December 1909

December 1, 1909 (Wednesday)

• The United States severed diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, with Secretary of State Knox ordering the Nicaraguan charge d'affaires to leave.
• Aleksandër Xhuvani University, the first university in Albania, was founded in Elbasan as a teacher's college, the Shkolla Normale e Elbasanit.
• The payout from the first "Christmas club" was made, by the Carlisle Trust Company.
• Born: Franz Bardon, in Katherein, Austria-Hungary

  December 2, 1909 (Thursday)

• The Union of South Africa was created by royal proclamation of the South Africa Act 1909, the act of Parliament that consolidated four British colonies.
• The National Hockey Association, forerunner of the National Hockey League, was founded.
• Giovanni Giolitti resigned as Prime Minister of Italy. He was succeeded by Sidney Sonnino.
• The first airplane flight in Turkey was made by Baron De Cotters.

  December 3, 1909 (Friday)

• Two British ships sank in a storm in the Irish Sea, killing more than 60 people. SS Ellan Vannin sank as it sailed from Ramsey on the Isle of Man, on its way to Liverpool, with the loss of 32 people. The 30-member crew of the freighter SS Thistledor drowned in Bideford Bay off the coast of Appledore, Torridge.
• The British House of Commons was dissolved and elections were called for January by Prime Minister Asquith.

  December 4, 1909 (Saturday)

• King Gustaf V of Sweden disguised himself and spent a day working as a stevedore, so that he could see working conditions first hand. "Mr. Bernadotte" spent the day unloading sacks of coal at a Stockholm harbor.
• The Montreal Canadiens were founded.
• The first Grey Cup game was played, with the University of Toronto defeating Parkdale Canoe Club 26–6 at Rosedale Field in Toronto.
• The New York Amsterdam News, an African-American newspaper founded by James H. Anderson, published its first issue.
• Edward Sheldon's play The Nigger opened on Broadway. Later made into a novel and a film, the play was described by critic George Jean Nathan as one of the "ten dramatic shocks of the century". One historian notes that the play "is, despite its politically incorrect title, a prominent defense of miscegenation".
• American Cyanamid shipped its first carload of cyanamide fertilizer. The chemical manufacturer later diversified, producing products such as Centrum vitamins, Old Spice after shave, and Pine-Sol cleaner.

  December 5, 1909 (Sunday)

• The first manned glider flights in Australia and Japan took place on the same day. At Narrabeen, New South Wales, George Augustine Taylor flew in a glider of his own design, and his wife Florence Mary Taylor flew the same day. A boy near Tokyo flew on a biplane glider built by Yves le Prieur and Lt. Shirou Aibara.
• In a duel fought between two members of the Senate of Bolivia, Senator Adolfo Trigo Acha shot and killed Senator Emilio Fernandez Molina. Trigo continued to serve as the Senator from Tarija Department.

  December 6, 1909 (Monday)

• Saratov State University was founded in the Russian city of Saratov.
• Antonio Fernandez of Spain became only the fourth person in history to die in an airplane crash, when his aircraft fell apart while he was flying at Nice.
• Born:
• *Freddy Martin, American bandleader; in Cleveland
• *Rulon Jeffs, President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; in Salt Lake City

  December 7, 1909 (Tuesday)

• United States patent No. 942,700 was granted for Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic, and patent No. 942,809 for the process, both to Leo Baekeland.
• SS Marquette & Bessemer No. 2, a ferry, departed from Conneaut, Ohio, at, bound for Port Stanley, Ontario, and was never seen again. One of the 49 persons on board was carrying $32,000 in a briefcase. The ship went down in Lake Erie and had not been located as of 2009.
• Calvin Coolidge defeated Henry E. Bicknell to win election as Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, his first political office.
• The town of Anderson, Missouri, was incorporated.
• Born:
• *Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgarian poet; in Bansko
• *Teddy Hill, American bandleader; in Birmingham, Alabama
• Died: Whitcomb Judson, 66, American inventor

  December 8, 1909 (Wednesday)

• Colonel Sergey Karpov, director of Russia's secret police, the Okhrana, was assassinated in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg. Aleksandr Petrov, a Bolshevik who had infiltrated the Okhrana, planted the bomb that killed the security chief.
• Born: Franz Six, Nazi German administrator; in Mannheim

  December 9, 1909 (Thursday)

