What Happened in 1907 — Events, Births & Deaths

An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.

Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

The Mud March is the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

The first parliamentary elections of Finland (at the time the Grand Duchy of Finland) are held.

The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.

The first Isle of Man TT race is held.

The Workers' Federation of Chile declares a general strike in solidarity with a rail workers' strike.

The National Association for Women's Suffrage succeeds in getting Norwegian women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

Most resistance societies in Santiago return to work, bringing an end to the 1907 Chilean general strike.

The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.

The passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 people.

Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. The camp runs from August 1 to August 9 and is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana a record $29.4 million for illegal rebating to freight carriers; the conviction and fine are later reversed on appeal.

The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.

The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.

Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Anglo-Russian Convention, by which the UK recognizes Russian preeminence in northern Persia, while Russia recognizes British preeminence in southeastern Persia and Afghanistan. Both powers pledge not to interfere in Tibet.

Four months after the 1907 Imperial Conference, New Zealand and Newfoundland are promoted from colonies to dominions within the British Empire.

The cornerstone is laid at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (better known as Washington National Cathedral) in Washington, D.C.

The McKinley National Memorial, the final resting place of assassinated U.S. President William McKinley and his family, is dedicated in Canton, Ohio.

Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.

The 1907 Qaratog earthquake hits the borders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, killing between 12,000 and 15,000 people.

A run on the stock of the Knickerbocker Trust Company sets events in motion that will spark the Panic of 1907.

Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when gendarmes opened fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration.

The Parliament of Finland approved the Prohibition Act, but the law was not implemented because it was not ratified by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory join to form Oklahoma, which is admitted as the 46th U.S. state.

A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, kills 362 workers.

King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.

The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students, protesting against the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected, clash with 400 police officers.

The Thomas W. Lawson, the largest ever ship without a heat engine, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.

Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan.

Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.

The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile.

The first ever ball drop in Times Square.