Directory

1904 CE

The Russo-Japanese War begins as Japan’s surprise attack on Port Arthur signals its rise as a global power; The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis become the first Games held in the United States; The Great Baltimore Fire devastates the city’s core, destroying over 1,500 buildings and prompting new firefighting standards; The Kuta Reh massacre in Aceh sees hundreds of villagers killed by Dutch colonial forces during the Aceh War; The Herero Wars in German South West Africa escalate into genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples; The Dogger Bank incident sees Russian warships mistakenly fire on British fishermen, nearly triggering war.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • April 8 – The Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France.source
  • April 27 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.source
  • August 14 – Ismael Montes becomes President of Bolivia.source
  • October 28 – Panama and Uruguay establish diplomatic relations.source
  • November 8 – 1904 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.source
  • December 6 – Theodore Roosevelt announces his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States will intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 12 – The Herero Wars in German South West Africa begin.source
  • February 8–9 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise Japanese naval attack on Port Arthur (Lüshun) in Manchuria starts the Russo-Japanese War.source
  • March 31 – British expedition to Tibet: The Battle of Guru – British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.source
  • June 16 – Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolay Bobrikov, the Russian Governor-General of Finland, in Helsinki.source
  • July – Pavlos Melas enters Macedonia with a small unit of men during the Macedonian Struggle.source
  • August 11 – Battle of Waterberg: Lothar von Trotha defeats the Herero people in German South West Africa, and drives them into the Omaheke desert, starting the Herero and Namaqua genocide.source
  • August 17 – Russo-Japanese War: A Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.source
  • October 21 – Russo-Japanese War: Dogger Bank incident – The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats, in the North Sea.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 6 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land is discovered from the Scotia.source
  • April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).source
  • May 5 – British expedition to Tibet: Hundreds of Tibetans attack the British camp at Changlo, and hold the advantage for a while, before being defeated by superior weapons, and losing at least 200 men.source
  • August 3 – British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa, Tibet.source
  • September 7 – British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.source
  • September – Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.source
  • November 16 – The settlement at Grytviken, on the British South Atlantic island territory of South Georgia, is established by Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen, as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 6 – Joseph F. Smith announces the Second Manifesto in General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah Territory, prohibiting the practice of polygamy, which has continued to be sanctioned by some of its leaders in violation of the 1890 Manifesto officially banning the practice.source
  • April 8–10 – Aleister Crowley writes The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema, in Cairo.source
  • December 27 – The Abbey Theatre in Dublin opens.source

Economy & Finance

  • Global cosmetics companies are founded in Paris (France): Coty, by François Coty, and Garnier, by Alfred Amour Garnier.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 7 – The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by SOS.source
  • February 23 – For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.source
  • March 3 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.source
  • May 4 – United States Army engineers begin work on the Panama Canal.source
  • May 4 – Charles Rolls and Henry Royce meet for the first time, in Manchester England to agree production of Rolls-Royce motor cars; the first produced under their joint names are launched in December.source
  • May 5 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.source
  • May 9 – Great Western Railway of England 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro possibly becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.source
  • July 22 – The first 2,000 of 62,000 contracted Chinese coolies arrive at Durban in South Africa from Qinhuangdao to relieve the shortage of unskilled labourers in the Transvaal Colony gold mines, recruited and shipped by the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation (CEMC), of which Herbert Hoover is a director.source
  • July 23 – A continuous track tractor is patented by David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham in England.source
  • September 1 – Griffin Park football ground, home of Brentford F.C., opens in London.source
  • September 2 – John Voss sails the rigged dugout canoe Tilikum into the River Thames in England after a 3-year voyage from Victoria, British Columbia, westabout.source
  • October 11 – Loftus Road football stadium opens in London.source
  • October 27 – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.source
  • November 16 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming patents the first thermionic vacuum tube, the two-electrode diode ("oscillation valve" or Fleming valve).source
  • November 24 – A continuous track tractor is successfully demonstrated by the Holt Manufacturing Company in the United States. The "caterpillar track" will come to revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 25 – Halford Mackinder presents a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" to the Royal Geographical Society of London in which he formulates the Heartland Theory, originating the study of geopolitics.source
  • September 26 – New Zealand dolphin Pelorus Jack is individually protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act.source
  • December 3 – Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, later called Himalia, at California's Lick Observatory.source

Health & Medicine

  • October 1 – Phi Delta Epsilon, the international medical fraternity, is founded by Aaron Brown and 8 of his friends, at Cornell University Medical College.source
  • Late October – The first members of what will become the Bloomsbury Group move to the Bloomsbury district of London; they will be joined about November 8 by the future novelist Virginia Woolf.source

