The following events occurred in May 1905:
May 1, 1905 (Monday) As uprisings in Poland continued, Imperial Russian Army soldiers fired into crowds of protesters in Warsaw and in Łódź.The American Monthly Review of Reviews (June 1905) pp. 665–668
May 2, 1905 (Tuesday) The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) was founded by act of the state legislature, in response to the violence of the coal strike of 1902."About PSP", Pennsylvania State Police website In Notodden in Norway, the first mass production of synthetic potassium nitrate, using the Birkeland–Eyde process, was carried out.
May 3, 1905 (Wednesday) Aleksandr Kuprin's novel The Duel was first published. Born: Werner Fenchel, German mathematician known for his convex analysis and nonlinear optimization theory which would later serve as the foundation for nonlinear programming; in Berlin (d. 1988)
May 4, 1905 (Thursday)
The first world championship of professional wrestling took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as Estonian-born strong man George Hackenschmidt defeated U.S. champion Tom Jenkins. New York's Belmont Park for horse racing was opened at the Long Island town of Elmont, initially to host the Belmont Stakes
May 5, 1905 (Friday) Korea University was founded in Seoul as Bosung College. The city of Kelowna, British Columbia, was incorporated. Born: Floyd Gottfredson, American cartoonist, primarily known for the Mickey Mouse comic strip; in Kaysville, Utah (d. 1986)
May 6, 1905 (Saturday) The Klamath National Forest was founded in California near the town of Yreka and now covers of protected lands in the California and part of Oregon.
May 7, 1905 (Sunday) The Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was launched in San Francisco in California Elliott Robert Barkan, From All Points: America's Immigrant West, 1870s-1952 (Indiana University Press, 2007) p. 130 by Americans of European descent, P. H. McCarthy of the San Francisco Building Trades Council labor union, and Andrew Furuseth of the International Seamen's Union to lobby to exclude further immigration to the U.S. from Asia.
May 8, 1905 (Monday) The first immigrants to Mexico from Korea arrived on a British cargo ship and landed at the port of Salina Cruz after departing Incheon on April 4."'Dijeron que iba a levantar el dinero con la pala': a brief account of early Korean emigration to Mexico", by Hea-jin Park, Revista d'Història Moderna i Contemporànea (2006) The group, under contract to a plantation, boarded trains to the town of Progreso in the state of Yucatán, but most were not able to save enough money to go home. The case of United States v. Ju Toy was decided by the United States Supreme Court, determining that the decision of immigration authorities to deny a person entry into the U.S. was not subject to judicial review and that denial of entry was not a violation of due process.
May 9, 1905 (Tuesday)
Upon the death of U.S. social activist Ann Reeves Jarvis In West Virginia, her daughter Anna Jarvis resolved to campaign across the United States for a proposed "Mother's Day", lobbying successfully to get the state of West Virginia to recognize the second Sunday in May as the day for remembrance of mothers both living and dead. Miss Jarvis's campaign would be the inspiration for multiple celebratory days for family members during the year, and provide a new outlet for business for florists and sellers of greeting cards. Born: Lilí Álvarez, Spanish tennis player who appeared in the finals at Wimbledon in 1926, 1927, and 1928 and won the French Open mixed doubles in 1929; in Rome to Spanish parents (d. 1998)
May 10, 1905 (Wednesday) In the U.S., A tornado destroyed the town of Snyder, Oklahoma and killed 97 people, making it the seventh deadliest storm in U.S. history up to that time."The Snyder, Oklahoma Tornado of 10 May 1905", National Weather Service The Kentucky Derby was held, with only three horses. Agile, ridden by Jack Martin, won, while Ram's Horn placed and Layson showed."Agile— Career Highlights, Kentuckyderby.com, archived on Archive.com Died: Bernhard Samuelson, 84, British politician and engineer
May 11, 1905 (Thursday) Albert Einstein submitted for publication the first of four groundbreaking papers in physics for 1905, Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen ("On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid, as Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat"), based on his doctoral research, delineating a stochastic model of Brownian motion. The paper would be published on July 18. A dynamite explosion killed 20 passengers and three employees on a Pennsylvania Railroad train, the Cincinnati Express, after a freight train from the same company derailed at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania while carrying of the explosive.Peter Semmens, Railway Disasters of the World: Principal Passenger Train Accidents of the 20th Century (Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1994) Born: Lise de Baissac, Mauritian-born British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent and war heroine; in Curepipe (d. 2004) Catherine Bauer Wurster, American architect and public housing advocate, author of the influential book Modern Housing; in Elizabeth, New Jersey (killed in accidental fall, 1964) Died: Andrzej Jerzy Mniszech, 81, Polish painter and art collector Emerson Bennett, 83, American novelist and short story writer
May 12, 1905 (Friday) The recently opened Natural History Museum in London unveiled its centerpiece, and exact replica of the skeleton of the Diplodocus carnegii dinosaur, made from plaster from the original fossilized bones that were still being prepared for display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. The press soon dubbed the diplodicus with the name "Dippy". Yi Han-eung, the Korean Empire's highest-ranking diplomatic representative as charge d'Affaires to the United Kingdom, hanged himself in his private residence in London, after the British Foreign Secretary had refused to meet with him regarding Japan's imminent takeover of Korea."Suicide of the Korean Charge d'Affaires", The Times (London), May 13, 1905
May 13, 1905 (Saturday) The Nippon Club, the first traditional Japanese gentlemen's club in the United States, was founded in Manhattan in New York City by 75 prominent Japanese and Japanese-American business leaders, with renowned chemist Takamine Jōkichi as its first president.Michael R. Auslin, Pacific Cosmopolitans (Harvard University Press, 2011) p. 100 Born: Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, President of India from 1974 until his death in 1977; in Delhi, British India (d. 1977) Died: Sam S. Shubert, 26, American stage producer and theater operator, died two days after being injured in a railway accident Hiram Cronk, 105, the last surviving veteran of the War of 1812
May 14, 1905 (Sunday) Franz Roubaud's massive panorama painting The Siege of Sevastopol was unveiled to the public in the Russian city of Sevastopol in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Crimean War siege that had ended in 1855. The full-size painting which is in length and high."Museum-panorama Battle of Borodino in Moscow", Geomerid.com Died: Jessie Bartlett Davis, 46, American opera contralto and state actress, died of Bright's disease, a kidney ailment
May 15, 1905 (Monday) Las Vegas, Nevada, was founded when of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned to what is now today Downtown Las Vegas."The History of Las Vegas", Las Vegas official website, lasvegasnevada.gov Born: Joseph Cotten, American film and stage actor; in Petersburg, Virginia (d. 1994) Died: T. Brigham Bishop, 69, American songwriter who composed "John Brown's Body", "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", and "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me"
May 16, 1905 (Tuesday) Nikolai Evgenievich Bogdanovich, the Russian Governor-General of the province of Ufa Governorate was shot and killed. Born: Henry Fonda, American film and stage actor, winner of a Tony Award (for Mister Roberts) and an Academy Award (for On Golden Pond); in Grand Island, Nebraska (d. 1982)
May 17, 1905 (Wednesday) The Kappa Delta Rho fraternity was founded in Room 14 of Old Painter Hall, at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.
May 18, 1905 (Thursday) Fighting broke out during a meeting of the Philadelphia city council after the council approved a 75-year lease to the United Gas Improvement Company of the city's natural gas plant to a private company, despite opposition from Mayor Weaver, for the amount of 25 million dollars, with exclusive control of the energy supply until the year 1980. Five days later, Mayor Weaver fired the Director of Public Works and the Director of Public Safety for negotiating the agreement, an action he was forced to rescind by a court injunction. On May 27, United Gas withdrew its proposition for the 75-year lease.
May 19, 1905 (Friday) Harry George Galt, the much-despised British sub-commissioner of the Western Province of Uganda (at the time a British protectorate) was killed with a spear while resting in a government-owned house near the town of Ibanda.Edward I. Steinhart, Conflict and Collaboration: The Kingdoms of Western Uganda, 1890-1907 (Princeton University Press, 2019) p. 211
May 20, 1905 (Saturday) Burmah Oil acquired the "D'Arcy Concession", the exclusive right, until 1961, to prospect and drill for oil in the kingdom of Persia, now the Islamic Republic of Iran. William Knox D'Arcy had secured a 60-year option in 1901 for £20,000, but the project did not become feasible until the British government agreed to provide protection in the oil fields. The first oil strike would happen in 1908 for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, owned by D'Arcy and Burmah Oil.Michael Quentin Morton, Empires and Anarchies: A History of Oil in the Middle East (Reaktion Books, 2017) p. 24 Born: Gerrit Achterberg, Dutch poet; in Nederlangbroek (d. 1962)
May 21, 1905 (Sunday) George Bernard Shaw's play Man and Superman premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London as produced by the Stage Society. After the first two performances of the four-act play proved to be problematic, the play was performed from May 23 onward without Act III ("Don Juan in Hell").
May 22, 1905 (Monday) Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire established the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day. Born: Tom Driberg, British politician who had been a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain before later becoming the Chairman of the Labour Party; in Crowborough, East Sussex (d. 1976)
May 23, 1905 (Tuesday) Venezuelan President Cipriano Castro decreed an amnesty to all persons who had been exiled from Venezuela, and ordered the freedom of most political prisoners except for officers above the rank of colonel or navy captain.The American Monthly Review of Reviews (July 1905) pp. 26-29 The Ottoman Sultan's decision to create the Ullah millet was publicly announced. This day is the most common date for the celebration of the Aromanian National Day. Died: Ivan Kalyayev, 27, assassin of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, was hanged Mary Livermore, 84, American journalist, abolitionist and women's rights activist Paul Dubois, 75, French sculptor and portrait artist
May 24, 1905 (Wednesday) Physicist and chemist Otto Hahn confirmed his discovery of a new element, "radiothorium", publishing his results in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.Otto Hahn, Otto (24 May 1905). "A new radio-active element, which evolves thorium emanation. Preliminary communication". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character. 76 (508): 115–117 Born: Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist known for And Quiet Flows the Don, recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature; in Kruzhilin, Vyoshenskaya, Russian Empire (d. 1984)