November 1910

January – February – March – April – May – June – July -August – September – October – November – December

The following events occurred in November 1910:

November 14, 1910: Pilot Eugene Ely makes the first takeoff from an aircraft carrier

November 1, 1910 (Tuesday)

• In legislative elections in Cuba, the Liberal Party retained control despite gains by the Conservatives.^[1][1]
• A plot to overthrow the government of Peru was foiled.^[1]
• Tsar Nicholas II approved a measure extending the area in which Russian Jews could reside.^[1]

November 2, 1910 (Wednesday)

• Portugal's military forces threatened to overthrow the newly created Republic after pay raises were slow in coming.^[1]

November 3, 1910 (Thursday)

• General Tanaka Giichi established the Teikoku Zaigo Gunjinkai (Imperial Military Reserve Association), open to former members of Japan's Army as well as to civilian volunteers. By 1936, there were three million members of the association, providing political support for military control of Japan.^[2]
• The expulsion of the last of the religious orders from Portugal was concluded, with the deporation of 50 Jesuits.^[1]
• President Taft issued "an emphatic denial" of rumours that the United States was considering the annexation of the Republic of Panama, following a meeting with the Panamanian ambassador, C.C. Arosemena.^[3]
• Died: Hugh Grant, 55, former Mayor of New York City (1889–1892)

November 4, 1910 (Friday)

• Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, appearing on behalf of his nephew, George V of the United Kingdom, opened the very first session of the Parliament of the Union of South Africa.^[4]
• An Imperial decree was issued by the regent in the name of the Emperor of China, moving the date for creation of the first Chinese Parliament, from 1915 to 1913.^[5]
• Another Imperial edict directed that all Chinese diplomats abroad must cut their hair to remove their queues, and to "wear their hair as is the practice of the countries in wheich they are stationed." ^[6]
• Tsar Nicholas II of Russia arrived in Potsdam as a guest of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.^[1][7] From their discussions came an agreement to divide their spheres of influence in Persia.^[8]
• The Insane Asylum in Brandon, Manitoba, was destroyed by fire, but all 600 of the inmates were rescued.^[1][9]

November 5, 1910 (Saturday)

• Portugal's government granted amnesty to all political prisoners and cut the sentences of other criminals by one-third.^[1]
• Indiana University held its first Homecoming game. Credit for inventing the idea of an alumni "homecoming" has also been claimed for earlier games by Baylor University and the University of Illinois.^[10]
• Residents of Boggy, Florida, gave their city the more pleasant name of Niceville.^[11]
• What has been described as "The Post-Impressionist Scandal" took place in London, where the Grafton Gallery displayed the paintings of Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Paul Gaugin and Vincent van Gogh. British critics compared Post-Impressionism to anarchism in the art world.^[12]

November 6, 1910 (Sunday)

• The five masted sailing rigger Preussen, at 408 feet and 5,081 tons, the largest non-engine powered ship of all time, was destroyed after being rammed in the English Channel by the steamer SS Brighton.^[13]
• Died: Giuseppe Cesare Abba, 72, Italian patriot and writer
• Susan L. Huntington, The "Pāla-Sena" schools of sculpture (E.J. Brill, 1984) p198 (discovery of Visnu sculptures at Sahibganj.

November 7, 1910 (Monday)

• The first commercial airplane flight in history was carried out by Wright Company pilot Philip Parmalee, who transported two bolts of silk (worth $1,000) from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, for delivery to the Morehouse-Martens Department Store in Columbus.^[14]
• The Rainbow, second ship of the Royal Canadian Navy, arrived at Esquimault.^[15]
• The towns of Taft, California, and Granum, Alberta, were both incorporated.
• The comic operetta Naughty Marietta, produced by Victor Herbert, premiered on Broadway, at The New York Theatre.^[16]
• Some sources list November 7 as the date of Leo Tolstoy's death, based on the old-style calendar used in Russia at the time. In the Gregorian calendar used by the rest of the world, later adopted by Russia, the date was November 20.

