1903 in the United States
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Events from the year 1903 in the United States.
Contents
Incumbents
Federal Government
- President: Theodore Roosevelt (R-New York)
- Vice President: vacant
- Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: David B. Henderson (R-Iowa) (until March 4), Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-Illinois) (starting November 9)
- Congress: 57th (until March 4), 58th (starting March 4)
Events
January–March
- 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 December 1901).
- January 21 – Section of Militia Affairs within the Adjutant General's office.
- 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 14
- Census Board within the Department of Commerce and Labor (Census Bureau).
- Department of Commerce and Labor founded
- U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor.
- February 15 – Morris and Rose Mitchom introduce the first teddy bear in America.
- February 23 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
- March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.
- 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–June
- May 16 – 8:05pm: Luna Park, Coney Island, New York, opens.
- June 12 – The Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.
- June 14 – Heppner Flood of 1903: The town of Heppner, Oregon, is nearly destroyed by a cloudburst that results in a flash flood.
July–September
- July 1 – U.S. Bureau of Fisheries within Department of Commerce & Labor.
- July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
- August 9 – Commanding General post replaced by that of Chief of Staff of the Army.
- July 7-mother jones started the march of the Mill Children
- September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
- September 15 – Miami Herald first published as The Miami Evening Record.
- September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills nine people, inspires a ballad and song.
October–December
- October – Frank Nelson Cole proves that 267-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying for every Sunday for three years.
- October 1 – The first modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League.
- November 4 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
- November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.
- 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 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 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.
Undated
- The Lincoln–Lee Legion is established to promote the 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.
- Coca-Cola removes cocaine as a key ingredient from their formula; up to this time, it has contained approximately nine milligrams of cocaine per glass.
Ongoing
- Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
- Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
Births
- January 1 – Dwight Taylor, screenwriter and author (died 1986)
- March 7 – J. Allen Frear, Jr., United States Senator from Delaware from 1949 till 1961. (died 1993)
- April 19 – Eliot Ness, American Prohibition agent (died 1957)
- May 3 – Bing Crosby, early crooner, singer of the hit, "White Christmas". (died 1977)
- June 22 – John Dillinger, gangster in the Depression-era United States (died 1934)
- August 7 – Joseph H. Bottum, United States Senator from South Dakota from 1962 till 1963. (died 1984)
- October 6 – Brien McMahon, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1945 till 1952. (died 1952)
==Born ==
- January 4
- Gulstan Ropert, missionary (born 1839)
- Topsy, elephant (born 1875)
- January 28 – John B. Allen, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1889 to 1893 (born 1845)
- February 26 – Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor (born 1818)
- March 11 – Lou Graham (Seattle madame), wealthy business woman and madam from Germany (born 1857 in Germany)
- March 16 – Roy Bean, pioneer (born 1825)
- March 20 – Charles Godfrey Leland, humorist, folklorist and poet (born 1824)
- March 29 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, businessman (born 1839)
- April 22 – Alexander Ramsey, 2nd Governor of Minnesota from 1860 to 1863 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1863 to 1875 (born 1815)
- April 28 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, physical chemist (born 1839)
- April 29 – Stuart Robson, stage actor and comedian (born 1836)
- May 29 – Bruce Price, architect (born 1845)
- July 2 – Ed Delahanty, baseball player (born 1867)
- July 3 – Harriet Lane, acting First Lady of the United States during James Buchanan's presidency (born 1830)
- July 27 – Frederick J. Kimball, civil engineer (born 1844)
- August 1 – Calamity Jane, frontierswoman (born 1852)
- August 28 – Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, journalist, social critic and public administrator (born 1822)
- September 23 – Charles B. Farwell, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1887 to 1891 (born 1823)
- October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, politician (born 1850)
- November 3 – Eliza Hendricks, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Thomas A. Hendricks (born 1823)
- November 20 – Tom Horn, gunfighter and outlaw (born 1860)
- December 13 – Alexander McDonald, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1868 to 1871 (born 1832)
- December 23 – Middleton P. Barrow, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1882 to 1883 (born 1839)
See also
Further reading
- "Domestic Chronology", Statistician and Economist, San Francisco: Louis P. McCarty, 1905, pp. 227–347 – via HathiTrust. (Covers events May 1898-June 1905)
External links
- Media related to 1903 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons