Directory

1901 CE

President William McKinley is assassinated, making Theodore Roosevelt president; Queen Victoria dies, ending the Victorian era; The Anglo-Aro War expands British colonial rule in present-day Nigeria; The Boxer Protocol ends the Boxer Rebellion; The Battle of Holy Apostles Monastery marks the last major Armenian resistance in Eastern Anatolia; The Federation of Australia unites six colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.source
  • January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime Minister of Australia.source
  • February 12 – Viceroy of India Lord Curzon creates the new North-West Frontier Province in the north of the Punjab region, bordering Afghanistan.source
  • February 14 – Edward VII opens his first parliament of the United Kingdom.source
  • February 20 – The Hawaii Territory Legislature convenes for the first time.source
  • February 23 – The United Kingdom and Germany agree on the frontier between German East Africa and Nyasaland.source
  • March 1 – The United Kingdom, Germany and Japan protest the Sino-Russian agreement on Manchuria.source
  • March 2 – The United States Congress passes the Platt Amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.source
  • April 19 – The First Philippine Republic is formally dissolved, after president Emilio Aguinaldo calls all Filipino forces to lay down arms and cease hostilities.source
  • May 5 – The Caste War of Yucatán in Mexico officially ends, although Mayan skirmishers continue sporadic fighting for another decade.source
  • May 9 – The first Australian Parliament opens in Melbourne.source
  • June 12 – Cuba becomes a United States protectorate.source
  • July 4 – William Howard Taft becomes Governor-General of the Philippines.source
  • September 14 – Vice President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th president of the United States, upon President William McKinley's death.source
  • December 3 – The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 is passed by the new Parliament of Australia as the basis of a White Australia policy.source
  • December 3 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the United States House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".source

Conflict & Security

  • January 9 – Lord Kitchener reports that Christiaan de Wet has shot one of the "peace" envoys, and flogged two more, who had gone to his commando to ask the Burgher citizens of South Africa to halt fighting.source
  • February 26 – Chi-hsui and Hsu-cheng-yu, Boxer Rebellion leaders, are executed in Peking.source
  • February 27 – The Sultan of Turkey orders 50,000 troops to the Bulgarian frontier because of unrest in Macedonia.source
  • March 5 – Irish nationalist demonstrators are ejected by police from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London.source
  • March 6 – In Bremen, an assassination attempt is made on Wilhelm II, German Emperor.source
  • April 29 – Anti-Semitic rioting breaks out in Budapest.source
  • June 18 – British peace campaigner Emily Hobhouse reports on the high mortality and cruel conditions in the Second Boer War concentration camps.source
  • September 7 – The Boxer Rebellion in Qing dynasty China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.source
  • September 28 – Philippine–American War: Balangiga massacre: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty United States soldiers in a surprise attack in the town of Balangiga.source
  • October 29 – Leon Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair for the assassination of William McKinley in Buffalo, New York on September 6.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 28 – D'Arcy Concession: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar of Persia grants British businessman William Knox D'Arcy a concession giving him an exclusive right to prospect for oil.source
  • August 6 – Discovery Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott sets sail from Britain on the RRS Discovery to explore the Ross Sea in Antarctica.source
  • October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 25 – U.S. Steel is incorporated by industrialist J. P. Morgan, as the first billion-dollar corporation.source
  • May 17 – Panic of 1901: The New York Stock Exchange crashes.source
  • Splošno slovensko žensko društvo, the first women's organisation in Slovenia, is founded.source
  • AB Lux, as the predecessor of Electrolux, founded in Sweden.source
  • The Bulgarian Women's Union is founded.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 31 – The United Kingdom Census 1901 is taken. The number of people employed in manufacturing is at its highest-ever level.source
  • June 15 – is the first Cunard Line ship to receive a wireless radio set.source
  • July 4 – The 1,282 foot (390 m) covered bridge crossing the Saint John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world.source
  • July 10 – The world's first passenger-carrying trolleybus in regular service operates on the Biela Valley Trolleybus route at Königstein, Germany.source
  • August 14 – The first claimed powered flight is made, by German-born American aviator Gustave Whitehead, in his Number 21, in Connecticut.source
  • August 30 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner, in the United Kingdom.source
  • October 2 – The British Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness.source
  • November 18 – The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty is signed by the United Kingdom and United States, allowing the U.S. to build the Panama Canal under its sole control.source
  • December 12 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu, England, to St. John's, Newfoundland; it is the letter "S" in Morse code.source
  • December 20 – The final spike is driven into the Mombasa–Victoria–Uganda Railway, in modern-day Kisumu, Kenya.source
  • American businessman William S. Harley draws up plans for his first prototype motorcycle.source
  • German engineer Richard Fiedler invents the modern flamethrower, the Kleinflammenwerfer.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 1 – The 1901 Census of India is taken, the fourth, and first reliable, census of the British Raj.source
  • August 5 – Peter O'Connor sets the first International Association of Athletics Federations recognised long jump world record, of 24 ft 11¾ ins (7.61m). The record will stand for 20 years.source
  • October 4 – The American yacht Columbia defeats the British Shamrock in the America's Cup yachting race in New York.source
  • The okapi is observed for the first time by Europeans (previously known only to African natives).source
  • New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward invents the spiral hairpin.source

