The following events occurred in March 1904:
March 1, 1904 (Tuesday) A rehearsal of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's new opera Armida ran into problems and terminated early. Born: Paul Dubreil, French mathematician; in Le Mans, Maine, France (d. 1994) Paul Hartman, American actor and dancer; in San Francisco, California (d. 1973, heart attack) Bogdan Kobulov, member of Soviet security and police apparatus; in Tbilisi, Russian Empire (d. 1953, executed) Glenn Miller (born Alton Glenn Miller), American bandleader; in Clarinda, Iowa (disappeared, presumed dead 1944) Pablo O'Higgins (born Paul Higgins Stevenson), American Mexican artist; in Salt Lake City, Utah (d. 1983) Antoun Saadeh, Lebanese politician, philosopher and writer; in Dhour El Choueir, Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (d. 1949, executed by firing squad) Died: Benjamin Taylor A Bell (born Benjamin Taylor Bell), 42, Scottish-born Canadian journalist, died of injuries from a fall down an elevator shaft. James G. Blair, 79, member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri Francis Boott, 90, American composer G. W. Hunt, 66, English writer of music hall songs ("MacDermott's War Song"), died of softening of the brain. Noah Raby, 81 or 131, American longevity claimant Sir John Scott , 62, English cricketer and judge, died of heart and liver trouble.
March 2, 1904 (Wednesday) In Manhattan, New York City, the Hotel Darlington, an apartment building under construction, collapsed, killing 20 people. Most of the dead were construction workers; also killed was Mrs. Ella Lacey Storrs, who was eating lunch in the dining room of the Hotel Patterson, a neighboring building., cited in , cited in , cited in One construction worker, Edwin Lask, would be rescued shortly after 2:00 a.m. on March 4 after being trapped under debris for over 30 hours, but would die shortly afterwards on the way to the hospital. Born: Henry Dreyfuss, American industrial designer; in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 1972, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning) Jan Mertens, Belgian professional cyclist; in Hoboken, Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1964) Dr. Seuss (born Theodor Seuss Geisel), American children's author (The Cat in the Hat) and Caldecott Honor winner; in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1991) Elsie Mary Wisdom (born Elsie Mary Gleed), English automobile racer; in Tooting Graveney, London, England (d. 1972) Died: Mary C. Billings (born Mary Charlotte Ward), 79, American evangelist and missionary
March 3, 1904 (Thursday) Wilhelm II, German Emperor, became the first person to make a recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's phonograph cylinder. Spain passed a Sunday rest law. A major flood caused by the breaking of ice gorges began on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. It would continue through March 15, causing damage estimated at between $2,000,000 and $8,000,000. Several bridges were destroyed or seriously damaged. The village of Collins, Pennsylvania, was destroyed. On the afternoon of March 8, after a Pennsylvania Railroad bridge was washed away, most of the village of Safe Harbor, Pennsylvania, was destroyed. The flood caused no fatalities. Born: Mayo Methot, American actress; in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1951, complications of alcoholism) Harry Werner Storz, German Olympic sprinter; in Halle, Germany (d. 1982) Died: Walter Anderson, 25, English footballer, died of pneumonia. E. T. Jones, 53, English Olympic long-distance swimmer William Henry Harrison Murray, a.k.a. "Adirondack Murray", 64, American clergyman and author
March 4, 1904 (Friday) Russian troops in Korea retreated toward Manchuria, followed by 100,000 Japanese troops. Born: Luis Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain; in Santoña, Spain (d. 1973, assassinated) George Gamow (born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov), Ukrainian-born American physicist and polymath; in Odessa, Russian Empire (d. 1968, liver failure) Norman Robertson, Canadian diplomat; in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (d. 1968) Joseph Schmidt, Austrian-Hungarian tenor and actor; in Davydivka, Storozhynets, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (d. 1942, heart attack) Elias Venezis (pseudonym of Elias Mellos), Greek novelist; in Ayvalık, Ottoman Empire (d. 1973, laryngeal cancer) Died: Mauritz Aarflot, 82, Norwegian editor, member of the Storting Charles Poisot, 81, French musician Sir Joseph Trutch, , 78, English-born Canadian engineer, surveyor and politician, first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
March 5, 1904 (Saturday) Near Irondale, Ohio, two Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad trains were attempting to cross a bridge over Yellow Creek close together when the bridge collapsed. Of the ten railroad employees on the two trains, six drowned and the other four were injured. Rain on March 3 had weakened the bridge., cited in Born: Haig Acterian, Romanian film and theater director, author and fascist activist; in Constanța, Kingdom of Romania (d. 1943, killed in action) Mao Bangchu, Republic of China air force general; in Shanghai, China (d. 1987) Emile Decroix, Belgian racing cyclist; in Geluveld, West Flanders, Belgium (d. 1967) Pei Wenzhong, Chinese paleontologist, archaeologist and anthropologist; in Fengnan District, Hebei, Qing Dynasty (d. 1982) Karl Rahner, German Roman Catholic priest and theologian; in Freiburg im Breisgau, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire (d. 1984) Died: Thompson Cooper, 67, English journalist and man of letters John Lowther du Plat Taylor CB VD, 74–75, British founder of the Army Post Office Corps Alfred von Waldersee, 71, Imperial German Army marshal
March 6, 1904 (Sunday) A Japanese squadron bombarded Vladivostok, causing minor damage. The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, led by William Speirs Bruce, discovered the Antarctic region of Coats Land from the Scotia. Beginning at noon at Novilly, France, Pini, an Italian fencing master, and Baron Athos di San Malatos fought a duel with swords which lasted for two hours and fifty minutes. The duel ended due to a blister on the palm of Malatos' right hand. Pini and Malatos were reconciled after the duel. In Springfield, Ohio, Richard Dickerson, an African American man, shot and wounded his common-law wife, Anna Corbin (also African American), and shot Patrolman Charles B. Collis of the Springfield Police Department four times. Born: Leslie Ablett, British police officer and Olympic water polo player; in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England (d. 1952) José Antonio Aguirre, Basque footballer, politician and activist; in Bilbao, Spain (d. 1960, heart attack) Andy Aitkenhead, Scottish Canadian National Hockey League goaltender; in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 1968) Hugh Williams, English actor and dramatist; in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England (d. 1969, aortic aneurysm) Died: Hans Hermann Behr, 85, German American physician and scientist, died of heart failure.
March 7, 1904 (Monday) The fleet of Japanese Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō bombarded Port Arthur and Dalny. Three officers selected by the British War Office to serve as military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War arrived by train in Vancouver, British Columbia, and embarked on the Athenian for Yokohama. Lt. Gen. Sir William Nicholson was assigned to study troop transport methods, Lt. Col. Aylmer Haldane to observe general field work, and Capt. Herbert Cyril Thacker of the Canadian Militia to study artillery. Nicholson commented in an interview: "I shall certainly not follow the Russian side of the struggle, for aside from any question of neutrality my personal sympathies are all with the Japanese." In Berlin, Germany, former German Army officer and newspaper publisher Karl Bezeke killed himself and his entire family. Bezeke, who had lost his fortune, held a birthday dinner for his 19-year-old daughter, then poisoned his wife, his daughter, his 16- and 12-year-old sons and himself with potassium cyanide. The Norwegian cargo ship Siberia sank after a collision with the Norwegian steamship Simon Dumois off Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. In Springfield, Ohio, Patrolman Charles B. Collis, whom Richard Dickerson had shot the previous day, died of his injuries at noon. Late that evening a lynch mob of 1,750 men seized Dickerson from jail, shot him to death and then hung him from a telegraph pole, allowing the crowd to shoot at his body with revolvers for about 30 minutes. According to the Newark Advocate, "Throughout it all perfect good order was maintained and every one seemed in the best of humor, joking with his nearest neighbor while reloading his revolver." Three men were killed in a collision between two freight trains on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, east of Jefferson City, Missouri. Born: Ivar Ballangrud (born Ivar Eriksen), Norwegian Olympic champion speed skater; in Lunner, Norway (d. 1969) Virginia Downing, American stage actress; in Washington, D.C. (d. 1996, heart attack) Jim Ganly, Irish cricketer and rugby union player; in Balscadden, Howth, County Dublin, Ireland (d. 1976, shooting accident) Reinhard Heydrich, German Nazi official; in Halle an der Saale, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (d. 1942, assassinated) Kurt Weitzmann, German American art historian; in Kleinalmerode (Witzenhausen, near Kassel, Germany) (d. 1993) Ladislav Ženíšek, Czech footballer and manager; in Vinohrady, Prague, Austria-Hungary (d. 1985) Died: Ferdinand André Fouqué, 75, French geologist
March 8, 1904 (Tuesday) In Springfield, Ohio, the day after Richard Dickerson was lynched, large numbers of sightseers visited the site of his death. That evening, a mob of between 1000 and 1500 men attacked the "Levee", a district of saloons operated primarily by African Americans, burning down seven buildings valued at $11,600. There were no fatalities because the police had warned occupants to leave earlier in the day. The framework for the Russian building at the forthcoming Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, was torn down in accordance with orders received from Saint Petersburg. Born: Aleardo Donati, Italian Olympic wrestler; in Bentivoglio, Province of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy (d. 1990) Viktor de Kowa (born Victor Paul Karl Kowalczyk), German actor, singer and director; in Hohkirch, Province of Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (d. 1973) Died: Adolfo Bullrich, 70, Argentine banker and politician Celso Hermínio, 33, Portuguese caricaturist and comics artist, died of pneumonia. Robert Taber, 38–39, American actor, died of pleurisy.
March 9, 1904 (Wednesday) In Saint Petersburg, Russia, Finance Minister Vladimir Kokovtsov definitively announced that Russia would not exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition due to the Russo-Japanese War. Born: Gerald Abraham, English musicologist; in Newport, Great Britain (d. 1988) Ellen Frank, German actress; in Aurich, German Empire (d. 1999) A. H. M. Jones, British historian; in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England (d. 1970, heart attack) Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American acoustical engineer and inventor; in Elkhart, Indiana (d. 2002) Silvio Pietroboni, Italian Olympic and professional footballer; in Milan, Province of Milan, Kingdom of Italy (d. 1987) Died: Emma Hellenstainer (born Emerentiana Hausbacher), 86, Tyrolean businesswoman Robert Machray, 72, Anglican bishop and missionary, first Primate of All Canada Hiram F. Stevens, 51, American lawyer, politician and academic
March 10, 1904 (Thursday) The Imperial Russian Navy destroyer Steregushchiy, deliberately scuttled by its crew after being incapacitated by the Japanese Navy, sank along with all 49 of its remaining crew, as it was being towed as a prize of war by the Japanese tugboat Sazanami. To prevent the ship from being taken, two members of the Russian crew locked themselves in the engine room, and opened the ship's Kingston valves to flood the ship.