1906

Events in 1906 60

• 1820 – 1906 Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) Died 13 March 1906, aged 86 The American women's suffrage leader died in Rochester, New York, fourteen years before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment she had spent her life campaigning for. She co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and became one of the most recognized symbols of the movement for women's voting rights.
• 1828 – 1906 Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Died 23 May 1906, aged 78 The Norwegian playwright, author of A Doll's House, Ghosts, and Hedda Gabler, died in Christiania (now Oslo) after a series of strokes. Widely regarded as the father of modern realistic drama, his work transformed European theatre by addressing social issues previously considered unsuitable for the stage.
• 1839 – 1906 Paul Cézanne Post-Impressionism · France Paul Cézanne (January 19, 1839 – October 22, 1906) was a French Post-Impressionist whose geometric approach to form and colour became the bridge between 19th-century Impressionism and 20th-century Cubism. Picasso called him the father of us all.
• 1853 – 1906 Stanford White (1853-1906) Died 25 June 1906, aged 52 The prominent American architect, designer of Madison Square Garden and other New York landmarks, was shot and killed by millionaire Harry Thaw during a rooftop show at the Garden. The killing, driven by Thaw's jealousy over his wife's earlier relationship with White, led to a sensational murder trial later dubbed the Trial of the Century.
• 1859 – 1906 Pierre Curie (1859-1906) Died 19 April 1906, aged 46 The French physicist, who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife Marie Curie and Henri Becquerel for research on radioactivity, was killed instantly when he slipped and was run over by a horse-drawn cart on a Paris street. His death cut short one of the most productive partnerships in the history of science.
• 1905 – 1906 The Schlieffen Plan A memorandum that outlived its author Alfred von Schlieffen, retiring as Chief of the German General Staff, leaves a memorandum on how Germany might win a war on two fronts: hold in the east, swing an overwhelmingly heavy right wing through Belgium, envelop Paris, then turn round. It assumes a fixed timetable, a violated neutrality and a France that obliges. Historians still argue over how far the 1914 deployment really followed it, but the habit of thinking of war as a schedule that must start on time is a large part of why 1914 could not be stopped.
• 1906 Archimedes Palimpsest rediscovered A medieval prayer book hides the lost Method of Mechanical Theorems In 1906, Danish scholar Johan Ludvig Heiberg, working in Constantinople, identified a medieval prayer book (c.1229) as a palimpsest — a manuscript whose original text had been scraped off and overwritten. Beneath the prayers, he could still read several works of Archimedes including the previously unknown Method of Mechanical Theorems. The discovery revealed for the first time how Archimedes actually discovered his results — using a technique essentially identical to integral calculus. The palimpsest resurfaced at a Christie's auction in New York in 1998 and was acquired by a private collector who allowed it to be scientifically studied. Imaging technology (1999–2008) recovered nearly all of the text.
• 1906 – 1975 Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975) Died 15 March 1975, aged 69 Aristotle Onassis built one of the world's largest shipping fortunes and became one of the wealthiest men of his era. He was widely known for his 1968 marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of President John F. Kennedy. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, after a long illness.
• 1906 – 1947 Bugsy Siegel (1906-1947) Died 20 June 1947, aged 41 Bugsy Siegel was an American mobster who played a central part in developing the Las Vegas Strip. He opened the Flamingo Hotel in 1946. He was shot dead at his girlfriend's home in Beverly Hills.
• 1906 – 1931 Chandra Shekhar Azad (1906-1931) Died 27 February 1931, aged 24 Indian revolutionary and a leader of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was surrounded by police in Alfred Park, Allahabad. He shot himself with his last bullet rather than be captured.
• 1906 Constitutional Revolution Iran's first parliament and constitution The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 compelled the Qajar shah to grant a constitution and establish the Majlis (parliament) — the first in the Middle East. It marked the beginning of modern, participatory politics in Iran, though the gains were repeatedly contested in the decades that followed.
• 1906 – 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) Died 9 April 1945, aged 38 Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran theologian and vocal opponent of Nazism who was implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was executed by hanging at Flossenbürg concentration camp weeks before the camp was liberated. His theological writings on faith and resistance remain widely influential.
• 1906 – 1975 Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1906-1975) Died 25 March 1975, aged 68 King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was shot by his nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musaid, during a royal audience in Riyadh. He had ruled Saudi Arabia since 1964 and led the 1973 oil embargo against nations supporting Israel. His half-brother Khalid succeeded him as king.
• 1906 – 1975 Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) Died 4 December 1975, aged 69 Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political theorist known for her writings on totalitarianism, including "The Origins of Totalitarianism" and "Eichmann in Jerusalem." She fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and became one of the twentieth century's most influential political philosophers. She died in New York City.
• 1906 – 1975 Josephine Baker (1906-1975) Died 12 April 1975, aged 68 Josephine Baker was an American-born French entertainer who rose to fame in Paris in the 1920s and later worked with the French Resistance during World War II. She was also a prominent civil rights activist. She died days after a triumphant return to the Paris stage celebrating her 50-year career.
• 1906 – 1959 Lou Costello (1906-1959) Died 3 March 1959, aged 52 Costello was one half of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello, famous for the routine "Who's on First?" The pair were among the most popular entertainers in American film and radio during the 1940s. Costello died of a heart attack shortly before his 53rd birthday.
• 1906 – 1944 Missak Manouchian (1906-1944) Died 21 February 1944, aged 37 Armenian poet and survivor of the Armenian genocide who led a French Resistance group of immigrant fighters in Paris. He and his comrades were captured and shot at Mont-Valérien, after being denounced in the Nazi Affiche Rouge poster. He was inducted into the Panthéon in 2024.
• 1906 – 1947 Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten (1906-1947) Died 26 January 1947, aged 40 Prince Gustaf Adolf was second in line to the Swedish throne and the father of the future King Carl XVI Gustaf. He was killed in an air crash at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. The American singer Grace Moore also died in the crash.
• 1906 – 1936 Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) Died 11 June 1936, aged 30 Robert E. Howard was an American pulp writer who created Conan the Barbarian. He was a founder of the sword and sorcery genre. He wrote for Weird Tales alongside H. P. Lovecraft.
• 1906 San Francisco earthquake San Francisco earthquake An earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.9 struck San Francisco on 18 April 1906, rupturing nearly 500 kilometres of the San Andreas Fault. Fires burned for three days and destroyed most of the city; around 3,000 people died and more than half the population was left homeless. The disaster drove the scientific study of fault behaviour and earthquake-resistant building.
• 1906 San Francisco quake City destroyed by fire The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires killed over 3,000 people and destroyed 80% of the city — one of the deadliest US disasters.
• 1906 – 1946 William Joyce (1906-1946) Died 3 January 1946, aged 39 Joyce was a British fascist better known as "Lord Haw-Haw", the sardonic voice of Nazi propaganda broadcasts to Britain during the Second World War. He was convicted of high treason and hanged at Wandsworth Prison in London.
• 1906 – 1964 William Bendix (1906-1964) American actor known for tough-guy roles and as Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley.
• 1906 Algeciras Conference concludes European powers settle the First Moroccan Crisis Representatives of the major European powers met in Algeciras, Spain, to resolve the dispute over French and German influence in Morocco. The conference affirmed Moroccan sovereignty in name while confirming French and Spanish policing rights, easing tensions that had pushed France and Germany toward war.
• 1906 Bambatha Rebellion breaks out Zulu-led uprising against poll tax crushed in Natal Chief Bambatha kaMancinza led an armed uprising among Zulu communities in the British colony of Natal against a newly imposed poll tax. Colonial forces crushed the rebellion within months, killing several thousand Africans in one of the last major armed uprisings against colonial rule in southern Africa.
• 1906 – 1988 John Carradine (1906-1988) Died 27 November 1988, aged 82 John Carradine was an American character actor who appeared in more than 340 films across six decades, including Stagecoach and The Grapes of Wrath. He was a founding patriarch of the Carradine acting family. He continued working in film until shortly before his death.
• 1906 HMS Dreadnought launched Revolutionary battleship ushers in a new naval arms race The Royal Navy launched HMS Dreadnought at Portsmouth, a battleship whose all-big-gun armament and steam turbine propulsion made every existing capital ship obsolete. Her design triggered an international naval arms race, particularly between Britain and Germany, and gave her name to a new class of warship.