Crime & Justice

  • June 28 – The original icon of Our Lady of Kazan is stolen and subsequently destroyed in Russia.source
  • Summer – Henri Matisse paints Luxe, Calme et Volupté at Saint-Tropez; it will be considered the starting point of Fauvism.source
  • October 13 – Pavlos Melas is encircled at Statista and killed during the Macedonian Struggle.source
  • December 2 – The St. Petersburg Soviet urges a run on the banks; the attempt fails, and the executive committee is arrested.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 23 – The Ålesund fire destroys most buildings in the town of Ålesund, Norway, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter.source
  • February 7 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroys over 1,500 buildings in 31 hours.source
  • April 19 – The Great Fire of Toronto destroys much of the city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.source
  • May 15 – Russo-Japanese War: Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 mi km off Port Arthur, and sinks Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons with 496 crew, and Yashima. On the same day, the Japanese protected cruiser Yoshino sinks after being accidentally rammed by the armored cruiser Kasuga, killing over 270 crew, including Captain Sayegi and his second-in-command, Commander Hirowateri. Japan will keep the loss of Yashima secret for over a year.source
  • June 15 – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.source
  • June 28 – Danish ocean liner runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing approximately 627 people, many of whom are Russian-Polish and Scandinavian emigrants.source

Climate & Environment

  • April 4 – 1904 Kresna earthquakes: two earthquakes strike near Kresna, Bulgaria, killing at least 200 people.source
  • June 29 – The 1904 Moscow tornado occurs.source

Culture & Society

  • January 17 – Anton Chekhov's last play, The Cherry Orchard, opens at the Moscow Art Theatre directed by Constantin Stanislavski.source
  • February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.source
  • February 17 – Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly debuts at La Scala in Milan, to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia, to huge success.source
  • February 28 – S.L. Benfica, one of the biggest Association Football clubs in Portugal, is founded as Sport Lisboa.source
  • April 8 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square, after The New York Times.source
  • May 4 – German Association football club FC Schalke 04 is established.source
  • May 30 – Alpha Gamma Delta, which becomes an international sorority, is founded by 11 women at Syracuse University.source
  • June 3 – The International Alliance of Women is founded.source
  • June 16 – The original "Bloomsday", the day James Joyce first walks out with his future wife Nora Barnacle (whom he first met on June 10), to the Dublin suburb of Ringsend. He sets the action of his novel Ulysses (1922) on this date.source
  • June 28 – English Association football club Hull City A.F.C. is established.source
  • July 1 – The third Modern Olympic Games open in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, as part of the World's Fair.source
  • August 24 – Faroese Association football club Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag is established.source
  • September 17 – An early study on the relationship between alcohol and cardiovascular disease is published in the United States.source
  • October 4 – Swedish Association football club IFK Göteborg is founded, becoming the 39th IFK-association.source
  • October 5 – Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, is founded on the campus of New York University.source
  • October 9 – German journalist Anna Rüling, in a speech to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin, makes the first known public statement of the socio-legal problems faced by lesbians.source
  • October 15 – Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.source
  • October 19 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School, through the superintendence of American C. A. O'Reilley.source
  • October – The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, predecessor of Bethune–Cookman University, is opened in Florida by Mary McLeod Bethune.source
  • Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.source
  • The Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum opens in Berlin for the display of fine art.source
  • December 10 – The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.source
  • December 27 – The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.source
  • December 31 – In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.source

Births

  • January 10 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer and dancer (The Wizard of Oz) (died 1987)source
  • January 26 – Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1988)source
  • February 11 – Sir Keith Holyoake, 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1983)source
  • March 2 – Dr. Seuss, American children's author (The Cat in the Hat) (died 1991)source
  • March 5 – Mao Bangchu, Republic of China air force general (died 1987)source
  • March 20 – B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist (died 1990)source
  • April 6 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Chancellor of West Germany (died 1988)source
  • April 22 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (died 1967)source
  • May 6 – Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1978)source
  • July 12 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973)source
  • August 7 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1971)source
  • September 15 – Umberto II of Italy, 4th and last King of Italy (died 1983)source
  • October 2 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, 2nd Prime Minister of India (died 1966)source
  • October 3 – Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)source

Deaths

  • January 2 – James Longstreet, American Confederate Civil War general (born 1821)source
  • January 13 – Samuel G. Havermale, American Methodist minister (born 1824)source
  • January 22 – Laura Vicuña, Chilean Roman Catholic holy figure and blessed (born 1891)source
  • February 15 – Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio (born 1837)source
  • March 17 – Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of King George III (born 1819)source
  • May 9 – Bonaventura Gargiulo, Italian Capuchin friar and Roman Catholic bishop (born 1843)source
  • May 22 – Charles Elwood Brown, U.S. Representative from Ohio (born 1834)source
  • August 10 – Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French politician, 29th Prime Minister of France (born 1846)source
  • August 15 – John Henry Kinkead, American businessman and politician, 1st Governor of Alaska and 3rd Governor of Nevada (born 1826)source
  • September 26 – Lafcadio Hearn, Greek-Irish Japanese author (born 1850)source
  • September 27 – David Grant Colson, American politician, U.S. Representative from Kentucky (born 1861)source
  • October 26 – Princess Srivilailaksana of Suphanburi, daughter of King Rama V and Pae Bunnag (born 1868)source
  • November 15 – Mary of the Passion, French Roman Catholic religious sister, missionary and blessed (born 1839)source
  • December 14 – Mélanie Calvat, French Roman Catholic nun, Marian visionary and saint (born 1831)source