December 1910

December 1, 1910 (Thursday)

• Porfirio Diaz was inaugurated for his eighth term as President of Mexico.
• Miss Helen Taft, the 19-year-old daughter of U.S. President William Howard Taft and his wife Nellie, had her debutante ball, with 1,500 guests coming to the White House, including Vice-President Sherman, 20 U.S. Senators and 19 U.S. Representatives.
• Born: Alicia Markova, English ballerina, as Lilian Marks; in London

  December 2, 1910 (Friday)

• Three days into Robert Falcon Scott's expedition from New Zealand to the South Pole, his ship, the Terra Nova, was nearly sunk by a hurricane.
• At a meeting of the Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg, General Vladimir Sukhomlinov, the Minister of War, gave the Army's recommendation that northern Manchuria should immediately be annexed by Russia. Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov and Finance Minister Vladimir Kokovtsov persuaded the council to delay on an action that would have led to war.
• Born: Russell Lynes, American art historian, photographer and author; in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

  December 3, 1910 (Saturday)

• The first multiple fatality airplane accident in history happened at Centocelle, near Rome, when the airplane carrying Lt. Enrico Cammarota and Private S. Castellani crashed, making them the 26th and 27th people to die in a plane accident.
• Voting began in the December 1910 United Kingdom general election for the House of Commons, with 135 seats decided on the first day.
• The Paris Motor Show commenced, where modern neon lighting was first demonstrated publicly by French inventor Georges Claude. Claude's neon-filled glass tubes opened a new era in signage and led to fluorescent lighting.
• Australian mountaineer Freda Du Faur became the first woman to climb Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand.
• Died:
• *Mary Baker Eddy, 89, American religious leader and founder of Christian Science.
• *John H. Barker, U.S. auto manufacturer and owner of Haskell-Barker Motor Company, was killed, along with his wife, in an accident in Michigan City, Indiana. The Barkers' 14-year-old daughter, Catherine, was the sole heir to an estate of 30 million dollars "making her one of the richest girls in the world".

  December 4, 1910 (Sunday)

• In the Mexican city of Chihuahua, Mexico, an attempt by a peace commission, to broker a truce between the Diaz government at the "Maderistas" who supported Francisco I. Madero
• Born: Ramaswamy Venkataraman, President of India, 1987 to 1992); in Rajamadam, Madras Province ;

  December 5, 1910 (Monday)

• By royal proclamation, the 2,349 km² Australian Capital Territory was transferred from New South Wales to the Commonwealth of Australia, effective January 1.
• The Italian Nationalist Association, a right wing party which would, in 1921, merge with Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party, was founded by Luigi Federzoni.
• The Government of Australia introduced a nationwide "Invalid Pension" plan, now called the Disability Support Pension.
• Died: Jerome Coleman, American musical composer and former millionaire who reportedly lost $3,000,000 in later years, committed suicide by gas from an oven.

  December 6, 1910 (Tuesday)

• An antitrust suit was brought in Detroit against the manufacturers of bathtubs and plumbing supplies. George W. Wickersham, the U.S. Attorney General, obtained an indictment against 16 firms said to have control of 35% of enamel, ironware, tubs, sinks and lavatories in the United States.

  December 7, 1910 (Wednesday)

• Bolivian troops ambushed a garrison of Peruvian guards in a battle at the disputed border region at Guayabal.
• Born:
• *Louis Prima, American bandleader; in New Orleans
• *Edmundo Ros, Trinidadian bandleader; in Port of Spain
• Died: Ludwig Knaus, 81, German painter

  December 8, 1910 (Thursday)

• Chessmaster Emanuel Lasker retained his world championship, winning the eighth of 11 games at a match in Berlin against David Janowski.

  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)

• The city of San Joaquin was incorporated in the Iloilo province of the Philippines.
• The government of Turkey survived a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies by a margin of 123 to 63.
• A mutiny of Brazilian marines was put down by cannon fire a day after the group had seized control of a fort on Cobra Island, near Rio de Janeiro. Two hundred mutineers were killed or seriously wounded.
• The results of the 1910 United States census were announced by the U.S. Census Bureau, which reported that on April 15, 1910, the population of the continental United States, was 91,972,266. Adding Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, American Samoa, and the Canal Zone brought the number to 101,100,000.
• Composed by Giacomo Puccini, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, and starring Enrico Caruso, Emmy Destinn and Pasquale Amato, the opera La fanciulla del West was performed for the first time, premiering at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
• An underground explosion at a mine in Bellevue, Alberta, Canada kills 31 people.

  December 11, 1910 (Sunday)

• In Paris, French inventor Georges Claude first demonstrated the neon lamp, using an electric current and a sealed tube of neon gas, and opening a new era in signage.
• Born:
• *Willard R. Espy, American wordsmith; in Olympia, Washington
• *Noel Rosa, Brazilian songwriter; in Rio de Janeiro
• *Harry Gold, Swiss-born American chemist and spy; as Henrich Golodnitsky in Bern

  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''