November 1901

November 1, 1901 (Friday)

• Prince George, heir apparent to the British throne, the Duke of Cornwall and York, returned to the United Kingdom with his wife, disembarking at Portsmouth after a worldwide tour of the British Empire.
• The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was founded, in Richmond, Virginia.

  November 2, 1901 (Saturday)

• The Pan-American Exposition, marred by the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley and inadequate revenues, closed in Buffalo, New York. "At midnight," the press reported, "President John G. Milburn pressed an electric button and the lights in the famous electric tower grew dim for the last time. Slowly one by one, the lights on the post and pinnace and tower faded away. A corps of buglers standing in the tower sounded 'taps' and one of the greatest glories of the exposition, the electric illumination, passed and away and the exposition was ended." During its six-month run, the Exposition's losses were estimated at three million dollars.
• An assassin attempted to kill China's Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi, as she and her entourage were making their journey through the Henan Province back to Beijing. One of the Empress's attendants killed the attacker with a spear, and the party continued onward the next day.
• The town of Elk Horn, Iowa, home of the Museum of Danish America and a center of American settlers from Denmark, was founded.
• Born: Magda Trocmé, Italian-born French humanitarian who, along with her husband Pastor André Trocmé, saved 3,500 Jewish refugees in Nazi-occupied France during World War II and one of the designated Righteous Among the Nations; in Firenze, as Magda Grilli di Cortona

  November 3, 1901 (Sunday)

• Motorcycle racing was introduced in Japan, with an event on an oval track at Ueno Park.
• The Columbus Panhandles professional football team, which would later be one of the founding members of the National Football League, played its first recorded game, losing to the Columbus Barracks, a team of local soldiers. The Panhandles lost, 6–2.
• Born:
• Leopold III of Belgium, son of King Albert and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium; in Brussels
• André Malraux, French novelist and France's first Minister of Culture; in Créteil, Val-de-Marne département
• Lionel Hitchman, Canadian ice hockey star; in Toronto
• Akimoto Fujio, Japanese haiku poet, in Yokohama

  November 4, 1901 (Monday)

• The Philippine Commission, composed of five American officials and three Filipino members who served as the lawmaking body of the American occupied Philippine Islands, passed the Philippine Sedition Act, making it a crime to "utter seditious words or speeches, write, publish or circulate scurrilous libels" against the occupation government or the United States government. American author Mark Twain was one of the critics of the strict law, and wrote, "What is treason in one part of our States... is doubtless law everywhere under the flag," and added, "On these terms, I would rather be a traitor than an archangel."
• The Wandervogel, described by one historian as "the first independent youth movement", was founded in Germany by Karl Fischer and nine other young men, at a meeting in the basement of the Town Hall in Steglitz, a suburb of Berlin. The full name of the association was Wandervogel, Ausschuß für Schülerfahrten ; the word Wandervogel itself literally means "wandering birds".
• The committee of the Aéro-Club de France, faced with a public outcry for denying the Deutsch Prize to Alberto Santos-Dumont, voted 12 to 9 to award him the prize of 100,000 francs for navigating an airship from Longchamps to the Eiffel Tower and back within 30 minutes. In October, Santos-Dumont had been denied the prize because he had arrived 30 minutes and 40 seconds after he departed.
• France's Chamber of Deputies voted, 305–77, to authorize the nation's navy to take action in pressing demands against the Ottoman Empire.
• King Edward of the United Kingdom was given a new title, Edward VII. Dei Gratia Britannorum et Terrarum Transarinarum Quae in Dicione Sunt Britannica Rex. Fidel Defensor. Indiae Imperator.
• Born:
• * Max Wagner, Mexican-American film actor, in Torreón, state of Coahuila
• * Yi Bangja, the wife of former Crown Prince Uimin of Korea, pretender to the Korean throne; as Japanese Princess Masako Nashimoto, in Tokyo

  November 5, 1901 (Tuesday)

• The British Cabinet voted in favor of the proposal by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, for an alliance between the United Kingdom and Japan.
• Poland's National Philharmonic Orchestra performed its first concert, with a program of music by Polish composers.
• Seth Low, the President of Columbia University was elected as the second Mayor of New York City as a reform candidate, defeating Mayor Robert Van Wyck, who had been the first executive of the consolidated boroughs in 1898. With the defeat of Van Wyck, Democratic party boss Richard Croker announced his resignation as the leader of Tammany Hall control of city politics.
• Importing an event that was popular in Europe, the Automobile Club of New Jersey conducted the first automotive hill climb in the United States. The Eagle Rock Hill Climb took place in West Orange, New Jersey, with a race up the steep Eagle Rock Avenue.
• Nikola Tesla was granted U.S. Patent No. 685,957 for his invention, "Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy", which he described as a machine that could convert the sun's energy and turn it into electricity.
• The French Navy's Mediterranean Fleet seized three ports on the Turkish island of Midilli, to be held until the government of the Ottoman Empire satisfied French debts.
• Police in St. Louis arrested American outlaw Ben Kilpatrick, a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, for passing stolen bank notes. Because Kilpatrick initially refused to identify himself, the police thought at first that they had captured Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid.
• Voters in Berwyn and Oak Park, now both suburbs of Chicago, voted to separate from Cicero Township and to become independent cities. The vote in Berwyn was 1,237 to 298 in favor of separation, and was 1,357 to 250 in Oak Park.
• Born:
• * Etta Moten Barnett, African-American contralto vocalist known for her portrayal of Bess in Porgy and Bess; in Weimar, Texas
• * Victor C. Twitty, American embryologist and biologist; near Loogootee, Indiana

  November 6, 1901 (Wednesday)

• The United Kingdom and Brazil signed a treaty agreeing to arbitration to establish the boundary between northern Brazil and British Guiana. The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, would render his decision on June 6, 1904, and, after agreeing to correct inaccuracies in the award, the nations would sign a treaty on April 22, 1926, to set the boundary along Essequibo River and the Courantyne River.
• At the Pan-American Conference, Guatemala introduced its draft plan for an international Court of Claims for the nations of the Western Hemisphere.
• The municipality of Norris City, Illinois, was incorporated.
• Born:
• * Richard Aaron, Welsh philosopher; in Seven Sisters, West Glamorgan, Wales
• * Juanita Hall, American stage and film actress known for her Tony Award-winning performance in South Pacific; in Keyport, New Jersey
• Died: Kate Greenaway, 55, English illustrator of children's books, died of breast cancer

  November 7, 1901 (Thursday)

• Twenty-six federal inmates, who had been working on construction of the new prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, overpowered their guards and escaped. Correctional Officer Joseph B. Waldrupe of the Federal Bureau of Prisons was shot and mortally wounded during the escape. He would die of his injuries on November 16.
• Mexico introduced a proposed arbitration treaty at the Pan-American Conference, modeled after the Hague Treaty signed by European states.
• Born: Norah McGuinness, Irish painter and illustrator; in County Londonderry
• Died: Li Hongzhang, 78, Chinese general

  November 8, 1901 (Friday)

• The Ottoman Empire government yielded on French demands, prompting the French Navy to withdraw from blockading Turkish ports.
• Born:
• * Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, President of Romania, and Prime Minister ; in Bârlad
• * Field Marshal Xu Xiangqian, Chinese military leader, Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army who served as Minister of National Defense of China ; in Wutai, Shanxi Province
• * Mark Oliphant, Australian nuclear physicist who later served as Governor of South Australia, in Kent Town, South Australia
• * Albert Streckeisen, Swiss-born Romanian geologist; in Basel
• Died:
• * Mary Ann Bickerdyke, 84, American nurse, veterans advocate and humanitarian who established hundreds of field hospitals for Union Army soldiers during the American Civil War

  November 9, 1901 (Saturday)

• Prince George, Duke of York, son of King Edward and heir apparent to the British throne, was named Prince of Wales and received the additional designation of Earl of Chester. He would become King George V on May 6, 1910, upon the death of his father.
• A division of French Army troops was killed in Africa while attempting to attack the Senussi village of Bir 'Alali in what is now the Republic of Chad. The French would return in greater force and capture the area on January 20, 1902.
• The Glasgow Exhibition closed in Scotland.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 was performed for the first time, played by him in Moscow, and "fully restored his belief in himself" after a five-year absence from classical music that had followed the poor reception given his First Symphony in 1897.
• Thomas Edison completed a newsreel showing a re-enactment of the execution of presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz in the electric chair at Auburn State Prison in October, after being denied a request to film the actual event. Edwin S. Porter and George S. Fleming had taken a movie of the outside of the prison, then recreated the scene using actors posing as prison guards and technicians, and one portraying Czolgosz himself. "As depicted by Edison's men," an author would later note, "the apparent painlessness of Czolgosz's death promoted the belief that electrocution was indeed a kindly method of dispatch," and cinema audiences enjoyed the recreated death scene.