1905 in the United States
Events from the year 1905 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government
- President: Theodore Roosevelt
- [Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]:
- Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon
- Congress: 58th, 59th
Events
January–June
- January 6 - The Senate confirms the nomination of William D. Crum, an African-American, to the office of collector of customs at Charleston, South Carolina after Crum's nomination by President Theodore Roosevelt.
- January 30 - The Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case of Swift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.
- March 4 - President Theodore Roosevelt begins his first full term. Charles W. Fairbanks is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
- March 10 - In Cleveland, Ohio, Cassie Chadwick is sentenced for 14 years in prison for fraud.
- March 17 - Franklin D. Roosevelt marries his fifth cousin Eleanor Roosevelt; President Roosevelt, the bride's uncle, gives her away.
- March 20 - Grover Shoe Factory disaster: A boiler explosion, building collapse and fire in Brockton, Massachusetts kills 58.
- March 24 - Toastmasters International is founded by Ralph C. Smedley in Bloomington, Illinois.
- March 27 - Plumas National Forest is established.
- April 6 - Lochner v. New York: The Supreme Court of the United States invalidates New York's 8-hour-day law.
- April 6–July 19 - The 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike; 21 people die and 416 are injured in the violence.
- May–June - John C. Merriam leads the Saurian Expedition, a paleontological research mission in northern Nevada.
- May 6 - Klamath National Forest is established.
- May 10 - The 1905 Snyder, Oklahoma tornado destroys much of Snyder, Oklahoma, killing at least 97.
- May 12 - Gunnison National Forest is established.
- May 15 - Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when, in what later becomes downtown, are auctioned off.
- May 15 - Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery is founded in South Canaan Township in western Wayne County, in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania.
- May 29 - Sawtooth National Forest is established.
- June 1–October 14 - The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition is held in Portland, Oregon, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
- June 2 - Lassen National Forest is established.
- June 3 - San Juan and Payette National Forest is established.
- June 14 - Uncompahgre National Forest is established.
- June 24 - The founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, A radical workers union, which had great impact during the first two decades of the 20th century.
July–December
- July 11 - W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter establish the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the NAACP.
- July 22 - Florence Kelly delivers her landmark speech about child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia.
- July 29 - U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft has talks with Prime Minister of Japan Katsura Taro. Notes from these conversations are later found in 1924 and cause a controversy as it appears to contain U.S. recognition of Japan's claims in Korea.
- August 15 - Mexican-American prospector Pablo Valencia gets lost in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona with no water. Enduring almost eight days of dehydration, Valencia wanders until he is discovered on August 23 by anthropologist William J. McGee and McGee's Papago Indian assistant, Jose.
- August 21 - The Sequoyah Constitutional Convention takes place in Muskogee in the U.S. Indian Territory and approves a constitution for the proposed State of Sequoyah, seeking admission as the only Native American majority state in the U.S. President Roosevelt will reject the idea in favor of joining the Indian Territory with the white-ruled Oklahoma Territory to create the 46th U.S. state.
- August 23 - A. Roy Knabenshue introduces the dirigible to the skies of New York City, piloting the lighter-than-air vehicle within view of hundreds of thousands of spectators.
- September 5 - Russo-Japanese War - Treaty of Portsmouth: In New Hampshire, a treaty mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is signed by victor Japan and Russia. Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin and port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.
- September 11 - 19 die and 48 are seriously injured when the Ninth Avenue Elevated train derails in Manhattan.
- October - John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley resign from the Quorum of Twelve in protest, disputing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' stance against polygamy that was reaffirmed in the Second Manifesto.
- October 3 - Tonto National Forest is established.
- October 5 - The Wright Brothers' third aeroplane stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting. This is the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.
- October 11 - The Institute of Musical Art, predecessor of the Juilliard School, opens in New York City.
- October 14 - The National League's [1905 New York (state)|New York Giants season|New York Giants] win baseball's World Series, beating the American League's Philadelphia Athletics, 2-0, in Game 5.
- November 28–29 - The massive Mataafa Storm on the Great Lakes damages or destroys 29 vessels.
- December 24 – The opera The Sho-Gun, authored by George Ade and Gustav Luders, is performed at the Grand Opera House in Seattle, Washington.
- December 30 - A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.
Undated
- Refilling of Salton Sea begins.Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are banned from the Brooklyn Public Library for setting a "bad example."
Ongoing
Sport
- May 29 - Brooklyn Superbas pitcher Elmer Stricklett introduces the "spitball" to major league baseball.
- October 14 - The National League's New York Giants won their 1st World Series by defeating the American League's Philadelphia Athletics 4 games to 1 New York City's Polo Grounds
Births
- January 3 - Anna May Wong, film actress
- January 7
- * Sterling Holloway, actor
- * James Simpson Jr., race car driver and politician
- January 11 - Dorothy Hale, socialite
- January 19 - Oveta Culp Hobby, government official and businesswoman
- January 24 - J. Howard Marshall, billionaire businessman
- January 27 - Howard McNear, actor
- February 6 - Merze Tate, African American academic
- February 10
- * Walter A. Brown, basketball and ice hockey pioneer
- * Chick Webb, drummer and bandleader
- March 15 - Nat Perrin, comedy screenwriter
- March 17 - Lillian Yarbo, actress
- March 18 - Thomas Townsend Brown, inventor
- April 9 - J. William Fulbright, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1945 to 1974
- May 11 - Catherine Bauer Wurster, architect and public housing advocate
- May 15 - Joseph Cotten, actor
- May 16 - Henry Fonda, actor
- May 17 - Roy Nelson, cartoonist
- May 18
- * Ruth Alexander, pilot
- * Cecilia H. Hauge, nurse
- June 10 - Sally Childs, language training specialist
- June 14 - Arthur Davis, American animator
- June 20 - Lillian Hellman, playwright
- June 24 - Fred Alderman, Olympic sprinter
- June 25 - Leon deValinger Jr., archivist and historian
- June 29 - Tarzan Woltzen, basketball player
- June 30
- * John Harmon, actor
- * John Van Ryn, tennis player
- July 4 - Irving Johnson, sailor and author
- July 10 - Thomas Gomez, actor
- July 11 - David Louis Lidman, writer
- July 12 - Edward Bernds, screenwriter and film director
- July 13 - Magda Foy, child actress
- July 15
- * Dorothy Fields, lyricist
- * Addie McPhail, actress
- * Shirley Povich, sports columnist
- July 16 - Lou Garland, baseball player
- July 18 - Robert Elton Brooker, business executive
- July 20 - Joseph Levis, Olympic fencer
- July 21
- * David M. Kennedy, U.S. 60th Secretary of Treasury, 8th U.S. Representative to N.A.T.O., Special Representative of The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints
- * Diana Trilling, literary critic and author
- July 22 - Doc Cramer, baseball player
- July 26 - Alex Radcliffe, baseball player
- July 31 - Robert A. Grant, judge
- August 2 - Ruth Nelson, actress
- August 21 - Friz Freleng, animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer
- August 23 - Abbie Rowe, White House photographer
- August 26 - Helen Sharsmith, biologist and educator
- August 29 - Al Taliaferro, Disney comics artist
- September 1 - Elvera Sanchez, dancer
- September 20 - Reinhold O. Carlson, politician
- October 5 - John Hoyt, actor, editorial board member of The Yale Record
- October 6 - Helen Wills, tennis player
- October 7 - Andy Devine, character actor
- October 11 - Fred Trump, real estate developer, father of Donald Trump
- October 23 - Gertrude Ederle, swimmer
- November 1 - Eric Siday, bandleader, electronic composer
- November 3 - Joseph H. Ball, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1940 to 1942 and 1943 to 1949
- November 4 - Nannie Doss, serial killer who murdered eleven people
- November 13 - Frank Levingston, supercentenarian
- November 19
- * Eleanor Audley, actress
- * Tommy Dorsey, bandleader
- November 26 - Bob Johnson, baseball player
- November 27 - Astrid Allwyn, actress
- December 7 - Leonard Goldenson, television executive
- December 19 - Irving Kahn, financial analyst and investor
- December 22 - Kenneth Rexroth, poet
- December 23 - Paul Caraway, general, High Commissioner, United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands
- December 24 - Howard Hughes, business magnate, investor, director, pilot, and philanthropist
Deaths
- January 2 - Clara Augusta Jones Trask, dime novelist
- January 6
- *Ann Eliza Smith, patriot
- *George Van Cleaf, swimmer and water polo player
- January 19 - Benjamin F. Rice, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1868 to 1873
- January 22 - Clara Harrison Stranahan, college co-founder and trustee
- January 27 - Watson Heston, cartoonist
- January 28 - Cordelia A. Greene, physician, reformer, benefactor
- February 8 - John Leary, politician, 37th Mayor of Seattle
- February 15 - Lew Wallace, Union general in the American Civil War and politician
- February 20 - Jeremiah W. Farnham, merchant captain
- February 27 - George S. Boutwell, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1853
- March 1 - Edward O. Wolcott, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1889 to 1901
- March 6 - John Henninger Reagan, U.S. Senator from Texas, Acting Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury, Confederate States Postmaster General
- March 9 - William B. Bate, 23rd Governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887 and U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1887 to 1905
- March 18 - Joseph Roswell Hawley, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1881 to 1905
- April 21 - Orville H. Platt, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1879 to 1905
- April 28 - Fitzhugh Lee, 40th Governor of Virginia, U.S. Army general, Confederate cavalry general
- May 5 - William M. Robbins, U.S. Representative from North Carolina
- May 12 - Sam S. Shubert, theater owner
- May 23 - Mary Livermore, journalist, abolitionist and women's rights advocate
- July 1 - John Hay, author, biographer and 37th United States Secretary of State
- July 24 - Adolf Cluss, engineer architect
- August 1 - Andrew Wylie, judge
- August 21 - Mary Mapes Dodge, children's author
- September 5 - Touch the Clouds, Minneconjou chief
- September 12 - John Rogan, second tallest person in recorded history
- October 6 - Hibbard H. Shedd, politician and novelist
- December 3 - John Bartlett, lexicographer and publisher