September 1912

September 1, 1912 (Sunday)

• In Morocco, French troops put down a native uprising.
• At Indianapolis, entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, President of the Prest-O-Lite Company and founder of the Indianapolis 500 race, hosted a dinner for his colleagues in the automotive industry and unveiled his plans for the Lincoln Highway. "A road across the United States! Let's build it before we're too old to enjoy it!" The auto trail, which paved roads to connect existing highways, would run from New York City to San Francisco, and would be completed in 1925.
• The All Souls Chapel held its first Sunday service at the Poland Spring resort in Poland, Maine. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
• Born:
• * Gwynfor Evans, Welsh politician, founder and first president of the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, Member of Parliament of Carmarthen from 1966 1970, and 1974 to 1979; in Barry, Wales
• * Bernard Sarnat, American plastic surgeon and developer of craniofacial surgery techniques; in Chicago, United States. The Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health was named in honor of him and his wife.
• Died: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 37, English composer, nicknamed "The African Mahler," contributor to the epic poem ''The Song of Hiawatha''

  September 2, 1912 (Monday)

• The much anticipated Romanian film Independența României premiered in Bucharest, depicting events of the Russo-Turkish War that led to Romania's independence. The response was mixed, in part as the film was a first-time production for most of the actors and crew involved and many errors made their way onto the screen. However, the film eventually became a financial success and is considered a milestone for Romanian cinema.
• In the United Kingdom, the Trades Union Congress president Will Thorne opened the TUC's annual conference with a demand for common ownership and an attack on the government for its behavior in the recent strikes.
• Woodrow Wilson opened his presidential campaign with a Labor Day address in Buffalo, New York.
• The first Calgary Stampede was held, running for six days and attracting 80,000 people.
• U.S. President William Howard Taft signed an executive order establishing the first "Naval Petroleum Reserve" to be used for the United States Navy in the event of war. NPR-1 was located at a government-owned oil field in Kern County, California.
• Born:
• * David Daiches, British literary critic, author of The Place of Meaning in Poetry and A Critical History of English Literature; in Sunderland, County Durham, England
• * Imre Finta, Hungarian-born Canadian army officer, first person prosecuted for war crimes under Canadian law; in Kolozsvár, Austria-Hungary
• * Xuân Thủy, Vice President of Vietnam 1981-1982, Foreign Minister of North Vietnam, 1963 to 1965; in Ha Dong, French Indochina

  September 3, 1912 (Tuesday)

• Sheik Shawish was arrested in Cairo on charges of conspiracy against Lord Kitchener and the Khedive.
• Nobody won a majority in the state election for Governor of Vermont, and the matter was sent to the state legislature to decide on October 2.
• Prince Arthur, Governor General of Canada, officially opened the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, although construction on the provincial government building still continued until 1913.
• Arnold Schoenberg's Opus No. 16, composed in 1909 and entitled Five Pieces for Orchestra, was given its first public performance. Sir Henry Wood conducted the premiere at the Queen's Hall in London.
• The historic drama Drake of England by playwright Louis N. Parker was first performed at the His Majesty's Theatre in London and ran for 221 performances.

  September 4, 1912 (Wednesday)

• The Albanian Revolt ended, as the Ottoman Empire agreed to the demands of Albanian rebels in its Montenegro province.
• Fourteen people were killed in a coal mine explosion at the Clarence Coal Company at Pas-de-Calais, France.
• In London, 22 were injured in a tube collision on the Piccadilly line, the first ever such accident on London Underground.
• Died: William John McGee, 59, American geologist, note for his surveys of the Mississippi Valley and the quaternary lakes of California and Nevada

  September 5, 1912 (Thursday)

