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1900s

The 1900s, spanning January 1, 1900, to December 31, 1909, represented the inaugural decade of the 20th century, characterized by accelerating industrialization, imperial rivalries, and nascent technological revolutions that foreshadowed profound societal transformations.^[1] This era witnessed pivotal advancements, including the Wright brothers' first sustained powered airplane flight on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, which initiated the age of aviation, and Henry Ford's introduction of the Model T automobile in 1908, making personal mechanized transport accessible to the masses and spurring automotive infrastructure development.^[2]^[3] Politically, the decade was turbulent, marked by a wave of assassinations targeting monarchs, presidents, and officials amid rising anarchist movements and nationalist fervor, such as the killing of U.S. President William McKinley in 1901, which elevated Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency and amplified progressive reforms addressing corporate monopolies and labor conditions.^[4] Internationally, conflicts like the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900), suppressed by multinational forces including the United States, underscored Western imperial ambitions, while the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) demonstrated Japan's emergence as a modern military power, challenging European dominance in Asia.^[1] Natural catastrophes, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires that devastated the city and killed an estimated 3,000 people,^[5] highlighted vulnerabilities in urban expansion, prompting advancements in seismology and building codes.^[6] Economically and socially, the period saw urbanization accelerate, with the U.S. population reaching 76,212,168 by 1900 according to the 1900 United States census and factory output surging, though it also exposed inequalities fueling labor strikes and the Progressive movement's push for regulatory reforms.^[7]^[8] Mysterious events like the Tunguska explosion in Siberia on June 30, 1908, which felled an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers without a crater, later attributed to an airburst meteoroid, exemplified the era's intersection of scientific inquiry and unexplained phenomena.^[1] Overall, the 1900s bridged Victorian certainties with modernist disruptions, laying groundwork for global conflicts and innovations that defined the ensuing century.^[9]

Nomenclature and Overview

Terminology and pronunciation

The term "1900s" specifically designates the decade from January 1, 1900, to December 31, 1909, encompassing the transition into the twentieth century. This delineation counters the occasional loose application of "1900s" to the entire span from 1900 to 1999, a period more accurately identified as the twentieth century (1901–2000) or, in spoken usage, the "nineteen hundreds."^[10] The precise decade reference aligns with standard historical periodization, where subsequent decades like the 1910s follow sequentially without overlap.^[11] Pronunciation of the "1900s" as a decade favors "nineteen aughts" or "nineteen ohs," with "aught" deriving from Middle English for "anything" or "zero," adapted to denote the null digit in years such as 1900–1909.^[12] This contrasts with "nineteen hundreds," which empirical linguistic patterns associate more with the century-scale era, as evidenced in period literature and later retrospective accounts from the early twentieth century.^[10] Contemporaneous sources from the era rarely applied a unified decade moniker, instead invoking phrases like "the turn of the century" or individual year designations (e.g., "nineteen hundred and five"), reflecting a lack of the thematic labeling seen in later decades such as the "roaring twenties."^[13] To maintain analytical fidelity, discourse on the 1900s employs era-authentic terminology drawn from primary documents, eschewing retrofitted modern locutions that could distort causal interpretations of events—such as substituting contemporary ideological phrases for documented practices in politics, science, or social norms.^[12] This approach privileges source-derived language over interpretive overlays, ensuring claims rest on verifiable period evidence rather than subsequent reframings.

Global historical context

The 1900s decade marked a pivotal transition from the imperial structures and agrarian economies dominant in the 19th century to increasingly industrialized nation-states propelled by cumulative technological advancements, including widespread electrification, steel production, and mechanized transport, which amplified productivity and interconnected global trade networks. World population reached approximately 1.65 billion by 1900, reflecting sustained growth driven by improvements in sanitation, vaccination, and food distribution enabled by prior innovations like refrigerated shipping. Western powers, encompassing Europe and North America, maintained overwhelming economic primacy, accounting for the majority of global output through their command of industrial capacity and colonial resource extraction, a dominance rooted in the Second Industrial Revolution's momentum rather than inherent superiority.^[14]^[15] In Britain, the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901 symbolized the close of the Victorian era, ushering in the Edwardian period characterized by relative domestic stability amid naval supremacy and imperial consolidation, which sustained the empire's role as a linchpin of global order. Across the Atlantic, the United States solidified its emergence as an industrial heavyweight following the 1898 Spanish-American War, with Theodore Roosevelt assuming the presidency on 14 September 1901 after William McKinley's assassination, fostering policies that harnessed domestic resource wealth and infrastructural expansion to project continental influence.^[16]^[17]^[18] European great powers—Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia—exhibited persistent rivalries over colonial spheres and naval armaments, with Germany's rapid industrialization challenging Britain's maritime hegemony and prompting alliance formations that reflected underlying competitive dynamics in resource access and prestige. These tensions arose causally from uneven national mobilizations of coal, iron, and human capital, which unevenly distributed power without resolving into outright hegemony, setting parameters for diplomatic maneuvering. Non-Western empires, such as the Ottoman and Qing, grappled with internal decay and external pressures, underscoring the West's technological edge in sustaining state cohesion and expansion.^[19]^[20]

Demographics and Society

Population growth and trends

The global population grew from an estimated 1.65 billion in 1900 to 1.75 billion by 1910, reflecting an average annual growth rate of approximately 0.6 percent.^[21] ^[14] This increase was driven primarily by falling death rates in industrialized regions, where advances in public sanitation and medical interventions outpaced birth rate declines. In contrast, growth in Asia and Africa remained lower, at under 0.5 percent annually, due to persistent high mortality from infectious diseases and limited infrastructure improvements.^[22] Europe and North America experienced the decade's highest regional growth rates, with Europe's population rising from about 400 million to 450 million and North America's from 82 million to 100 million.^[14] These areas benefited from industrialization's emphasis on public health, including sewage systems and vaccination campaigns, which reduced mortality from waterborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid. For instance, in the United States, the population expanded from 76 million in 1900 to 92 million in 1910, a 21 percent decennial increase—the highest of any major region—supported by similar sanitary reforms.^[23] ^[24] Infant mortality rates in industrialized nations declined notably, from around 150 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1900 to 120-130 by 1910 in places like England and the U.S., attributable to measures such as milk pasteurization, which curbed diarrheal diseases responsible for up to 25 percent of infant deaths.^[25] ^[26] Public health initiatives, including clean water chlorination starting around 1908 in U.S. cities, further lowered gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, which accounted for over half of child deaths earlier in the decade.^[27] These reductions contributed disproportionately to overall population gains, as surviving children reached reproductive age sooner. Urban population shares rose in tandem with these trends, particularly in the U.S., where the proportion living in places of 2,500 or more residents increased from 39.6 percent in 1900 (about 30 million people) to 45.6 percent by 1910 (42 million), linked to factory employment drawing rural labor. ^[28] Similar shifts occurred in Europe, with Britain's urban share exceeding 75 percent by 1910, reflecting sanitary engineering that made dense living viable. Ethnic compositions in growing urban centers included rising proportions of Eastern European Jewish communities, comprising up to 10 percent in some U.S. cities by 1910 amid broader Slavic influxes, though class stratification persisted with industrial workers forming the bulk of new urban dwellers.^[29] Between 1900 and 1909, approximately 8,202,388 immigrants arrived in the United States, predominantly from Europe, driven by economic opportunities in the expanding industrial sector, including factory jobs in manufacturing and mining that offered higher wages than agrarian economies in source countries.^[30] This influx, representing over 1% of the U.S. population annually, was fueled by push factors such as rural poverty and land scarcity in regions like southern Italy and eastern Europe, alongside pull factors like labor demand during the Second Industrial Revolution, where mechanization increased productivity but required unskilled workers.^[31] Similar patterns occurred globally, with high migration rates to New World destinations exceeding 50 per 1,000 population in the early 1900s, as economic disparities between industrialized nations and agrarian peripheries incentivized movement for wage arbitrage.^[32] Rapid urbanization accompanied these migrations, concentrating populations in cities and leading to slum formation characterized by extreme housing density and elevated disease incidence. In New York City, the Lower East Side housed around 140,000 residents by 1910 in tenement buildings, often with densities exceeding 700 people per acre, fostering conditions ripe for infectious diseases like typhus, which became endemic in impoverished districts due to poor sanitation and overcrowding.^[33] London's East End exhibited comparable issues into the early 1900s, with slums featuring multi-family dwellings lacking ventilation and plumbing, contributing to infant mortality rates approaching 25% in affected areas from respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses tied to contaminated water and waste accumulation.^[34] These environments arose causally from supply-demand imbalances in housing amid industrial job clustering, though empirical data indicate that not all high-density tenements yielded uniformly high mortality, as some immigrant communities mitigated risks through cultural practices like communal hygiene.^[35] Social changes reflected tensions between traditional structures and emerging pressures from urbanization and migration, including nascent women's rights advocacy and labor organizing. New Zealand's 1893 enfranchisement of women, the first nationwide, provided a model influencing international debates in the 1900s, such as in Britain where suffragists cited it to argue for expanded female participation, yet traditional family roles persisted globally, with women's labor force entry often confined to low-wage domestic or factory work supporting household survival rather than systemic equality.^[36] In the U.S., precursors to widespread labor unrest emerged through strikes like the 1902 anthracite coal strike involving 150,000 workers demanding better pay and conditions amid hazardous mines, which disrupted output short-term but coincided with broader productivity gains from industrial efficiencies, as output per worker in manufacturing rose approximately 2% annually from 1870 onward, underscoring migration's role in fueling economic expansion despite frictional costs.^[37]^[38]

Politics and Governance

Major political transformations

The federation of the six Australian colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901 established a federal dominion with a parliamentary democracy modeled on the Westminster system, under the British monarch as head of state.^[39] This constitutional arrangement divided powers between the federal government—responsible for defense, trade, and foreign affairs—and the states, which retained authority over local matters, fostering institutional stability through bicameral representation in the House of Representatives and Senate.^[40] The inaugural federal election in March 1901 selected Edmund Barton as prime minister, marking the consolidation of self-governing structures that prioritized unified administration over colonial fragmentation.^[39] In Russia, Tsar Nicholas II upheld autocratic governance amid mounting internal pressures, issuing the October Manifesto on 30 October 1905 to concede limited parliamentary representation via the State Duma while preserving imperial veto and dissolution powers.^[41] The first Duma convened in May 1906 but was dissolved after 72 days for demanding radical land reforms, with subsequent iterations operating under the Fundamental Laws of 1906 that curtailed legislative autonomy and reinforced centralized executive control.^[42] These concessions aimed to defuse revolutionary unrest by introducing consultative elements without relinquishing the autocrat's foundational authority over policy and appointments, though they exposed persistent tensions between absolutist traditions and demands for accountable rule.^[41] The United States entered the Progressive Era under President Theodore Roosevelt, who from 1901 aggressively enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 against monopolistic combinations, initiating the suit against the Northern Securities Company in March 1902 for restraining interstate commerce through railroad consolidation.^[43] The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in February 1904 ordered the trust's dissolution, validating federal intervention to preserve competition and signaling a shift toward regulatory oversight of industrial power.^[44] Roosevelt's approach differentiated "good" trusts promoting efficiency from "bad" ones abusing market dominance, yet it introduced risks of bureaucratic overreach that could undermine economies of scale achieved via voluntary mergers.^[45] The Ottoman Empire experienced the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908, when military officers affiliated with the Committee of Union and Progress compelled Sultan Abdul Hamid II to reinstate the 1876 constitution on 24 July, reconvening a parliamentary assembly and nominally transitioning to constitutional monarchy.^[46] This upheaval centralized authority among reformist elites seeking modernization through secular governance and Ottomanist unity, but it entrenched factional control by the CUP and intensified ethnic grievances by prioritizing Turkish centralization over provincial autonomies.^[47] The 1909 counter-revolution against Abdul Hamid further solidified CUP dominance, illustrating how revolutionary rhetoric masked power consolidation that strained the empire's multi-ethnic institutional fabric.^[48]

Domestic reforms and movements

In the United States, antitrust enforcement under the Sherman Act sought to dismantle monopolies that stifled competition and innovation. The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in Northern Securities Co. v. United States on March 14, 1904, declared the Northern Securities Company's holding of parallel railroad lines an illegal restraint of trade, ordering its dissolution and restoring competitive bidding among carriers.^[49] This intervention corrected a market distortion where the combine had eliminated rivalry between the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways, potentially lowering shipping rates through restored competition, though critics argued that such trusts often arose from efficiencies rather than predation, and judicial breakups risked short-term disruptions without addressing underlying economies of scale.^[50] The Pure Food and Drug Act, signed June 30, 1906, prohibited the interstate transport of adulterated or misbranded foods and drugs, establishing federal standards for labeling and purity to curb deceptive practices prevalent in unregulated markets.^[51] Prompted by exposures of contaminated meatpacking in Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle, the law enabled prosecutions for violations, such as the 1907 seizure of impure borax shipments, reducing public exposure to harmful substances despite early limitations in inspection capacity and proving foundational for subsequent declines in foodborne illnesses tracked by health agencies.^[52] Empirical evidence from enforcement records indicates fewer documented cases of widespread adulteration post-1906, attributing this to deterrence effects that enhanced consumer trust and market stability without overly burdening producers compliant with basic sanitation.^[51] In Britain, the Liberal government's pre-World War I reforms emphasized state intervention in welfare, with the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 introducing non-contributory weekly payments of five shillings to those over 70 passing a means test, targeting destitution among the aged who comprised about 5% of the population.^[53] By 1914, approximately 970,000 claimants received benefits, easing familial support burdens and marginally reducing workhouse admissions, yet the program's funding via the 1909 People's Budget—imposing progressive taxes on unearned income and land values—elevated fiscal pressures, with annual costs exceeding £7 million by 1911 and sparking debates over disincentives to savings and capital formation that could undermine long-term prosperity.^[54] Assessments of the pensions' efficacy highlight modest poverty alleviation but note fiscal trade-offs, as higher taxation on wealth correlated with slowed investment growth relative to pre-reform baselines. French reforms, including the 1901 Waldeck-Rousseau law affirming freedom of association for unions previously restricted since 1884, empowered labor organization amid industrial expansion.^[55] However, strike data from 1900 reveal escalating disputes, with over 1,000 recorded actions involving 400,000 workers—up from prior decades—indicating that legalization amplified bargaining leverage but frequently disrupted production without commensurate gains in productivity or wage stability tied to output.^[56] Analyses of strike outcomes from 1880–1914 show success rates varying with economic conditions rather than legal frameworks alone, suggesting limited causal impact on fostering industrial order, as radical syndicalist leadership often prioritized confrontation over cooperative efficiency.^[57]

International Relations and Conflicts

Wars and military engagements

The decade's major wars reflected intensifying great-power rivalries over resources, trade routes, and spheres of influence in Asia and Africa. European and emerging powers deployed forces to suppress local resistance threatening economic concessions, while naval and land campaigns determined control of strategic territories rich in minerals and ports. Outcomes reshaped alliances and demonstrated the limits of overextended empires, with high casualties underscoring the costs of modern industrialized warfare.^[58] In northern China, the Boxer Rebellion erupted in 1900 as the Yihetuan society, supported initially by Qing imperial forces, targeted foreign legations and missionaries amid resentment over extraterritorial rights and railway concessions that disrupted local economies. An Eight-Nation Alliance—comprising Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary—mobilized approximately 51,000 troops to relieve the Beijing legations besieged from June 20 to August 14, 1900, capturing the city and quelling the uprising to safeguard trade access to Chinese markets.^[59] The conflict ended with the Boxer Protocol signed on September 7, 1901, imposing on China an indemnity of 450 million taels (about $333 million) to compensate allied powers for military expenses and missionary losses, while fortifying legations and prohibiting arms imports to prevent future threats to foreign commerce.^[59] Combat deaths totaled around 3,000, predominantly among Boxer and Qing fighters, though broader estimates include tens of thousands of Chinese civilians and converts killed in reprisals and famines triggered by the disruption.^[60] The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) arose from competition for dominance in Manchuria and Korea, where Russian expansion via the Trans-Siberian Railway threatened Japanese interests in timber, coal, and port access following the Qing's weakening. Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur on February 8, 1904, securing naval superiority with victories like Tsushima on May 27–28, 1905, where Admiral Togo destroyed much of the Russian Baltic Fleet to protect sea lanes vital for its island economy.^[58] Land battles, including Mukden (February–March 1905), inflicted heavy losses—Russians around 60,000 casualties, Japanese 41,000—exposing Russia's logistical strains over vast distances.^[58] Total Japanese deaths reached 70,000–85,000 from combat and disease, with Russian losses at 40,000–70,000, straining both economies amid Japan's 1.7 billion yen war costs.^[61] The Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and signed September 5, 1905, transferred Russia's Port Arthur lease and southern Sakhalin Island to Japan, recognized Japanese preeminence in Korea, and mandated Manchurian evacuation, enabling Japan's consolidation of regional resources without full Russian collapse.^[58] ^[62] Colonial suppression campaigns marked African theaters, as in German Southwest Africa where the Herero people rose against land expropriations and cattle seizures that undermined their pastoral economy starting January 1904. German forces under General Lothar von Trotha defeated the main Herero army at Waterberg on August 11, 1904, then pursued survivors into the Omaheke desert, resulting in mass deaths from thirst and gunfire to reassert control over diamond and grazing territories.^[63] By 1908, Herero numbers plummeted from about 65,000 to fewer than 16,000, with over 80% mortality from battle, starvation, and labor camps, while Nama uprisings drew similar responses affecting 50% of their population.^[64] German casualties numbered around 2,000 dead, facilitating the colony's stabilization for settler agriculture.^[63] The Philippine-American War, extending from the prior Spanish-American conflict, involved U.S. forces combating Filipino insurgents seeking independence to control agricultural exports and ports after acquiring the archipelago for $20 million. Conventional fighting transitioned to guerrilla warfare by 1900, ending formally July 4, 1902, with Emilio Aguinaldo's capture, though sporadic resistance persisted.^[65] U.S. losses totaled 4,300, including 1,500 combat deaths and the rest from disease in tropical conditions, while Filipino combatants suffered about 20,000 deaths and civilians up to 200,000 from violence, famine, and epidemics like cholera.^[65] ^[66] U.S. strategy emphasized infrastructure control and local recruitment, securing the islands as a naval base for Pacific trade routes.^[66] The Second Boer War concluded in 1902 as Britain deployed over 450,000 troops to subdue Afrikaner republics rich in gold and diamonds, shifting from sieges to scorched-earth tactics and blockhouses to disrupt mobile commandos reliant on veld grazing.^[67] The Treaty of Vereeniging, signed May 31, 1902, incorporated the Transvaal and Orange Free State into the British Empire, promising eventual self-government in exchange for surrender.^[67] British Empire casualties included 22,000 deaths, mostly from disease, with Boer combatants losing 6,000–14,000 and 26,000 civilians in internment camps from malnutrition and outbreaks.^[68] ^[67] These measures unified South Africa under imperial administration, channeling mineral revenues into London markets.^[67]

Imperialism, colonization, and power dynamics

The Second Boer War concluded on May 31, 1902, with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging, which formalized British annexation of the Transvaal and Orange Free State republics, incorporating them as crown colonies and marking a consolidation of British dominance in southern Africa amid ongoing resource extraction from gold and diamond mines.^[69] British forces had employed concentration camps to intern Boer civilians, primarily women and children, as a counterinsurgency measure to sever guerrilla supply lines, housing over 100,000 by war's end; while death rates exceeded 25,000, largely from disease and malnutrition due to logistical strains, military analysts have argued this scorched-earth policy was essential to deny mobility to Boer commandos, enabling ultimate victory despite liberal humanitarian critiques of its severity.^[70] Post-war reconstruction emphasized railway expansions and administrative reforms to integrate the region economically, fostering long-term stability under imperial oversight while fueling Afrikaner resentment that persisted into the decade. In the Philippines, U.S. forces pursued pacification following the 1898 annexation, declaring an end to major hostilities on July 4, 1902, though sporadic insurgency continued until 1909, resulting in approximately 4,200 American military deaths and over 20,000 Filipino combatant casualties, alongside up to 200,000 civilian deaths from violence, famine, and epidemics like cholera.^[66] ^[71] American administration invested in infrastructure, constructing over 1,000 miles of roads, telegraph lines, and railroads by mid-decade, alongside establishing a public education system that enrolled hundreds of thousands in English-medium schools, which proponents viewed as advancing civilizational progress through literacy and governance reforms, even as insurgents contested foreign rule via ambushes and attrition tactics that highlighted the costs of imposing order on fragmented polities.^[72] European powers intensified scrambles in Africa during the 1900s, with France asserting influence in Morocco through the 1905-1906 First Moroccan Crisis, culminating in the Algeciras Conference of 1906, where France secured control over Moroccan police and banking, enhancing trade access to phosphates and agricultural exports while provoking German rivalries that nearly escalated to conflict.^[73] Such maneuvers exemplified resource-driven imperialism, where extraction of raw materials like rubber and minerals supported metropolitan industries, coupled with infrastructure projects such as railways that facilitated commerce but often at the expense of local economies; realist defenses posited these interventions stabilized anarchic tribal regions via imposed legal frameworks and health measures, countering liberal condemnations of exploitation by emphasizing empirical gains in trade volumes and reduced intertribal warfare, though African resistance, including uprisings like the Herero in German Southwest Africa (1904-1908), underscored the coercive undercurrents.^[74] ^[75]

Assassinations and political violence

The decade of the 1900s witnessed a surge in targeted political assassinations, primarily driven by anarchist and revolutionary ideologies that promoted "propaganda of the deed"—violent acts intended to inspire mass uprisings against authority. These incidents, concentrated in Europe and North America, involved attacks on monarchs, presidents, and officials, reflecting discontent with industrialization, autocracy, and perceived state repression. Perpetrators often acted individually or in small groups, using firearms or explosives, but the overall pattern showed limited success in precipitating systemic change, instead eliciting robust state responses that enhanced security apparatuses.^[76] A notable early case occurred on July 29, 1900, when Italian King Umberto I was shot dead in Monza by Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist who had lived in the United States and returned to avenge the monarch's suppression of food riots in Milan in 1898. Bresci fired three shots at close range during a public event, declaring the act as retribution for worker exploitation.^[77] The assassination highlighted the transnational nature of anarchist networks but prompted Italian authorities to intensify crackdowns on radical groups. In the United States, President William McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz, a Polish-American anarchist radicalized by Emma Goldman's speeches and broader anti-capitalist sentiments. Czolgosz concealed a .32-caliber revolver in a handkerchief and shot McKinley twice in the abdomen while the president shook hands at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; McKinley died from gangrene eight days later on September 14. Czolgosz claimed no accomplices, viewing the act as eliminating a symbol of oppression, and was executed on October 29. The killing directly led to Congress authorizing the Secret Service—previously focused on counterfeiting—to provide full-time presidential protection starting in 1902, marking a shift toward institutionalized safeguards against lone-wolf threats.^[78]^[79] Russia experienced a series of assassinations by the Socialist Revolutionary Party's Combat Organization, which employed terrorist tactics akin to anarchist methods to pressure the Tsarist regime. Interior Minister Dmitry Sipyagin was killed on April 15, 1902, by a bomb thrown in the Mariinsky Palace. His successor, Vyacheslav von Plehve, met a similar fate on July 28, 1904, when Yegor Sazonov detonated a bomb under his carriage in St. Petersburg, killing him instantly amid ongoing revolutionary ferment. The organization's most symbolic strike came on February 17, 1905 (New Style), targeting Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Governor-General of Moscow and uncle to Tsar Nicholas II; Ivan Kalyayev tossed a nitroglycerin bomb at the duke's open carriage, dismembering him and his horse. Kalyayev, who had aborted an earlier attempt due to the presence of the duke's family, was hanged on May 10, framing the violence as moral retribution against repression.^[80]^[81] Other significant acts included the June 11, 1903, military coup in Serbia, where King Alexander I Obrenović and Queen Draga were gunned down in the royal palace by officers dissatisfied with the king's pro-Austrian policies and personal scandals, paving the way for Peter I Karađorđević's ascension. In Finland, Governor-General Nikolai Bobrikov was shot on June 16, 1904, by Eugen Schauman, a Swedish-speaking nationalist protesting Russification efforts; Schauman then killed himself. Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Deligiannis fell to assassin Alexandros Schinas on July 13, 1905, in Athens, with Schinas citing anarchist motives before committing suicide. These events, while achieving tactical shocks, demonstrated the empirical futility of such violence: autocratic states like Russia responded with fortified policing and exile of radicals, while democracies bolstered defenses without conceding to ideological demands. Quantitative analyses of over 150 assassinations from 1875 to 2004 indicate that while they disrupted leadership, they rarely altered institutional trajectories in democracies and often reinforced authoritarian controls. Anarchist campaigns, peaking in the 1890s-1900s, declined thereafter due to international police coordination, immigration bans on radicals (e.g., U.S. laws post-1903), and internal disillusionment with violence's ineffectiveness in catalyzing anarchy.^[82]^[83]

Economics

Industrial expansion and trade

The United States economy expanded robustly during the 1900s, with real gross domestic product growing at an average annual rate of 3.9 percent, fueled primarily by private enterprise in key industries such as steel and petroleum.^[84] Steel production, dominated by innovators like Andrew Carnegie, positioned the U.S. as the world's leading producer by 1900, with output surpassing 10 million tons that year and continuing to surge through entrepreneurial consolidation and technological efficiencies in processes like the Bessemer converter.^[85] The petroleum sector experienced a dramatic boom following the 1901 Spindletop gusher in Texas, which elevated U.S. annual production from 836,000 barrels in 1900 to over 17 million barrels by 1902, enabling widespread refining advancements by figures such as John D. Rockefeller and supporting emerging applications in machinery and transport.^[86] Henry Ford's establishment of the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and introduction of the Model T in 1908 exemplified innovation-driven growth, with initial production scaling to hundreds of vehicles monthly by decade's end, leveraging assembly techniques that reduced costs through private capital and engineering ingenuity.^[87] Global trade volumes rose substantially, with world commerce valued at approximately $32,400 million in 1910, marking a 50 percent increase from 1900 levels, as steamship advancements and rail networks facilitated exchanges of manufactured goods and commodities under relatively laissez-faire international policies.^[88] Efforts to construct the Panama Canal, initiated by the U.S. in May 1904 following the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, were motivated by expectations of slashing shipping times between Atlantic and Pacific routes by up to two months, thereby promising enhanced efficiencies for bulk trade in raw materials and finished products.^[89] In Europe, industrial expansion drew heavily on colonial resource extraction, such as rubber from the Belgian Congo, where production ramped up in response to surging demand for tires and belting amid the bicycle and automobile surges, supplying factories in Britain and Germany without significant state-directed allocation.^[90] Financial markets reflected the era's volatility, exemplified by the Panic of 1907, triggered by failed speculation in United Copper stock and leading to widespread bank runs, yet resolved through ad hoc coordination by private financiers. J.P. Morgan orchestrated a bailout by pooling commitments from major banks totaling tens of millions in liquidity, averting deeper collapse without reliance on a central monetary authority and underscoring the stabilizing potential of market participants' self-interest.^[91] This episode highlighted inherent business cycle fluctuations amid rapid industrialization, where credit extension for ventures like railroads and trusts amplified booms but exposed fragilities absent modern interventions.^[91]

Financial systems and economic policies

The classical gold standard, under which currencies of major economies like the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany were convertible to fixed quantities of gold, persisted throughout the 1900s, fostering international trade by ensuring exchange rate predictability and facilitating arbitrage across borders.^[92] This metallic anchor constrained monetary expansion, promoting long-term price stability and enabling capital mobility that supported global investment flows, with world trade volumes expanding amid relatively low inflation volatility. However, the system's automatic adjustment mechanism—gold outflows reducing domestic money supplies during deficits—exposed economies to sharp liquidity contractions when faced with asymmetric shocks, limiting policy flexibility without suspending convertibility. The Panic of 1907 illustrated these frailties. Initiated by a speculative failure in the United Copper Company stock, which triggered insolvencies among affiliated trusts lacking federal oversight, the crisis escalated into runs on New York banks and a credit freeze, as gold hoarding intensified under the standard's constraints.^[91] Private interventions, led by J.P. Morgan, who pooled banker resources to inject liquidity and propped up key institutions, contained the immediate collapse but highlighted reliance on ad hoc rescues rather than institutional safeguards.^[93] Real economic fallout included a 17 percent drop in industrial output and a 12 percent decline in GNP by 1908, underscoring how gold-standard adherence amplified domestic panics through inelastic currency supplies.^[91] These events spurred central banking discussions, emphasizing the trade-offs between stability and moral hazard. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act of May 30, 1908, authorized emergency currency issuance backed by commercial paper and established the National Monetary Commission to evaluate systemic reforms, reflecting unease with purely private clearinghouses.^[94] Senator Nelson Aldrich's subsequent plan, drafted in late 1910 but rooted in 1908 commission findings, envisioned a decentralized central reserve body to elasticize note issuance tied to real bills, aiming to mitigate panics without full government control.^[95] Proponents argued it would provide a lender of last resort; detractors, including agrarian interests, cautioned that such facilities might subsidize imprudent lending, eroding market discipline and inviting recurrent bailouts.^[96] Tariff policies reinforced domestic financial insulation amid global gold linkages. The Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, signed August 5, 1909, under President Taft, promised downward revision but yielded only marginal average rate cuts—from 46 percent to about 41 percent—while elevating duties on woolens, hides, and steel to safeguard U.S. manufacturers from European imports.^[97] This protectionist stance, blending revenue needs with industry shielding, sustained federal surpluses for monetary circulation but fueled debates over consumer costs versus job preservation, as higher barriers reduced import competition and bolstered gold inflows during trade surpluses.^[98] Income disparities widened in this era, with inequality metrics rising through 1914 as capital accumulation concentrated gains among industrialists and financiers.^[99] Yet absolute living standards advanced for broader populations: U.S. real per capita income grew amid productivity surges, while European real wages for laborers trended upward despite relative stagnation in southern peripheries, reflecting gold-induced price discipline and technological spillovers that elevated baseline consumption even as Gini coefficients climbed.^[100]

Science and Technology

Key scientific discoveries

In physics, Max Planck resolved the empirical failure of classical Rayleigh-Jeans law to predict blackbody radiation spectra by proposing in 1900 that energy is emitted in discrete quanta, with E = hν where h is Planck's constant, initiating quantum theory as a departure from continuous energy assumptions.^[101] Albert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" formulated special relativity, positing the invariance of light speed in vacuum and the relativity of space and time, which empirically reconciled Maxwell's electromagnetism with Newtonian mechanics and implied mass-energy equivalence via E = mc² in a follow-up derivation from the same postulates.^[102]^[103] Ernest Rutherford's investigations into radioactivity, including 1902-1903 collaborations identifying alpha particles as helium nuclei and demonstrating atomic transmutation, laid groundwork for nuclear structure; his 1908-1909 gold foil scattering experiments, firing alpha particles at thin gold films, showed most pass undeflected while some rebound sharply, indicating atoms possess a dense, positively charged central nucleus comprising most mass, refuting J.J. Thomson's diffuse charge model through quantitative angular deflection data.^[104]^[105] In medicine, Karl Landsteiner identified human blood groups in 1901 by mixing serum and cells from different individuals, observing specific agglutination patterns that classified blood into A, B, and C (later O) types based on isoagglutinins, enabling compatibility matching to prevent transfusion reactions empirically verified in prior fatal cases.^[106]^[107] Biochemical advances further eroded vitalist claims of irreducible life forces by isolating enzymes like epinephrine in 1901 and demonstrating cell-free metabolic processes, affirming purely chemical causation in vital phenomena through reproducible in vitro syntheses aligning with physical laws.^[108]

Technological inventions and applications

In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi achieved the first transatlantic wireless transmission, receiving the Morse code signal "S" on December 12 at Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland, from a station in Poldhu, England.^[109]^[110] This breakthrough demonstrated radio's potential for long-distance communication, bypassing reliance on cables and ships, which previously delayed transoceanic messages by days or weeks.^[111] Maritime adoption accelerated rapidly; by 1904, major ocean liners like the RMS Titanic's sister ships incorporated wireless sets, enabling real-time coordination that reduced shipping risks and coordination costs, with over 100 transatlantic ships equipped by 1907.^[109] The technology's productivity gains stemmed from instantaneous information flow, facilitating faster trade decisions and emergency responses, though initial signals were weak and required skilled operators.^[110] The Wright brothers' first sustained, controlled powered flight occurred on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with Orville piloting the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds over 120 feet at 34 mph airspeed.^[112]^[113] Four flights that day culminated in Wilbur's 59-second, 852-foot glide, validating aerodynamic controls via wing warping and propeller thrust.^[114] Early adoption was limited to prototypes; the brothers refined designs in 1904-1905, achieving a 39-minute flight in 1905, but commercial viability lagged until post-1910 military contracts.^[115] These trials laid causal groundwork for aviation's productivity role by enabling rapid aerial scouting and transport prototypes, though decade-end applications remained experimental, with fewer than 100 powered aircraft worldwide by 1909.^[116] Automobile production scaled in the early 1900s, exemplified by the Oldsmobile Curved Dash runabout introduced in 1901 as the first high-volume car, with 425 units built that year at $650 each and over 19,000 by 1907 via assembly-line precursors.^[117]^[118] U.S. registrations grew from 8,000 vehicles in 1900 to 194,000 by 1908, driven by affordable models like Ransom Olds' designs, which halved horse-drawn transport times and costs for goods under 1 ton over 50 miles.^[119] This proliferation causally boosted rural productivity by cutting logistics delays—e.g., farmers delivered produce 2-3 times faster to markets—while urban adoption reached 1 in 200 Americans owning cars by 1907, fostering supply-chain efficiencies absent in rail-dependent systems.^[120] Leo Baekeland patented Bakelite in 1907, the first fully synthetic thermosetting plastic derived from phenol and formaldehyde, heat-resistant and moldable without natural fillers.^[121]^[122] Its introduction enabled precision manufacturing of electrical insulators, machine parts, and consumer goods, with production scaling to thousands of tons annually by 1910 via Baekeland's Yonkers plant.^[123] Bakelite's durability reduced material waste by 30-50% compared to shellac or ivory alternatives, accelerating electrical appliance output and telephony components, thus amplifying industrial productivity through standardized, low-cost fabrication.^[124]^[125]

Culture and Entertainment

Literature and arts

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, issued in book form in 1902 after serialization in 1899, presented a realistic critique of Belgian imperialism in the Congo Free State, portraying the expedition upriver as a descent into human savagery and exposing the hypocrisy of civilizing missions through the ivory trader Kurtz's degeneration.^[126] The novella drew from Conrad's own 1890 river journey, emphasizing causal links between unchecked power and moral collapse rather than abstract ideology.^[126] Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, published in 1906, chronicled Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus's struggles in Chicago's Union Stock Yards, basing its accounts on six weeks of undercover reporting to reveal rat-contaminated meat processing, worker maimings from machinery, and tubercular hogs yielding lard—facts that prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to order federal inspections, leading to the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and Pure Food and Drug Act.^[127] While Sinclair intended the novel to advocate socialism by focusing on wage slavery's dehumanizing effects, its empirical details on industrial hazards garnered broader support for hygiene reforms over class revolution.^[127] Rudyard Kipling upheld cultural conservatism through works like the novel Kim (1901), which romanticized Anglo-Indian espionage and the "Great Game" against Russia, and Just So Stories (1902), retelling origin myths in rhythmic prose to preserve imperial and folkloric traditions.^[128] His 1907 Nobel Prize citation praised the "power of observation, originality of imagination, [and] virility of ideas," recognizing prose that affirmed British civilizational duties amid critiques of empire.^[129] In visual arts, Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) rejected naturalistic depiction by fragmenting five nude figures in a Barcelona brothel, integrating Iberian and African sculptural influences to distort anatomy and perspective, thereby initiating proto-Cubist experimentation that prioritized multiple viewpoints over illusionistic depth.^[130] This canvas, privately held until 1925, signaled a rupture from 19th-century academic realism, reflecting urban alienation and primitive art's raw forms as antidotes to bourgeois convention.^[130] Art Nouveau's organic curves, exemplified in Alphonse Mucha's posters and Hector Guimard's Paris Métro entrances around 1900, waned by mid-decade as Fauvism—led by Henri Matisse's vivid color planes in Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness (1904)—and emerging abstraction challenged representational fidelity, though traditionalists like John Singer Sargent sustained portraiture's empirical detail in oils such as The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit variants.^[131] These shifts balanced innovative disruption against enduring appeals to observed reality, with conservatism evident in Kipling-esque imperial motifs in British illustrations.

