Table of contents

Events of 1906

January 31: Ecuador earthquake (8.6).

January–February

• January 1 – British India officially adopts Indian Standard Time.

• January 8 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York kills 21.

• January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, killing over 100 passengers in the ensuing disaster.

• January 31 – An earthquake (8.6 on the Richter scale) strikes Ecuador.

• 8 February – The Liberal Party, led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman, wins the United Kingdom general election with a large majority.

• February 11 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos.

• February 15 – Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in the U.K. Parliament take the name Parliamentary Labour Party.

• February 28 – Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, a novel depicting the life of an immigrant family in Chicago during the early 1900s.

March–April

• March 10 – An explosion in a coal mine in Courrières, France kills 1,060.

• March 15 – Rolls-Royce Ltd. is registered.

• March 17 – The Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity is founded at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

• March 18 – Traian Vuia flies a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

March 15: Rolls-Royce

• March 27 – The Alpine Club of Canada is founded in Winnipeg by Elizabeth Parker and Arthur Oliver Wheeler.

• April 7 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

• April 14 – The first service is held at African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, CA by W.J. Seymour, in a series later known as the Azusa Street Revival, an event which launches the Pentecostal Movement in Christianity.

• April 18 – The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.

• April 23 – In Tsarist Russia, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

The ruins of San Francisco following the April 18 earthquake and later fires

May–June

• May

• *Jack London's novel White Fang is serialized in The Outing Magazine.

• *Club Deportivo Guadalajara is founded.

• June

• * The first issue of the Annals of the Natal Government Museum (currently African Invertebrates) is published by Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

The cover of the first issue of the Annals of the Natal Government Museum published in June

• June 6 – Durham and Southern Railway operates its first revenue train, Bonsal to Durham, North Carolina.

• June 7 – The RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow. It is the world's largest ship.

• June 8 – Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.

• June 9- June 10 – Riots in Stockholm, Ladugårsdgärden end with 50 policemen injured.

• June 22 – Haakon VII and Maud of Wales are crowned rulers of Norway.

• June 25 – Harry K. Thaw shoots architect Stanford White.

• June 29 – Mesa Verde is declared a National Park.

• June 30 – The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

July–August

• July 1 – Sporting Clube de Portugal is founded.

• July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.

• July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer hastily and wrongly convicted of treason in 1899, is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army July 21, ending the Dreyfus Affair that exposed anti-Semitism in French society.

• August 16 – A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves approximately 20,000 dead.

• August 22 – The first Victor Victrola, a phonographic record player, is manufactured.

• August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion in the newly formed Cuban Republic, Pres. Tomás Estrada Palma requests U.S. intervention.

September–October

1906 St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph of Brad Robinson, who threw the first legal forward pass

• September 5 – Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University throws the first legal forward pass in an American football game.

• September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha to characterize the Non-Violence movement in South Africa.

• September 18 – A typhoon with a tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 persons in Hong Kong.

• September 22 – Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia result in 27 people killed and the black-owned business district severely damaged.

• September 24 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower the nation's first National Monument.

• September 26 – The first concert of the Telharmonium, the first music synthesizer, is presented at Telharmonic Hall, Broadway at 39th St., New York City.

• September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire.

• October 1

• *The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to adopt universal suffrage, giving women the right to vote.

• *The Madeira School, a private boarding school for girls, opens with 28 students attending classes in 2 buildings on 19th Street, just off Dupont Circle in downtown Washington, DC.

• October 6 – The Majlis of Iran convenes for the first time.

• October 11 – The San Francisco public school board sparks a United States diplomatic crisis with Japan, by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.

• October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over city hall in Köpenick for a short time, amusing all of Germany and other countries.

• October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France and flies 60 meters (200 feet).

• October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining trust, is created in the Congo.

November–December

• November 3 – SOS becomes an international distress signal.

• November 9 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal (the first time a sitting President of the United States makes an official trip outside of the United States).

• November 22 – Russian Prime Minister Peter Stolypin introduces agrarian reforms aimed at creating a large class of land-owning peasants.

• December 2 – The HMS Dreadnought (the first all-big-gun warship) is commissioned.

• December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first inter-collegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans, is founded at Cornell University.

• December 6 – The district of Chimbote is created in Peru.

• December 8 – The Petrified Forest, Arizona is designated a National Monument.

• December 10 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War (1905).

• December 14 – The first German submarine, U-1, enters the German Imperial Navy.

• December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.

• December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is released.

• December 30 – The All-India Muslim League, a political organization that represents the interests of Indian Muslims, is formed.

Undated

• The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunization for tuberculosis is first developed.

• Richard Oldham argues that the Earth has a molten interior.

• Construction begins on the current Great Mosque of Djenné.

• The muffuletta sandwich is invented in New Orleans, Louisiana.

• Belgian shopkeeper Edgar Everaert creates the Club Union Football(soccer) team.

• The Brown Dog statue is erected in Battersea.

• The Simplo Filler Pen company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company.

• Algeciras Conference.

• A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals revolt in Persia. The shah is forced to grant a constitution and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.

Births

January–February

• January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)

• January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist

• January 14 – William Bendix, American actor (d. 1964)

• January 15 – Edna Staebler, Canadian author (d. 2006)

• January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)

• January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American author (d. 1936)

• February 4

• *Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)

• *Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious leader and resistance leader (d. 1945)

• February 10

• *Lon Chaney, Jr., American actor (d. 1973)

• *Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)

• February 18 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)

• February 20 – John Kenley, American theatrical producer, the Kenley Players

• February 22 – Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt, Danish actor (d. 1982)

• February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress (d. 1987)

• February 28 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)

March–April

• March 1 – Pham Van Dong, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)

• March 4

• *Meindert DeJong, American author (d. 1991)

• *Charles Rudolph Walgreen, Jr., American businessman (d. 2007)

• March 6 – Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor and photographer (d. 1978)

• March 7

• *Elmar Lipping, Estonian statesman and soldier (d. 1994)

• *Thomas Posey, doctor, medical scientist (d. 1990)

• March 16

• *Henny Youngman, English-born comedian (d. 1998)

• *Francisco Ayala, Spanish writer

• March 19 – Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (d. 1962)

• March 20 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor and band leader (d. 1975)

• March 25 – A.J.P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)

• March 26 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican-born trumpet player (d. 1981)

• March 31 – Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)

• April 1 – Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d. 1989)

• April 4 – John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (d. 1995)

• April 9 – Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)

• April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)

• April 19 – Luis Alberti, Dominican Republic musician (d. 1976)

• April 22 – Eddie Albert, American actor (d. 2005)

• April 25 – William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1997)

• April 28

• *Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (d. 1978)

• *Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999)

May–June

• May 2 – Philippe Halsman, Latvian-born American photographer (d. 1979)

• May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)

• May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)

• May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)

• May 11 – Jacqueline Cochran, American aviatrix (d. 1980)

• May 12 – Maurice Ewing, American geophysicist and oceanographer (d. 1974)

• May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general and politician (d. 1965)

• May 16

• *Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter (d. 1988)

• *Arturo Uslar-Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)

• May 17 – Zinka Milanov, Croatian-born soprano (d. 1989)

• May 19 – Bruce Bennett, American athlete and actor (d. 2007)

• May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italilan Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)

• May 23

• *Allan Scott, American screenwriter (d. 1995)

• *Lucha Reyes, Mexican singer (d. 1944)

• May 27 – Buddhadasa, Buddhist monk (d. 1993)

• May 28 – Phil Regan, American actor (d. 1996)

• May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)

• May 30 – Bruno Gröning, German faith healer (d. 1959)

• June 3 – Josephine Baker, American actress (d. 1975)

• June 4 – Ivan Knunyants, Soviet chemist (d. 1990)

• June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born mathematician (d. 1993)

• June 12 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)

• June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)

• June 19

• *Earl W. Bascom, American rodeo pioneer, artist, inventor (d. 1995)

• *Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)

• June 20

• *Catherine Cookson, English author (d. 1998)

• *Robert Trent Jones, English-born golf course designer (d. 2000)

• June 22

• *Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (d. 2001)

• *Billy Wilder, Austrian-born screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)

• June 24 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)

• June 26 – Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer (d. 2008)

• June 28 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)

• June 30 – Ralph Allen, English footballer (d. 1981)

July–August

• July 1 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 2004)

• July 2 – Hans Bethe, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)

• July 2 – Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)

• July 3 – George Sanders, British actor (d. 1972)

• July 7 – William Feller, Croatian-born mathematician (d. 1970)

• July 7 – Satchel Paige, American baseball player (d. 1982)

• July 11 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (d. 1990)

• July 18 – S. I. Hayakawa, English academic and politician (d. 1992)

• July 23 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)

• July 25 – José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica (d. 1990)

• August 5 – Joan Hickson, British actress (d. 1998)

• August 6 – Vic Dickenson, American trombonist (d. 1984)

• August 9 – Robert Surtees, American cinematographer (d. 1985)

• August 12 – Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)

• August 14 – Horst P. Horst, German photographer (d. 1999)

• August 27 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)

• August 28 – John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)

September–October

• September 1

• *Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician and writer (d. 2002)

• *Franz Biebl, German composer (d. 2001)

• *Eleanor Burford, English writer (d. 1993)

• September 4 – Max Delbrück, German biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)

• September 6 – Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)

• September 8 – Andrei Kirilenko (politician), Soviet politician (d. 1990)

• September 17 – Raymond D. Mindlin, American mechanician (d. 1987)

• September 17 – Edgar Wayburn, American environmentalist

• September 21 – Henry Beachell, American plant breeder (d. 2006)

• September 25 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)

• October 6 – Janet Gaynor, American actress (d. 1984)

• October 9 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, President of Senegal (d. 2001)

• October 10 – Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan, Indian novelist (d. 2001)

• October 14

• *Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)

• *Hannah Arendt, German political theorist (d. 1975)

• October 15 – Hiram Fong, American businessman and politician (d. 2004)

• October 23 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)

• October 24 – Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky, Austrian painter (d. 1996)

• October 27

• *Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer

• *Earle Cabell, American politician (d. 1975)

November–December

• November 1 – Johnny Indrisano, American boxer and actor (d. 1968)

• November 2 – Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre and cinema director and writer (d. 1976)

• November 5 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)

• November 13 – Eva Zeisel, Hungarian-born industrial designer

• November 14 – Louise Brooks, American actress (d. 1985)

• November 16 – Henri Charrière, French author (d. 1973)

• November 17 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese industrialist (d. 1991)

• November 18

• *Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)

• *George Wald, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)

• December 5 – Otto Preminger, Austrian-born film director (d. 1986)

• December 6 – Ahn Eak-tae, Korean composer (d. 1965)

• December 9 – Grace Hopper, American computer scientist and naval officer (d. 1992)

• December 16 – Barbara Kent, Canadian actress

• December 19 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet leader (d. 1982)

• December 24 – James Hadley Chase, English writer (d. 1985)

• December 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)

• December 26 – Imperio Argentina, Argentinian singer and actress (d. 2003)

• December 27

• *Andreas Feininger, French-born photographer (d. 1999)

• *Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor (d. 1972)

Deaths

January–June

• January 29 – King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)

• February 9 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and publisher (b. 1872)

• February 13 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)

• February 27 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)

• March 13 – Susan B. Anthony, American civil rights and women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)

• March 19 – Victor Fatio, Swiss zoologist (b. 1838)

• March 29 – Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (b. 1877)

• April 6 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (b. 1849)

• April 11 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (b. 1839)

• April 19 – Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)

• April 19 – Spencer Gore, British tennis player and cricketer (b. 1850)

• April 24 – Mary Hunt, American temperance activist (b. 1830)

• May 14 – Carl Schurz, German revolutionary and American statesman (b. 1829)

• May 23 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (b. 1828)

• June 17 – Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess champion (b. 1872)

• June 20 – John Clayton Adams, British artist (b. 1840)

July–December

• August 26 – Victor, 5th duc de Broglie (b. 1846)

• September 1 – Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1847)

• September 5 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (b. 1844)

• October 8 – Adelaide Ristori, Italian actress (b. 1822)

• October 22 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)

• October 24 – Vladimir Stasov, Russian music critic (b. 1824)

• November 4 – John H. Ketcham, American politician (b. 1832)

• November 16 – Mother Veronica of the Passion, British religious leader (b. 1823)

Saint Petersburg Institutions Building (1905–06).

• December 7 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1833)

• December 9 – Ferdinand Brunetière, French critic (b. 1849)

• December 13 – Jan Gerard Palm, Dutch composer (b. 1831)

• December 21 – Acharya Rajendrasuri , Indian religious leader and reformer (b. 1827 )

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Sir Joseph John Thomson

• Chemistry – Henri Moissan

• Medicine – Camillo Golgi, Santiago Ramón y Cajal

• Literature – Giosuè Carducci

• Peace – Theodore Roosevelt