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August 21, 1911:The Mona Lisa...August 11, 1911: Britain's House of Lords approves limits on its power with the Parliament Act...stolen from the Louvre
The following events occurred in August 1911:
August 1, 1911 (Tuesday)
Harriet Quimby became the first American woman to receive an airplane pilot's license, and only the second in the world (after Raymonde de Laroche). She was one of only 37 certified pilots in the world at that time.
President François C. Antoine Simon of Haiti fled from his palace at Port-au-Prince as rebels approached, and took refuge on the Haitian cruiser 17 Decembre. The next day, he and 43 relatives and associates departed on the Dutch steamer Prinz Nederlanden bound for Jamaica.
Allvar Gullstrand first demonstrated the slit lamp. His invention's introduction has been described as "an occasion of tremendous significance to ophthalmology."
Japan's Admiral Count Tōgō Heihachirō, commander of the Japanese fleet during the Russo-Japanese War, was welcomed to New York City as a guest of the United States. After arriving the night before on the Lusitania at 11:40 pm, he transferred to two smaller boats and stayed at the Hotel Knickerbocker. Meeting Mayor William J. Gaynor later in the day, he departed on a train for Washington, D.C. that afternoon, where he was hosted at a state dinner by President Taft.
August 5, 1911 (Saturday)
Colombian and Peruvian troops fought a battle in Caquetá Department, with the Colombian forces being defeated and reportedly sustaining large losses.
The sinking of an overcrowded passenger boat on the Nile River killed 100 people. Most of the victims were on their way to a festival in Desouk.
General Cincinnatus Leconte was proclaimed as President of Haiti, rather than General Anténor Firmin, who had also led an attack on the capital, replacing President Simon. Leconte was formally elected on August 14.
The first American newsreel, Pathé's Weekly, was shown in North American cinemas. Promotional material described it as "issued every Tuesday, made up of short scenes of great international events of universal interest from all over the world."
The United States Senate approved statehood for Arizona and New Mexico, 53-18. Earlier a proposed amendment by Senator Nelson of Minnesota, proposing to condition Arizona statehood on removing judicial recall from its constitution, failed 26-43.
Eighty-six people were drowned when the French ship Emir foundered after colliding with the British ship Silverton. The ship was passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, five miles east of Tarifa, after sailing from Gibraltar to Tangier. There were only 15 survivors from the Emir. The Silverton had been on its way from Newport to Taranto.
A record for the hottest day in the history of the United Kingdom was set when a temperature of 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) was measured at Raunds, Northamptonshire, England. The record was broken on August 3, 1990 (37.1 °C) and again on August 10, 2003 (38.1 °C).
By a margin of 131-114, the House of Lords passed the Parliament Act 1911, also called the "Veto Bill" because it allowed the United Kingdom House of Commons to put limits on the Lords' power. More than 300 eligible peers declined to participate. However, the 88 Liberal peers were joined in voting in favor by 29 Tories and 13 of the 15 Anglican archbishops and bishops who cast votes. Conservative MPGeorge Wyndham would later remark, "We were beaten by the bishops and the rats."
U.S. President William H. Taft began a three-month-long stay away from Washington, D.C., starting with a monthlong vacation in Beverly, Massachusetts, where the Taft family rented Paramatta from Mrs. Lucy Peabody for use as his "Summer White House". On September 15, he began a 15,000 mile tour of 30 of the 46 states, and did not return to the White House until November 12.
"For a period of one year from and after the date hereof, the landing in Canada shall be, and the same is prohibited, of any immigrants belonging to the Negro race", declared an Order in Council approved by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier on this date, "which race is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada." The racist order, made in response to hundreds of African-Americans moving to the Canadian prairies from Oklahoma, was never enforced, and repealed on October 5.
Duke Kahanamoku broke three world swimming records in his very first meet, in Honolulu. Besides taking 1.6 seconds off of the 50 yard freestyle (to 24.2), he became the first person to swim 100 yards in under a minute, swimming in 55.4 seconds, 4.6 less than the AAU record.
Henry Percival James, British Assistant Commissioner of Nigeria, was shot and killed along with five other people while traveling along the Forcados River on government business.
A lynch mob in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, burned an African-American to death after he was accused of murder. Three men were arrested on August 16. The night before, Zachariah Walker had shot and killed Edgar Rice, a private policeman, then injured himself in a suicide attempt while fleeing. While recovering in custody at the local hospital and restrained to a cot, Rice was seized by an angry mob. A fire was set and Walker, still chained to his hospital bed, was tossed into the flames. Pennsylvania Governor John K. Tener would later say that the charter of Coatesville should be revoked, declaring "Had her officers or her citizens done their duty, the Commonwealth would not have been disgraced and her fair name dishonored.
Matilde E. Moisant became the 3rd woman licensed airplane pilot in history. Unlike the first two, Raymonde de la Roche and Harriet Quimby, Moisant avoided death in a plane crash, and would live until 1964, to the age of 85.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, a 35-year-old salesman for a manufacturer of pencil sharpeners, submitted a partial manuscript for "Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess" to Argosy magazine. The title would be changed and the story lengthened to six installments in All-Story Magazine with the title Under the Moons of Mars, starting the literary career of Burroughs.
Harry Atwood took off from St. Louis at 7:05 in the morning local time to begin a 1,265 mile trip to New York City. Making 20 stops, and logging 28½ hours flying time, he reached New York at 2:38 pm on August 25.
Ethel Payne
Born:Ethel L. Payne, African-American journalist who earned the nickname "First Lady of the Black Press" for her tough reporting for the Chicago Defender (d. 1991).
August 15, 1911 (Tuesday)
President Taft vetoed the statehood bill for Arizona and New Mexico to the 46-state union. Although the veto was directed at Arizona's judicial recall provision, New Mexico was blocked because the two states had been included in the same legislation.
Died: Major Henry Reed Rathbone, 74, who was present at the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and had been stabbed by John Wilkes Booth. Rathbone had been imprisoned at the Hildesheim Asylum for the Criminally Insane after murdering his wife while the American Consul at Hanover.
August 16, 1911 (Wednesday)
The government of France accepted the terms of the Convention of Niamey that delineated the borders between French West Africa and Germany's two west African colonies, Kamerun (now Cameroon) and Togoland (later divided into Togo and eastern Ghana). Prime Minister Joseph Caillaux endorsed the settlement following several years of negotiations. The border agreement effectively determined the current boundaries between Burkina Faso and Ghana and Togo, as well as between Togo and Benin and between Cameroon and Chad.
Apostol Petkov, 42, Bulgarian guerrilla leader, was killed while fighting Ottoman troops.
August 17, 1911 (Thursday)
U.S. President Taft vetoed the Wool Tariff Reform Bill, an amendment to the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act that would have cut the duty on imported wool in half, reducing the cost of clothing to American consumers. The legislation had passed earlier in the week, 206-90 in the House, but only 38-28 in the Senate. A historian would later write that, in making the veto, "Taft deliberately, knowingly committed the sole enduring mistake of his presidency."
In Britain, civil unrest across the industrial regions continued with the first national railway strike, beginning with the Llanelli Railway Riots. Six men died during the protests that aimed to improve workers rights.
In Indiana, William Perry Woods incorporated the Royal Order of Lions. This was a forerunner of Lions Clubs International (incorporated 1917), the world's largest service club organization, with 1,350,000 members in 45,000 Lions Club chapters.
The victory of Emilio Estrada over General Flavio Alfaro in elections for President of Ecuador was certified by the Ecuadorian Congress.
The Constitution of the Republic of Portugal was adopted by the National Assembly at 1:35 am.
The United States Senate voted 53-8 in favor of an amendment to the statehood bill for Arizona and New Mexico, conditioning Arizona's admission into the union on its revocation of a provision to recall elected judges.
A mob of 200 men in Wales attacked and looted Jewish-owned shops at Tredegar. On August 21, rioting spread to Ebbw Vale and Rhymney, and by August 22 across the rest of Wales.
August 20, 1911 (Sunday)
The New York Times sent the first round-the-world cable message, receiving the text back 16+1⁄2 minutes after it was sent.
Lincoln Beachey broke the world altitude record, ascending to a height of 11,642 feet, more than 2 miles and more than 3+1⁄2 km.
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum while the museum was closed for cleaning. Witnesses reported that a tall stout individual had been carrying what appeared to be a large panel covered with a horse blanket, then caught the Paris to Bordeaux express at 7:47 am as it was pulling out of the Quai d'Orsay station. Two years later, Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian patriot who claimed that he stole the painting to return it to the homeland of Leonardo da Vinci, was arrested in Florence and the painting was recovered.
At 3:08 pm, President Taft signed the joint resolution offering American statehood to Arizona and New Mexico.
Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would not consent to use of his name as a possible candidate in 1912.
Sir James Whitney, the Premier of Ontario, announced that he opposed the reciprocity bill with the United States because he believed that it would lead to annexation.
Died: William Rotch Wister, 84, "the father of American cricket". Wister had founded the Philadelphia Cricket Club after watching English mill workers playing the game in 1842.
August 22, 1911 (Tuesday)
The former Shah of Persia was routed at Savadkuh with the loss of 300 of his men.
In Britain, the Official Secrets Act 1911 was given royal assent, providing heavy penalties for spying, "wrongful communication of information," "harbouring spies," and "attempts to commit offence or incitement to commit offence."
August 23, 1911 (Wednesday)
A secret meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence was convened by Prime Minister Asquith to discuss overall military strategy for war against Germany. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson and Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson, the leaders of the British Army and the Royal Navy, respectively, presented their opposing views on how a war in continental Europe should be conducted.
Born:
Betty Robinson, U.S. athlete and winner of first women's 100 meter in the Summer Olympics; gold medalist 1928 and 1936; holder of 100m world record and "fastest woman on Earth," 1928–1932; in Riverdale, Illinois (d. 1999).
Birger Ruud, Norwegian ski jumper, Olympic gold medalist 1932 and 1936, world champion 1931, 1935 and 1937; in Kongsberg (d. 1998).
August 24, 1911 (Thursday)
Led by the organization Tung Chi Huei, Chinese citizens living in Chengdu walked off of their jobs in protest over the Imperial Government's agreement with foreign nations to build a railroad through the Sichuan Province, after businesses there had raised $20,000,000 to build it themselves. "Few people in this country realized when the brief telegrams reported the occurrence of a strike," wrote an American author later, "that the beginning of the end of the Manchu Dynasty had arrived." The Xinhai Revolution would begin six weeks later.
Manuel de Arriaga, Procurator General of Portugal was elected the first President of Portugal, receiving 121 votes from the Constituent Assembly. In second place was Foreign Minister Bernardo Machado, with 86 votes. Arriaga had been a professor at Columbia University and had taught English to the late King Carlos of Portugal.
The first shipment of coal was made from Harlan County, Kentucky, the beginning of its transformation into a major coal producer. The influx of miners and their families raised the population from 11,000 to 31,500 in ten years, and to 75,000 by 1940, before declining to 29,000 by 2011.
Andre Jaeger-Schmidt travelled around the world in 40 days, arriving at Cherbourg at 11:15 pm, in Paris, 4 hours and 17 minutes ahead of schedule.
Harry Atwood completed his flight from St. Louis to New York, covering 1,265 miles in 11 days, setting a new distance record.
Twenty-eight people were killed and 74 injured in a train wreck at Manchester, New York. Two passenger cars on the Lehigh Valley Train No. 4 fell from the track into a ravine after encountering a section of track weakened by metal fatigue. Many of the dead and injured were veterans of the American Civil War and other members of the Grand Army of the Republic organization, on their way to an encampment in Rochester.
Twenty-six people were killed at the Morgan Opera House, a movie theatre in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, after a false alarm of fire. At 8:15 pm, 800 people were watching a film when it flared up and a cry of alarm was made.
The Argentine battleship ARA Rivadavia, largest in the world, was launched at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Madame Naon, wife of the Argentine Ambassador to the United States, broke the champagne bottle over the bow at 1:58 pm.
August 27, 1911 (Sunday)
Quoting from astronomer Percival Lowell, The New York Times reported that "vast engineering works" had been "accomplished in an incredibly short time by our planetary neighbors," referring to canals built on the planet Mars by its inhabitants. The Times noted that in two years, straight chasms had been built that were 20 miles wide and 1,000 miles in length.
The phrase "our place in the sun," describing one's belief in an entitlement, was first used by Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II in a speech delivered at Hamburg. "No one can dispute with us the place in the sun that is our due," borrowed from Blaise Pascal's Pensees.
Johnny Eck (stage name for John Eckhardt Jr.); American acrobat and sideshow performer who overcame a birth defect of being born without legs by making a performance of walking on his hands; in Baltimore. Robert Ripley, author of the Believe It or Not! newspaper feature called him "The Most Remarkable Man in the World"; (d. 1991).
August 28, 1911 (Monday)
The United States acquired the four small Causeway Islands (Flamenco, Culebra, Naos and Perico) at the western end of the Panama Canal. Later named collectively for the causeway that connected them to the mainland, the islands reverted to Panamanian control when the Panama Canal Zone was transferred in 1979.
"Ishi", the last surviving member of the Yahi American Indian tribe and last speaker of the Yana language, was discovered hiding in a corral near Oroville, California. Ishi lived the rest of his life as the guest of Professor Alfred Kroeber, curator of the Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco, and died in 1916.
The Director of the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the center of population in the United States had been calculated incorrectly, at that it was located in the western part of Bloomington, Indiana, eight miles from the originally announced center in Brown County, Indiana.
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, at one time the largest corporation in the United States and the largest oil producer and refiner in the world, ceased to exist in accordance with the May 15 antitrust judgment in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States. Upon remand from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the company had been given until the end of August "to relinquish its control of the subsidiary concerns" and to transfer the remaining capital to the stockholders of the companies created from the breakup.
"Taft Arbitration Treaties Signed". The New York Times, August 4, 1911, p. 1.
Samuel F. Wells, The Challenges of Power: American Diplomacy, 1900–1921 (University Press of America, 1990). pp. 73-74.
Edward J. Holland, Cornea: Fundamentals, Diagnosis and Management (Gulf Professional Publishing, 2005). p. 191.
"Admiral Togo Here as Nation's Guest". The New York Times, August 4, 1911, p. 1.
"Peru and Colombia Clash". The New York Times, August 6, 1911, p. 1.
The Britannica Year-Book 1913: A Survey of the World's Progress Since the Completion in 1910 of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1913). p. xi.
"One Hundred Native Africans Drawn to Death in the Nile". Spokane Daily Chronicle, August 8, 1911, p. 1.
"Army Proclaims Leconte President". The New York Times, August 7, 1911, p. 1.
"Commons Rejects Vote of Censure". The New York Times, August 8, 1911, p. 1.
Alban Butler, et al., Butler's Lives of the Saints: August (Continuum International Publishing, 1998). p. 212.
Ray Gamache, A History of Sports Highlights: Replayed Plays from Edison to ESPN (McFarland, 2010). p. 49.
"Statehood Bill Passed". The New York Times, August 9, 1911, p. 1.
"Liner Sinks; 86 Drown". The New York Times, August 10, 1911, p. 1.
Philip Eden, Great British Weather Disasters (Continuum International Publishing, 2008). p. 190.
"Veto Bill Passes; No Puppet Peers". The New York Times, August 11, 1911, p. 1.
W. D. Rubinstein, Twentieth-century Britain: A Political History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). p. 44.
"President Goes to Beverly". The New York Times, August 11, 1911.
"President Taft Ends His 15,000 Mile Tour". The New York Times, November 12, 1911.
R. Bruce Shepard, Deemed Unsuitable: Blacks from Oklahoma Move to the Canadian Prairies in Search of Equality in the Early 20th Century, Only to Find Racism in Their New Home (Dundurn Press Ltd., 1997). p. 100.
Dan Cisco, Hawaiʻi Sports: History, Facts, and Statistics (University of Hawaii Press, 1999).
"The Murders in Southern Nigeria". Glasgow Herald, August 14, 1911, p. 9.
Sally M. Miller and Daryl Morrison, John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures (UNM Press, 2005). p. 256.
"Burn a Negro at Stake in Pennsylvania". The New York Times, August 14, 1911, p. 1.
Randall M. Miller and William Pencak, Pennsylvania: a History of the Commonwealth (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002). p. 289.
"Would Revoke Charter of a Borough". Meriden (CT) Morning Record, January 9, 1913, p. 4.
Shawna Kelly, Aviators in Early Hollywood (Arcadia Publishing, 2008). p. 43.
Paul Green and Mike Hoffman, Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns (McFarland, 2009). p. 215.
^ "Atwood Ends Record Air Trip". The New York Times, August 26, 1911, p. 1.
"President Vetoes the Statehood Bill". The New York Times, August 16, 1911, p. 1.
Steven L. Piott, Giving Voters a Voice: The Origins of the Initiative and Referendum in America (University of Missouri Press, 2003). p. 145.
"JUDICIARY RECALL IS FATAL TO STATEHOOD". Arizona Journal-Miner (Prescott, Arizona), August 16, 1911, p. 1.
"Major Rathbone Dies; Was Wounded by Jon Wilkes Booth After Assassin Shot President Lincoln". The New York Times, August 16, 1911, p. 1.
Frank E. Trout, Morocco's Saharan Frontiers (Droz Publishers, 1969). p. 193.
"Taft's Second Veto Kills the Wool Bill". The New York Times, August 18, 1911, p. 1.
"Tariff", in The New International Year Book: A Compendium of the World's Progress for the Year 1911 (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1912). p. 678.
Michael L. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, 1909–1913 (McFarland, 2003). p. 268.
