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Millennium:
Centuries:
  • * *
Decades:
  • * * ' * *
Years:
  • * * * ' * * *
1900 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1900
MCM
Ab urbe condita2653
Armenian calendar1349
ԹՎ ՌՅԽԹ
Assyrian calendar6650
Bahá'í calendar56–57
Balinese saka calendar1821–1822
Bengali calendar1307
Berber calendar2850
British Regnal year63 Vict. 1 – 64 Vict. 1
Buddhist calendar2444
Burmese calendar1262
Byzantine calendar7408–7409
Chinese calendar己亥(Earth Pig)
4596 or 4536
    — to —
庚子年 (Metal Rat)
4597 or 4537
Coptic calendar1616–1617
Discordian calendar3066
Ethiopian calendar1892–1893
Hebrew calendar5660–5661
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat1956–1957
 - Shaka Samvat1821–1822
 - Kali Yuga5000–5001
Holocene calendar11900
Igbo calendar900–901
Iranian calendar1278–1279
Islamic calendar1317–1318
Japanese calendarMeiji 33
(明治33年)
Javanese calendar1829–1830
Julian calendarGregorian minus 12 or 13 days
Korean calendar4233
Minguo calendar12 before ROC
民前12年
Nanakshahi calendar432
Thai solar calendar2442–2443
Tibetan calendar阴土猪年
(female Earth-Pig)
2026 or 1645 or 873
    — to —
阳金鼠年
(male Iron-Rat)
2027 or 1646 or 874

1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1900th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 900th year of the , the 100th and last year of the , and the 1st year of the decade. As of the start of 1900, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

As of March 1 (O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days. Page Template:TOC limit/styles.css has no content.

Events[]

January[]

Main article: January 1900
  • January 2U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.
  • January 5 – Dr. Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University announces a theory about the cause of the Earth's magnetism.
  • January 6Second Boer War: Boers attempt to end the Siege of Ladysmith, which leads to the Battle of Platrand.
  • January 9S.S. Lazio, an Italian professional sports club, is founded in Rome.
  • January 14
    • Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome, Italy.
    • The U.S. Senate accepts the British-German treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounced its claims to the American Samoa portion of the Samoan Islands.
File:Boers at Spion Kop, 1900 - Project Gutenberg eText 16462.jpg

Second Boer War: Boers at Spion Kop, 1900

  • January 24 – The Second Boer War: At the Battle of Spion Kop, Boer troops defeat the British Army.
File:BoxerSoldiers.jpg

Boxer Soldiers

  • January 27Boxer Rebellion: Foreign diplomats in Peking, Qing dynasty China, demand that the Boxer rebels be disciplined.
  • January 31 – Datu Muhammad Salleh, leader of the Mat Salleh Rebellion in North Borneo, is shot dead in Tambunan.

February[]

Main article: February 1900
  • February 5 – The United Kingdom and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal across Central America in Nicaragua.
  • February 6 – The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
  • February 8Second Boer War: British troops are defeated by the Boers at Ladysmith.
  • February 14Second Boer WarBattle of Paardeberg: 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
  • February 15Second Boer War: The Siege of Kimberley is lifted.
  • February 17Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg: British troops defeat the Boers.
  • February 27
    • FC Bayern, Germany's most successful football club, is founded in Munich.
    • Second Boer War: British military leaders accept the unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.

March[]

Main article: March 1900
  • March 5 – Two U.S. Navy cruisers are sent to Central America to protect American interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
  • March 6 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia, U.S.A. kills 50 miners.
  • March 14 – Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's Laws of Heredity.
  • March 15 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
  • March 16 – The British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land on Crete on which the ruins of the palace of Knossos stand. He begins to unearth some of the palace three days later.
  • March 18AFC Ajax, a most successful football club in Netherlands, founded in Amsterdam.[citation needed]
  • March 27 – The arrival of a Russian naval fleet in Korea causes concern to the Imperial Japanese government.

April[]

Main article: April 1900
File:Vue panoramique de l'exposition universelle de 1900.jpg

Exposition Universelle view in Paris

  • April 14 – The Paris World Exhibition opens.
  • April 22Battle of Kousséri: French forces secure their domination of Chad. Warlord Rabih az-Zubayr is defeated and killed.

May[]

Main article: May 1900
  • May 1 – An explosion of blasting powder in a coal mine in Scofield, Utah kills 200.
  • May 14 – The second Modern Olympic Games opens in Paris (as part of the Paris World Exhibition).
  • May 17
    • Second Boer War: The British Army relieves the Siege of Mafeking.
    • Boxer Rebellion: Boxers destroy three villages near Peking and kill sixty Chinese Christians.
    • L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is published in Chicago, the first of Baum's Oz books chronicling the fictional Land of Oz for children.
  • May 18 – The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
  • May 21Russia invades Manchuria.
  • May 24Second Boer War: The British annex the Orange Free State as the Orange River Colony.
  • May 28Boxer Rebellion: The Boxers attack Belgians in the Fengtai railway station.
  • May 29N'Djamena, the capital city of Chad, is founded as Fort-Lamy by French commander Émile Gentil.
  • May 31Boxer Rebellion: Peacekeepers from various European countries arrive in China where they join with Japanese forces.

June[]

Main article: June 1900
  • June 1 – American temperance agitator Carrie Nation begins her crusade to demolish saloons.
  • June 5Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria.
  • June 14 – The Reichstag approves a second law that allows the expansion of the Imperial German Navy
  • June 17Boxer Rebellion: Battle of Dagu Forts: Naval forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture the Taku Forts on the Hai River estuary in China.
  • June 20Boxer Rebellion: Boxers gather about 20,000 people near Peking and kill hundreds of European citizens, including the German ambassador.
  • June 25 – The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, where they have been sealed since the early 11th century.
  • June 30Hoboken Docks fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line spreads to German passenger ships Saale, Main, and Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.
File:Map of Australia.png

July 9: Australia, founded.

July[]

Main article: July 1900
  • July 2 – The first zeppelin flight is carried out over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
  • July 12German cruise liner SS Deutschland breaks the record for the Blue Riband for the first time with an average speed of 22.4 knots (41.5 km/h).
  • July 23-25 – The First Pan-African Conference is held in London.
  • July 29 – King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by the Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci.

August[]

Main article: August 1900
  • August 4Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, was born in London
  • August 14Boxer Rebellion: An international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the Europeans taken hostage.

September[]

Main article: September 1900
  • September 8 – The 1900 Galveston hurricane kills about 8,000 people.
  • September 12 ; Admiral Fredrik von Otter becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.
  • September 13Philippine–American War: Filipino resistance fighters defeat a detachment of American soldiers in the Battle of Pulang Lupa.
  • September 17 – Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat the Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at the Battle of Mabitac.

October[]

Main article: October 1900

Template:Empty section

November[]

Main article: November 1900
  • November 29 – Herbert Kitchener succeeds Frederick Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in South Africa and implements a scorched earth strategy.[1]

December[]

Main article: December 1900
  • December 14 – Max Planck announces his discovery of the law of black body emission, marking the birth of quantum physics.
  • December 27 – British human rights activist Emily Hobhouse arrives in Cape Town.

Date unknown[]

  • Australasian prospector Albert Fuller Ellis identifies phosphate deposits on the Pacific Islands of Nauru and Banaba Island (Ocean Island).
  • In New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., Louis Lassen of Louis' Lunch makes the first modern-day hamburger sandwich.
  • First Michelin Guide published in France.
  • Karl Landsteiner develops a system of blood grouping

Births[]

January[]

  • January 1
    • Paola Borboni, Italian film actress (d. 1995)
    • Xavier Cugat, Cuban bandleader (d. 1990)
    • Roger Maxwell, English actor (d. 1971)
    • Lillian Rich, English silent film actress (d. 1954)
    • Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (d. 1986)
  • January 2
    • William Haines, American actor (d. 1973)
    • Mansaku Itami, Japanese film director, tuberculosis (d. 1946)
  • January 3
    • Maurice Jaubert, French composer, wounded in combat (d. 1940)
    • Ernst Neubach, Austrian screenwriter, producer, and director (d. 1968)
  • January 4
    • James Bond, American ornithologist (d. 1989)
    • William Young, British veteran of World War I (d. 2007)
  • January 5
    • George Magrill, American film actor (d. 1952)
    • Yves Tanguy, French painter (d. 1955)
  • January 6John Sinclair, American actor (d. 1945)
  • January 8
    • Dorothy Adams, American character actress (d. 1988)
    • François de Menthon, French politician and professor of law (d. 1984)
  • January 9
    • Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie, French journalist and politician (d. 1969)
    • Richard Halliburton, American adventurer and writer (d. 1939)
  • January 10Jean Gehret, Swedish actor and director (d. 1956)
  • January 11
    • Borden Chase, American writer (d. 1971)
    • Lloyd French, American director, heart disease (d. 1950)
  • January 16Edith Frank, German-Dutch mother of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
  • January 18Wan Laiming, Chinese animator, (d. 1997)
  • January 22Ernst Busch, German singer and actor (d. 1980)
  • January 23William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor and organist (d. 1988)
  • January 24Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian geneticist and evolutionary biologist (d. 1975)
  • January 26Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
  • January 27Hyman Rickover, American admiral (d. 1986)
  • January 28Rajagopala Tondaiman, King of Pudukkottai (d. 1950)
  • January 30Martita Hunt, Argentine-born British actress (d. 1969)

February[]

  • February 2Józef Kowalski, Once Poland's oldest living man and one of the last veterans of the Polish–Soviet War (d. 2013)
  • February 4Jacques Prévert, French lyricist and author (d. 1977)
  • February 5Adlai Stevenson, American politician (d. 1965)
  • February 11
    • Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (d. 2002)
    • Jōsei Toda, Japanese educator and activist (d. 1958)
  • February 12Roger J. Traynor, American judge (d. 1983)
  • February 12Vasily Chuikov, Marshal of the Soviet Union during WWII (d. 1982)
  • February 22
    • Luis Buñuel, Spanish film director (d. 1983)
    • James Sisnett, Supercentenarian from Barbados (d. 2013)
  • February 25Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr., American inventor of the drive-in theatre (d. 1975)
  • February 28Wolfram Hirth, German pilot and aircraft designer (d. 1959)

March[]

April[]

File:Spencer tracy state of the union.jpg

Spencer Tracy

File:Wolfgang Pauli ETH-Bib Portr 01042.jpg

Wolfgang Pauli

File:CharlesRichter.jpg

Charles Richter

  • April 1Stefanie Clausen, Danish diver (d. 1981)
  • April 2Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (d. 1942)
  • April 3
    • Albert Ingham, English mathematician (d. 1967)
    • Albert Walsh, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1958)
  • April 5Spencer Tracy, American actor (d. 1967)
  • April 8Marie Byles, Australian solicitor (d. 1979)
  • April 16Polly Adler, Russian author (d. 1962)
  • April 21Hans Fritzsche, German Nazi official (d. 1953)
  • April 24Elizabeth Goudge, English writer (d. 1984)
  • April 25Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
  • April 26Charles Richter, American geophysicist and inventor (d. 1985)
  • April 27August Koern, Estonian statesman and diplomat (d. 1989)
  • April 28Maurice Thorez, French Communist Leader (d. 1964)
  • April 30Cecily Lefort, English World War II heroine (d. 1945)

May[]

  • May 1Ignazio Silone, Italian author (d. 1978)
  • May 2A. W. Lawrence, British leading authority on classical sculpture and architecture (d. 1991)
  • May 6Zheng Ji, Chinese nutritionist and biochemist (d. 2010)
  • May 11Thomas H. Robbins, Jr., American admiral (d. 1972)
  • May 12Helene Weigel, Austrian actress (d. 1971)
  • May 23Hans Frank, German Nazi official (d. 1946)
  • May 27Uładzimir Žyłka, Belarusian poet (d. 1933)
  • May 28Tommy Ladnier, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1939)
  • May 29David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, British politician, lawyer, and judge (d. 1967)

June[]

File:11exupery-inline1-500.jpg

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  • June 3
    • Rolland Fisher, American temperance activist (d. 1982)
    • Leo Picard, German-born Israeli geologist (d. 1997)
  • June 4George Watkins, American baseball player (d. 1970)
  • June 5Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
  • June 7Glen Gray, American saxophonist (d. 1963)
  • June 11Leopoldo Marechal, Argentine writer (d. 1970)
  • June 15Paul Mares, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1949)
  • June 17Martin Bormann, German Nazi official (d. 1945)
  • June 21Choi Yong-kun, North Korean general and defense minister (d. 1976)
  • June 24Raphael Lemkin, Polish-born international lawyer (d. 1959)
  • June 25Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, born Prince Louis of Battenberg, English naval officer and last Viceroy of India (k. 1979)
  • June 29Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and writer (d. 1944)

July[]

  • July 4Robert Desnos, French poet (d. 1945)
  • July 6Frederica Sagor Maas, American playwright, essayist, and author (d. 2012)
  • July 13George Lewis, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1968)
  • July 23John Babcock, last surviving World War I veteran of the Canadian military (d. 2010)
  • July 29Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)

August[]

File:Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother portrait.jpg

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

File:Hans Adolf Krebs.jpg

Hans Adolf Krebs

September[]

File:Urho Kekkonen 1961.jpg

Urho Kekkonen

October[]

File:What Every Woman Knows 1934.JPG

Helen Hayes

File:Jean Arthur photograph1.jpg

Jean Arthur

November[]

File:Margaret Mitchell NYWTS.jpg

Margaret Mitchell

File:Aaron Copland 1970.JPG

Aaron Copland

  • November 4Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Romanian communist activist and sociologist (d. 1954)
  • November 5
    • Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (d. 1972)
    • Natalie Schafer, American actress (d. 1991)
  • November 6Hugh Prosser, American actor (d. 1952)
  • November 8
    • Charley Paddock, American athlete (d. 1943)
    • Margaret Mitchell, American writer (Gone With The Wind) (d. 1949)
  • November 11
    • Halina Konopacka, Polish athlete (d. 1989)
    • Frederick Lawton, 9th Director of the Office of Management and Budget (d. 1975)
  • November 13David Marshall Williams, American inventor (d. 1975)
  • November 14Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)
  • November 16Nikolai Pogodin, Soviet playwright (d. 1962)
  • November 22Tom Macdonald, Welsh journalist and novelist (d. 1980)
  • November 25Rudolf Höß, German Nazi official (d. 1947)
  • November 29Hakan Malmrot, Swedish swimmer (d. 1987)

December[]

File:Agnes Moorehead Bewitched 1969.JPG

Agnes Moorehead

Date unknown[]

  • Virginia Frances Sterrett, American artist and illustrator (d. 1931)
  • Yung Fung-shee, Hong Kong philanthropist (d. 1972)
  • René Pellos, French artist (d. 1998)
  • Luigi Stipa, Italian aeronautical, hydraulic, and civil engineer and aircraft designer (d. 1992)
  • Harold Tamblyn-Watts, British cartoonist (d. 1999)

Deaths[]

January–June[]

File:John Ruskin 1879.jpg

John Ruskin

File:Gottliebdaimler1.jpg

Gottlieb Daimler

  • January 5William A. Hammond, American military physician and neurologist, eleventh Surgeon General of the United States Army (1862–1864) (b. 1828)
  • January 20John Ruskin, English writer and social critic (b. 1819)
  • January 31John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Scottish nobleman and boxer (b. 1844)
  • February 18Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)
  • February 23William Butterfield, British architect (b. 1814)
  • March 6
    • Gottlieb Daimler, German inventor and automotive pioneer (b. 1834)
    • Carl Bechstein, German piano maker (b. 1826)
  • March 10Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, Danish composer (b. 1805)
  • March 18Hjalmar Kiærskou, Danish botanist (b. 1835)
  • March 28Piet Joubert, Boer politician and military commander (b. 1834)
  • March 29Cyrus K. Holliday, cofounder of Topeka, Kansas, and first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (b. 1826)
  • April 5
    • Joseph Louis François Bertrand, French mathematician (b. 1822)
    • Osman Nuri Pasha, Ottoman military leader (b. 1832)
  • April 12James Richard Cocke, American physician, homeopath, and a pioneer hypnotherapist (b. 1863)
  • April 17George Curry, Wild West robber (Wild Bunch) (shot) (b. 1871)
  • April 19James Dawson, Australian activist (b. 1806)
  • April 22Amédée-François Lamy, French soldier (b. 1858) (killed in battle)
  • April 24George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, British politician (b.1823)
  • April 30Casey Jones, American railway engineer (b. 1863)
  • May 1Mihály Munkácsy, Hungarian painter (b. 1844)
  • May 9Carit Etlar (Carl Brosbøll), Danish author (b. 1816)
  • May 18Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, French philosopher (b. 1813)
  • June 2
    • Samori Ture, West African empire-builder (b. 1830)
    • Clarence Cook, American critic and writer (b. 1828)
  • June 3Mary Kingsley, English explorer and writer (b. 1862)
  • June 5Stephen Crane, American author (b. 1871)
  • June 11Belle Boyd, American Confederate spy and actress (b. 1843)
  • June 19Princess Josephine of Baden (b. 1813)

July–December[]

File:Nietzsche187a.jpg

Friedrich Nietzsche

File:Oscar Wilde Sarony.jpg

Oscar Wilde

  • July 5Henry Barnard, American educationalist (b. 1811)
  • July 8Henry D. Cogswell, American philanthropist (b. 1820)
  • July 29Umberto I, King of Italy (assassinated) (b. 1844)
  • July 31Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second son of Queen Victoria (b. 1844)
  • August 1Rafael Molina Sanchez, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1841)
  • August 4Étienne Lenoir, Belgian engineer (b. 1822)
  • August 7Wilhelm Liebknecht, German Social Democratic politician (b. 1826)
  • August 10Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, Lord Chief Justice of England (b. 1832)
  • August 12Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian-born chess player (b. 1836)
  • August 13Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher and poet (b. 1853)
  • August 16José Maria de Eça de Queirós, Portuguese writer (b. 1845)
  • August 23Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1840)
  • August 25Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and writer (b. 1844)
  • September 23
    • William Marsh Rice, American philanthropist and university founder (b. 1816)
    • Arsenio Martínez-Campos y Antón, Spanish revolutionary (b. 1831)
  • September 29Samuel Fenton Cary, American politician (b. 1814)
  • October 15Zdeněk Fibich, Czech composer (b. 1850)
  • October 20Charles Dudley Warner, American writer (b. 1829)
  • October 22John Sherman, American politician (b.1823)
  • October 28Max Müller, German philologist and Orientalist (b. 1823)
  • November 22Sir Arthur Sullivan. English composer (b. 1842)
  • November 30Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (b. 1854)
  • December 4Aquileo Parra, 11th President of Colombia (b. 1825)
  • December 14Paddy Ryan, Irish American boxer, former world's heavyweight champion (b. 1851)
  • December 21Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal, Prussian field marshal (b. 1810)
  • undated - Lin Hei'er, Chinese rebel

World population[]

  • World population: 1,640,000,000
    • Africa: 133,000,000
    • Asia: 947,000,000
      • Japan: c. 45,000,000
    • Europe: 408,000,000
    • Latin America: 74,000,000
    • Northern America: 82,000,000
    • Oceania: 6,000,000

References[]

  1. Pakenham 1979

Further reading[]

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