1906 in the United States explained

Events from the year 1906 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Theodore Roosevelt (R-New York)
• Vice President: Charles W. Fairbanks (R-Indiana)
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-Illinois)
• Congress: 59th

Events

January–March

• January 8  - A landslide in Haverstraw, New York kills 21 people.
• February 26  - Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, a novel depicting the life of a contemporary immigrant family in Chicago working in the meat packing industry.
• March 4  - Native American tribal governments are terminated in Indian Territory, a prerequisite for creating the U.S. state of Oklahoma in 1907.

April–June

• April 5  - The Maryland General Assembly authorises the erection of the Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Baltimore.
• April 14  - The first service is held at African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles by W. J. Seymour, in a series later known as the Azusa Street Revival, an event which launches the Pentecostal movement in Christianity.
• April 18  - The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000 people, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350,000,000 in damages.
• May 27  - The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
• June  - Josephine Terranova is acquitted by a New York City jury of the murder of abusive relatives.^[1]
• June 6  - Durham and Southern Railway operates its first revenue train, Bonsal to Durham, North Carolina.
• June 8  - Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the president to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
• June 18  - The Lake County Times (later The Times of Northwest Indiana) begins publication.
• June 25  - Harry K. Thaw shoots architect Stanford White at the roof garden theatre of Madison Square Garden (designed by White) in New York City.
• June 28  - Osage Allotment Act allocates land to members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma.
• June 29  - Mesa Verde is declared a National Park.
• June 30  - The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

July–September

• July 11  - Murder of Grace Brown, a factory worker whose killing causes a nationwide sensation.
• July 14  - Gary, Indiana is founded by the United States Steel Corporation.
• August 23  - Unable to control a rebellion in the newly formed Cuban Republic, President Tomás Estrada Palma requests U.S. intervention.
• September 5  - Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University throws the first legal forward pass in an American football game.
• September 22  - Atlanta race riot: Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia result in 27 people killed and the Black-owned business district severely damaged.
• September 24  - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower, Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument.
• September 26  - The first concert of the Telharmonium, the first music synthesizer, is presented at Telharmonic Hall, Broadway at 39th St., New York City.
• September 30  - The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England, UK.

October–December

• October 1  - The Madeira School, a private boarding school for girls, opens with 28 students attending classes in two buildings on 19th Street, just off Dupont Circle in downtown Washington, D.C.
• October 11  - The San Francisco public school board sparks a United States diplomatic crisis with Japan, by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
• October 14  - The Chicago White Sox win their First World Series by defeating their crosstown rival Chicago Cubs 4 games to 2 at South Side Park (III)
• November 6  - B. B. Comer is elected the 33rd governor of Alabama defeating Asa E. Stratton.
• November 9  - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal (the first time a sitting president of the United States makes an official trip outside of the United States).
• December 4  - Alpha Phi Alpha, the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter Fraternity established for African Americans, is founded at Cornell University.
• December 8  - The Petrified Forest, Arizona is designated a National Monument.
• December 10  - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War (1905).

Undated

• The muffuletta sandwich is invented in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• Black Patch Tobacco Wars (1904–1909)^[2]

Births

January–February

• January 7
  • Red Allen, trumpet player (died 1967)
  • Bobbi Trout, pilot (died 2003)
• January 14  - William Bendix, actor (died 1964)
• January 22  - Robert E. Howard, pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)
• February 4  - Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer (died 1997)
• February 10
  • Lon Chaney Jr., actor (died 1973)
  • Erik Rhodes, actor (died 1990)
• February 17  - Elizabeth M. Ramsey research physician (died 1993)
• February 20  - John Kenley, theatrical producer (died 2009)^[3]
• February 28  - Bugsy Siegel, gangster (killed 1947)

March–April

• March 4  - Charles Rudolph Walgreen Jr., businessman (died 2007)
• March 6  - Lou Costello, actor and comedian, half of Abbott & Costello team (died 1959)
• March 20  - Ozzie Nelson, actor and band leader (died 1975)
• March 26  - H. Radclyffe Roberts, entomologist and museum administrator (died 1982)
• April 4  - John Cameron Swayze, journalist (died 1995)
• April 22  - Eddie Albert, actor (died 2005)
• April 24  - William Joyce, fascist propagandist (executed 1946 in the United Kingdom)
• April 25  - William J. Brennan, Supreme Court Justice (died 1997)

May–June

• May 3  - Mary Astor, actress and writer (died 1987)
• May 11
  • Jacqueline Cochran, aviator (died 1980)
  • Ethel Weed, promoter of women's rights in Japan (died 1975)
  • Richard Arvin Overton, American war veteran (WWII) (died 2018)
• May 12  - Maurice Ewing, geophysicist and oceanographer (died 1974)
• May 19  - Bruce Bennett, athlete and actor (died 2007)^[4]
• May 23  - Allan Scott, screenwriter (died 1995)
• May 28  - Phil Regan, actor (died 1996)
• June 3  - Josephine Baker, actress (died 1975 in France)
• June 19  - Earl W. Bascom, rodeo pioneer, artist, inventor (died 1995)
• June 22  - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and aviator (died 2001)
• June 26  - Viktor Schreckengost, industrial designer (died 2008)

