October 1911

October 1, 1911 (Sunday)

• In the first elections in Mexico since the 1910 revolution, Francisco I. Madero was elected President by a landslide. Madero won 95% of the vote, though Francisco Gomez and Emilio Vasquez Gomez also on the ballot, and there was a close race for the Vice-President. Madero's running mate, José Pino Suárez and interim President Francisco León de la Barra were among five vice-presidential candidates. The vote was described as "the freest election in Mexican history" up to that time. Madero would take office on November 6.
• The Dutch cargo ship SS Ixion caught fire and sank near the coast of the Netherlands East Indies after departing from Tanjung Priok on a voyage to Amsterdam. Of its crew of 47, there were 24 who went down with the ship while 23 survivors were rescued by the British steamer Good Hope.
• Born: Wei-Liang Chow, Chinese mathematician, developer of the Chow coordinates in algebraic geometry; in Shanghai.
• Died: Wilhelm Dilthey, 77, German historian and philosopher.

  October 2, 1911 (Monday)

• East Tennessee State Normal School, now East Tennessee State University, began operation in Johnson City, Tennessee, with 29 students registering on the first day.
• All 20 members of the crew of the steamer Hatfield were drowned after the ship collided with another boat, the Glasgow, and sank in the North Sea. The Hatfield had been responding to a call for assistance from the Glasgow.
• Born: Jack Finney, American novelist; in Milwaukee.
• Died:
• *U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, 71, hero of the Battle of Santiago Bay during the Spanish–American War.
• *Cromwell Dixon, Jr., 19, American aviator, two days after winning a $10,000 prize for becoming the first person to fly across the North American Continental Divide. Dixon was a guest at the Inter-State Fair in Spokane, Washington, and crashed in a downdraft.

  October 3, 1911 (Tuesday)

• After giving residents of Tripoli three days notice to evacuate during its war against the Ottoman Empire, Italy began a blockade of the Libyan city and heavy bombardment. At 2:00 p.m., with the Turkish commander still refusing to surrender, Admiral Luigi Faravelli ordered his ships to begin shelling the city at 3:40 p.m.
• Born: Yrjo von Grönhagen; Finnish folklorist.
• Died: Kazuo Hatoyama, 55, Japanese politician.

  October 4, 1911 (Wednesday)

• The first viable escalator, designed by Charles Seeberger, began operation at the Earl's Court Underground Station in London.
• The first railway from Canton was put into service.
• Sir Almroth Wright, who had developed a vaccine against typhoid fever, began inoculation of 50,000 gold miners with an anti-pneumonia vaccine; by 1915, discovered to be a failure because of the various forms of pneumococci—at least 90 identified. Some of his colleagues referred to him as "Sir Almost Right."
• Iran's Parliament, the Majlis, instructed Treasurer W. Morgan Shuster to confiscate the property of Malek Mansur Mirza, younger brother of the former Shah, as punishment for supporting the recent counter-revolution. On October 9, when treasury officials were sent to inventory the property, they were blocked by Russian troops on order of the Russian consul-general, Ivan Pokhitonov, prompting a standoff between Russian and Persian troops.
• The Qing dynasty rulers of China adopted the musical composition "Cup of Solid Gold" as the Empire's first official national anthem. Six days later, however, the Wuchang Uprising took place and the anthem was never publicly performed.
• Died: Dr. Joseph Bell, 74, Scottish surgeon who was Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes.

  October 5, 1911 (Thursday)

• At a session of the Reichsrat in Vienna, two anarchists attempted to assassinate the Austrian Minister of Justice, Viktor von Hochenburger. After bringing a gun into the gallery, Nikolaus Njegus fired four shots at the ministerial benches without injuring anyone.
• Born:
• *Brian O'Nolan, Irish novelist; in Strabane, County Tyrone.
• *Son Sann, Prime Minister of Cambodia ; in Phnom Penh.
• *Vereen Bell, American novelist; in Cairo, Georgia.
• *Forrest Bess, American artist; in Bay City, Texas.

  October 6, 1911 (Friday)

• Karl Staaff became the new Prime Minister of Sweden, forming a cabinet from fellow members of the Liberal party that had won election on September 27.
• After holding his last cabinet meeting, Sir Wilfrid Laurier formally resigned as Canadian Prime Minister, in favor of Robert L. Borden, who was sworn in four days later.
• Born: David T. Griggs, American geologist described as "the father of modern rock mechanics"; in Columbus, Ohio.

