What a Difference a Century Makes: 1913

President: Woodrow Wilson
Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall
Virginia Governor: William Hodges Mann
Chief Justice Supreme Court: Edward Douglass White
VA Senators: Charles A. Swanson & Thomas Martin

BORN


  • Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (1969-74)
  • Lloyd Bridges, actor (Sea Hunt, Roots, Airplane)
  • Rosa Lee Parks, civil rights activist (bus protestor)
  • Menachem Begin, Israeli PM (1977-83, Nobel 1978)
    Tyrone Power
    , American actor

 

DIED


  • Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, conductor on Underground RR
  • John Pierpont Morgan, US banker/US Steel Corp, dies at 75.
  • Emily Wilding Davison, suffragette, trampled to death by horse
  • Adolphus Busch, American brewer (Anheuser-Busch) 


HISTORICAL EVENTS



  • US Post office begins parcel post deliveries
  • 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect in Oregon.
  • Federal income tax takes effect (16th amendment)
  • Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes law.
  • Brooklyn Dodger's Ebbets Field opens, Phillies win 1-0
  • NY Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp to the American public.
  • Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett's Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors.
  • Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley
  • Henry Ford institutes a moving assembly line.
  • Mona Lisa stolen in Aug 1911 is returned to the Louvre.
  • The House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of its succession to the throne, amidst an outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia.
  • Ernest Rutherford & Niels Bohr describe atomic structure.
  • Australia begins building the new federal capital of Canberra.
  • The First chelsea Flower Show is held in London.
  • The Country of Albania is formed.
  • NY football Giants sign Jim Thorpe.
  • October 31 – The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.
  • The Great Lakes Storm claims 19 ships and more than 250 lives.
  • Mexico is in revolution, war rages in the Balkans, & aviation experiences many firsts, such as the first parachute jump & first complete loop.
  • Suffragettes demonstrate in London and Washington, D.C. 
  • Garment workers strike in New York and Boston; win pay raises and reduced hours.
  • March 23-27 deadly flood rages through Dayton Ohio.


COST OF COMMON CONSUMER GOODS

Federal spending: $0.72 billion


Consumer Price Index: 9.9
Unemployment: 4.3%
Cost of a first-class st
Loaf of Bread: $0.06
Gallon of gasoline: $0.12
One Dozen Eggs: $0.30
Average Annual Wage: $1,296.00
Cost of Average House: $3,395.00
Cost of Average Automobile: $490.00
Newly enacted Federal Income Tax: 1%

 

SPORTS


World Series: Philadelphia A's v. NY Giants (4-1)


Stanley Cup: Quebec Bulldogs
Wimbledon Women: Dorothea Chambers
Wimbledon Men: Tony Wilding
Kentucky Derby Champion: Donerail
NCAA Football Champions: Harvard (9-0-0)
Most Valuable Pitcher: Awarded for the first time in 1913 to Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators

 

 

AWARDS

Nobel Prize for Literature: Rabindranath Tagore (India) Mr. Tagore was the first non-European to receive this award.

Chemistry: Alfred Werner (Switzerland), for linking up atoms within the molecule

Physics: Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes (Netherlands), for work leading to production of liquid helium

Physiology or Medicine: Charles Richet (France), anaphylaxy

Nobel Peace Prize: Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)

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