100 Fun Facts About 1900s

In which year did the Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained powered flight, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina?

It happened on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, in the Wright Flyer.

Which major US city was levelled by an earthquake and the fires that followed on April 18, 1906?

The San Francisco quake, estimated at magnitude 7.9, was followed by fires that swept through the city for several days.

In what year did Einstein publish his 'Annus Mirabilis' papers, including special relativity?

Albert Einstein published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, often referred to as his 'Annus Mirabilis' or 'Miracle Year' papers, which fundamentally reshaped physics with concepts like special relativity and the photoelectric effect.

Which city hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1900?

The second modern Olympic Games, and the first of the 20th century, were held in Paris, France, in 1900, coinciding with the Universal Exposition.

Which iconic automobile, known for its impact on mass production, was first introduced in 1908?

The Ford Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908, and quickly became famous for its affordability and the revolutionary use of assembly line production, making car travel accessible to many.

What do Westerners call the anti-foreign, anti-Christian Chinese uprising of around 1900?

The Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901) was led by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists across North China; Westerners called its martial-arts-practising members 'Boxers'.

In what year were the first Nobel Prizes awarded?

The first Nobel Prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.

What was the name of the first fully synthetic plastic, invented in 1907?

Bakelite, invented by Leo Baekeland in 1907, was the world's first fully synthetic plastic, known for its durability and heat resistance, and was widely used in various products.

Which British campaign adopted militant direct action under Emmeline Pankhurst from 1903?

The Suffragette Movement got its name from a Daily Mail journalist who coined 'suffragette' in 1906; the WSPU embraced it. The union had split from the larger, peaceful NUWSS.

Who became president following William McKinley's assassination, taking office at the age of 42?

Theodore Roosevelt, aged 42, succeeded McKinley on September 14, 1901, after six months as vice president, and held the presidency until 1909.

The Treaty of Portsmouth brought which conflict to an end?

The Treaty of Portsmouth (September 1905) ended the Russo-Japanese War; Theodore Roosevelt's brokering earned him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, the first awarded to an American.

Which country took over the stalled Panama Canal project in 1904, buying the French works for $40 million?

The United States bought the French company's works for $40 million in 1904 and opened the canal on 15 August 1914.

Which Spanish artist painted the 1907 canvas Les Demoiselles d'Avignon?

Pablo Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907; its mask-like faces, shaped by Iberian and African art, opened the road to Cubism.

In which territory does Signal Hill in St John's, site of Marconi's first transatlantic wireless attempt, stand?

Signal Hill stands in St John's, Newfoundland; Marconi heard the letter 'S' there on 12 December 1901 after storms wrecked his planned Cape Cod receiving station.

In 1906, which country became the first in Europe to grant women the right to vote?

Finland, then an autonomous grand duchy of Russia, gave women full voting and candidacy rights in 1906; 19 women were elected to its parliament in 1907.

The first feature-length film, released in Melbourne in 1906, told which outlaw's story?

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), about bushranger Ned Kelly, ran over an hour when most films lasted minutes, making it the first feature-length film.

The Tunguska event of June 1908 flattened roughly 2,000 square kilometres of forest in which region?

The Tunguska event struck near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia on 30 June 1908, and is attributed to the airburst of a meteoroid or comet fragment.

Which Sicilian city, along with Calabria, was devastated by the 1908 earthquake and tsunami?

The 28 December 1908 earthquake and tsunami destroyed Messina and Reggio Calabria, killing roughly 80,000 people in one of Europe's deadliest natural disasters.

Which country declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire on 5 October 1908?

Bulgaria, a tributary principality since 1878, proclaimed full independence on 5 October 1908, with Prince Ferdinand taking the title Tsar.

Whose 1907 Victor recording of 'Vesti la giubba' was the first record to sell a million copies?

Enrico Caruso's 1907 Victor recording of 'Vesti la giubba', from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, is credited as the first record to sell a million copies.

The first zeppelin flight took place on 2 July 1900 over which body of water?

LZ 1 rose from a floating hangar on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen on 2 July 1900; the town became the home of Zeppelin airship building.

Which cycling race was held for the first time in 1903?

