1900s

The 1900s was a  of the  that began on January 1, 1900, and ended on December 31, 1909. The term "nineteen-hundreds" is often also used to mean the entire century of years from 1900 to 1999 (see ). The (1901–1910) covers a similar span of time.

Pronunciation varieties
There are several main varieties of how individual years of the decade are pronounced. Using 1906 as an example, they are "nineteen-oh-six", "nineteen-six", and "nineteen-aught-six". Which variety is most prominent depends somewhat on global region and generation. "Nineteen-oh-six" is the most common; "nineteen-six" is less common. In, "nineteen-aught-six" is also recognized but not much used. In the post-World War II era through the 1990s, mentions of "nineteen-ought-six" or "aught-six" often distinctly old-fashioned speech; for example, it was once used to add to the geriatric-humor effect in the dialogue of the  character. The strength of the comedic effect diminished during, as the public grew used to.

Major political changes

 * The
 * The and the  sign

Wars

 * ends.
 * takes place (1899–1902).
 * The takes place (1900–1901)
 * establishes the as a world power.
 * was a minor battle of the.
 * was a major battle of the between  and  rebels.
 * was engaged between the of the newborn  versus the.
 * The Ottomans and capture a strip of territory (1906)

Internal conflicts

 * ends


 * The.
 * The
 * Demand for for Ireland
 * in German (modern Namibia).
 * Kurdish against the Ottoman Empire in 1907.

Colonization

 * January 1, 1901, British colonies in Australia, forming the

Decolonization

 * May 20, 1902 – gains independence from the United States.
 * June 7, 1905 – The declares the union with Sweden, and Norway achieves full independence.
 * October 5, 1908 –  from the.

Natural disasters

 * September 8, 1900 – A powerful , USA killing about 8,000.
 * April 19, 1902 – A rocks, killing 2,000.
 * May 8, 1902 – In, erupts, destroying the town of  and killing over 30,000.
 * April 7, 1906 – erupts and devastates.
 * April 18, 1906 – The (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the  destroys much of, USA, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
 * September 18, 1906 – A and  kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.
 * January 14, 1907 – kills more than 1,000.
 * June 30, 1908 – The or "Russian explosion" near the  in, ,  occuers resulting in the flattening 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi) of forest. It is believed to have been caused by the  of a large  or  fragment, at an altitude of 5 – above the 's surface.
 * December 28, 1908 – and  destroys,  and , killing over 150,000 people.

Non-natural disasters

 * April 26, 1900 – The of – kills 7 and leaves 15,000 homeless.
 * May 1, 1900 – The in  caused by explosion killing at least 200 men.
 * June 30, 1900 – : The German passenger ships Saale, Main, Bremen, and Kaiser William der Grosse, all owned by the Steamship line, catch fire at the docks in, USA  . The fire began on a wharf and spread to the adjacent piers, warehouses, and smaller craft, killing 326 people.
 * May 3, 1901 – The begins in, USA.
 * July 10, 1902 – The in, USA, kills 112 miners.
 * August 10, 1903 –.
 * December 30, 1903 – A in Chicago, USA  kills 600.
 * February 7, 1904 – The in, USA  destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
 * June 15, 1904 – A fire aboard the steamboat  in New York City's East River kills 1,021.
 * June 28, 1904 – The Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrants.
 * January 22, 1906 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.

Assassinations and attempts
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:


 * July 29, 1900 – King is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist.
 * March 6, 1901 – In, an assassin attempts to kill.
 * September 6, 1901 – American anarchist shoots U.S. President  at the  in .  8 days later.
 * June 16, 1904 – assassinates,.
 * February 1, 1908 – is assassinated in Lisbon, Portugal.
 * October 26, 1909 –, four time (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and , is assassinated by  at the  train station in.

Economics
The cost of an American postage stamp was worth 1 cent.

Science

 * March 17, 1905 – –  publishes his paper "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light", in which he explains the , using the notion of . For this paper Einstein received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.
 * May 11, 1905 – – Albert Einstein submits his doctoral dissertation "On the Motion of Small Particles...", in which he explains .
 * June 30, 1905 – – Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", where he reveals his theory of .
 * September 27, 1905 – – Albert Einstein submits his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", in which he develops an argument for the famous equation .
 *  built in the, in 1900
 * Practical  designed by in 1902
 *  (measures radioactivity) invented by  in 1908
 * and discover  and, they coin the term ''.
 *  by
 *  by in 1900
 * The  (BCG) immunization for is first developed.
 * The  (BCG) immunization for is first developed.

Technology

 * Widespread application of the including mass production of the automobile.  demonstrated the  in the 1900  (World's Fair) in Paris using peanut oil fuel (see ). The Diesel engine takes the Grand Prix. The exposition was attended by 50 million people. The same year  designed an engine built at —following the specifications of —who required the engine to be named Daimler-Mercedes after his daughter, . In 1902, the  automobiles with that engine were put into production by DMG.
 * Wide popularity of home . "The market for home machines was created through technological innovation and pricing: Phonographs, gramophones, and graphophones were cleverly adapted to run by spring-motors (you wound them up), rather than by messy batteries or treadle mechanisms, while the musical records were adapted to reproduce loudly through a horn attachment. The cheap home machines sold as the $10 Eagle graphophone and the $40 (later $30) Home phonograph in 1896, the $20 Zon-o-phone in 1898, the $3 Victor Toy in 1900, and so on. Records sold because their fidelity improved, mass production processes were soon developed, advertising worked, and prices dropped from one and two dollars to around 35 cents.". In 1907, a recording of  singing 's "" becomes the first to sell a million copies.
 * 1899–1900 – of, invents the nickel-alkaline storage . On May 27, 1901, Edison establishes the  to develop and manufacture them. "It proved to be Edison's most difficult project, taking ten years to develop a practical alkaline battery. By the time Edison introduced his new alkaline battery, the  powered car had so improved that s were becoming increasingly less common, being used mainly as  in cities. However, the Edison alkaline battery proved useful for lighting  and , maritime s, and . Unlike  mining with the , the heavy investment Edison made over ten years was repaid handsomely, and the storage battery eventually became Edison's most profitable product. Further, Edison's work paved the way for the modern alkaline battery."
 * 1900 – The  is invented; this was the beginning of the  company. The Brownie popularized low-cost  and introduced the concept of the . The first Brownie was introduced in February 1900,


 * 1900 – The first flight occurs over  near, Germany on July 2, 1900.


