1909 in the United States

1909 in the United States
Years:	1906 1907 1908 – 1909 – 1910 1911 1912
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46 stars (1908–12)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1909 in the United States.

Incumbents

William Howard Taft, President from March 4

Federal Government

• President: Theodore Roosevelt (R-New York) (until March 4), William Howard Taft (R-Ohio) (starting March 4)
• Vice President: Charles W. Fairbanks (R-Indiana) (until March 4), James S. Sherman (R-New York) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-Illinois)
• Congress: 60th (until March 4), 61st (starting March 4)

Events

January–March

January 1: Lakeview Gusher

February 24: Hudson founded

• January 1 – Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher.
• January 28 – United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish–American War.
• January 1 to 31 – Torrential rains in California see Helena Mine record 71.54 inches (1,817.1 mm) of precipitation for the month, the highest official monthly total in the contiguous US.^[1]
• February 12 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
• February 22 – The Great White Fleet returns to Hampton Roads, Virginia having circumnavigated the globe.
• February 24 – The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
• March 4 – William Howard Taft succeeds Theodore Roosevelt as the 27th President of the United States.
• March 23 – Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.^[2]

April–June

• June 1 – The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle.
• June 9 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the United States. In 59 days, she drove a Maxwell automobile 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California with three female companions, none of whom could drive.
• June 22 – Construction begins on the Cape Cod Canal, which would separate Cape Cod from mainland Massachusetts.

July–September

• August 2 – The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane. They buy the Wright Military Flyer from the Wright Brothers.
• August 8 – The Rosicrucian Fellowship is launched at Seattle, Washington.
• August 12 – The first event is held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

October–December

Indianapolis Motor Speedway first season poster

• November 2 – The Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity is founded at Boston University.
• November 6 – The Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument is dedicated in Baltimore.
• November 11 – The U.S. Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
• November 13 – Ballinger–Pinchot scandal begins: Collier's Magazine accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.
• November 18 – Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including 2 Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya.
• December 31 – The Manhattan Bridge opens.

Undated

• The centennial anniversary of Miami University (Ohio) is celebrated.
• The American Issue Publishing House of the Anti-Saloon League is incorporated.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• Great White Fleet voyage (1907–1909)

Births

• January 1 – Dana Andrews, film actor (died 1992)
• January 2 – Barry Goldwater, U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1953 to 1965 and from 1969 to 1987 (died 1998)
• January 2 – J. R. Simplot, businessman, founded the Simplot Company (died 2008)
• January 5 – Stephen Cole Kleene, mathematician (died 1994)
• February 11
  • Max Baer, boxer (died 1959)
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz, filmmaker (died 1993)
• January 30 – Saul Alinsky, community organizer (died 1972)
• February 9 – Dean Rusk, politician (died 1994)
• February 18 – Warren Elliot Henry, African American physicist (died 2001)
• February 24 – August Derleth, writer and anthologist (died 1971)
• March 4 – Harry Helmsley, real estate entrepreneur (died 1997)
• March 24 – Clyde Barrow, outlaw (died 1934)
• April 13 – Eudora Welty, fiction writer (died 2001)
• May 7 – Edwin H. Land, camera inventor (died 1991)
• May 15 – J. Caleb Boggs, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1961 to 1973 (died 1993)
• May 27 – Dolores Hope, born Dolores L. DeFina, singer and philanthropist (died 2011)
• May 30 – Benny Goodman, jazz clarinetist and bandleader (died 1986)
• June 3 – Ira D. Wallach, businessman and philanthropist (died 2007)
• June 12 – Archie Bleyer, song arranger and bandleader (died 1989)
• June 14 – Burl Ives, folk singer (died 1995 in the United States)
• July 29 – Chester Himes, fiction writer (died 1984)
• August 1 – Sibyl M. Rock, mathematician (died 1981)
• August 10 – Leo Fender, guitar inventor and manufacturer (died 1991)
• September 28 – Al Capp, cartoonist (died 1979)
• October 1 – Everett Sloane, character actor (died 1965)
• October 13 – Herblock, editorial cartoonist (died 2001)
• November 18 – Johnny Mercer, songwriter (died 1976)
• November 20 – Alan Bible, U.S. Senator from Nevada from 1954 to 1974 (died 1988)
• November 27 – James Agee, writer (died 1955)
• December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., film actor (died 2000)
• December 14 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975)

Deaths

• January 10
  • John Conness, Ireland-born U.S. Senator from California from 1863 to 1869 (born 1821)
  • Charles Vernon Culver, politician (born 1830)
• April 9 – Francis Marion Crawford, novelist (born 1854)
• April 21 – David Turpie, U.S. Senator from Indiana in 1863 and from 1887 to 1899 (born 1828)
• April 28 – Frederick Holbrook, 27th Governor of Vermont from 1861 to 1863 (born 1813)
• May 17 – Helge Alexander Haugan, Norwegian-born banking executive (born 1847)
• June 24 – Sarah Orne Jewett, writer (born 1849)
• August 21 – George Cabot Lodge, poet (born 1873)
• September 4 – Clyde Fitch, dramatist (born 1865)
• October 15 – William Lindsay, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1893 to 1901 (born 1835)
• December 10 – Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota Chief (born 1822)
• December 20 – William Harris, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1897 to 1903 (born 1841)
• December 26 – Frederic Remington, cowboy artist and sculptor (born 1864)
• Date unknown – Gideon T. Stewart, educator and politician (born 1824)

See also

• List of American films of 1909

References

External links

• Media related to 1909 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons