1900

Last update: Monday 05th of January 2009

Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. As a result, the Julian calendar was 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar until Wednesday, February 28 (O.S. February 16) and has been 13 days behind since Thursday, March 1 (O.S. February 17).

Events of 1900

January

• January 1
  • Hawaii asks for a delegate at the U.S. Republican National Convention.
  • Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.
• January 2
  • The first electric bus becomes operational in New York City.
  • John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
• January 3 -
• January 4 - Strikes in Belgium and Germany lead to mining riots.
• January 5
  • Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
  • Dr. Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University discovers the cause of the Earth's magnetism.
• January 6 - Second Boer War: Boers attack Ladysmith, South Africa, killing over 1,000.
• January 8 - United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
• January 9
  • The first through train runs from Cairo to Khartoum.
  • Influenza strikes London.
• January 14
  • The opera Tosca premieres in Rome; actors have received death threats and nameless letters.
  • The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
  • George Griffin is the first Australian to be killed in the Boer War.
• January 17
  • Brigham H. Roberts is refused a seat in the United States House of Representatives because of his polygamy.
  • Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaim independence from Mexico.
• January 23 - 5,000 Austrian miners go on strike.
• January 24 - Second Boer War - Battle of Spion Kop: Boer troops defeat the British.
• January 26 - The Labor League Conference opens in Sydney, Australia, with plans to form a Federal Labor Party.
• January 27 - Boxer Rebellion: Foreign diplomats in Peking, China demand that the Boxer rebels be disciplined.
• January 29 - The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.

February

• February 1 - Western Australia refuses to join the Federation unless given 5 years of fiscal freedom.
• February 3
  • Kentucky Governor William Goebel dies of wounds after beig shot by assassins on January 30. Goebel, who had prevailed in an a dispute over the winner of the 1899 election, had been sworn in on his deathbed.

Former Secretary of State Caleb Powers is later found guilty in a conspiracy to kill Goebel.

• • Strikers in Aachen, Vienna and Brussels demand an 8-hour working day and higher wages.
• February 5
  • Britain and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.
  • Second Boer War: The British House of Commons' vote of censure over the British government's handling of the war is defeated by a majority of 213.
• February 6 - The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
• February 8 - Second Boer War: British troops are defeated by theBoers at Ladysmith.
• February 9 - Dwight F. Davis creates the Davis Cup tennis tournament.
• February 14
  • Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
  • Second Boer War - Battle of Paardeberg: 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
• February 15 - Second Boer War: The Siege of Kimberley is lifted.
• February 17 - Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg: British troops defeat the Boers.
• February 27
  • The British Labour Party is formed.
  • Second Boer War: British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje.
  • Ramsay MacDonald is appointed secretary of the newly formed British Labour Party.

March

• March 2 - Groups of officials inspect towns around Australia in order to find the new Federal capital.
• March 5 - Two U.S. cruisers are sent to Central America to protect U.S. interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
• March 6
  • 'Baby-farmer' Ada Williams is hanged at Newgate Prison for murdering a 21-month old girl.
  • A coal mine explosion in West Virginia traps 50 miners.
• March 7 - Fire at Buckingham Palace destroys part of its roof.
• March 8 - Londoners celebrate as Queen Victoria makes a rare visit to the city.
• March 9 - Women in Germany demand the right to participate in university entrance exams.
• March 14 - Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's laws of heredity.
• March 15 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
• March 16 - British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land on Crete on which the ruins of the palace of Knossos reside. He begins to unearth some of the palace 3 days later.
• March 24 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
• March 25 - The War of the Golden Stool erupts in the Ashanti Kingdom of West Africa between the Ashanti and British colonial forces.
• March 27
  • The arrival of a Russian fleet in Korea causes concern to the Japanese government.
  • India is in crisis as millions starve. The country turns to the Colonial Government for help as food supplies run out.
• March 28 - Over 1,000 tonnes of filth are removed from demolished Sydney, Australia buildings in areas affected by the bubonic plague outbreak.
• March 31 - In France, the legal length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours.

April

• April 1
  • The Irish Guards are formed by Queen Victoria.
  • King George of Greece becomes absolute monarch of Crete.
• April 4 - An anarchist shoots at the Prince of Wales during his visit to Belgium.
• April 14 - The Paris World Exhibition opens.
• April 22 - Battle of Kousséri: French forces secure their domination of Chad.
• April 26 - The Great Lumber Fire of Ottawa-Hull kills 7 and leaves 15,000 homeless.
• April 30 - Hawaii becomes an official U.S. territory.

May

• May 1 - An explosion of blasting powder in coal mine in Scofield, Utah kills 200.
• May 14 - The second Modern Olympic Games opens in Paris (as part of the Paris World Exhibition).
• May 17
  • Second Boer War: British troops relieve the Mafeking.
  • Boxer Rebellion: Boxers destroy 3 villages near Peking and kill 60 Chinese Christians.
• May 18 - The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
• May 21 - Russia invades Manchuria.

• May 24 - Second Boer War: The British annex Orange Free State as Orange River Colony.
• May 28 - Boxer Rebellion: The Boxers attack Belgian personnel in the Fengtai railway station.
• May 31 - Boxer Rebellion: Peacekeepers from various European countries arrive in China.

June

• June 1 - Carrie Nation demolishes 25 saloons in Medicine Lodge, Kansas.
• June 5 - Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.
• June 14 - The Reichstag approves a second law that allows the expansion of the German navy.
• June 20 - Boxer Rebellion: Boxers gather about 20,000 people near Peking and kill hundreds of European citizens, including the German ambassador.
• June 30 - Saale disaster: The German passenger ship Saale, owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line, catches fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey. The fire spreads to the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.

July

• July 2 - The first zeppelin flight occurs over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
• July 5 - The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act passes the British Parliament.
• July 9 - Queen Victoria gives royal assent to theCommonwealth of Australia Constitution Act.
• July 12 - A German cruise liner, the SS Deutschland, breaks the Blue Riband record for the first time with an average speed of 22.42 knots.
• July 19 - The first line of the Métro is inaugurated in Paris.
• July 25 - The Robert Charles Riots occur in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
• July 29 - King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy starts to rule.
• July 30 - The Duke of Albany becomes Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as Carl Eduard following the death of his uncle, Duke Alfred.

August

• August 14 - Boxer Rebellion: An international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the Europeans taken hostage.

September

• September 8 - A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000.
• September 13 - Philippine-American War: Filipino resistance fighters defeat a large American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa.
• September 17 - Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
• September 25 - In the British general election, the recently-formed Labour Party gains two seats. Winston Churchill is elected to Parliament for the first time.

November

• November 3
  • The first automobile show in the United States opens at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
  • Panama separates from Colombia.
• November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1900: Republican incumbent William McKinley is reelected by defeating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan.

December

• December 7 - Max Planck discovers the law of black body emission.

Undated

• U.S. New Haven, CT Louis Lassen of Louis' Lunch makes the first modern-day hamburger sandwich.
• The Sokoto Caliphate has 1 million free people and maybe 2.5 million slaves.
• Civil service consists of fewer than 3,500 top officials for a population of 300 million in India.
• 4 out of every 1,000 residents of British India die of cholera each year.
• Japan participates with the European powers in occupying Beijing to suppress the Boxer Rebellion.
• At the Carnegie Steel Corporation (later USX) Slavs and Italians produce 1/3 of the world's total steel supply.
• 1900-1914 - 14 million immigrants pass through the US customs inspection station at Ellis Island in New York City.
• 1900-1917 - 72,000 railroad worker deaths occure in the USA.

World population

• World population: 1,650,000,000
  • Africa: 133,000,000
  • Asia: 947,000,000
    • Japan: c. 45,000,000
  • Europe: 408,000,000
  • Latin-America: 74,000,000
  • Northern America: 82,000,000
  • Oceania: 6,000,000

Births

January-June

• January 1 - Xavier Cugat, Cuban bandleader (d. 1990)
• January 2 - William Haines, American actor (d. 1973)
• January 4 - James Bond, American ornithologist (d. 1989)
• January 5 - Yves Tanguy, French painter (d. 1955)
• January 16 - Edith Frank, German-Dutch mother of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
• January 25 - Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian geneticist and evolutionary biologist (d. 1975)
• January 23 - William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor and organist (d. 1988)
• January 26 - Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
• January 27 - Hyman Rickover, American admiral (d. 1986)
• January 30 - Martita Hunt, Argentine-born British actress (d. 1969)
• February 4 - Jacques Prévert, French lyricist and author (d. 1977)
• February 5 - Adlai Stevenson, American politician (d. 1965)
• February 11 - Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (d. 2002)
• February 12 - Roger J. Traynor, American judge (d. 1983)
• February 19 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
• February 22 - Luis Buñuel, Spanish film director (d. 1983)
• February 28 - Wolfram Hirth, German pilot and aircraft designer (d. 1959)
• March 4 - Herbert Biberman, American screenwriter and film director (d. 1971)
• March 9 - Howard Aiken, American computing pioneer (d. 1973)
• March 19 - Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1958)
• March 23 - Erich Fromm, German-born psychologist and philosopher (d. 1980)
• March 29 - John McEwen, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1980)
• March 31 - Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (d. 1974)
• April 2 - Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (d. 1942)
• April 5 - Spencer Tracy, American actor (d. 1967)
• April 8 - Marie Byles, Australian solicitor (d. 1979)
• April 16 - Polly Adler, Russian author (d. 1962)
• April 21 - Hans Fritzsche, German Nazi official (d. 1953)
• April 25 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
• April 26 - Charles Richter, American geophysicist and inventor (d. 1985)
• April 27 – August Koern, Estonian statesman and diplomat (d. 1989)
• April 30 - Cecily Lefort, English World War II heroine (d. 1945)
• May 1 - Ignazio Silone, Italian author (d. 1978)
• May 12 - Helene Weigel, Austrian actress (d. 1971)
• May 15 - Zheng Ji, Chinese nutritionist and biochemist
• May 17 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian political leader (d. 1989)
• May 23 - Hans Frank, German Nazi official (d. 1946)
• May 27 - Uładzimir Zylka, Belarusian poet (d. 1933)
• May 28 - Tommy Ladnier, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1939)
• June 3 - Rolland Fisher, American temperance activist (d. 1982)
• June 4 - George Watkins, American baseball player (d. 1970)
• June 5 - Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• June 7 - Glen Gray, American saxophonist (d. 1963)
• June 15 - Paul Mares, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1949)
• June 17 - Martin Bormann, German Nazi official (d. 1945)
• June 29 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer (d. 1944)

July-December

• July 4 - Robert Desnos, French poet (d. 1945)
• July 6 - Frederica Sagor Maas, American playwright, essayist, and author
• July 13 - George Lewis, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1968)
• July 29 - Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
• August 3 - Ernie Pyle, American journalist (d. 1945)
• August 4 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, queen of George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
• August 6 - Cecil H. Green, British-born geophysicist and businessman (d. 2003)
• August 10 - Arthur Espie Porritt, New Zealand politician and athlete (d. 1994)
• August 11 - Philip Phillips, American archaeologist (d. 1994)
• August 18 - Glenn Albert Black, American archaeologist (d. 1964)
• August 19
  • Colleen Moore, American actress (d. 1988)
  • Gilbert Ryle, British philosopher (d. 1976)
• August 22 - Sergei Ozhegov, Russian lexicographer (d. 1964)
• August 25 - Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1981)
• August 26 - Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (d. 1980)
• September 3 - Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (d. 1986)
• September 6 - W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (d. 1979)
• September 22 - Paul H. Emmett, American chemical engineer (d. 1985)
• September 23 - Louise Nevelson, Ukrainian-born American sculptor (d. 1988)
• September 29 - Miguel Alemán Valdés, President of Mexico (d. 1983)
• September 29 - Auguste van Pels, German-Dutch mother of Peter van Pels, housemate of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
• October 1 - Tom Goddard, English cricketer (d. 1966)
• October 6 - Stan Nichols, English cricketer (d. 1961)
• October 7 - Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi official and SS head (d. 1945)
• October 30 - Ragnar Granit, Finnish neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1991)
• November 4 - Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, Romanian communist activist and sociologist (d. 1954)
• November 5
  • Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (d. 1972)
  • Natalie Schafer, American actress (d. 1991)
• November 6 - Hugh Prosser, American actor (d. 1952)
• November 8
  • Charlie Paddock, American athlete (d. 1943)
  • Margaret Mitchell, American writer (Gone With The Wind) (d. 1949)
• November 11 - Halina Konopacka, Polish athlete (d. 1989)
• November 13 - David Marshall Williams, American inventor (d. 1975)
• November 14 - Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)
• November 16 - Nikolai Pogodin, Soviet playwright (d. 1962)
• November 22 - Tom Macdonald, Welsh journalist and novelist (d. 1980)
• November 25 - Rudolf Höß, German Nazi official (d. 1947)
• December 3
  • Ulrich Inderbinen, Swiss mountain guide (d. 2004)
  • Richard Kuhn, Austrian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
• December 4 - John Axon, British railwayman (d. 1957)
• December 6 - Agnes Moorehead, American actress (Bewitched) (d. 1974)
• December 12 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (d. 1988)
• December 16 - V. S. Pritchett, British writer and critic (d. 1997)
• December 20 - Marinus van der Goes van Naters, Dutch politician (d. 2005)

Deaths

January - June

• January 20 - John Ruskin, English writer and social critic (b. 1819)
• January 31 - John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Scottish nobleman and boxer (b. 1844)
• February 18 - Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)
• March 6
  • Gottlieb Daimler, German inventor and automotive pioneer (b. 1834)
  • Carl Bechstein, German piano maker (b. 1826)
• April 5
  • Joseph Louis François Bertrand, French mathematician (b. 1822)
  • Osman Nuri Paşa, Ottoman military leader (b. 1832)
• April 17 - George Curry, Wild West robber (Wild Bunch) (shot) (b. 1864)
• April 19 - James Dawson, Australian activist (b. 1806)
• April 22 - Amédée-François Lamy, French solder (b. 1858) (killed in battle)
• April 24 - George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, British politician (b.1823)
• April 30 - Casey Jones, American railway engineer (b. 1864)
• May 18 - Jean Gaspard Felix Ravaisson-Mollien, French philosopher (b. 1813)
• June 2
  • Samori Ture, West African empire-builder (b. 1830)
  • Clarence Cook, American critic and writer (b. 1828)
• June 3 - Mary Kingsley, English explorer and writer (b. 1862)
• June 5 - Stephen Crane, American author (b. 1871)
• June 11 - Belle Boyd, American Confederate spy and actress (b. 1843)
• June 19 - Princess Josephine of Baden (b. 1813)

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