August 1900 Explained
The following events occurred in August 1900:
Wednesday, August 1, 1900
Thursday, August 2, 1900
- Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Persia (now Iran), survived an assassination attempt while visiting Paris. The Shah hit the assailant on the head with a cane and his Grand Vizier, Ali Asghar Khan twisted the assassin's wrist and forced the dropping of a pistol.[4] The gunman, identified as Francois Salson, said that he had also tried to assassinate former French President Jean Casimir-Perier but that the gun had misfired.[5]
- By a margin of 187,217 to 128,285,[6] voters in North Carolina approved an amendment to Article VI of the state constitution, worded specifically to disenfranchise African-American voters. Under section 4, all persons registering to vote were required to pass a literacy test, "But no male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote and no lineal descendant of any such person, shall be denied the right to register and vote by reason of his failure to possess the educational qualifications herein proscribed"[7]
Friday, August 3, 1900
Saturday, August 4, 1900
- In China, a force of 20,000 soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance began their march from Tianjin to Beijing to relieve the besieged envoys in the Chinese capital. The group was composed of 9,000 Japanese, 4,800 Russians, 2,900 Britons, 2,500 Americans, 1,200 French and a few hundred Austrian, German and Italian troops. At the same time, Chinese imperial troops were on their way from Beijing to resist the Allied troops.[11]
- Born:
- Nabi Tajima, Japanese supercentenarian and the last remaining survivor of the 19th century in Kikai, Kagoshima. She became the oldest person on Earth from September 15, 2017 when the last survivor of the 1800s, Violet Brown of Jamaica, died. Tajima would die on April 21, 2018, aged 117.
- Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Consort during the reign of her husband King George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II (d. 2002)
Sunday, August 5, 1900
- In a seven-hour-long battle at Peit-sang, Chinese imperial troops fought against the advancing allied troops. The Allies had an estimated 1,200 killed and wounded, while the Chinese lost 4,000 killed and wounded.[12]
- Died: James Augustine Healy, 70, the first African-American Catholic Church bishop, and Bishop of Portland (Maine) since his appointment in 1875 by Pope Pius IX. Healy's father was a white Irish immigrant and plantation owner, while his mother had been an African-American slave of mixed race and he was born in Macon, Georgia. Under the laws of that state, he was regarded as a "Negro". (b. 1830)
Monday, August 6, 1900
Tuesday, August 7, 1900
Wednesday, August 8, 1900
- The Allied troops routed Chinese defenders at Tsi-nin, clearing the way for the liberation of foreign envoys at Beijing.
Thursday, August 9, 1900
Friday, August 10, 1900
- A plot to kidnap Lord Roberts was foiled as the ringleaders were arrested in Pretoria.[17] Hans Cordua was the only one of the perpetrators to be executed, dying before a firing squad on August 24.
- Milton S. Hershey got out of the business of making caramel candy, selling his Lancaster Caramel Company to investor Daniel F. Lafean for one million dollars in cash. Hershey and his attorney, John Snyder, turned down initial offers for a merger, then for $500,000 and finally for $900,000 cash and $100,000 stock before sealing the deal in Providence, Rhode Island, at 11:00 in the morning.[18] With the infusion of capital, The Hershey Company built a factory in Derry Church, Pennsylvania, and created the largest chocolate manufacturer in the United States, with sales of five billion dollars a year by 2007.
- Born: Arthur Porritt, Governor-General of New Zealand 1967–1972; in Wanganui (d. 1994). Porritt had been a bronze medalist in the 1924 Summer Olympics, finishing in third place in the 100 metre dash.
- Died: Charles Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen, Lord Chief Justice of England, 67, died of complications from surgery the previous day for an internal gastric disorder.[19]
Saturday, August 11, 1900
- Violence broke out on Laysan in the Territory of Hawaii, after the 41 Japanese miners on the small (1.5 by 1 mile) island confronted the four white American managers of Pacific Guano & Fertilizer Company. In response, manager Joseph Spencer pulled two pistols and announced that the first person to step forward would die. When the group charged en masse, Spencer fired away, killing two of the Japanese and wounding three others. The next day, the 39 survivors were arrested and imprisoned on the ship Ceylon, and on August 16, everyone sailed back to Honolulu. Spencer was acquitted after a ten-day trial, and the other men were fired.[20]
- Born: Philip Phillips, American archaeologist; in Buffalo, New York[21] (d. 1994)
Sunday, August 12, 1900
Monday, August 13, 1900
Tuesday, August 14, 1900
- The 20,000-member multinational force arrived at Beijing for the Battle of Peking. The Russian forces attacked the Tung Pien gate. The 9th and 14th American infantries reached the 30feet high Tartar Wall where command asked for a volunteer to scale the structure. Corporal Calvin Pearl Titus, a 20-year-old bugler from Company E, climbed footholds on the wall, found it undefended, and the rest of the force followed, planting the flag at With Japanese and American attackers drawing the Chinese army away from the walled city, a group of Sikh soldiers from the British force were the first to enter Beijing, at . By 4:00, the 55-day siege of the foreign legations was over, and the next phase was to take the Imperial City and the Forbidden City.[27]
- The Hamburg America Line cruise ship Deutschland broke the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing, arriving in Plymouth, England, at, five days, 11 hours and 45 minutes after passing the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the point where New York City departures were considered to be underway.[28]
- The world's first six-masted ship, the George W. Wells, was launched from Camden, Maine.[29] At in length and wide, the Wells was the largest wooden ship in the world at that time.
- Died: Collis Potter Huntington, 78, American industrialist, built the Central Pacific, the Southern Pacific and the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads (b. 1821)
Wednesday, August 15, 1900
- China's Empress Dowager Cixi fled from Beijing as the troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance raised the siege of the foreign legations. Prior to her departure, she ordered that Zhen Fei, the favorite wife of her predecessor, the Guangxu Emperor, be thrown down into a well.[30]
- Rioting broke out in New York City on Eighth Avenue, between 30th and 42nd Streets, following the August 12 stabbing death of Robert Thorpe of the New York City Police Department. When a black man caused an altercation outside the home where Thorpe's body lay, fighting broke out and mobs of white men were soon pulling black people off streetcars and beating them. By 10:30, the violence seemed under control, and then a revolver was fired from inside a house on 41st Street. "This seemed a signal for the riot to begin again," noted The New York Times, "for crowds began to appear as if by magic."[31]
Thursday, August 16, 1900
- A German excavation at the Tel Amran ibn Ali, near the Babylonian temple at Etemenanki (near modern Al Hillah, Iraq), German excavators unearthed a glazed amphora with 10,000 coins dating from the 7th century BC.[32]
Friday, August 17, 1900
- The Allied troops entered the "Forbidden City", the section of Beijing that housed the Imperial quarters and was off limits even to most Chinese citizens. The Empress Dowager Cixi had fled the city to the Shensi province, 600miles to the south.[33]
- Lieutenant General Gribsky, military governor of the Amur province, had published the annexation of Manchurian territory to Russia, by decree of August 12. "All the region of Manchuria occupied by our troops is henceforth withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chinese authorities and subordinated entirely to our authority and laws," the proclamation began, adding that the Tranz-Zeya territory and the Aigun and Sakhalin settlements would be Russian territory.[34]
- José Maria de Eça de Queirós, one of Portugal's greatest authors, died of tuberculosis in Paris at age 54.
- A massive grasshopper infestation in Kalamazoo, Michigan closed businesses and stopped trains.[35]
Saturday, August 18, 1900
- At the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, David Hilbert presented a list of ten mathematical problems that remained unsolved and would present a challenge to mathematicians in the coming century. The list was later expanded to 23.[36]
- Yi Haeung was elevated posthumously to King of Korea.[37]
- Bolivian troops crushed a secession attempt in the "Republic of Acre". Bolivian ambassador Fernando e Guachalla confirmed rumors of a succession on November 29, with revolution starting in December 1899 under "a Spaniard named Galvez" (journalist Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias) who returned to Madrid after three or four months, and was replaced by Rodriguez Arles of Brazil, which formally crushed the rebellion.[38]
- Born:
Sunday, August 19, 1900
Monday, August 20, 1900
Tuesday, August 21, 1900
Wednesday, August 22, 1900
Thursday, August 23, 1900
Friday, August 24, 1900
- Transvaal Army Lieutenant Hans Cordua was executed by firing squad, three days after having been found guilty of a conspiracy to kidnap the British commander, Lord Roberts.[51]
Saturday, August 25, 1900
- The word "television" appeared for the first time, as part of a paper presented at the International Electrical Congress in Paris.[52] Constantin Perskyi of France delivered the paper "Télévision au moyen de l'électricité".[53] [54] The term was first used in the American press in 1907.[55]
- The Chicago Coliseum, a state of the art arena with seats for 10,000 people, was dedicated in conjunction with the opening of the convention of the Grand Army of the Republic. U.S. President William McKinley had been scheduled to address the assembled veterans, but cancelled because of crises in Asia.[56] The Coliseum, which hosted conventions, rock concerts and sports, closed in 1971 and was demolished in 1982. The same day, millions of white butterflies fluttered into downtown Chicago. The New York Times headline the next day was "Chicago Pretty at Last".[57]
- Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, 55, died in Weimar, Germany, eleven years after going insane. The "Father of Modern Atheism" was buried at a graveyard at his family church.[58]
- Born: Hans Adolf Krebs, German-born British physician and biochemist, 1953 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; in Hildesheim (d. 1981)
Sunday, August 26, 1900
- The "unidentified French coxswain" became the youngest Olympic medalist in history, helping the team of François Brandt and Roelof Klein win the first gold medal ever for the Netherlands. After the original coxswain, Hermanus Brockmann, proved to be so heavy that he was slowing the pair down, the Dutchmen located a boy who could serve as the third person on the team. The identity of the young man, estimated to be 10 years old, has remained a mystery, but a photograph of him was published by Brandt in a 1926 book.[59] [60]
- Born: Hellmuth Walter, German engineer; in Wedel (d. 1980)
Monday, August 27, 1900
Tuesday, August 28, 1900
Wednesday, August 29, 1900
- Robert Leroy Parker (aka Butch Cassidy), Harry Longabaugh (aka the Sundance Kid) and other members of "The Wild Bunch" staged their third train robbery, taking control of Union Pacific train No. 3 at Tipton, Wyoming, robbing the express car of $45,000 and successfully escaping.[64]
- Gaetano Bresci, who had assassinated Italy's King Umberto a month earlier, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment after a one-day-long trial. Bresci was found dead in his cell on May 22, 1901, an apparent suicide.[65]
Thursday, August 30, 1900
Friday, August 31, 1900
Notes and References
- Book: The Wizard of Oz: Celebrating the Hundredth Anniversary . Macmillan . 2000 . 219.
- News: Race War in West Virginia . . August 3, 1900 . 1.
- Web site: National University website . 2020-09-01 . 2020-09-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200924014741/https://www.national-u.edu.ph/history/ . live.
- News: Tries to Kill the Shah . The New York Times . August 3, 1900 . 1.
- News: The Shah's Assailant . The New York Times . August 5, 1900 . 1.
- Book: Stowe, Gene . Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will . . 2006 . 26–27.
- Book: Chesnutt, Charles Waddell . Charles W. Chesnutt . The Marrow of Tradition . Macmillan . 2002 . 362–363.
- Book: Hallett, Anthony . Entrepreneur Magazine Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs . . 1997 . 199.
- Book: Mallon, Bill . Bill Mallon . The 1900 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary . . 2015 . 186.
- News: Final curtain: The last live pigeon shooting event at the Olympic Games, 1900 . . . August 15, 2008.
- Book: Boot, Max . Max Boot . The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power . . . 046500721X . 2004695066 . 2003 . 90.
- Library of World History (Western Press Association, 1914), v. 10, p. 4690
- Web site: The Opera Critic - Reviews . 2009-02-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110718201145/http://theoperacritic.com/tocreviews.php?review=msszbmattila0805.htm . 2011-07-18 . dead .
- Book: Annual Register of World Events 1901 . 26.
- News: Sultan Orders Investigation . The New York Times . August 22, 1900.
- News: Tennis Cup Stays Here . The New York Times . August 10, 1900.
- Diary For August . . September 15, 1900 . 222.
- Book: D'Antonio, Michael . Michael D'Antonio . Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams . . 2007 . 88–91.
- News: England's Lord Chief Justice Dead . . August 11, 1900 . 1.
- Book: Unger, Tom E. . Max Unger#Early years . Max Schlemmer, Hawaii's King of Laysan Island . . 2004 . 34–35.
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0DE4F5B4FC6F8A08A53C6C9502F6DD6B/S0002731600049970a.pdf/philip_phillips_19001994.pdf "Obituaries"
- Book: McCarthy, Justin . Justin McCarthy (politician) . History of Our Own Times . 133.
- News: Torpedo Boat Goes Down . The New York Times . August 13, 1900 . 1.
- News: William Steinitz Dead . The New York Times . August 14, 1900 . 5.
- Boot, op.cit., p. 92
- News: Booth's Identifier Dead . The New York Times . August 13, 1900 . 1.
