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March 4, 1913: Woodrow Wilson inaugurated as U.S. PresidentMarch 18, 1913: King George of Greece assassinatedMarch 25, 1913: Flood kills 400 people in and around Dayton, Ohio
The British steamer Calvados, with 200 passengers and crew, was lost in the Sea of Marmara off of the coast of Turkey, while traveling in a blizzard between Istanbul and Panderma.
Soldiers of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, stationed in Douglas, Arizona, traded gunfire with Mexican Army troops who were across the border in Agua Prieta, in a skirmish between the border patrols of both nations. Reportedly, four Mexican federal soldiers were killed, and some of the U.S. Army soldiers charged across the border into Mexico to pursue the retreating Mexican troops.
The tercentenary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated across the Russian Empire. The date of the celebration was February 21, 1913, according to the Julian calendar. The Russian Empire had not yet adopted the Gregorian calendar, which was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar. Tsar Nicholas, the last reigning member of the dynasty, would be deposed less than five years later.
Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who had been living at the Hotel Roma in El Paso, Texas under the alias "Doroteo Arango," crossed the Rio Grande back into Mexico, along with eight companions, to rebuild his army and to overthrow Mexican President Victoriano Huerta. By year's end, Villa would have control of the state of Chihuahua, which served as his base for anti-government raids.
As part of the commemoration of the Romanov dynasty, Tsar Nicholas established the Insignia of Saint Olga as a decoration specifically for women who made contributions to the Russian Empire. It was only awarded once before the monarchy was toppled by the Russian Revolution.
More than 40 people were killed in Baltimore when 340 tons of dynamite on the steamship Alum Chine exploded. Most of the dead were on the tugboat Atlantic, which had returned to the ship to rescue two sailors who had not been evacuated.
Died:E. Pauline Johnson, 51, Canadian poet, known for poetry collections on indigenous culture including The White Wampum and Flint and Feather, died of breast cancer. (b. 1861)
March 8, 1913 (Saturday)
The second criminal trial of renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow, on charges of attempted bribery, ended in a hung jury, with 8 of the 12 jurors in favor of conviction, less than the unanimous vote necessary. After the first two trials failed to reach a verdict, a third trial was not attempted and Darrow would return to practice.
The Federal League, intended as a third major baseball league to challenge the existing National and American Leagues, was founded in Indianapolis by John T. Powers. It would last for two seasons, 1914 and 1915.
Dr. Friedrich Friedmann of Germany, who had announced that he had developed a cure for tuberculosis that he would sell for one million dollars, gave the first demonstration of his treatment before U.S. government officials. Seven patients were injected with the Friedmann vaccine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, in the presence of more than 30 physicians and surgeons.
French sculptor Camille Claudel was committed to a mental hospital at Ville-Evrard near Paris, where she would spend the remaining 30 years of her life.
Edmond Perreyon of France set a new record for highest altitude in an airplane, reaching 19,281 feet.
The last civil suits arising from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911 were settled. Building owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris paid $75 apiece for each dead woman or girl whose family had brought a wrongful death suit.
The new capital of Australia was christened in a ceremony that saw the unveiling of three pillars of a memorial column by Baron Denman, Governor-General of Australia, Andrew Fisher, Prime Minister of Australia, and Minister for Home Affairs King O'Malley. At noon, Lady Denman opened a gold cigarette case, withdrew the paper inside, and announced "I name the Capital of Australia 'Canberra.'" Canberra, which was among almost 1,000 suggestions submitted to the federal government, had first been used in 1826 by J. J. Moore in an application to purchase land in what would become the Australian Capital Territory. Other suggestions had been Kangaremu, Blueducks, Eucalypta, Myola, Gonebroke, Swindleville and Cooeeoomoo, and the second most popular proposal had been Shakespeare.
Plans were announced by the British Prime Minister's Office to reform the House of Lords, taking away its veto power and abolishing the hereditary succession.
Film stuntman and daredevil Rodman Law, who billed himself as "The Human Bullet," attempted to become the first passenger in a manned rocket flight. Law constructed a 44 foot long steel missile, set it up on a vacant lot in Jersey City, set the angle at 45 degrees and aimed the craft at Elizabeth, New Jersey, twelve miles away. Wearing a parachute, he then climbed into a seat on the rocket and told his assistant, fireworks factory manager Samuel Serpico, to light the fuse to ignite of 900 pounds of gunpowder. Law told the crowd that his plan was to bail out when he reached an altitude of 3,500 feet, but the rocket exploded on the launchpad. Law was only slightly injured in the blast, and no spectators were hurt, and he "continued to perform stunts, though never again in a rocket."
Dr. Simon Flexner announced to an audience of physicians at Johns Hopkins University that he had discovered the germ that caused polio. The germ proved to be a virus, although Flexner's discovery that antibodies, yet to be discovered, could successfully attack the disease would send research in the direction of finding a means of developing the immunization against the poliomyelitis virus.
The first esophagectomy and resection was performed by Dr. Franz Torek at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, as Dr. Torek operated upon a patient with esophageal cancer and performed a bypass. The unidentified patient survived for 13 more years after the operation.
In South Africa, Justice Malcolm Searle ruled that only Christian marriages were legal under the nation's laws, effectively invalidating the marital status of most of the British Indian residents.
A crowd of 120,000 demonstrators turned out at Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, near Paris, to protest a recent decision by French Army officials to require three years of military service.
The first animated cartoon series made its debut in movie theaters, as filmmaker Émile Cohl produced 13 episodes adapting The Newlyweds, a comic strip by George McManus. The first installment, featuring the characters of "Maggie and Jiggs" from what would later be called Bringing Up Father, was entitled "When He Wants a Dog, He Wants a Dog."
Died:Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, 62, French artist, best known for his illustrations for children's literature including Fables de La Fontaine and Jeanne d'Arc (b. 1850)
King George of Greece was assassinated in Salonika while walking the streets of the city recently captured from the Ottoman Empire. The King, who had refused bodyguards and was accompanied only by his equerry, was shot in the back by Aleko Schinas, a Greek citizen. The King had told a lunch guest earlier that day that he intended to abdicate in October, on the jubilee of his coronation; Schinas would die two months later, after plummeting from a balcony while in police custody. Coincidentally, he had been selected as King of Greece by the Greek National Assembly on March 18, 1863, on the calendar that Greece was using at the time; the date was March 30, 1863 on the Gregorian calendar which Greece had adopted by 1913.
France's Prime Minister Aristide Briand, who had recently taken office after Raymond Poincaré's election as President, resigned along with his entire cabinet after a vote that undid the new electoral reform law.
Utah became the first U.S. state to have a minimum wage law take effect, with the authorization for a wage, and creation of a commission to regulate it, taking effect upon enactment. Massachusetts and Oregon had enacted laws earlier, which would go into effect during the summer.
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced that the U.S. government was withdrawing approval of American banks in the proposed six-nation loan to China. The bankers withdrew the next day.
Fred Jackson, owner of a photography store in Chicago, appeared before court on charges of indecency for showing in his display window a reproduction of the painting September Morn by French painter Paul Émile Chabas, which features a nude model wading in a lake. Jackson, acting as his own defense, was able to convince the jury the painting was not indecent and he should be able to display the reproduction. A few days later, Chicago mayorCarter Harrison Jr. went to city council and asked for stricter obscenity laws, resulting again in a public display of the reproduction being outlawed and Jackson and other gallery owners where again charged for violating obscenity laws.
Song Jiaoren (Sung Chiao-jen), the President of the Kuomintang Party in the Republic of China, was shot and fatally wounded while waiting for a train in Shanghai; Song would die two days later. Song's killer, Wu Shiying, had been assisted by Ying Guixing, and a search of their apartments found documents linking the murder to cabinet Minister Hong Shuzu, Interior Minister Zhao Bingjun, and even President Yuan Shikai. Ying would be murdered in January after escaping from prison, and Wu would be found dead in his cell shortly afterward.
Vajiravudh, King Rama VI of Siam, decreed two laws governing the surnames and the citizenship of subjects in what is now Thailand. Besides requiring all persons to have the family name of their father or husband, Rama VI also decreed that all persons born to a Siamese father, anywhere in the world, were Siamese citizens, as were all persons born to a Siamese mother when the father was unknown, and any foreign woman with a Siamese husband.
Phan Xích Long, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Vietnam, was arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French Indochina. The unsuccessful revolt was carried out by his supporters the following day.
Born:
Lew Wasserman, American music and film studio executive who was president of MCA for over six decades, in Cleveland, Ohio, United States (d. 2002)
On EasterSunday, tornadoes swept throughOmaha, Nebraska and killed 150 people. The storm activity was followed by heavy rainfall as it moved eastward over the next four days, killing more than 1,000 people in "the most widespread natural disaster the United States had ever endured."
A new power plant began operating in Tallinn, Estonia. It initially used coal to generate electricity but by 1924 was modified as the first power plant in the world to use oil shale for generating power.
The Battle of Adrianople was won when Bulgarian troops captured the historic city (called Edirne by the Turks, Odrin by the Bulgarians) that had once served as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Four months later, after the Second Balkan War broke out between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, the Turkish Ottoman troops would recapture the city on July 23, 1913.
Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician, known for his prolific output in the field including over 1,500 articles and co-author of 500 more; in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) (d. 1996)
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Futrell v. Oldham that State Senate President pro tempore Junius Marion Futrell was the Governor of Arkansas, after Futrell and former President pro tempore William Kavanaugh Oldham had both claimed the office. Joseph Taylor Robinson had resigned on March 8, and Oldham had acted as Governor. When Futrell was selected as President pro tempore five days later, on March 13, Oldham claimed that he was still the Acting Governor, while Futrell sued on grounds that only the President pro tem could serve in the Governor's duties. For the next two weeks, Governor Futrell kept his offices in the south wing of the State Capitol at Little Rock, Arkansas, while Governor Oldham served in the north wing.
The daily newspaper, Le Droit, began publication in Ottawa, primarily to provide an editorial response to Regulation 17, a piece of legislation by the Government of Ontario that was criticized for shutting French-language schools in eastern Ontario. It continues to be Ontario's top selling francophone newspaper.
Finnish composer Jean Sibelius first conducted his orchestral composition, The Bard, with the Philharmonic Society Orchestra in Helsinki, but revised it 1914 and conducted it again in 1916.
March 28, 1913 (Friday)
The car factory at Cowley, Oxfordshire, where the BMW MINI Cooper automobile is now manufactured, turned out its very first car, as Morris Motors opened Britain's first motor vehicle assembly line to produce the Morris Oxford, nicknamed the "bullnose." Celebrating 100 years of continuous operation in 2013, Plant Oxford is the oldest assembly plant in the world.
Floyd Allen and his son, Claud Allen, were executed by electric chair for the murder the judge, sheriff, county prosecutor and three other people in Carroll County, Virginia on March 14, 1912, after Floyd had been convicted of obstruction of justice.
Nearing the end of his life, American novelist Henry James published the first installment of his autobiographical series, with the release of A Small Boy and Others by Charles Scribner's Sons to booksellers in the United States. The sequel, Notes of a Son and Brother would come out a year later; James would pass away at the age of 72 on February 28, 1916, before he could complete The Middle Years.
R. S. Thomas, Welsh clergy and poet, known for his poetry collections including Song at the Year's Turning and Blwyddyn yn Llŷn (A Year in Llŷn); as Ronald Stuart Thomas, in Cardiff, Wales (d. 2000)
The comic strip Keeping Up with the Joneses by Pop Momand began its run in The New York Globe. Its focus on a family of social climbers eventually led the comic's title to become the popular idiom "keeping up with the Joneses," which refers to maintaining a social and economic status that is comparable to one's peers. The strip ran until 1938.
Died:J. P. Morgan, 75, the architect of the modern American financial industry, died in his sleep while staying at the Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome. In New York City, flags were flown at half-staff on Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange closed for two hours in honor of his passing. (b. 1837)
References
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"New German Dreadnought". New York Times. March 2, 1913. p. 1.
"Over 200 Lost in Storm". New York Times. March 8, 1913.
"Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (April 1913), pp. 414-417
Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 187, ref. no. 200954-13
Patricia Herlihy, The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka & Politics in Late Imperial Russia (Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 138
Eileen Welsome, The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa: A True Story of Revolution and Revenge (University of Nebraska Press, 2007) p. 36
"Wilson Cabinet Assumed Office in Quiet Manner- Redfield to Take Oath Today". Titusville Herald. March 6, 1913. p. 1.
Dumin, Stanislaw. "Order of St. Olga" (in Russian). Retrieved 4 August 2013.
Herzog, Lawrence (21 October 2010). "Strathcona Public Library". Real Estate Weekly. 28 (42). Archived from the original on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
"Transthoracic Resection of the Esophagus", by Jerry L. Port, et al., in General Thoracic Surgery, Volume II (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2004) p. 1987
James W. Douglass, Gandhi and the Unspeakable: His Final Experiment With Truth (Orbis Books, 2012) p. 18.
Sean Chabot, Transnational Roots of the Civil Rights Movement: African American Explorations of the Gandhian Repertoire (Lexington Books, 2011) p. 25
"Heryford Brothers Building", National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form, Statewide Inventory of Historic Sites and Buildings, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Salem, Oregon, 21 February 1980.
W. Dale Nelson, Who Speaks for the President?: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton (Syracuse University Press, 2000) pp. 29-30
Robert Dixon, Photography, Early Cinema and Colonial Modernity: Frank Hurley's Synchronized Lecture Entertainments (Anthem Press, 2011) p. 20
Christopher Hailey: 'Franz Schreker: A cultural biography' (Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 55-57
"History". Phoenix Centenary Blog. 11 March 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
"Historia" (in Spanish). Old Official Website. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
Michael Curtis, Three Against the Third Republic: Sorel, Barrès and Maurras (Transaction Publishers, 2010) p. 43
Donald Crafton, Before Mickey: The Animated Film (University of Chicago Press, 1993) pp. 81-83
William H. Garzke and Robert O. Dulin, Battleships: United States Battleships, 1935-1992 (Naval Institute Press, 1995) p. 293
