January 1912

January 1, 1912 (Monday)

• The Republic of China was established as Dr. Sun Yat-sen took the oath of office as the Provisional President at Nanjing. According to Homer Lea, an advisor to Sun and the only Westerner to witness the ceremony, a band played "Behold, the Conquering Hero Comes" and the hymn "God Be with You till We Meet Again." Although Sun's supporters controlled most of southern China, Yuan Shikai retained power in the north as the chief of the Emperor's army in Beijing, and would soon become president of a united nation.
• The Swiss Civil Code, adopted on December 10, 1907, came into operation under the Berne Convention. The code was the work of law professor Eugen Huber and the product of 15 years of refinement. As one commentator noted, "There was nothing hurried in the preparation or adoption of this code."
• The classification and renumbering of all the rolling stock of the three constituent railways that formed South African Railways in 1910 was implemented.
• England beat France, 7–1, in international soccer at Tufnell Park in London.
• Manchester United did not renew their lease for the Bank Street football stadium in Clayton, Manchester, allowing the football grounds to be sold later that month.
• Pinellas County, Florida, came into existence after being divided from Hillsborough County.
• The city of Timmins, Ontario, was incorporated as a company town located at the "Porcupine Camp" of a gold mining company.
• Born:
• * Kim Philby, British intelligence officer, member of the Cambridge Five spy ring who passed secret information to the Soviet Union; as Harold Adrian Russell Philby in Ambala, British India. Philby was born three days after Klaus Fuchs, who had betrayed American atomic secrets to the Soviets, and died four months after Fuchs.
• * Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Syrian state leader, Prime Minister of Syria in 1963, 1964 and 1966; in Damascus.
• * Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, Tuvan Soviet state leader, Chair of Little Khural of the Tuvan People's Republic from 1940 to 1944 and the first non-hereditary female head of government; in Bay-Tayginsky District.
• * Martyn Finlay, New Zealand Attorney-General from 1972 to 1975; in Dunedin.
• * Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek poet, known for poetry collections including Τά ποιήματα, at Krokees.

  January 2, 1912 (Tuesday)

• With 4,000 Russian troops occupying the Persian city of Tabriz, the Russian authorities executed eight of the Iranian leaders who had supported the Persian Constitutional Revolution and had failed to leave the city. The date chosen coincided with Shi'ite holiday of the 10th of Muharram.
• The Bradshaw Mountain Railroad merged with the California, Arizona and Santa Fe Railway.
• Neurologist Ernst Trömner introduced a test for what he called the Fingerbeugephänomen, though it is more commonly called "Trömner's reflex," at a meeting of the Hamburg Medical Society. The reflex is tested on a patient's fingers for signs of a lesion of the cervical nerves.
• Died: Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, 66, son and biographer of Charles Dickens, died during a lecture tour in New York City..

  January 3, 1912 (Wednesday)

• Incumbent John Alexander Mathieson was re-elected Premier of Prince Edward Island in a provincial election.
• British Antarctic Expedition - Robert Falcon Scott and seven fellow explorers made the planned separation, with the original goal of Scott, Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans to make the final assault on the South Pole, and Edward Evans, Tom Crean, William Lashly and Henry Robertson Bowers to return to base. Captain Scott changed the plan, adding Bowers to the South Pole group, and sharing four persons' resources with five people, a decision that would prove to be disastrous.
• Born: Armand Lohikoski, American-born Finnish movie director, known for the comedic film series Pekka and Pätkä; in Astoria, Oregon.
• Died:
• * Felix Dahn, 77, German writer, author of A Struggle for Rome.
• * Robley D. Evans, 65, American naval officer, commander of United States Asiatic Fleet from 1902 to 1904, North Atlantic Fleet from 1905 to 1907, at the beginning of the "Great White Fleet" voyage around the world.

  January 4, 1912 (Thursday)

• The Royal Charter of the Boy Scouts Association was granted by King George, granting corporate status to the British organization that had been founded in 1908.
• The Moon was at its closest point to Earth in the 20th century, at 221,451 miles distance. On March 2, 1984, the Moon would be furthest away during the century, at 252,731 miles. The closest approach in the 21st century was on November 14, 2016, at 221,535 miles, and the most distant took place on March 14, 2002.
• Died: Francis T. Nicholls, 77, brigadier general for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, and post-Reconstruction Governor of Louisiana 1877 to 1880 and 1888 to 1892. Nicholls State University, founded 36 years after his death, was named in his honor.