• 1906 – 1973 Lon Chaney Jr. (1906-1973) American actor, son of Lon Chaney, who played the Wolf Man and nearly every Universal monster.
• 1906 – 1987 Madeleine Carroll (1906-1987) English actress, Hitchcock's first great blonde in The 39 Steps, who gave up film to nurse wounded soldiers.
• 1906 Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle Novel exposing meatpacking conditions spurs US food safety laws Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle depicted the brutal conditions faced by immigrant workers in Chicago's meatpacking industry and the unsanitary practices behind American food production. Public outrage over the book helped drive passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act later that year.
• 1906 Courrieres mine disaster Coal-dust explosion kills over 1,000 miners in northern France An underground explosion at the Courrieres coal mine in Pas-de-Calais killed 1,099 miners, making it the worst mining disaster in European history. The catastrophe prompted a wave of strikes and led to reforms in French mine safety regulation.
• 1906 Mount Vesuvius erupts Major eruption devastates towns near Naples Mount Vesuvius produced its most powerful eruption since 1872, sending lava flows through the town of Boscotrecase and collapsing the roof of Ottaviano's market under heavy ash, killing over 100 people. The eruption disrupted the region for weeks and remains one of the volcano's most destructive events since Pompeii.
• 1906 Azusa Street Revival begins Los Angeles meetings give rise to modern Pentecostalism A series of ecstatic religious meetings led by preacher William J. Seymour began at a former livery stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The revival, marked by speaking in tongues and racially integrated worship unusual for the era, is widely credited with launching the global Pentecostal movement.
• 1906 – 1989 Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Died 22 December 1989, aged 83 Samuel Beckett was an Irish playwright and novelist best known for Waiting for Godot, a landmark of absurdist theatre. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. His minimalist style profoundly influenced twentieth-century drama.
• 1906 – 1978 Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) Died 14 January 1978, aged 71 Gödel was one of the most significant logicians in history, best known for his incompleteness theorems proving inherent limits to formal mathematical systems. He died in Princeton, New Jersey, of self-starvation brought on by paranoid delusions.
• 1906 – 1987 Mary Astor (1906-1987) American actress, a silent-film beauty who became famous as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon.
• 1906 Russia's First State Duma convenes Russian Empire holds its first elected parliament Following the 1905 Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II convened Russia's first elected legislative assembly, the State Duma, in the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg. Dominated by liberal and reformist deputies who clashed with the autocracy, the Duma was dissolved by the Tsar after just 72 days.
• 1906 Simplon Tunnel opens World's longest rail tunnel links Switzerland and Italy The Simplon Tunnel, boring nearly 20 kilometers through the Alps between Brig, Switzerland, and Iselle, Italy, opened to traffic as the longest railway tunnel in the world. It remained the world's longest tunnel for over half a century.
• 1906 Finland grants women full political rights Grand Duchy becomes the first in Europe to give women the vote and right to stand The Finnish Diet approved a sweeping parliamentary reform that replaced the old four-estate assembly with a unicameral parliament elected by universal and equal suffrage, including women. Finland became the first country in Europe to grant women both the right to vote and the right to stand as candidates.
• 1906 Bombing at Alfonso XIII's wedding Anarchist attack kills bystanders in Madrid on the king's wedding day As King Alfonso XIII and his bride Victoria Eugenie rode through Madrid after their wedding, anarchist Mateu Morral threw a bomb concealed in a bouquet at their carriage. The royal couple survived uninjured, but around thirty bystanders and horses were killed in the blast.
• 1906 – 2002 Billy Wilder (1906-2002) Died 27 March 2002, aged 95 Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born writer-director who fled Nazi Germany and became one of Hollywood's sharpest talents. His films spanned film noir, drama and comedy, including Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. He won six Academy Awards and was known for acid wit on screen and off.
• 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act signed United States creates federal oversight of food and medicine safety President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act, prohibiting the interstate sale of adulterated or mislabeled food and drugs. Passed alongside the Meat Inspection Act amid public outcry over unsanitary conditions exposed by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, it laid the groundwork for the Food and Drug Administration.
• 1906 – 1972 George Sanders (1906-1972) British actor known for suave villains and cads, winner of an Oscar for All About Eve.
• 1906 – 1982 Satchel Paige (1906-1982) Died 8 June 1982, aged 75 American baseball pitcher and Negro leagues legend who became the oldest rookie in Major League Baseball history. He died in Kansas City, Missouri.
• 1906 – 1935 Thelma Todd (1906-1935) American comedian, a foil for the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy.
• 1906 – 1987 John Huston (1906-1987) Died 28 August 1987, aged 81 Huston was an American film director and screenwriter known for classics including The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The African Queen. His directing career spanned over four decades and won him an Academy Award. He died in Middletown, Rhode Island, shortly after completing his final film, The Dead.
• 1906 The Valparaiso earthquake Chile's great port, flattened An earthquake of roughly magnitude 8.2 destroys Valparaiso, then the most important port on the Pacific coast of South America. Around three thousand die and the city burns for days. Valparaiso is rebuilt, but the opening of the Panama Canal eight years later removes the reason ships came round Cape Horn at all, and it never recovers its position.
• 1906 – 1993 Albert Sabin (1906-1993) Died 3 March 1993, aged 86 Albert Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine, which used a weakened live virus and could be administered on a sugar cube, making mass immunization far easier than with the earlier injected vaccine. His vaccine became the primary tool in the global campaign to eradicate polio. He died in Washington, D.C.
• 1906 – 1979 Joan Blondell (1906-1979) American actress, the wisecracking blonde of Warner Bros. pre-Code musicals and comedies.
• 1906 – 1975 Dmitri Shostakovich Soviet symphonist Russian composer who wrote 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets under the shadow of Stalin's regime. His 5th Symphony and 7th (Leningrad) are defining works of the 20th century.
• 1906 United States begins second occupation of Cuba US troops intervene after Cuban political crisis Amid an armed revolt against President Tomas Estrada Palma's government, the United States landed troops in Cuba under the Platt Amendment to restore order. The resulting occupation government administered the island for nearly three years before Cuban self-rule resumed.
• 1906 – 1984 Janet Gaynor (1906-1984) American actress, winner of the first Academy Award for Best Actress.
• 1906 – 2001 Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) Died 20 December 2001, aged 95 Senghor was a poet and the first president of independent Senegal, governing from 1960 to 1980, when he voluntarily stepped down. A leading theorist of Négritude, he was the first African elected to the Académie française. His verse and essays shaped francophone African literature.
• 1906 – 2001 R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) Died 13 May 2001, aged 94 Narayan was one of the first Indian writers in English to reach a global readership, setting his gentle, ironic novels and stories in the fictional town of Malgudi. Works such as The Guide and Swami and Friends drew admirers including Graham Greene. He wrote steadily for more than sixty years.
• 1906 Santos-Dumont flies the 14-bis In front of witnesses Alberto Santos-Dumont flies a boxy canard biplane before a crowd and an official commission in the Bois de Boulogne, taking off under its own power with no catapult, rails or headwind. It wins the first aviation prizes ever awarded in Europe. The Wrights had flown three years earlier but had done so privately, and much of the world does not yet believe them, which is why Brazil still teaches Santos-Dumont as the father of flight.
• 1906 – 1976 Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) Died 17 March 1976, aged 69 Luchino Visconti, the Italian film and theatre director regarded as a founder of Italian neorealism, died in Rome. His films included The Leopard and Death in Venice. He had continued directing from a wheelchair after a stroke in 1972.
• 1906 – 1985 Louise Brooks (1906-1985) American dancer and actress, icon of the bob haircut, whose German films with Pabst made her a cult figure.
• 1906 – 1982 Leonid Brezhnev The era of stagnation Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (December 19, 1906 – November 10, 1982) led the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982. His 18-year tenure brought stability but also stagnation. He ordered the invasions of Czechoslovakia (1968) and Afghanistan (1979).
• 1906 – 1972 Oscar Levant (1906-1972) American pianist, composer and wit, known from Information Please and An American in Paris.
• 1906 The All-India Muslim League is founded Dacca, December Formed at Dacca in the aftermath of the Bengal partition, initially to secure Muslim political representation within British India rather than to seek separation. Under Jinnah it takes forty-one years to travel from that position to the demand for Pakistan.