- Jan 1 Neth Indies colony begins opium production
- Jan 4 In 'Gonzales v Williams', the US Supreme Court rules that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and may not be refused admission into continental United States; not until 1917 will citizenship rights be granted
- Jan 5 -34°F (-36.7°C), River Vale, New Jersey (state record)
- Jan 5 -42°F (-41.1°C), Smethport, Pennsylvania (state record)
- Jan 5 England beat Australia at the MCG, Rhodes 7-56 & 8-68
Theater Premiere
Jan 17 Anton Chekhov's play "Cherry Orchard" opens at Moscow Art Theater
Event of Interest
Jan 23 Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.
- Jan 25 179 die in coal mine explosion at Cheswick, Pennsylvania
- Jan 25 John Millington Synge's play "Riders to the Sea" premieres in Dublin
- Jan 29 1st athletic letters given (University of Chicago football team)
- Feb 4 John Millington Synge's play "Well of Saints" premieres in Dublin
- Feb 5 American occupation of Cuba ends
- Feb 6 Japan notifies Russia that in view of Russia's delaying tactics and provocative military action, Japan is ending negotiations and recalling its members from Moscow
- Feb 7 Baltimore catches fire (1500 buildings destroyed in 80 blocks)
A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia
Feb 9 Japanese torpedo boats make a surprise attack on Russian ships Port Arthur naval base, Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. Japanese also land troops at Chemulpo (Inchon), near Seoul, Korea; in 3 weeks they advance to the Yalu River, the border of Manchuria.
- Feb 10 Japan and Russia declare war
- Feb 21 National Ski Association forms in Ishpeming, Michigan
- Feb 22 The Hague Tribunal gives its decision in claims against Venezuela; it sets the sum to be paid by Venezuela and gives preferential treatment to the three powers that initiated the block - Britain, Germany, and Italy
- Feb 22 The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
- Feb 23 Having occupied Korea, Japan signs a treaty with Korea under which it becomes a Japanese protectorate in return for Japanese protection from other powers
- Feb 23 United States acquires control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million
Panama Canal Commission
Feb 29 Theodore Roosevelt, appoints 7-man Panama Canal Commission to proceed with completing a canal at the Isthmus
- Mar 2 Gabriele d'Annunzio's "La figlia di Iorio" premieres in Milan
- Mar 3 Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder
Historic Invention
Mar 5 Nikola Tesla describes the process of the ball lightning formation in Electrical World and Engineer
Event of Interest
Mar 12 Andrew Carnegie establishes Carnegie Hero Fund
- Mar 13 Bronze statue of Christ on Argentine-Chilean border dedicated
- Mar 14 In a landmark case, Northern Securities Company v United States, the US Supreme Court finds the company has violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; first case in T. Roosevelt's 'trust-busting' campaign
- Mar 22 "Bailundo Revolt" ends after almost 2-years in Portuguese victory over Ovimbundu kingdom & allies
- Apr 8 British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribes the first chapter of the Book of the Law
- Apr 8 Entente Cordiale between Britain and France
- Apr 8 Great Britain and France establish their Entente Cordiale, a technical treaty settling long-standing disagreements over Morocco, Egypt, Africa, and the Pacific
- Apr 8 New York City changes the name of Longacre Square to Times Square, in honor of The New York Times’s move to the area
- Apr 13 A squadron of the Russian fleet is decoyed out of Port Arthur by Japanese maneuvers, when they realize they are sailing into a trap; their battleship Petropavlovsk hits a mine and sinks, with a loss of 700 men
- Apr 13 Battle of Oviumbo (in modern Namibia): Herero tribesmen rise up against German colonists
Event of Interest
Apr 13 US Congress authorizes Lewis and Clark Expo $1 gold coin
Event of Interest
Apr 24 President Loubet of France visits King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and pointedly ignores the Pope, exacerbating relations between France and the Roman Catholic Church
- Apr 26 Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium forms
- Apr 26 General Kuroko leads the Japanese Army against the large Russian force at the Yalu river during the Russo-Japanese War
First Labour Government
Apr 27 The Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becomes the first Labor government in the world
- Apr 30 Ice cream cone makes its debut at St. Louis World's Fair invented by Ernest A. Hamwi (independently of other claimant Italo Marchiony in NY)
‘At 60mph The Loudest Noise In A Rolls-Royce Is The Electric Clock’
May 4 Charles Rolls meets Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. Go on to form the car manufacturer Roll-Royce. [1]
- May 4 Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal
- May 6 American Lung Association holds its 1st meeting
- May 7 Flexible Flyer trademark registered
- May 9 The steam locomotive City of Truro becomes the first steam engine to exceed 100mph.
- May 11 Andrew Carnegie donates $1.5M to build a peace palace
- May 18 In Morocco, a brigand, Raizuli, kidnaps Ion H. Perdicaris, an American citizen
- May 21 France recalls its ambassador to the Vatican to protest the Pope's attempt to discipline two French bishops; this is yet another incident driving France and the Catholic Church apart
- May 26 In two days of bitter fighting, the Japanese Army soundly defeats the Russians at Kinchan and captures the forts at Nanshan
- May 30 Frank Chance gets hit by pitch 5 times in a doubleheader
- May 30 The Japanese Army capture the City of Dairen after landing troops along the south coast of Manchuria
- Jun 2 Professor Schron finds microbe that causes photosynthesis
- Jun 6 National Tuberculosis Association organized, Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Jun 11 German Lt-Gen Lothar von Trotha lands in Swapokmund, SW-Africa
- Jun 14 At the battle of Telissu, the Japanese rout the Russians and inflict heavy casualties
- Jun 14 Dutch troops occupy Kuto Reh, Sumatra, killing all inhabitants
- Jun 15 Side-wheeler passenger paddlesteamer "General Slocum" burns in NY's East River (1,031 die)
Event of Interest
Jun 16 Bloomsday (date of events in James Joyce's novel "Ulysses")
- Jun 16 Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland
- Jun 21 The US Republican Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for President, but not without opposition from those whom he calls 'malefactors of great wealth'
- Jun 22 Chinese laborers arrive in South Africa following a severe labor shortage
- Jun 28 International Anti-Military Cooperation (IAMV) forms in Amsterdam
- Jun 28 SS Norge runs aground and sinks off Rockall, North Atlantic, more than 635 die, largest maritime loss of life until Titanic
- Jun 29 2 prehistoric bones found in Weerdingerveen, Drenthe
- Jul 6 The US Democratic Party nominates little known New York judge Alton B. Parker for presidential nominee - virtually assuring the election of Theodore Roosevelt
- Jul 6 Two Russian cruisers move into the Red Sea and begin to stop ships of Britain, Germany, and other nations they believe friendly to Japan
- Jul 15 1st Buddhist temple in US forms, Los Angeles
- Jul 16 Islands of Manu'a group (Samoa) ceded to US by their chiefs
- Jul 19 Dutch Premier Kuypers disbands 1st Chamber
- Jul 21 After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway is completed
- Jul 21 Camille Jenatzy sets world auto speed record at 65.79 MPH
- Jul 23 Ice cream cone created during St Louis World Fair - the 1st cone reputedly by Charles E. Menches
- Jul 28 Interior Minister of Russia, Vyacheslav Plehve is assassinated; as leader of the most reactionary elements of government, he was hated for his repressive policies
- Jul 28 Rafael Reyes becomes dictator of Colombia after losing Panama
- Aug 3 British journalist Francis Younghusband visits forbidden city Lhasa
- Aug 7 Train derails on bridge in Eden, Colorado, during a flash flood, kills 96
- Aug 9 Libanus McLouth Todd of Rochester, New York patents his check-writing machine, the Protectograph designed to protect against check forgers
Event of Interest
Aug 10 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (future Pope John XXIII) becomes a priest
- Aug 10 Battle of the Yellow Sea: Japanese fleet prevented Russians breaking out of Port Arthur
- Aug 10 Dutch newspaper Volk fires gay journalist Jacob de Cock
- Aug 11 German-ltalian General Von Trotha defeats Herero in SW Africa
- Aug 11 The Russian fleet in the harbor of at Port Arthur is exposed to Russian guns on the hill above the harbor; Russian ships attempt escape, but most are forced back into harbor by Japanese ships
- Aug 16 NYC begins building Grand Central Station
- Aug 17 George H Reid succeeds John Watson as Prime Minister of Australia
- Aug 18 Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid
- Aug 23 Automobile tire chain patented
- Aug 24 Battle of Liao-Yang-200,000 Japanese against 150,000 Russian, Japanese tactical victory
- Sep 4 Dalai Lama signs treaty allowing British commerce in Tibet
- Sep 7 British forces in Tibet force the 13th Dalai Lama to sign a treaty granting Britain trading posts in Tibet and a guarantee that Tibet will not concede territory to foreign powers
- Sep 9 Mounted police 1st used in NYC
- Sep 19 Gen Nogi's assault on Port Arthur: 16,000 Japanese casualties
- Sep 20 George Ade's "College Widow," premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
Sep 20 Orville and Wilbur Wright fly a circle in their Flyer II
- Sep 21 The general strike called by the Socialist Party that spread throughout Italy ends
- Sep 23 British Colonel Francis Younghusband and his expedition with accompanying military force leave Lhasa, Tibet
- Sep 25 Charles Follis becomes 1st black American to play professional American football
- Sep 26 Earl Grey is named British governor-general of Canada
- Sep 26 GB Shaw's "How He Lied to Her Husband" premieres in NYC
- Sep 28 Woman arrested for smoking a cigarette in a car on 5th Avenue, NYC
- Sep 29 1st monument honoring Spanish–American War erected, in Monroeville, Ohio
- Oct 1 JB van Heutsz becomes governor general of Dutch East Indies
- Oct 1 Netherlands and Portugal lay down boundaries splitting the island of Timor in two
- Oct 2 German General Lothar von Trotha issues order to exterminate Herero people of Namidia, first genocide of the 20th Century, will kill 65,000 Herero and 100,000 of the Nama tribe
- Oct 3 France & Spain sign treaty for Morocco Independence
- Oct 3 Mary McLeod Bethune opens Daytona Normal & Industrial School
- Oct 10 Liberty Theater opens at 234 W 42nd St NYC
- Oct 15 The Russians are driven back by the Japanese in the Battle of Shaho; both sides suffer high casualties: Japanese (16,000) and Russians (60,000)
- Oct 16 Russian Baltic fleet departs to Port Arthur
Event of Interest
Oct 17 Bank of Italy (Bank of America), founded by Amadeo Giannini, opens its doors in San Francisco
- Oct 19 Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through superintendence of American C.A. O'Reilley
- Oct 20 Bolivia and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific; recognizing Chile's possession of the coast, providing for construction of a railway linking La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica on the coast
- Oct 22 Russian fleet shoots at British fishing ship
- Oct 27 First section of New York subway - Lower Manhattan to Broadway Harlem, opened by Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), fare one nickel
- Oct 28 St Louis police try a new investigation method - fingerprints
- Oct 29 First intercity trucking service (Colorado City & Snyder, Texas)
- Nov 4 First stadium built specifically for football (Harvard Stadium)
- Nov 8 American President Theodore Roosevelt (R) defeats Alton B. Parker (D)
- Nov 8 Inventor and manufacturer Harvey Hubbell receives the first U.S. patent for a separable electric attachment plug
- Nov 9 1st airplane flight to last more than 5 minutes
Historic Invention
Nov 15 King C. Gillette patents the Gillette razor blade
- Nov 18 General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup
- Nov 28 Germany defeats Hottentotten in Warmbad SW-Africa
- Dec 6 Theodore Roosevelt confirms Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary)
- Dec 10 Founding of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity in Charleston, South Carolina
Nobel Prize
Dec 10 Ivan Pavlov awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on the physiology of digestion, first Russian to win a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
Dec 10 John William Strutt [Lord Rayleigh] and William Ramsay are presented with the Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery of Argon
- Dec 10 King Peter I of Serbia named nationalist regime
- Dec 12 CMS McClellan's "Leah Kleschna" premieres in NYC
- Dec 24 German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
- Dec 27 Stage play "Peter Pan" by J. M. Barrie premieres at the Duke of York Theatre in London
- Dec 27 W B Yeats and Lady Gregory's "On Baile's Strand" premieres in Dublin
- Dec 28 1st daily wireless weather forecasts published (London)
- Dec 31 First New Year's Eve celebration held in Times Square, New York City