The following events occurred in July 1900:
July 1, 1900 (Sunday) In Beijing, the Chinese army temporarily drove off German and American defenders within the legation area, and left one side unprotected for more than an hour. Had an attack been made at that time, the Chinese soldiers would have been able to overrun the foreign legations. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, married the daughter of a Czech aristocrat, Sophie Chotek von Chotkova at Reichstadt in Bohemia (now Zákupy in the Czech Republic). The couple had four children: Princess Sophie von Hohenberg who was born the following year on July 24, 1901, while Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg was born on September 28, 1902 and Prince Ernst von Hohenberg in 1904. There was also a stillborn son born in 1908. The couple were shot on Sunday, June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo by one of a team of Serbian nationalists.
July 2, 1900 (Monday) From China came dispatches that proved to be wrong. According to some reports, the foreign legations in Beijing had been overrun and burned, and "the public execution of foreigners has been in progress since June 20." The New York Times published the rumors on page 7. The London Daily Mail printed a similar dispatch on July 16, 1900, and a memorial service was planned for St Paul's Cathedral, then cancelled after the veracity of the Shanghai cable was questioned. Still, as rumors continued to be received from dispatches, the consensus was that it was unlikely that the heavily outnumbered foreigners could hold out against the Chinese armies. Jean Sibelius's tone poem Finlandia received its première with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Robert Kajanus. Arab Algerians began a new uprising against the French colonial government in an attack on a French Foreign Legion patrol along the Touat River. Five Italian legion members were decapitated, and an Arab officer in the 1st Algerian Spahis was speared death. From there, the rebels moved northward up the river. Starting at 8:03 pm, the first rigid airship flew from the Manzell district of Friedrichshafen, Germany, near Lake Constance. Luftschiff Zeppelin 1 (or LZ1), with Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and four others aboard, flew at an altitude of , going in 18 minutes before being forced to land due to a broken part. David Sarnoff, 9, arrived in New York after immigrating from Uzlyany in Russia, and went to work selling newspapers. After becoming an office boy at American Marconi, Sarnoff worked his way up and in 1916, would write a memo outlining his vision of making the radio as common a household item "as the piano or the phonograph". Over the next several decades, Sarnoff oversaw the spread of radio and then television across the world. Quarantine was declared in Nome, Alaska, due to a large measles outbreak in the Native American community. Throughout 1900 the mortality rate in some communities was 100% and estimates place the death toll between 1,000 and 2,000 people.
July 3, 1900 (Tuesday) United States Secretary of State John Hay, following up on the Open Door Policy toward China, sent a diplomatic note to the European powers making it clear that the Allied expedition against the Boxers should be limited to release of the legations, and that no attempt should be made to divide China among the victors in the invasion. "The policy of the Government of the United States is to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly Powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire."Lyman Van Slyke, The China White Paper: August 1949 (Stanford University Press, 1967), p. 431 In Beijing, a force of 23 British, 15 Russian and 15 American defenders departed the safety of the walled legation compound to go on the offensive. The multinational force destroyed a tower that the Chinese armies had been building outside the legation grounds. The Chinese army temporarily drove off German and American defenders within the legation area, and left one side unprotected for more than an hour. Had an attack been made at that time, the Chinese soldiers would have been able to overrun the foreign legations. In Paris, a statue of George Washington was unveiled at the Place d'Iena, as a gift of the women of the United States to the people of France."A Franco-American Fete", New York Times, July 4, 1900, p. 1
July 4, 1900 (Wednesday) One of the worst streetcar accidents in U.S. history killed 43 people and injured 65 in Tacoma, Washington, when a car plunged 100 feet into a ravine. The passengers were coming from Lakeview, Parkland, and other southern suburbs for Tacoma's Independence Day celebration. Shortly after 8 in the morning, the car jumped the track at 26th and C Streets."Forty Killed in Tacoma", New York Times, July 5, 1900, p. 6 A 1910 streetcar accident in Kingsland, Indiana, would kill 41 people.David E. Nye, Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880–1940 (MIT Press, 1992), p. 102 The Standard Oil refinery in Bayonne, New Jersey, was destroyed. A lightning strike set fire to three of the 40,000-gallon tanks, which then spread to explode seven others. Windows were shattered in the Hook Village section of town, and the bay itself was set on fire. The fire, which caused in damage, was brought under control by July 7.Kathleen Middleton, Bayonne (Arcadia Publishing, 1995), pp. 64–66 The latest addition to William Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire, the Chicago American, published its first edition.Ben Proctor, William Randolph Hearst, p. 153 The paper lasted 74 years, changing its name to Chicago Today, and publishing its final issue on September 13, 1974."Last edition", Independent Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Cal.), September 14, 1974. During his lifetime, Louis Armstrong gave his birthdate as July 4, 1900. After the jazz musician died in 1971, however, biographer Gary Giddins located the baptismal register certificate that showed Armstrong had actually been born on August 4, 1901.Terry Teachout, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009)Dan Rather and Walter Isaacson, People of the Century: One Hundred Men and Women Who Shaped the Last One Hundred Years (Simon & Schuster, 1999), p. 204 Born: Robert Desnos, French surrealist poet, in Paris (d. 1945) Died: Alexander Skene, 73, Scottish gynecologist, discoverer of the Skene's gland (b. 1837)
July 5, 1900 (Thursday) The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act passed the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In Kansas City, at the Democratic Convention, William Jennings Bryan was nominated for President, and former U.S. Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson was selected as his running mate. The nomination, set for July 4, had been delayed over a battle on the "16 to 1" ratio of silver to gold as part of the Democratic platform. The proposition passed 26–24, with the margin coming from delegates from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Hawaii, which were not yet states, while Alaska was against the proposition)."Bryan Nominated; 16 To 1 Platform", New York Times, July 6, 1900, p. 1 Football club West Ham United was created in East London, acquiring the assets of the defunct Thames Ironworks football team."West Ham United Football Club and the Beginnings of Professional Football in East London, 1895–1914", by Charles P. Korr, Journal of Contemporary History (April 1978), pp. 211–232
July 6, 1900 (Friday) The Allies were forced to retreat from Tianjin after a six-hour battle against Chinese troops.Library of World History (Western Press Assn. 1914) p. 4684 However, reinforcements arrived and the Eight-Nation Alliance would take the city on July 14. Warren Earp, 45, was shot and killed at the Headquarters Saloon in Willcox, Arizona. The town still holds its Western Heritage Days in acknowledgment of the event.Wesley Treat, Weird Arizona (Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2007), p. 200 Born: Frederica Sagor Maas, American screenwriter; in New York City (d. 2012). Maas would pass away at age 111, having lived in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
July 7, 1900 (Saturday) In China, Bishop Antonino Fantosati and Father Joseph Gambaro were tortured and killed as they were returning by boat from a pastoral visit in the Hunan Province. Both men were among the Martyr Saints of China who would be canonized in 2000.Tim Drake, Saints of the Jubilee (AuthorHouse, 2002), p. 81
July 8, 1900 (Sunday) Elliott Frost, son of poet Robert Frost, died at age three of typhoid fever. Frost, who blamed himself for not calling his personal physician sooner, later wrote about the tragedy in the poem "Home Burial". Died: Henry D. Cogswell, 80, American philanthropist who championed the construction of drinking fountains across the nation as an aid to combatting the consumption of alcohol (b. 1820)
July 9, 1900 (Monday) In China, the Taiyuan massacre took place as Governor Yu-Hsien of the Shanxi Province ordered captive foreign missionaries and their families to be executed. After being promised an escort to safety, the prisoners were brought before the Governor who ordered their beheading. Reverend George Farthing was the first to die and after all the men had been executed, Farthing's wife and three young children were killed along with the remaining foreigners. Forty-six (34 Protestant and 12 Catholic) died in one day.Robert Coventry Forsyth, The China Martyrs of 1900: A Complete Roll of the Christian Heroes Martyred in China in 1900 (Religious Tract Society, 1904), pp. 38–40 Queen Victoria signed the Act to Constitute the Commonwealth of Australia (Stat. of Victoria, 63 & 64, Chap. 12), in duplicate, keeping one copy for the United Kingdom and giving the other document to the representatives of the Australian colonies to take home with them, along with the table, the inkstand and the pen that had been used for the signing.Richard Jebb, Studies in Colonial Nationalism (E. Arnold, 1905), p. 82 Under the Act, the Queen would proclaim that five of the six colonies (Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland) and "if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto", a sixth would "unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."William Harrison Moore, The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia (G. Partridge & Co., 1902), pp. 335–336 The proclamation was made on September 17, 1900 and the Commonwealth came into being on January 1, 1901, three weeks before her death.
July 10, 1900 (Tuesday) "Nipper", the RCA Victor dog, was registered as a trademark and became one of the advertising icons of the 20th century. The dog belonged to Francis Barraud, whose painting His Master's Voice showed the animal listening to just that on a gramophone.Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact (Oxford University Press US, 2005), p. 240 Born: Mitchell Parish (pen name for Michael Hyman Pashlelinsky), Lithuanian-born American songwriter from the "Tin Pan Alley" era, best known for writing the lyrics to Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" and to Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" (d. 1993)
July 11, 1900 (Wednesday) Charlotte Cooper of the United Kingdom became the first woman to ever win an Olympic medal, when she defeated Yvonne Prévost in the tennis competition at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. The first revived games, at Athens in 1896, had been for men only. In the first and only Olympic competition for croquet, French athletes were the sole participants in all events. Gaston Aumoitte and Chrétien Waydelich won medals in the one-ball and two-ball competitions.