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Year '1903' ('MCMIII') was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday
of the 13-day slower Julian calendar.
The year 1903 also had the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar has not had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. See: 1696.

Contents

Events of 1903

January - February

March

April - June

July - August

September - October

November - December

Undated

Ongoing

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Unknown dates

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Nobel prizes

Notes

External links

Table of contents

Events of 1903

January - February

★ January 1 - Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India.

★ January 6 - Mileva Maric marries Albert Einstein.

★ January 19 - First transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and England.

★ February 11 - The Oxnard Strike of 1903 represents the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.

★ February 15 - Morris Michtom and his wife Rose introduce the first teddy bear in America.

★ February 23 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".

March

★ March 1 -Beşiktaş JK is founded in Istanbul, becoming the first sports club in the Ottoman Empire.

★ March 2 - In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.

★ March 3 – British admiralty announces plans to build naval base at Rosyth.

★ March 5 – Turkey and Germany sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.

★ March 14 - The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.

★ March 22 - The American side of the Niagara Falls runs short of water.

★ March 31 - Possible first powered heavier-than-air flight, Richard Pearse, New Zealand (some date it to 1902)

April - June

★ April 14 - Aberdeen Football Club is formed.

★ April 29 - 30,000,000 cubic metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta.

★ May 18 - Opening of port of Burgas, Bulgaria.

★ June 10-11 – Assassination of Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga.

★ June 12 - Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.

July - August

★ July 1-19 - First Tour de France – Maurice Garin wins.

★ July 4 - Completion of the Pacific cable by the Commercial Pacific Cable Company.

★ July 7 - British take over the Fulani empire.

★ July 23 - Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.

★ August 2 - The Ilinden Uprising of the Macedonians in the Ottoman Empire breaks out.

★ August 4 - Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.

★ August 10 - The Paris Metro train fire takes place.

★ August 25 - Judiciary Act 1903 is passed.

September - October

★ September 8 - Massacre of ethnic Macedonians by Turkish troops at Bitola is reported.

★ September 11 - The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.

★ September 14 - Joseph Chamberlain resigns as Colonial Secretary.

★ September 15 - Grêmio, a Brazilian football team is founded.

★ September 24 - Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.

★ September 30 - New Gresham's School officially opened by Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood.

★ October - Frank Nelson Cole proves that 2⁶⁷-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721
★ 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for three years.

★ October 1 - The First modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League.

★ October 6 - The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.

★ October 10 - Foundation of the Women's Social and Political Union.

November - December

★ November 3 - With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.

★ November 6 - USA recognizes independence of Panama.

★ November 17 - The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

★ November 18 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

★ November 23 - Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.

★ November 23 - Opera tenor Enrico Caruso makes his American debut in New York City with the Metropolitan Opera in ''Rigoletto''.

★ December 17 - Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.

★ December 30 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.

Undated

★ Lincoln-Lee Legion is established to promote temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children.

★ MLB is established.

★ Bradford City Football Club is established.

Ongoing

★ (none)

Births

January

★ January 6 - Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)

★ January 7 - Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)

★ January 11 - Hans Redlich, Austrian composer (d. 1968)

★ January 16 - William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945)

★ January 22 - Fritz Houtermans, physicist (d. 1966)

★ January 27 - John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)

February

★ February 2 - Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996)

★ February 6 - Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)

★ February 8

★
★ Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)

★
★ Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)

★ February 10 - Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)

★ February 11

★
★ Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)

★
★ Alan Paton, South African writer (d. 1988)

★ February 13 - Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)

★ February 16 - Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)

★ February 21

★
★ Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)

★
★ Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)

★ February 22

★
★ Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990)

★
★ Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (d. 1969)

★
★ Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930)

★ February 26 - Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)

★ February 27 - Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)

★ February 28 - Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)

March

★ March 4

★
★ Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)

★
★ William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983)

★
★ Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (d. 1990)

★
★ John Scarne, American magician and card expert (d. 1985)

★ March 6 - Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000

★ March 10 - Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931)

★ March 11

★
★ Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989)

★
★ Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992)

★ March 14 - Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)

★ March 20 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)

★ March 24 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

★ March 25 - Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990)

★ March 28 - Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)

★ March 31 - H. J. Blackham, British humanist and author

April

★ April 6

★
★ Mickey Cochrane, baseball player (d. 1962)

★
★ Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (d. 1990)

★ April 10 - Clare Boothe Luce, American publisher and writer (d. 1987)

★ April 12 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)

★ April 15 - John Williams, English-born actor (d. 1983)

★ April 17

★
★ Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)

★
★ Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975)

★ April 19 - Eliot Ness, American treasury agent (d. 1957)

★ April 24 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (d. 1936)

★ April 25 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)

★ April 28 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979)

May

★ May 2 - Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician (d. 1998)

★ May 3 - Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)

★ May 4 - Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984)

★ May 6 - Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)

★ May 8 - Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)