Health & Medicine

  • November 25 – Auguste Deter is first examined by German psychiatrist Dr. Alois Alzheimer, leading to a diagnosis of the condition that will carry Alzheimer's name.source
  • American retail pharmacy Walgreens is founded in Chicago.source

Crime & Justice

  • July 1 – The first United Kingdom Fingerprint Bureau is established at Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London, by Edward Henry.source
  • October 29 – In Amherst, New York, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine; she will confess to at least 31 killings.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • May 3 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.source
  • May 24 – 81 miners are killed in an accident at Universal Colliery, Senghenydd in South Wales.source
  • November 14 – 1901 Caister lifeboat disaster: a life-boat capsizes on service on the east coast of England during a great storm; nine of the twelve crew on board are killed. This gives ride to the lifeboatmen's motto "Never turn back."source

Climate & Environment

  • February 26 – The Middelburg peace conference fails in South Africa, as Boers continue to demand autonomy.source
  • March 31 – A 7.2 Black Sea earthquake occurs off the northeast coast of Bulgaria, with a maximum intensity of X (Extreme). A destructive tsunami affects the province of Dobrich.source

Culture & Society

  • January 31 – Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters (Три сeстры, Tri sestry) is premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre.source
  • February 2 – The State funeral of Queen Victoria, held at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, UK, is attended by many European royals, including Kaiser Wilhelm II and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.source
  • March 17 – The first large-scale showing of Van Gogh's paintings takes place in Paris, as 71 are shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, 11 years after his death.source
  • May 25 – The Club Atlético River Plate is founded in Argentina.source
  • June 24 – The first showing of Picasso's paintings in Paris as the 19-year-old Spanish artist exhibits his work at Ambroise Vollard's gallery.source
  • June 24 – English Association Football Club Brighton & Hove Albion is formed by John Jackson to replace the amateur Brighton and Hove Rangers, following a meeting at the Seven Stars Hotel on Ship Street, Brighton.source
  • August 21 – The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres is founded in Copenhagen.source
  • September 5 – The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later renamed Minor League Baseball), is formed in Chicago.source
  • November 1 – The Sigma Phi Epsilon college fraternity is founded in Richmond, Virginia.source
  • November 9 – Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is premiered in Moscow with the composer playing the solo part.source
  • November 15 – The Alpha Sigma Alpha fraternity is founded at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.source
  • December 10 – The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm, on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.source
  • The Intercollegiate Prohibition Association is established in Chicago.source

Births

  • January 4 – C. L. R. James, Trinidad-born writer, journalist (d. 1989)source
  • February 28 – Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (d. 1994)source
  • March 26 – Teresa Demjanovich, American Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (d. 1927)source
  • March 27 – Eisaku Satō, Prime Minister of Japan, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1975)source
  • April 13 – Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist (d. 1981)source
  • June 13 – Tage Erlander, Swedish politician, 25th prime minister of Sweden (d. 1985)source
  • July 7 – Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese film director and special effects designer (d. 1970)source
  • August 8 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)source
  • September 21 – Learie Constantine, Trinidad-born cricketer and race relations campaigner (d. 1971)source
  • September 29 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)source
  • October 20 – Adelaide Hall, American jazz singer, entertainer (d. 1993)source
  • November 25 – Fernando Tambroni, Italian politician, 36th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1963)source
  • December 5 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)source
  • December 16 – Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist (d. 1978)source

Deaths

  • January 19 – Albert, 4th duc de Broglie, French politician, 28th Prime Minister of France (b. 1821)source
  • January 21 – Elisha Gray, American inventor, appliance manufacturer (b. 1835)source
  • January 22 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She is 81 years old and, having ruled for nearly 64 years, will be the second longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, "Bertie", the longest-serving Prince of Wales to this time, succeeds his mother at the age of 59, reigning as King Edward VII, of the United Kingdom and in innovation the British Dominions and also becoming Emperor of India.source
  • February 14 – Sir Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator, politician and 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1819)source
  • April 3 – Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (b. 1844)source
  • April 9 – Shrimad Rajchandra, Indian Jain philosopher, scholar and poet, spiritual mentor of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1867)source
  • July 6 – Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1819)source
  • August 5 – Victoria, Princess Royal (b. 1840)source
  • August 12 – Francesco Crispi, 11th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1819)source
  • August 19 – Shō Tai, last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Japan (b. 1843)source
  • September 6 – Assassination of William McKinley: American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies 8 days later.source
  • September 14 – William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1843)source
  • October 10 – Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1814)source
  • October 29 – Leon Czolgosz, Polish-American assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (executed) (b. 1873)source