  January 5, 1912 (Friday)

• Dr. Sun Yat-sen issued the "Manifesto from the Republic of China to All Friendly Nations," shifting a change in its foreign policy with a promise to end the isolationism of the Manchu Emperors, and "to rejoin China with the international community." On the same day, Dr. Sun met with women's suffragist Lin Zongsu and pledged to aid in allowing women the right to vote in the new republic.
• A colonial force of 200 men left the port of Dili for the inland to suppress a growing revolt in East Timor.
• The Tong Wars in New York City's Chinatown resumed, one year and two days after the January 3, 1911, truce between the Hip Sing and On Leong gangs. Lung Yu, the vice-president of the Hip Sing Tong, was killed in a shootout at a gambling hall on 21 Pell Street.
• The Moscow Art Theatre opened with a production of Hamlet, a production that drew international acclaim and brought the theater company "to the world's stage."

  January 6, 1912 (Saturday)

• New Mexico was admitted as the 47th state of the United States at 1:35 pm, after U.S. President William Howard Taft signed the proclamation. New Mexico had been passed up for statehood on 15 other occasions since becoming a territory in 1850. William C. McDonald was its first governor, and Albert B. Fall and Thomas B. Catron were its first U.S. Senators.
• The first airplane crash in Australia occurred, when pilot W. E. Hart was forced to crash land between Mount Druitt and Rooty Hill in New South Wales. He and his companion were able to escape with minor injuries.
• At a meeting of the Geological Association of Germany at Frankfurt am Main, Alfred Wegener first presented the theory of continental drift, reading his paper, Die Herausbildung der Grossformen der Erdinde auf geophysikalischer Grundlage.
• Born:
• * Danny Thomas, American television personality, best known for 1950s television sitcom The Danny Thomas Show, founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; as Amos Kairouz in Deerfield, Michigan.
• * Jacques Ellul, French philosopher, author of The Technological Society and Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes; in Bordeaux.
• * Frederick Manfred, American writer, author of many Western novels including The Golden Bowl and Buckskin Man Tales; as Frederick Feike Feikema VII near Doon, Iowa.

  January 7, 1912 (Sunday)

• William Morgan Shuster resigned as treasurer-general of Persia, bringing to an end the war with Russia. In return for his resignation, the Russians guaranteed safe passage through occupied territory for Shuster and his family. He left Tehran on January 11 by automobile, and departed the country on the Russian steamer Teheran on January 14, returning to the United States by way of Russia.
• Italo-Turkish War - Seven Turkish gunboats were sunk by three Italian warships in a battle in the Red Sea outside of Kunfida.
• Born:
• * Charles Addams, American cartoonist, best known for creating macabre recurring characters that were adapted to television in The Addams Family; in Westfield, New Jersey.
• * Giorgio Caproni, Italian poet, known for his works including L'opera in versi; in Livorno.
• * Ivan Yakubovsky, Soviet army officer, 30th Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander of the Allies of the Warsaw Pact from 1967 to 1976; in Zaitsava, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire .
• Died: Sophia Jex-Blake, 71, British physician and activist, member of the first group of female medical students at the University of Edinburgh.

  January 8, 1912 (Monday)

• The African National Congress was founded as the South African Native National Congress in a four-day meeting at Bloemfontein, South Africa. African lawyer Pixley ka Isaka Seme wrote letters to the leaders of South Africa's various tribes and organized the meeting, giving the opening address to 60 delegates. Reverend John Langalibalele Dube, who published the Zulu language newspaper Ilange Lasa Natal, was elected as the organization's first president, with Sol Plaatje as secretary and Seme as treasurer. The ANC adopted its present name in 1923.
• King George, Emperor of India and King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and British Dominions beyond the Seas, departed from his Empire after a triumphant visit of more than one month, setting sail from Calcutta along with Queen Mary and his entourage.
• The National Monetary Commission presented its plan to United States Congress to establish what would become the Federal Reserve system, filing a report and the bill written by Nelson W. Aldrich.
• The common council in San Diego passed a resolution limiting public space for soap box presentations, a common means for local activists to communicate to local citizens, in response to citizen complaints that activist groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World were blocking traffic. The resolution initiated months of labor violence and vigilantism in San Diego before disappearing by the autumn.
• Born:
• * José Ferrer, American actor and director, best known for films The Shrike and The Great Man, recipient of both the Tony Award and the Academy Award for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac, first Hispanic actor to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor and first actor to receive the National Medal of Arts; in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• * Lawrence Walsh, Canadian-American lawyer, 5th United States Deputy Attorney General, head of the Independent Counsel for the Iran–Contra affair; in Port Maitland, Nova Scotia.