In 1911, a historic heatwave killed hundreds, possibly thousands, in the Northeastern U.S., while in New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took the lives of more than 140 trapped immigrant workers. Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the South Pole, the Titanic was launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and future president Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois.
Feb
06
On February 6, future president Ronald Reagan is born in Tampico, Illinois.
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Mar
18
On March 18, 1911, composer Irving Berlin copyrights “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” the multimillion-selling smash hit that helped turn American popular music into a major international phenomenon, both culturally and economically.
Mar
25
In one of the darkest moments of America’s industrial history, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns, killing 146 workers, on March 25, 1911. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers.
Fire hoses spray water on the upper floors of the Asch Building (housing the Triangle Shirtwaist Company) on Washington and Greene Streets, during the fire in New York City, March 25, 1911. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
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May
21
Six years after the First Moroccan Crisis, during which Kaiser Wilhelm’s sensational appearance in Morocco provoked international outrage and led to a strengthening of the bonds between Britain and France against Germany, French troops occupy the Moroccan city of Fez on May 21, 1911, sparking German wrath and a second Moroccan Crisis.
May
23
In a ceremony presided over by President William Howard Taft, the New York Public Library, the largest marble structure ever constructed in the United States, is dedicated in New York City. Occupying a two-block section of Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, the monumental beaux-arts structure took 14 years to complete at a cost of $9 million. The day after its dedication, the library opened its doors to the public, and some 40,000 citizens passed through to make use of a collection that already consisted of more than a million books.
May
30
Jul
05
On July 5, 1911, the mercury in Nashua, New Hampshire peaks at 106 degrees Fahrenheit, one of many record temperatures that are set in the northeastern United States as a deadly, 11-day heat wave hits the area. It would go on to kill at least 380 people—and by some estimates, as many as 2,000.
Jul
24
On July 24, 1911, American history scholar Hiram Bingham gets his first look at the ruins of Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world’s top tourist destinations.
Ruins of Inca city on Machu Picchu. | Location: Urubamba Province, Peru. (Photo by Jacques Haillot/Sygma via Getty Images)
Sygma via Getty Images
Aug
06
Aug
20
On August 20, 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends a blazingly fast telegram around the world via commercial service. Exactly 66 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sends a different kind of message—a phonograph record containing information about Earth for extraterrestrial beings—shooting into space aboard the unmanned spacecraft Voyager II.
In a This Day in History video, host Russ Mitchell takes us through the history of August 20th. On this day in 1953, the Soviet Union publically admitted it had tested a hydrogen bomb. On this day in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed a $1 billion anti-poverty bill. On this day in 1980, Reinhold Messner became the first solo climber to scale Mt. Everest. Also on this day in 1911, the New York Times sent a commercial cablegram around the world in 16 and a half minutes. And also on this day in 1977, Voyager II carried a message into space.
Aug
22
An amateur painter sets up his easel near Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, only to discover that the masterpiece is missing. Earlier in the day, in perhaps the most brazen art theft of all time, Vincenzo Perugia had walked into the Louvre, removed the famed painting from the wall, hid it beneath his clothes, and escaped.
Aug
29
Early in the morning of August 29, 1911, two butchers hear dogs barking in the corral of their slaughterhouse outside Oroville, California. When they go out to check, they encounter Ishi, believed to be the last surviving member of the Native American Yahi tribe.
Sep
07
Nov
01
Nov
27
On November 27, 1911, Elizabeth Jaffray, a White House housekeeper, writes in her diary about a conversation she’d had with President William Howard Taft and his wife about the commander in chief’s ever-expanding waistline.
Dec
14
On December 14, 1911, Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole, beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott.
1911: Norwegian explorer Captain Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole, inspecting ice fields near a glacier in the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
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