1904
Appearance
Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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Template:C20YearInTopicX 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). Template:C20YearTOC
Events of 1904
January – February
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Baltimore_fire_aftermath.jpg/270px-Baltimore_fire_aftermath.jpg)
- 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.
- January 16 – The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
- 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 – April
- 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 31 – British expedition to Tibet – Battle of Guru: British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.
- 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 – June
- May 4 – U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
- 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 21 – The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, is established.
- 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.
- June 16 – 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 – August
- 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.
- July 23 – In St. Louis, Missouri, the ice cream cone is invented during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
- August 3 – British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet.
- 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 – October
- September 7 – British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.
- 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 – December
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Arno_river.jpg/220px-Arno_river.jpg)
- November 4 – In Florence, Italy, the Arno River floods.[citation needed]
- 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 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.
- 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.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Leclerc_p1040868.jpg/180px-Leclerc_p1040868.jpg)
Undated
- The Herero Wars begin.
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a Second Manifesto against polygamy.
- The subject of alcohol and heart attacks is first investigated.
- The Loftus Road and Griffin Park football stadiums open.
- Stuyvesant High School is founded in New York City.
Ongoing
Births
Gregorian calendar | 1904 MCMIV |
Ab urbe condita | 2657 |
Armenian calendar | 1353 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԳ |
Assyrian calendar | 6654 |
Baháʼí calendar | 60–61 |
Balinese saka calendar | 1825–1826 |
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 (Water Rabbit) 4601 or 4394 — to — 甲辰年 (Wood Dragon) 4602 or 4395 |
Coptic calendar | 1620–1621 |
Discordian calendar | 3070 |
Ethiopian calendar | 1896–1897 |
Hebrew calendar | 5664–5665 |
Hindu calendars | |
- Vikram Samvat | 1960–1961 |
- Shaka Samvat | 1825–1826 |
- Kali Yuga | 5004–5005 |
Holocene calendar | 11904 |
Igbo calendar | 904–905 |
Iranian calendar | 1282–1283 |
Islamic calendar | 1321–1322 |
Japanese calendar | Meiji 37 (明治37年) |
Javanese calendar | 1833–1834 |
Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
Korean calendar | 4237 |
Minguo calendar | 8 before ROC 民前8年 |
Nanakshahi calendar | 436 |
Thai solar calendar | 2446–2447 |
Tibetan calendar | 阴水兔年 (female Water-Rabbit) 2030 or 1649 or 877 — to — 阳木龙年 (male Wood-Dragon) 2031 or 1650 or 878 |
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 – 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 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)
- February 20 – Aleksei 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)
- 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 7 – Reinhard Heydrich, German Nazi official (d. 1942)
- March 14 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress
- 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 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
- May 22 – Anne de Vries, Dutch writer (d. 1964)
- Fats Waller, American pianist and comedian (d. 1943)
- Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
- May 26 – George Formby, English singer and comedian (d. 1961)
- May 27 – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
- 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 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)
- August 7 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
- August 12 – Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (d. 1918)
- 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)
- August 23
- Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin (d. 1970)
- Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)
- 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 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
- November 2 – Louis Eugène Félix 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)
- 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 12 – Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-born magazine editor and socialite (d. 1981)
- December 18 – George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
- 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 – January 10 – Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter (b. 1824)
- January 20 – Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
- February 8 – Alfred Ainger, English biographer (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)
- 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 4 – George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero (b. 1862)
- June 12 – Camille de Renesse, Belgian Count (b. 1836)
July – December
- 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 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 21 – 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