1904

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-March

• January 7 - The distress signal CQD is established only to be replaced two years later by SOS.
• February 7 - The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

Aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire

• February 8 - Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts Russo-Japanese War
• February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in Congo
• February 17 - Puccini's Madame Butterfly debuts in Milan to no great success
• February 23 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• March 3 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
• March 4 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• March 8 – The first tunnel beneath the Hudson River completed
• March 21 – Battle of Chumik Shenko – British under general Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

April-June

• April 8 - Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
• April 8 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• April 8, April 9, and April 10 - Aleister Crowley writes The Book of the Law in Cairo, Egypt.
• April 18 - The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but kills no one.
• April 27 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• April 30 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1)
• May 4 - First Rolls-Royce manufactured
• May 5 - Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• May 18 - in Paris, 12 nations sign the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade
• May 21 - Fundation of FIFA
• June 15 - A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1000.
• June 16 - Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
• June 16 - Leopold Bloom walks through Dublin (First Bloomsday).

July-December

• July 21 - Trans-Siberian railway completed
• July 23 - In St. Louis, Missouri, Charles E. Menches invents the ice cream cone during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
• August 3 - A British expedition under colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet.
• August 14 - Ismael Montes becomes president of Bolivia.
• August 17 – Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
• August 18 - Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid.
• September 7 - Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with colonel Francis Younghusband
• October 1 - Assumption College is founded.
• October 15 - The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
• October 15 - Theta Tau, the Professional Engineering Fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• October 21 - Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea, in what would be known as the Dogger Bank incident.
• October 27 - The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens (IRT); the system is now the largest in the United States, and one of the largest in the world.
• November 4 - In Florence, Italy, the Arno River floods.
• November 8 - Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker in the U.S. presidential election
• November 24 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
• December 2 - St. Petersburg Soviet urges run on the banks. Attempt fails and the executive committee is arrested
• December 3 - Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, Himalia.
• December 4 - KU or Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest youth political organisation in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest remaining in the world.
• December 27 - The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premiered in London
• December 30 - East Boston Tunnel opens
• December 31 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

Unknown dates

• Herero Wars begin.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a "Second Manifesto" against polygamy.
• 1904-1905 Welsh Revival- Christian revival breaks out in Wales.
• Subject of alcohol and heart attacks first investigated.
• Loftus Road stadium opened.

Births

January-February

• January 1 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (d. 1982)
• January 3 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
• January 10 - Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
• January 14 - Cecil Beaton, English photographer (d. 1980)
• January 18 - Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
• January 22 - George Balanchine, Russian-born choreographer (d. 1983)
• January 22 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (d. 1941)
• January 26 - Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)
• January 26 - Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)
• January 29 - Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher (d. 1976)
• January 29 - Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
• February 1 - S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (d. 1979)
• February 3 - Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
• February 3 - Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
• February 4 - MacKinlay Kantor, American writer and historian (d. 1977)
• February 11 - Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)
• February 16 - George F. Kennan, American diplomat (d. 2005)
• February 16 - Philip Rabinowitz, South Africian record breaking sprinter
• February 20 - Aleksei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
• February 29 - Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)

March-April

• March 1 - Glenn Miller, American bandleader (d. 1944)
• March 2 - Dr. Seuss, American author (d. 1991)
• March 4 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (d. 1968)
• March 6 - Joseph Schmidt, Austrian tenor (d. 1942)
• March 7 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (d. 1942)
• March 14 - Doris Eaton Travis, American actress
• March 20 - B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist (d. 1990)
• March 22 - Itche Goldberg, Yiddish author
• March 26 - Joseph Campbell, American author on mythology (d. 1987)
• March 26 - Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2004)
• April 3 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
• April 8 - John Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
• April 9 - Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (d. 1972)
• April 14 - Sir John Gielgud, English actor (d. 2000)
• April 15 - Arshile Gorky, Armenian-born painter (d. 1948)
• April 16 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (d. 1983)
• April 22 - Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (d. 1967)
• April 24 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (d. 1997)
• April 26 - Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer (d. 1982)
• April 27 - Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (d. 1972)

