1904

Events of 1904

January 7 - The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced two years later by SOS.
January 12 - A new car speed record of 91.37mph is set by Henry Ford
February 7 - The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
February 8 - Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts Russo-Japanese War.
February 10 - Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in Congo.
February 17 - Puccini's Madame Butterfly debuts in Milan to no great success.
February 23 - For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.

March 3 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
March 4 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
March 8 - The first tunnel beneath the Hudson River is completed.
March 21 - Battle of Chumik Shenko: British under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.
April 8
- Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
- Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
April 8-April 10 - Aleister Crowley writes The Book of the Law in Cairo, Egypt.
April 19 - The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but kills no one.
April 27 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
April 30 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).

May 4 - US Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
May 4 - Frederick Henry Royce meets Charles Stewart Rolls to discuss Rolls-Royce agreement.
May 5 - Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
May 9 - GWR 3440 City of Truro becomes the first railway engine to run in excess of 100mph.
May 21 - The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, is established.
June 15 - A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1021.
June 15 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Horsham, West Sussex
June 16 - Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
June 16 - Leopold Bloom walks through Dublin (First Bloomsday).
June 28 - The Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, 635 are killed, biggest group is 225 Norwegian emigrants.
June 29 - 1904 Moscow tornado

September 7 - The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.
October 1 - Assumption College is founded.
October 4 - Two time UEFA Cup champions (and 17 time Swedish champions) IFK Göteborg is founded.
October 15
- The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
- Theta Tau, the Professional Engineering Fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
October 19 - Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
October 20 - Toowoomba, Queensland is declared a city.
October 21 - The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea, in what would be known as the Dogger Bank incident.
October 27 - The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens (IRT); the system is now the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

November 4 - In Florence, Italy, the Arno River floods.
November 8 - Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker in the U.S. presidential election.
November 24 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
December 2 - St. Petersburg Soviet urges run on the banks: the attempt fails and the executive committee is arrested.
December 3 - Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, Himalia.
December 4 - KU or Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest youth political organisation in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest remaining in the world.
December 10 - Founding of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.
December 27 - The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.
December 30 - East Boston Tunnel opens.
December 31 - In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, renamed in April from Longacre Square.