1903

Published on Wednesday, November 8th 2006. Edited by Set Vanvattag, Daegu, Korea, Republic of.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1870s  1880s  1890s  – 1900s –  1910s  1920s  1930s

Years: 1900 1901 1902 – 1903 – 1904 1905 1906

Year 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar.

The year 1903 also had the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar has not had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. See: 1696.

Events of 1903

January-February

Jan. 1: Emperor of India.

15 February: first teddy bear.

• 1 January – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India.
• 19 January – The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east-west broadcast having been made in 1901).
• 11 February – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.
• 15 February – Morris and Rose Mitchom introduce the first teddy bear in America.
• 23 February – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”.

March-April

• 2 March – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.
• 3 March – The British admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth.
• 5 March – Turkey and Germany sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.
• 14 March – 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 later rejects the treaty.
• 29 April – A 30-million-m3 landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta.

May-June

• 18 May – Opening of port of Burgas, Bulgaria.
• 22 May – Launch of the White Star Liner, SS Ionic.
• 11 June – Assassination of Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga.
• 12 June – Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.

23 July: 1903 Ford Model A.

July-August

• 1 July-19 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.
• 7 July – British take over the Fulani empire.
• 23 July – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
• 2 August – The Ilinden Uprising of the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire breaks out.
• 4 August – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.
• 10 August – The Paris Metro train fire takes place.
• 25 August – The Judiciary Act 1903 is passed.

4 August: Pope Pius X becomes the new pope.

September-October

• 11 September – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
• 14 September – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as British Colonial Secretary, in order to campaign publicly for “Imperial Preference”.
• 24 September – Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
• 27 September – The wreck of Old 97 at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia inspires ballad and song. Nine killed.
• October – Frank Nelson Cole proves that 267-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for three years.
• 1 October – The first modern World Series pits the National League’s Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League.
• 6 October – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
• 10 October – The Women’s Social and Political Union is founded.

November-December

17 December: The second flight by Orville Wright.

• 4 November – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
• 13 November – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.
• 17 November – The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for “majority”) and Mensheviks (Russian for “minority”).
• 18 November – The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
• 23 November – Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.
• 17 December – 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.
• 30 December – A fire at the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago kills 600.

Undated

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

Ongoing

• Philippine-American War (1899-1913)

Births

1903 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1903 MCMIII

Ab urbe condita 2656

Armenian calendar 1352 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԲ

Bahá'í calendar 59 – 60

Berber calendar 2853

Buddhist calendar 2447

Burmese calendar 1265

Byzantine calendar 7411 – 7412

Chinese calendar 壬寅年十二月初三日 (4539/4599-12-3)

— to —

癸卯年十一月十三日 (4540/4600-11-13)

Coptic calendar 1619 – 1620

Ethiopian calendar 1895 – 1896

Hebrew calendar 5663 – 5664

Hindu calendars

 - Vikram Samvat 1958 – 1959

 - Shaka Samvat 1825 – 1826

 - Kali Yuga 5004 – 5005

Holocene calendar 11903

Iranian calendar 1281 – 1282

Islamic calendar 1320 – 1321

Japanese calendar Meiji 36 (明治36年)

Korean calendar 4236

Thai solar calendar 2446

January

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

February

• 2 February – Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996)
• 6 February – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)
• 8 February – Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)
• 8 February – Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
• 10 February – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)

• 11 February

• Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)

• Alan Paton, South African writer (d. 1988)

• 13 February – Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)

• 16 February – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)

• 21 February

• Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)

• Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)

• 22 February – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990)

• 22 February – Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (d. 1969)
• 22 February – Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930)
• 26 February – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• 27 February – Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)
• 28 February – Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)

March

• 4 March – Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)
• 4 March – William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983)
• 4 March – Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (d. 1990)
• 4 March – John Scarne, American magician and card expert (d. 1985)
• 6 March – Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000)
• 10 March – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931)

• 11 March

• Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989)

• Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992)

• 14 March – Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)

• 20 March – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)
• 24 March – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
• 25 March – Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990)
• 28 March – Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)
• 31 March – H. J. Blackham, British humanist and author

April

• 6 April

• Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player (d. 1962)

• Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (d. 1990)

• 10 April – Clare Boothe Luce, American publisher and writer (d. 1987)

• 12 April – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
• 15 April – John Williams, English-born actor (d. 1983)

• 17 April

• Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)

• Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975)

• 19 April – Eliot Ness, American treasury agent (d. 1957)

• 24 April – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (d. 1936)
• 25 April – Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)
• 28 April – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979)

May

• 2 May – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician (d. 1998)
• 3 May – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)
• 4 May – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984)
• 6 May – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)
• 8 May – Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)
• 10 May – Hans Jonas, German-born philosopher(d. 1993)
• 11 May – Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993)
• 20 May – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)
• 21 May – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
• 29 May – Bob Hope, English-born comedian (d. 2003)

June

• 1 June – Vasyl Velychkovsky Ukrainian bishop (d. 1973)
• 6 June – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
• 8 June – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)
• 12 June – Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)

• 16 June

• Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)

• Huldreich Georg Früh, Swiss composer (d. 1945)

• 18 June

• Jeanette MacDonald, American singer and actress (d. 1965)

• Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)

• 19 June

• Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)

• Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)

• 21 June – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)

• 22 June – John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)

• 25 June

• Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944)

• George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)

• 29 June – Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)

July

• 1 July – Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)

• 2 July

• Harwell Hamilton Harris, American architect (d. 1990)

• Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)

• King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)

• 3 July – Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)

• 4 July – Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)
• 6 July – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)
• 10 July – John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969)
• 13 July – Kenneth Clark, English art historian (d. 1983)
• 21 July – Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector

August

• 3 August – Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (d. 2000)
• 6 August – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999)
• 7 August – Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
• 18 August – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)
• 19 August – James Gould Cozzens, American writer (d. 1978)
• 23 August – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)

September

• 7 September – Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945)

• 9 September

• Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer (d. 2008)

• Edward Upward, British author

• 11 September – Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)

• 13 September – Claudette Colbert, American actress (d. 1996)
• 15 September – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992)
• 17 September – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
• 21 September – Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (d. 1956)

• 25 September

• Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979)

• Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)

October

• 1 October – Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (d. 1989)
• 4 October – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer engineer (d. 1995)
• 5 October – M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (d. 1989)
• 6 October – Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
• 9 October – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (d. 1979)
• 16 October – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)
• 18 October – Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)

• 22 October

• George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)

• • Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976)

• Jerome “Curly Howard” Horwitz, American comedian and actor (d. 1952)

• 25 October

• Katharine Byron, American politician (d. 1976)

• Harry Shoulberg, American painter (d. 1995)

• 28 October – Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)

November

• 1 November – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (d. 1973)
• 2 November – Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944)
• 3 November – Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)
• 6 November – Carl Rakosi, German-born poet (d. 2004)
• 7 November – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)
• 19 November – Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)
• 27 November – Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
• 29 November – E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and presidential candidate (d. 1992)

December

• 5 December

• Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor

• Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)

• 4 December – Lazar Lagin, Soviet writer (d. 1979)

• 12 December

• Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer and pianist (d. 1976)

• Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)

• A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997)

• 19 December – George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)

• 22 December – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
• 24 December – Joseph Cornell, American sculptor (d. 1972)
• 26 December – Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)

• 28 December

• Earl Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983)

• John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957)

• 31 December

• Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)

• Will Mastin, American vaudevillian (d. 1975)

Deaths

January – June

• 3 January – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant (b. 1837)
• 17 January – Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845)

• 28 January

• Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)

• Robert Planquette, French composer (b. 1850)

• 1 February – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (b. 1819)

• 7 February – James Glaisher, English meteorologist and aeronaut (b. 1809)
• 14 February – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (b. 1831)
• 22 February – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
• 26 February – Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818)
• 4 March – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834)
• 6 March – Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839)
• 13 March – George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821)
• 16 March – Roy Bean, American pioneer (b. 1825)
• 28 March – Emile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)
• 19 April – Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820)
• 28 April – Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)
• 4 May – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)
• 8 May – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
• 13 May – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b. 1864)

• 11 June

• Nikolai Bugaev, Russian mathematician (b.1837)

• Draga Mašin, Serbian queen consort (b. 1861)

• Aleksandar Obrenović, Serbian king (b. 1876)

• 19 June – Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)

July – December

• 2 July – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player (b. 1867)
• 11 July – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)
• 13 July – Béni Kállay, Austro-Hungarian statesman (b. 1839)
• 17 July – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)
• 20 July – Pope Leo XIII, Italian Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1810)
• 1 August – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman (b. 1852)
• 5 August – Phil May, English artist (b. 1864)
• 17 August – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
• 22 August – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
• 18 September – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)
• 4 October – Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author (b. 1880)
• 20 October – Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician (b. 1850)
• 1 November – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)
• 13 November – Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830)
• 8 December – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)

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

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1903”