1905 CE

The Russian Revolution of 1905 erupts after Bloody Sunday, sparking strikes, uprisings, and the creation of the Duma; The First Moroccan Crisis begins with Kaiser Wilhelm II’s visit to Tangier, straining Franco-German relations; The Battle of Tsushima ends in a decisive Japanese victory, reshaping power in East Asia; The Maji Maji Rebellion challenges German colonial rule in East Africa but is brutally suppressed; Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia is assassinated in Moscow; The Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden peacefully grants Norway independence.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 3 – Japan formally repossesses Port Arthur, and renames it Ryojun, holding it for the next 40 years. The area will revert in 1945 to China, and become the Lushunkou District.source
January 17 – In France, Prime Minister Émile Combes and his cabinet announce their resignations after being implicated in the Affair of the Cards (L'Affaire des Fiches), a system set up by the War Ministry to purge the French Army officers corps of Jesuits.source
January 21 – The Dominican Republic signs an agreement with the United States to allow the U.S. to administer the collection of customs taxes for Santo Domingo for 50 years, with the U.S. to assume responsibility for payment of the Republic's debts to foreign nations from Dominican income. The agreement is done as an exercise of the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine.source
January 27 – The Nelson Act is passed into law in the United States, providing for racial segregation of schools in the Alaska Territory.source
Elections are held in Hungary for the Országgyűlés, the Kingdom's parliament within Austria-Hungary. Voters overwhelmingly reject the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister István Tisza, that has ruled Hungary since 1875. The Liberals lose 118 of their 277 seats, but Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary ignores the results and keeps Tisza in power.source
February 21 – Sir Wilfrid Laurier introduces a resolution in the Canadian parliament proposing that two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, be created out of the Northwest Territories.source
March 3 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia announces the creation of an elected assembly, the Duma, to represent the people of the Russian Empire in an advisory capacity, although the real power to make laws will remain with the Tsar and the cabinet of ministers.source
March 20 – The title Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is officially recognised by King Edward VII by a royal warrant.source
April 1 – The British Imperial Penny Post is extended to include Australia.source
May 30 – Japan's Prime Minister Katsura Tarō asks U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to moderate peace discussions to end the Russo-Japanese War.source
June 7 – The Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, declares dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden, giving Norway full independence.source
July 5 – Alfred Deakin takes office as the new Prime Minister of Australia.source
July 27 – The Taft–Katsura agreement is reached in Tokyo.source
August 11 – The Russian Council appointed by Tsar Nicholas II meets at Peterhof and approves a plan for a national Duma, the first representative assembly in the Empire.source
August 20 – Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen forms the first chapter of Tongmenghui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchu dynasty.source
September 1 – The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established from the southwestern part of the Northwest Territories.source
September 5 – Russo-Japanese War: Treaty of Portsmouth – In New Hampshire, a treaty mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is signed by Japan and Russia. Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin together with port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.source
October 16 – The Partition of Bengal is made by Lord Curzon to separate the region of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu territories until its reunification in 1911.source
October 26 Sweden–Norway agrees to the repeal of the union with Norway, forming the two modern-day countries.source
October 30 (October 17 Old Style) – October Manifesto: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is forced to announce the granting of his country's first constitution (the Russian Constitution of 1906), conceding a national assembly (State Duma) with limited powers.source
November 4 – Russification of Finland: The application of the February Manifesto, removing the veto of the Diet of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland over matters considered by the Emperor to concern Russian imperial interests, is interrupted by the new November Manifesto. The Senate of Finland is ordered to put forward a proposal for parliamentary reform, based on unicameralism and universal and equal suffrage.source
November 12 – Norway holds a plebiscite on the monarchy, resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly independent country.source
November 17 – The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 ("Eulsa Treaty") effectively makes Korea a protectorate of Japan.source
December 23 – The Tampere conference, where Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time, is held in Tampere, Finland.source

Conflict & Security

January 1 – In a major defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Russian General Anatoly Stessel surrenders Port Arthur, located on mainland China, to the Japanese.source
January 22 (January 9 O.S.) – The Bloody Sunday massacre of peaceful Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg takes place, leading to an unsuccessful uprising.source
January 29 – Rioting breaks out in Warsaw, at this time under Russian Imperial rule with a Russian Governor-General.source
Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on demonstrators in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, killing 73 people and injuring 200.source
February 4 – A simultaneous uprising begins at six cities in Argentina against the government of President Manuel Quintana.source
February 6 – Eliel Soisalon-Soininen, the Chancellor of Justice of the Grand Duchy of Finland (at this time part of the Russian Empire) is assassinated at Helsingfors (Helsinki).source
February 17 – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, the Governor-General of Moscow and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, is assassinated.source
February 20 – In the Russo-Japanese War, the Battle of Mukden begins in Manchuria.source
March 10 – Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese capture of Mukden (modern-day Shenyang) completes the rout of Russian armies in Manchuria.source
March 23 – The Theriso revolt begins in Crete as about 1,500 people led by Eleftherios Venizelos demand unification with Greece.source
April 6 – A violent strike by the Teamsters' Union begins in Chicago.source
April 23 – German General Lothar von Trotha commander of troops in Germany's colony of Südwestafrika (modern-day Namibia), orders the extermination of the Nama people within the colony's borders, ultimately killing 10,000. Von Trotha's proclamation Aan de oorlogvorende Namastamme, proclaims that "The Nama who chooses not to surrender and lets himself be seen in German territory will be shot, until all are exterminated."source
May 28 – Japanese victory in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive battle fought between fleets of battleships; Russian personnel losses were 216 officers and 4,614 men killed; with 278 officers and 5,629 men taken as prisoners of war (POWs). Interned in neutral ports were 79 officers and 1,783 men. Escaping to Vladivostok and Diego-Suarez were 62 officers and 1,165 men. Eight battleships and three coastal battleships were either sunk, scuttled or captured. The Japanese lost three torpedo boats and 117 officers and men killed, with 583 officers and men wounded.source
June 13 – Theodoros Deligiannis, Prime Minister of Greece, is assassinated.source
July 14 – In New Zealand, the first known suicide attack by a civilian (as opposed to sacrifices made in military combat) takes place in Murchison.source
July 21 – Sixty members of the crew of the USS Bennington are killed in an explosion of the U.S. Navy gunboat in the harbor at San Diego.source
July 30 – At Basel in Switzerland, the International Zionist Conference delegates vote to reject the British offer of land in Uganda for a Jewish homeland.source
August 9 – The peace conference to end the Russo-Japanese War between Russia and Japan begins at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.source
September 2 – The millennia-old imperial examination system for the civil service is abolished in Qing dynasty China.source
October 29 (October 16 O.S.) – In the Russian Empire:source
Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on a meeting at a street market in Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, killing 94 and injuring over 200 people.source
November–December – Russian Revolution of 1905: In the Baltic governorates, workers and peasants burn and loot hundreds of Baltic German manors. The Imperial Russian Army thereafter executes and deports thousands of looters.source
December 7–18 – Moscow Uprising: A Bolshevik-led revolt is suppressed by the army.source
December 11 – In support of the Moscow Uprising, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kiev stages a mass uprising, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in the city, December 12–16.source

Exploration & Expansion

February 5 – The French ship Anjou is wrecked off of the coast of the uninhabited Auckland Island, located 290 mi from the nearest inhabited land in New Zealand. The castaways live on the isle for more than three months until being rescued on May 7.source
July 10 – A Japanese expedition takes control of the Russian island of Sakhalin after a short battle.source
August 26 – Near Point Barrow, Alaska, the crew of the Norwegian ship Gjoa, led by Roald Amundsen, make the breakthrough of finding the long-sought "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.source

Religion & Belief

January 11 – Under the supervision of five editors, work begins on the comprehensive Catholic Encyclopedia, subtitled "An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church." The first volume will appear in 1907.source
March 2 – Russia's Committee of Ministers votes to grant religious freedom to the subjects of the Russian Empire.source

Economy & Finance

January 30 – The U.S. Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case of Swift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.source
May 22 – Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire establishes the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day. The decision is publicly announced the next day, which is more commonly celebrated.source
November 28 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin, as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.source

Technology & Infrastructure

January 4 – The city of Bend, Oregon, plotted out in 1900 by Alexander Drake, is incorporated as a town for local logging companies, and will have a population of 536 in 1910. By the year 2020, it will have almost 100,000 residents.source
April 2 – The Simplon Tunnel through the Alps is opened to railway traffic.source
April 8 – Hundreds of people are killed in Spain in the collapse of a dam holding back a reservoir near Madrid.source
May 15 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acre of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks are auctioned to form what becomes Downtown Las Vegas.source
August 12 – The first running takes place of the Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in England, the world's oldest motorsport event to be staged continuously on its original course.source
October 2 – is laid down in the United Kingdom, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.source
October 5 – The Wright brothers' third aeroplane (Wright Flyer III) stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting, the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.source
The Circum-Baikal Railway is brought into permanent operation, completing through rail communication on the Trans-Siberian Railway.source
November 28 – The Mataafa Storm buffets the Great Lakes region. Named after the ', a boat sunk outside of the Duluth Ship Canal, the storm ultimately destroys 29 vessels, leading to 29 deaths and shipping losses of US$3.567 million (1905 dollars).source
December 2 – Norsk Hydro, predecessor of Equinor, a state-run energy product and grid brand in Scandinavia, is founded in Norway.source

Science & Discovery

January 6 – The Lick Observatory announces the discovery on 3 December 1904 of a sixth moon of Jupiter, made by their astronomer Charles D. Perrine.source
March 13 – Mata Hari introduces her exotic dance act in the Musée Guimet, Paris.source
March 18 – Albert Einstein submits 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 publication.source
April 20 – The largest ocean liner in the world at this time, the German SS Amerika is launched.source
April 30 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral dissertation, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions (submitted July 30 to the University of Zurich).source
May 11 – Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen" ("On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid, as Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat"), based on his doctoral research, delineating a stochastic model of Brownian motion.source
June 30 – Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", establishing his theory of special relativity.source
August 30 – A solar eclipse takes place, with greatest visibility in North Africa.source
September 27 – Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", in which he puts forward the idea of mass–energy equivalence by publishing the equation E = mc 2 (published November 21).source

Health & Medicine

February 12 – The Switzerland national football team plays its first international game, losing to France, 1 to 0.source
February 28 – Jane Stanford, the co-founder with her husband Leland of Stanford University, is fatally poisoned while visiting the Moana Hotel in Hawaii.source
April 24 – China's Empress Regent Cixi (Tzu Hsi) abolishes further use in executions of the nation's three most cruel torture execution methods, lingchi ("death by a thousand cuts"), gibbeting (similar to crucifixion, hanging until dying of exposure, thirst or starvation), and desecration of a dying person.source
June 20 – Ernest Henry Starling introduces the word "hormone" into the English language.source
Alfred Einhorn introduces novocaine.source

Crime & Justice

February 1 – U.S. Senator John H. Mitchell of Oregon is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges arising from a scandal involving land grants in the state and illegally using his influence for private clients.source
February 16 – Six of the 11 crew of the British Royal Navy submarine HMS A5 are killed by a pair of explosions caused by gasoline fumes in port in Ireland.source
July 15 – The popular fictional character Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief, is introduced in France.source
October 13 – Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst interrupt a Liberal Party (UK) rally at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, and choose imprisonment when convicted, the first militant action of the suffragette campaign.source
October – Fauvist artists, led by Henri Matisse and André Derain, first exhibit their works, at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.source
Pathé Frères colors black and white films by machine.source

Disasters & Accidents

January 15 – A series of three 41 m ft high tsunamis kill 61 people in Norway, after a rockslide sweeps down Mount Ramnefjell and crashes into Lake Lovatnet.source
March 14 – 23 of the 26 crew of the British barque Kyber die when the ship is wrecked off England's Land's End.source
March 20 – The Grover Shoe Factory disaster kills 58 employees in Brockton, Massachusetts, when a boiler explodes and the factory building collapses.source
April 3 – A coal mine explosion at Zeigler, Illinois, kills 50 miners.source
April 5 – The body of John Paul Jones, "Father of the American Navy", is located in Paris almost 113 years after his death.source
June 18 – A coal mine explosion in Russia kills 500 employees at the Ivan Colliery at Kharsisk.source
June 21 – New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited train is derailed in an apparent act of sabotage, killing 21 people.source
June 25 – The Danish Navy training ship Georg Stage is accidentally sunk in port in Copenhagen after English steamship Ancona collides with it, killing 22 teenage recruits.source
July 11 – National Colliery disaster at Wattstown in the Rhondda valley of Wales: an underground explosion kills 120, with just one survivor.source
August 8 – Fourteen employees of a department store in Albany, New York are killed when the building collapses suddenly.source
August 22 – The sinking of the Japanese ferry Kinjo Maru kills 160 people after the British ship HMS Baralong collides with it in the Sea of Japan.source
December 30 – A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.source

Climate & Environment

April 4 – In India, the 1905 Kangra earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, kills 20,000 and destroys most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.source
April 28 – A tornado strikes Laredo, Texas and kills 100.source
May 10 – The 1905 Snyder tornado destroys the town of Snyder, Oklahoma, killing 97.source
July 1 – Hundreds of people die in the flooding of Guanajuato in Mexico.source
July 24 – The 1905 Bolnai earthquake (8.4 magnitude) strikes Mongolia, the second-largest on record here.source
September 8 – The 7.2 Calabria earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people.source

Culture & Society

January 5 – Baroness Emma Orczy's play The Scarlet Pimpernel, the forerunner of her novel, opens at the New Theatre in London, beginning a run of 122 performances and numerous revivals.source
January 31 – "The greatest ball of the Gilded Age" is held by James Hazen Hyde, the heir to the fortune of the founder of the Equitable Life Assurance Association, at New York City's Sherry Hotel, spending $200,000 for a "Louis XV costume ball."source
February 3 – The first performance of A Shropshire Lad, the setting to music of the 1896 set of 63 poems of A. E. Housman by Arthur Somervell as a song-cycle, takes place at Aeolian Hall in London.source
February 9 – Prince A. Morrow begins the movement in the U.S. for sex education, with the founding of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis.source
February 23 – Rotary International is founded in Chicago in the U.S.source
March 29 – Jimmy Walsh knocks out Monte Attell, in a controversial six-round bout in Philadelphia, to win recognition of the World Bantamweight Championship by the National Boxing Association, despite being disqualified by the referee.source
May 4 –The first world championship of professional wrestling takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.source
June 1 – The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition opens in Portland, Oregon.source
June 15 – British Princess Margaret of Connaught marries Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Skåne, the future King Gustaf VI Adolf.source
June 17 – Austrian Football Club FC Admira Wacker is founded as SK Admira Wien in Vienna.source
June 28 – "Pomp and Circumstance" is first played as a graduation march, after Yale University music professor Samuel Sanford invited its composer, Sir Edward Elgar, to receive an honorary degree.source
June 29 – The Automobile Association is founded in the United Kingdom.source
July 12 –The University of Sheffield is officially opened by King Edward VII in England.source
September 10 – Crystal Palace F.C. is founded in London.source
September 27 – Da-Qing Bank, predecessor of Bank of China, is founded in Peiping.source
October 1 – Turkish Association football team Galatasaray is founded in Istanbul.source
October 1 – A Czech worker, František Pavlík, is bayoneted to death during a demonstration for a Czech university in Brno. This event is the motivation for a piano sonata, 1. X. 1905, by Leoš Janáček, which premieres on 27 January 1906.source
October 11 – The Institute of Musical Art, predecessor of the Juilliard School, opens in New York City.source
December 30 – Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow is first performed, at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna.source

Births

January 12 – Nihal Atsız, Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet (d. 1975)source
February 2 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author, philosopher (The Fountainhead) (d. 1982)source
February 6 – Hugh Beadle, Rhodesian lawyer, politician and judge (d. 1980)source
March 20 – Raymond Cattell, British-born American psychologist (d. 1998)source
April 1 – Paul Hasluck, Australian statesman, 17th Governor-General of Australia (d. 1993)source
April 21 – Pat Brown, American lawyer, politician and 32nd Governor of California (d. 1996)source
May 5 – Floyd Gottfredson, American cartoonist, primarily known for the Mickey Mouse comic strip (d. 1986)source
May 13 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer, politician, 5th President of India (d. 1977)source
August 12 – Hans Urs von Balthasar, Swiss theologian and Catholic priest (d. 1988)source
August 16 – Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician, cryptologist (d. 1980)source
September 5 – Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-born British novelist and social philosopher (d. 1983)source
September 18 – Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, African-American actor (d. 1977)source
October 11 – Fred Trump, American real estate developer (d. 1999)source
October 18 – Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Ivory Coast (d. 1993)source

Deaths

January 1 – Johannes Ludovicus Paquay, Belgian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1828)source
February 8 – John Leary, American businessman, politician, and civic leader (b. 1837)source
February 15 – Lew Wallace, American writer (Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) (b. 1827)source
March 17 – Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí Moreno, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1831)source
March 24 – Jules Verne, French science fiction author (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas) (b. 1828)source
April 7 – Maria Assunta Pallotta, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (b. 1878)source
May 9 – Upon the death of U.S. social activist Ann Reeves Jarvis In West Virginia, her daughter Anna Jarvis resolves to campaign across the United States for a proposed "Mother's Day".source
May 11 – Ceferino Namuncurá, Argentine Roman Catholic lay brother and blessed (b. 1886)source
June 1 – Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Italian Roman Catholic prelate and blessed (b. 1839)source
June 5 – Małgorzata Szewczyk, Polish Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (b. 1828)source
July 1 – John Hay, American diplomat, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)source
July 11 – Muhammad Abduh, Egyptian philosopher, jurist (b. 1849)source
September 18 – George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet and Christian minister (b. 1824)source
October 13 – Sir Henry Irving, English actor (b. 1838)source