1904 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Theodore Roosevelt
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon
• Congress: 58th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 12 - Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of 91.37 mph.
• January 16 - The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• February 7 - The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• February 23 - For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.

  April–June

• April 8 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• April 30 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
• May 4 - U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
• May 5 - Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• May 30 - Alpha Gamma Delta women's fraternity is founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
• June 15 - A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.

  July–September

• July 1 - The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.
• July 23 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the ice cream cone is invented during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
• August 7 – Eden train wreck
• September - Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.
• September 24 – New Market train wreck
• September 25 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a Second Manifesto against polygamy.

  October–December

• October - The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, predecessor of Bethune–Cookman University, is opened in Florida by Mary McLeod Bethune.
• October 1 - Phi Delta Epsilon, the international medical fraternity, is founded by Aaron Brown and eight of his friends at Cornell University Medical College.
• October 5 - Alpha Kappa Psi, the co-ed Professional Business fraternity, is founded on the campus of New York University
• October 15 - Theta Tau, the Professional Engineering Fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• October 17 - Amadeo Giannini founds the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, predecessor of the Bank of America.
• October 19 - Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American Gabriel A. O’Reilly.
• October 27 - The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.
• November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1904: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.
• December 10 - The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
• December 30 - The East Boston Tunnel opens.
• December 31 - In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.

  Undated

• St. Bernard's School is founded in New York City on Manhattan.

  Ongoing

• Progressive Era
• Lochner era
• Black Patch Tobacco Wars

  Births

• January 5 - Jeane Dixon, astrologer
• January 10 - Ray Bolger, actor, singer and dancer, best known for his role in The Wizard of Oz
• January 19 - Leo Soileau, Cajun musician
• January 21 - Edris Rice-Wray Carson, medical researcher
• January 26 - Ancel Keys, nutritionist
• February 3 - Pretty Boy Floyd, bank robber
• February 16 - George F. Kennan, political adviser
• March 1
• * Paul Hartman, actor and dancer
• * Glenn Miller, bandleader
• March 2 - Dr. Seuss, children's author
• March 20
• * Frank Mills, politician in Ohio legislature
• * B. F. Skinner, behavioral psychologist
• March 23 - Joan Crawford, actress
• March 26 - Joseph Campbell, author on mythology
• April 12 - Glen H. Taylor, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1945 to 1951
• April 18 - Pigmeat Markham, African American entertainer
• April 20 - Bob Bartlett, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1968
• April 22 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist
• May 17 - John J. Williams, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1947 to 1970
• May 21
• * Robert Montgomery, actor and director
• * Fats Waller, African American jazz pianist and entertainer
• June 3 - Charles R. Drew, African American physician, pioneer in blood transfusion
• June 2 - Johnny Weissmuller, swimmer and actor
• June 24 - Phil Harris, bandleader and comic actor
• July 1 - Mary Calderone, physician and public health advocate
• August 16- Wendell Meredith Stanley, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946
• August 17 - Mary Cain, newspaper editor and politician
• August 21 - Count Basie, African American jazz bandleader
• September 12 - Lou Moore, race car driver and team owner
• October 3 - Charles J. Pedersen, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987
• November 1 - Laura La Plante, silent film actress
• November 17 - Isamu Noguchi, sculptor
• November 25 - Lillian Copeland, Olympic field athlete
• December 7 - Clarence Nash, voice actor
• December 18 - George Stevens, film director
• December 25 - Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, nutritionist
• December 30 - David M. Shoup, general

  Deaths

• January 2 - James Longstreet, one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War
• January 9 - John Brown Gordon, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1873 to 1880 and from 1891 to 1897
• January 20 - Maria Louisa Bustill, schoolteacher, mother of Paul Robeson
• February 15 - Mark Hanna, U.S. Senator from Ohio
• March 18 - William Elbridge Sewell, naval officer and Governor of Guam
• June 5 - Olivia Langdon Clemens, editor
• June 28 - Dan Emmett, founder of the Virginia Minstrels
• July 26 - Henry Clay Taylor, admiral
• August 16 - Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of dime fiction
• August 22 - Kate Chopin, fiction writer
• October 11 - Trumbull Stickney, classicist and poet
• December 21 - George L. Shoup, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1890 to 1901
• Little Joe Monahan, transgender rancher