1901 Jan 3, Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnamese president (1955-63),
was born.
(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1901 Jan 7, New York stock exchange trading exceeded two million
shares for the first time in history.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1901 Jan 10, The Automobile Club of America installed signs on
major highways.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1901 Jan 10, In Corsicana the Lucas Gusher flowing at the rate
of 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day, blew in. Pattillo Higgins, a self-taught
geologist, became interested in Spindletop Hill, just south of Beaumont,
Texas in 1889. Believing that Spindletop covered a vast pool of oil, Higgins
joined two other men in 1892 to form the Gladys City Oil, Gas, and Manufacturing
Company--one of the first oil companies in Texas. Higgins, lacking proper
drilling equipment, failed in his efforts, and the Gladys City Company
leased land to a team led by Austrian mining engineer Captain Anthony Lucas
in 1899. By 1902, 285 wells were operating on Spindletop Hill and over
600 oil companies had been chartered, but overproduction ruined the field.
By 1903 the boom was over and within 10 years Spindletop Hill was practically
a ghost town. Spindletop enjoyed a resurgence in 1926 when technology made
possible the recovery of more oil through deeper drilling.
(HNPD, 1/10/99)(WSJ, 6/29/99, p.A12)
1901 Jan 22, Britain's Queen Victoria died at age 82. She was
the monarch of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, and died
after presiding over her vast empire for nearly 64 years--the longest reign
in British history. Born in 1819, the only child of George III's fourth
son, Victoria became queen in 1837. In 1840, she married Prince Albert
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Although the match was a political one, the two were
devoted to each other, having nine children before Albert's death in 1861.
Through dynastic marriages, Victoria's descendants are connected to almost
all 20th-century Europe's royal houses. During Victoria's long reign the
monarchy lost much of its political power to Parliament, but she was the
beloved symbol of the Victorian Era--a golden age of British history. In
2000 Christopher Hibbert authored "Queen Victoria: A Personal History."
(AP, 1/22/98)(HNPD, 1/22/99)(WSJ, 12/29/00, p.W6)
1901 Jan 23, A great fire ravaged Montreal, resulting in $2.5
million in property lost.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1901 Jan 23, First female intern was accepted at a Paris hospital.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1901 Jan 27, Giuseppe Verdi (b.1813), opera composer, died at
the Grand Hotel in Milan, Italy, at age 87.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.90)(SFEM, 9/10/00, p.20)(AP, 1/27/01)
1901 Jan 30, Women Prohibitionists smashed 12 saloons in Kansas.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1901 Feb 1, Clark Gable, American actor, was born. He is famous
for his roles in Mutiny on the Bounty and Gone With the Wind.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)(HN, 2/1/99)
1901 Feb 2, Mexican government troops were badly beaten by Yaqui
Indians.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1901 Feb 10, Stella Adler, actress and teacher, was born.
(HN, 2/10/01)
1901 Feb 20, Rene Dubos, French-US microbiologist who developed
the first commercial antibiotic, was born in France. He authored "Health
& Disease."
(HN, 2/20/01)(MC, 2/20/02)
1901 Feb 20, Louis I. Kahn, architect, was born.
(HN, 2/20/01)
1901 Feb 23, Britain and Germany agreed on a boundary between
German East Africa [later Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland
[later Malawi].
(HN, 2/23/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593,990)
1901 Feb 25, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P.
Morgan. Morgan combined Federal Steel and Carnegie Steel to form US Steel.
It was the biggest corporate merger of the time.
(AP, 2/25/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1901 Feb 26, Boxer Rebellion leaders Chi-Hsin and Hsu-Cheng-Yu
were publicly executed in Peking.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1901 Feb 28, Linus Pauling, American chemist, was born. He won
the Nobel Prize for chemistry (1954) and a Nobel Peace Prize (1962) for
his arguments for nuclear disarmament. He also advocated major doses of
vitamin C to maintain health.
(HN, 2/28/99)
1901 Feb, The steamer Rio de Janeiro piled up on rocks at Fort
Point at the bay entrance of San Francisco and 130 people died.
(PacDis, Fall/'96, p.14)
1901 Mar 1, Opening of the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo,
New York. The Exposition was held on a 342 acre site between Delaware
Park Lake on the south, the New York Central railroad tracks on the north,
Delaware Avenue on the east, and Elmwood Avenue on the west. The fair featured
the latest technologies, including electricity and the baby incubator building,
and attracted nearly 8 million people. A 400-foot electric tower was the
centerpiece.
(WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A23)
1901 Mar 2, Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited
Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1901 Mar 4, Charles Goren, world expert on the game of bridge,
was born.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1901 Mar 4, William McKinley was inaugurated president for the
second time. Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as vice president. The
team ran on the issue of keeping the Philippines as a colony.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1901 Mar 6, A would-be assassin tried to kill Wilhelm II in Bremen,
Germany.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1901 Mar 7, Blacks were found to be still enslaved in certain
parts of South Carolina.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1901 Mar 13, Benjamin Harrison (67), 23rd president of the United
States (1889-1893), died in Indianapolis.
(AP, 3/13/97)(MC, 3/13/02)
1901 Mar 22, Japan proclaimed that it was determined to keep Russia
from encroaching on Korea.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1901 Mar 23, The world learned that Boers were starving to death
in British concentration camps.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1901 Mar 23, A group of U.S. Army soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick
Funston captured Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection
of 1899.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1901 Mar, The 2-year old Oldsmobile plant in Detroit was destroyed
by fire.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 Apr 1, US Steel was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Mr. Morgan bought out Andrew Carnegie's steel business and combined it
with Federal Steel, American Steel & Wire and several other companies
to form US Steel Corp. Judge Gary became its first chairman.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-46)(WSJ, 11/25/96, p.C1)
1901 Apr 1, The American Cotton Oil Company, General Electric,
Federal Steel, American Steel & Wire Co. and Pacific Mail Steamship
Co. were removed as components of the Dow Jones. Amalgamated Copper, International
Paper (preferred), US Steel (common and preferred) and American Smelting
& Refining were added.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45,46)
1901 Apr 10, The Journal, a Hearst newspaper, printed an editorial
that declared "If bad institutions and bad men can be got rid of only by
killing, then the killing must be done." Hearst ordered the presses stopped
but a number of papers had already hit the streets.
(AH, 10/01, p.24)
1901 Apr 11, Glenway Wescott, writer, was born.
(HN, 4/11/01)
1901 Apr 25, New York became the first state to require automobile
license plates; the fee was one dollar. The first automobile license plates
were issued in Paris, France in 1893. The first American city to require
drivers to be licensed and register their vehicle was Boston, but the trend
quickly spread.
(AP, 4/25/98)(HNQ, 7/18/00)
1901 Apr 29, Hirohito, emperor of Japan during and after World
War II, was born.
(HN, 4/29/99)
1901 May 12, Pres. McKinley visited SF.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1901 May 23, American forces captured Philippine rebel leader
Emilio Aguinaldo.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1901 May 1901, Walter Reed (49) led the Yellow Fever Commission,
a 4-man team, to Cuba to search for the cause of the disease. 200 American
soldiers had died from the disease over the previous 18 months. Aristides
Agramonte, pathologist, James Carroll, bacteriologist, and Jesse W. Lazear,
entomologist, were the other team members. Cuban Dr. Carlos Finlay believed
that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes.
(ON, 10/01, p.7)
1901 Jun 1, John van Druten, English playwright (I am a Camera),
was born.
(HN, 6/1/01)
1901 Jun 9, George Price, cartoonist, was born.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1901 Jun 10, Frederick Loewe, songwriter, was born.
(HN, 6/10/01)
1901 Jun 12, Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by
accepting the Platt Amendment.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1901 Jun 24, Harry Partch, composer, was born.
(HN, 6/24/01)
1901 Jul 1, Continental Tobacco Co. and International Paper (preferred)
were removed as components of the Dow Jones.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R46)
1901 Jul 3, The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, committed its
last American robbery near Wagner, Montana, taking $65,000 from a Great
Northern train. Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and his lover Etta Place
then fled to New York where a picture of Etta and Sundance was taken. The
trio then fled to South America.
(HN, 7/3/98)(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.W10)
1901 Jul 4, William H. Taft, later the 27th president of the United
States, became the American territorial governor of the Philippines. Taft
soon appointed Prof. Bernard Moses secretary of public instruction for
the Philippines. Taft, who had been solicitor general of the U.S. under
President Benjamin Harrison, was a federal circuit court judge when President
William McKinley appointed him to serve as president of the U.S. Philippines
Commission in 1900-01. Later in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt named
Taft the first civil governor of the Philippines Islands, a post he held
for four years. Roosevelt named Taft secretary of war in 1904. A Republican,
Taft was president from 1909 to 1913 and Supreme Court Chief Justice from
1921 to 1930. He was born in 1857 and died on March 8, 1930, shortly after
his resignation from the court.
(HN, 7/4/98)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.13)(HNQ, 2/18/00)
1901 Jul 15, Over 74,000 Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1901 Jun 20, Charlotte M. Manye of South Africa became the first
native African to graduate from an American University.
(HN, 6/20/00)
1901 Jul 28, Alfred Renton Bryant Bridges (d.1990), aka Harry
Bridges, American labor leader who headed the West Coast Longshoremen's
Union, was born in Australia.
(SFC, 7/27/01, p.A21)(HN, 7/28/98)
1901 Aug 4, Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpet player, was born. Laurence
Bergreen in 1997 wrote a biography titled: "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant
Life." [see Jul 4, 1900]
(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR p.4)(HN, 8/4/01)
1901 Aug 8, Ernest Orlando Lawrence, winner of the 1939 Nobel
Prize for physics, was born.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1901 Aug 26, Maxwell Taylor, U.S. general and diplomat, born.
As commanding general of the 8th Army in 1953, he directed U.N. forces
during the latter stages of the Korean War.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1901 Aug 27, U.S. Army physician James Carroll, Havana, Cuba,
allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the
means of transmission of yellow fever. Days later, Carroll developed a
severe case of yellow fever, helping his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove
that mosquitoes can transmit the sometimes deadly disease.
(MC, 8/28/01)(ON, 10/01, p.8)
1901 Aug 30, Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1901 Aug, Major Walter Reed, M.D., visited Dr. Carlos Finlay in
Havana, who informed him that the mosquito Culex fasciatus was the most
likely transmitter of yellow fever.
(ON, 10/01, p.7)
1901 Sep 2, Adolph Rupp, basketball coach at the University of
Kentucky who achieved a record 876 victories, was born.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1901 Sep 2, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice,
"Speak softly and carry a big stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State
Fair. He also is noted for saying: "If a man's got to, he's got to."
(AP, 9/2/97)(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)
1901 Sep 3, Eduard A. van Beinum, musician and conductor (Amsterdam
Concertgebouw), was born.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1901 Sep 3, Boer General Smuts entered Kiba Drift in Cape Colony.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1901 Sep 5, Pres. McKinley announced a new policy of reciprocal
trade agreements with foreign nations to encourage markets for American
goods.
(AH, 10/01, p.24)
1901 Sep 6, At the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York,
deranged anarchist Leon Czolgosz (28) made his way along a reception line
filing past President William McKinley. Concealed within a handkerchief,
Czolgosz held a .32-caliber revolver. As he came face to face with the
president, he fired two shots through the handkerchief, striking McKinley
in the chest and the abdomen. McKinley died eight days after the shooting
and became the third American president assassinated. He was succeeded
by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz, explaining that he "thought
it would be a good thing for the country to kill the President," was put
to death by electrocution 45 days later. Emma Goldman was one of the people
blamed for the assassination.
(AP, 9/6/97)(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70) (WSJ, 5/17/95, p.A-18) (WSJ,
12/11/95, p.A-1)(HNPD, 9/6/98)(HN, 9/6/98)
1901 Sep 7, The Peace of Peking (Beijing) ended the Boxer Rebellion
in China.
(AP, 9/7/97)
1901 Sep 9, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter, died at
36.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1901 Sep 14, President McKinley died in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot
wounds inflicted by Leon Czolgosz. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was
sworn in as the 26th President of the United States upon the death of William
McKinley, who had been shot eight days earlier.
(AP, 9/14/97)(HN, 9/14/98)
1901 Sep 15, Sir Howard Bailey, British engineer, was born. He
gave his name to a prefabricated bridge used extensively during World War
II.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1901 Sep 17, At the Battle at Elands River Port, Boer Gen. Smuts
destroyed the 17th Lancers unit .
(MC, 9/17/01)
1901 Sep 26, Leon Czolgosz, who murdered President William McKinley,
was sentenced to death.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1901 Sep 28, Ed Sullivan, television host was born. [see Sep 28,
1902]
(HN, 9/28/00)
1901 Sep 29, Enrico Fermi, Italian-born U.S. physicist who led
the group which created the first man-made nuclear chain reaction, was
born.
(HN, 9/29/98)
1901 Sep, At Balangiga Philippine forces surprised a US military
contingent. 38 of 74 US soldiers were killed and all the rest but 6 were
wounded.
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A6)
1901 Sep, US Brig. Gen'l. Jacob Smith ordered US Marine and Army
units to turn the island of Samar in the Philippines into a "howling wilderness"
so that "even birds could not live there" in retaliation for the Sep 5
attack at Balangiga. The mission bells of Balangiga were taken as war booty
and later placed in the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo. A
Marine major was court-martialed on murder charges for executing 11 Filipino
prisoners but was acquitted after he testified that he was under orders
to shoot every Filipino over age 10. Gen'l. Smith was found guilty of misconduct
and admonished.
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A6)(SFEC, 1/31/99, Z1 p.4)
1901 Oct 2, Roy Campbell, poet, was born. His work included "The
Flaming Terrapin."
(HN, 10/2/00)
1901 Oct 2, The 1st Royal Naval submarine launched at Barrow.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1901 Oct 10, Alberto Giacometti (d.1966), sculptor and painter,
was born in Borgonovo, Switzerland. He was later quoted saying "there is
less reality in the work of contemporary sculptors than in tin soldiers
in toy shop windows." His biography was written by David Sylvester and
titled: "Looking At Giacometti." Another biography by James Lord was titled:
"Giacometti: A Biography."
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.BR-4)(WSJ, 9/30/96, p.A14)(HN, 10/10/01)(WSJ,
12/19/01, p.A16)
1901 Oct 12, Theodore Roosevelt renamed the "Executive Mansion,"
to "The White House."
(HNQ, 6/28/00)(MC, 10/12/01)
1901 Oct 14, Justin Huntly McCarthy's "If I Were King," premiered
in NYC (Francois Villon).
(MC, 10/14/01)
1901 Oct 15, Bernard von Brentano, German writer (Big Cats), was
born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1901 Oct 15, Hermann Abs, director (Deutsche Bank) and Hitler's
advisor, was born.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1901 Oct 16, President Theodore Roosevelt incited controversy
by inviting black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1901 Oct 19, Arleigh A. Burke, admiral (WW II, Solomon Islands,
Navy Cross), was born in Colorado.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1901 Oct 19, Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" March premiered
in Liverpool.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1901 Oct 19, Santos-Dumont proved the airship maneuverable by
circling Eiffel Tower.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1901 Oct 20, Adelaide Hall, cabaret singer, was born.
(HN, 10/20/00)
1901 Oct 22, Charles Huggins, US physician, was born in Canada.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1901 Oct 23, Georg von Siemens, founder of Deutsche Bank, died.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1901 Oct 24, Anna Edson Taylor (d.1921), a 43-year-old widow,
was the first woman to go safely over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She made
the attempt for the cash award offered, which she put toward the loan on
her Texas ranch. Taylor died in poverty.
(AP, 10/24/97)(HN, 10/24/98)
1901 Oct 26, Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, was born. [see Oct
26, 1911]
(HN, 10/26/00)
1901 Oct 26, 1st use of "getaway car" occurred after the hold-up
of a shop in Paris.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1901 Oct 28, Race riots, sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit
to the White House, killed 34.
(HN, 10/28/98)
1901 Oct 29, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted for the assassination
of President McKinley at Auburn Prison in NY state. Czolgosz, an anarchist,
shot McKinley on September 6 during a public reception at the Temple of
Music in Buffalo, N.Y. Despite early hopes of recovery, McKinley died September
14, in Buffalo.
