1904

Society

1904. Japanese naval forces attack Port Arthur in southern Manchuria, bottling up a Russian squadron and launching the first war in which armored battleships, self-propelled torpedoes, and land mines, quick-firing artillery, and modern machine guns will be used.

1904. Marie Curie discovers two new radioactive elements--radium and polonium.

1904. U.S. consul Edward H. Thompson discovers ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico's Yucatan.

1904. Helen Keller is graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College at age 23, and begins to write about blindness, a subject taboo in women's magazines because so many cases are related to venereal disease. Keller has learned to speak in Boston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf by feeling the position of the tongue and lips of others, making sounds and imitating the lip and tongue motions. She has learned to lip-read by placing here fingers on the lips and throat of the speaker while the words spoken were spelled out on the palm of her hand.

1904. The Christ of the Andes is dedicated at Uspallato Pass on the Chilean-Argentine border to honor the peaceful settlement of disputes between the two countries.

1904. Popular song: "Frankie and Johnny."

1904. Cy Young pitches the first major league "perfect" game, May 5, for the Boston Red Sox, facing 27 batters in nine innings and not letting one of them reach first base.

1904. Harvard builds the first cement football stadium. It holds 40,000 as college football grows to become a major spectator sport.

1904. An International Exposition opens a year late at St. Louis to commemorate the centennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

1904. The Gillette razor is patented, November 15.

1904. The New York Times moves into a new 25-story Times Tower at Broadway and 42nd Street, December 31, and Longacre Square becomes Times Square. The midnight fireworks display that mark the move will become in modified form a New Year's Eve tradition.

1904. Tea bags are pioneered by New York tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan.

1904. Postum Co. introduces Elijah's Manna; the name arouses the wrath of clergymen. Britain denies C. W. Post a trademark for his new corn flakes and quickly renames them Post Toasties.

Literature

The Cherry Orchard. Anton Chekhov. Russian 1904. Play. Landowning family about to lose estate and beloved cherry orchard. They fail to see life realistically.

The Golden Bowl. Henry James. American/British. 1904. Novel. Daughter marries prince. Friend marries father. Friend had had affair with prince.

Green Mansions. Wm. Henry Hudson. British. 1904. Romance. Romance of South American tropics. Jungle girl becomes human, but killed by savages.

John Bull's Other Island (i.e., Ireland). George Bernard Shaw. British. 1904. Play. Two men represent England and Ireland. In the end, roles are reversed.

Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres. Henry Adams. American. 1904. Nonfiction. Western man was unified by faith in the 13th century, a coherent world view.

Nostromo. Joseph Conrad. British. 1904. Novel. Silver is the center of the novel; corrupts, destroys; reveals strengths, weaknesses of characters and ruling passions. "Incorruptible"Nostromo is corruptible.

The Sea Wolf. Jack London. American. 1904. Novel. Ruthless ship captain dominates and thwarts literary critic and poet who are in his power. Shipwreck. Deserted islands. Indomitable, angry, blind, paralyzed Wolf Larsen.

Jean Christophe. Romain Rolland. French. 1904/12. Ten Novels. Musician travels through France and Germany observing and criticizing contemporary civilization.