1906

1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1906th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 906th year of the 2nd millennium, the 6th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1900s decade. As of the start of 1906, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

From top to bottom, left to right: The catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires devastate the city, killing thousands and leaving much of San Francisco in ruins; the tragic Courrières mine disaster in northern France kills over 1,000 miners, becoming one of the deadliest mining disasters in European history; the 1906 Atlanta race massacre erupts amid racial tensions and false rumors, leaving dozens dead and highlighting deep racial divisions in the United States; the Algeciras Conference brings together European powers to settle a dispute over Morocco, reflecting the era’s intense imperial competition; the controversial Denshawai incident in Egypt inflames nationalist sentiment after harsh punishments are handed down to local villagers accused of attacking British officers; the Bambatha Rebellion breaks out in the British Colony of Natal, as Zulu forces rise against colonial taxation and control.

Quick Facts

1906 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1906 MCMVI
Ab urbe condita	2659
Armenian calendar	1355 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԵ
Assyrian calendar	6656
Baháʼí calendar	62–63
Balinese saka calendar	1827–1828
Bengali calendar	1312–1313
Berber calendar	2856
British Regnal year	5 Edw. 7 – 6 Edw. 7
Buddhist calendar	2450
Burmese calendar	1268
Byzantine calendar	7414–7415
Chinese calendar	乙巳年 (Wood Snake) 4603 or 4396 — to — 丙午年 (Fire Horse) 4604 or 4397
Coptic calendar	1622–1623
Discordian calendar	3072
Ethiopian calendar	1898–1899
Hebrew calendar	5666–5667
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1962–1963
- Shaka Samvat	1827–1828
- Kali Yuga	5006–5007
Holocene calendar	11906
Igbo calendar	906–907
Iranian calendar	1284–1285
Islamic calendar	1323–1324
Japanese calendar	Meiji 39 (明治３９年)
Javanese calendar	1835–1836
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4239
Minguo calendar	6 before ROC 民前6年
Nanakshahi calendar	438
Thai solar calendar	2448–2449
Tibetan calendar	ཤིང་མོ་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་ (female Wood-Snake) 2032 or 1651 or 879 — to — མེ་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་ (male Fire-Horse) 2033 or 1652 or 880

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Events

January–February

January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
January 16–April 7 – The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
January 31 – The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale), and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths.
February 7 – HMS Dreadnought is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany.
February 11
- Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
- Two British members of a poll tax collecting expedition are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.^[1]

Thumb — January 31: Ecuador earthquake (8.8).

March–April

March 4 – Native American tribal governments are terminated in Indian Territory, a prerequisite for creating the US state of Oklahoma in 1907.
March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.
April 14 – The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.
April 18
- The San Francisco Earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
- Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.^[2]
April 23 – In the Russian Empire, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

May–June

May 27
- The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
- Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its premiere at the Saalbau Essen in Germany conducted by the composer.
May 29 – Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by right-wing naval officer and public official Arvid Lindman.
May 31 – Morral affair: The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24 bystanders.^[3]^[4]
June 7 – Cunard liner RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow, as the world's largest ship.
June 26 – The first Grand Prix in automobile racing is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans in France.

July–August

July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.
July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
July 20 – In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new electoral law is ratified, guaranteeing full women's suffrage, the first in modern Europe.^[5] Women can also stand in national elections.
August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.
August 16 – 1906 Valparaíso earthquake: A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves approximately 20,000 injured.
August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. This leads to the Second Occupation of Cuba, which lasts until 1909.

September–October

September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha, to characterize the nonviolence movement in South Africa.
September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.^[6]
September 20 – The RMS Mauretania is launched at the River Tyne becoming the world’s largest ship.
September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates, when it adopts universal suffrage.
October 6 – The Majlis of Iran convenes for the first time.^[7]
October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises, when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools (it is resolved by next year).
October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer, and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.
October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining trust, is created in the Congo.

November–December

November 1 – International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.
November 3 – SOS becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy) on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.^[8]
November 18 – The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.
November 22 – Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin introduces agrarian reforms, aimed at creating a large class of land-owning peasants.
December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; it is the first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.
December 15 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
December 22 – The M_w  7.9 1906 Manasi earthquake in Xinjiang, China kills nearly 300 people.^[9]
December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is first shown, at the Melbourne Athenaeum in Australia.
December 30 – The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party in Dhaka in the British Raj; it becomes a driving force for the creation of an independent Pakistan.

Date unknown

The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed.
Függetlenség, a Hungarian language daily newspaper, is founded.^[10]
Richard Oldham argues that the Earth has a molten interior.
Construction begins on the modern-day Great Mosque of Djenné.
The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.
HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association is officially founded as a sports club in Palestine, predecessor of Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel).^[11]

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Births

January–February

January 6 – Walter Battiss, South African artist (d. 1982)
January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
January 12 – Eric Birley, British historian and archaeologist (d. 1995)
January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist (d. 2017)
January 14 – William Bendix, American film, radio and television actor (d. 1964)
January 15 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
January 16 – Diana Wynyard, English actress (d. 1964)
January 20 – Bretaigne Windust, American stage, film and television director (d. 1960)
January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)
January 28 – Pat O'Callaghan, Irish athlete (d. 1991)
February 4
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious, resistance leader (executed 1945)
- Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
February 5 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
February 7
- Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
- Puyi, Last Emperor of China (d. 1967)
February 8 – Chester Carlson, American physicist, inventor (d. 1968)
February 10
- Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
- Erik Rhodes, American actor and singer (d. 1990)
February 14 – Nazim al-Qudsi, 26th Prime Minister of Syria and 14th President of Syria (d. 1998)
February 17
- Mary Brian, American actress (d. 2002)
- Galo Plaza, 29th President of Ecuador (d. 1987)
- Käte Selbmann, German politician (d. 1962)^[12]
February 18 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
February 22 – Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt, Danish actor (d. 1982)
February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress (d. 1987)
February 28 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (k. 1947)

March–April

March 1
- Phạm Văn Đồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
- Abdus Sattar, 8th President of Bangladesh (d. 1985)
March 6 – Lou Costello, American actor (d. 1959)
March 7 – Elmar Lipping, Estonian statesman, soldier (d. 1994)
March 8 – Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor, photographer (d. 1978)
March 12 – Yin Shun, Chinese Buddhist master (d. 2005)
March 13 – Dave Kaye, British pianist (d. 1996)^[13]^[14]
March 16 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish novelist (d. 2009)
March 17
- Brigitte Helm, German film actress (d. 1996)
- Ermance Rejebian, Armenian American book reviewer, lecturer, broadcaster and writer (d. 1989)^[15]
March 19
- Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal (executed 1962)
- Roy Roberts, American actor (d. 1975)
March 20 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor, director and producer (d. 1975)
March 21 – Jim Thompson, American businessman (disappeared 1967)
March 25 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)
March 26
- Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player (d. 1981)
- Ronald Urquhart, British general (d. 1968)
March 31 – Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
April 1 – Alexander Yakovlev, Russian engineer, airplane designer (d. 1989)
April 4 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
April 6 – Luis Alberti, Dominican Republic musician (d. 1976)
April 6 – Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII (d. 1982)
April 9 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
April 11 – Julia Clements, English flower arranger and author (d. 2010)
April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
April 14 – Broda Otto Barnes, American medical researcher (d. 1988)
April 22 – Eddie Albert, American actor and activist (d. 2005)
April 24 – William Joyce, Irish-American World War II Nazi propaganda broadcaster ("Lord Haw-Haw") (executed 1946)
April 25
- Joel Brand, Hungarian rescue worker (d. 1964)
- William J. Brennan Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1997)
- A. W. Haydon, American inventor (d. 1982)
April 28
- Tony Accardo, American gangster (d. 1992)
- Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (d. 1978)
- Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999)
April 29 – Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (d. 1989)^[16]

