September 1910


The following events occurred in September 1910:

September 1, 1910 (Thursday)

  • Pope Pius X promulgated the Sacrorum antistitum and directed that all Roman Catholic bishops, priests and teachers take an oath against the Modernist movement, which called for a departure from following traditional teachings of the Church. The requirement was mandatory until 1967.
  • The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's music was recorded commercially for the first time. The choir's records and CDs have sold millions of copies since then.
  • Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, one of the most successful soccer football clubs in Brazil was founded in Tatuape, São Paulo. Corinthians has won seven Brazilian national titles as well as two championships of the FIFA Club World Cup, in 2000 and 2012.

    September 2, 1910 (Friday)

  • The strike of 70,000 of New York's garment workers ended after nine weeks and an estimated $100,000,000 worth of losses secondary to the strike. The major concession won was that each manufacturer was required to have a union shop, and a guarantee of a 50-hour work week—9 hours a day for five days, followed by a 5-hour day.
  • Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman to make a solo flight in an airplane, taking off from Hammondsport, New York, after two days of instruction by Glenn Curtiss.
  • Died: Henri Rousseau, 66, French post-Impressionist painter

    September 3, 1910 (Saturday)

  • The boll weevil, an insect which had destroyed cotton crops since first entering the United States from Mexico, in 1892, was first detected in Alabama, where cotton production was, at the time, the main industry. The destruction of cotton farming forced farmers to diversify to other crops that, ultimately, were much more profitable—so much so that the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, erected a monument to the pest in 1919.
  • Born:
  • *Maurice Papon, French government minister until 1981, later convicted of crimes against humanity; in Gretz-Armainvilliers
  • *Kitty Carlisle, American actress and game show panelist; in New Orleans
  • *Fránz Jachym, Austrian Roman Catholic bishop

    September 4, 1910 (Sunday)

  • Two time-bombs, fashioned from an alarm clock, a detonator and nitroglycerine, exploded in a railroad yard and at a bridge in Peoria, Illinois. A third bomb, which had failed to explode, was discovered later. The explosions proved to be a test run for a deadly attack in Los Angeles at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Times.

    September 5, 1910 (Monday)

  • Marie Curie announced to the French Academy of Sciences at the Sorbonne that she had found a process to isolate pure radium from its naturally occurring salt, radium chloride, making large scale production of the rare element feasible.

    September 6, 1910 (Tuesday)

  • Voters in the New Mexico territory selected 68 Republicans and 32 Democrats as delegates for a convention to write a state constitution.
  • Nicaragua's new President, General Juan Jose Estrada, announced the release of political prisoners and the promise to pay government troops.
  • The Tallis Fantasia, a classical piece by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, was first performed. Vaughan Williams had drawn inspiration from a melody by 16th century composer Thomas Tallis. The melodies continue to be popular in film scores, including The Passion of the Christ.
  • Died: Elías Fernández Albano, 65, who had become President of Chile three weeks earlier on the death of President Pedro Montt. Fernandez was succeeded by Emiliano Figueroa

    September 7, 1910 (Wednesday)

  • At The Hague, the International Court of Justice resolved the North Atlantic Fisheries Dispute, which had existed for more than 25 years between the United States on one side, and the United Kingdom, Canada and Newfoundland on the other.
  • Died:
  • *George W. Weymouth, 60, American businessman and former Congressman, in an auto accident
  • *William Holman Hunt, 83, English painter
  • *Dr. Emily Blackwell, 83, second American woman to earn an M.D.

    September 8, 1910 (Thursday)

  • Manhattan and Long Island were linked by subway as the East River Tunnels opened at ten minutes after midnight.
  • The city of Mirassol, Brazil, was incorporated as São Pedro da Mata Una.
  • Three coal passers were killed in a steam accident aboard the battleship. Six other crewmembers would each receive the Medal of Honor for their heroism during the incident.

    September 9, 1910 (Friday)

  • The car ferry Pere Marquette No. 18 was midway across Lake Michigan when it suddenly began taking on water. Because the ferries had been equipped with wireless radio, operator Stephen F. Sczepanek was able to call Pere Marquette No. 17 for assistance. While the ship was being evacuated, it suddenly sank, taking with it 29 people, including Sczepanek and two passengers, but another 33 were saved.
  • U.S. Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh outlined a plan to first proposal cut the size of United States currency, from 3 in. by to by 6 inches. The size of American banknotes would not be changed until 1929, to the present size of 2.61 by 6.14 inches)

    September 10, 1910 (Saturday)

  • With his two-year-old corporation facing bankruptcy, General Motors Chairman William C. Durant met with financiers at the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, seeking a loan to keep the company afloat. The bankers were at first unwilling to lend. At, they listened to Wilfred Leland's account of the success of Cadillac, one of the GM component companies, and agreed to talk further. Ultimately, GM received the loan and avoided bankruptcy until June 1, 2009.

    September 11, 1910 (Sunday)

  • The largest oil strike, up to that time, in Mexico's history was realized at the Juan Casiano Basin near Tampico. A gusher erupted at Casiano No. 7 at Edward L. Doheny's Mexican Petroleum Company, producing 60,000 barrels per day, and was the beginning of a new era in which Mexico would become a major oil producer.
  • Nicaragua's new President, Juan José Estrada, announced that promised elections would not take place for a year.
  • A cave-in of the old Erie Railroad Tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey, killed 11 workers and injured seven others.

    September 12, 1910 (Monday)

  • Physicist William David Coolidge discovered a method of creating ductile tungsten after four years of research at General Electric, making the fragile substance useful for light bulb filaments.
  • Alice Stebbins Wells, first American policewoman in Los Angeles, and perhaps the United States, was sworn in as an LAPD officer. She was initially assigned to the Juvenile Probation unit and retired in 1945. Other sources point to Lola Greene Baldwin, who had been sworn in by the city of Portland, Oregon, "to perform police service", though not as an officer.
  • Mahler's Symphony No. 8, often called Symphony of a Thousand because of the large number of performers required, was first presented. Composer Gustav Mahler himself conducted the first performance, in Munich.
  • Fresno City College, the second oldest community college in the United States and the first in California, began its first classes.
  • Our Lady of Victory College, located in Fort Worth, Texas, began its first classes, with 72 students, and continued operation for 47 years. In 1958, the junior college became part of the University of Dallas.
  • Born: Shep Fields, American big band musician, leader of Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm; in Brooklyn

    September 13, 1910 (Tuesday)

  • Inayat Khan began travels as a missionary to spread the religion of Sufism to the Western world, sailing from Mumbai to Europe and North America. The International Sufi Movement marks Inayat Khan's mission as the beginning of the organization.
  • The village of Lampman, Saskatchewan was incorporated.

    September 14, 1910 (Wednesday)

  • The Fourth District State Agricultural School, later Arkansas A & M, and now the University of Arkansas at Monticello, began instructing its first students.
  • Thorp Spring Christian College held its first classes. The college, located at Thorp Spring in Hood County, Texas, closed in 1929.
  • Pablo Arosemena was chosen as the designado to the office of President of Panama, succeeding the late José Domingo de Obaldía.
  • Born:
  • *Jack Hawkins, English film actor, in Wood Green, Middlesex
  • *Bernard Schriever, German-born American rocket scientist; in Bremen

    September 15, 1910 (Thursday)

  • The first elections for the new parliament of the Union of South Africa were held, with the Nationalist Party obtaining 67 of the 121 seats.
  • Woodrow Wilson, the President of Princeton University, was nominated for his first political office, as the convention of the Democratic Party of New Jersey selected him as its candidate for Governor of New Jersey. In 1912, Governor Wilson would be elected President of the United States.

    September 16, 1910 (Friday)

  • The patent application for the first outboard motor was filed. Ole Evinrude, a native of Norway who settled in the United States at Cambridge, Wisconsin, had created a "marine propulsion mechanism", a portable motor that could transform a rowboat into a power boat. U.S. Patent No. 1,001,260 would be granted on August 22, 1911.
  • Bessica Medlar Raiche made the first accredited solo airplane flight by a woman in the United States, flying from Hempstead Plains in New York, two weeks after Blanche Stuart Scott's "accidental" solo flight.