January
•
A Nor'easter strikes Boston on New Years Day, slowing down the
loading of ships in the harbor. The city was caught off-guard because the
Weather Bureau was closed for the holidays.
•
The electric bus makes its debut along New York's Fifth
Avenue. Bus fare was 5 cents.
•
In Chicago, seven US cities agree to form the American Association
of Baseball Clubs, which would later become known as the American League. The
American League teams hailed from Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago,
Detroit, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.
•
William J. Witt and Anna Waddilove of Jersey City, NJ are the
first recorded married couple of 1900. Ceremony takes place at Liederkrantz
Hall at one minute after midnight, January 1, 1900.
•
Dry goods salesman, A.P. Hurst of New York tells the Indianapolis
Journal that "the shirtwaist will be with us more than ever this summer. Women
are wearing shirtwaists because they can be made to fit any form, and because
they are mannish. Sleeves will be smaller, but not tight."
February
•
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line tests "The Wind Splitter," which
reaches speeds of over 102 mph.
April
•
Andrew Carnegie donates another $3.6 million to the Trustees of
the Carnegie Library and Institute in Pittsburgh
•
The Automobile Club of America hosts the US's first automobile
race in New York. Nine cars raced along Merrick road on Long
Island from Springfield to Babylon, twenty-five miles each way. A.L. Riker,
driving an electric motorcar, was the winner, finishing in just over two
hours.
•
Labor unrest dominates the news as ironworkers in Cincinnati, tinners and
sheet-metal workers in Kansas City, boilermakers in Akron, Ohio, and
Italian blacksmiths in Croton Landing, New York go out on strike, sometimes
turning violent.
•
Baseball season gets under way as teams from the newly formed American
League take to the field. Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Milwaukee,
Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Buffalo make up the charter cities with
teams in the upstart league.
•
James T. Caffery is the winner at the 4th running of the Boston
Marathon. Caffery, of Hamilton, Ontario finishes with a winning time of
2:39:44.
•
Admiral George Dewey announces from Washington, DC his willingness to
serve as president "if the American people want me for this high office."
May
•
In Washington, DC, the era of the horsecar comes to a close as the
last horsecar makes its final run.
June
•
In Washington, DC, heated debate in the US Senate over an
anti-trust bill threatens to shut down the government. Elsewhere in DC, the
Washington monument, featuring a seven-minute elevator ride, opens to tourists.
•
Republicans convene in Philadelphia to nominate presidential and
vice-presidential candidates. They choose William McKinley and Theodore
Roosevelt, respectively.
•
Players from baseball's National League meet in New York to form
The Protective Association of Professional Ball Players. Among other issues,
players protest being farmed out to other teams against their will.
•
Three-hundred and twenty-six steamship passengers and crew members
are killed as fire destroys 3 steamships and piers in Hoboken, New Jersey.
•
New York is the site of the Socialist Labor Party convention where Joseph
P. Maloney of Massachusetts and Valentine Remmel of Pennsylvania are nominated
for president and vice-president, respectively.
•
The Prohibition Party chooses John G.Wooley of Illinois as their
presidential candidate and Henry B. Metcalf of Rhode Island as their
vice-presidential contender.
•
The International Ladies' Garment Workers Union is founded by
cloakmakers on New York's Lower East Side. The union represents 2,300 workers
in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
July
•
King Humbert I of Italy is assassinated at Monzo by silk
weaver Gaetano Bresci, an avowed anarchist who had formerly lived in Paterson,
New Jersey.
August
•
Booker T. Washington's National Negro Business League is formed in
Boston, Massachusetts with the objective of stimulating African American
businesses. Washington was elected the organization's first president.
•
The death of a policeman, wounded in a scuffle with an African
American, sets off racial violence in New York City. The New York Times
reported that "every trolley car passing up or down Eight Avenue was stopped
and every Negro on board was dragged out, and beaten." The uproar led to
demands for investigations into police brutality in New York City.
September
•
With a record of 82 wins and 54 losses, the Brooklyn
Dodgers capture the National League pennant.
•
Coal miners, led by John Mitchell, stage a massive strike in
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania
October
•
Authorities in New York report an increase in the number of
cocaine users.
•
The 2,500-seat Symphony Hall opens in Boston. The facility was
designed by McKim, Mead and White of New York at a cost of $750,000. Attendees
at the inaugural performance enjoyed a performance of a chorale by J.S. Bach
and Beethoven's Solemn Mass in D.
November
•
Tragedies on the football gridiron occur in Lowell, Massachusetts
and Chicago, Illinois. In Lowell, 18 year-old Louis Gilmore is killed
during the annual Thanksgiving Day game, while 16 year-old William Bartlett of
Chicago dies during a neighborhood contest. Both boys succumbed to injuries to
the spine.
•
The first concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra, made up of the city's
residents, is performed at the Academy of Music.
•
Thirty-one exhibitors attend the first US national automobile show at New
York's Madison Square Garden.
•
The marriage of Louisa Pierpont Morgan, daughter of J.P. Morgan,
to Captain Herbert Satterlee, in New York City is the social event of
the season as fifteen hundred invitations are sent out.
•
The annual football contest between rivals Harvard and Yale, played at
Yale Stadium in New Haven, Connecticut, finishes with Yale on the winning end
of 28-0 score despite the hard-fought efforts of the Crimson, led by
quarterback and team captain Charles Dan Daly. Yale would go on to win that
season's Collegiate Football National Championship with a record of 12 wins and
no defeats.
December
•
On Broadway, Olga Nethersole's play "Sapho" sparks a major controversy that
leads to an indecency trial.
•
New York City's Park Row building is now, at 32 stories, the
world's tallest building. Meanwhile, final contracts are signed to begin
construction of the city's first subway system.
•
A New York Tribune editorial criticizes the lack of consideration shown
pedestrians by the city's automobile drivers: "He (the driver) considered his
responsibility fully discharged by the ringing of the gong."
•
Thirty-two miners are trapped underground after a mine collapses
in Dunsmore, Pennsylvania. Just over two hours after the collapse all 32
men emerge, bloodied, but alive.
•
John Fitzgerald of Boston and George White of North Carolina
announce the end of their respective congressional careers.
•
Washington, DC, celebrates its 100th anniversary.
•
The Colored Men's Branch of the YMCA, founded by Baptist pastor
Charles Thomas, opens in New York City. The branch is accepted by the YMCA as a
regular branch.
•
Boston's last horse drawn trolley car is replaced by a
twelve-passenger electric bus.
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