June 1913

June 1, 1913 (Sunday)

Greece and Serbia signed an alliance to attack their former Balkan League ally, Bulgaria.

June 2, 1913 (Monday)

After President Wilson warned the public about the money being spent by lobbyists to fight tariff reform, the U.S. Senate ordered the Senate Judiciary Committee to prepare a report with "the names of all lobbyists attempting to influence such pending legislation and the methods that they have employed to accomplish their ends". Over the next six days, the 96 Senators were required to appear before a special subcommittee and to state, under oath, whether they had a financial interest in the outcome of any pending bills.

The town of Winona Lake, Indiana, was incorporated Al Disbro, Images of America: Winona Lake (Arcadia Publishing, 2012) p61

Born: Barbara Pym, British novelist, as Mary Crampton, in Oswestry (d. 1980)

Died: Alfred Austin, 78, British Poet Laureate since 1896.

June 3, 1913 (Tuesday)

The last known specimen of the Canary Islands oystercatcher (Haematopus meadewaldoi) was caught, then released, by British ornithologist D. A. Bannerman. Possible sightings were reported as late as the 1960s, but the bird is considered extinct.

Mexican rebels, commanded by General Lucio Blanco, captured Matamoros, Tamaulipas, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, and his wife Yekaterina, ate oysters for dinner, and then fell ill with typhus and were incapacitated for more than a month. p132

Born: Charles H. Fairbanks, American archaeologist, in Bainbridge, New York (d. 1984); and George Hourani, British philosopher and classicist, in Didsbury (d. 1984)

June 4, 1913 (Wednesday)

Suffragette Emily Davison was fatally injured when she ran in front of Anmer, the racehorse owned by King George V, in the running of the Epsom Derby. Davison came from out of the stands, ducked under a railing and past police, and ran out in front of the horse, who was in last place. Herbert Jones, who was riding Anmer, was thrown and was unconscious for two hours, while Davison was trampled by the horse and never woke up. She died four days later.

The Epsom Derby was won by Aboyeur, who had 100 to 1 odds against him and had finished in second place behind the favorite, Cragonour. After Cragonour was announced as the winner, an objection was raised by race stewards, because American jockey Johnnie Reiff had bumped other horses on the way to the finish.

Prime Minister László Lukács of Hungary and his cabinet resigned. Count István Tisza was asked by Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph to form a new cabinet.

In Chicago, world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson was sentenced to one year and one day in prison at Joliet, Illinois, after being found guilty of violating the Mann Act. He was also given two weeks to seek a reconsideration.

Shoeless Joe Jackson, at that time a player for the Cleveland Indians, in a game against the New York Yankees, hit what was believed to be "the longest home run ever hit in the major leagues up to that time".

June 5, 1913 (Thursday)

The Modest Mussorgsky opera Khovanshchina premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

Born: Nam Il, Foreign Minister of North Korea, 1953–1967, in Russia (d. 1976)

Died: Chris von der Ahe, 61, German-born brewer and baseball team owner

June 6, 1913 (Friday)

Prince Albert Frederick George, the 17-year-old son of King George V, and the future King George VI of the United Kingdom, made his first visit to the United States, crossing the border from Canada into Niagara Falls, New York. Prince Albert, who was in Canada with 60 cadets from the HMS Cumberland, wasn't immediately recognized in the crowd, but told reporters later that "This is my first trip to the continent and the first time I have stood under the Stars and Stripes on American soil."

Carlo L. Golino, Italian-American scholar, in Pescara (d. 1991)

June 7, 1913 (Saturday)

Archdeacon Hudson Stuck and a team of mountaineers (Harry Karstens, Robert Tatum and Walter Harper) made the first ascent to the summit of Mount McKinley in Alaska, with Harper becoming the first to reach the top. The feat was reported on June 20.

United Mine Workers President John P. White and 18 other union officials were indicted by a federal grand jury in Charleston, West Virginia, on charges of violating the Sherman anti-trust law.

The world's largest swimming pool, as wide as a city block (400 feet) and twice as long (600 feet), opened at Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey. The pool, made of cement, was constructed by park owners Nicholas Schenck and Joseph Schenck.

June 8, 1913 (Sunday)

Thirty thousand German athletes attended the dedication of the Deutsches Stadion at Grunewald, near Berlin, which was scheduled to host the 1916 Summer Olympics games (which did not take place)

Died: Emily Davison, British suffragette (b. 1872); and Charles Augustus Briggs, 72, American theologian and Biblical scholar

June 9, 1913 (Monday)

John Maynard Keynes, whose theories of economics would have worldwide impact, published his first book, Indian Currency and Finance.

