1906

Events

January–February

• January 12 - Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
• January 16–April 7 - The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
• January 22 - The strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 in the ensuing disaster.
• January 31 - The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake, and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths.
• February 7 - is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany.
• February 11
• * Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
• * Two British members of a poll tax collecting expedition are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.

March–April

• March 10 - Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
• March 18 - In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.
• April 14 - The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.
• April 18
• * The San Francisco Earthquake on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
• * Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.
• April 23 - In the Russian Empire, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

May–June

• May 27
• * The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
• * Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its premiere at the Saalbau Essen in Germany conducted by the composer.
• May 29 - Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by right-wing naval officer and public official Arvid Lindman.
• May 31 - Morral affair: The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24 bystanders.
• June 7 - Cunard liner is launched in Glasgow, as the world's largest ship.
• June 26 - The first autombile racing Grand Prix is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.

  July–August

• July 6 - The Second Geneva Convention meets.
• July 12 - Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
• July 20 - In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new electoral law is ratified, guaranteeing full women's suffrage, the first in modern Europe. Women can also stand in national elections.
• August 4 - The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.
• August 16
• * 1906 Aleutian Islands earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.35 occurs off the Rat Islands in Alaska.
• * 1906 Valparaíso earthquake: A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves nearly 4,000 dead and approximately 20,000 injured.
• August 23 - Unable to control a rebellion, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. This leads to the Second Occupation of Cuba, which lasts until 1909.

  September–October

• September 11 - Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha, to characterize the nonviolence movement in South Africa.
• September 18 - A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.
• September 20 - The RMS Mauretania is launched on the River Tyne, becoming the world's largest ship.
• September 30 - The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
• October 1 - The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.
• October 6 - The National Consultative Assembly of Iran convenes for the first time.
• October 11 - A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
• October 16 - Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
• October 23 - An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters. This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.
• October 28 - The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a mining trust, is created in the Belgian Congo.
• October 28 - A train falls off a drawbridge in New Jersey, drowning 53 people, and results in what is widely considered the first ever press release.

  November–December

• November 1 - International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• November 3 - becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.
• November 18 - The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.
• December 4 - Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; it is the first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.
• December 6 - The Transvaal Colony is granted responsible self-government by Britain.
• December 13 - The United Kingdom, France and Italy sign an agreement to preserve, in Ethiopia, the integrity of the ancient empire of Abyssinia.
• December 15 - The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
• December 22 - The 7.9 1906 Manasi earthquake in Xinjiang, China, kills nearly 300 people.
• December 24 - Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
• December 26 - The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is first shown, at the Melbourne Athenaeum in Australia.
• December 30 - The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party in Dhaka in the British Raj; it becomes a driving force for the creation of an independent Pakistan.

  Date unknown

• The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed.
• Construction begins on the modern-day Great Mosque of Djenné.
• The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.
• HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association is officially founded as a sports club in Palestine, predecessor of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

  Births

January–February

• January 11 - Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist
• January 12 - Eric Birley, British historian and archaeologist
• January 13 - Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist
• January 14 - William Bendix, American film, radio and television actor
• January 15 - Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate
• January 16 - Diana Wynyard, English actress
• January 21 - Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer
• January 22 - Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer
• January 28 - Pat O'Callaghan, Irish athlete
• February 4
• * Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious, resistance leader
• * Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer
• February 5 - John Carradine, American actor
• February 7
• * Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer
• * Puyi, Last Emperor of China
• February 8 - Chester Carlson, American physicist, inventor
• February 10 - Lon Chaney Jr., American actor
• February 14 - Nazim al-Qudsi, 26th Prime Minister of Syria and 14th President of Syria
• February 17
• * Galo Plaza, 29th President of Ecuador
• * Käte Selbmann, German politician
• February 18 - Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician
• February 26 - Madeleine Carroll, British actress
• February 28 - Bugsy Siegel, American gangster

  March–April

• March 1
• * Phạm Văn Đồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam
• * Abdus Sattar, 8th President of Bangladesh
• March 6 - Lou Costello, American actor
• March 13 - Dave Kaye, British pianist
• March 16 - Francisco Ayala, Spanish novelist
• March 19 - Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal
• March 20 - Ozzie Nelson, American actor, director and producer
• March 21 - Jim Thompson, American businessman
• March 25 - A. J. P. Taylor, English historian
• March 26 - Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player
• March 31 - Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 1 - Alexander Yakovlev, Russian politician, architect of perestroika
• April 4 - Bea Benaderet, American actress
• April 5 - Yin Shun, Chinese Buddhist master
• April 6 - Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII
• April 9 - Antal Doráti, Hungarian-born American conductor
• April 13 - Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 22 - Eddie Albert, American actor and activist
• April 24 - William Joyce, Irish-American World War II Nazi propaganda broadcaster
• April 25
• * Joel Brand, Hungarian rescue worker
• * William J. Brennan Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• * A. W. Haydon, American inventor
• April 28
• * Tony Accardo, American gangster
• * Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics
• April 29 - Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor