February 1901

1901

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February 7, 1901: Netherlands royal wedding of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry

February 22, 1901:The City of Rio de Janeirosinks as it arrives at San Francisco Bay, drowning 131 on board

February 21, 1901: GK Persei nova seen on Earth after 1,533 years

The following events occurred inFebruary 1901:

February 1, 1901 (Friday)

• New Zealandbecame the first nation to create a governmental agency devoted to promoting tourism, with the creation of theDepartment of Tourist and Health Resorts.
• China'sFists of Righteous Harmony(Yihequan I-ho-chuan), which had fomented the killing of foreigners that became theBoxer Rebellion,was formally outlawed by the Imperial government.
• The body ofQueen Victoriawas transported from theIsle of WighttoPortsmouthon board her personal yacht,HMYAlberta.
• OnWall Street,New York City,the largest railroad network in theUnited Stateswas announced when theUnion Pacific Railroadacquired a majority of the stock of theSouthern Pacific Railroad Company.A syndicate composed ofWilliam Kissam Vanderbilt,J. P. Morgan,and theRockefeller familypurchased 1,300,000 shares of Southern Pacific for $10,000,000 to create "a continuous system under one control, extending from New York to San Francisco by rail and from San Francisco down the western coast as far as Panama and out across the Pacific to the Orient by steamers."
• Born:
  • Frank Buckles,American soldier, last surviving American veteran ofWorld War I,inBethany, Missouri(d.2011)
  • Clark Gable,American film actor, known for starring roles inMutiny on the BountyandGone with the Wind,recipient of theAcademy Award for Best ActorforIt Happened One Night,inCadiz, Ohio(d.1960)
• Died:Fitzedward Hall,75, Americanlinguist,one of the major U.S. contributors to theOxford English Dictionaryproject and the first American to translate works from theSanskritlanguage into theEnglish language(b.1825).

February 2, 1901 (Saturday)

• The funeral ofQueen Victoriatook place atSt George's ChapelinWindsor Castleafter her body was transported fromPortsmouthtoLondon.The day before, the funeral procession had brought her fromOsborne HousetoPortsmouth.Present at her funeral were the Kings of theUnited Kingdom,Germany,PortugalandGreece,and the future kings ofDenmarkandSweden.According to contemporary accounts, the noise of the cannon firing at her funeral was not heard on the outskirts ofLondon,"yet it was heard loudly at a number of villages in an approximate ring around 150 kilometres from the source".
• TheUnited States ArmyReorganization Bill, officially called "An Act To Increase the Efficiency of the Permanent Military Establishment of the United States", was signed into law by PresidentWilliam McKinley.
• TheUnited States Army Nurse Corpswas established as a permanent part of theUnited States Army's Medical Department. Although they could not yet become officers, women could now enlist in the Army for three year terms.
• Benjamin O. Davis Sr.,who would become the first African-Americangeneralin theUnited States Army,received his first commission as an officer, when he was made a second lieutenant in theU.S. 9th Cavalry.Davis, who had enlisted as a private less than two years earlier, had been mentored byMajorCharles Young,who, at the time, was the only other black officer in theUnited States Army.
• After starting only one week earlier,George Bernard Shawcompleted the three act playThe Admirable Bashville,a stage adaptation of his novelCashel Byron's Profession.
• Born:Jascha Heifetz,Lithuanian violinist, inVilna,Russian Empire(nowVilnius,Lithuania) (d.1987)

February 3, 1901 (Sunday)

• The Japanese ultra-nationalistBlack Dragon Society(Kokuryukai) was formed byRyōhei Uchidato advocate the conquest ofKorea,war againstRussia,and the expansion of theJapanese Empire's control ofAsia.
• Eighteen members of the "Snake clan" of theCreek Indian tribewere charged with treason against theUnited Statesand jailed inMuskogee, Oklahoma.
• Born:
  • Rosamond Lehmann,British novelist, inBourne End, Buckinghamshire,England(d.1990)
  • Arvid Wallman,Swedish Olympic diver, inGöteborg,Sweden(d.1982)
• Died:
  • Fukuzawa Yukichi,66, Japanese economist, described as "the most influential thinker of theMeiji erainJapanafter 1868 ",who guided the modernization ofJapanafter theMeiji Restoration,foundedKeio University,and promoted the introduction of Western ideas intoJapan.It would later be written, "it was from the foundations laid down by Fukuzawa and others like him that Japan rose to become one of the economic leaders of the world" (b1835).
  • Francis V. Woodhouse,96, the last survivor of the "Twelve Apostles" of theCatholic Apostolic Churchthat had been organized in 1835. The central tenet of that church's members, that theSecond ComingofJesus Christwould take place before the death of the last of the new apostles, failed to be realized. No provision had been made for successors to any of the 12.
  • Tom O'Brien,American baseball player,outfielderandfirst basemanfor thePittsburgh Pirates,died ofpneumoniacaused bytyphoid fever(b.1873). O'Brien had been ill since a post-season player tour ofCuba,when he was persuaded to drink a bucket of salt water in order to "cleanse his system".

