1901

1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1901st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 901st year of the 2nd millennium, the 1st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1900s decade. As of the start of 1901, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

• On January 1, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania form the Commonwealth of Australia. John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow becomes the first Governor-General and Edmund Barton becomes the 1st Prime Minister of Australia. The first Australian parliament meets in Melbourne on May 9.
• In the United Kingdom, on January 22, Queen Victoria dies at the age of 81, having reigned for 63 years, 7 months and 2 days, longer than any British monarch before her. In the United Kingdom and the British Empire, her death marks the end of the Victorian era. Her 59-year-old son succeeds her as King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.
• In China, the Boxer Rebellion is crushed and China is forced to accept Peace terms decided by Western Powers, Japan and Russia.
• 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, is shot by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo, New York and dies 8 days later. Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him as president.
• The first Nobel Prizes are given in Stockholm on December 10, the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen wins the Prize in Physics for the discovery of X-rays, and the Nobel Peace Prize is shared between Frederic Passy and Jean-Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross.

Events

January - June

• January 1 – First day of the 20th century.
• January 1 – Australia becomes a country, as New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania form the Commonwealth of Australia.
• January 1 – Nigeria becomes a British Protectorate.
• January 5 – A typhoid outbreak occurs in a Seattle jail.
• January 10 – China accepts Peace terms by Western Powers, Japan and Russia, as the Boxer Rebellion is crushed.
• January 22 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies on the Isle of Wight at the age of 81. Her son, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, succeeds her.
• January 28 – Baseball's American League declares itself a Major League.
• February 2 – The funeral of Queen Victoria takes place.
• February 6 – The first public telephones are installed at railway stations in Paris.
• February 14 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom opens his first parliament.
• February 22 – A Pacific Mail Steamer sinks in the Golden Gate Harbor, killing 128 people.
• February 23 – The United Kingdom and Germany agree on the border between German East Africa (present-day Tanzania) and the British colony of Nyasaland (present-day Malawi).
• March 4 – William McKinley starts his second term as President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt becomes Vice President of the United States.
• March 6 – Wilhelm II of Germany survives an assassination attempt in Bremen.
• March 17 – The showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris creates a sensation.
• March 31 – The United Kingdom's 1901 census is held.
• April 25 – The State of New York becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
• April 29 – Hirohito is born. He later becomes the longest-reigning Japanese Emperor, dying in 1989.
• May 3 – Jacksonville, Florida is destroyed by fire, as 10,000 people are made homeless.
• May 9 – Australia opens its first Parliament in Melbourne.
• May 17 – The US Stock Market crashes.
• May 24 – 78 miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.
• May 25 – River Plate football club, in Buenos Aires, is founded.
• June 2 – Katsura Taro becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
• June 12 – Cuba becomes a US protectorate.

Births

January

• January 3 – Ngo Dinh Diem, 1st President of South Vietnam (d. 1963)
• January 9 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
• January 9 – Ishman Bracey, American blues singer and guitarist (d. 1970)
• January 10 – Toshio Irie, Japanese politician and bureaucrat (d. 1972)
• January 14 – Bebe Daniels, American actress (d. 1971)
• January 14 – Alfred Tarski, Polish logician and mathematician (d. 1983)
• January 16 – Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
• January 16 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)
• January 21 – Ricardo Zamora, Spanish footballer (d. 1979)
• January 24 – A. M. Cassandre, Ukrainian-born artist, designer and teacher (d. 1968)
• January 29 – Arcady Aris, Russian Chuvash writer and literary critic (d. 1941)
• January 30 – Rudolf Caracciola, German racing driver (d. 1959)

February

• February 1 – Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
• February 1 – Frank Buckles, last-surviving American World War I veteran (d. 2011)
• February 10 – Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)
• February 17 – Philotheus Boehner, German monk and medieval scholar (d. 1955)
• February 19 – Florence Green, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran (d. 2012)
• February 20 – Mohamed Naguib, President of Egypt (d. 1984)
• February 22 – Ken G. Hall, Australian movie director (d. 1994)
• February 25 – Zeppo Marx, American comedian (d. 1979)
• February 28 – Linus Pauling, American chemist (d. 1994)

March

• March 3 – Claude Choules, British-Australian supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I combat veteran (d. 2011)
• March 3 – Gino Cervi, Italian movie actor (d. 1974)
• March 7 – Beatrice Roberts, American actress (d. 1970)
• March 18 – Helmut Fink, German World War I veteran (d. 2009)
• March 18 – Manly Hall, Canadian writer (d. 1990)
• March 21 – Karl Arnold, German politician (d. 1958)
• March 24 – Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (d. 1971)
• March 25 – Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)
• March 27 – Carl Barks, American cartoonist (d. 2000)
• March 27 – Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
• March 27 – Eisaku Satō, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1975)
• March 27 – Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (d. 1971)
• March 28 – Martha of Sweden, mother of King Harald V of Norway (d. 1954)

April

• April 1 – Francisco Ascaso, Spanish anarcho-syndicalist (d. 1936)
• April 13 – Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist (d. 1981)
• April 18 – Elene Akhvlediani, Georgian painter (d. 1975)
• April 18 – Al Lewis, American songwriter (d. 1967)
• April 23 – E.B. Ford, British ecological geneticist (d. 1988)
• April 29 – Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (d. 1989)
• April 30 – Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian-born economist (d. 1985)

May

• May 5 – Blind Willie McTell, American musician (d. 1959)
• May 7 – Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
• May 9 – Fuzzy Knight, American actor (d. 1976)
• May 17 – Werner Egk, German composer (d. 1983)
• May 18 – Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist (d. 1978)
• May 20 – Max Euwe, Dutch chess player (d. 1981)
• May 21 – Manfred Aschner, German-born Israeli microbiologist and entomologist (d. 1989)
• May 21 – Sam Jaffe, American movie producer (d. 2000)
• May 21 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian writer (d. 1992)
• May 24 – Jose Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1968)

June

• June 6 – Sukarno, 1st President of Indonesia (d. 1970)
• June 8 – Salustiano Sánchez, The world's oldest living man (d. 2013)
• June 10 – Frederick Loewe, German-born composer (d. 1988)
• June 13 – Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
• June 16 – Henri Lefebvre, French sociologist and philosopher (d. 1991)
• June 18 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
• June 19 – Piero Gobetti, Italian publicist and political activist (d. 1926)
• June 24 – Harry Partch, American composer (d. 1974)

August

• August 4 – Louis Armstrong, American jazz musician (d. 1971)
• August 5 – Thomas Ryan, American naval officer (d. 1970)
• August 8 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist (d. 1958)
• August 10 – Franco Dino Rasetti, Italian scientist (d. 2001)
• August 18 – Jean Guitton, French writer and philosopher (d. 1999)
• August 20 – Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer (d. 1968)
• August 26 – Chen Yi, Chinese military commander and politician (d. 1972)

September

• September 2 – Adolph Rupp, college basketball coach (d. 1977)
• September 9 – Agostinho Fortes Filho, Brazilian footballer (d. 1966)
• September 9 – Hendrik Verwoerd, South African politician (d. 1966)
• September 17 – Francis Chichester, British adventurer (d. 1979)
• September 22 – Charles B. Huggins, Canadian cancer researcher and Nobel Prize winner (d. 1997)
• September 23 – Jaroslav Seifert, Czech politician (d. 1986)
• September 28 – Ed Sullivan, American television personality (d. 1974)
• September 28 – William S. Paley, American businessman (d. 1990)
• September 29 – Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist (d. 1954)

December

• December 2 – Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-Italian footballer (d. 1986)
• December 5 – Walt Disney, American animator and movie producer (d. 1966)
• December 5 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
• December 9 – Odon von Horvath, Austro-Hungarian writer (d. 1938)
• December 14 – King Paul of Greece (d. 1964)
• December 16 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
• December 19 – Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
• December 25 – Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, British royal (d. 2004)
• December 27 – Marlene Dietrich, German actress (d. 1992)
• December 31 – Karl-August Fagerholm, Prime Minister of Finland (d. 1984)

Deaths

January - June

• January 11 – Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (b. 1866)
• January 14 – Victor Balaguer, Spanish politician and writer (b. 1824)
• January 17 – Frederic William Henry Myers, English scholar, poet, philosopher and psychologist (b. 1843)
• January 20 – Zenobe Gramme, Belgian electrical engineer (b. 1826)
• January 21 – Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
• January 22 – Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (b. 1819)
• January 27 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)
• February 11 – Milan I of Serbia (b. 1854)
• February 17 – Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (b. 1862)
• March 13 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
• April 3 – Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (b. 1844)
• April 4 – George T. Anderson, American Confederate general (b. 1824)
• May 1 – Lewis Waterman, American inventor and businessman (b. 1837)
• May 5 – Mariano Ignacio Prado, former President of Peru (b. 1826)
• May 13 – Leopoldo Alas, Spanish writer (b. 1851)
• May 22 – Gaetano Bresci, Italian anarchist (b. 1869)
• May 24 – Charlotte Mary Yonge, English novelist (b. 1823)
• June 15 – Max Weber, German-American general (b. 1824)

July - December

• July 6 – Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1819)
• July 7 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss writer (b. 1827)
• August 5 – Victoria, Princess Royal (b. 1840)
• August 12 – Francesco Crispi, former Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1819)
• August 12 – Adolf Erik Nordenskiold, Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
• September 9 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (b. 1864)
• September 14 – William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1843)
• October 1 – Abdor Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (b. 1844)
• October 10 – Lorenzo Snow, American Mormon leader (b. 1814)
• October 29 – Leon Czolgosz, Polish-American assassin (b. 1873)
• November 6 – Kate Greenaway, English writer (b. 1846)
• November 30 – Edward John Eyre, English explorer of Australia and colonial Governor of Jamaica (b. 1815)
• December 12 – Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan, British Indian administrator (b. 1833)
• December 16 – William Gregory, American politician (b. 1849)
• December 17 – Josep Manyanet i Vives, Catalan Saint and priest (b. 1833)
• December 24 – Lev Ivanov, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1834)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
• Chemistry – Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
• Physiology or Medicine – Emil Adolf von Behring
• Literature – Sully Prudhomme
• Peace – Jean-Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy