March 1912

March 1, 1912 (Friday)

Albert Berry became the first person to make a parachute jump from an airplane in flight, leaping from above the Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri, after being taken aloft by pilot Tony Jannus.

The British coal miners' strike, that had started earlier in the week at one company in Derbyshire, continued to spread across the United Kingdom, with one million workers walking off the job until a fair minimum wage could be guaranteed them.

Emmeline Pankhurst was among 148 suffragettes who were arrested in London, after they began breaking windows in order to attract attention. At 6:00 in the evening, the women, marching in favor of their right to vote, brought out rocks they had been carrying, and attacked storefronts in Westminster. "Never since plate glass was invented has there been such a smashing and shattering of it as was witnessed this evening when the suffragettes went out on a window-breaking raid in the West End of London," the New York Times wrote the next day. Attacks took place on famous streets such as the Strand, Haymarket, Piccadilly, Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, and even at Prime Minister Asquith's residence at 10 Downing Street. Mrs. Pankhurst was sentenced to two months in jail, along with Mabel Tuke and Christabel Marshall.

Hungarian composer Béla Bartók first heard Bulgarian folk music during a visit to the Austro-Hungarian principality of Transylvania, now part of Romania, where he had been collecting Romanian folk music.

Born: Boris Chertok, Russian rocket designer, in Łódź, Russian Empire (now Poland (d. 2011)

Died: George Grossmith, 65, English actor and comic writer; and Pyotr Lebedev, 46, Russian physicist who was the first to measure the pressure caused by light; and Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, 72, former Prime Minister of Denmark in 1909.

March 2, 1912 (Saturday)

As rioting broke out in response to the fall of the Manchu Dynasty in China, Beijing was placed under martial law. Foreign troops arrived the next day to protect the citizens of their respective nations.

U.S. President Taft issued a proclamation, warning American citizens to avoid visiting Mexico, and advising those who were living there to be prepared to leave.

Died: Edward Blake, 78, Canadian politician who led the Liberal Party from 1880 to 1887, but never served as Prime Minister

March 3, 1912 (Sunday)

Mexican General Pascual Orozco, who had helped Francisco I. Madero win the revolution of 1911 and become President of Mexico, declared a revolt against the Madero government after having been denied a major role. Orozco and his followers, the "Orozquistas", then assisted Victoriano Huerta in overthrowing Madero.

March 4, 1912 (Monday)

Ground was broken for Ebbets Field by Charles Hercules Ebbets, who had sought to build a wholly owned stadium for his baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The city of Duncan, British Columbia, was incorporated.

Born: Afro Basaldella, Italian painter (d. 1976); and Judith Furse, British character actress (d. 1974)

Died: Augusto Aubry, 62, Commander of Italian Navy during the Italo-Turkish War, of illness while on the flagship Vittorio Emanuele at Taranto; and Alexander Arthur, 65, British entrepreneur who founded the cities of Middlesboro, Kentucky and Harrogate, Tennessee

March 5, 1912 (Tuesday)

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology received a check in the amount of 2.5 million dollars (equivalent to $50,000,000 today) from Eastman Kodak founder George Eastman, fueling the growth of MIT to national prominence.

King Vajiravudh of Siam (now Thailand) ordered mass arrests of officers of the Siamese Army, who had been conspiring to overthrow his government. Most had been graduates of the 1909 class of the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy.

Born: David Astor, British newspaper publisher (d. 2001); Gangubai Hangal, Hindustani classical musician, in Dharwad, British India (d. 2009); and Velma Bronn Johnston, animal rights activist known as "Wild Horse Annie", who successfully campaigned to save and protect American wild horses (d. 1977)

March 6, 1912 (Wednesday)

The National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) introduced the Oreo cookie. The Hydrox cookie, which also consisted of two chocolate cookies with a creme filling in-between, had been introduced by Sunshine Biscuits in 1908, but was less popular, and the brand name was changed in 1999 to "Keebler Droxies".

Italian forces became the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles dropped bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.

China's Provisional National Assembly voted to accept the resignation of President Sun Yat-sen and to elect Yuan Shih-kai to succeed him.

Nicaragua's President, Adolfo Díaz ordered the arrest of nearly one hundred newspaper editors and reporters, for implying the threat of harm to visiting U.S. Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, who was touring Central America.

Died: Manuel Sánchez Mármol, 72, Mexican novelist

Died: General Julio Andrade, seven weeks after suppressing the Ecuadorian rebellion, was killed by his own troops.

Born: George Webb, British actor who portrayed "Daddy" on the TV comedy Keeping Up Appearances (d. 1998)

March 7, 1912 (Thursday)

Norwegian Antarctic Expedition: Roald Amundsen and the ship Fram sailed into Hobart at the Australian state of Tasmania, after having departed Antarctica on January 30. Upon his arrival, he brought the news that he and his party of five had become the first persons to reach the South Pole, planting the flag there on December 14.

The U.S. Senate voted 76-3 to ratify the American arbitration treaties with the United Kingdom and France, with amendments that removed most controversies from being arbitrated.

Bulgaria and Serbia signed a mutual defense agreement, providing that if one nation was attacked by the Austro-Hungarian or Ottoman Empires, the other would go to war as well.

Károly Khuen-Héderváry, the Prime Minister of Hungary within Austro-Hungary, resigned along with his cabinet after a dispute with the Austrian government.

Standard Oil of Indiana (now Chevron) increased its capital stock from one million to a record $30,000,000 following a vote by its shareholders.

March 8, 1912 (Friday)

Germany's Reichstag approved a bill to make the Imperial German Navy the greatest in the world by 1920, with construction of 60 larges ships and 40 cruisers. One historian noted that the new law proved to be "the death knell to any potential understanding between Britain and Germany". The expansion of the German Navy would be halted, and then reversed, by Germany's 1918 defeat in World War One.

The German Antarctic mapping expedition, led by Wilhelm Filchner, was brought to a halt when its ship, Deutschland, became entrapped in the polar ice pack at the Weddell Sea. The ship would be trapped for eight months within the moving pack, finally breaking free on November 25, and nearly 750 miles further away from Antarctica.

Born: Preston Smith, Governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973, in Williamson County, Texas (d. 2003); Meldrim Thomson, Jr., Governor of New Hampshire 1973-79, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania (d. 2001); Vladimir Bakarić, Premier of Yugoslavian state of Croatia, in Velika Gorica, Austria-Hungary, now Croatia (d. 1983); and Ray Mueller, American baseball catcher, in Pittsburg, Kansas (d. 1994);

March 9, 1912 (Saturday)

The University of Wisconsin basketball team, which would later be proclaimed, retroactively, the national champions for the 1911-1912 season by the Helms Foundation, saved its claim to an unbeaten record after winning 29-26 in overtime in an away game at the University of Minnesota. On March 15, the Badgers would defeat Indiana University, 32-21, to finish the season unbeaten (15-0).

The Lawrence textile strike ended after the owners of the various clothing mills increased employee wages by at least 5 percent.

March 10, 1912 (Sunday)

Yuan Shih-kai was sworn in as the provisional President of the Republic of China. Described by one historian as "a traitor to the republic just as he had betrayed the Qing" Empire, Yuan would move the capital of the republic from Nanjing back to Beijing, then re-establish the monarchy in 1915 with himself as the new Emperor. Yuan would die in 1916.

Born: George C. McGhee, American diplomat, in Waco, Texas (d. 2005);

March 11, 1912 (Monday)

The University of Hong Kong held its first classes, starting with 70 students and a medical school. It now has more than 22,000 students.

The provisional constitution of the Republic of China, with 56 articles, was promulgated, giving most executive power to a prime minister and cabinet. It would be replaced in 1914 with a new constitution giving more power to President Yuan.

The Miners' Federation of Great Britain offered to meet with the Prime Minister.

Coal miners in the German mining regions of Westphalia went on strike, with 200,000 walking off the job at Essen, Hamborn, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Bochum and Recklinghausen. The miners returned to work on March 16.

The British submarine A-3 was raised from Portsmouth harbour, along with the remains of the 14 men who had gone down with it when it sank on February 2.

Born: Xavier Montsalvatge, Spanish Catalan composer, in Girona (d. 2002)

Died: Stagger Lee Shelton, 57, American criminal who became the subject of the popular song "Stagger Lee"

March 12, 1912 (Tuesday)

Juliette Gordon Low, nicknamed "Daisy", founded the first Girl Scouts troop in the United States, bringing together 18 girls and 8 adults to her home at 329 Abercorn Street in Savannah, Georgia to create the "Girl Guides". Mrs. Low, a widow, had met with Sir Robert Baden-Powell, who had founded the Scouting movement in the United Kingdom in 1907, and then the British Girl Guides.

British coal operators and representatives of striking miners began their first direct talks, meeting in London.

McCreary County, Kentucky was established as Kentucky's 120th and last county, created from southern Pulaski County, western Whitley County and eastern Wayne County.

Born: Irving Layton, Canadian poet, as Israel Pincu Lazarovitch, in Târgu Neamţ, Romania. (d. 2006); and Paul Weston, American bandleader and musician, in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1990)

March 13, 1912 (Wednesday)

Mahlon Pitney was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, 50-26, to serve on the Supreme Court, and took office five days later.

The Quebec Bulldogs, champions of the National Hockey Association, won the Stanley Cup by taking the second game, 8-0, in a best-of-three series against the Moncton Victorias of the Maritime Professional Hockey League.

March 14, 1912 (Thursday)

In Hillsville, Virginia, storekeeper Floyd Allen was found guilty of interfering with the arrest of his two nephews. As the jury foreman was announcing the recommended sentence of a year in jail and a fine, a gun battle in the courtroom. Dead were Carroll County Judge Thornton Massie, County Sheriff Lew Webb, County Prosecutor W. M. Foster, a juror, a witness, and a spectator, while eight others were wounded, including Allen, who would be executed the following year, along with his son Claud.

Anarchist Antonio Dalba attempted to assassinate King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Helena at Alba; had been partaking of 12th anniversary of assassination of King Humbert.

Frederick Seddon was convicted of the 1911 poisoning murder of Eliza Barrow in a British court. He would be hanged on April 18.

President Taft prohibited shipment of weapons to Mexico. The embargo took effect on March 20.

1912 Lawrence Textile Strike: Striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, returned to work, after approving the wage agreement with the city's mills.

Born: Les Brown, American band leader, in Reinerton, Pennsylvania (d. 2001); and W. Willard Wirtz, U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1962 to 1969, in DeKalb, Illinois. (d. 2010)

March 15, 1912 (Friday)

Forty-five Russian miners were killed at explosion in Uzovka in Saratov Oblast.

Born: Lightnin' Hopkins, American musician, in Centerville, Texas (d. 1982); and Rogelio Barriga Rivas, Mexican author, in Tlacolula de Matamoros (d. 1961)

Died: Cesare Arzelà, 64, Italian mathematician known for the Arzelà–Ascoli theorem

March 16, 1912 (Saturday)

The P&O Line ocean liner Oceana, bound from London to Bombay, sank after colliding with the German barge Pisagua at Beachy Head. All of the 241 passengers and crew were evacuated from the ship, but nine people died when their lifeboat, first to be launched, was swamped and capsized, and another lifeboat took on so much water that it was on the verge of turning over before its occupants were saved. One author would note later that the event "surely contributed to the initial reluctance of Titanic passengers to board their lifeboats" Richard Davenport-Hines, Titanic Lives: Migrants and Millionaires, Conmen and Crew (HarperCollins UK, 2012) the following month.

After removal of the bodies of the sailors who died in its 1898 explosion, the U.S.S. Maine was towed to sea by the USS Osceola into international waters, three miles from Havana Harbor, and sunk again to a depth of 620 fathoms (roughly 3,700 feet or 1,100 meters).

The U.S. Senate passed a bill giving "local citizenship" to residents of the Philippines who had been subjects of Spain in 1899. President Taft signed the bill into law on March 23.

Born: Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974, as Thelma Catherine Ryan, in Ely, Nevada (d. 1993)

March 17, 1912 (Sunday)

Lawrence Oates, one of the five remaining members of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition, left the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time." Captain Scott, who was already seriously ill after he and his group marched back from the South Pole, reported the event in his diary, but was not sure whether it happened on the 17th or 18th. Oates's body would never be found.

Despite a general amnesty proclaimed on March 11 by President Yuan, 200 rebels in China were executed at Guangzhou.

Born: Bayard Rustin, American civil rights activist, in West Chester, Pennsylvania (d. 1987)

Died: Anna Filosofova, 74, Russian feminist; and George W. Melville, 71, U.S. Navy admiral, engineer, and Arctic explorer.

