1900 in the United States

← 1899 1898 1897 1900 in the United States → 1901 1902 1903
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	History of the United States (1865–1918) Timeline of United States history (1900–1929) List of years in the United States

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Events from the year 1900 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

• President: William McKinley (R-Ohio)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: David B. Henderson (R-Iowa)
• Congress: 56th

Events

January–March

• January 1 – Hawaii asks for a delegate at the U.S. Republican National Convention.
• January 2
  • John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
  • The first electric bus becomes operational in New York City.
• January 3
  • The United States Census estimates the country's population was 70 million.
  • Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida makes its U.S. debut.^[1]
• January 5 – Dr. Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University discovers the cause of the Earth's magnetism.
• January 8 – President of the United States William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
• January 14 – The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
• January 17
  • Brigham H. Roberts is refused a seat in the United States House of Representatives because of his polygamy.
  • Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaim independence from Mexico.
• January 29 – The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.
• February 3 – Kentucky Governor William Goebel dies of wounds after being shot by assassins on January 30. Goebel, who had prevailed in a dispute over the winner of the 1899 election, had been sworn in on his deathbed.
• February 5 – Britain and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.
• February 7
  • San Francisco plague of 1900–1904 begins.
  • After a 13-day special session, the California legislature votes for Thomas R. Bard to fill the vacancy for its U.S. Senator vacant since March 1899.
• February 9 – Dwight F. Davis creates the Davis Cup tennis tournament.
• March 5 – Two U.S. cruisers are sent to Central America to protect U.S. interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
• March 6 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia kills 50 miners.
• March 15 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
• March 24 – New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

April–June

• April 30
  • Hawaii becomes an official U.S. territory
  • Famous Train Engineer Casey Jones, dies in a wreck in Vaughan, Mississippi, while saving all of the passengers on his train.
• May 1 – Scofield Mine disaster: An explosion of blasting powder in coal mine in Scofield, Utah kills at least 200.
• May 23 – Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner (July 18, 1863). While he is the 21st African American recipient of the medal, the action for which he is honored pre-dates all other African American recipients.
• June 7 – American temperance activist Carrie Nation enters a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas, and destroys its stock of alcoholic beverages with rocks.
• June 30 – Hoboken Docks Fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line spreads to German passenger ships Saale, Main, and Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.

July–September

• July 25 – The Robert Charles Riots occur in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
• September 8 – The Galveston Hurricane makes landfall at Galveston, Texas, eventually killing 6,000–12,000 in the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
• September 13 – Philippine–American War: Filipino resistance fighters defeat a large American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa.
• September 17 – Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.

October–December

• c. October 3 – The Wright brothers begin their first manned glider experimental flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
• November 3 – The first automobile show in the United States opens at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
• November 6 – U.S. presidential election, 1900: Republican incumbent William McKinley is reelected by defeating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan on a record turnout of 73.7%.

Undated

• Milton S. Hershey introduces the milk chocolate Hershey bar.
• In New Haven, Connecticut, Louis Lassen of Louis' Lunch makes the first modern-day hamburger sandwich.
• At the Carnegie Steel Company, Slavs and Italians produce one-third of the world's total steel supply.
• The Tramp and the Crap Game silent film is released.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• Philippine–American War (1899–1902)

Births

Deaths

• January 2 – Zenas Bliss, Union Army general and Medal of Honor recipient (born 1835)
• January 22 – David Edward Hughes, inventor of the microphone and teleprinter (born 1831)
• February 18 – Clinton L. Merriam, banker and politician (born 1824)
• February 20 – Washakie, head chief of the Eastern Snakes (born c.1798/1810)
• February 22 – Dan Rice, clown (born 1823)
• March 19 – John Bingham, politician and lawyer (born 1815)
• April 7 – Frederic Edwin Church, landscape painter (born 1826)
• April 24 – Andrew Smith Hallidie, inventor and cable car pioneer (born 1836)^[2]
• April 30 – Casey Jones, legendary train engineer (born 1863)
• May 22 – Nathaniel P. Hill, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1879 to 1885 (born 1832)
• June 11 – Maria Isabella Boyd, U.S. Civil War spy for the Confederacy (born 1844)
• June 12 – Lucretia Peabody Hale, journalist and author (born 1820)^[3]
• July 14 – John H. Gear, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1895 to 1900 (born 1825)
• August 2 – John Mason Loomis, lumber tycoon, Union militia colonel in the American Civil War and philanthropist (born 1825)
• August 5 – Luke Pryor, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1880 (born 1820)
• August 12 – James Edward Keeler, astronomer (born 1857)
• August 13 – Collis P. Huntington, railroad promoter (born 1821)
• August 16 – John James Ingalls, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1873 to 1891 (born 1833)
• September 20 – John Alexander McClernand, lawyer, politician, and Union General during the American Civil War (born 1812)
• September 23 – William Marsh Rice, philanthropist and founder of Rice University (born 1816)
• September 25 – John M. Palmer, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1891 to 1897 (born 1817)
• September 29 – Samuel Fenton Cary, Congressman and prohibitionist (born 1814)
• October 20 – Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist (born 1829)
• October 22 – John Sherman, 32nd United States Secretary of the Treasury, 35th United States Secretary of State (born 1823)
• November 27 – Cushman Kellogg Davis, Governor of Minnesota from 1874 to 1876 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1887 to 1900 (born 1838)
• December 21 – Roger Wolcott, lawyer and politician, 39th Governor of Massachusetts (born 1847)
• December 31 – J.T. Wamelink, Dutch-born composer (born 1827)

See also

• List of American films of 1900
• Timeline of United States history (1900–1929)

References

Further reading

• "Domestic Chronology", Statistician and Economist, San Francisco: Louis P. McCarty, 1905, pp. 227–347, hdl:2027/uc1.b3142275 – via HathiTrust. (Covers events May 1898-June 1905)

External links

• Media related to 1900 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons