- Jan 1 1st running of San Francisco's famed "Bay to Breakers" footrace (7.63 miles/12.3 km); first winner Robert Vlught 44:10
Event of Interest
Jan 1 Sun Yat-sen forms the Republic of China
- Jan 2 Brookyln Superbas Baseball Club President Charles Ebbets announces purchase of 4.5 acres of land to build a new concrete-and-steel stadium to seat 23,000; Ebbets Field opens in 1913
International Lawn Tennis Challenge
Jan 2 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Christchurch, NZ: Norman Brookes & Alfred Dunlop beat Americans Maurice McLoughlin & Beals Wright 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; Australasia unassailable 3-0 lead; win 4-0
Liberty Bell
Jan 3 Southern Pacific Railroad offers to bring the Liberty Bell to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco for free
Event of Interest
Jan 6 Geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener presents his controversial theory of continental drift in a lecture at the Geological Association (Geologischen Vereinigung) at the Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt
- Jan 6 New Mexico becomes 47th state of the Union
- Jan 8 Chiefs, representatives of people's and church organisations, and other prominent individuals form the African National Congress and declare its aim to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms
- Jan 9 US Marines send troops to Honduras
- Jan 10 Caillaux government in France resigns
- Jan 10 World's 1st flying boat's maiden flight, (Glenn Curtiss in NY)
- Jan 11 Bread & Roses Strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts following a pay cut
- Jan 12 -47°F (-44°C), Washta, Iowa (state record)
- Jan 13 -40°F (-40°C), Oakland, Maryland (state record)
- Jan 14 Raymond Poincaré becomes Premier of France
Heartbreak and Tragedy for Captain Scott
Jan 17 Captain Robert Scott's expedition arrives at the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen
- Jan 23 The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague
- Jan 29 Martial law declared in textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts
- Feb 2 Frederick R Law, parachutes from Statue of Liberty (stunt for Pathe)
- Feb 7 2nd Dutch 11 city skate (Coen de Koenig wins (11:40)
- Feb 8 1st eastbound US transcontinental flight lands in Jacksonville, Florida
- Feb 8 British Emissary journeys to Berlin to suggest that Britain might support German colonial aspirations in Africa if Germany agrees to hold her current naval strength
- Feb 9 US Tennis Association amends rule taking bye away from defending champion
- Feb 10 Hobbs & Rhodes make 323 cricket opening stand v Aust at MCG
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
Feb 12 China adopts the Gregorian calendar
- Feb 12 The last Qing Emperor of China, Puyi (age 6) abdicates after losing the support of the Chinese people and thus the "mandate of heaven"
- Feb 13 Olympic boxing gold medallist Johnny Douglas takes 5/46 as England cricket team regains Ashes with an innings and 225 run 4th Test win over Australia in Melbourne
- Feb 14 1st US submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Connecticut
- Feb 14 Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state
- Feb 15 Schooner 'Fram' reaches latitude 78° 41' S, farthest south ever by ship
- Feb 16 VSV soccer team forms in Ijmuiden
- Feb 20 Argentina beats the MCC in their inaugural 1st-class cricket fixture at the Buenos Aires Cricket Club; lose the second and third games of the series
- Feb 22 J Vedrines makes 1st airplane flight over 100 mph-161.29 kph
- Feb 25 Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
- Feb 26 Coal miners strike in Britain (settle on 1st March)
Railroad History
Feb 27 Lord Kitchener opens Khartoum-El Obeid (Nyala) railway
- Feb 28 Australian batting great Victor Trumper scores 50 in his final Test innings in 5th Test loss v England at Sydney Cricket Ground
- Mar 1 Isabella Goodwin appointed first US woman detective, NYC
- Mar 1 U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry performs first (attached-type) parachute jump from an airplane
- Mar 5 Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
- Mar 5 Spanish steamer "Principe de Asturias" sinks NE of Spain, 500 die
Scientific Discovery
Mar 7 Roald Amundsen announces his discovery of the South Pole (located 14 December 1911)
Election of Interest
Mar 11 Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.
- Mar 11 First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep
- Mar 12 Establishment of the first football club in Bulgaria - Botev Plovdiv
Event of Interest
Mar 12 Girl Guides (Girl Scouts) forms in Savannah, by Juliette Gordon Low
Film & TV History
Mar 12 Helen Hayes Theater (Little Theatre) opens at 240W 44th St, NYC
- Mar 13 Bulgaria and Serbia conclude an alliance pact ostensibly against Austria, but it secretly provides for a possible war against Turkey
- Mar 13 Stanley Cup, Quebec Skating Rink, Quebec City, Quebec: Quebec Bulldogs rout Moncton Victorias (NB), 8-0 for a 2-0 sweep of the challenge series
- Mar 14 King Vittorio Emanuel III of Italy injured in an assassination attempt
- Mar 16 American first lady Helen Herron Taft plants the 1st cherry tree in Washington, D.C.
- Mar 17 Camp Fire Girls organization announced by Mrs Luther Halsey Gulick
- Mar 27 1st Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C.
- Mar 29 74th Grand National: Ernie Piggott wins aboard 4/1 co-favourite Jerry M
Event of Interest
Mar 29 Captain Robert Falcon Scott, storm-bound in a tent near South Pole, makes last entry in his diary "the end cannot be far"
- Apr 4 Army fires on striking mine workers at Lena-gold fields in Siberia
- Apr 4 Chinese republic proclaimed in Tibet
- Apr 8 Steamers collide on the Nile, drowning 200
- Apr 9 1st exhibition baseball game at Fenway Park (Red Sox vs Harvard)
- Apr 10 RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton for her maiden (and final) voyage
- Apr 11 Cornerstone of Technion laid in Haifa, Palestine
- Apr 11 RMS Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland, for NY
- Apr 11 The UK Parliament introduce a Irish home rule bill, granting Ireland its own bicameral parliament and be required to send a representative to the British House of Commons; Protestants in Ulster resist
- Apr 13 Royal Flying Corps forms (later Royal Air Force)
The Titanic Sinks
Apr 14 RMS Titanic, the world's largest ocean liner, hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland, sinks in the early hours of 15 April
- Apr 15 16th Boston Marathon won by Mike Ryan in race record 2:21:18.2
Iceberg Sinks 'Unsinkable' Titanic
Apr 15 RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on, with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people
Event of Interest
Apr 16 Harriet Quimby becomes the 1st female pilot to fly across English Channel
- Apr 16 Pirates turn a rare 5-3-7 doubleplay (left fielder covers 2nd base)
- Apr 18 Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City
- Apr 18 Tripolitan War: in continuing hostilities, Turkey closes the Dardanelles Straits after an Italian naval bombardment of the coastline
- Apr 20 Fenway Park officially opens, Red Sox beat NY Highlanders 7-6 in 11
- Apr 20 Tiger Stadium in Detroit opens, Tigers beat Cleveland Indians 6-5
- Apr 26 1st homerun hit at Fenway Park (Hugh Bradley, Red Sox)
- Apr 27 Relief laws in Netherlands replace those of 1854
- Apr 29 108°F (42°C), Tuguegarao, Philippines (Oceania record)
Theater Premiere
Apr 29 Frank Wedekind's play "Tod und Teufel" premieres in Berlin
Event of Interest
May 7 Columbia University approves plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after established by Joseph Pulitzer
- May 18 Maurits Binger establishes 2 Dutch movie companies
- May 18 Philadelphia Athletics rout Detroit Tigers, 24-2 at Shibe Park; Tigers use amateurs in protest at Ty Cobbs suspension from the game
- May 19 AL President Ban Johnson tells Tigers if they continue protest of Ty Cobb's suspension, they will be banned from baseball
- May 28 Australian cricket spin bowler Jimmy Matthews takes 2 hat-tricks on same day in Triangular Tournament v South Africa at Old Trafford (3/16, 3/38); only player to achieve the feat
- May 29 15 young women are fired by Curtis Publishing in Philadelphia for dancing the "Turkey Trot" during their lunch break
- May 29 Ballets Russes premieres their ballet L'après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun) in Paris, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Joe Dawson in the American-manufactured, 4-cylinder National, wins in race record 6:21:06; time is 21:02 faster than previous 1911 record
- May 30 US Marines sent to Nicaragua
- May 31 US marines land on Cuba
- Jun 1 Dutch soccer club Stormvogels forms in Ijmuiden; merges with VSV to form Telstar in 1963
- Jun 4 Cone of Mount Katmai (Alaska) collapses
- Jun 4 State of Massachusetts passes 1st US minimum wage law
- Jun 5 US marines invade Caimanera, Cuba
Eruption of Novarupta
Jun 6 The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins, the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century
- Jun 7 St Pius X encyclical "On Indians of South America"
- Jun 7 US army tests 1st machine gun mounted on a plane
- Jun 8 Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.
- Jun 13 NY Giant Christy Mathewson wins his 300th game
- Jun 15 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia CC: Mary Browne beats Eleonora Sears 6-4, 6-2 for her first of 3 straight US singles titles
Presidential Convention
Jun 18 The Chicago national Republican Convention splits between President Taft and Theodore Roosevelt; after Taft is nominated, Roosevelt and progressive elements of the Party form the Progressive Party (also known as the 'Bull Moose Party')
Sports History
Jun 25 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Ted Ray wins wire-to-wire by 4 shots from defending champion Harry Vardon
Music Premiere
Jun 26 Gustav Mahler's 9th Symphony premieres in Vienna, Austria with Bruno Walter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic
- Jul 2 Horn & Hardart opens its 1st NYC "automat" (self-service restaurant)
Baseball Record
Jul 3 NY Giants pitcher Rube Marquard ties Tim Keefe's 1888 MLB record 19 game win-streak with 2-1 win v Brooklyn Dodgers; has 21 with 2 end-of-season in 1911
- Jul 4 Detroit Tiger George Mullen no-hits St Louis Browns, 7-0
Boxing Title Fight
Jul 4 Jack Johnson beats "Fireman" Jim Flynn by disqualification in 9 in Las Vegas to retain world heavyweight boxing title
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
Jul 5 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: English badminton champion Ethel Larcombe wins her first and only major tennis title beating Charlotte Cooper 6-3, 6-1
- Jul 6 Donald Lippincott runs world record 100m (10.6)
- Jul 6 V Summer (Modern) Olympic Games officially open Stockholm, Sweden; events conducted prior to the ceremony dating back to 5 May
Olympic Gold
Jul 7 American athlete Jim Thorpe wins 4 of 5 events to win the Pentathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics, medal stripped 1913 (played pro baseball), reinstated 1982
- Jul 8 G.E.V. Crutchley playing for Oxford scores 99 not out, retires with measles v Cambridge
Sports History
Jul 8 Giants Rube Marquard loses after winning 21 straight
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
Jul 8 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Anthony Wilding makes it 3 straight Wimbledon singles crowns beating Arthur Gore 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
- Jul 10 Hannes Kolehmainen runs world record 5000m (14:36.6)
- Jul 11 There are 6 medallists in the Stockholm Olympic pole vault; American Harry Babcock takes gold (3.95m); countrymen Frank Nelson and Marc Wright dead-heat for silver; 3-man dead-heat for bronze
- Jul 12 1st foreign feature film exhibited in US - "Queen Elizabeth" in NYC
- Jul 14 Kenneth McArthur runs Olympic record marathon (2:36:54.8)
- Jul 15 American athlete Jim Thorpe is placed in top 4 in all 10 events, for an Olympic record 8,413 points to win the Decathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics, medal stripped 1913 (played pro baseball), reinstated 1982
- Jul 15 British National Health Insurance Act goes into effect
- Jul 16 Naval torpedo launched from an airplane patents by B A Fiske
- Jul 17 IAF (Intl Amateur Athletic Federation) forms in Sweden
- Jul 18 Chicago Cubs get 21 hits but lose to Philadelphia Phillies in 11 innings
- Jul 19 A meteorite of estimated 190kg mass explodes over Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona, causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town
- Jul 20 Phillies Sherry Magee steals home twice in 1 game
- Jul 22 In the face of ever-increasing German naval power, the British Admiralty decides to recall British warships from the Mediterranean and base them in the North Sea
- Jul 22 V Summer (Modern) Olympic Games close in Stockholm, Sweden
- Jul 25 Comoros proclaimed a French colonies
- Jul 28 10th Tour de France won by Odile Defraye of Belgium
- Jul 31 US government prohibits movies and photos of prize fights (censorship)
- Aug 2 US Open Men's Golf, CC of Buffalo: John McDermott successfully defends title by 2 strokes from Tom McNamara
- Aug 5 Japan's first taxicab service begins in Ginza, Tokyo
- Aug 7 Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for US President
- Aug 14 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925
- Aug 15 Yankee Guy Zinn sets record by stealing home twice in a game
- Aug 19 Percy Grainger's orchestral piece "Shepherd's Hey" premieres
- Aug 20 Plant Quarantine Act goes into effect
Sports History
Aug 20 Washington Senators future Baseball HOF pitcher Walter Johnson wins AL-record 15th straight, beating Cleveland Naps, 4-2; in nightcap Carl Cushion no-hits Naps, 2-0 in 6 innings
- Aug 21 Francis Carter-Cotton chosen 1st chancellor of University of British Columbia
- Aug 22 England defeat Australia to win the Triangular Tournament
- Aug 24 District of Alaska becomes an organized incorporated territory of the United States
- Aug 24 NYC ticker tape parade for Jim Thorpe & victorious US Olympians
- Aug 24 US passes Anti-gag law, federal employees right to petition government
- Aug 25 1st time an aircraft recovers from a spin
- Aug 25 Different nationalities battle with each other in Macedonia
- Aug 25 The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
- Aug 26 MLB pitcher Walter Johnson's 16-game winning streak ends
- Aug 26 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport, RI: Maurice McLoughlin wins first of 2 straight US singles titles; beats Wallace F. Johnson 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2
- Aug 30 St Louis Brown Earl Hamilton no-hits Detroit Tigers, 5-1
Music Concert
Sep 3 Arnold Schoenberg's "Funf Orchesterstucke" (Five Pieces for Orchestra) premieres in London at a Promenade Concert
Baseball Record
Sep 11 Philadelphia second baseman Eddie Collins steals MLB record 6 bases in the Athletics' 9-7 win over Detroit Tigers at Navin Field
Sports History
Sep 17 Center fielder Casey Stengel breaks in with Brooklyn & hits 4 singles
- Sep 19 Pius X encyclical Singular quadam, against interconfess unions
- Sep 19 Soccer team NAC (Noad Advendo Combination) forms in Breda
- Sep 19 The wattle is declared Australia's national flower and incorporated into the Commonwealth Coat of Arms
- Sep 22 Philadelphia second baseman Eddie Collins becomes only player in MLB history to steal 6 bases in one game for a second time as A's beat St. Louis Browns, 8-2
- Sep 23 1st Mack Sennett "Keystone Comedy" movie released "Cohen Collects a Debt"
- Sep 25 Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City
Historic Publication
Sep 27 W. C. Handy publishes "Memphis Blues", considered the 1st blues song
- Sep 28 SS Kichemaru disappears in storm off Japanese coast, 1,000 die
- Oct 5 Boston Red Sox beat Philadelphia Athletics, 3 - 0 for their 105th win of the MLB season, an AL record until 1927 NY Yankees (110)
- Oct 5 NY Highlanders last game at Hilltop stadium; beat Washington, 8-6; Brooklyn Dodgers last game at Washington Park; lose 1-0 v NY Giants
- Oct 6 Pirates Owen "Chief" Wilson hits record 36th triple of season
- Oct 7 The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
- Oct 8 Montenegro declares war on Turkey, beginning 1st Balkan War
- Oct 14 Bull Moose Teddy Roosevelt shot while campaigning in Milwaukee
- Oct 14 Cretan representatives are admitted to the Greek assembly; in doing so the Greek Government challenges the Turkish Government
Sports History
Oct 15 Red Sox Tris Speaker's makes only world series unassisted double play, from the outfield
- Oct 16 Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire," premieres at the Berlin Choralion-Saal sung by Albertine Zehme
- Oct 16 Baseball World Series: Boston Red Sox beat NY Giants, 3-2 at Fenway Park to clinch a 4-3-1 series win; series extended to 8 games as one game tied due to darkness
- Oct 17 Bulgaria, Greece & Serbia declares war on Turkey
- Oct 18 Black boxer Jack Johnson arrested for violating the Mann Act for "transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes" due to his relationship with white woman Lucille Cameron, allegedly a prostitute. Later convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to a year in prison.
- Oct 18 The First Balkan War breaks out, with Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece opposed to Turkey
Italo-Turkish War
Oct 18 The Treaty of Lausanne ends the Italo-Turkish War; Italy annexes Libya
