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1900s
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Decade of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1909)
the decade 1900–1909 the century 1901–2000 20th century
September 2025
190
The 1900s (pronounced "nineteen-hundreds") was the decade that began on January 1, 1900, and ended on December 31, 1909. The Edwardian era (1901–1910) covers a similar span of time. The term "nineteen-hundreds" is sometimes also used to mean the entire century from January 1, 1900, to December 31, 1999 (the years beginning with "19").
The Scramble for Africa continued, with the Orange Free State, South African Republic, Ashanti Empire, Aro Confederacy, Sokoto Caliphate and Kano Emirate being conquered by the British Empire, alongside the French Empire conquering Borno, the German Empire conquering the Adamawa Emirate, and the Portuguese Empire conquering the Ovambo. Atrocities in the Congo Free State were committed by private companies and the Force Publique, with a resultant population decline"I suggest that it is impossible to separate deaths caused by massacre and starvation from those due to the pandemic of sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) which decimated central Africa at the time." - Neal Ascherson (1999)Ascherson Neal Neal Ascherson The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo 1999 Granta London 1-86207-290-6 New 9 congodecline note of 1 to 15 million. From 1904 to 1908, German colonial forces in South West Africa led a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment, killing 24,000 to 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama. The First Moroccan and Bosnian crises led to worsened tensions in Europe that would ultimately lead to World War I in the next decade. Cuba, Bulgaria, and Norway became independent.
The deadliest conventional war of this decade was the Russo-Japanese War, fought over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in this conflict, contributing to a growing domestic unrest which culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1905. Unconventional wars of similar scale include insurrections in the Philippines (1899–1913), China (1899–1901), and Colombia (1899–1902). Lesser conflicts include interstate wars such as the Second Boer War (1899–1902), the Kuwaiti–Rashidi war (1900–1901), and the Saudi–Rashidi War (1903–1907), as well as failed uprisings and revolutions in Portuguese Angola (1902–1904), Rumelia (1903), Ottoman Eastern Anatolia (1904), Uruguay (1904), French Madagascar (1905–1906), Argentina (1905), Persia (1905–1911), German East Africa (1905–1907), and Romania (1907). A major famine took place in China from 1906 to 1907, possibly leading to 20–25 million deaths. This famine was directly caused by the 1906 China floods (April–October 1906), which hit the Huai River particularly hard and destroyed both the summer and autumn harvest. The 1908 Messina earthquake caused 75,000–82,000 deaths.
First-wave feminism made advances, with universities being opened for women in Japan, Bulgaria, Cuba, Russia, and Peru. In 1906, Finland granted women the right to vote,Finnish women won the right to vote a hundred years ago – Embassy of Finland, The Hague : Current Affairs http://www.finlande.nl/public/default.aspx?contentid=112162&nodeid=35916&contentlan=2&culture=en-US deviated https://web.archive.org/web/20140423070026/http://www.finlande.nl/public/default.aspx?contentid=112162&nodeid=35916&contentlan=2&culture=en-US 2014-04-23 2012-10-31 Finlande.nl the first European country to do so.BBC Radio 4 – Woman's Hour – Women's History Timeline: 1900 – 1909 https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/timeline/1900.shtml 2012-11-07 bbc.co.uk The foundation of the Women's Social and Political Union by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 led to the rise of the Suffragettes in Great Britain and Ireland. In 1908, a revolution took place in the Ottoman Empire, where the Young Turks movement restored the Ottoman constitution of 1876, establishing the Second Constitutional Era. Subsequently, ethnic tensions rose, and in 1909, up to 30,000 mainly Armenian civilians in Adana were slain by Turkish civilians.
The decade saw the widespread application of the internal combustion engine including mass production of the automobile, as well as the introduction of the typewriter. The Wright Flyer performed the first recorded controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight on December 17, 1903. Reginald Fessenden of East Bolton, Quebec, Canada made what appeared to beOctober 2021 the first audio radio broadcasts of entertainment and music ever made to a general audience. The first huge success of American cinema, as well as the largest experimental achievement to this point, was the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter, while the world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was released on December 26, 1906, in Melbourne, Australia. Popular books of this decade included The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and Anne of Green Gables (1908), which sold 45 million and 50 million copies respectively. Popular songs of this decade include "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "What Are They Doing in Heaven?", which have been featured in 42 and 16 hymnals respectively.
During the decade, the world population increased from 1.60 to 1.75 billion, with approximately 580 million births and 450 million deaths in total. As of October 2026, the only remaining living person born in this decade is Ethel Caterham, born August 21, 1909. The last living man from this decade was Juan Vicente Pérez (May 27, 1909 – April 2, 2024).
Pronunciation varieties
There are several main varieties of how individual years of the decade are pronounced. Using 1906 as an example, they are "nineteen-oh-six", "nineteen-six", and "nineteen-aught-six". Which variety is most prominent depends somewhat on global region and generation. "Nineteen-oh-six" is the most common; "nineteen-six" is less common. In American English, "nineteen-aught-six" is also recognized but not much used.April 2022
Demographics
Estimates of historical world population
Estimates for the world population by 1900 vary from 1.563 to 1.710 billion.
PRB
(1973–2016)Data from Population Reference Bureau https://web.archive.org/web/20080520091122/http://www.prb.org/Home.aspx 2008-05-20 .
2016 estimate: (a) "2016 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20170828162128/http://www.prb.org/pdf16/prb-wpds2016-web-2016.pdf August 28, 2017
2015 estimate: (b) Toshiko Kaneda, 2015, "2015 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20180219062132/http://www.prb.org/pdf15/2015-world-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf February 19, 2018 .
2014 estimate: (c) Carl Haub, 2014, "2014 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20180218233032/http://www.prb.org/pdf14/2014-world-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf February 18, 2018 .
2013 estimate: (d) Carl Haub, 2013, "2013 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20150226072048/http://www.prb.org/pdf13/2013-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf February 26, 2015 .
2012 estimate: (e) Carl Haub, 2012, "2012 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20140521191647/http://www.prb.org/pdf12/2012-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf May 21, 2014 .
2011 estimate: (f) Carl Haub, 2011, "2011 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20171118162350/http://www.prb.org/pdf11/2011population-data-sheet_eng.pdf November 18, 2017 .
2010 estimate: (g) Carl Haub, 2010, "2010 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20180109060416/http://www.prb.org/pdf10/10wpds_eng.pdf January 9, 2018 .
2009 estimate: (h) Carl Haub, 2009, "2009 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20100422034436/http://www.prb.org/pdf09/09wpds_eng.pdf April 22, 2010 .
2008 estimate: (i) Carl Haub, 2008, "2008 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20171219150624/http://www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng.pdf December 19, 2017 .
2007 estimate: (j) Carl Haub, 2007, "2007 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20110224205549/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2007/2007WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx 2011-02-24 .
2006 estimate: (k) Carl Haub, 2006, "2006 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20101222075621/http://prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2006/2006WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx 2010-12-22 .
2005 estimate: (l) Carl Haub, 2005, "2005 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20110414150237/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2005/2005WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx 2011-04-14 .
2004 estimate: (m) Carl Haub, 2004, "2004 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20170329104249/http://www.prb.org/pdf04/04worlddatasheet_eng.pdf March 29, 2017 .
2003 estimate: (n) Carl Haub, 2003, "2003 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20190819182509/http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~psc/WorldPopulationDS03_Eng.pdf 2019-08-19 .
2002 estimate: (o) Carl Haub, 2002, "2002 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20171209093516/http://www.prb.org/pdf/WorldPopulationDS02_Eng.pdf 2017-12-09 .
2001 estimate: (p) Carl Haub, 2001, "2001 World Population Data Sheet" https://web.archive.org/web/20220119024955/https://www.ined.fr/fichier/s_rubrique/18790/publi_pdf2_pop_and_soc_english_370.en.pdf January 19, 2022 .
2000 estimate: (q) 2000, "9 Billion World Population by 2050" https://web.archive.org/web/20180201050626/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2000/9BillionWorldPopulationby2050.aspx 2018-02-01 .
1997 estimate: (r) 1997, "Studying Populations".
Estimates for 1995 and prior: (s) Carl Haub, 1995, "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?" Population Today, Vol. 23 (no. 2), pp. 5–6.UN
(2015)Data from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.
1950–2100 estimates (only medium variants shown): (a) World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision. https://web.archive.org/web/20110511162049/http://esa.un.org/unpp/ 2011-05-11
Estimates prior to 1950: (b) "The World at Six Billion", 1999.
Estimates from 1950 to 2100: (c) "Population of the entire world, yearly, 1950 - 2100", 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20161119132504/http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history3.aspx November 19, 2016
2014: (d) "2014 World Urbanization Prospects", 2014.
2015: (e) "2015 World Urbanization Prospects", 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20140320035709/http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/panel_population.htm March 20, 2014 Maddison
(2008)Angus Maddison, 2003, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Vol. 2, OECD, Paris https://web.archive.org/web/20080513232041/http://www.theworldeconomy.org/publications/worldeconomy/ May 13, 2008 92-64-10412-7.
"Statistical Appendix" https://web.archive.org/web/20210130172908/http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/historical_statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls January 30, 2021 (2008, ggdc.net) "The historical data were originally developed in three books: Monitoring the World Economy 1820-1992, OECD, Paris 1995; The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2001; The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2003. All these contain detailed source notes. Figures for 1820 onwards are annual, wherever possible. For earlier years, benchmark figures are shown for 1 AD, 1000 AD, 1500, 1600 and 1700." "OECD countries GDP revised and updated 1991-2003 from National Accounts for OECD Countries, vol. I, 2006. Norway 1820-1990 GDP from Ola Grytten (2004), "The Gross Domestic Product for Norway, 1830-2003" in Eitrheim, Klovland and Qvigstad (eds), Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway, 1819-2003, Norges Bank, Oslo. Latin American GDP 2000-2003 revised and updated from ECLAC, Statistical Yearbook 2004 and preliminary version of the 2005 Yearbook supplied by Andre Hofman. For Chile, GDP 1820-2003 from Rolf Lűders (1998), "The Comparative Economic Performance of Chile 1810-1995", Estudios de Economia, vol. 25, no. 2, with revised population estimates from Diaz, J., R. Lűders, and G. Wagner (2005) Chili 1810-2000: la Republica en Cifras, mimeo, Instituto de Economia, Universidad Católica de Chile. For Peru, GDP 1896-1990 and population 1896-1949 from Bruno Seminario and Arlette Beltran, Crecimiento Economico en el Peru 1896-1995, Universidad del Pacifico, 1998. " "For Asia there are amendments to the GDP estimates for South and North Korea, 1911-74, to correct an error in Maddison (2003). Estimates for the Philippines, 1902-1940 were amended in line with Richard Hooley (2005), 'American Economic Policy in the Philippines, 1902-1940', Journal of Asian Economics, 16. 1820 estimates were amended for Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand." "Asian countries GDP revised and updated 1998-2003 from AsianOutlook, April 2005. Population estimates for all countries except China and Indonesia revised and updated 1950-2008 and 2030 from International Data Base, International Programs Center, Population Division, US Bureau of the Census, April 2005 version. China's population 1990-2003 from China Statistical Yearbook 2005, China Statistics Press, Beijing. Indonesian population 1950-2003 kindly supplied by Pierre van der Eng. The figures now include three countries previously omitted: Cook Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu."HYDE
(2010)Klein Goldewijk, K., A. Beusen, M. de Vos and G. van Drecht (2011). The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human induced land use change over the past 12,000 years, Global Ecology and Biogeography20(1): 73-86. 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x (pbl.nl https://web.archive.org/web/20210423205228/https://themasites.pbl.nl/tridion/en/themasites/hyde/download/index-2.html April 23, 2021 ). HYDE (History Database of the Global Environment), 2010. HYDE 3.1 gives estimates for 5000 BC, 1000 BC and "AD 0". HYDE estimates are higher than those by Colin McEvedy (1978) but lower than those by Massimo Livi Bacci (1989, 2012). (graphs (itbulk.org)).Tanton
(1994)John H. Tanton, 1994, "End of the Migration Epoch? Time For a New Paradigm", The Social Contract, Vol. 4 (no 3), pp. 162–173.Biraben
(1980)Slightly updated data from original paper in French: (a) Jean-Noël Biraben, 1980, "An Essay Concerning Mankind's Evolution", Population, Selected Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 1–13. Original paper in French: (b) Jean-Noël Biraben, 1979, "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes", Population, Vol. 34 (no. 1), pp. 13–25.McEvedy &
Jones (1978)Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, 1978, Atlas of World Population History, Facts on File, New York, 0-7139-1031-3.Thomlinson
(1975)Ralph Thomlinson, 1975, Demographic Problems: Controversy over population control, 2nd Ed., Dickenson Publishing Company, Ecino, CA, 0-8221-0166-1.Durand
(1974)John D. Durand, 1974, "Historical Estimates of World Population: An Evaluation", University of Pennsylvania, Population Center, Analytical and Technical Reports, Number 10.Clark
(1967)Colin Clark, 1967, Population Growth and Land Use, St. Martin's Press, New York, 0-333-01126-0.1,656M1,650M1,563M1,654MData from History Database of the Global Environment. https://web.archive.org/web/20180227200550/http://themasites.pbl.nl/tridion/en/themasites/hyde/index.html February 27, 2018 K. Klein Goldewijk, A. Beusen and P. Janssen, "HYDE 3.1: Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way", from table on pg. 2, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.1,600M1,633M1,625M1,600M1,650–1,710M1,668M
Politics and wars
List of sovereign states in the 1900s
right|200px|thumb|A shocked mandarin in Manchu robe in the back, with Queen Victoria (British Empire), Wilhelm II (German Empire), Nicholas II (Imperial Russia), Marianne (French Third Republic), and a samurai (Empire of Japan) stabbing into a king cake with Chine ("China" in French) written on it. A portrayal of New Imperialism and its effects on China.
Major political changes
New Imperialism
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign Entente Cordiale
Wars
List of wars: 1900–1944#1900–1909
Second Boer War ends.
Philippine–American War takes place (1899–1902).
The Kuwaiti–Rashidi war takes place (1900–1901).
Battle of Riyadh was a minor battle of the Unification of Saudi Arabia (1902).
Russo-Japanese War establishes the Empire of Japan as a world power (1904–1905).
The Ottomans invade Persia and capture a strip of territory (1906).
Battle of Dilam was a major battle of the Unification War between Rashidi and Saudi rebels (1903–1907).
First Saudi–Rashidi War was engaged between the Saudi loyal forces of the newborn Emirate of Riyadh versus the Emirate of Ha'il (1903–1907).
Internal conflicts
The Boxer Rebellion ends.
The Russian Revolution of 1905.
The Mesopotamia uprising of 1906.
Demand for Home Rule for Ireland.
Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa (modern Namibia).
Kurdish uprising in Bitlis against the Ottoman Empire in 1907.
Colonization
January 1, 1901, British colonies in Australia federate, forming the Commonwealth of Australia.
Decolonization
May 20, 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States
June 7, 1905 – The Norwegian Parliament declares the union with Sweden dissolved, and Norway achieves full independence.
October 5, 1908 – Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Prominent political events
January 22, 1901, the death of Queen Victoria.
August 9, 1902, the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions.
Disasters
Natural disasters
300px|thumb|June 30, 1908: The Tunguska event
thumb|220px|right|Ruins from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in United States history
August 7, 1900 – A 40-foot-tall tornado struck New Rochelle, New York, US, killing an unknown number of people.
September 8, 1900 – A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas, US, killing about 8,000.
April 19, 1902 – A magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocks Guatemala, killing 2,000.
May 8, 1902 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000.
October 24-25, 1902 – The Santa María volcano erupts in Guatemala, one of the three largest eruptions of the 20th century, killing an estimated 6,000 people.
December 25, 1902 – A large hurricane struck the countries of Sweden and Denmark, leading to the deaths of 50 people.
February 26–27, 1903 – A large extratropical cyclone known as Storm Ulysses swept through the British Isles and led to the deaths of 30 people.
April 7, 1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
April 18, 1906 – The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, US, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
September 18, 1906 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.
January 14, 1907 – An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
June 30, 1908 – The Tunguska event or "Russian explosion" near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian Empire occurs resulting in the flattening 2,000 km2 sqmi on of forest. It is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment, at an altitude of 5 – 10 km 0 above the Earth's surface.Pasechnik I. P. Refinement of the moment of explosion of the Tunguska meteorite from the seismic data Cosmic Matter and the Earth Novosibirsk Nauka 1986 66 ruFarinella Paolo Foschini L. Froeschlé Christiane Gonczi R. Jopek T. J. Longo G. Michel Patrick http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/aah2886.pdf Probable asteroidal origin of the Tunguska Cosmic Body Astronomy & Astrophysics 377 3 1081–1097 2001 10.1051/0004-6361:20011054 2011-08-23 2001A&A...377.1081F free Trayner Chris Perplexities of the Tunguska Meteorite The Observatory 114 227–231 1994 1994Obs...114..227T
December 28, 1908 – An earthquake and tsunami destroys Messina, Sicily and Calabria, killing over 80,000 people.
Non-natural disasters
April 26, 1900 – The Great Lumber Fire of Ottawa–Hull kills 7 and leaves 15,000 homeless.
May 1, 1900 – The Scofield Mine disaster in Scofield, Utah, caused by explosion killing at least 200 men.
June 30, 1900 – Hoboken Docks Fire: The German passenger ships Saale, Main, Bremen, and Kaiser William der Grosse, all owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line, catch fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, US. The fire began on a wharf and spread to the adjacent piers, warehouses, and smaller craft, killing 326 people.
May 3, 1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida, US.
July 10, 1902 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, US, kills 112 miners.
August 10, 1903 – Paris Métro train fire.
December 30, 1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, US, kills 600.
February 7, 1904 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, US, destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
June 15, 1904 – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.
June 28, 1904 – The Danish ocean liner Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrants.
January 22, 1906 – The Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
Assassinations and attempts
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
YearDateNamePositionCulpritsCountryDescriptionImage1900February 3William Goebelgovernor of Kentuckyunknown United StatesEither five or six shots were fired from the nearby State Building, one striking Goebel in the chest, seriously wounding him.frameless1900July 29Umberto I KingGaetano BresciItalyAssassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci.Duggan Christopher The Force of Destiny. A History of Italy Since 1796. Allen Lane 2007 9780713997095 349frameless|175x175px1901March 6Wilhelm IIKaiserDeidrich WeilandGermanyAttempted assassination in Bremen by Deidrich Weiland."Kaiser Hit by a Missile Thrown into His Carriage", Chicago Daily Tribune, March 7, 1901, p. 1."Kaiser Suffers from His Wound— Injuries Received by German Emperor More Serious than First Reported— Details of the Assault", Chicago Daily Tribune, March 8, 1901, p. 2.frameless|204x204px1901September 6William McKinleyPresidentLeon CzolgoszUnited StatesDies 8 days after being shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by American anarchist Leon Czolgosz.frameless1902April 15Dmitry SipyaginRussian Interior MinisterStepan BalmashovRussian EmpireSipyagin was assassinated in the Mariinsky Palace by Socialist-Revolutionary Stepan Balmashov. frameless1902September 29Émile Zolanovelist and journalistunknown FranceZola was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney. frameless1902November 4Hale JohnsonMayor of Newton, IllinoisHarry HarrisUnited StatesHale was Killed while attempting to collect a debt owed to him by Harry Harris who shot him.frameless1903March 31Grigoriy ShcherbinaRussian consulan unknown Albanian Ottoman officerOttoman EmpireAccording to Durham. A year later, the 35-year-old Consul died of bullet wounds sustained in the assassination attempt by an Albanian soldier.frameless1903June 11Aleksandar Obrenović, and Draga MašinKing of Serbia, and Queen ConsortArmy officers led by Dragutin DimitrijevićSerbiaKilled in the royal palace as part of the May Overthrow.frameless1903June 11Lazar PetrovićAdjutant to King Aleksandar Obrenovićunknown assassin Kingdom of SerbiaKilled as part of the May Overthrow.frameless1903June 11Dimitrije Cincar-MarkovićPrime Minister of Serbiarioters from the May CoupSerbiaMarkovic was killed in the May Coup.frameless|191x191px1904November 26José Francisco ChavesSuperintendent of Public Instruction (former congressman and territory politician)unknown United StatesJose was shot by an unknown assassin in Pinoswells, New Mexico.frameless1904June 16Nikolai BobrikovGovernor-GeneralEugen SchaumanFinlandAssassinated by nationalist nobleman Eugen Schauman.frameless1904July 28Vyacheslav von PlehveRussian Interior MinisterYegor SazonovRussiaPlehve was Killed by a bomb thrown by a member of the SR Combat Organizationframeless1905February 6Eliel Soisalon-SoininenChancellor of JusticeLennart Hohenthal FinlandAssassinated in his apartment in Helsinki by Lennart Hohenthal.frameless1905February 17 Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of RussiaGovernor-General of MoscowIvan KalyayevRussian EmpireAlexandrovich was killed in a by a bomb Organized by the SR Combat Organization.frameless1905April 24John McPherson PinckneyTexas RepresentativeJ. N. BrownUnited StatesJohn was Killed during riot instigated by opponents of alcohol prohibition.frameless1905June 13Theodoros DeligiannisPrime MinisterAntonios GherakarisGreeceKilled by gambler Antonios Gherakaris, reportedly for measures taken against gambling places.frameless|223x223px1905October 21Tomasso PettoNew York mobsterunknown assassin United StatesThe New York mobster and leading hitman in the Morello crime family was shot multiple times while walking to his home in Browntown.frameless1905December 30Frank SteunenbergGovernor of IdahoHarry OrchardUnited StatesThe fourth governor of the State of Idaho was shot by a former miner after Frank left his office.frameless1907March 8Marinos Antypassocialist politicianKyriakouGreeceA group of farmers paid 30,000 drachmas to a supervisor named Kyriakou to kill Antypas, which he did on March 8, 1907. Kyriakou was never convicted for the crime.1907 March 11Dimitar PetkovPrime MinisterAleksandar PetrovBulgariaKilled by an anarchist.frameless1907August 31Amin al-SoltanPrime Ministerunknown assassin IranKilled in front of the Parliament.frameless1908February 1Carlos IKingAlfredo Luís da Costa and Manuel BuíçaPortugalAssassinated in Lisbon, Portugal.frameless1909October 26Itō HirobumiPrime MinisterAn Jung-geunJapanAlso Resident-General of Korea, assassinated by Ahn Jung-geun at the Harbin train station in Manchuria, for many grievances against Japan, including the assassination of Empress Myeongseong of Korea.frameless1909November 14Ramón Lorenzo FalcónChief of PoliceSimón RadowitzkyArgentina Falcon was killed when a bomb was planted on his carriage by Simón Radowitzkyframeless
Economics
October 2021
The gold standard was the dominant international monetary system in the 1900s, with all major industrial powers operating under its rules and exchange rates between major currencies remaining fixed.II Lessons from the Gold Standard and Bretton Woods https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/book/9781557750280/ch009.xml IMF eLibrary International Monetary Fund 978-1-55775-028-0 13 March 2025
Colonial economic relationships significantly shaped global economic patterns, with European powers establishing colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, extracting resources such as cotton, rubber, ivory, gold, and diamonds, and imposing trade policies designed to benefit the colonizers at the expense of the colonized populations.Global Economic Development from 1750 to 1900 https://library.fiveable.me/ap-world/unit-6/global-economic-development-1750-1900/study-guide/2Qcdz5fpK21eAQhq7cY6 13 March 2025 Fiveable
The Panic of 1901 was the first New York Stock Exchange stock market crash. The crisis was short-lived but harmed many small American investors.2010-01-26 FDIC: Learning Bank http://www.fdic.gov/about/learn/learning/when/19-1919.html 2025-03-13 January 26, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100126134129/http://www.fdic.gov/about/learn/learning/when/19-1919.html bot: unknown
Germany's industrial growth was quick during this period. From 1895 to 1907, the number of workers in machine building doubled from slightly more than half a million to well over a million. German steel production, which had exceeded Britain's in 1893, continued to grow, and by the end of the decade Germany dominated all major Continental markets except France.Germany - The economy, 1890-1914 https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-economy-1890-1914 Britannica 13 March 2025
Russia experienced rapid economic growth from 1900 to 1905, with the economy expanding at 4 percent annually. However, in 1905, the Russian economy went into a severe slump following an unprecedented wave of worker strikes, peasant protests, and military defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.Russia's Home Front, 1914-1922: The Economy https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/mharrison/public/rgwr_postprint.pdf University of Warwick 13 March 2025
The United Kingdom's economic dominance was increasingly challenged during this decade. While Britain remained the world's largest capital exporter and shipping power, both the United States and Germany surpassed Britain in industrial production, particularly in steel manufacturing.
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a significant financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the stock market fell close to 50% from its peak the previous year. The crisis spread to other countries and was eventually resolved through interventions led by J.P. Morgan.
France was a major capital exporter during this period, lending substantial portions of GDP to developing economies. The country implemented significant labor reforms, including the introduction of a mandatory weekly rest day in 1906 and the creation of the Ministry of Labour the same year.Béthouart Bruno https://books.google.com/books?id=hMUTAQAAIAAJ Le Ministère du travail et de la sécurité sociale de la Libération au début de la Ve République 2006 Presses universitaires de Rennes 978-2-7535-0327-4 fr
In Japan, the victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) accelerated industrial development. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Katsura Tarō, Japan expanded its heavy industry, particularly in shipbuilding and armaments, and strengthened its position as an emerging economic power in Asia. However this growth was coupled with a surge in labour disputes.2011-10-01 Kazuo Nimura 'The Formation of Japanese Labor Movement;1868-1914' http://oohara.mt.tama.hosei.ac.jp/nk/English/eg-formation.html 2025-03-13 October 1, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20111001233543/http://oohara.mt.tama.hosei.ac.jp/nk/English/eg-formation.html dead
Germany's urbanization accelerated rapidly, with only 40 percent of Germans living in rural areas by 1910, compared to 67 percent at the birth of the empire. Cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants accounted for one-fifth of the population by the end of the decade.
Italy's economy during this decade was characterized by the growing industrialization in the north, while the southern regions remained predominantly agricultural. Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti's economic policies encouraged industrial growth, particularly in the automotive and textile sectors.2025-03-12 Italy - Giolitti, Unification, Politics Britannica https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/The-Giolitti-era-1900-14 2025-03-13 www.britannica.com en
Russia's economy began growing again from 1909 following the political and economic crisis of 1905–1907. This recovery continued until the outbreak of World War I, though Russia remained the poorest of the great powers.
The cost of an American postage stamp was 1 cent in 1909.http://www.theseniorlist.com/2013/09/postcards-from-the-edge-september-30-1909/ 1909 Postcard sent from Northern Pacific Train Conductor back home 2013-09-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20130927164150/http://www.theseniorlist.com/2013/09/postcards-from-the-edge-september-30-1909/ 2013-09-27 dead
Science and technology
Science
210px|thumb|During 1905 the physicist Albert Einstein published four articles – each revolutionary and groundbreaking in its field.
1900 – Planck's law of black-body radiation
1900 – Quantum Hypothesis by Max PlanckHow did science and technology change in the 1900s? http://www.enotes.com/1900-science-technology-american-decades/important-events-science-technology dead https://web.archive.org/web/20121005002014/http://www.enotes.com/1900-science-technology-american-decades/important-events-science-technology October 5, 2012 October 20, 2009 eNoteshttp://blog.modernmachanix.com/2008/06/16/invented-earlier-than-youd-think-pt-2-answering-machinesFebruary 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes http://library.thinkquest.rg/J0111064/00invetnions.htmlFebruary 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Abhay Burande History of Radio – Who Invented the Radio? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-radio-who-invented-the-radio.html usurped https://web.archive.org/web/20090301052131/http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-radio-who-invented-the-radio.html 2009-03-01 2009-10-20 Buzzlehttp://gardenofpraise/ibdbell.htmFebruary 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes
1900 – Seismographs built in the University of California, Berkeley
1902 – Practical air conditioner designed by Willis Carrier
March 17, 1905 – Annus Mirabilis papers – Albert Einstein publishes his paper "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light", in which he explains the photoelectric effect, using the notion of light quanta. For this paper Einstein received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.
May 11, 1905 – Annus Mirabilis papers – Albert Einstein submits his doctoral dissertation "On the Motion of Small Particles...", in which he explains Brownian motion.
June 30, 1905 – Annus Mirabilis papers – Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", where he reveals his theory of special relativity.
September 27, 1905 – Annus Mirabilis papers – Albert Einstein submits his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", in which he develops an argument for the equation E = mc2.
1908 – the Geiger counter (measures radioactivity) is invented by Hans Geiger
Pierre and Marie Curie discover the elements radium and polonium, they coin the term radioactivity. In 1901, Harriet Brooks and Ernest Rutherford build on their work and contribute to the discovery of the element radon.
The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunization for tuberculosis is first developed.
Technology
Widespread application of the internal combustion engine including mass production of the automobile. Rudolf Diesel demonstrated the diesel engine in the 1900 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) in Paris using peanut oil fuel (see biodiesel). The Diesel engine takes the Grand Prix. The exposition was attended by 50 million people.http://www.dieselduck.ca/library/01%20articles/rudolph_diesel.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20100611043607/http://www.dieselduck.ca/library/01%20articles/rudolph_diesel.htm dead Martin Leduc, "Biography of Rudolph Diesel" June 11, 2010 The same year Wilhelm Maybach designed an engine built at Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft—following the specifications of Emil Jellinek—who required the engine to be named Daimler-Mercedes after his daughter, Mercédès Jellinek. In 1902, the Mercedes 35 hp automobiles with that engine were put into production by DMG.The history behind the Mercedes-Benz brand and the three-pointed star https://web.archive.org/web/20101025220255/http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Apr08/17_001109_The_History_Behind_The_Mercedes_Benz_Brand_And_The_Three_Pointed_Star.html 2010-10-25 . eMercedesBenz.com. April 17, 2008.
Wide popularity of home phonograph. "The market for home machines was created through technological innovation and pricing: Phonographs, gramophones, and graphophones were cleverly adapted to run by spring-motors (you wound them up), rather than by messy batteries or treadle mechanisms, while the musical records were adapted to reproduce loudly through a horn attachment. The cheap home machines sold as the $10 Eagle graphophone and the $40 (later $30) Home phonograph in 1896, the $20 Zon-o-phone in 1898, the $3 Victor Toy in 1900, and so on. Records sold because their fidelity improved, mass production processes were soon developed, advertising worked, and prices dropped from one and two dollars to around 35 cents."."The most thorough account of the history of the phonograph is still Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch, Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph, 2nd ed. (Indianapolis, IN: Howard W. Sams & Co., 1976). For a recent version of the story see Leonard DeGraaf, "Thomas Edison and the Origins of the Entertainment Phonograph" NARAS Journal 8 (Winter/Spring 1997/8) 43–69, as well as William Howland Kenney's recent and welcome Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). Much of the technocentric focus of literature on the phonograph (a focus Kenney's cultural history finally shifts) may derive from the interests of collectors, for whom I have the utmost respect. In the interest of simplicity, I am going to use the eventual American generic, "phonograph," for the graphophone and gramophone as well as the phonograph. Of course in Britain and much of the postcolonial world, the generic is "gramophone.""http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/gitelman.html#fn2 How Users Define New Media: A History of the Amusement Phonograph mit.edu January 5, 2010 October 9, 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20161009182818/http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/gitelman.html#fn2 dead In 1907, a Victor Records recording of Enrico Caruso singing Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Vesti la giubba" becomes the first to sell a million copies.Linehan, Andrew. "Soundcarrier". Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. pp. 359–366."
1899–1900 – Thomas Alva Edison of Milan, Ohio, invents the nickel-alkaline storage battery. On May 27, 1901, Edison establishes the Edison Storage Battery Company to develop and manufacture them.http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/glocpage.php3?gloc=CK600.1& Location Text and List of Documents – The Edison Papers rutgers.edu January 5, 2010 March 17, 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160317035528/http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/glocpage.php3?gloc=CK600.1& dead "It proved to be Edison's most difficult project, taking ten years to develop a practical alkaline battery. By the time Edison introduced his new alkaline battery, the gasoline powered car had so improved that electric vehicles were becoming increasingly less common, being used mainly as delivery vehicles in cities. However, the Edison alkaline battery proved useful for lighting railway cars and signals, maritime buoys, and miners lamps. Unlike iron ore mining with the Edison Ore-Milling Company, the heavy investment Edison made over ten years was repaid handsomely, and the storage battery eventually became Edison's most profitable product. Further, Edison's work paved the way for the modern alkaline battery."http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Edison_Bio_3.htm https://archive.today/20120731114009/http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Edison_Bio_3.htm dead July 31, 2012 Biography of Thomas Edison Mary Bellis About.com Money
1900 – The Brownie camera is invented; this was the beginning of the Eastman Kodak company. The Brownie popularized low-cost photography and introduced the concept of the snapshot. The first Brownie was introduced in February 1900,http://www.geh.org/fm/brownie/htmlsrc/index.html#E130.00034 George Eastman House The GEH Brownie Collection Series geh.org 2010-01-05 https://web.archive.org/web/20090315195832/http://www.geh.org/fm/brownie/htmlsrc/index.html#E130.00034 2009-03-15 dead
thumb|The first ascent of LZ1 over Lake Constance (the Bodensee) in 1900.
1900 – The first zeppelin flight occurs over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany on July 2, 1900.
thumb|200px|A diesel engine built by MAN AG in 1906
1901 – First electric typewriter is invented by George Canfield Blickensderfer of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was part of a line of Blickensderfer typewriters, known for its portability.http://www.typewritermuseum.org/history/inventors_blick.html Inventors typewritermuseum.org January 5, 2010 December 18, 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20171218152839/http://www.typewritermuseum.org/history/inventors_blick.html deadhttp://www.stamfordhistory.org/bl_elec.htm The Stamford Historical Society, Blickensderfer Manufacturing Co., The First Electric Typewriter stamfordhistory.orghttp://www.stamfordhistory.org/blickens.htm The Stamford Historical Society, Blickensderfer Typewriters stamfordhistory.org
1901 – Wilhelm Kress of Saint Petersburg, Russia creates his Kress Drachenflieger in Austria-Hungary. Power was provided by a Daimler petrol engine driving two large auger-style two-bladed propellers, the first attempt to use an internal combustion engine to power a heavier-than-air aircraft.Nicolaou, Stephane (1998). Flying Boats & Seaplanes: A History from 1905. Osceola: Zenith.
, p. 10http://www.mfn.li/article/?id=448 MFN – Metal Finishing News mfn.li 2010-01-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20170827001740/http://www.mfn.li/article/?id=448 2017-08-27 dead
1901 – The first radio receiver (successfully received a radio transmission). This receiver was developed by Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi established a wireless transmitting station at Marconi House, Rosslare Strand, County Wexford, Ireland in 1901 to act as a link between Poldhu in Cornwall and Clifden in County Galway. He soon made the announcement that on December 12, 1901, using a us 500 ft on kite-supported antenna for reception, the message was received at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland (now part of Canada), signals transmitted by the company's new high-power station at Poldhu, Cornwall. The distance between the two points was about us 2200 mi. Heralded as a great scientific advance, there was—and continues to be—some skepticism about this claim, partly because the signals had been heard faintly and sporadically. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception, and the transmissions, consisting of the Morse code letter S sent repeatedly, were difficult to distinguish from atmospheric noise. (A detailed technical review of Marconi's early transatlantic work appears in John S. Belrose's work of 1995.)http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html Fessenden and Marconi: Their Differing Technologies and Transatlantic Experiments During the First Decade of this Century Ieee.ca 2009-01-29 https://web.archive.org/web/20090123214652/http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html 23 January 2009 live The Poldhu transmitter was a two-stage circuit."Marconi and the History of Radio".John S. Belrose, "Fessenden and Marconi: Their Differing Technologies and Transatlantic Experiments During the First Decade of this Century https://web.archive.org/web/20121228200010/http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html 2012-12-28 ". International Conference on 100 Years of Radio – 5–7 September 1995. The first stage operated at a lower voltage and provided the energy for the second stage to spark at a higher voltage.
1902 – Willis Carrier of Angola, New York, invented the first indoor air conditioning. "He designed his spray driven air conditioning system which controlled both temperature and humidity using a nozzle originally designed to spray insecticide. He built his "Apparatus for Treating Air" (U.S. Pat. #808897) which was patented in 1906 and using chilled coils which not only controlled heat but could lower the humidity to as low as 55%. The device was even able to adjust the humidity level to the desired setting creating what would become the framework for the modern air conditioner. By adjusting the air movement and temperature level to the refrigeration coils he was able to determine the size and capacity of the unit to match the need of his customers. While Carrier was not the first to design a system like this his was much more stable, successful and safer than other versions and took air conditioning out of the Dark Ages and into the realm of science."http://www.air-conditioners-and-heaters.com/willis_carrier.htm Willis Carrier air conditioning air-conditioners-and-heaters.com January 4, 2010 March 23, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100323083436/http://www.air-conditioners-and-heaters.com/willis_carrier.htm dead
1902/1906/1908 – Sir James Mackenzie of Scone, Scotland, invented an early lie detector or polygraph. MacKenzie's polygraph "could be used to monitor the cardiovascular responses of his patients by taking their pulse and blood pressure.http://www.umw.edu/hisa/resources/Student%20Projects/Singel/students.umw.edu/_ksing2os/polygraph/origin.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100204031232/http://www.umw.edu/hisa/resources/Student%20Projects/Singel/students.umw.edu/_ksing2os/polygraph/origin.html dead Kati Singel, "The Polygraph:The Modern Lie Detector" February 4, 2010 He had developed an early version of his device in the 1890s, but had Sebastian Shaw, a Lancashire watchmaker, improve it further. "This instrument used a clockwork mechanism for the paper-rolling and time-marker movements and it produced ink recordings of physiological functions that were easier to acquire and to interpret. It has been written that the modern polygraph is really a modification of Dr. Mackenzie's clinical ink polygraph."http://home.total.net/~galcar/html/brief_history_of_the_polygraph.html Brief History of the Polygraph total.net A more modern and effective polygraph machine would be invented by John Larson in 1921.http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/forensic_2.htm https://archive.today/20120714143118/http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/forensic_2.htm dead July 14, 2012 History of the Lie Detector or Polygraph Machine Mary Bellis About.com Money
1902 – Georges Claude invented the neon lamp. He applied an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas, resulting in a red glow. Claudes started working on neon tubes which could be put to use as ordinary light bulbs. His first public display of a neon lamp took place on December 11, 1910, in Paris.http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=Ne 10. Neon – Elementymology & Elements Multidict vanderkrogt.net In 1912, Claude's associate began selling neon discharge tubes as advertising signs. They were introduced to the United States in 1923 when two large neon signs were bought by a Los Angeles Packard car dealership. The glow and arresting red color made neon advertising completely different from the competition.http://nymag.com/shopping/features/41814/ Neon: A Brief History Mangum Aja December 8, 2007 New York Magazine
1902 – Teasmade, a device for making tea automatically, is patented on April 7, 1902, by gunsmith Frank Clarke of Birmingham, England. He called it "An Apparatus Whereby a Cup of Tea or Coffee is Automatically Made" and it was later marketed as "A Clock That Makes Tea!". However, his original machine and all rights to it had been purchased from its actual inventor Albert E. Richardson, a clockmaker from Ashton-under-Lyne. The device was commercially available by 1904.http://www.teawaker.com/clarke.htm teawaker.com dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110626100212/http://www.teawaker.com/clarke.htm 2011-06-26
350px|thumb|Gilmore's second, larger plane
1902 – Lyman Gilmore of Washington, United States is awarded a patent for a steam engine, intended for use in aerial vehicles. At the time he was living in Red Bluff, California. At a later date, Gilmore claimed to have incorporated his engine in "a monoplane with a 32-foot wingspan" and to have performed his debut flight in May 1902. While occasionally credited with the first powered flight in aviation history, there is no supporting evidence for his account.http://www.flyingmachines.org/gilmore.html FLYING MACHINES – Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr. flyingmachines.org January 3, 2010 October 18, 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20181018100535/http://www.flyingmachines.org/gilmore.html dead While Gilmore was probably working on aeronautical experiments since the late 1890s and reportedly had correspondence with Samuel Pierpont Langley, there exists no photo of his creations earlier than 1908.http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/pb/wp_eb6830e0.html?0.5 Stephen Barber, "Lyman Gilmore Jr. – Aeronautical Pioneer" 2010-01-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20110727114151/http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/pb/wp_eb6830e0.html?0.5 2011-07-27 dead
1902 – The Wright brothers of Ohio, United States create the 1902 version of the Wright Glider. It was the third free-flight glider built by them and tested at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This was the first of the brothers' gliders to incorporate yaw control, and its design led directly to the 1903 Wright Flyer. The brothers designed the 1902 glider during the winter of 1901–1902 at their home in Dayton, Ohio. They designed the wing based on data from extensive airfoil tests conducted on a homemade wind tunnel. They built many of the components of the glider in Dayton, but they completed assembly at their Kitty Hawk camp in September 1902. They began testing on September 19. Over the next five weeks, they made between 700 and 1000 glide flights (as estimated by the brothers, who did not keep detailed records of these tests). The longest of these was 622.5 ft m on in 26 seconds. "In its final form, the 1902 Wright glider was the world's first fully controllable aircraft."http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1902/glider.cfm The Wright Brothers – The 1902 Glider si.edu 2010-01-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20100408194749/http://nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1902/glider.cfm 2010-04-08 deadJohn David Anderson, "Introduction to flight" (2004), page 30. 0-07-123818-2
250px|thumb|right|Ford Model A was the first car produced by Ford Motor Company beginning production in 1903.
1903 – Ford Motor Company produces its first car – the Ford Model A.
thumb|left|200px|A replica of Pearse's monoplane
1903 – Richard Pearse of New Zealand supposedly successfully flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on March 31, 1903Rodliffe, C. Geoffrey. Richard Pearse: Pioneer Aviator. Auckland, New Zealand: Museum of Transport and Technology. Inc., 1983. 0-473-09686-2. Verifiable eyewitnesses describe Pearse crashing into a hedge on two separate occasions during 1903. His monoplane must have risen to a height of at least three metres on each occasion. Good evidence exists that on March 31, 1903, Pearse achieved a powered, though poorly controlled, flight of several hundred metres. Pearse himself said that he had made a powered takeoff, "but at too low a speed for [his] controls to work". However, he remained airborne until he crashed into the hedge at the end of the field.Rodliffe, C. Geoffrey. Flight over Waitohi. Auckland, New Zealand: Acme Printing Works, 1997. 0-473-05048-X.Ogilvie, Gordon. The Riddle of Richard Pearse. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed Publishing, Revised edition, 1994. 0-589-00794-7.
1903 – Karl Jatho of Germany performs a series of flights at Vahrenwalder Heide, near Hanover, between August and November, 1903. Using first a pusher triplane, then a biplane. "His longest flight, however, was only 60 meters at 3–4 meters altitude." He then quit his efforts, noting his motor was too weak to make longer or higher flights.http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/jatho.html The Pioneers : An Anthology : Karl Jatho (1873–1933) monash.edu.au January 3, 2010 March 23, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190323151750/http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/jatho.html dead The plane was equipped with a single-cylinder 10 hp kW on Buchet engine driving a two-bladed pusher propeller and made hops of up to 200 ft m on, flying up to 10 ft m on high. In comparison, Orville Wright's first controlled flight four months later was of 36 m ft on in 12 seconds although Wilbur flew 59 seconds and us 852 ft m on later that same day. Either way Jatho managed to fly a powered heavier-than-air machine earlier than his American counterparts.http://www.flyingmachines.org/jatho.html FLYING MACHINES – Karl Jatho flyingmachines.org January 3, 2010 October 1, 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20181001104405/http://www.flyingmachines.org/jatho.html dead
1903 – Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers. In November 1903 Anderson was granted her first patentUnited States Patent 743,801, Issue Date: November 10, 1903 for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled inside the car, called the windshield wiper.Women Hold Patents on Important Inventions; USPTO recognizes inventive women during Women's History Month https://web.archive.org/web/20090511103740/http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/02-16.htm 2009-05-11 , United States Patent and Trademark Office press release #02–16, March 1, 2002, accessed March 3, 2009 Her device consisted of a lever and a swinging arm with a rubber blade. The lever could be operated from inside a vehicle to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. Similar devices had been made earlier, but Anderson's was the first to be effective.Many Anderson: Windshield Wipers, September 2001, Inventor of the Week Archive, Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering website, accessed March 3, 2009
thumb|250px|The first flight by Orville Wright made on December 17, 1903.
1903 – The Wright brothers fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their airplane, the Wright Flyer, performed the first recorded controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight on December 17, 1903. In the day's fourth flight, Wilbur Wright flew 279 m ft off us in 59 seconds. First three flights were approximately 120, 175, and 200 ft m on, respectively. The Wrights laid particular stress on fully and accurately describing all the requirements for controlled, powered flight and put them into use in an aircraft which took off from a level launching rail, with the aid of a headwind to achieve sufficient airspeed before reaching the end of the rail. "1903 – Who Made the First Flight?" https://web.archive.org/web/20150423162519/http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html 2015-04-23 TheWrightBrothers.org. It is one of the various candidates regarded as the first flying machine.
1904 – SS Haimun sends its first news story on March 15, 1904.Slattery, Peter. "Reporting the Russo-Japanese War,1904–5", 2004. It was a Chinese steamer ship commanded by war correspondent Lionel James in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War for The Times. It is the first known instance of a "press boat" dedicated to war correspondence during naval battles. The recent advent of wireless telegraphy meant that reporters were no longer limited to submitting their stories from land-based offices, and The Times spent 74 days outfitting and equipping the ship,The Times, "First messages from the Yellow Sea", March 11, 2004. installing a De Forest transmitter aboard the ship.The De Forest Wireless Telegraphy Tower: Bulletin No. 1, Summer 1904.
thumb|200px|right|Construction work on the Gaillard Cut is shown in this photograph from 1907
1904–1914 – The Panama Canal constructed by the United States in the territory of Panama, which had just gained independence from Colombia. The Canal is a us 77 km mi on ship canal that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and a key conduit for international maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the canal had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to San Francisco via the canal travels us 9,500 km mi on, well under half the us 22,500 km mi on route around Cape Horn.http://www.czbrats.com/AmPan/index.htm The Americans in Panama William R. Scott Statler Publishing Company New York 1913 5 January 2010 The project starts on May 4, 1904, known as Acquisition Day. The United States government purchased all Canal properties on the Isthmus of Panama from the New Panama Canal Company, except the Panama Railroad.http://www.czbrats.com/Builders/100years/brooke.htm May 4, 1904 czbrats.com The project begun under the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, continued in that of William Howard Taft and completed in that of Woodrow Wilson.http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/history/end.html Panama Canal History – End of the Construction pancanal.com 2010-01-05 2018-10-01 https://web.archive.org/web/20181001145746/http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/history/end.html deadhttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=65375 Woodrow Wilson: Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Panama Canal Tolls ucsb.edu January 5, 2010 December 28, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20101228021343/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=65375 dead The Chief engineers were John Frank Stevens and George Washington Goethalshttp://goofy313g.free.fr/calisota_online/exist/stevens.html John F. Stevens free.frhttp://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/biographies/goethals.html George Washington Goethals pancanal.com 2010-01-05 2007-06-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20070622031957/http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/biographies/goethals.html dead
1904 – The Welte-Mignon reproducing piano is created by Edwin Welte and Karl Bockisch. Both employed by the "Michael Welte und Söhne" firm of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. "It automatically replayed the tempo, phrasing, dynamics and pedalling of a particular performance, and not just the notes of the music, as was the case with other player pianos of the time." In September, 1904, the Mignon was demonstrated in the Leipzig Trade Fair. In March, 1905 it became better known when showcased "at the showrooms of Hugo Popper, a manufacturer of roll-operated orchestrions". By 1906, the Mignon was also exported to the United States, installed to pianos by the firms Feurich and Steinway & Sons.http://www.pianola.org/reproducing/reproducing_welte.cfm Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano The Pianola Institute
1904 – Benjamin Holt of the Holt Manufacturing Company invents one of the first practical continuous tracks for use in tractors. While the date of invention was reportedly November 24, 1904, Holt would not receive a patent until December, 1907.https://www.kipnotes.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20121017162514/http://www.kipnotes.com/AgriculturalMachinery.htm dead Holen Sie Ihr Wissen aus dem Internet October 17, 2012
1905 – John Joseph Montgomery of California, United States designs tandem-wing gliders. His pilot Daniel Maloney performs a number of public exhibitions of high altitude flights in March and April 1905 in the Santa Clara, California, area. These flights received national media attention and demonstrated superior control of the design, with launches as high as 4,000 ft m and landings made at predetermined locations. The gliders were launched from balloons.http://www.flyingmachines.org/mont.html FLYING MACHINES – John J. Montgomery flyingmachines.org January 3, 2010 March 26, 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160326053518/http://www.flyingmachines.org/mont.html deadhttp://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/montgomery.html Flying Wings : An Anthology : John Joseph Montgomery (1858–1911) monash.edu.au January 3, 2010 December 17, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091217090939/http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/montgomery.html dead
1905 – The Wright Brothers introduce their Wright Flyer III. On October 5, 1905, Wilbur flew us 24 mi km in 39 minutes 23 seconds,Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes 978-1-58663-300-4 Sharpe Michael Friedman/Fairfax 2000 311 longer than the total duration of all the flights of 1903 and 1904. Ending with a safe landing when the fuel ran out. The flight was seen by a number of people, including several invited friends, their father Milton, and neighboring farmers.Dayton Metro Library https://web.archive.org/web/20090905015136/http://home.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/wbcollection/wbscrapbooks1/WBScrapbooks10007.html 2009-09-05 Note: Dayton Metro Library has a document showing durations, distances and a list of witnesses to the long flights in late September-early October 1905. Retrieved: May 23, 2007. Four days later, they wrote to the United States Secretary of War William Howard Taft, offering to sell the world's first practical fixed-wing aircraft.
1906 – The Gabel Automatic Entertainer, an early jukebox-like machine, is invented by John Gabel. It is the first such device to play a series of gramophone records. "The Automatic Entertainer with 24 selections, was produced and patented by the John Gabel owned company in Chicago. The first model (constructed in 1905) was produced in 1906 with an exposed 40 inch horn (102 cm) on top, and it is today often considered the real father of the modern multi-selection disc-playing phonographs. John Gabel and his company did in fact receive a special prize at the Pan-Pacific Exposition for the Automatic Entertainer."The life of John Gabel (1872–1955) and the history of his company is described in detail in an article well written by Rick Crandall. The article entitled "Diary Disclosures of John Gabel: A Pioneer in Automatic Music", based on an unpublished diary, was published in the autumn, 1984, newsletter of The Musical Box Society International (Vol. XXX, No. 2), and contains a lot of interesting historic information. Another story about John Gabel and his Automatic Entertainer appeared in the newsletter "Antique Phonograph Monthly" (Vol. VII, No. 8) published by Allen Koenigsberg in the summer, 1984.Gert J. Almind, "Jukebox History 1888–1913".
thumb|200x200px|Alberto Santos-Dumont realizes the first official flight, October 23, 1906, Bagatelle field.
1906 – The Victor Talking Machine Company releases the Victrola, the most popular gramophone model until the late 1920s.The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Gramophone Andre Millard 512 The Victrola is also the first playback machine containing an internal horn.The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World 768–769 David Horn David Sanjek Victor Victor also erects the world's largest illuminated billboard at the time, on Broadway in New York City, to advertise the company's records.The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Advertising of Popular Music 530–532 Dave Laing Dave Laing
1906 – Traian Vuia of Romania takes off with his "Traian Vuia 1", an early monoplane. His flight was performed in Montesson near Paris and was about 12 meters long.http://www.earlyaviators.com/evuia.htm Traian Vuia Cooper Ralph S. earlyaviators.com
1906 – Jacob Ellehammer of Denmark constructs the Ellehammer semi-biplane. In this machine, he made a tethered flight on September 12, 1906, becoming the second European to make a powered flight.The Early Years (Aviation Century) 2003 Ron Dick Amanda Wright Lane Dan Patterson Boston Mills Press 1-55046-407-8Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age 2004 Tom D. Crouch Tom D. Crouch W. W. Norton & Company 0-393-32620-9100 Years of Flight: A Chronology of Aerospace History, 1903–2003 Library of Flight Series 2003 Frank H. Winter Frank H. Winter F. Robert Van Der Linden AIAA 1-56347-562-6
1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont and his Santos-Dumont 14-bis make the first public flight of an airplane on October 23, 1906, in Paris. The flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft officially witnessed to take off, fly, and land. Santos Dumont is considered the "Father of Aviation" in his country of birth, Brazil.Hansen James R. James R. Hansen First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong New York Simon & Schuster 2005 978-0-7432-5631-5 299 His flight is the first to have been certified by the Aéro-Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).Les vols du 14bis relatés au fil des éditions du journal l'illustration de 1906. https://web.archive.org/web/20070324025948/http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_14bis.htm 2007-03-24 The wording is: "cette prouesse est le premier vol au monde homologué par l'Aéro-Club de France et la toute jeune Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)."http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_index.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20061128124844/http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_index.htm dead Santos-Dumont: Pionnier de l'aviation, dandy de la Belle Epoque. November 28, 2006 On November 12, 1906, Santos Dumont succeeded in setting the first world record recognized by the Aero-Club De France by flying 220 metres in less than 22 seconds.JInes. Ernest. "Santos Dumont in France 1906–1916: The Very Earliest Early Birds." https://web.archive.org/web/20160316120252/http://earlyaviators.com/edumonb.htm 2016-03-16 earlyaviators.com, December 25, 2006. Retrieved: August 17, 2009.
1906 – Sound radio broadcasting was invented by Reginald Fessenden and Lee De Forest. Fessenden and Ernst Alexanderson developed a high-frequency alternator-transmitters, an improvement on an already existing device. The improved model operated at a transmitting frequency of approximately 50 kHz, although with far less power than Fessenden's rotary-spark transmitters. The alternator-transmitter achieved the goal of transmitting quality audio signals, but the lack of any way to amplify the signals meant they were somewhat weak. On December 21, 1906, Fessenden made an extensive demonstration of the new alternator-transmitter at Brant Rock, showing its utility for point-to-point wireless telephony, including interconnecting his stations to the wire telephone network. A detailed review of this demonstration appeared in The American Telephone Journal. https://earlyradiohistory.us/1907fes.htm Experiments and Results in Wireless Telephony The American Telephone Journal Meanwhile, De Forest had developed the Audion tube an electronic amplifier device. He received a patent in January, 1907.http://www.leedeforest.org/inventor.html Old Site – Lee de Forest Invented the Radio Tube leedeforest.org "DeForest's audion vacuum tube was the key component of all radio, telephone, radar, television, and computer systems before the invention of the transistor in 1947."http://www.invent.org/Hall_Of_Fame/40.html National Inventors Hall of Fame: "Lee Deforest" 2010-01-04 2009-09-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20090922235252/http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/40.html dead
1906 – Reginald Fessenden of East Bolton, Quebec, Canada made what appear to be the first audio radio broadcasts of entertainment and music ever made to a general audience. (Beginning in 1904, the United States Navy had broadcast daily time signals and weather reports, but these employed spark-gap transmitters, transmitting in Morse code). On the evening of December 24, 1906 (Christmas Eve), Fessenden used the alternator-transmitter to send out a short program from Brant Rock, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. It included a phonograph record of Ombra mai fù (Largo) by George Frideric Handel, followed by Fessenden himself playing the song O Holy Night on the violin. Finishing with reading a passage from the Bible: 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will' (Gospel of Luke 2:14). On December 31, New Year's Eve, a second short program was broadcast. The main audience for both these transmissions was an unknown number of shipboard radio operators along the East Coast of the United States. Fessenden claimed that the Christmas Eve broadcast had been heard "as far down" as Norfolk, Virginia, while the New Year Eve's broadcast had reached places in the Caribbean. Although now seen as a landmark, these two broadcasts were barely noticed at the time and soon forgotten— the only first-hand account appears to be a letter Fessenden wrote on January 29, 1932, to his former associate, Samuel M. Kinter.https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4540711;view=1up;seq=167 Fessenden, Builder of Tomorrows Fessenden Helen May Trott Coward-McCann 1940 978-0405060472 New York 153–154The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Radio 451–461 Stephen Barnard Donna Halper and Dave Laing
thumb|The Autochrome Lumière becomes the first commercial color photography process.
1907 – The Autochrome Lumière which was patented in 1903 becomes the first commercial color photography process.
1907 – Thomas Edison invented the "Universal Electric Motor" which made it possible to operate dictation machines, etc. on all lighting circuits.http://www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm THOMAS EDISON'S INVENTIONS thomasedison.com January 4, 2010 August 25, 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120825192526/http://www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm dead
1907 – The Photostat machine begins the modern era of document imaging. The Photostat machine was invented in Kansas City, Kansas, United States by Oscar Gregory in 1907, and the Photostat Corporation was incorporated in Rhode Island in 1911. "Rectigraph and Photostat machines (Plates 40–42) combined a large camera and a developing machine and used sensitized paper furnished in 350-foot rolls. "The prints are made direct on sensitized paper, no negative, plate or film intervening. The usual exposure is ten seconds. After the exposure has been made the paper is cut off and carried underneath the exposure chamber to the developing bath, where it remains for 35 seconds, and is then drawn into a fixing bath. While one print is being developed or fixed, another exposure can be made. When the copies are removed from the fixing bath, they are allowed to dry by exposure to the air, or may be run through a drying machine. The first print taken from the original is a 'black' print; the whites in the original are black and the blacks, white. (Plate 43) A white 'positive' print of the original is made by rephotographing the black print. As many positives as required may be made by continuing to photograph the black print." (The American Digest of Business Machines, 1924.) Du Pont Co. files include black prints of graphs dating from 1909, and the company acquired a Photostat machine in 1912. ... A 1914 Rectigraph ad stated that the US government had been using Rectigraphs for four years and stated that the machines were being used by insurance companies and abstract and title companies. ... In 1911, a Photostat machine was $500."http://www.officemuseum.com/copy_machines.htm Copying Machines officemuseum.com January 5, 2010 February 5, 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180205005845/http://www.officemuseum.com/copy_machines.htm deadhttp://www.nwmangum.com/Kodak/Rochester.html A History of the Rochester, NY Camera and Lens Companies nwmangum.com
250px|thumb|right|Ford Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage as it is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile.
1908 – Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company introduces the Ford Model T. The first production Model T was built on September 27, 1908, at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that "put America on wheels"; some of this was because of Ford's innovations, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting, as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ford.htm Henry Ford Changes the World, 1908 eyewitnesstohistory.com
1909 – Leo Baekeland of Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium officially announces his creation of Bakelite. The announcement was made at the February 1909 meeting of the New York section of the American Chemical Society. American Institute of Chemical Engineers Staff Twenty-Five Years of Chemical Engineering Progress Ayer Publishing 1977 216 978-0-8369-0149-8 Bakelite is an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic.Leo Hendrik Baekeland https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/leo-hendrik-baekeland Science History Institute June 2016 20 March 2018Bowden Mary Ellen Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd registration 1997 Chemical Heritage Foundation Philadelphia, PA 9780941901123 Leo Hendrik Baekeland 127–129http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/baekeland.html Time 100: Leo Baekeland Ivan Amato 1999-03-29 2007-11-08 https://web.archive.org/web/20071106110739/http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/baekeland.html 6 November 2007 dead
Popular culture
Literature
List of years in literature#1900s Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1900s
thumb|upright|150px|4 out of 10 best-selling American books in the 1900s were written by Winston Churchill (1871 – 1947)
The best selling books of the decade were Anne of Green Gables (1908) and The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), which sold 50 millionPaskin Willa 2017-04-27 The Other Side of Anne of Green Gables en-US The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/magazine/the-other-side-of-anne-of-green-gables.html 2020-04-19 0362-4331 and 45 millionWorker's Press copies respectively. Serbian writers used the Belgrade literary style, an Ekavian writing form which set basis for the later standardization of the Serbian language. Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, published The Old New Land in 1902, outlining Herzl's vision for a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
Below are the best-selling books in the United States of each year, as determined by Publishers Weekly.2006 Annual Bestsellers, 1900-1909 http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/best00.cgi https://web.archive.org/web/20111016093451/http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/best00.cgi 2011-10-16 live
1900: To Have and to Hold by Mary Johnston
1901: The Crisis by Winston Churchill
1902: The Virginian by Owen Wister
1903: Lady Rose's Daughter by Mary Augusta Ward
1904: The Crossing by Winston Churchill
1905: The Marriage of William Ashe by Mary Augusta Ward
1906: Coniston by Winston Churchill
1907: The Lady of the Decoration by Frances Little
1908: Mr. Crewe's Career by Winston Churchill
1909: The Inner Shrine by Anonymous (Basil King)
Art
thumb|upright|150px|Pablo Picasso in 1908, who, along with Henri Matisse, was considered a leader in modern art
Pablo Picasso paints Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, considered by some to be the birth of modern art.
Art Nouveau art movement peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century (1890–1905).
Cubism art movement peaked in popularity in France between 1907 and 1911.
Fauvism art movement peaked in popularity between 1905 and 1907.
Film
1900s in film
January 2010
thumb|180px|Justus D. Barnes in Edwin Porter's film The Great Train Robbery, 1903
September 18, 1900 – Robert W. Paul releases a short movie called Army Life; or, How Soldiers Are Made: Mounted Infantry.
April 2, 1902 – Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
The first huge success of American cinema, as well as the largest experimental achievement to this point, was the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter.
December 26, 1906 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang is released on December 26, 1906, in Melbourne, Australia.
May 12, 1909 – Mr. Flip is released, the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
Music
thumb|El Choclo by Ángel Villoldo
Popular songs of the 1900s include "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "What Are They Doing in Heaven?", which have been featured in 42Lift Every Voice and Sing https://hymnary.org/text/lift_every_voice_and_sing#instances Hymnary.org and 16What Are They Doing in Heaven? http://www.hymnary.org/text/i_am_thinking_of_friends_whom_i_used_to_ hymnary.org August 24, 2015Charles Albert Tindley 18511933 http://nethymnal.org/bio/t/i/tindley_ca.htm nethymnal.org August 24, 2015 hymnals respectively.
January 23, 1900 - The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall debut with Victor Herbert conducting.
February 3, 1900 – Adonais, overture by George Whitefield Chadwick is premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
December 15, 1900 – The second and third movements of Concerto No.2 in C Minor for Piano by Sergei Rachmaninov receive their world premiere in Moscow, with Rachmaninov playing the solo part.
March 29th, 1901 - Jean de Reszke's final performance of the season with the Metropolitan Opera turns into his farewell performance with that company as he sings the title role in Wagner's Lohengrin.
October 27, 1901 – Claude Debussy's Trois Nocturnes is given in its first complete performance as Camille Chevillard conducts the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris.
November 9, 1901 - First complete performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 2 in C Minor in Moscow with Rachmaninoff playing the solo part.
December 16th, 1902 - Scott Joplin's signature rag, "The Entertainer", is released.
1903 - El Choclo one of the most popular tangos of all time, composed by Ángel Villoldo is premiered.
October 18, 1904 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne with Mahler conducting.
1905 - La Morocha, the first successful sung tango by Ángel Villoldo and Enrique Saborido is published.
1905 - Claude Debussy releases his masterpiece and signature song, "Clair de Lune".
January 27, 1907 – Executives of the Metropolitan Opera removes Richard Strauss's Salome from the repertoire following protests that the opera was indecent.
January 26, 1908 – Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 receives its première.
March 15, 1908 – Maurice Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole receives its première in Paris.
April 11, 1908 – Spyridon Samaras's opera Rhea is premiered in Florence (Teatro Verdi)
September 19, 1908 – Première of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 7 in Prague.
January 25, 1909 – Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera
February 19, 1909 – First production Bedřich Smetana's opera Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride) in the USA v Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Gustav Mahler with Ema Destinová in the titular role.
February 22, 1909 – Thomas Beecham conducts the first concert with his newly established Beecham Symphony Orchestra in the UK.
November 8, 1909 – Boston Opera House in the United States opens with a performance of La Gioconda starring Lillian Nordica and Louise Homer.
November 28, 1909 – Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 is premièred in New York City.
December 18, 1909 – George Enescu's Octet for Strings and Piano Quartet No. 1 in D Major are premiered together on a program also featuring his Sept chansons de Clement Marot, Op. 15, at the Salle des agriculteurs in Paris, as part of the "Soirées d'Art" concert series.
Fashion
1900s in fashion
January 2010
Historic events
Agustín Lizárraga discovers Machu Picchu on July 14, 1902.
August 2023
Sports
thumb|The first recorded photo of Boca Juniors taken in 1906, after winning the Liga Central championship.
July 2018
Club Atlético River Plate is founded in 1901.
Real Madrid CF is founded in 1902.
The Tour de France starts for the first time in 1903.http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/HISTO/us/index.html Home Tour de France 2015 2011-02-02 https://web.archive.org/web/20101027083912/http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/HISTO/us/index.html 2010-10-27 dead
Racing Club de Avellaneda is founded in 1903.
Club Atlético Independiente is founded in 1905.
Club Atlético Boca Juniors is founded in 1905.
Food
New Haven, Connecticut Louis Lassen of Louis' Lunch makes the first modern-day hamburger sandwich. According to family legend, one day in 1900 a local businessman dashed into the small New Haven lunch wagon and pleaded for a lunch to go. According to the Lassen family, the customer, Gary Widmore, exclaimed "Louie! I'm in a rush, slap a meatpuck between two planks and step on it!".https://archive.org/details/stevenraichlensb0000raic registration Louis Lunch. BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All Across America Workman Publishing 2003 28 May 2014 Raichlen, Steven 336–337 9780761120155 https://books.google.com/books?id=KHEbAgAAQBAJ&q=Louis+Lunch&pg=PA108 Legendary Locals of New Haven Arcadia Publishing Caplan, Colin 2013 108–109 9781467100960 Louis Lassen, the establishment's owner, placed his own blend of ground steak trimmings between two slices of toast and sent the gentleman on his way, so the story goes, with America's alleged first hamburger being served.http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/?page_id=4954 Burger at Louis' Lunch Connecticut Museum Quest 29 May 2014
People
Modern artists
thumb|upright|Henri Matisse
22em
Umberto Boccioni
Pierre Bonnard
Georges Braque
Paul Cézanne
Marc Chagall
Edgar Degas
André Derain
Raoul Dufy
Paul Gauguin
Juan Gris
Wassily Kandinsky
Gustav Klimt
Fernand Léger
Kazimir Malevich
Henri Matisse
Amedeo Modigliani
Claude Monet
Pablo Picasso
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Auguste Rodin
Georges Rouault
Henri Rousseau
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Egon Schiele
Gino Severini
Paul Signac
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
Suzanne Valadon
Maurice de Vlaminck
Gustave Caillebotte
Édouard Manet
Camille Pissarro
Georges Seurat
Alfred Sisley
Other notable people
thumb|upright|Sigmund Freud, 1905
22em
Agustín Lizárraga
Eugen d'Albert
Hugo Alfvén
Egbert Van Alstyne
Broncho Billy Anderson
Fatty Arbuckle
Louis Daniel Armstrong
Kurt Atterberg
Béla Bartók
Nora Bayes
Jagdish Chandra Bose
Irving Berlin
Francis Boggs
Frank Bridge
Alfred Bryan
Vincent P. Bryan
Ferruccio Busoni
Enrico Caruso
Gustave Charpentier
Thurland Chattaway
Francesco Cilea
Will D. Cobb
Bob Cole
Frederick Converse
Henry Creamer
Henry Walford Davies
Peter Dawson
Claude Debussy
Frederick Delius
Paul Dresser
Antonín Dvořák
Gus Edwards
Edward Elgar
August Enna
Manuel de Falla
Geraldine Farrar
Fred Fisher
Paul Le Flem
Sigmund Freud
Rudolf Friml
Julius Fučík
Amelita Galli-Curci
Mary Garden
Edward German
Alexander Glazunov
Emilio de Gogorza
Percy Grainger
Enrique Granados
D. W. Griffith
Guy d'Hardelot
Hamilton Harty
The Haydn Quartet
Anna Held
Victor Herbert
Max Hoffmann
Gustav Holst
Abe Holzmann
David Horsley
Harry Houdini
Mississippi John Hurt
Jenö Huszka
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
Carrie Jacobs-Bond
Alfred Jarry
William Jerome
J. Rosamond Johnson
James Weldon Johnson
Scott Joplin
Gus Kahn
Jerome Kern
Rudyard Kipling
Carl Laemmle
Harry Lauder
Lead Belly
Franz Lehár
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Paul Lincke
Gustav Mahler
Arthur Marshall
Jules Massenet
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner
Nellie Melba
Georges Méliès
Kerry Mills
Billy Murray
Evelyn Nesbit
Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin
Carl Nielsen
Jack Norworth
Vítězslav Novák
Maude Nugent
Sidney Olcott
Charles Pathé
Edwin S. Porter
Giacomo Puccini
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Maurice Ravel
Ottorino Respighi
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Landon Ronald
Paul Sarebresole
Erik Satie
Arnold Schoenberg
Jean Schwartz
James Scott
Alexander Scriabin
William Selig
Chris Smith
Harry B. Smith
Ethel Smyth
John Philip Sousa
George Kirke Spoor
Charles Villiers Stanford
Andrew B. Sterling
Oscar Strauss
Harry Von Tilzer
Tom Turpin
Edgard Varèse
Vesta Victoria
Anton Webern
Percy Wenrich
Bert Williams
Harry Williams
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Amy Woodforde-Finden
Israel Zangwill
Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Charles A. Zimmerman
Sports figures
Baseball
History of baseball in the United States
Chief Bender
3-Finger Brown
Jack Chesbro
Ty Cobb
Pud Galvin
Addie Joss
Nap Lajoie
Sam Leever
Christy Mathewson
John McGraw
Kid Nichols
Eddie Plank
Tris Speaker
Rube Waddell
Honus Wagner
Big Ed Walsh
Cy YoungBoxing
International Boxing Hall of Fame
Tommy Burns
Marvin Hart (boxing)
James J. Jeffries (boxing)
Jack Johnson (boxing)
Kid McCoy (boxing)Cricket
Warwick Armstrong
Sydney Barnes
Colin Blythe
Len Braund
Aubrey Faulkner
Tip Foster
C.B. Fry
Dick Lilley
Tom Hayward
Clem Hill
George Hirst
Monty Noble
K.S. Ranjitsinhji
Wilfred Rhodes
Percy Sherwell
George Thompson (cricketer)
Victor Trumper
Johnny Tyldesley
Bert Vogler
Last survivors
Since the deaths of Okagi Hayashi of Japan on 26 April 2025 and Inah Canabarro Lucas of Brazil on 30 April 2025, there is one remaining verified living person born in the 1900s decade, Ethel Caterham (born 21 August 1909) of the United Kingdom.Yamamoto Yumi 2025-04-30 Inah Canabarro Lucas, World’s Oldest Person, Dies at 116 https://longeviquest.com/2025/04/inah-canabarro-lucas-worlds-oldest-person-dies-at-116/ 2025-04-30 LongeviQuest en-USWorld Supercentenarian Rankings List – Gerontology Research Group https://www.grg-supercentenarians.org/world-supercentenarian-rankings-list/ 2024-04-04 en The last surviving man born during this decade was Juan Vicente Pérez of Venezuela (27 May 1909 – 2 April 2024).Tabachnick Cara 2024-04-03 Oldest man in the world dies in Venezuela weeks before 115th birthday - CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oldest-man-guiness-world-records-juan-vicente-perez-dies-venezuela-before-115th-birthday/ 2024-04-04 www.cbsnews.com en-US
See also
List of decades, centuries, and millennia
Edwardian era
Progressive Era
List of years in literature 1900s
Victorians, the last people to mature in the 19th century in the year 1900
Lost Generation, the generation whose older members became adults in the 1900s
Timeline
The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:
1900 • 1901 • 1902 • 1903 • 1904 • 1905 • 1906 • 1907 • 1908 • 1909
Notes
note
References
30em
Further reading
Hale Williams Bayard William Bayard Hale January 1911 A Dramatic Decade of History: What The First Ten Years Of The Twentieth Century Witnessed Of International Stir – A Time Prolific In Wars, Revolutions And Revolts, National Tragedy And Intrigue The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI 13855–13868 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13855 2009-07-10
Hutchinson Woods January 1911 The Conquest Of The Great Diseases: The National Death-Rate Reduced 10 PerCent, The Discovery Of The Hook-Worm And The "Typhoid Fly", Meningitis And Syphilis Both Conquered During The Decade, The Passing Of Yellow Fever The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI 13881–13883 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13881 2009-07-10
Keys C.M. January 1911 Ten Years Of Industrial America: Manufacturing Industry Far Outpacing Agriculture The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI 13884–13897 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13884 2009-07-10
Page Walter Hines Walter Hines Page January 1911 The Astronomical Romance Of A Decade: The Story of Ten Years' Advance In Knowledge Of The Heavens The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI 13877–13880 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13877 2009-07-10
Mahan Alfred T. Alfred Thayer Mahan January 1911 The Battleship Of All-Big-Guns: How The Coming Of The "Dreadnought" Made The World's Navies Partly Obsolete, Germany's Growing Commerce Is Responsible For Changes In Many Navies, The Rise of Three Great Navies In Ten Years The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI 13898–13902 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13898 2009-07-10
Sloss Robert January 1911 The Children Of The Gas-Engine: The Revolution In Speed And In Convenience In Transportation – Automobiles, Motor-Cycles, Motor-Boats, Aeroplanes And Other Queer Craft That Ten Years Have Brought The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI 13869–13877 https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13869 2009-07-10
External links
Prices and Wages by Decade: 1900s—Research guide from the University of Missouri Library shows average wages for various occupations and prices for common items from 1900 to 1909.
Category:19th century
Category:20th century