1904 in the United States

Events from the year 1904 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government

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.
February 26 - The Wisconsin State Capitol, in Madison, Wisconsin, is almost entirely destroyed by fire after a gas jet ignites the newly varnished ceiling.

April–June

April 6 - Joseph F. Smith announces the Second Manifesto in General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah Territory, prohibiting the practice of polygamy, which has continued to be sanctioned by some of its leaders in violation of the 1890 Manifesto officially banning the practice.
April 8 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after New York Times.
April 30 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
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 sorority 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.
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.

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 10 – The opera The Sho-Gun, authored by George Ade and Gustav Luders and produced by Henry W. Savage, premieres at Wallack's Theatre in New York City, New York.
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.
November 23 - The Olympic Games end.
November 24 - A continuous track tractor is successfully demonstrated by the Holt Manufacturing Company.
December 10 - The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
December 30 - The East Boston Tunnel opens, for streetcars.
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

Births

January 5 - Jeane Dixon, astrologer
January 10 - Ray Bolger, actor, singer and dancer, best known for his role in The Wizard of Oz
January 19 - Leo Soileau, Cajun musician
January 21 - Edris Rice-Wray Carson, medical researcher
January 26 - Ancel Keys, nutritionist
February 3 - Pretty Boy Floyd, bank robber
February 13 - Erwin Canham, journalist
February 16 -
*George F. Kennan, political adviser
*James Baskett, actor
March 1
* Paul Hartman, actor and dancer
* Glenn Miller, bandleader
March 2 - Dr. Seuss, children's author
March 4 - Chief Tahachee, writer and actor
March 20
* Frank Mills, politician in Ohio legislature
* B. F. Skinner, behavioral psychologist
March 23 - Joan Crawford, actress
March 26 - Joseph Campbell, author on mythology
April 6 - William Challee, actor
April 9 - Sharkey Bonano, jazz musician
April 12 - Glen H. Taylor, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1945 to 1951
April 18 - Pigmeat Markham, African American entertainer
April 20 - Bob Bartlett, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1968
April 22 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist
April 27 - Syd Nathan, record producer, music industry executive and founder of King Records
May 10 - James Roy Andersen, general
May 17 - John J. Williams, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1947 to 1970
May 21
* Robert Montgomery, actor and director
* Fats Waller, African American jazz pianist and entertainer
May 30 - Doris Packer, actress
June 2 - Johnny Weissmuller, swimmer and actor
June 3 - Charles R. Drew, African American physician, pioneer in blood transfusion
June 12
* Bill Cox, athlete
* Johnny Murray, voice actor
June 21 - Orian Landreth, American football coach
June 22 - William O. Gallery, admiral
June 24 - Phil Harris, bandleader and comic actor
June 26 - Virginia Brown Faire, actress
July 1 - Mary Calderone, physician and public health advocate
July 5 - Eugenia Clinchard, child actress
July 8 - Nick Connor, politician
July 15 - Dorothy Fields, librettist
July 16 - Geraldine Knight Scott, landscape architect
August 13 - Charles "Buddy" Rogers, actor and jazz musician
August 16 - Wendell Meredith Stanley, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946
August 17 - Mary Cain, newspaper editor and politician
August 21 - Count Basie, African American jazz bandleader
August 22 - Jay Novello, actor
August 26 - Georgia Schmidt, actress
September 12 - Lou Moore, race car driver and team owner
September 19 - Elvia Allman, actress
October 1 - Irene Craigmile Bolam, Amelia Earhart look-alike/believed alias
October 3 - Charles J. Pedersen, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987
October 8 - Wally Brown, actor and comedian
October 12 - Anthony F. DePalma, orthopedic surgeon and professor
November 1 - Laura La Plante, silent film actress
November 17 - Isamu Noguchi, sculptor
November 18 - William H. Brockman Jr., United States Navy admiral
November 25 - Lillian Copeland, Olympic field athlete
December 7 - Clarence Nash, voice actor
December 18 - George Stevens, film director
December 19 - Benjamin W. Fortson Jr, politician, Georgia Secretary of State
December 25 - Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, nutritionist
December 30 - David M. Shoup, general
Full date unknown
*E. Gifford Upjohn, American business executive

Deaths

January 2 - James Longstreet, one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War
January 6 - Julia Anna Orum, educator, lecturer, and author
January 20 - Maria Louisa Bustill, schoolteacher, mother of Paul Robeson
February 9 - Mary Abbott, golfer
February 15 - Mark Hanna, U.S. Senator from Ohio
March 17 - William Elbridge Sewell, naval officer and Governor of Guam
June 5 - Olivia Langdon Clemens, editor
June 28 - Dan Emmett, founder of the Virginia Minstrels
July 26 - Henry Clay Taylor, admiral
August 16 - Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of dime fiction
August 22 - Kate Chopin, fiction writer
October 11 - Trumbull Stickney, classicist and poet
December 21 - George L. Shoup, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1890 to 1901
Little Joe Monahan, transgender rancher