June 1900 Explained
The following events occurred in June 1900:
June 1, 1900 (Friday)
June 2, 1900 (Saturday)
June 3, 1900 (Sunday)
- William Howard Taft arrived in Manila on the USS Hancock as Governor-General of the Philippines, replacing General Arthur MacArthur, the last military governor. Taft would say later, "I cannot describe the coldness of the Army officers and the Army men who received us any better than by saying that it somewhat exceeded the coldness of the populace."[7]
- The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded in New York City.[8]
- In Germany, the most comprehensive meat inspection laws in the world, to that time, took effect.[9]
- The railroad line between Beijing and Tianjin was cut by Boxer rebels.[10]
- Born: Gordon Sinclair, Canadian journalist, who had a Top Ten hit single in 1973 with his spoken-word recording "The Americans"; in Toronto (d. 1984)
- Died: Mary Kingsley, 37, English adventurer and ethnologist who had written two bestsellers about the various peoples of West Africa, died of typhoid fever in South Africa.[11]
June 4, 1900 (Monday)
June 5, 1900 (Tuesday)
- At 2:00 in the afternoon, Pretoria, capital of the South African Republic, surrendered to British General Lord Roberts.[13]
- Born: Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, inventor of holography and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971; in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (d. 1979)[14]
- Died: Stephen Crane, 28, American writer, author of The Red Badge of Courage, died of tuberculosis in Badenweiler, Germany.[15]
June 6, 1900 (Wednesday)
- U.S. President William McKinley signed into law the federal charter for the American Red Cross.[16]
- The United States Congress enacted a civil and judicial code for Alaska, setting the capital at Juneau and creating a territorial government.[17]
- The United States Congress approved the 1892 Agreement with the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache, by which 4500sqmi of indigenous land in southwest Oklahoma had been purchased for a bargain price of 93 cents an acre for 29,000,000 acres. The act passed despite assertions by the affected tribes (the Kiowa, Comanche and Plains Apache) that the terms had been misrepresented and the agreement had not legally been ratified as required (under the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867) by 3/4 of the adult males of the tribe. A Kiowa chief named Lone Wolf brought suit in 1901 against the law, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Indians in the case of Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553 (1903). On July 4, 1900, President McKinley proclaimed the area open for settlement effective August 6, 1900.[18] Since the mid-20th century, the government has paid tens of millions of dollars in compensation settlements to the three tribes because of their claims of being defrauded in these issues of the treaty and allotments.
- United States Congress funded the reinterment of 267 Southern soldiers from Northern grounds to a special section of the Arlington National Cemetery.[19]
- Mr. Ryall, the Superintendent of Police in British East Africa (now Kenya), was eaten by a lion after being taken by a railcar where he was traveling with two other hunters. The lion jumped into the window of a railcar at Kima where Ryall was sleeping and dragged him off.[20]
- Born: Arthur Askey, English comedian and actor; in Dingle, Liverpool (d. 1982)
June 7, 1900 (Thursday)
- Carrie Nation started her crusade against liquor. Walking into a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas at 8:30am, she told owner John Dobson, "I don't want to strike you, but I am going to break up this den of vice." She then smashed his liquor bottles and the mirror behind the bar, vandalized three other bars in Kiowa and rode out of town. Because the saloons were operating illegally, she was not arrested. Nation continued her destruction until her death in 1911.[21]
- Born:
June 8, 1900 (Friday)
- In Beijing, Boxer rebels burned the grandstand of the horse racing track at the country club for western diplomats. Three British students who rode out to investigate the fire were charged by a crowd of the Chinese and retreated. One of the British horsemen, however, drew his pistol and killed one of the Chinese men. In response, the Imperial government sent armies to surround the foreigners at the Peking Legation Quarter.[22]
- The telescopic sight was approved for mass production, following the report of a special "Board of Officers on Test of Telescopic Sight for U.S. Magazine Rifle", issued to the United States Department of War. On May 24, the Board reported that the scope made by the Cataract Tool and Optical Company had proved accurate even at a range of 2,000 yards—more than a mile.[23]
June 9, 1900 (Saturday)
- In Beijing, Imperial Chinese troops surrounded the legation quarter where the diplomatic corps from western powers and Japan were headquartered.[24] British minister Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald telegraphed: "Situation extremely grave. Unless arrangements are made for immediate advance to Peking, it will be too late."[25]
June 10, 1900 (Sunday)
- In response to the Boxer Rebellion, a multinational force of more than 2,000 foreign troops set off by train from Tien-tsin (Tianjin) for Peking (Beijing) to protect the citizens of their respective countries. The trains, carrying troops from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan, halted at Langfang, not far into the 110miles trip, because the rails had been destroyed and had to march the rest of the way.[28]
- In the 1960 film The Time Machine, the traveler stops at this date before proceeding onward to the year 802,701.[29]
June 11, 1900 (Monday)
- In Beijing, violence against foreigners took a new turn when Japanese diplomat Sugiyama Akira was murdered by Imperial Chinese soldiers. Akira, the chancellor of the Japanese legation, had dressed in "top hat and tails" and driven by carriage from the legation quarter to the train station where he had planned to greet the relief force arriving from Tianjin, but the rails had been destroyed by the Boxers. Imperial soldiers under the command of General Tung dragged Akira from his carriage and hacked him to bits, then displayed his severed head at the station.[24]
- Belle Boyd, American writer who spied for the Confederacy during the American Civil War and later recounted her experiences to audiences, died of a heart attack while touring Wisconsin.
