1904

1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-March

• January 7 – The distress signal CQD is established only to be replaced two years later by SOS.
• February 7 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• February 8 – Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts Russo-Japanese War
• February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in Congo
• February 23 – For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• March 3 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
• March 4 – Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• March 8 – The first tunnel beneath the Hudson River completed
• March 21 – Battle of Chumik Shenko – British under general Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

April-June

• April 8 – Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
• April 8 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• April 8, April 9, and April 10 – Aleister Crowley receives The Book of the Law in Cairo, Egypt.
• April 17 – 10-minute darkness in Wimbledon, London
• April 18 – Hurricane in Goliad, Texas kills 114.
• April 27 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• April 30 – Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in Saint Louis, Missouri (closes December 1)
• May 4 – First Rolls-Royce manufactured
• May 5 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• June 15 – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1000.
• June 16 – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.

July-December

• July 21 – Trans-Siberian railway completed
• July 23 – In St. Louis, Missouri, Charles E. Menches invents the ice cream cone during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
• August 17 – Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
• August 18 – Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeded by George Reid.
• September 7 – Fire spreads over downtown Baltimore in USA – 1500 buildings destroyed, no known fatalities.
• October 27 – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens; the system is now the largest in the United States, and one of the largest in the world.
• November 4 – In Florence, Italy, the Arno River flooded.
• November – Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker in the U.S. presidential election
• November 24 – The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).

Unknown dates

• Ismael Montes becomes president of Bolivia.
• Herero Wars begin.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a "Second Manifesto" against polygamy.
• 1904–1905 Welsh Revival- Christian revival breaks out in Wales.

Births

January-February

• January 1 – Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician, (d. 1982)
• January 2 – Sally Rand, American fan dancer (d. 1979)
• January 5 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
• January 10 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
• January 14 – Cecil Beaton, English photographer (d. 1980)
• January 18 – Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
• January 22 – George Balanchine, Russian-born choreographer (d. 1983)
• January 26 – Ancel Keys, American scientist (d, 2004)
• January 29 – Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher (d. 1976)
• January 29 – Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
• February 1 – S. J. Perelman, American humorist, author (d. 1979)
• February 3 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
• February 3 – Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster
• February 4 – MacKinlay Kantor, American writer and historian (d. 1977)
• February 5 – Walter Gross, cabaretist (d. 1989)
• February 7 – Ernst Ginsberg, actor and film director (d. 1964)
• February 11 – Henry LaBouisse, head of UNICEF
• February 11 – Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)
• February 15 – Evald Tammlaan, Estonian writer (d. 1945)
• February 16 – George F. Kennan, U.S. diplomat (d. 2005)
• February 20 – Aleksei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
• February 25 – Adelle Davis, nutritionist, writer (d. 1974)
• February 29 – Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)

March-April

• March 1 – Glenn Miller, American bandleader (d. 1944)
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss, American author (d. 1991)
• March 6 – Joseph Schmidt, Austrian tenor (d. 1942)
• March 7 – Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (d. 1942)
• March 8 – Victor de Kowa, actor (d. 1973)
• March 20 – B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist (d. 1990)
• March 23 – Joan Crawford, American actress (d. 1977)
• March 26 – Joseph Campbell, American author and expert on mythology (d. 1987)
• March 26 – Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2004)
• March 28 – Werner Bahlsen, German biscuit producer (d. 1985)
• April 3 – Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
• April 7 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
• April 9 – Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (d. 1972)
• April 16 – Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (d. 1983)
• April 21 – Lembit Pärn, Soviet general
• April 22 – Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (d. 1967)
• April 26 – Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer (d. 1982)
• April 27 – Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (d. 1972)
• April 29 – Karin Luts, Estonian painter (d. 1993)

May-July

• May 6 – Harry Martinson, Swedish author, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1978)
• May 6 – Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born movement engineer (d. 1984)
• May 11 – Salvador Dalí, Catalan artist (d. 1989)
• May 17 – Jean Gabin, French actor (d. 1976)
• May 21 – Fats Waller, American pianist and comedian (d. 1943)
• May 21  – Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
• May 27 – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
• June 2 – Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)
• June 3 – Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)
• July 5 – Ernst Mayr, German-born evolutionary biologist and author (d. 2005)
• July 12 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (d. 1973)
• July 17 – Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, eldest son and heir of Tsar Nicholas II (d. 1918)

August-December

• August 4 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
• August 6 – Jean Desses, French couturier (d. 1970)
• August 17 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
• August 21 – Count Basie, American jazz musician and bandleader (d. 1984)
• August 22 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader (d. 1997)
• August 23 – Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)
• August 23 – Thelma Morgan, Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin (d. 1970)
• August 28 – Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (d. 1980)
• September 22 – Joseph Valachi, gangster (d. 1971)
• September 29 – Greer Garson, English actress (d. 1996)
• October 23 – Harvey Penick, American golfer (d. 1995)
• October 25 – Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator (d. 1968)
• November 11 – J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
• November 12 – Jacques Tourneur, French director (d. 1977)
• November 14 – Dick Powell, American actor and singer (d. 1963)
• November 25 – Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)
• November 30 – Clyfford Still, American painter (d. 1980)
• December 26 – Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)

Unknown dates

• Gustave Biéler, Swiss-born hero of World War II (executed) (d. 1944)
• Bernard Castro, Itlain inventor (d. 1991)
• J. J. Gibson, American psychologist (d. 1979)
• Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1988)

Deaths

• January 2 – James Longstreet, Confederate general (b. 1821)
• January 20 – Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
• May 1 – Antonin Dvorak, Czech composer (b. 1841)
• May 19 – Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• June 4 – George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero (b. 1862)
• July 3 – Theodor Herzl, German founder of modern political Zionism (b. 1860)
• July 5 – Abai Kunanbaiuli, Kazakh poet (b. 1845)
• July 14 – Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b. 1860)
• July 22 – Wilson Barrett, English actor (b. 1846)
• August 6 – Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic (b. 1825)
• August 22 – Kate Chopin, American author (b. 1851)
• August 25 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• August 29 – Murad V, Ottoman sultan (b. 1840)
• September 26 – John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)
• October 4 – Frédéric Bartholdi, Alsatian sculptor (b. 1834)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – The Lord Rayleigh
• Chemistry – Sir William Ramsay
• Medicine – Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
• Literature – Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray Y Eizaguirre
• Peace – Institut De Droit International