1900 in the United States

1900 in the United States
Years:	1897 1898 1899 – 1900 – 1901 1902 1903
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45 stars (1896–1908)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1900 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: William McKinley (Republican)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: David B. Henderson (R-Iowa)
• Congress: 56th

Events

January–March

• January 1 – Hawaii asks for a delegate at the U.S. Republican National Convention.
• January 2
  • John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
  • The first electric bus becomes operational in New York City.
• January 3 – The United States Census estimates the country's population was 70 million.
• January 5 – Dr. Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University discovers the cause of the Earth's magnetism.
• January 8 – United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.
• January 14 – The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
• January 17
  • Brigham H. Roberts is refused a seat in the United States House of Representatives because of his polygamy.
  • Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaim independence from Mexico.
• January 29 – The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.
• February 3 – Kentucky Governor William Goebel dies of wounds after being shot by assassins on January 30. Goebel, who had prevailed in a dispute over the winner of the 1899 election, had been sworn in on his deathbed.
• February 5 – Britain and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.
• February 9 – Dwight F. Davis creates the Davis Cup tennis tournament.
• March 5 – Two U.S. cruisers are sent to Central America to protect U.S. interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
• March 6 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia kills 50 miners.
• March 15 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
• March 24 – New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

April–June

• April 30 – Hawaii becomes an official U.S. territory.
• May 1 – Scofield Mine disaster: An explosion of blasting powder in coal mine in Scofield, Utah kills at least 200.
• May 23 – Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner (July 18, 1863). While he is the 21st African American recipient of the medal, the action for which he is honored pre-dates all other African American recipients.
• June 30 – Hoboken Docks Fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line spreads to German passenger ships Saale, Main, and Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.

July–September

Galveston Hurricane

• July 25 – The Robert Charles Riots occur in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
• September 8 – The Galveston Hurricane makes landfall at Galveston, Texas, eventually killing 6,000–12,000 in the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
• September 13 – Philippine–American War: Filipino resistance fighters defeat a large American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa.
• September 17 – Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.

October–December

• November 3 – The first automobile show in the United States opens at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
• November 6 – U.S. presidential election, 1900: Republican incumbent William McKinley is reelected by defeating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan.

Undated

• Milton S. Hershey introduces the milk chocolate Hershey bar.
• In New Haven, Connecticut, Louis Lassen of Louis' Lunch makes the first modern-day hamburger sandwich.
• At the Carnegie Steel Company, Slavs and Italians produce one-third of the world's total steel supply.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• Philippine–American War (1899–1902)

Births

• February 5 – Adlai Stevenson II, politician (died 1965)
• April 1 – William Benton, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1949 to 1953 (died 1973)
• May 12 – Joseph Rochefort, captain and cryptanalyst (died 1976)
• May 28 – Morris Talpalar, sociologist (died 1979)
• July 29 – Owen Lattimore, scholar of Asia (died 1989)
• September 8 – Claude Pepper, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1936 to 1951 (died 1989)

Deaths

• February 18 – Clinton L. Merriam, banker and politician (born 1824)
• April 7 – Frederic Edwin Church, landscape painter (born 1826)
• May 22 – Nathaniel P. Hill, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1879 to 1885 (born 1832)
• July 14 – John H. Gear, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1895 to 1900 (born 1825)
• August 5 – Luke Pryor, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1880 (born 1820)
• August 13 – Collis P. Huntington, railroad promoter (born 1821)
• August 16 – John James Ingalls, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1873 to 1891 (born 1833)
• September 20 – John Alexander McClernand, lawyer, politician, and Union General during the American Civil War (born 1812)
• September 25 – John M. Palmer, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1891 to 1897 (born 1817)
• November 27 – Cushman Kellogg Davis, Governor of Minnesota from 1874 to 1876 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1887 to 1900 (born 1838)
• December 21 – Roger Wolcott, lawyer and politician, 39th Governor of Massachusetts (born 1847)

See also

• List of American films of 1900

Further reading

• "Domestic Chronology", Statistician and Economist, San Francisco: Louis P. McCarty, 1905, pp. 227–347 – via HathiTrust . (Covers events May 1898-June 1905)

External links

• Media related to 1900 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons