Directory

1902 CE

The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée devastates Saint-Pierre in Martinique, killing nearly 30,000 and becoming one of history’s deadliest volcanic disasters; The Second Boer War ends with the Treaty of Vereeniging, bringing the Boer republics under British control; The Coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra at Westminster Abbey formally begins the Edwardian era; The Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903 sees European powers blockade Venezuelan ports over debts, prompting U.S. diplomatic intervention; The Anthracite coal strike of 1902 leads to President Theodore Roosevelt mediating labor demands for higher wages and shorter workdays; The French silent film A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès premieres, becoming an iconic early cinematic work.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 30 – The Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed.source
  • March 15 – The Pattani Sultanate is abolished by the Siamese authority after the last sultan of Pattani refused new administrative reforms by the Siamese.source
  • May 13 – Alfonso XIII of Spain begins his reign.source
  • May 20 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.source
  • May 31 – The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War, providing for the Transvaal Colony and Orange Free State to transition to self-governing British colonies.source
  • June 16 – The Commonwealth Franchise Act in Australia grants women's suffrage in federal elections for resident British subjects (with certain ethnic minorities excepted), making Australia the first independent country to grant women the vote at a national level, and the first country to allow them to stand for Parliament.source
  • July 5 – Erik Gustaf Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden.source
  • July 8 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation is established within the U.S. Geological Survey.source
  • July 11 – Lord Salisbury retires as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • November 1 – France attempts to neutralize Triple Alliance, signing agreement with Italy to remain neutral in Africa.source
  • The first Korean Empire passports are issued to assist Korean immigration to Hawaii.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 23 – Hakkōda Mountains incident: A snowstorm in the Hakkōda Mountains of northern Honshu, Japan, kills 199 during a military training exercise.source
  • March 7 – Second Boer War: Battle of Tweebosch – South African Boers win their last battle over the British Army, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.source
  • March 10 – Clashes between police and Georgian workers led by Joseph Stalin leave 15 dead, 54 wounded, and 500 in prison.source
  • July 2 – Philippine–American War ends.source
  • October 18 – Venezuela: President Castro's army overcomes rebels in seven-day battlesource
  • November 15 – King Leopold II of Belgium survives an attempted assassination in Brussels by Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 14 – Agustín Lizárraga discovers Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas".source
  • November 15 – The Hanoi exhibition opens in French Indochina.source
  • December 30 – Discovery Expedition: British explorers Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.source

Religion & Belief

  • August 9 – Coronation of Edward VII as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India at Westminster Abbey in London.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 18 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt prosecutes the Northern Securities Company for violation of the antitrust Sherman Act.source
  • June 13 – Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, predecessor of global consumer goods brand 3M, begins trading as a mining venture at Two Harbors in the United States.source
  • December–February 1903 – Venezuelan crisis: Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela, in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.source
  • The capital of French Indochina is moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin).source
  • De'Longhi home appliance brand is founded in Treviso, Italy.source
  • Daniels Linseed, predecessor of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a global livestock, commodities trading, food processing brand, is founded in Minnesota, United States.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 1 – Nathan Stubblefield demonstrates his wireless telephone device in the U.S. state of Kentucky.source
  • February 15 – The Berlin U-Bahn underground is opened.source
  • April 11 – Tenor Enrico Caruso makes the first million-selling recording, for the Gramophone Company in Milan.source
  • April 13 – A new land speed record of 74 mph km/h is set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet driving a steam car.source
  • June 15 – The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City.source
  • August 22 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile, a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.source
  • October 17 – First Cadillac completed, sold and sent to Buffalo, New Yorksource
  • December 10 – The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed.source
  • December 17 – The Commercial Telegraph Agency (TTA, Torgovo-Telegrafnue Agenstvo), predecessor of TASS, is officially established under the Ministry of Finance at Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire.source
  • December 21 – Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi sends wireless messages across the Atlantic.source
  • Construction of the Paul Doumer Bridge, linking both sections of Hanoi, is completed.source

Science & Discovery

  • May 22 – The White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.source
  • September 1 – The first science fiction film, the silent A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans La Lune), is premièred at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris, France, by actor/producer Georges Méliès, and proves an immediate success.source

Health & Medicine

  • January 1 – The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's first registered nurse.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 27 – Australian officers Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock are executed for the murder of Boer prisoners of war near Louis Trichardt.source
  • March 10 – A Circuit Court decision in the United States ends Thomas Edison's monopoly on 35 mm movie film technology.source
  • August 24 – A statue of Joan of Arc is unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, the French town which she stormed in 1429.source
  • October 16 – The first Borstal (youth offenders' institution) opens in Borstal, Kent, U.K.source
  • November 30 – The second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, Harvey Logan ("Kid Curry"), is captured after a shootout with lawmen in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is sentenced to a $5,000 fine and 20 years hard labor for robbery but escapes custody in 1903.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 8 – A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17 people, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains and the banning of steam locomotives in New York City.source
  • May 12 – Brazilian aeronaut Augusto Severo de Albuquerque Maranhão and Georges Saché, his French mechanic, are killed when Severo's airship Pax catches fire and explodes a little over 1,000 ft above Paris. Severo and Saché are both killed upon impact with the ground.source
  • July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills 112 miners.source
  • July 14 – St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses.source
  • August 1 – 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia.source
  • September 19 – Shiloh Baptist Church stampede: 115 people are killed in a crush at a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, following a mistaken alarm of fire after an address by Booker T. Washington.source
  • October 21 – A five-month strike by the United Mine Workers in the United States ends.source

Climate & Environment

  • April 19 – The 7.5 Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000.source
  • May 7 – La Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent erupts, devastating the northern portion of the island and killing 2,000 peoplesource
  • May 8 – Mount Pelée in Martinique erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000.source
  • August 22 – A 7.7 earthquake shakes the border between China and Kyrgyzstan killing 10,000 people.source
  • August 30 – Mount Pelée again erupts in Martinique, destroying the town of Le Morne-Rouge and causing 1,000 deaths.source
  • October 24 – One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century occurs at Santa María in Guatemala; over 6,000 people die.source

Culture & Society

  • January 29 – The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C., to promote scientific research with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.source
  • February 12 – The 1st Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance takes place in Washington, D.C.source
  • March 8 – Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 is premiered in Helsinki.source
  • April 2 – The Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.source
  • May 29 – The London School of Economics is opened by Lord Rosebery.source
  • June 26 – Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit, an order bestowed personally by the British monarch on up to 24 distinguished Empire recipients.source
  • July 21 – Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro.source
  • October 14 – Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Servillia premieres in St. Petersburgsource
  • November 16 – A newspaper cartoon depicting U.S. President "Teddy" Roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear cub inspires creation of the first teddy bear by Morris Michtom in New York City.source

Births

  • January 4 – John A. McCone, American politician, 6th Director of Central Intelligence (d. 1991)source
  • January 9 – Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and saint (d. 1975)source
  • January 31 – Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1986)source
  • February 10 – Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)source
  • February 27 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)source
  • April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)source
  • June 16 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1992)source
  • July 31 – Gubby Allen, Australian-born English cricketer, cricket administrator (d. 1989)source
  • August 8 – Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)source
  • September 12 – Juscelino Kubitschek, 21st President of Brazil (d. 1976)source
  • September 24 – Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Shia cleric, 1st Supreme Leader of Iran (d. 1989)source
  • October 25 – Carlo Gnocchi, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (d. 1956)source
  • November 17 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)source
  • December 5 – Strom Thurmond, American politician (d. 2003)source

Deaths

  • February 18 – Albert Bierstadt, German-born American painter (b. 1830)source
  • February 26 – Edward Henry Cooper, British army officer and politician (b. 1827)source
  • February 27 – Breaker Morant, Australian soldier (executed) (b. 1864)source
  • March 7 – Pud Galvin, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1856)source
  • March 12 – John Peter Altgeld, American politician, 20th Governor of Illinois (b. 1847)source
  • April 11 – Wade Hampton III, Confederate soldier and South Carolina politician (b. 1818)source
  • May – Harriet Abbott Lincoln Coolidge, American philanthropist, author and reformer (b. 1849)source
  • June 5 – Louis J. Weichmann, American witness to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1842)source
  • June 19 – Albert, King of Saxony, member of the House of Wettin (b. 1828)source
  • July 4 – Swami Vivekananda, Indian religious leader (b. 1863)source
  • July 6 – Maria Goretti, Italian Roman Catholic virgin, martyr and saint (b. 1890)source
  • September 5 – Rudolf Virchow, German scientist, politician (b. 1821)source
  • September 23 – John Wesley Powell, American explorer (b. 1834)source
  • December 3 – Prudente de Morais, 3rd President of Brazil (b. 1841)source