1904

This article is about the year 1904.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1870s  1880s  1890s  – 1900s –  1910s  1920s  1930s
Years:	1901 1902 1903 – 1904 – 1905 1906 1907

1904 by topic:

Subject

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Aviation – Awards – Comics – Film – Literature (Poetry) – Meteorology – Music – Rail transport – Radio – Science – Sports – Television

By country

Australia – Canada – China – Ecuador – France – Germany – Greece – India – Ireland – Italy – Japan – Malaya – Mexico – New Zealand – Norway – Ottoman Syria – Philippines – Russia – Singapore – South Africa – UK – USA

Leaders

Sovereign states – State leaders – Religious leaders – Law

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works – Introductions

v · d · e

1904 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1904 MCMIV
Ab urbe condita	2657
Armenian calendar	1353 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԳ
Assyrian calendar	6654
Bahá'í calendar	60 – 61
Bengali calendar	1311
Berber calendar	2854
British Regnal year	3 Edw. 7 – 4 Edw. 7
Buddhist calendar	2448
Burmese calendar	1266
Byzantine calendar	7412 – 7413
Chinese calendar	癸卯年十一月十四日 (4540/4600-11-14) — to — 甲辰年十一月廿五日 (4541/4601-11-25)
Coptic calendar	1620 – 1621
Ethiopian calendar	1896 – 1897
Hebrew calendar	5664 – 5665
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	1960 – 1961
- Shaka Samvat	1826 – 1827
- Kali Yuga	5005 – 5006
Holocene calendar	11904
Iranian calendar	1282 – 1283
Islamic calendar	1321 – 1322
Japanese calendar	Meiji 37 (明治37年)
Korean calendar	4237
Minguo calendar	8 before ROC 民前8年
Thai solar calendar	2447
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1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January

February 7: Aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire.

• January 7 – The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by SOS.
• January 12
  • Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of 91.37 mph.
  • The Herero Rebellion in German South-West Africa begins.
• January 16 – The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• January 23 – The Ålesund Fire destroys most buildings in the town of Ålesund, Norway, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter.

February

• February 7 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• February 8 – A Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts the Russo-Japanese War.
• February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
• February 23 – For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• February 28 – Sport Lisboa e Benfica is founded in Portugal.

March

• 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 26 – 80,000 demonstrators gather in Hyde Park, London, to protest against the importation of Chinese labourers to South Africa by the British government.
• March 31 – British expedition to Tibet – Battle of Guru: British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

April

• April 8
  • The Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France.
  • Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
  • Aleister Crowley begins writing Liber Al vel Legis, better known as The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema. He completes this task on April 10.
• April 19 – The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.
• April 27 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).

May

• May 4
  • U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
  • German football club FC Schalke 04 is established.
• May 5 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• May 9 – GWR 3440 City of Truro becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.
• May 15– The Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 miles (24 km) off Port Arthur and sinks Japan's battleship Hatsuse, 15,000 tons, with 496 crew.
• May 21 – The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, is established.
• May 30 – Alpha Gamma Delta, now an international women's fraternity, is founded by 11 women at Syracuse University.

June

• June 10 – Irish author James Joyce meets his future wife Nora Barnacle.
• June 15 – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.
• June 16
  • Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
  • James Joyce walks to Ringsend with Nora Barnacle; he later uses this date (Bloomsday) as the setting for his novel Ulysses.
• June 28 – The Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrants.
• June 29 – The 1904 Moscow tornado occurs.

July

• July 1 – The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.
• July 21 – The Trans-Siberian railway is completed.

August

• August 3 – British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet.
• August 11 – Battle of Waterberg: Lothar von Trotha defeats the Herero in German South-West Africa and drives them into the Omaheke desert, start of the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.
• August 14 – Ismael Montes becomes President of Bolivia.
• August 17 – Russo-Japanese War: A 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

• September 7 – British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.
• September 25 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a Second Manifesto against polygamy.
• September 26 – New Zealand dolphin Pelorus Jack is individually protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act.^[1]

October

• October 1 – Phi Delta Epsilon, the international medical fraternity, is founded by Aaron Brown and eight of his friends at Cornell University Medical College.
• October 5 – Alpha Kappa Psi, the co-ed Professional Business Fraternity, is founded on the campus of New York University
• October 15 – Theta Tau, the Professional Engineering Fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• October 19 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
• October 21 – Russo-Japanese War – Dogger Bank incident: The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea.
• October 27 – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.

November

• November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1904: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.
• November 24 – The first successful caterpillar track is made (it later revolutionizes construction vehicles and land warfare).

December

• December 2 – The St. Petersburg Soviet urges a run on the banks: the attempt fails and the executive committee is arrested.
• December 3 – Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, Himalia.
• December 4 – The K.U. or Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen in Denmark .
• December 10 – The Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC.
• December 27 – The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.
• December 30 – The East Boston Tunnel opens.
• December 31 – In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.

November 24: caterpillar track

Date unknown

• The Loftus Road and Griffin Park football stadiums open in London.
• Stuyvesant High School is founded in New York City.
• The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, now Bethune-Cookman University, is founded.
• Halford Mackinder presents a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" to the Royal Geographical Society of London in which he formulates the Heartland Theory, originating the study of geopolitics.
• The subject of alcohol and heart attacks is first investigated.

Births

January–February

• January 1 – Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (d. 1982)
• January 5 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
• January 10 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (The Wizard of Oz)(d. 1987)
• January 13 – Richard Addinsell, British composer (d. 1977)
• 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)
  • Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (d. 1941)
• January 26
  • Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)
  • Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)
• January 27 – J. J. Gibson, American psychologist (d. 1979)
• January 28 – Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (d. 1979)
• January 29 – Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher (d. 1976)
• February 1
  • Ángel Borlenghi, Argentine labor leader and politician (d. 1962)
  • S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (d. 1979)
• February 3
  • Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
  • Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
• February 4 – MacKinlay Kantor, American writer and historian (d. 1977)
• February 10 – John Farrow, Australian film director (d. 1963)
• February 11 – Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)
• February 16
  • George F. Kennan, American diplomat (d. 2005)
  • Philip Rabinowitz (runner), South African record breaking sprinter (d. 2008)
  • James Baskett, African-American actor (Uncle Remus in Disney's Song of the South) (d. 1948)
• February 20 – Alexei 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)
  • Paul Hartman, American actor and dancer (d. 1973)
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss, American children's author (The Cat in the Hat) (d. 1991)
• March 4
  • George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (d. 1968)
  • Joseph Schmidt, Austrian-Hungarian tenor and actor (d. 1942)
  • Chief Tahachee (actor), American-born stage and film actor (d. 1978)
• March 6 – Hugh Williams, English actor and dramatist (d. 1969)
• March 7 – Reinhard Heydrich, German Nazi official (d. 1942)
• March 14 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress (d. 2010)
• March 20 – B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist (d. 1990)
• March 22 – Itche Goldberg, Yiddish author (d. 2006)
• March 26
  • Gustave Biéler, Swiss-born hero of World War II (executed) (d. 1944)
  • Joseph Campbell, American author on mythology (d. 1987)
  • Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2004)
• April 1 – Nikolai Berzarin, Russian Red Army General (d. 1945)
• April 3 – Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
• April 6 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, former Chancellor of West Germany (d. 1988)
• 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)
• April 29 – Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (d. 1989)

May–June

• May 6
  • Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born engineer (d. 1984)
  • Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
• May 8 – John Snagge, British radio personality (d. 1996)
• 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)
  • Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
• May 22 – Anne de Vries, Dutch writer (d. 1964)
• May 26 – George Formby, English singer and comedian (d. 1961)
• May 27 – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
• May 30 – Doris Packer, American actress (d. 1979)
• June 2
  • Frantisek Planicka, Czech footballer (d. 1996)
  • Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (Tarzan) (d. 1984)
• June 3 – Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)
• June 6 – Francisco López Merino, Argentine poet (d. 1928)
• June 18 – Keye Luke, American actor (d. 1991)
• June 26 – Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born film actor (d. 1964)

July–August

• 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 (d. 2008)
• July 12 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
• July 15 – Rudolf Arnheim, German-born author (d. 2007)
• July 28 – Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• August 4
  • Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
  • Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, comedienne, and actress (d. 1966)
• August 7 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
• August 12 – Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (d. 1918)
• August 13 – Charles "Buddy" Rogers, American actor and jazz musician (d. 1999)
• August 16 – Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
• August 17
  • Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
  • Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)
• August 21 – Count Basie, American musician and bandleader (d. 1984)
• August 22
  • Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader (d. 1997)
  • Jay Novello, American actor (d. 1982)
• August 23
  • Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin (d. 1970)
  • Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)
• August 24 – Ida Cook (aka Mary Burchell), British heroin and novelist (d. 1986)
• 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–October

• September 9 – Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player (d. 2005)
• September 19 – Elvia Allman, American actress (d. 1992)
• September 22 – Joseph Valachi, American gangster (d. 1971)
• September 29 – Greer Garson, English actress (d. 1996)
• October 1
  • A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1977)
  • Irene Craigmile Bolam, American Amelia Earhart look-alike/believed alias(d. 1982)
• 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)
• October 27 – Erno Schwarz, Hungarian American soccer player (d. 1974)

November–December

• November 1 – Laura LaPlante, American silent film actress (d. 1996)
• November 2
  • Hugh Patrick Lygon, English aristocrat (d. 1936)
  • Louis Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• November 4 – Tadeusz Żyliński, Polish technician and textilist (d. 1967)
• November 11 – J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960) and Alger Hiss, American Government official
• November 12 – Jacques Tourneur, French director (d. 1977)
• November 14
  • Dick Powell, American actor and singer (d. 1963)
  • Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1988)
• November 16 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of Nigeria (d. 1996)
• November 18 – Masao Koga, Japanese composer (d. 1978)
• November 25
  • Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)
  • Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (d. 2000)
• November 30 – Clyfford Still, American painter (d. 1980)
• December 6 – Eve Curie, French author (d. 2007)
• December 7 – Clarence Nash, American voice actor (d. 1985)
• December 12 – Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-born magazine editor and socialite (d. 1981)
• December 18 – George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
• December 20 – Rambhai Barni Svastivatana, Queen consort of King Prajadhipok of Siam. (d. 1984)
• December 24 – Joseph M. Juran, American engineer and philanthropist (d. 2008)
• 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)
• December 31 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer and actress (d. 1975)

Date unknown

• Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (d. 1991)
• Tevfik Esenç, Turkish-born last speaker of the Ubykh language (d. 1992)

Deaths

January–June

• January 2 – James Longstreet, Confederate Civil War general (b. 1821)
• January 10 – Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter (b. 1824)
• January 17 – Sir Henry Keppel, British admiral (b. 1809)
• February 8 – Alfred Ainger, English biographer (b. 1837)
• February 15 – Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio (b. 1837)
• February 22 – Leslie Stephen, English writer and critic (b. 1832)
• March 5 – John Lowther du Plat Taylor, British founder of the Army Post Office Corps (b. 1829)
• March 17 – Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of King George III (b. 1819)
• March 18 – William Elbridge Sewell, American naval officer and Governor of Guam (b. 1851)
• April 10 – Queen Isabella II of Spain (b. 1830)
• May 1 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841)
• May 8 – Eadweard Muybridge, English photographer and motion picture pioneer (b. 1830)
• May 10 – Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh explorer and journalist (b. 1841)
• May 19 – Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• June 3 – Vincent Tancred, South African cricketer (b. 1875)
• June 4 – George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero (b. 1862)
• June 12 – Camille de Renesse, Belgian Count (b. 1836)

July–December

• July 1 – George Frederic Watts, British Symbolist painter and sculptor (b. 1817)
• 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)
  • 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 12 – William Renshaw, British tennis player (b. 1861)
• August 16 – Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, American author of dime fiction (b. 1843)
• August 22 – Kate Chopin, American author (b. 1851)
• August 25 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• August 29 – Ottoman Sultan Murad V (b. 1840)
• September 24 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Icelandic/Faroese/Danish physician and scientist (b. 1860)
• September 26
  • Lafcadio Hearn, American-Japanese author (b. 1850)
  • John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)
• October 4
  • Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor (b. 1834)
  • Laurence Hope, English poetess (b. 1865)
• October 18 – Haim Shirman, Russian-born Israeli professor of medieval Spanish Jewish poetry (d. 1981)
• October 21 – Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss-Algerian explorer (b. 1877)
• November 28 – Fanny Janauschek, Czech actress (b. 1830)

Nobel Prizes

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

References

1. ^ Alpers, A.F.G. (1966). "Pelorus Jack". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/P/PelorusJack/PelorusJack/en. Retrieved 2006-12-29. 

• 1904 Coin Pictures