for the New
York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1900 Mar 27, The London Parliament passed the War Loan Act which
gave 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1900 Apr 5, Spencer Tracy (d.1967), film actor (Adam's Rib, Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner), was born.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, DB p.56,58)(HN, 4/5/01)
1900 Apr 9, British forces routed the Boers at Kroonstadt, South
Africa.
(HN, 4/9/98)
1900 Apr 14, A World Exposition, the Great Exposition, opened
in Paris. For a few months 210 temporary pavilions from different countries
and architectural styles lined the Seine. The Exposition Universale included
the Exposition Decennale, an art show of painting and sculpture from the
previous decade. The first working escalator (patented in 1859), was manufactured
by the Otis Elevator Company for the Paris Exposition.
(V.D.-H.K.p.264)(HN, 4/14/98)(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A14)(HN, 8/9/00)
1900 Apr 24, Elizabeth Goudge, English author, was born.
(HN, 4/24/01)
1900 Apr 26, Charles Richter, seismologist, was born in Hamilton,
Ohio. He developed the Richter Scale for measuring the amplitude of earthquakes.
(440 Int'l. Internet, 4/26/97, p.6)(AP, 4/26/98)
1900 Apr 26, Douglas Sirk (Detlef Sierck), film director, was
born. His work included: "Imitation of Life," "A Time to Love & a Time
to Die," "Tarnished Angels," "Written on the Wind," "Magnificent Obsession,"
and "First Legion."
(440 Int'l. Internet, 4/26/97, p.1)
1900 Apr 27, Walter Lantz, cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker,
was born.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1900 Apr 30, Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory.
(AP, 4/30/97)
1900 Apr 30, Engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Illinois
Central Railroad was killed in a wreck near Vaughan, Miss., after staying
at the controls in an effort to save the passengers.
(AP, 4/30/99)
1900 May 12, Mostly Black fighters in Mafikeng repelled a Boer
assault. Col. Robert Baden-Powell, commander of the British troops in Mafikeng,
armed black fighters and many died during the 7-month siege.
(SFC, 10/8/99, p.D3)
1900 May 17, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's spiritual and
revolutionary leader, was born.
(HN, 5/17/98)
1900 May 19, Simplon Tunnel opened as the world's longest railroad
tunnel at 12 miles; it linked Italy & Switzerland through the Alps.
(DT Internet 5/19/97)
1900 May 22, The Associated Press (founded in 1848) was incorporated
in New York as a non-profit news cooperative.
(AP, 5/22/00)
1900 May 23, Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney became the
first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years
after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1900 May 28, Britain annexed the Orange Free State in South Africa.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1900 May 31, U.S. troops arrived in Peking to help put down Boxer
Rebellion.
(HN, 5/31/98)
1900 Jun 5, Dennis Gabor, inventor of 3D laser photography, was
born.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1900 Jun 5, Bill Moyers, American broadcast journalist, was born.
He served as President Lyndon B. Johnson's press secretary. He also made
numerous documentaries for the Public Broadcasting System.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1900 Jun 5, In South Africa, British troops under Lord Roberts
seized Pretoria from the Boers.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1900 Jun 7, Boxer rebels cut the rail links between Peking and
Tientsin in China.
(HN, 6/7/98)
1900 Jun 13, China's Boxer Rebellion against foreigners and Chinese
Christians erupted into violence. The Boxer Rebellion was a violent, anti-foreign
uprising that broke out in reaction to years of foreign interference with
Chinese affairs. Led by a Chinese secret society called Yi He Tuan-"the
Righteous, Harmonious Fists"-the Boxers were aided by the Empress Dowager
Ci Xi and pillaged the countryside, murdering foreigners and Chinese Christians.
(AP, 6/13/97)(HNPD, 6/20/98)
1900 Jun 19, Laura Hobson, novelist (Gentleman's Agreement), was
born.
(HN, 6/19/01)
1900 Jun 21, General Arthur MacArthur offered amnesty to Filipinos
rebelling against American rule.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1900 Jun 21, After the Empress declared war on all foreign powers,
the Boxers began a two-month assault on the legations in Beijing. An international
force of Japanese, Russian, German, American, British, Italian and Austro-Hungarian
troops put down the uprising by August 14. The Boxer Rebellion was a violent,
anti-foreign uprising that broke out in reaction to years of foreign interference
with Chinese affairs. Led by a Chinese secret society called Yi He Tuan--"the
Righteous, Harmonious Fists"--the Boxers were aided by the Empress Dowager
Ci Xi and pillaged the countryside, murdering foreigners and Chinese Christians.
In 2000 Diana Preston authored "The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story
of China's War on foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900."
(HNPD, 6/21/99)(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A24)
1900 Jun 25, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, the last British
viceroy of India, was born. He survived World War II only to be killed
by an IRA bomb.
(HN, 6/25/99)
1900 Jun 26, The United States announced it would send troops
to fight against the Boxer rebellion in China.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1900 Jun 26, A commission that included Dr. Walter Reed began
the fight against the deadly disease yellow fever. Walter Reed (1851-1902),
U.S. Army doctor, went to Cuba and verified that yellow fever was caused
by a mosquito.
(HN, 9/13/98)(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.B1)(AP, 6/26/97)
1900 Jun 29, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (d.1944), French aviator
and writer, was born. In 1970 Curtis Cate published the biography: "Antoine
de Saint-Exupery."
(WUD, 1994, p.1261)(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.A2)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A15)(HN,
6/29/01)
1900 Jun, The first Zeppelin lighter-than-air ship flew in Friedrichshafen.
Count Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August von Zepellin (d.1919) flew the 1st
craft to carry his name.
(AHM, 1/97)(WSJ, 2/120/00, p.A1)
1900 Jul 2, Tyrone Guthrie, English theater director, was born.
(HN, 7/2/01)
1900 Jul 4, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, (Daniel Louis Armstrong,
1900-1971) jazz musician, was born in New Orleans. He was a solo performer
on the trumpet; developed a vocal style called "scat singing"; was a band
leader, film star and worldwide celebrity; his career spanned five decades.
[see Aug 4, 1901] "I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat
me right, shame on you."
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)(AP, 12/1/99)
1900 Jul 9, The Commonwealth of Australia was established by an
act of British Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal
government.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1900 Jul 14, European Allies retook Tientsin, China, from the
rebelling Boxers.
(HN, 7/14/98)
1900 Jul 29, Owen Lattimore, writer, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1900 Jul 29, Italian King Humbert the First was assassinated
by an anarchist; he was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel the Third.
(AP, 7/29/00)
1900 Jul, Mount Adatara erupted and left 72 people dead.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A17)
1900 Aug 3, Ernie Pyle (d.1945), World War II correspondent who
wrote about the common soldier, was born. "One of the paradoxes of war
is that those in the rear want to get up into the fight, while those in
the lines want to get out."
(HN, 8/3/98)(AP, 4/18/99)
1900 Aug 4, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (d.2002), later known as the
Queen Mum (mother of Queen Elizabeth II), was born in Scotland as the daughter
of Lord Glamis, who became the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.A18)(SFC, 8/5/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/10/00, p.A16)
1900 Aug 14, International forces, i.e. European allies, including
U.S. Marines entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was
aimed at purging China of foreigners and foreign influence.
(HN, 8/14/98)(AP, 8/14/01)
1900 Aug 23, Booker T. Washington formed the National Negro Business
League in Boston, Massachusetts.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1900 Aug 25, Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche died in Weimar, Germany.
In 1999 Ronald Taylor translated into English the book "Nietzsche and Wagner"
by Joachim Köhler.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A20)(AP, 8/25/00)
1900 Aug 31, British troops overran Johannesburg.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1900 Aug, David Hilbert, a German mathematician, presented
a challenge list of 23 equations at a meeting of the Int'l. Congress of
Mathematicians in Paris. In 2000 three of the equations still remained
unsolved.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A2)(SFEC, 8/27/00, BR p.1)
1900 Sep 7, Taylor Caldwell, novelist, was born.
(HN, 9/7/00)
1900 Sep 8, Claude Pepper, Democratic senator and congressman
from Florida, champion of senior citizens rights, was born.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1900 Sep 8, Some 6,000-8,000 people were killed in Galveston
by flying debris, collapsing buildings and drowning. The storm let up around
midnight, leaving in its wake $30 million in damage and thousands of bodies.
Many of the dead had to be hastily dumped in the ocean for fear of spreading
disease. Bishop's Palace in Galveston, Texas, remained standing amid piles
of rubble after the island city suffered the greatest natural disaster
in U.S. history. By nightfall, winds reached 125 mph and the city was under
15 feet of water. The storm battered Galveston for 18 hours. In 1999 Erik
Larson published "Isaac's Storm."
(AP, 9/8/97)(HNPD, 9/8/98)(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A2)(WSJ, 9/3/99,
p.W8)
1900 Sep 9, James Hilton, British novelist who authored "Lost
Horizon" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips," was born. In Lost Horizon he created
the imaginary world of "Shangri-La."
(HN, 9/9/98)
1900 Sep 17, The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. [See
Jul 9, 1900]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1900 Sep 19, President Loubet of France pardoned Jewish army captain
Alfred Dreyfus, twice court-martialed and wrongly convicted of spying for
Germany.
(HN, 9/19/98)
1900 Oct 2, William A. 'Bud' Abbot, comedian, was born. He was
the straight man to Lou Costello.
(HN, 10/2/00)
1900 Oct 3, Thomas Wolfe (d.1938), American author (Look Homeward
Angel), was born. "All youth is bound to be 'misspent'; there is something
in its very nature that makes it so, and that is why all men regret it."
"Loneliness ... is and always has been the central and inevitable experience
of every man."--From "You Can't Go Home Again."
(AP, 7/28/97)(AP, 9/18/98)(HN, 10/3/98)
1900 Oct 3, Edward Elgar, Cardinal John Henry Newman's oratorium,
premiered in Birmingham.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1900 Oct 7, Heinrich Himmler, chicken farmer who became the head
of the German Gestapo in Hitler's Germany, was born. [see Oct 20, 1900]
(HN, 10/7/98)
1900 Oct 8, Maximilian Harden was sentenced to six months in prison
for publishing an article critical of the German Kaiser.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1900 Oct 10, Helen Brown (later Helen Hayes, d.1993), American
actress, was born in Washington, D.C. Her Tony Awards include: Best Dramatic
Actress in 1947 for "Happy Birthday", and again in 1958 for "Time Remembered".
Her talents were recognized on movie screens (Hayes appeared in films as
early as 1927) as she received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her
first major role: "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" in 1931, and forty years
later for Best Supporting Actress in "Airport." "The truth (is) that there
is only one terminal dignity- love. And the story of a love is not important-what
is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse
we are permitted of eternity."
(HN, 10/10/98)(AP, 10/10/00)(MC, 10/10/01)
1900 Oct 10, Fred Holland Day exhibited his work at the London
Exhibition under the auspices of the Royal Photographic Society.
(Civilization, July-Aug. 1995, p.40-47)
1900 Oct 20, Wayne Morse, (Sen-R/D-Ore), was born.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1900 Oct 20, Heinrich Himmler, head of SS, was born. [see Oct
7, 1900]
(MC, 10/20/01)
1900 Oct 26, After 4 years of work the 1st section of NY subway
opened. [see Feb 26, 1870]
(MC, 10/26/01)
1900 Nov 3, The first automobile show in the United States
opened at Madison Square Garden in New York under the auspices of the Automobile
Club of America.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(AP, 11/3/97)
1900 Nov 6, President McKinley was re-elected, beating Democrat
William Jennings Bryan.
(AP, 11/6/97)(HN, 11/6/98)
1900 Nov 7, Heinrich Himmler, Head of the Nazi SS and organizer
of extermination camps in Eastern Europe, was born.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1900 Nov 7, Efrem Kurtz, conductor (Houston Symph 1948-54), was
born in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1900 Nov 8, Margaret Mitchell (d.1949), American writer, was born.
