1903

1903 January February March April May June July August September October November December

1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (dominical letter D) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E) of the Julian calendar, the 1903rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 903rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 3rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1900s decade. As of the start of 1903, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January

• January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
• January 19 – 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).

February

• February 11 – The Oxnard strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.
• February 15 – Morris and Rose Michtom introduce the first teddy bear in the United States.
• February 17 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.
• February 23 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".

March

• March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.
• March 3 – The British Admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth.
• March 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople–Baghdad Railway.
• March 12 – The University of Puerto Rico is founded.
• March 14 – The Hay–Herrán 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.

April

• April 29 – A 30-million-m³ landslide kills 70-90 in Frank, Alberta.
• April 29 – A strong earthquake destroys the town of Melazhgerd, Van Province, Armenia. Over 2,000 people killed.^[1]

May

• May 4 – The leading Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev is killed in a skirmish with the Turkish army.
• May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens.
• May 22 – The White Star Liner, SS Ionic, is launched.
• May 24 – The Paris–Madrid race begins, during which at least eight people are killed.
• May 29 (O.S.) – In the May coup d'état, Alexander I, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.

June

• June 11 – Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated.
• June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, is nearly destroyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood that kills an estimated 238 people.
• June 27 – 19-year-old American socialite Aida de Acosta becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots Santos-Dumont's motorized dirigible, “No. 9”, from Paris to Château de Bagatelle in France.^[2]

July

• July 1–July 19 – First Tour de France bicycle race, won by Maurice Garin.
• July 7 – The British take over the Fulani Empire.
• July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
• July 29 – Explosion of a United States Cartridge Company magazine destroys 70 homes killing 22 residents of Tewksbury, Massachusetts.^[3]
• July 30–August 23 (July 17–August 10, O.S.) – Second Congress of the All-Russian Social Democratic Labour Party held in exile in Brussels, transferring to London.

August

• August 2 – The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople.
• August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.
• August 10 – Paris Métro train fire takes place.
• August 25 – The Judiciary Act is passed in the Australian parliament.

September

• September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
• September 14 – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as British Colonial Secretary, in order to campaign publicly for Imperial Preference.
• September 15 – Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil
• September 24 – Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
• September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 Fast Mail train at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia kills 11 people and inspires a ballad.^[4]
• September 29 – Prussia becomes the first locality to require mandatory driver's licenses for operators of motor vehicles.

October

• 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 3 years.
• October 1 – First modern World Series: The Boston Red Sox defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• October 6 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
• October 10 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in the UK.

November

• November 3 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
• November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.
• November 17 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").
• November 18 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. 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

• December 16 – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Bombay opens its doors to guests.
• December 17 – 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.
• December 30 – Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago kills 600.

Date unknown

• The Lincoln–Lee Legion is established to promote the American temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children.
• The first box of Crayola crayons is made and sold for 5 cents. It contains 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.
• Osea Island off Maldon, Essex, England, is bought by Frederick Nicholas Charrington to provide an addiction treatment centre.
• Royal Enfield starts making Motor Cycles.
• Texas State University in San Marcos, TX opens its doors as Southwest Texas Normal School.

Births

January

• January 6 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)
• January 10 – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)
• January 11 – Alan Paton, South African author and anti-apartheid, activist. (d. 1988)
• January 12 – Igor Kurchatov, Soviet physicist (d. 1960)
• January 16 – William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945)
• January 17 – Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)
• January 22 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)
• January 23 – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)
• January 27 – John Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)

February

• February 2 – Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996)
• February 3 – Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish nobleman and pioneering aviator (d. 1973)
• February 4 – Alexander Imich, American parapsychologist and chemist (d. 2014)
• February 6 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)
• February 8
  • Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)
  • Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
• February 10
  • Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)
  • Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
• February 11
  • Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)
  • Hans Redlich, Austrian composer (d. 1968)
• February 13 – Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)
• February 14 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
• February 16 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)
• February 21
  • Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
  • Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)
• February 22
  • Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990)
  • Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (d. 1969)
  • Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930)
• February 24 – Vladimir Bartol, Slove author (d. 1967)
• February 26 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• February 27 – Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)
• February 28 – Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)

March

• March 4
  • Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)
  • William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983)
  • Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (d. 1990)
  • John Scarne, American magician and card expert (d. 1985)
• March 6 – Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000)
• March 10
  • Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931)
  • Clare Boothe Luce, American publisher and writer (d. 1987)
• March 11
  • Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989)
  • Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992)
• March 14 – Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)
• March 18 – Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari, Italian aristocrat and diplomat (d. 1944)
• March 20 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)
• March 21 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
• March 24
  • Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
  • Malcolm Muggeridge, English journalist (d. 1990)
• March 25 – Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990)
• March 27 – Betty Balfour, English screen actress (d. 1977)
• March 28 – Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)
• March 31 – H. J. Blackham, British humanist and author (d. 2009)

April

• April 5 – Hilda Bruce, British zoologist (d. 1974)
• April 6
  • Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player (d. 1962)
  • Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (d. 1990)
• April 12 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
• April 9 – Gregory Goodwin Pincus, American biologist and researcher (d. 1967)
• April 15 – John Williams, English-born actor (d. 1983)
• April 17
  • Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)
  • 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 Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)

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 6 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)
• May 8 – Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)
• May 10 – Hans Jonas, German-born philosopher(d. 1993)
• May 11 – Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993)
• May 18 – Frits Warmolt Went, Dutch botanist (d. 1990)
• May 24 – Lofton R. Henderson, American naval aviator, died in the Battle of Midway (d. 1942)
• May 25 – Binnie Barnes, English actress (d. 1988)
• May 29 – Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor (d. 2003)

June

• June 1 – Vasyl Velychkovsky Ukrainian bishop (d. 1973)
• June 6 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
• June 6 – Bakht Singh, Indian evangelist, well-known bible teacher and preacher (d. 2000)
• June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)
• June 10 – Theo Lingen, German actor (d. 1978)
• June 12 – Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)
• June 15 – Huldreich Georg Früh, Swiss composer (d. 1945)
• June 18
  • Jeanette MacDonald, American singer and actress (d. 1965)
  • Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)
• June 19
  • Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)
  • Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)
• June 20 – Eddie Laughton, British-born American film actor (d. 1952)
• June 21 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)
• June 22
  • John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)
  • Jiro Horikoshi, Japanese aircraft designer (d. 1982)
  • Ben Pollack, American jazz drummer and bandleader (d. 1971)
  • Ben Robertson, American novelist, journalist, and war correspondent (d. 1943)
• June 25
  • Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944)
  • George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)
• June 29 – Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)

July

• July 1 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)
• July 2
  • 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)
• July 3 – Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)
• July 4 – Corrado Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)
• July 6 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient 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 (d. 2010)
• July 27 – Michail Stasinopoulos, 1st President of Greece (d. 2002)

August

• August 3
  • Habib Bourguiba, former President of Tunisia (d. 2000)
  • Fahri Korutürk, former President of Turkey (d. 1987)
• August 6 – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999)
• August 7
  • Rudolph Ising, cartoon animator (d. 1992)
  • Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
• August 13 – Chubby Johnson, American actor (d. 1974)
• August 14 –Lodewijk Bruckman, Dutch painter (d. 1995)
• August 19 – James Gould Cozzens, American writer (d. 1978)
• August 24 –Graham Sutherland, English artist (d. 1980)
• August 26 – Ian Dalrymple, British screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 1989)
• August 31
  • Arthur Godfrey, American radio and television host (d. 1983)
  • Hugh Harman, cartoon animator (d. 1982)

September

• September 7
  • Dorothy Marie Donnelly, American poet (d. 1994)
  • Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945)
  • John Kloza, Polish professional baseball player and manager (d. 1962)
• September 8 – Jane Arbor, British writer (d. 1994)
• September 9
  • Lev Shankovsky, Ukrainian military historian (d. 1995)
  • Edward Upward, English author (d. 2009)
  • Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer (d. 2008)
• September 10 – Cyril Connolly, English critic and writer (d. 1974)
• September 11 – Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)
• September 13 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (d. 1996)
• September 15 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992)
• September 17 – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
• September 21 – Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (d. 1956)
• September 22 – Joseph Valachi, American gangster (d. 1971)
• September 25
  • Abul A'la Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979)
  • Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)
• September 30 – Lyle Goodhue, American chemist, inventor and entomologist (d. 1981)

