1901 in the United States

::Theodore Roosevelt (R-New York) (starting September 14) - Vice President: ::*vacant* (until March 4) ::Theodore Roosevelt (R-New York) (March 4 – September 14) ::*vacant* (starting September 14) - Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: David B. Henderson (R-Iowa) - Congress: [56th](56th-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [57th](57th-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Lucas_gusher.jpg" caption="January 10: Oil in [[Texas]]."] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Col._Theodore_Roosevelt.png" caption="March 4: [[Theodore Roosevelt]] becomes the 25th U.S. vice president"] :: ### January–March - January 1 – Pentecostalism is born, at a prayer meeting at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. - January 3 – Census Commissioner predicts a US population of at least 300 million by 2001 - January 5 – Typhoid fever breaks out in a Seattle jail, the first of two typhoid outbreaks in the United States during the year. - January 7 – Alfred Packer is released from prison in Colorado after serving 18 years for cannibalism. - January 10 – In the first great Texas gusher, oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. - January 22 – The Grand Opera House in Cincinnati, Ohio, is destroyed in a fire. - January 28 – Baseball's American League declares itself a Major League. - February 4 – Puccini's *Tosca* makes its U.S. debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. - February 5 - The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty is signed by the United Kingdom and United States, ceding control of the Panama Canal to the United States. - J. P. Morgan buys mines and steel mills in the United States, marking the first billion-dollar business deal. - In Evansville, Indiana, a fire burns through the business district, causing $175,000 of damage. - February 20 – The Hawaii Territory Legislature convenes for the first time. - February 25 – U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation and at some time the world's largest producer of steel, is incorporated by industrialist J. P. Morgan. - March 2 - The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops. - The Carnegie Steel Company with the Illinois Steel Company and The National Steel Company merge to form the United States Steel Corporation. - March 4 – President William McKinley begins his second term; Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as Vice President. - March 9 – The Olds Motor Co. factory in Lansing, Michigan, burns to the ground; it is reconstructed with the world's first automobile assembly line for production of the Oldsmobile Curved Dash. ### April–June ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Forsyth-st-ruins.jpg" caption="May 3: The [[Great Fire of 1901]] in Jacksonville begins."] :: - April 25 – New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates. - May – Monte Ne health resort opens in the Ozarks. - May 3 – The Great Fire of 1901 in Jacksonville, Florida, begins. - May 17 – The U.S. stock market crashes for the first time. - May 27 – The Edison Storage Battery Company is founded in New Jersey. - May 28 – *Cherry v. Des Moines Leader* is decided in the Iowa Supreme Court, upholding the right to publish critical reviews. - June 11 – William D. Jelks is sworn in as the 32nd governor of Alabama following the death of William J. Samford. - June 12 – Cuba becomes a U.S. protectorate. ### July–September ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/McKinleyAssassination.jpg" caption="McKinley]] is shot."] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/President_Theodore_Roosevelt,_1904.jpg" caption=""Teddy" Roosevelt]] succeeds McKinley as the 26th U.S. president."] :: - June 22–July 31 – [The worst heat wave](1901-eastern-united-states-heat-wave) in U.S. history until the 1930s, affecting most areas east of [the 100th meridian](100th-meridian-west), is estimated to have killed over 9,500 people. - July 1 – The Bureau of Chemistry is established within the United States Department of Agriculture. - July 24 – Author O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio after serving 3 years for embezzlement from the First National Bank in Austin, Texas. - August 10 – U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901: Members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers begin a strike against United States Steel Corporation after failing to reach a settlement of their demands, and 14,000 employees walk off of the job. - September 2 – Vice President Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair. - September 5 – The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later renamed Minor League Baseball) is formed in Chicago. - September 6 – American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies 8 days later. - September 7 – The Boxer Protocol is signed between the Qing Empire of China and the Eight-Nation Alliance. - September 14 – Vice President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th president of the United States, upon the death of President William McKinley. - September 26 – The body of President Abraham Lincoln is exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet thick. ### October–December - October 4 – The American yacht *Columbia* defeats the Irish *Shamrock* in the America's Cup yachting race in New York. - October 16 – President Theodore Roosevelt invites African American leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. The American South reacts angrily to the visit, and racial violence increases in the region. - October 23 – Yale University celebrates its bicentennial. - October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Taylor goes down Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives. - October 29 - In Amherst, New Hampshire, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine; she will confess to at least 31 killings. - Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of William McKinley, is executed in the electric chair at Auburn state prison. - November 1 – The Sigma Phi Epsilon college fraternity is founded in Richmond, Virginia. - November 15 – The Alpha Sigma Alpha college fraternity is founded at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. - November 28 – The new state constitution of Alabama requires voters to have passed literacy tests. - December 3 – President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits." ### Undated - The Intercollegiate Prohibition Association is established in Chicago. - Force (cereal) first produced. ### Ongoing - Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) - Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937) - Philippine–American War (1899–1902) ## Births ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Ed_Sullivan.jpg" caption="[[Ed Sullivan"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Walt_Disney_1946.JPG" caption="[[Walt Disney"] :: - January 2 - Lew Landers, film and television director (died [1962](1962-in-the-united-states)) - Bob Marshall, wilderness activist, founder of The Wilderness Society (died [1939](1939-in-the-united-states)) - January 3 – Henrietta Bingham, journalist, newspaper executive, horse-breeder and anglophile (died [1968](1968-in-the-united-states)) - January 4 – Raoul Berger, Ukrainian-born attorney and law professor (died [2000](2000-in-the-united-states)) - January 9 – Chic Young, cartoonist (died [1973](1973-in-the-united-states)) - January 16 – Frank Zamboni, inventor (died [1988](1988-in-the-united-states)) - January 21 – Marcellus Boss, politician, lawyer, member of Kansas Senate and 5th Civilian Governor of Guam (died [1967](1967-in-the-united-states)) - February 1 - Howard I. Chapelle, naval architect, museum curator and author (died [1975](1975-in-the-united-states)) - Clark Gable, actor (died [1960](1960-in-the-united-states)) - February 8 – Virginius Dabney, teacher, journalist, writer and editor (died [1995](1995-in-the-united-states)) - February 9 – Brian Donlevy, actor (died [1972](1972-in-the-united-states)) - February 10 - Stella Adler, actress and teacher (died [1992](1992-in-the-united-states)) - Anthony Prusinski, politician (died [1950](1950-in-the-united-states)) - February 22 - Mildred Davis, actress (died [1969](1969-in-the-united-states)) - Charles Evans Whittaker, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died [1973](1973-in-the-united-states)) - March 21 – Carmelita Geraghty, actress (died [1966](1966-in-the-united-states)) - March 24 – Ub Iwerks, animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor and special effects technician (died [1971](1971-in-the-united-states)) - March 28 – Jack Weil, entrepreneur (died [2008](2008-in-the-united-states)) - April 18 – Al Lewis, songwriter (died [1967](1967-in-the-united-states)) - May 8 – Turkey Stearnes, baseball player (died [1979](1979-in-the-united-states)) - May 21 – Sam Jaffe, film producer (died [2000](2000-in-the-united-states)) - June 12 – Arnold Kirkeby, hotelier, art collector, and real estate investor (died [1962](1962-in-the-united-states)) - July 3 – Ruth Crawford Seeger, modernist composer and folk music arranger (died [1953](1953-in-the-united-states)) - July 9 – Jester Hairston, actor and composer (died [2000](2000-in-the-united-states)) - July 10 – Daniel V. Gallery, admiral and author (died [1977](1977-in-the-united-states)) - July 14 - Lucien Prival, actor (died [1994](1994-in-the-united-states)) - George Tobias, actor (died [1980](1980-in-the-united-states)) - July 20 – Heinie Manush, baseball player (died [[1971](1971-in-the-united-states)) - July 21 – Albert Hamilton Gordon, businessman and philanthropist (died [2009](2009-in-the-united-states)) - July 22 – Pancho Barnes, pioneer aviator (died [1975](1975-in-the-united-states)) - July 30 – John A. Carroll, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1957 to 1963 (died [1983](1983-in-the-united-states)) - August 3 – John C. Stennis, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1947 to 1989 (died [1995](1995-in-the-united-states)) - August 4 – Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpeter (died [1971](1971-in-the-united-states)) - August 5 – Thomas J. Ryan, admiral (died [1970](1970-in-the-united-states)) - August 8 – Ernest Lawrence, nuclear physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 (died [1958](1958-in-the-united-states)) - August 23 – John Sherman Cooper, U.S. Senator from Kentucky 1946-1949, 1952-1955 and 1956-1973 (died [1991](1991-in-the-united-states)) - August 28 – Babe London, actress and comedian (died [1980](1980-in-the-united-states)) - September 5 – Florence Eldridge, actress (died [1988](1988-in-the-united-states)) - September 24 – Gerald Warner Brace, writer, educator, sailor and boat builder (died [1978](1978-in-the-united-states)) - September 28 – Ed Sullivan, entertainment writer and television host (died [1974](1974-in-the-united-states)) - October 20 – Adelaide Hall, jazz singer and entertainer (died [1993 in the United Kingdom](1993-in-the-united-kingdom)) - October 28 – Hilo Hattie, native Hawaiian singer and actress (died [1979](1979-in-the-united-states)) - November 28 – Walter Havighurst, critic, novelist, literary and social historian (died [1994](1994-in-the-united-states)) - December 5 – Walt Disney, animator, producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor and business magnate (died [1966](1966-in-the-united-states)) - December 7 – Troy Sanders, film score composer (died [1959](1959-in-the-united-states)) - December 12 – Fred Barker, criminal member of the Barker-Karpis gang, son of Ma Barker (killed [1935](1935-in-the-united-states)) - December 16 – Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist and author (died [1978](1978-in-the-united-states)) ## Deaths ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Pach_Brothers_-_Benjamin_Harrison.jpg" caption="[[Benjamin Harrison"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/McKinley_(cropped).jpg" caption="[[William McKinley"] :: - January 6 – James W. Bradbury, United States Senator from Maine from 1847 to 1853 (born [1802](1802-in-the-united-states)) - January 16 - Murray Hall, born Mary Anderson, bail bondsman and politician (born [1841 in Scotland](1841-in-scotland)) - Hiram Rhodes Revels, first African American senator (born [1827](1827-in-the-united-states)) - January 21 – Elisha Gray, inventor and co-founder of Western Electric Manufacturing Company (born [1835](1835-in-the-united-states)) - January 29 – Alexander H. Jones, Congressional Representative from North Carolina (born [1822](1822-in-the-united-states)) - February 7 – Rowena Granice Steele, first female novelist in California (born [1824](1824-in-the-united-states)) - February 18 – Anna Gardner, abolitionist (born [1816](1816-in-the-united-states)) - March 7 – Ruth Alice Armstrong, American social activist (born [1850](1850-in-the-united-states)) - March 13 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893 and U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1881 to 1887 (born [1833](1833-in-the-united-states)) - March 18 – Patrick Donahoe, businessman, publisher of the Boston Catholic newspaper *The Pilot* (born [1811](1811-in-the-united-states)) - April 10 – Harriet Newell Kneeland Goff, reformer (born [1828](1828-in-the-united-states)) - April 19 – Alfred Horatio Belo, newswriter and businessman, founder of *The Dallas Morning News* (born [1839](1839-in-the-united-states)) - April 26 – Harriett Ellen Grannis Arey, educator (born [1819](1819-in-the-united-states)) - June 2 – James A. Herne, playwright and actor (born [1839](1839-in-the-united-states)) - July 4 - John Fiske, historian and philosopher (born [1842](1842-in-the-united-states)) - Julian Scott, artist and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient (born [1846](1846-in-the-united-states)) - July 7 – Eva M. Reed, botanist (born ?) - July 30 – Herbert Baxter Adams, educator and historian (born [1850](1850-in-the-united-states)) - August 4 – Harriet Pritchard Arnold, author (born [1858](1858-in-the-united-states)) - August 24 – Clara Maass, nurse (born [1876](1876-in-the-united-states)) - September 14 – William McKinley, 25th president of the United States from 1897 to 1901 (born [1843](1843-in-the-united-states)) - October 10 – Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born [1814](1814-in-the-united-states)) - October 21 – James A. Walker, Confederate general and US Congressman (born [1832](1832-in-the-united-states)) - October 29 – Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley (born [1873](1873-in-the-united-states)) - November 8 – Mary Ann Bickerdyke, nurse and hospital administrator for Union soldiers (born [1817](1817-in-the-united-states)) - November 26 – John Denny, buffalo soldier and Medal of Honor recipient (born [1846](1846-in-the-united-states)) - November 27 – Clement Studebaker, automobile manufacturer (born [1831](1831-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. Legrand, Jacques. (1987). "Chronicle of the 20th Century". *Ecam Publication*. 2. May, George S.. (1977). "R. E. Olds: Auto Industry Pioneer". *Eerdmans*. 3. (1901-06-12). ["Jelks Hurrying Back to Alabama"](https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-birmingham-news-jelks-succeeds-samfo/129061818/). *The Birmingham News*. 4. (1901-08-07). "Order out for All to Strike". *[[Chicago Daily Tribune]]*. 5. (1901-08-11). "Strike Order Is in Full Effect". *[[Chicago Sunday Tribune]]*. 6. (1971). ["Views & Reviews"](https://books.google.com/books?id=b-sfAQAAMAAJ). *Views & Rewiews Productions*. 7. ["Stella Adler {{!}} American actress {{!}} Britannica"](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stella-Adler). 8. (7 October 2020). ["Norman Thomas "Turkey" Stearnes (1901-1979) •"](https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/norman-thomas-turkey-stearnes-1901-1979/). 9. (January 30, 2000). ["Jester Hairston, 98, Choral Expert and Actor"](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/30/nyregion/jester-hairston-98-choral-expert-and-actor.html). *[[The New York Times]]*. 10. (26 March 2015). ["Historical Dictionary of the 1940s"](https://books.google.com/books?id=TnmsBwAAQBAJ&dq=Walt+Disney+1901+december+15+1966&pg=PA107). *Routledge*. 11. ["Margaret Mead {{!}} Biography, Theory, Books, & Facts"](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Mead). 12. (1902). "Thirteenth Annual Report of the Director". *Missouri Botanical Garden Annual Report*. 13. Stanton E. Cope. 2011. Clara Maass: An American Heroine. ''Wing Beats'' 22(2): 16-19. ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1901_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1901_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::