1906

Events

January–February

• January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
• January 16–April 7 – The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
• January 22 – The strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
• January 31 – The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale), and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths.
• February 7 – is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany.
• February 11
• Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
• Two British members of a poll tax collecting expedition are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.

March–April

• March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
• March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.
• April 14 – The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.
• April 18
• The San Francisco Earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
• Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.
• April 23 – In the Russian Empire, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

May–June

• May 27
• The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
• Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its premiere at the Saalbau Essen in Germany conducted by the composer.
• May 29 – Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by right-wing naval officer and public official Arvid Lindman.
• May 31 – Morral affair: The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24 bystanders.
• June 7 – Cunard liner is launched in Glasgow, as the world's largest ship.
• June 26 – The first autombile racing Grand Prix is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.

July–August

• July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.
• July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
• July 20 – In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new electoral law is ratified, guaranteeing full women's suffrage, the first in modern Europe. Women can also stand in national elections.
• August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.
• August 16
• 1906 Aleutian Islands earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.35 occurs off the Rat Islands in Alaska.
• 1906 Valparaíso earthquake: A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves nearly 4,000 dead and approximately 20,000 injured.
• August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. This leads to the Second Occupation of Cuba, which lasts until 1909.

September–October

• September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha, to characterize the nonviolence movement in South Africa.
• September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.
• September 20 – The RMS Mauretania is launched on the River Tyne, becoming the world's largest ship.
• September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
• October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.
• October 6 – The National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) of Iran convenes for the first time.
• October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools (it is resolved by next year).
• October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
• October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.
• October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a mining trust, is created in the Belgian Congo.
• October 28 – A train falls off a drawbridge in New Jersey, drowning 53 people, and results in what is widely considered the first ever press release.

November–December

• November 1 – International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• November 3 – becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy) on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.
• November 18 – The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.
• December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; it is the first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.
• December 6 – The Transvaal Colony is granted responsible self-government by Britain.
• December 13 – The United Kingdom, France and Italy sign an agreement to preserve, in Ethiopia, the integrity of the ancient empire of Abyssinia.
• December 15 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
• December 22 – The 7.9 1906 Manasi earthquake in Xinjiang, China, kills nearly 300 people.
• December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
• December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is first shown, at the Melbourne Athenaeum in Australia.
• December 30 – The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party in Dhaka in the British Raj; it becomes a driving force for the creation of an independent Pakistan.

Date unknown

• The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed.
• Construction begins on the modern-day Great Mosque of Djenné.
• The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.
• HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association is officially founded as a sports club in Palestine, predecessor of Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel).

Births

January–February

• January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
• January 12 – Eric Birley, British historian and archaeologist (d. 1995)
• January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist (d. 2017)
• January 14 – William Bendix, American film, radio and television actor (d. 1964)
• January 15 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
• January 16 – Diana Wynyard, English actress (d. 1964)
• January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
• January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)
• January 28 – Pat O'Callaghan, Irish athlete (d. 1991)
• February 4
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious, resistance leader (executed 1945)
• Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
• February 5 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
• February 7
• Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
• Puyi, Last Emperor of China (d. 1967)
• February 8 – Chester Carlson, American physicist, inventor (d. 1968)
• February 10 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
• February 14 – Nazim al-Qudsi, 26th Prime Minister of Syria and 14th President of Syria (d. 1998)
• February 17
• Galo Plaza, 29th President of Ecuador (d. 1987)
• Käte Selbmann, German politician (d. 1962)
• February 18 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
• February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress (d. 1987)
• February 28 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (k. 1947)

March–April

• March 1
• Phạm Văn Đồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
• Abdus Sattar, 8th President of Bangladesh (d. 1985)
• March 6 – Lou Costello, American actor (d. 1959)
• March 13 – Dave Kaye, British pianist (d. 1996)
• March 16 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish novelist (d. 2009)
• March 19 – Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal (executed 1962)
• March 20 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor, director and producer (d. 1975)
• March 21 – Jim Thompson, American businessman (disappeared 1967)
• March 25 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)
• March 26 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player (d. 1981)
• March 31 – Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• April 1 – Alexander Yakovlev, Russian politician, architect of perestroika (d. 1989)
• April 4 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
• April 5 – Yin Shun, Chinese Buddhist master (d. 2005)
• April 6 – Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII (d. 1982)
• April 9 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian-born American conductor (d. 1988)
• April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
• April 22 – Eddie Albert, American actor and activist (d. 2005)
• April 24 – William Joyce, Irish-American World War II Nazi propaganda broadcaster ("Lord Haw-Haw") (executed 1946)
• April 25
• Joel Brand, Hungarian rescue worker (d. 1964)
• William J. Brennan Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1997)
• A. W. Haydon, American inventor (d. 1982)
• April 28
• Tony Accardo, American gangster (d. 1992)
• Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (d. 1978)
• April 29 – Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (d. 1989)

May–June

• May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)
• May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
• May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
• May 11
• Jacqueline Cochran, American aviator (d. 1980)
• Richard Arvin Overton, oldest living man in the United States and oldest surviving American veteran (World War II) (d. 2018)
• May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general, politician (d. 1965)
• May 16 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)
• May 19
• Bruce Bennett, American athlete, actor (d. 2007)
• Jimmy MacDonald, Scottish-American sound effects artist, voice actor (d. 1991)
• May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
• May 27 – Ajahn Buddhadasa, Thai Buddhist monk (d. 1993)
• May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
• June 3 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer (d. 1975)
• June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born American mathematician (d. 1993)
• June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
• June 17 – James H. Flatley, American admiral, aviator (d. 1958)
• June 19 – Sir Ernst Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
• June 22
• Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author, aviator (d. 2001)
• Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)
• June 24 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
• June 26
• Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer, teacher, sculptor and artist (d. 2008)
• M. P. Sivagnanam, Indian politician (d. 1995)
• June 27 – Catherine Cookson, English author (d. 1998)
• June 28 – Maria Goeppert Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)

July–August

• July 1
• Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician, academic (d. 1992)
• Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 2004)
• Ivan Neill, British Army officer and Irish Unionist politician (d. 2001)
• July 2
• Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
• Károly Kárpáti, Hungarian Jewish wrestler (d. 1996)
• July 3
• Alberto Lleras Camargo, Colombian politician, 20th President of Colombia (d. 1990)
• George Sanders, Russian-born British actor (d. 1972)
• July 4 – Vincent Schaefer, American chemist, meteorologist (d. 1993)
• July 7
• Helene Johnson, African-American poet (d. 1995)
• Satchel Paige, American baseball player (d. 1982)
• July 8 – Philip Johnson, American architect (d. 2005)
• July 11 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (d. 1990)
• July 17 – Dunc Gray, Australian track cyclist (d. 1996)
• July 18 – S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-born American academic, politician (d. 1992)
• July 21 – Caroline Smith, American diver (d. 1994)
• July 23 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• August 5
• Joan Hickson, British actress (d. 1998)
• John Huston, American film director, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1987)
• Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• August 5 – Marie-José of Belgium, last Queen of Italy (d. 2001)
• August 14 – Horst P. Horst, German photographer (d. 1999)
• August 17 – Marcelo Caetano, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1980)
• August 19 – Philo Farnsworth, American inventor (d. 1971)
• August 26 – Albert Sabin, Polish-born American medical researcher (d. 1993)
• August 27 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)
• August 28 – John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)
• August 30 – Joan Blondell, American actress (d. 1979)

September–October

• September 1
• Joaquín Balaguer, 41st, 45th, & 49th President of the Dominican Republic, writer (d. 2002)
• Eleanor Alice Burford, English writer (d. 1993)
• September 4 – Max Delbrück, German-born American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
• September 6 – Luis Federico Leloir, French-born Argentine chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
• September 8 – Andrei Kirilenko, Soviet politician (d. 1990)
• September 17 – J. R. Jayewardene, President of Sri Lanka (d. 1996)
• September 26
• José Figueres Ferrer, 32nd, 34th, & 38th President of Costa Rica (d. 1990)
• Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
• September 27 – William Empson, English poet, critic (d. 1984)
• October 6 – Janet Gaynor, American Academy Award-winning actress (d. 1984)
• October 9 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1st President of Senegal (d. 2001)
• October 10 – R. K. Narayan, Indian novelist (d. 2001)
• October 14
• Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)
• Hannah Arendt, German political theorist (d. 1975)
• October 23 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)
• October 24 – Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Austrian-born British painter (d. 1996)
• October 26 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (d. 1967)
• October 29 – Fredric Brown, American writer (d. 1972)

November–December

• November 2
• Ferit Melen, 14th Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 1988)
• Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre, cinema director, writer (d. 1976)
• November 5
• Philip Roberts, British general (d. 1997)
• Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
• November 9 – Arthur Rudolph, German rocket engineer (d. 1996)
• November 10 – Josef Kramer, German Nazi concentration camp commandant (d. 1945)
• November 13
• Wanrong, last empress of China (d. 1946)
• Hermione Baddeley, English character actress (d. 1986)
• November 14 – Louise Brooks, American actress (d. 1985)
• November 15 – Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general, vice-presidential candidate (d. 1990)
• November 16 – Henri Charrière, French author (d. 1973)
• November 17 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese industrialist (d. 1991)
• November 18
• Alec Issigonis, Greek-born British automobile designer (d. 1988)
• Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)
• George Wald, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
• November 22 – Jørgen Juve, Norwegian football player and journalist (d. 1983)
• December 5 – Ahn Eak-tai, Korean composer and conductor (d. 1965)
• December 9 – Grace Hopper, American computer scientist, naval officer (d. 1992)
• December 13
• Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (d. 1968)
• Laurens van der Post, South African author, journalist (d. 1996)
• December 19 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet leader (d. 1982)
• December 24 – James Hadley Chase, English writer (d. 1985)
• December 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
• December 27 – Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor (d. 1972)
• December 30 – Carol Reed, English film director (d. 1976)

Deaths

January–June

• January 1 – Todor Ivanchov, 11th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1858)
• January 13 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)
• January 18 – Sir William Forbes Gatacre, British general (b. 1843)
• January 19 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine statesman, military figure and author, 6th President of Argentina (b. 1821)
• January 20 – Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception Brando, Italian Roman Catholic nun, saint (b. 1856)
• January 25 – Joseph Wheeler, American general, politician (b. 1836)
• January 29 – King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
• February 8 – Giuseppina Gabriella Bonino, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed (b. 1843)
• February 9 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and publisher (b. 1872)
• February 13 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
• February 18 – John B. Stetson, American hat maker (b. 1830)
• February 26 – Jean Lanfray, Swiss convicted murderer (b. 1874)
• February 27 – Samuel Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)
• March 1 – José María de Pereda, Spanish writer (b. 1833)
• March 4 – John Schofield, American general (b. 1831)
• March 8 – Henry Baker Tristram, English clergyman, ornithologist (b. 1822)
• March 12 – Manuel Quintana, 15th President of Argentina (b. 1835)
• March 13
• Susan B. Anthony, American civil rights, women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)
• Joseph Monier, French gardener, inventor (b. 1823)
• March 17 – Johann Most, German-American anarchist (b. 1846)
• March 19 – Victor Fatio, Swiss zoologist (b. 1838)
• March 20 – Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, American author of juvenile literature for girls (b. 1824)
• March 23 – Thomas Lake Harris, American poet (b. 1823)
• March 29
• Slava RaÅ¡kaj, Croatian painter (b. 1877)
• Albert Sorel, French historian (b. 1842)
• April 6 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (b. 1849)
• April 19
• Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate, in road accident (b. 1859)
• Spencer Gore, British tennis player, cricketer (b. 1850)
• April 25 – John Knowles Paine, American composer (b. 1839)
• May 10 – Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin, Sultan of Brunei (b. 1825)
• May 14 – Carl Schurz, German revolutionary, American statesman (b. 1829)
• May 23 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (b. 1828)
• June 5 – Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (b. 1842)
• June 10 – Richard Seddon, 15th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1845)
• June 17 – Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess champion (b. 1872)
• June 25 – Stanford White, American architect (b. 1853)

July–December

• July 1 – Manuel García, Spanish opera singer, music educator and vocal pedagogue (b. 1805)
• July 11 – Grace Brown, American murder/and or drowning victim (b. 1886)
• July 17 – Carlos Pellegrini, 11th President of Argentina (b. 1846)
• August 6 – George Waterhouse, 7th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1824)
• August 14 – Aniceto Arce, 27th President of Bolivia (b. 1824)
• August 19 – Ezequiél Moreno y Díaz, Colombian Roman Catholic priest, saint (b. 1848)
• September 1 – Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet, librettist (b. 1847)
• September 5 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (b. 1854)
• September 13 – Emily Pitts Stevens, American school founder (b. 1841)
• September 23 – August Bondeson, Swedish author (b. 1844)
• October 9 – Adelaide Ristori, Italian actress (b. 1822)
• October 16 – Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (b. 1826)
• October 19
• Arthur von Mohrenheim, Russian diplomat (b. 1824)
• Charles Pfizer, German-American chemist, co-founder of Pfizer (b. 1824)
• October 22 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)
• October 23 – Vladimir Stasov, Russian music critic (b. 1824)
• October 30 – Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook, British politician (b. 1814)
• November 1 – Archduke Otto of Austria (b. 1865)
• November 7 – Todor Burmov, 1st Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1834)
• November 9 – Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, French Discalced Carmelite religious professed and saint (b. 1880)
• November 12 – William Rufus Shafter, American general (b. 1835)
• November 16 – Mother Veronica of the Passion, Ottoman-born religious leader (b. 1823)
• November 19, – Georgia Cayvan, American stage actress (b. 1857)
• November 28 – Jennie Yeamans, Australian-born American actress (b. 1862)
• November 30
• Sir Edward Reed, British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate (b. 1830)
• John Ward (geologist), English palaeontologist (b. 1837)
• December 7 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1833)
• December 8 – Sylvia Gerrish, American musical theatre star (b. 1860)
• December 13 – Jan Gerard Palm, Dutch composer (b. 1831)
• December 21 – Rajendrasuri, Indian religious reformer (b. 1827)
• December 30 – Josephine Butler, British feminist, social reformer (b. 1828)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – J. J. Thomson
• Chemistry – Henri Moissan
• Medicine – Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal
• Literature – Giosuè Carducci
• Peace – Theodore Roosevelt

References

Sources

• , comprehensive guide to political events worldwide; emphasis on Britain

Further reading

• Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume 1 1900-1933 (1997); global coverage of politics, diplomacy and warfare; pp 123 – 42.
• Hazell's Annual for 1907 (1907), worldwide events of 1906; 734pp online