1901

Society

1901. Queen Victoria dies January 22 at age 81 after a reign of nearly 64 years.

1901. "Speak softly and carry a big stick," says Vice-president Roosevelt, laying down a rule for U.S. foreign policy.

1901. President McKinley is shot at point-blank range, September 6, by Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Teddy Roosevelt at age 42 becomes the youngest chief executive in the nation's history. Mark Hanna calls him "that damned cowboy."

1901. The Mercedes motorcar introduced by German auto maker Gottlieb Daimler is named for the 11-year-old daughter of Emil Jellinek, Austrian consul at Nice.

1901. New York City streetcars and elevators are converted to electric power, but horsecars continue to move up and down Fifth Avenue.

1901. Nobel Prizes are awarded for the first time from a fund established by Alfred B. Nobel of 1866 dynamite fame.

1901. Life expectancy at birth for U.S. white males is 48.23 years, for white females, 51.08 years.

1901. Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic wireless message, December 12, in Newfoundalnd. An English telegrapher at Cornwall has tapped out the letter "S" and Marconi picks it up with a kite antenna.

1901. Baseball's American League is organized.

1901. The first practical electric vacuum cleaner is invented.

1901. Harlem will become America's largest black community--a model community until overcrowding in the 1920s turns it into a ghetto.

1901. Berberi kills thousands in the Philippines following introduction of polished white rice by U.S. occupation authorities.

Literature

Buddenbrooks. Thomas Mann. German. 1901. Novel. Material and spiritual decline of a prosperous patrician family. Art = decadence.

The Crisis. Winston Churchill. American. 1901. Novel. Inevitability of the Civil War although neither side wanted it.

The Dance of Death. August Strindberg. Swedish. 1901. Play. Love-hate relationship between husband and wife.

Kim. Rudyard Kipling. British. 1901. Novel. Brilliant descriptions of Indian scenes and sympathetic portraits of people.

The Octopus. Frank Norris. American. 1901. Novel. Struggle between the California wheat farmers and the railroad.

The Sacred Fount. Henry James. American/British. 1901. Novel. Narrator's theory: IN unequal marriages or liaisons, older, weaker partner is replenished; younger, stronger personality becomes depleted.

The Book of Small Souls. Louis Couperus. Dutch. 1901. Novel. Van Lowe family, large and diverse group, with little in common but pleasing Granny Lowe.

The Three Sisters. Anton Chekhov. Russian. 1901. Play. Dull existence in small provincial garrison town. One drab day to the next. Diversions with officers and dream of going to Moscow keep the sisters going. When regiment leaves, the sisters are left as they were. Frustrated by their attempt to escape this way of life.

Jerusalem. Selma Lagerlof. Swedish. 1901/2. Stories. Relationship of family to farm sold to pay for a trip to Jerusalem.