May–June

May 2 – Philippe Halsman, Latvian-born American photographer (d. 1979)
May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)
May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
May 7 – Jon Lormer, American actor (d. 1986)
May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
May 10 – António Ferreira Gomes, Portuguese Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 1989)
May 11
- Jacqueline Cochran, American aviator (d. 1980)
- Richard Arvin Overton, oldest living man in the United States and oldest surviving American veteran (World War II) (d. 2018)
- Ethel Weed, American promoter of Japanese women's rights (d. 1975)
May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general, politician (d. 1965)
May 16 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)
May 17 – Jack Carr, American actor and animator (d. 1967)
May 19
- Bruce Bennett, American athlete, actor (d. 2007)
- Jimmy MacDonald, Scottish-American sound effects artist, voice actor (d. 1991)
May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
May 23 – Lucha Reyes, Mexican singer (d. 1944)
May 27 – Buddhadasa, Buddhist monk (d. 1993)
May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
May 30 – Bruno Gröning, German faith healer (d. 1959)
June 3 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer (d. 1975)
June 4 – Ivan Knunyants, Soviet chemist (d. 1990)
June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born American mathematician (d. 1993)
June 10 – Tekla Juniewicz, Polish supercentenarian, oldest Polish person ever, last surviving person born in 1906 (d. 2022)
June 12 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
June 17
- James H. Flatley, American admiral, aviator (d. 1958)
- Olli Ungvere, Estonian actress (d. 1991)
June 19 – Sir Ernst Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
June 21 – Grete Sultan, German-American pianist (d. 2005)
June 22
- George W. Clarke, American politician (d. 2006)
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author, aviator (d. 2001)
- Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)
June 24
- Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
- George Alexander Gale, Canadian politician (d. 1997)
June 26
- Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer, teacher, sculptor and artist (d. 2008)
- M. P. Sivagnanam, Indian politician (d. 1995)
June 27 – Catherine Cookson, English author (d. 1998)
June 28
- Maria Goeppert Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)^[17]
- Yoshimi Ueda, Japanese basketball player, administrator (d. 1996)
June 29 – Heinz Harmel, German officer (d. 2000)

July–August

July 1
- Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician, academic (d. 1992)
- Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 2004)
- Ivan Neill, British Army officer and Irish Unionist politician (d. 2001)
July 2
- Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- Károly Kárpáti, Hungarian Jewish wrestler (d. 1996)
- Séra Martin, French middle-distance runner (d. 1993)
July 3
- Alberto Lleras Camargo, Colombian politician, 20th President of Colombia (d. 1990)
- George Sanders, British actor (d. 1972)
July 4 – Vincent Schaefer, American chemist, meteorologist (d. 1993)
July 7
- William Feller, Croatian-born mathematician (d. 1970)
- Helene Johnson, African-American poet (d. 1995)
- Hugh McMahon, Scottish footballer (d. 1997)
- Satchel Paige, American baseball player (d. 1982)
July 8 – Philip Johnson, American architect (d. 2005)
July 9 – Roy Leaper, Australian rules footballer (d. 2002)
July 10 – Ad Liska, American baseball pitcher (d. 1998)
July 11 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (d. 1990)
July 12 – Pietro Tordi, Italian actor (d. 1990)
July 14 – Stan Devenish Meares, Australian obstetrician, gynaecologist (d. 1994)
July 16
- Ichimaru, Japanese singer (d. 1997)
- Vincent Sherman, American director, actor (d. 2006)
- James Still, American poet, novelist and folklorist (d. 2001)
July 17
- Leonila Garcia, 8th First Lady of the Philippines (d. 1994)
- Dunc Gray, Australian track cyclist (d. 1996)
July 18
- Sidney Darlington, American engineer (d. 1997)
- S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-born American academic, politician (d. 1992)
- Speed Webb, American jazz drummer, territory band leader (d. 1994)
July 21 – Caroline Smith, American diver (d. 1994)
July 23 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
August 5
- Joan Hickson, British actress (d. 1998)
- John Huston, American film director, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1987)
- Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
August 5 – Marie-José of Belgium, last Queen of Italy (d. 2001)^[18]
August 14 – Horst P. Horst, German photographer (d. 1999)
August 17 – Marcelo Caetano, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1980)
August 19 – Philo Farnsworth, American inventor (d. 1971)
August 23 – Zoltan Sarosy, Canadian chess master (d. 2017)
August 26 – Albert Sabin, Polish-American medical researcher (d. 1993)
August 27 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)
August 28 – John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)
August 30 – Joan Blondell, American actress (d. 1979)