What Happened in 1903 — Events, Births & Deaths

Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death.

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.

Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.

In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt.

The first of a series of auctions of sheep farming land in southern Patagonia takes place impacting established settlers.

The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded.

A landslide kills 70 people in Frank, in the District of Alberta, Canada.

Românul de la Pind, the longest-running newspaper by and about Aromanians until World War II, is founded.

In the May Coup, Alexander I, King of Serbia, and Queen Draga, are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand (Crna Ruka) organization.

A group of Serbian officers storms the royal palace and assassinates King Alexander I of Serbia and his wife, Queen Draga.

The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.

Roald Amundsen leaves Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east–west navigation of the Northwest Passage.

Benito Mussolini, at the time a radical Socialist, is arrested by Bern police for advocating a violent general strike.

Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.

The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottoman Empire begins.

Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists for only ten days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.

Black Saturday occurs, killing 12 in a stadium collapse in Philadelphia.

German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.

The Transfiguration Uprising breaks out in East Thrace, resulting in the establishment of the Strandzha Commune.

The Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, is launched.

"Wreck of the Old 97": an American rail disaster, in which 11 people are killed; it later becomes the subject of a popular ballad.

The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.

The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in support of the enfranchisement of British women.

The Boston Red Sox win the first modern World Series, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth game.

The Purdue Wreck, a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, kills 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team.

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Italian American food cart vendor Italo Marchiony receives a U.S. patent for inventing a machine that makes ice cream cones.

A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.