• The British General Post Office announced the first cable money transfer agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States, to take effect on January 1, 1910. Under the new service, money could be wired between British post offices and Western Union telegraph stations in the United States, with orders transmitted via transatlantic cable.
• Born: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American film actor; in New York City

  December 10, 1909 (Friday)

• The University of Queensland was established by Act of State Parliament. In 1911, 83 students began their first classes in Brisbane.
• Died: Red Cloud, 88, Oglala Sioux leader

  December 11, 1909 (Saturday)

• Twenty-six Muslims, found guilty of the massacre of Armenians in Adana on April 14, 1909, were publicly executed in Constantinople.
• The first Canadian football game played in the United States took place in New York City at Van Courtland Park, before 15,000 fans. The Hamilton Tigers beat the Ottawa Rough Riders 11–6.
• Kinemacolor, the first process for motion pictures in color, was demonstrated at Madison Square Garden.

  December 12, 1909 (Sunday)

• The only persons known to have escaped the sinking of the Bessemer and Marquette ferry were found in a lifeboat on Lake Erie, frozen to death.
• Born: Karen Morley, blacklisted American actress; in Ottumwa, Iowa

  December 13, 1909 (Monday)

• On his deathbed, King Leopold II of Belgium married Caroline Lacroix, his mistress and the mother of his two sons, Lucien and Philippe. The King died four days later and was succeeded by his brother. The marriage, performed as a religious ceremony but not a civil ceremony, was not recognized under Belgian law, and Lucien was ineligible to succeed to the throne. Lucien Durieux lived until November 15, 1984.
• Died: George Salting, 74, British millionaire and art collector

  December 14, 1909 (Tuesday)

• The colonial government in British East Africa set aside as the Southern Game Reserve.
• New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
• Born:
• *Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist, 1958 Nobel laureate; in Boulder, Colorado
• *"Symphony Sid", American jazz publicist; in New York City

  December 15, 1909 (Wednesday)

• Japan dispatched 2,000 cherry blossom trees to the United States, as the steamship Kaga Maru sailed from Yokohama. By way of Seattle, the trees would arrive in Washington, D.C., on January 6.
• The long Royal Military Canal, completed in 1809 at a cost of £234,310, was paid for after a century, with the collection of the final toll for its use.
• The National Geographic Society acknowledged Robert E. Peary to be the discoverer of the North Pole, more than three months after Peary and Frederick Cook had both claimed to have been there.
• The first attempt to create a Cooperative Extension Service in the United States was made when Michigan Congressman James C. McLaughlin introduced a bill for its funding. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 passed three years later.
• The town of Kermit, West Virginia, was incorporated.
• The first Radisson Hotel was opened. Located on 41 South Seventh Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the 16-story building was constructed by heiress Edna Dickerson and had 425 rooms. By 2009, there were 420 Radisson hotels worldwide.
• Died: Francisco Tárrega, 57, Spanish composer

  December 16, 1909 (Thursday)

• José Santos Zelaya resigned as President of Nicaragua as American warships approached that nation's coasts. In a message to the Congress, Zelaya wrote that he resigned in hopes of "the re-establishment of peace, particularly the suspension of the hostility of the United States". Zelaya was succeeded by José Madriz, who later resigned under American pressure.
• The village of Duson, Louisiana, was incorporated.

  December 17, 1909 (Friday)

• King Leopold II of Belgium died in Brussels at He was succeeded by his nephew, who was crowned as King Albert I.
• The last brick was placed at the track of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall placed a gold-plated block into the track. The Speedway then staged its first—and last—midwinter race in bitter, near-zero weather.

  December 18, 1909 (Saturday)

• Albert Kimmerling became the first pilot in South Africa.
• U.S. Secretary of State Philander C. Knox sent a diplomatic note to his counterpart in Japan, challenging the expansion of both Empires into China. As part of President Taft's policy of "Dollar Diplomacy", Knox proposed to Japan's Foreign Minister, Komura Jutarō, that foreign-built railways in Manchuria be made neutral to promote economic development. After a January 6 press statement by Knox described the U.S., Britain, Germany and France as "the four great capitalist nations" setting an example for China, Japan and Russia rejected the proposal and agreed to divide their spheres of influence. Historian A. Whitney Griswold later wrote that in trying to advance the Open Door Policy, Knox had "nailed that door closed with himself on the outside".