1901

1901 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-March

• January 1 – World celebrates what is regarded as the start of the new century. (Zero-ists' argument that new century should be celebrated in 1900 rejected worldwide).
• January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia. Edmund Barton becomes first Prime Minister.
• January 1 – Nigeria becomes a British protectorate
• January 7 – Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism
• January 10 – The first great Texas gusher, oil discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas
• January 22 – Edward VII becomes King after his mother, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, dies. His own son Prince George, Duke of York becomes Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay.
• February 20 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
• February 25 – J.P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.
• March 2 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.
• March 6 – In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany.
• March 17 – A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.

April-June

• April 25 – New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
• May 9 – Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
• May 27 – In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded.
• June 2 – Katsura Taro becomes Prime Minister of Japan
• June 12 – Cuba becomes US protectorate
• June 24 – First exhibition of Pablo Picasso opens. It receives favorable reviews.

July-September

• July 4 – The 1,282 foot (390 meters) covered bridge crossing the St.John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world.
• July 24 – O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio after serving three years for embezzlement from the First National Bank in Austin, Texas.
• 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, Illinois.
• September 6 – American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies there eight days later.
• September 7 – The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Peking Protocol.
• September 14 – With the death of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him as President of the United States.

October-December

• October 2 – Royal Navy's first submarine launched at Barrow
• October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Taylor goes down Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives
• October 29 – In Amherst, Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine.
• October 29 – Capital punishment: Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.
• November 9 – Prince George, Duke of Cornwall becomes Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.
• December 3 – US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
• December 10 – Marie Curie receives doctorate. The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm.
• December 12 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal in Newfoundland, Canada; it is Morse code for the letter "S."

Unknown dates

• In the United Kingdom, Factory Act forbids child labor under 12
• Two typhoid outbreaks in USA
• Winston Churchill enters the House of Commons
• In Germany, Eugen Hollander makes the first known facelift to a Polish noblewoman
• Miller Reese Hutchinson patents Acousticon, a heavy hearing-aid prototype
• Scotland Yard creates a fingerprint archive
• Cleveland Indians founded
• Europium discovered by Eugéne Demarcay
• First prototype Harley-Davidson created
• Okapi discovered (previously known only to local natives)
• Independent Maya of Eastern Yucatán surrender to Mexico

Births

January-March

• January 3 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam (d. 1963)
• January 4 – CLR James, Trinidad-born writer and journalist (d. 1989)
• January 16 – Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
• January 26 – Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
• January 27 – Willy Fritsch, actor (d. 1973)
• January 29 – Allen Du Mont, television pioneer
• January 29  – E. P. Taylor, Canadian business tycoon (d. 1989)
• January 30 – Rudolf Caracciola, German race car driver (d. 1959)
• January 31 – Marie Luise Kaschnitz, writer (d. 1974)
• February 1 – Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
• February 2 – Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian violinist (d. 1987)
• February 10 – Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)
• February 16 – Wayne King, band leader
• February 25 – Zeppo Marx, American comedian (d. 1979)
• February 27 – Horatio Luro, Argentine horse trainer (d. 1991)
• February 28 – Linus Pauling, American chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962 (d. 1994)
• March 4 – Charles Goren, American bridge player (d. 1991)
• March 11 – Leopold III of Belgium (d.. 1983)
• March 21 – Karl Arnold, German politician (d. 1958)
• March 24 – Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (d. 1971)
• March 27 – Carl Barks, American cartoonist (d. 2000)
• March 27  – Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
• March 27  – Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (d. 1971)

April-June

• April 1 – Whittaker Chambers, American spy (d. 1961)
• April 29 – Emperor Hirohito of Japan (d. 1989)
• May 5 – Blind Willie McTell, American blues singer (d. 1959)
• May 7 – Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
• May 17 – Werner Egk, composer (d. 1983)
• May 20 – Max Euwe, Dutch world chess champion (d. 1981)
• May 21 – Horace Heidt, band leader (d. 1986)
• May 21  – Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)
• June 17 – F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, English World War II hero (d. 1964)
• June 18 – Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (d. 1918)
• June 24 – Harry Partch, American composer (d. 1974)
• June 29 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (d. 1967)

July-September

• July 17 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (d. 1938)
• July 20 – Heinie Manush, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1971)
• July 31 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter (d. 1985)
• August 4 – Louis Armstrong, American jazz musician (d. 1971)
• September 9 – James Blades, English percussionist (d. 1999)
• September 12 – Ben Blue, Canadian comedian and actor (d. 1975)
• September 15 – Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (d. 1985)
• September 29 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist (d. 1954)
• September 29 – Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet and non-violent activist (d. 1981)

October-December

• October 2 – Kiki, French singer (d. 1953)
• October 10 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (d. 1966)
• November 22 – Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer (d. 1999)
• December 5 – Walt Disney, American animator and film producer (d. 1966)
• December 5 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist (d. 1976)
• December 16 – Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist (d. 1978)
• December 19 – Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
• December 25- Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (d. 2004)
• December 31 – Karl-August Fagerholm, Prime Minister of Finland (d. 1984)
• Nadezhda Alliluyeva-Stalin, second wife of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (d. 1932)
• Kjeld Abell, Danish playwright

Deaths

• January 11 – Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (b. 1866)
• January 21 – Elisha Gray, American inventor and founder of Western Electric (b. 1835)
• January 22 – Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (b. 1819)
• January 27 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)
• February 11 – King Milan I of Serbia (b. 1854)
• February 22 – George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
• March 13 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
• April 3 – Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (b. 1844)
• June 2 – George Leslie Mackay, Canadian missionary (b. 1844)
• July 4 – Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (b. 1843)
• August 5 – Victoria, Empress of Germany, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and mother of German Emperor Wilhelm II (b. 1840)
• September 5 – Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (b. 1853)
• September 9 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (b. 1864)
• September 14 – William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1843)
• October 1 – Abdur Rahman Khan, Amir of Afghanistan
• October 10 – Lorenzo Snow, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1814)
• October 29 – Leon Czolgosz assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (b. 1873)
• December 1 – George Lohmann, English cricketer (tuberculosis) (b. 1865)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
• Chemistry – Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
• Medicine – Emil Adolf von Behring
• Literature – Sully Prudhomme
• Peace – Jean Henri Dunant, Frédéric Passy