August 7, 1912: Victor Hess (center) discovers cosmic raysAugust 17, 1912: Legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow acquitted of criminal chargesAugust 12, 1912: Yusuf becomes new Sultan of Morocco as brother fleesAugust 8, 1912: Haiti's President Leconte killed in accidental explosion
August 1, 1912 (Thursday)
The Yuaikai, later called the Nihon Rōdō Sodomei or Japan Federation of Labor, was founded by Bunji Suzuki. At its peak, it would have 100,000 workers in its ranks.[1]
The Progressive Party announced that it would not allow African-Americans from Southern states to be delegates at its organizing convention in Chicago, with the approval of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt emphasized that from Northern states, "there would be a number of negro delegates; more, in fact, than ever before figured in a National convention".[6][7]
The throwing of a bomb in the Ottoman Empire city of Kotschana (now Kočani, North Macedonia) led to a riot by the residents there, with 140 people killed by Turkish soldiers who suppressed it. Eleven people died when a bomb went off in the town square, followed a few minutes later by another fatal attack.[9]
An attack by soldiers of Montenegro against a Turkish border post killed 30 Turks and 12 Montenegrins.[4]
"Baby Seals Blues" was published in the form of sheet music; according to historian Rudi Blesh, the song by Arthur "Baby" Seales was the first blues song to use the word "blues" in its title, with "Dallas Blues" appearing the next month on September 28, while other sources describe "Dallas Blues" as having been introduced in March 1912.[13]
August 4, 1912 (Sunday)
Turkey's Senate voted to give the sultan power to dissolve parliament,[4] after which it was dissolved with a vote of no confidence.[14]
Nine members of an English boy scout troop, between the ages of 11 and 14, drowned along with their scoutmaster, when their boat capsized in the sea near the Isle of Sheppey, off the coast of the county of Kent.[15] Britain mourned the deaths of the scouts as a national tragedy, and then First Lord of the AdmiraltyWinston Churchill had the destroyer HMS Fervent bring their flag-draped coffins to London for the funeral.[16]
In Chicago, the Progressive Party, nicknamed the "Bull Moose" Party to rival the Republican elephant and Democrat donkey, called itself to order as its founding convention opened at noon.[19]
The Manistee Watch Company sold off all of its property, assets and machinery at auction following its closure in Manistee, Michigan. It had produced some 60,000 pocket watches in its three-year existence.[21]
Physicist Victor Francis Hess, of the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna, became the first person to discover cosmic rays. Hoping to build upon the research of Theodor Wulf, who had found that radioactive emission from Earth decreased measurably at higher altitudes, Hess sought to measure the decrease by venturing to greater heights in a balloon. On his seventh flight, he lifted off with a pilot and a meteorologist from Aussig (now Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic). To his surprise, the electroscopes on his balloon began measuring an increase in radiation at 5,350 feet (1,630 m), after a steady decrease during the ascent, and at 15,000 feet (4,600 m) the amount doubled, showing that penetrating radiation was entering the atmosphere from a source other than the Sun.[23] Hess called the rays Höhenstrahlung, or radiation from above.[24]
Woodrow Wilson accepted the Democratic nomination for president, which had offered the previous month at the convention in Baltimore. The New Jersey Governor spoke at his home in Sea Girt, New Jersey, before a group of other Democrats who were state governors, and a crowd of 6,000 supporters.[25] New technology was used to capture the moment on phonographic records and films, so that American voters could see and hear the candidate.[26]
Three employees of the Union American Cigar Company at 28th and Smallman in Pittsburgh were killed, and 12 seriously injured, after a 24-ton water tank fell through the roof and the sixth floor, then into the fifth.[28]
Died:François-Alphonse Forel, 71, Swiss biologist, credited for the creation of limnology, the study of the ecology of freshwater lakes (b. 1841)
August 8, 1912 (Thursday)
A mine explosion in the village of Gerthe, in the Westphalia region of Germany, killed 103 men at the Lothringen Coal Company.[29]
Friederich Krupp AG, the Krupp family armaments company, celebrated its centennial with the Kaiser giving the address. Accompanying the Kaiser to the ceremony at Essen were the Chancellor and many of his cabinet, and Prince Henry.[30]
Cincinnatus Leconte, President of Haiti, was killed in an accidental explosion at the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince. The President shared his residence with an arsenal of gunpowder in the basement, and the first blast occurred after an early morning fire had started. The legislature named General Tancrède Auguste as the new president that afternoon.[31]
Died:Ross Winn, 40, American publisher, known for his work with the anarchist magazine Free Society (b. 1871)
August 9, 1912 (Friday)
An earthquake in Turkey near the Dardanelles killed 3,000 people, and injured another 1,575. There was a total destruction of the towns of Şarköy and Çorlu, and 300 dead in Mürefte (formerly Myriophyton) and 80 in Ganos-Hora. Çorlu was consumed by fire, reportedly by a lantern being toppled by the quake.[32] In total, 5,540 homes were destroyed.[33][34]
The Republic of China's provisional government enacted its election law, creating a lower house of parliament, and limiting voting rights to male citizens who were at least 21, had two years residency in their district, and met property and educational restrictions.[37]
An attack by Zapatista rebels on a train near Mexico City killed 35 soldiers and 20 civilians.[4]
Ty Cobb
Major league baseball star Ty Cobb was in Detroit when he was jumped by three hoodlums while on his way to catch a train to Syracuse, New York, to appear for the Detroit Tigers in an exhibition game against the minor league Syracuse Stars, and cut on the back by a knife.[42] He played the next day while wearing "a blood-soaked, makeshift bandage", and would later tell biographer Al Stump that he had beaten one of his attackers to death.[43] However, lawyer and baseball fan Doug Roberts researched coroner records and press reports, and found no record of a body being found with head trauma during the summer of 1912, nor of mention in the Detroit newspapers, although Cobb was treated for an 0.5-inch (13 mm) long knife wound.[44]
Born:
Howard Lee Hale, American farmer with polio who survived longer than any other person in an iron lung, from 1944 until his death in 1976[45]
An army of 15,000 Kosovar Albanians marched on the Üskub (now Skopje in North Macedonia), at the time one of the European outposts of the Ottoman Empire, and expelled the Turkish administrators and Serbian residents there. Serbia sent troops in response, retaking the city and driving out the remaining Ottomans from Macedonia after the Battle of Kumanovo on October 23.[47]
A record seven convicts were put to death in the electric chair at Sing Sing, the New York penitentiary at Ossining, New York, in the space of a little more than an hour, with the first being executed at 5:09 am and the last at 6:14 am. Five were Italian-Americans who had burglarized a house at Griffin's Corners, New York in November, during which a sixth man, Santo Zanzara, had stabbed an occupant to death. Zanzara had been executed earlier, and the other five were put to death as accessories.[49][50]
Pilot Simeon Petrov became the first to fly an airplane over Bulgaria. He had been part of a program where 13 army officers were trained abroad, leading to the eventual formation of the Bulgarian Air Force.[53]
The Radio Act was enacted, providing for all American radio broadcasters to be licensed by, and assigned a specific frequency, by the United States government.[54]
Zapatistas captured the city of Ixtapa, Mexico after killing 200 government troops.[55]
Died:George Blewett, 38, Canadian philosopher, noted for works of ethics from a Christian perspective, author of The Metaphysical Basis of Preceptive Ethics, drowning while on a vacation (b. 1873)
August 16, 1912 (Friday)
Generals Hwang-hui and Chang Tsen-chu were arrested and summarily executed on charges of leading the Wuchang Uprising on October 9, 1911.[59][60]
At Berane, Montenegro, twelve Christian villages were attacked, and the inhabitants massacred.[61]
Captain Stanley Lord of the SS Californian issued his statement to explain the ship's failure to come to the aid of the Titanic. Lord said that the ship, which his Second Officer had seen firing a rocket, was not the Titanic because it steamed away; that Morse code signals from the Californian to the other ship were ignored; and that if the ship had been the Titanic, it would have been seen by the RMS Carpathia at the same time.[62]
Sixteen-year-old Virginia Christian was executed in Richmond, Virginia, for the March 18 murder of her employer, Mrs. Ida Belote, in Hampton, despite pleas for clemency made to the state governor. Despite being a minor, the African-American girl was described in reports as "the first woman to be put to death in the electric chair in Virginia."[64]
Clarence Darrow, the famous American lawyer, was successful in winning another verdict of acquittal in a criminal trial—his own. Darrow had been charged with having attempted to bribe a juror in the Los Angeles Times bombing case.[71]
Ahmed al-Hiba, pretender to the Moroccan throne, seized control of Marrakesh, Morocco, and took nine Frenchmen as hostages, including Vice-Consul Jacques Malgret.[75]
The Plant Quarantine Act was signed into law, giving the U.S. government the power to regulate the importation and interstate shipment of plant products that might carry with them insects and diseases. The law was effective in curtailing the spread of the gypsy moth beyond the New England area, where the population of the pest had increased over the previous seven years.[76]
Seventeen-year-old Arthur Rose Eldred of Rockville Centre, New York became the first Boy Scout to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. He was formally awarded the rank in a ceremony on September 2. Since then, over 2 million Scouts have earned the rank, including Eldred's son and two of his grandsons.[78]
The Pure Food and Drug Act was amended to prohibit drug manufacturers from making false claims on the labels of medication.[81]
Four-year-old Bobby Dunbar disappeared while his parents were on a fishing trip to a lake near their home in Opelousas, Louisiana. After an eight-month search by Bobby's father, police in Mississippi would announce that they had found the child under the care of handyman William Cantwell Walters, who said that he had been entrusted to take care of Bruce Anderson by Bruce's mother. In a dispute between the Dunbars and Mrs. Anderson, a court would award the boy to the Dunbars, while Walters would be convicted of kidnapping Bobby and serve two years before the verdict was reversed. In 2004, a DNA test would show that Walters had been right and that the child returned to the Dunbars had not been Bobby. It was presumed that the child raised by the Dunbars had been Bruce Anderson, who lived until 1966, and that Bobby Dunbar had died more than 91 years earlier.[82][83]
Portugal put down the native uprising at East Timor. The revolt cost 3,424 Timorese killed and 12,567 wounded, and 289 Portuguese killed and 600 wounded.[84]
Turkish troops massacred Serbians at Sjenica in what is now Serbia.[85]
The Panama Canal bill was signed into law, providing that, on the opening of the Canal in 1914, "no tolls shall be levied upon vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States". The discrimination in favor of American vessels would be repealed on June 15, 1914.[86]
The Lloyd–La Follette Act was passed, amending the U.S. Post Office Appropriations Act by prohibiting federal employees from being removed except for inefficiency, and not without written notice or a right to appeal.[87]
Alaska was made a U.S. territory by passage of the Second Organic Act and given limited self-government. The U.S. government still controlled Alaska's natural resources. Although an elected Territorial Legislature was created, it could not pass any laws related to fishing, wildlife, soil, divorce, gambling or liquor.[88]
The collier USS Jupiter, the first electrically propelled ship in the United States Navy, was launched. In 1922, after being decommissioned and refurbished, it would be commissioned as the first American aircraft carrier, the USS Langley.[89]
The Kuomintang political party, also referred to as the Nationalist Chinese Party was founded in China by former President Sun Yat-sen and other core members of the secret society Tongmenghui. Under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang would be the ruling political party of mainland China until 1949, and of Taiwan since then.[91]
Italian Army Aviation Corps Lieutenant Piero Manzini became the first pilot to die in warfare. As part of the Italo-Turkish War, Manzini had taken off on a reconnaissance mission, when his plane's engine failed, causing him to crash into the Mediterranean Sea.[92]
The once-prosperous copper-mining town of Eholt, British Columbia, suffered a fire that destroyed most of its business district. The Canadian Pacific Railway then moved its facilities to another location, and when the town's post office closed in 1949, there were only 17 residents left. The area is now a ghost town.[93]
The Fasanenstrasse Synagogue opened for services in Berlin. Nazi authorities closed it permanently in 1936, and the original building was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943. A new Jewish community center was built on the original site in 1959.[94]
Walter Johnson, pitcher for the Washington Senators, was credited with a loss after coming in as a relief pitcher in a 4–3 defeat by the St. Louis Browns, ending his streak of consecutive games won at 16. Under modern rules, the loss would have listed as a failed save; however, Johnson's streak would still have been ended at 16 because he lost his next start in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics.[96]
Feng Ru, 30, Chinese-American engineer and pilot dubbed the "Pioneer of Chinese Aviation", died in a crash during a demonstration flight of the first airplane manufactured in China (b. 1883)[98]
José María Velasco Gómez, 72, Mexican painter, known for works including Valle de Mexico desde el cerro de Atraeualco and Rocas del cerro de Atzacoalco (b. 1840)
August 27, 1912 (Tuesday)
The recently deceased Japanese Emperor Mutsuhito was, posthumously, proclaimed the Emperor Meiji.[4]
The structure for the new Parliament of the Republic of China was set up by regulations issued by President Yuan Shikai. The new, bicameral legislature consisted of 596 representatives and 274 Senators.[99]
Russian explorer Georgy Brusilov began a disastrous expedition to find the Northern Sea Route, setting out from Arkhangelsk in late summer on the ship Svyataya Anna (St. Anna), with a crew of 24. The ship would become trapped in the Arctic ice as it went north, then remained trapped through all of 1913. Only two crewmen, Valerian Albanov and Alexander Konrad, survived, by leaving the ship and heading south.[102] The ship and its crew were missing without a trace for almost 98 years, but in July 2010, explorers found the crew's remains and pages from a sailor's log.[103]
Born:Tarzán López, Mexican wrestler, held that Mexican national championship as a welterweight lucha libre from 1936 to 1939, and four American world middleweight titles between 1940 and 1952, in Jerez de García Salinas, Mexico (d. 1975)
Rebel Mexican General José Inés Salazar began a campaign of forcing American residents to leave Mexico, ordering the residents of the American Mormon settlement in Colonia Morelos, in the State of Sonora, to leave the country within two weeks. Mexican forces would destroy the American settlements on September 12.[106]
^Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 187, ref. no. 200954-13
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuThe Britannica Year-Book 1913: A Survey of the World's Progress Since the Completion in 1910 of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. 1913. pp. xxxiii–xxxvi.
^"Darrow Acquitted; May Be Tried Again". The New York Times. August 18, 1912.
^Di Lellio, Anna (2006). The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence. Anthem Press. p. 55.
^Bennett, Clive (2001). "Franz Schreker". In Holden, Amanda (ed.). The New Penguin Opera Guide. London, New York, et al.: Penguin Putnam Books. p. 832.
^Baker, Jeff (2011). "Anniversary: The Strange Case of Bobby Dunbar". The Old Farmer's Almanac 2012. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
^Pinto, Constâncio; Jardine, Matthew (1997). East Timor's Unfinished Struggle: Inside the East Timor Resistance. Boston: South End Press. p. 6.
^"Massacre by Turks Inflames Servia". The New York Times. August 26, 1912.
^Verzijl, J. H. W. (1970). International Law in Historical Perspective: State Territory. Brill Archive. p. 236.
^Johnson, Ronald N.; Libecap, Gary D. (1994). The Federal Civil Service System and the Problem of Bureaucracy: The Economics and Politics of Institutional Change. University of Chicago Press. p. 80.
^Madden, Ryan (2005). On-the-Road Histories: Alaska. Interlink Books. p. 131.
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