What Happened in 1909 — Events, Births & Deaths

Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.

Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km; 112 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest anyone had ever reached at that time.

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

Newly formed automaker General Motors (GM) buys into the Oakland Motor Car Company, which later becomes GM's long-running Pontiac division.

RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.

United States troops leave Cuba, with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, after being there since the Spanish–American War.

The Paris Film Congress opens, an attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPPC cartel in the United States.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.

The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico, kills 250.

Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.

The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.

Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.

U.S. President William Howard Taft uses what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State.

By signing the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, Thailand relinquishes its sovereignty over the Malay states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu, which become British protectorates.

Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.

Serbia formally withdraws its opposition to Austro-Hungarian actions in the Bosnian Crisis.

Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.

The city of Tel Aviv is founded.

The 31 March Incident leads to the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

Muslims in the Ottoman Empire begin a massacre of Armenians in Adana.

Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

In Portugal, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Lisbon, killing at least 60 people and injuring 75.

Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

The first edition of the Giro d'Italia, a long-distance multiple-stage bicycle race, begins in Milan; the Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the eventual winner.

The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), convenes for the first time.

Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.

Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from Calais to Dover, England, United Kingdom in 37 minutes.

Begin of the Tragic Week in Barcelona in response to troop mobilisations for the Rif War.

End of the Tragic Week in Barcelona, a series of antiwar and antigovernment protests in Spain and especially in Barcelona.

Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens for automobile racing. William Bourque and his mechanic are killed during the first day's events.

A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.

Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania makes a record-breaking westbound crossing of the Atlantic, that will not be bettered for 20 years.

William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.

Japanese occupation of Korea: An Jung-geun assassinates Japan's Resident-General of Korea.

Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.

Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.