So...what WAS everyone doing in 1911?
[This isn't complete yet--I got a late start but will add more in the coming days. Consider it under construction.]
Welcome to 2011! And the best way to do that, of course, is to take a look back at 1911. So far we have Important Events of 1911, Famous People Born in 1911, and Prices in 1911.
Important Events of 1911 Let's get things started with a select list of events that happened in 1911. By select, I mean that I didn't include the founding of every school, important moments in cricket, the passing of obscure laws. There's plenty of more exciting things to look at, trust me. (My commentary, when I have something to say, is in parentheses.)
January 1 – Northern Territory is politically separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control. (Not particularly exciting, but I had to have something on January 1, right?)
January 3 – In London, in what becomes known as the Siege of Sidney Street, the Metropolitan Police and the Scots Guards engage in a shootout with a criminal gang of Latvian anarchists held up in a building in the East End. (I worked on a project where I had to do a lot of research about Latvia, so I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for all things Latvian. Even anarchists.)
January 21 - The first Monte Carlo races (Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo) are held.
January 26 – Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane, from the Pacific Ocean to San Diego and back.
January 30 - The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea, saving the life of John McCurdy 10 miles (16 km) from Havana, Cuba.
Did this couple last beyond 1911?
February 18 – The first official air mail flight takes place from Allahabad, India to Naini, India, when Henri Pequet carries 6,500 letters a distance of 13 km. (As you may have noticed, this is a big year for aviation.)
March 25 – A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City kills 146.
March 29 – The United States Army formally adopts the M1911 pistol as its standard sidearm, thus giving the gun its 1911 designation.
April 12 – Pierre Prier completed the first non-stop London-Paris flight in three hours and 56 minutes (And people today complain about slow transportation.)
April 27 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate. (That's one of those jobs that sounds a lot more fun than it really is, I'm sure.)
April 30 – Sparks from a burning hayshed ignite the Great Fire of 1911, destroying much of downtown Bangor, Maine. (Never fear, Bngor has risen again, in all its glory.)
May 15 – The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
May 23 - New York Public Library dedication ceremony held. (A hearty cry of "Shh!" greeted the partiers.)
May 30 – The first Indianapolis 500-mile auto race is run. The winner is Ray Harroun in the Marmon 'Wasp.' (It also appears to be a good year for racing history.)
May 31 – The hull of the White Star Line's new flagship, Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast. (Oh dear.)
June 5 – Charles F. Kettering files US patent 1,150,523, for an electric starter. (I don't know what this means, but it sounds good.)
June 7 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City just after a local earthquake.
June 15 – IBM is incorporated as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York. (
June 16 - A 772-gram stony meteorite strikes earth in Columbia County, Wisconsin near the village of Kilbourn, damaging a barn. (Dang it! Barn trouble again.)
June 22 – George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck are crowned at Westminster Abbey, London. (Glad to meet you, Mr. V, Mrs. V.)
June 28 – The Nakhla meteorite (from Mars) lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog. (I am suddenly very angry at Mars.)
July 21 – Denise Moore (aka Jane Wright) becomes the first woman & woman pilot to be killed in an airplane crash at Etampes France
July 24 – Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu. (That is on my list of places to go.)
August 22 – The theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered in the Louvre (Vincenzo Peruggia is captured and the painting returned in 1913).
September 7 – French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum. He is later released.
September 25 - Groundbreaking for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, begins. (Well, that's a shame.)
September 29 – Italy declares war on Ottoman Empire. (Italy's plan to eradicate footstools from Europe did not go as planned.)
October 7 – Outlaw Elmer McCurdy and "associates" are chased after trying to rob a train in Oklahoma. McCurdy on the run is eventually hunted down and shot by authorities. His body is never claimed and later is chemically petrified. Afterwards his remains serve as sideshow attractions in carnivals until 1976 when they are diagnosed by forensic experts to be McCurdy. McCurdy's body is finally buried in 1976 after a 65 year Odyssey to the grave. (I'm not sure I would have paid anything to see the remains of Elmer McCurdy at a carnival. I only fork out cash for big name, petrified, dead outlaws.)
October 10 - The Wuchang Uprising starts the Xinhai Revolution that leads to the founding of the Republic of China.
October 18 – Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrow China's Qing Dynasty.
October 24 – Orville Wright remains in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, setting a new world record that stands for 10 years. [1]
November 11 - A record cold snap hits the United States Midwest; many cities break record highs and lows on the same day (see The 11/11/11 cold wave). (I would not like to see this repeated for 100rh anniversary celebrations.)
December 12 – The capital of India is shifted to New Delhi from Calcutta (now Kolkata).
December 14 – Roald Amundsen's expedition reaches the South Pole. (Umm...could someone contact that Scott fellow?)
December 23 – Stanislavski and Craig's seminal production of Hamlet opens at the Moscow Arts Theatre.
December 29 – Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China. (Now that's a way to end a year.)
Ongoing/Undated - The Mexican Revolution continues...the legendary 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is published.
I suspect this 1911 cover girl is more concerned with her large hat than the new Encyclopedia Britannica.
Famous People Born in 1911 Lots of interesting people were born in 1911. Good job, stars that aligned in 1911! Again, though, a select list of names that interested me, so sorry, business executives, boring politicians, and soccer coaches.
January 1 – Hank Greenberg, American baseball player (d. 1986)
January 3 – John Sturges, American film director (d. 1982)
January 5 – Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (d. 2001)
January 7 – Butterfly McQueen, American actress (d. 1995)
January 20 – Wendell J. Westcott, American carillonneur (d. 2010) (This one makes the cut because I don't know what a carillonneur is.)
January 22 – Mary Hayley Bell, English dramatist, wife of Sir John Mills (d 2005)
February 6 – Ronald Reagan, actor and 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
February 8 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (d. 1979)
February 11 – Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Carroll Daly), fifth president of Ireland (d. 1978)
February 13 – Jean Muir, American actress (d. 1996)
February 14 – Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch inventor of hemodialysis (d. 2009)
February 14 – Eduardo Serrano, Venezuelan musician and composer (d. 2008)
February 19 – Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979)
March 3 – Jean Harlow, American actress (d. 1937)
March 13 - L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction author and founder of Scientology (d. 1986)
March 24 - Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (d. 2006)
March 25 – Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)
March 26 - Tennessee Williams, American playwright (A Streetcar Named Desire) (d. 1983)
April 3 – Michael Woodruff, British/Australian pioneering transplant surgeon (d. 2001)
April 13 – William Tuttle, American makeup artist (d. 2007)
May 8 – Robert Johnson, American guitarist and singer (d. 1938)
May 10 – Bel Kaufman, German-born American author
May 17 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (d. 1998)
May 18 – Big Joe Turner, American singer (d. 1985)
May 27 - Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President and Senator (d. 1978)
May 27 - Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
June 26 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete and golfer (d. 1956)
June 29 - Bernard Herrmann, American composer (d. 1975)
July 4 - Mitch Miller, American singer and television personality (d. 2010)
July 5 – Georges Pompidou, President of France (d. 1974)
July 6 – LaVerne Andrews, member of the 1940s Big Band/Swing group The Andrews Sisters (d. 1967)
July 7 – Gian-Carlo Menotti, Italian-born American composer (d. 2007)
July 9 - Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (d. 1968)
July 16 - Ginger Rogers, American actress (d. 1995)
July 18 – Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (d. 2003)
July 21 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)
August 6 - Lucille Ball, American actress (I Love Lucy) (d. 1989)
August 9 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
September 19 – William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
October 26 – Sid Gillman, American football coach (d. 2003)
October 27 – Leif Erickson, American actor (The High Chaparral) (d. 1986)
October 30 – Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)
November 5 – Roy Rogers, American singer and actor (d. 1998)
November 13 – Buck O'Neil, American baseball player and manager (d. 2006)
November 27 - David Merrick, American theater producer (d. 2000)
December 5 – Wladyslaw Szpilman, Polish pianist and memoirist, whose story is told in the movie The Pianist (d. 2000)
December 8 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)
December 11 - Val Guest, British film director (d. 2006)
December 11 - Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
December 18 – Jules Dassin, American director (d. 2008)
December 21 – Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player (d. 1947)
December 25 – Louise Bourgeois, French-born American artist (d. 2010)
December 26 – Arsenio Lacson, Filipino politician and sportswriter (d. 1962)
December 27 – Anna Russell, British comedian and singer (d. 2006)
December 30 – Jeanette Nolan, American actress (d. 1998)
If I had lived in 1911, I would definitely have checked this book out of the library. I still want to read it today.
Prices in 1911, courtesy of my beloved Morris County Library.
Automobiles
New
None advertised
Used
Cadillac Touring car, no year indicated, 75.00
Clothing
Boy's suit, shadow weave, 16.00/each
Girl's coat, 7.50/each
Girl's dress, Wanamaker's, trimmed with lace and embroidery, 1.75-3.00/each
Hat, Salny Brothers, derby or soft style, 1.95/each
Men's necktie, Wanmaker's, pure silk, .65/each
Men's overcoat, Smith Gray & Co., 15.00/each
Men's shirt, .50-1.50/each
Men's smoking jacket, 3.50-7.50/each
Men's suit, 12.95-20.00/each
Women's blouse, macrame lace & silk, 6.95/each
Women's coat, fur, 42.50-67.50/each
Women's dress, serge, 5.98/each
Women's fur muff, racoon, 12.50/each
Women's handbags, suede leather, 1.00-3.50/each
Women's suit, tailored, tweed, 10.75/each
Women's raincoat, Wanamaker's, 6.75/each
Food & beverages
Apples, .20/gallon can
Beef, chopped, .25/3 lbs
Beef, chuck roast, .10/lb
Butter, Fancy Table Quality, .31/lb
Candy, mixed, .15-.40/lb
Cereal, Hominy, .15/5 lb box
Cherries, Maraschino, .69/quart bottle
Chicken, roasting, .18/lb
Corn, fancy, .25/3 cans
Crackers, Nabisco, Uneeda, .10/2 pkgs
Eggs, .23/dozen
Fish, herring, .25/3 tins
Flour, White Rose, .74/24.5 lb bag
Fruit cup, .23/lb
Ham, sugar cured, .15/lb
Margarine, Butterine, .23-.31/lb
Milk, Clover brand, .09/container
Mincemeat, Libby's .12/lb
Oats, Quaker, .09/pkg
Oranges, Florida, .19/dozen
Peas, Fancy Sweet, .25/2 cans
Pork loin, .15/lb
Potatoes, fanciest Maine, .55/half bushel barrel
Raisins or currants, .12/pkg
Soup, Campbell's, .25/3 cans
Sugar, .20/3.5 lbs
Tea, Viceroy, .25/half pound
Tomaotes, .29/gallon can
Turkey, .22/lb
Furniture
Bed, brass, 20.95/each
Bed, enameled, 8.00/each
Chair, Morris style, golden oak with removable tufted cushions, 4.69/each
Chair, rocker, mahogany, .3.49/each
Dresser, oak, French beveled mirror, 3 drawers, 7.24/each
Music cabinet, mahogany, 5.49/each
Parlor suite, 3 piece, highly polished mahogany, 27.89/each
Rug, 27" X 54", 1.89/each
Setee, leather, 200.00-245.00/each
Table, oak extension, 9.74/each
Household & seasonal goods
Bread mixer, 2.00-2.50/each
Carpet sweeper, Bissell, 1.79/each
Chafing dish set, 10.00/set
Christmas tree holders, .29-.75/each
Clothes ringer, 3.50-5.50/each
Curtains, French net, 2.49-4.50/pair
Food chopper, .98-2.75/each
Matches, .10/3 large boxes
Scissors, .25-.90/pair
Sheets, 72" X 90", .34-.49/each
Starch, .07/2 lbs
Washing machine, 7.00-10.00/each
Window shades, .08/each
Personal care & health
Hair brush, .10-.49/each
Perfume, Arario, 1.50/bottle
Razor, 1.00-2.49/each
Razor strop, .24-1.00/each
Soap, Swift's Pride, .25/8 cakes
Real estate
Houses for sale
none advertised
Houses for rent
6 rooms, modern bath, steam heat, 25.00/month
6 rooms, near train station, 16.00/month
Apartments & rooms
5 rooms, first floor, 15.00/month
7 rooms, Washington Street, 12.00/month
Recreation & amusements
Piano, Llwellyn, 200.00/each
Victrola, oak, full-sized cabinet, 200.00/each
Tobacco & alcohol
None advertised
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