August 1904

[August 1], 1904 (Monday)

• The siege of Port Arthur, the longest and most violent land battle of the Russo-Japanese War, began.
• John Carr, a contractor, carried out a mass shooting at a hotel in Nebraska City, Nebraska, killing one man and wounding eight others, including two police officers.
• Died: Robert E. Pattison, 53, American politician, former Governor of Pennsylvania, died of pneumonia.

  [August 2], 1904 (Tuesday)

• Died: Jacob H. Studer, 64, American ornithologist, died of heart failure.

  [August 3], 1904 (Wednesday)

• The British expedition to Tibet under Colonel Francis Younghusband took Lhasa.
• The dirigible California Arrow, created and flown by Thomas Scott Baldwin and powered by a motorcycle engine built by Glenn Curtiss, became the first aircraft to complete a circuit in the United States. Baldwin took off from Idora Park, Oakland, California, and circled over San Francisco Bay before returning to his starting point.
• Born: Dolores del Río, Mexican actress; in Durango, Mexico
• Died:
• *Ernst Jedliczka, 49, Russian-born German pianist
• *William O'Connor Morris, 79, Irish county court judge and historian
• *Pierre-Nicolas "Peter" Remillard, 67, Quebec-born brick manufacturer, died of a heart attack.

  [August 4], 1904 (Thursday)

• The Liberal Revolution of 1904 began in Paraguay, with Manuel J. Duarte and General Benigno Ferreira leading a rebellion against President Juan Antonio Escurra's government.
• Born:
• *Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, comedian and actress; in The Bronx, New York City
• *Bill Coleman, American jazz trumpeter; in Paris, Kentucky
• *Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist; in Małoszyce, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
• *Victor Bateman, Australian rules footballer ; in Parkside, South Australia
• *Lawrence Betts, South African Olympic sprinter; in Pretoria, Transvaal Colony
• *Jack Cobb, American college basketball player ; in Durham, North Carolina
• *Norm Davis, Australian rules footballer ; in Port Melbourne, Victoria
• *Sprouts Elder, American motorcycle speedway rider; in Fresno, California
• *Marthe Flandrin, French artist and painter; in Montgeron
• *Max Fourny, French publisher, art collector and racing driver, husband of Françoise Adnet; in Amiens
• *Wallace Samuel Gourley, United States district judge; in Wellsville, Ohio
• *Ukko Hietala, Finnish Olympic modern pentathlete; in Hollola
• *Bassett Maguire, American botanist and explorer, head curator of the New York Botanical Garden; in Alabama City, Alabama
• *Sushila Ganesh Mavalankar, Indian freedom fighter and politician; in the Bombay Presidency
• *Theodore Newton, American film and stage actor; in Lawrenceville, New Jersey
• *Thomas Parry, Welsh writer and academic, Librarian of the National Library of Wales; in Carmel, Gwynedd
• *Ludwig Reiber, German art director; in Munich
• *Joe Tate, English footballer who gained three caps for the England national football team; in Old Hill, Cradley Heath
• *Otto Tschumi, Swiss surrealist painter
• Died:
• *James T. Lewis, 84, former Governor of Wisconsin, died of apoplexy.
• *Jo Hamilton, 77, American lawyer and politician, former Attorney General of California
• *Robert Crannell Minor, 65, American artist

  [August 5], 1904 (Friday)

• In Red Oak, Iowa, 32-year-old Harry Heaton Salisbury was robbed and murdered by being administered knockout drops and pushed off a footbridge over Red Oak Creek. The murder was never solved.
• Born:
• *Hugh Greer, American basketball coach ; in Suffield, Connecticut
• *Kenneth V. Thimann, English-American plant physiologist and microbiologist; in Ashford, Kent
• Died: Sir George Dibbs KCMG, 69, Australian politician, former Premier of New South Wales, died of heart disease.

  [August 6], 1904 (Saturday)

• Edmund Bell, an African American man, was lynched from Selma, Alabama, by a 300-person masked African American mob for the August 2 murder of Houston Cruggs, who was also African American.
• Born: Ballard Berkeley, British actor; in Kent, England
• Died:
• *Eduard Hanslick, 78, Austrian music critic
• *James Cox Aikins,, 81, Canadian politician

  [August 7], 1904 (Sunday)

• On the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad near Pueblo, Colorado, a flash flood caused the Eden train wreck, which left over 100 people dead or missing.
• Rafael Reyes assumed office as President of Colombia, succeeding José Manuel Marroquín.
• Born: Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; in Detroit, Michigan
• Died: Yamaguchi Motomi, 58, Imperial Japanese Army general and samurai, died of natural causes.

  [August 8], 1904 (Monday)

• A conflagration in the old quarter of Strasbourg destroyed an orphan asylum and the Sainte-Madeleine Church and caused $1,500,000 in damage. The church would be rebuilt in 1907, destroyed again in 1944 during World War II, and once again rebuilt in 1958.
• Paraguayan President Juan Antonio Escurra declared a state of siege as a result of the Liberal rebellion.
• Born: Achille Varzi, Italian racing driver, winner of the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix; in Galliate, Piedmont
• Died:
• *Mamie Gilroy, c. 33, American actress, died of heart disease.
• *John Innes JP, 75, British philanthropist

  [August 9], 1904 (Tuesday)

• An earthquake with a magnitude estimated at 6.8 and 7.0–7.2 struck north of Cape Turnagain, New Zealand. The quake, the largest in New Zealand since 1888, caused one death and extensive damage.
• Eight Moro and Igorrote leaders, who were participating in the Philippine exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, visited U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House.
• Died:
• *George Graham Vest, 73, American politician, former member of the Confederate States Congress and the United States Senate from Missouri
• *Sir William Mitchell Banks, 61, Scottish surgeon
• *Joseph David Everett, 72, English physicist, died of heart failure.
• *Friedrich Ratzel, 59, German geographer and ethnographer
• *John F. Starr, 86, American businessman and politician, former member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey

  [August 10], 1904 (Wednesday)

• The Battle of the Yellow Sea resulted in a strategic Japanese victory.
• Born: Gerald Dupuis, Canadian Olympic ski jumper; in Montreal
• Died:
• *Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, 57, French politician, 29th Prime Minister of France, died after surgery.
• *Wilgelm Vitgeft, 56, Russian admiral, was killed in action at the Battle of the Yellow Sea.

  [August 11], 1904 (Thursday)

• Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero people at the Battle of Waterberg in German South West Africa and drove them into the Omaheke desert, beginning the Herero and Namaqua genocide.
• A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Samos in the Ottoman Empire, with an aftershock occurring three days later. Four people were killed.
• On the Paraguay River near Pilar, Paraguay, the rebel vessel Sojonia defeated the government vessel Villa Rica in battle. 28 government sailors were killed.
• Eight miners drowned when the Berringer gold mine near Gold Hill, North Carolina, filled with water due to a dam giving way.
• Born: Bernard Castro, Italian inventor; near Palermo, Sicily
• Died: Samuel Putnam Avery, 82, American art dealer and connoisseur

  [August 12], 1904 (Friday)

• Born: Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia; at Peterhof Palace, Saint Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire
• Died:
• *George H. Brickner, 70, German-born American politician, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin
• *Kawamura Sumiyoshi, 67, Japanese admiral
• *William Renshaw, 43, British tennis player, winner of 12 Major titles, died of epileptic convulsions.

  [August 13], 1904 (Saturday)

• Ten spectators at the annual regatta on the Potomac River at Georgetown drowned when the gasoline launch Recreation capsized. Four people were rescued.
• Born:
• *Jonathan Hole, American actor; in Eldora, Iowa
• *Charles "Buddy" Rogers, American actor and jazz musician; in Olathe, Kansas
• Died:
• *Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, 83
• *Sir Robert Samuel Wright, 65, Justice of the British High Court, Queen's Bench Division

  [August 14], 1904 (Sunday)

• The naval Battle off Ulsan, Korea, resulted in a Japanese victory.
• Ismael Montes became President of Bolivia.
• On August 14 and 15, 8 Paraguayan government soldiers died fighting rebels near Asunción.
• Died:
• *Eduard von Martens, 73, German zoologist
• *William Wainwright, 67–68, American real estate developer, died of gastritis.

  [August 15], 1904 (Monday)

• Died: John Henry Kinkead, 77, American businessman and politician, 1st Governor of Alaska and 3rd Governor of Nevada

  [August 16], 1904 (Tuesday)

• In Statesboro, Georgia, a lynch mob invaded a courthouse where two African-American men, Paul Reed and Will Cato, had just been convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of five members of a white family. The lynchers chained Reed and Cato to a tree stump and burned them to death.
• Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Edward VII of the United Kingdom paid mutual visits at Marienbad, Bohemia.
• Born:
• *Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate; in Ridgeville, Indiana
• *Minoru Genda, Japanese aviator, naval officer and politician; in Hiroshima
• *Jin Weiying, Chinese communist revolutionary, trade unionist and participant in the Long March
• Died:
• *Prentiss Ingraham, 60, Confederate Army colonel and author of dime fiction, died of Bright's disease.
• *George E. Lounsbury, 66, American politician, 58th Governor of Connecticut
• *Karl Käser, 30, German track cyclist, was killed in a race crash.