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 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (d. 1979)
• October 10 – Bei Shizhang, Chinese biologist and educator (d. 2009)
• 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)
  • Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976)
  • Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, American comedian and actor (The Three Stooges) (d. 1952)
• October 25
  • Katharine Byron, American politician (d. 1976)
  • Harry Shoulberg, American painter (d. 1995)
• October 26 – Bill Allington, American baseball player and manager (d. 1966)
• October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)
• October 29 – Vivian Ellis, English composer and lyricist (d. 1996)

November

• November 1 – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (d. 1973)
• November 2 – Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944)
• November 3 – Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)
• November 4 – Watchman Nee, Chinese preacher and church leader (d. 1972)
• 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 8 – Alfred Thambiayah, Ceylon Tamil businessman and politician
• November 11 – Blessed Victoria Díez Bustos de Molina, Spanish teacher and religious woman (d. 1936)
• November 19 – Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)
• November 27 – Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
• November 29 – E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and presidential candidate (d. 1992)

December

• December 4
  • Lazar Lagin, Soviet writer (d. 1979)
  • A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997)
• December 5
  • Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor (d. 2011)
  • Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
• December 12
  • Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer and pianist (d. 1976)
  • Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)
• December 13 – Ella Baker, American civil rights activist (d. 1986)
• December 17 – Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987)
• 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 Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983)
  • John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957)
• December 31 – Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)

Deaths

January–June

• January 3 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)
• January 4 – Alexandr Aksakov, Russian writer (b. 1832)
• January 5 – Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, Spanish politician, former Prime Minister (b. 1825)
• January 17 – Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845)
• January 28
  • Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)
  • Robert Planquette, French 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 14 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (b. 1831)
• February 22 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
• February 26 – Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818)
• March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834)
• March 5 – Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839)
• March 13 – George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821)
• March 16 – Roy Bean, American pioneer (b. 1825)
• March 28 – Émile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)
• April 4 – Margaret Ann Neve, supercentenarian (b. 1792)
• April 11 – Gemma Galgani, Italian mystic and Catholic saint (b. 1878)
• April 13 – Moritz Lazarus, German philosopher (b. 1824)
• April 19 – Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820)
• April 28 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)
• April 29 – Stuart Robson, American stage actor and comedian (b. 1836)
• May 4 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)
• May 8 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
• May 13 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b.1864)
• June 9 – Gaspar Núñez de Arce, Spanish poet (b. 1834)
• June 11
  • Nikolai Bugaev, Russian mathematician (b. 1837)
  • Draga Mašin, Serbian queen consort (b. 1861)
  • Alexander I, King of Serbia (b. 1876)
• June 19 – Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)

July–December

• July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1867)
• July 11 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)
• July 13 – Béni Kállay, Austro-Hungarian statesman (b. 1839)
• July 17 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)
• July 20 – Pope Leo XIII, Italian Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1810)
• August 1 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman (b. 1852)
• August 5 – Phil May, English artist (b. 1864)
• August 8 – Adolf Schiel, German-born officer in Boer armed forces (b. 1858)
• August 11 – Eugenio María de Hostos, Puerto Rican philosopher and sociologist (b. 1839)
• August 17 – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
• August 22 – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
• August 23 – Fray Mocho, Argentine writer (b. 1858)
• September 13 – Carl Schuch, Austrian painter (b. 1846)
• September 18 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)
• October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author (b. 1880)
• October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician (b. 1850)
• October 22 – William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Irish historian and member of the House of Commons (b. 1838)
• November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)
• November 13 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830)
• November 25 – Sabino Arana, Spanish Basque writer and nationalist (b. 1865)
• December 8 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)

Nobel Prizes

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

References

• Gilbert, Martin (1997). "1903". A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-688-10064-3.