She found success in her first and only novel, "Gone With the Wind."
(HN, 11/8/00)
1900 Nov 8, Albert Friedrich Frey-Wyssling, Swiss botanist and
molecular biology pioneer, was born.
(HN, 11/8/00)
1900 Nov 8, Theodore Dreiser's first novel "Sister Carrie" was
published by Doubleday, but was recalled from stores shortly due to public
sentiment.
(HN, 11/8/00)
1900 Nov 9, Russia completed its occupation of Manchuria.
(HN, 11/9/98)
1900 Nov 12, World's Fair in Paris opened. 50 million visitors
attended the fair.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1900 Nov 14, Aaron Copeland (d.1990), American composer, was born.
His works included "Billy the Kidd," "Appalachian Spring" and "Fanfare
for the Common Man."
(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.1)(HN, 11/14/99)
1900 Nov 18, Dr. Howard Thurman, theologian and first African
American to hold a full time position at Boston University, was born.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1900 Nov 19, Anna Seghers, [Netty Radvanyi-Reiling], German author
(7th Cross), was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1900 Nov 22, Sir Arthur Sullivan (b.1842), English composer, died.
His operas included "H.M.S. Pinafore," "Iolanthe," "Patience," "The Pirates
of Penzance," "Princess Ida," "The Mikado," "Trial by Jury," and "The Yeoman
of the Guard."
(WSJ, 11/22/00, p.A20)
1900 Nov 25, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Nixon's 1st opponent, (Rep-D-Ca),
was born.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1900 Nov 29, Mildred Elizabeth Sisk, the infamous American-born
Axis Sally, was born. She broadcast propaganda for Radio Berlin from Nazi
Germany to Allied troops during the Second World War.
(HN, 11/29/98)
1900 Nov 30, French government denounced British, declaring sympathy
for the Boers.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1900 Nov 30, A German engineer patented front-wheel drive for
automobiles.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1900 Nov 30, Irish author Oscar Wilde (b.1856) died in a Paris
hotel room after saying of the room's wallpaper: "One of us had to go."
In 2000 "the Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde," edited by Merlin Holland,
Wilde's grandson, was published
(V.D.-H.K.p.279)(AP, 11/30/97)(HN, 11/30/00)(SFC, 12/1/00, p.C12)
1900 Dec 1, Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to meet with Boer leader
Paul Kruger in Berlin.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1900 Dec 4, The French National Assembly, successor to the States-General,
rejected Nationalist General Mercier's proposal to plan an invasion of
England.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1900 Dec 9, The Russian Czar rejected Paul Kruger's pleas for
aid to the Boers in South Africa against the British.
(HN, 12/9/01)
1900 Dec 14, Max Planck (1858-1947), German physicist, presented
the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin. Planck, demonstrated
that energy, in certain situations, can exhibit characteristics of physical
matter. Planck was rewarded the Nobel Prize (1918) in Physics for his work
on blackbody radiation.
(HN, 12/14/98)(MC, 12/14/01)
1900 Dec 16, V.S. Pritchett (d.1997), English writer, was born
in Ipswich. The first volume of his autobiography was called "A Cab at
the Door."
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1900 Dec 17, Ellis Island immigration center re-opened following
an 1897 fire.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1900 Dec 19, The British Parliament voted amnesty for all involved
in the army treason trial known as the Dreyfus Affair.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1900 Dec 23, The Federal Party, which recognized American sovereignty,
was formed in the Philippines.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1900 Dec 27, Militant prohibitionist and temperance agitator Carry
Nation, (Carrie Nation), first used a hatchet to carry out her public smashings
of a bar, at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kan. As a result, the hatchet
soon became the symbol of her crusade against alcohol. Born in Kentucky,
Nation's first husband died of alcoholism and her second marriage ended
in divorce. She was often arrested, fined and jailed for her actions. She
published the Smasher in Topeka. Advertisers boycotted and the paper failed.
(AP, 12/27/97)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)(HNQ, 10/17/99)
1900 Aaron Copland (d.1990), composer, was born. In 1999 Howard
Pollack published Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man."
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A20)
1900 Elmo Roper, polster, was born. He was the first to apply
market research skills to measure public opinion.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1900 In France Pierre Bonnard painted "Siesta."
(WSJ, 6/24/98, p.A16)
1900 Childe Hassan painted his "Late Afternoon, New York, Winter."
(WSJ, 6/6/95, p.A-14)
1900 Picasso painted "Moilin de la Galette."
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A14)
1900 In Russia Apollinarius Vaznetsov painted a view of workmen
building the 12th century wooden ramparts of the Kremlin.
(AM, Jul/Aug '97 p.31)
1900 Vlaminck painted "The Bar."
(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A24)
1900 Mary Austin (d.1934) wrote her classic "The Land of Little
Rain" in the town of Independence in Inyo County, Ca. Her work included
30 published books
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.T6)
1900 Frank Baum published "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Baum,
a playwright and former chicken farmer wrote his Oz book in 1899.
(WSJ, 5/22/97, p.A13)(SFEC, 11/8/98, DB p.5)
1900 Willa Cather published "Eric Hermannson's Soul" in Cosmopolitan.
In 1998 an opera based on the story was composed by Libby Larson with libretto
by Chas Rader-Shieber. It was commissioned to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of the Omaha Opera.
(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A20)
1900 Charles Chesnutt (b.1858), African-American writer, authored
his novel "The House Behind the Cedars."
(HN, 6/20/01)(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A11)
1900 Edith Wharton wrote seven successful stories and her novel,
"The Valley of Decision."
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.71)
1900 Freud published his "Interpretation of Dreams."
(V.D.-H.K.p.293)
1900 Cecil B. DeMille began working on plays with his older
brother William, enjoying moderate success for 12 years.
(HNPD, 8/12/98)
1900 The opera "Louise" by Gustave Charpentier, about a Parisien
seamstress, was the first new opera of the century.
(SFC, 9/15/99, p.B1)
1900 Edward Elgar put music to the poem "The Dream of Gerontius"
by Cardinal John Henry Newman, the English convert to Catholicism.
(SFEC, 10/7/96, A20)
1900 The Dallas Symphony Orchestra was founded.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A20)
1900 The 110-mile White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge railroad
from Skagway to Whitehorse, the Alaska-British Columbia border, was completed.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T3)
1900 The Victory Theater was built on 42nd St between 7th and
8th, i.e. Broadway in NYC by Oscar Hammerstein, the grandfather of the
well-known lyricist. In the 1930s it became Minskys, the famous burlesque
house. It was restored in the 1990s and used for children's theater productions.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E1)
1900 The construction of the rococo City Hall in Philadelphia
was completed. The architect was John McArthur Jr.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T1)
1900 The first Santas of the Salvation Army stepped into the streets
and were initially arrested as public nuisances.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.B7)
1900 At the Olympics a Belgian sharpshooter killed 21 live pigeons.
The event was abolished shortly thereafter. Separately the game of croquet
was featured for the first and last time.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A6)
1900 At the turn of the 20th century, small-town photographers
in the Midwest and West turned out thousands of "larger than life" postcards.
Produced by piecing together parts from several photographs, shooting the
whole and printing it on postcard paper, the cards were early efforts at
trick photography. The postcards humorously promoted the fruitfulness of
rural life.
(HNPD, 6/24/99)
1900 Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (aka Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and their Wild Bunch went to Fort Worth after
their last holdup of the First National Bank at Winnemucca, Nevada. They
posed for pictures at John Swartz's photo studio.
(HT, 4/97, p.45)(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1900 The Hawaiian language was officially banned from government
offices in Hawaii, and was only allowed to be taught in schools as a foreign
language.
(Wired, 8/95, p.90)
c1900 The Ordonez cannon was brought back from the Philippines
to the Presidio in SF as a trophy of war. It had been manufactured in Spain
and was initially captured by the Filipinos from the Spanish army. It suffered
a direct hit from US forces in an engagement near Subic Bay.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A15,16)
1900 The US Navy commissioned its first submarine, the USS Holland,
for $150,000. It was named after the Irish inventor John Holland. His first
sub was the Fenian Ram, paid for by Irish rebels hoping to challenge British
control of the seas.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, zone 1, p.6)(WSJ, 4/28/00, p.W17)
c1900 James J. Hill, a turn of the century robber baron, planned
to consolidate the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific Railroads. His
efforts were blocked by anti-trust regulation and gave Teddy Roosevelt
his reputation as a trust buster. In 1996 Dr. Michael Malone authored "James
J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest."
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.B6)
1900 Harvey Firestone founded the Firestone Tire & Rubber
Co.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)
1900 Ellsworth M. Statler, hotel man, advertised "A room with
a bath for a dollar and a half."
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.E3)
1900 Max Planck suggested that energy is not exchanged in a continuous
flow but by individual packets, or quanta; energy moved not like a river
but like raindrops.
(NG, May 1985, p.642)
1900 Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian living in Germany, invented the
paper clip.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1900 William L. Murphy of Stockton, Ca., designed a folding bed
for his SF apartment and applied for a patent. [see 1909]
(SFC, 8/19/98, Z1 p.7)
1900 Einstein graduated with a degree in mathematics.
(V.D.-H.K.p.325)
1900 About 16,000 Indians remained in all of California.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1900 The population of the world again doubled from what it was
in 1800 to more than 1600 million.
(V.D.-H.K.p.168)
1900 Major silver and gold deposits were found at Tonopoh, Nevada.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)
1900 In the US tuberculosis killed 150,000 people.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.A1)
c1900 Florida's wineries were wiped out by Pierce's disease. Growers
then switched to orange trees.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.D4)
c1900 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote numerous articles and pamphlets
in defense of British concentration camps during the Boer War, for which
he was knighted.
(SFC, 9/5/98, p.E3)
c1900 Charles Spearman, an English psychologist, hypothesized
the g factor as a measure of smartness based on correlations on how people
performed on tests of different mental abilities. He invented a mathematical
technique called factor analysis to measure the factor dubbed g, for general.
In 1998 Arthur R. Jenson published "The g Factor: The Science of Mental
Ability."
(WSJ, 6/2/98, p.A20)
1900 Clarence Warner and "Tarantula Jack" Smith staked a claim
for copper in Alaska. They later sold it to Stephen Birch, who found financial
backing for a company that eventually became Kennecott Copper.
(AH, 10/01, HT p.30)
1900 Sir Arthur Evans excavated at the Minoan palace of Cnossos
[Knossos] and discovered Greek writings known as Linear B dated to 1400
BC. In 1956 Michael Ventris (d.1956) and John Chadwick (d.1998 at 78) published
a translation of the script as "Documents in Mycenaean Greek."
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B6)
1900 Stephen Crane, American writer, died of tuberculosis at age
28. He authored 5 novels. In 1998 Linda H. Davis published the biography
"Badge of Courage." In the early 1890s Crane lived in the Bowery area of
New York City and, resulting from his firsthand observation of poverty
in the slums, he wrote Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), a book considered
shocking at the time. Crane covered the Greco-Turkish War in 1897 and the
Spanish-American War in 1898 as a news correspondent. His later short-story
collections, such as "The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure" (1898),
are recognized as masterpieces of the form.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A13)(HNQ, 11/16/98)
1900 John Ruskin (b.1819), Victorian art critic and social commentator,
died. He was considered in his time a colossus of esthetic, moral and social
wisdom. In 1985 Tim Hilton authored "John Ruskin: The Early Years." In
2000 Tim Hilton authored "John Ruskin: The Later Years."
(WSJ, 5/12/00, p.A24)
1900 In Australia Helena Rubinstein (b.1871 in Cracow) opened
a beauty shop and sold a cold cream developed a Hungarian chemist and relative,
Jacob Lykusky.
(SFEM, 8/23/98, p.29)
c1900 Wang Yuanlu, a Chinese monk, discovered a set of manuscripts
in the Mogao caves near Dunhuang in Gansu province. The "Library Cave"
contained as many as 50,000 items, mostly Buddhist documents, from 400-1000AD.
(AM, 7/00, p.72)
1900 In India the Maharajah of Patiala, Sir Bhupinder Singh, ascended
the throne of Patiala at the age of 8. Patiala was a prominent Sikh state
in northwestern India. He was known for his jeweled sarpech, a turban ornament.
(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W16)
1900 Nepalese were recruited into Bhutan as loggers.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A8)
1900s In California Bay Area oil companies used the copper ore
and later pyrite from Iron Mountain to produce sulfuric acid for use in
the oil refining process.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1900s The Blue Rider movement of expressionist painting centered
in Munich in the early 1900s.
(HNQ, 1/26/00)
1900-1902 Lord Herbert Horatio Kitchener created concentration camps
in South Africa where hundreds of thousands of Boer women, children and
old men were herded. An estimated 16,000 died in the camps.
(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A24)
1900-1914 Vincent Cronin, historian, depicts this period in Paris, France,
in his book: Paris on the Eve, 1900-1914.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)
1900-1920 Eugene V. Debs (d.1926) ran for president five separate times
on the Socialist ticket, twice earning close to a million votes. [see 1926]
(HNQ, 11/1/00)
1900-1933 The first volume of "A History of the Twentieth Century" by
Sir Martin Gilbert was published in 1997.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Par. p.6)
1900-1948 Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, American writer: "Nobody has ever
measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold." "By the time a person
has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and
the moment has long passed which determined the future."
(AP, 11/24/97)(AP, 1/25/99)
1900-1948 H.L. Mencken, Baltimore newspaperman, chronicled the meetings
of both US political parties over this period.
(Hem, 8/96, p.84)
1900-1949 The "Letters of Heirich and Thomas Mann" of this period were
translated to English and published in 1998.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, BR p.6)
1900-1950 "American Popular Song: The Great Innovators," 1900-1950,
was written by Alec Wilder.
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A7)
1900-1950 In 1999 Barbara Haskell, a curator at the Whitney Museum,
authored "The American Century Art and Culture 1900-1950."
(WSJ, 4/23/99, W9C)
1900-1959 George Antheil, composer, was born in New Jersey.
(WSJ, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1900-1969 John Mason Brown, American essayist: "Reasoning with a child
is fine, if you can reach the child's reason without destroying your own."
(AP, 2/27/01)
1900-1973 Maria Martins, Brazilian sculptor. She was portrayed in a
1934 painting by Marcel Duchamp "Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating
Gas."
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.D1)
1900-1976 Richard Hughes, Welsh author and dramatist: "Middle
age snuffs out more talent than ever wars or sudden deaths do."
(AP, 8/1/98)
1900-1977 Edward Dahlberg, American author and critic: "The people who
think they are happy should rummage through their dreams." "It takes a
long time to understand nothing."
(AP, 12/10/98)(AP, 4/28/99)
1900-1980 Helen Gahagan Douglas, U.S. representative: "In trying
to make something new, half the undertaking lies in discovering whether
it can be done. Once it has been established that it can, duplication is
inevitable."
(AP, 6/15/98)
1900-1986 The history of Jerusalem over this period is covered by Martin
Gilbert in his book: "Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century."
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)
1900-1988 Louise Nevelson, Russian-American artist: "I never liked
the middle ground-the most boring place in the world." "What we call reality
is an agreement that people have arrived at to make life more livable."
(AP, 7/25/97)(AP, 5/5/99)
1900-1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian leader.
(V.D.-H.K.p.311)
1900-1993 Marion "Joe" Carstairs, cross-dressing heiress of the Standard
Oil fortune, bought and settled on the Caribbean island of Whale Cay in
1933. In 1998 Kate Summerscale published her biography: "The Queen of Whale
Cay."
(SFEC, 6/28/98, BR p.9)