Born: Dr. Patrick Steptoe, British obstetrician and gynecologist who, with Robert G. Edwards, pioneered in-vitro fertilization; in Oxford (d. 1988)

June 10, 1913 (Tuesday)

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law requiring newspapers to publish statements of circulation and ownership, and to mark advertising plainly.

Anna Johnson of Colfax, Wisconsin, became the first blind graduate of the Wisconsin School for the Deaf at Delavan, Wisconsin. Miss Johnson, who was blind, deaf and mute "with the further handicap of being minus one lower limb" had achieved honors in literature and history, and had plans to attend Gallaudet College.

Born: Benjamin Shapira, a German-born Israeli biochemist and recipient of the Israel Prize (d. 1993); Wilbur J. Cohen, U.S. Secretary of Health Education and Welfare 1968–1969, in Milwaukee (d. 1987); Tikhon Khrennikov, Soviet composer, in Yelets, Russian Empire (d. 2007); and John Edmunds, American composer, in San Francisco (d. 1986)

June 11, 1913 (Wednesday)

Turkish Grand Vizier Mahmud Shevket Pasha was assassinated in Istanbul. Shefket Pasha was being driven from the Ministry of War in a car, when another car pulled alongside him and ten shots were fired. Said Halim Pasha, the Foreign Minister, was appointed as his successor. Twelve "real or alleged plotters" were arrested, and hanged on June 24.

Battle of Bud Bagsak: A combined force of U.S. Army troops, Philippine Scouts and the Philippine Constabulary, led by General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing began a five-day battle against a contingent of 500 Moro warriors, after Chiefs Naquib Amil, Jami and Sahipa sent word that they would not surrender.

A record of 36 hours underwater was set by the Cage, a submarine invented by John Milton Cage, Sr., who had taken the boat down at 5:00 in the morning the day before, along with five other men.

The German ocean liner SS Imperator, largest in the world at the time, was launched from Hamburg.

Born: Vince Lombardi, American NFL coach, in Brooklyn (d. 1970); and Risë Stevens, American mezzo-soprano, in New York City (d. 2013)

June 12, 1913 (Thursday)

Klaus Berntsen resigned as Prime Minister of Denmark.

The death of 30 crewmen on a Spanish gunboat that had run aground in Morocco, at the hands of a group of rebellious Berber tribesmen, the Kabyle rebels, was revealed.

Even as both nations were preparing to go to war with each other, Serbia and Bulgaria agreed to Russian arbitration of their dispute over the territories captured during the First Balkan War.

Said Halim Pasha was appointed as the new Turkish Grand Vizier, serving until February 3, 1917.

John R. Bray, an American animator, premiered the innovative cartoon The Artist's Dream, which an author would later say was "the forerunner of the cartoon vogue" as the first popular animated film.

Billed as "the longest wooden bridge in the world", the 2.5 mile long Collins Bridge opened, turning the small town of Miami, Florida (1910 population 5,471) into a premier resort area by making Miami Beach more accessible to more tourists. Previously, the beach could only be reached from the mainland by ferry boat and was impractical as an investment.

June 13, 1913 (Friday)

The U.S. Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage reported favorably on a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution providing that the right to vote shall not be denied because of gender.

Attorney Walton J. Wood began work as the first public defender in the United States, earning $200 a month as an employee of Los Angeles County, California, to represent persons who could not afford a lawyer.

The U.S. government successfully broke up the monopoly held by gunpowder manufacturer E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (more commonly called DuPont). The corporation was split into three competing companies, DuPont (which would diversify into chemical manufacturing), Hercules Powder Company and Atlas Powder Company.

On the same day, the DuPont Cellophane Company, owned 52 percent by DuPont, was formed in partnership with a French consortium, for the American manufacture of the new French product, transparent cellophane sheets.

Died: Camille Lemonnier, 69, Belgian journalist and poet. Thomas J. Shaughnessy was born.

June 14, 1913 (Saturday)

Eleven construction workers for the Bradley Contracting Company were killed in the cave-in of new subways underneath Fifty-sixth Street in New York City.

The German battlecruiser Defflinger, first of its class and the most powerful German battleship up to that time, was launched. Moments after it was christened by the wife of General August von Mackensen, the ship moved only fifteen inches down the skids before it came to a halt, jammed because of a defect in one of the sledges.

The South African government passed the Immigration Act, which restricted the immigration of people from India.

June 15, 1913 (Sunday)

Battle of Bud Bagsak: Driven out by shelling from American and Philippine troops, the 500 Moro defenders, armed only with bolo knives and kampilan swords made a charge against the firepower of the Pershing contingent's artillery, and were killed. Pershing's troops sustained 27 casualties. The uneven battle brought an end to the Moro resistance. Other sources describe the battle happening on June 13, with the deaths of 2,000 Moro defenders, including women and children, as well as the death of 340 American troops.

June 16, 1913 (Monday)

Kaiser Wilhelm II celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ascension to the throne in 1888. "Twenty-five years of peace", the Kaiser told American industrialist and peace delegate Andrew Carnegie, "and I hope there will be twenty-five more". Germany would enter World War I less than fourteen months later. Half a million people lined the streets of Berlin to cheer the Kaiser and the Kaiserin. The Kaiser proclaimed an amnesty for "those whose misdeeds were committed through poverty or while in a state of irresponsibility", and for Army and Navy men punished for most violations of regulations.

Died: Della Fox, 40, American comedian from the 1880s and 1890s

June 17, 1913 (Tuesday)

Dutch general election, 1913: The first round of elections took place in the Netherlands for 54 seats in the lower house, with 46 in the following week.

The Welsh Disestablishment Bill was passed on its second reading, by the British House of Commons, after having been reintroduced following rejection in the House of Lords. The Act, which would become law in 1914, provided for the Church of England to be disestablished in Wales in favor of a separate Church in Wales.

June 18, 1913 (Wednesday)

John Ernest Williamson, whose father had invented a transparent diving bell called the "photosphere", became the first person to take photographs from beneath the ocean surface, by taking a camera with him and snapping pictures while underwater inside the bell.

The Arab Congress of 1913 opened, during which Arab nationalists meet to discuss desired reforms under the Ottoman Empire.

The Hamburg-American ocean liner Imperator, the largest ship in the world, arrived safely in New York on its maiden transatlantic voyage.

French Algeria's Governor-General Charles Lutaud abolished the requirement for natives to obtain travel permits within Algeria, or from Algeria to mainland France.

Born: Sylvia Porter, American economist and journalist (d. 1991); and Robert Mondavi, American winemaker (d. 2008)

Died: Thomas Janvier, 63, American historian and short story writer

June 19, 1913 (Thursday)

The Parliament of South Africa passed the Natives Land Act, defining which areas could be owned by white South Africans, and which by black South Africans. Black South Africans were barred from purchasing or owning white persons' property.

The British House of Commons voted, 346-268, to acquit Attorney General Rufus Isaacs and Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George on charges of malfeasance arising from ownership of shares in the Marconi Company of America.

Thirteen people were killed in the collision of two trains near Vallejo, California.

Italian occupying forces fought a fierce battle against the Arab residents of Libya, at Ettangi, Tripolitania.

Maurice Prévost set a new airplane speed record, averaging 117 miles per hour in a flight of over 217 miles, in a circular course near Paris.

June 20, 1913 (Friday)

Australia's Prime Minister Andrew Fisher resigned after the defeat of the Australian Labor Party in parliamentary elections.

Romania mobilized its armed forces in preparation for an invasion of Bulgaria.

Ernst Schmidt shot five young girls in a school in Bremen.

Born: Lilian Jackson Braun, American mystery writer known for the "Cat Who series", starting in 1966 with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards; in Chicopee, Massachusetts (d. 2011)

Died: Major Sydenham Ancona, 89, former U.S. Representative, believed to be the last surviving member of Congress to have participated in the voting on the American Civil War in 1860; and Sir Frederick Johnstone, Earl of Annandale, 72, former British MP (1874–1885) and sportsman who won the English Derby twice.

June 21, 1913 (Saturday)

Georgia Thompson "Tiny" Broadwick became the first woman to parachute from an airplane, jumping from a plane piloted by aviator Glenn L. Martin over Los Angeles. Broadwick had volunteered to test Martin's invention of a "trap seat" that would allow people to bail out of an airplane more quickly.

Carl Theodor Zahle, who previously had served as Konseilspræsident (Council President, or Prime Minister of Denmark), formed a new cabinet to succeed Klaus Berntsen.

Born: Jim Cavanagh, Australian Senator for South Australia (1962–1981), Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (1973–75), near Adelaide (d. 1990)

Died: Charles E. Nash, 69, first African-American Congressman for Louisiana, in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1875–1877 during the Reconstruction Era

June 22, 1913 (Sunday)

Serbia's Prime Minister Nikola Pašić and his cabinet resigned because of the nation's lack of progress in negotiating with Bulgaria, after which the Serbian minister left Sofia. Pašić formed a new government when the Second Balkan War broke out days later.

Died: Judge Henry C. Jones of Alabama, 94, the last surviving member of the Confederate States of America Congress, having served as a C.S. Representative from 1861 to 1862.

June 23, 1913 (Monday)

U.S. President Wilson addressed a joint session of Congress on his support of the McAdoo-Owen-Glass Banking Bill, and the need to create a federal reserve system for banking. The legislation would pass at the end of the year as the Federal Reserve Act.

The first of 32 men were hanged for the assassination of Turkish Grand Vizier Shefket Pasha.

The predecessor of the Aldi store chain opened in Essen, Germany.

