January 1 – In a major defeat in theRusso-Japanese War, Russian GeneralAnatoly Stessel surrendersPort Arthur, located on mainland China, to the Japanese.[1] On January 3, Japan formally repossesses the port, and renames it Ryojun, holding it for the next 40 years. The area will revert in 1945 to China, and become theLushunkou District.[2]
Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino becomes Prime Minister of Romania for the second time, having previously served from 1899 to 1900, and remains in office for more than two years.[3]
The city ofBend, Oregon, plotted out in 1900 by Alexander Drake, is incorporated as a town for local logging companies, and will have a population of 536 in 1910. By the year 2020, it will have almost 100,000 residents.[4]
TheLick Observatory announces the discovery on 3 December 1904 of a sixthmoon of Jupiter, made by their astronomerCharles D. Perrine. Unlike the first five Jovian satellites discovered, the sixth will be referred to by number as "Jupiter VI" until 1975, when namedHimalia.[2]
The Senate confirms the nomination ofWilliam D. Crum, an African-American, to the office of collector of customs atCharleston, South Carolina after Crum's nomination by President Theodore Roosevelt.[2]
January 11 – Under the supervision of five editors, work begins on the comprehensiveCatholic Encyclopedia, subtitled "An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church" and published by the Robert Appleton Company, specifically set up in New York City for the purpose. The first volume will appear in 1907.
January 15 – A series of three 41 metres (135 ft) hightsunamis kill 61 people inNorway in the villages of Ytre Nesdal and Bødal after arockslide sweeps down Mount Ramnefjell and crashes intoLake Lovatnet.[6]
January 17 – In France, Prime MinisterÉmile Combes and his cabinet announce their resignations after being implicated in theAffair of the Cards (L'Affaire des Fiches), a system set up by the War Ministry to purge the French Army officers corps of Jesuits.[7]
January 21 – TheDominican Republic signs an agreement with the United States to allow the U.S. to administer the collection of customs taxes for Santo Domingo for 50 years, with the U.S. to assume responsibility for payment of the Republic's debts to foreign nations from Dominican income. The agreement is done as an exercise of the "Roosevelt Corollary" to theMonroe Doctrine.[8]
Elections are held in Hungary for the 413 seats in theOrszággyűlés, the Kingdom's parliament within Austria-Hungary. Voters overwhelmingly reject theLiberal Party, led by Prime MinisterIstván Tisza, that has ruled Hungary since 1875, and the Liberals lose 118 of their 277 seats, but Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary (in his capacity as King Ferenc József) ignores the results and keeps Tisza in power.[8]
January 27 – TheNelson Act is passed into law in the United States, providing for racial segregation of schools in the Alaska Territory.[9]
January 30 – The U.S. Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case ofSwift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.[8]
January 31 – "The greatest ball of theGilded Age"[10] is held byJames Hazen Hyde, the 28-year-old heir to the fortune of the founder of the Equitable Life Assurance Association" at New York City's Sherry Hotel, spending $200,000 for a "Louis XV costume ball" for invited guests.[11]
February 5 – The French shipAnjou is wrecked off of the coast of the uninhabitedAuckland Island, located 290 miles (470 km) from the nearest inhabited land inNew Zealand. The castaways live on the isle for more than three months until being rescued on May 7.[13][14]
February 16 – Six of the 11 crew of the British Royal Navy submarineHMSA5 are killed by a pair of explosions caused by gasoline fumes in port in Ireland.
March 2 – Russia's Committee of Ministers votes to grant religious freedom to the subjects of the Russian Empire.[17]
March 3 – TsarNicholas II of Russia announces his decision to create an elected assembly, theDuma, to represent the people of the Russian Empire in an advisory capacity, although the real power to make laws will remain with the Tsar and the cabinet of ministers.
March 10 –Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese capture of Mukden (modern-dayShenyang) completes the rout of Russian armies inManchuria. The Russian Army commander, GeneralAleksey Kuropatkin, telegraphs the Tsar that his armies will be retreating to avoid further danger.
March 18 –Albert Einstein submits his paper "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light", in which he explains thephotoelectric effect using the notion oflight quanta, for publication.
March 29 –Jimmy Walsh knocks out Monte Attell, in a controversial six-round bout in Philadelphia, to win recognition of the World Bantamweight Championship by the National Boxing Association, despite being disqualified by the referee.
April 20 – The largest ocean liner in the world at this time, the GermanSSAmerika is launched.[28]
April 23 – German GeneralLothar von Trotha commander of troops in Germany's colony ofSüdwestafrika (modern-dayNamibia), orders the extermination of theNama people within the colony's borders, ultimately killing 10,000.[29] Von Trotha's proclamationAan de oorlogvorende Namastamme, proclaims that "The Nama who chooses not to surrender and lets himself be seen in German territory will be shot, until all are exterminated."[30]
April 24 –China's Empress RegentCixi (Tzu Hsi) abolishes further use in executions of the nation's three most cruel torture execution methods,lingchi ("death by a thousand cuts"),gibbeting (similar tocrucifixion, hanging until dying of exposure, thirst or starvation), and desecration of a dying person.[31]
May 9 – Upon the death of U.S. social activistAnn Reeves Jarvis In West Virginia, her daughterAnna Jarvis resolves to campaign across the United States for a proposed "Mother's Day".
May 28 – At the end of two days in fighting in theBattle of Tsushima, the Russian Imperial Navy has suffered the deaths of more than 14,000 of the 18,000 sailors and officers it had brought to the battle, and all but four of its Pacific ships. The Japanese loss is three torpedo boats and 800 men.[37]
June 25 – The Danish Navy training shipGeorg Stage is accidentally sunk in port in Copenhagen after English steamshipAncona collides with it, killing 22 teenage recruits. The full-rigger is raised and survives.
July 28 –Frankie Neil becomes the new world bantamweight boxing champion by defeating title holder Harry Tenny in a 25-round bout atColma, California.
July 30 – AtBasel inSwitzerland, the International Zionist Conference delegates vote to reject the British offer of land in Uganda for a Jewish homeland.[45]
August 11 – The Russian Council appointed by Tsar Nicholas II meets at Peterhoff and approves a plan for a national Duma, the first representative assembly in the Empire.[45]
August 12 – The first running takes place of theShelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in England, the world's oldest motorsport event to be staged continuously on its original course.
August 13 – At a referendum in Norway, voters opt almost unanimously for dissolution of the union with Sweden.[45]
August 15 – Mexican-American prospectorPablo Valencia gets lost in theSonoran Desert ofArizona with no water. Enduring almost eight days of dehydration, Valencia wanders until he is discovered on August 23 by anthropologist William J. McGee and McGee's Papago Indian assistant, Jose.[46]
August 21 – The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention takes place inMuskogee in the U.S.Indian Territory and approves a constitution for the proposedState of Sequoyah, seeking admission as the only Native American majority state in the U.S.[47] President Roosevelt will reject the idea in favor of joining the Indian Territory with the white-ruled Oklahoma Territory to create the 46th U.S. state.
August 22 – The sinking of the Japanese ferryKinjo Maru kills 160 people after the British shipHMSBaralong collides with it in the Sea of Japan.[48]
August 23 –A. Roy Knabenshue introduces the dirigible to the skies of New York City, piloting the lighter-than-air vehicle within view of hundreds of thousands of spectators.[49]
August 24 –Frederick D. White becomes the first Commissioner of the Northwest Territories in Canada, and will serve until his death in 1918.
August 26 – Near Point Barrow, Alaska, the crew of the Norwegian shipGjoa, led byRoald Amundsen, make the breakthrough of finding the long-sought "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.[50]
August 27 – Tsar Nicholas II issues a decree restoring to Russia's universities the autonomy that had been taken away from them in 1884.[51]
August 30 – A solar eclipse takes place, with greatest visibility in North Africa.[49]
Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", in which he puts forward the idea ofmass–energy equivalence by publishing the equationE = mc2 (published November 21).
A Czech worker, František Pavlík (b. 1885), is bayoneted to death during a demonstration for a Czech university in Brno. This event is the motivation for a piano sonata,1. X. 1905, by composerLeoš Janáček, which premieres on 27 January 1906.
October 2 –HMS Dreadnought (1906) is laid down in the United Kingdom, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.
October 5 – TheWright brothers' third aeroplane (Wright Flyer III) stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting, the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.
November 27–28 – TheMataafa Storm buffets theGreat Lakes region. Named after theMataafa, a boat sunk outside of theDuluth Ship Canal, the storm ultimately destroys 29 vessels, leading to 29 deaths and shipping losses of US$ 3.567 million (1905 dollars).
November 28 – Irish nationalistArthur Griffith foundsSinn Féin in Dublin, as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.
^"Cantacuzino, Gheorghe Grigore", inBiographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, ed. by Wojciech Roszkowski and Jan Kofman (Taylor & Francis, 2016) p. 1862
^Jon Abernathy,Bend Beer: A History of Brewing in Central Oregon (Arcadia Publishing, 2014)
^Maurice A. Bigelow,Sex-Education: A Series of Lectures Concerning Knowledge of Sex and Its Relation to Human Life (The Macmillan Company, 1916) p. 227
^History of Social Hygiene 1850-1930 (American Social Hygiene Association, 1930) pp. 1–6
^James E. Wise, Jr. and Scott Baron, "Appendix A. Early Ships Named USSAmerica", inAt the Helm of USS America: The Aircraft Carrier and Its 23 Commanders, 1965-1996 p. 229
^"Hendrik Witbooi and Samuel Maharero", by Werner Hillebrecht, inRe-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History, ed. by Jeremy Silvester (University of Namibia Press, 2015) p. 51
^"Traditionalising Chinese Law", by Li Chen, inChinese Legal Reform and the Global Legal Order: Adoption and Adaptation, ed. by Yun Zhao and Michael Ng (Cambridge University Press, 2018) p. 198
^The American Monthly Review of Reviews (June 1905) pp. 665–668
^Abel Lajtha,Handbook of Neurochemistry 8: Neurochemical Systems (Springer, 2013) p. x
^abcdThe American Monthly Review of Reviews (August 1905) pp. 158-161
^"Wattstown".Rhondda Cynon Taff Library Services Heritage Trail. Archived fromthe original on January 10, 2011. RetrievedOctober 13, 2010.
^Melvyn Jones,The Making of Sheffield (Wharncliffe Books, 2004) p. 158.
^"NZ suicide bombing a world first", by Gerard Hindmarsh,The Press (Christchurch), January 16, 2016. p. A13
^abcdefgThe American Monthly Review of Reviews (September 1905) pp. 283-286
^"Surveyors to Campers: 1854 to the Present", by Bill Broyles and Gayle Harrison Hartmann, inLast Water on the Devil's Highway: A Cultural and Natural History of Tinajas Altas, ed. by Bill Broyles, et al. (University of Arizona Press, 2014) p. 141.
^Kramolnikov, G. (1931). "Bolshevikkien konferenssi Tampereella v. 1905".Bolshevikkien toiminta Suomessa ja Viaporin kapina (in Finnish). Leningrad: Valtion kustannusliike Kirja. pp. 103–113.Archived from the original on June 5, 2019. RetrievedOctober 15, 2023.
^Adolf Bastian and the Psychic Unity of Mankind: The Foundations of Anthropology in Nineteenth Century Germany. University of Queensland Press. 1983. p. 27.
