January 1905


The following events occurred in January 1905:

January 1, 1905 (Sunday)

January 2, 1905 (Monday)

January 3, 1905 (Tuesday)

  • Japan took former possession of Port Arthur and renamed it Ryojun, holding it for 40 years. The area would revert in 1945 to China and is now the Lushunkou District.
  • Born: Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu, Japanese philanthropist, younger brother of Emperor Hirohito; in at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo

January 4, 1905 (Wednesday)

  • Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino became Prime Minister of Romania for the second time, having previously served from 1899 to 1900, and remains in office for more than two years.
  • The city of Bend, Oregon, plotted out in 1900 by Alexander Drake, was incorporated as a town for local logging companies, and would have a population of 536 in 1910. By the year 2020, it would have almost 100,000 residents.

January 5, 1905 (Thursday)

January 6, 1905 (Friday)

January 7, 1905 (Saturday)

  • The Colorado State Legislature entered an agreement with Alva Adams to allow him to take office as Governor of Colorado while a challenge by Republican candidate James Peabody was being investigated. Under the arrangement, Adams took office on January 10 on condition that he was to step down voluntarily if the legislature concluded that Peabody had won the popular vote. Adams resigned on March 17 after the investigation concluded that Peabody had won.

January 8, 1905 (Sunday)

  • At the excavation site in Egypt near Saqqara, where British archaeologist Howard Carter was an inspector for the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the Egyptian guards of the site were in a fist fight with 15 tourists from France, many of whom were intoxicated. The government of France filed a formal protest with Egyptian authorities, and Carter took the side of his workers. To appease the French in the "Saqqara Affair", Carter was fired from his job and without formal employment for the next three years. In 1923, he would gain worldwide fame in finding the tomb of Tutankhamen.

January 9, 1905 (Monday)

January 10, 1905 (Tuesday)

January 11, 1905 (Wednesday)

  • Under the supervision of five editors, work began on the comprehensive Catholic Encyclopedia, subtitled "An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church" and published by the Robert Appleton Company. The first volume would appear in 1907.
  • Died: Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, 57, Polish Talmudic scholar Hasidic rabbi

January 12, 1905 (Thursday)

  • Marie Walcker, the last victim of German-born American serial killer and bigamist Johann Otto Hoch, died of poisoning in Chicago a month after her their marriage. On January 30, Hoch was arrested in New York City, initially for having married and deserted multiple women, but soon was charged with Marie Walcker's murder, for which he would be convicted. Hoch was suspected of perhaps as many as 50 murders, but only charged with Walcker's death. He would be hanged on February 23, 1906.
  • Born: Tex Ritter, American actor and singer; in Murvaul, Texas

January 13, 1905 (Friday)

  • Alexander, Prince of Lippe, the last sovereign monarch of the German principality of Lippe, died after a nominal reign of 10 years, leaving no children to succeed him and ending the Lippe-Detmold line. Prince Alexander's power had been exercised by regents because of his mental illness, and the question of a successor would not be resolved until October until the last regent, Alexander's cousin Leopold IV, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld. After World War One, the principality would be abolished and would exist as a "Free State" until the end of World War Two; it is now part of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
  • Born: Kay Francis, American stage and film actress and Warner Brothers leading lady; in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory

January 14, 1905 (Saturday)

January 15, 1905 (Sunday)

January 16, 1905 (Monday)

January 17, 1905 (Tuesday)

January 18, 1905 (Wednesday)

January 19, 1905 (Thursday)

  • Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire narrowly escaped injury during the "blessing of the waters" of the Neva River near Saint Petersburg. One of the guns firing a salute malfunctioned and sent grapeshot down into the crowd of dignitaries, narrowly missing the Tsar.
  • Died: Debendranath Tagore, 87, Indian philosopher who led the Brahmoism religious movement

January 20, 1905 (Friday)

January 21, 1905 (Saturday)

January 22, 1905 (Sunday)

January 23, 1905 (Monday)

January 24, 1905 (Tuesday)

January 25, 1905 (Wednesday)

January 26, 1905 (Thursday)

January 27, 1905 (Friday)

  • The Nelson Act was passed into law in the United States, providing for racial segregation of schools in the Alaska Territory. While providing for establishment of a school district in any unincorporated community with a population of at least 20 "white children and children of mixed blood who lead a civilized life", the Act also required that "the education of Eskimos and Indians in Alaska shall remain under the direction and control of the Secretary of the Interior, and school for and among the Eskimos and Indians of Alaska shall have the same right to be admitted to any Indian boarding school as the Indian children in the States or Territories of the United States."
  • Died: Watson Heston, 58, American editorial cartoonist and author of ''The Bible Comically Illustrated''

January 28, 1905 (Saturday)

  • Two disasters in the Russo-Japanese War took place in different battles. In Manchuria, near Linchinpu, a group of 200 Japanese soldiers armed only with rifles was thrown into battle against Russian Army defenders who had two machine guns available. When the Japanese got within of the Russians, the firing of 1,000 cartridges began with most of the soldiers killed or wounded within two minutes. At the village of Sandepu, south of Mukden, General Oskar Gripenberg ordered the Russian Army to attack, but the Japanese repelled the attackers with a bayonet charge. Most of the Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, and those who didn't die immediately were left behind in the retreat and froze to death overnight.

January 29, 1905 (Sunday)

January 30, 1905 (Monday)

January 31, 1905 (Tuesday)

  • What has been called "the greatest ball of the Gilded Age" was held by James Hazen Hyde, the 28-year-old heir to the fortune of the founder of the Equitable Life Assurance Association" at New York City's Sherry Hotel, who spent $200,000 for a "Louis XV costume ball" for invited guests. Based on purchasing power at the time, the cost of the party would have been equivalent to more than 6.7 million dollars in 2022.
  • Born: John O'Hara, American novelist and short-story writer; in Pottsville, Pennsylvania
  • Died: Konstantin Savitsky, 60, Russian painter