The following events occurred in April 1911:
April 1, 1911 (Saturday)
With the nation in revolt, President Porfirio Díaz of Mexico opened the new session of the Congress of Mexico, outlining his plans for reform, including a one-term limit on presidents. The proposals came too late, and Díaz's 25 consecutive years in office ended the following month."Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (May 1911), pp. 548–552.Friedrich Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (Stanford University Press, 1998), p. 94."Diaz Promises No Re-Elections", New York Times, April 2, 1911. Tsinghua University was opened in Beijing, with an enrollment of 468 students, as the Imperial Tsinghua Academy. The 325 enrolled in the "middle division" (zhongdeng ke) were taught by 20 Chinese professors, while 143 students in the advanced division were instructed by Americans.Hongshan Li, U.S.-China Educational Exchange: State, Society, and Intercultural Relations, 1905–1950 (Rutgers University Press, 2008) p. 65. United Mine Workers of America President Thomas Lewis was defeated in his bid for re-election by John P. White.Daniel J. Curran, Dead Laws for Dead Men: The Politics of Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Legislation (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993) p. 75. Born: Charles Coles, American tap dancer and actor, in Philadelphia (d. 1992).
April 2, 1911 (Sunday) The United Kingdom census was taken, based on two acts of Parliament, one for Great Britain and the other for Ireland. "Schedules" with multiple questions were distributed to each household, and collected by enumerators the following day."English Census Sunday, April 2", The Flint (MI) Daily Journal, April 1, 1911, p. 12. The final count, released on June 16, was 45,216,665."Britain's Population- Total of Forty-Five Millions", Ohinemuri (NZ) Gazette, June 19, 1911, p. 2. One out of every seven employed persons was a domestic servant. Suffragette Emily Davison hid in a cupboard in the crypt of the Palace of Westminster so that she could legitimately be recorded as resident on census night at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The first Australian National Census (as opposed to prior colonial censuses) was taken, with information to be filled out on a "Householder's Card"."The Census- To Be Taken on Sunday Night- How to Fill in the Cards", The Age (Melbourne), March 30, 1911, p. 6. The final count showed 4,455,005 people.David Dutton, One of Us?: A Century of Australian Citizenship (UNSW Press, 2002) p. 25. British evangelist John Henry Jowett, celebrated at the time as "the greatest preacher in the English-speaking world,"Warren W. Wiersbe, 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith (Baker Books, 2009) p. 263. began a revival in New York City at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church."Great Crowd Hears Dr. Jowett Preach", New York Times, April 3, 1911.
April 3, 1911 (Monday) The first performance was given of the Fourth Symphony of Jean Sibelius.Michael Steinberg, The Symphony: A Listener's Guide (Oxford University Press US, 1998) p. 590. Draft registration became mandatory for all boys aged 14 to 20 in New Zealand.Peter Brock, Against the Draft: Essays on Conscientious Objection from the Radical Reformation to the Second World War (University of Toronto Press, 2006) p. 280. An imperial edict was issued in the name of the two-year-old Emperor of China, Puyi, proclaiming him to be supreme commander of the army and appointing his father, Prince Chun, to serve as Prince-Regent until the Emperor reached a majority."Dangers on Frontiers- Chinese Proclamation Declares Necessity for Great Army", Toronto World, April 4, 1911, p. 3. President Taft ordered the reassignment of the all-African-American U.S. 9th Cavalry to move them out of San Antonio, where they had been sent to guard the border with Mexico, after the regiment's northern-born soldiers had defied the Texas city's segregation laws. Reportedly, two white streetcar conductors had been beaten up after insisting that the soldiers move to the colored section of the cars.Brian Shellum, Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young (University of Nebraska Press, 2010) p. 197."Taft Sends Negroes Out of San Antonio", New York Times, April 4, 1911. The order was reversed two days later after complaints came from the mayors of cities where the troops were to be moved, including Brownsville, Laredo and Del Rio."Negroes to Stay at San Antonio", New York Times, April 6, 1911.
April 4, 1911 (Tuesday)
As the 62nd United States Congress opened with a Democratic majority in the House, James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark was elected as the new Speaker of the House, succeeding Joseph G. Cannon. In a vote along party lines, Clark (D-Mo.) received 217 Democrat votes while James Mann (R-Ill.) received 131 Republican votes."Clark Takes Chair For Extra Session", Milwaukee Sentinel, April 4, 1911, p. 1. New members took office, including Victor L. Berger, the first Socialist Party of America member to ever serve in Congress."Congress Opens; Clark Speaker", New York Times, April 5, 1911. Ratifications of the Japan-United States Treaty of Commerce and Navigation were exchanged at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, as the Emperor Meiji, Prime Minister Katsura, and Foreign Minister Komura welcomed Ambassador O'Brien. The Emperor's greetings to U.S. President Taft were cabled by the ambassador, and Taft cabled a reply, with both leaders welcoming the extension of their nations' friendship.Edmund Jan Osmańczyk and Anthony Mango, Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements p. 1198."Japan Signs New Treaty With America", Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, April 5, 1911, p. 1. Born: Stella Walsh, Polish athlete who won an Olympic medal in 1932 for the women's 100 meter dash and who was discovered after her death to have been a man; as Stanisława Walasiewicz in Wierzchownia (killed 1980). Grover C. Nash, African-American pilot; in Dry Branch, Georgia (d. 1970). Michael Woodruff, British surgeon and pioneer in organ transplantation; in London (d. 2001) Pietro di Donato, American writer; in West Hoboken, New Jersey (d. 1992). Freddie Miller, American boxer; in Cincinnati (d. 1962). Died: John S. Trower, 61, "reputed to have been the wealthiest negro in the United States" at the time of his death. Trower was born in Virginia, grew up in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and left a fortune of $1,500,000 (equivalent to $30,000,000 in 2011) after building a catering business.Booker T. Washington, The Negro in Business (Hertel, Jenkins & Co., 1907) p. 47.
April 5, 1911 (Wednesday) In one of the largest union labor demonstrations in the United States to that time, a group of 120,000 employees and 230,000 citizens took the day off and marched in the rain along Fifth Avenue in New York City in a memorial service for the 146 victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that had happened on March 25. The procession lasted for three hours and was watched by 400,000 spectators.Brenda Z. Guiberson, Disasters: Natural and Man-Made Catastrophes Through the Centuries p. 94."120,000 Pay Tribute to the Fire Victims", New York Times, April 5, 1911.
April 6, 1911 (Thursday) By a vote of 198–135, the U.S. House of Representatives changed its rules to remove much of the power that the Speaker of the House had formerly wielded. Never again would the Speaker have the exclusive right to assign members to committees or to select the chairmen."New House Rules Passed by Dems After Hot Battle", Pittsburgh Press, April 6, 1911, p. 10.The Cannon Centenary Conference: The Changing Nature of the Speakership (Government Printing Office, 2004) p. 134. For the first time, the State Council of Imperial Russia approved an interpellation resolution criticizing the Tsarist government. The vote was 98–52 in favor of the measure, which rebuked Prime Minister Stolypin's proposal for self-government for Poland. Mayor of Baltimore J. Barry Mahool signed into law an ordinance prohibiting African-Americans from moving into, or establishing businesses, in white neighborhoods."To Sign Segregation Law", New York Times, April 7, 1911. Born: Feodor Lynen, German biochemist and 1964 Nobel Laureate; in Munich (d. 1979).
April 7, 1911 (Friday) The U.S. Department of Justice won its first conviction in its prosecution of members of the Black Hand, for extortion and murder by dynamite in Chicago. Under tight security, a federal court jury convicted Gianni Alongi of employing the U.S. mail to send death threats to Garmila Marsala, who operated a butcher shop."Black Hand Leader Is Found Guilty", New York Times, April 8, 1911. A fire at the Price-Pancoast Colliery at Throop, Pennsylvania, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, killed 73 coal miners, many of them boys."200 LIKELY TO BE DEATH ROLL IN TWO MINE CATASTROPHES", Pittsburgh Press, April 9, 1911, p. 1. Francisco I. Madero, Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco led an army of 2,500 Mexican rebels on an attack on march toward Ciudad Juárez.Friedrich Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (Stanford University Press, 1998) p. 104.
April 8, 1911 (Saturday) Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity at the Leiden University, finding that the electrical resistance of the metal mercury completely disappeared at a temperature of 4.15 kelvins (−268.85 °C). The exact moment of his finding has been traced to the series of notebooks that he kept at the time, at 4:00 in the afternoon.Dirk van Delft and Peter Kas, "The discovery of superconductivity", Physics Today (September 2010), 38–43. Presentation of the results was made on April 28. For his discovery, Kamerlingh Onnes would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913. An explosion at the Banner Mine of Pratt Consolidated Coal Company, near Littleton, Alabama, killed 128 coal miners. All but five of them were African-Americans who had been convicted of minor crimes and were sentenced to hard labor.Wayne Flynt, Alabama in the Twentieth Century (University of Alabama Press, 2004) p. 47.Ronald L. Lewis, Black Coal Miners in America: Race, Class, and Community Conflict, 1780–1980 (University Press of Kentucky, 1987) p. 31."200 DEAD IN ALABAMA MINE", Pittsburgh Press, April 8, 1911, p. 1. Elsie Paroubek, aged 5, vanished from the corner of 23rd Street and Troy Avenue in Chicago. The subsequent exhaustive search for her would preoccupy Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota law enforcement for six weeks.. Her body would be discovered in a canal on May 9. Born: Melvin Calvin, American chemist and 1961 Nobel laureate; in St. Paul, Minnesota (d. 1997). Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher; in Rășinari, Austria-Hungary (d. 1995). Ichiro Fujiyama, Japanese musician; in Tokyo (d. 1993).
April 9, 1911 (Sunday)
The Sufi Inayat Khan introduced the music of India to the West with a recital at the Hindu temple in San Francisco, before going on further international tours.Reginald Massey and Jamila Massey, The Music of India (Abhinav Publications, 1996) p. 85. A fire in the Yoshiwara district of Tokyo, where geishas were housed for pleasure, killed 300 people, injured 800 and left 6,000 homeless."300 Dead in Great Fire in Geisha Quarter", Pittsburgh Press, April 10, 1911, p. 1.
April 10, 1911 (Monday)
By an imperial decree that followed pressure by Chinese petitioners seeking a constitutional government, an "Imperial Cabinet" of Ministers was created to replace the royal family's Grand Council, and Yikuang (Prince Qing) was named to the new office of Premier of China. Though still dominated by the Manchu people, who occupied 8 of the 13 cabinet seats, room was made for four Chinese and one Mongol as ministers.Joshua A. Fogel and Peter Gue Zarrow, Imagining the People: Chinese Intellectuals and the Concept of Citizenship, 1890–1920 (M.E. Sharpe, 1997) p. 135.