January 2 – Police fight a gunbattle on London’s Sidney Street
January 18 – Eugene B. Ely becomes the first person to land an airplane on a ship
February 1 – Thirty people are killed in an explosion at Communipaw, New Jersey. The blast is felt 50 miles away, rocking office buildings and breaking windows in Manhattan.
March 18 – The Song ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ by Irving Berlin is published for the first time, in the form of sheet music.
March 18 – Theodore Roosevelt formally dedicates the Roosevelt Storage Dam in the Arizona Territory. At 248 feet, it is the second largest dam in the world.
March 25 – A fire breaks out on the 8th floor of the Asch Building in New York. The 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the building housed a company that made women’s blouses, 123 female employees die, along with 23 men.
April 3 – Zaifeng, Prince Chun, becomes China’s regent for his 2-year old son, Emperor Puyi (standing)
May 21 – The French Minister of War Berteaux is killed, and Prime Minister Monis injured, when their airplane crashes into reviewing stand.
May 23 – New York Public Library is dedicated.
May 30 – Ray Harroun wins the very first running of the Indianapolis 500 automobile race, driving car number 32, a Marmon Wasp.
May 31 – The White Star liner RMS Titanic, at the time the largest mobile object ever constructed, is launched from Belfast at 12.13 pm.
June 4 – On the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy, a crowd of one million people turn out in Rome to watch the unveiling of Il Vittoriano, a 250 foot high monument in honor of King Victor Emmanuel II.
June 22 – King George V of the United Kingdom is crowned at Westminster Abbey and his wife is crowned as Queen Mary
August 11 – Britain’s House of Lords approves limits on its power with the Parliament Act
August 21 – The Mona Lisa is stolen from The Louvre
September 5 – Reports of the flood that will drown 200,000 people are relayed to the world by Western missionaries, after China’s Yangtze River overflows its banks.
September 14 – Pyotr Stolypin, the Prime Minister of Russia, is shot in the stomach while attending the opera in Kiev. He dies of his wounds four days later.
September 25 Р300 are killed in the explosion of the French battleship Libert̩
September 29 – Italy goes to war with The Ottoman Empire, and invades Libya
September 30 – 78 are killed by a damburst in Austin, Pennsylvania
October 4 – The first viable escalator, designed by Charles Seeburger, begins operation at Earl’s Court Underground Station in London.
October 10 – A group of Chinese revolutionaries in the city of Wuchang set off an explosion by accident. The resulting police invasion leads to the Wuchang uprising, which in turn leads to the Chinse revolution.
October 23 – An experimental cable entertainment and news service is launched in the United States
November 7 – Marie Curie is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, making her the first person to win a second Nobel Prize.
December 12 – George VI of Great Britain and Ireland is crowned at Delhi as Emperor of India.
December 14 – The South Pole is reached by human beings for the first time, as the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition arrive at 3 in the afternoon.
December 29 – In Nanjing, Dr Sun Yat-Sen is elected the first President of the Republic of China by 16 of the 17 provincial representatives there. He takes office on January 1.