June 12, 1900 (Tuesday)
- By a vote of 201–103, the Reichstag approved the expansion of the Imperial German Navy, doubling the number of ships to 96 in all.[30] [31]
- In Chicago, hundreds of spectators at a circus were thrown to the ground when the seating collapsed, just as the performance began. Fourteen people were hospitalized. A week earlier, twelve people had been hurt in a collapse of seats at the same circus.[32]
- Died: Mox McQuery, 38, Major League Baseball first baseman and police officer, shot in the line of duty on June 9.[27] [33]
June 13, 1900 (Wednesday)
- When three Chinese Boxers came too close to the German legation, one of them, a young man, was captured by the German guards. Baron von Ketteler, the German minister thrashed the Boxer with his cane, ordered his guards to extend the beating and warned the Chinese Foreign Ministry (the Zongli Yamen) that the boy would die. Over the next few days, the foreign diplomats began shooting at Chinese nationals near the Peking Legation Quarter. Von Ketteler himself would be killed on June 20.[34] The same day, communication between the foreign embassies and the rest of the world was halted as their telegraph lines were severed.[35]
June 14, 1900 (Thursday)
- The Republic of Hawaii formally came to an end as the "Act to Provide a Government for the Territory of Hawaii" took effect.[36] Sanford B. Dole who had continued as president even after sovereignty was transferred to the United States in 1898,[37] became the first territorial Governor. All persons who were citizens of the Republic as of August 12, 1898, became U.S. citizens.[38]
- At 7pm, German embassy guards, under the direction of Ambassador Baron von Ketteler, fired on Boxer rebels outside the legation quarter, killing 20. Lancelot Giles of the British embassy, recorded the incident in his diary that night, noting the furious shouts from a crowd trying to get into the city. G.E. Morrison, correspondent for the London Times, noted another incident where 45 Chinese were killed in a raid by the Europeans on a temple.[39]
- The first Bennett Cup auto race, for a prize sponsored by New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr., began as five entrants departed from the Parc de Saint-Cloud, near Paris, on a 566 kilometer (352 miles) trip to Lyon. Departing at two minute intervals starting at 3:14 in the morning, the competitors passed through Châteaudun, Orléans, Gien, Nevers, Moulins and Roanne. Only two drivers (winner Fernand Charron and runner-up Léonce Girardot) would finish the race.[40]
June 15, 1900 (Friday)
June 16, 1900 (Saturday)
June 17, 1900 (Sunday)
June 18, 1900 (Monday)
- The Taku Forts of China surrendered at 8am, 16 hours after Western navies had begun bombardment. More than 1,000 Chinese defenders were killed or wounded, while the allies lost 184 men. The Russian ship Gilyakwas sunk.[45] The four destroyers of the Chinese Navy, anchored at the Peiho river, were captured and recommissioned as naval vessels in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Russia.[46] The Hai Lung became the British, the Hai Hse became the French ship Takou, the Hai Jing became the German ship Taku and the Hai Hua was later the Russian ship Lieutenant Burakov.[47]
June 19, 1900 (Tuesday)
- In Beijing, on the 23rd day of the fifth moon, an ultimatum was delivered to the eleven ambassadors in the legation quarter. Because of the attack on the Taku Forts, all foreign residents (including diplomats, missionaries and their families) were given until 4pm the next day to leave the Chinese capital.[48] The directive to Mr. Conger stated, "The princes and ministers ... beg that within twenty-four hours the minister of the United States, with his family ... and taking his guards, keeping them under control, will leave for Tientsin, in order to avoid danger. An escort of troops has been dispatched to give protection en route and the local officials have been also notified to allow the minister's party to pass."[49]
June 20, 1900 (Wednesday)
- Clemens von Ketteler, the German ambassador to China, was murdered as he and an aide went to the Chinese Foreign Ministry (Zongli Yamen) without their guards. With seven hours left until a 4pm deadline for all foreigners to leave Beijing, Baron von Ketteler defied his fellow ambassadors and left the safety of the diplomatic quarter. He was shot and killed (by a Boxer later identified as En Hai) as he approached the Zongli Yamen. His interpreter, Heinrich Cordes, survived to return to the embassy, at which point evacuation was no longer an option.[50] American ambassador Conger would later report that he had learned "that Prince Tuan had planned to have his soldiers massacre all the foreign ministers at the Tsungli Yamen on June 20. But ... the impatient soldiers prematurely attacked and killed Baron von Kettler ... we were not invited to the Tsungli Yamen and so were saved."[51] At 4pm, Chinese troops began their siege of the Peking Legation Quarter where 900 foreigners, 523 defenders and 3,000 Chinese Christians held out behind the walls. The siege would last 55 days.[52]
June 21, 1900 (Thursday)
- China formally declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from Empress Dowager Cixi.[53]
- Baron Eduard von Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departed Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya,[54] never to return. On November 8, 1902, as his third Winter away was beginning, Toll and four others set off from Bennett Island and were never seen again.[55]
- Major General Arthur MacArthur, commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines, offered amnesty for 90 days to all guerillas. Only 5,022 Filipinos accepted, mostly prisoners.[56]
- At the Republican Convention, William McKinley and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt were unanimously nominated for president and vice-president.[57]
June 22, 1900 (Friday)
June 23, 1900 (Saturday)
- The day after the discovery of one ancient Chinese library, another was destroyed by fire. The Hanlin Academy library in Beijing was adjacent to the British Legation and was China's largest collection of works, housing thousands of centuries-old publications. Soldiers under the command of General Chang Foo Shiang set fire to the academy while attacking the British embassy, the library burned to the ground, but the winds blew the flames away from the embassy which survived unscathed.[59]
- Foreigners at Tianjin were rescued by the Allied invasion force, led by Major Littleton Waller and a detachment of U.S. Marines, followed by German, British, Japanese and Italian forces. Future American President Herbert Hoover, a 26-year-old engineer, was among those saved.[60]
June 24, 1900 (Sunday)
- Boxer rebels attacked the Wangla village in the Hebei province of China, burning down its Catholic church and killing all Christian converts except for four orphan girls. Given the chance to have their lives spared in return for renouncing their faith, the four girls, Lucy Wan Cheng (18), Mary Fan Kun (16), Mary Chi Yu (15) and Mary Zheng Xu (11) refused and were murdered. The girls would be among 85 Martyr Saints of China canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000.[61]
- On the night of June 24–25 [Old Calendar 11–12], Boxer rebels with burning torches appeared in all parts of Beijing, attacking Christian dwellings, seizing unfortunate Christians torturing them and forcing them to renounce Christ. Stomachs were ripped open, heads severed and dwellings burnt. After the destruction of Christian dwellings, Orthodox Christians were taken outside the city gates to the pagans' idols, interrogated and burnt on fires. Pagan eyewitnesses testified that some of the Orthodox met death with astonishing self-sacrifice. The Orthodox catechist Paul Wang died a martyr's death with a prayer on his lips. The Mission school teacher Ia Wen was tortured twice. The first time, the Boxer rebels chopped her up and covered her half-dead body with earth. When she regained consciousness, her groans were heard by the (pagan) watchman who took her to his guard's booth. But after a while, the Boxer rebels seized her again and this time tortured her to death. In both cases Ia Wen joyfully professed Christ before her torturers."[62]
- Born: Gene Austin, American singer; as Lemuel Eugene Lucas in Gainesville, Texas (d. 1972)
June 25, 1900 (Monday)
- The Yellow Fever Board, chaired by Dr. Walter Reed with board members Dr. Jesse Lazear, Dr. James Carroll and Dr. Aristides Agramonte, began working on the task of ending the disease of yellow fever which had killed hundreds of thousands in the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Lazear would die of the disease, but made the critical discovery that yellow fever could be ended by eradicating the mosquitoes that spread it. In 1900, 1,000 people in Havana died from yellow fever while in 1901, only twenty did.[63]
- Born: Lord Montbatten, British noble and the last Governor-General of India; in Windsor, Berkshire, England (killed by terrorists, 1979)
June 26, 1900 (Tuesday)
- The Russification of Finland took a new direction when an Imperial ukase issued from Tsar Nicholas, replacing Finnish with Russian as the official language to be phased in over five years.[64]
- In British India, Resolution No. 585 went into effect, requiring that "except in a purely English office", no person would be appointed to a government job "unless he knows both Hindi and Urdu" and that incumbent officials would have one year to learn both languages.[65]
June 27, 1900 (Wednesday)
- France and Spain agreed on a boundary between their West African colonies, Mauritania and the Spanish Sahara. The treaty was ratified on March 22, 1901.[66] Mauritania became independent in 1960 and after it gave up claims to the Spanish colony, it now shares the border with Morocco.
June 28, 1900 (Thursday)
June 29, 1900 (Friday)
June 30, 1900 (Saturday)
- A fire that killed 326 people started at Pier 8 of in Hoboken, New Jersey when cotton bales and barrels of turpentine and oil began burning at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In less than 15 minutes, high winds spread the blaze a quarter of a mile along the port and on to the four German steamships moored there. The steamers and, each with 150 crew on board, were destroyed and was heavily damaged. On the Saale, the portholes were too narrow for the men inside to escape and most on board burned to death. The huge liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was saved by being towed into the Hudson River.[71] Despite the best efforts of the Hoboken and New York fire departments to save the piers and the ships, respectively, 326 people were killed.[72]
Notes and References
- Diary For June . . July 16, 1900 . 21.
- News: Census Taking to Begin . . June 1, 1900 . 7.
- Book: U.S. Area and Population, 1790–2000 . The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004.
- News: 1900 Census: Light on Family Trees . . . January 24, 1974 . 18.
- Book: Vandervort, Bruce . Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830–1914 . . 1998 . 135.
- Book: The Third Republic from Its Origins to the Great War, 1871–1914 . . 1987 . 186.
- Book: Pier, Arthur Stanwood . American Apostles to the Philippines . Ayer Publishing . 1971 . 30.
- Book: Rosenberg, Shelley Kapnek . Challenge and Change: Civil War Through the Rise of Zionism . Behrman House . 2005 . 52.
- Book: von Ostertag, Robert . Robert von Ostertag . Handbook of Meat Inspection . Earley Vernon . Wilcox . Jenkins . 1907 . iii.
- Book: Boot, Max . Max Boot . The Savage Wars of Peace . . 2003 . 74.
- Book: Jacqueline A . Kolosov . Jacqueline Kolosov . Jacqueline . McLean . Women of Adventure . The Oliver Press, Inc. . 2002 . 34–35.
- Book: Linn, B.M. . 2000 . The Philippine War, 1899–1902 . . . 0700612254 . 271.
- News: Lord Roberts Takes Pretoria . The New York Times . June 6, 1900 . 3.
- Web site: Dennis Gabor – Facts . . Nobel Prize Outreach AB . 2024 . 19 April 2024 .
- News: Stephen Crane Dead. . The New York Times . June 6, 1900 . 6.
- Book: Sarnecky, Mary T. . A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps . . 1999 . 413.
- Book: Willoughby, William Franklin . William F. Willoughby . Territories and Dependencies of the United States: Their Government and Administration . . 1905 . 76–77.
- Book: Wildenthal, Bryan H. . Native American Sovereignty on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents . . 2003 . 152–155.
- Book: Cox, Karen L. . Karen L. Cox . Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture . . 2003 . 53–54.
- Book: MacCormick, Alex . The Mammoth Book of Maneaters: Over 250 Terrifying True Accounts of Predators from Pre-history to the Present . . 2003 . 400–402.
- Book: McGerr, Michael E. . A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920 . . 2003 . 81–82.
- Book: Edgerton, Robert B. . Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military . . 1998 . 70.
- Book: Pegler, Martin . Sniper: A History of the U.S. Marksman . . 2007 . http://www.ospreysniper.com/extract.php . Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1900 . 196–197 . January 25, 2009 . September 5, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080905045751/http://www.ospreysniper.com/extract.php . dead .
- Book: Edgerton, Robert B. . Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military . . 1998 . 69–70.
- Book: Boot, Max . Max Boot . The Savage Wars of Peace . . 2003 . 75.
- Book: History: Modern India . New Age International . 117–118.
- Web site: Patrolman William "Mox" McQuery, Covington Police Department, Kentucky . . 8 September 2021.
- Israel Smith Clare, Library of Universal History, vol. 14 (Union Book Co., 1906), pp. 4677–78
- Anne Friedberg, Window Shopping (University of California Press, 1994), pp. 104–106
- Book: Wilson, Keith M. . Keith M. Wilson . The International Impact of the Boer War . Macmillan . 2001 . 38.
- Diary For June . Review of Reviews . July 16, 1900 . 20.
- News: Collapse of Circus Seats . . . June 13, 1900 . 1.
- Web site: Mox McQuery Stats . . 8 September 2021.
- Book: Xiang, Lanxin . Xiang Lanxin . The Origins of the Boxer War . 268–269.
- Book: Boot, Max . The Savage Wars of Peace . Da Capo Press . 2003 . 76.
- Anne Feder Lee, The Hawaii State Constitution pp. 5–6
- Book: Taylor, Albert Pierce. Albert Pierce Taylor. Under Hawaiian Skies: A Narrative of the Romance, Adventure and History of the Hawaiian Islands. 1922. Advertiser Publishing Company, Ltd. Honolulu. 479709. 386–387.
- Michael Chiorazzi and Marguerite Most, Prestatehood Legal Materials (Haworth Press, 2006), pp. 307–308
- Lanxin Xiang, The Origins of the Boxer War, p. 269.
- Robert Dick, Auto Racing Comes of Age: A Transatlantic View of the Cars, Drivers and Speedways, 1900–1925 (McFarland, 2013) p. 8
- History of the Canal System of the State of New York (1905), pp1481–82
- Averhoff Purón, Mario. Los primeros partidos políticos. La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1971. pp. 50, 52–53
- Lanxin Xiang, The Origins of the Boxer War p. 288
- "Roosevelt Leads For Vice-President", New York Times, June 18, 1900, p. 1
- Lanxin Xiang, The Origins of the Boxer War pp. 288–89
- Lawrence Sondhaus, Naval Warfare, 1815–1914 (Routledge, 2001), pp. 186–87
- Book: Wright, Richard N. J. . The Chinese Steam Navy 1862–1945 . . 2000 . 117–118.
- Lanxin Xiang, The Origins of the Boxer War pp. 308, 318
- Book: Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States . G.P.O. . 1902 . 175–6.
- Lanxin Xiang, The Origins of the Boxer War pp. 335–337
- Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (G.P.O. 1902) p. 191
- Max Boot, The Savage Wars of Peace (Da Capo Press, 2003), pp. 79–80
- Robert A. Bickers and R. G. Tiedemann, The Boxers, China, and the World, p xiii (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)
- Baron Ed. Von Toll, "The Russian Polar Expedition in the 'Sarya'", The Geographical Journal, Vol. XIX, pp. 475–80
- Helen Saunders Wright, The Great White North: The Story of Polar Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Discovery of the Pole (The Macmillan Co., 1910), pp. 421–22
- [Brian McAllister Linn]
- "McKinley and Roosevelt", New York Times, June 22, 1900, p. 1
- Gary Geddes, Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas (Sterling Publishing Company, 2007), pp. 158–162
- Chester M. Biggs, Jr., The United States Marines in North China, 1894–1942 (McFarland Press, 2003), pp. 87–88
- George B. Clark, Treading Softly: U.S. Marines in China, 1819–1949 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001), pp. 28–29
- Ann Ball, Young Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2004), pp. 177–178
- Web site: 290th Anniversary of Establishment of the Russian Spiritual Mission in China.
- Book: Leslie A. . Dendy . Mel . Boring . Mel Boring . Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-experimenters in Science and Medicine . Macmillan . 2005 . 69–82.
- "Russia", Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1900 (D. Appleton, 1901), p. 641; Tuomo Polvinen in Imperial Borderland, p. 141 puts the date as June 20 (June 7 on the Russian Calendar)
- Francis Robinson, Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923 (Cambridge University Press, 2007) p. 44
- William Evans Darby, Modern Pacific Settlements Involving the Application of the Principle of International Arbitration (The Peace Society, 1904) p. 124
- "Their Marriage Morganatic", Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln), June 29, 1900, p. 2
- "Archduke Franz Ferdinand Married", New York Times, July 2, 1900, p6
- Irwin Abrams, The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates: An Illustrated Biographical History, 1901–2001 (Science History Publications, 2001)
- Amii Omara-Otunnu, Politics and the Military in Uganda, 1890–1985 (Springer, 1987) p. 27
- News: Over 200 Perish in Burning Liners . The New York Times . July 30, 1900 . 1.
- Book: Cudahy, Brian J. . Around Manhattan Island and Other Maritime Tales of New York . . 1997.