November 8, 1910 (Tuesday)

Socialist Congressman Berger

• United States House of Representatives elections, 1910: The Republican Party lost 57 seats and its 219 to 172 majority in the House. The 62nd United States Congress would have 230 Democrats, 162 Republicans, 1 Progressive Republican and Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee, the first Socialist ever elected to Congress.^[17] At the time, United States Senators were elected by the legislatures in the 46 states, rather than popular vote, and the Republicans retained a 50–44 majority in the Senate.^[1]
• An explosion at a Victor-American Fuel and Iron Company mine near Delagua, Colorado, killed 51 coal miners. There were 18 survivors.^[18]

A Robertson screw

• Canadian entrepreneur P.L. Robertson received a patent (U.K. No. 975,285) for the Robertson screwdriver, designed to turn a square-holed screw that he had created in 1907. The Robertson screw is not common in the U.S. (where it is called the "square drive screw") but "accounts for over 75% of all screws sold in Canada".^[19]
• Industrial action in the coal mining Rhondda Valley led to clashes between striking miners and police forces, culminating in the Tonypandy Riots. Winston Churchill damaged his reputation in south Wales by quelling the trouble with troops.^[20]

November 9, 1910 (Wednesday)

• Twenty-six people were convicted of conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor of Japan. "In the 2,500 years of that empire's history", noted the New York Times, "the reverence of the people for the sovereign had been such that there had never been even a suggestion of an attack on the life of a Mikado." ^[1][21]
• French colonial troops fought a battle in the Ouadai region of Senegal against 5,000 soldiers in the combined armies of the sultans of Oualai, Massallet and Doudmourah. France reported that 34 of their Tirailleurs were killed and 73 wounded, and that 600 of the Senegalese died in the battle, including the Sultans of Massalet and Doudmourah. News did not reach France for nearly a month.^[22]

November 10, 1910 (Thursday)

• In what was described as "the first conviction on finger print evidence In the history of this country", a jury in Chicago found Thomas Jennings guilty of the September 19 murder of Clarence A. Hiller.^[23]
• President Taft left the United States to visit Panama, on board the USS Tennessee, for an inspection of construction on the Panama Canal, arriving there on November 14.^[1] "Taft Sails For Panama", New York Times, November 11, 1910, p7
• An agreement for a four-nation loan of $50 million to China was signed in London.^[1]

November 11, 1910 (Friday)

• The governments of the United States, Germany, Russia, Sweden and Norway gave diplomatic recognition to the newly created Republic of Portugal, which had overthrown the Kingdom of Portugal one month earlier.^[1]
• The village of Kinney, Minnesota, was incorporated.

November 12, 1910 (Saturday)

• Rudolph Munk, captain of the West Virginia Mountaineers football team, was fatally injured in a game against visiting Bethany College. Thomas McCoy, a right end for Bethany, was charged the next day with murder, but exonerated by a coroner's jury a day later.^[24]

November 13, 1910 (Sunday)

• General Jose Valladares, leader of an insurgency against the government of the Honduras, surrendered control of the town of Amapala and gave himself up after a promise of leniency by Honduran President Miguel R. Dávila.^[1][25]
• Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted wireless signals between Nova Scotia and Italy.^[1]
• Sun Yat-sen and other Chinese exiles met in the Malayan city of Panang to plan the Huanghuagang Uprising, which would take place on April 27, 1911, and would precede the Chinese Revolution of 1911.^[26]
• Died: Alexander Stephens Clay, 56, U.S. Senator from Georgia, and William W. Foulkrod, 64, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania. Representative Foulkrod had lost his bid for re-election five days earlier.
• Died: Louis Nels, 54, German diplomat and former Reichskommissar of German South-West Africa (now Namibia)

November 14, 1910 (Monday)

• The feasibility of an aircraft carrier was demonstrated for the first time, as Eugene B. Ely climbed into his airplane on the deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham and executed a takeoff, then flew five miles and landed at Hampton Roads, Virginia.^[27] On January 18, 1911, Ely would also become the first person to land an airplane on a ship, bringing his plane down onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania.^[28]
• The town of Souris, Prince Edward Island, was incorporated
• Died: John La Farge, 75, American stained glass painter.

November 15, 1910 (Tuesday)

• Morocco ceded the territory around Melilla to Spain, and agreed to pay reparitions for the Spanish campaign against the Rif tribesmen.
• The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that that state's capital should be Guthrie.^[1][29]
• Hermes da Fonseca was inaugurated as President of Brazil.^[1]
• Died: Wilhelm Raabe, 79, German writer

November 16, 1910 (Wednesday)

• President William H. Taft of the United States, in Panama City for an inspection of the building of the canal, reassured Panamanians that the U.S. had no intention of annexing the Republic of Panama. "We have guaranteed your integrity as a republic, and for us to annex territory would be to violate that guarantee, and nothing would justify it on our part", said Taft, adding "so long as Panama performed her part under the treaty." ^[30]
• The announcement was made that George V, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and the first British Emperor of India, would visit India, accompanied by his wife, at the end of 1911, in order to be present at a durbar, where he would meet his Indian subjects on January 1, 1912.^[31]

November 17, 1910 (Thursday)

• Ralph Johnstone, who had broken the world record for highest altitude achieved in an airplane (9,714 feet) on October 31, was killed while flying an exhibition at Denver. Johnstone was executing a "spiral glide" when a wingtip folded, and he plunged from 500 feet to his death.^[32]

November 18, 1910 (Friday)

• In the largest protest to that time for women seeking the right to vote in the United Kingdom, thousands of suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, marched to the Palace of Westminster to confront the Parliament over killing a reform proposal. The ensuing confrontation between London police and the women, subsequently known as Black Friday, turned violent, and increased sympathy for the cause of women's suffrage.^[33]
• Rioting at Puebla, Mexico, killed more than 100 people. Political leader Aquiles Serdán, who died in a confrontation with government police, is now celebrated as a hero of the 1910 revolution.^[34]

November 19, 1910 (Saturday)

• Previously unbeaten and untied (8–0–0), Harvard University's football team was unable to score in its closing game, and settled for a 0–0 tie with Yale University.^[35] The University of Illinois closed its season the same day unbeaten, untied and unscored upon with a 3–0 win over visiting Syracuse. The University of Pittsburgh, with an 8–0–0 record, would play on Thanksgiving Day against 5–1–1 Penn State.
• Britain's Prime Minister Asquith opened campaigning for the British Parliament.^[36][36]

November 20, 1910 (Sunday)

• Mexican Revolution: As called for in his "Plan de San Luis Potosí", Francisco I. Madero began his revolution at 6:00 p.m., crossing into Mexico from Texas with ten men and 100 rifles. Finding only ten more men rather than the 400 expected, he returned to Texas to regroup.^[37] Reports at the time speculated that he had crossed the Rio Grande at a point between Eagle Pass and Laredo.^[38]
• Portuguese football club Vitória de Setúbal was founded.
• Died: Leo Tolstoy, 82, celebrated as one of Russia's greatest authors.^[39]

November 21, 1910 (Monday)

• Federal agents arrested the principal members of Burr Brothers, Inc., charging them with postal fraud and selling of more than forty million dollars of fraudulent stock. Sheldon H. Burr, President; Frank H. Tobey, VP, and Eugene H. Burr, Secretary-treasurer, were put under arrest with bond set at $20,000 each. The U.S. Postmaster General, Frank H. Hitchcock, personally appeared at the rest.^[36][40]
• The Officers' School of Aviation, was founded in Sevastopol, Russia, by Grand Duke Alexander Michaelovitch. The Aviation School subsequently served as the primary training site for Russian and Soviet military pilots.^[41]

November 22, 1910 (Tuesday)

• Some historians trace the origins of the Federal Reserve Board to a private meeting arranged by multi-millionaire J. P. Morgan and U.S. Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, who departed on this day in a private railroad car from Hoboken, New Jersey, to Morgan's private Jekyll Island Club on Jekyll Island, Georgia, "allegedly on a duck-hunting expedition".^[42]
• Reports arrived from French Indochina (now Vietnam) that more than 1,000 people died in recent flooding at Quang Ngai province, and another 100 at Quang Nam.^[43]

November 23, 1910 (Wednesday)

• Mutineers in the Brazilian Navy seized control of the battleships Minas Gerais and São Paulo, then aimed the ships' guns at the Rio de Janeiro, and delivered their demands. Two days later, the Brazilian government accepted the conditions, providing increases in pay, prohibiting the beating of sailors, and granting amnesty to the mutineers.^[36][44]
• President William H. Taft returned to the United States after a two week absence, during which he visited Panama and Cuba. ^[45]
• Francisco I. Madero proclaimed himself as "President of the provisional government of Mexico" ^[46]
• The yacht Visitor II, owned by Commodore W. Harry Brown, became the first vessel to travel on the Panama Canal, which was completed as far as the Gatun Lock.^[47]
• Pennington County, Minnesota, was established by gubernatorial proclamation. ^[48]
• Died: Octave Chanute, 78, French-American engineer and aviation pioneer
• Died: Johan Alfred Ander, Swedish murderer, the last man to be executed in Sweden (by guillotine) ^[49]
• Died: Hawley Harvey Crippen, 48, American murderer, was hanged at 9:02 at Britain's Pentonville Prison, after being convicted a month earlier for the murder of his wife.^[50]

November 24, 1910 (Thursday)

• The Pittsburgh Panthers defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions, 11–0, to become one of only two major college football teams in the nation to finish unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon. In nine games, Pitt had outscored its opponents 282–0. The other was Illinois, which had gone 7–0–0 and was 89–0 against its opposition.
• The British House of Lords unanimously adopted Lord Lansdowne's resolution for settling differences with the House of Commons. ^{[51] [36]}

November 25, 1910 (Friday)

• President Taft announced the first regulations providing for public inspection of corporate tax returns filed with the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The returns of companies listed on any stock exchange would be provided, without restriction, upon request. For other companies, returns would be provided upon a showing of need.^[36][52]
• Insular Life Insurance Company, now the largest in the Philippines, was established.^[53]
• Died: "Queen", 87, an Indian elephant that had performed in circuses since 1886, was put to death in Jersey City with 600 grains of cyanide after having killed her keeper, Robert Schiel, in October. Queen was said to have also killed a little girl "several years ago".^[54]

November 26, 1910 (Saturday)

• A fire at a building in Newark, New Jersey, housing several factories, killed 24 women and girls employed by the Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company.^[55] The lack of exits and the fire hazards within similar buildings raised concerns about whether a similar disaster could happen.^[56] Four months later, on March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City would kill 146 garment workers.
• Owen Moran won the lightweight boxing championship by knocking out Battling Nelson in the 11th round at a bout in San Francisco.^[57]
• Born: Cyril Cusack, Irish actor, in Durban, South Africa (d. 1993)

November 27, 1910 (Sunday)

• Penn Station, hub of the New York City mass transit system, was opened as the Pennsylvania Railroad inaugurated train service between New Jersey and Manhattan.^[36][58]
• Died: Michael Cudahy, 69, multi-millionaire and founder of Cudahy Packing Company.

November 28, 1910 (Monday)

• The U.S. Department of Justice filed its long-awaited antitrust suit against the Sugar Trust. American Sugar Refining Company of New Jersey controlled most of the sales of sugar in the United States, and owned Spreckels Sugar, Franklin Sugar, and American Sugar Refining of New York. National Sugar Refining Company of New Jersey, the second largest producer, was 25% owned by American Sugar. The defendants in the Trust accounted for 64% of sugar production.^[59]
• Thirteen men were killed in an explosion at the Jumbo mine, of the Choctaw Asphalt Company, in Durant, Oklahoma.^[60]
• Parliament was dissolved in the United Kingdom.^[36][61]
• The town of Boyce, Virginia, was incorporated

November 29, 1910 (Tuesday)

• The British Antarctic Expedition, led by Robert Falcon Scott, departed from New Zealand on the Terra Nova. Roald Amundsen, on board the Fram was also enroute to the Antarctic continent and would arrive there ahead of Scott.^[36][62]
• On the same day, the Japanese Antarctic Expecition, led by Nobu Shirase, departed Tokyo on the ship Kainan Maru.^[63]
• Inventor Ernest E. Sirrine of Chicago received U.S. Patent No. 976,939 for a "street traffic system" ^[64]
• The Vermont School of Agriculture, first college of agriculture in that state (and now called Vermont Technical College), was established at Randolph Center.^[65]

November 30, 1910 (Wednesday)

• On the last day of 1910 hunting season in the United States, the number of fatal accidents exceeded 100, with 113 deaths, a 30% increase over the 1909 record of 87.^[66]
• Thomas Edison told a reporter that he had invented "a heavier-than-air flying machine", but that he did not want to discuss it further. "I admit that I have a little patent along aeorplane lines", said the inventor, "but I have too much to do to become interested in the navigation of the air." Edison's flying machine, similar to a helicopter, was described as "a basket hung on a vertical shaft, on the upper end of which revolve box kites or other form of aeroplanes at sufficient speed to lift the whole affair".^[67]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} "Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (December 1910), pp672–675
2. ^ Richard J. Smethurst, A Social Basis for Prewar Japanese Militarism: The Army and the Rural Community (University of California Press, 1974) p20
3. ^ "Not After Panama; Annexation Rumors Are False, Taft Tells Arosemena", Washington Post, November 4, 1910, p1
4. ^ P.J. Marshall, The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2001) p164
5. ^ "China To Get Parliament", Indianapolis Star, November 5, 1910, p1
6. ^ "Must Cut Off Cues", Washington Post, November 5, 1910, p1
7. ^ "Czar and Emperor Kiss", Indianapolis Star, November 5, 1910, p1
8. ^ "The Potsdam Accord, 1910", Vincent Ferraro, Mount Holyoke College
9. ^ "Maniacs Suffer in Fire", Washington Post, November 5, 1910, p1
10. ^ University of Illinois Library
11. ^ Cityofniceville.org
12. ^ Rachel Teukolsky, The Literate Eye: Victorian Art Writing and Modernist Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 2009) p196
13. ^ "Ship Preussen Ashore", New York Times, November 7, 1910, p1; SteelNavy.com
14. ^ National Air and Space Museum
15. ^ The Naval Museum of Alberta
16. ^ Chris Woodstra, et al., All Music Guide to Classical Music (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2005) p597
17. ^ U.S. House of Representatives history; "Democrats Win Big States and Control of the House", Washington Post, November 9, 1910, p1
18. ^ "Take 51 Dead From Mine", Indianapolis Star, November 10, 1910, p2
19. ^ [www.leevalley.com/newsletters/Woodworking/1/5/patents.htm "Robertson Screwdriver"], Lee Valley Tools
20. ^ Commemorating The 100th Anniversary tonypandy2010.com
21. ^ "Plotters Against the Mikado to Die", New York Times, November 10, 1910, p5
22. ^ "Killed 600 Senegalese", New York Times, December 8, 1910, p6
23. ^ "Fingers Convict Him", Washington Post, November 11, 1910, p1; David Owen, Hidden Evidence: 40 True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them (Firefly Books, 2000) p168
24. ^ "Jury Exonerates M'Coy", Indianapolis Star, November 15, 1910, p1
25. ^ "Honduran Rebel Quits", New York Times, November 14, 1910, p4
26. ^ "Huanghuagang Uprising – An Uprising Launched by the Chinese Revolutionaries", Cultural-China.com
27. ^ "Ely Flies in Fog from Ship to Land", New York Times, November 15, 1910, p1
28. ^ First Flight Society
29. ^ "Guthrie Is State Capital", Washington Post, November 16, 1910, p1
30. ^ "Pledge to Panama; Mr. Taft Tells Isthmians We Do Not Seek Annexation", Washington Post, November 17, 1910, p1
31. ^ "King To Hold Durbar", Washington Post, November 17, 1910, p1
32. ^ "Johnstone Air Victim", Indianapolis Star, November 18, 1910, p1
33. ^ "Suffragettes Riot, Spill Real Blood", New York Times, November 19, 1910, p3; Jared Diamond, 1000 Events That Shaped the World (National Geographic Books, 2008) p274
34. ^ Mexico 2010: Bicentenario Independencia, Centenario Revolucion
35. ^ "Yale Surprises Harvard With Tied No-Score Game", New York Times, November 20, 1910, pC-5
36. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (January 1911), pp32–35
37. ^ Emily Edmonds-Poli and David A. Shirk, Contemporary Mexican politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) p42; "Jalisco Was Asleep On November 20, 1910", Guadalajara Reporter, November 19, 1999]
38. ^ "U.S. Troops Rush To Line; Mexican Strife Spreads", Indianapolis Star, November 22, 1910, p1
39. ^ "Count Tolstoi Dies", Washington Post, November 20, 1910, p1
40. ^ "Charge Frauds of $40,000,000", Washington Post, November 22, 1910, p1
41. ^ SpaceRefCanada
42. ^ The Case Against the Fed, Murray N. Rothbard
43. ^ "1,100 Lives Lost In Flood", Washington Post, November 23, 1910, p1
44. ^ "Brazilian Navy Revolts", Indianapolis Star, November 24, 1910, p1; "Mutineers Give Up", Washington Post, November 27, 1910, p1; Shawn C. Smallman, Fear & Memory in the Brazilian Army and Society, 1889–1954 (University of North Carolina Press, 2002) p28
45. ^ "Taft Home Again From Panama Trip", New York Times, November 24, 1910, p8
46. ^ "Rebel Assumes Rule", Washington Post, November 24, 1910, p4
47. ^ "First Vessel on Canal ", Washington Post, December 2, 1910, p1
48. ^ Joseph Nathan Kane, The American Counties (4th Ed.), (The Scarecrow Press, 1983), p480
49. ^ "The Swedish Guillotine"
50. ^ "Crippen Hanged In London At 9:02 A.M.", Indianapolis Star, November 23, 1910, p1
51. ^ "Lords Uphold Lansdowne", New York Times, November 26, 1910, p1
52. ^ "Will Guard Returns of the Corporations", New York Times, November 26, 1910, p1
53. ^ Insular Life website
54. ^ Queen, the Elephant, Dies for a Killing, New York Times, November 26, 1910, p6
55. ^ "23 Die, 40 Hurt in Newark Factory Fire", New York Times, November 27, 1910, p1
56. ^ "Newark Fire Starts An Inquiry Here; Trades Unions Worried for Fear Factory Disaster Could Be Repeated in This City", New York Times, November 30, 1910, p20
57. ^ "Battling Nelson Is Knocked Out", New York Times, November 27, 1910, pC-5; "Fearless: When Owen Moran thrilled America" by Mike Casey, CyberBoxingZone.com
58. ^ Julia Solis, New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City (Routledge, 2005) p107
59. ^ "Federal Attack on Sugar Trust", New York Times, November 29, 1910, p2
60. ^ "Mine Explosion Kills 13", New York Times, November 29, 1910, p1
61. ^ "Dissolved By King: British Parliament Closed and Elections Are Ordered", Washington Post, November 29, 1910, p1
62. ^ "Tragedy at the Pole", www.pbs.org; Edward R. G. R. Mountevans, South with Scott (reprint, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2006) p37
63. ^ "The Japanese exploration of the Antarctic", Waseda University Library
64. ^ "This Month in Patent and Trademark History", Draftinc
65. ^ "About Vermont Tech"
66. ^ "Hunting Accidents Claim 113 Victims", New York Times, December 1, 1910, p9
67. ^ "Edison Invents Aero", Washington Post, December 1, 1910, p3