British hopes that
Robert Falcon Scott had reached the
South Pole before
Roald Amundsen of
Norway were ended when the Terra Nova arrived in
New Zealand without Captain Scott on board, and the news that the Scott team had still been 150 miles from the Pole as of January 3. Amundsen's party had reached the Pole on December 14. Scott's party had arrived on January 17 then died in March while on the way back.[3]
The Japanese theater
Yoshimoto Kogyo was established in
Osaka, but expanded to become an entertainment company in 1932.[4]
The city of
Branson, Missouri, which would become a major American tourist attraction and entertainment center in the 1980s, was chartered.[5]
Calbraith Perry Rodgers, the 33-year-old American aviator who had flown, with multiple stops, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Coast in the autumn of 1911, was killed while flying his
Wright airplane in an airshow. One author would later write that "the first person to fly across the continental US was also the first to die as a result of a
bird strike. Rodgers' Wright Pusher airplane collided with a seagull, the engine failed, and he crashed into the ocean near
Long Beach, California."[11][12]
Isaac K. Funk, 72, American publisher and co-founder (with
Adam Willis Wagnalls) of the
Funk & Wagnalls Company.[15] Prior to his death, Wagnalls had made arrangements with Dr. James H. Hyslop, editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, to establish communication from the afterlife with a living person.[16]
Charles B. Aycock,
Governor of North Carolina 1901 to 1905, known for advancing education and the opening of schools in that state, died while making a speech in
Birmingham, Alabama, to the Alabama Education Association and 5,000 teachers.[17] According to a reporter at the scene, Aycock said, "I have fought long the battles of education," and added, after asking a question of Alabama's Governor Emmet O'Neal, "However, I have determined, if such a thing is possible, to open the doors of the schools to every child..." He stopped, staggered and fell dead of a heart attack.[18]
April 5, 1912 (Friday)
After more than 200 members of the
Industrial Workers of the World had been put in the city's jail, the police chief in
San Diego had the prisoners released into the hands of
vigilantes. The mob escorted the "Wobblies" to the county line, beat them, and warned them never to return. An investigator sent by Governor
Hiram Johnson described the city's police as so brutal that he thought he was "sojourning in Russia".[19]
The
British coal miners' strike ended with the return of thousands of workers to the coal pits in
England,
Scotland and
Wales. The approval of a
guaranteed minimum wage ended the three-week-old strike, which had halted not only the production of coal, but the output from factories dependent on coal as a fuel.[25]
Spanish cyclist José Magdalena won the
secondTour of Catalonia in
Barcelona, completing the three-day, 427 km (265 mi) race course with a combined time of 18 hours, 32 minutes and 8 seconds.[27]
The Titanic, the largest ship ever constructed up to that time, began its maiden voyage from
Southampton,
England at noon, with a final destination of
New York City.[31] On its exit, the ship caused the American liner New York to break free of its moorings.[32] It arrived in
Cherbourg,
France that evening at 7:00 pm where it took on more passengers before departing two hours later.[33]
The French liner Niagara, sailing from
Le Havre,
France to
New York City, struck ice while sailing near
Newfoundland. The ship's bow plates were dented, the ship began to leak, and an S.O.S. was sent. The steamer Carmania rushed to the rescue, but the crew of the Niagara was able to make repairs.[34]
The Titanic arrived at Queenstown (now
Cobh) in
Ireland at 12:30 pm, picked up the last of her passengers, then departed for
New York City with 2,208 people on board.[33]
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, leader of the
Baháʼí Faith, arrived in
New York City to continue
his journey to spread the new religion to the Western world. The spiritual leader had been brought over by the steamer S.S. Cedric, which had left Naples on March 24. Reportedly, American and Canadian Baha'is had offered to pay extra for him to sail to New York on a much faster ship, the Titanic, but Abdul-Baha had declined.[36] The religious leader would spend the rest of the year in the U.S., giving 200 speeches on "The Oneness of Religion", and visiting 32 cities.[37]
Crosley Field, which would be the home of baseball's
Cincinnati Reds for the next 58 seasons, opened to a record crowd of 26,336. The Reds beat the
Chicago Cubs 10–6 in the opener, and would beat the
San Francisco Giants, 5–4 in their final game there on June 24, 1970, before moving to Riverfront Park.[38]
In a minor league
American Association baseball game between the
Kansas City Blues and the
Columbus Senators, there were no home runs nor foul balls that went into the stands. Hence, only one baseball was used for the entire nine innings, a feat that has never happened since in American professional baseball.[39]
Ernest Duchesne, 37, French physician who discovered the antibiotic properties of mold against bacteria, 32 years before the same discovery by Alexander Fleming led to the development of
penicillin, died of tuberculosis (b.
1874)[41]
The French liner
SS La Touraine sent a radio message to Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic, giving the ship the first warnings of an ice field as far south as 42°S (roughly the latitude of Chicago).[33][42]
The legendary combination of shortstop
Joe Tinker, second baseman
Johnny Evers and first baseman
Frank Chance appeared together in a baseball game for the last time, as their
Chicago Cubs team lost at Cincinnati, 3–2. The next day, Chance, now manager of the Chicago Cubs, replaced himself at first base with
Vic Saier. The trio had begun working together on September 13, 1902, and was memorialized in the poem "
Baseball's Sad Lexicon".[43]
An intruder going by the name of Michael Winter successfully
forced his way into the
White House. He was caught and ejected by the House's doorman before attempting again and being caught by White House police officers. Winter insisted he had to meet with the U.S. president and had a knife on him when searched. Winter was eventually incarnated at a mental institution for psychiatric evaluation.[46]
At 11:40 pm ship time, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. Only thirty-seven seconds earlier, crewman
Frederick Fleet spotted the iceberg straight ahead, but the ship was running at almost top speed, 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), and tore the side after attempting to steer around. The collision occurred roughly 400 miles (640 km) east of
Newfoundland. The ship would stay afloat for two hours and forty minutes. The ship closest to the Titanic,
SS Californian, was only a few miles away, and had transmitted warnings about the ice field, but its radio operator had turned off his equipment at 11:30 pm, ten minutes before the collision.[49] During the day, Titanic received warnings from the Caronia, the Noordam, the Baltic, the Amerika, the Californian and the Mesaba.[33]
China's President
Yuan Shikai issued a manifesto asking the five separate race groups in the nation to unite through intermarriage.[21]
Paul Émile Chabas publicly unveiled his painting September Morn at the
Paris Salon exhibition and sold it for 50,000 francs ($10,000). Although the oil painting famously depicted a nude model wading in a lake, controversy around the painting only occurred the following year when reprints of the painting were distributed in the
United States.[50]
The silent film Paul J. Rainey's African Hunt was released by
Carl Laemmle, who would found
Universal Pictures two years later. The film was a national hit and would gross $500,000 in revenues.[53]
The Titanic sank at 2:20 am ship time. The conclusion of the investigative report by the British
Board of Trade found that only 710 of the people on board had survived and 1,514 had died. Most of the survivors (338) were adult men, followed by 316 women and 56 children.[55][56] Evacuation of the ship had been ordered at 12:05 am. The first lifeboat had been lowered before 12:45 am, while the last lifeboat had been lowered at 2:05 am. Years later, a Titanic historian,
Phil Gowan was able to pinpoint the number of people aboard at the time of impact and the number of those who died.[citation needed]Titanic was carrying 2,208 aboard and about 1,496 died, leaving 712. The
RMS Carpathia arrived at 4:10 am to rescue the survivors who had been able to reach a lifeboat.[33] The victims of the sinking included:
A rail line of 11 miles 70 chains (19.1 kilometres) in length was opened between Buhrmannsdrif to
Ottoshoop, in
Transvaal,
South Africa.[57]
The Daily Herald began publication as a
syndicalist newspaper. It was published until 1964, when it was relaunched as The Sun tabloid.[58]
Born:Kim Il Sung, absolute ruler of
North Korea as Chairman of the Workers' Party from 1949 until his death in 1994; premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994; as Kim Sŏng-ju, in
Mangyongdae,
Japanese Korea (Chōsen) (d.
1994) In 1998, four years after his death, the constitution of North Korea would be amended to declare Kim the "
Eternal President"
April 16, 1912 (Tuesday)
Harriet Quimby became the first woman to pilot an aircraft across the
English Channel, less than three years after Louis Bleriot had become the first man to make the crossing. Quimby departed
Dover at 5:30 am in a fog and landed at
Neufchâtel-Hardelot, 25 miles (40 km) south of her intended destination of
Calais,
France. She would be killed in a plane crash less than three months later.[59]
The titanic also completely sank in the early hours. (Around 2:10).
April 17, 1912 (Wednesday)
Russian soldiers killed 270 striking gold miners and wounded 270 others after firing into a crowd as they protested. The miners had gone on strike in Siberia to demand a reduction in the workday and improved food and sanitation. The dead were buried in a mass grave.[61] On the old Russian (Julian) calendar, the date was April 4, which is sometimes mistakenly cited as the date of the massacre.[62]
Italy attacked Ottoman Turkey directly, as 27 warships sailed into the Dardanelles and began bombardment of Fort Kilid-ul-Bahr and Fort Sedd-ul-Bahr for two and a half hours.[68] A Turkish gunboat was sunk after its crew escaped, and one of the yachts of the Ottoman Sultan was captured by Italian forces.[69] There were 300 Turkish soldiers killed and more wounded in the destruction of the Kunkaleh Fort.[70]
Muslim soldiers in
Fez, Morocco mutinied, killing fifty French officers and soldiers and almost 100 Jewish residents, before being suppressed.[21]
Coal miners in
Kanawha County, West Virginia went on
strike against the mine operators. The strike became increasingly violent over time, resulting in 50 deaths by the time it ended in July 1913.[71]
The
Russian Empire agreed to recognize Italian sovereignty over
Libya in return for
Italy's support of Russian influence in the Balkans.[21]
At a
United States Senate subcommittee hearing, Titanic Second Officer
Charles Lightoller testified that they loaded as few as 25 people in boats intended to hold 65, only as much as they thought the ropes would hold.[72]
The U.S. Hydrographic Office and representatives of the steamship lines agreed that the winter time course of ships would be 270 miles south of the course taken by the Titanic, adding between 9 and 14 hours to the trip. The new route would be 3,080 miles rather than 2,858 miles.[73]
The luxury ocean liner
SS France began its maiden voyage, from
Le Havre,
France ten days after the Titanic had started its first trip. The ship would remain in service until 1935.[77] Carrying 1,273 passengers (with room for 2,026 and enough lifeboats for all), the France arrived safely in
New York City six days later.[78]
Immediate reforms were ordered by the International Mercantile Marine, requiring all steamers to carry sufficient lifeboats and rafts for all passengers and crew.[21]
The sudden death from an apparent heart attack of
Benito Juárez Maza, Governor of Mexico's
Oaxaca state since 1911 and the son of the late President Benito Juárez, triggered six months of battles between Mexico's national government and Juárez Maza's followers, who believed he had been poisoned.[79]
Boston's
Fenway Park and
Detroit's
Tiger Stadium (at that time known as Navin Field) both officially opened on the same day. At Fenway, which would still be the home of the team's home a century later, the
Boston Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders (now the
New York Yankees) 7–6.[80] The same afternoon, the
Detroit Tigers beat the
Cleveland Indians 6–5, at the park that they would remain in for 87 seasons; after which Tiger Stadium would be replaced by
Comerica Park on April 11, 2000. It was the only other occasion when two major league stadiums would open on the same day (the
San Francisco Giants'
Pacific Bell Park being the other field).[81]
At
Munich, Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping confirmed the theory, made by German physicist
Max von Laue, that the x-rays aimed at a crystal would be diffracted, and that the patterns left on a photographic plate would effectively show the location of individual atoms. Friedrich and Knippe aimed x-rays at a crystal of
copper sulfate, and produced photographs, later misplaced, of the structure of the crystal. Von Laue would be awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914.[84]
Aleister Crowley was appointed by
Ordo Templi Orientis leader
Theodor Reuss as the "National Grand Master General for Great Britain and Ireland" to spread the Reuss's variety of the occult in the British Isles. Crowley would later be designated by Reuss as "Supreme and Holy King of Ireland, Iona and all the Britons within the sanctuary of the Gnosis".[85]
The New York Highlanders (later the
New York Yankees) and the
New York Giants played an exhibition baseball game at the
Polo Grounds to raise money for destitute survivors of the Titanic. The Giants won, 11–2, before a crowd of 14,083 and the game raised $9,425.25.[87]
The date of the first issue of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, and the leading newspaper for the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991, was 22 April 1912. Russia was using the
Julian Calendar at the time, 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.[96] In later years, Pravda would carry on its front page the slogan "Founded by V. I. Lenin on May 5, 1912".[97]
The
RMS Olympic, sister ship of the
White Star ocean liner Titanic was barred from departing
Southampton,
England with its 1,400 passengers because of a strike by shipworkers over insufficient lifeboats. The
White Star Line had added 16 "collapsible" boats which could be deployed in a hurry.[21][100]
Troops killed striking textile workers at Vila Nova de Gaia, a suburb of
Porto,
Portugal.[101]
The bazaar, shopping quarter for Syrians in
Damascus, caught on fire, causing $10,000,000 in damages and killing several persons.[108]
Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, an early leader in
Russia's
Bolshevik movement, first took on the
pen name "Kirov". Although he would be assassinated in 1934 while serving as the Communist Party chief in
Leningrad, the Russian city of
Kirov, the Russian
Kirov Oblast, and the Ukrainian city of
Kirovohrad are all named in his honor.[109]
Civil war broke out again in
Paraguay, with former
PresidentAlbino Jara commanding rebels at Villa Encarnacion. Four Paraguayan warships bombarded the rebels, who returned fire with cannons and forced the troops to withdraw.[114]
Hubert Lyautey was appointed as the first French
Resident-General of
Morocco, which had recently become a
protectorate of
France. General Lyautey would administer most of the affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco until 1925. The city of
Kenitra was renamed "Port Lyautey" in his honor, from 1933 to 1956, until reverting to its former name.[117]
The thermometer rose to 108 °F (42.2 °C) at the city of
Tuguegarao, setting a record for the highest recorded temperature not only in the
Philippines, but also for the islands of the
South Pacific Ocean.[121]
The cable ship
Mackay-Bennett and the
RMS Olympic arrived at
Halifax, Nova Scotia, bringing the bodies of 200 people who had drowned or frozen to death after escaping the Titanic. Although the ship had recovered 306 bodies, 116 of those were buried at sea because of a lack of sufficient embalming fluid,[123] including 54 that had been identified. Located were the remains of
John Astor and
Isidor Straus, while his wife
Ida Straus and former presidential adviser
Archibald Butt were never located.[124] One of the bodies recovered was a 19-month old toddler referred to in the media as "
The Unknown Child". The identify of the child remained a mystery until 2007 when DNA research identified him as Sidney Leslie Goodwin. He was buried at
Fairview Lawn Cemetery, in
Halifax.[125][126]
Filmmaker
Carl Laemmle formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in
New York City. In June, he partner with other regional film companies to form the precursor to the
Universal Pictures, the longest continuous running movie studio in the
United States.[127]
A
statue of
Peter Pan by
George Frampton was erected intentionally without fanfare in
Kensington Gardens,
London. Playwright
J. M. Barrie, who created the "boy who wouldn't grow up", wanted the impression of the statue appearing magically in the park, although he tipped off the public of its whereabout in The Times the following day.[128]
^"President Signs Child Labor Bill", New York Times, April 10, 1912; James Alner Tobey, The National Government and Public Health (Ayer Publishing, 1926) p. 232
^"Roosevelt Wins in Illinois by 2 to 1 over Taft", New York Times, April 10, 1912
^"Loss of S.S. Titanic; Greatest of Marine Disasters". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac 1913. p. 513.
^Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 187, ref. no. 200954-13
^Reynolds, Stanley (1974). Poor Men's Guardians: A Record of the Struggles for a Democratic Newspaper Press, 1763–1973. pp. 173–178.
ISBN0853153019.
^Carnes, Mark C., ed. (2005). American National Biography: Supplement.
Oxford University Press. p. 456.
^Bednar, Michael (2006), L'Enfant's Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington, D.C., JHU Press, p. 67,
ISBN0-8018-8318-0,
OCLC219305717
^"Italian Warships Shell Dardanelles", New York Times, April 19, 1912
^"Italian Shells Sunk Warship of Sultan", New York Times, April 20, 1912
^"Shelling Killed 300 Turks", New York Times, April 26, 1912
^Lee, Howard B. Bloodletting in Appalachia: The Story of West Virginia's Four Major Mine Wars and Other Thrilling Incidents of Its Coal Fields. Morgantown, W.Va.: West Virginia University Library, 1969.
ISBN0-87012-041-7, p. 18
^"Many Needlessly Died on Titanic; Lifeboats Launched Only Half Full", New York Times, April 20, 1912
^"All Ships to Take New Long Course", New York Times, April 20, 1912
^William H. Miller, Picture History of the French Line (Courier Dover Publications, 1997) p. 7
^"Passengers Praise New French Liner", New York Times, April 27, 1912
^Jürgen Buchenau and William H. Beezley, State Governors in the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1952: Portraits in Conflict, Courage, and Corruption (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) pp. 34–35
^Robert Redmount, The Red Sox Encyclopedia (Sports Publishing LLC, 2002) p. 237
^Bob Mackin, The Unofficial Guide to Baseball's Most Unusual Records (Greystone Books, 2004) p. 83
^Orleck, Annelise. Common Sense & a Little Fire Women and Working-class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 102-105
^"Flying the Irish Channel". Flight Magazine. IV (17). London: Reed Business Information: 379. 27 April 1912. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
^"Irish Aviator's Feat: St. George's Channel Crossed". Irish Times. Dublin. 27 April 1912. p. 23.
^"Loraine's Daring Flight". Irish Times. Dublin. 12 September 1910. p. 7.
^Tony Cliff, Building the Party: Lenin 1893–1914 (Volume 1) (Haymarket Books, 2002) p397
^Joseph Gibbs, Gorbachev's Glasnost: The Soviet Media in the First Phase of Perestroika (Texas A&M University Press, 1999) p. 95
^Helen Julia Minors. La Péri, poème dansé (1911–12): A Problematic Creative-Collaborative Journey. Opera Quarterly Volume 22, Number 1, Winter 2006 pp. 117-135.
^"Taft Wins New Hampshire", New York Times, April 24, 1912
^"Firemen Strike; Olympic Held", New York Times, April 25, 1912
^"Many Slain in Portugal", New York Times, April 25, 1912
^Oliphant, J. Orin (1924). History of the State Normal School at Cheney, Washington. Spokane, WA: Inland-American Printing Company.
^Session Laws Chapter 70 1913, p. 244, Session Laws 1915, p. 215
^Fenlon, Iain (2010). Piazza San Marco. London: Profile Books. p. 147.
ISBN9781861978851.
^Lluís Solà i Dachs, «Cu-cut! Setmanari de gresca ab ninots (1902–1912)». Ed. Bruguera. Barcelona, 1967
^"Damascus Bazar Burned", New York Times, April 29, 1912
^Matthew E. Lenoe, The Kirov Murder and Soviet History (Yale University Press, 2010)
^"Flying the Irish Channel"(PDF). Flight Magazine. IV (17). London: Reed Business Information: 379. 27 April 1912. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
^"Irish Aviator's Feat: St. George's Channel Crossed". Irish Times. Dublin. 27 April 1912. p. 23.
^Kalman, Harold; Roaf, John (1 April 1983). Exploring Ottawa: An Architectural Guide to the Nation's Capital. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 28.
ISBN978-0802063953.
British hopes that
Robert Falcon Scott had reached the
South Pole before
Roald Amundsen of
Norway were ended when the Terra Nova arrived in
New Zealand without Captain Scott on board, and the news that the Scott team had still been 150 miles from the Pole as of January 3. Amundsen's party had reached the Pole on December 14. Scott's party had arrived on January 17 then died in March while on the way back.[3]
The Japanese theater
Yoshimoto Kogyo was established in
Osaka, but expanded to become an entertainment company in 1932.[4]
The city of
Branson, Missouri, which would become a major American tourist attraction and entertainment center in the 1980s, was chartered.[5]
Calbraith Perry Rodgers, the 33-year-old American aviator who had flown, with multiple stops, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Coast in the autumn of 1911, was killed while flying his
Wright airplane in an airshow. One author would later write that "the first person to fly across the continental US was also the first to die as a result of a
bird strike. Rodgers' Wright Pusher airplane collided with a seagull, the engine failed, and he crashed into the ocean near
Long Beach, California."[11][12]
Isaac K. Funk, 72, American publisher and co-founder (with
Adam Willis Wagnalls) of the
Funk & Wagnalls Company.[15] Prior to his death, Wagnalls had made arrangements with Dr. James H. Hyslop, editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, to establish communication from the afterlife with a living person.[16]
Charles B. Aycock,
Governor of North Carolina 1901 to 1905, known for advancing education and the opening of schools in that state, died while making a speech in
Birmingham, Alabama, to the Alabama Education Association and 5,000 teachers.[17] According to a reporter at the scene, Aycock said, "I have fought long the battles of education," and added, after asking a question of Alabama's Governor Emmet O'Neal, "However, I have determined, if such a thing is possible, to open the doors of the schools to every child..." He stopped, staggered and fell dead of a heart attack.[18]
April 5, 1912 (Friday)
After more than 200 members of the
Industrial Workers of the World had been put in the city's jail, the police chief in
San Diego had the prisoners released into the hands of
vigilantes. The mob escorted the "Wobblies" to the county line, beat them, and warned them never to return. An investigator sent by Governor
Hiram Johnson described the city's police as so brutal that he thought he was "sojourning in Russia".[19]
The
British coal miners' strike ended with the return of thousands of workers to the coal pits in
England,
Scotland and
Wales. The approval of a
guaranteed minimum wage ended the three-week-old strike, which had halted not only the production of coal, but the output from factories dependent on coal as a fuel.[25]
Spanish cyclist José Magdalena won the
secondTour of Catalonia in
Barcelona, completing the three-day, 427 km (265 mi) race course with a combined time of 18 hours, 32 minutes and 8 seconds.[27]
The Titanic, the largest ship ever constructed up to that time, began its maiden voyage from
Southampton,
England at noon, with a final destination of
New York City.[31] On its exit, the ship caused the American liner New York to break free of its moorings.[32] It arrived in
Cherbourg,
France that evening at 7:00 pm where it took on more passengers before departing two hours later.[33]
The French liner Niagara, sailing from
Le Havre,
France to
New York City, struck ice while sailing near
Newfoundland. The ship's bow plates were dented, the ship began to leak, and an S.O.S. was sent. The steamer Carmania rushed to the rescue, but the crew of the Niagara was able to make repairs.[34]
The Titanic arrived at Queenstown (now
Cobh) in
Ireland at 12:30 pm, picked up the last of her passengers, then departed for
New York City with 2,208 people on board.[33]
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, leader of the
Baháʼí Faith, arrived in
New York City to continue
his journey to spread the new religion to the Western world. The spiritual leader had been brought over by the steamer S.S. Cedric, which had left Naples on March 24. Reportedly, American and Canadian Baha'is had offered to pay extra for him to sail to New York on a much faster ship, the Titanic, but Abdul-Baha had declined.[36] The religious leader would spend the rest of the year in the U.S., giving 200 speeches on "The Oneness of Religion", and visiting 32 cities.[37]
Crosley Field, which would be the home of baseball's
Cincinnati Reds for the next 58 seasons, opened to a record crowd of 26,336. The Reds beat the
Chicago Cubs 10–6 in the opener, and would beat the
San Francisco Giants, 5–4 in their final game there on June 24, 1970, before moving to Riverfront Park.[38]
In a minor league
American Association baseball game between the
Kansas City Blues and the
Columbus Senators, there were no home runs nor foul balls that went into the stands. Hence, only one baseball was used for the entire nine innings, a feat that has never happened since in American professional baseball.[39]
Ernest Duchesne, 37, French physician who discovered the antibiotic properties of mold against bacteria, 32 years before the same discovery by Alexander Fleming led to the development of
penicillin, died of tuberculosis (b.
1874)[41]
The French liner
SS La Touraine sent a radio message to Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic, giving the ship the first warnings of an ice field as far south as 42°S (roughly the latitude of Chicago).[33][42]
The legendary combination of shortstop
Joe Tinker, second baseman
Johnny Evers and first baseman
Frank Chance appeared together in a baseball game for the last time, as their
Chicago Cubs team lost at Cincinnati, 3–2. The next day, Chance, now manager of the Chicago Cubs, replaced himself at first base with
Vic Saier. The trio had begun working together on September 13, 1902, and was memorialized in the poem "
Baseball's Sad Lexicon".[43]
An intruder going by the name of Michael Winter successfully
forced his way into the
White House. He was caught and ejected by the House's doorman before attempting again and being caught by White House police officers. Winter insisted he had to meet with the U.S. president and had a knife on him when searched. Winter was eventually incarnated at a mental institution for psychiatric evaluation.[46]
At 11:40 pm ship time, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. Only thirty-seven seconds earlier, crewman
Frederick Fleet spotted the iceberg straight ahead, but the ship was running at almost top speed, 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), and tore the side after attempting to steer around. The collision occurred roughly 400 miles (640 km) east of
Newfoundland. The ship would stay afloat for two hours and forty minutes. The ship closest to the Titanic,
SS Californian, was only a few miles away, and had transmitted warnings about the ice field, but its radio operator had turned off his equipment at 11:30 pm, ten minutes before the collision.[49] During the day, Titanic received warnings from the Caronia, the Noordam, the Baltic, the Amerika, the Californian and the Mesaba.[33]
China's President
Yuan Shikai issued a manifesto asking the five separate race groups in the nation to unite through intermarriage.[21]
Paul Émile Chabas publicly unveiled his painting September Morn at the
Paris Salon exhibition and sold it for 50,000 francs ($10,000). Although the oil painting famously depicted a nude model wading in a lake, controversy around the painting only occurred the following year when reprints of the painting were distributed in the
United States.[50]
The silent film Paul J. Rainey's African Hunt was released by
Carl Laemmle, who would found
Universal Pictures two years later. The film was a national hit and would gross $500,000 in revenues.[53]
The Titanic sank at 2:20 am ship time. The conclusion of the investigative report by the British
Board of Trade found that only 710 of the people on board had survived and 1,514 had died. Most of the survivors (338) were adult men, followed by 316 women and 56 children.[55][56] Evacuation of the ship had been ordered at 12:05 am. The first lifeboat had been lowered before 12:45 am, while the last lifeboat had been lowered at 2:05 am. Years later, a Titanic historian,
Phil Gowan was able to pinpoint the number of people aboard at the time of impact and the number of those who died.[citation needed]Titanic was carrying 2,208 aboard and about 1,496 died, leaving 712. The
RMS Carpathia arrived at 4:10 am to rescue the survivors who had been able to reach a lifeboat.[33] The victims of the sinking included:
A rail line of 11 miles 70 chains (19.1 kilometres) in length was opened between Buhrmannsdrif to
Ottoshoop, in
Transvaal,
South Africa.[57]
The Daily Herald began publication as a
syndicalist newspaper. It was published until 1964, when it was relaunched as The Sun tabloid.[58]
Born:Kim Il Sung, absolute ruler of
North Korea as Chairman of the Workers' Party from 1949 until his death in 1994; premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994; as Kim Sŏng-ju, in
Mangyongdae,
Japanese Korea (Chōsen) (d.
1994) In 1998, four years after his death, the constitution of North Korea would be amended to declare Kim the "
Eternal President"
April 16, 1912 (Tuesday)
Harriet Quimby became the first woman to pilot an aircraft across the
English Channel, less than three years after Louis Bleriot had become the first man to make the crossing. Quimby departed
Dover at 5:30 am in a fog and landed at
Neufchâtel-Hardelot, 25 miles (40 km) south of her intended destination of
Calais,
France. She would be killed in a plane crash less than three months later.[59]
The titanic also completely sank in the early hours. (Around 2:10).
April 17, 1912 (Wednesday)
Russian soldiers killed 270 striking gold miners and wounded 270 others after firing into a crowd as they protested. The miners had gone on strike in Siberia to demand a reduction in the workday and improved food and sanitation. The dead were buried in a mass grave.[61] On the old Russian (Julian) calendar, the date was April 4, which is sometimes mistakenly cited as the date of the massacre.[62]
Italy attacked Ottoman Turkey directly, as 27 warships sailed into the Dardanelles and began bombardment of Fort Kilid-ul-Bahr and Fort Sedd-ul-Bahr for two and a half hours.[68] A Turkish gunboat was sunk after its crew escaped, and one of the yachts of the Ottoman Sultan was captured by Italian forces.[69] There were 300 Turkish soldiers killed and more wounded in the destruction of the Kunkaleh Fort.[70]
Muslim soldiers in
Fez, Morocco mutinied, killing fifty French officers and soldiers and almost 100 Jewish residents, before being suppressed.[21]
Coal miners in
Kanawha County, West Virginia went on
strike against the mine operators. The strike became increasingly violent over time, resulting in 50 deaths by the time it ended in July 1913.[71]
The
Russian Empire agreed to recognize Italian sovereignty over
Libya in return for
Italy's support of Russian influence in the Balkans.[21]
At a
United States Senate subcommittee hearing, Titanic Second Officer
Charles Lightoller testified that they loaded as few as 25 people in boats intended to hold 65, only as much as they thought the ropes would hold.[72]
The U.S. Hydrographic Office and representatives of the steamship lines agreed that the winter time course of ships would be 270 miles south of the course taken by the Titanic, adding between 9 and 14 hours to the trip. The new route would be 3,080 miles rather than 2,858 miles.[73]
The luxury ocean liner
SS France began its maiden voyage, from
Le Havre,
France ten days after the Titanic had started its first trip. The ship would remain in service until 1935.[77] Carrying 1,273 passengers (with room for 2,026 and enough lifeboats for all), the France arrived safely in
New York City six days later.[78]
Immediate reforms were ordered by the International Mercantile Marine, requiring all steamers to carry sufficient lifeboats and rafts for all passengers and crew.[21]
The sudden death from an apparent heart attack of
Benito Juárez Maza, Governor of Mexico's
Oaxaca state since 1911 and the son of the late President Benito Juárez, triggered six months of battles between Mexico's national government and Juárez Maza's followers, who believed he had been poisoned.[79]
Boston's
Fenway Park and
Detroit's
Tiger Stadium (at that time known as Navin Field) both officially opened on the same day. At Fenway, which would still be the home of the team's home a century later, the
Boston Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders (now the
New York Yankees) 7–6.[80] The same afternoon, the
Detroit Tigers beat the
Cleveland Indians 6–5, at the park that they would remain in for 87 seasons; after which Tiger Stadium would be replaced by
Comerica Park on April 11, 2000. It was the only other occasion when two major league stadiums would open on the same day (the
San Francisco Giants'
Pacific Bell Park being the other field).[81]
At
Munich, Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping confirmed the theory, made by German physicist
Max von Laue, that the x-rays aimed at a crystal would be diffracted, and that the patterns left on a photographic plate would effectively show the location of individual atoms. Friedrich and Knippe aimed x-rays at a crystal of
copper sulfate, and produced photographs, later misplaced, of the structure of the crystal. Von Laue would be awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914.[84]
Aleister Crowley was appointed by
Ordo Templi Orientis leader
Theodor Reuss as the "National Grand Master General for Great Britain and Ireland" to spread the Reuss's variety of the occult in the British Isles. Crowley would later be designated by Reuss as "Supreme and Holy King of Ireland, Iona and all the Britons within the sanctuary of the Gnosis".[85]
The New York Highlanders (later the
New York Yankees) and the
New York Giants played an exhibition baseball game at the
Polo Grounds to raise money for destitute survivors of the Titanic. The Giants won, 11–2, before a crowd of 14,083 and the game raised $9,425.25.[87]
The date of the first issue of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, and the leading newspaper for the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991, was 22 April 1912. Russia was using the
Julian Calendar at the time, 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.[96] In later years, Pravda would carry on its front page the slogan "Founded by V. I. Lenin on May 5, 1912".[97]
The
RMS Olympic, sister ship of the
White Star ocean liner Titanic was barred from departing
Southampton,
England with its 1,400 passengers because of a strike by shipworkers over insufficient lifeboats. The
White Star Line had added 16 "collapsible" boats which could be deployed in a hurry.[21][100]
Troops killed striking textile workers at Vila Nova de Gaia, a suburb of
Porto,
Portugal.[101]
The bazaar, shopping quarter for Syrians in
Damascus, caught on fire, causing $10,000,000 in damages and killing several persons.[108]
Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, an early leader in
Russia's
Bolshevik movement, first took on the
pen name "Kirov". Although he would be assassinated in 1934 while serving as the Communist Party chief in
Leningrad, the Russian city of
Kirov, the Russian
Kirov Oblast, and the Ukrainian city of
Kirovohrad are all named in his honor.[109]
Civil war broke out again in
Paraguay, with former
PresidentAlbino Jara commanding rebels at Villa Encarnacion. Four Paraguayan warships bombarded the rebels, who returned fire with cannons and forced the troops to withdraw.[114]
Hubert Lyautey was appointed as the first French
Resident-General of
Morocco, which had recently become a
protectorate of
France. General Lyautey would administer most of the affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco until 1925. The city of
Kenitra was renamed "Port Lyautey" in his honor, from 1933 to 1956, until reverting to its former name.[117]
The thermometer rose to 108 °F (42.2 °C) at the city of
Tuguegarao, setting a record for the highest recorded temperature not only in the
Philippines, but also for the islands of the
South Pacific Ocean.[121]
The cable ship
Mackay-Bennett and the
RMS Olympic arrived at
Halifax, Nova Scotia, bringing the bodies of 200 people who had drowned or frozen to death after escaping the Titanic. Although the ship had recovered 306 bodies, 116 of those were buried at sea because of a lack of sufficient embalming fluid,[123] including 54 that had been identified. Located were the remains of
John Astor and
Isidor Straus, while his wife
Ida Straus and former presidential adviser
Archibald Butt were never located.[124] One of the bodies recovered was a 19-month old toddler referred to in the media as "
The Unknown Child". The identify of the child remained a mystery until 2007 when DNA research identified him as Sidney Leslie Goodwin. He was buried at
Fairview Lawn Cemetery, in
Halifax.[125][126]
Filmmaker
Carl Laemmle formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in
New York City. In June, he partner with other regional film companies to form the precursor to the
Universal Pictures, the longest continuous running movie studio in the
United States.[127]
A
statue of
Peter Pan by
George Frampton was erected intentionally without fanfare in
Kensington Gardens,
London. Playwright
J. M. Barrie, who created the "boy who wouldn't grow up", wanted the impression of the statue appearing magically in the park, although he tipped off the public of its whereabout in The Times the following day.[128]
^"President Signs Child Labor Bill", New York Times, April 10, 1912; James Alner Tobey, The National Government and Public Health (Ayer Publishing, 1926) p. 232
^"Roosevelt Wins in Illinois by 2 to 1 over Taft", New York Times, April 10, 1912
^"Loss of S.S. Titanic; Greatest of Marine Disasters". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac 1913. p. 513.
^Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 187, ref. no. 200954-13
^Reynolds, Stanley (1974). Poor Men's Guardians: A Record of the Struggles for a Democratic Newspaper Press, 1763–1973. pp. 173–178.
ISBN0853153019.
^Carnes, Mark C., ed. (2005). American National Biography: Supplement.
Oxford University Press. p. 456.
^Bednar, Michael (2006), L'Enfant's Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington, D.C., JHU Press, p. 67,
ISBN0-8018-8318-0,
OCLC219305717
^"Italian Warships Shell Dardanelles", New York Times, April 19, 1912
^"Italian Shells Sunk Warship of Sultan", New York Times, April 20, 1912
^"Shelling Killed 300 Turks", New York Times, April 26, 1912
^Lee, Howard B. Bloodletting in Appalachia: The Story of West Virginia's Four Major Mine Wars and Other Thrilling Incidents of Its Coal Fields. Morgantown, W.Va.: West Virginia University Library, 1969.
ISBN0-87012-041-7, p. 18
^"Many Needlessly Died on Titanic; Lifeboats Launched Only Half Full", New York Times, April 20, 1912
^"All Ships to Take New Long Course", New York Times, April 20, 1912
^William H. Miller, Picture History of the French Line (Courier Dover Publications, 1997) p. 7
^"Passengers Praise New French Liner", New York Times, April 27, 1912
^Jürgen Buchenau and William H. Beezley, State Governors in the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1952: Portraits in Conflict, Courage, and Corruption (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) pp. 34–35
^Robert Redmount, The Red Sox Encyclopedia (Sports Publishing LLC, 2002) p. 237
^Bob Mackin, The Unofficial Guide to Baseball's Most Unusual Records (Greystone Books, 2004) p. 83
^Orleck, Annelise. Common Sense & a Little Fire Women and Working-class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 102-105
^"Flying the Irish Channel". Flight Magazine. IV (17). London: Reed Business Information: 379. 27 April 1912. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
^"Irish Aviator's Feat: St. George's Channel Crossed". Irish Times. Dublin. 27 April 1912. p. 23.
^"Loraine's Daring Flight". Irish Times. Dublin. 12 September 1910. p. 7.
^Tony Cliff, Building the Party: Lenin 1893–1914 (Volume 1) (Haymarket Books, 2002) p397
^Joseph Gibbs, Gorbachev's Glasnost: The Soviet Media in the First Phase of Perestroika (Texas A&M University Press, 1999) p. 95
^Helen Julia Minors. La Péri, poème dansé (1911–12): A Problematic Creative-Collaborative Journey. Opera Quarterly Volume 22, Number 1, Winter 2006 pp. 117-135.
^"Taft Wins New Hampshire", New York Times, April 24, 1912
^"Firemen Strike; Olympic Held", New York Times, April 25, 1912
^"Many Slain in Portugal", New York Times, April 25, 1912
^Oliphant, J. Orin (1924). History of the State Normal School at Cheney, Washington. Spokane, WA: Inland-American Printing Company.
^Session Laws Chapter 70 1913, p. 244, Session Laws 1915, p. 215
^Fenlon, Iain (2010). Piazza San Marco. London: Profile Books. p. 147.
ISBN9781861978851.
^Lluís Solà i Dachs, «Cu-cut! Setmanari de gresca ab ninots (1902–1912)». Ed. Bruguera. Barcelona, 1967
^"Damascus Bazar Burned", New York Times, April 29, 1912
^Matthew E. Lenoe, The Kirov Murder and Soviet History (Yale University Press, 2010)
^"Flying the Irish Channel"(PDF). Flight Magazine. IV (17). London: Reed Business Information: 379. 27 April 1912. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
^"Irish Aviator's Feat: St. George's Channel Crossed". Irish Times. Dublin. 27 April 1912. p. 23.
^Kalman, Harold; Roaf, John (1 April 1983). Exploring Ottawa: An Architectural Guide to the Nation's Capital. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 28.
ISBN978-0802063953.