1904

Roosevelt also oversaw the acquisition by the United States of the Panama Canal zone for the sum of $10 million.

The Treaty of Lhasa ended the British military expedition on September 7th. Speaking of the British, the U.K. and France signed the Entente Cordiale on April 8th, ending almost one thousand years of intermittent conflict.

On a lighter note, the third modern Olympic Games opened on July 1st in St. Louis, Missouri as part of the world fair. These were the first Summer Olympics of the 20th century and the Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) was founded on May 21st, a few days after pitcher Cy Young of the Boston Adventurers threw the first perfect game in the history of modern baseball.

America’s first large scale bodybuilding competition took place at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The city also saw its first underground train line open, and Longacre Square was renamed Times Square in honor of The New York Times and held the first of many New Year’s Eve celebrations on December 31st.

In the arts, Puccini’s reworked Madama Butterfly opened to critical acclaim in Brescia in May after receiving a tepid response in Milan a few months prior.

In science and technology, the first caterpillar track was produced, heralding a revolution in land warfare, and astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine discovered Himalia, Jupiter’s sixth largest moon. Notable births in 1904 include American children’s author Dr. Seuss, Chinese statesman Deng Xiaoping, Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer.