December 1910


The following events occurred in December 1910:

December 1, 1910 (Thursday)

December 2, 1910 (Friday)

December 3, 1910 (Saturday)

December 4, 1910 (Sunday)

December 5, 1910 (Monday)

December 6, 1910 (Tuesday)

December 7, 1910 (Wednesday)

December 8, 1910 (Thursday)

December 9, 1910 (Friday)

  • Aviator Georges Legagneux became the first person to fly an airplane higher than 10,000 feet, reaching an altitude of 10,499 feet in a Bleriot monoplane while over the Pau airfield near Paris.
  • Two members of the Cuban House of Representatives traded gunfire on a street in Havana. Sr. Molen died at the scene, and Gen. Sanchez Figuera was mortally wounded.
  • A methane gas explosion at the Western Canadian Collieries mine in Bellevue, Alberta, killed 30 men out of 42 who had gone underground.
  • The proposed state constitution for Arizona was adopted by a vote of 40–12 by delegates, and submitted for voter approval on February 9, 1911. A controversial provision, permitting the recall of judges, was included, but then removed after President Taft objected to it.
  • Divide County, North Dakota, was established.

December 10, 1910 (Saturday)

December 11, 1910 (Sunday)

December 12, 1910 (Monday)

  • U.S. President William H. Taft made three nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court on the same day, proposing Edward D. White for Chief Justice, and Joseph R. Lamar and Willis Van Devanter as associate justices. White, an associate justice since 1894, was confirmed as Chief Justice "within less than an hour after his name was sent in", but "The speed with which the confirmation ... was accomplished surprised even staid old senators."
  • Actors and actresses in silent films were regularly using profane and indecent expressions, perceptible only to lipreaders, according to a deaf education teacher who filed a complaint with the film censorship bureau in Cleveland. Mrs. Elmer E. Bates brought the matter to national attention after taking a Cleveland newspaper reporter on a tour of the city's theaters. The reporter, in turn, wrote down what she said that the actors were actually saying, "and at times the language was so vile that she had to stop".
  • Perfume heiress Dorothy Arnold left her parents' apartment in Manhattan to go shopping. After leaving a book shop, the 25-year-old was never seen or heard from again. Her family waited until January 26 to allow police to make the case public, for fear that their daughter's disappearance would lead to a major societal scandal. Her father spent the rest of his life searching for his daughter, spending at least $100,000 on the case before his death in 1922. Numerous false sightings appeared for decades thereafter, as late as 1935 when she would have been 51, but no conclusive evidence was ever proven as to her fate.

December 13, 1910 (Tuesday)

  • Levi R. Lupton, an internationally renowned Pentecostal leader who was celebrated by his followers as the "20th Century Apostle of the Gift of Tongues", admitted to adultery in a letter to his "sisters" and "brothers" within the movement. Lupton said that he had "been sorely tempted and fallen" for an unmarried employee at the Mission headquarters in Alliance, Ohio, and that he had been forgiven by his wife.

December 14, 1910 (Wednesday)

  • The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would commence anti-trust proceedings against the "Electrical Trust", alleging that the General Electric and Westinghouse companies had signed agreements with 17 associations of smaller "manufacturers of almost every article employed in the use of electricity".
  • Ten coal miners were killed in an explosion at the Greene Mine near Norton, Virginia. Two miners survived by breaking into an air pipe that led to the surface.

December 15, 1910 (Thursday)

  • New York City's Ritz-Carlton Hotel broke a gender barrier when it permitted a woman to smoke in its dining room. "A horrified guest reported to the manager that a woman was smoking in public," wrote the Washington Post, and the manager broke with the custom, adding "I certainly should much prefer to see a woman smoking than drinking a cocktail."
  • Bands of Bedouin warriors attacked and massacred Turkish officers at several military outposts.Born: John H. Hammond, American talent scout who advanced the fame of performers from Benny Goodman to Bruce Springsteen; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; in New York City Died: Joel Cook, 68, recently reelected U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania

December 16, 1910 (Friday)

  • In a battle at La Junta, Mexico, rebels won a victory over government troops.Died: Eli Perkins, 71, American humorist, author of ''Wit, Humor and Pathos''

December 17, 1910 (Saturday)

  • U.S. Vice-President James S. Sherman, in his capacity as President of the U.S. Senate, offered a new interpretation of quorum, calling a vote with 53 of the 94 Senators absent. Sherman's ruling, which was that if one state's Senator was present, then the other Senator from that state should be counted for a quorum, was thrown out two days later by a 37–17 vote.
  • In Russia, all of the editions of five of that nation's newspapers were seized after the publication of a radical speech made in the Duma by Deputy Purishkevich.

December 18, 1910 (Sunday)

  • Aviator Henry Farman set an airplane endurance record by remaining in the air for 8 hours and 13 minutes, while flying above the Étampes airfield in France. The previous record had been 6 hours, set by Maurice Tabuteau on October 28. Flight magazine reported the event as taking place on Saturday, December 17.
  • The New York Times Magazine reported that "The aeroplane and automobile have caused a new disease," citing reports from English physicians that "when men pass rapidly through the air, the pressure on the face from fast driving prevents the expulsion of poisoned air from the lungs. The carbonic acid gas is forced back into the body. Only a little of it can get away, because of the air pressing on the face. The gas is rebreathed and poisons the system." The suggested remedy was "a mouthpiece to be strapped to the face with tubes extending from it on either side to the back of the head".