Born: William P. Rogers, U.S. Secretary of State 1969–73, and U.S. Attorney General 1957–61, in Norfolk, New York (d. 2001); Nathan Abshire, American Cajun musician, in Gueydan, Louisiana (d. 1981); Helen Humes, American jazz and blues singer, in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 1981); and Carlos A. Cooks, Dominican-American black nationalist, in Santo Domingo (d. 1966)

Died: General Nicolás de Pierola, 72, former President of Peru, 1896–1899; and Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, 85, British physician and expert in leprosy.

June 24, 1913 (Tuesday)

The explosion of a grain elevator at Buffalo, New York, killed 17 men and injured 50 others.

Joseph Cook was sworn in as the sixth Prime Minister of Australia after being requested by Governor-General Denman to form a new government.

Prime Minister Zahle announced in the Rigsdag that he would lobby for women's suffrage in Denmark.

Born: Vincent Ferrini, American poet, in Saugus, Massachusetts (d. 2007)

June 25, 1913 (Wednesday)

Less than a month after they had fought as allies in the First Balkan War, Bulgaria and Serbia battled each other at Zletovo.

The results of Dutch elections showed that the Liberal Party had obtained a 55-45 majority in the Chamber of Deputies.

Germany's Reichstag passed the German Nationality Law.

Astronomer Henry Norris Russell of Princeton University announced his discovery of a correlation between the total radiation of a star and its temperature.

Born: Cyril Fletcher, British comedian, in Watford (d. 2005)

June 26, 1913 (Thursday)

The Washington Senators hosted the Philadelphia Athletics for a baseball doubleheader, and batted first in the second game at D.C., a departure from the rule that the visitors start off the game at bat. The Athletics won 10-3. The oddity would not happen again for 94 years, until September 26, 2007, in Washington state, when the Seattle Mariners hosted the Cleveland Indians and batted first, in a game which Cleveland would win 12-4.

The city of Avalon, California, was incorporated.

Born: Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (d. 2008); and Maurice Wilkes, British computer scientist (d. 2010)

Died: Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th Duke of Sutherland, 61, "largest landowner in Europe except the Czar", with 1,385,000 acres of land, or more than 2,100 square miles.

June 27, 1913 (Friday)

Theo Heemskerk resigned as Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

Born: Richard Pike Bissell, American author of short stories and novels, in Dubuque, Iowa (d. 1977); Elton Britt, American country western singer, as James Britt Baker in Marshall, Arkansas (d. 1972); and Philip Guston, Canadian-born abstract expressionist painter and printmaker, as Philip Goldstein in Montreal (d. 1980)

Died: Philip Sclater, 83, British zoologist for whom one mammal (Sclater's lemur) and six different birds were named, including the erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri); from injuries received in a carriage accident

June 28, 1913 (Saturday)

The nine-mile long Lötschberg Tunnel through the Alps, linking Switzerland and Italy, was formally opened.

The merger of the Union Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad was dissolved in order to settle the antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The United States and Japan renewed their arbitration treaty in an event attended by U.S. Secretary of State Bryan and Japanese Ambassador Chenda.

Born: Franz Antel, Austrian filmmaker (d. 2007)

Died: Manoel Ferraz de Campos Salles, 72, 4th President of Brazil (1898–1902); and Wilhelm Schimmelpfennig, 73, German businessman and pioneer in commercial agency

June 29, 1913 (Sunday)

The Second Balkan War formally began with a surprise attack by Bulgaria on the armies of Serbia (at Slatovo) and Greece at Salonika. The war would last for six weeks, ending with Bulgaria's defeat. On August 10, 1913 Bulgaria would sign a treaty at Bucharest, ceding territory to Romania, Greece and Serbia.

In a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds, only one baseball was necessary for the entire game.

Died: Sir Samuel Gillott, 74, former Mayor of Melbourne, after falling down the stairs during a visit to his native England; and Alfred H. Love, 82, American peace activist, founder and President of the Universal Peace Union

June 30, 1913 (Monday)

Germany's Reichstag voted to increase the size of the nation's army by 136,000 officers and men.

Eleven boys in Lawrence, Massachusetts, were drowned in the collapse of a pier leading to a floating bathhouse in the Merrimack River. About forty young men were waiting for the doors to open and were stomping their feet while waiting for the doors to open.

The Mexican city of Guaymas fell to rebels.

Born: Alfonso López Michelsen, 32nd President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978; in Bogotá (d. 2007); and Harry Wismer, American football broadcaster and owner of the AFL's New York Titans 1960–62; in Port Huron, Michigan (died in accident, 1967)

Died: Frederick M. Shepard, 85, founder of the United States Rubber Company, of appendicitis. Shepard had also served as President of Goodyear Tire and Rubber for 41 years.