  October 7, 1911 (Saturday)

• Three days after a botched train robbery, Elmer McCurdy, 31, was shot and killed by lawmen in Oklahoma. McCurdy would achieve fame 65 years later. In December 1976, a TV crew discovered that a dummy on display in an amusement park in Long Beach, California, was actually McCurdy's mummified body. McCurdy would finally receive a burial in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1977.
• Rear Admiral Borea d'Olmo of the Italian Navy was appointed as the Governor of Tripoli.
• Born:
• *Jo Jones, American jazz drummer; in Chicago.
• *Danielle Georgette Reddé, French resistance fighter in World War II
• Died: John Hughlings Jackson, 76, pioneering British neurologist.

  October 8, 1911 (Sunday)

• Spanish troops defeated hostile tribesmen in Morocco but sustained heavy losses. The Moors killed 36 Spaniards and wounded another 109 in a battle at the Kert River.
• After seizing Tripoli from the Ottoman Empire, the Italian occupational government declared that slavery there was outlawed. Reportedly, Tripoli was "the only remaining port on the coast of Africa where slavery still prevailed."

  October 9, 1911 (Monday)

• The Treaty of Daan was signed between representatives of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the Imam of Yemen, expanding autonomy in that Ottoman province.
• Born: Joe Rosenthal, American photographer whose picture of the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima became an iconic image of World War II; in Washington DC.
• Died: Jack Daniel, 65, Tennessee whiskey distiller, from gangrene, six years after breaking his toe while kicking a safe in his office. His name remains famous for Jack Daniel's whiskey, produced in his hometown of Lynchburg, Tennessee.

  October 10, 1911 (Tuesday)

• The Wuchang Uprising began when a group of Chinese revolutionaries in the city of Wuchang were working in their hideout, loading rifle shells, when one of them let a cigarette ash fall into gunpowder. The resulting explosion brought an investigation by the police, who discovered lists of the group's members, which included members of the Imperial Army. Faced with certain arrest and probable execution, the rebels began the insurrection ahead of schedule.
• Robert L. Borden was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Canada, along with the rest of his cabinet, as the last official act of outgoing Governor-General Earl Grey.
• Voters in California approved initiatives, referendums and recall by overwhelming majorities, and women's suffrage by a slight majority. Initiatives were approved 168,744 to 52,093; recall by 178,115 to 53,755. California was the 10th state to enact initiative and referendum — South Dakota had been the first, in 1898.
• Using captured lists of revolutionaries, Hubei Province Governor-General Jui-ch'eng sent military police to arrest and execute three conspirators within the Chinese army. Sergeant Hsing Ping-k'un of the 8th Engineering Battalion of the 8th Regiment, though not on the list, was confronted by officers and fired the first shots, persuading his men to mutiny and seizing the Chuwangtai Arsenal. General Li Yuanhong then took charge of the brigade. The Governor-General fled, and the local Manchu commander, Zhang Biao, ordered his troops to retreat, leaving the mutineers in control of a complete arsenal and the provincial treasury, and the revolution spread to other provinces.

  October 11, 1911 (Wednesday)

• The Italian expeditionary force, commanded by General Carlo Caneva, arrived at Tripoli.
• Annie Jump Cannon began the Harvard University classification of stars. Within less than four years, she completed the task of compiling the data on 225,300 stars and identifying them under the spectral classes O, B, A, F, G, K and M.
• Died: Miguel Malvar, 46, the last insurgent to surrender in the Philippine–American War. He surrendered in April 1902.

  October 12, 1911 (Thursday)

• Two days after revolutionaries captured Wuchang, the Hubei provincial assembly voted to secede from the Chinese Empire and to form a republic, and Colonel Li Yuanhong announced the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. The cities of Hangkow and Hanyang were occupied by the rebels without incident.
• The Society of American Indians held its organizing convention, at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio.
• Et Voila!, the first "cubist musical", premiered in Paris at the Theatre des Capucines, with M. Armand Berthez wearing a special suit of "overlapping polygons".

  October 13, 1911 (Friday)

• Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, was sworn in as the new Governor General of Canada at the Parliament House in Ottawa, serving until 1916. He was the first royal prince to have been commissioned as a Governor-General of any British dominion. Arthur was the son of Queen Victoria, and the uncle of the reigning British monarch, King George V, in whose name he governed Canada.
• Ford Motor Company, Ltd., opened its first factory in the United Kingdom, at Trafford Park.
• A company of 27 U.S. Marines and 23 U.S. Navy sailors landed at Hankou, after being brought by the gunboat USS Helena, to protect the property and employees of the Standard Oil company.
• Imperial China's Minister of War, Prince Yin-chang, secretly requested the assistance of Japan in putting down the nationalist rebellion.