December 1903

[December 1], 1903 (Tuesday)

• Thirty American soldiers who had died in the Philippine–American War were buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
• A United States federal court took possession of all property controlled by evangelist and faith healer John Alexander Dowie in the city of Zion, Illinois.
• At a quartz mine in Nevada, David Crisman, a miner in his late sixties, was killed by a premature blast. 8 years earlier Crisman had survived being trapped in a mine by a cave-in for 46 days.
• Born:
• * Sherman Kent, American history professor and CIA intelligence analyst; in Chicago, Illinois
• * Nikolai Voznesensky, Soviet politician and economic planner; in Tula Governorate, Russian Empire

  [December 2], 1903 (Wednesday)

• The corvette ARA Uruguay arrived safely in Buenos Aires, Argentina with the rescued members of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition.
• The University of Ottawa building was completely destroyed by a fire that started at 7 a.m., with property loss estimated at $500,000. The fire was believed to have been started by a burning cigarette.
• Born: Jim Sullivan, Welsh rugby league player and coach; in Cardiff, Wales
• Died:
• * Louis Abrahams, 50–51, British-born Australian tobacconist and art patron, shot himself to death in a basement lavatory at his factory.
• * Victor Roger, 50, French composer

  [December 3], 1903 (Thursday)

• At about 7 a.m. in Hanley, Staffordshire, England, tallow chandler Thomas Holland was walking to work along St John Street when the pavement opened beneath him and he fell to his death into an old mine shaft filled with poisonous gas. There was no safe way to recover Holland's body from the shaft, which was deep. After the town council closed the pit, Holland's funeral was held in the middle of the street on December 5. According to a witness, Holland was singing the Christian hymn "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder" by James Milton Black prior to his death, and reached the line "when the roll is called up yonder I'll be there" just before he fell.
• In Fishkill Landing, New York, 12-year-old Hugh Schofield died after becoming paralyzed during a football game.
• Born:
• * Mary Bell, Australian aviator; in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
• * Eva Gräfin Finck von Finckenstein, German politician; in Berlin, Germany
• * Sydney Goldstein, British mathematician; in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
• * Yashpal, Indian revolutionary and Hindi-language author; in Kangra Hills, Punjab Province, British India
• Died:
• * Abiel Leonard, S.T.D., 55, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, died of typhoid fever.
• * John Dalrymple, 10th Earl of Stair KT, 84, Scottish peer and politician

  [December 4], 1903 (Friday)

• At the Gasson-La Quimsenene coal mine in Montegno, Belgium, the rope of a lift cage broke. 11 miners plunged to their deaths.
• At a tea party in Ingrave, Essex, England, arranged for him to meet local singers, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams collected 19 English folk songs, including "Bushes and Briars", beginning his intensive activity in folk song collecting.
• In Salina, Kansas, the 5-story building of the H. D. Lee Wholesale Grocery company was destroyed by a fire that damaged several other buildings and briefly threatened the city's entire business district. The total loss was estimated to be over $500,000.
• Southern California experienced a sandstorm and multiple wildfires, causing extensive damage.
• Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody placed the Cripple Creek region under martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus due to the miners' strike.
• A midnight storm wrecked the Danish schooner Sigfried Peterson on Feryland Head, near Cape Race in Newfoundland, killing all 5 crewmembers. Their bodies would wash ashore on December 7.
• Born:
• * Lazar Lagin, Soviet and Russian writer of children's literature and science fiction; in Vitebsk, Russian Empire
• * Frank Merrill, United States Army general; in Hopkinton, Massachusetts
• * A. L. Rowse, English historian; in Tregonissey, St Austell, Cornwall
• * Aaron Siskind, American photographer; in New York City
• * Anna van der Vegt, Dutch Olympic champion gymnast; in The Hague, Netherlands
• * Walter Weiler, Swiss Olympic and professional footballer; in Winterthur, Switzerland
• * Cornell Woolrich, American author; in New York City
• Died: William McKendree Springer, 67, United States Representative from Illinois, died of pneumonia.

  [December 5], 1903 (Saturday)

• Antonio Maura took office as Prime Minister of Spain, succeeding Raimundo Fernández-Villaverde.
• The Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was published for the first time in the United States in Collier's. It was first published in the United Kingdom the same month in The Strand Magazine.
• Born:
• * María Luisa Escobar, Venezuelan musicologist, pianist and composer; in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela
• * Arnold Gingrich, American magazine editor and publisher; in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• * Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor; in Amersfoort, Netherlands
• * Cyril Jackson, South African astronomer; in Ossett, Yorkshire, England
• * C. F. Powell, British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics; in Tonbridge, Kent, England
• Died: Henry Burk, 53, United States Representative from Pennsylvania

  [December 6], 1903 (Sunday)

• Born:
• * Carlo Belli, Italian art critic, theorist and writer; in Rovereto, Italy
• * Gaito Gazdanov, Russian writer; in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
• * E. D. Jones, Librarian of the National Library of Wales; in Llangeitho, Ceredigion, Wales
• * Mykola Kolessa, Ukrainian composer and conductor; in Sambir, Austria-Hungary
• * Tony Lazzeri, American Major League Baseball second baseman; in San Francisco, California
• * Kathryn McGuire, American dancer and actress; in Peoria, Illinois
• * Will Paynter, Welsh miners' leader; in Whitchurch, Cardiff, Wales
• * Symplicjusz Zwierzewski, Polish footballer

  [December 7], 1903 (Monday)

• Horace Edgar Buckridge, a 27-year-old veteran of the Second Boer War and former member of the Discovery Expedition, died at sea aboard his yacht Kia Ora. Buckridge had intended to sail the yacht around the world from New Zealand to London, but sustained an injury aboard the yacht near the Chatham Islands. His sailing companion, Sowden, who had no prior sailing experience and had failed to help the injured Buckridge, would return to New Zealand alone.
• Despite official denials, newspapers ran detailed stories about the alleged murder of Czech actress Clara Zeigler by Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, granddaughter of both Franz Joseph I of Austria and Leopold II of Belgium, who had supposedly discovered Zeigler to be the mistress of her husband, Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz. Reports stated that the archduchess shot and seriously wounded a valet who attempted to bar her entry to a room where Prince Otto was entertaining Zeigler, and then shot and mortally wounded Zeigler with a revolver which Prince Otto had given her. Archduchess Elisabeth's father, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, had died in an apparent murder-suicide with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, in 1889.
• In Dessau, Germany, Frau Fischer, a lion tamer, was fatally attacked by four lions with which she was performing. Her death was witnessed by a large crowd, including her own children, and many spectators were injured in the ensuing panic.
• The opera Muirgheis, composed by Thomas O'Brien Butler, received its world premiere at the Theatre Royal, Dublin. It was the first opera with a libretto in the Irish language.
• During the six-day bicycle race at Madison Square Garden in New York City, a spectator nearly caused a human crush by lighting paper underneath another spectator's chair and shouting "Fire". Several hundred people fled from their seats, but calm returned after a few minutes. The team of American cyclist Robert Walthour and Australian cyclist Ben Munroe would eventually win the race.
• The Wyanoke Hotel, a 5-story building at Ninth Avenue and 53rd Street in Manhattan, New York City, was destroyed by fire. No deaths were reported.
• U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt submitted his third Annual Message to the United States Congress. Concerning immigration to the United States, Roosevelt commented, "We can not have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should have none at all of the wrong kind." Discussing the problem of public corruption, Roosevelt wrote, "There can be no crime more serious than bribery. Other offenses violate one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law." Roosevelt described the October resolution of the Alaska boundary dispute as "satisfactory in every way." Roosevelt also stated, "I recommend that an appropriation be made for building light-houses in Hawaii, and taking possession of those already built. The Territory should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for light-houses." In the final part of the message, Roosevelt discussed at length the November separation of Panama from Colombia and the importance of building a Panama Canal, stating, "At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the American Congress to do its part, and forthwith this Republic will enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of well-nigh incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and the nations of mankind."
• Born:
• * Danilo Blanuša, Croatian Yugoslav mathematician, physicist and engineer; in Osijek, Austria-Hungary
• * Aleksandr Leipunskii, Polish-born Soviet physicist; in Dragli, Sokolsky District, Grodno Province, Russian Poland
• * Brian Lewis, 2nd Baron Essendon, British racing driver, baronet and peer; in Edmonton, Middlesex, England
• * Shūzō Takiguchi, Japanese poet, art critic and artist; in Toyama Prefecture, Japan
• * Alexander van Geen, Dutch Olympic modern pentathlete and Royal Netherlands Navy artillery officer; in The Hague, Netherlands
• * Roosevelt Williams, American blues pianist; in Bastrop, Texas
• Died:
• * James Addison Ingle, 36, Episcopal bishop of the Missionary District of Hankou, China, died of a fever.
• * Arthur Milchhöfer, 51, German archaeologist