1903: Encyclopedia - 1903

1903

1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). It also had the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasn't had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. See 1696.

1903 - Events

• January 1 - Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India
• January 6 - Mileva Maric married Albert Einstein.
• February 11 - The Oxnard Strike of 1903 represents the first time in U.S. history that a labor union was formed from members of different races.
• February 15 - Morris Michtom and his wife Rose 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 opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
• March 3 – British admiralty announces plans to build naval base at Rosyth
• March 5 – Turkey and Germany signs an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway
• March 14 - The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.
• March 22 - the US side of the Niagara Falls runs short of water
• March 31 - Possible first powered heavier-than-air flight, Richard Pearse, New Zealand (some date it to 1902)
• May 18 - Opening of Port of Burgas, Bulgaria.
• June 10-11 – Assassination of Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga
• July 1-19 - First Tour de France – Maurice Garin wins
• July 7 - British take over the Fulani empire
• July 23 - Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago, Illinois becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
• April 29 - 30,000,000 cubic metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta
• August 2 - The Ilinden Uprising of the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire breaks out

• August 4 - Pope Pius X is elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
• August 10 - The Paris Metro train fire takes place.
• September 8 - Massacre of Bulgarians by Turkish troops at Monastir is reported.
• September 14 - Joseph Chamberlain resigns as Colonial Secretary.
• September 15 - Grêmio, a brazilian football team is founded.
• September 24 - Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeded by Alfred Deakin.
• October - Frank Nelson Cole proved that 2^67-1 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 - Foundation of the Women's Social and Political Union
• November 3 - With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
• November 6 - USA recognizes independence of Panama
• November 17 - The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). (NOTE: Later the Bolsheviks became the majority party).

• November 18 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans 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 aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in first documented successful controlled powered heavier-than-air flight.
• December 30 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600.

• Lincoln-Lee Legion established to promote temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledgeds by children.

1903 - Births

1903 - January

• January 6 - Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)
• January 7 - Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)
• January 7 - Zora Neale Hurston, African-American folklorist (d. 1960)
• January 11 - Hans Redlich, Austrian composer (d. 1968)
• January 16 - William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945)
• January 22 - Fritz Houtermans, physicist (d. 1966)
• January 27 - John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)

1903 - February

• February 2 - Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996)
• February 6 - Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)
• February 8 - Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)
• February 8 - Tunku Abdul Rahman, first prime minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
• February 10 - Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
• February 11 - Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)
• February 11 - Alan Paton, South-African writer (d. 1988)
• February 13 - Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)
• February 16 - Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)
• February 21 - Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
• February 21 - Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)
• February 22 - Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990)
• February 22 - Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930)
• February 26 - Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• February 27 - Grethe Weiser, actress (d. 1970)
• February 28 - Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)

1903 - March

• March 6 - Empress Kojun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000)
• March 11 - Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989)
• March 11 - Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992)
• March 14 - Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)
• March 20 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)
• March 24 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
• March 28 - Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)

1903 - April

• April 6 - Mickey Cochrane, baseball player (d. 1962)
• April 6 - 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)
• April 17 - 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 Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)
• April 28 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979)

1903 - 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 8 - Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)
• May 11 - Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993)
• May 20 - Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)
• May 21 - Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
• May 29 - Bob Hope, English-born comedian (d. 2003)

1903 - June

• June 6 - Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
• June 8 - Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)
• June 12 - Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)
• June 16 - Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)
• June 18 - Jeanette MacDonald, American singer, actress (d. 1965)
• June 18 - Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)
• June 19 - Lou Gehrig, baseball player (d. 1941)
• June 19 - Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)
• June 21 - Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)
• June 22 - John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)
• June 25 - Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944)
• June 25 - George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)
• June 29 - Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)

1903 - July

• July 1 - Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)
• July 2 - Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
• July 2 - King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)
• July 4 - Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)
• July 6 - Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recpient 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

1903 - August

• August 3 - Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (d. 2000)
• August 7 - Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
• August 18 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)
• August 23 - William Primrose, Scottish violist {d. 1982)

1903 - September

• September 7 - Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945)
• September 9 - Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer
• September 11 - Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)
• September 13 - Claudette Colbert, French actress (d. 1996)
• September 17 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
• September 21 - Preston Tucker, American auto designer (d. 1956)
• September 25 - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Muslim Leader (d. 1979) - Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)

1903 - 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 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)
• October 22 - Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976)
• October 22 - Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, American comedian and actor, Three Stooges member (d. 1952)
• October 25 - Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman (d. 1976)
• October 28 - Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)

1903 - November

• November 2 - Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944)
• November 3 - Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)
• 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 19 - Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)
• November 27 - Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)

1903 - December

• December 5 - Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor
• December 5 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
• December 12 - Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (d. 1976)
• December 12 - Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)
• December 12 - A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997)
• 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 "Fatha" Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983)
• December 28 - John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957)
• December 31 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinst (d. 1992)
• Will Mastin, American vaudevillian (d. 1975)

1903 - Month/Day unknown

• E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and Prohibition Party candidate for presidency three times.

1903 - Deaths

1903 - January-June

• January 3 - Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant (b. 1837)
• January 28 - Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)
• January 28 - Robert Planquette, French musical 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 22 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
• February 26 - Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818)
• March 6 - Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839)
• March 13 - George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821)
• March 16 - Judge Roy Bean, American pioneer
• March 28 - Emile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)
• April 19 - Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820)
• April 28 - Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)
• May 4 - Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)
• May 9 - Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
• June 19 - Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)

1903 - July-December

• July 11 - William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)
• July 17 - James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)
• July 20 - Pope Leo XIII (b. 1810)
• August 22 - Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
• September 18 - Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)
• November 1 - Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)
• December 8 - Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)

1903 - Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie
• Chemistry - Svante August Arrhenius
• Medicine - Niels Ryberg Finsen
• Literature - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
• Peace - William Randal Cremer

Category: 1903

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1903", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1903, used and available under the GNU Free Documentation License.