Directory

1909 CE

American explorer Robert Peary claims to reach the North Pole, sparking debate over who arrived first; The Adana massacre in the Ottoman Empire kills thousands of Armenians; The Cherry Mine disaster in Illinois claims 259 miners, one of the deadliest U.S. coal accidents; The New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 sees mainly immigrant women demand better wages and working conditions in the largest U.S. women's strike; The Second Melillan campaign involves Spain fighting Rif tribes in northern Morocco; The 31 March Incident in the Ottoman Empire is suppressed, strengthening Young Turk control.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.source
  • January 11 – The International Joint Commission on US-Canada boundary waters is established.source
  • February 2 – The Paris Film Congress opens. It is an attempt to create a cartel of leading European producers similar to the MPPC in the United States.source
  • March 10 – The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed in Bangkok.source
  • April 27 – Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.source
  • July 16 – A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. He proceeds to leave Persia for the Russian Empire, reportedly seeking the assistance of Nicholas II of Russia in regaining the throne.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 28 – The last United States troops leave Cuba, after being there since the Spanish–American War of 1898.source
  • March 31 – Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.source
  • April 13 (March 31 by Eastern reckoning) – A countercoup begins in the Ottoman Empire.source
  • April 14 – Adana massacre: Ottoman Turks kill 15,000–30,000 Armenian Christians, in the Adana Vilayet.source
  • June 2 – French forces capture Abéché, capital of the Wadai Empire in central Africa.source
  • July 1 – In London, Indian nationalist student Madan Lal Dhingra assassinates Curzon Wyllie, political aide to the Secretary of State for India.source
  • July 25–August 2 – "Tragic Week" (La Semana Trágica/la Setmana Tràgica): The city of Barcelona experiences a workers' uprising.source
  • October 26 – Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated by An Jung-geun, an activist of the Korean independence movement, at the Harbin railway station in Manchuria.source
  • November 18 – In Nicaragua, 500 revolutionaries (including 2 Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya. The United States responds by sending 2 warships.source
  • December 14 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth, to create the Australian Capital Territory.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 9 – The British Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, led by Ernest Shackleton, arrives at the farthest south reached by any prior expedition, at 88°23' S, prior to turning back due to diminishing supplies.source
  • January 16 – Members of the Nimrod Expedition claim to have found the magnetic South Pole (but the location recorded may be incorrect).source
  • April 6 – Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and four Inuit explorers – Ootah, Ooqueah, Seegloo and Egigingwah – come within a few miles of the North Pole.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 21 – The remains of the Báb are placed in the Baháʼí Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa, at this time within the Ottoman Empire.source
  • April 11 – The city of Tel Aviv (known in its first year as Ahuzat Bayit) is founded by the Jewish community, on the outskirts of Jaffa (at this time in the Ottoman Empire).source
  • April 18 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.source

Economy & Finance

  • April 9 – The Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act is passed in the United States Congress.source
  • April 19 – The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (modern-day BP) is incorporated.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 18 – Einar Dessau uses a shortwave radio transmitter in Denmark.source
  • March 31 – Construction begins on the RMS Titanic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.source
  • July 25 – Louis Blériot is the first man to fly across the English Channel (thus a large open body of water) in a heavier-than-air craft.source
  • August 2 – The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane, a Wright Military Flyer, from the Wright brothers.source
  • September 4 – Japan and China sign the Gando Convention, which gives Japan a way to receive railroad concessions in Manchuria.source
  • October 13 – An agreement by Germany, Italy and Switzerland gives the Germans and Italians access to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.source
  • October – Suzuki Weaving Machine Manufacturing, predecessor of the Suzuki motorbike and compact car brand in Japan, is founded in Shizuoka Prefecture.source
  • December 28 – The first manned heavier-than-air powered flight in South Africa is made at East London, by French aviator Albert Kimmerling, in a Voisin 1907 biplane.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 5 – Leo Baekeland announces the creation of bakelite hard thermosetting plastic.source
  • May 19 – Russian ballet is brought to the Western world when the Ballets Russes opens a tour produced by Sergei Diaghilev at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, with 55 dancers, including Vaslav Nijinsky.source

Health & Medicine

  • Karl Landsteiner, Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper first isolate the poliovirus.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 24 – The White Star Line RMS Republic sinks the day after a collision with SS Florida off Nantucket. Almost all of the 1,500 passengers are rescued.source
  • July 26 – Blue Anchor Line passenger/cargo liner , on her second voyage from Australia to Britain, leaves Durban and is lost without trace with all 211 aboard.source

Climate & Environment

  • April 23 – In Portugal, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Lisbon, killing at least 60 people.source
  • October 8 – An earthquake in the Zagreb area leads Andrija Mohorovičić to identify the Mohorovičić discontinuity.source

Culture & Society

  • April 4 – The association football team Sport Club Internacional is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil.source
  • June 15 – Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's Cricket Ground in London and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.source
  • August 8 – Max Heindel formally founds the Rosicrucian Fellowship in Seattle, Washington.source
  • October 12 – The association football team Coritiba is founded in Curitiba, Brazil.source
  • November 28 – Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 is premièred in New York City with the composer as soloist.source
  • December 19 – The association football team Borussia Dortmund is founded in Dortmund, Germany.source

Births

  • January 1 – Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalist leader (d. 1959)source
  • January 2 – Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998)source
  • February 3 – Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)source
  • February 9 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian actress, singer (d. 1955)source
  • March 24 – Clyde Barrow, American outlaw, member of Barrow Gang (d. 1934)source
  • April 13 – Stanislaw Ulam, Polish-born American mathematician (d. 1984)source
  • June 22 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, and songwriter (d. 2006)source
  • July 18 – Mohammed Daoud Khan, 5th Prime Minister of Afghanistan and 1st President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)source
  • July 18 – Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1989)source
  • August 9 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer, diplomat, anti-Nazi (k. 1944)source
  • August 21 – Ethel Caterham, English supercentenarian, oldest living person, last surviving person born in 1909, last surviving subject of King Edward VIIsource
  • September 7 – Elia Kazan, Turkish-born American film director (d. 2003)source
  • December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., American actor and naval officer (d. 2000)source
  • December 11 – Yuasa Toshiko, Japanese nuclear physicist who worked in France, the first Japanese female physicist (d. 1980)source

Deaths

  • January 6 – George Dixon, Canadian-born American boxer (b. 1870)source
  • January 15 – Arnold Janssen, German Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1837)source
  • February 17 – Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)source
  • March 13 – William Jackson Palmer, American founder of Colorado Springs (b. 1836)source
  • April 14 – Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman, 10th President of Argentina (b. 1844)source
  • June 14 – Afonso Pena, 6th President of Brazil (b. 1847)source
  • July 11 – Simon Newcomb, Canadian-American astronomer, mathematician (b. 1835)source
  • August 8 – Mary MacKillop, Australian Roman Catholic nun and saint (b. 1842)source
  • August 25 – Besarion Jughashvili, Georgian cobbler, father of Joseph Stalin (b. 1850)source
  • October 19 – Cesare Lombroso, Italian criminologist, physician (b. 1835)source
  • October 24 – Rufus W. Peckham, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1838)source
  • October 26 – Itō Hirobumi, 1st Prime Minister of Japan (assassinated) (b. 1841)source
  • November 14 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian-born American seaman and adventurer (b. 1844)source
  • December 26 – Frederic Remington, American cowboy artist, sculptor (b. 1864)source