1900s

This article is about the decade starting in 1900 and ending in 1909. For century starting in 1900 and ending in 1999, see 20th century.

Events and trends

Technology

First unaided flight by Santos Dumont, November 12, 1906.

• Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft
• Mass production of automobile
• Wide popularity of home phonograph
• Panama Canal is built by the United States
• The Photostat machine begins modern era of document imaging

Science

• Planck's law of black body radiation
• Einstein's theory of special relativity
• Einstein explains Brownian motion and the photoelectric effect

Literature and art

• Pablo Picasso paints Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, considered by some to be the birth of modern art.
• Joseph Conrad publishes Heart of Darkness
• Thomas Mann publishes Buddenbrooks

War, peace and politics

A shocked mandarin in Manchu robe in the back, with Queen Victoria (British Empire), Wilhelm II (German Empire), Nicholas II (Imperial Russia), Marianne (French Third Republic), and Emperor Meiji (Empire of Japan) stabbing into a pie with Chine ("China" in French) written on it. A portrayal of New Imperialism and its effects on China.

• The New Imperialism
• Demand for Home Rule for Ireland
• Second Boer War ends
• American proclamation of the end of the Philippine-American War
• British colonies in Australia federate, forming the Commonwealth of Australia
• Russo-Japanese War establishes the Empire of Japan as a world power
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign Entente Cordiale
• The Russian Revolution of 1905.

People

World leaders

• Prime Minister Edmund Barton (Australia)
• Prime Minister Alfred Deakin (Australia)
• Prime Minister Chris Watson (Australia)
• Prime Minister Sir George Reid (Australia)
• Prime Minister Andrew Fisher (Australia)
• Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
• Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Canada)
• Emperor Wilhelm II (Germany)
• King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
• Pope Leo XIII
• Pope Pius X
• Emperor Nicholas II (Russia)
• King Alfonso XIII (Spain)
• Prime Minister Antonio Maura (Spain)
• Queen Victoria (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• King Edward VII (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• President William McKinley (United States)
• President Theodore Roosevelt (United States)
• Shahs of Persia (Qajar dynasty)

1. Mozzafar-al-Din Shah, 1896-1907
2. Mohammad Ali Shah, 1907-1909
3. Ahmad Shah Qajar, 1909-1925

Important personalities

• Sigmund Freud

Entertainers

• Eugen d'Albert
• Hugo Alfvén
• Egbert Van Alstyne
• Broncho Billy Anderson
• Fatty Arbuckle
• Kurt Atterberg
• Béla Bartók
• Nora Bayes
• Irving Berlin
• Francis Boggs
• Frank Bridge
• Alfred Bryan
• Vincent P. Bryan
• Ferruccio Busoni
• Enrico Caruso
• Gustave Charpentier
• Thurland Chattaway
• Francesco Cilea
• Will D. Cobb
• George M. Cohan
• Bob Cole
• Frederick Converse
• Henry Creamer
• Henry Walford Davies
• Peter Dawson
• Claude Debussy
• Frederick Delius
• Paul Dresser
• Antonín Dvořák
• Gus Edwards
• Edward Elgar
• August Enna
• Manuel de Falla
• Geraldine Farrar
• Fred Fisher
• Paul Le Flem
• Rudolf Friml
• Julius Fučík
• Amelita Galli-Curci
• Mary Garden
• Edward German
• Alexander Glazunov
• Emilio de Gogorza
• Percy Grainger
• Enrique Granados
• D. W. Griffith
• Guy d'Hardelot
• Hamilton Harty
• The Haydn Quartet
• Anna Held
• Victor Herbert
• Max Hoffmann
• Gustav Holst
• Abe Holzmann
• David Horsley
• Mississippi John Hurt
• Jenö Huszka
• Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
• Carrie Jacobs-Bond
• William Jerome
• J. Rosamond Johnson
• James Weldon Johnson
• Scott Joplin
• Gus Kahn
• Jerome Kern
• Rudyard Kipling
• Carl Laemmle
• Harry Lauder
• Leadbelly
• Franz Lehár
• Ruggiero Leoncavallo
• Paul Lincke
• Gustav Mahler
• Arthur Marshall
• Jules Massenet
• Nikolai Karlovich Medtner
• Nellie Melba
• Georges Méliès
• Kerry Mills
• Billy Murray
• Evelyn Nesbit
• Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin
• Carl Nielsen
• Jack Norworth
• Vítězslav Novák
• Maude Nugent
• Sidney Olcott
• Charles Pathé
• Edwin S. Porter
• Giacomo Puccini
• Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Maurice Ravel
• Ottorino Respighi
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
• Landon Ronald
• Paul Sarebresole
• Arnold Schoenberg
• Jean Schwartz
• James Scott
• Alexander Scriabin
• William Selig
• Chris Smith
• Harry B. Smith
• Ethel Smyth
• John Philip Sousa
• George K. Spoor
• Charles Villiers Stanford
• Andrew B. Sterling
• Oscar Strauss
• Richard Strauss
• Igor Stravinsky
• Leslie Stuart
• Josef Suk
• Sergei Taneyev
• Albert Von Tilzer
• Harry Von Tilzer
• Tom Turpin
• Edgard Varèse
• Vesta Victoria
• Anton Webern
• Percy Wenrich
• Bert Williams
• Harry Williams
• Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
• Amy Woodforde-Finden
• Israel Zangwill
• Charles A. Zimmerman

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