RUSSO-JAPANESE
WAR (Feb. 8): Japanese naval forces launch a stunning nighttime
attack against the Russian fleet off Port Arthur in southern Manchuria.
The attack is the start of the biggest war thus far in history -- the
first in which armored battleships, self-propelled torpedoes, land mines,
quick-firing artillery and modern machine guns will be used. Japan follows
up its sneak attack with a declaration of war.
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| Cy Young |
U.S. STAYS OUT
(Feb. 10): President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims the United States' strict
neutrality in the Russo-Japanese War, which will continue into the coming
year.
AGITATOR (March
27): Labor organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones is ordered out of Colorado
by state authorities, who accuse her of stirring up striking coal miners.
PERFECT GAME (May
5): Denton True "Cyclone" Young, better known as Cy Young, pitches the
first perfect game in major league baseball, for the Boston Pilgrims.
The perfect game, against the Philadelphia Athletics, comes during a string
of 44 consecutive scoreless innings, 23 of which were hitless as well.
RAZOR SHARP (Nov.
15): King C. Gillette is granted a patent for a razor with a disposable
blade. Razor and blade sales skyrocket.
What's Hot Meet
Me in St. Louis! Five years in the making and a year late in starting, the St. Louis World's Fair opens April 30 to celebrate the centennial of Jefferson's purchase of the vast Louisiana Territory from France. The fair also showcases all that is new in a dynamic nation emerging as an industrial and military power. Over the next seven months, an estimated 20 million people will troop through the gates of the fair. It will end in December with a bang: Spectators will pay 25 cents each to see the original Ferris wheel and all exhibits destroyed by dynamite. Births Cary Grant, actor, Jan. 18 George Kennan, diplomat, Feb. 16 William L. Shirer, historian, Feb. 23 James T. Farrell, author, Feb. 27 J. Robert Oppenheimer, atomic physicist, April 22 Willem de Kooning, painter, April 24 James Beard, cooking authority, May 5 Salvador Dali, artist, May 11 Louis Leakey, paleontologist, Aug. 7 Vladimir Horowitz, pianist, Oct. 1 Alger Hiss, accused spy, Nov. 11 Deaths Anton Chekhov, Russian author (born 1860) Anton Dvorak, Czech composer (born 1841) |