Historical Events
Great Durbar for Edward VII
Jan 1 In Delhi, a great durbar, or formal reception, marks the coronation of King Edward VII as Emperor of India; the British release some 16,000 prisoners in honor of the occasion
White House Renovations
Jan 1 President Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Roosevelt unveil new renovations to The White House, including a new West Wing
- Jan 2 US President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola, Mississippi, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
Topsy Electrocuted
Jan 4 Topsy the elephant is electrocuted by her owners at Luna Park, Coney Island and filmed by Edison Manufacturing movie company [1]
"L'etranger"
Jan 7 Vincent d'Indy's opera "L'etranger" premieres in Brussels
- Jan 9 Baseball's National & American Leagues make peace
- Jan 9 Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchase the American League's Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000 and move it to NYC (later the NY Yankees)
- Jan 9 Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, established
Houdini in Amsterdam
Jan 12 Harry Houdini performs at Rembrandt theater, Amsterdam
- Jan 13 Rhodes Opera House burns in Boyertown, Pennsylvania killing 170
- Jan 18 The first transatlantic radio transmission to originate in the United States is sent by a transmitter in Massachusetts
- Jan 19 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England
- Jan 19 French newspaper L'Auto announces new 5-stage, long distance bicycle race, "Tour de France"
- Jan 21 Harry Houdini escapes from Halvemaansteeg police station in Amsterdam
- Jan 21 International Theater (Majestic, Park) opens at 5 Columbus Circle, NYC
- Jan 22 The Hay-Herran Treaty concerning the USA's right to the Panama Canal is signed by the Colombian Charge d'affaires in Washington, D.C. (never ratified)
- Jan 29 Dutch railroad workers strike
Famous Birthdays
- Jan 2 Anton van Duinkerken [Willem Jan Marie Anton Asselbergs], Dutch poet and academic, born in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands (d. 1968)
- Jan 2 Kane Tanaka, Japanese centenarian (world's 2nd oldest recorded person), born in Wajiro Village, Japan (d. 2022)
- Jan 3 Charles Foulkes, Canada general and honorary citizen of Wageningen who accepted WWII Germany's surrender in the Netherlands, born in Stockton-on-Tees, England, (d. 1969)
- Jan 4 Joris Diels, Flemish actor and director (It's a Cruel World, Haagsche Comedy), born in Antwerpen, Belgium (d. 1992)
- Jan 5 Harold Gatty, Australian aviator, navigator with Wiley Post, born in Campbell Town, Australia (d. 1957)
- Jan 5 Leighton Lucas, English composer and conductor, born in London, England (d. 1982)
- Jan 6 Boris Blacher, German composer (Orchester-Ornament), born in Yingkou, China (d. 1975)
- Jan 6 Francis L. Sullivan, British actor (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Missing Rembrandt), born in London, England (d. 1956)
- Jan 6 Maurice Abravanel, American classical music conductor, born in Thessaloniki, Greece (d. 1993)
- Jan 6 Stanley Smith, American actor and singer (King of Jazz; Soup to Nuts; Good News), born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 1974)
- Jan 7 Alan Napier, British actor (The Sword in the Stone, Batman), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1988)
- Jan 7 Albrecht Haushofer, German geographer and writer, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1903)
- Jan 7 Shalva Azmayparashvili, Georgian composer and conductor, born in Tbilisi, Russian Empire (d. 1957)
- Jan 7 Vladimir Alexandrovich Vlasov, Russian composer and conductor, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1986)
- Jan 8 Gene Roth [Eugene Stutenroth], American actor (She Demons, Tormented, The Spider), born in Redfield, South Dakota (d. 1976)
- Jan 8 Robert D. Webb, American director and actor (Love Me Tender; The Jackals), born in Clay City, Kentucky (d. 1990)
- Jan 9 Georg Elser, German failed assassin of Adolf Hitler (Bürgerbräukeller Bombing), born in Hermaringen, Germany (d. 1945)