March 18, 1912 (Monday)

In San Antonio, Texas, 26 people were killed, and another 32 injured, by the explosion of a boiler on a locomotive owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Most were repairmen working for the railroad, but some were local residents.

U.S. Senator Albert B. Cummins of Iowa introduced a bill for a nationwide primary election to select presidential and vice-presidential party nominees, as well as electors, to be held on the second Monday of July prior to every presidential election, beginning with July 8, 1912, and prohibiting American political parties from holding nomination conventions.

Born: Lucien Laurin, Canadian racehorse trainer (including Secretariat and Riva Ridge; in Joliette, Quebec (d. 2000); Sabicas (Agustín Castellón Campos), Spanish flamenco guitarist, in Pamplona (d. 1990); Wilhelm Schäfer, German author, in Ottrau; and Art Gilmore, American radio and television announcer, in Tacoma, Washington (d. 2010)

March 19, 1912 (Tuesday)

The first statewide presidential primary ever held in the United States took place in North Dakota, where Republican Party voters favored Robert M. LaFollette over former President Theodore Roosevelt. William Howard Taft, the incumbent President, finished third.

Rebels took over Asuncion in Paraguay.

March 20, 1912 (Wednesday)

Shortly after 9:00 in the morning, an explosion at the Mine #2 of the Sans Bois Coal Company in McCurtain, Oklahoma, killed 52 men.

March 21, 1912 (Thursday)

Revolutionaries seized control of the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion after two days of fighting. General Emiliano González Navero, who had been President from 1908 to 1910, took control the next day as the President of the provisional government after President Pena took refuge at the Uruguayan embassy. (March 23)

Died: David J. Foster, 54, U.S. Congressman from Vermont in his sixth term.

March 22, 1912 (Friday)

Thomas MacKenzie was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand by members of the Liberal-Labour Party, which controlled the Parliament, winning 72-9. The incumbent Premier, Sir Joseph George Ward, deferred his resignation until MacKenzie could select a Cabinet.

Guy Bowman, publisher of the London newspaper Syndicalist, was sentenced to 9 1/2 years of hard labor on charges of inciting a mutiny.

The French Chamber of Deputies passed a vote of confidence approving the nation's policies in Morocco.

Women suffragettes in China occupied the National Assembly building in Nanjing.

Born: Karl Malden, American actor (The Streets of San Francisco), as Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago (d. 2009)

Died: Henry H. Bingham, 70, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania since 1879, American Civil War veteran, and Medal of Honor recipient. Nicknamed "The Father of the House", he was honored in 1885 by having Bingham County, Idaho, named in his honor.

March 23, 1912 (Saturday)

The recently recovered bones of the remaining 67 officers and men of the U.S.S. Maine, whose deaths led to the Spanish–American War, were buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Interred after fourteen years underwater, the remains, none identifiable, were placed in thirty-four coffins. In 1899, ninety-six of the crew had been buried at Arlington. "Maine Dead Receive Nation's Homage" New York Times, March 24, 1912

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany met with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.

Born: Wernher von Braun, German-born American rocket scientist, in Wirsitz, Germany (now Wyrzysk, Poland) (d. 1977); and Eleanor Cameron, Canadian-American children's author, in Winnipeg (d. 1996)

Died: Saint Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus Sancho de Guerra, 69, Spanish Basque nun and founder of the Religious Servants of Jesus of Charity, which had 43 missions in Spain at the time of her death. In 2000, she would be the first Basque person to be canonized.

March 24, 1912 (Sunday)

Kopassis Effendi, the disliked Ottoman Prince-Governor of the Greek province of Samos, was assassinated by a Greek national.

Born: Dorothy Height, African-American civil rights activist, in Richmond, Virginia (d. 2010)

March 25, 1912 (Monday)

Komma Fileleftheron, the Greek Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, won a majority of seats in elections in Greece.

The ambassadors of the "Four Powers" (the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France) presented a joint memo to the Chinese government, protesting China's recent borrowing of further money from Belgium.

Born: Jean Vilar, French stage actor, in Sète (d. 1971)

March 26, 1912 (Tuesday)

Eighty-one miners were killed in an explosion at the Jed Coal and Coke Company near Welch, West Virginia.

The gift, by Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki, of 3,000 cherry blossom trees, arrived in Washington, D.C.

Police in Rock Island, Illinois, fired into a crowd of rioters, killing three of them, as they marched toward City Hall, bitter about Mayor H.M. Schriver.

Following the results of an earlier primary, the Arizona Senate selected Marcus A. Smith and Henry F. Ashurst as the new state's first U.S. Senators.

March 27, 1912 (Wednesday)

Two weeks after the failure of his North American Wireless company, Lee De Forest, who had made radio broadcasting practical with the invention of the Audion tube, was served with an arrest warrant in Palo Alto, California, and charged in federal court with using the mail to defraud investors. De Forest was kept out of jail by friends who posted his bond, and was acquitted of the charges in 1913.

In London, the House of Commons passed the Minimum Wage Bill, 213-48. The measure passed the House of Lords on the third reading, without dissent, two days later and royal assent was given the same day.

By a vote of 40-34 in the United States Senate, U.S. Senator Isaac Stephenson of Wisconsin was exonerated of charges of corruption in securing his 1907 election, and allowed to return to his seat.

The New Mexico state legislature elected Albert B. Fall and Thomas B. Catron as the new state's first U.S. Senators, after 8 ballots. Four legislators were arrested during the balloting on charges of soliciting bribes.

Born: James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979; in Ringmer (d. 2005)

March 28, 1912 (Thursday)

A resolution to allow women the right to vote failed in the United Kingdom House of Commons was defeated, on its second reading, by eight votes, 208 to 222.

The "best interests of the child" became the standard in custody cases in Britain, by precedent established in the case of the Crown v. Walker

Being unable to directly prohibit the sale of white phosphorus matches, shown to be poisonous, the U.S. Senate voted to set a high sales tax on the product.

Born: A. Bertram Chandler, English-born Australian science fiction writer, in Aldershot (d. 1984)

March 29, 1912 (Friday)

The three remaining members of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition—Henry R. Bowers, 28; Dr. Edward A. Wilson, 39; and Captain Scott himself, 43—died while waiting out a blizzard in their tent, still nearly 150 miles from their base camp. Their bodies would be discovered by a search party in November.

Tang Shaoyi formed a cabinet as the first Prime Minister of China.

Mexico permitted the United States to ship 1,000 rifles and one million rounds of ammunition to American citizens living in Mexico.

New York's State Assembly voted 76-67 in favor of granting women the right to vote. Before the bill could go to the state Senate, Assemblyman, Cuvillier, moved to reconsider the vote and to table further action. His motion passed 69-67.

March 30, 1912 (Saturday)

France established a protectorate over Morocco after Sultan Abdelhafid signed a treaty at 1:30 pm with a representative of the foreign ministry. The "protection" included French power to introduce administrative, judicial, educational, economic, financial and military reforms" as deemed useful, and for the French Army to occupy Morocco as necessary to maintain order, and would last until 1956.

In the annual race between the rowing teams of Oxford and Cambridge, both boats sank after being swamped in rough weather. The race was rowed again two days later, with Oxford as the victor.

The Chamber of Deputies of France voted to approve a measure limiting a coal miner's work day.

Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, threatened to abdicate from the Austro-Hungarian throne if the governments of the two nations could not resolve their disagreement.

U.S. Senator Thomas Gore of Oklahoma was attacked with a club by Charles Schomulla while speaking at Waukesha, Wisconsin. One of the hosts, Judge P.C. Hamlin, pushed the would-be assassin off the stage. Senator Gore, who was blind, was unaware of the incident.

Died: Karl May, 70, German author of adventure stories (b. 1842)

March 31, 1912 (Sunday)

Edward Smith arrived in Belfast to take command of the recently outfitted White Star liner RMS Titanic, ten days before it was to begin its first voyage.

General Leonidas Plaza, the victor over rebel Army troops was selected as the new President of Ecuador. He had been President from 1901 to 1905.

The ship Terra Nova, which had carried Captain Scott's expedition party to Antarctica, arrived at New Zealand. Spokesmen reported that Scott's party had come within at least 150 miles of the South Pole and that he and the group would remain in the Antarctic for another winter, unaware that the five explorers had died on their way back from the South Pole.

Born: William Lederer, American author best known for The Ugly American, in New York City (d. 2009)

Died: Robert Love Taylor, 61, U.S. Senator for Tennessee since 1907; former Congressman and Governor