January 2
January 2
Russian fleet surrenders at Port Arthur
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…
A Year In History: 1905
Also Within This Year in History:
1905
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.
January 22
January 22
Bloody Sunday Massacre in Russia
Well on its way to losing a war against Japan in the Far East, czarist Russia is wracked with internal discontent that finally explodes into violence in St. Petersburg in…
January 25
January 25
World’s largest diamond found
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…
February 13
February 13
Teddy Roosevelt discusses America’s race problem
On February 13, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a speech to the New York City Republican Club. Roosevelt had just won reelection, and in this speech, he discussed the country’s…
March 17
March 17
Franklin Roosevelt marries Eleanor Roosevelt
Future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt weds his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, in New York on March 17, 1905. Eleanor, born Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in New York in 1884,…
March 31
March 31
The First Moroccan Crisis
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…
May 5
May 5
British murder trial begins, the first to be solved by fingerprint evidence
Trial starts in the murder case of Thomas and Ann Farrow, shopkeepers in South London. The case would be the first resolved on the basis of fingerprint evidence. The neighbors…
May 27
May 27
The Battle of Tsushima
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,…
June 19
June 19
Pioneering Nickelodeon theater opens
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…
June 30
June 30
Einstein publishes his groundbreaking theory of relativity
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…
July 11
July 11
Members of the Niagara Movement meet for the first time
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…
October 30
October 30
George Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” premieres in New York, causing a scandal
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…
December 10
December 10
O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is published
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…
