1904
Leeds University was established.
J M Barrie wrote Peter Pan.
Puccini wrote Madame Butterfly.
The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier.
At the World Fair held in St. Louis in 1904 during the summer months, a
concessionaire by name Richard Blechynden, unable to sell hot tea on a steamy
day, dumped some ice cubes into the can of tea and sold it as iced tea. People,
we are told, loved it and a new beverage was born!
1905
Best sellers in 1905 were - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Return of Sherlock
Holmes and Baroness Emmusca Orczy (Hungarian-born English novelist) The
Scarlet Pimpernel.
Invented in 1905 - Intelligence tests, by French scientist Alfred Binet.
In 1905 a 113 square meter (1250 sq ft), plot on Wall Street, New York City, was
sold for $700,000.
Published in 1905 - Edith Wharton The House of Mirth - E M Forster
Where Angels Fear to Tread.
Published in 1905 - George Santayana The Life of Reason.
The 'Aliens Act in Britain' came into force. The Home Office controls
immigration.
Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship.
Picasso began his Pink Period in Paris.
Lehar wrote The Merry Widow.
Debussy wrote La Mer.
Las Vegas, Nevada, was founded.
Popular songs included Sweet Adeline, In My Merry Oldsmobile, Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis, and Bill
Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home.
1906
Free school meals for poor children were set-up.
HMS Dreadnought was launched, the first turbine-driven battleship.
Freud and Jung began their association.
Amundsen traversed the north-west passage.
HW Fowler wrote The King's English.
The first US federal penitentiary building was completed at Leavenworth, Kansas
in this year.
The first holiday camp opened this year at Caister-on-sea in Norfolk. Dodd's
Socialist Holiday Camp, offering a taste of 'the healthy life' to working class
families.
1907
The school medical system began.
New Zealand became a Dominion.
The Imperial College, London, was established.
The first airship flew over London.
Diaghilev began to popularize ballet.
First Cubist exhibition in Paris took place.
Mahler wrote Symphony No.8.
1908
The 'Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain' limited men to an eight hour day.
Separate courts for juveniles were established in Britain.
Lord Baden-Powell started the Boy Scout movement.
Henry Ford's first 'Model T' Ford rolled off the production line.
Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows.
1909
Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour exchanges.
The first commercial manufacture of Bakelite happened, heralding the start of the
plastic age.
The first US federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium) was enacted in
1909.
1910
In 1910, Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian artist, completed what is thought to be the
first purely abstract painting in modern art, Improvisation XIV. Kandinsky who
turned to art at the age of 30, after earning degrees in law and economics in
Russia, used colors and shapes to invent a pictorial equivalent of music.
Kandinsky built upon the techniques of artists such as Van Gogh and Matisse who
'liberated' color by, for example, painting grass red. He wanted to free
painting from the depiction of objects so that it could better express ideas and
evoke deep emotion. In fact, he warned that abstract art for the sake of
abstraction could become just decoration or patterns, 'like a necktie or a
carpet.' Kandinsky led the Russian avant-garde after the 1917 Russian Revolution
There was a constitutional crisis in Britain.
A railway strike and coal strikes brought Britain to a standstill.
The Union of South Africa was formed with Botha as the first Prime Minister.
Dr Crippen was caught by radio telegraphy.
Halley's comet reappeared in this year.
The Tango became popular in North America and Europe.
Stravinsky wrote The Fire Bird.