What Happened in 1905 — Events, Births & Deaths

Bloody Sunday occurs in Saint Petersburg, beginning the 1905 revolution.

The world's largest diamond ever, the Cullinan, which weighs 3,106.75 carats (0.621350 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.

In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, initially with four basic specialties.

Russian Revolution of 1905: Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia is assassinated in the Moscow Kremlin by Socialist Revolutionary Ivan Kalyayev.

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

Eleftherios Venizelos calls for Crete's union with Greece, and begins what is to be known as the Theriso revolt.

The Greek football club P.A.E. G.S. Diagoras is founded in the city of Rhodes.

Association football club Boca Juniors is founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich.

The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.

Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, publicly announces the creation of the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire, which had been established one day earlier. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is usually celebrated on May 23, although some do so on May 22 instead.

Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.

Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Norway's parliament dissolves its union with Sweden. The vote was confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13 of that year.

During the Russo-Japanese War, sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin.

Albert Einstein sends the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.

Russo-Japanese War: Peace negotiations begin in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Norwegians vote to end the union with Sweden.

Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.

The 7.2 Mw Calabria earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people.

Norway and Sweden sign the Karlstad Treaty, peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

Albert Einstein publishes the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity.

The Wright brothers pilot the Wright Flyer III in a new world record flight of 24 miles in 39 minutes.

The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

King Oscar II recognizes the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.

Tsar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, nominally granting the Russian peoples basic civil liberties and the right to form a duma. (October 17 in the Julian calendar)

Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.

Prince Carl of Denmark arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway.

Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.

In France, a law separating church and state is passed.

The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin.

In rugby union, the "Match of the Century" is played between Wales and New Zealand at Cardiff Arms Park.

The Tampere conference, where Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time, is held in Tampere, Finland.

Former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell.