Albert Ellis of the Pacific Islands Company signed a lease with the chiefs of the Banaban people of Ocean Island, a tiny atoll that is now part of the nation of Kiribati, granting the company a 999-year exclusive right to mine phosphate,[15] in exchange for 50 British pounds per year. The islanders, including the misidentified "King of Ocean Island", Temate, did not have the authority to sell mining rights, and were likely not aware of what Ellis intended to do. Following the British annexation of Ocean Island on September 28, 1901, "The British government reduced the term of the lease to a more realistic 99 years".[16]
The 18th birthday of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany was celebrated in ceremonies at the Royal Chapel in Berlin. Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph named the Crown Prince as Chief of the Hussar regiment. The Prince became Governor of Pomerania and the Prince of Oeis, titles lost after his father was deposed in 1918.[18][19]
May 7, 1900 (Monday)
San Francisco Mayor James D. Phelan addressed an anti-Asian rally at Union Square and declared "The Chinese and Japanese are not bonafide citizens. They are not the stuff of which American citizens can be made."[20]
University of CambridgezoologistWilliam Bateson was riding a train to London when he read the recently rediscovered 1866 paper by Gregor Mendel, and soon became the greatest champion of Mendel's discoveries of the laws of heredity. As one author would later note, "the first half of genetics was officially underway".[23] Bateson translated Mendel's paper and published it in the 1902 book Mendel's Principles of Heredity: A Defence.[24]
Japan's Crown Prince Yoshihito and Princess Kujo Sadako were married in Tokyo, marking the first Japanese imperial wedding to include a religious ceremony.[28] Soon thereafter, commoners began requesting similar ceremonies and the Shinto wedding soon became popular throughout the nation.[29]
Responding to the famine in British India, the United States paid for the shipment of donations of 200,000 bushels of corn and substantial quantities of seed, via the ship Quito, which sailed from Brooklyn. Christian Herald editor Louis Klopsch, who had lobbied the government to pay the shipping costs, also cabled $40,000 to India for famine relief.[30]
May 11, 1900 (Friday)
One construction worker was killed, and another severely injured, in a 70-foot (21 m) fall while working on the Manhattan anchorage of the new Williamsburg Bridge.[31]
Former heavyweight boxing champion "Gentleman Jim" Corbett took on title holder James J. Jeffries, attempting to regain the title that he had lost in 1897, and almost succeeded. In the bout at the New York Athletic Club, Corbett was the better fighter for the first 22 rounds, but in the 23rd, Jeffries knocked him down with a right to the jaw. Corbett's amazing endurance and Jeffries's comeback made the fight a boxing classic.[32]
May 12, 1900 (Saturday)
Lin Shao-mao who had led a rebellion on the island of Taiwan against its Japanese rulers, surrendered along with his men in a formal ceremony held at Ahou (now Pingtung City). Lin and his men were allowed to live peaceably at Houpilin, but he was eventually killed in a battle on May 30, 1902.[33]
Wilbur Wright wrote to aviation expert Octave Chanute, sharing his own findings and seeking advice on the ideal place to test a flying machine. Written on the letterhead of the Wright Cycle Co. of 1127 West Third Street in Dayton, Ohio, Wright's initial missive began, "For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money, if not my life." Over the next several years, the correspondence continued between Wright and Chanute, whose suggestions aided in the Wright brothers' first flight on December 17, 1903.[34]
Fish fell from the sky during a late afternoon thunderstorm in Providence, Rhode Island. Richard H. Tingley, a witness, reported that "streets and yards for several blocks were alive with squirming little perch and bullspouts".[38] The fish were heaviest at Olneyville.[39]
May 16, 1900 (Wednesday)
Chicago's Chief Milk Inspector, Thomas Grady, announced plans to ban dangerous additives from milk. "Formalin, the chemical used in milk preservatives, will kill a cat", he told reporters. "What will it do to a child?"[40] Formalin, a diluted form of formaldehyde, had been added to raw milk near the end of the 19th century before its toxic effects were realized. The United Kingdom banned the practice in 1901.[41]
At the village of Kaolo "midway between Peking (Beijing) and Paotingfu (Baoding)", 61 Chinese Christian converts were massacred in the worst attack to that time in the Boxer Rebellion.[43] American minister Conger telegraphed, "Situation becoming serious. Request warship Taku soon as possible."[44]
At 9:17 p.m. in London, the Reuters news agency broke the news of the victory at Mafeking, South Africa. As author Phillip Knightley noted, "Britain went mad. The celebrations lasted for five nights, and surpassed the victory celebrations of the First and Second World Wars in size, intensity, and enthusiasm. Baden-Powell became the most popular English hero since Nelson, and a household name not only in Britain but also throughout the United States."[46]
May 19, 1900 (Saturday)
A day after signing a treaty with King Tupou of Tonga, emissary Basil Thomson declared the South Pacific kingdom to be a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Thomson had spent six weeks in trying to persuade the reluctant King to accept British protection, before threatening to depose the monarch as a last option.[47]
Mining prospector Jim Butler was returning to his home in Belmont, Nevada, when he and his burro stopped to dig at a high canyon near Tonopah. There, he discovered a large outcropping of silver and went from poverty to wealth, while his find set off a mining boom.[49][50]
May 20, 1900 (Sunday)
Voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly rejected a law providing for sickness and accident insurance. The Kranken und Unfallversicherungsgesetz (KUVG), sponsored by Ludwig Forrer and passed the Federal Assembly, but was challenged by a referendum, where more than 70% of the voters were against it. Health reform would finally pass in 1911.[51]
The Free Homes Bill was signed into law by U.S. President William McKinley, and the debts of all homesteaders in Oklahoma were forgiven by the United States government. Up until then, settlers had been compelled to pay, in addition to other requirements, an annual federal fee ranging from $1.00 to $2.50 per acre.[52]
Plans for the Nicaragua Canal ended when the United States Senate killed it after they declined to bring it up for debate and a vote. While the Hepburn Bill had passed the House, 225–35, Alabama's Senator John Tyler Morgan was unable to persuade the Senate to vote on the matter. A motion to bring an early vote as "unfinished business" failed by a vote of 28–21.[53] A commission then recommended construction of a Panama Canal.
At 4:30 in the afternoon, an explosion at the Cumnock Mining Company, near Sanford, North Carolina, killed 22 coal miners. The accident was believed to have been "caused by a broken gauze in a safety lamp".[55]
The first patent for the "player piano", a self-playing mechanical piano that used a role of perforated paper to guide the movement of the piano keys, was granted to American inventor Edwin S. Votey, who marketed the device under the brand name "Pianola".[56]
The first test was made of the Adams Air Splitting Train, on a run from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, then back again. Inventor Frederick Adams had forecast that the aerodynamic, "cigar-shaped" train could be run at a speed of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) with less expenditure than is now required to keep up a speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h).[57] However, the train achieved no more than 60 miles per hour (97 km/h).[58]
Nearly thirty-seven years after performing an act of heroism in the American Civil War, Sergeant William Harvey Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry was awarded the Medal of Honor by vote of Congress. Although there had been previous African-American recipients of the Medal, Carney's action on July 18, 1863, preceded that of all other black award winners. The first award of the Medal of Honor to an African-American had been to Robert Blake in 1864.[59]
The Associated Press was formally incorporated as a New York City corporation. Although several regional corporations had shared news between publishers as early as 1848, an unfavorable ruling by the Supreme Court of Illinois on February 19[60] led AP clients to form a national organization.[61]
Queen Victoria's birthday was celebrated for the last time during her life. The 81-year-old British monarch would die on 22nd January 1901.[66]
May 25, 1900 (Friday)
The Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3371–3378, was signed into law by U.S. President William McKinley. Sponsored by conservationist and Iowa Congressman John F. Lacey, the Act was described on its centennial as the "first far-reaching federal wildlife protection law" and one "setting the stage for a century of progress in safeguarding wildlife resources".[67] Its most important provision was to make it a federal crime to ship "wild animals and birds take in defiance of existing state laws" across state lines.[68]
May 26, 1900 (Saturday)
The Battle of Palonegro concluded after fifteen days in Santander, Colombia, marking a turning point in the Thousand Days' War. General Próspero Pinzón of the Conservative forces defeated Liberal forces commander Gabriel Vargas Santos. An estimated 2,500 people died during the fighting.[69] In January 1901, a pile of hundreds of human skulls would be assembled as a grisly monument that would not be dismantled until 12 years later.[70]
May 27, 1900 (Sunday)
Pope Leo XIII beatified sixty-four Vietnamese Martyrs. The Vietnamese Martyrs, including 53 others beatified later, were canonized on June 19, 1988.[71]
Millions of observers turned out to watch a total eclipse of the sun, visible in a pathway that ran through Mexico and the southeastern United States and to Spain. As the first since the introduction of the Brownie camera, and with more advance publicity than ever before, the eclipse became the most photographed event up to that time. "Amateur photographers throughout the city are making extensive preparations for the event," noted The New York Times, "and it would be hard to estimate the number of snapshots that will be taken to-day."[74] "It has been eleven years since a similar event was witnessed, but the advancement of astronomical science and the marvelous improvements in telescopes, photography, and electrical apparatus insured more complete observations than ever before known."[75] The eclipse began at about 7:26 a.m. Eastern time with totality at 8:36 in the morning.[76]
The word "escalator" was introduced into the English language, as the Patent and Trademark Office formally granted the trademark to Charles Seeberger for a moving stairway.[77] However, Seeberger lost the trademark fifty years later when a patent commissioner ruled that the term had become generic, in Haughton Elevator Co. v. Seeberger, 85 U.S.P.Q. 80 (Comm'r Pat. 1950)[78]
William P. Dun Lany and Herbert R. Palmer were awarded a patent for their invention, described as "a certain new and useful improvement in Facsimile Telegraphs ... to simplify such telegraph instrument, to render them more accurate and efficient, more easily adjustable to meet the varying conditions presented, and adapt them to receive a message or picture by a direct impression or a hammer and anvil movement instead of by an electrochemical change in the receiving surface." They received U.S. Patent No. 650,381 for the device,[79] which Palmer would demonstrate a year later at Columbia University.[80]
May 30, 1900 (Wednesday)
Lord Roberts was met outside of Johannesburg by its Governor, Fritz Krause, for terms of surrender. "He begged me to defer entering the town for twenty-four hours, as there were many armed burghers still inside," General Roberts cabled. "I agreed to this, as I am most anxious to avert the possibility of anything like disturbance inside the town ..."[81] At 10:00 the next morning, Lord Roberts and the British army entered the town, hauled down the South African flag from the courthouse, and raised the Union Jack in its place.[82] The armies then began the march to the capital, Pretoria, which had been evacuated the day before.
May 31, 1900 (Thursday)
Western forces arrived in Beijing to protect their nations' citizens during the Boxer Rebellion. From the navies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan and Russia were a total of only 337 men in a nation of scores of millions.[83]U.S. MarineCaptainJohn T. Myers, leading the American Legation Guard of 56 men into the Chinese capital, noted later that "Our entry was not opposed, but the crowds were deadly silent."[84]
^The Scroll gives the day of Burke's injury as May 2.[11]
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^Matthius Leimgruber, Solidarity Without the State?: Business and the Shaping of the Swiss Welfare State, 1890–2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 36
^Oklahoma Historical Society, Review of Inception and Progress (1905) pp. 27–28
^"Set-Back for the Nicaragua Canal", New York Times, May 22, 1900, p. 1
^X. L. Woo, Empress Dowager Cixi (Algora Publishing, 2002), p. 214
^Ord-Hume, Arthur W. J. G. (1970). Player Piano: History of Mechanical Piano. The H. W. Wilson Company.
^"Atmospheric Resistance; Its Relation to the Speed of Railway Trains". Railway and Locomotive. August 1900. p. 345.
^"'Air Splitting' Train Tried". The New York Times. May 23, 1900. p. 1.
^Ron Owens, Medal of Honor: Historical Facts & Figures (Turner Publishing Company, 2004), pp. 20–21
^"Associated Press Loses", The Post-Standard (Syracuse), February 20, 1900, p. 2
^"Archived copy". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2011-07-29. Retrieved 2007-11-30.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link); James Melvin Lee, History of American Journalism (Houghton Mifflin 1917), p. 415
^Edwin Howard Simmons, The United States Marines: A History (Naval Institute Press, 2003), p. 73
^"Beautiful Rites in Rome Today", The Daily Gazette (Janesville, Wis.), May 24, 1900, p1
^"John Baptist de la Salle", The Catholic Encyclopedia (Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913), pp444–48.
^Ferdinand Holböck, Married Saints and Blesseds: Through the Centuries (Ignatius Press, 2002), pp. 269–271
