1903 Events

1903 'Call of the Wild' is Published
Buck the dog starts out in life as the handsome and well-loved pet of Judge Miller in Jack London's 1903 novel The Call of the Wild. His peaceful and easy existence ends suddenly one day ...
1903 Edwin H. Cheney House Constructed
Edwin H. Cheney House (1903) located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, was Frank Lloyd Wright's design of this residence for electrical engineer Edwin Cheney. The house is part of the...
1903 Ford Model A is First Produced
The original Ford Model A was the first car produced by Ford Motor Company, beginning production in 1903. Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago, Illinois became the first owner of a Model A on Ju...
1903 Hillside Home School Completed
The Lloyd Jones family are Wright's maternal ancestors. Aunts, Ellen (1845-1919) and Jane (1847/8-1917) received formal college training. Ellen taught at River Falls Normal School and...
1903 Jane Addams becomes vice president of National Women's Trade Union League
Founded in 1903 by Jane Addams, Mary Anderson and other trade unionists, the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) devoted itself to securing better occupational conditions for women and enco...
1903 Joseph Stalin Joins The Bolsheviks
At the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Labour Party in London in 1903, there was a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, two of SDLP's leaders. Lenin argued for a sma...
1903 Niels Finsen Uses Phototherapy to Treat Skin Diseases
Phototherapy has a very long, albeit mostly anecdotal history. Real interest in the use of ultraviolet irradiation in the treatment of various diseases started in the 19th century and rea...
1903 The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois is Published
The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology, and a cornerstone of African-American literary hist...
1903 William Randal Cremer Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Sir William Randal Cremer (18 March 1828 – 22 July 1908) usually known by his middle name "Randal", was an English Liberal Member of Parliament and pacifist. Cremer was elected as the ...
1903 Jan 3 Adolf Hitler's father, Alois, dies
In the town of Leonding, Austria, on the bitterly cold morning of Saturday, January 3, 1903, Alois Hitler, 65, went out for a walk, stopping at a favorite inn where he sat down and asked ...
1903 Jan 6 Albert Einstein marries Mileva Maric
Einstein and Marić married in January 1903, and in May 1904 the couple’s first son, Hans Albert Einstein, was born in Bern, Switzerland. Their second son, Eduard, was born in Zurich in Ju...
1903 Jan 27 Battle of Dilam
Battle of Dilam was a major battle of the Unification War between Rashidi and Saudi rebels. It occurred on 27 January 1903, in town of Dilam south of Riyadh, The capital of the present da...
1903 Feb 4 Montreal AAA wins Stanley Cup
Another Montreal HC vs. Winnipeg Victorias best-of-three challenge series was held in early 1903. In game one, defending champion Montreal defeated Winnipeg, 8–1. game two was the first S...
1903 Feb 14 Department of Commerce and Labor Established
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was a short-lived Cabinet department of the United States government, which was concerned with business, industry, and labor. It was ...
1903 Mar 14 Ottawa Silver Seven win Stanley Cup
Ottawa defeated the Rat Portage Thistles 6–2, 4–2 (10–4) in a two-game, total goals series in Ottawa, March 12–14, 1903. As the new CAHL and Cup champions, the Ottawas accepted a challen...
1903 Apr 22 New York Stock Exchange Building Opened
The new building, located at 18 Broad Street, cost $4 million and opened on April 22, 1903. The trading floor, at 109 x 140 feet (33 x 42.5 m), was one of the largest volumes of space in ...
1903 Apr 29 Frank Rockslide
30 million cubic metres of limestone broke free from the mountain and crashed down towards the sleeping populace of Frank. In a mere minute and a half a landslide one kilometre wide and 4...
1903 May 12 Theodore Roosevelt Visits San Francisco
On Tuesday, May 12, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt paid an official visit to San Francisco. Cameraman H. J. Miles captured the president's arrival parade on film, and later released ...
1903 May 29 Bob Hope is Born
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG (born Leslie Townes Hope; May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies...
1903 Jun 22 John Dillinger Born
John Herbert Dillinger was born June 22, 1903 in the Oak Hill section of Indianapolis, Indiana, the younger of two children born to John Wilson Dillinger (July 2, 1864 -November 3, 1943) ...
1903 Jun 25 George Orwell Is Born
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author. His work is marked by a profound consciousness of social injustice, ...
1903 Jul 20 Pope Leo XIII dies
Leo XIII was the first Pope to be born in the 19th century. He was also the first to die in the 20th century: he lived to the age of 93, the longest living pope. At the time of his death,...
1903 Aug 4 Giuseppe Sarto (Pius X) elected Pope
Pope Saint Pius X (Latin: Pius PP. X) (2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914), born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 258th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914, succeeding Pope...
1903 Aug 10 Couronnes Disaster - Paris Métro Fire
The first sign of trouble was at 6:53 p.m., when double train 43 completed the climb to Boulevard Barbès station with heavy smoke pouring from one of the motors on its front car, car M202...
1903 Sep The Ambassadors by Henry James is Published
The Ambassadors is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). This dark comedy, one of the masterpieces of James's final period, fol...
1903 Sep 8 The American Federation Of Labor Grants A Charter To Granite Quarry Workers
The American Federation of Labor granted a charter to the granite quarry workers of Barre, Vermont on September 8, 1903. To document the lives of workers whose union standards outpaced th...
1903 Sep 27 Wreck of the Old 97
Of the Sixteen People on Ill-fated Train, Not One Escaped Serious Injury -Scene of Wreck Was Long Trestle Just North of Danville, Va.--Railroad Men Believe Accident Was Caused by the Brea...
1903 Oct 1 The First Game Of The First World Series
On October 1, 1903, the Boston Americans (soon to become the Red Sox) of the American League played the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World S...
1903 Oct 31 The Purdue Wreck
Running at the rate of thirty miles an hour, a Big Four special train of six coaches, loaded with students of Purdue University, including the football team, was wrecked just inside the c...
1903 Nov 3 Separation of Panama from Colombia
The Separation of Panama from Colombia was formalized on 3 November 1903 with the establishment of the Republic of Panama from the Republic of Colombia's Department of Panama. On Novem...
1903 Dec 17 Wright Brothers First Flight
On December 17, 1903, two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, named Wilbur and Orville Wright, were successful in flying an airplane they built. Their powered aircraft flew for 12 seconds above t...
1903 Dec 19 Williamsburg Bridge Opens
On December 19, 1903, New Yorkers celebrated the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge, the second of three steel-frame suspension bridges to span the East River. Designed by Leffert L. Buc...
1903 Dec 23 Connellsville Train Wreck
The most appalling disaster in the history of the Pittsburg Division of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad occurred at Laurel run, two miles west of Dawson, last evening. Sixty-eight passenger...
1903 Dec 30 Fire kills over 600 people at Iroquois Theater in Chicago
The Iroquois Theater Fire (December 30, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois) was the deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history. The blaze took 571 lives within 20 minutes, and including those ...