1906

1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1906th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 906th year of the 2nd millennium, the 6th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1900s decade. As of the start of 1906, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

From top to bottom, left to right: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires devastate the city, killing thousands and displacing many more; the Courrières mine disaster in France kills over 1,000 miners, one of Europe’s worst industrial tragedies; the 1906 Atlanta race massacre leaves dozens dead amid racial tensions; the Algeciras Conference attempts to resolve European disputes over Morocco; the Denshawai incident in Egypt sparks nationalist outrage after harsh British reprisals; and the Bambatha Rebellion in Natal sees Zulu resistance crushed by colonial forces.

Quick facts

1906 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1906 MCMVI
Ab urbe condita	2659
Armenian calendar	1355 ԹՎ ՌՅԾԵ
Assyrian calendar	6656
Baháʼí calendar	62–63
Balinese saka calendar	1827–1828
Bengali calendar	1312–1313
Berber calendar	2856
British Regnal year	5 Edw. 7 – 6 Edw. 7
Buddhist calendar	2450
Burmese calendar	1268
Byzantine calendar	7414–7415
Chinese calendar	乙巳年 (Wood Snake) 4603 or 4396 — to — 丙午年 (Fire Horse) 4604 or 4397
Coptic calendar	1622–1623
Discordian calendar	3072
Ethiopian calendar	1898–1899
Hebrew calendar	5666–5667
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1962–1963
- Shaka Samvat	1827–1828
- Kali Yuga	5006–5007
Holocene calendar	11906
Igbo calendar	906–907
Iranian calendar	1284–1285
Islamic calendar	1323–1324
Japanese calendar	Meiji 39 (明治３９年)
Javanese calendar	1835–1836
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4239
Minguo calendar	6 before ROC 民前6年
Nanakshahi calendar	438
Thai solar calendar	2448–2449
Tibetan calendar	ཤིང་མོ་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་ (female Wood-Snake) 2032 or 1651 or 879 — to — མེ་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་ (male Fire-Horse) 2033 or 1652 or 880

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Events

January–February

January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
January 16–April 7 – The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 ^[1](officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
January 31 – The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale), and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths.
February 7 – HMS Dreadnought is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany.
February 11
- Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
- Two British members of a poll tax collecting expedition are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.^[2]

March–April

March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.
April 14 – The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.
April 18
- The San Francisco Earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
- Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.^[3]
April 23 – In the Russian Empire, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

May–June

May 27
- The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
- Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its premiere at the Saalbau Essen in Germany conducted by the composer.
May 29 – Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by right-wing naval officer and public official Arvid Lindman.
May 31 – Morral affair: The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24 bystanders.^[4]
June 7 – Cunard liner RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow, as the world's largest ship.
June 26 – The first autombile racing Grand Prix is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.

July–August

July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.
July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
July 20 – In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new electoral law is ratified, guaranteeing full women's suffrage, the first in modern Europe.^[5] Women can also stand in national elections.
August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.
August 16
- 1906 Aleutian Islands earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.35 occurs off the Rat Islands in Alaska.
- 1906 Valparaíso earthquake: A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves nearly 4,000 dead and approximately 20,000 injured.
August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. This leads to the Second Occupation of Cuba, which lasts until 1909.

September–October

September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha, to characterize the nonviolence movement in South Africa.
September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.^[6]
September 20 – The RMS Mauretania is launched on the River Tyne, becoming the world's largest ship.
September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.
October 6 – The National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) of Iran convenes for the first time.^[7]
October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools (it is resolved by next year).
October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.
October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a mining trust, is created in the Belgian Congo.
October 28 – A train falls off a drawbridge in New Jersey, drowning 53 people, and results in what is widely considered the first ever press release.

November–December

November 1 – International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.
November 3 – SOS becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy) on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.^[8]
November 18 – The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.
December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; it is the first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.
December 6 – The Transvaal Colony is granted responsible self-government by Britain.
December 13 – The United Kingdom, France and Italy sign an agreement to preserve, in Ethiopia, the integrity of the ancient empire of Abyssinia.^[9]
December 15 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
December 22 – The M_w  7.9 1906 Manasi earthquake in Xinjiang, China, kills nearly 300 people.^[10]
December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is first shown, at the Melbourne Athenaeum in Australia.
December 30 – The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party in Dhaka in the British Raj; it becomes a driving force for the creation of an independent Pakistan.

Date unknown

The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed.
Construction begins on the modern-day Great Mosque of Djenné.
The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.
HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association is officially founded as a sports club in Palestine, predecessor of Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel).^[11]

Births

January–February

January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
January 12 – Eric Birley, British historian and archaeologist (d. 1995)
January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist (d. 2017)
January 14 – William Bendix, American film, radio and television actor (d. 1964)
January 15 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
January 16 – Diana Wynyard, English actress (d. 1964)
January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)
January 28 – Pat O'Callaghan, Irish athlete (d. 1991)
February 4
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious, resistance leader (executed 1945)
- Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
February 5 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
February 7
- Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
- Puyi, Last Emperor of China (d. 1967)
February 8 – Chester Carlson, American physicist, inventor (d. 1968)
February 10 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
February 14 – Nazim al-Qudsi, 26th Prime Minister of Syria and 14th President of Syria (d. 1998)
February 17
- Galo Plaza, 29th President of Ecuador (d. 1987)
- Käte Selbmann, German politician (d. 1962)^[12]
February 18 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress (d. 1987)
February 28 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (k. 1947)

March–April

March 1
- Phạm Văn Đồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
- Abdus Sattar, 8th President of Bangladesh (d. 1985)
March 6 – Lou Costello, American actor (d. 1959)
March 13 – Dave Kaye, British pianist (d. 1996)^[13]^[14]
March 16 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish novelist (d. 2009)
March 19 – Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal (executed 1962)
March 20 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor, director and producer (d. 1975)
March 21 – Jim Thompson, American businessman (disappeared 1967)
March 25 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)
March 26 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player (d. 1981)
March 31 – Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
April 1 – Alexander Yakovlev, Russian politician, architect of perestroika (d. 1989)
April 4 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
April 5 – Yin Shun, Chinese Buddhist master (d. 2005)
April 6 – Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII (d. 1982)
April 9 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian-born American conductor (d. 1988)
April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
April 22 – Eddie Albert, American actor and activist (d. 2005)
April 24 – William Joyce, Irish-American World War II Nazi propaganda broadcaster ("Lord Haw-Haw") (executed 1946)
April 25
- Joel Brand, Hungarian rescue worker (d. 1964)
- William J. Brennan Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1997)
- A. W. Haydon, American inventor (d. 1982)
April 28
- Tony Accardo, American gangster (d. 1992)
- Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (d. 1978)
April 29 – Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer and actor (d. 1989)^[15]

May–June

May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)
May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
May 11
- Jacqueline Cochran, American aviator (d. 1980)
- Richard Arvin Overton, oldest living man in the United States and oldest surviving American veteran (World War II) (d. 2018)
May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general, politician (d. 1965)
May 16 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)
May 19
- Bruce Bennett, American athlete, actor (d. 2007)
- Jimmy MacDonald, Scottish-American sound effects artist, voice actor (d. 1991)
May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
May 27 – Ajahn Buddhadasa, Thai Buddhist monk (d. 1993)
May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
June 3 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer (d. 1975)
June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born American mathematician (d. 1993)
June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
June 17 – James H. Flatley, American admiral, aviator (d. 1958)
June 19 – Sir Ernst Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
June 22
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author, aviator (d. 2001)
- Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)
June 24 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
June 26
- Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer, teacher, sculptor and artist (d. 2008)
- M. P. Sivagnanam, Indian politician (d. 1995)
June 27 – Catherine Cookson, English author (d. 1998)
June 28 – Maria Goeppert Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)^[16]