The following events occurred in August 1904:
August 1, 1904 (Monday) The siege of Port Arthur, the longest and most violent land battle of the Russo-Japanese War, began. John Carr, a contractor, carried out a mass shooting at a hotel in Nebraska City, Nebraska, killing one man and wounding eight others, including two police officers. Died: Robert E. Pattison, 53, American politician, former Governor of Pennsylvania, died of pneumonia.
August 2, 1904 (Tuesday) Died: Jacob H. Studer, 64, American ornithologist, died of heart failure.
August 3, 1904 (Wednesday) The British expedition to Tibet under Colonel Francis Younghusband took Lhasa. The dirigible California Arrow, created and flown by Thomas Scott Baldwin and powered by a motorcycle engine built by Glenn Curtiss, became the first aircraft to complete a circuit in the United States. Baldwin took off from Idora Park, Oakland, California, and circled over San Francisco Bay before returning to his starting point. Born: Dolores del Río (born Lolita Dolores Martinez Asúnsolo López Negrette), Mexican actress; in Durango, Mexico (d. 1983, liver failure due to hepatitis) Died: Ernst Jedliczka, 49, Russian-born German pianist William O'Connor Morris, 79, Irish county court judge and historian Pierre-Nicolas "Peter" Remillard, 67, Quebec-born brick manufacturer, died of a heart attack.
August 4, 1904 (Thursday) The Liberal Revolution of 1904 began in Paraguay, with Manuel J. Duarte and General Benigno Ferreira leading a rebellion against President Juan Antonio Escurra's government. Born: Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, comedian and actress; in The Bronx, New York City (d. 1966, breast cancer) Bill Coleman, American jazz trumpeter; in Paris, Kentucky (d. 1981) Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist; in Małoszyce, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (d. 1969) Victor Bateman, Australian rules footballer (Sturt Football Club); in Parkside, South Australia (d. 1972) Lawrence Betts, South African Olympic sprinter; in Pretoria, Transvaal Colony (d. 1984) Jack Cobb (born John Blackwell Cobb), American college basketball player (North Carolina Tar Heels); in Durham, North Carolina (d. 1966) Norm Davis, Australian rules footballer (North Melbourne Football Club); in Port Melbourne, Victoria (d. 1966) Sprouts Elder (born James Lloyd Elder), American motorcycle speedway rider; in Fresno, California (d. 1957, suicide) Marthe Flandrin, French artist and painter; in Montgeron (d. 1987) Max Fourny, French publisher, art collector and racing driver, husband of Françoise Adnet; in Amiens (d. 1991) Wallace Samuel Gourley, United States district judge; in Wellsville, Ohio (d. 1976) Ukko Hietala, Finnish Olympic modern pentathlete; in Hollola (d. 1990) Bassett Maguire, American botanist and explorer, head curator of the New York Botanical Garden; in Alabama City, Alabama (d. 1991, kidney failure) Sushila Ganesh Mavalankar, Indian freedom fighter and politician; in the Bombay Presidency (d. 1995) Theodore Newton, American film and stage actor; in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (d. 1963) Thomas Parry, Welsh writer and academic, Librarian of the National Library of Wales; in Carmel, Gwynedd (d. 1985) Ludwig Reiber, German art director; in Munich (d. 1979) Joe Tate, English footballer who gained three caps for the England national football team; in Old Hill, Cradley Heath (d. 1973) Otto Tschumi, Swiss surrealist painter (d. 1985) Died: James T. Lewis, 84, former Governor of Wisconsin, died of apoplexy. Jo Hamilton, 77, American lawyer and politician, former Attorney General of California Robert Crannell Minor, 65, American artist This source gives Minor's day of death as August 3.
August 5, 1904 (Friday) In Red Oak, Iowa, 32-year-old Harry Heaton Salisbury was robbed and murdered by being administered knockout drops and pushed off a footbridge over Red Oak Creek. The murder was never solved. Born: Hugh Greer, American basketball coach (UConn Huskies men's basketball); in Suffield, Connecticut (d. 1963, heart attack) Kenneth V. Thimann, English-American plant physiologist and microbiologist; in Ashford, Kent (d. 1997) Died: Sir George Dibbs KCMG, 69, Australian politician, former Premier of New South Wales, died of heart disease.
August 6, 1904 (Saturday) Edmund (or Edmond) Bell, an African American man, was lynched from Selma, Alabama, by a 300-person masked African American mob for the August 2 murder of Houston Cruggs (or Scruggs), who was also African American. Born: Ballard Berkeley (born Ballard Blascheck), British actor; in Kent, England (d. 1988) Died: Eduard Hanslick, 78, Austrian music critic James Cox Aikins, , 81, Canadian politician
August 7, 1904 (Sunday) On the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad near Pueblo, Colorado, a flash flood caused the Eden train wreck, which left over 100 people dead or missing., cited in Rafael Reyes assumed office as President of Colombia, succeeding José Manuel Marroquín. Born: Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1971, complications of heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes) Died: Yamaguchi Motomi, 58, Imperial Japanese Army general and samurai, died of natural causes.
August 8, 1904 (Monday) A conflagration in the old quarter of Strasbourg (then in the German Empire) destroyed an orphan asylum and the Sainte-Madeleine Church and caused $1,500,000 in damage. The church would be rebuilt in 1907, destroyed again in 1944 during World War II, and once again rebuilt in 1958. Paraguayan President Juan Antonio Escurra declared a state of siege as a result of the Liberal rebellion. Born: Achille Varzi, Italian racing driver, winner of the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix; in Galliate, Piedmont (d. 1948, racing practice crash) Died: Mamie Gilroy, c. 33, American actress, died of heart disease. John Innes JP, 75, British philanthropist
August 9, 1904 (Tuesday) An earthquake with a magnitude estimated at 6.8 and 7.0–7.2 struck north of Cape Turnagain, New Zealand. The quake, the largest in New Zealand since 1888, caused one death and extensive damage. Eight Moro and Igorrote leaders, who were participating in the Philippine exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, visited U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House. Died: George Graham Vest, 73, American politician, former member of the Confederate States Congress and the United States Senate from Missouri Sir William Mitchell Banks , 61, Scottish surgeon Joseph David Everett, 72, English physicist, died of heart failure. Friedrich Ratzel, 59, German geographer and ethnographer John F. Starr, 86, American businessman and politician, former member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey
August 10, 1904 (Wednesday)
The Battle of the Yellow Sea resulted in a strategic Japanese victory. Born: Gerald Dupuis, Canadian Olympic ski jumper; in Montreal (d. 1960) Died: Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, 57, French politician, 29th Prime Minister of France, died after surgery. Wilgelm Vitgeft, 56, Russian admiral, was killed in action at the Battle of the Yellow Sea.
August 11, 1904 (Thursday) Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero people at the Battle of Waterberg in German South West Africa and drove them into the Omaheke desert, beginning the Herero and Namaqua genocide. A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Samos in the Ottoman Empire, with an aftershock occurring three days later. Four people were killed. On the Paraguay River near Pilar, Paraguay, the rebel vessel Sojonia defeated the government vessel Villa Rica in battle. 28 government sailors were killed. Eight miners drowned when the Berringer gold mine near Gold Hill, North Carolina, filled with water due to a dam giving way. Born: Bernard Castro, Italian inventor; near Palermo, Sicily (d. 1991) Died: Samuel Putnam Avery, 82, American art dealer and connoisseur
August 12, 1904 (Friday) Born: Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia; at Peterhof Palace, Saint Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire (murdered in 1918) Died: George H. Brickner, 70, German-born American politician, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin Kawamura Sumiyoshi, 67, Japanese admiral William Renshaw, 43, British tennis player, winner of 12 Major titles, died of epileptic convulsions.
August 13, 1904 (Saturday) Ten spectators at the annual regatta on the Potomac River at Georgetown drowned when the gasoline launch Recreation capsized. Four people were rescued. Born: Jonathan Hole, American actor; in Eldora, Iowa (d. 1998) Charles "Buddy" Rogers, American actor and jazz musician; in Olathe, Kansas (d. 1999) Died: Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, 83 Sir Robert Samuel Wright, 65, Justice of the British High Court, Queen's Bench Division
August 14, 1904 (Sunday)
The naval Battle off Ulsan, Korea, resulted in a Japanese victory. Ismael Montes became President of Bolivia. On August 14 and 15, 8 Paraguayan government soldiers died fighting rebels near Asunción. Died: Eduard von Martens, 73, German zoologist William Wainwright, 67–68, American real estate developer, died of gastritis.
August 15, 1904 (Monday) Died: John Henry Kinkead, 77, American businessman and politician, 1st Governor of Alaska and 3rd Governor of Nevada
August 16, 1904 (Tuesday)
In Statesboro, Georgia, a lynch mob invaded a courthouse where two African-American men, Paul Reed and Will Cato, had just been convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of five members of a white family. The lynchers chained Reed and Cato to a tree stump and burned them to death. Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Edward VII of the United Kingdom paid mutual visits at Marienbad, Bohemia. Born: Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate; in Ridgeville, Indiana (d. 1971) Minoru Genda, Japanese aviator, naval officer and politician; in Hiroshima (d. 1989) Jin Weiying, Chinese communist revolutionary, trade unionist and participant in the Long March (d. 1940/41) Died: Prentiss Ingraham, 60, Confederate Army colonel and author of dime fiction, died of Bright's disease. George E. Lounsbury, 66, American politician, 58th Governor of Connecticut Karl Käser, 30, German track cyclist, was killed in a race crash.
August 17, 1904 (Wednesday) A Japanese infantry charge failed to take Port Arthur. Three rebel vessels bombarded Asunción, Paraguay, for 40 minutes. In Chicago, a collision between a train of three trolley cars and a Chicago Great Western Railroad express train killed 4 people and injured 24. A heavy rainstorm caused flooding that killed at least 8 people in Globe, Arizona. Born: Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician; in Burke, Iberia Parish, Louisiana (d. 1984) Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist; in Vienna (d. 1991) John Hay Whitney, American newspaper tycoon, diplomat, and philanthropist, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1957-1861) (d. 1982) Died: Louis Molleur, 76, Quebec educator, businessman and politician Edwin M. Shepard, 60, United States Navy rear admiral, died of heart disease. Henry Martyn Whitney, 80, early journalist and newspaper publisher in the Kingdom of Hawaii, died of heart disease.
August 18, 1904 (Thursday) Chris Watson resigned as the first Labor Prime Minister of Australia and was succeeded by George Reid of the Free Trade Party. In Chicago, 16-year-old James Pine died of injuries sustained when he was thrown on his head during a neighborhood American football game. Died: Sivert Andreas Nielsen, 80, Norwegian politician, former President of the Storting
August 19, 1904 (Friday) A tornado swept through North St. Louis, killing one person, injuring over 150 and causing $100,000 in damage. The tornado then moved on to Venice and Granite City, Illinois, where it killed two more people and injured 10. Born: George de la Warr, British civil engineer and alternative physician; in Southwick, Sussex (d. 1969)
August 20, 1904 (Saturday)