April 1902

[April 1], 1902 (Tuesday)

• The Naivasha and Kisumu regions of Uganda became part of British East Africa.
• Thirty-nine British soldiers were killed and 45 injured in a railroad accident near Barberton in the Transvaal
• The 700 longshoremen in Halifax, Nova Scotia went on strike to seek an increase in pay.
• Died:
• *Manuel Antonio Sanclemente, 86, former President of Colombia
• *Thomas Dunn English, 82, published author and songwriter who later served as U.S. Congressman for New Jersey.
• *Joseph S. Fowler, 81, U.S. Senator for Tennessee from 1866 to 1871 during the Reconstruction Era

  [April 2], 1902 (Wednesday)

• Dmitry Sipyagin, the Russian Empire's Minister of Internal Affairs and chief law enforcement officer, was shot and killed in his Saint Petersburg office at the Mariinsky Palace. A 19-year old university student, Stepan_Balmashov, disguised himself as a uniformed employee and gained entry to the building where he then located and killed Sipyagin.
• Irish Nationalist politician John Redmond was awarded the freedom of the City of Dublin.
• Died:
• *Esther Hobart Morris, 89, the first woman to serve as a justice of the peace in the United States. She was appointed to the post in Sweetwater County, Wyoming after her predecessor resigned to protest the territory's adoption of the women's suffrage amendment.
• *Junius Henri Browne, 68, American war correspondent for the New York Tribune during the American Civil War, known for being confined as a prisoner of war for almost two years before escaping with another journalist back to Union territory.

  [April 3], 1902 (Thursday)

• Lobbied by the American dairy industry, the U.S. Senate voted, 39 to 31, to pass a bill putting additional taxes on the butter substitute oleomargarine.
• Died:
• *Esther Hobart Morris, 87, American suffragist judge
• *General D. J. E. "Maroola" Erasmus, South African Boer general.

  [April 4], 1902 (Friday)

• The will of Cecil Rhodes was made public on the day after his funeral services, revealing that he was funding scholarships to the University of Oxford for students from the United States and Germany. The reach of the Rhodes Scholarship would expand over the years.
• Born:
• *Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, French actress, in Verrières-le-Buisson
• *Stanley G. Weinbaum, American science-fiction author, in Louisville, Kentucky

  [April 5], 1902 (Saturday)

• Twenty-five people were killed and 517 injured in the collapse of the bleachers at Ibrox Park. During an international football match between Scotland and England, part of the newly built wooden West Tribune Stand collapsed, throwing hundreds of supporters to the ground below.
• The first public performance of Maurice Ravel's popular piano piece Pavane pour une infante défunte was given by Ricardo Viñes.

  [April 6], 1902 (Sunday)

• Will Reynolds, an African-American railroad employee who was being served with a warrant for a five dollar charge account, killed the sheriff of Colbert County, Alabama and five deputies, along with one bystander, before being killed by a party of law enforcement officers
• Born: F. L. Green, British novelist, in Portsmouth
• Died: Robert Owen, 81, Welsh theologian.

  [April 7], 1902 (Monday)

• The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the Chinese Exclusion Bill. The Senate rejected any changes to existing law nine days later.
• Commandant Kritzinger was acquitted of charges in the court-martial by the British Army.
• Died: Metody Patchev, 26, Bulgarian revolutionary. Patchev had entered Kadino Selo with six other revolutionaries, not realising that Ottoman troops were stationed in the village. Recognising the hopelessness of their situation, he killed his friends and committed suicide.

  [April 8], 1902 (Tuesday)

• Russia and China signed a treaty for Russian withdrawal of troops from Manchuria over in three stages taking place between July 1902 and January 1904.
• A partial solar eclipse was visible from the Earth.
• Born:
• *Andrew Irvine, British mountaineer, in Birkenhead
• *Josef Krips, Austrian conductor and violinist, in Vienna
• Died: The Earl of Kimberley, 76, former British Foreign Secretary

  [April 9], 1902 (Wednesday)

• Second Boer War: Having had their safe passage guaranteed by the British, Boer leaders, including Marthinus Steyn, Schalk Willem Burger, Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey, met at Klerksdorp, Transvaal, to discuss the possibility of opening negotiations with the British.
• The Underground Electric Railways Company of London was established, consolidating the group of Underground lines controlled by American financier Charles Tyson Yerkes.

  [April 10], 1902 (Thursday)

• The Belgian general strike of 1902 began, the second general strike in the country's history.
• France and Venezuela resumed diplomatic relations, which had been terminated in 1895.

  [April 11], 1902 (Friday)

• In the Battle of Rooiwal, the last major battle of the Second Boer War, a commando team led by General Jan Kemp attacked a larger force under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kekewich. The British soldiers had a positional advantage and inflicted severe losses on the Boers, effectively ending the war in Western Transvaal.
• Tenor Enrico Caruso made the first million-selling recording, for the Gramophone Company in Milan.
• A earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck the south end of Lake Baykal, Russia. No injuries were recorded.
• Died: Wade Hampton III, 84, former Confederate Army lieutenant general and one of the largest slaveholders in the American south prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.

  [April 12], 1902 (Saturday)

• U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation repealing the taxes that had been levied to pay for World War I.
• Born: Louis Beel, twice Prime Minister of the Netherlands, in Roermond
• Died:
• *Marie Alfred Cornu, 61, French physicist
• *De Witt Talmage, 70, popular American evangelist

  [April 13], 1902 (Sunday)

• A new car speed record of 74 mph was set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet.
• The Belgian steamer Legia collided with another steamer off the Newarp Lightvessel and sank.

  [April 14], 1902 (Monday)

• U.S. merchant J. C. Penney opened his first store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

  [April 15], 1902 (Tuesday)

• Died: Jules Dalou, 63, French sculptor

  [April 16], 1902 (Wednesday)

• Thomas Lincoln Tally opened his "Electric Theatre", the first cinema in Los Angeles.
• Philippine–American War: General Miguel Malvar surrendered to U.S. forces.
• Died:
• *Francis, Duke of Cádiz, 79, former King consort of Spain as husband of Queen Isabella II
• *Aurélien Scholl, 68, French novelist and journalist

  [April 17], 1902 (Thursday)

• Longshoremen in Copenhagen went on strike and refused to load or unload ships arriving in Denmark.
• Tomas Estrada Palma departed from the United States, where he held citizenship, on a voyage to Cuba where he was to be inaugurated as President.

  [April 18], 1902 (Friday)

• Born: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last rebbe of the Lubavitcher Hasidic dynasty.

  [April 19], 1902 (Saturday)

• Over 800 people were killed when a 7.5 Mw earthquake shook Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII.
• Vyacheslav von Plehve was appointed as the new Russian Minister of Internal Affairs to replace the late Dmitry Sipyagin
• The 1902 FA Cup Final took place at Crystal Palace, UK, in "bitterly cold" weather, and ended in a draw, necessitating a replay on April 26.
• Died:
• *Hans von Pechmann, 52, German chemist
• *Colonel Charles Marshall, 71, former Confederate Army officer and aide-de-camp to Robert E. Lee who later worked to foster the "Lost Cause" movement to erect statues of Confederate military men.

  [April 20], 1902 (Sunday)

• Belgium's general strike was declared over by the Belgian Workers' Party, parliament having refused to agree to voting reform.
• Died: Frank R. Stockton, 67, American humorist and children's author

  [April 21], 1902 (Monday)

• Died: Ethna Carbery, 35, Irish poet, from gastritis

  [April 22], 1902 (Tuesday)

• U.S. President Roosevelt directed the convening of a court-martial of U.S. Army General Jacob H. Smith at Manila for the March across Samar.
• General Pyotr Vannovsky resigned as the Russian Minister of National Education.
• Died:
• *Philip Richard Morris, 65, English painter
• *Egbert Viele, 76, American engineer and cartographer

  [April 23], 1902 (Wednesday)

• The Mount Pelée volcano in Martinique began erupting, raining cinders on its southern and western side. The volcano's deadly eruption would happen 15 days later.
• By a small majority, Denmark's upper house of Parliament approved the sale of the Danish West Indies to the United States.
• Born: Halldór Laxness, Icelandic writer, Nobel Prize laureate, in Reykjavik

  [April 24], 1902 (Thursday)

• Died: Lavinia Veiongo, 23, queen consort of Tonga, from tuberculosis

  [April 25], 1902 (Friday)

• Born: Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist and war criminal, in Forst
• Died: Agostino Riboldi, 63, Roman Catholic cardinal and Archbishop of Ravenna

  [April 26], 1902 (Saturday)

• Hibernian F.C. won the Scottish Cup 1–0 against Celtic of Glasgow. They would not win the competition again until 2016.
• The 1902 FA Cup Final was replayed at Crystal Palace, in London. Sheffield United defeated Southampton 2-1. After the game, the Sheffield goalkeeper, William "Fatty" Foulke, protested that the equalizing goal should have been disallowed, and attempted to attack the referee, Tom Kirkham.

  [April 27], 1902 (Sunday)

• Voting took place in the first round of France's Legislative Election.
• Died: J. Sterling Morton, 70, Nebraska newspaper editor who lobbied for the creation of Arbor Day, first celebrated on April 10, 1972.

  [April 28], 1902 (Monday)

• Four officers of USS Chicago were sentenced to short jail terms in an Italian jail for creating a disturbance in Venice.
• Born: Johan Borgen, Norwegian author, in Oslo

  [April 29], 1902 (Tuesday)

• Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer was chosen as the new leader of Britain's Liberal Party
• UK Conservative MP James Kenyon resigned his seat in the House of Commons, using the procedural device of becoming Steward of the Manor of Northstead. This necessitated a by-election the following month in his constituency of Bury.
• Altos Hornos de Vizcaya was founded in Spain, as predecessor of world largest steel product, ArcelorMittal.

  [April 30], 1902 (Wednesday)

• Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande received its premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, with Jean Périer in the role of Pelléas and Mary Garden as Mélisande. André Messager was the conductor.
• Meteorological statistics show that, averaged over the whole of Australia, April 1902 was the driest month since records began, with only.
• Born: Theodore Schultz, American economist and Nobel Prize laureate, in Evanston, Illinois