1913 in the United States

1913 in the United States
Decades:	1890s 1900s – 1910s – 1920s 1930s
Years:	1910 1911 1912 – 1913 – 1914 1915 1916
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48 stars (1912 – 1959)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1913 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: William Howard Taft (Republican) (until March 4), Woodrow Wilson (Democratic) (starting March 4)
• Vice President: vacant (until March 4), Thomas R. Marshall (Democratic) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-Missouri)
• Congress: 62nd (until March 4), 63rd (starting March 4)

Events

January–March

March 4: Woodrow Wilson begins the first of two terms as President

• February 1 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest train station.
• February 3 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.
• February 17 – The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays the works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th Century.
• March 4 – Woodrow Wilson succeeds William Howard Taft as the 28th President of the United States.
• March 4 – The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor.
• March 4 – The first U.S. law regulating the shooting of migratory birds is passed.
• March 7 – The British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in Baltimore harbor.^[1]
• March 13 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the United States.
• March 25 – Great Dayton Flood: Two days of rain in the Miami Valley flood the region and mark the worst natural disaster in Ohio's recorded history. Dayton is especially devastated.

April–June

• April 8 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.
• April 24 – The Woolworth Building opens in New York City.
• April 26 – Mary Phagan is raped and strangled on the premises of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta. Leo Frank is tried and convicted for the crime.
• May – The Paul Emile Chabas painting September Morn creates a national sensation in the U.S., and results in a court case in Chicago, Illinois.
• May 14 – New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.
• June – The first edition of the Christian esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross is published in the United States (it is still issued bimonthly today).
• June 13 – A International Railway (New York – Ontario) trolley and passengers are buried under the contents of an overhead garbage chute, that breaks in Niagara Falls, New York.
• June 15 – Bud Bagsak Massacre: U.S. troops under General John 'Black Jack' Pershing kill at least 2,000 civilians in Bud Bagsak, the Philippines.

July–September

• July 3 – The 50th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of American Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• July 10 – Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States (as of 2004^[update]).
• September 19 – Francis Ouimet wins the U.S. Open by 5 strokes, becoming the first amateur to ever win the event.

October–December

• October 3 – The United States Revenue Act of 1913 re-imposes the federal income tax and lowers basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.
• October 10 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• October 31 – The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.
• November 7–11 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 kills more than 250.
• November 26 – Phi Sigma Sigma, the first non-sectarian sorority, is founded at Hunter College in New York.
• December 1 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford is not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one sparks an era of mass production).
• December 21 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• December 23 – The Federal Reserve is created by Woodrow Wilson.

Undated

• The United States Soccer Federation is formed.
• The cities of Winston, North Carolina and Salem, North Carolina officially merge to become Winston-Salem.
• Portuguese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands (1878–1913) ends.
• 25,000 people die in industrial accidents in the US.
• The National Temperance Council is founded to promote the temperance movement.
• R. J. Reynolds introduces Camels, the first packaged cigarette.

Ongoing

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

Births

Jesse Owens born on March 31

Deaths

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References

External links

• Media related to 1913 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons