On the international stage, 1904 marked the start of the Russo-Japanese war, which would last over a year and end with a Japanese victory. President Theodore Roosevelt, who was elected to his second term on November 8, 1904, brokered the peace accord. Roosevelt was also in charge of the $10 million purchase of the Panama Canal Zone by the United States.
On September 7th, the Treaty of Lhasa put a stop to the British military campaign. On April 8th, the United Kingdom and France signed the Entente Cordiale, putting an end to over a thousand years of sporadic conflict. On a brighter side, the third modern Olympic Games began on July 1st as part of the World Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. These were the inaugural Summer Olympics of the twentieth century, and on May 21st, the Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) was created, just days after Boston Adventurers pitcher Cy Young threw the first perfect game in contemporary baseball history.
Madison Square Garden in New York City hosted America’s first large-scale bodybuilding competition. Longacre Square was renamed Times Square in honour of The New York Times, and on December 31st, the city’s first subterranean railway line opened, and the city’s inaugural New Year’s Eve celebrations were held.
In the arts, Puccini’s revamped Madama Butterfly premiered in Brescia in May to critical acclaim after a lukewarm reception in Milan a few months before. The first caterpillar track was made, signalling a shift in land warfare, while astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine discovered Himalia, Jupiter’s sixth biggest moon. Dr. Seuss, Chinese statesman Deng Xiaoping, Spanish artist Salvador Dal, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer are among the notable people born in 1904.
Continue reading to find out more about what happened in 1904.
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![]() (February 29, 1904) |
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(April 14, 1904) |
![]() (April 22, 1904) |
![]() (June 28, 1904) |
![]() (July 21, 1904) |
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(August 22, 1904) |
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