This article is about the year 1903. For the rifle, see M1903 Springfield.
Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
---|---|
Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
Decades: | 1870s 1880s 1890s – 1900s – 1910s 1920s 1930s |
Years: | 1900 1901 1902 – 1903 – 1904 1905 1906 |
Gregorian calendar | 1903 MCMIII |
Ab urbe condita | 2656 |
Armenian calendar | 1352 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԲ |
Assyrian calendar | 6653 |
Bahá'í calendar | 59–60 |
Bengali calendar | 1310 |
Berber calendar | 2853 |
British Regnal year | 2 Edw. 7 – 3 Edw. 7 |
Buddhist calendar | 2447 |
Burmese calendar | 1265 |
Byzantine calendar | 7411–7412 |
Chinese calendar | 壬寅年 (Water Tiger) 4599 or 4539 — to — 癸卯年 (Water Rabbit) 4600 or 4540 |
Coptic calendar | 1619–1620 |
Discordian calendar | 3069 |
Ethiopian calendar | 1895–1896 |
Hebrew calendar | 5663–5664 |
Hindu calendars | |
- Vikram Samvat | 1959–1960 |
- Shaka Samvat | 1825–1826 |
- Kali Yuga | 5004–5005 |
Holocene calendar | 11903 |
Igbo calendar | 903–904 |
Iranian calendar | 1281–1282 |
Islamic calendar | 1320–1321 |
Japanese calendar | Meiji 36 (明治36年) |
Juche calendar | N/A |
Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
Korean calendar | 4236 |
Minguo calendar | 9 before ROC 民前9年 |
Thai solar calendar | 2446 |
Year 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar.
Contents
Events
January
- January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
- January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been made in 1901).
February
- February 11 – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.
- February 15 – Morris and Rose Michtom introduce the first teddy bear in the United States.
- February 17 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.
- February 23 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity" under the terms of the Cuban–American Treaty.
March
- March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.
- March 3 – The British Admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth.
- March 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople–Baghdad Railway.
- March 12 – The University of Puerto Rico is founded.
- March 14 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate later rejects the treaty.
April
- April 29 – A 30-million-m3 landslide kills 70-90 in Frank, Alberta.
May
- May 4 – The leading Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev is killed in a skirmish with the Turkish army.
- May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens.
- May 22 – The White Star Liner, SS Ionic, is launched.
- May 24 – The Paris–Madrid race begins, during which at least eight people are killed.
- May 29 (O.S.) – In the May coup d'état, Alexander I, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.
June
- June 11 – Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated.
- June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, is nearly destroyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood that kills an estimated 238 people.
- June 27 (N.S.) – 19-year-old American socialite Aida de Acosta becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots Santos-Dumont's motorized dirigible, “No. 9”, from Paris to Château de Bagatelle in France.[1]
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20150320030112im_/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/1903_ford_model_a.jpg)
July 23: 1903 Ford Model A.
July
- July 1–July 19 – First Tour de France bicycle race, won by Maurice Garin.
- July 7 – The British take over the Fulani Empire.
- July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
- July 29 – Explosion of a United States Cartridge Company magazine destroys 70 homes killing 22 residents of Tewksbury, Massachusetts.[2]
- July 30–August 23 (July 17–August 10, O.S.) – Second Congress of the All-Russian Social Democratic Labour Party held in exile in Brussels, transferring to London.
August
- August 2 – The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople.
- August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.
- August 10 – Paris Métro train fire takes place.
- August 25 – The Judiciary Act is passed in the Australian parliament.
September
- September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
- September 14 – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as British Colonial Secretary, in order to campaign publicly for Imperial Preference.
- September 15 – Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil
- September 24 – Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
- September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 Fast Mail train at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia kills 11 people and inspires a ballad.[3]
- September 29 – Prussia becomes the first locality to require mandatory driver's licenses for operators of motor vehicles.
October
- October – Frank Nelson Cole proves that 267-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for 3 years.
- October 6 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
- October 10 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in the UK.
November
- November 3 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
- November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.
- November 17 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").
- November 18 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
- November 23 – Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.
December
- December 16 – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel hotel in Bombay opens its doors to guests.
- December 17 – Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.
- December 30 – Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago kills 600.
Date unknown
- The Lincoln–Lee Legion is established to promote the American temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children.
- The first box of Crayola crayons is made and sold for 5 cents. It contains 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.
- Osea Island off Maldon, Essex, England, is bought by Frederick Nicholas Charrington to provide an addiction treatment centre.
- Royal Enfield starts making Motor Cycles.
Births
January
- January 6 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)
- January 7 – Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)
- January 10 – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)
- January 11 – Alan Paton, South African author and anti-apartheid, activist. (d. 1988)
- January 12 – Igor Kurchatov, Soviet physicist (d. 1960)
- January 16 – William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945)
- January 22 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)
- January 27 – John Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
February
- February 2 – Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996)
- February 4 – Alexander Imich, American parapsychologist and chemist (d. 2014)
- February 6 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)
- February 8
- Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)
- Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
- February 10
- Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)
- Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
- February 11
- Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)
- Hans Redlich, Austrian composer (d. 1968)
- February 13 – Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)
- February 14 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- February 16 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)
- February 21
- Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
- Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)
- February 22
- Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990)
- Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (d. 1969)
- Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930)
- February 24 – Vladimir Bartol, Slove author (d. 1967)
- February 26 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
- February 27 – Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)
- February 28 – Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)
March
- March 4
- Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)
- William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983)
- Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (d. 1990)
- John Scarne, American magician and card expert (d. 1985)
- March 6 – Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000)
- March 10 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931)
- March 11
- Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989)
- Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992)
- March 14 – Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)
- March 18 – Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari, Italian aristocrat and diplomat (d. 1944)
- March 20 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)
- March 24 – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- March 25 – Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990)
- March 27 – Betty Balfour, English screen actress (d. 1977)
- March 28 – Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)
- March 31 – H. J. Blackham, British humanist and author (d. 2009)
April
- April 5 – Hilda Bruce, British zoologist (d. 1974)
- April 6
- Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player (d. 1962)
- Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (d. 1990)
- April 10 – Clare Boothe Luce, American publisher and writer (d. 1987)
- April 12 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- April 15 – John Williams, English-born actor (d. 1983)
- April 17
- Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)
- Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975)
- April 19 – Eliot Ness, American treasury agent (d. 1957)
- April 24 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (d. 1936)
- April 25 – Andrey Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)
- April 28 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979)
May
- May 2 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician (d. 1998)
- May 3 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)
- May 4 – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984)
- May 6 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)
- May 8 – Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)
- May 10 – Hans Jonas, German-born philosopher(d. 1993)
- May 11 – Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993)
- May 21 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
- May 24 – Lofton R. Henderson, American naval aviator, died in the Battle of Midway (d. 1942)
- May 25 – Binnie Barnes, English actress (d. 1988)
- May 29 – Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor (d. 2003)
June
- June 1 – Vasyl Velychkovsky Ukrainian bishop (d. 1973)
- June 6 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
- June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)
- June 10 – Theo Lingen, German actor (d. 1978)
- June 12 – Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)
- June 16
- Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)
- Huldreich Georg Früh, Swiss composer (d. 1945)
- June 18
- Jeanette MacDonald, American singer and actress (d. 1965)
- Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)
- June 19
- Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)
- Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)
- June 20 – Eddie Laughton, British-born American film actor (d. 1952)
- June 21 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)
- June 22
- John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)
- Jiro Horikoshi, Japanese aircraft designer (d. 1982)
- Ben Pollack, American jazz drummer and bandleader (d. 1971)
- June 25
- Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944)
- George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)
- June 29 – Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)
July
- July 1 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)
- July 2
- Harwell Hamilton Harris, American architect (d. 1990)
- Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
- King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)
- July 3 – Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)
- July 4 – Corrado Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)
- July 6 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)
- July 10 – John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969)
- July 13 – Kenneth Clark, English art historian (d. 1983)
- July 21 – Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector (d. 2010)
August
- August 3
- Habib Bourguiba, former President of Tunisia (d. 2000)
- Fahri Korutürk, former President of Turkey (d. 1987)
- August 6 – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999)
- August 7
- Rudolph Ising, cartoon animator (d. 1992)
- Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
- August 13 – Chubby Johnson, American actor (d. 1974)
- August 14 – Lodewijk Bruckman, Dutch painter (d. 1995)
- August 18 – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)
- August 19 – James Gould Cozzens, American writer (d. 1978)
- August 26 – Ian Dalrymple, British screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 1989)
- August 31
- Arthur Godfrey, American radio and television host (d. 1983)
- Hugh Harman, cartoon animator (d. 1982)
September
- September 7
- Dorothy Marie Donnelly, American poet (d. 1994)
- Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945)
- John Kloza, Polish professional baseball player and manager (d. 1962)
- September 8 – Jane Arbor, British writer (d. 1994)
- September 9
- Edward Upward, English author (d. 2009)
- Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer (d. 2008)
- September 11 – Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)
- September 13 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (d. 1996)
- September 15 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992)
- September 17 – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
- September 21 – Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (d. 1956)
- September 25
- Abul A'la Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979)
- Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)
October
- October 1 – Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (d. 1989)
- October 4 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer engineer (d. 1995)
- October 5 – M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (d. 1989)
- October 6 – Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- October 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (d. 1979)
- October 10 – Bei Shizhang, Chinese biologist and educator (d. 2009)
- October 16 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)
- October 18 – Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)
- October 22
- George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)
- Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976)
- Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, American comedian and actor (The Three Stooges) (d. 1952)
- October 25
- Katharine Byron, American politician (d. 1976)
- Harry Shoulberg, American painter (d. 1995)
- October 26 – Bill Allington, American baseball player and manager (d. 1966)
- October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)
November
- November 1 – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (d. 1973)
- November 2 – Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944)
- November 3 – Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)
- November 4 – Watchman Nee, Chinese preacher and church leader (d. 1972)
- November 6 – Carl Rakosi, German-born poet (d. 2004)
- November 7 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)
- November 8 – Alfred Thambiayah, Ceylon Tamil businessman and politician
- November 11 – Blessed Victoria Díez Bustos de Molina, Spanish teacher and religious woman (d. 1936)
- November 19 – Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)
- November 27 – Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
- November 29 – E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and presidential candidate (d. 1992)
December
- December 5
- Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor (d. 2011)
- Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
- December 4
- Lazar Lagin, Soviet writer (d. 1979)
- A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997)
- December 12
- Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer and pianist (d. 1976)
- Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)
- December 13 – Ella Baker, American civil rights activist (d. 1986)
- December 17 – Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987)
- December 19 – George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)
- December 22 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
- December 24 – Joseph Cornell, American sculptor (d. 1972)
- December 26 – Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)
- December 28
- Earl Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983)
- John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957)
- December 31
- Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
- Will Mastin, American vaudevillian (d. 1975)
Deaths
January–June
- January 3 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)
- January 5 – Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, Spanish politician, former Prime Minister (b. 1825)
- January 17 – Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845)
- January 28
- Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)
- Robert Planquette, French composer (b. 1850)
- February 1 – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (b. 1819)
- February 7 – James Glaisher, English meteorologist and aeronaut (b. 1809)
- February 14 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (b. 1831)
- February 22 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
- February 26 – Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818)
- March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834)
- March 6 – Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839)
- March 13 – George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821)
- March 16 – Roy Bean, American pioneer (b. 1825)
- March 28 – Émile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)
- April 3 – Margaret Ann Neve, supercentenarian (b. 1792)
- April 13 – Moritz Lazarus, German philosopher (b. 1824)
- April 19 – Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820)
- April 28 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)
- April 29 – Stuart Robson, American stage actor and comedian (b. 1836)
- May 4 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)
- May 8 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
- May 29 – Alexander I, King of Serbia (b. 1889)
- May 13 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b. 1864)
- June 9 – Gaspar Núñez de Arce, Spanish poet (b. 1834)
- June 11
- Nikolai Bugaev, Russian mathematician (b. 1837)
- Draga Mašin, Serbian queen consort (b. 1861)
- Alexander I of Serbia, Serbian king (b. 1876)
- June 19 – Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)
July–December
- July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1867)
- July 11 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)
- July 13 – Béni Kállay, Austro-Hungarian statesman (b. 1839)
- July 17 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)
- July 20 – Pope Leo XIII, Italian Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1810)
- August 1 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman (b. 1852)
- August 5 – Phil May, English artist (b. 1864)
- August 11 – Eugenio María de Hostos, Puerto Rican philosopher and sociologist (b. 1839)
- August 17 – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
- August 22 – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
- August 23 – Fray Mocho, Argentine writer (b. 1858)
- September 13 – Carl Schuch, Austrian painter (b. 1846)
- September 18 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)
- October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author (b. 1880)
- October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician (b. 1850)
- October 22 – William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Irish historian and member of the House of Commons (b. 1838)
- November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)
- November 13 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830)
- November 25 – Sabino Arana, Spanish Basque writer and nationalist (b. 1865)
- December 8 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie
- Chemistry – Svante August Arrhenius
- Medicine – Niels Ryberg Finsen
- Literature – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
- Peace – William Randal Cremer
References
- ^ "Women in Transportation – Changing America's History: Reference Materials" (PDF). United States Department of Transportation. March 1998. p. 10. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
- ^ "U.S. Cartridge Company". Lowell Land Trust. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
- ^ Scott, Alfred P. (1965). "Wreck of the Old 97: The Origins of a Modern Traditional Ballad" (pdf). Retrieved 2011-11-25.
- Gilbert, Martin (1997). "1903". A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-688-10064-3.