The Louvre Hotel on Lake Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, was destroyed by fire. Three people, including a 12-year-old boy and his mother, died of smoke inhalation, and four people were injured. According to an article in The San Francisco Call, "With the remembrance of the Iroquois Theater horror fresh in their minds, all persons in the place became panic-stricken and rushed madly for the streets as soon as it became known that the hotel was on fire."[2]
During a matinee performance at the Thalia Theater on the Bowery in New York City, a false cry of fire nearly caused a human crush. A group of policemen in the lobby averted disaster by attacking audience members with clubs and fists and forcing them back inside, bringing a sudden end to the panic.[13][14]
The Committee on Military Ballooning of the British War Office issued its final report on its post-Second Boer War assessment of aeronautics. Much of the report would soon be rendered obsolete as news spread of the Wright brothers' flights in the Wright Flyer the previous month.[37]
The Lewis Hotel in Jewett City, Connecticut was destroyed by fire, resulting in about $25,000 of property damage. Firefighters battled the flames in temperatures of −22°F (−30°C).[38]
The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa, was severely damaged by a fire started by a candle which an electrician left burning. The interior of the House of Representatives chamber was largely destroyed.[41][42]Engineer Crampton Linley was credited with saving the building by leading a group of men to close doors separating the Capitol's wings. The following morning, while inspecting the damage above the ceiling of the House Chamber, Linley would fall through the ceiling to his death.[42][43]
The Associated Press published a statement issued the previous day by the Wright brothers correcting published misinformation about their December 1903 flights.[70]
A fire which was apparently deliberately set destroyed the Platt City Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 5 people and allowing 20 prisoners to escape.[142]
The entire business district of Havre, Montana, was destroyed by a fire which started shortly after midnight, seemed to have been put out at daybreak but reemerged 5 hours later, having been smoldering underneath a sidewalk. The fire caused $350,000 in damage but no deaths.[143]
In Reevesville, South Carolina, an African American man known as General Lee, who had been arrested for criminal assault because he had allegedly knocked on a white woman's door, was lynched by a white mob.[144][145] The woman, who knew Lee, never claimed that she thought he was the person who knocked on her door.[145]
In Sussex County, Virginia, an African American man named Elmore Moseley (or Elmo Mosley) was acquitted of the December 1903 murder of Allen Fields, also African American, but was then lynched by an African-American mob. No one would be indicted for Moseley's lynching.[146][147][148]
In Tallula, Mississippi, an African American man named Butch Riley was lynched for allegedly having murdered C. C. McMillan the previous night.[146]
In High Springs, Florida, an African American man named Jumbo Clark was lynched for allegedly having attacked a white girl of about 14 on her way to school.[146][147] The lynch mob consisted of 50 men, none of whom wore masks.[147]
In Dallas, Texas, businessman William C. McCahan was found shot to death in his office chair after what appeared to have been an informal pistol duel with his former business partner, J.M. Chappell. Chappell was wounded in the temple, scalp and left ear.[163]
In Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, a baby bear, reportedly the first grizzly bear ever born in captivity, was born in the early morning to the park's bear couple, Mr. and Mrs. Monarch. At 4 p.m. the same day, water was introduced for the first time into the new Model Yacht Lake, pumped by the Dutch Windmill. San Francisco Parks Commission president Adolph B. Spreckels and Golden Gate Park superintendent John McLaren supervised the adjustment of the valve.[164] The baby grizzly bear would die on the night of January 16.[165]
In France, fencerJean Stern and poet Robert de Montesquiou fought a duel with swords over critical comments Montesquiou had made about Stern's wife. Montesquiou was wounded, but not seriously.[200]
In Findlay, Ohio, a fire completely destroyed the Turners' Opera-House, causing $40,000 in damage.[203]
In North Dayton, Ohio, a fire that started in the basement destroyed the Allan School. A man who was working in the basement was reported missing and believed to have been killed. Only one of the school's 800 students died, a disabled child named Edna Baum who was trampled to death during the evacuation.[204]
In his inaugural address as Governor of Mississippi, James K. Vardaman commented, "You can scarcely pick up a newspaper whose pages are not blackened with the account of an unmentionable crime committed by a negro brute, and this crime, I want to impress upon you, is but the manifestation of the negro's aspiration for social equality, encouraged largely by the character of free education in vogue, which the State is levying tribute upon the white people to maintain." Governor Vardaman also urged Americans to demand that the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution be repealed.[213]
At the East Gray Rock mine in Montana, a cave-in killed four miners.[214]
Pope Pius X issued the apostolic constitutionCommissum Nobis, permanently abolishing the jus exclusivae, or "papal veto", previously exercised by certain Catholic countries over the election of a papal candidate they considered undesirable. The jus exclusivae had most recently been exercised by Austria against Cardinal Mariano Rampolla at the 1903 papal conclave.[222]
In Bedford, Indiana, 22-year-old high school Latin teacher Sarah Catherine Schafer was found dead in a buggy shed near the boarding house where she lived, after being reported missing the previous evening. Her skull had been crushed with a paving brick, and her body had been dragged at least 60 feet (18m) along an alley. A suspect would be tried and acquitted of Schafer's murder, but the case would never be solved.[245]
The Ålesund fire, which broke out at 2 a.m., destroyed most buildings in the town of Ålesund, Norway, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter. Only one person died, a 76-year-old woman named Ane Heen.[257][258][259]
Shortly after midnight, the schoonerAugustus Hunt was wrecked in heavy fog off Quogue, Long Island, New York, resulting in the deaths of eight of the ten men aboard. The crew of the nearby Quogue Life-Saving Station attempted to rescue the sailors, who were clinging to the wrecked vessel, but their boat was repeatedly driven back to shore by the surf, and lifelines thrown to the wreck fell short or wide. The wreck began breaking up after daylight, and at about noon the lifesavers were able to rescue two sailors, but continued hearing shouts from the wreck, which grew fainter through the afternoon before ceasing entirely.[260]
At an American-owned mine in the Zaruma gold mining district of Ecuador, a 75-foot (23m) wall collapsed on 15 American miners, burying them alive.[270]
In Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, an African American man named Lewis Radford was arrested for the murder of Priscilla Frozell, an African American woman, but was seized from jail that evening and lynched by an African American mob.[271]
Convicted murderer Ernest Cashel, who had escaped from his cell five days before his scheduled December 15, 1903 hanging, was recaptured at a farmhouse outside Calgary, Northwest Territories, Canada. He would be hanged on February 2.[272]
At 8:15a.m., an explosion at the Harwick Mine in Cheswick, Pennsylvania killed at least 179 coal miners. At 6 p.m., a rescue party descended the mine's main shaft and discovered 17-year-old Adolph Gunia, who was severely burned but was the sole survivor of the explosion. Mining engineer Selwyn M. Taylor ventured further into the mine in search of more survivors but was asphyxiated by afterdamp, dying early the next day.[280][281][282]
The USS Dolphin arrived at the Washington Navy Yard with the remains of James Smithson, which Alexander Graham Bell presented to the Smithsonian Institution in a ceremony in the Great Hall of the Smithsonian Castle. Smithson then lay in state in the Regents' Room in the Castle's South Tower.[77]
Fifteen miners were killed at the Stratton Independence Mine in Victor, Colorado, when the cable of the mine-shaft lift cage snapped, causing the cage to fall 1,500 feet (460m) to the bottom of the shaft. The victims were non-union miners substituting for the Cripple Creek strikers.[294][295]
A major fire in Progreso, Yucatán, Mexico, destroyed an entire square and caused $2,000,000 in damage.[296]
Coal miner Daniel A. Lyle, who had arrived at the Harwick Mine on January 26 in response to a call for rescue workers, spent that afternoon and most of the night working in the mine. He returned early in the morning of January 27 to search for more victims, but, like Selwyn Taylor, was asphyxiated by afterdamp, leaving a widow and five children. The self-sacrifice of Taylor and Lyle would inspire industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to establish the Carnegie Hero Fund.[282]
Irish poet William Butler Yeats gave a lecture at the Alhambra Theater in San Francisco, California, expressing the urgency of the revival of the Irish language. Yeats commented, "The Ireland of to-day is not the Ireland of yore. Before the famine you had the happy Ireland of jokes and music; after the famine you have the Ireland of tragedy... Gaelic Ireland is the Ireland of the centuries; English Ireland is the Ireland of the decades."[309]
Willie McLean, Scottish-born American soccer player; in Clydebank (d. 1977). McLean disappeared in 1938; in 2022, reporters for The Athletic discovered that he had died in 1977 after years in institutions.[312][313]
John H. Hays, 59, American Union Army soldier, Medal of Honor recipient and police officer (Troy, Idaho Police Department), was shot to death by a domestic disturbance suspect.[315]
In Rognonas, France, a gas explosion in the Hotel de France's cafe killed 6 people and injured 14. One of the victims, the hotel proprietor's wife, had gone to the kitchen with a lighted candle to investigate a gas odor.[326]
At a meeting of the San Francisco Board of Park Commissioners, the board named the new lake in Golden Gate Park "Spreckels Lake" in honor of Commission President Adolph Spreckels, "as he originated the enterprise and gave the work throughout his personal attention." The board voted for the new name over the objections of Spreckels, who had wanted the lake to be called the "Model Yacht Lake".[335]
Firefighters Christopher Dressel, Arthur J. Renk and Peter J. Gaffeney of the New York City Fire Department suffered fatal smoke and gas inhalation while fighting a fire at the American Manufacturing Company in Brooklyn. Many other firefighters were also injured by smoke inhalation.[348][349]
"DEATH SENDS SUMMONS TO NOTED BREWER". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.33. 2 January 1904. Page 9, column 2. Retrieved 14 March 2024– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Cisneros, Andrés; Escudé, Carlos; etal. (2000). "Orcadas del Sur"[South Orkney]. Historia General de las Relaciones Exteriores de la República Argentina (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
"SAFETY FOR AUDIENCES". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.37. 6 January 1904. Page 8, column 3. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"James Melton". The Morrison Foundation for Musical Research, Inc. 7 June 2006. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
"Korea's Empress Dowager Dead". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.36. 5 January 1904. Page 2, column 4. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"DEATH CLOSES NOTED CAREER OF LONGSTREET". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.34. 3 January 1904. Page 27, column 2. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Martial Law at Telluride". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.35. 4 January 1904. Page 4, column 7. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Griswold - a history: being a history of the town of Griswold, Connecticut from the earliest times to the entrance of our country into the world war in 1917. New Haven, Connecticut. 1929. p.254.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), cited in "Jewett City, CT Fire, Jan 1904". GenDisasters.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
"Falls Sixty Feet to His Death". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.37. 6 January 1904. Page 9, column 4. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Lawyer Dies From Exposure". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.36. 5 January 1904. Page 16, column 4. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Death of a Well-Known Authoress". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.37. 6 January 1904. Page 7, column 4. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Explosion Hurls Four Men to Death". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.37. 6 January 1904. Page 6, column 7. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Death of Famous Scientist". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.38. 7 January 1904. Page 4, column 4. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"DEATH ENTERS THE HOME OF MR. CLEVELAND". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.39. 8 January 1904. Page 2, column 1. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Editor Godwin Dies in New York". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.39. 8 January 1904. Page 2, column 3. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"KANSAS CITY MEN ON CONCERT TOUR AMONG THE LOST". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.41. 10 January 1904. Page 2, column 2. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Death of a Congressman". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.41. 10 January 1904. Page 28, column 4. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Death of Yale Scholar". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.41. 10 January 1904. Page 28, column 3. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"KENTUCKY VOLCANO ACTIVE.; Smoke Pours from Sugar Loaf Mountain and People Are Alarmed". The New York Times. 10 January 1904. p.10. Retrieved 17 December 2021. A volcano on Sugar Loaf in Rowan County is assuming large proportions. There are five fissures on the side of the mountain from which smoke pours in considerable volume, accompanied by a deep rumbling noise. All the trees in the vicinity are blasted and splintered. The people in that region are terror-stricken and are preparing to move.
"WAS MOONSHINE. Alleged Volcano on Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rowan County Dissipated". The Bee. No.5. Earlington, Kentucky. 4 February 1904. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2021. Deputy United States Marshal Castle, of Carter county, made a raid on moonshiners in the neighborhood of Sugar Loaf mountain, Rowan county, and arrested Presley Crow and John Hildebrand, charged with violating revenue laws. This capture confirms the theory the smoke which comes from Sugar Loaf mountain, and which was thought to be a volcano, was really caused by moonshiners operating their plant.
Jahn, Ilse (1964). "Garcke, August". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol.6 (Online-Versioned.). p.71. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via Deutsche Biographie.
"DEATH CALLS GREAT PAINTER AND SCULPTOR". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.42. 11 January 1904. Page 3, column 1. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"John Young Brown Is Dead". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.43. 12 January 1904. Page 3, column 2. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Notice de personne "Lee, Ung-No (1904-1989)"[Person notice "Lee, Ung-No (1904-1989)"] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
"Prominent Divine Dead". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.44. 13 January 1904. Page 2, column 5. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"South Carolinians Lynch a Negro". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.47. 16 January 1904. Page 3, column 3. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Hoe-Yeong, Loke (30 June 1999). "The story of Nathan Milstein". The Flying Inkpot. No.79. Archived from the original on 16 December 2005. Retrieved 15 December 2021. This source gives the Old Style date of Milstein's birth, December 31, 1903.
"Little Bear Dies". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.49. 18 January 1904. Page 4, column 4. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Lucke, Fritz; Edwards, Robert; Olive, Michael (2013). Panzer Wedge. Stackpole Military History Series. Vol.Two: The German 3rd Panzer Division and Barbarossa's Failure at the Gates of Moscow. Stackpole Books. p.215. ISBN978-0-8117-1205-7. Retrieved 15 December 2021– via Google Books.
"Anton Chekhov Biography". Brandeis University. Retrieved 16 December 2021. When it premiered on January 17, 1904, as part of a "Jubilee Celebration" of its author's twenty-five years as a writer, The Cherry Orchard was an immediate success. This source gives the premiere date erroneously as January 17, 1900, in one place, but correctly in the quoted passage.
Grace, W. D. (2000). "Acland, Hugh John Dyke". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Retrieved 24 December 2021– via Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
"Sportsman and Poet in Duel". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.50. 19 January 1904. Page 14, column 3. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Fire Destroys an Opera-House". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.50. 19 January 1904. Page 4, column 2. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"HEART DISEASE KILLS GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.50. 19 January 1904. Page 14, column 4. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Potts, E. Daniel (1976). "Train, George Francis (1829–1904)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
"Four Killed by a Cave-In". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.51. 20 January 1904. Page 1, column 1. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Washington Post to Be Abandoned". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.51. 20 January 1904. Page 1, column 1. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Smithson's Body Returned". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.52. 21 January 1904. Page 3, column 6. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Famous Gun Inventor Dies". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.52. 21 January 1904. Page 3, column 5. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Korea Declares Its Neutrality". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.55. 24 January 1904. Page 4, column 3. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Neugebauer, Wolfgang (1990). "Maybach, Albert von". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol.16 (Online-Versioned.). p.528. Retrieved 20 December 2021– via Deutsche Biographie.
"Alabama's Tornado Victims". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.55. 24 January 1904. Page 3, column 2. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Men Killed by Runaway Train". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.55. 24 January 1904. Page 3, column 3. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Lentz, Harris M., ed. (1994). "Mauritius, Republic of". Heads of States and Governments: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Over 2,300 Leaders, 1945 through 1992 (2013ed.). Abingdon, Oxon, and New York: Routledge. p.1798. ISBN1-884964-44-3. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via Google Books.
"Episcopal Bishop Passes Away". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.54. 23 January 1904. Page 2, column 2. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
O'Connor, J J; Robertson, E F (October 2003). "George Salmon (1819 - 1904) - Biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
"Brannsjefens rapport"[Fire chief's report] (in Norwegian). bybrann.no. 2010. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
"MRS. BECHTEL ACQUITTED BY THE JURY'S VERDICT". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.55. 24 January 1904. Page 1, column 3. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"New Cruiser Charleston Launched". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.55. 24 January 1904. Page 7, column 1. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"KING EDWARD'S MERCY". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.59. 28 January 1904. Page 8, column 4. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"DEATH SUDDEN TO FRIEDRICH, DUKE OF ANHALT". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.56. 25 January 1904. Page 2, column 5. Retrieved 14 March 2024– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Notice de personne "Frid, Géza (1904-1989)"[Person notice "Frid, Géza (1904-1989)"] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
Bartlett, Geoffrey (1969). "Berry, Sir Graham (1822–1904)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
"Coates Kinney, the Poet, Dies". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.57. 26 January 1904. Page 2, column 6. Retrieved 14 March 2024– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"THE DAY'S DEAD". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.57. 26 January 1904. Page 2, column 4. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Had Long Been Ill: Death of Ex-Representative Julius Caesar Chappelle, A Negro Well Known in Republican Politics". Boston Daily Globe. 28 January 1904. p.7.
"Friend of Lincoln Dies". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.59. 28 January 1904. Page 3, column 3. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Former Congressman Dies". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.59. 28 January 1904. Page 3, column 2. Retrieved 22 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"EXPLOSION IN A CAFE KILLS SIX PERSONS". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.61. 30 January 1904. Page 2, column 4. Retrieved 23 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Judge Gray Lauded for Presidency". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.60. 29 January 1904. Page 3, column 5. Retrieved 23 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Eriksson, Peter. "NI KAN VÄL HISTORIEN OM, VSK?"[YOU KNOW THE STORY, DON'T YOU, VSK?] (in Swedish). Editing and additional reporting by Johan Dahlberg. VSK Fotboll. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
"NOTABLES ENTERTAINED AT THE WHITE HOUSE". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.61. 30 January 1904. Page 2, column 4. Retrieved 23 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Lange, Bettina (1996). "Gehlen, Arnold". In Brown, Stuart; Collinson, Diané; Wilkinson, Robert (eds.). Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers. London and New York: Routledge Reference. pp.269–270. ISBN0-415-06043-5. Retrieved 15 December 2021– via Google Books.
"AGED PIONEER DIES AFTER A SHORT ILLNESS". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.61. 30 January 1904. Page 2, column 7. Retrieved 14 March 2024– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Russian Is Wrestling Champion". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.62. 31 January 1904. Page 28, column 2. Retrieved 23 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Fireman Killed and Many Hurt". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.63. 1 February 1904. Page 1, column 3. Retrieved 23 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
"Famous Ballplayer Dies". San Francisco Call. Vol.95, no.63. 1 February 1904. Page 11, column 4. Retrieved 24 December 2021– via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
.jpg)
