1900 in History

Events in History

Events 1 - 100 of 235

• Jan 1 1st date in John dos Passos' USA trilogy (The 42nd Parallel)
• Jan 1 Compulsory education in Netherlands goes into effect

• Jan 1 British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria are established
• Jan 2 E Verlinger begins manufacturing 7" single-sided records (Montreal)
• Jan 2 John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.

• Jan 5 Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule
• Jan 6 Boers attack at Ladysmith, about 1,000 killed or injured

• Jan 12 Freeland Colony founded in US
• Jan 16 The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands
• Jan 16 The US gains control over Tutuila in Samoa and several smaller Pacific islands
• Jan 18 Jan Blockx's "Tÿl Uilenspiegel" premieres in Brussels
• Jan 21 The second contingent of Canadian troops sails from Halifax to fight in South Africa against the Boers
• Jan 24 Battle of Tugela-Spionkop, South Africa (Boers vs British army)

• Jan 27 Social Democrat Party of America (Debs' party) holds 1st convention
• Jan 27 Foreign diplomats in Peking, China, write formal notes of protest demanding that the Chinese Government stop the Boxes and other groups leading attacks on Westerners and Christians.
• Jan 29 Boers under Joubert beat British at Spionkop Natal, 2,000 killed
• Jan 31 The final report of the USA's Philippine Commission is released, favouring territorial government for the islands with home rule in local affairs, but with US assumptions of ultimate responsibility for the government.
• Feb 3 Rival forces fight for control of the Union Park ball grounds in Baltimore
• Feb 3 Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky
• Feb 5 British troops under Gen Buller occupy Vaal Krantz, Natal
• Feb 5 The United States and the United Kingdom sign treaty for Panama Canal
• Feb 6 The Battle of Vaal Krantz, South Africa (Boers vs British army)
• Feb 7 British troops vacate Vaal Krantz, Natal
• Feb 10 Peter Ostlund skates world record 500m (45.2 sec)
• Feb 14 Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country

• Feb 16 1st Chinese daily newspaper in US publishes (Chung Sai Yat Po, San Francisco)
• Feb 18 Battle at Paardeberg, 1,270 British killed/injured
• Feb 18 British troops occupy Monte Christo, Natal
• Feb 19 British troops occupy Hlangwane, Natal
• Feb 22 Battle at Wynne's Hill, South Africa (Boers vs British army)
• Feb 23 Battle at Hart's Hill, South Africa (Boers vs British army)
• Feb 23 Steamer "Rio de Janeiro" sinks in San Francisco Bay


• Feb 27 Battle at Pietershoogte during the Boer War
• Feb 27 Boer General Cronjé surrenders to British in Pardenberg, South Africa
• Feb 27 In London, the Trades Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party (formed in 1893) meet, results in a Labour Representative Committee and eventually the modern Labour Party in 1906
• Feb 28 General Buller's troops relieve Ladysmith in Natal
• Mar 3 US Steel Corporation organizes
• Mar 5 American Hall of Fame founded
• Mar 6 After a meeting in Indianapolis, USA, a group forms the Social Democratic Party and nominates Eugene Debs as its candidate for President in the forthcoming election (becomes the Socialist Party in 1901)
• Mar 7 Battle at Poplar Grove South Africa, President Kruger flees
• Mar 10 Battle at Driefontein, South Africa (Boers vs British army)
• Mar 10 Regents for the King of Uganda and leading chiefs sign a treaty with Great Britain agreeing to the organization of the government, taxation, courts, military, and other functions of their country, which is under British protection.

• Mar 12 President Steyn of Orange Free state flees from Bloemfontein
• Mar 13 British troops occupy Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State (Boer War)
• Mar 13 In France the length of the working day for women and children is limited by law to 11 hours.
• Mar 14 Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's laws of genetics
• Mar 14 US currency goes on gold standard after Congress passes the Currency Act
• Mar 16 Sir Arthur Evans rediscovers the bronze age city of Knossos in Crete, home of the legendary Minotaur
• Mar 17 In South Africa, British troops relieve Mafeking, besieged by the Boers since 13 October, 1899.
• Mar 18 Japan uses its influence over Korea to deny Russia's efforts to obtain a naval station at Korean Port of Masampo, the lead up to the Russo-Japanese war
• Mar 20 US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an 'open door' policy in China have essentially accepted his stand
• Mar 24 New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• Mar 25 US Socialist Party forms in Indianapolis
• Mar 26 1st edition The (Free) People (Netherlands, probably Amsterdam)
• Mar 27 Recognising that the war in South Africa is going to take a major commitment, Parliament passes the War Loan Act, calling for £35 million to support the fight against the Boers.
• Mar 30 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts Compulsory education law
• Mar 31 At " Surprise of Sanna’s Post" in the Second Boer War 150 troops under Brigadier General Robert Broadwood are killed
• Apr 1 1st edition of Dutch newspaper "The People"
• Apr 2 1st edition of The Volk published (Amsterdam)

• Apr 4 British garrison of Reddersberg surrenders to Boer general De Wet
• Apr 5 Attempted assassination of Edward Prince of Wales in Brussels, fails

• Apr 12 The US Congress passes the Foraker Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory (effective 1 May)
• Apr 14 Veteran's Hospital at Ft Miley forms
• Apr 15 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) in Paris opens (till 12th Nov)
• Apr 15 An early 50 mile race is won by an electric car in over 2 hrs
• Apr 16 US Post Office issues 1st books of postage stamps
• Apr 17 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign Instrument of Cession
• Apr 23 1st know occurrence of word "hillbillie" (NY Journal)
• Apr 30 The "Hawaiian Organic Act" is enacted by US Congress making Hawaii a US territory
• Apr 30 Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express (immortalized in"Ballad of Casey Jones")
• May 1 Premature blast collapses mine tunnel killing 200 at Scofield, Utah

• May 8 John McGraw & Wilbert Robinson sign with Cardinals
• May 12 Boer attack under Sarel Eloff, about 70 killed
• May 12 Lord Roberts' troops occupy Crown city
• May 17 British troops relieve Mafeking (Cape Colony)
• May 17 In China, three villages within 100 miles of Peking are burned by Boxers and 60 Chinese Christians killed
• May 17 "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is first published by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow in Chicago
• May 18 Britain proclaims protectorate over Kingdom of Tonga
• May 19 World's longest railroad tunnel (Simplon) linking Italy and Switzerland opens
• May 22 Associated Press organizes in NYC as non-profit news cooperative
• May 23 Associated Press News Service forms in NY
• May 23 William Harvey Carney becomes the first African-American soldier awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Civil War at the Battle of Fort Wagner
• May 26 British troops under Ian Hamilton attack the Vaal in South Africa
• May 27 Lord Roberts' army fights the Vaal in South Africa
• May 28 Fire in Cincinnati nearly destroys Reds' grandstand
• May 28 Total solar eclipse occurs
• May 28 In China, rioters provoked by Boxers burn the Fengtai Railway Station, where many Belgians work

• May 29 Trademark "Escalator" registered by Otis Elevator Co
• May 31 British troops under Lord Roberts occupy Johannesburg
• May 31 Piet de Law captures Lt Col BE Spragges, 13th Battalion Irish Imperial Yeomanry
• May 31 US troops arrive in Beijing, help put down Boxer Rebellion

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Birthdays in History

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 186

• Jan 1 Hubert van Doorne, Dutch auto manufacturer (DAF Trucks), born in America, Dutch Limburg, Netherlands (d. 1979)
• Jan 1 Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (d. 1986)
• Jan 3 Dorothy Arnzer, director
• Jan 4 James Bond, American ornithologist (d. 1989)
• Jan 5 Paula Ludwig, Austrian-German poet, born in Vorarlberg, Austria (d. 1974)
• Jan 5 Yves Tanguy, French surrealist painter, born in Paris, France (d. 1955)
• Jan 6 Queen Maria of Yugoslavia [Maria of Romania], Queen consort of Yugoslavia (1922-34), born in Gotha, German Empire (d. 1961)
• Jan 9 Richard Halliburton, American adventurer (presumed dead 1939), born in Brownsville, Tennessee (d. 1939)
• Jan 15 Caesar Domela, Dutch painter (Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis son), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1992)
• Jan 16 Edith Frank, mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, born in Aachen, Germany (d. 1945)
• Jan 17 Olga Maria Nicolis di Robilant, patron of the arts
• Jan 17 George Sperti, American inventor (Preparation H), born in Covington, Kentucky (d. 1991)
• Jan 25 Theodosius Dobzhansky, Russian-American genetist, evolutionary biologist and author (Mankind Evolving), born in Nemyriv, Russian Empire (d. 1975)
• Jan 25 Yojiro Ishizaka, Japanese writer, born in Hirosaki, Japan (d. 1986)
• Jan 27 Hyman G Rickover, US Admiral (father of modern nuclear navy)
• Jan 28 Alexandre AM Stols [Chl van Halsbeke], publisher (History of Ecuador)
• Jan 28 Hermann Kesten, German writer (Allert de Lange)
• Jan 28 Alice Neel, American artist (d. 1984)
• Jan 29 Willem F K Hussem, Dutch painter/poet (Coastline, Lookout on Sea)
• Jan 31 Betty Parsons, American artist and art dealer, born in NYC, New York (d. 1982)
• Feb 2 Carroll Righter, American columnist and astrologer to the stars, born in Salem, New Jersey (d. 1988)

• Feb 8 John Cameron, Scottish judge, born in London (d. 1996)
• Feb 11 Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher
• Feb 11 Thomas Hitchcock Jr, great polo player (Westchester Cup 1924,27,30,39)
• Feb 11 Josei Toda, Japanese educator (d. 1958)
• Feb 19 Giorgos Seferis, writer
• Feb 20 Graham Spry, Canadian radio pioneer, born in St Thomas, Ontario (d. 1983)
• Feb 22 Giorgos Seferis [Georgios Seferiades], Greek poet (Nobel 1963), born in Urla, Ottoman Empire (d. 1971)
• Feb 22 Seán Ó Faoláin [John Whelan], Irish short story writer (Murder at Cobbler's Hulk), born in Cork City, County Cork, Ireland (d. 1991)
• Feb 28 Laura Z. Hobson, American writer (Gentleman's Agreement), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1986)
• Feb 28 Wolfram Hirth, German pilot (d. 1959)
• Mar 1 Edna Swithenbank Manley, Jamaican sculptor, wife of PM
• Mar 1 Yorgos Seferis [Seferi dis], Greek diplomat/poet (Strofi)
• Mar 6 John Henry Pyle Pafford, British librarian (University of London), born in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire (d. 1996)
• Mar 7 Giuseppe Capogrossi, Italian painter
• Mar 7 [Albert] Carel Willink, Dutch painter (magic realism)
• Mar 8 Howard Aiken, American computing pioneer (Harvard Mark I computer), born in Hoboken, New Jersey (d. 1973)
• Mar 9 Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, Italian king of Croatia (1941-43), born in Turin, Italy (d. 1948)
• Mar 10 Sherman Billingsley, Enid Ok, talk show host (Stork Club)
• Mar 15 Gilberto Freye, Brazilian sociologist/writer
• Mar 19 [Jean] Frederic Joliot-Curie, French physicist (Nobel 1935)
• Mar 21 Eugenie Leontovitch, Russian actress (Homicidal, The Rains of Ranchipur), born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1993)
• Mar 23 Erich Fromm, Frankfurt Germany, psychologist (Sane Society)
• Mar 29 John McEwen, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (1967-68), born in Chiltern, Australia (d. 1980)
• Mar 31 Henry WFA, English duke of Gloucester/earl of Ulters
• Apr 1 Robert McDowell, Mayor of Maryborough, Queensland (d. 1988)
• Apr 2 Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (The Seven Madmen), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 1942)
• Apr 3 Camille Chamoun, President of Lebanon (1952-58), born in Deir el Qamar, Ottoman Empire (d. 1987)
• Apr 6 Leo Robin, American songwriter ("Thanks For The Memory"; "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1984)
• Apr 10 Jean Duvieusart, 36th Prime Minister of Belgium, born in Les Bons Villers, Belgium (d. 1977)
• Apr 11 Sándor Márai, Hungarian writer (A gyertyák csonkig égnek), born in Kassa, Hungary (d. 1989)
• Apr 13 Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer, born in Agen, France (d. 1976)
• Apr 16 Polly Adler, Russian bordello proprieter and author (House is not a Home), born in Yanow, Russia (d. 1962)
• Apr 19 Richard Hughes, English writer (Fiction as Truth), born in Weybridge, Surrey (d. 1976)
• Apr 19 Roland Michener, 20th Governor General of Canada (1967-74), born in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada (d. 1991)
• Apr 20 Kees Verwey, Dutch painter and cartoonist, born in Amsterdam (d. 1995)
• Apr 25 Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb, 1st Baron Gladwyn, British politician and diplomat, born in Firbeck Hall, England (d. 1996)
• Apr 25 Wolfgang Pauli, Swiss-American theoretical physicist (Pauli inhibition, Nobel 1945), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1958)
• Apr 26 Charles F. Richter, American physicist and seismologist (developed the Richter scale for measuring earthquake magnitude), born in Overpeck, Ohio (d. 1985)
• Apr 28 Bruno Apitz, German writer (Nackt unter Wölfen, born in Leipzig (d. 1979)
• Apr 28 Jan Hendrik Oort, Dutch astronomer (hypothesized "Oort Cloud"), born in Franeker, Friesland (d. 1992)
• Apr 28 Maurice Thorez, French politician and secretary-general (French Communist Party), born in Noyelles-Godault, Pas-de-Calais, France (d. 1964)
• May 1 Ignazio Silone, Italian novelist (Fontamara, Pane e vino), born in Pescina, Italy (d. 1978)
• May 5 Mervyn A. Ellison, British astronomer (spectrohelioscope), born in Fethard-on-Sea, County Wexford, Ireland (d. 1963)
• May 7 Bauke Tuinstra, Dutch/Frisian notary/author (Earste Keur)
• May 10 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, British-American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed that stars are composed largely of hydrogen and are not glowing balls of molten rock, born in Wendover, England (d. 1979)
• May 12 Helene Weigel, Austrian-German actress (Metropolis, Mutter Courage), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1971)
• May 13 Jos Panhuysen, author (Pornographer)
• May 14 Hal Borland, American author (d. 1978)
• May 14 Edgar Wind, German art historian (d. 1971)
• May 18 Sarah Miriam Peale, American portrait painter (General Lafayette, 1825), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1885)
• May 20 Lydia Cabrera, Cuban Anthropologist, born in Havana, Cuba
• May 22 Yvonne de Gaulle, wife of Charles de Gaulle, born in Calais, France (d. 1979)

• May 25 Alain Grandbois, French Canadian poet (Né à Québec: Louis Jolliet), born in Saint-Casimir, Quebec (d. 1975)
• May 27 Uładzimir Žyłka, Belarusian poet, born in Makaszy, Nesvizh, Russian Empire (d. 1933)
• May 31 Helma Wolf-Catz, Dutch author (Undercurrent, Coral Reef)
• Jun 3 Gerard den Brabander [Jan G Jofriet], Dutch poet (Nothing New) (d. 1968)

• Jun 6 Manfred Sakel, Polish neurophysiologist and psychiatrist, born in Nadvorna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1957)
• Jun 7 Jan Engelman, Dutch poet, translator and critic (Garden of Eros), born in Utrecht, the Netherlands (d. 1972)
• Jun 8 H. J. Friedericy, Dutch author (Last General), born in Stadskanaal, Netherlands (d. 1962)
• Jun 9 Prosper Cocquyt, Belgian brewer/pilot
• Jun 10 Henri Bruning, Dutch poet and literary, born in Amsterdam (d. 1983)
• Jun 11 Lawrence E. Spivak, American news panelist (Meet the Press), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1994)
• Jun 12 Betsy van Es, Flemish actress (Sonna), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1955)
• Jun 15 Gotthard Günther, German philosopher (d. 1984)
• Jun 16 Jan van Tilburg, governor Suriname (PVDA, 1955-62)

• Jun 24 Wilhelm Cauer, German mathematician (d. 1945)

• Jun 26 Jo Spier [Joseph Spier], Dutch cartoonist and water color painter, born in Zutphen, Netherlands (d. 1978)
• Jun 27 Otto Passman, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana (1947-77), born in Franklinton, Washington Parish Louisiana (d. 1988)
• Jun 28 Leon Kruczkowski, Polish author (Kordian into Cham), born in Kraków, Poland (d. 1962)
• Jun 29 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer, poet and pioneering aviator (The Little Prince), born in Lyon, France (d. 1944)
• Jul 5 Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, Dutch cardinal of Utrecht Netherlands, born in Nijkerk, Netherlands (d. 1987)
• Jul 7 Earle E. Partridge, United States Air Force general (d. 1990)
• Jul 10 Sampson Sievers, Russian Orthodox Christian monk, priest and wonder-worker, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia (d. 1979)
• Jul 12 Fjodor Godunov-Tcherdynchev, Russian poet (Life of Tchernyshevsky)

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Weddings in History

• Oct 2 Belgium crown prince Albert von Saksen-Coburg weds Elisabeth of Bayern

Deaths in History

• Jan 20 John Ruskin, English writer (Dearest Mama Talbot), dies of flu at 81
• Jan 20 R. D. Blackmore, English novelist (Norie, Lorna Doone), dies at 74

• Jan 30 Vittorio Bersezio [Carlo Nugelli], Italian playwright, dies at 71
• Feb 3 William W. Averell, American Major General (Union Army), dies at 67
• Feb 16 George Labram, US mine engineer in South Africa, dies in battle
• Feb 18 Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)
• Feb 18 Eugenio Beltrami, Italian mathematician (non-Euclidean geometry), dies at 64
• Feb 23 William Butterfield, architect of the Gothic revival, dies
• Feb 23 Ernest Dowson, British poet (Decorations in Verse and Prose), dies at 32

• Mar 16 Frederic William Burton, Irish painter, dies at 83
• Mar 18 Antonio Nobre, Portuguese poet (Só), dies at 32
• Mar 19 John Bingham, American politician and lawyer, dies at 85
• Mar 26 Isaac Mayer Wise, American rabbi and founder (American Hebrew Congregations), dies at 80
• Mar 27 Pieter J Joubert [Smart Piet], South African general, dies at 69
• Apr 5 Comte de Villebois-Marevil, French/South African general, dies in battle
• Apr 7 Frederick Edwin Church, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River School), dies at 73
• Apr 11 Seth Barton, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 70
• Apr 20 Alexandre Falguière, French sculptor and painter, dies at 68
• Apr 24 George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll and Secretary of State for India (1868-74, 1880-85), dies at 76
• Apr 24 Andrew Smith Hallidie, American inventor and cable car pioneer, dies at 64
• Apr 30 Casey Jones, American railroad engineer, dies at 36 heroically in Cannonball Express train wreck
• May 4 Augustus Pitt Rivers, English archaeologist, dies at 73
• May 5 Ivan Aivazovsky, Russian painter (b. 1817)
• May 18 Jean Gaspard Felix Ravaisson-Mollien, French philosopher, dies at 86
• May 28 George Grove, English biblical scholar and misicographer, dies at 79
• May 31 James Loudon, Dutch politician, Governor-General of Dutch East Indies (1872-75), dies at 75
• May 31 John Power, Irish baronet and whiskey manufacturer (Powers Whiskey), dies in battle
• Jun 2 Samori Ture, Muslim leader of the Wassoulou Empire (1878-98), dies in captivity at 69 or 70
• Jun 3 Mary Kingsley, English ethnographer and explorer who became the first European to enter parts of Gabon, Africa, dies of typhoid at 37

• Jun 9 Birsa Munda, Indian tribal freedom fighter, religious leader and folk hero of the Munda tribe who led an uprising in Bengal against the British Raj, dies in jail awaiting trial at 24
• Jun 29 Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, Russian mathematician (b. 1900)
• Jul 24 Ferdinand Hamet, Dutch missionary in Mongolia, murdered at 59
• Jul 29 Umberto I of Italy, King of Italy (1878-1900), shot four times and assassinated by Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci at 56
• Jul 30 Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, dies at 55
• Aug 4 Isaac Levitan, Russian classical painter, dies at 39
• Aug 5 James Augustine Healy, African American Roman Catholic bishop, dies at 80
• Aug 6 Wilhelm Liebknecht, German socialist (Social Democratic Party), dies at 74
• Aug 12 James Edward Keeler, American astronomer (rings of Saturn), dies at 42

• Aug 16 José Maria de Eça de Queirós, Portuguese writer, dies at 54
• Aug 25 Kuroda Kiyotaka, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (1894-1899), dies of a brain haemorrhage at 59

• Aug 28 Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Women on University), dies at 62
• Sep 23 William Marsh Rice, American philanthropist and university founder (b. 1816)
• Sep 25 Félix-Gabriel Marchand, premier of Québec (b. 1832)
• Sep 25 John M. Palmer, American politician (U.S. Senator from Illinois) and American Civil War General (Union), dies at 83
• Sep 29 Samuel Fenton Cary, congressman, prohibitionist (b. 1814)
• Oct 14 Albert de Vriendt, Flemish historical painter and etcher, dies at 56
• Oct 20 Charles Dudley Warner, American novelist (As We Go), dies at 70
• Oct 20 Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet and writer, dies at 54
• Oct 28 Max Müller, German-born British orientalist, dies at 76 (b. 1823)
• Nov 6 PWJ Le Gallais, British lt-colonel, dies in battle at Bothaville

• Dec 14 Jean Baptiste August Kessler, Dutch entrepreneur & director of oil on Dutch Indies, dies at 46
• Dec 21 Roger Wolcott, American political figure, 39th Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1847)
• Dec 27 William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong and British industralist and inventor (hydraulic crane Armstrong Gun), dies at 90
• Dec 28 Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto, Portuguese explorer (b. 1846)