1903
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| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1870s 1880s 1890s – 1900s – 1910s 1920s 1930s |
| Years: | 1900 1901 1902 – 1903 – 1904 1905 1906 |
| 1903 by topic: |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1903 MCMIII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2656 |
| Armenian calendar | 1352 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԲ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6653 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 59–60 |
| Bengali calendar | 1310 |
| Berber calendar | 2853 |
| British Regnal year | 2 Edw. 7 – 3 Edw. 7 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2447 |
| Burmese calendar | 1265 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7411–7412 |
| Chinese calendar | 壬寅年十二月初三日 (4539/4599-12-3) — to — 癸卯年十一月十三日(4540/4600-11-13) |
| Coptic calendar | 1619–1620 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1895–1896 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5663–5664 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1959–1960 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1825–1826 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5004–5005 |
| Holocene calendar | 11903 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 903–904 |
| Iranian calendar | 1281–1282 |
| Islamic calendar | 1320–1321 |
| Japanese calendar | Meiji 36 (明治36年) |
| Juche calendar | N/A (before 1912) |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4236 |
| Minguo calendar | 9 before ROC 民前9年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2446 |
1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar.
Events
January
- January 1 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India.
- January 19 – The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east-west broadcast having been made in 1901).
February
- February 11 – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.
- February 15 – Morris and Rose Michtom introduce the first teddy bear in the United States.
- February 17 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.
- February 23 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity" under the terms of the Cuban–American Treaty.
March
- March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.
- March 3 – The British admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth.
- March 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.
- March 12 – The University of Puerto Rico is founded.
- 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 later rejects the treaty.
- March 19 – The oldest Turkish football club, Besiktas JK, is founded in Istanbul.
April
- April 7 – Fredrikstad Football Club (FFK) is founded in Norway.
- April 29 – A 30-million-m3 landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta.
May
- May 4 – The leading Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev is killed in a skirmish with the Turkish army.
- May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens.
- May 22 – The White Star Liner, SS Ionic, is launched.
- May 24 – The Paris-Madrid race begins, during which at least eight people are killed.
June
- June 11 – Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated.
- June 12 – The Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.
- June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, is nearly destroyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood that kills an estimated 238 people.
- June 27 – 19-year-old American socialite Aida de Acosta becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots Santos-Dumont's motorized dirigible, “No. 9”, from Paris to Château de Bagatelle in France.
July
- July 1– July 19 – First Tour de France bicycle race, won by Maurice Garin.
- July 7 – The British take over the Fulani Empire.
- July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
- July 30– August 23 ( July 17– August 10, O.S.) – Second Congress of the All- Russian Social Democratic Labour Party held in exile in Brussels, transferring to London.
August
- August 2 – The Ilinden Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople.
- August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.
- August 10 – Paris Metro train fire takes place.
- August 15 – Scottish Football's most successful club Aberdeen were formed and played their first competitive match.
- August 25 – Judiciary Act passed.
September
- September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
- September 14 – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as British Colonial Secretary, in order to campaign publicly for Imperial Preference.
- September 15 – Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto-Alegrense is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil
- September 24 – Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
- September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills 11 people, inspires a ballad and song.
- September 29 – Prussia becomes the first locality to require mandatory drivers licenses for operators of motor vehicles.
October
- 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 3 years.
- October 1 – The first modern World Series, pitting the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates against Boston of the American League, begins at Pittsburgh's Exposition Park.
- October 6 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
- October 10 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in the UK.
- October 13 – Boston wins its first of seven World Series titles, beating Pittsburgh at their home park, Huntington Avenue Grounds.
November
- November 3 – Founding of Argentinian football team, Newell's Old Boys in the city of Rosario.
- November 4 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
- November 13 – The United States recognizes the 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 U.S. 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.
December
- December 16 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay opens its doors to guests.
- 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 – Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago kills 600.
Date unknown
- The Lincoln-Lee Legion is established to promote the American temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children.
- The first box of Crayola crayons was made and sold for 5 cents. It contained 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.
- Osea Island in Maldon, Essex, England was bought by Mr. Frederick Charrington.
Births
January
- January 6 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)
- January 7 – Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)
- January 10 – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)
- January 11
- January 12 – Igor Kurchatov, Soviet physicist (d. 1960)
- January 16 – William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945)
- January 22 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish 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 4 – Alexander Imich, American parapsychologist and chemist
- February 6 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)
- February 8
- February 10 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)
- February 11 – Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)
- February 13 – Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)
- February 14 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- February 16 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)
- February 21
- February 22
- 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
- March 6 – Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000)
- March 10 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931)
- March 11
- 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 (d. 2009)
April
- April 5 – Hilda Bruce, British zoologist (d. 1974)
- April 6
- 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
- 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 21 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
- May 24 – Lofton R. Henderson, American naval aviator, died in The Battle of Midway (d. 1942)
- May 29 – Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor (d. 2003)
June
- June 1 – Vasyl Velychkovsky Ukrainian bishop (d. 1973)
- June 6 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)
- June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)
- June 10 – Theo Lingen, German actor (d. 1978)
- June 12 – Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)
- June 16
- June 18
- June 19
- June 20 – Eddie Laughton, British-born American film actor (d. 1952)
- June 21 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)
- June 22
- June 25
- June 29 – Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)
July
- July 1 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)
- July 2
- July 3 – Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)
- July 4 – Corrado 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 (d. 2010)
August
- August 3
- August 6 – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999)
- August 7
- August 13 – Chubby Johnson, American actor (d. 1974)
- August 18 – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)
- August 19 – James Gould Cozzens, American writer (d. 1978)
- August 23 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)
- August 31
September
- September 7
- September 8 – Jane Arbor, British writer (d. 1994)
- September 9
- September 11 – Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)
- September 13 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (d. 1996)
- September 15 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992)
- September 17 – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
- September 21 – Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (d. 1956)
- September 25
- Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979)
- 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, American baseball executive (d. 1979)
- October 10 – Bei Shizhang, Chinese biologist and educator (d. 2009)
- October 16 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)
- October 18 – Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)
- October 22
- October 25
- October 26 – Bill Allington, American baseball player and manager (d. 1966)
- 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 4 – Watchman Nee, Chinese preacher and church leader (d. 1972)
- 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)
- November 29 – E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and presidential candidate (d. 1992)
December
- December 5
- Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor (d. 2011)
- Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
- December 4
- December 12
- December 13 – Ella Baker, American civil rights activist (d. 1986)
- December 17 – Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987)
- 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
Deaths
January–June
- January 3 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)
- January 5 – Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, Spanish politician, former Prime Minister (b. 1825)
- January 17 – Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845)
- January 28
- February 1 – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (b. 1819)
- February 7 – James Glaisher, English meteorologist and aeronaut (b. 1809)
- February 14 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (b. 1831)
- 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 – Roy Bean, American pioneer (b. 1825)
- March 28 – Emile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)
- April 3 – Margaret Ann Neve, supercentenarian (b. 1792)
- April 13 – Moritz Lazarus, German philosopher (b. 1824)
- 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 8 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)
- May 13 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b. 1864)
- June 9 – Gaspar Núñez de Arce, Spanish poet (b. 1834)
- June 11
- June 19 – Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)
July–December
- July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player (b. 1867)
- July 11 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)
- July 13 – Béni Kállay, Austro-Hungarian statesman (b. 1839)
- July 17 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)
- July 20 – Pope Leo XIII, Italian Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1810)
- August 1 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman (b. 1852)
- August 5 – Phil May, English artist (b. 1864)
- August 11 – Eugenio María de Hostos, Puerto Rican philosopher and sociologist (b. 1839)
- August 17 – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
- August 22 – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
- August 23 – Fray Mocho, Argentine writer (b. 1858)
- September 13 – Carl Schuch, Austrian painter (b. 1846)
- September 18 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)
- October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author (b. 1880)
- October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician (b. 1850)
- October 22 – William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Irish historian and member of the House of Commons (b. 1838)
- November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)
- November 13 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830)
- November 25 – Sabino Arana, Spanish Basque writer and nationalist (b. 1865)
- December 8 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie
- Chemistry – Svante August Arrhenius
- Medicine – Niels Ryberg Finsen
- Literature – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
- Peace – William Randal Cremer
