May 30, 1913: Treaty of London splits the Ottoman EmpireMay 26, 1913: Igor Sikorsky introduces the first four-engine airplane, the Russky Vityaz bomberMay 30, 1913: Eastern Europe, before and afterMay 30, 1913: Jules Goux wins the 3rd Indianapolis 500
The following events occurred in May 1913:
May 1, 1913 (Thursday)
At the ambassador's conference in London,
Montenegro offered to evacuate its newly conquered territory in
Scutari,
Albania if it could receive territory elsewhere.[1]
Tancrède Auguste,
President of Haiti since August 1912, died suddenly, "a victim of severe anemia caused by advanced untreated syphilis, though most Haitians believed he was a victim of poison". His death set off a period of political unrest in the country for the next two years.[8]
Ahkay Humar Mozumdar became the first believer in
Hinduism to become a naturalized citizen of the
United States, when U.S. District Judge Frank H. Rudkin of
Spokane, Washington, administered him the oath. Mozumdar had filed suit two years earlier and was found entitled by the court on grounds that he was a "free white person".[10]
Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length feature film in
India, was released by director
Dadasaheb Phalke, setting the format for Indian cinema. Although it was a silent movie, the premiere event at the Coronation Cinema in
Bombay was accompanied by a live performance of music and chanting.[12]
Senator
Michel Oreste was elected as the new
President of Haiti by the Haitian Parliament. The city governor of
Port-au-Prince attempted to attack the parliament building during voting, and was repulsed by the Haitian Army, while the U.S. gunboat
USS Nashville stayed outside the harbor to be ready to intervene.[14] Oreste would serve for only eight months, being overthrown on January 27, 1914.[15]
The
Arizona House of Representatives, following the lead of
California, passed a bill prohibiting ownership of land by "any alien who has not declared his intention of becoming a citizen". The state senate passed the bill one week later, and it was signed by
GovernorGeorge W. P. Hunt on May 16.[19]
The Amir of Najd, Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, entered Al Hasa with his troops and ended the Turkish occupation of the Eastern part of Arabia which has been ongoing since 1871.
Stunt performer
Rodman Law, self-billed as "The Human Fly", climbed up the outside of the
United States Capitol while both houses of Congress were in session, starting from the side of the building and then making his way up to the top of the Dome where he intending to place his hat on the statue at the top of the dome. A guard at the Capitol persuaded Law to go no further than the statue's base.[26]
HMS Hermes became the first
Royal Navyseaplane carrier, after being outfitted with a crane from which planes on its deck could be lowered to sea and raised back again.[27]
The controversial film, The Sons of a Soldier, produced by
Alec B. Francis, was released by Eclair Pictures. The movie followed generations of a family fighting in America's wars from the
American Revolution to the
Spanish–American War, then gave a glimpse of a war between the
United States and
Japan in the then-future year of
1920.[31]
William D. Coolidge applied for a patent for his invention of the x-ray tube, which "made the use of x-rays for medical diagnosis safe and convenient".[36]
Al-Hasa was
captured from the Ottoman Turks by a guerrilla army led by
Ibn Saud, the King of
Najd, as he expanded the territory that he would eventually call
Saudi Arabia.[37]
The first episode of the Fantômas French film serial was released. Directed by
Louis Feuillade and starring
René Navarre in the title role, the series emphasis on mysteries and ending each episode with a cliffhangers made the thriller successful in its eight-episode run over 12 months.[41]
French aviator
Didier Masson conducted the first aerial attack on a warship in the Western Hemisphere, attempting to drop pipe bombs onto the Mexican gunboat General Guererro, as well as the ships Democrata, 'Morelos, Tampico, and Oaxaca.[42]
U.S. Representative
H. Olin Young of
Michigan announced that he would resign his seat, because of a technicality that prevented his Progressive Party opponent,
William Josiah MacDonald, from receiving 458 votes that would have given MacDonald the victory. MacDonald would take office on August 26 after being certified by the U.S. House Committee on elections.[43]
A typhoon struck the
Philippines, sweeping 16-foot waves across what is now the
Albay province and killing 827 people.[46]
In recognition of the neutrality of
Romania during the
First Balkan War, the Bulgarian town of
Silistra was awarded by an arbitration conference to the Romanians. The area is now part of
Bulgaria.[47]
The British ocean liner
RMS Lusitania was secretly refitted by the
Royal Navy for use in the event of war. The ship would be
torpedoed and sunk almost two years later, on May 7, 1915, with the loss of 1,195 lives, mostly civilians who had booked passage for a transatlantic trip.[49]
Jack Johnson, the world heavyweight boxing champion, was convicted by a jury in
Chicago of violating the
Mann Act, after being charged with taking a minor across state lines for immoral purposes. Johnson had been indicted on
November 7 after Belle Schreiber, a white prostitute, testified that he had paid for her to travel by train to
Pittsburgh to be with him.[51] While the one-year prison sentence and $1,000 fine were on appeal, Johnson would flee the
United States, not returning until 1920 to serve his time.[52]
The first $1.2 million installment of the $125 million loan to
China was advanced by the consortium of European banks.[57]
Guatemala agreed to resume interest payments to the United Kingdom on its debt.[58]
May 15, 1913 (Thursday)
The ballet Jeux, choreographed by
Vaslav Nijinsky, with music by
Claude Debussy, was premiered in
Paris as the first offering of the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Referred to in English as The Tennis Game, Jeux has been described as "the first ballet in our time to capitalize on a contemporary theme", using the sport of "tennis as a metaphor for psychological patterns in modern manners". The feature ran for two weeks before another Najinsky work, The Rite of Spring, premiered at the theater on May 29.[59]
At Sidi Garba in
Tripolitania (now part of
Libya), 1,000 Italian soldiers were killed or wounded in fighting with the Libyan natives. The commanding officer relied on disinformation that had been provided by the Libyans to a man who had been taken prisoner and then released, and underestimated the size of the Arab defenders. Command divided 3,000 men into three columns, supported by four cannons and "a battery of howitzers". After forcing a group of Libyans to retreat, the men rested and were surrounded and attacked. Italian command would later describe the loss as "the bloodiest day in the whole
Italo-Turkish War".[62]
The District Court in
Vienna, approved the release of inheritance money to a 24-year-old artist,
Adolf Hitler, under the terms of the will of his late father, Alois Hitler. Adolf, who lived at
27 Meldemannstrasse in
Vienna, received 839
kronen, worth about US$168 (equivalent to $3,800 a century later), and moved a week later to neighboring
Germany.[64]
A group of 67
opium poppy farmers, who had refused to allow their crops to be burned by Chinese army, were themselves burned to death when they were meeting in
Zhengzhou,
China to discuss an organized resistance. Chinese troops set fire to the structure and prevented the defiant narcotics manufacturers from escaping.[68]
In an important development in the building of the
Panama Canal, the nearly 8 mile long
Culebra Cut was completed as excavation equipment from both sides of mountainous territory met at 4:30 p.m. Engineer
David du Bose Gaillard, who had overseen the cut through since work had resumed in 1904, would die in December after years of hard work.[75]
Through the efforts of both
China's Minister to the
New York City police, a truce was negotiated and signed to end gang warfare among the various
tongs in
New York City. The agreement, between the Chinese Merchants' Association, the
On Leong Tong, the
Hip Sing Tong and the Kim Lan Wui Saw, and would keep relative peace until 1924.[82]
The
American Cancer Society was founded in by ten doctors and five laymen in Washington, D.C., as the American Society for the Control of Cancer. It would change to its current name in 1946.[84][85]
May 23, 1913 (Friday)
Near
Buenos Aires, thirty workers were killed and another 51 injured in an explosion at the Argentine hydraulic plant on an island in the
Matanza River near its confluence with the
Río de la Plata.[86]
The collapse of a municipal pier in
Long Beach, California, killed 35 women and one man. There were 10,000 people crowded on the double-deck pier when the top level gave way and fell on the persons below.[88]
The Turkish-American steamship Nevada, with 200 passengers and crew, strayed into a mined part of the harbor at Smyrna while trying to avoid another ship, and struck three mines before sinking. Based on reports of 80 survivors, initial news stories reported 120 people had drowned.[89] The figure was later revised to forty deaths.[90]
Luther McCarty, who was recognized as the "white world heavyweight boxing champion" (
Jack Johnson was the world champion), died in the first round of a bout in
Calgary against Arthur Pelkey. McCarty was killed when Pelkey punched him in the chest, and fell to the mat halfway through the first round.[92] An autopsy later determined that McCarty had died of a broken neck and hemorrhage, as a result of a hit to the jaw 30 seconds earlier that had snapped his head back.[93] Pelkey would be tried for manslaughter, and acquitted on June 24.[94]
Colonel
Alfred Redl, director of intelligence for the Army of
Austria-Hungary from 1907 to 1912, committed suicide after being discovered that he had passed secrets to the
Russian Empire for eleven years. Redl had betrayed his nation after the Russians had discovered that he was a homosexual and used the information as blackmail. Redl's successor, Captain
Maximilian Ronge, agreed to Redl's request for a loaded revolver after confronting him at Vienna's Hotel Klomser.[96]
Peter Kürten, a German serial killer called "The Vampire of Dusseldorf" by the press, committed his first provable murder, although his killing spree of at least nine people would not start until 1929. Kurten broke into a home and slit the throat of 9-year-old Christine Klein while she was sleeping. Kürten, who would claim that he killed 79 people, would be convicted of nine and would be executed on July 2, 1931.[97]
Adolf Hitler, an immigrant from
Austria-Hungary, took up residence in
Germany, a nation that he would eventually rule. The 24-year old painter and his friend, Rudolf Häusler, rented a room at 34 Schleissheimerstrasse in
Munich.[98]
Belgian cyclist
Paul Deman won the
firstTour of Flanders road cycling race, completing the 324 kilometres (201.3 miles) course from
Ghent to
Mariakerke, Belgium in a time of 12 hours, 3 minutes, 10 seconds.[99]
Igor Sikorsky became the first person to pilot a four-engine airplane as he took his
Bolshoi BaltiskybiplaneIlya Mourometz into the sky for the
Imperial Russian Air Service near
Saint Petersburg. Powered by 220
horsepower engines, the bomber could carry up to 1,543 pounds of bombs and had room for four machine guns and a crew of five. It was also the first plane fitted with a lavatory.[101]
At
Ishpeming, Michigan, former U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt testified in the trial of his libel suit against the magazine Iron Ore and its editor, George A. Newett, over an article accusing Roosevelt of drunkenness.[104]
Born: Henry Swan II, American surgeon, pioneered the use of hypothermia-cooling
open heart surgery and performed the first aortic aneurysmectomy, in
Denver (d. 1996)[108]
The
Astor House, the first luxury hotel to open in
New York City in 1836, closed after decades of operation. The hotel, located at Broadway and Vesey Street, had hosted 19 future, present, and former Presidents of the United States, from
Andrew Jackson to
Theodore Roosevelt, with the exception of
Andrew Johnson.[113]
The town of
Zap, North Dakota was founded in
Mercer County. On May 9, 1969, the town would attract more than 2,000 college students in a civil disorder that would become known as "The
Zip to Zap".[114]
Born:Tony Zale, American boxer, as Anthony Zaleski, World Middleweight Champion in 1941 and 1946 to 1948, in
Gary, Indiana (d.
1997)
Jules Goux won the
thirdIndianapolis 500, driving a Peugeot. Averaging 76.59 miles per hour, Goux finished the race in 6 hours, 31 minutes and 33.45 seconds and won a $20,000 prize. The race continued for another hour and 18 minutes until the tenth and last racer had completed the 500 miles.[119]
Romania's Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of letting
Russia mediate in its dispute with
Bulgaria.[123]
Theodore Roosevelt's lawsuit for libel came to an end with the Iron Ore publishing a retraction and an admission from the editor that nobody had substantiated claims that Roosevelt "drank to excess".[124]
Died:Frederick A. Ober, American naturalist, leading expert on early Central American indigenous history (b.
1849)
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