 * 1901 – First electric is invented by George Canfield Blickensderfer of . It was part of a line of s, known for its portability.
 * 1901 – of,  creates his  in .  Power was provided by a Daimler petrol engine driving two large -style two-bladed propellers, the first attempt to use an internal combustion engine to power a heavier-than-air aircraft.
 * 1901 – allegedly flies his  on August 14, 1901, near .  The feat, if true, exceeded the best of the Wright brothers first powered flights by 540 m (1770 ft) and preceded the  flights by more than two years, but is not accepted by most aviation historians
 * 1901 – The first radio (successfully received a radio transmission). This receiver was developed by .  Marconi established a wireless transmitting station at Marconi House,, , Ireland in 1901 to act as a link between  in  and  in .  He soon made the announcement that on 12 December 1901, using a 152.4 m kite-supported antenna for reception, the message was received at  in 's,  (now part of Canada), signals transmitted by the company's new high-power station at Poldhu, Cornwall. The distance between the two points was about 3500 km. Heralded as a great scientific advance, there was—and continues to be—some skepticism about this claim, partly because the signals had been heard faintly and sporadically. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception, and the transmissions, consisting of the  letter S sent repeatedly, were difficult to distinguish from . (A detailed technical review of Marconi's early transatlantic work appears in John S. Belrose's work of 1995.) The Poldhu transmitter was a two-stage circuit. The first stage operated at a lower voltage and provided the energy for the second stage to spark at a higher voltage.
 * 1902 – of, invented the first indoor . "He designed his spray driven air conditioning system which controlled both temperature and humidity using a  originally designed to spray . He built his "Apparatus for Treating Air" (U.S. Pat. #808897) which was patented in 1906 and using chilled coils which not only controlled heat but could lower the humidity to as low as 55%. The device was even able to adjust the humidity level to the desired setting creating what would become the framework for the modern air conditioner. By adjusting the air movement and temperature level to the refrigeration coils he was able to determine the size and capacity of the unit to match the need of his customers. While Carrier was not the first to design a system like this his was much more stable, successful and safer than other versions and took air conditioning out of the Dark Ages and into the realm of science."
 * 1902/1906/1908 – of  invented an early  or . MacKenzie's polygraph "could be used to monitor the  responses of his patients by taking their  and . He had developed an early version of his device in the 1890s, but had Sebastian Shaw, a  watchmaker, improve it further. "This instrument used a clockwork mechanism for the paper-rolling and time-marker movements and it produced ink recordings of physiological functions that were easier to acquire and to interpret. It has been written that the modern polygraph is really a modification of Dr. Mackenzie's clinical ink polygraph." A more modern and effective polygraph machine would be invented by John Larson in 1921.
 * 1902 – invented the . He applied an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of  gas, resulting in a red glow. Claudes started working on neon tubes which could be put to use as ordinary light bulbs. His first public display of a neon lamp took place on December 11, 1910, in Paris. In 1912, Claude's associate began selling neon discharge tubes as . They were introduced to U.S. in 1923 when two large neon signs were bought by a Los Angeles  car dealership. The glow and arresting red color made neon advertising completely different from the competition.
 * 1902 – claimed two spectacular flights on January 17, 1902, in his improved . As with his earlier claims, most aviation historians do not believe these flights took place.
 * 1902 –, a device for making automatically, is patented on 7 April 1902 by  Frank Clarke of , England. He called it "An Apparatus Whereby a Cup of Tea or Coffee is Automatically Made" and it was later marketed as "A Clock That Makes Tea!". However, his original machine and all rights to it had been purchased from its actual inventor , a  from . The device was commercially available by 1904.


 * 1902 – of, United States is awarded a patent for a , intended for use in aerial vehicles. At the time he was living in . At a later date, Gilmore claimed to have incorporated his engine in "a  with a 32 foot ". Performing his debut flight in May 1902. While occasionally credited with the first powered flight in aviation history, there is no supporting evidence for his account. While Gilmore was probably working on aeronautical experiments since the late 1890s and reportedly had correspondence with , there exists no photo of his creations earlier than 1908.
 * 1902 – The of, United States create the 1902 version of the . It was the third free-flight glider built by them and tested at . This was the first of the brothers' gliders to incorporate , and its design led directly to the . The brothers designed the 1902 glider during the winter of 1901–1902 at their home in . They designed the wing based on data from extensive airfoil tests conducted on a homemade . They built many of the components of the glider in Dayton, but they completed assembly at their Kitty Hawk camp in September 1902. They began testing on September 19. Over the next five weeks, they made between 700 and 1000 glide flights (as estimated by the brothers, who did not keep detailed records of these tests). The longest of these was 622.5 ft (189.7 m) in 26 seconds. "In its final form, the 1902 Wright glider was the world's first fully controllable aircraft."


 * 1903 – produces its first car – the.


 * 1903 – of New Zealand supposedly successfully flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903 Verifiable eyewitnesses describe Pearse crashing into a hedge on two separate occasions during 1903. His monoplane must have risen to a height of at least three metres on each occasion. Good evidence exists that on 31 March 1903 Pearse achieved a powered, though poorly controlled, flight of several hundred metres. Pearse himself said that he had made a powered takeoff, "but at too low a speed for [his] controls to work". However, he remained airborne until he crashed into the hedge at the end of the field.
 * 1903 – of  performs a series of flights at Vahrenwalder Heide, near, between August and November, 1903. Using first a pusher , then a . "His longest flight, however, was only 60 meters at 3–4 meters altitude." He then quit his efforts, noting his motor was too weak to make longer or higher flights. The plane was equipped with a single-cylinder 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) Buchet engine driving a two-bladed pusher propeller and made hops of up to 200 ft (60 m), flying up to 10 ft (3 m) high. In comparison, Orville Wright's first controlled flight four months later was of 36 m (120 ft) in 12 seconds although Wilbur flew 59 seconds and 852 ft later that same day. Either way Jatho managed to fly a powered heavier-than-air machine earlier than his American counterparts.
 * 1903 – invented . In November 1903 Anderson was granted her first  for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled inside the car, called the windshield wiper. Her device consisted of a lever and a swinging arm with a rubber blade. The lever could be operated from inside a vehicle to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. Similar devices had been made earlier, but Anderson's was the first to be effective.


 * 1903 – The fly at . Their  performed the first recorded controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight on December 17, 1903. In the day's fourth flight, Wilbur Wright flew 279 meters (852 ft) in 59 seconds. First three flights were approximately 120, 175, and 200 ft (61 m), respectively. The Wrights laid particular stress on fully and accurately describing all the requirements for controlled, powered flight and put them into use in an aircraft which took off from a level launching rail, with the aid of a headwind to achieve sufficient airspeed before reaching the end of the rail. It is one of the various candidates regarded as the First flying machine.
 * 1904 – sends its first news story on 15 March 1904. It was a Chinese  commanded by   in 1904 during the  for . It is the first known instance of a "press boat" dedicated to war correspondence during naval battles. The recent advent of  meant that reporters were no longer limited to submitting their  stories from land-based offices, and The Times spent 74 days outfitting and equipping the ship, installing a  aboard the ship.


 * 1904–1914 – The constructed by the United States in the territory of, which had  from . The Canal is a 77 km  that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and a key conduit for international maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the canal had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the  and  at the southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to  via the canal travels 9,500 km, well under half the 22,500 km route around Cape Horn. The project starts on May 4, 1904, known as Acquisition Day. The United States government purchased all Canal properties on the  from the New Panama Canal Company, except the . The project begun under the administration of , continued in that of  and completed in that of . The Chief engineers were  and
 * 1904 – The  is created by Edwin Welte and Karl Bockisch. Both employed by the "Michael Welte und Söhne" firm of, . "It automatically replayed the tempo, phrasing, dynamics and pedalling of a particular performance, and not just the notes of the music, as was the case with other player pianos of the time." In September, 1904, the Mignon was demonstrated in the . In March, 1905 it became better known when showcased "at the s of Hugo Popper, a manufacturer of roll-operated s". By 1906, the Mignon was also exported to the United States, installed to pianos by the firms  and.
 * 1904 – of the  invents one of the first practical s for use in s. While the date of invention was reportedly November 24, 1904, Holt would not receive a patent until December, 1907.
 * 1905 – of, United States designs tandem-wing . His pilot  performs a number of public exhibitions of high altitude flights in March and April 1905 in the , area. These flights received national media attention and demonstrated superior control of the design, with launches as high as 4,000 feet (1,200 m) and landings made at predetermined locations. The gliders were launched from balloons.
 * 1905 – The Wright Brothers introduce their . On October 5, 1905, Wilbur flew 24 mi in 39 minutes 23 seconds, longer than the total duration of all the flights of and . Ending with a safe landing when the fuel ran out. The flight was seen by a number of people, including several invited friends, their father Milton, and neighboring farmers. Four days later, they wrote to the , offering to sell the world's first practical fixed-wing aircraft.
 * 1906 – The Gabel Automatic Entertainer, an early -like machine, is invented by John Gabel. It is the first such device to play a series of gramophone records. "The Automatic Entertainer with 24 selections, was produced and patented by the John Gabel owned company in Chicago. The first model (constructed in 1905) was produced in 1906 with an exposed 40 inch horn (102 cm) on top, and it is today often considered the real father of the modern multi-selection disc-playing phonographs. John Gabel and his company did in fact receive a special prize at the  for the Automatic Entertainer."


 * 1906 – The releases the, the most popular  model until the late 1920s. The Victrola is also the first  machine containing an internal horn. Victor also erects the world's largest illuminated billboard at the time, on  in New York City, to advertise the company's records.
 * 1906 – of  takes off with his "Traian Vuia 1", an early . His flight was performed in  near Paris and was about 12 meters long.
 * 1906 – of Denmark constructs the . In this machine, he made a tethered flight on 12 September 1906, becoming the second European to make a powered flight.
 * 1906 – and his  make the first public flight of an  on October 23, 1906, in Paris. The flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft officially witnessed to take off, fly, and land. Santos Dumont is considered the "Father of Aviation" in his country of birth, . His flight is the first to have been certified by the  and the  (FAI). On November 12, 1906, Santos Dumont succeeded in setting the first world record recognized by the Aero-Club De France by flying 220 metres in less than 22 seconds.
 * 1906 – Sound was invented by  and . Fessenden and  developed a high-frequency -transmitters, an improvement on an already existing device. The improved model operated at a transmitting frequency of approximately 50 kHz, although with far less power than Fessenden's rotary-spark transmitters. The alternator-transmitter achieved the goal of transmitting quality audio signals, but the lack of any way to amplify the signals meant they were somewhat weak. On December 21, 1906, Fessenden made an extensive demonstration of the new alternator-transmitter at Brant Rock, showing its utility for point-to-point wireless telephony, including interconnecting his stations to the wire telephone network.  A detailed review of this demonstration appeared in The American Telephone Journal. Meanwhile, De Forest had developed the  an electronic  device. He received a patent in January, 1907. "DeForest's audion vacuum tube was the key component of all radio, telephone, radar, television, and computer systems before the invention of the transistor in 1947."
 * 1906 – of, Canada made what appear to be the first audio radio broadcasts of entertainment and music ever made to a general audience. (Beginning in 1904, the  had broadcast daily time signals and weather reports, but these employed s, transmitting in ). On the evening of December 24, 1906 , Fessenden used the alternator-transmitter to send out a short program from , , . It included a phonograph record of  (Largo) by , followed by Fessenden himself playing the song  on the . Finishing with reading a passage from the : 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will' ( 2:14). On December 31, , a second short program was broadcast. The main audience for both these transmissions was an unknown number of shipboard radio operators along the . Fessenden claimed that the Christmas Eve broadcast had been heard "as far down" as , while the New Year Eve's broadcast had reached places in the Caribbean. Although now seen as a landmark, these two broadcasts were barely noticed at the time and soon forgotten— the only first-hand account appears to be a letter Fessenden wrote on January 29, 1932, to his former associate, Samuel M. Kinter.


 * 1907 – The which was patented in 1903 becomes the first commercial color photography process.
 * 1907 – invented the "Universal Electric Motor" which made it possible to operate s, etc. on all lighting circuits.
 * 1907 – The begins the modern era of document imaging. The Photostat machine was invented in, , United States by Oscar Gregory in 1907, and the Photostat Corporation was incorporated in  in 1911. "Rectigraph and Photostat machines (Plates 40–42) combined a large camera and a developing machine and used sensitized paper furnished in 350-foot rolls. "The prints are made direct on sensitized paper, no negative, plate or film intervening. The usual exposure is ten seconds. After the exposure has been made the paper is cut off and carried underneath the exposure chamber to the developing bath, where it remains for 35 seconds, and is then drawn into a fixing bath. While one print is being developed or fixed, another exposure can be made. When the copies are removed from the fixing bath, they are allowed to dry by exposure to the air, or may be run through a drying machine. The first print taken from the original is a 'black' print; the whites in the original are black and the blacks, white. (Plate 43) A white 'positive' print of the original is made by rephotographing the black print. As many positives as required may be made by continuing to photograph the black print." (The American Digest of Business Machines, 1924.) Du Pont Co. files include black prints of graphs dating from 1909, and the company acquired a Photostat machine in 1912. ... A 1914 Rectigraph ad stated that the U.S. government had been using Rectigraphs for four years and stated that the machines were being used by insurance companies and abstract and title companies. ... In 1911, a Photostat machine was $500."


