March 1900

March 1, 1900 (Thursday)

• The German flag was formally hoisted at Apia, the capital of Samoa, and Wilhelm Solf became the colony's first governor. Chief Mata'afa, who had fought against the Germans, and Chief Tamasese, who had been the puppet ruler during German occupation, reconciled. Mata'afa was named as the paramount chief of the western Samoa colony, although Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm was designated as the Paramount King.
• The United Kingdom and its subjects celebrated across the world when the news arrived of the relief of the South African fortress Ladysmith. "London went literally mad with joy, and throughout England the scenes witnessed have no parallel in the memories of this generation."67

  March 2, 1900 (Friday)

• The University of Kansas basketball team would win three NCAA championships, but suffered its worst loss of all time on this evening in Lincoln, Nebraska, falling to the University of Nebraska 48–8. "Coach Naismith, who is the originator of the game of basket ball, came up from Lawrence yesterday afternoon and brought a team that represents fine physical specimens of manhood", wrote a local paper, "but they were slow in following the ball. They complained of the slickness of the floor ..."
• The first high school basketball game in Illinois was played, at Elgin, Illinois. Englewood High School of Chicago defeated Elgin 16–12.
• Pope Leo, who would live to be the oldest pontiff in history, celebrated his 90th birthday.
• Mangi Meli, Mangi Ngalami and 17 other Chagga leaders and noblemen are hanged in Old Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region by the occupying German East Africa colonial government.
• U.S. Representative Sydney Parham Epes, 34, died at Garfield Hospital in Washington, D.C., following an appendectomy. The Virginia Democrat had been a Member of Congress for less than one year.
• Born:
• *Kurt Weill, German-American composer; in Dessau
• *Morris K. Jessup, American writer, known for investigation and writings on UFOs; in Rockville, Indiana

  March 3, 1900 (Saturday)

• In New York City, a drunken spectator twice approached the carriage carrying U.S. President William McKinley and Secretary George B. Cortelyou, attempting to open the vehicle's door in an attempt to shake hands with the President. NYPD Commissioner Michael C. Murphy would recall the incident after McKinley's assassination in Buffalo, New York 18 months later in 1901.
• In Cleveland, the owners of baseball's National League met with representatives of the newly organized American League to avert a crisis over player signings. In return for the National League dropping objections to AL franchises in Cleveland and Chicago, the former Western League would operate as a minor circuit for 1900, with its players subject to being called up by the Nationals. The AL's eight teams for the 1900 season would be the Buffalo Bisons, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Indianapolis Indians, Kansas City Blues, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Minneapolis Millers.
• James T. Cooley, the 89-year-old Sheriff of Chilton County, Alabama, was beaten to death by an insane jail prisoner who had killed a fellow prisoner the previous night.
• Born:
• * Edna Best, British stage and film actress, appeared on early television in 1938; in Hove, East Sussex
• * Ruby Dandridge, African-American film and radio actress; in Wichita, Kansas

  March 4, 1900 (Sunday)

• The first railway service in Nigeria was inaugurated with the opening of a line between Lagos and Ibadan. Built by the British colonial government, the railroad track extended for and cost 1,000,000 pounds.
• Born: Herbert Biberman, American screenwriter and film director, one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted in the 1950s; in Philadelphia

  March 5, 1900 (Monday)

• The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, the inspiration for many Halls of Fame in the years that followed, was founded with the help of a $250,000 donation by Helen Miller Shepard, to commemorate persons deemed by a committee of 100 to have made great contributions to the United States. In addition to still-famous individuals like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, the first group of enshrinees included Supreme Court justice Joseph Story, Congressman Horace Mann, and botanist Asa Gray.
• Two U.S. Navy cruisers, the USS Detroit and the USS Marblehead, were sent to Central America to protect American interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The United States Department of War sent the ships at the request of the American envoy to Costa Rica.
• Wallack's Theatre in New York City was closed under decree by Chief William Stephen Devery of the New York City Police Department on grounds that its presentation of the play Sapho was "a public nuisance in that is an offense against public decency". Lead actress Olga Nethersole and producer Hamilton Revelle were both arrested as well. The same evening, David Belasco's production of Madame Butterfly opened at the Herald Square Theatre on Broadway. The play, not to be confused with Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera, had been adapted from the story by John Luther Long.

  March 6, 1900 (Tuesday)

• Forty-six coal miners were killed at the Red Ash Mine at Fayette County, West Virginia. "The victims were not burned to death", noted an account, "but were killed by being hurled violently by the force of the explosion. Skulls were fractured and limbs broken – some in many places. So great was this force that the air driven out of the mine piled the coal cars in heaps in front of its entrance."
• The United States Senate voted 44 to 28 to pass the Gold Standard Act.
• An excavated Roman amphitheatre at Saint-André-sur-Cailly, France, was formally presented to the city.
• Died:
• * Gottlieb Daimler, 75, founder in 1883 of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. The automobile that he created was named for Mercédès Jellinek, the daughter of Daimler's French agent and was marketed as the Mercedes-Benz.
• * Alfred C. Harmer, American politician, 74, U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania. He was nicknamed the "Father of the House" because of his long service.

  March 7, 1900 (Wednesday)

• A new era in transportation safety began on reports of the first successful transmission of wireless signals from a passenger ship to a distant receiver. The German steamer SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, carrying 1,500 passengers, transmitted from on ship to Borkum, fifty miles away in Germany.
• The Montreal Shamrocks, holders of the Stanley Cup since 1899, retained the trophy after beating the Halifax Crescents 11–0 in the second game of a best of three series.
• The first withdrawal of American troops from the Philippines was ordered by the U.S. President to General Elwell Stephen Otis.

  March 8, 1900 (Thursday)

• Gaston A. Robbins had defeated William F. Aldrich in the 1898 election for U.S. Representative for the Alabama's 4th congressional district, and had served in United States Congress since March 4, 1899. After an election contest determined that Aldrich had won the election, Robbins was removed from office. Aldrich was sworn in on March 13.
• Londoners celebrated as Queen Victoria made a rare visit to the city in celebration of the British victory at Ladysmith.

  March 9, 1900 (Friday)

• In Indianapolis, the Social Democratic Party of America nominated Eugene V. Debs for president and Job Harriman for Vice President. Debs, in his first run for the presidency, would pick up 0.6% of the popular vote in the November presidential election, and run four more times after that.
• Born: Howard H. Aiken, American physicist and computing pioneer, primary designer of the first Mark computer; in Hoboken, New Jersey

  March 10, 1900 (Saturday)

• In Springfield, Illinois, the remains of Abraham Lincoln and his family were removed so that renovations could be made of his tomb. Held in a vault for more than a year, the remains were returned to the tomb, without public ceremony, on April 24, 1901.
• After escaping from Frankfort, Kentucky, Secretary of State Caleb Powers was arrested in Lexington, Kentucky, for conspiracy in the murder of Governor William Goebel. Powers and State Guard Captain Davis had put on uniforms and escaped on a train. Powers served eight years in prison, but was pardoned in 1908 and later served as a U.S. representative from 1911 to 1919.
• Born: Erich Kästner, last surviving German veteran of World War I; in Schönefeld,

  March 11, 1900 (Sunday)

• Captain Umberto Cagni of Italy, with ten men and 102 dogs, set off from the base camp at Franz Josef Land, established by the Arctic expedition of the Duke of Abruzzi. Cagni's men did not reach the North Pole, but planted the Italian flag at 86–34 N on April 25, closer than anyone had before, before turning back.
• Religious broadcasting was launched in Elkhart, Indiana, as the Reverend E.H. Gwynne of the First Presbyterian Church, began preaching his sermons by telephone technology. A transmitter, designed by inventors from the Home Telephone Company for the benefit of a crippled parishioner, was placed on the pulpit, "and every word was as distinctly heard as though the listeners were present in the church", a reporter noted.
• At the Mount Olivet Baptist Church at 53rd Street near Broadway in New York City, Pastor C.T. Walker baptized 184 African Americans at the end of revival services. Nicknamed "the Colored John the Baptist", Walker was originally from Augusta, Georgia, where a school bears his name.

  March 12, 1900 (Monday)

• At 5:00 p.m., General John French gave the leaders of the Orange Free State 11 hours to surrender. French had arrived within five miles of the capital, Bloemfontein. President Martinus Theunis Steyn fled the capital ahead of the invasion force. The city leaders capitulated the next morning, bringing an end to the republic as an independent nation.
• William Albin Young, U.S. Representative for Virginia's 2nd congressional district since March 4, 1899, was removed from office following a contest of the 1898 election, by a vote of 132–128. Richard Alsop Wise, Young's opponent in the elections of 1896 and 1898, was seated on April 26. Wise died on December 21, 1900.