The following events occurred in March 1914:
March 1, 1914 (Sunday) Venceslau Brás of the Minas Republican Party won by a landslide over Ruy Barbosa of the Liberal Republican Party in the presidential election for Brazil, securing over 90 per cent of the vote. He would officially take office of the President in November. Venustiano Carranza, leader of the Constitutional Army in Mexico, halted continued public inquiry into the death of British rancher William S. Benton (allegedly shot and killed in Pancho Villa's office), citing any further investigations into Benton's death should be made through him and not through Villa. The Republic of China joined the Universal Postal Union.萬國郵政聯盟與世界郵政日 Argentine pioneering aviator Jorge Newbery was killed in a crash at Estancia "Los Tamarindos" while performing aerobatics prior to an attempt to cross the Andes by air. The Port Sunlight railway station opened on the Wirral Peninsula in England, initially a private station for workmen on the Birkenhead Railway. The Independent Artists Society held their spring exhibit in Paris, featuring the public debut of new artworks including Le Fumeur by Jean Metzinger. The first issue of The Little Review, edited by Margaret C. Anderson, was released, with Anderson calling for a new form of criticism for art in the first issue's editorial: “Criticism as an art has not flourished in this country. We live too swiftly to have time to be appreciative; and criticism, after all, has only one synonym: appreciation.” The Schiltigheim football association club was formed in Schiltigheim, Alsace when the region was still part of Germany. When Alsace became part of France in 1919, the club was renamed to reflect the region's change in sovereignty. The German association football club Mechtersheim was formed in Mechtersheim, Germany (now the municipality of Römerberg). Born: Harry Caray, American baseball broadcaster, who covered the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs; as Harry Carabina, in St. Louis, United States (d. 1998) Died: Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, British colonial leader, 17th Governor-General of India, 8th Governor General of Canada (b. 1845)
March 2, 1914 (Monday) Around a dozen people perished in a brutal blizzard that struck Pennsylvania, New York City and Long Island. Heavy snow cut off crucial services in Scranton, Pennsylvania and stranded 4,000 parishioners overnight at an evangelical event. Blinding snow halted trains to Brooklyn, in one case stranding 200 passengers overnight at a Long Island train station. The Swedish sports club Enköping, which encompasses association football and ice hockey, was formed in Enköping, Sweden. Born: Martin Ritt, American film-maker, director of Hud and Norma Rae; in New York City, United States (d. 1990) Louis Chaillot, French cyclist, gold and silver medalist at the 1932 Summer Olympics and bronze medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics; in Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France (d. 1998)
March 3, 1914 (Tuesday) Sixteen people in Madagascar were killed after a cyclone created a storm surge that smashed settlements on the northwest region of the island. The Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso was established, covering nearly in West Texas and southern New Mexico. The English cricket team won the Test series 4-0 with one match drawn in South Africa. Born: Asger Jorn, Danish painter and sculpture, founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International; as Asger Jørgensen, in Vejrum, Denmark (d. 1973) Charlotte Henry, American actress, best known for lead roles in Alice in Wonderland and Babes in Toyland; in New York City, United States (d. 1980) Puttaraj Gawai, Indian musician who performed Hindustani classical music; as Puttayya Gawayigalu, in Gadag-Betageri, British India (present-day India) (d. 2010)
March 4, 1914 (Wednesday)
First Battle of Topolobampo – Mexican naval gunboats Guerrero and Morelos clashed with the mutinous Tampico in a bay near Topolobampo, Mexico. Remarkably, despite rounds discharged from all three ships' 4-inch guns, neither side hit their targets. Tampico was able to escape both ships by entering the Topolobampo harbor. The railway line between Marsala and Frankfort, South Africa opened.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 A British-American commission into the death of rancher William S. Benton formally dissolved, citing any opportunity to exhume and examine the body had disappeared. The group did not express confidence in the three-man commission set up by Mexican rebel leader Venustiano Carranza to investigate Benton's death, allegedly shot by Pancho Villa, since the northern Mexican rebel leader has put his support behind Carranza. The first issue of New Numbers (dated February) was issued, a quarterly collection of work by the Dymock poets in England edited by Lascelles Abercrombie. The literary magazine only lasted a year but featured work from renowned poets as Abercrombie, Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, and John Drinkwater. The Bondebladet newspaper was formed for farmers and rural residents in Voss and Bergen, Norway, before becoming a regional paper in 1921. The paper folded in 1935. Born: Ward Kimball, American animator, one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men; in Minneapolis, United States (d. 2002) Robert R. Wilson, American physicist, member of the Manhattan Project; in Frontier, Wyoming, United States (d. 2000) Barbara Newhall Follett, American writer, noted for producing published novels in her early teens including The House Without Windows; in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States (disappeared, 1939)
March 5, 1914 (Thursday) U.S. President Woodrow Wilson appeared before United States Congress to repeal the exemption for American ships from paying tolls when using the Panama Canal. An avalanche killed 17 soldiers within Austria-Hungary during maneuvers on Ortler, the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps. The Gusar rowing club was formed in Split, Croatia, eventually becoming one of the best rowing clubs with members winning numerous Olympic and World Championship medals. Born: He Zehui, Chinese physicist, key pioneer in nuclear physics research and arms development for China; in Suzhou, Republic of China (present-day China) (d. 2011) Philip Farkas, American musician, noted French horn player for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, author of The Art of French Horn Playing; in Chicago, United States (d. 1992) Died: Frederic M. Halford, British angler, developed dry fly fishing (b. 1844)
March 6, 1914 (Friday) James William Humphrys Scotland, the second New Zealander to gain a pilot's license in England, completed the cross-country flight in New Zealand in a Caudron biplane. The professional Serbian association football club Vojvodina was founded in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia by a group of students of the Serbian Orthodox high school. The club was formed in secrecy due to a ban by Austro-Hungarian authorities on larger organized gatherings of juveniles in the Vojvodina region. The club went on to become one of the most successful football clubs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbia. The recently formed sports club Halmstad was allowed membership to Riksidrottsförbundet, the Swedish Sports Confederation. World Baseball Tour – Thousands of baseball fans greeted the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox as both professional baseball teams arrived on the RMS Lusitania, officially ending their five-month international sports demonstration tour. Born: Kirill Kondrashin, Russian conductor, artistic director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1960 to 1975 before defecting; in Moscow, Russian Empire (present-day Russia) (d. 1981) Harold Alfond, American businessman, founder of the Dexter Shoe Company; in Swampscott, Massachusetts, United States (d. 2007) Died: George Washington Vanderbilt II, American businessman, steamboat and railroad baron (b. 1862)
March 7, 1914 (Saturday) Prince William of Wied arrived in Albania to begin what was ultimately to be a six-month reign of the Balkan country, while outlawing the sovereignty of the Republic of Central Albania created by Ottoman army officer and politician Essad Pasha Toptani in Durrës to oppose the Provisional Government of Albania. With all state appeals lost, the execution of Leo Frank, convicted in the murder of 13-year old Mary Phagan, was set on his birthday, April 17. The Kenya Indian Congress was established in British East Africa. The body of Texas rancher Clemente Vergara was finally recovered in Mexico and delivered to his relatives in Laredo, Texas. Vergara was last seen alive on February 13 as he was taken into custody by Mexican federal troops and held at a garrison in Hidalgo, Coahuila, Mexico. An autopsy on the body confirmed Vergara was shot twice in the head and in the neck, and his skull was crushed, likely from a rifle butt. Conflicting reports about how the body was recovered made headlines across the United States. The New York Times initially reported Texas Rangers had crossed the border and retrieved the body from a shallow grave in the Hidalgo cemetery, but uncovered later sources maintaining the body had been found by the bank of the Rio Grande after the Vergara family had paid for its recovery. The American edition of Henry James' autobiography Notes of a Son and Brother was published in hard copy by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York City. Born: Stephen McNichols, American politician, 35th Governor of Colorado; in Denver, United States (d. 1997) Died: George William Ross, Canadian politician, 5th Premier of Ontario (b. 1841)
March 8, 1914 (Sunday) Spain held general elections to the Cortes Generales, with all 408 seats in the Congress of Deputies in competition. Under the customary system of Turno Pacifico, a long-standing power-sharing arrangement, the elections served as a rubber stamp for a routine handover of power initiated by the King of Spain. As expected, election results sanctioned the prearranged handover from the Liberals to the Conservatives. The Taitung rail line was extended in Taiwan with the addition of the Fuyuan and Wanrong stations. The first edition of Workers' Dreadnought appeared on the fifth annual International Women's Day as Women's Dreadnought, with a circulation of 30 000. The paper was started by women's suffrage leader Sylvia Pankhurst and her contemporaries Mary Patterson and Zelie Emerson on behalf of the East London Federation of Suffragettes. The newspaper was renamed Workers in 1917 as the official weekly organ of the Communist Party, with Pankhurst continuing as editor until 1924. The Russian women's journal Rabotnitsa (The Woman Worker) was published on the fifth annual International Women's Day and remains one of the longest running and most politically left of the women's periodicals. The London Group held their first exhibition at the Goupil Gallery. Pioneering film company Biograph premiered their first feature film Judith of Bethulia, starring Blanche Sweet in the title role and Henry B. Walthall, and produced and directed by D. W. Griffith. Based on the biblical Book of Judith, the film featured famous movie actress siblings Lillian and Dorothy Gish in supporting roles and a controversial orgy scene. Badminton player Guy A. Sautter, under the alias of U N Lappin, successfully defended his title in the men's singles at the All England Badminton Championships, beating challenger Frank Chesterton 15–4 and 15–10 in the final. Born: Yakov Zeldovich, Russian physicist, key developer of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons; in Minsk, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) (d. 1987)