February 4, 1901 (Monday)

• The Italian operaTosca,byGiacomo Puccini,had its American premiere, at theMetropolitan Opera HouseinNew York City,withsopranoMilka TerninaandtenorGiuseppe Cremoninias Floria Tosca and Mario Cavaradossi, respectively, andLuigi Mancinelliconducting the orchestra.It would be an immediate success, and an author would later call it an opera "of apparently unflagging popularity... there must be scarcely a city or a town in the United States where opera has been given in the last eighty years that has not been exposed to at least oneTosca".
• On the same evening, the three-act comedyCaptain Jinks of the Horse Marines,byClyde Fitch,opened onBroadway theatreat theGarrick Theatrefor the first of 168 performances. The play was a sensation, and made a star ofEthel Barrymore.
• The body ofQueen Victoriawas entombed atFrogmoreMausoleuminWindsor,next to that of her late husband,Prince Albert,whom she had survived for 39 years.
• With the signing into law of the "Canteen Act" two days earlier, theUnited States Department of Warissued General Order Number 1implementing the Act's provision against "the sale of, or dealing in, beer, wine or any intoxicating liquors by any person in any exchange or canteen or army transport or upon any premises used for military purposes by the United States.""Commanding officers will immediately carry the provisions of this law into full force and effect," the order stated, "and will be held strictly responsible that no exceptions or invasions are permitted."
• Andrew Carnegie,who owned 54 percent ofCarnegie Steel Company,sold all of his shares toJ. P. Morganand associates. Although the details were kept confidential, it was estimated that Carnegie received at least 85 million dollars,equivalent to more than 2.4 billion dollars in 2016.
• By a vote of 15–14, theCuban Constitutional Conventionapproved an electoral college system for electing the nation's president, rather than a popular vote.
• "John MarshallDay "was celebrated in major cities across theUnited Statesin honor of the centennial of the day that Marshall became theChief Justice of the United States.
• Died:Jefferson F. Long,64, a former slave who became the first African-American elected to represent thestate of Georgiain theUnited States House of Representatives,ofinfluenza.He served only two months, from January to March, 1871.

February 5, 1901 (Tuesday)

• Thomas Edisondiscovered and patented the rechargeablenickel–iron batterysystem and made plans to market it commercially, but would soon come into conflict with Swedish inventorWaldemar Jungner,who had filed a patent inEuropeonly two weeks earlier (January 22) for a process using nickel-iron storage cells. The technologies would later be superseded by improvements on Jungner'snickel–cadmium battery.
• TheUnited States Senatevoted to declassify allUnited States Department of Statepapers relating to the peace negotiations that ended theSpanish–American War,including U.S. PresidentWilliam McKinley's instructions to the American negotiators. These would reveal, among other things, that the only territory that theUnited Statesoriginally had wantedSpainto completely give up wasPuerto Ricoand its surrounding islands. Other correspondence showed that the principal reason for acquiring "Porto Rico" was to expand the prestige of theUnited Statesin competition with other colonial powers.
• InEvansville, Indiana,a fire burned through the business district, causing $175,000 of damage.
• Henry E. Youtsey was sentenced to life imprisonment for being the principal conspirator in the 1900 assassination ofKentuckyGovernor-electWilliam Goebel.After serving nearly 18 years of his sentence, however, Youtsey would be paroled on December 11, 1918,and given a pardon by outgoingGovernorJames D. Blackon December 1, 1919.
• By act of theAlabama Legislature,the city ofDaphne, Alabama,ceased to be the county seat forBaldwin Countyand all county government offices and records were moved to the smaller town ofBay Minette.The legislation would precipitate a fight between the two cities, all the way to the state supreme court, as well as a violent confrontation during the October removal of the records.
• The West Florida Annexation Association, a group of businessmen led by Colonel J. J. Sullivan ofPensacola,appeared before theAlabama Legislatureand presented their proposal for annexation of that part of the state toAlabama.
• Abraham Esau, 35, acolouredcitizen of the BoerCape Colony,worked as a British spy during theSecond Boer Warafter local Boer commander refused to let the coloured citizens take up weapons to lead the fight. After theBoersretook the town ofCalvinia,Esau was eliminated by being dragged to the outskirts of town and shot, and his body was then displayed in the village as a warning. When the British routed theBoersthe next day, Esau was buried with fullBritish Armyhonors.
• Born:Gaston Schoukens,Belgian film director who made numerous comedies, melodramas and documentaries, including the first Belgian sound film,La famille Kelpkens,and the popular 1950 comedyUn Soir de Joie,as Felix Bell inBrussels(d.1961)

February 6, 1901 (Wednesday)

• InChina,a list of 12 former Chinese government officials was made public by the ministers from theEight-Nation Alliance,with the demand that nine of them be executed for crimes committed during theBoxer Rebellionof the year before. Three were, reportedly, already dead; Hau Chung Yu and Kih Siu had been taken prisoner byJapan,which planned to put them to death; andChinahad already agreed to put Yu Hsien and Prince Chuang to death. No decision had been made byChinaconcerning Chao Hsu Kiao and Ying Lien.Chinahad earlier noted that it would be impossible to kill General Tung Fu Siang, who was very popular among Muslims and western Chinese, and it was expected that Prince Tuan and Duke Lan would banished.
• A vote of no confidence brought down the government ofItaly.Prime MinisterGiuseppe Saraccoand his cabinet resigned the next day.
• Second Boer War: TheBoerssucceeded in cutting off theDelagoa BayRailroad at a point 30 miles from thePortuguese West Africacapital,Lourenço Marques(nowMaputo,Angola).
• The Sacred Fount,a novel byHenry James,was first published.Charles Scribner's SonsofNew York Cityinitially printed 3,000 copies, and on February 15,Methuen & Companywould print 3,500 copies inLondon.
• General Order Number 9 was issued byUnited States Secretary of WarElihu Rootas one of his first acts of business under the authority of the new Army Reorganization Act. The traditional practice of "permanent" appointments to staff departments was eliminated, and required that staff officers to be rotated out after four years so that others could gain experience.
• Albert Henry Munsellapplied for the patent for his new invention, theLumenometer,which allowed the most accurate measurements at that time of measuring the hue, light and chroma of individual colors. The device, which would receive U.S. Patent No. 686,827 on November 19, would lead to his development of theMunsell color system.
• Robert Bordenwas elected asLeader of the Oppositionin theHouse of Commons of Canadaby his fellowConservative Partyparliament members. In 1911, theConservative Partywould win control of the government, and Borden would becomePrime Minister of Canada.
• Stagecoach robberJoe Bootearned a place in Western lore by becoming one of the few inmates of the infamousYuma Territorial Prisonto successfully escape. Given a 30-year sentence on November 11, 1899, Boot gained the trust of the prison staff and was allowed the job of driving a horse-drawn wagon to deliver food to prisoners working outside the prison. After making his usual departure through the prison gates for his delivery, Boot kept going, and would never be recaptured.
• Born:
  • Ben Lyon,American actor and business executive, inAtlanta(d.1979)
  • Thomas E. Fraser,American naval officer, led the attack of four destroyers against a Japanese force in a battle offSavo Islandand went down with his ship, the destroyerUSSWalke,inStafford Springs, Connecticut(d.1944) ThedestroyerUSSThomas E. Fraserwould be named in his honor.

February 7, 1901 (Thursday)

• GermanimmunologistPaul Uhlenhuthpublished his paperA Method for Investigation of Different Types of Blood, Especially for the Differential Diagnosis of Human Blood.In an understatement about the significance of his findings, Uhlenhuth commented as an aside, "It is noteworthy... that, after drying blood samples from men, horses and cattle on a board for four weeks and dissolving them in physiological NaCl solution, I was able to identify the human blood at once using my serum— a fact that should be of particular importance for forensic medicine." As an author would note more than a century later, "With these few words, Uhlenhuth announced the world that he had found the Holy Grail ofserology:a definitive test for the presence of human blood. "
• QueenWilhelmina of the Netherlandswas married toPrince Henry,with a civil ceremony at 11:00 a.m. atThe Hague,and a religious ceremony at noon.
• American sailors from theUSSLancasterwere attacked and beaten by a mob after they went ashore at the city ofLa GuairainVenezuela.
• Representatives of theChoctawandChickasawnations inOklahomasigned a draft of a proposed agreement with theUnited States Department of the Interiorfor division of their tribal lands inIndian Territory,but the initial plan would be rejected by theUnited States Congress.A binding agreement, as supplemented, would pass into law on July 1, 1902.
• Born:Alison Marjorie Ashby,Australian botanist and artist, inNorth Adelaide,Australia(d.1987)
• Died:Benjamin Edward Woolf,64, British-American violinist, composer, and playwright, best known for the operasThe Mighty DollarandWestward Ho(b.1836)

February 8, 1901 (Friday)

• InSaint Petersburg,the Russian Foreign Ministry received the Chinese ambassador and presented him withRussia's conditions for withdrawal of troops fromManchuria;a historian would note later, "this document was really an ultimatum that applied to all of Manchuria... Its provisions were largely unacceptable to China and its purport totally unacceptable to Japan.
• Indiana Universitybegan itscollege basketballprogram, losing 20–17 toButler UniversityatIrvington, Indiana(later annexed toIndianapolis). Ernest Strange was the high scorer for the Hoosiers in the first game, with nine points, including all seven of Indiana's free throws.
• Born:
  • Virginius Dabney,American journalist, recipient of thePulitzer Prize,editor of theRichmond Times-Dispatch,inCharlottesville, Virginia(d.1995)
  • Gustav Dahrendorf,German politician,member of parliamentwho would be arrested and charged with treason after being suspected of involvement in the1944 assassination plotagainstAdolf Hitler,inHamburg.Remarkably, Dahrendorf would be given a 7-year prison sentence rather than being executed and be released after the German surrender (d.1954).

February 9, 1901 (Saturday)

• United States Secretary of WarElihu RootnotifiedLeonard Wood,the American Governor-General ofCuba,of five points that needed to go into the Constitution thatCubawas to adopt before independence could be granted. All of the points — American approval of Cuban treaties, limitations onCuba's ability to borrow money, the American right of intervention to maintain a stable government, continuation of laws implemented by the American occupational government, and permission to establish naval bases inCuba— meant thatCubawould function as an Americanprotectoraterather than a fully independent nation.
• Taking inspiration from the crusade ofCarrie Nation,an estimated 1,000 men and women inHolton, Kansas(out of a population of 3,082 that included children), assembled at local Methodist Church and then marched to the Hicks Saloon and destroyed its contents. According to reporters, "the gutters were deluged with a mixture of beer, whisky, and the usual poisonous decoctions dealt out by the Kansas jointists"and then removed the bar fixtures, furniture, glassware, and a large mirror and destroyed them with sledgehammers. Thomas Balding and John Bimrod, two other proprietors, had removed their liquors earlier in anticipation of a raid, pledged that they would ship everything out of town by Monday, "and each gave his oath never to sell another drop of liquor in Holton".
• Born:
  • Sebastian Kunjukunju Bhagavathar,Indian stage actor, inAmbalappuzha,Kerala,India(d.1985)
  • Gertrud Scholtz-Klink,German state official, leader of theNational Socialist Women's League(Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft), the women's wing of theNazi Party(d.1999)
  • James Murray,American film actor (d.1936)
• Died:
  • Fred Harvey,65, American entrepreneur, founder of the first American restaurant chain, theHarvey Houserestaurants that were adjacent to railroad stations on theSanta Fe Railroad(b.1835)
  • George Earl Maney,74, American army officer and diplomat,brigadier generalfor theConfederate States Armyduring theAmerican Civil War,who later became the American ambassador to several different nations inSouth Americaafter reaffirming his allegiance to theUnited States(b.1826)

February 10, 1901 (Sunday)

• Excavating the ruins of theAchaemenid Empireacropolis, at the site of the ancient city ofSusainIran,French archaeologistJacques de Morgandiscovered a tomb that had been unopened for 2200 years. The skeleton inside was "strewn about the head and neck" with "a mass of finely-wrought and artistic gems and jewels".Most of these would later end up in theLouvre,and while there were no clues to identify the person in the tomb, coins inside the bronzesarcophagusdated from as late as332 BC,shortly before the end of the Achaemenid era.
• InBritish Somaliland,British and Somali forces fought near Sannasa. The British, on a punitive expedition, lost 17 of 500 men when the Somalis attacked; the Somali force reportedly lost 150 men as it was turned back.
• GeneralChristiaan de Wet,accompanied by 5,000 soldiers, led a Boer invasion into Britain'sCape Colony.
• The census ofItalywas completed and the population was officially certified as 32,475,253 people.
• The body of the last victim of the1900 Galveston hurricanewas found, and was identified as a 14-year-old girl. She was one of more than 6,000 people who had died when the hurricane struckGalveston, Texas,onSeptember 8, 1900.
• Max Joseph von Pettenkofer,82, Bavarian chemist and hygienist who had demonstrated in 1892 — by experimenting on himself— that thecholeragerm alone could not cause the disease without incubating conditions, committed suicide by shooting himself at theResidenzinMunich.
• Born:
  • Richard Brauer,German-American mathematician, founder ofmodular representation theory,inCharlottenburg,Germany(d.1977).He is remembered forBrauer's theorem on induced characters,as well as theBrauer–Fowler theoremand theBrauer–Suzuki theorem.
• Died:Albert D. Shaw,American politician, U.S. Representative forMaineand champion of veterans benefits at theGrand Army of the Republic(b.1841)

February 11, 1901 (Monday)

• TheChicago Daily Tribunepublished a report thatFlorence Maybrick,an American woman who had been imprisoned since 1889 in theUnited Kingdomafter being convicted of poisoning her husband, was pardoned byKing Edwardafter more than 11 years and released from the women's prison atAylesbury,England.To everyone's great disappointment, the story turned out to be false and was retracted the next day in the newspaper, but not before being reprinted by news outlets across the country.
• By a 15–14 vote, the Cuban constitutional convention changed an existing rule, making it possible for GeneralMáximo Gómezto become eligible to be thenation's president.
• Died:Milan,47,King of Serbiafrom 1882 until his sudden and unexplained abdication in 1889, in exile (b.1854)

February 12, 1901 (Tuesday)

• The state ofDelawareratified theThirteenth,FourteenthandFifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,more than 30 years after they had taken effect.J. Frank Allee,a state Senator who would later be selected to representDelawarein theUnited States Senate,introduced the legislation after discovering that his state had never ratified the three amendments.The Senate voted its approval on January 30, and the House followed on January 31.Despite Senator Alee's belief thatDelawarewas alone still having failed to ratify the three post-American Civil Waramendments,Kentuckywould not formally approve the 13th, 14th and 15th until 1976.Mississippi's approval of the 13th (abolishing slavery) would not happen until 1995, andTennessee's endorsement of the 15th (giving all races the right to vote) would not be remedied until 1997.
• AsViceroy of India,Lord Curzoncreated the newNorth-West Frontier Provincein the north of thePunjabregion, borderingAfghanistan.

February 13, 1901 (Wednesday)

• Shortly before 2:00 in the afternoon,William McKinleywas formally declared the winner of thepresidential election,as a joint session ofUnited States Congresswitnessed the formal counting of the electoral votes. After reading the returns from the 45 states, U.S. SenatorWilliam P. FryeofMaine,thePresident pro tempore of the United States Senate,announced that the McKinley/Roosevelt ticket had 202 votes and the Byran/Stevenson campaign had 155. TheChicago Tribunecommented that "the gathering of the House and Senate with the brilliantly attired women in the gallery would never be taken by a foreigner for an official assemblage to determine the right of succession to the Chief Executive of 75,000,000 people"
• According to an account at the time by magistrate Gao Shaochen, an estimated 1,000 German troops arrived at the western entrance of the city ofYongqingand, without warning, opened fire on the population, killing 200 Chinese soldiers and civilians.
• At theMengo HospitalinUganda,British missionary doctorsJ. Howard CookandAlbert Cookfirst noticed the outbreak of an illness with mysterious symptoms, the first signs of what would become an epidemic ofAfrican trypanosomiasis,commonly called "sleeping sickness".
• Bessie Taylor,an English barmaid, became the second of three mistresses ofGeorge Chapmanto die suddenly. After the death of Chapman's third mistress in 1902, Miss Taylor's body would be exhumed and found to be poisoned withantimony,and Chapman would be tried and convicted of her murder.
• Born:
  • Vasili Kuznetsov,Soviet state leader, First Deputy Chairman of thePresidium of the Supreme Sovietfrom 1977 to 1986, who served as the actinghead of stateof theSoviet Unionafter the deaths ofLeonid Brezhnev(November 10, 1982, to June 16, 1983),Yuri Andropov(February 9 to April 11, 1984), andKonstantin Chernenko(March 10 to July 27, 1985); inSemyonov, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast,Russia(d.1990)
  • Paul Lazarsfeld,Austrian-American sociologist, founder of theBureau of Applied Social ResearchatColumbia University,created thetwo-step flow of communicationmodel in social research, inVienna(d.1976)
  • Lewis Grassic Gibbon(pen name for James Leslie Mitchell), Scottish novelist (d.1935)

February 14, 1901 (Thursday)

• Giuseppe Zanardellibecame the 16thPrime Minister of Italy.
• Martial lawwas declared inMadridin order for the royal wedding betweenPrincess Mercedes(the eldest daughter ofKing Alfonso) andPrince Carlosto commence.
• King Edwardopened his firstParliament of the United Kingdom,appearing in person before both houses.The King insulted twelve million of hisRoman Catholicsubjectswhen he uttered the exact words of theAccession Declaration(a requirement for a new monarch's first opening of Parliament) for the first time since 1837, as required by theAct of Settlement.The words from 200 years earlier required the monarch to declare that "I do believe that... the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous".Irish M.P.John Redmond,himself a Roman Catholic, said afterward that the oath was "wantonly insulting" and warned that "as long as... His Majesty swears that Roman Catholics are idolatrous, I, for one, will oppose His Majesty's salary."Redmond's fellow Irish members of the House of Commons voted against the King on civil matters afterward.The King subsequently made known his "disgust" with the wording and requested the government to revise the Declaration before any future monarch had to open Parliament, a change that would come about in theAccession Declaration Acton August 3, 1910, prior to the opening of Parliament byKingGeorge V.
• Born:Sylvia Field,American actress (d.1998)

February 15, 1901 (Friday)

• At about 11:00 in the morning, 69 coal miners at the Wellington Colliery Company, nearCumberland, British Columbia,were killed in an explosion.More than half of the fatalities (37 Chinese and nine Japanese) were Asian, and the other 27 were white. In the aftermath, the white miners who lived at nearbyNanaimoblamed the Chinese workers, and signed petitions protesting that the foreign-born workers were "dangerously incompetent" and demanded that all employees take a test to show their proficiency in either English or French. Soon afterward, calls were made for excluding all Asian immigrants fromBritish Columbia,and James H. Hawthornthwaite would win a by-election to the provincial legislature to champion the anti-Asian cause.
• TheRight-of-Way Actwas signed into law by U.S. PresidentWilliam McKinleyand permitted theUnited States Secretary of the Interiorto grant rights of way through any federally owned-land, including the Indian reservations and the four national parks then in existence (Yellowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite, and Mount Rainier), the sole standard being whether it was "incompatible with the public interest". A conservationist would write later, "The act was in most respects perfectly tailored for looters of the parks, for it authorized the Secretary to grant rights of way... for practically any sort of business that might want a right of way."
• TheAlianza Limafootball team was founded inPeru.
• Born:João Branco Núncio,Portuguese bullfighter, inAlcácer do Sal,Portugal(d.1976)
• Died:Karl G. Maeser,73, German-American academic, immigrant who was the first principal of the Brigham Young Academy and considered to be the founder ofBrigham Young University(b.1828)

February 16, 1901 (Saturday)

• AtSaint Petersburg,Russian Foreign MinisterVladimir Lamsdorfpresented a revised treaty proposal toChina's Ambassador to theRussian Empire,Prince Yang-ju. Under the 12-article treaty,Chinawould retain ownership ofManchuria,but Russian troops would be allowed to occupy the territory to guard the railways there, andChinawould be forbidden from granting rail or mining privileges to anyone without Russian consent. The Chinese then "decided to try their hand at balance-of-power politics", leaking various versions of the treaties to theRussian Empire's rivals, the Japanese and British Empires.
• After theUnited Statesraised the tariff on imported Russian sugar,Russiaretaliated with a 30 percent increase on the tariff on American goods made of iron or steel.
• The town ofSouth Hill, Virginia,was chartered, after having been laid out in 1889.
• Most of the members of both houses of theAlabama Legislaturearrived inPensacola, Florida,at the invitation of the West Florida Annexation Association, to discuss the possibility of the western portion of that state being annexed. There were enough interested legislators to fill six passenger cars on a specially chartered train.The plan envisioned by a committee was forAlabamato pay two million dollars toFloridato purchase Calhoun, Escambia, Holmes, Jackson, Santa Rosa, Walton and Washington Counties "if the rest of Florida and the Congress of the United States are willing, and if Governor Sanford of Alabama endorses the project, as do a majority of the Alabama legislators".
• Macedonian demonstrators in Sofia demanded independence for Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.

February 17, 1901 (Sunday)

• William Knapp Thornbecame the first person to drive aMercedesautomobile in a race, when he entered his recently purchased Daimler-Mercedes in theCircuit du Sud-Ouestthat started at the French city ofPau.Only two kilometers in to the 330 kilometer race, Thorn's car flipped after a horse-drawn cart crossed into his path.
• Das klagende Lied,composed byGustav Mahlerin 1883 and then revised several times afterward, was performed for the very first time. Mahler himself conducted theWeiner choirand the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra at theMusikvereininVienna,nearly 18 years after writing it.
• Carles Casagemas,19, an art student and the best friend of artistPablo Picasso,died by shooting himself in the head after being rejected in love.Picasso's "Blue Period"started, and for the next three years, Picasso, depressed at the loss of his friend, would paint his works in various shades of blue and blue-green.
• Born:Philotheus Boehner,German Franciscan priest and scholar, as Heinrich Boehner inLichtenau, Westphalia,Germany(d.1955)

February 18, 1901 (Monday)

• Dr.Ronald Ross,in a letter to the colonial government inBritish India,became the first person to propose bringingmalariaepidemics under control by extermination of mosquitoes of the genusAnopheles.In 1902, he would perfect the organization of the campaign against theAnophelesinsects in a bookMosquito Brigades,and would receive theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinelater in that year.
• German Field MarshalAlfred von Walderseeannounced that he would conduct new military campaigns to secure territory inChina.In their first engagement at Paoting-fu (nowBaoding), the Germans lost one soldier and killed 200 Chinese soldiers after a patrol allegedly came under attack.
• Four days after becoming a member of theHouse of Commons of the United KingdomfuturePrime MinisterWinston Churchillgave his maiden speech, a rebuttal to an address given by another futurePrime Minister,David Lloyd George.At 10:30 when Lloyd George had finished an eloquent speech decrying the carnage against theBoersduring theSecond Boer War,Churchill responded that British policy should be "to make it easy and honourable for the Boers to surrender, and painful and perilous for them to continue in the field."Churchill would say later that "It was a terrible, thrilling yet delicious experience".
• Died:Gaëtan Henri Léon de Viaris,54, French cryptanalyst who invented a printing cipher machine, and furthered the use of mathematical relations tocryptology,particularly linear substitutions.

February 19, 1901 (Tuesday)

• Thomas O'Donnell,anIrish Nationalistmember of theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom,stunned his fellowmembers of parliamentwhen he rose to speak, and then started to address the group in theIrish language.A representative for the constituency ofWest Kerry,began by saying, in Irish, "As an Irishman from an Irish-speaking constituency, a member of a nation which still preserves a language of its own and is still striving bravely for freedom..."before he was interrupted by the House Speaker,William Gully,who recognized what O'Donnell was doing. As O'Donnell's fellow Irish MPs applauded, Gully called for order and informed him that he was "not entitled to address the Commons in a language which they did not understand". O'Donnell then asked the Speaker, in Irish, "Is it not true that Irish is my native language, the language of my ancestors, the language of my country?"John Redmondthen pointed out that there was "no written or unwritten rule against a member using the language which is most familiar to him", and Gully replied that there was no precedent for a member of Commons to give a speech in anything but English, and that "Not in the one hundred years of union has any Irishman tried to speak in Irish in this House until now."The next day,The TimesofLondoncommented that "Public gratitude is due to one ingenious Irish gentleman— Mr. Thomas O'Donnell, M.P., for West Kerry, for relaxing the severity of the Parliamentary situation last night" during a bitter debate over theSecond Boer War.
• After criticizingGeneral Carringtonin print, theRhodesian Timeswas seized by British authorities undermartial lawand the staff was evicted.
• Born:Florence Green,last survivingWorld War Iveteran, as a member of theWomen's Royal Air Force;inEdmonton, London,England(d. 2012)
• Died:Paul Armand Silvestre,63, French poet

February 20, 1901 (Wednesday)

Butch Cassidy

The Sundance Kid and Etta Place

• Butch Cassidy(Robert Leroy Parker) and theSundance Kid(Harry Longabaugh), and their companionEtta Place,departed theUnited Stateson board the SSHerminiusand never returned. Wanted for the robberies committed by Parker's gang,The Wild Bunch,the three traveled on the British steamer toBuenos Aires,Argentina.They would return briefly in1906,when Place wanted to go home, but Parker and Longabaugh would go back toSouth Americaafter escorting her toCalifornia.
• TheHawaii Territorial Legislatureconvened for the first time.Joseph Apukai Akina,a Hawaiian-Chinese representative from the island ofKauaiwas chosen as the first Speaker of the state House of Representatives, and Dr. Nicholas Roosevelt, a white settler on the big island, was elected President of the state Senate.
• Born:
  • Henry Eyring,American theoretical chemist, developed thetransition state theoryfor which he won theNational Medal of Science(1960) and theWolf Prize in Chemistry(1980), but who was bypassed for theNobel Prize in Chemistry,in the Mormon colony inColonia Juárez, Chihuahua,Mexico(d.1981)
  • René Dubos,French-American microbiologist and environmentalist, known for popularizing the maxim "Think globally, act locally",inSaint-Brice-sous-Forêt,France(d.1982)
  • Mohamed Naguib,Egyptian state leader, 1stPresident of Egypt,inKhartoum,Anglo-Egyptian Sudan(d.1984)

February 21, 1901 (Thursday)

• At the insistence of theUnited States,theEight-Nation AllianceoccupyingChinaagreed that none of their nations would acquire any additional Chinese territory without the approval of the others. CountAlfred von Walderseecalled off his intended expedition the following day.
• China'sImperial governmentbegan turning over the North China Railway to British control.
• InZürich,German-born physicistAlbert Einsteinbecame a citizen ofSwitzerland.In 1922, the Swiss legation toBerlinwould respond to an inquiry and notifyGermany'sFederal Foreign Officethat Einstein had renounced his German citizenship.
• Scottish clergyman and amateur astronomerThomas David Andersonbecame the first person to notice thenovaGK Persei.By February 23, it was the brightest star in the sky, reaching zero magnitude, but faded to 4th magnitude by March 15, and to a 7 by year's end. Photographs taken fromHarvard Universityof thePerseusconstellationon February 19 did not showGK Perseiamong stars as dim as the 11th magnitude, indicating that its explosion had been very rapid, increasing by at least eight magnitudes within 48 hours. Later identified as being 1,533 light years fromEarth,GK Perseihad apparently exploded in the year367 AD.
• Delegates inHavanasigned the final version of the new Constitution forCuba,in preparation from its transition from aUnited Statespossession to a quasi-independent republic under American protection.
• By a margin of 26 to 37, theUnited States Senatedefeated a measure that would have provided funds for post offices to createpneumatic tubedelivery systems in American cities. The vote was on a proposed amendment to the post office appropriation bill that would have budgeted $500,000 toward the technology. Besides stopping the expansion of the service, the vote also meant that the pneumatic tube systems operating inNew York City,Brooklyn,BostonandPhiladelphiawould halt at the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

February 22, 1901 (Friday)

• As GeneralChristiaan de Wetled a force of 5,000BoerstowardPrieska,General John Frenchof theBritish Armyintercepted the group and forced them to retreat.
• A breakthrough infood preservationwas demonstrated by a Dr. Von Olden inCopenhagen,who showed potential investors proof that he had sealed a container of butter a year earlier, in front of a notary public, and then opened it in front of dairymen, who found it to be untainted. News of the Von Olden Process would soon go outside ofDenmark,and theAssociated Presswould cable the report to American readers on March 25.Soon afterward, Dr. Von Olden was exposed as a con man whose real name was Christianson; after the notary had certified that the container had been sealed in his presence "on February 22, 1901", Christianson carefully altered the 1901 to "1900".
• TheCity of Rio de Janeiro,a passenger liner operated by thePacific Mail Steamship Company,struck a reef as it was enteringSan Francisco Bayon its way through a dense fog as it was arriving fromHonolulu,and sank within 20 minutes. Of the 208 people on board, 131 drowned.The sinking happened so quickly that lifeboats that could not be lowered in time went down with the ship, along with the people inside the boats. Other people jumped overboard as theship steamerwent down and were pulled down by the suction of the sinking vessel.
• Born:
  • Mildred Davis,American silent film actress who later married her leading man,Harold Lloyd,inPhiladelphia(d.1969)
  • Stefan Lorant,Hungarian-American filmmaker and photojournalist, inBudapest(d.1997)
• Died:
  • George Francis FitzGerald,50, Irish physicist and mathematician, known for theLength contraction,following exploratory surgery for aperforated ulcer(b.1851)
  • Laura Matilda Towne,75, American educator andabolitionistwho founded the first freedmen's schools for the education of newly freed slaves (b.1825)
  • Rounsevelle Wildman, 37, American consul-general toHong Kong,along with his family, in the sinking of theRio de Janeiro

February 23, 1901 (Saturday)

• In a battle at Disselfontein inSouth Africa,the fleeing Boer troops commanded by GeneralChristiaan de Wetwere overtaken by British forces underColonel Herbert Plumer.De Wet escaped, but 50 of his men were taken prisoner.
• TheUnited KingdomandGermanyagreed on the boundary between their African colonies, setting a line running betweenLake NyasatoLake Tanganyika.At the time,Malawiwas known as the British protectorate ofNyasaland,whileTanzaniawas part ofGerman East Africa.
• TheUnited States Senateapproved a $5,000,000 budget toward theLouisiana Purchase Expositionto open inSt. Louisfor 1904, conditioned upon that world's fair being closed on Sundays.The budget proposal had passed the House, 191–41, on February 17, without the Sunday closing requirement.
• Born:
  • Federico Chabod,Italian historian, inAosta,Italy(d.1960)
  • Ivar Lo-Johansson,Swedish writer, inÖsmo,Sweden(d.1990)

February 24, 1901 (Sunday)

• After 53 ballots without any single candidate attaining a majority, the legislature ofOregonelected former SenatorJohn H. Mitchellto be one of its twoUnited StatesSenators.
• Given a choice between committing suicide or being put to death, former Imperial Chinese officialsYing Lien and Chao Shu Chaochose the former, cutting their throats in the presence of the Governor ofShaanxi province.

February 25, 1901 (Monday)

U.S. Steel

Johnson and Choynski

• Marcelo Azcárraga Palmeroresigned asPrime Minister of Spain,along with his entire cabinet, after he declared that the group "regarded the mission for which it took office being accomplished by the marriage of the Infanta Maria de las Mercedes to Prince Charles of Bourbon".
• George M. Cohan's firstBroadwayshow,The Governor's Son(starring theFour Cohans), opened, but would close after a month because of a disastrous first night in front of the critics.
• U.S. Steelwas incorporated inNew Jerseyby industrialistJ. P. Morgan,as the first billion-dollar corporation, with total capital valued at more than $1,400,000,000.
• The town ofBuhl, Minnesota(motto "The Finest Water in America" ) was incorporated.
• Professional boxersJack JohnsonandJoe Choynskifought a bout inside Harmony Hall inGalveston, Texas,and were both arrested after Choynski knocked out Johnson in the third round, for violating the state law against fighting for professional gain.The arrest would prove to be a big break for Johnson, an African-American rookie; he and Choynski, a white 33-year-old boxer described as "the first Jewish American athlete to rise to international repute",shared a jail cell for the next 24 days, during which "Choynski taught Johnson the defensive style that he would perfect during his career".The two men were freed after agrand jurydeclined to indict them, and Johnson would go on to become the worldheavyweightboxingchampion.
• After again postingbailand being released from jail,Carrie Nationset off on another destructive raid on a saloon. During the fracas, aTopeka, Kansascitizen was shot and seriously wounded.
• Thirty-two miners at the Diamondville Coal and Coke Company, inDiamondville, Wyoming,were killed in a fire in amine shaft.
• Arizona's territorialCapitol Building,which would continue as the state capitol building whenArizonabecame a state in 1912, was dedicated inPhoenix.
• Born:
  • Vince Gair,Australian politician, 27thPremier of Queensland,Chairman of theDemocratic Labor Party(d.1980)
  • Zeppo Marx(Herbert Manfred Marx), American comedian, one of theMarx Brothers,inNew York City(d.1979)

February 26, 1901 (Tuesday)

