April 1912

[April 1], 1912 (Monday)

• British hopes that Robert Falcon Scott had reached the South Pole before Roald Amundsen of Norway were ended when the Terra Nova arrived in New Zealand without Captain Scott on board, and the news that the Scott team had still been 150 miles from the Pole as of January 3. Amundsen's party had reached the Pole on December 14. Scott's party had arrived on January 17 then died in March while on the way back.
• The largest province in British India, the Bengal Province, was broken up as the new province of Bihar and Orissa, now part of India, was separated from the region.
• The city of Branson, Missouri, which would become a major American tourist attraction and entertainment center in the 1980s, was chartered.
• Born: Donald Nyrop, American business executive, president and CEO of Northwest Airlines from 1954–1976, in Cedar Creek, Nebraska

  [April 2], 1912 (Tuesday)

• The number of U.S. Senators increased from 92 to 96 with the swearing in of the legislators from Arizona and New Mexico.
• In the Wisconsin presidential primary, Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey finished ahead of former House Speaker Champ Clark among Democrats, and Senator Robert M. La Follette bested U.S. President William Howard Taft in Republican voting.
• The RMS Titanic began sea trials.
• Born: Herbert Mills, a tenor in the four-man "Mills Brothers" band
• Died: Ishimoto Shinroku, 59, Japanese army officer, 8th Minister of War for the Empire of Japan

  [April 3], 1912 (Wednesday)

• Calbraith Perry Rodgers, the 33-year-old American aviator who had flown, with multiple stops, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Coast in the autumn of 1911, was killed while flying his plane in an airshow. One author would later write that "the first person to fly across the continental US was also the first to die as a result of a bird strike. Rodgers' Wright Pusher airplane collided with a seagull, the engine failed, and he crashed into the ocean near Long Beach, California.

  [April 4], 1912 (Thursday)

• Classes began at Aurora College in Aurora, Illinois, after the students and faculty of Mendota College relocated in mid-semester from Mendota, Illinois, 50 miles to the west.
• Died: Charles Brantley Aycock, 50, American politician, 50th Governor of North Carolina, who advanced education and the opening of schools in that state, while making a speech to the Alabama Education Association.

  [April 5], 1912 (Friday)

• After more than 200 members of the Industrial Workers of the World had been put in the city's jail, the police chief in San Diego had the prisoners released into the hands of vigilantes. The mob escorted the "Wobblies" to the county line, beat them, and warned them never to return. An investigator sent by Governor Hiram Johnson described the city's police as so brutal that he thought he was "sojourning in Russia".
• Born:
• * István Örkény, Hungarian writer, known for works including his short story collection One Minute Stories, in Budapest
• * John Le Mesurier, English actor, best known for his role as Sergeant Wilson in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army, in Bedford, England

  [April 6], 1912 (Saturday)

• The Miners' Federation of Great Britain ordered its striking members to return to work after passage of the Minimum Wage bill.
• The First Symphony of Franco Alfano premiered, at the Casino Municipal at Sanremo, Italy.
• Died: Giovanni Pascoli, 56, Italian poet, member of the Decadentism movement in Italy

  [April 7], 1912 (Sunday)

• The secret ballot was used for the first time in the legislative election in Argentina, two months after the "Sáenz Peña Law" was put into effect at the recommendation of President Roque Sáenz Peña. Half of the 100 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and of the 20 seats in the Senate were subject to the voting.
• Born: Jack Lawrence, American composer, known for song hits including "Beyond the Sea" and "All or Nothing at All", in New York City, Harry Hay, English-American activist, founder of the gay rights groups Mattachine Society and Radical Faeries, in Worthing, England

  [April 8], 1912 (Monday)

• The British coal miners' strike ended with the return of thousands of workers to the coal pits in England, Scotland and Wales. The approval of a guaranteed minimum wage ended the three-week-old strike, which had halted not only the production of coal, but the output from factories dependent on coal as a fuel.
• Born:
• * Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater, gold medalist at the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Winter Olympics, in Kristiana, Norway
• * Alois Brunner, Austrian-German SS officer, assist to Adolf Eichmann, commander of the Drancy internment camp during World War II, in Rohrbrunn, Austria
• Died: Andrew Saks, 65, American entrepreneur, founder of Saks & Company, now Saks Fifth Avenue

  [April 9], 1912 (Tuesday)

• U.S. President William Howard Taft signed legislation creating the United States Children's Bureau as an agency within the United States Department of Commerce and Labor.
• In the Illinois primaries, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt beat incumbent U.S. President William Howard Taft, while Champ Clark finished well ahead of New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson.
• Boston's Fenway Park opened with the Boston Red Sox beating Harvard University 2-0 in an exhibition game.

  [April 10], 1912 (Wednesday)

• RMS Titanic, as Nathanim Getachew wrote the largest ship ever constructed up to that time, began its maiden voyage from Southampton, England at noon, with a final destination of New York City. On its exit, the ship caused the American liner New York to break free of its moorings. It arrived in Cherbourg, France that evening at 7:00 pm where it took on more passengers before departing two hours later.
• The French liner Niagara, sailing from Le Havre, France to New York City, struck ice while sailing near Newfoundland. The ship's bow plates were dented, the ship began to leak, and an S.O.S. was sent. The steamer Carmonia rushed to the rescue, but the crew of the Niagara was able to make repairs.

  [April 11], 1912 (Thursday)

• ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, leader of the Baháʼí Faith, arrived in New York City to continue his journey to spread the new religion to the Western world. The spiritual leader had been brought over by the steamer S.S. Cedric, which had left Naples on March 24. Reportedly, American and Canadian Baha'is had offered to pay extra for him to sail to New York on a much faster ship, the R.M.S. Titanic, but Abdul-Baha had declined. The religious leader would spend the rest of the year in the U.S., giving 200 speeches on "The Oneness of Religion", and visiting 32 cities.
• Crosley Field, which would be the home of baseball's Cincinnati Reds for the next 58 seasons, opened to a record crowd of 26,336. The Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 10-6 in the opener, and would beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 in their final game there on June 24, 1970, before moving to Riverfront Park.
• In a minor league American Association baseball game between the Kansas City Blues and the Columbus Senators, there were no home runs nor foul balls that went into the stands. Hence, only one baseball was used for the entire nine innings, a feat that has never happened since in American professional baseball.
• RMS Titanic arrived at Queenstown in Ireland at 12:30 pm, picked up the last of her passengers, then departed for New York City with 2,227 people on board.
• Died:
• * Frederick Dent Grant, 61, American army officer, eldest son of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the New York Volunteers during the Spanish–American War and Department of the East during the Philippine–American War
• * Ernest Duchesne, 37, French physician, discovered the connection between mold and bacteria, leading to the discovery of penicillin

  [April 12], 1912 (Friday)

• The legendary combination of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers and first baseman Frank Chance appeared together in a baseball game for the last time, as their Chicago Cubs team lost at Cincinnati, 3-2. The next day, Chance, now manager of the Chicago Cubs, replaced himself at first base with Vic Saier. The trio had begun working together on September 13, 1902, and was memorialized in the poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon".
• The French liner sent a radio message to Captain Smith of the Titanic, giving the ship the first warnings of an ice field as far south as 42°S.
• Born: Walt Gorney, Austrian-American actor, best known as "Crazy Ralph" in the Friday the 13th horror series, in Vienna
• Died: Clara Barton, 90, American nurse, who founder of the American Red Cross

  [April 13], 1912 (Saturday)

• The Royal Flying Corps, a predecessor to the British Royal Air Force, was established as a separate branch of the armed forces by warrant signed by King George.
• An intruder going by the name of Micheal Winter successfully forced his way into the White House. He was caught and ejected by the House's doorman before attempting again and being caught by White House police officers. Winter insisted he had to meet with the U.S. President and had a knife on him when searched. Winter was eventually incarnated at a mental institution for psychiatric evaluation.
• Died: Takuboku Ishikawa, 26, Japanese poet, member of the Myōjō group in Japan

  [April 14], 1912 (Sunday)

• At 11:40 pm ship time, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. Only thirty seven seconds earlier, crewman Frederick Fleet spotted the iceberg straight ahead, but the ship was running at almost top speed, 25 knots, and tore the side after attempting to steer around. The collision occurred roughly 400 miles east of Newfoundland. The ship would stay afloat for two hours and forty minutes. The ship closest to the Titanic, was only a few miles away, and had transmitted warnings about the ice field, but its radio operator had turned off his equipment at 11:30 pm, ten minutes before the collision. During the day, Titanic received warnings from the Caronia, the Noordam, the Baltic, the Amerika, the Californian, the Mesaba.
• China's President Yuan Shikai issued a manifesto asking the five separate race groups in the nation to unite through intermarriage.
• Association football club Santos, winner of 8 national championships in Brazil's major soccer football league, was founded in Santos, Brazil. It would play its first game on June 23.
• The silent film Paul J. Rainey's African Hunt was released by Carl Laemmle, who would found Universal Pictures two years later. The film was a national hit, and would gross $500,000 in revenues.
• Died: Henri Brisson, 77, French state leader, 40th Prime Minister of France

  [April 15], 1912 (Monday)

• RMS Titanic sank at 2:30 am ship time. The conclusion of investigative report by the British Board of Trade found only 710 of the people on board had survived and 1,514 had died. Most of the survivors were adult men, followed by 316 women and 56 children. The first lifeboat had been lowered at before 12:45 am, Evacuation had been ordered at 12:05 am and the last at 2:05 am. The RMS Carpathia arrived at 4:10 am to rescue the survivors who had been able to reach a lifeboat. Among the victims of the sinking included:
• * Thomas Andrews, 39, Irish shipbuilder and architect
• * John Jacob Astor IV, 47, American businessman and multi-millionaire
• * Archibald Butt, 46, former presidential aide to Theodore Roosevelt
• * Thomas Byles, 42, English-born Catholic priest
• * Jacques Futrelle, 37, French author
• * Benjamin Guggenheim, 46, American businessman
• * Charles Melville Hays, 55, President of Grand Trunk Railway
• * Henry B. Harris, 45, American theatrical producer
• * Wallace Hartley, 33, violinist and band leader
• * Francis Davis Millet, 65, American painter
• * Jack Phillips, 25, senior wireless officer
• * Edward J. Smith, 62, Captain
• * Henry Tingle Wilde, 39, Chief Officer
• * William McMaster Murdoch, 39, First Officer
• * James Paul Moody, 24, Sixth officer
• * W. T. Stead, 62, English journalist
• * Isidor Straus, 67, German-born owner of Macy's and former U.S. Congressman
• * Ida Straus, 63, wife of Isidor Straus
• * John B. Thayer, 49, American crickete
• * George Dennick Wick, 58, American steel manufacturer
• * George Dunton Widener, 50, American hotel magnate
• * Musicians of the RMS Titanic
• ** Roger Marie Bricoux, 20, cellist
• ** John Law Hume, 21, violinist
• ** Georges Alexandre Krins, 23, violinist
• ** John Wesley Woodward, 32, cellist
• Born:''' Kim Il-sung, Korean state leader, President of North Korea, as Kim Sŏng-ju, in Mangyongdae, Korea

  [April 16], 1912 (Tuesday)

• Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, less than three years after Louis Bleriot had become the first man to make the crossing. Quimby departed Dover at 5:30 am in a fog, and landed at Neufchâtel-Hardelot, 25 miles south of her intended destination of Calais, France. She would be killed in a plane crash less than three months later.
• Born:
• * Edmond Jabès, Egyptian- French writer, author of The Book of Questions and The Book of Resemblances, in Cairo
• * David Langton, Scottish actor, best known for the role of Richard Bellamy in the BBC drama series Upstairs, Downstairs, in Motherwell, Scotland
• * John Halas, Hungarian-British animator, known for his collaborations with wife Joy Batchelor on Animal Farm, as János Halász, in Budapest
• * Garth Williams, American book illustrator, best known for his illustrations for the children's literature including Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and Little House series, in New York City
• * Catherine Scorsese, American actress, mother to film director Martin Scorsese, known for roles in Who's That Knocking at My Door and Goodfellas, in New York City

  [April 17], 1912 (Wednesday)

• Russian soldiers killed 270 striking gold miners and wounded 270 others after firing into a crowd as they protested. The miners had gone on strike in Siberia to demand a reduction in the workday and improved food and sanitation. The dead were buried in a mass grave. On the old Russian calendar, the date was April 4, which is sometimes mistakenly cited as the date of the massacre.
• During a solar eclipse, Victor Francis Hess ascended in a balloon to measure changes in radiation.
• Julia Lathrop became the first woman to lead a U.S. federal government agency, after being appointed by U.S. President William Howard Taft to direct the United States Children's Bureau.
• Rebels in Mexico captured the capitals of the states of Sinaloa and Coahuila.
• The Fez riots broke out in protest against the French imposition of the protectorate regime in Morocco. They erupted in Fez, then the Moroccan capital.
• Born:
• * Marta Eggerth, Hungarian-American opera singer, known for her collaborations with Metropolitan Opera, in Budapest
• * Jo Ann Robinson, American activist, leader of the Women's Political Council that initiated the boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in Culloden, Georgia

  [April 18], 1912 (Thursday)

• The Carpathia arrived in New York City with 710 survivors from the Titanic.
• Italy attacked Ottoman Turkey directly, as 27 warships sailed into the Dardanelles and began bombardment of Fort Kilid-ul-Bahr and Fort Sedd-ul-Bahr for two and a half hours. A Turkish gunboat was sunk after its crew escaped, and one of the yachts of the Ottoman Sultan was captured by Italian forces. There were 300 Turkish soldiers killed and more wounded in the destruction of the Kunkaleh Fort.
• Muslim soldiers in the Moroccan city of Fez mutinied, killing fifty French officers and soldiers and almost 100 Jewish residents, before being suppressed.
• Died:
• * Frederick Seddon, 41, hanged at Pentonville Prison, England for the poisoning and murder of Eliza Barrow in 1911
• * Walter Clopton Wingfield, 78, British army office, pioneer in the development of lawn tennis

  [April 19], 1912 (Friday)

• The Russian Empire agreed to recognize Italian sovereignty over Libya in return for Italy's support of Russian influence in the Balkans.
• At a United States Senate subcommittee hearing, Titanic Second Officer Charles Lightoller testified that they loaded as few as 25 people in boats intended to hold 65, only as much as they thought the ropes would hold.
• The U.S. Hydrographic Office and representatives of the steamship lines agreed that the winter time course of ships would be 270 miles south of the course taken by the Titanic, adding between 9 and 14 hours to the trip. The new route would be 3,080 miles rather than 2,858 miles.
• The Sidi M'Cid Bridge opened in Constantine, Algeria. Suspended 175 m over the Rhummel River, it was the world's highest suspended bridge until 1929.
• Born: Glenn T. Seaborg, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering 10 transuranium elements, in Ishpeming, Michigan

  [April 20], 1912 (Saturday)

• Boston's Fenway Park and Detroit's Tiger Stadium both officially opened on the same day. At Fenway, which would still be the home of the team's home a century later, the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders 7–6. The same afternoon, the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 6–5, at the park that they would remain in for 87 seasons; after which Tiger Stadium would be replaced by Comerica Park on April 11, 2000. It was the only other occasion when two major league stadiums would open on the same day.
• The luxury ocean liner began its maiden voyage, from Le Havre, France ten days after the Titanic had started its first trip. The ship would remain in service until 1935. Carrying 1,273 passengers, the France arrived safely in New York City six days later.
• The sudden death of Benito Juárez Maza, Governor of Mexico's Oaxaca state since 1911, from an apparent heart attack triggered six months of battles between Mexico's national government and Juárez Maza's followers, who believed he had been poisoned.
• Immediate reforms were ordered by the International Mercantile Marine, requiring all steamers to carry sufficient lifeboats and rafts for all passengers and crew.
• Died: Bram Stoker, 64, Irish writer, author of Dracula

  [April 21], 1912 (Sunday)

• At Munich, Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping confirmed the theory, made by German physicist Max von Laue, that the x-rays aimed at a crystal would be diffracted, and that the patterns left on a photographic plate would effectively show the location of individual atoms. Friedrich and Knippe aimed x-rays at a crystal of copper sulfate, and produced photographs, later misplaced, of the structure of the crystal. Von Laue would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914.
• Aleister Crowley was appointed by Ordo Templi Orientis leader Theodor Reuss as the "National Grand Master General for Great Britain and Ireland" to spread the Reuss's variety of the occult in the British Isles. Crowley would later be designated by Reuss as "Supreme and Holy King of Ireland, Iona and all the Britons within the sanctuary of the Gnosis".
• László Lukács formed a new cabinet as Prime Minister of Hungary.
• The New York Highlanders and the New York Giants played an exhibition baseball game at the Polo Grounds to raise money for destitute survivors of the Titanic. The Giants won, 11-2, before a crowd of 14,083 and the game raised $9,425.25.
• Born: Phillip Law, Australian explorer, director of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions from 1949 to 1966, in Tallangatta, Australia

  [April 22], 1912 (Monday)

• Tornadoes that swept through Illinois and Indiana killed 72, with the hardest hit regions being Bush, Marion and Kankakee, Illinois, and Morocco, Indiana. Another 35 were killed in Oklahoma and Texas, with Rogers, Texas and Lugert, Oklahoma being destroyed.
• British Board of Trade president Sydney Buxton requested Lord Loreburn establish a royal commission to investigate into the cause of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
• The United States Chamber of Commerce, the largest lobbying group in the United States, was established in Washington D.C.
• The Wage Earner’s Suffrage League gathered at Cooper Union, East Village, Manhattan, New York City for their biggest rally to protest better pay and working conditions for women. However, it rapidly dissolved over the summer after leaders Clara Lemlich and Rose Schneiderman left the organization.
• The date of the first issue of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, and the leading newspaper for the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1991, was 22 April 1912. Russia was using the Julian Calendar at the time, 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. In later years, Pravda would carry on its front page the slogan "Founded by V. I. Lenin on May 5, 1912".
• Born:
• * Kathleen Ferrier, British opera singer, known for her collaborations with the Royal Opera House, in Higher Walton, Lancashire, England
• * Kaneto Shindo, Japanese film director, known for films including Children of Hiroshima, Onibaba, and Kuroneko, in Hiroshima
• Died: Heinrich Unverricht, 58, German physician, pioneer in research on pneumonia and epilepsy

  [April 23], 1912 (Tuesday)

• The very first New Hampshire presidential primary was held, marking the first time that voters in New England decided on the delegates for a party nomination. U.S. President William Howard Taft defeated former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
• Italian troops seized control of the Turkish island of Stampalia.

  [April 24], 1912 (Wednesday)

• The RMS Olympic, sister ship of the White Star ocean liner RMS Titanic was barred from departing Southampton, England with its 1,400 passengers because of a strike by shipworkers over insufficient lifeboats. The White Star Line had added 16 "collapsible" boats which could be deployed in a hurry.
• Troops killed striking textile workers at Vila Nova de Gaia, a suburb of Porto, Portugal.
• Barnsley defeated West Bromwich Albion 1-0 at the 41st FA Cup held at the Crystal Palace in London, with Harry Tufnell scoring the single winning goal.
• Died: Justin McCarthy, 81, Irish politician, leader of the Irish National Federation

  [April 25], 1912 (Thursday)

• Germany's Reichstag defeated the proposal to increase the Army and Navy.
• The satirical Catalan language magazine ¡Cu-Cut! published a cover parodying Francesc Cambó and the Regionalist League of Catalonia, one of the leading right wing political parties in Catalonia, Spain. The cover was offensive enough for the League to force the magazine to shut down sooner after.
• Born:
• * Earl Bostic, American jazz musician, saxophonist who pioneered the rhythm and blues style, in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• * Donald C. Spencer, American mathematician, discoverer of the "Spencer cohomology" used in deformation theory, in Boulder, Colorado
• * Iris Faircloth Blitch, American politician, fourth female U.S. Representative for Georgia, in Toombs County, Georgia
• * Gladys Presley, American matriarch, mother of Elvis Presley, in Pontotoc County, Mississippi

  [April 26], 1912 (Friday)

• The bazaar, shopping quarter for Syrians in Damascus, caught on fire, causing $10,000,000 in damages and killing several persons.
• Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, an early leader in Russia's Bolshevik movement, first took on the pen name "Kirov". Although he would be assassinated in 1934 while serving as the Communist Party chief in Leningrad, the Russian city of Kirov, the Russian Kirov Oblast, and the Ukrainian city of Kirovohrad are all named in his honor.
• The Colorado Mountain Club, which was instrumental in the creation of the Rocky Mountain National Park, was founded.
• Born: A. E. van Vogt, Canadian science fiction writer, author of The Voyage of the Space Beagle and The Weapon Shops of Isher, in Gretna, Manitoba

  [April 27], 1912 (Saturday)

• Civil war broke out again in Paraguay, with former President Albino Jara commanding rebels at Villa Encarnacion. Four Paraguayan warships bombarded the rebels, who returned fire with cannons and forced the troops to withdraw.
• China cancelled a $50,000,000 munitions contract with a Belgian firm after protests by the four powers.
• Born: Zohra Sehgal, Indian stage and film actress, known for her film and television roles including The Jewel in the Crown and Bend It Like Beckham, recipient of the Padma Shri, in Saharanpur, India

  [April 28], 1912 (Sunday)

• Hubert Lyautey was appointed as the first French Resident-General of Morocco, which had recently become a protectorate of France. General Lyautey would administer most of the affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco until 1925. The city of Kenitra was renamed "Port Lyautey" in his honor, from 1933 to 1956, until reverting to its former name.
• Albanian emigrants established the Pan-Albanian Federation of America in New York City to advocate for an independent Albania from the Ottoman Empire.
• Born: Odette Hallowes, French Special Operations Executive agent, most decorated agent and witness at the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials, recipient of the George Cross, Order of the British Empire, and Legion of Honour, in Amiens, France
• Died: Jules Bonnot, 35, French criminal, leader of the Bonnot Gang of armed robbers, after being wounded in a shootout with police at Choisy-le-Roi, France

  [April 29], 1912 (Monday)

• Tornadoes devastated Oklahoma over 72 hours, affecting 15 cities, killing 40 people, and injuring 120 more.
• The thermometer rose to 108 °F at the city of Tuguegarao, setting a record for the highest recorded temperature not only in the Philippines, but also for the islands of the South Pacific Ocean.
• Born: Richard Carlson, American actor and director, known for his title role in the 1950s television Western Mackenzie's Raiders, in Albert Lea, Minnesota
• Died: Subh-i-Azal, 81, Persian religious leader, leading figure in Bábism

  [April 30], 1912 (Tuesday)

• The cable ship Mackay-Bennett and mail ship RMS Olympic arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, bringing the bodies of 200 people who had drowned or frozen to death after escaping the RMS Titanic. Although the ship had recovered 306 bodies, 116 of those were buried at sea because of a lack of sufficient embalming fluid, including 54 that had been identified. Located were the remains of John Astor and Isidor Straus, while his wife Ida Straus and former presidential adviser Archibald Butt were never located.