January 1903

The following events occurred in January 1903:

January 1, 1903 (Thursday)

• King Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India, a title first established during the reign of his mother, Queen Victoria.^[1]
• Konstantin Tsiolkovski's article, Explorations of outer space with the help of reaction apparatuses, is published, describing his Basic Rocket Equation.^[2]
• In the US, Syracuse Athletic Club defeats Orange Athletic Club 36–0 at Madison Square Garden, to win the 1902–03 World Series of Football.

January 3, 1903 (Saturday)

• The Norwegian ship Remittant is towed into quarantine in Queenstown, Ireland, as a result of an outbreak of beriberi among the crew.
• Died: Alois Hitler, 65, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (suspected pleural hemorrhage)

January 4, 1903 (Sunday)

• Died: Alexandr Aksakov, 70, Russian writer

January 5, 1903 (Monday)

• Died: Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, 77, Spanish politician, former Prime Minister (b. 1825)

January 6, 1903 (Tuesday)

• Born: Maurice Abravanel, Greek conductor, in Thessaloniki (died 1993)

January 8, 1903 (Thursday)

January 9, 1903 (Friday)

• The Irish cargo ship SS Palmas is last sighted whilst on a voyage from Liverpool, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The vessel is never seen again and is presumed to have sunk in the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all 39 crew.^[3]

January 10, 1903 (Saturday)

• Born: Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor, in Wakefield (died 1975)

January 11, 1903 (Sunday)

• Born: Alan Paton, South African author and anti-apartheid activist, in Pietermaritzburg (died 1988)

January 12, 1903 (Monday)

• Born: Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist, in Simsky Zavod (died 1960)

January 14, 1903 (Wednesday)

• The Hotel National, Moscow, designed by Alexander Ivanov and financed by The Varvarinskoe Joint-Stock Company of Householders,^[4] opens to customers.

January 16, 1903 (Friday)

• Born: William Grover-Williams, French racing driver and war hero, in Montrouge (died 1945)

January 17, 1903 (Saturday)

January 19, 1903 (Monday)

• The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been made in 1901).

January 20, 1903 (Tuesday)

• [United States Senate election in New York, 1903| In the New York election to the United States Senate]], incumbent Republican Senator Thomas C. Platt is re-elected.^[5]

January 21, 1903 (Wednesday)

• The US tugboat Leyden founders in heavy fog in the Atlantic Ocean off Block Island, Rhode Island, while returning from Puerto Rico.
• Robert Reid is appointed to the Australian Senate for Victoria to replace the recently-deceased Senator Sir Frederick Sargood.^[6]

January 22, 1903 (Thursday)

• Born:Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)

January 23, 1903 (Friday)

• Born: Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician, in Cucunubá or Manta^[7] (died 1948)

January 27, 1903 (Tuesday)

• Born: John Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in Melbourne (died 1997)

January 28, 1903 (Wednesday)

• Esmond Train Wreck: Fourteen people lose their lives when the Crescent City Express, bound for Benson, Arizona, US, collides head-on with the Pacific Coast Express, bound for Tucson, Arizona. The accident was caused by a communication failure.^[8]
• Died:
  • Augusta Holmès, 55, French composer (cardiac arrest)
  • Robert Planquette, 54, French composer^[9]

References