December 19, 1910 (Monday)

  • At the conclusion of voting in British parliamentary elections, the coalition government increased its majority. Of the 660 seats contested, the Conservatives had a plurality, but Prime Minister Asquith formed a coalition of Liberals, Irish nationalists and Labour MPs for a total of 398. Harold St Maur defeated Henry Duke in the race for the Exeter constituency by four votes but the result would be reversed on a recount on April 11, 1911, with the invalidation of 15 ballots a finding that Duke had won by a single vote, 4,777 to 4,776.
  • Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa of the Japanese Army, who had trained in France, made the first flight of an airplane in Japan, taking off in a Farman biplane, and landing at a field near Tokyo. The site is now occupied by Yoyogi Park.
  • Ten people were killed and 125 injured in a gas explosion at the Grand Central Station in New York.
  • The Hawthorne Bridge over the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, opened.Born: Jean Genet, French novelist; in Paris

December 20, 1910 (Tuesday)

  • Hiram C. Gill, the Mayor of Seattle, Washington, was made subject to a recall election after a petition had been signed by 11,000 voters. Gill was voted out of office on February 7.
  • The Servicio de Aviación Militar en Chile, forerunner of the Chilean Air Force, was established under the command of Lt. Col. Pedro Pablo Dartnell.

December 21, 1910 (Wednesday)

December 22, 1910 (Thursday)

  • Aviator Cecil Grace departed from Swingate in his airplane in an attempt to win a prize of £4,000 for the longest flight from England to a point in Europe. He was last seen flying into a fog, but never heard from again, nor was any wreckage found after days of searching.
  • Twenty-one firemen were killed in Chicago after a building collapsed on them during a fire at the Union Stock Yards. A monument was erected, in memory of the men, more than 93 years later in August 2009. It was the single greatest loss of firefighters in the United States until the September 11th attacks.

December 23, 1910 (Friday)

  • By a 108–20 vote, Spain's Congress of Deputies passed the "padlock bill" into law, barring the creation of any new religious orders for two years. Debate ceased after the opposition said they would stop talking "out of pity for the stenographers". The Senate had approved the measure on November 4, 149–58.
  • Ramon Barros Luco was inaugurated as the fourth President of Chile during the 1910 calendar year, preceded by the late Pedro Montt, the late Elías Fernández Albano, and Emiliano Figueroa.Died: Pierre M.F. Frederique, 44, Haitian journalist and statesman.

December 24, 1910 (Saturday)

  • A fiery train crash at Kirkby Stephen, in northern England, killed 27 people. The "Scotch Express" was carrying 500 persons home from England to Scotland when it derailed
  • China's National Assembly adopted a resolution denying the right of the Emperor to reject their demands for a democratic constitution. Two days later, the Assembly reconsidered after an edict was issued suggesting that the demands would eventually be granted.Died: Franz von Ballestrem, 76, former President of the German Reichstag

December 25, 1910 (Sunday)

  • Texas Governor Thomas M. Campbell pardoned about 100 men, including the first pardon of 50 "friendless" prisoners who had been serving life terms. "Some have been in prison so long that their existence seems to have been forgotten," wrote one account.
  • A Missouri Pacific Railroad train was held up by a Christmas Day bandit, who boarded at Leavenworth, Kansas, and then entered the Pullman car shortly after the train pulled out, moving on to the chair cars and the smoking car "until he had held up every passenger".

December 26, 1910 (Monday)

  • Aviator Arch Hoxsey set a new altitude record for an airplane, ascending to 11,474 feet over Los Angeles. Hoxsey flew over Mount Wilson on Thursday, and was killed in a crash on Saturday.Died: Clara Swain, 76, American physician and missionary, and the first woman to travel to the Orient to administer medical treatment.

December 27, 1910 (Tuesday)

December 28, 1910 (Wednesday)

  • At the northern Korean city of Sonchon, a meeting between the Japanese Governor-General and the foremost American Christian missionary was the occasion of a failed attempt to assassinate Terauchi. The Korean independence group Shinminhoe was implicated, and Japan accused the missionary group of conspiracy. Hundreds of Koreans and foreign missionaries were arrested and held for more than two years. A group of 105 Koreans were convicted of treason and sentenced to hard labor. The incident, also called the "Christian Conspiracy Case", is referred to in Korean history as Paego-in sakkon, the 105-Man Incident.
  • Alexandre Laffont and Mario Pola were killed when their Antoinette VII monoplane collapsed in mid-air. The duo were flying from Issy-les-Moulineaux aerodrome to Brussels, Belgium, in an aviation tournament. This was the second and final multiple fatality airplane accident in 1910 after the December 3 crash.Died: Benjamin Pitman, 88, pioneer who invented the Pitman shorthand system and lobbied for simplified spelling.

December 29, 1910 (Thursday)

December 30, 1910 (Friday)

December 31, 1910 (Saturday)

  • "America's two foremost aviators, John B. Moisant and Archibald Hoxsey, fell to death yesterday at widely separated cities," read a report the next day in The New York Times. At at Harahan, Louisiana, near New Orleans, John B. Moisant fell out of his airplane from an altitude of. Hours later, Archibald Hoxsey was told of Moisant's death before attempting a new altitude record in Los Angeles, and said to reporters, "From what I hear, Moisant was careless ... it is too bad, but accidents are liable to happen to all of us." After flying to an altitude of about, Hoxsey was at when his plane suddenly plunged to the ground.Died: Marion Hedgepeth, 53, American outlaw, was shot and killed during an attempted robbery of a saloon in Chicago.