1913 Explained

Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1913

January

• January 13
  • Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, a public service sorority, is founded on the campus of Howard University by 22 collegiate women.
  • The Irish Ulster Volunteers are reorganized into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) by the Ulster Unionist Party, with the intention of defending Ulster against Home Rule.
• January 23 - Coup of 1913 in the Ottoman Empire: The CUP, lead by Enver Pasha, overthrows the Liberal Union coalition and introduces a military dictatorship.
• January 30 - The House of Lords rejects the third Irish Home Rule Bill.

February

• February 1 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest train station.
• February 3 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.
• February 4 - The trial of the remnants of the Bonnot Gang begins in France.
• February 9 - The Great Fireball Procession, a chain of slow, large meteors moving from northwest to southeast, is sighted over North America, particularly in Canada.
• February 17 - The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays the works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th Century.

March

• March - The House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne, amidst an outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia.
• March 4
  • Woodrow Wilson succeeds William Howard Taft as the 28th President of the United States.
  • The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor.
  • The first U.S. law regulating the shooting of migratory birds is passed.

• March 5-March 7 - First Battle of Bud Dajo: American troops decisively defeat Moro rebels in the Philippines.
• March 7 - The British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in Baltimore harbour.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B0CE2D9133BE633A2575BC0A9659C946296D6CF
• March 12 - Australia begins building the new federal capital of Canberra.
• March 13 - Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the United States.
• March 18 - King George I of Greece is assassinated.
• March 20 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese nationalist party (KMT), is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days after.
• March 25
  • Mexican Revolution

Venustiano Carranza announces his Plan of Guadalupe, and begins his rebellion against Victoriano Huerta's government as head of the Constitutionals.

• • 2 days of rain in the Miami Valley flood the region and mark the worst natural disaster in Ohio's recorded history. Dayton is especially devastated in this great flood.
• March 26 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.

April

• April 8 - The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.
• April 24 - The Woolworth Building opens in New York City.
• April 26 - Mary Phagan is raped and strangled on the premises of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta. Leo Frank is tried and convicted for the crime.
• April 29 - Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patents all-purpose zipper

May

• May - The Paul Emile Chabas painting September Morn creates a national sensation in the U.S., and results in a court case in Chicago, Illinois.
• May 13 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a 4-engine aircraft.
• May 14 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.
• May 29 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris, causing a riot that very night.
• May 30 - First Balkan War: A peace treaty is signed in London, ending the war.

June

• June - The first edition of the Christian esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross is published in the United States (it is still issued bimonthly today).
• June 4 - Emily Davison, a British suffragette, runs out in front of the King's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies 4 days later in the hospital, never having regained consciousness.
• June 13 - A Great Gorge and International Railway trolley and passengers are buried under the contents of an overhead garbage chute, that breaks in Niagara Falls, New York.
• June 15 - Bud Bagsak Massacre: U.S. troops under General John 'Black Jack' Pershing kill at least 2,000 civilians in Bud Bagsak, the Philippines.
• June 24 - Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.

July

• July 3 - The 50th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of American Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• July 10 - Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States ().

August

• August 4 - In China, the province of Chungking declares independence; Chinese Republican forces crush the rebellion in a couple of weeks.
• August 10 - Macedonia is divided after the Second Balkan War, according to the Treaty of Bucharest.
• August 13 - Stainless steel is invented by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.
• August 15 - The Dublin Strike & Lockout begins; all trade union members are dismissed.
• August 20 - 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond jumps from an airplane and lands safely.

September

• September 19 - Francis Ouimet wins the U.S. Open by 5 strokes, becoming the first amateur to ever win the event.
• September 23 - French aviator Roland Garros flies over the Mediterranean.
• September 29
  • Rudolf Diesel disappears en route to Britain.
  • Mexican Revolution

Pancho Villa is elected commander of the "Northern Division" of the Constitutionals.

October

• October 1 - Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa's troops take Torreón after a 3-day battle, when government troops retreat.
• October 3 - The United States Revenue Act of 1913 re-imposes the federal income tax and lowers basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.
• October 10 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• October 19 - The DLRG (German Life Saving Society) is founded.
• October 31 - The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.

November

• November 1 - Panama Canal employees reach their highest number (56,654) since construction began in 1904.
• November 5 - The insane King Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III.
• November 6 - Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
• November 7-11 - The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 kills more than 250.
• November 26 - Phi Sigma Sigma, the first non-sectarian sorority, is founded at Hunter College in New York.

December

• December 1
  • The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford is not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one sparks an era of mass production).
  • Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the first Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.
• December 12
  • Emperor of Ethiopia Menelik II dies and is succeeded by his grandson Iyasu V of Ethiopia.
  • Vincenzo Perugia tries to sell the Mona Lisa in Florence and is arrested.
• December 21 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• December 23 - The Federal Reserve is created by Woodrow Wilson.
• December 30 - Italy returns the Mona Lisa to France.
• December - The Gateway of India is constructed at Mumbai, to commemorate the first entry of Queen Victoria into India.

Undated

• Female suffrage is enacted in Norway.
• The British steamship Calvadas disappears in the Marmara Sea with 200 hands on board.
• Dutch physicist Willem de Sitter shows that the speed of light is independent of the speed of the source.
• French physicist Georges Sagnac shows that the speed of light depends on the speed of a rotating platform.
• Camel Cigarettes are introduced.
• The Journal of Ecology is first published.
• The National Temperance Council is founded to promote the temperance movement.
• The United States Soccer Federation is formed.
• The modern zipper is invented.
• The cities of Winston, North Carolina and Salem, North Carolina officially merge to become Winston-Salem.
• Portuguese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands (1878-1913) ends.
• 25,000 people die in industrial accidents in the USA.
• The value of world trade reaches roughly $38 billion.
• Yuan Shikai uses military force to dissolve China's parliament and rules as a dictator.
• Schools founded:
  • The Hockaday School
  • Crescent School

Ongoing

• First Balkan War.

Births

January-February

• January 2 - Anna Lee, English actress (d. 2004)
• January 5 - Jack Haig, British actor (d. 1989)
• January 6 - Edward Gierek, Polish politician (d. 2001)
• January 6 - Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
• January 9 - Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)
• January 10 - Gustáv Husák, Slovak politician (d. 1991)
• January 15 - Lloyd Bridges, American actor (Sea Hunt) (d. 1998)
• January 15 - Alexander Marinesko, captain of the S-13 submarine, which sank the German ship Wilhelm Gustloff, when 10,000 died while the ship sank (d. 1963)
• January 18 - Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
• January 18 - George Unwin, British fighter ace of WWII (d. 2006)
• January 22 - William Cardinal Conway, Irish clergyman (d. 1977)
• January 22 - Carl F. H. Henry, American theologian and publisher (d. 2003)
• January 24 - Norman Dello Joio, American composer (d. 2008)
• January 25 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (d. 1994)
• January 26 - Jimmy Van Heusen, American composer (d. 1990)
• January 28 - Wally Parks, founder of the NHRA