March 1911

March 1, 1911 (Wednesday)

• U.S. Senator William Lorimer of Illinois was able to keep his seat after the vote to oust him failed, 40–46. Lorimer's right to a seat in the U.S. Senate had been challenged by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, on grounds that the Illinois Legislature had been bribed to elect Lorimer. "The resulting storm of public outrage", a U.S. Senate historian would later write, combined with newly elected senators, would lead the Senate to finally approve the amendment of the U.S. Constitution to provide for Senators to be elected by popular vote, rather than by the state legislatures.
• The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved the proposed Constitution of the State of New Mexico. Congress adjourned three days later without the bill being voted on by the Senate.
• The Weeks Act was signed into law by U.S. President Taft, authorizing the federal government to acquire "lands within the watersheds of navigable streams".
• Ernest Monis accepted the request of President Fallières to form a government as the new Prime Minister of France.
• José Batlle y Ordóñez was elected President of Uruguay.
• Pend Oreille County, Washington, was established.
• Died: Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, 59, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate.

  March 2, 1911 (Thursday)

• The vote on the second reading of the "Veto Bill", giving the British House of Commons power to override actions of the House of Lords, passed 368 to 243.
• Manuel Enrique Araujo was inaugurated as President of El Salvador.
• Alexander Scriabin's symphonic work Prometheus: The Poem of Fire was first performed.
• The Ottawa Senators clinched the title of the National Hockey Association, forerunner of the NHL, when the Montreal Canadiens lost to the Renfrew Creamery Kings. With 3 games remaining, Ottawa was 11–2 and Montreal 8-6; Ottawa beat the Canadiens 4–3 and 5–0 on March 8 and 10 to finish with a 13–3–0 record.

  March 3, 1911 (Friday)

• The first congressional appropriation was made for what would become the United States Air Force, with $125,000 being allocated for the U.S. Army Signal Corps to purchase airplanes. With the first $25,000 the Corps purchased three Wright Company and two Curtiss Aeroplane Company aircraft.
• The U.S. Department of Justice filed antitrust proceedings against General Electric and 34 other companies to dissolve the "Electrical Trust".
• The U.S. Army Dental Corps was created, with sixty dental surgeons in its employ.
• Adams County and Lewis County, Idaho, were established on the same day.
• Born: Jean Harlow, American actress, as Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City.

  March 4, 1911 (Saturday)

• With two years left on his term, U.S. Senator J.W. Bailey of Texas resigned, sending a telegram to Governor Oscar Colquitt at 11:00 am. After the Texas State Senate voted 20-5 for a resolution asking Bailey to reconsider, and Governor Colquitt asked likewise, Bailey sent a second telegram at 6:00 pm, withdrawing his resignation. Although there was no legal precedent for a member of the Senate to quit and then return, Bailey served nearly the rest of his term, resigning in January 1913.
• Francisco Bertrand became the interim President of Honduras as part of an agreement to end the civil war there. Bertrand replaced Miguel R. Dávila until supervised elections could be held in October.
• The 50th anniversary of the March 5, 1861, emancipation, by Tsar Alexander II, of 23,000,000 Russian serfs was celebrated nationwide. On the same day, a proposal by Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin to grant citizens of Poland limited right of local government, was voted down by the State Council, 92–68.
• After the outgoing Congress ended without voting on the statehood for New Mexico and Arizona, reapportionment of the House, or the Canadian reciprocity agreement, President Taft called a special session of the 61st United States Congress to begin on April 4.

  March 5, 1911 (Sunday)

• A stampede in a movie theater at the Russian city of Bologoye killed 120 people, mostly children. The panic began after a movie projector caught fire.
• Carl Bosch redesigned equipment to make feasible the Fritz Haber process for commercial production of ammonia.

  March 6, 1911 (Monday)

• Samuel J. Battle, a former train porter, was sworn in as the first African-American police officer in the New York Police Department after passing the NYPD's civil service exam.
• "Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description", was read to the Aristotelian Society by Bertrand Russell.
• Born: Nikolai Baibakov, Soviet bureaucrat, Chairman of Gosplan 1965-85, in Sabunchu, Russian Empire.
• Died: William Worrall Mayo, M.D., 91, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.

  March 7, 1911 (Tuesday)

• In an event whose significance was little noticed at the time, British physicist Ernest Rutherford first described his discovery of the nature of subatomic structure. The paper, The Scattering of the Alpha and Beta Rays and the Structure of the Atom, was presented before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Rutherford's experiments showed that all but 1/4000th of the mass of an atom lay within a core one-billionth of the space in the atom, and published in May in the Society's scientific journal, Philosophical Magazine.
• At 11:00 am, the United States Department of War issued a statement that "a large number of troops" was being moved to points in Texas and southern California, and that the Department of the Navy had ordered 15 ships from the Atlantic Fleet to the Texas coast, including four armoured cruisers. In addition, 2,000 U.S. Marines had been ordered to assemble at the Guantanamo Bay base. The operation, which had been taking place in secret since the day before, was limited to "manouevres." With almost one-fourth of the U.S. Army having been dispatched secretly by the President the day before, and the greatest move of soldiers since the American Civil War, the press was skeptical about the explanation. The New York Times observed "The United States is making a move as to Mexico that looks like a potential interference in the affairs of that country, though it wears the official aspect of a military mobilization." U.S. President Taft told reporters later in the day that he had reassured Mexican President Díaz that there were no plans to cross the border.

  March 8, 1911 (Wednesday)

• Ford Motor Company, Ltd., more popularly known as Ford of Britain, was incorporated as a subsidiary of the American Ford Motor Company, Inc. In October, the factory at Trafford Park, near Manchester, began building the first British-assembled Model T automobiles. Initially, the cars were made by four man teams, until the assembly line was set up in 1913.
• The honorary fraternity for educators, Kappa Delta Pi, was founded at the University of Illinois, and now has 606 chapters.
• The city of Waldport, Oregon, was incorporated.
• The first observation of International Women's Day did not take place on March 8, 1911, although the day was first observed in 1911, and it is now observed annually on 8 March. The first IWD was on March 19, 1911.
• Born:
• *Alan Hovhaness, American composer, as Alan Vaness Chakmakjian in Somerville, Massachusetts.
• *Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., American civil rights lobbyist, in Baltimore.

  March 9, 1911 (Thursday)

• Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, the company town for the Laffin Rand Powder Company, was leveled by a powder explosion, killing 40 people.
• The greatest depth of snowfall ever recorded in the United States was measured at Tamarack Flat in California's Yosemite National Park. A snowfall in January totaling 390 inches contributed to snow at a depth of 454 in..
• The last American and British forces were withdrawn from Honduras, departing from San Pedro.

  March 10, 1911 (Friday)

• The Kansas legislature enacted House Bill Number 906, the first blue sky law in the United States, culminating an effort by Joseph Norman Dolley, Kansas' banking commissioner. The law, which became effective on March 15, subjected any person or entity, selling securities or other investments within Kansas, to state regulation.
• Culberson County, Texas, was established.
• The greatest snow-depth in U.S. and North American history was recorded, when 451 inches of snow was measured in Tamarack, California..

  March 11, 1911 (Saturday)

• Dr. Simon Flexner announced, at a meeting of the Rockefeller Institute, the discovery of the cause of infantile paralysis, also known as poliomyelitis or polio. The "germ" was isolated from the blood of persons in Boston and New York who had fallen victim in the pandemic of 1908.
• Brooks County, Texas, was established after being separated from Starr County, and the county seat was established at Falfurrias. The county was named for Texas state legislator John Abijah Brooks, who had worked toward its creation and was the county's leader from 1911 to 1939. Willacy County, Texas, was established on the same day.
• Two weeks before the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, two men, Nathan Schefflin and Isadore Margolis saved the lives of 50 people who were trapped on the fifth floor of a building in New York City. The two were in an adjoining building eight feet away, and used a cutting table as a bridge to safety.

  March 12, 1911 (Sunday)

• Mexican federal troops defeated revolutionists at Agua Prieta
• Part of the crater of Mt. Vesuvius fell after a severe earthquake.
• Born: Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, 29th President of Mexico, in San Andres, Puebla.

  March 13, 1911 (Monday)

• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal tax on corporate income as constitutional.
• Born:
• *L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology and science fiction author in Tilden, Nebraska.
• *Marie Rudisill, American author who achieved fame in her 90s as the Fruitcake Lady in Monroeville, Alabama.