1905

This article is about the year 1905.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1870s  1880s  1890s  – 1900s –  1910s  1920s  1930s
Years:	1902 1903 1904 – 1905 – 1906 1907 1908

1905 by topic:

Subject

Archaeology Architecture Art Aviation Awards Comics Film Literature (Poetry) Meteorology Music Rail transport Radio Science Sports Television

By country

Australia Canada China Ecuador France Germany Greece India Ireland Italy Japan Malaya Mexico New Zealand Norway Ottoman Syria Philippines Russia Singapore South Africa United Kingdom United States

Leaders

Sovereign states State leaders Religious leaders Law

Birth and death categories

Births Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works Introductions

1905 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1905 MCMV
Ab urbe condita	2658
Armenian calendar	1354 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԴ
Assyrian calendar	6655
Bahá'í calendar	61–62
Bengali calendar	1312
Berber calendar	2855
British Regnal year	4 Edw. 7 – 5 Edw. 7
Buddhist calendar	2449
Burmese calendar	1267
Byzantine calendar	7413–7414
Chinese calendar	甲辰年十一月廿六日 (4541/4601-11-26) — to — 乙巳年十二月初六日 (4542/4602-12-6)
Coptic calendar	1621–1622
Ethiopian calendar	1897–1898
Hebrew calendar	5665–5666
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1961–1962
- Shaka Samvat	1827–1828
- Kali Yuga	5006–5007
Holocene calendar	11905
Iranian calendar	1283–1284
Islamic calendar	1322–1323
Japanese calendar	Meiji 38 (明治38年)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4238
Minguo calendar	7 before ROC 民前7年
Thai solar calendar	2448

Year 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar.

Overview

As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to a revolution against the Tsar. (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony is subtitled "The Year 1905" to commemorate this.) Canada and the U.S. expand west, with the Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces and the founding of Las Vegas. 1905 is also the annus mirabilis of Albert Einstein, publishing papers which lay the foundations of quantum physics, introduced the special theory of relativity, explained Brownian motion, and established mass-energy equivalence.

Russian Revolution of 1905

Events

January

• January 1 – The Trans-Siberian Railway officially opens after its completion on July 21, 1904.
• January 2 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Army surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
• January 5 – The play The Scarlet Pimpernel opens at the New Theatre in London and begins a run of 122 performances and numerous revivals.
• January 22 (January 9 O.S.) – The Bloody Sunday massacre of Russian demonstrators, at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, helps trigger the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905.
• January 26 – The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.

February

• February 12 – In Christchurch, New Zealand, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is opened.
• February 16 – At Haulbowline Base in Ireland, two explosions on board HM Submarine A5, due to petrol fumes after refueling, kill six of the eleven crew.
• February 17 – At Fremantle, Western Australia, the R.M.S. Orizaba is wrecked, but all 160 passengers and the mail are saved.
• February 19 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Mukden begins in Manchuria.
• February 23 – Rotary International is founded.

March

March 3: Nicholas II creates the Duma.

• March 1 – Australian Conservative leader Richard Butler takes office as Premier of South Australia.
• March 3 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly (the Duma).
• March 4 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt begins a full term.
• March 5 – Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops begin to retreat from Mukden after losing 100,000 troops in 3 days.
• March 10
  • Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese capture of Mukden (now Shenyang) completes the rout of Russian armies in Manchuria.
  • Cassie Chadwick is sentenced for 14 years in Cleveland, Ohio for fraud.
• March 14 – Chelsea FC is founded.
• March 17 – Albert Einstein publishes his paper On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light, in which he explains the photoelectric effect using the notion of light quanta.
• March 20 – Grover Shoe Factory disaster: A boiler explosion, building collapse and fire in Brockton, Massachusetts kills 58.
• March 31 – German Emperor Wilhelm II asserts German equality with France in Morocco, triggering the Tangier or First Moroccan Crisis.

April

• April – Albert Einstein works on the special theory of relativity as well as the theory of Brownian motion.
• April 1 – Penny post established between the United Kingdom and Australia.
• April 2 – The Simplon Tunnel is officially opened through the Alps.
• April 4 – In India, the 1905 Kangra earthquake hits the Kangra valley, kills 20,000, and destroys most buildings in Kangra, Mcleodganj and Dharamshala.
• April 6 – Lochner v. New York: The Supreme Court of the United States invalidates New York's 8-hour-day law.

May

May 15: Las Vegas, Nevada is founded with auction of 110 acres (0.45 km²).

• May 11 – Albert Einstein submits his doctoral dissertation On the Motion of Small Particles..., in which he explains Brownian motion. In the course of the year, Einstein publishes four papers, formulates the theory of special relativity and explains the photoelectric effect by quantization. 1905 is regarded as his "miracle year".
• May 13 – Mata Hari debuts in Paris.
• May 15 – Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km²), in what later becomes downtown, are auctioned off.
• May 17 – Kappa Delta Rho is founded in in room 14 of Old Painter Hall at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT.
• May 27–May 28 – Russo-Japanese War – Battle of Tsushima: The Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo destroys the Russian fleet under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski in a 2-day battle.

May 11: Einstein submits his dissertation.

June

• June 7 – The Norwegian Parliament declares the union with Sweden dissolved, and Norway achieves full independence.
• June 9 – The Charlton Athletic F.C. is founded.
• June 15 – Princess Margaret of Connaught marries Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Skåne (Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden).
• June 27 – (June 14 according to the Julian calendar): Mutiny breaks out on the Russian ironclad Potemkin.
• June 29 – The Automobile Association is founded in the United Kingdom.
• June 30 – Albert Einstein publishes the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies where he reveals his theory of special relativity.

July

• July 22 – Taft-Katsura Agreement.
• July 23 – Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.

August

• August 12 – Leopold II of Belgium opens the Antwerpen-Centraal railway station
• August 25 – 'Ancient Order of Druids' initiate neo-druidic rituals at Stonehenge in England.
• August – Pablo Valencia gets lost in the Sonoran Desert with no water.

September

• September 1 – The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established from the southwestern part of the Northwest Territories.
• September 5 – Russo-Japanese War – Treaty of Portsmouth: In New Hampshire, a treaty mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is signed by victor Japan and Russia. Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin and port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.
• September 27 – Albert Einstein submits his paper Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? in which he develops an argument for the famous equation E = mc².

October

October 2: HMS Dreadnought.

• October 1 – Galatasaray SK is founded.
• October 2 – HMS Dreadnought is laid down, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.
• October 5 – The Wright 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.
• October 16 – Russian Revolution of 1905: The Russian army opens fire in a meeting on a street market in Tallinn, killing 94 and injuring over 200.
• October 26 – Sweden agrees to the repeal of the union with Norway.
• October 30 – Tsar Nicholas II is forced to grant Russia's first constitution, conceding a national assembly (Duma) with limited powers.
• October - The Fauvist artists, led by Henri Matisse and André Derain, first exhibit, at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.

November

• November 4 – The application of the infamous and, from the Finnish perspective, unconstititional, February Manifesto, subordinating the local legislation of the autonomous Grand Principality of Finland to Imperial Russian legislation, is interrupted in the November Manifesto. The Senate of Finland is also ordered to prepare a proposition for a new unicameral representative organ elected in accordance to universal and equal suffrage to replace the outdated Diet of the Estates.
• November 9 – The Province of Alberta, Canada, holds its first general election.
• November 18 – Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
• November 28 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.

December

• December 30
  • A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.
  • First performance of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow, at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna.

Date unknown

• Women are given the vote and admitted to the practice of law in Queensland.
• Workers' compensation is introduced in Queensland.
• The title Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is officially recognized by King Edward VII.
• Pathé Frères colors black and white films by machine.
• Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are banned from the Brooklyn Public Library for setting a "bad example."
• Alfred Einhorn introduces novocaine.
• Wolves become extinct in Japan.
• Civil service examinations are abolished in China.
• Germany insists on an international conference on the Moroccan question.
• Max Weber publishes Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus.

Births

January–February

• January 2 – Michael Tippett, English composer (d. 1998)
• January 3 – Anna May Wong, American actress (d. 1961)
• January 4 – Sterling Holloway, American actor (d. 1992)
• January 8 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (d. 1988)
• January 12
  • James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist (d. 1997)
  • Tex Ritter, American actor and singer (d. 1974)
• January 17 – Guillermo Stabile, Argentine football player and manager (d. 1966)
• January 18 – Joseph Bonanno, American gangster (d. 2002)
• January 19 – Stanley Hawes, British-born Australian film producer, director and administrator (d. 1991)
• January 21 – Christian Dior, French couturier (d. 1957)
• January 26
  • Charles Lane, American actor (d. 2007)
  • Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer (d. 1987)
• January 27 – Howard McNear, American actor (d. 1969)
• January 29 – Barnett Newman, American painter (d. 1970)
• January 31 – John O'Hara, American writer (d. 1970)
• February 1 – Emilio G. Segrè, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
• February 2 – Ayn Rand, American author (The Fountainhead) (d. 1982)
• February 4 – Hylda Baker, English actress (d. 1986)
• February 7 – Paul Nizan, French author (d. 1940)
• February 10 – Walter A. Brown, American basketball and ice hockey pioneer (d. 1964)
• February 14 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
• February 15 – Harold Arlen, American composer of popular music (d. 1986)
• February 18 – Queenie Leonard, British character actress and singer (d. 2002)
• February 23 – Derrick Henry Lehmer, American mathematician (d. 1991)
• February 26 – Arthur Brough, English actor (d. 1978)
• February 27 – Franchot Tone, American actor (d. 1968)

March–April

• March 1 – Doris Hare, English actress (d. 2000)
• March 3 – Marie Glory, French silent screen actress (d. 2009)
• March 6 – Bob Wills, American singer (d. 1975)
• March 10 – Richard Haydn, English comic actor (d. 1985)
• March 12
  • Takashi Shimura, Japanese actor (d. 1982)
  • Yin Shun, Chinese Buddist master (d. 2005)
• March 15 – Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German lawyer and Nazi opponent (d. 1944)
• March 16 – Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress (d. 1977)
• March 18
  • Thomas Townsend Brown, American scientist (d. 1985)
  • Robert Donat, English actor (d. 1958)
  • Benny Friedman, American football player (d. 1982)
• March 19
  • Albert Speer, German Nazi official and architect (d. 1981)
  • Joe Rollino, American strongman, weightlifter, and boxer (d. 2010)
• March 20
  • Jean Galia, French rugby footballer (d. 1949)
  • Vera Panova, Soviet-Russian writer (d. 1973)
• March 23
  • Lale Andersen, German singer (d. 1972)
  • Joan Crawford, American actress (d. 1977)
• March 25 – Pura Santillan-Castrence, Filipino writer and diplomat (d. 2007)
• March 27 – Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (d. 1980)
• March 30 – Mikio Oda, Japanese athlete (d. 1998)
• April 21 – Edmund G. Brown, Governor of California (d. 1996)
• April 25 – George Nepia, New Zealand Maori Rugby Player (d. 1986)
• April 30 – Sergey Nikolsky, Russian mathematician

May–June

• May 3 – Werner Fenchel, German mathematician (d. 1988)
• May 5 – Floyd Gottfredson, American "Mickey Mouse" comic strip cartoonist (d. 1986)
• May 8 – Red Nichols, American jazz musician (d. 1965)
• May 14 – Herbert Morrison, American radio reporter (d. 1989)
• May 15 – Joseph Cotten, American actor (d. 1994)
• May 16 – Henry Fonda, American actor (The Grapes of Wrath) (d. 1982)
• May 17 – Roy Nelson, American cartoonist (d. 1956)
• May 20 – Gerrit Achterberg, Dutch poet (d. 1962)
• May 27 – Signe Johansson-Engdahl, Swedish Olympic diver (d. 2010)
• May 28 – Sada Abe, Japanese actress (d. 1970)
• May 29 – Sebastian Shaw, English actor (d. 1994)
• June 1 – Robert Newton, English stage and film actor (d. 1956)
• June 7 – James J. Braddock, Irish-American wrestler (d. 1974)
• June 12 – Ray Barbuti, American athlete (d. 1975)
• June 14 – Arthur Davis, American animator (d. 2000)
• June 19 – Mildred Natwick, American stage and film actress (d. 1994)
• June 21 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French existentialist (d. 1980)
• June 23 – Mary Livingstone, American radio comedian (d. 1983)
• June 30 – Nestor Paiva, American actor (d. 1966)

July–August

• July 4 – Irving Johnson, American sail training pioneer (d. 1991)
• July 5 – Jock Cameron, South African cricketer (d. 1935)
• July 8 – Leonid Amalrik, Russian animator (d. 1997)
• July 12
  • Edward Bernds, American director (d. 2000)
  • Prince John of the United Kingdom (d. 1919)
• July 13 – Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general (d. 1990)
• July 15 – Dorothy Fields, American songwriter (d. 1988)
• July 22 – Doc Cramer, American baseball player (d. 1990)
• July 23 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor
• July 25 – Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born British writer (d. 1994)
• July 29
  • Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish United Nations Secretary-General (d. 1961)
  • Clara Bow, American silent film actress (d. 1965)
• July 30 – Pedro Quartucci, Argentine boxer and actor (d. 1983)
• August 2 – Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (d. 1963)
• August 2 – Myrna Loy, American actress (d. 1993)
• August 3 – Franz König, Austrian Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 2004)
• August 5 – Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• August 8 – André Jolivet, French composer (d. 1974)
• August 9 – Leo Genn, English actor (d. 1978)
• August 11 – Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist (d. 2002)
• August 16 – Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician and cryptologist (d. 1980)
• August 20 – Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist and poet (d. 1973)
• August 21 – Friz Freleng, American "Looney Tunes' Director (d. 1995)
• August 23 – Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)
• August 24 – Siaka Stevens, former President of Sierra Leone (d. 1988)
• August 29
  • Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (d. 1979)
  • Al Taliaferro, Disney comics artist (d. 1969)
• August 31 – Dore Schary, American film writer, director, and producer (d. 1980)

September–October

• September 1 – Elvera Sanchez, Puerto Rican dancer (d. 2000)
• September 3 – Carl David Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• September 5 – Justiniano Montano, Filipino politician (d. 2005)
• September 18
  • Eddie Anderson, American actor (d. 1977)
  • Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (d. 1990)
• September 22
  • Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (d. 1964)
  • Haakon Lie, Norwegian politician (d. 2009)
• September 24 – Severo Ochoa, Spanish–American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
• September 26 – Emilio Navarro, Puerto Rican baseball player (d. 2011)
• September 28 – Max Schmeling, German boxer (d. 2005)
• September 30
  • Savitri Devi, Greek writer and National Socialist philosopher (d. 1982)
  • Nevill Francis Mott, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
  • Michael Powell, British director (d. 1990)
• October 5 – Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (d. 1998)
• October 7 – Andy Devine, American character actor (d. 1977)
• October 18 – Félix Houphouët-Boigny, former President of Côte d'Ivoire (d. 1993)
• October 23 – Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)

November–December

• November 2 – Georges Schehadé, Lebanese poet and playwright (d. 1989)
• November 4 – Dragutin Tadijanović, Croatian poet (d. 2007)
• November 5 – Sajjad Zaheer, Urdu writer and revolutionary (d. 1973)
• November 7 – William Alwyn, English composer (d. 1985)
• November 9 – Erika Mann, German author and war correspondent (d. 1969)
• November 15 – Mantovani, Italian-born conductor and arranger (d. 1980)
• November 17 – Queen Astrid of Belgium (d. 1935)
• November 26 – Bob Johnson, American baseball player (d. 1982)
• December 8 – Frank Faylen, American movie and television actor (d. 1985)
• December 11 – Gilbert Roland, Mexican-born American actor (d. 1994)
• December 17 – Simo Häyhä, Finnish sniper (d. 2002)
• December 18 – Irving Kahn, American financial analyst and investor
• December 21 – Anthony Powell, British author (d. 2000)
• December 22 – Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d. 1982)
• December 23 – Paul Caraway, American general and High Commissioner (d. 1985)
• December 24 – Howard Hughes, American millionaire, aviation pioneer and film mogul (d. 1976)
• December 27 – Leonard Goldenson, American television executive (d. 1999)
• December 30 – Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)

Date unknown

• Reg Bunn, British artist (d. 1971)

Deaths

January–June

• January 14 – Ernst Abbe, German physicist (b. 1840)
• January 19 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (b. 1817)
• February 4 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (b. 1841)
• February 15 – Lew Wallace, American writer, author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (b. 1827)
• February 17 – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, (b. 1857)
• February 20 – Jeremiah W. Farnham, American merchant captain (b. c. 1828)
• March 6 – John Henninger Reagan, American Confederate politician (b. 1818)
• March 15 – Meyer Guggenheim, Swiss-born patriarch of the Guggenheim family (b. 1828)
• March 24 – Jules Verne, French science fiction author (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) (b. 1828)
• March 26 – Maurice Barrymore, British actor (b. 1849)
• March 28 – Huang Zunxian, Chinese poet and writer (b. 1848)
• April 9 – Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, British general (b. 1827)
• April 23 – Joseph Jefferson, American actor (b. 1829)
• May 13 – Sam S. Shubert, American theater owner (b. 1878)
• June 1 – Émile Delahaye, French automotive pioneer (b. 1843)
• June 3 – James Hudson Taylor, British missionary (b. 1832)
• June 18 – Carmine Crocco, Italian brigand (b. 1830)
• June 22 – Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
• June 27 – Grigory Vakulinchuk, Russian mutineer (b. 1877)

July–December

• July 1 – John Hay, American diplomat and private secretary to Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
• July 8 – Walter Kittredge, American musician and composer (b. 1834)
• July 11 – Muhammad Abduh, Egyptian philosopher and jurist (b. 1849)
• August 1 – John Brown, Canadian politician (b. 1841)
• August 14 – Simeon Solomon, British artist (b. 1840)
• September 5 – Touch the Clouds, Minneconjou chief (b. c. 1838)
• September 13 – René Goblet, French politician (b. 1828)
• September 14 – Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Franco-Italian explorer (b. 1852)
• September 18 – George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet and Christian minister (b. 1824)
• September 19 – Thomas John Barnardo, Irish philanthropist (b. 1845)
• October 3 – José María de Heredia, French poet (b. 1842)
• October 13 – Sir Henry Irving, English actor (b. 1838)
• October 15 – Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov, Russian general (b. 1830)
• October 29 – Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (b. 1873)
• November 2 – Albert von Kölliker, Swiss anatomist (b. 1817)
• December 5 – Henry Eckford, British horticulturist (b. 1823)
• December 9 – Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, British scholar and politician (b. 1841)
• December 12 – Reimond Stijns, Belgian writer (b. 1850)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard
• Chemistry – Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer
• Medicine – Robert Koch
• Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz
• Peace – Bertha von Suttner