1904

Published on Thursday, November 16th 2006. Edited by Oat Carpitnow, New York, United States.

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

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

Years: 1901 1902 1903 – 1904 – 1905 1906 1907

Year 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1904

January – February

7 February: Aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire.

• 7 January – The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced two years later by SOS.
• 12 January – Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of 91.37mph.
• 16 January – The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• 7 February – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• 8 February – A Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts Russo-Japanese War.
• 10 February – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in Congo.
• 23 February – For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• 28 February – Foundation of Sport Lisboa e Benfica.

March – April

• 3 March – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison’s cylinder.
• 4 March – Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• 31 March – British expedition to Tibet: Battle of Guru: British under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

• 8 April

• Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.

• Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.

• 19 April – The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city’s downtown, but there are no fatalities.

• 27 April – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• 30 April – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes 1 December).

May – June

• 4 May – U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
• 5 May – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• 9 May – GWR 3440 City of Truro becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100mph.
• 21 May – The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, is established.
• 10 June – Irish author James Joyce meets his future wife Nora Barnacle.
• 15 June – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City’s East River kills 1021.
• 16 June – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
• 16 June – James Joyce walks to Ringsend with Nora Barnacle; he later used this date (Bloomsday) as the setting for his novel Ulysses.
• 28 June – The Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrants.
• 29 June – The 1904 Moscow tornado occurs.

July – August

• 1 July – The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, USA as part of the World’s Fair.
• 21 July – The Trans-Siberian railway is completed.
• 23 July – In St. Louis, Missouri, the ice cream cone is invented during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
• 3 August – British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet.
• 14 August – Ismael Montes becomes President of Bolivia.
• 17 August – Russo-Japanese War: Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
• 18 August – Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid.

September – October

• 7 September – British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.
• 15 October – Theta Tau, the Professional Engineering Fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• 19 October – Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
• 21 October – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea, in what would be known as the Dogger Bank incident.
• 27 October – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.

November – December

4 November: the Arno River floods.

• 4 November – In Florence, Italy, the Arno River floods.
• 8 November – Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker in the U.S. presidential election.
• 24 November – The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
• 2 December – St. Petersburg Soviet urges run on the banks: the attempt fails and the executive committee is arrested.
• 3 December – Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter’s largest irregular satellite, Himalia.
• 4 December – KU or Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen.
• 10 December – Founding of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.
• 27 December – The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up premieres in London.
• 30 December – East Boston Tunnel opens.
• 31 December – In New York City, the first New Year’s Eve celebration is held in Times Square.

Nov. 24: caterpillar track

Undated

• Herero Wars begin.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a “Second Manifesto” against polygamy.
• Subject of alcohol and heart attacks first investigated.
• Loftus Road and Griffin Park football stadiums open.
• Stuyvesant High School is founded in New York City.

Ongoing

• Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
• 1904-1905 Welsh Revival

Births

1904 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1904 MCMIV

Ab urbe condita 2657

Armenian calendar 1353 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԳ

Bahá'í calendar 60 – 61

Berber calendar 2854

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

 - Vikram Samvat 1959 – 1960

 - 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

Thai solar calendar 2447

January-February

• 1 January – Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (d. 1982)
• 3 January – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
• 10 January – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
• 13 January – Richard Addinsell, British composer (d. 1977)
• 14 January – Cecil Beaton, English photographer (d. 1980)
• 18 January – Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)

• 22 January

• George Balanchine, Russian-born choreographer (d. 1983)

• Arkady Gaidar, Russian children’s writer (d. 1941)

• 26 January

• Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)

• Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)

• 27 January – J. J. Gibson, American psychologist (d. 1979)

• 28 January – Canuplin, Filipino magician and bodabil entertainer (d. 1979)
• 29 January – Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher (d. 1976)
• 1 February – S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (d. 1979)

• 3 February

• Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)

• Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)

• 4 February – MacKinlay Kantor, American writer and historian (d. 1977)

• 11 February – Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)

• 16 February

• George F. Kennan, American diplomat (d. 2005)

• Philip Rabinowitz (runner), South African record breaking sprinter (d. 2008)

• 20 February – Aleksei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)

• 29 February – Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)

March-April

• 1 March – Glenn Miller, American bandleader (d. 1944)
• 2 March – Dr. Seuss, American children’s author (d. 1991)

• 4 March

• 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)

• 7 March – Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (d. 1942)

• 14 March – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress
• 20 March – B. F. Skinner, American behavioural psychologist (d. 1990)
• 22 March – Itche Goldberg, Yiddish author (d. 2006)

• 26 March

• 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)

• 1 April – Nikolai Berzarin, Russian Red Army General (d.1945)

• 3 April – Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
• 8 April – John Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
• 9 April – Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (d. 1972)
• 14 April – Sir John Gielgud, English actor (d. 2000)
• 15 April – Arshile Gorky, Armenian-born painter (d. 1948)
• 16 April – Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (d. 1983)
• 22 April – Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (d. 1967)
• 24 April – Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (d. 1997)
• 26 April – Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer (d. 1982)
• 27 April – Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (d. 1972)
• 29 April – Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (d. 1989)

May-June

• 6 May

• Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born engineer (d. 1984)

• Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)

• 8 May – John Snagge, British radio personality (d. 1996)

• 11 May – Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (d. 1989)
• 17 May – Jean Gabin, French actor (d. 1976)

• 21 May

• Fats Waller, American pianist and comedian (d. 1943)

• Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)

• 27 May – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)

• 2 June

• Frantisek Planicka, Czech footballer (d. 1996)

• Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)

• 3 June – Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)

• 6 June – Francisco López Merino, Argentine poet (d. 1928)
• 26 June – Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born film actor (d. 1964)

July-August

• 5 July – Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist and author (d. 2005)
• 6 July – Erik Wickberg, General of The Salvation Army (d. 1996)
• 8 July – Henri Cartan, French mathematician (d. 2008)
• 12 July – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
• 15 July – Rudolf Arnheim, German-born author (d. 2007)

• 28 July – Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)

• 4 August – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)

• 7 August – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
• 12 August – Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (d. 1918)
• 16 August – Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)

• 17 August

• Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)

• Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)

• 21 August – Count Basie, American musician and bandleader (d. 1984)

• 22 August – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader (d. 1997)

• 23 August

• Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin (d. 1970)

• Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)

• 28 August – Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (d. 1980)

• 29 August – Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)

September-October

• 9 September – Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player (d. 2005)
• 22 September – Joseph Valachi, American gangster (d. 1971)
• 29 September – Greer Garson, English actress (d. 1996)

• 1 October

• A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1977)

• Irene Craigmile Bolam, American Amelia Earhart look-alike/believed alias(d. 1982)

• 3 October – Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)

• 9 October – Wally Brown, American actor and comedian (d. 1961)
• 20 October – Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
• 23 October – Harvey Penick, American golfer (d. 1995)
• 25 October – Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator (d. 1968)
• 27 October – Erno Schwarz, Hungarian American soccer player (d. 1974)

November-December

• 2 November – Louis Eugène Félix Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• 4 November – Tadeusz Żyliński, Polish technician and textilist (d. 1967)
• 11 November – J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
• 12 November – Jacques Tourneur, French director (d. 1977)

• 14 November

• Dick Powell, American actor and singer (d. 1963)

• Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1988)

• 16 November – Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of Nigeria (d. 1996)

• 25 November

• Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)

• Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (d. 2000)

• 30 November – Clyfford Still, American painter (d. 1980)

• 6 December – Eve Curie, French author (d. 2007)
• 12 December – Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-born magazine editor and socialite (d. 1981)
• 18 December – George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
• 24 December – Joseph M. Juran, American engineer and philanthropist (d. 2008)
• 25 December – Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• 26 December – Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)
• 30 December – Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (d. 1987)
• 31 December – 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

• 2 January – 10 January – Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter (b. 1824)
• 20 January – Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
• 8 February – Alfred Ainger, English biographer (b. 1837)
• 22 February – Leslie Stephen, English writer and critic (b. 1832)
• 5 March – John Lowther du Plat Taylor, British founder of the Army Post Office Corps (b. 1829)
• 17 March – Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of King George III (b. 1819)
• 10 April – Queen Isabella II of Spain (b. 1830)
• 1 May – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841)
• 8 May – Eadweard Muybridge, English photographer and motion picture pioneer (b. 1830)
• 10 May – Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh explorer and journalist (b. 1841)
• 19 May – Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• 4 June – George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero (b. 1862)
• 12 June – Camille de Renesse, Belgian Count (b. 1836)

July – December

• 3 July – Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of Zionism (b. 1860)
• 5 July – Abai Kunanbaiuli, Kazakh poet (b. 1845)

• 14 July

• Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b. 1860)

• Paul Kruger, South African resistance leader (b. 1825)

• 22 July – Wilson Barrett, English actor (b. 1846)

• 6 August – Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic (b. 1825)
• 16 August – Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, American author of dime fiction (b. 1843)
• 22 August – Kate Chopin, American author (b. 1851)
• 25 August – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• 29 August – Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1840)

• 26 September

• Lafcadio Hearn, American-Japanese author (b. 1850)

• John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)

• 4 October

• Frédéric Bartholdi, Alsatian sculptor (b. 1834)

• Laurence Hope, English poetess (b. 1865)

• 21 October – Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss-Algerian explorer (b. 1877)

Nobel prizes

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

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904”