Music, film, and theater

The phonograph, initially invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, achieved widespread consumer adoption in the early 1900s as disc records supplanted cylinders, enabling affordable home playback of music and driving demand for popular genres.^[132] Ragtime emerged as a dominant form, exemplified by Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," published in 1899 but igniting a national craze through sheet music sales exceeding one million copies by 1914, reflecting its rhythmic syncopation's appeal to dancers and amateur musicians over classical complexity.^[133] In New Orleans, precursors to jazz developed organically among African American communities, blending work songs, blues, and marching band traditions; cornetist Buddy Bolden led ensembles around 1895–1907 that improvised on these roots, prioritizing communal expression in brass bands and informal gatherings rather than formal composition.^[134] Film transitioned from single-shot actualities to narrative shorts, with Edison's studio producing early stories like Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903), an 11-minute western depicting a holdup and pursuit through edited sequences that heightened dramatic tension and box-office draw.^[135] Short comedies and chases dominated nickelodeon programs, attracting working-class audiences with accessible spectacle; by 1907, over 5,000 theaters screened such films daily, capitalizing on low production costs and repeat viewings driven by novelty rather than artistic prestige. Theater emphasized variety and light opera for mass audiences, with vaudeville circuits peaking in the 1900s through chains like the Keith-Albee, featuring diverse acts—singers, comedians, acrobats—in clean, family-oriented bills that filled thousands of venues nationwide.^[136] In Europe, operettas like Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, premiered on December 30, 1905, at Vienna's Theater an der Wien, blended waltzes and romance to achieve instant global success, spawning revivals and adaptations due to its tuneful melodies' resonance with bourgeois tastes amid post-Strauss demand for escapist sentiment.^[137]

Fashion, food, and daily life

Women's fashion in the early 1900s retained elements of the Victorian era, with corsets enforcing an S-curve silhouette that projected the bust forward and hips backward to minimize abdominal pressure while preserving a narrow waistline of approximately 18-22 inches.^[138] These straight-front corsets, often constructed from coutil fabric reinforced with steel boning, were mass-produced for the first time, enabling wider distribution through department stores and mail-order catalogs.^[139] Skirts featured high collars, leg-of-mutton sleeves early in the decade, and full hemlines that gradually narrowed by 1908-1909, foreshadowing the restrictive hobble skirts that would limit stride length to short steps.^[140] Men's attire emphasized formal three-piece suits with high collars and straw boater hats for daytime, reflecting social norms of propriety amid rising industrial prosperity. The decade marked the expansion of processed foods, driven by advances in canning and milling that extended shelf life and reduced preparation time for urban households.^[141] Kellogg's Corn Flakes, developed from experiments in the 1890s and commercially launched in 1906, exemplified this shift by offering a convenient, toasted wheat and corn product initially marketed for digestive health at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. This innovation contributed to broader nutrition access, as pre-1906 American diets often relied on heavy, greasy staples like bacon and potatoes, with corn flakes providing a lighter alternative amid growing awareness of balanced meals.^[142] Canned goods, such as evaporated milk and condensed soups, proliferated, comprising up to 20% of working-class grocery expenditures by mid-decade in industrial cities.^[143] Daily life highlighted stark class disparities in consumption patterns, with elite banquets featuring multi-course meals of fresh seafood, game, and imported wines—often exceeding 3,000 calories from diverse proteins—while working-class families subsisted on high-energy but monotonous staples like bread (accounting for 40-50% of caloric intake), potatoes, and canned meats totaling around 3,500-4,000 calories daily yet lacking vitamins.^[144] Economic abundance from industrialization enabled upper classes to host opulent dinners with silver service, whereas laborers in U.S. and European factories spent 50-60% of income on food, prioritizing affordability over variety.^[145] Home electrification emerged in urban centers, with fewer than 5% of U.S. households wired by 1907, primarily among affluent city dwellers using early incandescent bulbs and irons, while rural and working-class homes depended on gas lamps and wood stoves.^[146] By 1910, adoption reached about 14% nationally, facilitating initial shifts toward electric appliances in wealthier homes.^[147]

Sports and Leisure

Major sporting events

The modern Olympic Games, revived in 1896, continued to gain prominence during the 1900s, serving as a platform for international athletic competition amid growing nationalism. The 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, integrated into the Exposition Universelle from May 14 to October 28, featured 19 sports and approximately 997 athletes from 24 nations, with France securing the most medals at 102.^[148] Events included novel competitions like croquet and swimming obstacles, though organization was haphazard due to the fair's dominance. The 1904 Games in St. Louis, held from July 1 to November 23 as part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, marked the first Olympics in the Western Hemisphere, with 651 athletes from 12 nations; the United States overwhelmingly dominated, winning 231 of 280 medals, reflecting home advantage and limited international participation.^[149] The 1908 London Olympics, from April 27 to October 31, hosted 2,008 athletes from 22 nations across 109 events, with Great Britain leading the medal table at 146; innovations included the first official Olympic marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards, set to reach the royal box.^[150] Cycling's professional era advanced with the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, organized by the newspaper L'Auto to boost circulation and showcase endurance over 2,428 kilometers in six grueling stages from July 1 to 19. Starting with 60 riders from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and elsewhere, the race endured unpaved roads, night riding, and rudimentary support, culminating in Maurice Garin's victory by nearly three hours; only 21 finishers completed the event, highlighting its physical demands and role in popularizing mass spectator sports in Europe.^[151] In the United States, baseball solidified as a national institution through the first World Series in 1903, a best-of-nine postseason matchup between the American League's Boston Americans and the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates, played from October 1 to 13. Boston won 5 games to 3, drawing over 100,000 total spectators and establishing the format as a test of league supremacy, with attendance boosted by rivalries and the sport's cultural embedding in American identity.^[152] Cricket's Ashes series between England and Australia intensified transcontinental rivalries, fostering imperial sporting pride. Australia claimed the 1901–02 series 4–1 in Australia, led by aggressive batting, while England reclaimed the urn in the 1905 home series with a 2–0 victory, powered by Bernard Bosanquet's googly bowling; the rivalry's biennial Tests underscored tactical evolution and national stakes in the pre-World War I era.^[153]

Notable athletes and achievements

Denton True "Cy Young" established dominance as a pitcher in Major League Baseball during the early 1900s, winning 211 games from 1901 to 1908 with the Boston Americans (later Red Sox), including league-leading totals of 33 victories in 1901 and 32 in 1902.^[154] His feats included pitching a perfect game on May 5, 1904, against the Philadelphia Athletics, and completing 45 of 50 starts in 1902, reflecting the era's emphasis on individual stamina and precision under high-volume workloads that tested physical limits without modern recovery aids.^[155] These records contributed to his career totals of 511 wins and 7,356 innings pitched, hallmarks of merit-based ascent in a competitive professional landscape.^[154] Jack Johnson advanced in heavyweight boxing amid empirical racial barriers, securing the World Colored Heavyweight Championship on February 25, 1903, by defeating Jack Munroe, and claiming the undisputed world title on December 26, 1908, via a 14th-round technical knockout of Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.^[156] White champions like James J. Jeffries refused bouts with Johnson until 1910, forcing him to fight in segregated "color" divisions despite superior records, yet his counter-punching technique and ring generalship yielded 73 wins (40 by knockout) in his first 100 professional fights by 1909.^[157] Johnson's success demonstrated causal efficacy of skill over social restrictions, as opponents' avoidance stemmed from prejudice rather than competitive parity.^[158] In swimming, Charles Daniels emerged as a premier competitor, capturing three Olympic gold medals across the 1904 St. Louis and 1908 London Games, including the 220-yard freestyle and relay events, while setting multiple world records in freestyle distances that highlighted rigorous training regimens fostering discipline and technical mastery.^[159] Such athletic accomplishments in the decade reinforced contemporary values of self-reliance and perseverance, as sports demanded unyielding effort to overcome innate physical variances and environmental constraints without institutional subsidies.^[159]

Disasters and Crises

Natural disasters

![Ruins along Market Street, San Francisco, after the 1906 earthquake and fires]float-right The Galveston Hurricane struck Texas on September 8, 1900, generating a storm surge that inundated the low-lying barrier island city, resulting in an estimated 8,000 deaths, the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.^[160] The event exposed vulnerabilities due to the absence of coastal barriers and inadequate elevation of infrastructure, with winds exceeding 140 mph and a 15-20 foot surge overwhelming unprepared settlements.^[160] On May 8, 1902, Mount Pelée on Martinique erupted, unleashing a pyroclastic flow that incinerated the nearby city of Saint-Pierre, killing approximately 29,000 people in minutes, marking the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.^[161] Precursory signs such as earthquakes and gas emissions were observed but not acted upon sufficiently to evacuate the densely populated port, highlighting gaps in monitoring and response to volcanic precursors.^[161] The San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, registered approximately magnitude 7.9, shaking the city for 45-60 seconds and triggering fires that burned for three days, causing over 3,000 deaths and destroying more than 80% of the city, with fire damage surpassing that from ground shaking due to wooden structures and ruptured utilities.^[5] Unreinforced brick buildings collapsed readily, while the conflagration spread unchecked amid water supply failures, underscoring the causal role of combustible urban design in amplifying seismic impacts.^[5] Mount Vesuvius erupted violently from April 1906, ejecting ash and lava flows that affected Naples and surrounding towns, resulting in over 100 deaths despite partial evacuations prompted by seismic activity and an observatory's warnings.^[162] The lower toll relative to potential exposure stemmed from pre-eruptive monitoring and timely alerts, demonstrating how predictive observation mitigated casualties compared to unheeded signals in other events.^[162] The Messina earthquake and tsunami on December 28, 1908, magnitude 7.1, devastated southern Italy, killing around 72,000 people through structural collapses and waves up to 13 meters high, with over 40% of Messina's population perishing due to substandard masonry construction in seismic zones.^[163] Inadequate building practices exacerbated the shaking's effects, as soft sediments amplified ground motion in coastal areas.^[163] These geophysical events revealed patterns where insufficient structural resilience and elevation controls causally increased fatalities, prompting empirical shifts toward engineered mitigations like reinforced foundations and barriers over passive acceptance of hazards.^[5]^[160]

Human-induced disasters and crises

The early 1900s marked a period of intense industrialization in the United States, where rapid expansion of coal mining and financial speculation outpaced safety regulations and risk management, leading to catastrophic human-induced disasters. Lax oversight, inadequate ventilation in mines, and speculative bubbles in finance exposed workers and investors to preventable perils, with fatalities often resulting from operator negligence rather than inevitable hazards. These events underscored tensions between profit-driven practices and emerging labor demands for reforms, though substantive federal interventions remained limited until after the decade.^[164] Coal mining disasters epitomized the era's regulatory shortcomings, as the 1900-1909 period recorded the highest U.S. fatalities from such incidents, with explosions fueled by methane gas and coal dust claiming hundreds due to insufficient inspections and ventilation standards. On May 19, 1902, the Fraterville Mine explosion in Tennessee, triggered by ignited methane in poorly ventilated shafts, killed at least 184 miners and boys, many suffocating in an air pocket as rescue efforts failed amid explosive afterdamp. Operators' resistance to union-proposed safety measures, prioritizing output during labor shortages, exacerbated risks, as evidenced by recurring gas buildup in non-compliant workings.^[165] The decade's deadliest mining event occurred on December 6, 1907, at the Monongah Nos. 6 and 8 mines in West Virginia, where an explosion—likely from methane igniting coal dust in overcrowded, unventilated passages—killed 362 workers, the worst U.S. mining toll on record. Inadequate escape routes and brattice cloths, coupled with operators' underinvestment in safety amid booming demand, trapped most victims; the disaster prompted congressional creation of the Bureau of Mines in 1910 to enforce basic standards, though enforcement lagged.^[164]^[166] Similarly, the Cherry Mine fire on November 13, 1909, in Illinois began when hay for pit ponies ignited near wooden supports, spreading smoke and flames that killed 259 miners; locked cages and reliance on mules for ventilation delayed escapes, highlighting how cost-cutting ignored fireproofing mandates urged by unions.^[167] Financial instability manifested in the Panic of 1907, a liquidity crisis sparked by failed speculations on United Copper Company shares, which exposed overleveraged trusts and triggered runs on institutions like Knickerbocker Trust, wiping out $100 million in deposits by October 22. Stock prices plummeted nearly 50% from prior peaks, contracting credit amid a prior gold outflow and speculative frenzy without a lender of last resort; J.P. Morgan orchestrated a private bailout, pooling $25 million from bankers and the U.S. Treasury to stabilize solvent firms, averting broader collapse but revealing systemic vulnerabilities to herd behavior and inadequate reserves.^[91]^[168] This resolution, dependent on elite coordination rather than policy, fueled debates on monetary reform, though immediate regulatory changes were deferred.^[169]

Notable Figures

Political and military leaders

Theodore Roosevelt served as President of the United States from September 14, 1901, following William McKinley's assassination, until March 4, 1909, implementing policies that emphasized conservation and international mediation. He protected approximately 230 million acres of public lands, designating 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments, which preserved natural resources and laid foundations for sustainable land management.^[170] Roosevelt's brokerage of the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, ending the Russo-Japanese War, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 and temporarily reduced great-power conflicts in Asia by balancing territorial concessions.^[171] These actions enhanced U.S. stability by curbing domestic monopolies through antitrust enforcement and bolstering global influence without direct military entanglement.^[172] Kaiser Wilhelm II, ruling the German Empire from 1888 to 1918, directed naval expansion via the Second Naval Law of 1900 and supplementary acts in 1906 and 1908, increasing battleship construction to project power overseas and safeguard commerce against British dominance.^[173] This strategy, integral to Weltpolitik, aimed to elevate Germany as a colonial and industrial peer to Britain by deterring blockades and enabling fleet-in-being deterrence, though it escalated arms expenditures and alliances.^[174] Outcomes included a modernized High Seas Fleet capable of challenging naval isolation, yet the buildup strained finances and heightened European rivalries, reflecting a calculated risk for strategic autonomy amid encirclement perceptions. Emperor Meiji, reigning from 1867 until his death on July 30, 1912, guided Japan's Taishō-era transition through sustained reforms that industrialized the economy and militarized society, yielding victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905).^[175] Modernization under his oversight integrated Western technology with imperial structure, fostering rapid infrastructure growth—such as telegraph networks linking major cities—and constitutional governance via the 1889 Meiji Constitution, which centralized authority and quelled feudal unrest for enhanced stability.^[176] These policies averted colonization, propelled Japan to great-power status by 1905, and enabled territorial gains like Korea's protectorate status, though at the cost of social strains from accelerated change.^[175]

Scientists, inventors, and intellectuals

Orville and Wilbur Wright, American inventors, achieved the first sustained, controlled, heavier-than-air powered flight on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their Wright Flyer, propelled by a 12-horsepower gasoline engine, covered 120 feet in 12 seconds during Orville's initial piloted attempt, with subsequent flights that day reaching up to 852 feet.^[113]^[177] This breakthrough demonstrated practical aerodynamic control through wing warping and rudder adjustments, derived from the brothers' systematic glider experiments and wind tunnel data since 1900.^[112] In physics, Max Planck proposed the quantum theory in 1900 to resolve discrepancies in black-body radiation spectra, introducing the concept of energy quanta (E = hν, where h is Planck's constant) as discrete packets rather than continuous waves.^[101] This first-principles departure from classical physics enabled explanations of thermal radiation and atomic spectra, earning Planck recognition as the founder of quantum mechanics despite initial skepticism. J.J. Thomson received the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for his 1897 discovery and characterization of the electron as a fundamental particle, confirmed through cathode ray experiments measuring its charge-to-mass ratio (e/m ≈ 1.76 × 10^11 C/kg). Albert Einstein, working as a patent examiner in Bern, published four transformative papers in 1905 known as the Annus Mirabilis papers. These addressed the photoelectric effect (positing light quanta, or photons, to explain electron ejection from metals, with energy E = hν); Brownian motion (validating atomic theory via particle diffusion); special relativity (unifying space and time, deriving E = mc² for mass-energy equivalence); and molecular dimensions in suspensions.^[178]^[179] Einstein's derivations relied on empirical inconsistencies in classical electrodynamics and thermodynamics, predicting verifiable effects like time dilation and the inertia of energy. Marie Skłodowska Curie advanced radioactivity research, coining the term in 1898 but achieving key isolations in the decade: polonium (1898, refined 1902) and radium (extracted pure in 1910, but demonstrated 1902 via 400 tons of pitchblende processed to yield milligrams). She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for joint investigations into Becquerel's 1896 discovery of uranium rays, measuring radium's half-life and ionizing power empirically.^[180] Curie's chemical separations, using fractional crystallization, established radioactivity as an atomic property independent of chemical state, enabling medical applications like radium therapy by 1909. Other contributors included Karl Landsteiner, who classified human blood into ABO groups in 1900–1901 by observing agglutination reactions, reducing transfusion risks through serological typing.^[181] In medicine, Ivan Pavlov earned the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for conditioned reflexes and digestive gland functions, demonstrated via fistula experiments on dogs quantifying salivation responses to stimuli. These empirical advances prioritized direct observation and causal mechanisms over prior theoretical assumptions.

Cultural icons and artists

Mark Twain advanced satirical realism in American literature during the decade, publishing The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg in 1900, a novella depicting a town's descent into greed after discovering a fortune, thereby critiquing Puritanical hypocrisy through empirical observation of human incentives. His 1909 essay Is Shakespeare Dead? applied causal reasoning to question the authorship of Shakespeare's works, arguing from biographical absences and practical knowledge gaps that the plays reflected a different hand, prioritizing verifiable evidence over tradition. These late efforts underscored Twain's commitment to undiluted realism, exposing societal pretensions without deference to prevailing pieties. In visual arts, John Singer Sargent upheld conservative portraiture traditions, producing luminous society commissions such as Lady Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon (1904), rendered with precise brushwork and naturalistic lighting to capture Edwardian elegance and status.^[182] Amid this, innovators like Henri Matisse introduced Fauvism at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, employing vivid, non-representational colors to prioritize emotional directness over mimetic accuracy, marking a causal shift toward subjective expression in painting.^[183] Performing arts saw Sergei Diaghilev launch the Ballets Russes on May 19, 1909, at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet, integrating Stravinsky's scores, Bakst's designs, and Nijinsky's choreography to fuse Russian folk elements with modernist innovation, achieving 19 sold-out performances that redefined ballet's interdisciplinary scope.^[184] Concurrently, Thomas Edison's dominance in motion picture patents—controlling cameras, projectors, and film stock via the 1908 Motion Picture Patents Company—enforced monopolistic licensing, inadvertently prompting independent producers to relocate westward to evade lawsuits, seeding California's film industry infrastructure by decade's end.^[185]

Sports personalities

Honus Wagner, a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, dominated National League baseball throughout the 1900s, securing batting titles in 1900 (.381 average), 1903 (.355), 1904 (.349), 1906 (.339), 1907 (.350), 1908 (.354), and 1909 (.339).^[186] His consistent excellence, including leading the league in hits five times and stolen bases three times during the decade, underscored his status as a multifaceted professional athlete in an era when baseball transitioned from semi-professional roots to structured major leagues with salaried stars drawing large crowds.^[186] Wagner's defensive innovations at shortstop, combined with his power hitting—such as 10 home runs in 1902—helped elevate the sport's popularity, culminating in the Pirates' 1909 World Series victory over the Detroit Tigers, where he batted .333 with six hits.^[187] This professional model contrasted with lingering amateur ideals in individual sports, as Wagner's career earnings and endorsements reflected the decade's shift toward viewing athletics as viable livelihoods for elite performers.^[188] In boxing, James J. Corbett exemplified the move toward scientific, gloved prizefighting under Marquis of Queensberry rules, challenging heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries on May 11, 1900, in San Francisco before a crowd of 15,000; he was stopped in the 23rd round after landing early blows but tiring against the younger, stronger opponent.^[189] Though past his 1892-1897 championship prime, Corbett's emphasis on footwork, jabbing, and defensive strategy influenced the professionalization of the sport, distinguishing it from bare-knuckle brawls and attracting middle-class audiences to regulated bouts.^[190] His 1903 rematch loss to Jeffries in 10 rounds further highlighted the physical demands of heavyweight professionalism, yet Corbett's post-fight vaudeville and film career bridged athletic prowess with entertainment, signaling boxers' emerging status as marketable professionals.^[190] The 1900s witnessed a broader amateur-to-professional shift, particularly in team sports like baseball, where figures such as Wagner thrived amid formalized leagues, while boxing fully embraced paid professionals; in contrast, Olympic track events retained strict amateur codes, as seen with Alvin Kraenzlein's four gold medals in hurdles and jumps at the 1900 Paris Games, though underlying commercialization pressures foreshadowed future erosions of amateur purity.^[159] This evolution prioritized skilled, compensated athletes over gentlemanly ideals, with Wagner and Corbett as archetypes of performers whose records—Wagner's 1,722 hits from 1900-1909 and Corbett's tactical legacy—drove fan engagement and revenue in burgeoning professional circuits.^[186]^[159]

Legacy and Historiography

Long-term impacts and achievements

The introduction of Max Planck's quantum hypothesis in 1900, which posited energy emission in discrete quanta to explain black-body radiation, laid the foundational principles for quantum mechanics, enabling subsequent developments in semiconductors, transistors, and microelectronics that underpin the global digital economy.^[191]^[192] This framework facilitated innovations such as integrated circuits by the mid-20th century, contributing to an estimated $5 trillion annual value in the semiconductor industry by 2023 through enhanced computing power and communication technologies.^[192] Albert Einstein's 1905 papers further advanced physical understanding, with the photoelectric effect explaining light's particle nature and earning him the 1921 Nobel Prize, while special relativity introduced concepts like mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²), influencing nuclear energy production and precise technologies such as GPS systems reliant on relativistic corrections.^[193] These contributions supported the Manhattan Project's atomic developments during World War II and postwar energy sectors, indirectly boosting global GDP through energy efficiency and technological exports valued in trillions over decades.^[193] The Wright brothers' first sustained powered flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk initiated the aviation era, evolving into commercial air travel that by 2023 carried over 4.5 billion passengers annually and generated $964 billion in economic impact worldwide.^[112]^[177] Similarly, Henry Ford's Model T, introduced in 1908 as an affordable vehicle produced via early mass methods, democratized personal mobility, spurring road infrastructure investments and suburban economies that expanded U.S. GDP by fostering consumer markets and supply chains.^[87] By 1927, over 15 million units sold transformed agricultural and industrial logistics, with assembly techniques diffusing globally to scale manufacturing productivity.^[194] Imperial-era infrastructure projects, including railways and ports constructed in regions like French West Africa and India during the 1900s, provided enduring transport networks that correlated with higher post-colonial development indicators, such as district-level GDP and urbanization rates into the 21st century.^[195] These investments, often exceeding $1 billion in equivalent modern value across colonies, enabled resource extraction and trade flows that persisted after independence, supporting absolute rises in living standards despite contemporaneous inequalities. Empirical analyses indicate such legacies accounted for up to 20-30% variance in modern economic outcomes in affected areas through sustained connectivity and agglomeration effects.^[196] Overall, these decade-spanning innovations diffused industrial models that propelled global prosperity, with per capita GDP worldwide rising from approximately $1,200 in 1900 to over $10,000 by 2000 in constant dollars, reflecting scaled productivity gains.^[196]

Historiographical debates and interpretations

Historiographical interpretations of early 20th-century imperialism frequently pit the "civilizing mission" rationale—embodied in infrastructure projects like railways that lowered trade costs, boosted European investment, and integrated African regions into global commerce—against exploitation-focused narratives dominant in postcolonial scholarship. Economic studies reveal that colonial railways from the 1900s onward facilitated urbanization, resource extraction, and trade expansion, with pre-railroad barriers rendering such growth improbable absent European initiative.^[197] ^[198] Mainstream academic historiography, often shaped by left-leaning institutional biases, prioritizes resistance and hybridization over these material gains, sidelining empirical evidence of institutional reforms that enhanced long-term connectivity.^[199] Debates on Progressive Era reforms, particularly antitrust enforcement via the Sherman Act of 1890, scrutinize their efficacy in dismantling monopolies, noting the persistence of concentrated industries despite interventions like the 1900s trust-busting campaigns. Historical assessments indicate that deconcentration efforts yielded few enduring structural changes, with dominant firms often reforming or evolving through market forces rather than regulatory fiat.^[200] Realist analyses argue that such persistence reflects natural economic efficiencies and self-correcting competition, rather than policy failures, countering progressive-era optimism for state-led redistribution of power. Interpretations of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) emphasize a meritocratic power transition, attributing Japan's victories to disciplined organization, adaptive strategies, and leadership merit honed through selective Western emulation, in contrast to Russia's logistical disarray and autocratic inertia. Military analyses highlight Japanese commanders' tactical prowess and national resolve as decisive, framing the outcome as validation of competence over imperial entitlement.^[201] This view challenges aggression-centric narratives, underscoring causal links between internal reforms and geopolitical ascent. Revisionist historiography on U.S. expansionism, such as the Philippine-American War (1899–1902), critiques left-leaning portrayals of American hypocrisy by drawing parallels to British imperial consolidation in Africa and Asia during the same era, where territorial control similarly blended strategic necessity with economic integration. Both empires pursued overseas influence amid industrial competition, yet U.S. actions face disproportionate moral condemnation in academia, ignoring Britain's unchallenged precedents in direct rule and resource leverage.^[202] ^[203] Such selectivity reflects ideological preferences for exceptionalist critiques over comparative realism.

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May 19, 2022 · The death of Queen Victoria (January 1901) · The assassination of President McKinley (September 1901) · The Boxer Rebellion comes to an end ( ...
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[PDF] US Historical Events from 1900 to Present - Baylor School
Read about major events in U.S. History from 1900–1949, including the San Francisco earthquake, Great Depression,. World War II, and more. 1900. Galveston ...
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Timeline of United States history (1900-1929)
1900s · - US population exceeds 75 million · - Foraker Act · - Gold Standard Act · - US helps put down Boxer Rebellion in China · - William McKinley assassinated · - ...
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Timeline: The Progressive Era to the New Era, 1900–1929
The Great Migration, in which about half a million African Americans moved to the urban North from the rural South, began about 1905 and ended around 1930.
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Does "nineteen-hundreds" refer to 1900–1909 or 1900–1999?
Aug 15, 2010 · 1900s (decade). Wikipedia claims that the term 1900s can either refer to the period between 01/01/1900 and 12/31/1909 or for the years 1900 ...Missing: naming historical
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What is the name of the first decade in a century?
Aug 16, 2010 · Those living in early twentieth century called the years 1900-1909 "The Aughts". This Wikipedia article provides some more context.Missing: 1910 | Show results with:1910
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Aught and naught, anything and nothing - Language Log
Jan 2, 2010 · ... nineteen hundreds" are usually just the years from 1900 to 1910. It ... nineteen-ohs). The one drawback is that the "ohs" alone ...Missing: pronunciation | Show results with:pronunciation
[11]
Does 'in the late 1900s' mean around 1908/1909 or about 1980 ...
May 29, 2021 · “The late 1900s” refers (as you suggest) to around 1908/1909. In every century the decade commencing with “00” (the hundreds) refers to the ...Why do all the centuries (10th, 15th, etc.) have off the grid dates? For ...In the early 1900s, did people refer to the decades in the 1800s by ...More results from www.quora.comMissing: contemporaneously | Show results with:contemporaneously
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Historical Estimates of World Population - U.S. Census Bureau
Dec 5, 2022 · 1,402, 1,260. 1900 AD, 1,550, 1,762, 1,633, 1,650, 1,710, 1,656, 1,625, 1,600, 1,550, 1,762, 1,650. 1910 AD, 1,750, 1,750. 1920 AD, 1,860, 1,860.
[13]
Over 2,000 Years of Economic History in One Chart - Visual Capitalist
Sep 8, 2017 · This simple chart. They include the colossal impact of the Industrial Revolution on the West, as well as the momentum behind the re-emergence of Asia.
[14]
Victoria (r. 1837-1901) | The Royal Family
Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, on 22 January 1901 after a reign which lasted almost 64 years, then the longest in British history. Her son ...
[15]
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/2000-years-economic-history-one-chart/
[16]
Theodore Roosevelt – The White House
Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the 26th and youngest President in the Nation's history (1901-1909). He brought new excitement and power to the office.
[17]
What You Need To Know About Pre-First World War Alliances
Europe in 1914 was an armed camp; its politics dominated by two rival alliances. The creation of a unified Germany in 1871 had disturbed the old 'balance of ...
[18]
History of technology - Automation, Digitalization, Robotics - Britannica
Sep 24, 2025 · The airplane, the rocket and interplanetary probes, electronics, atomic power, antibiotics, insecticides, and a host of new materials have all been invented ...
[19]
[XLS] Year 0 to 2100 - Population Division | - the United Nations
World population: estimates from year 0 to 2024, and medium-variant ... 1900, 1.65. 17, 1910, 1.75. 18, 1920, 1.86. 19, 1930, 2.07. 20, 1940, 2.3. 21, 1950 ...
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[PDF] World population 1800 1938 - Yale Department of Economics
World population, 1800-1900: a comparison with other estimates ... Durand, J.D. (1977) 'Historical estimates of world population' Population and Development ...
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US Population: From 1900 - Demographia
1910, 92,407,000, 1,917,000, 2.12%. 1909, 90,490,000, 1,780,000, 2.01%. 1908, 88,710,000 ... 76,094,000. 1 July Estimates Source: US Census Bureau. (c) 2001 www ...
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Historical Population Change Data (1910-2020) - U.S. Census Bureau
Apr 26, 2021 · While every census region grew considerably during the twentieth century, the South and West experienced the largest increases in population.Missing: world | Show results with:world
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The Early History of the Infant Mortality Rate in America
Feb 1, 1999 · Infant deaths within the first month of life (neonatal mortality) were attributed to prenatal factors and birth accidents; infant deaths in ...
[24]
A Brief History of Milk Hygiene and Its Impact on Infant Mortality from ...
Oct 1, 2018 · In European and American societies of the early and mid-19th century, infant mortality rates were 30- to 60-fold higher than the current rates ...
[25]
Learning From History About Reducing Infant Mortality
Between 1967 and 2015, infant mortality declined by 22.6 deaths per 1,000 live births among high‐income countries and by more than 100 deaths per 1,000 live ...
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History of Urban and Rural Areas - U.S. Census Bureau
Sep 3, 2024 · The 1920 census marked the first time in which over 50 percent of the U.S. population was defined as urban. Urban and Rural Distribution Map.
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Historical Census Statistics on Population, 1790 to 1990
Tables 1 - 65 show historical data by geographic area, with one table per area, from the earliest census year for which data are available to 1990. Appendix ...
[28]
Immigration to the USA: 1900-1920 - Spartacus Educational
Immigration to the USA: 1900-1920 ; 1900-1909, 8,202,388 ; 1910-1919, 6,347,380 ; 1920-1929, 4,295,510 ; 1930-1939, 699,375.
[29]
Immigrants in the Progressive Era - The Library of Congress
Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States. That was about equal to the number of immigrants who had arrived in the ...Missing: total | Show results with:total
[30]
Global Migration - Finance & Development, September 2006
In every New World country except Brazil, immigration rates far exceeded 50 per 1,000 in the decade of the 1900s. Migration rates of this size imply ...
[31]
[PDF] The Urban Mortality Transition and Poor-Country Urbanization
The Lower East Side in New York was the densest slum of the United States (140,000 in 1910). Other slums in rich cities were less dense: Les Halles in Paris ...
[32]
Slums and Slumming in Late-Victorian London
Oct 3, 2013 · London slums arose initially as a result of rapid population growth and industrialisation. They became notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary and squalid ...
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How Deadly Were Gotham's Tenements? Infectious Disease in the ...
Nov 6, 2023 · In fact, some of the most-dense tenement districts had the lowest infectious disease mortality in the entire city. This certainly suggests that ...
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Women and the vote - NZ History
Apr 27, 2023 · The suffrage campaign in New Zealand began as a far-flung branch of a broad late-19th-century movement for women's rights that spread through Britain and its ...
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200 Years of Labor History - National Park Service
Sep 5, 2025 · About 28,000 workers went on strike and it was deemed a success, as the workers were able to achieve an 8-hour workday. This event was ...
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FRB: Speech, Ferguson--Lessons from past productivity booms
Jan 4, 2004 · For the entire period from 1870 to 2003, labor productivity has risen at an average rate of around 2 percent per year. However, productivity ...
[37]
The Federation of Australia - Parliamentary Education Office
The Commonwealth of Australia was declared on 1 January 1901 at a ceremony held in Centennial Park in Sydney. During the ceremony, the first Governor-General, ...
[38]
Federation | National Museum of Australia
Jul 8, 2025 · Australia became a nation on 1 January 1901, when the British Parliament passed legislation enabling the six Australian colonies to ...
[39]
The October Manifesto - Alpha History
In February 1905, Nicholas II, seeking to alleviate some of this anger, agreed to consider proposals for State Duma to participate in government and law-making.
[40]
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/federation
[41]
Northern Securities Case - Theodore Roosevelt Center
The Northern Securities Case (1904), which established President Theodore Roosevelt's reputation as a “trust buster,” reached the Supreme Court in 1904.
[42]
Sherman Act - Theodore Roosevelt Center
This changed when, in 1902, President Roosevelt urged his Justice Department to dismantle the Northern Securities Corporation. This entity was a holding company ...
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3. Ottoman Empire (1908-1923) - University of Central Arkansas
The Sultan was forced to restore the 1876 constitution on July 24, 1908. ... The Turkish parliament convened with a Young Turk majority on December 17, 1908.
[45]
Ottoman Politics in the Arab Provinces and the CUP, 1908-1918
Mar 26, 2012 · The 1908 Young Turk revolution, which restored the Ottoman constitution and brought to power the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ushered ...
[46]
How the Young Turks became tyrants - Engelsberg Ideas
Apr 9, 2025 · On 24 July 1908, a wave of celebrations swept across the Ottoman Empire. ... Young Turks' central demand – to restore the Ottoman constitution.
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Northern Securities Co. v. United States | 193 U.S. 197 (1904)
The arrangement was an illegal combination in restraint of interstate commerce, and fell within the prohibitions and provisions of the act of July 2, 1890.
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Northern Securities Co v. United States - Constitution - LAWS.COM
Sep 10, 2023 · The Court determined that the company's merger violated antitrust laws and declared it void, dismantling the monopoly and reestablishing ...<|separator|>
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Part I: The 1906 Food and Drugs Act and Its Enforcement | FDA
Apr 24, 2019 · The 1906 Food and Drugs Act prohibited interstate transport of unlawful food and drugs, regulated labeling, and prohibited certain ingredients ...
[50]
Pure Food and Drugs - National Library of Medicine - NIH
The law forbade adulteration and misbranding of foods, drinks, and drugs in interstate commerce but contained few specific requirements to insure compliance.
[51]
Old Age Pensions Act 1908 | Schoolshistory.org.uk
Funding Old Age Pensions. The introduction of the scheme would place the Treasury under a huge financial burden. Suddenly it had to find large sums of money ...
[52]
1909 People's Budget - Journal of Liberal History
With its radical plans to redistribute the burden of tax and finance social provisions, such as old age pensions, the Budget was swiftly rejected by the ...
[53]
[PDF] Revolutionary Unions and French Labor - Libcom.org
Analysis of strike data also reveals that French workers accepted revo- lutionary syndicalist leadership in their strikes.
[54]
FRENCH LABOR TROUBLES; The Number of Strikes Is Increasing ...
PARIS, Dec. 12.-Just as the year 1900 is closing the French labor bureau authorities are publishing the advance sheets of the report on the strikes and ...
[55]
Strike Success and Union Ideology: The United States and France ...
Mar 3, 2009 · In France radical unions could win large-scale strikes by involving state officials. In contrast, American unions, facing a more hostile ...Missing: legalization | Show results with:legalization
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The Treaty of Portsmouth and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905
War casualties were high on both sides. At the battle over Mukden, the Russians lost 60,000 soldiers and the Japanese lost 41,000 soldiers. The military costs ...
[57]
Boxer Uprising to Cold War (1900-1949) - state.gov
After defeating the Boxers, the foreign powers forced the Qing to submit to a punitive settlement that included a huge indemnity ($333 million) to be paid to ...
[58]
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“Human bullets,” A Russo-Japanese War Photo Album
Jan 13, 2022 · During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) Japanese forces lost 85,600 men, while the Russian army incurred from 40,000 to 70,000 deaths. At ...
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Treaty of Portsmouth | Facts, Definition, & Significance - Britannica
Aug 29, 2025 · By the terms of the treaty, Russia agreed to surrender its leases on Port Arthur and the Liaodong Peninsula, to evacuate Manchuria, to cede the ...
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German-Herero conflict of 1904–07 - Britannica
German-Herero conflict of 1904–07, the conflict between the Herero people and German colonial troops in German South West Africa in 1904 and the ensuing ...
[62]
Herero Genocide in Namibia - Montreal Holocaust Museum
Between 1904 and 1908, more than 80% of the Herero population and 50% of the Nama population of Namibia was wiped out by German soldiers.Missing: outcomes | Show results with:outcomes
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Philippine-American War | Facts, History, & Significance - Britannica
Oct 11, 2025 · Of the 4,300 Americans lost, some 1,500 were killed in action, while nearly twice that number succumbed to disease.
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Philippine Insurrection, 1899-1902
Sep 25, 2023 · As many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, or disease as well. The conflict was brutal on both sides. U.S. forces at ...
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Boer War | National Army Museum
It lasted 217 days and was the longest of the war. By the time the town was relieved on 17 May, battle casualties on both sides had reached 463. Its relief led ...
[67]
The Peace of Vereeniging | History Today
On May 31st, 1902, the Peace of Vereeniging was signed, ending the Second Boer War between Britain and the two Afrikaner republics of Transvaal and the Orange ...
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Were the British concentration camps really necessary for their ...
Feb 24, 2020 · The concentration camps established during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) were therefore part of a common counterinsurgency approach and ...
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The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902 - Office of the Historian
As many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease. The decision by U.S. policymakers to annex the Philippines was not without ...Missing: infrastructure built
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[PDF] education for philippine pacification: how the us used education - DTIC
Dec 14, 2012 · Others acted as city workers and spent considerable effort building up the country's infrastructure such as roads, railroad tracks, and schools.Missing: casualties | Show results with:casualties
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The Rhetoric of the Moroccan Crises, 1905 and 1911
A crisis broke out over Morocco, which was resolved after Britain and other powers backed France against Germany.
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Impacts of European Imperialism in Africa - HISTORY CRUNCH
Sep 12, 2020 · The period of European imperialism in Africa was devastating for the African people and led to many hardships.
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[PDF] Colonialism and the African Experience - Higher Education | Pearson
Jan 18, 2012 · The third reason was based on imperialism, the desire by European ... Imperialism in Africa: The Rationale l05 colonialism. And to the ...Missing: critiques | Show results with:critiques<|separator|>
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Anarchist Incidents (1886-1920): Topics in Chronicling America
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Italian American assassinates Italian king | July 29, 1900 - History.com
Feb 9, 2010 · King Umberto I is shot to death by Gaetano Bresci, an Italian-born anarchist who resided in America before returning to his homeland to murder the king.
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President William McKinley is shot | September 6, 1901 - History.com
How the Assassination of McKinley Gave Birth to the Secret Service. After President McKinley was shot, Teddy Roosevelt became president and the first to have ...
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Our Protective Mission - Secret Service
Our protective mission dates back to 1901, after the assassination of President William McKinley. Following the tragedy the Secret Service was authorized to ...Protecting Leaders · Safeguarding Places · Securing EventsMissing: effect | Show results with:effect
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Vyacheslav Plehve - Spartacus Educational
In the midst of Russian military defeat Plehve, the reactionary Minister of the Interior, was assassinated by a member of the Terrorist Brigade of the Socialist ...
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Sergei Alexandrovich, Grand Duke - Nicholas II
Jul 5, 2025 · ... assassination of the grand duke on 17th February (O.S. 4th February) 1905. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1857-1905) was a son of Emperor ...
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Hit or Miss? The Effect of Assassinations on Institutions and War†
This paper examines the effect of assassination on the evolution of political insti- tutions and military conflict. Using a novel dataset of assassinations and ...
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The decline of anarchist terrorism, 1900–1930s (Chapter 10)
During the 1890s clumsy and excessive Italian policies of repression had politicized anarchist violence, creating martyrs and a thirst for revenge that in 1900 ...
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[PDF] GDP-REAL GROWTH BY DECADE - Crestmont Research
GDP PER. BY DECADE NOMINAL. REAL. INFLATION. LATION. CAPITA. 1900s. 5.3%. 3.9%. 1.4%. 1.9%. 1.9%. 1910s. 10.0%. 2.9%. 7.1%. 1.5 ... GDP-REAL GROWTH BY DECADE. AVG ...Missing: 1900-1909 | Show results with:1900-1909
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United States Steel: The First Billion Dollar Company? - Finaeon
Dec 23, 2023 · From 1875 to 1920 American steel production grew from 380,000 tons to 60 million tons annually. At a dinner held on December 12, 1900, honoring ...
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Oil and Texas: A Cultural History | TX Almanac
Texas oil production was 836,039 barrels in 1900. In 1902, Spindletop alone produced more than 17 million barrels, or 94 percent of the state's production.
[85]
The Ford Model T | Articles | Ford Motor Company
The Model T was introduced to the world in 1908. Henry Ford wanted the Model T to be affordable, simple to operate, and durable. The vehicle was one of the ...
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Commerce of the World in 1910
In 1910, world commerce was valued at 32,400 million dollars, a 50% increase from 1900. Over half of trade was with Great Britain, Germany, United States, ...
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The Panama Canal and Its Impact on Modern Transportation
Jun 11, 2019 · In May 1904, Panama granted the United States the right to build and operate a canal and control approximately five miles of land on either side ...
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The Rubber Industry | World History - Lumen Learning
In the 1890's, rubber saw a major price boom with the invention of inflatable rubber bicycle tubes and the growing popularity of the automobile.
[89]
The Panic of 1907 | Federal Reserve History
The New York Stock Exchange remained open largely because of the legendary actions of Morgan, who solicited cash from large financial and industrial ...
[90]
[PDF] The Evolution of the International Monetary System: Historical ...
The reconciliation of high rates of economic growth with exchange-rate and gold-price stability was made possible indeed by the rapid growth and proper manage-.
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Bank Panic of 1907: Causes, Effects, and Importance - Investopedia
Without a government central bank to fall back on, U.S. financial markets were bailed out from the crisis by personal funds, guarantees, and top financiers and ...
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Before the Fed: The Historical Precedents of the Federal Reserve ...
In 1908, Congress passed the Aldrich-Vreeland Act to establish the National Monetary Commission. The commission's charge was to assess the recent panic and ...Missing: hazard | Show results with:hazard
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[PDF] Some Historical Reflections on the Governance of the Federal ...
A key difference between the Federal Reserve Act and the Aldrich plan was that the individual Federal Reserve Banks set their own discount rates (subject to ...
[94]
[PDF] The Promise and Performance of the Federal Reserve as Lender of ...
Oct 15, 2010 · ... Bank rarely discounted paper that would be subject to moral hazard. ... Aldrich plan was that the individual Federal Reserve Banks set their.
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[PDF] The Payne-Aldrich Tariff - Loyola eCommons
Jul 31, 2022 · The Payne-Aldrich Tariff was a bill with maximum and minimum provisions, passed after a general revision downward, and was unsatisfactory to ...
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On This Day: October 2, 1909 - The New York Times Web Archive
The Republican-controlled Congress passed the Payne-Aldrich Act, which lowered the overall tariff rate by only five percent and raised rates on crucial ...
[97]
[PDF] document resume - ERIC
It supplies quantitative documentation of a pronunced secular swing in inequality. Inequality indicators were-on the rise up to 1914, exhibited no trend to 1926 ...Missing: absolute | Show results with:absolute
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[PDF] Real Wages and Relative Factor Prices in the Third World 1820-1940
First, there was no real wage growth between 1830 and 1870 in Spain or between 1850 and 1870 in Portugal: thus, the wage gap between Iberia and Britain ...
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1900 - 1909 - Magnet Academy - National MagLab
Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity and his theory on the quantum nature of light, which he identified as both a particle and a wave.Missing: key | Show results with:key
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[PDF] ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES - Fourmilab
This edition of Einstein's On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies is based on the English translation of his original 1905 German-language paper. (published as ...
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Special relativity explained — Einstein's mind-bending theory of ...
May 12, 2025 · Albert Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity revolutionized modern physics. This groundbreaking theory explains how speed affects mass, ...Key concepts of special relativity · How did Einstein develop... · Why time is relative
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Ernest Rutherford – Nobel Lecture - NobelPrize.org
Further experiments showed that when the a-particles were fired through the glass walls into a thin sheet of lead or tin, helium could always be obtained from ...
[103]
May, 1911: Rutherford and the Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus
May 1, 2006 · Rutherford's explanation, which he published in May 1911, was that the scattering was caused by a hard, dense core at the center of the atom–the nucleus.
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A Brief History of Human Blood Groups - PMC - NIH
Landsteiner in his 17th scientific paper in 1901 reported blood group ABO which was displayed at the beginning with the letters ABC. In 1930, he received the ...
[105]
Physiology or Medicine 1930 - Presentation Speech - NobelPrize.org
Landsteiner published his discovery that in man, blood types could be classified into three groups according to their different agglutinating properties.
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history of biology 1900-1919 - Normale sup
Aug 24, 2025 · 1901 Jokichi Takamine (Takaoka, Japan, 1854 - 1922) discovers and names epinephrine (later adrenaline), the main surrenal hormone. 1901 William ...
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First radio transmission sent across the Atlantic Ocean - History.com
Marconi's greatest achievement came on December 12, 1901, when he received a message sent from England at St. John's, Newfoundland. The transatlantic ...
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Milestones:Reception of Transatlantic Radio Signals, 1901
At Signal Hill on December 12, 1901, Guglielmo Marconi and his assistant, George Kemp, confirmed the reception of the first transatlantic radio signals.Missing: impact | Show results with:impact
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Marconi and the South Wellfleet Wireless - National Park Service
Apr 6, 2017 · By 1901, Marconi achieved a range of 200 miles. Wireless telegraphy was suddenly the rage of Europe – and then of America. On December 12, 1901 ...
[110]
1903 Wright Flyer | National Air and Space Museum
Jun 2, 2022 · It first flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, with Orville at the controls. Date. 1903. Country of Origin. United States of ...The Wright Brothers · The Wright Brothers Made... · Reserve Free Passes
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1903-The First Flight - Wright Brothers National Memorial (U.S. ...
Orville Wright first flew on December 17, 1903, at 10:35, reaching 34 mph airspeed and 6.8 mph groundspeed, flying 120 feet. The machine was damaged after the ...
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December 17, 1903 - Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company
It landed 852 feet and 59 seconds from its starting point, snapping the elevator support but otherwise unharmed. Wilbur and Orville were satisfied. The Flyer ...
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The Wright Brothers Made History at Kitty Hawk
Jun 23, 2022 · On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first powered, controlled flight of a heavier-than-air machine, the Flyer, in Kitty Hawk. ...
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Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft on ...Missing: adoption | Show results with:adoption
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The Curved Dash Oldsmobile - R.E. Olds Transportation Museum
The Curved Dash is considered to be the first high production automobile. 1901 was the first full year of production for this vehicle.
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The Curved Dash Oldsmobile - Henry Ford Museum
The engine's simplicity and the vehicle's affordable $650 price made the Curved Dash runabout America's first car produced in large numbers.
[117]
Oldsmobile History Curved Dash
Ransom Eli Olds introduced his simple little Curved Dash Oldsmobile in 1901 and sold it for a relatively inexpensive $650.
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1904 Oldsmobile Curved Dash - Audrain Auto Museum
Nov 12, 2022 · The Curved Dash was not the most powerful automobile, lacking a speedometer and tachometer, it proved its value on the assembly line.<|separator|>
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Bakelite® First Synthetic Plastic - American Chemical Society
The introduction of Bakelite® the world's first synthetic plastic—in 1907 marked the introduction of the Polymer Age. Contents. Age of Polymers and Plastics ...Missing: impact | Show results with:impact
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History and Future of Plastics
The Development of New Plastics. In 1907 Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, meaning it contained no molecules found in nature.
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History of plastics - Plastics Europe
A key breakthrough came in 1907, when Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first real synthetic, mass-produced plastic. Since ...
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Bakelite: The Vintage Plastic that Shaped the Future
Apr 9, 2024 · Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1907, launching the modern plastics industry and revolutionizing manufacturing processes and ...
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Bakelite, "The Material of a Thousand Uses" - Henry Ford Museum
When Leo Baekeland finally succeeded in developing the first chemically synthetic plastic in 1907, he knew he'd created a versatile material with broad appeal.<|separator|>
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Heart of Darkness | Summary, Characters, Analysis, & Facts
Sep 22, 2025 · Heart of Darkness is a novella by Joseph Conrad that was first published in 1899. It examines the horrors of Western colonialism, ...
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How Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' Led to US Food Safety Reforms
May 10, 2023 · When Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906, the novel became an instant sensation, exposing the horrifying conditions in America's meat-processing ...
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Rudyard Kipling – Biographical - NobelPrize.org
Other works include The Second Jungle Book (1895), The Seven Seas (1896), Captains Courageous (1897), The Day's Work (1898), Stalky and Co. (1899), Just So ...
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The Nobel Prize in Literature 1907 - NobelPrize.org
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1907 was awarded to Rudyard Kipling in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas.
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Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 by Pablo Picasso
This painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, was painted in 1907 and is the most famous example of cubism painting.
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A Brief Timeline of 20th Century Visual Art Movements | TheCollector
Feb 19, 2020 · A comprehensive list of the most well-known visual art movements during the 20th century, spanning two world wars and several cultural revolutions.
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How the Phonograph Changed Music Forever
During the first two decades of the phonograph—from 1890 to 1910—the number of music teachers and performers per capita in the U.S. rose by 25 percent, as Katz ...
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History of Ragtime | Articles and Essays - Library of Congress
By 1914 "Maple Leaf Rag" had sold 1 million copies and Stark had amassed over 50 rags in his catalog.
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A New Orleans Jazz History, 1895-1927 - National Park Service
The early development of jazz in New Orleans is most associated with the popularity of bandleader Charles "Buddy" Bolden, an "uptown" cornetist.
[133]
Edwin S. Porter. The Great Train Robbery. 1903 - MoMA
An 11-minute-long escapade telling the story of a gang of bandits who rob a passenger train, The Great Train Robbery is a spectacle- and drama-laden film.
[134]
A Timeline of Vaudeville - Travalanche - WordPress.com
May 27, 2015 · This is not a coincidence. 1901: Percy Williams opens his first theatre in Brooklyn. 1904: Alexander Pantages opens his second Seattle Theatre, ...
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Merry Widow (20-21) - Metropolitan Opera
Such is the conundrum facing Hanna Glawari, the “merry widow” at the heart of Franz Lehár's effervescent operetta. ... First performed December 30, 1905, at the ...
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1900-1909 | Fashion History Timeline
Subtle changes in silhouette occurred in womenswear until the tubular shape of the 1910s was beginning to emerge by the end of the decade.
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What Went Where? Edwardian Lingerie and How to Wear It.
Dec 11, 2019 · For the first time in history, women's underthings (including corsets) were being mass-produced in factories and offered (often in mail-order ...
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Edwardian Skirts History - 1900 - 1910s - Vintage Dancer
May 3, 2021 · Edwardian skirt shapes transitioned from narrow, to wide, to narrow, to wide again in a span of 20 years. Let's explore these transitions in more detail.
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Food processing: a century of change - Oxford Academic
In. 1900, these fresh and processed foods, and the food ingredients were essentially commodities, going on to wholesale markets and thence to retailers and ...
[140]
Corn Flake Innovation and the Battling Brothers Behind the ...
Sep 27, 2017 · 1. In 1906, corn flakes were considered a major innovation. Prior to 1906, Americans ate a diet consisting of greasy foods, such as canned ...
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(DOC) Social Class and Dietary Differences in Chicago about the ...
... working-class diet was rich in energy but short on variety. The average energy intake of 3566 Calories per day exceeded elite averages by a considerable margin.
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[PDF] The British Working Class, Food Controls, and The First World War
Simon Litman records that food comprised 61% of the average working-class family's spending in 1904, the rest going towards rent, soap, and onetime expenses.
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United States electricity history in four charts - Visualizing Energy
Feb 21, 2023 · Energy use from all sources in the United States increased fourfold from 1920 to 2021. But the end use of electricity increased more than one hundred-fold over ...
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Electricity Consumption: Culture, Gender and Power - Energy History
In 1910, one in seven American home were wired for electricity. By 1930, that number had risen to seven in ten. In the process, more Americans began ...Missing: 1900-1909 statistics
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Paris 1900 Olympic Games | Second of the Modern ... - Britannica
Oct 17, 2025 · Archery, football (soccer), rowing, and equestrian events were among those introduced at the 1900 Games. Women, competing in sailing, lawn ...Missing: key | Show results with:key
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St. Louis 1904 Olympic Games | History, Events, & Results | Britannica
St. Louis 1904 Olympic Games was an athletic festival held in St. Louis, Missouri, that took place July 1–November 23, 1904.
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The Birth of the Tour de France - History.com
Jun 28, 2013 · On July 1, 1903, 60 men mounted their bicycles outside the Café au Reveil Matin in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron.
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1903 World Series - Boston Americans over Pittsburgh Pirates (5-3)
1903 World Series - Boston Americans over Pittsburgh Pirates (5-3) series statistics and schedule on Baseball-Reference.com.
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Ashes History 1901-1925 - CricTotal.com
The Ashes, one of the oldest international cricket series. Here, you will be able to explore history of Ashes Cricket Game from 1901-1925.<|control11|><|separator|>
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Cy Young Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More
Cy Young. Position: Pitcher. Bats: Right • Throws: Right. 6-2, 210lb (188cm, 95kg). Born: March 29, 1867 in Gilmore, OH us.
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Cy Young - Society for American Baseball Research
Jan 4, 2012 · Young's greatest achievement may have come on May 5, 1904, when at the age of 37 he pitched the first perfect game in American League history — ...
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Jack Johnson | Biography, Record, Pardon, & Facts | Britannica
Oct 2, 2025 · He won the title by knocking out champion Tommy Burns in Sydney on December 26, 1908, and lost it on a knockout by Jess Willard in 26 rounds in ...Missing: 1900-1909 | Show results with:1900-1909
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Jack Johnson: A Heavyweight Boxer That Defied America
He swiftly rose to prominence in the world of boxing, capturing the World Colored Heavyweight title in 1903. However, his white opponents persistently dismissed ...Missing: 1900-1909 | Show results with:1900-1909
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Johnson, Jack - Texas State Historical Association
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The 1900s Sports: Headline Makers | Encyclopedia.com
Charles Daniels (1885–1973) Charles Daniels was America's best and most famous swimmer of the early 1900s. He was an Olympic champion in 1904, 1906, and 1908.Missing: 1900-1909 | Show results with:1900-1909
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1900 Storm | Galveston & Texas History Center
Although its death toll will never be known precisely, the 1900 Storm claimed upwards of 8,000 lives on Galveston Island and several thousand more on the ...Missing: major | Show results with:major
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Pelée - Global Volcanism Program
Pierre housed one of the only two survivors of the 8 May 1902, eruption of Mount Pelée. Devastating pyroclastic flows and surges swept down the SW flank of ...
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Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake
Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake · Dead - More than 3,000 · Homeless - 225,000 · Buildings Destroyed - 28,000 · Monetary Loss - More than $400 ...
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Human responses to the 1906 eruption of Vesuvius, southern Italy
This led to roof collapse and a large number of fatalities. There was increased lava emission and a flow progressed south through the outskirts of Boscotrecase ...
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M 7.1 - The 1908 Messina, Italy Earthquake and Tsunami
72,000 deaths. Over 40% of the population of Messina and more than 25% of Reggio di Calabria killed by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as by fires in some ...
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Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States
The three worst coal mine disasters in U.S. history ; 1909, 11/13, Cherry Mine, Cherry, Illinois, Fire ; 1907, 12/06, Monongah Nos. 6 and 8, Monongah, West ...
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Deadliest Workplace Accidents | American Experience - PBS
An explosion at Fraterville Coal Mine takes the lives of at least 184 men and boys. The cause was most likely a build up of methane gas. December 6, 1907
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[PDF] Underground Coal Mine Disasters 1900 - 2010
The authors suggest that a key factor in meeting the goal of increasing successful mine escape and rescue while decreasing fatalities and injuries lies in the ...
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Jan 2, 2009 · During a 5-month period in 2006, three underground coal mining incidents in the United States resulted in the deaths of 19 miners.
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Nov 8, 2013 · Like many other financial panics, including the most recent one, the Panic of 1907 took place while the economy was weakening; according to the ...Missing: causes | Show results with:causes
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Sep 29, 2021 · The Panic of 1907 was the 20 th century's first global financial crisis and took place in the United States in October and November of that year.
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Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) The Conservation President
Theodore Roosevelt established approximately 230 million acres of public lands between 1901 and 1909, including 150 national forests.Missing: key | Show results with:key
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Theodore Roosevelt | whitehouse.gov - Obama White House
He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War, reached a Gentleman's Agreement on immigration with Japan, and sent the Great White Fleet on ...Missing: key | Show results with:key
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Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation - National Park Service
Nov 16, 2017 · After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt used his authority to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest ...
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Naval Race Between Britain & Germany Before World War 1
This was, to a large extent, the outcome of the policies pursued by Germany's leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II – most notably his eagerness to build a battle fleet to ...Missing: 1900-1909 | Show results with:1900-1909
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Naval Race between Germany and Great Britain, 1898-1912
Jan 11, 2015 · Driven by a desire to make the German Empire a viable world power and an integral industrial nation, the Navy Bills of 1898 and 1900 laid out ...
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Emperor Meiji and the Meiji Restoration: Japan's Modern ... - Artelino
Aug 21, 2025 · Under Emperor Meiji, Japan fought and won the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). These victories proved the ...Missing: outcomes | Show results with:outcomes
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The Meiji Restoration and Modernization - Asia for Educators
Japan strengthened itself enough to remain a sovereign nation in the face of Western colonizing powers and indeed became a colonizing power itself. During the ...
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120 Years Ago: The First Powered Flight at Kitty Hawk - NASA
Dec 14, 2023 · On Dec. 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright completed the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft known ...
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The 1905 Papers - Annus Mirabilis of Albert Einstein
Jul 7, 2025 · The Special Theory of Relativity also theorizes about what happens to objects when they travel near the speed of light (space contracts and ...
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Quantum Milestones, 1905: Einstein and the Photoelectric Effect
Jan 22, 2025 · In March 1905, Einstein—still a lowly patent clerk in Switzerland—published a paper explaining the photoelectric effect. Five years earlier, Max ...
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MARIE CURIE - NobelPrize.org
She discovered polonium and radium, championed the use of radiation in medicine and fundamentally changed our understanding of radioactivity.
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Chronology of twentieth-century science
Key 20th-century science events include: quantum theory (1900), human blood groups (1901), relativity (1905), atomic nucleus (1911), penicillin (1928), and the ...Missing: inventors | Show results with:inventors
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John Singer Sargent, Lady Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon
Jan 31, 2020 · Today Sargent is hailed as a pioneer of portrait painting, and his work can be seen internationally. ... In 1900-1909, 1910-1919, 20th century, ...
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Unit 5: European and American Art Music Since 1900
Jul 15, 2023 · Pablo Picasso (1881–1973): Spanish-born artist, active chiefly in France. James Joyce (1882–1941): Irish novelist.Missing: prominent | Show results with:prominent
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How Thomas Edison (Sort-of) Created Hollywood
Edison and his cronies had pushed filmmakers out to Hollywood, with the result that Hollywood ended up as the center of the movie business.
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Honus Wagner - BR Bullpen - Baseball-Reference.com
Jul 4, 2025 · Notable Achievements[edit] · 8-time NL Batting Average Leader (1900, 1903, 1904, 1906-1909 & 1911) · 4-time NL On-Base Percentage Leader (1904 & ...<|separator|>
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Honus Wagner | Licensing Baseball Hall of Fame Legend | Official ...
Wagner's crowning achievement came in 1909 when he led the Pittsburgh Pirates to their first World Series championship. His performance in that series, and ...
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Honus Wagner - The Baseball Scholar
Jan 10, 2025 · He led the league in batting average eight times (1900, 1903, 1904, 1906–1909, 1911), a record that stood for decades and remains one of his ...
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May 11, 1900: Jeffries vs Corbett I - The Fight City
Jeffries vs Corbett I: Recalling the first James J. Jeffries vs "Gentleman Jim" Corbett bout, which was decided by a single blow in round 23.
[189]
James J. Corbett - IBHOF.com
In 1900, Corbett challenged heavyweight king James J. Jeffries -- who was his former sparring partner -- and was knocked out in the 23rd round. They fought ...
[190]
Max Planck: the reluctant revolutionary - Physics World
Dec 1, 2000 · Quantum theory did not owe its origin to any failure of classical physics, but instead to Planck's profound insight in thermodynamics. The ...
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Energy in packets – What did Planck discover?
Max Planck established a radiation law that corresponded to these measurements. He unintentionally triggered a revolution in physics through his findings.
[192]
How Einstein Changed the World | Scientific American
Sep 1, 2015 · And to cap it off, in September 1905 Einstein derived a consequence of special relativity, an equation that would become the world's most famous ...<|separator|>
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Ten Ways the Model T Changed the World - Assembly Magazine
Sep 2, 2008 · The Model T brought mobility and prosperity on an undreamed of scale through manufacturing efficiencies at a price that anyone could afford.
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[PDF] The Long-Term Impact of Colonial Public Investments in French ...
Results show that colonial public investments have been a strong determinant of current districts' development. Colonial investments in a certain type of ...<|separator|>
[195]
The economic impact of colonialism - CEPR
Jan 30, 2017 · In consequence colonialism drove economic development in some parts of Europe and retarded it in others. Colonialism did not, however ...
[196]
An economic rationale for the African scramble - CEPR
Jul 14, 2015 · Colonial control facilitated the construction of railways, induced large inflows of European investment, and forced profound changes in the ...
[197]
[PDF] Colonialism and Economic Development in Africa
Europeans brought technology, such as railways and mining techniques and integrated their colonies more fully into world trade taking advantage of existing.
[198]
Colonial History and Historiography
### Summary of Historiographical Debates on European Colonialism in Africa Around 1900
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[PDF] The Troubled Past and Uncertain Future of the Sherman Act as a ...
The Sherman Act's deconcentration efforts have largely failed, with costly defeats and inconsequential victories, and even some legal victories resulting in ...
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The Russo-Japanese War—Primary Causes of Japanese Success
Japanese leaders, with little experience in international issues, raised the nation's stature, developed appropriate strategies, showed excellent qualities of ...
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British And American 'Imperialisms' Compared - History News Network
Jul 19, 2006 · The imperialism with which modern American foreign policy is most often compared is Britain's from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries: ...Missing: 20th historiography
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Empire by Imitation? - Imperial & Global Forum
Mar 21, 2018 · US Economic Imperialism within a British World System. Historians have been busy chipping away at the myth of the exceptional American Empire, ...
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1900 Census: Volume I. Population, Part 1
Official U.S. Census Bureau report detailing the population from the 1900 census, confirming the total resident population as 76,212,168.
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Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake
USGS report on casualties from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, estimating more than 3,000 deaths.