July–August

• July 1  - Estée Lauder, cosmetics entrepreneur (died 2004)
• July 7  - Satchel Paige, baseball player (died 1982)
• July 18  - S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-born American academic and politician, U.S. Senator from California from 1977 to 1983 (died 1992)
• August 6  - Vic Dickenson, trombonist (died 1984)
• August 9  - Robert L. Surtees, cinematographer (died 1985)
• August 12  - Tedd Pierce, animator (died 1972)
• August 17  - Hazel Bishop, chemist and inventor of "no-smear" lipstick (died 1998)
• August 19  - Philo Farnsworth, American inventor and television pioneer (died 1971)
• August 27  - Ed Gein, serial killer (died 1984)

September–October

• September 5  - Shimon Agranat, American-born president of the Supreme Court of Israel (died 1992)
• September 17
  • Raymond D. Mindlin, mechanician (died 1987)
  • Edgar Wayburn, environmentalist (died 2010)^[5]
• September 21  - Henry Beachell, plant breeder (died 2006)^[6]
• September 27  - Alma Vessells John, nurse, broadcast personality and civil rights activist (died 1986)
• October 6  - Janet Gaynor, actress (died 1984)
• October 7  - James E. Webb, government administrator (died 1992)
• October 15
  • Hiram Fong, businessman and U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1959 to 1977 (died 2004)
  • Alicia Patterson, newspaper editor (died 1963)
• October 23  - Gertrude Ederle, swimmer (died 2003)
• October 27  - Earle Cabell, politician (died 1975)

November–December

• November 1  - Johnny Indrisano, boxer and actor (died 1968)
• November 5  - Fred Lawrence Whipple, astronomer (died 2004)
• November 14  - Louise Brooks, actress (died 1985)
• November 15  - Curtis LeMay, U.S.A.F. general, vice-presidential candidate (died 1990)
• November 18  - George Wald, scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1997)
• December 9  - Grace Hopper, computer scientist and naval officer (died 1992)
• December 11  - Herman Welker, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1951 to 1957 (died 1957)
• December 27  - Oscar Levant, pianist, composer, author, comedian and actor (died 1972)

Deaths

• January 25
  • John S. Harris, United States Senator from Louisiana from 1868 till 1871 (born 1825)
  • Joseph Wheeler, U.S. Army general and politician (born 1836)
• February 9  - Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet and publisher (born 1872)
• February 18  - John B. Stetson, hat manufacturer and inventor of the cowboy hat (born 1830)
• February 27  - Samuel Pierpont Langley, astronomer, physicist and aeronautics pioneer (born 1834)
• March 4  - John Schofield, 28th United States Secretary of War and Commanding General of the United States Army (born 1831)
• March 13  - Susan B. Anthony, civil rights and women's suffrage activist (born 1820)
• April 11
  • James Anthony Bailey, circus ringmaster (born 1847)
  • Francis Pharcellus Church, editor and publisher (born 1839)
• April 24  - Mary Hunt, temperance activist (born 1830)
• April 25  - John Knowles Paine, composer (born 1839)
• May 12  - Gabriel C. Wharton, civil engineer and Confederate general (born 1824)
• May 14  - Carl Schurz, German-born statesman (born 1829)
• May 15  - John K. Bucklyn, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1834)
• June 17  - Harry Nelson Pillsbury, chess champion (born 1872)
• June 25  - Stanford White, architect (born 1853)
• September 20  - Robert R. Hitt, 13th Assistant Secretary of State (born 1834)
• September 21  - Samuel Arnold, conspirator involved in the plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 (born 1834)
• October 6  - Buck Ewing, American baseball player New York Giants and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1859)
• October 9  - Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire (born 1813)
• October 16  - Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (born 1826)
• October 17  - James D. Walker, United States Senator from Arkansas from 1879 till 1885 (born 1830)
• November 4  - John H. Ketcham, politician (born 1832)
• November 23  - Willard Warner, United States Senator from Alabama from 1868 till 1871 (born 1826)
• December 12  - Arthur Brown, United States Senator from Utah from 1896 till 1897 (born 1843)
• December 22  - Richard S. Rust, abolitionist (born 1815)
• December 30  - Thomas M. Bowen, United States Senator from Colorado from 1883 till 1889 (born 1835)
• December 31  - Donelson Caffery, United States Senator from Louisiana from 1892 till 1901 (born 1835)

See also

• List of American films of 1906
• Timeline of United States history (1900–1929)

References

1. "Josephine Terranova Promptly Acquitted", Boston Daily Globe, June 2, 1906.
2. Gregory . Rick . Robertson County and the Black Patch War, 1904-1909 . Tennessee Historical Quarterly . 1980 . 39 . 3 . 341–358 . 42626100 . 0040-3261.
3. Web site: October 30, 2009. Summer Theater Producer John Kenley Dies at 103. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160814120555/http://www.backstage.com/news/summer-theater-producer-john-kenley-dies-at-103/. August 14, 2016. Backstage. January 11, 2016.
4. Web site: Olympian and actor Herman Brix dies . March 3, 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070307172906/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070301/ap_en_mo/run_obit_brix . March 7, 2007. . Associated Press. March 1, 2007.
5. News: 'Towering' Conservationist Edgar Wayburn, Dies at 103 . March 9, 2010 . Environment News Service. https://web.archive.org/web/20130127030412/https://ens-newswire.com/2010/03/10/towering-conservationist-edgar-wayburn-dies-at-103/. January 27, 2013.
6. Web site: Dr. Henry Monroe "Hank" Beachell Obituary (2006) Lincoln Journal Star. .