1901 in the United States explained

Events from the year 1901 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President:

William McKinley (R-Ohio) (until September 14)

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 (until March 4), 57th (starting March 4)

Events

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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]

April–June

• 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.^[3]
• June 12  - Cuba becomes a U.S. protectorate.

July–September

• June 22–July 31  - The worst heat wave in U.S. history until the 1930s, affecting most areas east of the 100th meridian, 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.^{[4] [5]}
• 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

• January 2  - Bob Marshall, wilderness activist, founder of The Wilderness Society (died 1939)
• January 3  - Henrietta Bingham, journalist, newspaper executive, horse-breeder and anglophile (died 1968)
• January 4  - Raoul Berger, Ukrainian-born attorney and law professor (died 2000)
• January 9  - Chic Young, cartoonist (died 1973)
• February 1
  • Howard I. Chapelle, naval architect, museum curator and author (died 1975)
  • Clark Gable, actor (died 1960)^[6]
• February 8  - Virginius Dabney, teacher, journalist, writer and editor (died 1995)
• February 9  - Brian Donlevy, actor (died 1972)
• February 10  - Stella Adler, actress and teacher (died 1992)^[7]
• March 24  - Ub Iwerks, animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor and special effects technician (died 1971)
• May 8  - Turkey Stearnes, baseball player (died 1979)^[8]
• July 3  - Ruth Crawford Seeger, modernist composer and folk music arranger (died 1953)
• July 9  - Jester Hairston, actor and composer (died 2000)^[9]
• July 10  - Daniel V. Gallery, admiral and author (died 1977)
• July 14  - Lucien Prival, actor (died 1994)
• July 20  - Heinie Manush, baseball player (died [1971])
• July 21  - Albert Hamilton Gordon, businessman and philanthropist (died 2009)
• July 14  - George Tobias, actor (died 1980)
• July 22  - Pancho Barnes, pioneer aviator (died 1975)
• July 30  - John A. Carroll, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1957 to 1963 (died 1983)
• August 3  - John C. Stennis, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1947 to 1989 (died 1995)
• August 4  - Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpeter (died 1971)
• August 8  - Ernest Lawrence, nuclear physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 (died 1958)
• August 23  - John Sherman Cooper, U.S. Senator from Kentucky 1946-1949, 1952-1955 and 1956-1973 (died 1991)
• September 24  - Gerald Warner Brace, writer, educator, sailor and boat builder (died 1978)
• September 28  - Ed Sullivan, entertainment writer and television host (died 1974)
• December 5  - Walt Disney, animator, producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor and business magnate (died 1966)^[10]
• December 12  - Fred Barker, criminal member of the Barker-Karpis gang, son of Ma Barker (killed 1935)
• December 16  - Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist and author (died 1978)^[11]

Deaths

• January 6  - James W. Bradbury, United States Senator from Maine from 1847 to 1853 (born 1802)
• January 16
  • Murray Hall, born Mary Anderson, bail bondsman and politician (born 1841 in Scotland)
  • Hiram Rhodes Revels, first African American senator (born 1827)
• January 21  - Elisha Gray, inventor and co-founder of Western Electric Manufacturing Company (born 1835)
• January 29  - Alexander H. Jones, Congressional Representative from North Carolina (born 1822)
• February 7  - Rowena Granice Steele, first female novelist in California (born 1824)
• February 18  - Anna Gardner, abolitionist (born 1816)
• March 7  - Ruth Alice Armstrong, American social activist (born 1850)
• 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)
• March 18  - Patrick Donahoe, businessman, publisher of the Boston Catholic newspaper The Pilot (born 1811)
• April 10  - Harriet Newell Kneeland Goff, reformer (born 1828)
• April 19  - Alfred Horatio Belo, newswriter and businessman, founder of The Dallas Morning News (born 1839)
• April 26  - Harriett Ellen Grannis Arey, educator (born 1819)
• June 2  - James A. Herne, playwright and actor (born 1839)
• July 4
  • John Fiske, historian and philosopher (born 1842)
  • Julian Scott, artist and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient (born 1846)
• July 7  - Eva M. Reed, botanist (born ?)^[12]
• July 30  - Herbert Baxter Adams, educator and historian (born 1850)
• August 4  - Harriet Pritchard Arnold, author (born 1858)
• August 24  - Clara Maass, nurse (born 1876)^[13]
• September 14  - William McKinley, 25th president of the United States from 1897 to 1901 (born 1843)
• October 10  - Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1814)
• October 21  - James A. Walker, Confederate general and US Congressman (born 1832)
• October 29  - Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley (born 1873)
• November 8  - Mary Ann Bickerdyke, nurse and hospital administrator for Union soldiers (born 1817)
• November 26  - John Denny, buffalo soldier and Medal of Honor recipient (born 1846)
• November 27  - Clement Studebaker, automobile manufacturer (born 1831)

See also

• List of American films of 1901
• Timeline of United States history (1900–1929)

Further reading

• . (Covers events May 1898-June 1905)

Notes and References

1. Book: Legrand, Jacques. Chronicle of the 20th Century. Ecam Publication. 1987. 24. 0-942191-01-3.
2. Book: May, George S.. 1977. R. E. Olds: Auto Industry Pioneer. Grand Rapids. Eerdmans.
3. News: 1901-06-12 . Jelks Hurrying Back to Alabama . 1 . The Birmingham News . 2023-07-29.
4. News: Order out for All to Strike. Chicago Daily Tribune. 1901-08-07. 1.
5. News: Strike Order Is in Full Effect. Chicago Sunday Tribune. 1901-08-11. 1.
6. Book: Views & Reviews. 1971. Views & Rewiews Productions. 4.
7. Web site: Stella Adler American actress Britannica . www.britannica.com . 10 February 2023 . en.
8. Web site: Johnson . Beatrice . Norman Thomas "Turkey" Stearnes (1901-1979) • . blackpast.org . 14 December 2021 . 7 October 2020.
9. News: Mel Watkins . Jester Hairston, 98, Choral Expert and Actor . subscription . December 14, 2018 . . January 30, 2000 . 1 34.
10. Book: Ryan . James Gilbert . Schlup . Leonard C. . Historical Dictionary of the 1940s . 26 March 2015 . Routledge . 978-1-317-46865-3 . 107 . en.
11. Web site: Margaret Mead Biography, Theory, Books, & Facts . Encyclopedia Britannica . 16 February 2020 . en.
12. 1902. Thirteenth Annual Report of the Director. Missouri Botanical Garden Annual Report. 1902. 22. 10.2307/2400120. 2400120.
13. Stanton E. Cope. 2011. Clara Maass: An American Heroine. Wing Beats 22(2): 16-19.