(AP, 10/29/97)(HN, 10/29/98)(ON, 4/00, p.5)(AH, 10/01, p.30)
1901 Nov 2, Paul Ford, actor (Phil Silvers Show), was born in
Baltimore, Md.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1901 Nov 2, The Pan American Exposition, held in Buffalo New
York, closed. Though it attracted visitors from throughout the world,
bad weather, and the unfortunate assassination of Pres. William McKinley
in September, affected attendance. The Exposition lost money.
The only structure still standing on the site is the Buffalo & Erie
County Historical Society, formerly the New York State Building.
1901 Nov 3, Leopold III, King of Belgium, was born.
(HN, 11/3/98)
1901 Nov 3, Andre Malraux, French novelist, was born. His work
included "Man's Fate."
(HN, 11/3/00)
1901 Nov 11, Maurice Ravel composition "Jeux d'eau" premiered.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1901 Nov 17, Dr. Aubre De Lambert Maynard (d.1999 at 97) was born
in Georgetown, Guyana. In 1958 he performed a successful operation on Martin
Luther King who was attacked and had a knife embedded in his sternum. Maynard
authored "Surgeons to the Poor: The Harlem Hospital Story" in 1978.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.C3)
1901 Nov 18, George Horatio Gallup, American journalist and statistician,
was born in Jefferson, Iowa.
(HN, 11/18/98)(MC, 11/18/01)
1901 Nov 18, The 2nd Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was signed. The U.S.
was given extensive rights by Britain for building and operating a canal
through Central America.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1901 Nov 21, Richard Strauss' opera "Feuersnot," premiered in
Dresden.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1901 Nov 22, Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer (Juglares), was
born in Sagunto, Valencia.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1901 Nov 24, Andre Victor Tchelistcheff, winemaker, was born.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1901 Nov 25, Japanese Prince Ito arrived in Russia to seek concessions
in Korea.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1901 Nov 25, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (62), German composer
and music theorist, died.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1901 Nov 26, The Hope diamond was brought to New York.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1901 Nov 27, The Army War College was established in Washington,
D.C.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1901 Nov 28, Gustav Mahler's 4th Symphony in G premiered.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1901 Nov 30, The ferryboat San Rafael sank in a collision off
Alcatraz. The accident served as the setting for the first chapter in "Sea
Wolf" by Jack London.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A18)
1901 Dec 2, King Camp Gillette, a former bottle-cap salesman,
began selling safety razor blades. The story of Gillette was told in the
1998 book "Cutting Edge" by Gordon McKibben. Gillette went on to become
a millionaire and a utopian socialist who believed that competition was
wasteful.
(WSJ, 2/13/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 7/26/99, p.A22)(MC, 12/2/01)
1901 Dec 5, Walter Elias Disney (d.1966), movie producer and animator,
was born in Chicago. Walt Disney created a cartoon empire with the character
Mickey Mouse.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(HN, 12/5/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Werner Heisenberg (d.1976), German physicist, was
born. He discovered the uncertainty principle and won the Nobel Prize in
1932.
(V.D.-H.K.p.337)(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 5, Grace Moore, American soprano (One Night to Live),
was born.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1901 Dec 6, Eliot Porter, nature photographer, was born.
(HN, 12/6/00)
1901 Dec 12, Italian scientist and engineer Guglielmo Marconi
received the first long-distance radio transmission in St. John's, Newfoundland,
2,232 miles. Electrical engineer John Ambrose Fleming transmitted the Morse
code signal for "s" from across the Atlantic Ocean in England and Marconi
heard it--three short clicks--through a radio speaker. Marconi had begun
experimenting with radiotelegraphy around 1895, and he realized that messages
could be transmitted over much greater distances by using grounded antennae
on the radio transmitter and receiver. A few years after the successful
transmission with Fleming, Marconi opened the first commercial wireless
telegraph service.
(HNPD, 12/12/98)(MC, 12/12/01)
1901 Dec 27, Marlene Dietrich (d.1992), German-born singer and
actress best known for her roles in "Shanghai Express" and "Witness for
the Prosecution," was born. "I'm a realist and so I think regretting is
a useless occupation. You help no one with it. But you can't live without
illusions even if you must fight for them, such as 'love conquers all.'
It isn't true, but I would like it to be."
(SFC, 5/8/96, p.D-2)(HN, 12/27/98)(AP, 11/23/00)
1901 Linus Pauling (d.1994) was born in Oregon.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.E1)
1901 Henry Brown Fuller created his work "Illusions."
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.E8)
1901 Paul Gauguin left Tahiti for the Marquesas and arrived at
Hiva Oa.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T1,6)
1901 Matisse painted "The Japanese Woman.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.D11)
1901 Pablo Picasso painted "Woman with a Cap." His work "Casagemas
in His Coffin" was a tribute to a lovelorn friend who committed suicide.
He also painted "The Absinthe Drinker."
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A14)
1901 The Vincent van Gogh painting "Sunflowers" was presented
by art teacher Claude-Emile Schuffenecker at a Paris exhibition. It sold
in 1987 for $40.3 million to the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and
was reported in 1997 to be a possible fake. Van Gogh's letters refer to
only 6 paintings of sunflowers, and the Yasuda painting is a seventh.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.D4)
1901 The play "Three Sisters" by Anton Chekhov had its premiere.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A12)
1901 Charles Chesnutt (b.1858), African-American writer, authored
his novel "The Marrow of Tradition."
(HN, 6/20/01)(WSJ, 1/22/02, p.A11)
1901 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle authored "The Hound of the Baskervilles."
It was later reported that he had stolen the idea for the novel from his
friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson.
(WSJ, 9/20/00, p.A24)
1901 Rudyard Kipling published "Kim."
(WSJ, 7/17/98, p.W11)
1901 Thomas Mann wrote his novel "Buddenbrooks."
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-5)
1901 Frank Norris wrote "The Octopus," a depiction of the clash
between wheat ranchers and Southern Pacific railroad in California.
(WSJ, 10/7/97, p.A20)
1901 "The Handbook of American Indians" was published by the Smithsonian
Institute.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.E8)
1901 Dvorak's fairy-tale romance opera "Rusalka" was composed.
(WSJ, 12/26/95, p. A-5)
1901 Johann Strauss II composed a score for the ballet "Cinderella."
(WSJ, 1/27/98, p.A20)
1901 In Alaska E.T. Barnette opened a trading post on the Chena
River. A town formed that came to be called Chenoa City and was later renamed
Fairbanks.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T7)
1901 The Sheraton Moana Surfrider opened in Waikiki, Hawaii. It
looked like a giant wedding cake on a beach.
(Hem., 4/97, p.25)
1901 Sing Sing, NY, home of Sing Sing prison, changed its name
to Ossining.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
1901 Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, settled in the Cholila Valley in the Patagonia
region of Argentina after fleeing US Pinkerton agents. They bought a 12,000-acre
ranch with stolen loot. Etta Place accompanied Longabaugh.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.W10)
1901 John Jacques, a sporting goods manager in England, registered
the table tennis name "Ping-Pong," and soon sold the American rights to
Parker Brothers. In 2001 Jerome Charwyn authored "Sizzling Chops and Devilish
Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive."
(WSJ, 11/23/01, p.W8)
1901 Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff won the first Nobel Prize in
chemistry for his work on the relationship of volume, pressure and temperature
in gases which became known as van't Hoff's Law. The 1st Nobel Banquet
was held at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm for 118 male guests.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.C2)
1901 Sully Prudhomme won the 1st Nobel Prize in literature.
(SFC, 10/10/01, p.B8)
1901 The Platt Amendment cemented US influence in Cuba. It provided
for informal control over Cuban affairs and territory for naval facilities.
(WSJ, 2/23/98, p.A20)
1901 US Brig. Gen'l. Jacob Smith ordered US Marine and Army units
to turn the island of Samar in the Philippines into a "howling wilderness"
in retaliation for the Sep 5 attack at Balangiga. The mission bells of
Balangiga were taken as war booty and later placed in the F.E. Warren Air
Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo. A Marine major was court-martialed on murder
charges for executing 11 Filipino prisoners but was acquitted after he
testified that he was under orders to shoot every Filipino over age 10.
Gen'l. Smith was found guilty of misconduct and admonished.
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A6)
1901 The state constitution was enacted and included a prohibition
on marriages between blacks and whites. In 1999 steps were taken to repeal
the ban.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A11)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A4)
1901 Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor of the first true machine gun,
was knighted by Queen Victoria.
(V.D.-H.K.p.267)
1901 The first espresso coffee machine was invented.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.W9)
1901 The Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Co. of Springfield, Mass.,
produced the first commercially marketed gasoline-powered bike in the US.
The last Indian motorcycle was made in 1953.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.W14)
1901 Joshua Lionel Cowen (22) set up a battery-powered toy train
to draw customer attention to goods in a store display window. This marked
the beginn9ing of Lionel Trains.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, Z1 p.8)
1901 In Colorado Artus Van Briggle opened an art pottery business.
His vases were used for flowers and lamp bases. His best known vases depicted
a woman leaning on a lily, a man curled around the top, and a woman curled
around an entire vase.
(SFC, 7/22/98, Z1 p.2)
1901 George B. Dorr organized a group of people into the Hancock
County Trustees of Public Reservations to promote the establishment of
what would become Acadia Nat'l. Park in Maine.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.T6)
1901 Henry Joy became chairman of the Packard Motor Car Company.
(MT, Win. '96, p.4)
1901 Ferdinand Porsche built an electric-drive hybrid, the Lohner-Porsche.
(AAM, 3/96, p.93)
1901 Ransom E. Olds (1864-1950) assembled 425 curved-dash Oldsmobiles
and thus became the first mass producer of gas automobiles. He founded
Olds Motor Works that later became part of General Motors.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 New York State issued the first license plate.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 In an automobile race on New York's Coney Island, S.T. Davis
finished in his steam-powered car in 1 min. and 39 sec. Mr. Riker in an
electric car finished in 63 sec. A.C. Bostwick in a gasoline powered car
finished in 56 sec.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901 Wilhelm Maybach, a German engineer and industrialist was
the chief designer of the first Mercedes and later went on to build power
plants for Zeppelin airships with his son. Maybach had worked with Gottlieb
Daimler since 1883 on developing efficient internal-combustion engines.
The two formed the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 to build automobiles.
In 1909, he organized a company with his son Carl to build aircraft engines,
including power plants for the Zeppelin airships.
(HNQ, 8/28/00)
1901 The Cambridge Glass Co. began making glass in Cambridge,
Ohio. It closed in 1954. It reopened for a short time but closed again
in 1958. The company produced the "Bashful Charlotte" and "Draped Lady"
flower frogs.
(SFC, 12/30/96, z-1 p.2)
1901 The Cleveland Cap Screw Company was established and manufactured
cap screws, bolts and studs. It was the predecessor of the TRW Corp.
(F, 10/7/96, p.66)
1901 John W. Nordstrom founded a shoe store that grew to become
Nordstrom Inc., a national apparel chain.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.C15)(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.B1)
1901 Robert Falcon Scott made an expedition to the Antarctic.
He noted the phenomena called "Earth shadows," where long dark arrows would
project into the sky early in the morning. They were later realized by
explorer Ernest Shackleton [1914] to be shadows from the peaks of Mt. Erebus
cast across the western mountains.
(WSJ, 7/1/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.B1)
1901 Arnold Bocklin (b.1827), German painter who worked in Italy,
died.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C7)
1901 In Australia an immigration act was introduced that became
known as the "White Australia Policy." It allowed custom's agents to require
that an immigrant write a passage of 50 words in a European language directed
by the officer. The dictation requirement was ended in 1958 and the whole
policy was ended in 1973.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A14)
1901 In Britain Winston Churchill prophetically warned: "The wars
of peoples will be more terrible than those of kings."
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Par. p.6)
1901 Edmund Dene Morel (28) quit his London shipping line job
and began a full time campaign to expose the barbarities in the Congo under
Leopold II. He started his own publication, "The West African Mail," an
illustrated weekly journal in 1903 as a forum on West and Central African
Questions.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.4)(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7)
1901 A martial arts teacher in Tellicherry, Kerala, India, opened
a training school for circus performers giving rise to one of India's first
modern circuses.
(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1901 The first western style steel mill was built at Kitakyushu
City on Kyushu Island in Japan. It led to the local slogan "Smoke is the
symbol of prosperity."
(NG, Jan. 94, p.100)
1901 In Mexico a silver refinery was established in Torreon in
Coahuila state. The Met Mex Penoles plant created a mountain of slag over
the years and poisonous lead seeped into the blood of thousands of children
in the area. In 1999 a plan was announced to evacuate a 20-block area.
393 homes were to be bulldozed for a 15-acre buffer zone in a $36 million
cleanup program, the largest ever by a Mexican company.
(SFC, 5/6/99, p.C2)
1901 In Portugal, the Santa Justa Elevador, one of the world's
great cast-iron structures, was built in Lisbon.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T6)
1901-1902. The so called baseball "war" years occurred when the
upstart American League-formerly the Western League-challenged the dominance
of the National League on the East Coast. The American League wooed National
League stars and became firmly established as a major league. In January
1903, peace was achieved in an agreement that gave each of the two leagues
equal importance, established rules regarding two teams in one city, shifting
teams from cities and transfers of players between leagues.
(HNQ, 4/10/99)
1901-1905 Discovery of oil in the nearby villages of Red Fork
and Glenn Pool in 1901 and 1905 launched the Oklahoma city of Tulsa's modern
era. The city's population of 1,400 in 1900 reached 18,200 by 1910 and
72,000 by 1920. Tulsa long called itself "The Oil Capital of the World."
(HNQ, 10/2/98)
1901-1907 Oldsmobile built 7,000 Curved-Dash Olds vehicles. The cars
cost $650 and advertisements bragged that "It will do the work of six horses."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt, elected Vice-President under McKinley's
2nd term, served as the 26th President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)
1901-1910 The Edwardian period named after Britain's Edward VII (r.1902-1910).
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.44)
1901-1915 In New Orleans the "Blue Book" was a directory of some 2,000
prostitutes working in Storyville. It was printed annually and carried
ads.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, Z1 p.8)
1901-1953 Jan Struther, nee Joyce Anstruther, English poet: "Private
opinion creates public opinion... . That is why private opinion, and private
behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important."
(AP, 11/12/99)
1901-1958 Ernest Orlando Lawrence. UC-Berkeley physics professor. He
developed the cyclotron for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1939.
(LHS, 2/12/1998)
1901-1963 Gustav Machaty, Czech filmmaker, was known for his combination
of romance and eroticism.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.E8)
1901-1966 Rafael Larco Hoyle, founder of the Museo Arqueologico Rafael
Larco Herrera in Lima, Peru.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.C5)
1901-1969 This period is covered in the 1998 book "A Thread of Years"
by John Lukacs.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A20)
1901?-1969 Saud ibn Abdul-Aziz, son of ibn-Saud and brother of Faisal.
He ruled Saudi Arabia from 1953-1964.
(WUD, 1994, p.1271)
1901-1974 Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974), Italian movie director: "Moral
indignation is in most cases two percent moral, forty-eight percent indignation,
and fifty percent envy."
(AP, 10/24/00)
1901-1976 Andre Malraux, French author. His work included "Man's Fate"
(La Condition Humaine), "The Conquerors" (about a 1925 uprising in Canton),
and "The Royal Way." He worked as a journalist in Indochina against a corrupt
French colonial regime. In 1997 Curtis Cate wrote the biography "Andre
Malraux."
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A16)
1901-1978 Margaret Mead, American anthropologist: "We must have
... a place where children can have a whole group of adults they can trust."
"It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must
never label a necessary evil as good."
(AP, 5/20/97)(AP, 10/30/97)
1901-1979 Cornelia Otis Skinner, American actress and author: "One learns
in life to keep silent and draw one's own confusions."
(AP, 10//98)
1901-1984 George H. Gallup, American pollster: "I could prove
God statistically. Take the human body alone-the chances that all the functions
of an individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity."
(AP, 11/9/97)
1901-1985 A history of the Southern Pacific Railroad titled: "The Southern
Pacific 1901-1985" was written by Donald Hofsummer.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1901-1986 Chester Bowles, American diplomat, businessman, author
and politician: "Government is too big and important to be left to the
politicians."
(AP, 7/26/97)
1901-1987 Jascha Heifetz, Russian-born American violinist: "No
matter what side of an argument you're on, you always find some people
on your side that you wish were on the other side."
(AP, 7/24/97)