April 25, 1913: Mary Phagan, 15-year old pencil factory employee, murdered in AtlantaApril 24, 1913: The Woolworth Building, tallest in the world until 1930, opens to the publicApril 29, 1913: Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank arrested and charged with Phagan's murder
The following events occurred in April 1913:
April 1, 1913 (Tuesday)
King of Albania and would-be King of France Philippe
The Turkish government approved the terms of peace to end the First Balkan War, losing 60,000 square miles of its territory to the Balkan nations.[1]
The first trial of the assembly line method of manufacturing was made, with the Ford Motor Company testing the process in the putting together of a magneto for a flywheel motor at its factory in Highland Park, Michigan. The assembly process was split among 29 employees, each putting together a part of the magneto and then sending it over to another employee. The production time for each magneto was lowered from 20 minutes to 13 minutes. When the height of the line was raised the next year, and a moving conveyor was added, the time dropped to eight minutes, and then five minutes, a quadrupling of the production rate.[2]
Lord Northcliffe, the publisher of the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, offered a prize of £10,000 ($50,000) to the first persons who could make a direct flight across the Atlantic Ocean, within 72 hours or less. In 2013 money, the equivalent would be £730,000 or $1.1 million. The shortest trip was 1,900 miles between Ireland and Newfoundland, which John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown would accomplish on June 15, 1919.[5]
The Riverview Hospital opened in Coquitlam, British Columbia as a mental health facility, and was handling just over 900 patients by the end of the year. It operated until 2012 when it closed to make way for new provincial mental health facility.[7]
The release was made of Apache Indians who had been held by the U.S. government as prisoners of war at the Fort Sill Military Reservation in Oklahoma since 1894. Of the group, 163 elected to be relocated to New Mexico, while another 76 received allotments of land in Oklahoma, and the last Apaches would leave Fort Sill on March 7, 1914.[10]
British record label Polydor Records was established initially as a subsidiary to the Deutsche Grammophon company, becoming its own independent label in 1972.[11]
April 3, 1913 (Thursday)
The 550-foot long German dirigible Z-4, flying near the boundary with France in order to inspect French border defenses, strayed into French territory, ran out of fuel, and went down at the airfield at Lunéville, France where the French Army seized control of the ship and detained its crew of eleven.[12] France allowed civilian repairmen to cross over from Germany, and the Z-4 left the next day, but not before it was photographed and measured in detail.[13]
Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffrage movement, was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of the conspiracy to bomb the country home of David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. She went on a hunger strike and was released nine days later.[14]
An angry mob in Mondak, Montana, carried out the lynching of a black construction worker, J. C. Collins, hours after Collins had shot and killed Sheridan County Sheriff Thomas Courtney and a deputized citizen, Richard Bermeister.[17][18] Collins was forcibly removed from jail by a group who had overpowered his captors, then taken to a telephone pole and hanged; in some accounts, some of the citizens attempted unsuccessfully to set fire to the hanging corpse and, failing in that effort, shot the body with bullets.[19]Booker T. Washington would mention the lynching in a July 15, 1913 letter to the Boston Transcript.[20]
Emmanouil Argyropoulos, the first Greek to become a pilot, also became the victim of the first fatal plane crash in Greece along with his passenger Konstantinos Manos. Argyropoulos had been flying over the Langadas region near Thessaloniki when his Blériot airplane suddenly lost power at an altitude of 600 metres (2,000 ft) and plummeted earthward.[24][25]
Ebbets Field opened as the new home of baseball's Brooklyn Superbas (later the Dodgers), who played an exhibition game against the New York City team from the rival American League. The former "New York Highlanders" had a new name, the New York Yankees. The Superbas won, 3–2, before 25,000 fans.[28][29] Genevieve Ebbets, daughter of Dodgers owner Charley Ebbets, threw the honorary first pitch.
The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) was founded, with the name "United States of America Foot Ball Association". The word "soccer" would not be made part of the organization name until 1945 (as the United States Soccer Football Association), and the word "football" would not be dropped until the USSF adopted its present name in 1974.[30]
The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies (Academia de Studii Economice din București or ASE) was founded by decree of King Carol of Romania. It would have more than 35,000 undergraduate and 1,600 masters and doctoral students by the time of its centennial in 2013.[33]
China inaugurated its first elected Parliament at Beijing, with more than 500 of the 596 Representatives and 177 of the 274 Senators present when the assembly opened at 11:00 am.[36]
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson broke a 100-year tradition and personally appeared before a joint session of United States Congress to speak in support of a bill on tariffs.[38]
Ebbets Field, the new home of baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers at 55 Sullivan Place, hosted its first official game. The stadium, new, but still the smallest in the National League, could hold 25,000 people, and bad weather limited the attendance to 10,000 in a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.[42] The Dodgers would play their last game there on September 24, 1957, and the last baseball game there would be a Negro league contest, with the Havana Cubans defeating the Kansas City Monarchs 6-4 on August 23, 1959. Demolition would begin on February 23, 1960, and apartments now stand on the site.[43]
Albert S. Burleson, the new U.S. Postmaster General, proposed the segregation of white and black federal employees in the postal service, at a cabinet meeting with President Woodrow Wilson. Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels wrote in his diary that Burleson advocated separation of the races in the railway mail service, "and he was anxious to segregate White and Negro employees in all Departments of the Government". Wilson made no objection to Burleson's suggestion, implying that segregation within a federal office was left to the choice of each cabinet member. By the end of the year, separate bathrooms and lunchrooms were set aside for black and white workers at the Post Office Department. U.S. Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo implemented racial segregation at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Daniels had done the same at the office of the Auditor of the Navy, and layoffs of Negro federal employees took place in the South during 1914.[47]
The British Ecological Society, an environmentalist organization that was the first of its kind in history, was founded by 47 persons who had been invited by the British Vegetation Committee. An American counterpart, the Ecological Society of America, would be created in 1915.[52]
Anarchist Rafael Sancho Alegre fired three shots at King Alfonso as he was riding through the streets of Madrid. It was the eighth attempt on the life of the King, who was uninjured and would reign until 1931.[56]
A group of 200,000 Belgian workers went on strike in protest over the government's failure to approve the abolition of the "plural vote" system. Under the existing law, Belgian men who were 25 or older could have as many as three votes, with extra voting rights awarded for marriage, land ownership, a university degree or government employment. The Socialist Party had sought a rule for one vote for any Belgian citizen over the age of 21.[61] The Belgian government revised the constitution a week later and the strike ended.[62]
The first issue of Scouting, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, was published, originally as a semi-weekly newsletter.[64] In its 100th year, the magazine would be published five times a year.[65]
The California State Assembly passed the Alien Land Act, prohibiting Japanese aliens from owning real estate in that state, and causing mob protests in Japan. Despite appeals from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and an address to the legislature by United States Secretary of StateWilliam Jennings Bryan, the state Senate would pass the bill on May 9, and the measure would be signed into law, with the Japanese government protest being so strong that the U.S. made preparations for a possible war with Japan.[66]
Some 20,000 protesters gathered in Tokyo to cheer various speakers who were demanding that Japan declare war on the United States in response to the impending Alien Land Act being considered by the California state legislature.[72]
Athletic Park opened in Vancouver as a baseball venue although it also hosted football, lacrosse, and other sport events.[75]
Born:Miss Read (pen name for Dora Shafe Saint), British novelist best known for the Fairacre and Thrush Green series; in London (d. 2012)
Died:Agnes McLaren, 75, Scottish physician and the first female physician to administer medical care for women in India (b. 1837)
April 18, 1913 (Friday)
French General Joseph Joffre presented "Plan XVII" to the Supreme War Council, in what would become the basis for French military strategy during World War I in the event of an invasion by Germany.[76] General Joffre's plan, approved by the War Ministry on May 2, assumed that the German Army would come across the German-French border, and failed to have any contingency for what Germany would do in 1914, when it invaded Belgium and then crossed the Belgian-French border.[77]
Weekly newspaper Frostburg Mining Journal published its final issue in Frostburg, Maryland after which was publishing company went into receivership was the bought out. The new newspaper company commenced publishing under a new name in September called The Frostburg Spirit before it was sold again in 1915 and original name was revived. The paper finally closed for good in 1917.[80]
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent a message to the California state Senate and House, urging the members not to pass legislation aimed at barring Japanese persons from owning land in that state, requesting them to pass a broader law that would affect all aliens.[83]
The two children of dancer Isadora Duncan were killed in an automobile accident, shortly after having dined with her in Paris. Deirdre Duncan, 6, and Patrick Duncan, 3, were drowned along with their governess, Annie Sim, when the car they were in rolled down a hill into the river Seine. Duncan herself would be killed in a freak accident on September 14, 1927, while a passenger in an automobile.[85]
Three members of the France's infamous Bonnot Gang, Raymond Callemin, André Soudy and Élie Monier, were executed by guillotine at 4:30 a.m. All three were beheaded within 40 seconds of each other.[92]
Quo Vadis? became the first motion picture to be shown in a Broadway theater, normally reserved for plays, and attracted thousands of spectators at a time, all willing to pay one dollar to watch a two-hour feature film.[93]
The strike of 500,000 Belgian workers, seeking the right to vote, was ended after the Prime Minister of Belgium accepted a compromise proposed by the leader of the Liberals in Parliament.[94]
Mexico's government began the increased printing of paper currency in order to finance its armies during the revolution. The first issue put an additional five million pesos into circulation, but within two years, the government had printed 672,000,000 pesos, and other factions issued their own paper money. Between April and July, the inflation rate rose from 10% to 100%, and to nearly 1000% by April 1915 and 10,000% by April 1916 and more than 100,000% by September 1916.[96]
The Ottoman Turkish city of Iskodra (referred to as "Scutari" in the English-language press and "Shkodra" by Montenegro) surrendered to Montenegrin troops after six months of siege.[97][98][99]
The 55-story Woolworth Building, designed by architect Cass Gilbert and located at 233 Broadway Street in New York City, officially opened as the tallest skyscraper in the world. At 7:30 pm in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button that lit the 80,000 lights in the 792 foot high structure.[101] The event, one commentator would write later, "ushered in the era of the great skyscraper". The Woolworth Building's reign as the tallest in the world would last until 1930.[102]
The "Cat and Mouse Act", officially named the Prisoners' Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act, was given royal assent in the United Kingdom.[107] Proposed by Home SecretaryReginald McKenna in response to the use of the hunger strike by imprisoned suffragettes, the law provided that if a prisoner has a "condition of health... due in whole or in part to the prisoner's own conduct in prison", the Secretary of State could "authorise the temporary discharge of the prisoner" who, after recuperation, would return to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence, extended by the time on leave.[108]
Leo Frank, the 29-year old superintendent of the National Pencil Company factory in Atlanta, presented 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan her weekly pay after closing time. Mary's body was found the next morning at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Frank became the prime suspect in her murder, and was arrested three days later on April 29 for her murder.[111] A prominent Jew in Atlanta and president of the city's B'nai B'rith, Leo Frank would be convicted of Mary's murder despite the absence of evidence linking him to the killing. Although his death sentence would be commuted in 1915 to life imprisonment, a mob of angry citizens would kidnap him from the prison farm and lynch him.[112]
French composer Erik Satie would complete his next humorous piano composition Descriptions automatiques but kept it secret from the public until its public performance by Spanish pianist and partner Ricardo Viñes.[116]
The agreement for a $125,000,000 (£25,000,000) loan to China, from banks in five European nations, was signed in Beijing by the Chinese Prime Minister.[117] The loan was at an interest rate of 5 percent per annum.[118] Although the agreement was unconstitutional because it was not approved by the Parliament, President Yuan Shikai was able to use the funding to defeat his opponents in the civil war that followed.[119]
Albert Schweitzer opened his first hospital facility, a day after supplies had arrived at his remote location in Gabon, and began the first major medical treatment for the native African population.[120]
Four weeks after having been offered the Albanian throne, Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Montpensier, announced that he was declining the chance to become King of Albania. The Duke, whose candidacy was opposed by Italy and Austria-Hungary, announced his decision in a letter published in the newspaper Le Figaro. Ferdinand would die on January 30, 1924.[122]
After receiving a demand from the United Kingdom to pay $10,000,000 to settle a bond indebtedness, Guatemala appealed to the United States for aid.[123]
The National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba opened in Havana after its society received a decree to operate on February 23.[126] However, the museum site would be moved several times throughout the city before its current Palace of Fine Arts was built in 1955.[127]
Germany's Foreign Minister, Gottlieb von Jagow, said in a speech at the Reichstag that Germany would respect the guarantees of Belgium's neutrality, followed by Minister of War Josias von Heeringen, who pledged that "Germany will not lose sight of the fact that the neutrality of Belgium is guaranteed by international treaty." Germany would invade Belgium fifteen months later on its entry into World War I on August 2, 1914.[130]
Franklin Knight Lane, the new United States Secretary of the Interior, rescinded an order that had banned automobiles from entering Yosemite National Park and other parks, increasing the tourism in those areas. Lane wrote that "This form of transportation has come to stay, and to close the park against automobiles would be as absurd as the fight for many years made by old naval men against the adoption of steam in the navy."[133]
^"Turkey Agrees to Powers' Terms", The New York Times, April 2, 1913
^"Industrial Revolution and Assembly Line Work", in Work in America, Volume 1: A–M, Carl E. Van Horn and Herbert A. Schaffner, eds. (ABC-CLIO, 2003) p. 288
^"Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (May 1913), pp. 545-548
^"New King of Albany", Milwaukee Sentinel, April 1, 1913, p. 1
^"Alcock and Brown: First Across the Atlantic Direct", by John Motum, Putnam Aeronautical Review (July 1989) p. 84, reprinted by Naval Institute Press, 1990
^"All New Haven Out to Greet Mr. Taft", The New York Times, April 2, 1913
^Ministry Health Branch (1970). A Summary of the Growth and Development of Mental Health Facilities and Services in British Columbia: 1850–1970. Vancouver, British Columbia: City of Vancouver.
^Hanlon, Ann-Marie (2013). "Satie and the Meaning of the Comic". In Potter, Caroline (ed.). Erik Satie: Music, Art and Literature. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 19–48.
^Rachel McClean, Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Research Methods (Academic Conferences Limited, 2012) p. 553
^"China's Parliament Opens", The New York Times, April 9, 1913
^"Direct Election of Senators by People an Assured Fact Due to Connecticut's Action", Meriden (CT) Morning Record, April 9, 1913, p. 2
^"Tariff Message Breaks Record of Hundred Years", Milwaukee Journal, April 9, 1913, p. 1; "Wilson to Read His Message to Congress", The New York Times, April 7, 1913
^Bruce Bartlett, Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past (Macmillan, 2009) pp. 102–103; "Prejudices and Empty Promises: Woodrow Wilson's Betrayal of the Negro, 1910–1919", by Cleveland M. Green, The Crisis magazine (November 1980), pp. 380-387
^Elizabeth A. Eldredge, Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960 (University of Wisconsin Press, 2007) pp. 152, 162
^Farrar, C. W.; & Farrar, M. Incomparable Delray Beach: its early life and lore. Star Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 31–32.
^"Fakta om SIL" (in Norwegian). Surnadal IL. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
^"200,000 Belgian Workers Go Out", The New York Times, April 15, 1913; "500,000 Belgians Strike Tomorrow", The New York Times, April 13, 1913
^Charles D'Ydewalle, Albert and the Belgians: Portrait of a King, translated by Phyllis Megroz (Quinn and Boden, 1935, reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2005) p. 52
^Ellis Krauss and Benjamin Nyblade, Japan and North America, Volume 1: First Contacts to the Pacific War (Taylor & Francis, 2004) pp. 128–129
^Albert Schweitzer, Steven E. G. Melamed Sr., The African Sermons (Syracuse University Press, 2003) p xliv
^Pieters, Walter M. Above Flanders' Fields: A Complete Record of the Belgian Fighter Pilots and Their Units During the Great War, 1914–1918. Grub Street, 1998. ISBN1-898697-83-3, ISBN978-1-898697-83-1, pp. 14, 23–24
^"Armistice Till April 23", The New York Times, April 18, 1913, p. 6
^"Japanese Clamor for War with the United States— Frantic Demands for Open Hostilities With America Are Hysterically Cheered in Tokio", Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1913, p. 1
^Barbara O'Connor, Barefoot Dancer: The Story of Isadora Duncan (Twenty-First Century Books, 1994) pp. 63-64; "Duncan Children Drown with Nurse", The New York Times, April 20, 1913
^Nigel Thomas, Armies in the Balkans 1914–18 (Osprey Publishing, 2012) p. 13
^Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 172–177. ISBN978-1-59114-639-1.
^"120 Miners Killed by Gas Explosion". The New York Times. April 24, 1913.
^Maurer, Noel (2002). The Power and the Money: The Mexican Financial System, 1876–1932. Stanford University Press. pp. 149–150.
^"Scutari Entered by Montenegrins". The New York Times. April 23, 1913.
^Gerolymatos, André (2002). The Balkan Wars: Conquest, Revolution, and Retribution from the Ottoman Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Basic Books. p. 226.
^Erickson, Edward J. (2003). Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 312.
^Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p. 260. ISBN0-87021-907-3.
^Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 54. ISBN0-85177-245-5.
^"Lane Opens Up Yosemite Park to Automobiles", Fresno (CA) Republican, April 30, 1913, quoted in "Yosemite: the Park and its Resources", by Linda W. Greene (1987)
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