• A ship, bringing the monument to commemorate the French victory of Napoleon over the Russians at Borodino, sank, killing all on board.
• Fifteen Christians were massacred by the Turks at Heimeli, near Scutari.
• The Girl in the Taxi, an English operetta adapted by Jean Gilbert from the German operetta Die keusche Susanne, opened at the Lyric Theatre in London, where it ran for 385 performances.
• Ellen Gric, a 22-year-old white woman living in Forsyth County, Georgia, reported she had been attacked and nearly raped by two black men near her home. The resulting allegations set off set of a series of violent attacks against black residents in the county and arrest of black men suspected of the crime even as doubts were raised about its validity.
• Arthur MacArthur Jr., former Governor-General of the Philippines, and father of future General Douglas MacArthur, suffered a fatal stroke while delivering an address to a reunion of the 24th Wisconsin regiment that he had commanded during the American Civil War. MacArthur was in Milwaukee, and after he recounted "one of the most remarkable scouting expeditions of the war", he told his men, "Your indomitable courage...", then halted his speech with the words, "Comrades, I am too weak to go on." He sat back down and collapsed, dying moments later.
• Born:
• * John Cage, American composer, leading figure in avant-garde music in the United States, including works such as 4′33″; in Los Angeles, United States
• * Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-born German actress, known for her roles in Nazi era films; as Beata Margareta Kristina Söderbaum, in Stockholm, Sweden
• * Frank Thomas, American animation artist, member of the Disney's Nine Old Men, known for the Walt Disney films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Bambi; in Santa Monica, California, United States

  September 6, 1912 (Friday)

• The uprising of Moroccan pretender Ahmed al-Hiba was ended in a battle at Sidi Bou Othmane, as his force of 10,000 troops was decimated by 5,000 French troops led by Colonel Charles Mangin. The poorly armed Moroccan tribesmen, promised by al-Hiba "that French bullets would turn into water and French shells into watermelons", charged at Mangin's troops, who were aligned in a square formation with artillery at the center. Within two hours, 2,000 of al-Hiba's troops were dead and thousands more wounded; French losses were four dead and 23 wounded.
• Royal Flying Corps members Captain Patrick Hamilton and Lieutenant Athole Wyness Stuart were killed in a crash near Willian, Hertfordshire while flying a Deperdussin monoplane.
• In what has been described as "the most anticipated and hyped sporting event" up to that time, the two best pitchers in the American League, Smoky Joe Wood of the Boston Red Sox and Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, faced off against each other before an overflow crowd at Fenway Park. Wood was on a winning streak of 13 consecutive games, while Johnson had set a record of 16 straight wins the previous month. In a pitcher's duel, the two each threw five scoreless innings, until Johnson allowed a run to score in the sixth, the margin for a 1-0 victory for Wood and the Red Sox. Wood would go on to win two more games to tie, but not break, Johnson's record.

  September 7, 1912 (Saturday)

• Themistoklis Sofoulis, exiled leader of the Greek people on the island of Samos, landed with a force of Greek volunteers and drove away Ottoman Empire troops from the island.
• French Army troops, led by Colonel Charles Mangin, rescued nine French civilians who had been taken hostage by Moroccan pretender El Hiba at Marrakesh, but El Hiba himself escaped, setting the stage for a final battle later.
• Roland Garros of France broke the record for altitude in an airplane, reaching at Houlgate, near Trouville.
• The Madeira-Mamoré Railroad was completed after five years of construction, under the direction of American businessman Percival Farquhar, with the driving of a golden spike to link the track.
• Playing at the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois, Jerome Travers won the United States golf championship for the third time.
• At the Christ Episcopal Church in Harvard, Illinois, Miss Dorothy Gardner was married to Mr. Leslie King. Shortly after their son, Leslie Lynch King Jr., was born on July 14, 1913, Dorothy King would leave her husband, taking her child with her, and file for divorce. She would remarry in 1917, renaming Leslie Jr. as Gerald Ford, who would grow up to become the 38th President of the United States.
• Born: David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard; in Pueblo, Colorado, United States
• Died: Arthur "Bugs" Raymond, 30, former pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, and New York Giants; following the fracture of his skull in a bar fight

  September 8, 1912 (Sunday)

• Motorcyclist Eddie Hasha lost control of his bike during a race at the Vailsburg Motordrome in Newark, New Jersey, killing himself, six spectators and another racer, John Albright. Another 17 people in the crowd were injured.
• Four spectators were killed and almost 20 injured when Pierre Biard lost control of his airplane and plowed into the crowd at an air meet in Gray, Haute-Saône, France.
• The Argentine Air Force was established as a military flying school at El Palomar, Buenos Aires.
• Born: Alexander Mackendrick, American-Scottish film director, known for films The Ladykillers and Sweet Smell of Success; in Boston, United States