 * 1908 – of the  introduces the . The first production Model T was built on September 27, 1908, at the  in . It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that "put America on wheels"; some of this was because of Ford's innovations, including  production instead of individual hand crafting, as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.
 * 1909 – of, Belgium officially announces his creation of . The announcement was made at the February 1909 meeting of the New York section of the . Bakelite is an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular.

Literature and art

 * publishes  in 1900.
 * publishes  in 1901.
 * publishes , serialized in 1901–1902
 * , the founder of political, publishes  in 1902 outlining Herzl's vision for a Jewish state in the.
 * publishes the novella  in 1902, after the serial release in 1898.
 * publishes  in 1903
 * 's comic strip begins October 15, 1905
 * 's play opens 23 May 1905, but omits the third act, "Don Juan in Hell", which is not performed until 1915.
 * publishes  in 1906
 * Joseph Conrad publishes  in 1907
 * publishes  in 1908
 * publishes  in 1908
 * use the literary style, an  writing form which set basis for the later standardization of the Serbian language
 * paints , considered by some to be the birth of modern art.
 * art movement peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century (1890–1905).
 * art movement peaked in popularity in France between 1907 and 1911.
 * art movement peaked in popularity between 1905 and 1907.

Film

 * April 2, 1902 – Electric Theatre, the first in the United States, opens in.
 * The first huge success of American cinema, as well as the largest experimental achievement to this point, was the 1903 film , directed by.
 * The world's first feature film,  is released on 26 December 1906 in, Australia.

Sports
The starts for the first time in 1903.

Food

 * U.S. Louis Lassen of  makes the first modern-day  . According to family legend, one day in 1900 a local businessman dashed into the small New Haven lunch wagon and pleaded for a lunch to go. According to the Lassen family, the customer, Gary Widmore, exclaimed "Louie! I'm in a rush, slap a meatpuck between two planks and step on it!".  Louis Lassen, the establishment's owner, placed his own blend of ground steak trimmings between two slices of toast and sent the gentleman on his way, so the story goes, with America's alleged first hamburger being served.

World leaders

 * Emperor Menelik II
 * Prime Minister
 * Prime Minister (Australia)
 * Prime Minister (Australia)
 * Prime Minister Sir (Australia)
 * Prime Minister (Australia)
 * Emperor
 * Prime Minister Sir
 * , 1875–1908
 * Khedive
 * President
 * President
 * Emperor
 * King
 * Prime Minister
 * Viceroy
 * President
 * Sultan
 * Sultan
 * Sultan


 * (Persia)
 * (Persia), from 1909
 * Tsar
 * King
 * Prime Minister (Spain)
 * King (United Kingdom)
 * Prime Minister (United Kingdom)
 * Prime Minister (United Kingdom)
 * Prime Minister Sir (United Kingdom)
 * President, 1897–1901
 * President (United States), 1901–1909
 * President (United States), 1909–1913
 * Emperor (Korean Empire), 1863–1907
 * Emperor (Korean Empire), 1907–1910
 * Emperor (Korean Empire), 1863–1907
 * Emperor (Korean Empire), 1907–1910
 * Emperor (Korean Empire), 1907–1910

Modern artists




Other notable people






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