• Chi-hsui and Hsu-cheng-yu,Boxer Rebellionleaders, were publicly beheaded inBeijingin front of a crowd of about 10,000. The two had been in the custody of the Japanese Army and were remanded toChina's "Board of Punishments" for the executions. According toLieutenant ColonelGoro Shiba, the Japanese legation'smilitary attaché,he treated the two condemned men to champagne, and Chi-hsui told him "I do not know what I have done to make me deserving of death, but if beheading me will make the foreign troops evacuate Peking and my Emperor return, I am satisfied to die. I will die a patriot."
• Reports fromBombay(nowMumbai) inBritish Indiashowed that 400 people had died in aplague epidemicin just two days.
• Figures from the latest census of theGerman Empirewere released fromBerlin.As of December 1, 1900, the German population was 56,345,014 "of which number 27,731,067 were males". The growth rate of 7.70% in five years was the highest increase in 30 years.
• Died:Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa,82, Polish writer (b.1829)

February 27, 1901 (Wednesday)

• Nikolay Bogolepov,the Russian Minister of Public Instruction, was shot and mortally wounded by a student who had recently been expelled from a university. Bogolepov, wounded in the neck by a revolver, would survive for more than two weeks before succumbing on March 15.
• TheSultanof theOttoman Empireordered 50,000 troops to the Bulgarian frontier because of unrest inMacedonia.
• German chemistWilhelm Normannapplied for the patent on his new discovery, the creation of the firsttrans fatty acidsthrough the hydrogenation of theoleic acidin vegetable oil, usinghydrogenand anickel-based catalyst, from liquid into a solidstearic acid.German patent No. 141,029 ( "Process for the conversion of unsaturated fatty acids or their glycerides into saturated compounds" ), for what Normann calledFetthärtung(fat hardening), was made effective August 14, 1902. The firsttrans-fat product,Criscoshortening,would be introduced to the public in 1911.
• The threat of an attack on Britain'sCape Colonyby 2,500Orange Free Statetroops was ended after heavy rains andLord Kitchener's defense forced GeneralsChristiaan de WetandJ. B. M. Hertzogto order a retreat.
• In theUnited Kingdom,the cost of the nation's continued involvement in theSecond Boer Warwas estimated to have reached $650,000,000.
• National Leagueowners approved a change in thehit by pitchrule, and as an author would note later, "Baseball's intelligentsia had not thought this one through".Passed in order to stop batters from stepping in to the path of a ball in order to take a base, the new rule provided that a blow to the body would be called as aball.Theoretically, a pitcher could deliberately hit a batter four times before the batter could take a base; the owners reversed themselves on the morning of the opening day of the season.One rule change, which would still be in place more than a century later, was to provide that "the first and second foul balls hit by the batsman, unless two strikes have already been called against him, shall henceforth be counted as strikes".
• At the same meeting inNew York City,theNational Leaguedropped its sponsorship for a plannedAmerican Association minor leaguewith teams in six of the eightAmerican Leaguelocations and waited until the end of the day to inform league organizers Charles Power and W. H. Watkins of their decision. By the two men did get to make their presentation for the AA, "most of its members had left for home".However, the owners of theIndianapolis;Louisville, Kentucky;andMilwaukeefranchises would organize a newAmerican Associationin 1902 with teams in theMidwest,and it would quickly become one of the strongest of the minor leagues, with the same eight teams for more than 50 years.
• Alabamabecame the first American state to create a cabinet level department devoted to historical preservation, with the creation of itsDepartment of Archives and History.
• TheUnited States Court of Appealsruled against theBell Telephone Companyin thepatent infringementcase filed byEmile Berliner.
• Born:Horatio Luro,Argentine horse trainer and honoree of theNational Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame(d.1991)
• Died:James Huddart,54, British ship builder (b.1847)

February 28, 1901 (Thursday)

• At 10:00 in the morning, peace negotiations began betweenLord Kitchenerand theBoers' GeneralLouis BothaatMiddelburg,located within a British-occupied section of theBoers'South African Republic.General Botha's initial condition, the continued independence of theSouth Africaand theOrange Free Stateunder Boer rule, was rejected immediately, and Botha's second peace proposal had ten conditions, includingAfrikaansand English being the official language, that British insistence for black African voting rights be deferred, that the Dutch Church retain its property, that theUnited Kingdomassume the Boer republic's war debts, an amnesty for everyone and a release of prisoners, financial aid for farmers whose land was ruined by the British invasion, and that theBoersbe allowed to retain rifles for protection from the black African natives.After the talks failed, theSecond Boer Warcontinued and Kitchener continued the conquest of theBoers,including burning farms and placing prisoners of war intoconcentration camps.
• MajorP. B. Molesworth,a British astronomer and member of theRoyal Engineersfirst observed theSouth Tropical Disturbanceon the same latitude as theGreat Red Spoton the planetJupiter,but with a shorter rotation period that periodically brought the two in conjunction.Molesworth, who had been born in the island colony ofBritish Ceylon(nowSri Lanka), had made the discovery from the telescope at theTrincomalee observatory;the disturbance onJupiterwould continue for more than 38 years, and would last be observed in 1939.
• The United States Congress rejected the proposed agreement that had been signed by the United States Department of the Interior with the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, and negotiations had to begin again.
• TheUnited States Army Nurse Corps,created on February 2, was formally organized with 202 nurses as charter members.
• Born:Linus Pauling,American chemist, recipient of theNobel Prize in Chemistryin 1954 and theNobel Peace Prizein 1962, inPortland, Oregon(d.1994)
• Died:Hilary R. W. Johnson,63, Liberian state leader, 11thPresident of Liberia(b.1837)