1907

From ArticleWorld

1907 proved to be a year full of political alliances and change as well as a year of terrible natural disasters and rare diseases.

Important Events

On January 14th, an enormous earthquake, which flattened swathes of the natural and cultural landscape and claimed the lives of 1000 citizens, hit the city of Kingston, Jamaica.

Charles Curtis became the first Native American senator on January 23rd. Curtis would go on to become the 31st vice president in 1928 a post that he held until 1933 when he and Herbert Hoover lost in a landslide defeat.

Retired British army Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell founded the scouting association on February 22nd. In the same year on August 1st he took 21 boys of varying social backgrounds for the first scout camping trip on Brownsea Island, located in Poole harbour off the Dorset coast in England.

May 27th saw an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the city of San Francisco, California. The lethal viral disease is usually carried and transmitted into humans by rodents and other animals, the most common carriers are rats. Bubonic plague can usually only be transmitted to humans by infected animal bacteria, ordinarily from a bite. This particular outbreak was contained and was not able to spread like the virulent outbreaks of the past, like the Black death that swept through Europe and Asia in the 14th century, killing tens of millions of victims.

On July the 6th officials at Irelands Dublin castle, noticed that the prized Irish crown Jewels had been stolen. The jewels were stolen 4 days prior to a state visit by English monarch King Edward VII, the upset sovereign was reportedly heard to say the now famous “I want my jewels!” To this day the mystery surrounding the Crown jewels disappearance has never been completely solved, despite numerous accusations and theories.

Births and Deaths

1907 also saw some notable arrivals and departures in the world of entertainment, literature, science and music. Actresses Katherine Hepburn (D. 2003) and Fay Wray (D.2004) were born on May 12th and September 15th respectively. English actor and director Sir Laurence Olivier (D. 1989) born on May 22nd and American actor John Wayne (D. 1979) was born on the 26th of the same month. The Austrian director Fred Zinnemann (D. 1997) was born April 29th and one of the great literary figures of the 20th century, English poet W.H. Auden (D. 1973) was born on February 21st. In 1907 the world also bid farewell to Russian physicist and inventor of the periodic table Dmitri Mendeleev on February 2nd as well as Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg on September 4th.