1903 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Theodore Roosevelt
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: David B. Henderson , Joseph Gurney Cannon
• Congress: 57th, 58th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 19 – The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England.
• 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.
• *Department of Commerce and Labor founded
• *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–Herrán 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.
• March 30 – Queensboro Bridge opens.

  April–June

• May 16 – 8:05pm: Luna Park, Coney Island, New York, opens.
• June 12 – The Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.
• June 14 – Heppner Flood of 1903: The town of Heppner, Oregon, is nearly destroyed by a cloudburst that results in a flash flood.

  July–September

• July 1 – U.S. Bureau of Fisheries within Department of Commerce & Labor.
• July 6–10 – Evansville race riot in Evansville, Indiana.
• July 7 – "Mother" Mary Harris Jones starts a "Children's Crusade" from Kensington, Philadelphia to Oyster Bay, New York, the hometown of President Roosevelt, with banners demanding "We want to go to school and not the mines!"
• 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–October – A mysterious "visitor" is reported in Van Meter, Iowa.
• September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.
• September 15 – Miami Herald first published as The Miami Evening Record.
• September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills nine people, inspiring a ballad and song.

  October–December

• 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 three 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 19 – Williamsburg Bridge opens.
• 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 is made and sold for 5 cents. It contains 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.
• Coca-Cola removes cocaine as a key ingredient from their formula; up to this time, it has contained approximately nine milligrams of cocaine per glass.

  Ongoing

• Progressive Era
• Lochner era

  Births

• January 1 – Dwight Taylor, screenwriter and author
• March 7 – J. Allen Frear, Jr., United States Senator from Delaware from 1949 till 1961.
• April 19 – Eliot Ness, American Prohibition agent
• May 3 – Bing Crosby, early crooner, singer of the hit, "White Christmas".
• June 22 – John Dillinger, gangster in the Depression-era United States
• August 7 – Joseph H. Bottum, United States Senator from South Dakota from 1962 till 1963.
• October 6 – Brien McMahon, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1945 till 1952.

  Deaths

• January 4
• *Gulstan Ropert, missionary
• *Topsy, elephant
• January 28 – John B. Allen, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1889 to 1893
• February 11 – Rachel Crane Mather, educator
• February 26 – Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor
• March 11 – Lou Graham, wealthy business woman and madame from Germany
• March 16 – Roy Bean, pioneer
• March 20 – Charles Godfrey Leland, humorist, folklorist and poet
• March 29 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, businessman
• April 22 – Alexander Ramsey, 2nd Governor of Minnesota from 1860 to 1863 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1863 to 1875
• April 28 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, physical chemist
• April 29 – Stuart Robson, stage actor and comedian
• May 29 – Bruce Price, architect
• July 2 – Ed Delahanty, baseball player
• July 3 – Harriet Lane, acting First Lady of the United States during James Buchanan's presidency
• July 27 – Frederick J. Kimball, civil engineer
• August 1 – Calamity Jane, frontierswoman
• August 28 – Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, journalist, social critic and public administrator
• September 23 – Charles B. Farwell, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1887 to 1891
• September 28 – Edward Merritt Hughes, naval officer
• October 6 – Wilson S. Bissell, politician, United States Postmaster General
• October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, politician
• November 3 – Eliza Hendricks, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Thomas A. Hendricks
• November 20 – Tom Horn, gunfighter and outlaw
• December 13 – Alexander McDonald, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1868 to 1871
• December 23 – Middleton P. Barrow, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1882 to 1883