News and Events of 1903

World Events

population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize:
Sir William R. Cremer (UK)

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Panama declares independence from Colombia (Nov. 3).
King Alexander of Serbia and his wife are assassinated by conspirators (June 10).

President: Theodore Roosevelt
Vice President: none
Population: 80,632,000

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Henry Ford organizes Ford Motor Company.
The first transcontinental trip by automobile--San Francisco to New York in 52 days.

Federal spending:   $0.52 billion
Unemployment:   3.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.02

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Boston Red Sox d. Pittsburgh (5-3)

Ottawa Silver Seven

Women: Dorothea Douglass d. E. Thomson (4-6 6-4 6-2)
Men: Laurie Doherty d. F. Riseley (7-5 6-3 6-0)

Judge Himes

Princeton (11-0-0)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Björnstjerne Björnson (Norway)

More Entertainment Awards...

Edison Corporation mechanic Edwin S. Porter makes The Great Train Robbery. With 14 shots cutting between simultaneous events, this 12-minute short establishes the shot as film's basic element and editing as a central narrative device. It is also the first Western. Movie Timeline

Chemistry: Svante A. Arrhenius (Sweden), for his electrolytic theory of dissociation

Physics: A. Henri Becquerel (France), for work on spontaneous radioactivity; and Pierre and Marie Curie (France), for study of radiation

Physiology or Medicine: Niels R. Finsen (Denmark), for his treatment of lupus vulgaris with concentrated light rays

The Wright brothers make aviation history with their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.