January 1910

January 1, 1910 (Saturday)

• Russia extended its boundaries to off its coasts.
• U.S. President William H. Taft opened the New Year by inviting the general public to visit him in the White House. He shook hands with 5,575 people.
• By agreement with the labor union, the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, American railroad companies in the South implemented a quota against further hiring of African Americans, providing that "No larger percentage of Negro trainmen or yardmen will be employed on any division or in any yard than was employed on January 1, 1910".

  January 2, 1910 (Sunday)

• Twelve people in Sawtelle, California were fatally poisoned by a contaminated can of pears, served as dessert following dinner at the home of Mrs. D. G. Valdez. Mrs. Valdez, her daughter, five grandchildren, two sons-in-law and three guests all died within days.
• Born: Charles Douglass, American sound engineer credited with inventing the "laugh track" for television programs; to American parents in Guadalajara in Mexico
• Died: Agnes Booth, 66, American stage actress

  January 3, 1910 (Monday)

• The first junior high school classes in the United States began, as a new program in Berkeley, California, was started for seventh, eighth and ninth grade students, at McKinley High School and Washington High School. The idea of the "introductory high school" was conceived by educator Frank Forest Bunker.
• The first injunction in favor of the Wright brothers, against their competitors, was issued by a federal court in Buffalo, barring Glenn Curtiss from flying airplanes for profit while the patent infringement case of Wright v. Herring-Curtis was in progress. An injunction was sought by the Wrights the next day against Louis Paulhan. Curtis filed an interlocutory appeal and posted a $10,000 bond to stay the injunction.
• In a half billion dollar merger agreement, J. P. Morgan's Guaranty Trust Company announced the acquisition of Levi P. Morton's Morton Trust and Thomas Fortune Ryan's Fifth Avenue Trust. On the same day, President Taft conferred at the White House with presidents of the major American railroads, who were unsuccessful in attempting to persuade the President to call off antitrust litigation against the railways.

  January 4, 1910 (Tuesday)

• The forces of the Sultan Dudmurrah massacred French forces under the command of Captain Fiegenschuh in a battle in the Darfur region of the Sudan.
• French aviator Léon Delagrange, who had set a flying speed record the previous Thursday, was killed during an airshow at Bordeaux. The wings on his Blériot monoplane broke as he was making a turn, and he plunged to his death.
• On the same day, aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont escaped fatal injury when his Demoiselle airplane lost a wing at an altitude of. He was entangled in wire, and spared from being thrown on impact, but never piloted an airplane again.

  January 5, 1910 (Wednesday)

• The Montreal Canadiens played their first game of ice hockey, defeating the Cobalt Silver Kings, 7–6. Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde scored the first Canadiens' goal.
• Born: Jack Lovelock, New Zealand track star, Olympic medalist in 1936; in Crushington
• Died: Léon Walras, 75, French economist, founder of theory of general economic equilibrium

  January 6, 1910 (Thursday)

• The Abé people, in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire, rose in rebellion against the administration of Governor Gabriel Angoulvant, attacking railway stations and cutting the railway line at 25 separate points. Governor-General Merlaud-Ponty ordered 1,400 troops to brutally suppress the rebellion.
• Born:
• *Wright Morris, American photographer and writer; in Central City, Nebraska
• *Kid Chocolate,, Cuban boxer; in Cerro, Havana

  January 7, 1910 (Friday)

• Hubert Latham became the first person to fly an airplane to an altitude of more than, breaking his own world record at Mourmelon-le-Grand, France.
• The Pinchot–Ballinger controversy, which would ultimately split the Republican Party and lead to the election of Woodrow Wilson as President of the United States, began when President Taft ordered the firing of Forestry Director Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot's criticism of Interior Secretary Richard A. Ballinger, including a letter read on the floor of the United States Congress, led to the dismissal. "By your conduct you have destroyed your usefulness as a helpful subordinate of the government", Taft wrote, "and it therefore now becomes my duty to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to remove you from your office as the Forester."
• Born:
• * Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas ; in Huntsville, Arkansas
• * Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy, Ukrainian-Soviet developer of the Soviet space shuttle Buran; in Kiev

  January 8, 1910 (Saturday)

• Bhutan became a protectorate of the British Empire by the signing of the Treaty of Punakha. The agreement, executed by King Ugyen Wangchuk and British representative Charles Alfred Bell, kept the Himalayan kingdom separate from British India.
• Born: Galina Ulanova, Russian ballerina; in St. Petersburg

  January 9, 1910 (Sunday)

• Rioting broke out in Bukhara, at that time a Russian protectorate, when Sunni Muslim students insulted a Shi'ite Muslim group that was celebrating the Mourning of Muharram. Russian troops were sent in to maintain order. After several more interventions, Bukhara eventually became part of the Soviet Union and is now part of Uzbekistan.
• Born: Michel Aflaq, Syrian political theorist, founder of Ba'athism; in Damascus

  January 10, 1910 (Monday)

• Parliament was dissolved in the United Kingdom, and new elections were held over a two-week period beginning on January 15.
• Died: Chief Charlo, 79, Chief of the Bitterroot Salish Indian tribe from 1870 to 1910
• British Liner Lusitania encounters a 75 ft high wave that damages its forward superstructure en route to New York. No injuries or deaths were reported.

  January 11, 1910 (Tuesday)

• Charcot Island discovered by Antarctic expedition led by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who was sailing on the ship Pourquoi Pas?. Charcot Land, later proven to be an island, was named in honor Charcot's father.

  January 12, 1910 (Wednesday)

• İbrahim Hakkı Pasha became the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, replacing Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha.
• The steamer Czarina wrecked on the rocks off of the coast of Marshfield, Oregon. Despite the attempts of city residents and the U.S. life-saving station, only one of the 30 people on board survived.
• Andover, Iowa, was incorporated as a city.
• First observation of the Great January Comet of 1910.
• Born: Luise Rainer, German-born Academy Award winner for Best Actress in 1936 and 1937; in Düsseldorf

  January 13, 1910 (Thursday)

• The first radio broadcast of a live musical performance took place from New York's Metropolitan Opera, which inaugurated use of a new system set up by Lee de Forest. The one-act opera Cavalleria rusticana was "borne by Hertzian waves over the turbulent waters of the sea to transcontinental and coastwise ships, and over the mountain peaks, amid undulating valleys of the country" with the aid of a microphone connected to a 500-watt transmitter. Wireless receivers at buildings on Park Avenue, the Metropolitan Life Building, and Times Square picked up the broadcast, as did radio sets used by ship operators and amateur radio enthusiasts.

  January 14, 1910 (Friday)

• Spain's King Alfonso ordered the arrest of 80 high-ranking military officers suspected of plotting a coup, and removed the Captains General of Madrid, Valencia, Valladolid and Coronna. Police surrounded the Military Club in Madrid and took the officers inside into custody.

  January 15, 1910 (Saturday)

• Voting began in the United Kingdom for a new parliament.
• The Shoshone River Dam, later the Buffalo Bill Dam, was completed in Wyoming. At in height, it was, at that time, the tallest dam in the world.

  January 16, 1910 (Sunday)

• A boycott against the high price of meat began in Cleveland, Ohio, with 460 people pledging not to purchase meat until prices came down. Within ten days, the boycott spread to include 150,000 Clevelanders refusing to purchase meat and similar protests were spreading across the nation.
• Stefanos Dragoumis became the new Prime Minister of Greece, succeeding Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis. Dragoumis was approved by the Crown Council with a 14–4 vote over Stefanos Skouloudis.
• Born: Dizzy Dean, legendary pitcher for St. Louis Cardinals; in Lucas, Arkansas

  January 17, 1910 (Monday)

• By a voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill calling for statehood for the territories of Arizona and New Mexico. House Resolution 18166, sponsored by Michigan Congressman Edward L. Hamilton, moved on to the United States Senate.
• Born: Edith Green, U.S. Representative for Oregon, 1955 to 1975); in Trent, South Dakota

  January 18, 1910 (Tuesday)

• John R. Walsh, the 72-year-old former President of the Chicago National Bank, began a five-year sentence at the federal prison in Leavenworth. The day before, the United States Supreme Court declined to review the appeal of his conviction for misuse of the funds of the Bank, which had failed in 1906. Walsh had been a self-made millionaire, working his way "from newsboy to the control of millions of dollars in banks, railroads, newspapers and coal-fields"
• A fire at Constantinople, the Turkish capital of the Ottoman Empire, destroyed the Palace of Charagan, residence of the Sultan, as well as the parliament buildings.

  January 19, 1910 (Wednesday)

• The United States Army first experimented with aerial bombardment from an airplane, with Louis Paulhan piloting and Lieutenant Paul Beck dropping dummy bombs upon targets from an altitude of.