March 1911

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March 25, 1911: Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory kills 143 female employees, three men

The following events occurred in March 1911:

March 1, 1911 (Wednesday)

  • U.S. Senator William Lorimer of Illinois was able to keep his seat after the vote to oust him failed, 40-46. Lorimer's right to a seat in the U.S. Senate had been challenged by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, on grounds that the Illinois Legislature had been bribed to elect Lorimer.[1][2] "The resulting storm of public outrage", a U.S. Senate historian would later write, combined with newly elected senators, would lead the Senate to finally approve the amendment of the U.S. Constitution to provide for Senators to be elected by popular vote, rather than by the state legislatures.[3]
  • The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved the proposed Constitution of the State of New Mexico. Congress adjourned three days later without the bill being voted on by Senate.[2]
  • The Weeks Act was signed into law by U.S. President Taft, authorizing the federal government to acquire "lands within the watersheds of navigable streams".[4]
  • Ernest Monis accepted the request of President Fallières to form a government as the new Prime Minister of France.[5]
  • José Batlle y Ordóñez was elected President of Uruguay.[2]
  • Pend Oreille County, Washington, was established.[6]
  • Died: Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, 59, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate

March 2, 1911 (Thursday)

March 3, 1911 (Friday)

March 4, 1911 (Saturday)

  • With two years left on his term, U.S. Senator J.W. Bailey of Texas resigned, sending a telegram to Governor Oscar Colquitt at 11:00 am. After the Texas State Senate voted 20-5 for a resolution asking Bailey to reconsider, and Governor Colquitt asked likewise, Bailey sent a second telegram at 6:00 pm, withdrawing his resignation. Although there was no legal precedent for a member of the Senate to quit and then return,[12] Bailey served nearly the rest of his term, resigning in January 1913.[13]
  • Francisco Bertrand became the interim President of Honduras as part of an agreement to end the civil war there. Bertrand replaced Miguel R. Dávila until supervised elections could be held in October.[14]
  • The 50th anniversary of the March 5, 1861 emancipation, by Tsar Alexander II, of 23,000,000 Russian serfs was celebrated nationwide.[15] On the same day, a proposal by Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin to grant citizens of Poland limited right of local government (zemstvo), was voted down by the State Council, 92-68.[16]
  • After the outgoing Congress ended without voting on the statehood for New Mexico and Arizona, reapportionment of the House, or the Canadian reciprocity agreement, President Taft called a special session of the 61st United States Congress to begin on April 4.[17]

March 5, 1911 (Sunday)

  • A stampede in a movie theater at the Russian city of Bologoye killed 120 people, mostly children. The panic began after a movie projector caught fire.[2][18]
  • Carl Bosch redesigned equipment to make feasible the Fritz Haber process for commercial production of ammonia (invented July 2, 1909.[19]

March 6, 1911 (Monday)

March 7, 1911 (Tuesday)

  • In an event whose significance was little noticed at the time, British physicist Ernest Rutherford first described his discovery of the nature of subatomic structure. The paper, The Scattering of the Alpha and Beta Rays and the Structure of the Atom, was presented before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Rutherford's experiments showed that all but 1/4000th of the mass of an atom lay within a core one-billionth of the space in the atom, and published in May in the Society's scientific journal, Philosophical Magazine.[21]
  • At 11:00 am, the United States Department of War issued a statement that "a large number of troops" was being moved to points in Texas and southern California, and that the Department of the Navy had ordered 15 ships from the Atlantic Fleet to the Texas coast, including four armoured cruisers. In addition, 2,000 U.S. Marines had been ordered to assemble at the Guantanamo Bay base. The operation, which had been taking place in secret since the day before, was limited to "manouevres". With almost one-fourth of the U.S. Army (20,000 troops) having been dispatched secretly by the President the day before, and the greatest move of soldiers since the American Civil War, the press was skeptical about the explanation. The New York Times observed "The United States is making a move as to Mexico that looks like a potential interference in the affairs of that country, though it wears the official aspect of a military mobilization". U.S. President Taft told reporters later in the day that he had reassured Mexican President Díaz that there were no plans to cross the border.[22]

March 8, 1911 (Wednesday)

March 9, 1911 (Thursday)

March 10, 1911 (Friday)

March 11, 1911 (Saturday)

Flexner
  • Dr. Simon Flexner announced, at a meeting of the Rockefeller Institute, the discovery of the cause of infantile paralysis, also known as poliomyelitis or polio. The "germ" (later determined to be a virus) was isolated from the blood of persons in Boston and New York who had fallen victim in the pandemic of 1908.[30]
  • Brooks County, Texas was established after being separated from Starr County, and the county seat was established at Falfurrias. The county was named for Texas state legislator John Abijah Brooks, who had worked toward its creation and was the county's leader from 1911 to 1939.[31] Willacy County, Texas was established on the same day.[6]
  • Two weeks before the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, two men, Nathan Schefflin and Isadore Margolis saved the lives of 50 people who were trapped on the fifth floor of a building in New York City. The two were in an adjoining building eight feet away, and used a cutting table as a bridge to safety.[32]

March 12, 1911 (Sunday)

March 13, 1911 (Monday)

March 14, 1911 (Tuesday)

March 15, 1911 (Wednesday)

March 16, 1911 (Thursday)

  • With a population of more than 800 people, Las Vegas, was incorporated as a city in the Nevada desert. Fifty years later, its population was over 64,000. In 2011, over 550,000 people lived within city limits and the metro area was 1.9 million.[38]
  • Born:
  • Died: John B. McDonald, 66, builder of New York City Subway

March 17, 1911 (Friday)

  • A fire, caused by a plumber's blowtorch, destroyed Boundary Field, the baseball stadium used by the Washington Nationals, less than a month before Opening Day. Nevertheless, a new stadium was erected in time for the April 12 season opener.[39]
  • Anna Rogstad took office as the first woman to ever serve in the Storting, the Parliament of Norway.[40]
  • The State of Nevada enacted a law permitting the easiest divorce in the United States, available on proof of little more than irreconcilable differences and proof of at least six months residency in the state.[41]
  • Died: Friedrich Haase, 85, German actor and director nicknamed "Dean of the German Stage"

March 18, 1911 (Saturday)

Dedication of Roosevelt Dam

March 19, 1911 (Sunday)

  • International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time, with rallies and observances in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Since 1913, the day has been observed annually on March 8.[25]
  • Booker T. Washington, at the time the best-known African-American and acknowledged spokesman for the Negro race, was beaten up by a white carpenter while on business in New York City.[48] Washington had been in Manhattan to meet with D.C. Smith, the auditor for Tuskegee Institute and was mistakenly directed to an apartment building at 11 12 West 63rd Street. Albert Ulrich, a resident of the building, came into the hallway and chased Washington out of the building, then beat and kicked the 54-year-old Negro educator. Ulrich would be tried for assault and acquitted on November 6.[49]

March 20, 1911 (Monday)

March 21, 1911 (Tuesday)

  • The tercentary (300th anniversary) of the introduction of the King James Version of the Bible was observed. After being presented with a specially bound copy by the Reverend Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, King George V remarked, "During 300 years, multiplying millions of English-speaking races, spreading ever more widely over the surface of the globe, have turned in their need to the grand simplicity of the authorized version, and drawn upon its inexhaustible springs of wisdom for their courage and joys."
  • Canada's Department of Immigration turned away 165 African-Americans who were attempting to move there from Oklahoma.[44]
  • Born: W. Lincoln Hawkins, African-American inventor, including antioxidant that made inexpensive telephone wire insulation possible, in Washington, DC (d. 1992)

March 22, 1911 (Wednesday)

March 23, 1911 (Thursday)

  • The Australian ship SS Yongala sank in a cyclone, with 122 persons on board. After leaving the Queensland port of Mackay at 1:30 pm en route to Townsville, the ship never arrived. The undersea wreckage was rediscovered in 1958, and is now a popular attraction for scuba divers.[53]

March 24, 1911 (Friday)

  • For the first time in history, more than 10 people flew in an airplane at the same time. Roger Sommer and 13 passengers went aloft from Mouzon, France and then landed there again.[44][54]
  • The New York's highest court unanimously ruled that the state workers' compensation law, one of the first in the nation, was an unconstitutional deprivation of property (the right for an employee to sue an employer in court) without due process.[55] The objection was fixed by a new law giving workers' the option to reject the act.[56]
  • Born: Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera, in Los Angeles (d. 2006)
  • Died: Stanley Robison, 54, owner of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals, died two weeks before the start of the season. His sudden death paved the way for his niece, Helene Britton, to become the first woman to own a major league sports team.

March 25, 1911 (Saturday)

  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire began five minutes before the work week was scheduled to end, a fire broke out on the 8th floor of the Asch Building at 23 Washington Place in New York City. The 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the building housed a company that made women's blouses, at that time referred to as shirtwaists. Although the building was fireproof (and still stands), the cotton material used in the factory was flammable, and investigations concluded that the fire started when a cigarette ignited a rag bin. Around 500 employees, mostly women and girls, worked at the factory, and many escaped through a rear exit. Another exit was locked from the outside, and those persons who were trapped were trampled, burned, or jumped to their deaths over the next thirty minutes. A total of 123 female employees died, along with 23 men.[57] The tragedy horrified the nation, and led to fire code and labor law reforms.
  • Jim Wells County, Texas, was established.[6]
  • Born: Jack Ruby, American nightclub owner, and killer of Lee Harvey Oswald; as Jack Rubenstein in Chicago (d. 1967)

March 26, 1911 (Sunday)

March 27, 1911 (Monday)

  • The City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was founded when voters in the small village of 143 inhabitants voted to incorporate. The state legislature approved the town charter on June 2.[59] The city, which in 2011 had nearly 180,000 residents, observed March 27, 2011 as its centennial date.[60]
  • William Henry Lewis was sworn in as United States Assistant Attorney General, making him the highest ranking African-American federal official. Lewis had been appointed by President Taft in October, but the U.S. Senate had adjourned before voting on whether to confirm him, allowing Lewis to assume the post pending confirmation.[61]

March 28, 1911 (Tuesday)

  • The four men of the "Lost Patrol" were laid to rest by the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (forerunner of the R.C.M.P.) at Fort McPherson in the Canada's Northwest Territories. The four—Inspector Francis J. Fitzgerald, Constables Richard O. Taylor and George F. Kinney, and their guide, Special Constable Sam Carter had departed on the Police's traditional mid-winter 620 mile endurance trip from Fort McPherson to Dawson City. The group lost its way and ran out of its 30-day rations in January, and died while trying to get back to the Fort. The annual patrol was discontinued after 1921.[62]

March 29, 1911 (Wednesday)

  • The United States Army formally adopted the .45 caliber M1911 pistol as its standard sidearm. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines followed suit in 1913. Originally manufactured by Colt, the gun was used by generations of soldiers worldwide, retaining the M1911 name from the year of its first widespread use.[63]
  • A fire broke out at the library of the New York State Capitol in Albany at 2:00 am, hours after legislators had adjourned for the night. The blaze destroyed more than 600,000 books, and manuscripts, many of them irreplaceable.[44][64]

March 30, 1911 (Thursday)

March 31, 1911 (Friday)

References

  1. "Lorimer Retains Place, 40 to 46", Milwaukee Sentinel, March 2, 1911, p1
  2. "Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (April 1911), pp416–419
  3. Richard A. Baker, Two Hundred Notable Days: Senate Stories, 1787 to 2002 (Government Printing Office, 2006) p106
  4. Ronald L. Lewis, Transforming the Appalachian Countryside: Railroads, Deforestation, and Social Change in West Virginia, 1880-1920 (UNC Press Books, 1998) p288
  5. "M. Monis Is Chosen as French Premier", New York Times, March 1, 1911
  6. Joseph Nathan Kane, The American Counties (4th Ed.), (The Scarecrow Press, 1983), p480
  7. "Veto Bill Gets Second Reading", Toronto World, March 3, 1911, p1
  8. M. P. Calvocoressi, The National Music of Russia-Musorgsky and Scriabin (Waverly Book Co, 1925) p59
  9. Roger D. Launius, Reconsidering a Century of Flight (UNC Press Books, 2003) p158
  10. Josephine Young Case and Everett Needham Case, Owen D. Young and American Enterprise: A Biography (David R. Godine Publisher, 1982) p116; "Government Sues Electrical Trust", New York Times, March 4, 1911, p1
  11. John M. Hyson, A History of Dentistry in the US Army to World War II, Parts 43-45 (Government Printing Office, 2009) p347
  12. "Bailey's Status in Doubt", New York Times, March 6, 1911
  13. "Senator Bailey Resigns", "New York Times", January 4, 1913
  14. "Honduran Factions Agree" New York Times, March 5, 1911, p1
  15. "Russia Celebrates Freedom", New York Times, March 5, 1911
  16. Jamie H. Cockfield, White Crow: The Life and Times of the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich Romanov, 1859-1919 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002) p128
  17. "President Calls a Special Session", New York Times, March 5, 1911, p1
  18. "100 Die in Russian Theatre", New York Times, March 6, 1911
  19. Laylin K. James, Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, 1901-1992 (Chemical Heritage Foundation, 1993) p200
  20. Lloyd A. Williams and Voza Rivers, Forever Harlem: Celebrating America's Most Diverse Community (Sports Publishing LLC, 2006) p249
  21. Richard Reeves, A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford (W. W. Norton & Company, 2008) p80
  22. "20,000 TROOPS AND TWO NAVAL DIVISIONS TO MOBILIZE NEAR MEXICAN BORDER", New York Times, March 8, 1911, p1; Roger Possner, The Rise of Militarism in the Progressive Era, 1900-1914 (McFarland, 2009) p123
  23. "Ford Of Britain Counts Down To 100th Anniversary", TheAutoChannel.com
  24. Kappa Delta Pi website
  25. "About International Women's Day", www.internationalwomensday.com
  26. James D. Hart, A companion to California (University of California Press, 1987) p482
  27. "Peace in Honduras", New York Times, March 10, 1911
  28. Ethan G. Sribnick, A Legacy of Innovation: Governors and Public Policy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) p153
  29. Christopher C. Burt, Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book, page 77: "...the deepest snow depth ever recorded in North America, belongs to Tamarack, California. Here, near Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows, 390ʺ fell in January 1911. This led to a level snow depth of 451ʺ (37.5 feet) by March of that year. Tamarack also holds California's greatest seasonal catch on 884ʺ in the notoriously wet winter of 1906-1907."
  30. "Cause of Infantile Paralysis a Germ", New York Times, March 12, 1911
  31. Texas State Historical Association; Joseph Nathan Kane, The American Counties (4th Ed.) (The Scarecrow Press, 1983)
  32. "Saved from Factory Fire" New York Times, March 12, 1911
  33. "Landslide on Vesuvius", New York Times, March 13, 1911
  34. "Corporations Must Pay Federal Tax", New York Times, March 14, 1911
  35. David McGonigal, Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent (Frances Lincoln Ltd. 2009) p321
  36. "The M1911 Trials", by Donald Bady
  37. "A Brief History of Glendale's Adams Hill Neighorhood [sic]"". Archived from the original on 2011-02-07.
  38. City of Las Vegas, Nevada: History Archived 2014-07-01 at the Wayback Machine, lasvegasnevada.gov
  39. David M. Jordan, Closing Em Down: Final Games at Thirteen Classic Ballparks (McFarland, 2010) p48; "Washington Park Fire", New York Times, March 18, 1911
  40. "Woman Speaks in Storthing", New York Times, March 18, 1911
  41. "Easier Divorce in Nevada", New York Times, March 18, 1911
  42. Tim Gracyk and Frank W. Hoffmann, Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925 (Psychology Press, 2000) p78
  43. Kathleen Garcia, Roosevelt Dam (Arcadia Publishing, 2009) p8; "Roosevelt Opens Gates of Great Dam", New York Times, March 19, 1911
  44. "Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (May 1911), pp548–552
  45. "Philadelphia Billiardist Wins", New York Times, March 19, 1911
  46. "Germans Number 65,000,000", New York Times, March 19, 1911
  47. Jack El-Hai, Lost Minnesota: Stories of Vanished Places (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) p102; "Lincoln Funeral Car Burns", New York Times, March 20, 1911, p1
  48. "White Man Assaults Booker Washington", New York Times, March 20, 1911
  49. "Acquit Assailant of Dr. Washington", New York Times, November 7, 1911
  50. "Stolypin Resigns as Russian Premier", New York Times, March 21, 1911; "China Issue Acute; Stolypin Will Stay", March 25, 1911
  51. Cecil Smith, Musical comedy in America (Psychology Press, 1981) p104
  52. "Brief History of the University of Porto"
  53. "Tribute to mark Yongala 100th anniversary", Townsville (Queensland) Bulletin, January 13, 2011; "Scuba Dive the Wreck of SS Yongala" Archived 2010-12-20 at the Wayback Machine, SydneyUnderworld.com
  54. Thomas C. Parramore, First to Fly: North Carolina and the Beginnings of Aviation (UNC Press Books, 2003) p142
  55. "Court Invalidates New Liability Law", New York Times, March 25, 1911, p3
  56. Philip Dray, There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America (Random House, Inc., 2010)
  57. "Remembering The Triangle Factory Fire"], Cornell University; Leon Stein and William Greider, The Triangle Fire (Cornell University Press, 2001) p11; "141 MEN AND GIRLS DIE IN WAIST FACTORY FIRE; TRAPPED HIGH UP IN WASHINGTON PLACE BUILDING; STREET STREWN WITH BODIES; PILES OF DEAD INSIDE", New York Times, March 26, 1911, p1 list of victims Archived 2010-10-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  58. "Postal Savings Stamps of U.S.", by H.L. Wiley, "Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News", May 2, 1914, p1
  59. Susan Gillis, Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America (Arcadia Publishing, 2004), p22
  60. City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida website Archived 2010-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
  61. "William H. Lewis Takes Oath of Federal Position", Boston Morning Journal, March 28, 1911
  62. "The Lost Patrol", Royal Canadian Mounted Police website
  63. "The Colt 1911: The First Century", by John Malloy, in Gun Digest 2011 (Krause Publications, 2010) p110
  64. "State Capitol Afire After Caucus Quits", New York Times, March 29, 1911; "$5,000,000 Loss in Capitol Fire",New York Times, March 30, 1911
  65. Growing With Hong Kong: The University and its Graduates (Hong Kong University Press, 2002) p25
  66. Aryeh L. Avneri, The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land-settlement and the Arabs, 1878-1948 (Transaction Publishers, 1984) p114
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