At a reunion to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, more than fifty thousand (53,407)[1] surviving veterans of the Union and Confederate armies assembled at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to set up tents.[2] Eight of the aged veterans had died by the time President Wilson's speech to the gathering.[3] The reunion ended on July 6.[4][5]
American jewelers began the use of the metric carat as the standard for weighing of gemstones and pearls, with a carat being equal to 200 milligrams. The unit was slightly less than the English carat of 205.3035 milligrams.[12]
Wall Streetcon manDavid Lamar testified before a United States Senate subcommittee that he had frequently impersonated Congressmen during telephone conversations in order to gain an advantage.[19][20] The United States Department of Justice reluctantly concluded that there was no federal law under which Lamar could be prosecuted.[21] Although federal law made it a felony "to impersonate an officer of the United States," the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that members of Congress were "not officers of the United States, but of the particular States from which they come."[22]
Upon recommendation of the city Board of Health, the city of Cincinnati seized control of eight ice plants whose workers had gone on strike during the hot summer.[23] The strike settled four days later.[24]
American race car driver Harry Knight was killed along with his mechanic Milton McAllis when their car blew a tire during a race in Columbus, Ohio and rolled over twice.[34]
Three days of rioting by miners in the Rand District of South Africa halted after the government agreed to bring legislation for improvement of working conditions. The night before, Johannesburg police had fired their guns into a crowd of protesters who ignored orders to disperse, killing 40.[36]
Trainmen and conductors of most of the railroads in the eastern United States voted 72,473 to 4,210 in favor of going on strike for higher wages, tying up the nation's commerce and travel.[42]
The Welsh Disestablishment Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons and was sent to the House of Lords for consideration.[5]
British yacht Vivid ran aground and wrecked at the island of Colonsay off the coast of Scotland while en route from Glasgow to Stornoway on her maiden voyage as a civilian training ship.[43]
Pearl Curran, a St. Louis housewife who was experimenting with an Ouija board, began reporting the communications of "Patience Worth," whom Curran said had been an Englishwoman who had lived in Dorset more than 200 years earlier, during the 17th century, and had been killed by Indians after crossing the ocean to America. For the next 24 years, until her death in 1937, Mrs. Curran would publish novels and poems attributed to her communications with Patience Worth.[44]
This afternoon, the United States Weather Bureau recorded the highest ever ambient air temperature of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Greenland Ranch (modern-day Furnace Creek) in Death Valley.[45] The record's validity was later challenged, and in 2020 a temperature of 54.4 °C (129.9 °F) was recorded at the same location, making it the world's highest verified air temperature, subject to confirmation.[46]
The Jiangxi province declared its independence from China, and the provincial assembly authorized Li Lieh-chun to lead a fight against the national government.[48]
French aviator Léon Letort set a new record for nonstop flight, exceeding 500 miles and finishing at 590 miles upon landing in Berlin after setting off from Paris nine hours earlier[58]
Two weeks after the start of the Second Balkan War between Romania and Bulgaria, the first of more than 11,500 within the Romanian Army was diagnosed. The epidemic would kill more than 1,600 soldiers and officers, while relatively few Romanians would die in combat.[59]
A nationwide strike of railroad employees was averted by negotiations at the White House, which included U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Congressional leaders and the Secretary of Labor, as well as representatives of the railroads and the workers' unions. Management and labor settled their differences in light of an understanding that United States Congress would approve an amendment of the Erdman Arbitration Act. Passage of the bill and its signing into law were accomplished the next day.[60]
As expected, Great Britain's House of Lords voted against approval of the Irish Home Rule bill, for the second time, by a majority of 238. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith announced that his government would present a plan for abolition of the House of Lords at the next session of Parliament.[64] The bill would finally become law on September 18, 1914, after passing under the terms of the Parliament Act on May 25 of that year.[65]
China's President Yuan Shikai asked Prime Minister Zhao Bingjun to resign, then appointed him to the Beijing police to guide a campaign against Yuan's opponents.[67]
A rebellion broke out in the Sichuan province of the Republic of China, with Tsen Chun-hsuan being declared president.[71]
As troops from Romania advanced to within thirty miles of Sofia, King Ferdinand sent an appeal to King Carol of Romania, asking for a ceasefire and discussion of terms of peace.[72][73]
China's President Yuan Shikai declared martial law nationwide as the southern provinces continued their rebellion.[85] On the same day, former President Sun Yat-sen released a statement to the media, calling for Yuan's resignation.[86]
Fifty people, mostly women and girls, were killed in a fire at the Binghamton Clothing Company factory in Binghamton, New York. Although an alarm system had been installed two months earlier by state law, it was believed that there had been so many fire drills that "recent familiarity with fire drills had led the workers to become almost indifferent to alarms," the girls were slow in evacuating the second and third floors, and were trapped by the swiftly moving fire. Firefighters were also led four blocks off course by a bystander who stood at the corner and rang an alarm.[88]
Copper miners in Michigan walked off of their jobs in a strike called by the Western Federation of Miners, with the goal of winning an eight-hour workday without a cut in pay. The strike would last for more than eight months, until April 12, 1914, without the miners receiving the shorter day. During that time, 73 people, consisting of striking miners and their families would die in the Italian Hall disaster on December 24, 1913.[91]
William F. Cody, better known by his stage name Buffalo Bill, auctioned off the assets of the Buffalo Bill's Wild West show that he had operated since May 19, 1883. The public auction followed Cody's loss of nearly one million dollars in attempts to mine gold in Arizona.[93]
The Washington Senators and the St. Louis Browns (now the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles, respectively) played to an 8-8 tie after their game went 15 innings until ended because of darkness. Walter Johnson set a record for a relief pitcher, throwing 15 strikeouts.[citation needed]Carl Weilman of the Browns became the first player to strike out six times in one game, in every single one of his times at bat.[citation needed] Walter Johnson's record would be broken 88 years later, by Randy Johnson on July 19, 2001.[citation needed]
Romania halted its armies to within ten miles of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, at the request of Bulgaria's Foreign Minister and an assurance of a favorable settlement.[71]
British soldiers, who had been sent to monitor the Ulster Volunteers, fired into a crowd of Irish protesters in Dublin, killing three and wounding 38.[98]
In an action that made headlines around the world, Dr. Rosalie M. Ladova, a prominent Chicago physician, made an unsuccessful attempt to challenge the American social mores of the time, when she discarded the "bathing skirt" that female swimmers were required to wear in addition to the bloomers that covered their legs. Police arrested Dr. Ladova at the beach at Jackson Park on Lake Michigan and charged her with obscenity.[100] After seeing the newspaper photographs the next day of Dr. Cordova's blouse and bloomers swimwear, Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. declared that "No woman should think of wearing that kind of costume" at a beach, and directed the city police to "gently but firmly insist upon the lady putting on proper costumes."[101] The "skin-tight" bathing suit had long been accepted in Britain for both men and women.[102] After Dr. Ladova's daring experiment, almost eight years would pass before the taboo was discarded in the United States, with Mayor Robert Crissye of the city of Somers Point, New Jersey, inviting women "to bathe on his city's beaches barelegged and in a one-piece suit," in the style of Australian swimmer Annette Kellermann.[103]
The trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, on charges of the murder of Mary Phagan, began in Atlanta. Because of the heat, the windows in the Fulton County courthouse were kept open, giving the opportunity for the mob outside to influence the trial's outcome, although the Supreme Court of the United States would later rule, in 1915, that Frank's due process rights had not been prejudiced by the circumstances.[107]
At a conference of the ambassadors to London of the six "Great Powers" (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom), it was agreed that an international commission would govern Albania until a monarch could be chosen, and boundaries were set for the new nation. The seven-member International Control Commission, composed of one representative each from each of the Great Powers, and Albania, was to govern the country for ten years. In March, Prince Wilhelm zu Wied would be selected as King of Albania under the ICC's authority, but the Commission dissolved after its members went to war against each other.[108]
The Anglo-Ottoman Convention was signed between the British and Ottoman Empires, as the "Convention relating to the Persian Gulf and surrounding territories". However, the convention was never ratified and became a moot point in 1914 when World War I began.[109]
Seven spectators at a motorcycle race in Cincinnati were killed and 18 seriously injured, when racer Odin Johnson lost control of his cycle while competing at the Lagoon Motordrome and crashed into a light pole, showering 35 people with flaming gasoline.[114]
Great Britain announced that it would not participate in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, and was followed within the next two days by Germany and Russia, with news editorials saying "it is regarded as Great Britain's way of intimating that she still resents the course of the United States in regard to the [Panama] canal tolls."[115]
In the largest demonstration for women's suffrage in the United States up to that time, a motorcade of sixty automobiles traveled from Hyattsville, Maryland to the United States Capitol to present the United States Senate with petitions bearing 200,000 signatures of persons favoring an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to allow women to vote.[117] On May 9, 1915, petitions with 500,000 signatures would be presented, and on October 27, 1917, one million.[118]
The Second Opium Conference was convened, at The Hague, in order to take up the matter of the remaining 12 of 46 nations that had not signed. The Conference would end after eight days.[119]
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^Telford, Fred (December 1913). "Everyday Uses of the Metric System". Popular Mechanics: 845.
^Riley, Michael O. (1997). Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum. p. 171. ISBN0-7006-0832-X.
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^Klinkner, Philip A.; Smith, Rogers M. (2002). The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America. University of Chicago Press. p. 110.
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^McMullin, Ross (1991). The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891–1991. Oxford University Press. p. 89.
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^Bridger, Bobby (2002). Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West. University of Texas Press. pp. 9–10.
^"Thrown out by Lords- Another Government Bill, That to Abolish Plural Voting, Defeated". New York Times. July 25, 1913.
^Sterling, Christopher H.; et al. (2006). Shaping American Telecommunications: A History of Technology, Policy, And Economics. Taylor & Francis. pp. 80–81.
^"Austria Demands End of Bloodshed- Warns Servians and Greeks That Mercy Must Be Shown Bulgaria". New York Times. July 26, 1913.
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