1905 in the United States

Incumbents

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

• President: Theodore Roosevelt
• Vice President: vacant, Charles W. Fairbanks
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon
• Congress: 58th, 59th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–June

• March 4 - Theodore Roosevelt begins his first full term as President.
• March 10 - In Cleveland, Ohio, Cassie Chadwick is sentenced for 14 years in prison for fraud.
• March 17 - Franklin D. Roosevelt marries his fifth cousin Eleanor Roosevelt; President Roosevelt, the bride's uncle, gives her away.
• March 20 - Grover Shoe Factory disaster: A boiler explosion, building collapse and fire in Brockton, Massachusetts kills 58.
• March 27 – Plumas National Forest is established.
• April 6 - Lochner v. New York: The Supreme Court of the United States invalidates New York's 8-hour-day law.
• April 6–July 19 - The 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike; 21 people die and 416 are injured in the violence.
• May–June - John C. Merriam leads the Saurian Expedition, a paleontological research mission in northern Nevada.
• May 6 – Klamath National Forest is established.
• May 10 - The 1905 Snyder, Oklahoma tornado destroys much of Snyder, Oklahoma, killing at least 97.
• May 12 – Gunnison National Forest is established.
• May 15 - Las Vegas, Nevada is founded when, in what later becomes downtown, are auctioned off.
• May 29 – Sawtooth National Forest is established.
• June 1–October 14 - The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition is held in Portland, Oregon, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
• June 2 – Lassen National Forest is established.
• June 3 – San Juan and Payette National Forest is established.
• June 14 – Uncompahgre National Forest is established.
• June 24 - The founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, A radical workers union, which had great impact during the first two decades of the 20th century.

  July–December

• July 11 - W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter establish the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the NAACP.
• July 29 - U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft has talks with Prime Minister of Japan Katsura Taro. Notes from these conversations are later found in 1924 and cause a controversy as it appears to contain U.S. recognition of Japan's claims in Korea.
• September 5 - Russo-Japanese War - Treaty of Portsmouth: In New Hampshire, a treaty mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is signed by victor Japan and Russia. Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin and port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.
• September 11 - 19 die and 48 are seriously injured when the Ninth Avenue Elevated train derails in Manhattan.
• October - John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley resign from the Quorum of Twelve in protest, disputing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' stance against polygamy that was reaffirmed in the Second Manifesto.
• October 3 – Tonto National Forest is established.
• October 5 - The Wright Brothers' third aeroplane stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting. This is the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.
• October 11 - The Institute of Musical Art, predecessor of the Juilliard School, opens in New York City.
• November 28-29 - The massive Mataafa Storm on the Great Lakes damages or destroys 29 vessels.
• December 30 - A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.

  Undated

• Refilling of Salton Sea begins.
• Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are banned from the Brooklyn Public Library for setting a "bad example."

  Ongoing

• Progressive Era
• Lochner era
• Black Patch Tobacco Wars

  Sport

• March 26 - The Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Seattle Metropolitans became the First American team to win the Stanley Cup by defeating the National Hockey Association's Montreal Canadiens 3 game to 1. The Metropolitans would win their only Cup in front of their home crowd at Seattle Ice Arena
• October 14 - the National League's New York Giants won their 1st World Series by defeating the American League's Philadelphia Athletics 4 games to 1 New York City's Polo Grounds

  Births

• January 3 - Anna May Wong, film actress
• January 7 - James Simpson Jr., race car driver and politician
• January 11 - Dorothy Hale, socialite
• February 6 - Merze Tate, African American academic
• March 15 - Nat Perrin, comedy screenwriter
• April 9 - J. William Fulbright, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1945 to 1974
• May 15 - Joseph Cotten, actor
• May 16 - Henry Fonda, actor
• July 4 - Irving Johnson, sailor and author
• July 15 - Dorothy Fields, lyricist
• July 21 - David M. Kennedy, U.S. 60th Secretary of Treasury, 8th U.S. Representative to N.A.T.O., Special Representative of The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints
• August 23 - Abbie Rowe, White House photographer
• October 11 - Fred Trump, real estate developer, father of Donald Trump
• November 3 - Joseph H. Ball, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1940 to 1942 and 1943 to 1949
• November 4 - Nannie Doss, serial killer who murdered eleven people
• December 24 - Howard Hughes, business magnate, investor, director, pilot, and philanthropist (died 1976

  Deaths

• January 2 - Clara Augusta Jones Trask, dime novelist
• January 6
• *Ann Eliza Smith, patriot
• *George Van Cleaf, swimmer and water polo player
• January 19 - Benjamin F. Rice, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1868 to 1873
• January 22 - Clara Harrison Stranahan, college co-founder and trustee
• January 27 - Watson Heston, cartoonist
• February 8 - John Leary, politician, 37th Mayor of Seattle
• February 15 - Lew Wallace, Union general in the American Civil War and politician
• February 20 - Jeremiah W. Farnham, merchant captain
• February 27 - George S. Boutwell, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1853
• March 1 - Edward O. Wolcott, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1889 to 1901
• March 6 - John Henninger Reagan, U.S. Senator from Texas, Acting Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury, Confederate States Postmaster General
• March 9 - William B. Bate, 23rd Governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887 and U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1887 to 1905
• March 18 - Joseph Roswell Hawley, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1881 to 1905
• April 21 - Orville H. Platt, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1879 to 1905
• May 5 - William M. Robbins, U.S. Representative from North Carolina
• May 13 - Sam S. Shubert, theater owner
• May 23 - Mary Livermore, journalist, abolitionist and women's rights advocate
• July 1 - John Hay, author, biographer and 37th United States Secretary of State
• July 24 - Adolf Cluss, engineer architect
• August 21 - Mary Mapes Dodge, children's author
• September 5 - Touch the Clouds, Minneconjou chief
• September 12 - John Rogan, second tallest person in recorded history
• October 6 - Hibbard H. Shedd, politician and novelist
• December 3 - John Bartlett, lexicographer and publisher