The following events occurred in March 1910:
March 1, 1910 (Tuesday) The Wellington, Washington avalanche, the deadliest in American history, killed 96 people, mostly railroad passengers who had been stranded by snow since February 24. Two different Great Northern Railway trains, on their way from Spokane to Seattle, had been halted at Stevens Pass by heavy snowfall. Shortly after 1:00 a.m., a violent thunderstorm triggered the slide, which tossed the trains down into a canyon.Edgar Haine, Railroad Wrecks (Cornwall Books, 1993), p73; Gary Krist, The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche (Henry Holt & Co., 2007); "Snowslides Snuff Out Lives of 59 in Mountain Ranges", Indianapolis Star, March 2, 1910, p1 General Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca, formerly the Minister of War, was elected President of Brazil, with 233,882 votes 126,690 for Ruy Barbosa"Brazil", in The New International Yearbook 1911 p112 to take office on November 15."Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (April 1910), pp418-422 Born: David Niven, English actor, in London (d. 1983) Archer John Porter Martin, English biochemist and 1952 Nobel laureate, in London(d. 2002) Died: José Domingo de Obaldía, 65, President of Panama since 1908. Obaldía was succeeded by Carlos Antonio Mendoza.Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics (April, 1910)
March 2, 1910 (Wednesday) U.S. Army Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois became the first American military airplane pilot when he made a solo flight of the Wright Military Flyer near Fort Sam Houston at 9:30 a.m. Although Army Lts. Frederick E. Humphreys and Frank P. Lahm had both made solo flights in 1909 following instruction by the Wright brothers, the flight by Lt. Foulois followed the transport, repair and re-assembly of the Wright Military Flyer by Army personnel at the fort near San Antonio.Centennial celebration plans Plans to create the Rockefeller Foundation began after John D. Rockefeller, Jr., asked Congress to issue a charter for a tax-deductible organization with a mission "to promote the well-being and advance the civilization of the peoples of the world, to disseminate knowledge, and to prevent and relieve suffering".Ferdinand Lundberg, America's 60 Families (Vanguard Press, 1937), p348 Thirty-seven men were killed in the explosion of a powder magazine at the Treadwell mine in Alaska.
March 3, 1910 (Thursday) Morocco signed accords with France in Paris, permitting the French to occupy Casablanca and Oujda in return for military training, as part of refinancing of loans.C. R. Pennell, Morocco Since 1830: A History (New York University Press, 2000), p147 Stock in Sears began trading on the New York Stock Exchange."Sears Holdings to List Shares on NASDAQ Stock Market", New York Times, February 3, 2005 Born: Joseph Yablonski, UMWA President murdered by his rival in 1969; in Pittsburgh Kittens Reichert (stage name for Catherine Alma Reichert), American silent film child actor; in Yonkers, New York (d. 1990)
March 4, 1910 (Friday) The deadliest avalanche in Canadian history: After a snowslide blocked railroad tracks at Rogers Pass in British Columbia, the Canadian Pacific Railway sent men to clear the debris. A larger avalanche buried the group, killing 62 people. Disasters of the century - Rogers Pass Avalanche The city of Albion, Washington was incorporated.
March 5, 1910 (Saturday) The Queen of Spades, by Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky, became the first Russian opera to be performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Conducted by Gustav Mahler, the opera was sung in German rather than Russian. "A Met Broadcast Moment", by Peter Clark, Playbill Arts, February 3, 2006 Born: Momofuku Ando, Japanese inventor who created instant ramen noodles in 1958; in Bokushi-shi, Japanese Formosa (now Puzi, Taiwan) (d. 2007)
March 6, 1910 (Sunday) Johnny Coulon won the world bantamweight boxing championship by knocking out Jim Kendrick in the 19th round in a bout at New Orleans. He held the title until 1914.James B. Roberts and Alexander G. Skutt, The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book, 4th Ed. (McBooks Press, 2006), pp92-93
March 7, 1910 (Monday) The city of Jayapura, Indonesia, was founded in the Dutch East Indies as Hollandia.
March 8, 1910 (Tuesday)
In France Madame Raymonde de Laroche was awarded pilot's license #36 by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, becoming the first woman to be authorized to fly an airplane.Eileen F. Lebow, Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation (Brassey's, Inc., 2002), p14
March 9, 1910 (Wednesday) Mme. Ekaterina Breshkovskaya, 66, sometimes referred to as the "Grandmother of the Russian Revolution" was convicted on charges of conspiracy and sentenced to exile in Siberia, but her co-defendant Nikolai Tchaikovsky was acquitted. Born: Samuel Barber, American composer, in West Chester, Pennsylvania (d. 1981)
March 10, 1910 (Thursday) The first film made to be made in Hollywood, California, the D. W. Griffith movie In Old California, was released. In Denver, The Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company began producing luggage and would remain one of the largest suitcase makers in the world more than one century later. In 1916, Jesse Shwayder would introduce a suitcase so tough and indestructible that he name it for Samson, the strong man referred to in the Bible. In 1919, Shwayder would rename his company and its line of luggage as Samsonite.Richard E. Wood, Here Lies Colorado: Fascinating Figures in Colorado History (Farcountry Press, 2005), p173 The city of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, was incorporated. Abbott Station, Florida, changed its name to the more poetic Zephyrhills in order to attract homeowners and tourists. Died: Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna (b. 1844) Carl Reinecke, 85, German composer
March 11, 1910 (Friday) A typhoon in Japan struck at the Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures, destroying 84 boats and killing more than 1,100 people, mostly fishermen. Full details reached the West three weeks later."Boats Full of Dead", Nebraska State Journal, April 1, 1910, p1 Died: James Breck Perkins, 62, U.S. Congressman for New York
March 12, 1910 (Saturday)
Film actress Florence Lawrence became "the first movie star", after movie mogul Carl Laemmle of Independent Moving Pictures (I.M.P.) announced in advertisements that he had signed the leading lady who had only been billed as "The Biograph Girl" by Biograph Studios. Until then, movie studios had a policy of not releasing the names of their players, and prohibiting distributors from revealing the information. Lawrence's first I.M.P. release was The Broken Oath.David Robinson, From Peep Show to Palace: The Birth of American Film (Columbia University Press, 1996), pp159-161 The Montreal Wanderers, champions of the National Hockey Association and Stanley Cup holders, retained the cup in a one-game challenge from the Berlin Dutchmen, champions of the Ontario League, winning 7-3."Berlin Easy for the Wanderers", Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald, March 14, 1910, p7 Born: Masayoshi Ohira, Prime Minister of Japan from 1978 to 1980; in Kan'onji, Kagawa Prefecture (d. 1980)
March 13, 1910 (Sunday)
Veer Savarkar, the "Father of Hindu Nationalism" in British India, was arrested by London police on the day that he returned to the United Kingdom from France. Savarkar had crossed the English Channel and then boarded a train at Dover, and was picked up as he alighted from a train arriving at Victoria Station.Jaywant D. Joglekar, Veer Savarkar: Father of Hindu Nationalism (Lulu.com, 2006), p69
March 14, 1910 (Monday) Shortly after 8:00 p.m., the Lakeview Number 1 drilling rig, located between Taft and Maricopa, California, struck oil at a depth of . Moments later, a column of oil in diameter erupted. The Lakeview Gusher was the largest in United States history, producing nine million barrels (378,000,000 gallons) of crude oil in eighteen months.
March 15, 1910 (Tuesday) The Prince Regent of China issued an edict setting a five-year period to "educate the people" before elections would be allowed. France's Chamber of Deputies voted favorably on a confidence motion. President Taft asked Congress to consider taking charge of islands in the Bering Sea in order to protect the seal populations there from extinction. The Thanhouser Company released the first of more than 1,000 that it would produce between 1910 and 1917, starting with The Actor's Children, a one-reel (12 minute) feature, starring Frank Hall Crane and Yale Boss.Thanhouser.org
March 16, 1910 (Wednesday) The Diet of Prussia passed a suffrage bill, 238-168.
Joe Cannon, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, had an order overruled for the first time by his fellow Congressmen, under new rules that curtailed the authority of the Speaker. The House voted 163-111 to set aside one of Cannon's decisions. George County and Walthall County, Mississippi were established on the same day. At Daytona, Barney Oldfield set a new speed record of for an automobile, driving a mile in 27.33 seconds.
March 17, 1910 (Thursday) The National Museum of Natural History, second of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., opened to the public for the first time.Smithsonian Institution website In London, the House of Lords passed, without division, Lord Rosebery's motion to follow the resolution of the House of Commons to reform the upper House's power."Rosebery's Motion Accepted By Lords", Winnipeg Free Press, March 18, 1910, p1
March 18, 1910 (Friday) The first controlled airplane flight in Australia took place, by a daredevil pilot who was more famous as a magician. Harry Houdini was also an aviator. At Diggers Rest, Victoria, near Melbourne, Houdini took to the air on two flights, staying aloft for more than five minutes and reaching an altitude of on his second flight. George A. Taylor is credited with taking an airplane aloft at Narrabeen, N.S.W. on December 5, 1909, and some accounts credit Fred Custance's controlled flight of March 17, 1910 at Bolivar, South Australia, as the first. The Pipe of Desire by Frederick Converse, the first American-written and produced opera to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, premiered."Timeline of American opera since 1845", U.S.Opera.com In response to threats in California to bar Japanese ownership of land there, Japan's lower house passed a resolution barring foreigners from owning land unless the foreign government granted similar rights to Japanese citizens. At St. Petersburg, Russia and Austria-Hungary signed an agreement to restore full diplomatic relations. Four-wheel brakes were first patented by Henri Perrot and John Meredith Rubury. Officials in Philadelphia announced discovery of a fragment of a tablet believed to date back to 2100 B.C., and containing an account of the Deluges. Died: Julio Herrera y Reissig, 35, Uruguayan poet
March 19, 1910 (Saturday)
U.S. Representative George W. Norris of Nebraska introduced a resolution that significantly reduced the power of the Speaker of the House, Joe Cannon, and his Rules Committee, had held over what legislation would come up for a vote. With some clever parliamentary maneuvering, Congressman Norris brought a resolution that created a ten-member, bipartisan Rules Committee, selected by the representatives, and without Cannon as a member. The resolution passed, 191-156 and ended, as Norris put it, "the long dynasty of the all-powerful Speaker"."Power Wrested From Cannon, He Is Retained As Servant Where He Was Almost Czar", The Des Moines News, March 20, 1910, p1; "Cannonism Is Crushed", San Antonio Light and Gazette, March 20, 1910, p1; "Committee on Rules: A History" , U.S. House of Representatives website
March 20, 1910 (Sunday)