1902

Events

January

• January 1
• * The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's first registered nurse.
• * Nathan Stubblefield demonstrates his wireless telephone device in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
• January 8 - A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17 people, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains and the banning of steam locomotives in New York City.
• January 23 - Hakkōda Mountains incident: A snowstorm in the Hakkōda Mountains of northern Honshu, Japan, kills 199 during a military training exercise.
• January 30 - The Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed.

  February

• February 12 - The 1st Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance takes place in Washington, D.C.
• February 15 - The Berlin U-Bahn underground is opened.
• February 18 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt prosecutes the Northern Securities Company for violation of the antitrust Sherman Act.
• February 27 - Australian officers Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock are executed for the murder of Boer prisoners of war near Louis Trichardt.

  March

• March 7 - Second Boer War: Battle of Tweebosch - South African Boers win their last battle over the British Army, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
• March 8 - Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 is premiered in Helsinki.
• March 10
• * Clashes between police and Georgian workers led by Joseph Stalin leave 15 dead, 54 wounded, and 500 in prison.
• * A Circuit Court decision in the United States ends Thomas Edison's monopoly on 35 mm movie film technology.
• March 15 - The Pattani Sultanate is abolished by the Siamese authority after the last sultan of Pattani refused new administrative reforms by the Siamese.

  April

• April 2 - The Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
• April 11 - Tenor Enrico Caruso makes the first million-selling recording, for the Gramophone Company in Milan.
• April 13 - A new land speed record of is set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet driving a steam car.
• April 19 - The 7.5 Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, killing between 800 and 2,000.

  May

• May 7 - La Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent erupts, devastating the northern portion of the island and killing 2,000 people
• May 8 - Mount Pelée in Martinique erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000.
• May 13 - Alfonso XIII of Spain begins his reign.
• May 20 - Cuba gains independence from the United States.
• May 22 - The White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
• May 29 - The London School of Economics is opened by Lord Rosebery.
• May 31 - The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War, providing for the Transvaal Colony and Orange Free State to transition to self-governing British colonies.

  June

• June 13 - Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, predecessor of global consumer goods brand 3M, begins trading as a mining venture at Two Harbors in the United States.
• June 15 - The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City.
• June 16 - The Commonwealth Franchise Act in Australia grants women's suffrage in federal elections for resident British subjects, making Australia the first independent country to grant women the vote at a national level, and the first country to allow them to stand for Parliament.
• June 26 - Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit, an order bestowed personally by the British monarch on up to 24 distinguished Empire recipients.

  July

• July 2 - Philippine–American War ends.
• July 5 - Erik Gustaf Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden.
• July 8 - The United States Bureau of Reclamation is established within the U.S. Geological Survey.
• July 10 - The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills 112 miners.
• July 11 - Lord Salisbury retires as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• July 14
• * Agustín Lizárraga discovers Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas".
• * St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses.
• July 21 - Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro.

  August

• August 1 - 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia.
• August 9 - Coronation of Edward VII as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India at Westminster Abbey in London.
• August 22
• * Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile, a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.
• * A 7.7 earthquake shakes the border between China and Kyrgyzstan killing 10,000 people.
• August 24 - A statue of Joan of Arc is unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, the French town which she stormed in 1429.
• August 30 - Mount Pelée again erupts in Martinique, destroying the town of Le Morne-Rouge and causing 1,000 deaths.

  September

• September 1 - The first science fiction film, the silent A Trip to the Moon, is premièred at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris, France, by actor/producer Georges Méliès, and proves an immediate success.
• September 19 - Shiloh Baptist Church stampede: 115 people are killed in a crush at a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, following a mistaken alarm of fire after an address by Booker T. Washington.

  October

• October 14 - Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Servillia premieres in St. Petersburg
• October 16 - The first Borstal opens in Borstal, Kent, U.K.
• October 17 - First Cadillac completed, sold and sent to Buffalo, New York
• October 18 - Venezuela: President's Castro army overcomes rebels in seven-day battle
• October 21 - A five-month strike by the United Mine Workers in the United States ends.
• October 24 - One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century occurs at Santa María in Guatemala; over 6,000 people die.

  November

• November 1 - France attempts to neutralize Triple Alliance, signing agreement with Italy to remain neutral in Africa.
• November 15
• * King Leopold II of Belgium survives an attempted assassination in Brussels by Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino.
• * The Hanoi exhibition opens in French Indochina.
• November 16 - A newspaper cartoon depicting U.S. President "Teddy" Roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear cub inspires creation of the first teddy bear by Morris Michtom in New York City.
• November 30 - The second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, Harvey Logan, is captured after a shootout with lawmen in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is sentenced to a $5,000 fine and 20 years hard labor for robbery but escapes custody in 1903.

  December

• December-February 1903 - Venezuelan crisis: Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela, in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
• December 10 - The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed.
• December 17 - The Commercial Telegraph Agency, predecessor of TASS, is officially established under the Ministry of Finance at Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire.
• December 21 - Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi sends messages across Atlantic wireless
• December 30 - Discovery Expedition: British explorers Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.

  Date unknown

• The capital of French Indochina is moved from Saigon to Hanoi.
• Construction of the Paul Doumer Bridge, linking both sections of Hanoi, is completed.
• The first Korean Empire passports are issued to assist Korean immigration to Hawaii.
• De'Longhi home appliance brand is founded in Treviso, Italy.
• Daniels Linseed, predecessor of Archer Daniels Midland, a global livestock, commodities trading, food processing brand, is founded in Minnesota, United States.

  Births

January

• January 4 - John A. McCone, American politician, 6th Director of Central Intelligence
• January 8 - Georgy Malenkov, Soviet politician
• January 9
• * Sir Rudolf Bing, Austrian-born British opera manager
• * Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and saint
• January 11
• * Maurice Duruflé, French composer
• * Evelyn Dove, British singer and actress
• January 15
• * Nâzım Hikmet, Turkish poet and director
• * King Saud of Saudi Arabia
• January 16 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner
• January 20
• * Kevin Barry, Irish republican
• * Leon Ames, American actor
• January 22 - Daniel Kinsey, American hurdler
• January 25 - André Beaufre, French general
• January 26 - Menno ter Braak, Dutch author, polemicist
• January 31
• * Tallulah Bankhead, American actress
• * Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

  February

• February 4
• * Charles Lindbergh, American aviator
• * Hartley Shawcross, British barrister and politician
• February 8 - Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician
• February 9
• * Blanche Calloway, American jazz singer
• * Léon M'ba, 1st President of Gabon
• February 10 - Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• February 11 - Arne Jacobsen, Danish architect, designer
• February 12 - William Collier Jr., American actor
• February 14 – Thelma Ritter, American actress
• February 19
• * Kay Boyle, American writer
• * John W. Bubbles, American dancer and actor
• February 20 - Ansel Adams, American photographer
• February 22 - Herma Szabo, Austrian figure skater
• February 27
• * Gene Sarazen, American golfer
• * John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate