1909

The year 1909 saw the inauguration of the only US President to formerly hold the position of Chief Justice: William Howard Taft. He, along with his cabinet, became notorious for their ample use of so-called “dollar-diplomacy”.

With a population of just 1.7 billion, the world was a much smaller place at the start of the 20th century. These 365 days saw the beginnings of many things we now take for granted: communist paranoia, middle schools, instant coffee, anti-drug taskforces, credit unions, and pedestrian-jammed subway lines.

Famous criminal Clyde Barrow, the namesake of McCarthyism, Joseph McCarthy, and the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah were also all born in 1909. The world also witnessed the end of the inventor of instant photography, Edwin Land, Apache-chief Geronimo, Japanese Prime Minister Ito Horiboemi, and the King of Belgium, Leopold II.

In 1909, the names Mary and John were common place choices for new parents. To help set the scene, imagine a time where the most movies were monochromatic classics like Carmen, Andreas Hofer, and The Life of Moses. Off the silver screen, the bookworms of the world were engrossed in The Road to Oz, Martin Eden, and Three Lives. Keep reading to find out what made 1909 so fundamental to life as we know it.

A lot changed on the Earth in 1909. First and foremost, let’s look at some of the year’s notable firsts. These include, the first rescue at sea facilitated by radio, the first federal legislation preventing narcotic use, the opening of the first junior high school, the first woman to drive cross-country, and the test of the world’s first army plane. For anyone out there who can’t function without a nice hot cup of joe, these twelve months also saw the invention of instant coffee.

The world became a much bigger place after these twelve months as well. Polish Explorer, Shackleton, set a world record for going farther south on the world than any other human being. In addition, Robert Peary became the first person in history to reach the North Pole, and the first cement laid at the Panama Canal heralded a future of easier travel between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. While relationships between Nicaragua and the US soured after an invasion, Japan attempted to increase diplomacy by gifting the US with the first of its infamous cherry trees.

Therefore, whether you rely on instant coffee to put some pep in your step, or have a desktop background of Washington in bloom, you should write a thank-you note to 1909.

Discover how the world looked like in 1909

Looking for 1909 Calendar ? Here it is: January 1909, February 1909, March 1909, April 1909, May 1909, June 1909, July 1909, August 1909, September 1909, October 1909, November 1909, December 1909

Nobel Prizes

All Nobel Prize winners of 1909

Peace Prize

Auguste Marie François Beernaert
Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant

Literature

Selma Lagerlöf

Physics

Karl Ferdinand Braun
Guglielmo Marconi

Chemistry

Wilhelm Ostwald

Physiology or Medicine

Emil Theodor Kocher

Music charts

Which were the top hits of 1909?

Top #1 songs in the USA

Henry Burr - I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
Harry Lauder - She is My Daisy
Harold Jarvis - Beautiful Isle of Somewhere
Sousa's Band - Under the Double Eagle
Harry Lauder - When I Get Back Again to Bonnie Scotland
Arthur Pryor's Band - National Emblem March
Sousa's Band - Fairest of the Fair March

Movies

Which were the most popular Movies released in those months?
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Popular names

Which were the top popular names given to babies born in 1909 in the USA ?

Top #10 male names

Top #10 female names

Historical Events

Which were the important events of 1909?

Events

01 Jan 1909 Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher.
05 Jan 1909 Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
09 Jan 1909 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 furthest anyone had ever reached at that time.
16 Jan 1909 British explorer Ernest Shackleton finds magnetic south pole.
25 Jan 1909 Richard Strauss' opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
27 Jan 1909 The Young Left is founded in Norway.
28 Jan 1909 United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish-American War.
01 Feb 1909 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah opens.
02 Feb 1909 Italian writer Marinetti publishes Futurist Manifest in Paris.
08 Feb 1909 France and Germany sign treaty about Morocco.
12 Feb 1909 Robert Fowler runs world record marathon (2:46:52.6).
15 Feb 1909 The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250.
16 Feb 1909 Serbia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary.
18 Feb 1909 Boston Red Sox trade Cy Young, at age 41, to Cleveland Naps.
20 Feb 1909 Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
22 Feb 1909 Great White Fleet, first US fleet to circle the globe, returns to Virginia.
23 Feb 1909 Russian tsar Nicolas II dissolves Finnish Diet.
26 Feb 1909 Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.
03 Mar 1909 Stanley Cup: Ottawa Senators beat MontrTal Wanderers, 8-3.
04 Mar 1909 President Taft inaugrated as 27th US President during 10-inch snowstorm.
10 Mar 1909 Jack Johnson fights Victor McLaglen to no decision in six for box title.
14 Mar 1909 Amsterdam Social-Democratic Party (SDP) forms.
21 Mar 1909 The remains of the Báb were placed in his Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.
23 Mar 1909 Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
30 Mar 1909 The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.
31 Mar 1909 Gustav Mahler conducts New York Philharmonic for his first time.
04 Apr 1909 Sport Club Internacional was founded in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
06 Apr 1909 1st credit union forms in US
09 Apr 1909 The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
11 Apr 1909 The city of Tel Aviv (then known as Ahuzat Bayit) is founded.
13 Apr 1909 The Turkish military reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the deposal of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
14 Apr 1909 Anglo-Persian Oil Company forms in London.
15 Apr 1909 New York Giants Red Ames second no-hitter, loses in 13 on a 7 hitter to Brooklyn Dodgers.
18 Apr 1909 Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
19 Apr 1909 13th Boston Marathon won by Henri Renaud of New Hampshire in 2:53:36.8.
24 Apr 1909 Harry Hillman and Lawson Robertson run 100 metre 3-legged race in 11 seconds.
27 Apr 1909 Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
01 May 1909 Netherlands begins unity with Belgium.
02 May 1909 Honus Wagner steals his way around bases in first inning against Chicago Cubs.
03 May 1909 35th Kentucky Derby: Vincent Powers on Wintergreen wins in 2:08.2.
07 May 1909 Construction begins on first 100 houses in Ahuzat Bayit (Tel Aviv).
08 May 1909 Frederick Barrett runs world record marathon
12 May 1909 34th Preakness: Willie Doyle aboard Effendi wins in 1:39.8.
13 May 1909 Christian National Labor Workers (CNV) party begins in the Netherlands
17 May 1909 White firemen on Georgia railroad strike to protest hiring blacks.
24 May 1909 Bristol University granted Royal Charter.
29 May 1909 In Shepard, Texas, USA a meteorite drops through a house.
30 May 1909 National Conference on the Negro is held.
01 Jun 1909 (to October 16) The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition is held in Seattle, Washington.
02 Jun 1909 43rd Belmont: Eddie Dugan aboard Joe Madden wins in 2:21.6
07 Jun 1909 Cleveland Industrial Exposition opens.
12 Jun 1909 Shine On, Harvest Moon by Ada Jones and Billy Murray hits #1
15 Jun 1909 Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
16 Jun 1909 Jim Thorpe makes his pro baseball pitching debut for Rocky Mount (ECL) with 4-2 win, this will cause him to forfeit his Olympic medals
18 Jun 1909 Nannie Burroughs forms national training School for Women
20 Jun 1909 1st balloon honeymoon
23 Jun 1909 Confessional parties win Dutch parliamentary elections
24 Jun 1909 15th US Golf Open: George Sargent shoots a 290 at Englewood Golf Club - New Jersey
25 Jun 1909 George Sargent wins US Open golf tournament
26 Jun 1909 23rd US Womens Tennis: H Hotchkiss beats Maud Barger-Wallach
27 Jun 1909 23rd US Womens Tennis: Hazel H Wightman beats M Barger-Wallach
30 Jun 1909 Jack Johnson fights Tony Ross to no decision in 6 for hw boxing title
12 Jul 1909 16th Amendment approved (power to tax incomes).
15 Jul 1909 Ty Cobb hits 2 inside-the-park HRs
16 Jul 1909 Detroit and Washington play longest scoreless game in AL history-18 innings
19 Jul 1909 Cleveland shortstop Neal Ball executes an unassisted triple play
24 Jul 1909 Brooklyn Dodger Nap Rucker strikes out 16 Pittsburgh Pirates
25 Jul 1909 August 2 ampndash quotTragic Weekquot: The city of Barcelona experiences a workers' uprising.
27 Jul 1909 Orville Wright tests first US Army airplane, flying 1h12m.
30 Jul 1909 Wright Brothers deliver 1st military plane to the army
01 Aug 1909 British SS Waratah disappears on Sydney to London, 300 killed
02 Aug 1909 1st Lincoln head pennies minted
05 Aug 1909 US Senate confirms A. Piatt Andrew as Mint Director.
06 Aug 1909 Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
07 Aug 1909 US issues 1st Lincoln penny
10 Aug 1909 Algemeene Netherlands Toonkunstenars Ver (ANTV) begins
11 Aug 1909 Liner Arapahoe is 1st ship to use SOS distress call
15 Aug 1909 A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.
18 Aug 1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.
19 Aug 1909 Indianapolis 500 race track opens
26 Aug 1909 Middlesex beat Gloucs (Bristol) by Inn and 31 in a single day
29 Aug 1909 AH Latham of France sets world airplane altitude record of 155 m.
30 Aug 1909 Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
31 Aug 1909 A J Reach Co patents cork-centered baseball
02 Sep 1909 English King Edward VII signs South Africa Bill
04 Sep 1909 Japan and China sign the Jiandao/Gando Treaty, which gives Japan a way to receive railroad concessions in Manchuria.
06 Sep 1909 Word received, Admiral Peary discovers North Pole five months earlier.
07 Sep 1909 Eugene Lefebvre (1878 : 1909), while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane, crashes at Juvisy, France when his controls jam. Lefebvre dies, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
09 Sep 1909 Jack Johnson fights Al Kaufman to no decision in 10 for boxing title
13 Sep 1909 Ty Cobb clinches AL HR title with his 9th HR
23 Sep 1909 The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantome de l'Opera), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.
25 Sep 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration opens in New York.
27 Sep 1909 29th US Mens Tennis: W A Larned beats W J Clothier (61 62 57 16 61)
02 Oct 1909 1st rugby match
08 Oct 1909 Chicago Cubs beat New York Giants 4-2 in a playoff to win National League pennant.
09 Oct 1909 Ty Cobb steals home in World Series game
13 Oct 1909 An agreement by Germany, Italy and Switzerland gives the Germans and Italians access to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.
14 Oct 1909 Pirates beat Tigers, 5-4, forces 1st full 7 game world series
16 Oct 1909 Jack Johnson KOs Stanley Ketchel in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
18 Oct 1909 Comte de Lambert of France sets airplane altitude record of 300 m.
26 Oct 1909 Ito Hirobumi, Resident-General of Korea, was shot to death by Korean independence supporter Ahn Jung-geun at the Harbin train station in Manchuria.
02 Nov 1909 Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity is founded at Boston University.
07 Nov 1909 Knights and Ladies of Saint Peter Claver organizes in Mobile Alabama.
11 Nov 1909 Construction of navy base at Pearl Harbor begins
13 Nov 1909 Ben Simpson of Hamilton Tigers kicks 9 singles in a game.
16 Nov 1909 EVV Eindhoven soccer team forms
18 Nov 1909 US invades Nicaragua, later overthrows President Zelaya.
19 Nov 1909 Former Dutch Premier Abraham Kuyper denies corruption
20 Nov 1909 Jack Williams of Ottawa Rough Riders kicks 9 singles in a game.
23 Nov 1909 Wright Brothers forms million dollar corp to manufacture airplanes
26 Nov 1909 Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.
04 Dec 1909 1st Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club 26 : 6.
07 Dec 1909 Leo Baekeland, Yonkers New York, patents first thermosetting plastic (Bakelite).
08 Dec 1909 Bird banding society found.
11 Dec 1909 Canadian Football exhibition game played in Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000.
14 Dec 1909 New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
16 Dec 1909 US pressure forces Nicaraguan President JosT Santos Zelaya from office.
17 Dec 1909 Karl Landsteiner develops a system of blood grouping.
21 Dec 1909 1st junior high school established
23 Dec 1909 Albert becomes king of Belgium.
31 Dec 1909 Manhattan Bridge opens.

1909

Your place in the Universe on 1909

Find out more about your Moon Sign

Have a look at the old UK newspapers from 1909 and get them!

Do you remember those beautiful old magazines?