1907 in History

• Jan 12 Britain grants responsible government to former colony of Transvaal
• Jan 14 An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills more than 1,000
• Jan 15 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr Lee De Forest
• Jan 15 Gold dental inlays first described by William Taggart, who invented them
• Jan 23 Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes 1st Native American US senator
• Jan 25 Julia Ward Howe is first woman elected to National Institute of Arts & Letters (USA)
• Jan 26 1st US federal corrupt election practices law passed
• Jan 26 John Millington Synge's "Playboy of Western World" opens in Dublin; play claimed as immoral and causes riots
• Jan 26 The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III rifle officially introduced into British Military Service, 2nd oldest military rifle still in official use
• Jan 26 In Austria, universal and direct suffrage (limited to males over 24) is introduced, a reform long demanded by the socialists and others
• Jan 29 Charles Curtis becomes U.S. Senator from Kansas, first Native American to become a Senator
• Feb 7 The Mud March, first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)


• Feb 7 Conservative coalition take over Reichstag in Germany after rallying conservatives against the threat of a socialist government
• Feb 11 De Master's Dutch government resigns
• Feb 11 Passenger ship Larchmont sinks by Block Island, off Rhode Island, 322 die
• Feb 13 English suffragettes storm British Parliament & 60 women are arrested
• Feb 14 1st US foxhound association forms in NYC
• Feb 21 SS Berlin sinks off the Hook of Holland (142 dead)
• Feb 22 1st cabs with taxi meters begin operating in London
• Feb 22 Leonid Andreyev's "Zhizn Cheloveka" premieres in St Petersburg
• Feb 25 George Bernard Shaw's "Philanderer" premieres in London
• Feb 25 US proclaims protectorate over Dominican Republic
• Feb 26 Royal Oil & Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP)
• Feb 26 US Congress raise their own salaries to $7,500

• Mar 2 General Louis Botha named premier of Transvaal
• Mar 2 Georges Feydeaus' "La Puce à l'Oreille" premieres in Paris
• Mar 5 The second Duma opens in St. Petersburg, Russia and 40,000 demonstrators have to be dispersed by Russian troops
• Mar 9 1st involuntary sterilization law enacted, Indiana
• Mar 9 Lady Gregory's "Rising of the Moon" premieres in Dublin
• Mar 14 By Presidential order, Japanese laborers are excluded from entering the USA


• Mar 15 Finland is 1st European country to give women the right to vote
• Mar 19 18.8 cm precipitation at Lewer's Ranch, Nevada (state record)
• Mar 21 US sends troops to Honduras to halt the Nicaraguan army takeover
• Mar 22 The new Boer government in the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, that restricts immigration from India
• Mar 24 The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published
• Mar 31 Romanian Army puts down Moldavian farmers' revolt
• Apr 12 Belgium government of De Stain de Naeyer resigns
• Apr 12 In Switzerland, parliament passes a new army bill reorganizing the nation's forces into a standing militia, with training required for all males
• Apr 17 Ellis Island, New York records 11,745 immigrants
• Apr 18 Augustus Thomas' "Witching Hour" premieres in NYC
• Apr 18 Fairmont Hotel opens in San Francisco
• Apr 26 Jamestown, Virginia Tercentenary Exposition opens
• Apr 30 Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes an independent city.
• May 1 Belgium government of De Trooz forms
• May 1 Indian Mine Laws passes (concessions from Neth-Indies)
• May 2 Jules baron de Trooz forms Belgian government
• May 7 Charles Collier wins 1st Isle of Man TT Race: (38.22 mph)
• May 11 Bank of San Francisco incorporated
• May 11 A derailment outside Lompoc, California, kills 32 Shriners when their chartered train jumps off the tracks at a switch near Surf Depot
• May 14 Sweden adopts universal suffrage for elections to its lower house and proportional representation for both houses
• May 16 In the Pact of Cartagena, Great Britain, France, and Spain agree to maintain the status quo in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast of Europe and Africa
• May 22 Albert Trott takes two hat-tricks in an innings, Middlesex v Somerset
• May 23 The single chamber Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
• May 27 Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco
• May 28 Auto-Cycle Union Tourist Trophy, 1st held
• May 31 Taxis 1st began running in NYC
• Jun 1 -27°F (-33°C), Sarmiento, Argentina (South American record)
• Jun 3 Centro Escolar University is established by Librada Avelino and Carmen de Luna in Manila, Philippines
• Jun 10 France and Japan sign an agreement to maintain the independence and integrity of China, equality for all nations in trading with China, and the status quo in the Far East
• Jun 11 Northants all out for 12 v Gloucestershire
• Jun 13 Lowest temperature ever in 48 US states for June, 2°F in Tamarack, California
• Jun 14 Government of Transvaal sends home 50,000 Chinese day workers
• Jun 14 Norway adopts female suffrage for middle class women only in parliamentary elections
• Jun 15 The 2nd Hague Peace Conference meets in an attempt to stop the arms race; Germany resists, but conference does make important rules around the rights of neutral powers

• Jun 20 1st Portland Rose festival held in Portland, Oregon
• Jun 21 E W Scripps founded United Press
• Jun 26 Bolsheviks overthrows transport in Tiflis
• Jul 1 The Orange River Colony, known as the Orange Free State, is granted self-government by the British
• Jul 3 Pope decree forbids modernization of theology
• Jul 8 Florenz Ziegfeld staged 1st `Follies' on NY Theater roof
• Jul 18 Florenz Ziegfeld's "Follies of 1907" premieres in NYC
• Jul 18 French troops occupy Casablanca
• Jul 19 Under pressure from the Japanese, the Emperor of Korea abdicates in favor of his son, a figurehead
• Jul 20 A train wreck on the Pere Marquette Railroad near Salem, Michigan kills thirty and injures seventy more
• Jul 25 Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan
• Jul 29 1st helicopter ascent in Douai, France

• Jul 30 Russia and Japan sign an agreement guaranteeing freedom of China while recognizing each other's special interests
• Jul 30 The Filipinos elect their first legislature; it will meet on 16 October
• Jul 30 Starting today, the French bombard Casablanca and land troops to occupy the Atlantic-coast region of Morocco after attacks on foreigners
• Aug 1 U.S. Army Signal Corps establish a small Aeronautical Division

• Aug 1 First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset
• Aug 3 Emperor Wilhelm (Germany) meets with Tsar Nicholas (Russia) to discuss Germany's plan to build a railroad to Baghdad; the discussion helps move Russia towards Britain and eventually the Triple Alliance
• Aug 9 1st Boy Scout camp concludes at Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Southern England
• Aug 10 Prince Scipone Borchesi wins Beijing to Paris, 7,500 mile auto rally
• Aug 13 1st taxicabs operate in New York City, imported by Harry N. Allen
• Aug 16 Mulay Hafid is proclaimed the Sultan of Morocco by supporters leading to civil war; Mulay is supported by Germany while France supports the existing Sultan
• Aug 17 Bishop forbids Christian membership of Dutch Textile Union

• Aug 28 United Parcel Service is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
• Aug 29 The Quebec Bridge over St Lawrence River collapses during construction, killing 75 workers

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Birthdays 1 - 100 of 255

• Jan 2 Edward Albert Radice, economist
• Jan 5 Anton Ingolic, Slavic author (After Splavih, After Prelomu), born in Spodnja Polskava, Slovenia (d. 1992)
• Jan 5 Willi Soukop, sculptor and member of Royal Academy of Arts, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1995)
• Jan 6 David Fleay, Australian naturalist, born in Ballarat, Victoria (d. 1993)
• Jan 11 Pierre Mendès-France, French Premier (1954-55) (d. 1982)
• Jan 11 Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jewish American rabbi and theologian (d. 1972), born in Warsaw, Poland
• Jan 12 Sergei Korolev, Soviet rocket engineer & spacecraft designer, born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine (d. 1966)
• Jan 13 Sabine Zlatin, Polish-born French nurse who tried save Izieu children from Nazis), born in Warsaw (d. 1996)
• Jan 14 Derek Richter, British neuroscientist (learning & memory), born in bath, United Kingdom (d. 1995)
• Jan 14 Sophie Redmond, Suriname's 1st female physician, born in Paramaribo, Suriname (d. 1955)
• Jan 14 Georges-Émile Lapalme, Quebec politician, born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 1985)
• Jan 16 Phillip Humphrey Vellacott, classicist
• Jan 16 Paul Nitze, American government official (d. 2004)
• Jan 20 Roy Welensky, Northern Rhodesian politician, born in Harare, Zimbabwe (d. 1991)
• Jan 22 Douglas Corrigan, American pilot, born in Galveston, Texas (d. 1995)
• Jan 23 Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist (Nobel 1949), born in Tokyo, Japan (d. 1981)
• Jan 24 Alfonse Vranckx, Belgian lawyer/politician
• Jan 24 Maurice Couve de Murville, France premier (1968-69)
• Jan 26 Hans Selye, Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist, born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1982)
• Feb 1 Alan Strode Campbell Ross, professor (coined the terms U & non-U)
• Feb 1 John Canaday, art critic (Metropolitan Museum of Art Portfolios)
• Feb 2 Bernardas Brazdzionis, Lithuania, poet/editor/critic
• Feb 3 James A. Michener, American author (Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii), born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania (d. 1997)
• Feb 5 Jan Klaasesz, Dutch governor Suriname (1949-56)
• Feb 5 Norton Simon, American industrialist (Hunts Foods, Norton Simon Museum), born in Portland, Oregon (d. 1993)
• Feb 5 Pierre E J Pflimlin, premier France
• Feb 7 Arthur George Bottomley, politician
• Feb 7 Yevgeniy Abalakov, Soviet mountaineer (d. 1948)
• Feb 10 Grace Hamilton, 1st African American member of Georgia state legislature
• Feb 12 Clifton C. Edom, American photojournalism educator (d. 1991)
• Feb 17 Charles B Timmer, Dutch translator/writer (Russia Black on White)
• Feb 18 Harm van Riel, Dutch politician (Dutch Liberal Party)
• Feb 20 Owain Jenkins, company director
• Feb 21 Wystan Hugh Auden, American poet (Age of Anxiety-Pulitzer 1948)
• Feb 23 Anthony Standerwick Heal, businessman
• Feb 25 Mary Coyle Chase, playwright (Harvey-Pulitzer Prize)
• Feb 25 Sabahattin Ali, Turkish poet, author and journalist (Esirler, Içimizdeki Şeytan), born in Eğridere, Gümülcine, Ottoman Empire (d. 1948)
• Feb 26 John Bowlby, British psychologist, born in London, England (d. 1990)
• Feb 28 Milton Caniff, American cartoonist 'Rembrandt of the Comic Strip' (Terry & Pirates), born in Hillsboro, Ohio (d. 1988)
• Mar 2 Jheri [Robert] Redding, American hairdresser and businessman (created the Jheri curl and hair conditioner), born in Rantoul, Illinois (d. 1998)
• Mar 3 Aar van de Werfhorst [Pieter G Jansen], Dutch writer
• Mar 3 Joy Finzi [Joyce A Black], British painter
• Mar 4 Eleanor "Sis" Daley, wife of Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2003)
• Mar 8 Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek politician, President of Greece (1980-85), born in Sérrai, Ottoman Empire (d. 1998)
• Mar 11 Eleni Gatzoyiannis, heroine (saved her kids)
• Mar 11 Helmuth J von Moltke, German politician (July 20th plot)
• Mar 11 Margaret Herbison, British minister (Labour)
• Mar 12 (Margaret Peggy McCrorie) Herbison, politician
• Mar 12 Dorrit Hoffleit, American astronomer (d. 2007)
• Mar 13 Mircea Eliade, Romanian religious historian (Le Yoga) and author, born in Bucharest, Romania (d. 1986) [O.S. 02-28]
• Mar 13 Albert Hughes Williams, historian (d. 1996)
• Mar 13 Maria Pia de Braganca, Portuguese journalist and writer who claimed to be the bastard daughter of King Carlos I of Portugal, born in Lisbon (d. 1995)
• Mar 13 Charles Brink, German-born British classical scholar (Horace), born in Berlin (d. 1994)
• Mar 17 Jan M J van Houtte, premier Belgium (1952-54)
• Mar 19 Nakagawa Soen, Formosa, Zen teacher (Rinzai line)
• Mar 22 James Gavin, US 82nd Airborne Division General (Sicily/Normandy), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1990)
• Mar 22 Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun (d. 2005)
• Mar 23 Daniel Bovet, Swiss pharmacologist (Nobel 1957)
• Mar 23 Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, politician
• Mar 24 Janet Harmon Bragg, US pilot/columnist (Chicago Defender)
• Mar 24 Lauris Norstad, US gen (NATO commander)/CEO (Owens-Corning Fiberglass)
• Mar 24 Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya, writer
• Mar 24 Paul Sauvé, Quebec politician (d. 1960)
• Mar 26 Mahadevi Varma, Indian poet and freedom fighter, born in Farrukhabad, British India (d. 1987)
• Mar 28 Irving Paul Lazar, American talent agent, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1993)
• Mar 30 Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, German Luftwaffe Officer (d. 1994)
• Apr 3 Isaac Deutscher, Polish-English historian (Stalin/Trotsky biography), born in Chrzanów, Poland (d. 1967)
• Apr 4 Nathan M. Pusey, American educator, 24th president of Harvard University (1953-71), born in Council Bluffs, Iowa (d. 2001)
• Apr 5 Jan Zeldenrust, Dutch pathologist and anatomist, born in Gronigen, Netherlands (d. 1990)
• Apr 8 Maurice Stacey, chemist
• Apr 11 Ivor Spencer-Thomas, English farmer, entrepreneur and inventor, born in Llanymynech, Powys (d. 2001)
• Apr 12 Felix de Weldon, Austrian-American sculptor (Marine Corps War Memorial), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 2003)
• Apr 13 Harold Stassen, American politician (25th Governor of Minnesota) and perennial presidential candidate, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota (d. 2001)

• Apr 14 Otto Frans Antoine Hubert van Nispen, Dutch mayor (Pannerden), born in Pannerden, Netherlands (d. 1992)
• Apr 15 Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch-British biologist and zoologist (Nobel 1973), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1988)
• Apr 16 August Eigruber, Austrian war criminal, born in Steyr, Austria (d. 1947)
• Apr 16 Joseph-Armand Bombardier, French-Canadian inventor and businessman (Bombardier) (d. 1964)
• Apr 18 Stephen Longstreet, American writer (All or Nothing), born in New York (d. 2002)
• Apr 22 Ivan Yefremov, Russian paleontologist (originator of the concept of taphonomy) and author (Andromeda Nebula), born in Vyritsa, Saint Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1972)
• Apr 23 Lee Miller, American photographer (War correspondent for Vogue in WWII), born in Poughkeepsie, New York (d. 1977)
• Apr 26 Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (The Girl with the Red Hair), born in Veenwouden, Friesland, Netherlands (d. 2005)
• Apr 29 Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director (From Here to Eternity, Julia), born in Rzeszów, Austria-Hungary (d. 1997)
• May 1 Oliver Hill, American civil rights attorney (Presidential Medal of Freedom 1999), born in Richmond, Virgnia (d. 2007)
• May 2 Pinky Lee, American children's show host (Pinky Lee Show), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota (d. 1993)
• May 3 Earl Wilson, American journalist and columnist (Midnight Earl), born in Rockford, Ohio (d. 1987)
• May 4 Lincoln Kirstein, American writer and impresario, born in Rochester, New York (d. 1996)
• May 5 Kenneth Muir, English scholar, born in London (d. 1996)
• May 9 Baldur von Schirach, German writer/nazi politician (Frame)
• May 9 Kathryn Kuhlman, famed evangelist (d. 1976)
• May 11 Rose Ausländer, German poet (d. 1988)
• May 12 Leslie Charteris, English/US detective writer (Enter the Saint)
• May 13 Austin Whitaker, schoolmaster classical scholar/archivist
• May 13 Daphne du Maurier, English writer (Rebecca, Parasites)
• May 13 Laurence Kirwan, archaeologist
• May 14 Mohammed Ayub Khan, general/premier/president (Pakistan)
• May 14 Hans von der Groeben, German diplomat (d. 2005)
• May 14 Johnny Moss, American poker player (d. 1995)
• May 15 Phillip Piratin, communist
• May 15 Sukhdev Thapar, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1931)

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• Jan 8 Theodoor Verstraete, Flemish painter/etcher, dies at 57
• Jan 9 Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen of Hanover, dies at 88
• Jan 14 Sir James Fergusson, British politician, and governor of South Australia, New Zealand and Bombay (b. 1832)
• Jan 31 Timothy Eaton, Irish-born Canadian department store founder (Eatons), dies at 72

• Feb 8 Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, Dutch chemist (fasenleer), dies at 52
• Feb 10 William Howard Russell, Irish war pioneering correspondent, dies at 87
• Feb 11 Peter J Savelberg, Dutch Limbourg monastery founder, dies at 80
• Feb 13 Marcel Bertrand, French geologist and mine engineer (tectonic geology), dies at 59
• Feb 16 Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer and Nobel Prize Laureate 1906 regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy, dies at 71
• Feb 17 Henry Steel Olcott, American military officer and co-founder of the Theosophical Society, dies at 74

• Mar 5 Friedrich Blass, German classical scholar (b. 1843)
• Mar 9 John Alexander Dowie, Scottish-American evangelist (founded the city of Zion, Illinois), dies at 59
• Mar 10 Victoria Earle Matthews, American author and activist, dies at 45
• Mar 11 Nikola Petkow, premier (Bulgaria), murdered
• Mar 11 Jean Casimir-Périer, French politician (President of France 1894-95), dies at 59
• Mar 18 Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist (Thomsen–Berthelot principle of thermochemistry), dies at 79
• Mar 19 Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American editor and writer (The Story of a Bad Boy), dies at 70
• Mar 23 Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Russian reactionary lawyer and senator, dies at 79
• Apr 5 Laura de Force Gordon, California lawyer, a prominent suffragette, and 1st woman to run a daily newspaper in the US (Stockton Daily Leader, 1874), dies at 68
• Apr 23 Alfred Packer, American Cannibal (b. 1842)
• May 12 J K Huysmans, writer, dies at 59
• May 19 Benjamin Baker, English civil engineer who designed the bridge over the Firth of Forth, Scotland and the London underground, dies at 67
• May 26 Ida McKinley, US First Lady (1897-1901) and wife of the 25th US President William McKinley, dies at 59
• Jun 11 John Tyler Morgan, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 82
• Jun 14 A Adolf Daens, Belgian priest/politician (CVP), dies
• Jun 15 William Le Baron Jenney, American architect (father of skyscraper), dies at 74
• Jun 27 Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, American educator and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College, dies at 84
• Jul 5 Maria Anna Mahler, Gustav Mahler's eldest daughter, dies at 5
• Jul 6 August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein, German Linguist, Theologian (b. 1826)
• Jul 14 William Henry Perkin, English chemist and inventor (b. 1838)
• Jul 15 Qiu Jin, Chinese revolutionary, feminist, and writer considered a national heroine in China, executed after a failed uprising at 32
• Jul 19 Hector H Malot, French lawyer/author (Alone in the World), dies at 77
• Jul 27 Edward Pettus, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 86
• Jul 28 James Henry Lane, US Brigadier General during Civil War (Confederate) and professor, dies at 74
• Aug 3 August Saint-Gaudens, Irish/US sculptor (Mrs Henry Adams), dies at 59
• Aug 16 James Hector, Scottish geologist (b. 1834)
• Aug 18 John Kerr, Scottish physicist and pioneer in the field of electro-optics (electro-visually Kerr-effect), dies at 82
• Aug 24 Pieter Louis Tak, writer (Chronicle), dies at 58
• Sep 7 R F Armand Sully-Prudhomme, French poet (Poesies, Nobel 1901), dies
• Sep 9 Ernest Roland Wilberforce, English bishop (b. 1840)
• Sep 28 Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden (1856-1907), dies at 81
• Oct 8 Alfred, Liechtensteins noble of Austrian Herrenhaus, dies at 65
• Oct 20 Said Pasha Kurd, Kurdish statesman (b.1834)
• Oct 21 Jules Chevalier, French Roman Catholic priest (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart), dies at 83
• Nov 1 Alfred Jarry, French writer (ubu Roi), dies at 33
• Nov 14 Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian politician (b. 1848)
• Nov 16 Robert I, Duke of Parma, last ruling Duke of Parma, dies at 59
• Nov 22 Asaph Hall, American astronomer who discovered satellites of Mars (Phobos & Deimos), dies at 78
• Nov 28 Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish dramatist, poet, painter, and architect (b. 1869)
• Dec 3 Allen Thomas, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 76
• Dec 8 Oscar II Frederick, King of Sweden (-1907)/Norway (-1905), dies

• Dec 21 Oskar Lassar, German dermatologist (public baths), dies at 58
• Dec 23 Pierre Janssen, French astronomer, discovered helium, dies at 83
• Dec 24 Isidor Feinstein "Izzy" Stone, journalist (IF Stone's Weekly), dies
• Dec 31 Jules de Trooz, Belgium PM, dies at 63