Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War. As Russia and Japan fight over Manchuria and Korea.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).
Entente Cordiale: Britain and France settle their international differences.
First New York City Subway line opens; the system becomes biggest in United States of America, and one of biggest in world.
Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is destroyed by fire.
Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
U.S. Supreme Court rules that citizens of Puerto Rico cannot be denied entry to the continental U.S.
For 10 million dollars. the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone and begins begins construction of the Panama Canal.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
United States Federal spending: 580 million dollars.
Queen Isabella II of Spain died on April 10.
GWR 3440 City of Truro becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.
US Unemployment: 5.4 percent.
Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (The Wizard of Oz) was born on January 10th.
The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist was born on May 11th.
John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum tube.
Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of 91.37 miles per hour.
Cost of a first-class US stamp: 2 cents.
Eadweard Muybridge, English photographer and motion picture pioneer, died May 8th.
The automobile tire chain is patented.
The Trans-Siberian railway is completed.
Kentucky Derby Champion: Elwood.
B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist was born on March 20th.
1904 Summer Olympics
Nikola Tesla, in Electrical World and Engineer, describes the process of ball lightning formation.
Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
The London Symphony Orchestra is established.
Anton Chekhov introduces modern realism at the premiere of The Cherry Orchard at the Moscow Art Theatre.
The teddy bear is first produced. It is named after President Theodore Roosevelt.
Cary Grant, English actor was born January 18th.
The telephone answering machine is invented.
The East Boston Tunnel opens.
The subject of alcohol and heart attacks is first investigated.
The first flat-disk phonograph is introduced.
U.S. presidential election, 1904: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.
Dr. Seus, American children's author (The Cat in the Hat) was born on March 2nd.
The Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity is founded.
Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, Himalia.
US Population: 82,166,000.
The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS.