May-July

• May 6 - Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born engineer (d. 1984)
• May 6 - Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
• May 11 - Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (d. 1989)
• May 17 - Jean Gabin, French actor (d. 1976)
• May 21 - Fats Waller, American pianist and comedian (d. 1943)
• May 21 - Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
• May 27 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
• June 2 - Frantisek Planicka, Czech footballer (d. 1996)
• June 2 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)
• June 3 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)
• June 6 - Francisco López Merino, Argentine poet (d. 1928)
• June 26 - Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born film actor (d. 1964)
• July 5 - Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist and author (d. 2005)
• July 6 - Erik Wickberg, General of The Salvation Army (d. 1996)
• July 8 - Henri Cartan, French mathematician
• July 12 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
• July 15 - Rudolf Arnheim, German-born author
• July 28 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• July 31 - Brett Halliday, American writer (d. 1977)

August-December

• August 4 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
• August 7 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
• August 12 - Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (d. 1918)
• August 16 - Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
• August 17 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
• August 21 - Count Basie, American musician and bandleader (d. 1984)
• August 22 - Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader (d. 1997)
• August 23 - Thelma Morgan, Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin (d. 1970)
• August 23 - Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)
• August 28 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (d. 1980)
• August 29 - Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)
• September 9 - Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player (d. 2005)
• September 22 - Joseph Valachi, gangster (d. 1971)
• September 29 - Greer Garson, English actress (d. 1996)
• October 1 - A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1977)
• October 3 - Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
• October 9 - Wally Brown, American actor and comedian (d. 1961)
• October 20 - Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
• October 23 - Harvey Penick, American golfer (d. 1995)
• October 25 - Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator (d. 1968)
• November 2 - Louis Eugène Félix Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• November 11 - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
• November 12 - Jacques Tourneur, French director (d. 1977)
• November 14 - Dick Powell, American actor and singer (d. 1963)
• November 14 - Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1988)
• November 25 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)
• November 25 - Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (d. 2000)
• November 30 - Clyfford Still, American painter (d. 1980)
• December 12 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-born magazine editor and socialite (d. 1981)
• December 18 - George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
• December 24 - Joseph M. Juran, American engineer and philanthropist
• December 25 - Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• December 26 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)
• December 30 - Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (d. 1987)

Unknown dates

• Gustave Biéler, Swiss-born hero of World War II (executed) (d. 1944)
• Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (d. 1991)
• J. J. Gibson, Gay psychologist (d. 1979)
• Tevfik Esenç, Turkish-born last speaker of the Ubykh language (d. 1992)

Deaths

• January 2 - James Longstreet, American Confederate general (b. 1821)
• January 20 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
• March 5 - John Lowther du Plat Taylor, British founder of the Army Post Office Corps (b. 1829)
• May 1 - Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841)
• May 10 - Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh explorer and journalist (b. 1841)
• May 19 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• June 4 - George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero (b. 1862)
• June 12 - Camille de Renesse, Belgian Count (b. 1836)
• July 3 - Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of Zionism (b. 1860)
• July 5 - Abai Kunanbaiuli, Kazakh poet (b. 1845)
• July 14 - Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b. 1860)
• July 14 - Paul Kruger, South African resistance leader (b. 1825)
• July 22 - Wilson Barrett, English actor (b. 1846)
• August 6 - Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic (b. 1825)
• August 22 - Kate Chopin, American author (b. 1851)
• August 25 - Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• August 29 - Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1840)
• September 25 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1860)
• September 26 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)
• October 4 - Frédéric Bartholdi, Alsatian sculptor (b. 1834)
• October 4 - Laurence Hope, English poetess (b. 1865)

Fiction

• Sometime in this year, the events of Raimuiro Senkitan take place.

Nobel prizes

• Physics - The Lord Rayleigh
• Chemistry - Sir William Ramsay
• Physiology or Medicine - Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
• Literature - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray Y Eizaguirre
• Peace - Institut De Droit International

External links

• 1904 Coin Pictures