★ May 10 - Hans Jonas, German-born philosopher(d. 1993)

★ May 11 - Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993)

★ May 20 - Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)

★ May 21 - Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)

★ May 29 - Bob Hope, English-born comedian (d. 2003)

June

★ June 6 - Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)

★ June 8 - Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)

★ June 12 - Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)

★ June 16 - Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)

★ June 18

★
★ Jeanette MacDonald, American singer, actress (d. 1965)

★
★ Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)

★ June 19

★
★ Lou Gehrig, baseball player (d. 1941)

★
★ Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)

★ June 21 - Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)

★ June 22 - John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)

★ June 25 - Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944)

★ June 25 - George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)

★ June 29 - Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)

July

★ July 1 - Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)

★ July 2

★
★ Harwell Hamilton Harris, American architect (d. 1990)

★
★ Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)

★
★ King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)

★ July 3 - Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)

★ July 4 - Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)

★ July 6 - Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)

★ July 10 - John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969)

★ July 13 - Kenneth Clark, English art historian (d. 1983)

★ July 21 - Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector

August

★ August 3 - Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (d. 2000)

★ August 6 - Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999)

★ August 7 - Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)

★ August 18 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)

★ August 23 - William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)

September

★ September 7 - Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945)

★ September 9

★
★ Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer

★
★ Edward Upward, British author

★ September 11 - Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)

★ September 13 - Claudette Colbert, French actress (d. 1996)

★ September 17 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)

★ September 21 - Preston Tucker, American auto designer (d. 1956)

★ September 25 - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Muslim Leader (d. 1979)

★ September 25 - Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)

October

★ October 1 - Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (d. 1989)

★ October 4 - John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer engineer (d. 1995)

★ October 5 - M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (d. 1989)

★ October 6 - Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

★ October 9 - Walter O'Malley, Americanbaseball executive (d. 1979)

★ October 16 - Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)

★ October 18 - Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)

★ October 22

★
★ George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)

★
★ Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976)

★
★ Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, American comedian and actor (d. 1952)

★ October 25

★
★ Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman (d. 1976)

★
★ Harry Shoulberg, American painter, serigrapher (d. 1995)

★ October 28 - Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)

November

★ November 1 - Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (d. 1973)

★ November 2 - Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944)

★ November 3 - Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)

★ November 6 - Carl Rakosi, German-born poet (d. 2004)

★ November 7 - Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)

★ November 19 - Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)

★ November 27 - Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)

December

★ December 5

★
★ Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor

★
★ Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)

★ December 4 - Lazar Lagin, Soviet satirical and children's writer (d.1979)

★ December 12

★
★ Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (d. 1976)

★
★ Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)

★
★ A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997)

★ December 19 - George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)

★ December 22 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)

★ December 24 - Joseph Cornell, American sculptor (d. 1972)

★ December 26 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)

★ December 28

★
★ Earl Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983)

★
★ John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957)

★ December 31

★
★ Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)

★
★ Will Mastin, American vaudevillian (d. 1975)

Unknown dates

★ E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and Prohibition Party candidate for presidency three times (d. 1992)

Deaths

::''(See 1903 list of deaths by name: .)''

January - June

★ January 3 - Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant (b. 1837)

★ January 17 - Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845)

★ January 28 - Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)

★ January 28 - Robert Planquette, French musical composer (b. 1850)

★ February 1 - Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (b. 1819)

★ February 7 - James Glaisher, English meteorologist and aeronaut (b. 1809)

★ February 22 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)

★ February 26 - Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818)

★ March 4 - Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834)

★ March 6 - Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839)

★ March 13 - George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821)

★ March 16 - Judge Roy Bean, American pioneer

★ March 28 - Emile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)

★ April 19 - Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820)

★ April 28 - Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)

★ May 4 - Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)

★ May 5 - Timothy Burke, oldest living man in New York (b. in Cork, Ireland1800)

★ May 9 - Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)

★ May 29 - Aleksandar Obrenović, Serbian king

★ June 11 - Nikolai Bugaev, prominent Russian mathematician (b.1837)

★ June 19 - Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)

July - December

★ July 2 - Ed Delahanty, American Hall of Fame baseball player (b. 1867)

★ July 11 - William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)

★ July 17 - James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)

★ July 20 - Pope Leo XIII (b. 1810)

★ August 5 - Phil May, English artist (b. 1864)

★ August 22 - Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)

★ September 18 - Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)

★ October 4 - Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author of Sex and Character (b. 1880)

★ October 20 - Thomas Vincent Welch, New York State Assemblyman and first Superintendent of the Niagara Falls State Park (b. 1850)

★ October 28 - Emma Booth, the fourth child of William and Catherine Booth (b. 1860)

★ November 1 - Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)

★ November 13 - Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830)

★ December 8 - Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)

Nobel prizes

★ Physics - Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie

★ Chemistry - Svante August Arrhenius

★ Medicine - Niels Ryberg Finsen

★ Literature - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

★ Peace - William Randal Cremer

Notes

External links

Table of contents

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