Count to 1,000,000

[BTGBullseye]

1901 - The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia.

Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism.

Baseball's American League declares itself a Major League.

J. P. Morgan buys mines and steel mills in the United States, marking the first billion dollar business deal.

First public telephones at railway stations in Paris.

Edward VII opens his first parliament of the United Kingdom.

U.S. Steel is incorporated by industrialist J. P. Morgan as the first billion-dollar corporation.

The United Kingdom Census 1901 is taken. The number of people employed in manufacturing is at its highest-ever level.

New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates.

The U.S. stock market crashes.

Cuba becomes a United States protectorate.

Bureau of Chemistry established within the United States Department of Agriculture.

The 1,282 foot (390 m) covered bridge crossing the St. John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world.

The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner in the United Kingdom.

Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.

The body of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet thick.

The British Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt invites African American leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. The American South reacts angrily to the visit, and racial violence increases in the region.

Auguste Deter is first examined by German psychiatrist Dr Alois Alzheimer, leading to a diagnosis of the condition that will carry Alzheimer's name.

The new Constitution of Alabama requires voters in the state to have passed literacy tests.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".

The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu in England to Newfoundland, Canada; it is the letter "S" in Morse.

Scotland Yard creates a fingerprint archive.

Europium is isolated by Eugène-Anatole Demarçay.

William S. Harley draws up plans for his first prototype motorcycle.

New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward invents the spiral hairpin.

German Oscar Troplowitz invents for German company Beiersdorf AG the medical plaster patch called Leukoplast.

[scott155]

1902 - All the people looked up at the post above and went, "Last year sure was crazy, huh?"

[BTGBullseye]

1903 - The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east-west broadcast having been made in 1901).

The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.

Morris and Rose Michtom introduce the first teddy bear in the United States.

Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity" under the terms of the Cuban–American Treaty.

In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.

The Paris–Madrid race begins, during which at least eight people are killed.

19-year-old American socialite Aida de Acosta becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots Santos-Dumont's motorized dirigible, “No. 9”, from Paris to Château de Bagatelle in France.

First Tour de France bicycle race, won by Maurice Garin.

Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.

The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.

The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills 11 people, inspires a ballad and song.

Prussia becomes the first locality to require mandatory driver's licenses for operators of motor vehicles.

Frank Nelson Cole proves that (2^67)-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for 3 years.

The first modern World Series in North American baseball, pitting the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates against Boston of the American League, begins at Pittsburgh's Exposition Park.

With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.

The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay opens its doors to guests.

Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.

The first box of Crayola crayons was made and sold for 5 cents. It contained 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.

[WallBuilder]

1904

[BTGBullseye]

1905 - As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to a revolution against the Tsar. (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony is subtitled "The Year 1905" to commemorate this.) Canada and the U.S. expand west, with the Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces and the founding of Las Vegas, Nevada. 1905 is also the annus mirabilis of Albert Einstein, publishing papers which lay the foundations of quantum physics, introduced the special theory of relativity, explained Brownian motion, and established mass-energy equivalence.

[Jek Jek Roo]

1906

[BTGBullseye]

1907 - Elections to the new Parliament of Finland are the first in the world with woman candidates, as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied. Nineteen women are elected.

Guglielmo Marconi initiates commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

Santa María School massacre. In Chile soldiers fire at striking mineworkers gathered in the Santa María School in Iquique, over 2000 are killed.

The Diamond Sūtra, a woodblock printed Buddhist scripture dated 868, is discovered by Aurel Stein in the Mogao Caves in China; it is "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book".

The triode thermionic amplifier invented by Lee de Forest, starting the development of electronics as a practical technology.

The Autochrome Lumière is the first commercial color photography process.

Peking to Paris motor race, won by Prince Scipione Borghese driving a 7 litre 35/45 hp Itala.

[DeWolfeJV]

1908

[BTGBullseye]

1909 - The White Star Liner RMS Republic sinks the day after a collision with SS Florida. In the first recorded use of the CQD emergency radio signal for a large passenger vessel, there is no loss of life on either vessel.

The last United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish–American War of 1898.

Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite hard thermosetting plastic.

Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter, becoming the first radio broadcaster.

The city of Tel Aviv (at this time known as Ahuzat Bayit) is founded.

Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, modern-day BP, is incorporated.

Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel (thus a large open body of water) in a heavier-than-air craft.

The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane, a Wright Military Flyer, from the Wright Brothers.

[Psychotic Ninja]

1910

[BTGBullseye]

1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft lands on a ship.

The United States and Canada announced the successful negotiation of their first reciprocal trade agreement.

The first "quasi-official" airmail flight occurs when Fred Wiseman carries three letters between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California.

The first official air mail flight, second overall, takes place from Allahabad, India to Naini, India, when Henri Pequet carries 6,500 letters a distance of 13 km.

International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time.

A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City kills 146.

The United States Army adopts a new service pistol, the M1911 designed by John Browning. It remains the US service pistol for 74 years.

The very first Indianapolis 500, won by Ray Harroun at an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour.

The hull of the RMS Titanic is launched.

The theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered in the Louvre.

World's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War. Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy drops several small bombs.

New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford deduces the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments.

[Jek Jek Roo]

1912

[BTGBullseye]

1913 - The British Board of Film Censors receives the authority to classify and censor films.

New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest railroad station.

The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.

The House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of its succession to the throne, amidst an outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia.

The Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 takes place in Washington, D.C. led by Inez Milholland on horseback.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor. The Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey form part of the Department of Commerce.

The British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in Baltimore harbour.

Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the United States.

The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.

The Woolworth Building opens in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it is the tallest building in the world at this date and for more than a decade after.

Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.

Huge Industrial Strike begins in the Black Country of England involving 25,000 workers. Threatens preparations for WW1 in naval and steel industries. Workers demand 23s minimum wage; strike continues till 11 July.

Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a 4-engine aircraft.

First Balkan War: The Treaty of London is signed, ending the war. Greece is granted those parts of southern Epirus which it does not already control and the independence of Albania is recognised.

Emily Davison, a British suffragette, runs out in front of the King's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies 4 days later in hospital, never having regained consciousness.

Women's suffrage is enacted in Norway.

The Parliament of South Africa forbids blacks from owning or buying land from whites.

Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C), the highest temperature recorded in the world (as of 2013).

Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.

After his airplane failed at an altitude of 900 feet (270 m), aviator Adolphe Pegoud became the first person to bail out to safety from an airplane and to land safely.

Dublin Lock-out: "Bloody Sunday": The dispute escalates when the Dublin Metropolitan Police kill one demonstrator and injure 400 in dispersing a demonstration.

In Germany, BASF starts the world's first plant for the production of fertilizer based on the Haber-Bosch process, feeding today about a third of the world's population.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.

HMS Queen Elizabeth launched at Portsmouth Dockyard as the first oil-fired battleship.

The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.

Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes. Although Ford is not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one sparks an era of mass production.

The Federal Reserve System is created as the central banking system of the United States by Woodrow Wilson's signature of the Federal Reserve Act.

French physicist Georges Sagnac shows that light propagates at a speed independent of the speed of its source.

The Camel cigarette brand is introduced by R. J. Reynolds in the United States, the first packaged cigarette.

[ThePest179]

1914-The First World War begins. US troops occupy Veracruz, Mexico, in response to the arrest of 9 US sailors.

[BTGBullseye]

1915 - While working as a cook at New York's Sloan Hospital under an assumed name, Typhoid Mary infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life.

The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.

An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch.

The controversial film, The Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles, California.

In Washington, D.C. the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.

NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.

Babe Ruth hits his first career home run off of Jack Warhop.

The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1,198.

U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking.

The United States occupation of Haiti begins.

Release of Inspiration, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude.

Second Klu Klux Clan begins at Stone Mountain by William Simmons

The first stop sign appears in Detroit, Michigan.

[ThePest179]

1916-The First World War continues, with the Battles of the Somme, Gallipoli, Jutland, Verdun, and the Irish Easter Rising. Germany temporarily suspends unrestricted submarine warfare with the Sussex pledge. Pancho Villa leads a raid on Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12. This prompts a manhunt for Villa, with 12,000 US troops coming over the border. US occupation of the Dominican Republic begins. Woodrow Wilson is re-elected.

[scott155]

1917- Important historical stuff that I couldn't be bothered to Google happened.

[BTGBullseye]

1918 - Woodrow Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points speech.

U.S troops engage Yaqui Indian warriors in the Battle of Bear Valley in Arizona, a minor skirmish and the last battle between the United States and American Indians. The very end of the American Indian Wars.

The keel of HMS Hermes is laid in Britain, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down.

1918 flu pandemic: "Spanish 'flu" (influenza) first observed in Haskell County, Kansas.

The SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the Irish coast; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom: Representation of the People Act gives most women over 30 the vote.

Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the date skips from February 1 to February 14.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania adopt Gregorian calendar.

WWI: Capture of Jericho by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the Occupation of the Jordan Valley.

The last captive Carolina Parakeet (the last breed of parrot native to the eastern United States) dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.

The United States Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).

WWI: The giant German cannon, the 'Paris Gun' (Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz), begins to shell Paris from 114 km (71 mi) away.

The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.

WWI: Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron", WWI's most successful fighter pilot, dies in combat at Morlancourt Ridge near the Somme River.

General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.

The United States Post Office Department begins the world's third regular airmail service, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C..

The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by the U.S. Congress.

Nova Aquila, the brightest observed since Kepler's of 1604, is discovered.

WWI: First airplane bombing raid by an American unit in France.

"Spanish 'flu" becomes pandemic. Over 30 million people die in the following 6 months.

Great Train Wreck of 1918: in Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101.

Release in the United States of the film The Glorious Adventure featuring Mammy Lou who becomes one of the oldest people ever to star in a film, at a claimed age of 114.

Shooting of the Romanov family: By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by the Cheka, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei, and retainers are executed at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

20,000 London policemen strike for increased pay and union recognition.

The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship in North American baseball, their last World Series win until 2004.

Battle of Megiddo ends with the Battle of Haifa, Battle of Samakh and Capture of Tiberias.

The steamer Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.

A new Polish government is declared in Western Galicia (Eastern Europe).

Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.

Poland declares its independence from Russia.

3-day Lwów pogrom: Polish troops, volunteers and freed criminals massacre at least 320 Ukrainian Christians and Jews in Lwów in Galicia.

British military government of Palestine begins.

New voting laws in Sweden makes votes no longer dependent on taxable assets, each adult having one vote.

President Woodrow Wilson departs by ship to the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first United States President to travel to any foreign country while holding office.

Great Poland Uprising: The Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań) rise up against the Germans.

The Native American Church is formally founded in Oklahoma.

The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment is founded to promote repeal of Prohibition in the United States.

[Blightmare]

1919 started on a wednesday. Did you know that? I didn't know that. THAT'S COOL.

 

[BTGBullseye]

1920 - 4,025 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial in the United States following raids in several cities.

Babe Ruth is traded by the Red Sox for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time.

The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.

Thousands of onlookers watch as "The Human Fly" George Polley climbs the Woolworth Building in New York City. He reaches the 30th floor before being arrested.

The New York Times ridicules the American rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard. The newspaper has to recant publicly on July 17, 1969 when the Apollo crew is on its mission to the Moon.

Prohibition in the United States begins with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution coming into effect.

The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

The oldest surviving pro wrestling match on film takes place, with Joe Stecher defeating Earl Caddock.

The United States Senate refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

In Emeryville, California, the first dog racing track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.

Adolf Hitler presents his National Socialist Program in Munich to the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) which renames itself as the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).

The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.

The Ruhr Red Army, a communist army 60,000 men strong, is formed in Germany.

The German government asks France for permission to use its own troops against the rebellious Ruhr Red Army in the French-occupied area.

Sir William Robertson is promoted to Field Marshal, the first man to rise from private (enlisted 1877) to the highest rank in the British Army.

The 1920 Summer Olympics opens in Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic symbols of five interlocking rings and the associated flag are first displayed at the games.

Polish–Soviet War: Polish and anti-Soviet Ukrainian troops attack the Red Army in Soviet Ukraine.

The first game of Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.

Canonization of Joan of Arc. Over 30,000 people attend the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presides over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is richly decorated.

The United States Post Office Department rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.

France prohibits the sale or prescription of contraceptives.

Irish War of Independence: Catholic riots in Belfast in protest at the continuing British Army presence.

Irish War of Independence: The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, receives Royal Assent, providing for Irish Republican Army activists to be tried by court-martial rather than by jury in criminal courts.

The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan. It is owned by the Detroit News, the first U.S. radio station owned by a newspaper.

The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City, killing 38 and injuring 400.

The National Football League is established as the American Professional Football Association.

The first domestic radio sets come to stores in the United States; a Westinghouse radio costs $10.

Adolf Hitler makes his first public political speech, in Austria.

United States presidential election, 1920: Republican Warren G. Harding defeats Democrat James M. Cox and Socialist Eugene V. Debs, in the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote.

The Unknown Warrior is buried in Westminster Abbey.

The Burning of Cork in Ireland: British forces set fire to some 5 acres (20,000 m2) of the centre of Cork (city), including the City Hall, in reprisal attacks after a British auxiliary is killed in a guerilla ambush.

Government of Ireland Act 1920, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, receives Royal Assent from George V providing for the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland with separate parliaments, granting a measure of home rule.

Hydrocodone, a narcotic analgesic closely related to codeine is first synthesized in Germany by Carl Mannich and Helene Löwenheim.