- Jan 9 Hem Vejakorn, Thai illustrator, born in Bangkok, Thailand (d. 1969)
- Jan 10 Barbara Hepworth, English abstract artist, sculptor and child actress (Rescued by Rover), born in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire (d. 1975)
- Jan 10 Jean Morel, French-born American conductor, born in Abbeville, France (d. 1975)
- Jan 10 Violet Wilkey, American actress, born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 1976)
- Jan 10 Voldemar Väli, Estonian wrestler, born in Kuressaare, Estonia (d. 1997)
Alan Paton (1903-1988)
Jan 11 South African author (Cry, the Beloved Country, Too Late the Phalarope) and anti-apartheid activist, born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
- Jan 12 Igor Kurchatov, Soviet-Russian nuclear physicist who directed the Soviet atomic bomb project, born in Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia (d. 1960)
- Jan 15 Paul A. Dever, 58th Governor of Massachusetts, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1958)
- Jan 16 Peter Brocco, American actor blacklisted in the 1950's (Spartacus: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), born in Reading, Pennsylvania (d. 1992)
- Jan 17 Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Assamese poet, playwright, filmmaker (d. 1953)
- Jan 17 Warren Hull, American actor (Strike it Rich, Who in the World), born in Gasport, New York (d. 1974)
- Jan 18 (Wilford) "Min" Leibrook, American jazz tuba player and bassist (Paul Whiteman Orchestra), born in Hamilton, Ohio (d. 1943)
- Jan 18 Berthold Goldschmidt, German-British opera composer (Beatrice Cenci), born in Hamburg, German Empire (d. 1996)
- Jan 19 Alfred Beit, British politician and art philanthropist, born in London, England (d. 1994)
- Jan 20 Leon Ames, American actor (Mister Ed, Father of the Bride), born in Portland, Indiana (d. 1993)
- Jan 20 Sybil Marion Rosenfeld, English theatre historian, born in London, England (d. 1996)
- Jan 22 Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)
- Jan 22 Robin Milford, English composer, born in Oxford, England (d. 1959)
- Jan 23 Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician, born in Cucunubá, Colombia (d. 1948)
- Jan 24 Robert Gwathmey, American social realist artist (Arts & Letters), born in Manchester, Virginia (d. 1988)
- Jan 27 John Eccles, Australian neurologist (1963 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on the synapse), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 1997)
- Jan 27 Otto P. Weyland, American military figure (d. 1979)
- Jan 28 Kathleen Lonsdale, Irish-born British pacifist and crystallographer (one of 1st two women elected to Royal Society), born in Newbridge, Ireland (d. 1971)
- Jan 28 Lotte Stam-Beese, German-Dutch architect and urban planner who helped reconstruct Rotterdam after the war, born in Reisicht, Germany (d. 1989)
- Jan 29 Cornelis Hendrik Edelman, Dutch geologist, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1964)
- Jan 30 G. Evelyn Hutchinson, British zoologist (Treatise on Limnology), born in Cambridge, United Kingdom (d. 1991)
- Jan 31 Gardner Cowles Jr., American publisher (Look Magazine)t, born in Algona, Iowa (d. 1985)
Famous Weddings
Albert Einstein
Jan 6 German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (23) weds Serbian physicist and mathematician Mileva Marić (27); divorce in 1919
Famous Deaths
- Jan 3 Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler, dies at 65
- Jan 4 Geo[rge J H] Poggenbeek, Dutch surrealist painter, dies at 49
- Jan 4 Gulstan Ropert, French Roman Catholic prelate, dies at 63
- Jan 4 Topsy the elephant (b. circa 1875)
- Jan 17 Ignaz Wechselmann, Hungarian architect and philanthropist (b. 1828)
- Jan 21 Hermanus Schaepman 'the doctor', Dutch poet, Roman Catholic priest, theologian, and politician, dies at 58
- Jan 28 Augusta Holmes, French composer, dies at 55
- Jan 28 Jean Robert Planquette, French composer (Bells of Corneville), dies at 54