- Boot, op.cit., pp. 93–94
- News: Ocean Record Broken . The New York Times . August 15, 1900 . 1.
- Book: Dyer, Barbara F. . Remembering Camden: Stories from an Old Maine Harbor . . 2008 . 128.
- Book: Elleman, Bruce A. . Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795–1989 . . 2001 . 135.
- News: Race Riot on West Side . The New York Times . August 16, 1900 . 1.
- Book: Boiy, T. . Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta . . 2004 . 46.
- "Allies Capture Forbidden City", New York Times, August 22, 1900, p. 1
- Further Correspondence Respecting the Disturbances in China (British Foreign Office, 1901) pp. 14–15
- The Statistician and Economist (1901–1902) (L.P. McCarty, 1902), p. 379
- Konrad Jacobs, Invitation to Mathematics (Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 86
- William Elliot Griffis, Corea, the Hermit Nation (C. Scribner's sons, 1907), p. 482
- "A Short-Lived Republic", New York Times, November 30, 1900, p. 1
- Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 304
- F. Daniel Somrack, Boxing in San Francisco (Arcadia Publishing, 2004), p. 38
- Book: Rebecca Ramilo . Ongsotto . Reena R. . Ongsotto . Philippine History Module-based Learning . . 160.
- Book: Leung, Edwin Pak-Wah . Essentials of Modern Chinese History: 1800 to the Present . . 2005 . 43.
- Book: Ngai-Ha, Ng Lun . Interactions of East and West: Development of Public Education in Early Hong Kong . . 1984 . 117.
- Book: The New Larned History for Ready Reference, Reading and Research . C.A. Nichols Publishing . 1922 . 632.
- Book: Mojares, Resil B. . Resil B. Mojares . The War Against the Americans: Resistance and Collaboration in Cebu, 1899–1906 . . 1999 . 81.
- Derek Nelson, The American State Fair (MBI Publishing Company, 2004)
- Book: U.S. Hydrographic Office . U.S. Hydrographic Office . Pacific Islands Pilot . GPO . 1916 . 427, 433.
- Book: Denton, Virginia Lantz . Booker T. Washington and the Adult Education Movement . . 1993 . 120.
- Web site: Home . 24 February 2009 . 20 February 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120220133403/http://www.nationalbusinessleague.com/ . live.
- Book: Weinfurter, Stefan . The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition . . 1999 . 44.
- Book: Jooste, Graham . Innocent Blood: Executions During the Anglo-Boer War . . 2002 . 179–180.
- Book: Abramson, Albert . The History of Television, 1880 to 1941 . McFarland & Company . 1987 . 23., quoted in Book: Parsons, Patrick . Blue Skies: A History of Cable Television . . 2008 . 23.
- Book: Hospitalier, Édouard . Congrès international d'électricité : Paris, 18-25 aout 1900 : Annexes . 1901 . Google Books.
- Book: Reilly, Edwin D. . Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology . Greenwood Publishing Group . 2003 . 252–53.
- News: Sending Photographs By Telegraph . The New York Times . February 24, 1907 . III:7.
- "The G.A.R. Encampment"; "McKinley Cancels Trip"; The New York Times, August 26, 1900, p. 4
- News: Chicago Pretty at Last . The New York Times . 1982 .
- Book: Centore, F. F. . Theism Or Atheism: The Eternal Debate . . 2004 . 15.
- Web site: CONTENTdm . 2009-03-02 . 2009-03-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090327024902/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv9n1/johv9n1i.pdf . live .
- Floyd Conner, The Olympics' Most Wanted (Brassey's, 2002)
- Dorothea Fairbridge, A History of South Africa (Oxford University Press, 1918), p. 295
- Jeffery Rosenfeld, Eye of the Storm: Inside the World's Deadliest Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Blizzards (Basic Books, 2003), p. 232
- Xiaomei Chen, Acting the Right Part: Political Theater and Popular Drama in Contemporary China (University of Hawaii Press, 2002), p. 52
- R. Michael Wilson, Great Train Robberies of the Old West (Globe Pequot, 2006) pp. 125–127
- "Bresci, Gaetano", Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press, 2004), p. 97
- W. W. Naughton, Kings of the Queensberry Realm (Continental Publishing Co., 1902) p101
- Fred D. Cavinder, More Amazing Tales from Indiana (Indiana University Press, 2003), p78
- Charles Leerhsen, Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America (Simon & Schuster, 2008), pp. 75–76
- Robert L. Scheina, Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Caudillo, 1791–1899 (Brassey's, 2003), p. 373