The first Tour de France ran in July 1903 over six stages and was won by Maurice Garin; Paris–Roubaix dates from 1896 and the Giro from 1909.

Willis Carrier invented the first indoor air conditioning system in which year?

Willis Carrier designed the first modern air-conditioning system in 1902 for the Sackett-Wilhelms printing plant in Brooklyn, controlling humidity as well as temperature.

The Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opened in April 1902 in which city?

Thomas L. Tally opened the Electric Theatre on Main Street in Los Angeles on 2 April 1902; The Great Train Robbery became American cinema's first big hit the next year.

The first modern World Series in 1903 was won by a team then known as the 'Americans', now called what?

The Boston Americans, renamed the Red Sox for 1908, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1903 World Series, with Cy Young pitching for Boston.

The 1903 World Series was played as a best-of-how-many series?

The 1903 World Series was best-of-nine; Boston won five games to three, and Pittsburgh's Deacon Phillippe pitched five complete games.

The teddy bear was named after an incident on a November 1902 hunting trip in which U.S. state?

On a November 1902 hunt near Onward, Mississippi, Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear tied to a tree; Clifford Berryman's Washington Post cartoon immortalised the moment.

Which Brooklyn shopkeeper made the first American teddy bear and later founded the Ideal toy company?

Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn candy-store owner, sold his 'Teddy's bear' from 1903 and founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company; Richard Steiff was making a similar bear in Germany.

The 1904 Olympics were the first held outside Europe and were staged in which city?

Chicago had won the bid, but the 1904 Games moved to St. Louis to coincide with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, making them the first Olympics outside Europe.

Which now-standard Olympic tradition was introduced at the 1904 Games?

The 1904 St. Louis Games were the first to award gold, silver and bronze medals; American gymnast George Eyser won six despite a wooden left leg.

Which European state annexed the Congo Free State from its king's personal rule in 1908?

Belgium annexed the Congo Free State on 15 November 1908, ending Leopold II's personal rule after international outcry over atrocities in the rubber trade.

What was the initial price of the Kodak Brownie camera launched in 1900?

The Brownie sold for $1 in 1900; named after Palmer Cox's cartoon Brownies, the cardboard box camera was aimed at children.

How many copies were in the first printing of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in September 1900?

The first printing was 10,000 copies and sold out within months; its success, plus a 1902 stage musical, led L. Frank Baum to write thirteen sequels.

Which Paris landmark was NOT built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle?

The Eiffel Tower dates from the 1889 exposition; the Grand Palais, Pont Alexandre III and Gare d'Orsay were all built for 1900, when Métro Line 1 also opened.

How far did the Wright Flyer travel on its fourth and longest flight on 17 December 1903?

Wilbur's fourth flight covered 852 feet in 59 seconds; minutes later a gust wrecked the Flyer and it never flew again.

How much power did the gasoline engine on the 1903 Wright Flyer produce?

Charlie Taylor's four-cylinder engine produced about 12 horsepower, weighed 180 pounds, and drove two pusher propellers through chains.

In which year did the Wright Flyer finally join the Smithsonian after a long dispute?

The Flyer went on show at the Smithsonian on 17 December 1948, after spending 1928–1948 in London's Science Museum during the dispute over Langley's Aerodrome.

Einstein wrote his 1905 papers while working as a patent examiner in which city?

Einstein worked at the Swiss patent office in Bern from 1902 to 1909; he called colleague Michele Besso the best sounding board for his ideas in all Europe.

Which phenomenon from Einstein's first 1905 paper was the only specific discovery cited in his Nobel Prize?

Einstein's 1921 Nobel citation singled out his law of the photoelectric effect; the March 1905 paper gave light quanta the energy E = hf.

Japan's February 1904 surprise attack on which Russian base opened the Russo-Japanese War?

Japanese torpedo boats struck Port Arthur on the night of 8–9 February 1904; the base fell to siege on 2 January 1905.

Roughly how far had the Russian Baltic Fleet sailed before it was destroyed at Tsushima in May 1905?

The Baltic Fleet sailed about 18,000 nautical miles in seven months before Tōgō's fleet destroyed it at Tsushima on 27–28 May 1905.

How many days did the Boxers' siege of Beijing's legations last, ending in August 1900?

The siege ran 55 days, from 20 June to 14 August 1900, when an Eight-Nation Alliance relief force of about 20,000 troops reached Beijing.

Which Qing ruler declared de facto war on the foreign powers on 21 June 1900 in support of the Boxers?

Empress Dowager Cixi issued the 21 June 1900 declaration backing the Boxers; the resulting Boxer Protocol saddled China with an indemnity of 450 million taels of silver.

Who received the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901?

Wilhelm Röntgen won the first physics prize for discovering X-rays; the 1901 literature prize went to poet Sully Prudhomme.

Roughly how many of San Francisco's 410,000 residents were left homeless in 1906?

Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless; half of those who fled crossed the bay to Oakland and Berkeley, and refugee camps ran into 1908.

The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée wiped out the town of Saint-Pierre on which Caribbean island?

Saint-Pierre on Martinique was destroyed on 8 May 1902, killing roughly 28,000 people in minutes; Guatemala's Santa María erupted the same year.

A June 1904 fire aboard which steamboat in New York's East River killed 1,021 people?

The General Slocum burned on 15 June 1904 carrying a German-American church outing; its 1,021 deaths made it New York's worst disaster until the September 11 attacks.

In 1905 Norway achieved full independence by dissolving its union with which country?

The Storting declared the union with Sweden dissolved on 7 June 1905; Sweden accepted at Karlstad that autumn, and Norway chose Danish prince Carl as King Haakon VII.

On 1 January 1901, six British colonies federated to form the Commonwealth of which new nation?

Australia was three weeks old when Queen Victoria died, ending the era that gave the previous century its name.

The Panic of 1907 was eventually resolved through interventions led by which financier?

J.P. Morgan locked fellow bankers in his library until they pledged funds; the market had fallen nearly 50% from its 1906 peak, and the panic led to the Federal Reserve in 1913.

Queen Victoria died in January 1901 at Osborne House on which island?

Osborne House, her seaside retreat near Cowes on the Isle of Wight, was where she died on 22 January 1901, aged 81 after more than 63 years on the throne.

Who served as the first prime minister after six colonies federated on 1 January 1901?

Barton left office in 1903 to become a founding justice of the new High Court.

Who in 1903 became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, sharing physics with her husband and Henri Becquerel?

The committee had planned to honour only Pierre Curie and Becquerel; Marie Curie's name was added after Pierre complained. She went on to become the only person to win in two sciences.

Which Texas city was devastated by the hurricane of 8 September 1900?

The Galveston hurricane of 8 September 1900 killed an estimated 6,000–12,000 people; the city then built a seawall and raised its entire grade by up to 17 feet.

Which Italian was helped over the line, then disqualified, in the 1908 Olympic marathon?

Dorando Pietri collapsed and was helped across the line, so American Johnny Hayes took gold; Queen Alexandra consoled Pietri with a gilded silver cup.

Who shared the very first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with French pacifist Frédéric Passy?

Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the 1901 prize; he had spent years in poverty and obscurity before journalist Georg Baumberger rediscovered him in 1895.

Who in 1907 became the first English-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?

Rudyard Kipling, the first English-language laureate, won in 1907 aged 41 for work including Kim and The Jungle Book.

The Platt Amendment of 1901 set conditions for withdrawing U.S. troops from which island?

The Platt Amendment governed US withdrawal from Cuba and required leasing land for a naval station, which became the base at Guantánamo Bay.

The Entente Cordiale of April 1904 settled colonial disputes between Britain and whom?

Its core bargain recognised Egypt as a British sphere of influence and Morocco as a French one.

HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906, was built at which Royal Navy dockyard?

Portsmouth Dockyard laid her down in October 1905 and launched her on 10 February 1906; her all-big-gun layout made existing battleships obsolete and named a class of warships.

The 1908 Young Turk Revolution forced which sultan to restore the Ottoman constitution?

Abdul Hamid II restored the 1876 constitution on 24 July 1908, opening the Second Constitutional Era; he was deposed in April 1909 after the failed '31 March' counter-coup.

