1903 in the United States

1903 in the United States
Decades:	1880s 1890s – 1900s – 1910s 1920s
Years:	1900 1901 1902 – 1903 – 1904 1905 1906
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Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1903 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: David B. Henderson (R-Iowa) (until March 4), Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-Illinois) (starting November 9)
• Congress: 57th (until March 4), 58th (starting March 4)

Events

January–March

• January 19 – The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east-west broadcast having been made in December 1901).
• January 21 – Section of Militia Affairs within the Adjutant General's office.
• February 11 – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.
• February 14 – Census Board within the Department of Commerce and Labor (Census Bureau).
• February 14 – Department of Commerce and Labor founded
• February 14 – U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor.
• February 15 – Morris and Rose Mitchom introduce the first teddy bear in America.
• February 23 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
• March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.
• March 14 – The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate later rejects the treaty.

April–June

• June 12 – The Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.
• June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, was nearly destroyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood.

July–September

• July 1 – U.S. Bureau of Fisheries within Department of Commerce & Labor.
• July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.
• August 9 – Commanding General post replaced by that of Chief of Staff of the Army.
• September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
• September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills 9 people, inspires a ballad and song.

October–December

December 17: Wright Flyer.

• October – Frank Nelson Cole proves that 2⁶⁷-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying for every Sunday for 3 years.
• October 1 – The first modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League.
• November 4 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.
• November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.
• November 18 – The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
• November 23 – Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.
• December 17 – Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.
• December 30 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.

Undated

• The Lincoln-Lee Legion is established to promote the temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children.
• The first box of Crayola crayons was made and sold for 5 cents. It contained 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.
• Coca-Cola removes cocaine as a key ingredient from their formula. At the time, Coca-Cola contained approximately nine milligrams of cocaine per glass.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)

Births

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Deaths

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External links

• Media related to 1903 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons