1900s

{{short description|Decade of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1909)}}

{{about|the decade 1900–1909|the century 1901–2000|20th century}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}

File:1900s decademontage2.png|335px|thumb|right|From left, clockwise: The Wright brothers achieve the first manned flight with a motorized airplane, in Kitty Hawk in 1903; A missionary points to the severed hand of a Congolese villager, symbolic of Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State; The 1908 Messina earthquake kills 75,000–82,000 people and becomes the most destructive earthquake ever to strike Europe; America gains control over the Philippines in 1902, after the Philippine–American War; Rock being moved to construct the Panama Canal; Admiral Togo before the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, part of the Russo-Japanese War, leading to Japanese victory and their establishment as a great power, while Russia's defeat eventually led to the 1905 Revolution.

rect 2 2 249 161 Wright Flyer

rect 253 2 497 161 Atrocities in the Congo Free State

rect 250 165 497 334 1908 Messina earthquake

rect 250 338 497 488 Philippine–American War

rect 2 338 246 488 Panama Canal

rect 2 165 123 334 Russo-Japanese War

rect 125 165 246 334 1905 Russian Revolution

{{Decadebox|190}}

The 1900s (pronounced "nineteen-hundreds") was a 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{{Refn|"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){{cite book|last=Ascherson|first=Neal|author-link=Neal Ascherson|title=The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo|year=1999|publisher=Granta|location=London|isbn=1-86207-290-6|edition=New|page=9}}|name=congodecline|group=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, genociding 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 the 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,{{cite web |title=Finnish women won the right to vote a hundred years ago – Embassy of Finland, The Hague : Current Affairs |url=http://www.finlande.nl/public/default.aspx?contentid=112162&nodeid=35916&contentlan=2&culture=en-US |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140423070026/http://www.finlande.nl/public/default.aspx?contentid=112162&nodeid=35916&contentlan=2&culture=en-US |archive-date=2014-04-23 |access-date=2012-10-31 |publisher=Finlande.nl}} the first European country to do so.{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 – Woman's Hour – Women's History Timeline: 1900 – 1909 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/timeline/1900.shtml |access-date=2012-11-07 |publisher=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 massacred by Muslim 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 be{{clarify|date=October 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 June 2025, the only remaining living person born in this decade is Ethel Caterham, born 21 August 1909. The last living man from this decade was Juan Vicente Pérez (27 May 1909 – 2 April 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Demographics

{{Main|Estimates of historical world population}}

Estimates for the world population by 1900 vary from 1.563 to 1.710 billion.

class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;font-size:small;"

!PRB

(1973–2016)Data from [http://www.prb.org/Home.aspx Population Reference Bureau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520091122/http://www.prb.org/Home.aspx |date=2008-05-20 }}.

2016 estimate: (a) [http://www.prb.org/pdf16/prb-wpds2016-web-2016.pdf "2016 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828162128/http://www.prb.org/pdf16/prb-wpds2016-web-2016.pdf |date=August 28, 2017 }}

2015 estimate: (b) Toshiko Kaneda, 2015, [http://www.prb.org/pdf15/2015-world-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf "2015 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219062132/http://www.prb.org/pdf15/2015-world-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf |date=February 19, 2018 }}.

2014 estimate: (c) Carl Haub, 2014, [http://www.prb.org/pdf14/2014-world-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf "2014 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218233032/http://www.prb.org/pdf14/2014-world-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf |date=February 18, 2018 }}.

2013 estimate: (d) Carl Haub, 2013, [http://www.prb.org/pdf13/2013-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf "2013 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226072048/http://www.prb.org/pdf13/2013-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf |date=February 26, 2015 }}.

2012 estimate: (e) Carl Haub, 2012, [http://www.prb.org/pdf12/2012-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf "2012 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521191647/http://www.prb.org/pdf12/2012-population-data-sheet_eng.pdf |date=May 21, 2014 }}.

2011 estimate: (f) Carl Haub, 2011, [http://www.prb.org/pdf11/2011population-data-sheet_eng.pdf "2011 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118162350/http://www.prb.org/pdf11/2011population-data-sheet_eng.pdf |date=November 18, 2017 }}.

2010 estimate: (g) Carl Haub, 2010, [http://www.prb.org/pdf10/10wpds_eng.pdf "2010 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109060416/http://www.prb.org/pdf10/10wpds_eng.pdf |date=January 9, 2018 }}.

2009 estimate: (h) Carl Haub, 2009, [http://www.prb.org/pdf09/09wpds_eng.pdf "2009 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100422034436/http://www.prb.org/pdf09/09wpds_eng.pdf |date=April 22, 2010 }}.

2008 estimate: (i) Carl Haub, 2008, [http://www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng.pdf "2008 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219150624/http://www.prb.org/pdf08/08WPDS_Eng.pdf |date=December 19, 2017 }}.

2007 estimate: (j) Carl Haub, 2007, [http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2007/2007WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx "2007 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224205549/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2007/2007WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx |date=2011-02-24 }}.

2006 estimate: (k) Carl Haub, 2006, [http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2006/2006WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx "2006 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222075621/http://prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2006/2006WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx |date=2010-12-22 }}.

2005 estimate: (l) Carl Haub, 2005, [http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2005/2005WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx "2005 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414150237/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2005/2005WorldPopulationDataSheet.aspx |date=2011-04-14 }}.

2004 estimate: (m) Carl Haub, 2004, [http://www.prb.org/pdf04/04WorldDataSheet_ENG.pdf "2004 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329104249/http://www.prb.org/pdf04/04worlddatasheet_eng.pdf |date=March 29, 2017 }}.

2003 estimate: (n) Carl Haub, 2003, [http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~psc/WorldPopulationDS03_Eng.pdf "2003 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819182509/http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~psc/WorldPopulationDS03_Eng.pdf |date=2019-08-19 }}.

2002 estimate: (o) Carl Haub, 2002, [http://www.prb.org/pdf/worldpopulationds02_eng.pdf "2002 World Population Data Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171209093516/http://www.prb.org/pdf/WorldPopulationDS02_Eng.pdf |date=2017-12-09 }}.

2001 estimate: (p) Carl Haub, 2001, [http://www.ined.fr/fichier/s_rubrique/18790/publi_pdf2_pop_and_soc_english_370.en.pdf "2001 World Population Data Sheet"].

2000 estimate: (q) 2000, [http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2000/9BillionWorldPopulationby2050.aspx "9 Billion World Population by 2050"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201050626/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2000/9BillionWorldPopulationby2050.aspx |date=2018-02-01 }}.

1997 estimate: (r) 1997, [http://www.epidemiolog.net/evolving/DemographyBasics.pdf "Studying Populations"].

Estimates for 1995 and prior: (s) Carl Haub, 1995, [https://www.un.org/popin/popis/journals/poptoday/today0295.html "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?"] Population Today, Vol. 23 (no. 2), pp. 5–6.

!UN

(2015)Data from [http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/panel_population.htm United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.]

1950–2100 estimates (only medium variants shown): (a) [http://esa.un.org/unpp/ World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511162049/http://esa.un.org/unpp/ |date=2011-05-11 }}

Estimates prior to 1950: (b) [https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/sixbillion/sixbillion.htm "The World at Six Billion", 1999.]

Estimates from 1950 to 2100: (c) [http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history3.aspx "Population of the entire world, yearly, 1950 - 2100", 2013.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119132504/http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history3.aspx |date=November 19, 2016 }}

2014: (d) [http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf "2014 World Urbanization Prospects", 2014.]

2015: (e) [http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/Key_Findings_WPP_2015.pdf"2015 World Urbanization Prospects", 2015.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320035709/http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/panel_population.htm |date=March 20, 2014 }}

!Maddison

(2008)[http://www.theworldeconomy.org/publications/worldeconomy/ Angus Maddison, 2003, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Vol. 2, OECD, Paris] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513232041/http://www.theworldeconomy.org/publications/worldeconomy/ |date=May 13, 2008 }} {{ISBN|92-64-10412-7}}.

[http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls "Statistical Appendix"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130172908/http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/historical_statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls |date=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. {{doi|10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x}} ([http://themasites.pbl.nl/tridion/en/themasites/hyde/download/index-2.html pbl.nl] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423205228/https://themasites.pbl.nl/tridion/en/themasites/hyde/download/index-2.html |date=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). ([https://web.archive.org/web/20150221004127/http://itbulk.org/population/world-population-history/ graphs (itbulk.org)]).

!Tanton

(1994)[http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0403/article_329.shtml 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, {{ISBN|0-7139-1031-3}}.

!Thomlinson

(1975)Ralph Thomlinson, 1975, Demographic Problems: Controversy over population control, 2nd Ed., Dickenson Publishing Company, Ecino, CA, {{ISBN|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, {{ISBN|0-333-01126-0}}.

1,656M

|1,650M

|1,563M

|1,654M[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683609356587 Data] from [http://themasites.pbl.nl/tridion/en/themasites/hyde/index.html History Database of the Global Environment.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227200550/http://themasites.pbl.nl/tridion/en/themasites/hyde/index.html |date=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.

|1,600M

|1,633M

|1,625M

|1,600M

|1,650–1,710M

|1,668M

Politics and wars

{{See also|List of sovereign states in the 1900s}}

File:China imperialism cartoon.jpg 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=

=Wars=

{{Main|List of wars: 1900–1944#1900–1919}}

=Internal conflicts=

=Colonization=

=Decolonization=

= Prominent political events =

Disasters

=Natural disasters=

File:Tunguska-Map-fr.svg]]

File:Market Street, San Francisco, in ruins (1906).jpg, remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in United States history]]

=Non-natural disasters=

Assassinations and attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

class="wikitable mw-collapsible sortable"

!Year

!Date

!Name

!Position

!Culprits

!Country

!Description

!Image

1900

|February 3

|William Goebel

|governor of Kentucky

|unknown

|United States

|Either five or six shots were fired from the nearby State Building, one striking Goebel in the chest, seriously wounding him.

|frameless

1900

|July 29

|Umberto I

|King

|Gaetano Bresci

|Italy

|Assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci.{{Cite book |last=Duggan |first=Christopher |title=The Force of Destiny. A History of Italy Since 1796. |publisher=Allen Lane |year=2007 |isbn=9780713997095 |pages=349}}

|File:Bresci killing.jpg

1901

|March 6

|Wilhelm II

|Kaiser

|Deidrich Weiland

|Germany

|Attempted 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.

|File:Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany - 1902.jpg

1901

|September 6

|William McKinley

|President

|Leon Czolgosz

|United States

|Dies 8 days after being shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by American anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

|frameless

1902

|April 15

|Dmitry Sipyagin

|Russian Interior Minister

|Stepan Balmashov

|Russian Empire

|Sipyagin was assassinated in the Mariinsky Palace by Socialist-Revolutionary Stepan Balmashov.

|frameless

1902

|September 29

|Émile Zola

|novelist and journalist

|unknown

|France

|Zola was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney.

|frameless

1902

|November 4

|Hale Johnson

|Mayor of Newton, Illinois

|Harry Harris

|United States

|Hale was Killed while attempting to collect a debt owed to him by Harry Harris who shot him.

|frameless

1903

|March 31

|Grigoriy Shcherbina

|Russian consul

|an unknown Albanian Ottoman officer

|Ottoman Empire

|According to Durham. A year later, the 35-year-old Consul died of bullet wounds sustained in the assassination attempt by an Albanian soldier.

|frameless

1903

|June 11

|Aleksandar Obrenović, and Draga Mašin

|King of Serbia, and Queen Consort

|Army officers led by Dragutin Dimitrijević

|Serbia

|Killed in the royal palace as part of the May Overthrow.

|frameless

1903

|June 11

|Lazar Petrović

|Adjutant to King Aleksandar Obrenović

|unknown assassin

|Kingdom of Serbia

|Killed as part of the May Overthrow.

|frameless

1903

|June 11

|Dimitrije Cincar-Marković

|Prime Minister of Serbia

|rioters from the May Coup

|Serbia

|Markovic was killed in the May Coup.

|File:General Dimitrije Cincar Marković.jpg

1904

|November 26

|José Francisco Chaves

|Superintendent of Public Instruction (former congressman and territory politician)

|unknown

|United States

|Jose was shot by a unknown assassin in Pinoswells, New Mexico.

|frameless

1904

|June 16

|Nikolai Bobrikov

|Governor-General

|Eugen Schauman

|Finland

|Assassinated by nationalist nobleman Eugen Schauman.

|frameless

1904

|July 28

|Vyacheslav von Plehve

|Russian Interior Minister

|Yegor Sazonov

|Russia

|Plehve was Killed by a bomb thrown by a member of the SR Combat Organization

|frameless

1905

|February 6

|Eliel Soisalon-Soininen

|Chancellor of Justice

|Lennart Hohenthal

|Finland

|Assassinated in his apartment in Helsinki by Lennart Hohenthal.

|frameless

1905

|February 17

|Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia

|Governor-General of Moscow

|Ivan Kalyayev

|Russian Empire

|Alexandrovich was killed in a by a bomb Organized by the SR Combat Organization.

|frameless

1905

|April 24

|John McPherson Pinckney

|Texas Representative

|J. N. Brown

|United States

|John was Killed during riot instigated by opponents of alcohol prohibition.

|frameless

1905

|June 13

|Theodoros Diligiannis

|Prime Minister

|Antonios Gherakaris

|Greece

|Killed by gambler Antonios Gherakaris, reportedly for measures taken against gambling places.

|File:Achille Beltrame - Assassination of Greek Prime Minister Deliyannis.jpg

1905

|October 21

|Tomasso Petto

|New York mobster

|unknown assassin

|United States

|The New York mobster and leading hitman in the Morello crime family was shot multiple times while walking to his home in Browntown.

|frameless

1905

|December 30

|Frank Steunenberg

|Governor of Idaho

|Harry Orchard

|United States

|The fourth governor of the State of Idaho was shot by a former miner after Frank left his office.

|frameless

1907

|March 8

|Marinos Antypas

|socialist politician

|Kyriakou

|Greece

|A 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 11

|Dimitar Petkov

|Prime Minister

|Aleksandar Petrov

|Bulgaria

|Killed by an anarchist.

|frameless

1907

|August 31

|Amin al-Soltan

|Prime Minister

|unknown assassin

|Iran

|Killed in front of the Parliament.

|frameless

1908

|February 1

|Carlos I

|King

|Alfredo Luís da Costa and Manuel Buíça

|Portugal

|Assassinated in Lisbon, Portugal.

|frameless

1909

|October 26

|Itō Hirobumi

|Prime Minister

|An Jung-geun

|Japan

|Also 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.

|frameless

1909

|November 14

|Ramón Lorenzo Falcón

|Chief of Police

|Simón Radowitzky

|Argentina

|Falcon was killed when a bomb was planted on his carriage by Simón Radowitzky

|frameless

Economics

{{expand section|date=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.{{cite book|title=II Lessons from the Gold Standard and Bretton Woods|url=https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/book/9781557750280/ch009.xml|work=IMF eLibrary|publisher=International Monetary Fund |isbn=978-1-55775-028-0 |access-date=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.{{cite web |title=Global Economic Development from 1750 to 1900 |url=https://library.fiveable.me/ap-world/unit-6/global-economic-development-1750-1900/study-guide/2Qcdz5fpK21eAQhq7cY6 |access-date=13 March 2025 |work=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.{{Cite web |date=2010-01-26 |title=FDIC: Learning Bank |url=http://www.fdic.gov/about/learn/learning/when/19-1919.html |access-date=2025-03-13 |archive-date=January 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126134129/http://www.fdic.gov/about/learn/learning/when/19-1919.html |url-status=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.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Germany - The economy, 1890-1914|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-economy-1890-1914|encyclopedia=Britannica|access-date=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.{{cite web|title=Russia's Home Front, 1914-1922: The Economy|url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/mharrison/public/rgwr_postprint.pdf|work=University of Warwick|access-date=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.{{cite book|title=II Lessons from the Gold Standard and Bretton Woods|url=https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/book/9781557750280/ch009.xml|work=IMF eLibrary|publisher=International Monetary Fund |isbn=978-1-55775-028-0 |access-date=13 March 2025}}
  • 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.{{Cite book |last=Béthouart |first=Bruno |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMUTAQAAIAAJ |title=Le Ministère du travail et de la sécurité sociale de la Libération au début de la Ve République |date=2006 |publisher=Presses universitaires de Rennes |isbn=978-2-7535-0327-4 |language=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.{{Cite web |date=2011-10-01 |title=Kazuo Nimura 'The Formation of Japanese Labor Movement;1868-1914' |url=http://oohara.mt.tama.hosei.ac.jp/nk/English/eg-formation.html |access-date=2025-03-13 |archive-date=October 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001233543/http://oohara.mt.tama.hosei.ac.jp/nk/English/eg-formation.html |url-status=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.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Germany - The economy, 1890-1914|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-economy-1890-1914|encyclopedia=Britannica|access-date=13 March 2025}}
  • 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.{{Cite web |date=2025-03-12 |title=Italy - Giolitti, Unification, Politics {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/The-Giolitti-era-1900-14 |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=www.britannica.com |language=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.{{cite web|title=Russia's Home Front, 1914-1922: The Economy|url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/mharrison/public/rgwr_postprint.pdf|work=University of Warwick|access-date=13 March 2025}}
  • The cost of an American postage stamp was 1 cent in 1909.{{Cite web |url=http://www.theseniorlist.com/2013/09/postcards-from-the-edge-september-30-1909/ |title=1909 Postcard sent from Northern Pacific Train Conductor back home |access-date=2013-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927164150/http://www.theseniorlist.com/2013/09/postcards-from-the-edge-september-30-1909/ |archive-date=2013-09-27 |url-status=dead }}

Science and technology

=Science=

File:Albert Einstein in 1905 (cropped).jpg published four articles – each revolutionary and groundbreaking in its field.]]

  • 1900 – Planck's law of black-body radiation
  • 1900 – Quantum Hypothesis by Max Planck{{cite web |title=How did science and technology change in the 1900s? |url=http://www.enotes.com/1900-science-technology-american-decades/important-events-science-technology |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005002014/http://www.enotes.com/1900-science-technology-american-decades/important-events-science-technology |archive-date=October 5, 2012 |access-date=October 20, 2009 |work=eNotes}}http://blog.modernmachanix.com/2008/06/16/invented-earlier-than-youd-think-pt-2-answering-machines{{Dead link|date=February 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}http://library.thinkquest.rg/J0111064/00invetnions.html{{Dead link|date=February 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web |author=Abhay Burande |title=History of Radio – Who Invented the Radio? |url=http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-radio-who-invented-the-radio.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301052131/http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-radio-who-invented-the-radio.html |archive-date=2009-03-01 |access-date=2009-10-20 |work=Buzzle}}http://gardenofpraise/ibdbell.htm{{Dead link|date=February 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
  • 1900 – Seismographs built in the University of California, Berkeley
  • 1902 – Practical air conditioner designed by Willis Carrier
  • March 17, 1905 – Annus Mirabilis papersAlbert 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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dieselduck.ca/library/01%20articles/rudolph_diesel.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611043607/http://www.dieselduck.ca/library/01%20articles/rudolph_diesel.htm|url-status=dead|title=Martin Leduc, "Biography of Rudolph Diesel"|archivedate=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.[http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Apr08/17_001109_The_History_Behind_The_Mercedes_Benz_Brand_And_The_Three_Pointed_Star.html The history behind the Mercedes-Benz brand and the three-pointed star] {{Webarchive|url=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 |date=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.""{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/gitelman.html#fn2|title=How Users Define New Media: A History of the Amusement Phonograph|work=mit.edu|access-date=January 5, 2010|archive-date=October 9, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009182818/http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/gitelman.html#fn2|url-status=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.{{cite web|url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/glocpage.php3?gloc=CK600.1&|title=Location Text and List of Documents – The Edison Papers|work=rutgers.edu|access-date=January 5, 2010|archive-date=March 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317035528/http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/glocpage.php3?gloc=CK600.1&|url-status=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."{{cite web|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Edison_Bio_3.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120731114009/http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Edison_Bio_3.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 31, 2012|title=Biography of Thomas Edison|author=Mary Bellis|work=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,{{cite web|url=http://www.geh.org/fm/brownie/htmlsrc/index.html#E130.00034|title=George Eastman House The GEH Brownie Collection Series|work=geh.org|access-date=2010-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315195832/http://www.geh.org/fm/brownie/htmlsrc/index.html#E130.00034|archive-date=2009-03-15|url-status=dead}}

File:First Zeppelin ascent.jpg

File:Dieselmotor vs.jpg 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.typewritermuseum.org/history/inventors_blick.html|title=Inventors|work=typewritermuseum.org|access-date=January 5, 2010|archive-date=December 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171218152839/http://www.typewritermuseum.org/history/inventors_blick.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.stamfordhistory.org/bl_elec.htm|title=The Stamford Historical Society, Blickensderfer Manufacturing Co., The First Electric Typewriter|work=stamfordhistory.org}}{{cite web|url=http://www.stamfordhistory.org/blickens.htm|title=The Stamford Historical Society, Blickensderfer Typewriters|work=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. 10{{cite web|url=http://www.mfn.li/article/?id=448|title=MFN – Metal Finishing News|work=mfn.li|access-date=2010-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827001740/http://www.mfn.li/article/?id=448|archive-date=2017-08-27|url-status=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 {{convert|sp=us|500|ft||adj=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 {{convert|sp=us|2200|mi|}}. {{Br}}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.){{cite web|url=http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html |title=Fessenden and Marconi: Their Differing Technologies and Transatlantic Experiments During the First Decade of this Century |publisher=Ieee.ca |access-date=2009-01-29| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090123214652/http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html| archive-date= 23 January 2009 | url-status= live}} The Poldhu transmitter was a two-stage circuit."[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1305565 Marconi and the History of Radio]".John S. Belrose, "[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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121228200010/http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html |date=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."{{cite web|url=http://www.air-conditioners-and-heaters.com/willis_carrier.htm|title=Willis Carrier air conditioning|work=air-conditioners-and-heaters.com}}
  • 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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.umw.edu/hisa/resources/Student%20Projects/Singel/students.umw.edu/_ksing2os/polygraph/origin.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204031232/http://www.umw.edu/hisa/resources/Student%20Projects/Singel/students.umw.edu/_ksing2os/polygraph/origin.html|url-status=dead|title=Kati Singel, "The Polygraph:The Modern Lie Detector"|archivedate=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."{{cite web|url=http://home.total.net/~galcar/html/brief_history_of_the_polygraph.html|title=Brief History of the Polygraph|work=total.net}} A more modern and effective polygraph machine would be invented by John Larson in 1921.{{cite web|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/forensic_2.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120714143118/http://inventors.about.com/od/fstartinventions/a/forensic_2.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 14, 2012|title=History of the Lie Detector or Polygraph Machine|author=Mary Bellis|work=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.{{cite web|url=http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=Ne|title=10. Neon – Elementymology & Elements Multidict|work=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.{{cite news|url=http://nymag.com/shopping/features/41814/

|title=Neon: A Brief History| last=Mangum | first= Aja |access-date=

| date = December 8, 2007 |newspaper=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.{{cite web|url=http://www.teawaker.com/clarke.htm |title=teawaker.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110626100212/http://www.teawaker.com/clarke.htm |archive-date=2011-06-26 }}

File:Gilmore monoplane.jpg

  • 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/gilmore.html|title=FLYING MACHINES – Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr.|work=flyingmachines.org|access-date=January 3, 2010|archive-date=October 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018100535/http://www.flyingmachines.org/gilmore.html|url-status=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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/pb/wp_eb6830e0.html?0.5 |title=Stephen Barber, "Lyman Gilmore Jr. – Aeronautical Pioneer" |access-date=2010-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727114151/http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/pb/wp_eb6830e0.html?0.5 |archive-date=2011-07-27 |url-status=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 {{convert|622.5|ft|m|abbr=on}} in 26 seconds. "In its final form, the 1902 Wright glider was the world's first fully controllable aircraft."{{cite web|url=http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1902/glider.cfm|title=The Wright Brothers – The 1902 Glider|work=si.edu|access-date=2010-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408194749/http://nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1902/glider.cfm|archive-date=2010-04-08|url-status=dead}}John David Anderson, "Introduction to flight" (2004), page 30. {{ISBN|0-07-123818-2}}

File:1903-ford-rc.jpg was the first car produced by Ford Motor Company beginning production in 1903.]]

File:Pearse aeroplane replica, South Canterbury Museum-2.jpg

  • 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. {{ISBN|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. {{ISBN|0-473-05048-X}}.Ogilvie, Gordon. The Riddle of Richard Pearse. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed Publishing, Revised edition, 1994. {{ISBN|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.{{cite web|url=http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/jatho.html|title=The Pioneers : An Anthology : Karl Jatho (1873–1933)|work=monash.edu.au|access-date=January 3, 2010|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323151750/http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/jatho.html|url-status=dead}} The plane was equipped with a single-cylinder {{convert|10|hp|kW|abbr=on}} Buchet engine driving a two-bladed pusher propeller and made hops of up to {{convert|200|ft|m|abbr=on}}, flying up to {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=on}} high. In comparison, Orville Wright's first controlled flight four months later was of {{convert|36|m|ft|abbr=on}} in 12 seconds although Wilbur flew 59 seconds and {{convert|sp=us|852|ft|m|abbr=on}} later that same day. Either way Jatho managed to fly a powered heavier-than-air machine earlier than his American counterparts.{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/jatho.html|title=FLYING MACHINES – Karl Jatho|work=flyingmachines.org|access-date=January 3, 2010|archive-date=October 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001104405/http://www.flyingmachines.org/jatho.html|url-status=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.[http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/02-16.htm Women Hold Patents on Important Inventions; USPTO recognizes inventive women during Women's History Month] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090511103740/http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/02-16.htm |date=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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20030318180434/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/anderson.html Many Anderson: Windshield Wipers], September 2001, Inventor of the Week Archive, Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering website, accessed March 3, 2009

File:First flight2.jpg 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 {{convert|279|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} in 59 seconds. First three flights were approximately 120, 175, and {{convert|200|ft|m|abbr=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.[http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html  "1903 – Who Made the First Flight?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423162519/http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html |date=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. [https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1901903575] 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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081202235256/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/the_hitch/article1042746.ece] installing a De Forest transmitter aboard the ship.The De Forest Wireless Telegraphy Tower: Bulletin No. 1, Summer 1904.

File:Panama Canal under construction, 1907.jpg 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 {{convert|sp=us|77|km|mi|abbr=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 {{convert|sp=us|9,500|km|mi|abbr=on}}, well under half the {{convert|sp=us|22,500|km|mi|abbr=on}} route around Cape Horn.{{cite book|url=http://www.czbrats.com/AmPan/index.htm |title=The Americans in Panama |first=William R. |last=Scott |publisher=Statler Publishing Company |location=New York|year=1913| access-date= 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.czbrats.com/Builders/100years/brooke.htm|title=May 4, 1904|work=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.{{cite web|url=http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/history/end.html|title=Panama Canal History – End of the Construction|work=pancanal.com|access-date=2010-01-05|archive-date=2018-10-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001145746/http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/history/end.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=65375|title=Woodrow Wilson: Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Panama Canal Tolls|work=ucsb.edu}} The Chief engineers were John Frank Stevens and George Washington Goethals{{cite web|url=http://goofy313g.free.fr/calisota_online/exist/stevens.html|title=John F. Stevens|work=free.fr}}{{cite web|url=http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/biographies/goethals.html|title=George Washington Goethals|work=pancanal.com|access-date=2010-01-05|archive-date=2007-06-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622031957/http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/biographies/goethals.html|url-status=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.{{cite web|url=http://www.pianola.org/reproducing/reproducing_welte.cfm|title=Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano |publisher=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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kipnotes.com/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017162514/http://www.kipnotes.com/AgriculturalMachinery.htm|url-status=dead|title=Holen Sie Ihr Wissen aus dem Internet|archivedate=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 {{convert|4,000|ft|m}} and landings made at predetermined locations. The gliders were launched from balloons.{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/mont.html|title=FLYING MACHINES – John J. Montgomery|work=flyingmachines.org|access-date=January 3, 2010|archive-date=March 26, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326053518/http://www.flyingmachines.org/mont.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/montgomery.html|title=Flying Wings : An Anthology : John Joseph Montgomery (1858–1911)|work=monash.edu.au|access-date=January 3, 2010|archive-date=December 17, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091217090939/http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/montgomery.html|url-status=dead}}
  • 1905 – The Wright Brothers introduce their Wright Flyer III. On October 5, 1905, Wilbur flew {{convert|sp=us|24|mi|km}} in 39 minutes 23 seconds,{{cite book | title=Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes | isbn=978-1-58663-300-4 | last=Sharpe | first=Michael | publisher=Friedman/Fairfax | year=2000 | page=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.[http://home.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/wbcollection/wbscrapbooks1/WBScrapbooks10007.html Dayton Metro Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905015136/http://home.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/wbcollection/wbscrapbooks1/WBScrapbooks10007.html |date=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.[http://juke-box.dk/gert-history88-13.htm Gert J. Almind, "Jukebox History 1888–1913"].

File:Santos Dumont flight 23 Oct 1906.gif 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.{{cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|chapter=Gramophone|first=Andre|last=Millard|page=512}} The Victrola is also the first playback machine containing an internal horn.{{cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|pages= 768–769|first=David|last=Horn|author2=David Sanjek|chapter=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.{{cite book |title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World |chapter=Advertising of Popular Music |pages=530–532 |first=Dave |last=Laing |author-link=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.{{cite web |url=http://www.earlyaviators.com/evuia.htm |title=Traian Vuia |last=Cooper |first=Ralph S. |work=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.{{cite book |title=The Early Years (Aviation Century) |year=2003 |first1=Ron |last1=Dick |first2=Amanda Wright |last2=Lane |first3=Dan |last3=Patterson |publisher=Boston Mills Press |isbn=1-55046-407-8}}{{cite book |title=Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age |year=2004 |first=Tom D. |last=Crouch |author-link=Tom D. Crouch |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-32620-9}}{{cite book |title=100 Years of Flight: A Chronology of Aerospace History, 1903–2003 |series=Library of Flight Series |year=2003 |first1=Frank H. |last1=Winter |author-link1=Frank H. Winter |first2=F. Robert Van Der |last2=Linden |publisher=AIAA |isbn=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.{{cite book |last=Hansen |first=James R. |author-link=James R. Hansen |title=First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong |title-link=First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7432-5631-5 |page=299}} His flight is the first to have been certified by the Aéro-Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).[http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_14bis.htm Les vols du 14bis relatés au fil des éditions du journal l'illustration de 1906.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070324025948/http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_14bis.htm |date=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)."{{Cite web|url=http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_index.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061128124844/http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_index.htm|url-status=dead|title=Santos-Dumont: Pionnier de l'aviation, dandy de la Belle Epoque.|archivedate=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. [http://earlyaviators.com/edumonb.htm "Santos Dumont in France 1906–1916: The Very Earliest Early Birds."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316120252/http://earlyaviators.com/edumonb.htm |date=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.{{cite web| url = https://earlyradiohistory.us/1907fes.htm| title = 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.leedeforest.org/inventor.html|title=Old Site – Lee de Forest Invented the Radio Tube|work=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."{{Cite web |url=http://www.invent.org/Hall_Of_Fame/40.html |title=National Inventors Hall of Fame: "Lee Deforest" |access-date=2010-01-04 |archive-date=2009-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922235252/http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/40.html |url-status=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.{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4540711;view=1up;seq=167|title=Fessenden, Builder of Tomorrows|last=Fessenden|first=Helen May Trott|publisher=Coward-McCann|year=1940|isbn=978-0405060472|location=New York|pages=153–154}}{{cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|chapter=Radio|pages= 451–461|first=Stephen|last=Barnard|author2=Donna Halper and Dave Laing}}

File:Percy-MacKaye-Alwyn-Genthe-diascope.jpeg 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm|title=THOMAS EDISON'S INVENTIONS|work=thomasedison.com}}
  • 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."{{cite web|url=http://www.officemuseum.com/copy_machines.htm|title=Copying Machines|work=officemuseum.com|access-date=January 5, 2010|archive-date=February 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205005845/http://www.officemuseum.com/copy_machines.htm|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nwmangum.com/Kodak/Rochester.html|title=A History of the Rochester, NY Camera and Lens Companies|work=nwmangum.com}}

File:1908 Ford Model T.jpg 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ford.htm|title=Henry Ford Changes the World, 1908|work=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.{{cite book | last = American Institute of Chemical Engineers Staff | title = Twenty-Five Years of Chemical Engineering Progress | publisher = Ayer Publishing | year = 1977 | page = 216 | isbn = 978-0-8369-0149-8}} Bakelite is an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic.{{cite web|title=Leo Hendrik Baekeland|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/leo-hendrik-baekeland|website=Science History Institute|date=June 2016 |access-date=20 March 2018}}{{cite book|last1=Bowden|first1=Mary Ellen|title=Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd|chapter-url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|location=Philadelphia, PA|isbn=9780941901123|chapter=Leo Hendrik Baekeland|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalachiever0000bowd/page/127 127–129]}}

{{cite web

|url=http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/baekeland.html

|title=Time 100: Leo Baekeland

|first=Ivan

|last=Amato

|date=1999-03-29

|access-date=2007-11-08

| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071106110739/http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/baekeland.html| archive-date= 6 November 2007 | url-status= dead}}

{{clear}}

Popular culture

=Literature=

{{See also|List of years in literature#1900s|Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1900s}}

File:Portrait of Winston Churchill.jpg (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 million{{Cite news|last=Paskin|first=Willa|date=2017-04-27|title=The Other Side of Anne of Green Gables|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/magazine/the-other-side-of-anne-of-green-gables.html|access-date=2020-04-19|issn=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.{{Cite web|date=2006|title=Annual Bestsellers, 1900-1909|url=http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/best00.cgi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016093451/http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/best00.cgi|archive-date=2011-10-16|url-status=live}}

= Art =

File:Portrait de Picasso, 1908.jpg 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=

{{See also|1900s in film}}

{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}

File:Great train robbery still.jpg in Edwin Porter's film The Great Train Robbery, 1903]]

=Music=

File:El choclo.jpg

Popular songs of the 1900s include "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "What Are They Doing in Heaven?", which have been featured in 42{{cite web|title=Lift Every Voice and Sing|url=https://hymnary.org/text/lift_every_voice_and_sing#instances|website=Hymnary.org}} and 16{{cite web|title=What Are They Doing in Heaven?|url=http://www.hymnary.org/text/i_am_thinking_of_friends_whom_i_used_to_|website=hymnary.org|accessdate=August 24, 2015}}{{cite web|title=Charles Albert Tindley 1851{{ndash}}1933|url=http://nethymnal.org/bio/t/i/tindley_ca.htm|website=nethymnal.org|accessdate=August 24, 2015}} hymnals respectively.

=Fashion=

{{See also|1900s in fashion}}

{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}

=Historic events=

{{Expand section|date=August 2023}}

=Sports=

File:Bocajuniors-primerafoto.jpg

{{expand section|date=July 2018}}

=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!".{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/stevenraichlensb0000raic | url-access=registration | quote=Louis Lunch. | title=BBQ USA: 425 Fiery Recipes from All Across America | publisher=Workman Publishing | date=2003 | access-date=28 May 2014 | author=Raichlen, Steven | pages=[https://archive.org/details/stevenraichlensb0000raic/page/336 336]–337| isbn=9780761120155 }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KHEbAgAAQBAJ&q=Louis+Lunch&pg=PA108 | title=Legendary Locals of New Haven | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | author=Caplan, Colin | year=2013 | pages=108–109| isbn=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.{{cite web | url=http://www.ctmuseumquest.com/?page_id=4954 | title=Burger at Louis' Lunch | publisher=Connecticut Museum Quest | access-date=29 May 2014}}

People

=Modern artists=

=Other notable people=

File:Sigmund freud um 1905.jpg, 1905]]

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=Sports figures=

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==Baseball==

==Boxing==

{{See also|International Boxing Hall of Fame}}

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==Cricket==

= 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.{{Cite web |last=Yamamoto |first=Yumi |date=2025-04-30|title=Inah Canabarro Lucas, World’s Oldest Person, Dies at 116

|url=https://longeviquest.com/2025/04/inah-canabarro-lucas-worlds-oldest-person-dies-at-116/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=LongeviQuest |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=World Supercentenarian Rankings List – Gerontology Research Group |url=https://www.grg-supercentenarians.org/world-supercentenarian-rankings-list/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |language=en}} The last surviving man born during this decade was Juan Vicente Pérez of Venezuela (27 May 1909 – 2 April 2024).{{Cite web |last=Tabachnick |first=Cara |date=2024-04-03 |title=Oldest man in the world dies in Venezuela weeks before 115th birthday - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oldest-man-guiness-world-records-juan-vicente-perez-dies-venezuela-before-115th-birthday/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}

See also

=Timeline=

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1900190119021903190419051906190719081909

Notes

{{Reflist|group=note}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

Further reading

{{Refbegin}}

  • {{cite journal |last=Hale |first=Williams Bayard |author-link=William Bayard Hale |date=January 1911 |title=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 |journal=The World's Work: A History of Our Time |volume=XXI |pages=13855–13868 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13855|access-date=2009-07-10 }}
  • {{cite journal |last=Hutchinson |first=Woods |date=January 1911 |title=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 |journal=The World's Work: A History of Our Time |volume=XXI |pages=13881–13883 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13881|access-date=2009-07-10 }}
  • {{cite journal |last=Keys |first=C.M. |date=January 1911 |title=Ten Years Of Industrial America: Manufacturing Industry Far Outpacing Agriculture |journal=The World's Work: A History of Our Time |volume=XXI |pages=13884–13897 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13884|access-date=2009-07-10 }}
  • {{cite journal |last=Page|first=Walter Hines |author-link=Walter Hines Page |date=January 1911 |title=The Astronomical Romance Of A Decade: The Story of Ten Years' Advance In Knowledge Of The Heavens |journal=The World's Work: A History of Our Time |volume=XXI |pages=13877–13880 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13877|access-date=2009-07-10 }}
  • {{cite journal |last=Mahan |first=Alfred T. |author-link=Alfred Thayer Mahan |date=January 1911 |title=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 |journal=The World's Work: A History of Our Time |volume=XXI |pages=13898–13902 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13898|access-date=2009-07-10 }}
  • {{cite journal |last=Sloss |first=Robert |date=January 1911 |title=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 |journal=The World's Work: A History of Our Time |volume=XXI |pages=13869–13877 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Zm0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13869|access-date=2009-07-10 }}

{{Refend}}