November 1905

November 1, 1905 (Wednesday)

• The Committee of Ministers of the Russian Empire was created by a decree of Tsar Nicholas II, two days after the October Manifesto, as the first cabinet of advisers to jointly discuss national policy, and former finance minister Sergei Witte was appointed as the chairman of the committee, in effect becoming Russia's first prime minister.
• Lahti, a city in the Grand Duchy of Finland within Russia, was granted city rights by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, in his capacity as Grand Duke of Finland.
• Died: Sergei Legat, 30, Russian ballet dancer who had been the first to portray the title character in Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, committed suicide by slashing his throat.

  November 2, 1905 (Thursday)

• The death of the wife of U.S. parachutist Charles Broadwick became the tragic inspiration for his invention of the parachute pack. Maude Broadwick was present with her husband at a carnival in Anderson, South Carolina, and the two rode upward on a balloon. At the time, the practice was for the parachutist to be suspended beneath the balloon, and then to drop from high enough for the parachute to fill with air on the way down. Maude fell to her death from the balloon, with Charles unable to assist her. The following year, Charles Broadwick developed a chute that could be folded into a backpack, and opened by a static line attached to the balloon.
• Born:
• *Georges Schéhadé, Egyptian-born Lebanese playwright; in Alexandria, Egypt
• *Isobel Andrews, Scottish-born New Zealand playwright; in Glasgow
• Died: Albert von Kölliker, 88, Swiss zoologist

  November 3, 1905 (Friday)

• Tsar Nicholas II continued his reforms, ending Russian censorship of the press and of private dispatches, as well as granting amnesty to political prisoners.
• Born: Lois Mailou Jones, African-American painter; in Boston
• Died: Eliza Thompson, 89, U.S. crusader against sales of liquor and activist within the temperance movement in the late 19th century, creator of the "Visitation Band" practice used in 23 states for peacefully putting bars and liquor stores out of business

  November 4, 1905 (Saturday)

• Tsar Nicholas II of Russia ordered the grant of self-government to the Grand Duchy of Finland, ordering the Russian-appointed Senate of Finland to put forward a proposal for parliamentary reform, with an elected, unicameral parliament and universal and equal suffrage. The "November Manifesto" was a reversal of the infamous February Manifesto that had removed the veto of the Diet over matters considered by the Emperor to concern Russian imperial interests.
• The Rolland-Pilain automobile company was formed in France by François Rolland and Émile Pilain at Tours. The company would cease manufacturing in 1927 because of financial troubles.
• Born:
• *Dragutin Tadijanović, Croatian poet; in Rastušje, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Austro-Hungarian Empire
• *Nannie Doss, American serial killer who confessed to murdering 11 people between 1927 and her 1954 arrest; in Blue Mountain, Alabama

  November 5, 1905 (Sunday)

• Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright dismantled their revolutionary Wright Flyer III airplane and put it in storage to prevent competitors from learning its technology.
• Paul Déroulède, founder of the nationalist League of Patriots, was welcomed back to Paris after a six-year exile. Déroulède was one of several French citizens who had taken advantage of a law of amnesty.
• Died: Lady Florence Dixie, 50, Scottish book author, feminist and war correspondent, died of diphtheria.

  November 6, 1905 (Monday)

• Swiss engineer Alfred Büchi received the first patent for his invention of the turbocharger for motors, as he was granted patent No. 204,630 from the German Patent and Trade Mark Office for his invention, a "highly supercharged compound engine, using an axial compressor, radial piston engine and axial turbine on a common shaft."
• Lord Lansdowne, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, declared to skeptics that the newly revealed alliance between the British Empire and the Japanese Empire was not intended as a threat to any other nation.
• Died:
• *Sir George Williams, 84, British philanthropist who founded the Young Men's Christian Association
• *William J. Le Moyne, 74, American stage actor

  November 7, 1905 (Tuesday)

• By a margin of 56,279 in favor and 9,073 against, voters in the Indian Territory of the United States voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution petitioning for the territory to be admitted as the State of Sequoyah, and submitting a proposed state constitution. Congress refused to consider a statehood resolution for a mostly Native American state, and Sequoyah and the mostly white Oklahoma Territory to the west would be joined together as a single State of Oklahoma on November 16, 1907.
• Lawyer and liberal politician Karl Staaff became Prime Minister of Sweden, after a Riksdag election based mainly on voting rights reform, and replaced Christian Lundeberg.
• In elections in the U.S., newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst narrowly lost the race for Mayor of New York City to incumbent Mayor George B. McClellan Jr., and Hearst contested the election on the basis of fraud in counting the votes.
• A proposed amendment to the Maryland state constitution, to disenfranchise African-American voters, was rejected by voters.
• Born: William Alwyn, English music composer; in Northampton, Northamptonshire

  November 8, 1905 (Wednesday)

• At Gujarat in India, Swami Shastri Yagnapurushdas survived an attempted poisoning by several of the Swamis at the Vadtal temple. He survived a second attempt as well, and went on to create, on June 5, 1907, the Hindu denomination Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha.

  November 9, 1905 (Thursday)

• Japan's Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi arrived in Korea with Imperial Japanese Army troops, traveled to Hanseong, and personally handed the Emperor Gojong a demand to submit to a treaty allowing Japan to regulate Korea's foreign affairs.
• The new Canadian province of Alberta held its first legislative election to select members of the provincial legislature. The candidates of the Alberta Liberal Party, led by Alexander Rutherford, captured 22 of the 25 seats.
• Rioting of Russian sailors at Kronstadt killed multiple people and destroyed property.
• General Dmitri Trepov was removed from office as Governor-General of Saint Petersburg by order of the Russia's Prime Minister, Count Sergei Witte.
• Born: Erika Mann, German actress, writer and anti-Nazi political activist; in Munich

  November 10, 1905 (Friday)

• A federal grand jury in St. Louis returned an indictment against U.S. Senator Joseph R. Burton of Kansas on charges of complicity in attempted mail fraud.

  November 11, 1905 (Saturday)

• The eradication of yellow fever among the workers constructing the Panama Canal was accomplished, as the last death from the disease was reported. Dr. William C. Gorgas had administered a campaign of sanitation and insect extermination campaign for several years and, upon administering the autopsy of the unidentified victim, "instructed his staff to take a good look at the man: he was, said Gorgas, the last yellow fever corpse they would see." Dr. Gorgas applied the discoveries of Cuban epidemiologist Carlos Finlay and the control strategies of Dr. Walter Reed of the U.S. Army to combat the yellow fever, which had killed thousands of workers during France's attempt to construct the Canal.

  November 12, 1905 (Sunday)

• The first ever Giro di Lombardia bicycle race was held, and won by Giovanni Gerbi. More than a century later, the race is one of the five monuments of one-day professional cycling and the last major race of the UCI World Tour.
• Cork GAA won the Ireland's national championship of hurling, defeating the England-based London GAA, 3-16 to 1-1.

  November 13, 1905 (Monday)

• A two-day referendum in Norway concluded, as almost 79% of the people casting ballots voted "yes" on the question "Do you agree with the Storting's authorization to the government to invite Prince Carl of Denmark to become King of Norway?". The measure passed 328,827 to 69,264.
• As the yellow fever epidemic continued in the U.S., a quarantine was declared against people entering or leaving the ports of the Deep South on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the port of Havana.
• Born: Raymond Oppenheimer, English businessman, golfer, and captain of Britain's team in the 1951 Walker Cup

  November 14, 1905 (Tuesday)

• David Belasco's successful play The Girl of the Golden West, opened on Broadway for the first of 224 performances before going on a U.S. tour.
• Died: Robert Whitehead, 82, British engineer who invented the first self-propelled naval torpedo

  November 15, 1905 (Wednesday)

• After Emperor Gojong of Korea refused to sign a "protection" treaty with the Japanese Empire, Japan's Prime Minister Ito ordered Japanese troops to surround the imperial palace and threatened to have Gojong arrested.
• The six powers presented a 24-hour ultimatum to Turkey, demanding reforms of the Ottoman government, and stated that a refusal to answer would be followed by a demonstration of naval power.
• In Saint Petersburg, Social Revolutionists began a labor strike with the stated goal of ending the Russian monarchy.
• Born:
• *Annunzio Paolo Mantovani, Italian-born popular English composer, orchestra leader and recording artist, commonly referred to as Mantovani; in Venice
• *Leopold Buczkowski, Polish writer and painter; in Nakwasza, Austro-Hungarian Empire

  November 16, 1905 (Thursday)

• Venezuela's President Cipriano Castro announced that the South American nation would not pay the second installment of an award to France.
• The city of Chita in Russian Siberia, Bolsheviks Viktor Kurnatovsky, Ivan Babushkin and Anton Kostiushko-Voliuzhanich proclaimed the short-lived Chita Republic and led 4,000 railway workers on a takeover of the city. The rebellion would be crushed on January 22 by Russian Army troops led by Paul von Rennenkampf and most of the leaders executed.
• Born: Nguyễn Văn Huyên, Minister of Education for North Vietnam from 1946 to 1975; in Hanoi