In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt began his second (and first elected) term as president, while his niece Eleanor Roosevelt and distant cousin Franklin Roosevelt (eventually to occupy the White House themselves), married. The Niagara Movement, a group of influential Black rights activists led by W.E.B. DuBois, met for the first time in Ontario, Canada. In Switzerland, Albert Einstein published a series of groundbreaking papers describing his work, including his theory of special relativity.
Jan
02
During the Russo-Japanese War, Port Arthur, the Russian naval base in China, falls to Japanese naval forces under Admiral Heihachiro Togo. It was the first in a series of defeats that by June turned the tide of the imperial conflict irrevocably against Russia.
Jan
22
Jan
25
On January 25, 1905, during a routine inspection of the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a mine superintendent made a glittering discovery: a 3,106-carat diamond. (Some sources say the discovery occurred on January 26.) Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the “Cullinan,” it was the largest diamond ever found.
3,106-carat diamond discovered during a routine inspection at Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa
Feb
13
Mar
17
Future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt weds his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, in New York on March 17, 1905.
(Original Caption) 3/17/1905- A rare photo of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt in bridal array at the time of her marriage, March 17, 1905. Mrs. Roosevelt describes her bridal ensemble in her autobiography, "This is My Story", as follows...'My own dress was heavy, stiff satin with shirred tulle at the neck and long sleeves. My grandmother Hall's rose-point Brussels' lace covered the dress, and the veil of the same lace fell from my head over my long train."
Bettmann Archive
Mar
31
On March 31, 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany arrives in Tangiers to declare his support for the sultan of Morocco, provoking the anger of France and Britain in what will become known as the First Moroccan Crisis, a foreshadowing of the greater conflict between Europe’s great nations still to come, the First World War.
May
05
May
27
During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Baltic Fleet is nearly destroyed at the Battle of Tsushima. The decisive defeat, in which only 10 of 45 Russian warships escaped to safety, convinced Russian leaders that further resistance against Japan’s imperial designs for East Asia was hopeless.
Jun
19
On June 19, 1905, some 450 people attend the opening day of the world’s first notable nickelodeon, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and developed by the brilliant Vaudeville impresario and showman Harry Davis. While it wasn't technically the nation's first theater for moving pictures, its runaway success made it, in many historians' view, the birthplace of the movie theater as a place for mass entertainment.
Jun
30
On June 30, 1905, Albert Einstein publishes “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper (On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies),” a paper that sets out his theory of special relativity, in the German physics journal Annalen der Physik. Einstein’s groundbreaking work shatters the foundations of physics.
Albert Einstein
ullstein bild via Getty Images
Jul
11
Niagara Movement members begin meeting on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. This all-African American group of scholars, lawyers and businessmen came together for three days to create what would soon become a powerful post-slavery Black rights organization. Although it only lasted five years, the Niagara Movement was an influential precursor to the mid-20th century civil rights movement.
Everett Collection
Oct
30
On October 30, George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession, which dealt frankly with prostitution, is performed at the Garrick Theater in New York. The play, Shaw’s second, had been banned in Britain. After only one performance, puritanical authorities in New York had the play closed. On October 31, the producer and players were arrested for obscenity, but a court case against the play failed to convict playwright, producer, or actors. Although some private productions were held, the show wasn’t legally performed in Britain until 1926.
Dec
10
Author O. Henry’s best-known and most beloved story, "The Gift of the Magi," is published in the December 10, 1905 issue of New York Sunday World Magazine. It tells the poignantly ironic tale of a poor but devoted couple who each sacrifice their most valuable possession to buy a gift for the other. The following April, it is published as part of his story second short story collection, The Four Million.
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