1904 In The United States

Events from the year 1904 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

* President: Theodore Roosevelt ( R- New York)
* Vice President: ''vacant''
* Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon ( R–Illinois)
* Congress: 58th

Events

January–March

* January 2 – The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America concludes at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
* January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
* January 12 – Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of .
* February 7 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
* February 23 – For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.

April–June

* April 8 – Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after ''The New York Times''.
* April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).
* May 4 – U.S. Army engineers begin work on the Panama Canal.
* May 5 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
* May 30 – Alpha Gamma Delta women's fraternity is founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
* June 15 – A fire aboard the steamboat '' General Slocum'' in New York City's East River kills 1,021.

July–September

* July 1 – The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.
* July 23 – In St. Louis, Missouri, the ice cream cone is invented during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
* August 7 – Eden train wreck in Colorado: a bridge is washed away by a flash flood as a train crosses, resulting in at least 88 deaths.
* September – Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.
* September 24 – New Market train wreck in Tennessee: two trains collide head-on at speed, resulting in at least 56 deaths.
* September 25 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a '' Second Manifesto'' against polygamy.

October–December

* October – The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, predecessor of Bethune–Cookman University, is opened in Florida by Mary McLeod Bethune.
* October 1 – Phi Delta Epsilon, the international medical fraternity, is founded by Aaron Brown and eight of his friends at Cornell University Medical College.
* October 5 – Alpha Kappa Psi, the co-ed Professional Business fraternity, is founded on the campus of New York University
* October 15 – Theta Tau, the Professional Engineering Fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
* October 17 – Amadeo Giannini founds the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, predecessor of the Bank of America.
* October 19 – Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American Gabriel A. O'Reilly.
* October 27 – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.
* November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1904: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.
* December 10 – The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
* December 30 – The East Boston Tunnel opens.
* December 31 – In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.

Undated

* St. Bernard's School is founded in New York City on Manhattan.

Ongoing

* Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
* Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
* Black Patch Tobacco Wars (1904–1908)

Births

* January 5 – Jeane Dixon, astrologer (died 1997)
* January 10 – Ray Bolger, actor, singer and dancer, best known for his role in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (died 1987)
* January 19 – Leo Soileau, Cajun musician (died 1980)
* January 21 – Edris Rice-Wray Carson, medical researcher (died 1990)
* January 26 – Ancel Keys, nutritionist (died 2004)
* February 3 – Pretty Boy Floyd, bank robber (shot 1934)
* February 16 – George F. Kennan, political adviser (died 2005)
* March 1
** Paul Hartman, actor and dancer (died 1973)
** Glenn Miller, bandleader (died 1944)
* March 2 – Dr. Seuss)
* March 20
** Frank Mills, politician in Ohio legislature (died 1969)
** B. F. Skinner, behavioral psychologist (died 1990)
* March 23 (possible year) – Joan Crawford, actress (died 1977)
* March 26 – Joseph Campbell, author on mythology (died 1987)
* April 12 – Glen H. Taylor, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1945 to 1951 (died 1984)
* April 18 – Pigmeat Markham, African American entertainer (died 1981)
* April 20 – Bob Bartlett, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1968 (died 1968)
* April 22 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist (died 1967)
* May 17 – John J. Williams, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1947 to 1970 (died 1988)
* May 21
** Robert Montgomery, actor and director (died 1981)
** Fats Waller, African American jazz pianist and entertainer (died 1943)
* June 2 – Johnny Weissmuller, swimmer and actor (''Tarzan'') (died 1984)
* June 3 – Charles R. Drew, African American physician, pioneer in blood transfusion (died 1950)
* June 24 – Phil Harris, bandleader and comic actor (died 1995)
* July 1 – Mary Calderone, physician and public health advocate (died 1998)
* July 15 – Dorothy Fields, librettist (died 1974)
* August 16 – Wendell Meredith Stanley, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946 (died 1971)
* August 17 – Mary Cain, newspaper editor and politician (died 1984)
* August 21 – Count Basie, African American jazz bandleader (died 1984)
* September 12 – Lou Moore, race car driver and team owner (died 1956)
* October 3 – Charles J. Pedersen, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987 (died 1989)
* November 1 – Laura La Plante, silent film actress (died 1996)
* November 17 – Isamu Noguchi, sculptor (died 1988)
* November 25 – Lillian Copeland, Olympic field athlete (died 1964)
* December 7 – Clarence Nash, voice actor (died 1985)
* December 18 – George Stevens, film director (died 1975)
* December 25 – Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, nutritionist (died 1980)
* December 30 – David M. Shoup, general (died 1983)

Deaths

* January 2 – James Longstreet, one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War (born 1821)
* January 6 – Julia Anna Orum, educator, lecturer, and author (born 1843
* January 9 – John Brown Gordon, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1873 to 1880 and from 1891 to 1897 (born 1832)
* January 20 – Maria Louisa Bustill, schoolteacher, mother of Paul Robeson (born 1853)
* February 9 – Mary Abbott, golfer (born 1857)
* February 15 – Mark Hanna, U.S. Senator from Ohio (born 1837)
* March 17 – William Elbridge Sewell, naval officer and Governor of Guam (born 1851)
* June 5 – Olivia Langdon Clemens, editor (born 1845)
* June 28 – Dan Emmett, founder of the Virginia Minstrels (born 1815)
* July 26 – Henry Clay Taylor, admiral (born 1845)
* August 16 – Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of dime fiction (born 1843)
* August 22 – Kate Chopin, fiction writer (born 1850)
* October 11 – Trumbull Stickney, classicist and poet (born 1874)
* December 21 – George L. Shoup, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1890 to 1901 (born 1836)
* Little Joe Monahan, transgender rancher (born 1850)

See also

* List of American films of 1904
* Timeline of United States history (1900–1929)

References

Further reading

* . (Covers events May 1898-June 1905.)

External links

*

{{Year in North America, 1904

1900s in the United States
United States
United States
Years of the 20th century in the United States