July 1902

July 11, 1902: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury, retires...

July 5, 1902: Erik Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden

... and is succeeded as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by his nephew, Arthur Balfour

The following events occurred in July 1902:

July 1, 1902 (Tuesday)

• The Raymond Stampede, Canada's oldest professional rodeo, is launched in Raymond, Alberta.^[1]
• The Philippine Organic Act is enacted by the United States Congress and becomes law, providing for the election of a Philippine Assembly following the cessation of the insurrection.^[2]
• Oliver Robert Hawke Bury becomes general manager of Britain's Great Northern Railway, after working for the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway in Argentina.^[3]
• Luceafărul ("Evening Star"), a literary magazine in the Romanian language, is published for the first time, in Budapest.^[4]
• Born: William Wyler, US film director, in Mülhausen, Alsace-Lorraine (now Mulhouse, France), under the name Wilhelm Weiller (died 1981)
• Died: Anthony Giuseppe, an immigrant involved in the coal miners' strike, apparently accidentally shot by Coal and Iron Police at a Lehigh Valley Coal Company colliery in Old Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, USA.^[5]

July 2, 1902 (Wednesday)

• The Wimbledon tennis tournament concludes, with British players Laurence Doherty and Muriel Robb taking the Men's and Women's Singles titles.^[6]

July 3, 1902 (Thursday)

• Ministerial Party candidate Henry Garde wins the by-election for Maryborough in Queensland, Australia, following the death of Charles Hastings Barton a few weeks earlier. On the same day, Digby Denham retains Oxley for the Ministerial party in the by-election caused by the death of Samuel Grimes.^[7]

July 4, 1902 (Friday)

• The Pacific Electric Railway opens an interurban line between Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.^[8]
• Born:
  • Meyer Lansky, US mobster known as the "Mob's Accountant", in Grodno, Russian Empire, as Meier Suchowlański^[9] (died 1983)
  • George Murphy, US dancer, actor, and politician, in New Haven, Connecticut (died 1992)
• Died: Swami Vivekananda, 39, Indian religious leader, during meditation practice. He had previously predicted that he would not reach the age of forty.^[10]

July 5, 1902 (Saturday)

• Following the resignation of Fredrik von Otter, Erik Gustaf Boström becomes Prime Minister of Sweden for a second time, having previously served from 1891 to 1900.
• 500,000 dinners are served to Londoners to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, even though the ceremony has been postponed until August because of the King's illness, in an exercise supervised by Sir Thomas Lipton.^[11]
• The only cricket Test match ever played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, England, is won by the touring Australian XI.

July 6, 1902 (Sunday)

• Died: Maria Goretti, 11, Italian Catholic saint, murdered by Alessandro Serenelli

July 8, 1902 (Tuesday)

• Service of Reclamation within U.S. Geological Survey.

July 10, 1902 (Thursday)

• The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, results in the deaths of 112 miners, mostly killed by methane gas poisoning following an explosion.^[12]
• Born: Kurt Alder, German-Polish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate, in Königshütte (died 1958)

July 11, 1902 (Friday)

• The Marquess of Salisbury retires as British prime minister, for health reasons, to be replaced by his nephew Arthur Balfour.
• The Order of the Garter is conferred by King Edward VII of the United Kingdom on Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
• Born: Rolf Widerøe, Norwegian accelerator physicist, in Oslo (died 1996)

July 12, 1902 (Saturday)

• The first of the Neuquén-Cipolletti bridges on Argentina's Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway is opened. The first locomotive to pass over it, number 205, is driven by Antonio Mazzarolo.^[13]

July 14, 1902 (Monday)

• St Mark's Campanile, the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, completely collapses, demolishing the logetta and killing the caretaker's cat.^[14]

July 16, 1902 (Wednesday)

• Born: Alexander Luria, Russian neuropsychologist, in Kazan (died 1977)

July 17, 1902 (Thursday)

• Willis Carrier installs an early air conditioning system at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company premises in Buffalo, New York.
• The Texas Mexican Railway is converted to a standard gauge.

July 18, 1902 (Friday)

• A public sea-water bath is opened at Kalvebod Brygge Copenhagen, Denmark.^[15]

July 21, 1902 (Monday)

• Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Born: Joseph Kesselring, US playwright, in New York City (died 1967)

July 22, 1902 (Tuesday)

• The British Museum Act 1902 is given the Royal Assent, empowering the trustees to remove "newspapers and other printed matter which are rarely required for public use" to a remote storage location. These would form the basis of the British Library Newspapers Division at Colindale.^[16]
• Died: Thomas Croke, 78, Irish Catholic bishop of Auckland, New Zealand, and Archbishop of Cashel

July 23, 1902 (Wednesday)

• Bournemouth Corporation Tramways begins operating in Bournemouth, Hampshire, UK.^[17]

July 25, 1902 (Friday)

• Boxer Bob Fitzsimmons fails in his bid to recover the World Heavyweight Championship, when defeated by James J. Jeffries with an eighth-round knockout in San Francisco, USA.

July 27, 1902 (Sunday)

• Died: Gustave Trouvé, 63, French electrical engineer and inventor (septicemia)

July 28, 1902 (Monday)

• Born:
  • Karl Popper, Austrian philosopher, in Vienna (died 1994)
  • Albert Namatjira, Australian painter, in Hermannsburg, Northern Territory (died 1959)

July 29, 1902 (Tuesday)

• In the Leeds North by-election in the UK, brought about by the sitting MP, William Jackson, having been created Baron Allerton, Liberal candidate Rowland Barran takes the seat from the Conservatives with a majority of 758.^[18]

July 30, 1902 (Wednesday)

• The militia is used to restore order in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, after a street fight between striking coal miners and police, which resulted in at least one death.^[19]
• The 6th annual Bible Institute begins at Earlham College, a Quaker institution in the United States.

July 31, 1902 (Thursday)

• The inaugural Circuit des Ardennes motor race takes place near Bastogne, and is won by British driver Charles Jarrott.
• The lower section of the Great Orme Tramway, the longest funicular railway in the British Isles, is opened at Llandudno, Wales.^[20]

References