Which German commander ordered the extermination of the Herero people in 1904?

Lothar von Trotha replaced Theodor Leutwein as commander after Leutwein's retreat at Oviumbo; his October 1904 order drove the Herero into the Omaheke desert to die.

Which state joined the Union as the 46th in November 1907?

Oklahoma became the 46th state on 16 November 1907, merging Oklahoma Territory with Indian Territory; Arizona and New Mexico followed in 1912.

Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle exposed unsanitary conditions in which industry?

The Jungle depicted Chicago's meatpacking plants; Sinclair wanted readers to embrace socialism, but the outcry instead produced the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

Which scientist distinguished the main human blood groups in 1901?

Karl Landsteiner identified groups A, B and C (now O) in Vienna in 1901; the discovery eventually made safe blood transfusion possible.

The Treaty of Vereeniging, signed on 31 May 1902, ended which war?

The treaty ended the Second Boer War; Boer delegates voted 54 to 6 to accept the terms, and it was signed that day at Melrose House in Pretoria.

The Cullinan Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905, weighed roughly how many carats?

The Cullinan weighed 3,106 carats (621 grams); surface manager Frederick Wells spotted it just 18 feet below ground at the Premier Mine on 26 January 1905.

Amundsen's 1903–06 first traversal of the Northwest Passage used which small vessel?

Gjøa, a small former herring sloop built in 1872, carried Amundsen and six companions through the passage, wintering two years at Gjoa Haven.

Baden-Powell's 1907 experimental Scout camp was held on Brownsea Island, in which body of water?

Brownsea Island lies in Poole Harbour, Dorset; 20 boys from different backgrounds camped there from 1 to 8 August 1907, testing ideas for Scouting for Boys.

Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 in which U.S. city?

William Harley and Arthur Davidson built their first motor-bicycle in Milwaukee in 1903, working in friend Henry Melk's north-side machine shop.

W. K. Kellogg started mass-marketing corn flakes in 1906 from which Michigan city?

W. K. Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906; adding sugar to the flakes caused a lasting rift with his brother John, superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

New York City's first regular subway line opened on 27 October 1904, run by which company?

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company ran the line from City Hall to 145th Street, opened on 27 October 1904 with Mayor McClellan at the controls.

What label did critic Louis Vauxcelles pin on Matisse and friends at a 1905 Paris salon?

Les Fauves ('wild beasts') was Vauxcelles's jibe at the 1905 Salon d'Automne; the movement lasted only a few years and three exhibitions.

Puccini's Madama Butterfly had its disastrous February 1904 premiere at which opera house?

La Scala, Milan, staged the 17 February 1904 premiere; the two-act original was hissed, withdrawn, and reworked into the three-act version first heard at Brescia that May.

The December 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire, which killed 602 people, happened in which city?

The fire at Chicago's new Iroquois Theatre on 30 December 1903 killed 602 people during a matinee of Mr. Bluebeard, more than any other theatre fire in US history.

Cadbury's first Dairy Milk bar, launched in June 1905, was made in which English city?

Cadbury made Dairy Milk at its Bournville factory on the edge of Birmingham from June 1905; by 1914 it was the company's best-selling product.

The German Kaiser's March 1905 visit to which Moroccan port sparked a European crisis?

Wilhelm II landed at Tangier on 31 March 1905 and declared support for Moroccan independence; the 1906 Algeciras Conference affirmed French influence and drew Britain and France closer.

Edward VII's coronation was delayed from June to August 1902 after surgery for what?

Edward developed appendicitis; Sir Frederick Treves drained an abdominal abscess on 24 June 1902, and the coronation took place on 9 August.

Rookie Fred Merkle's infamous 1908 base-running blunder cost which team the pennant?

Merkle's New York Giants lost the pennant: he failed to touch second on the apparent game-winning hit, the game was replayed, and the Cubs won it and the pennant by one game.

The Cubs' 1908 World Series title, their last until 2016, came against which team?

The Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers in five games, the first World Series rematch after the same clubs had met in 1907.

Which firm published the trade edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902?

Frederick Warne & Co. issued the trade edition in October 1902 after Beatrix Potter had privately printed 250 copies in December 1901 following several rejections.

Jack London's 1903 novel The Call of the Wild centres on a sled dog with what name?

Buck, a St. Bernard–Scotch Collie cross, is stolen from a Santa Clara Valley ranch and sold north as a sled dog during the Klondike Gold Rush.

L. M. Montgomery's 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables is set in which Canadian province?

Avonlea is on Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's home; the Cuthberts had asked for an orphan boy to help on the farm and got 11-year-old Anne Shirley by mistake.

In Kenneth Grahame's 1908 The Wind in the Willows, which friend of Mole, Ratty and Badger becomes obsessed with motorcars?

Mr. Toad's mania gets him into trouble, and his friends' efforts to rescue him from it drive the plot.

Auguste Deter, a German woman who died in 1906 aged 55, was the first person ever diagnosed with which disease?

Alzheimer's disease had its first patient in Deter, whose case notes were rediscovered in the 1990s.

Italy gave up hosting the 1908 Olympics, citing the cost of which volcano's eruption in April 1906?

Vesuvius erupted from 4 to 22 April 1906, London stepped in as host, and Rome finally got its Games in 1960.

Walter Reed's team confirmed in 1901 that yellow fever is transmitted by what?

The finding vindicated Cuban-American doctor Carlos Finlay, who had proposed the theory decades earlier.

The 1903–04 Younghusband expedition forced Tibet to sign a convention in which city?

The Convention of Lhasa was signed in the Potala Palace on 7 September 1904; the force had fought its way in from Sikkim and withdrew later that month.

The five-article Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 turned the Korean Empire into what?

The Eulsa Treaty of November 1905 made Korea a Japanese protectorate, stripping it of diplomatic rights after Japan's victory over Russia; outright annexation followed in 1910.

The 1903 Kishinev pogrom took place in a city that is now the capital of which country?

Kishinev is today Chișinău, capital of Moldova; the local antisemitic paper Bessarabets had run headlines such as 'Death to the Jews!' before the April 1903 riot.

Which French novelist died in 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty chimney?

Émile Zola died on 29 September 1902 of fumes from a blocked bedroom chimney; he had been nominated for the first two Nobel Prizes in Literature and won neither.

U.S. Steel, formed in 1901, was the first corporation capitalized at more than what sum?

U.S. Steel was capitalized at $1.4 billion, the first billion-dollar corporation; J.P. Morgan paid $492 million for Carnegie Steel and merged it with Federal and National Steel.

Who led the St Petersburg marchers fired on by troops on Bloody Sunday, 22 January 1905?

Father Georgy Gapon, an Orthodox priest, led the workers carrying a petition to Nicholas II at the Winter Palace; the tsar was not even in the city.

The June 1905 Potemkin mutiny began when sailors refused to eat borscht made with what?

Sailors refused borscht made with maggot-infested meat on 27 June 1905; many of the Black Sea Fleet's best officers had gone to the Pacific, leaving a raw, resentful crew.

Panama formally seceded from which country on 3 November 1903?

Panama broke from Colombia with US naval support on 3 November 1903 and signed the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty on 18 November, granting the canal zone.

J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan premiered on 27 December 1904 at which London venue?

The Duke of York's Theatre in St Martin's Lane staged the premiere, with Nina Boucicault, daughter of playwright Dion Boucicault, as Peter.

Ivan Pavlov's 1904 Nobel Prize rewarded his research on which bodily process?

Pavlov's prize cited his work on the physiology of digestion; he had been nominated four years running, and the famous conditioning experiments were not what won it.

Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, dated 1900, had a first edition of how many copies?

The first edition of 600 copies, published in November 1899 but dated 1900, took eight years to sell out.

Jack Johnson took the world heavyweight title from Canadian Tommy Burns in December 1908 in which city?

The fight at Sydney Stadium came after Johnson had chased Burns around the world for two years, taunting him in the press.

Which composer wrote the 1902 piano rag 'The Entertainer'?

Scott Joplin wrote 'The Entertainer', published by John Stark & Son in 1902; its use in the 1973 film The Sting made it a hit seventy years later.