The USS Oregon arrived in China at Taku Forts to protect American citizens.
Pope Leo XIII canonized Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651–1719) and Rita of Cascia (1381–1457). de la Salle was the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and is the patron saint of teachers.Saint Rita of Cascia, the mother of two and the wife of an abusive husband is one of the patron saints for domestic problems.
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African American Sgt. William Harvey Carney, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 18, 1863.
While the first Medal of Honor was awarded to a black soldier in 1864, the 1863 action at the assault on Ft. Wagner, South Carolina, is the earliest date for which such an award was conferred on an African American.
The Associated Press was incorporated.
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The first patent for a player piano was issued.
An explosion at the Cumnock Mining Company, near Sanford, North Carolina, killed 22 coal miners.
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An ultimatum to the Empress Dowager Cixi of China to arrest and punish Boxers was issued by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan)
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The Siege of Mafeking was broken. It had started on October 13, 1899.
Robert Baden-Powell had lead the defense of the city. He'd shortly thereafter form the Boy Scouts.
Chinese Christians were murdered at Kaolo.
The first copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, came off the press. The first run of 10,000 copies had been sold prior to publication.
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Chicago's Chief Milk Inspector, Thomas Grady, announced plans to ban dangerous additives from milk, including the preservative formalin.
"Formalin, the chemical used in milk preservatives, will kill a cat", he told reporters. "What will it do to a child?"
Prior to pasteurization milk posed significant health risks which have ironically been revived with the raw milk movement.
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The first mass protest of Russian workers occurred in Kharkov.
Over 200 miners were killed in the Scofield Mine disaster in Utah.
US military governance of Puerto Rico ended.
Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid issued an imperial edict for the construction of the Hejaz railway, to link Damascus to Mecca and Medina.
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Illinois Central Railroad engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones managed to slow a passenger train he was driving down sufficiently so that he was the only one killed in a collision with two stalled freight trains at Vaughan, Mississippi.
The event was memorialized in the Balled of Casey Jones.
From Uncle Mike:
President McKinley signed into law "An act to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii" making citizens of Hawaii citizens of the United States.
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Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan, Ben “The Tall Texan” Kilpatrick and William Cruzan, all of The Wild Bunch, robbed the Union Pacific near Tipton, Wyoming.
This is not the more famous robbery that happened that same year in August.
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United States Secretary of War Elihu Root predicted that the United States would go to war in a few years while delivering an address at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where the birthday of the late General Ulysses S. Grant.
He stated:
The American people will, within a few years, have to either abandon the Monroe doctrine, or fight for it, and we are not going to abandon it. If necessary we will fight for it, but unless there is greater diligence in legislation, in the future than in the past, when the time comes it may find us unprepared.
The audience was stunned.
Newly appointed Governor of Puerto Rico Charles Herbert Allen arrived at San Juan on the USS Dolphin.
The French defeated the forces of Rabih az-Zubayr after two years of war, bringing Chad under the jurisdiction of French Equatorial Africa.
The French were commanded by Major Amédée-François Lamy. Both he and Rabih were killed in what is known as the Battle of Koussér
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George "Flat Nose" Curry was killed by Sheriff Jessie M. Tyler while rustling cattle in Grand County, Utah. Curry was a member of the Wild Bunch (Hole in the Wall Gang).
Born to John and Nancy Ann (Macdonald) Currie in Prince Edward Island, Curry took up rustling as a young man while living in Nebraska. Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan avenged the death by killing Sheriff Tyler some time thereafter, after which he returned to the Hole in the Wall.
The chiefs of Tutuila approved cession of the island to the United States.
Nineteen U.S. troops were killed at the Siege of Catubig.
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The Automobile Club of America staged the first car race in U.S. history.
The race took place on Long Island, with the course from Springfield to Babylon, New York, and back. A. L. Riker won in two hours and 3.5 minutes.
Also in racing, but in bicycles, the Union Cycliste Internationale , the controlling body, was founded in Switzerland.
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The House of Representatives, for the fourth time since 1893, passed a resolution to provide for direct election of Senators.
The measure would fail the Senate.
I"m not completely certain, quite frankly, that the ultimate change in 1913 was a good one. It would, of course, require an amendment to the Constitution.
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President McKinley signed the Foracker Act, establishing a civil government for Puerto Rico. Charles Herbert Allen was appointed Governor.
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The USS Wheeling arrived at Taku Forts to reinforce the US presence in China.
General Arthur MacArthur, the father of Douglas MacArthur and a Civil War hero, was named to replace General Elwell Stephen Otis as military governor of the Philippines.
Over 100 people were killed near Austin, Texas, when the McDonald Dam burst.
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Boer forces under Christiaan de Wet attacked at Sanna's Post, taking 400 British POWS and cutting off the water supply to Bloemfontein, which resulted in the spread of typhus.
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France, effective on this day, reduced the workday for women and children from 12 hours to 11 hours.
Current American Republicans would likely find that abhorrent.
The law provided further that on April 1, 1902, the workday would go to 101⁄2 hours and to ten hours by April 1, 1904.
Father Leonardo Murialdo, 71, founder of the Congregation of Saint Joseph died.. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on May 3, 1970.
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South Africa's best general, Piet Joubert, died of peritonitis at age 68.
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Delegates from the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Labor Party founded a Socialist Party in the US.
The party would prove to be a significant one up until World War One, and then it would decline thereafter, although it still exists.
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Dr. Karl Landsteiner's published his report on his discovery of a process for classification of the four blood groups under the ABO blood group system (as A, B, AB and O), "Zur Kenntnis der antifermentativen, lytischen und agglutinierenden Wirkungen des Blutserums und der Lymphe".
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. probably will declare it a fib and order up a healthy bowl of beef tallow.
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