The Years 1900 to 1910 Unveiled: Fascinating Facts, Trivia, and Historic Events

This quick read is a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historic events from the years 1900 to 1910. Discover the decade’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, landmark inventions, retail prices, famous birthdays, and much more.

1. In 1900, the U.S. population was 76,212,168, a 25% increase from 1890. About 67 million people in the U.S. were white, and most of the remaining nine million people were African American. The 1900 U.S. Census surveyed all 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
2. In 1900, America’s 10 most populated states were New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Texas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Michigan, and Iowa.
3. In 1900, the 10 most populated cities in the United States—in descending order of residents—were New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Buffalo, San Francisco, and Cincinnati. (Just so you know, Los Angeles did not become California’s most populous city until the 1920s.)
4. In 1900, America’s largest industries were agriculture, oil, steel, railroads, and textiles. An estimated 38% of Americans worked in the agricultural industry, and there were 5,740,000 farms across the U.S., averaging about 147 acres apiece. (In 1800, about 90% of Americans were involved in agriculture. Back then, most farms had enough land to feed one family, and the average farm was about 10 acres.)
5. On March 15, 1900, President McKinley signed the Gold Standard Act into law. The new system “established the gold standard for the United States, which meant that the dollar's value was directly linked to the price of gold.”
6. On March 24, 1900, New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck “ceremoniously” broke ground for the new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" (aka subway) that would connect Manhattan and Brooklyn.
7. On March 27, 1900, American businessman Joseph A. Campbell passed away. In 1869, he partnered with icebox maker Abraham Anderson to form a canning company that later became the Campbell’s Soup Company.
8. On February 25, 1901, American industrialist J. P. Morgan incorporated U.S. Steel—America’s first billion-dollar corporation and the world's largest producer of steel for decades.
9. On May 17, 1901, the New York Stock Exchange crashed for the first time. The meltdown “was caused in part by struggles between E. H. Harriman, Jacob Schiff, and business partners J. P. Morgan and James J. Hill for the financial control of the Northern Pacific Railway.”
10. On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot by American anarchist Leon Czolgosz while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
11. On September 14, 1901, President McKinley died from complications from his gunshot wounds, and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th U.S. president.
12. On October 29, 1901, Leon Czolgosz, President McKinley’s assassin, was executed in the electric chair at Auburn State Prison in New York.
13. In 1901, John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin opened their first retail store, a shoe store named Wallin & Nordstrom, at Fourth and Pike Streets in Seattle, Washington. (Just so you know, the Wallin & Nordstrom shoe store was a precursor to the upscale Nordstrom department store chain.)
14. In 1901 as well, the words “autoworker,” “back-order,” “buttinsky,” “chain store,” “child support,” “eatery,” “health insurance,” “Italian dressing,” “Ms.,” “pay stub,” “physical therapy,” “short-term,” “sweet talk,” “taco,” and “third-party” all appeared in print for the first time.
15. On March 4, 1902, the American Automobile Association (AAA) was founded in Chicago. The AAA was created by nine motor clubs that wanted to improve existing road conditions and create new roads across America.
16. On April 14, 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. (You might want to know that the first JCPenney store was known as “The Golden Rule Store.”)
17. On April 16, 1902, Thomas Lincoln Tally opened the Electric Theatre at 262 South Main Street in Los Angeles. It was the first movie theater in the U.S. to be built “specifically” for showing movies.
18. On June 24, 1902, George Dayton founded the Target Corporation when he purchased a company named Goodfellow Dry Goods.
19. In 1902 as well, Clara Peller was born in Russia. She is the actress famous for her Wendy's TV commercial, "Where's the beef?"
20. On February 15, 1903, Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian immigrants and owners of a candy and toy store in Brooklyn, New York, introduced the “Teddy” bear to America. In 1902, Morris Michtom saw a cartoon in the Washington Post of President Roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear cub while on a hunting expedition in Mississippi. Inspired by the cartoon, Morris and Rose created a stuffed “Teddy” bear to honor the U.S. president and put it into the window of their Brooklyn shop.
21. On July 23, 1903, Henry Ford sold his first Model A Ford to Dr. Ernest Pfennig, a Chicago dentist, thus establishing the Ford Motor Company. Moneyweek.com tells us that the Model A came in two flavors: a four-seater “Tonneau” priced at $850 and a sporty two-seater “Runabout” priced at $750. These were not rock-bottom prices in 1903, considering that the average annual household income in the U.S. was $300-$400.
22. On October 13, 1903, the American League Boston Americans won the first World Series by defeating the National League Pittsburgh Pirates, 5 games to 3.
23. In 1903 as well, the words "academia," "antifreeze," "attention span," "bingo," "candid camera," "carrot cake," "cocktail party," "corn syrup," "dopehead," "fandom," "flashback," "motorbike," "optometrist," "penny arcade," "sportswear," "tonic water," and "vacuum cleaner" all appeared in print for the first time.
24. On January 7, 1904, the maritime distress signal “CQD” (Come, Quick, Danger) was adopted and served as the global standard until it was replaced by the “SOS” distress signal in 1906.
25. On May 4, 1904, U.S. Army engineers began work on the Panama Canal—a 51-mile “artificial” waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean across the Isthmus of Panama.
26. On December 31, 1904, the first New Year's Eve celebration in New York City’s Times Square took place.
27. In 1904 as well Charles E. Minches introduced the ice cream cone at the St. Louis World's Fair, and Thomas Sullivan, a New York City tea merchant, invented the tea bag.
28. On May 15, 1905, Las Vegas was “officially” founded when 110 acres of land, now part of the downtown area, “were auctioned off by the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. Over 1,200 lots were sold during a two-day auction,” which took place adjacent to the railroad tracks.
29. On October 5, 1905, the Wright Brothers' third airplane, the Wright Flyer III, stayed in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting. This was the first Wright Brothers’ airplane flight that lasted over a half hour.
30. In 1905, German chemist Alfred Einhorn invented the widely used dental anesthetic Novocain. In 1905 as well, Heinrich Braun, a German surgeon, was the first to use Novocain in patient care.
31. Famous people born in 1905 included Ayn Rand (novelist), Christian Dior (fashion designer), Clara Bow (movie actress), Dag Hammarskjold (economist and diplomat), and Howard Hughes (entrepreneur).
32. In 1905 as well, the words "banana split," "farmers market," "fictionalized," "hormone," "key lime," "kiddo," "loan shark," "moondust," "one-size-fits-all," "pink salmon," "player piano," "radiologist," "swim meet," "teddy bear," "track and field," "teeter-totter," "troubleshooter," and "vice squad" all appeared in print for the first time.
33. In February 1906, the first cell house at USP Leavenworth opened in northeast Kansas. Since opening its doors, Leavenworth has been home to some of the most notorious federal prisoners in history. Some of the criminals who have been incarcerated there include gangster Al Capone, serial killer Carl Panzram, labor leader Bill Haywood, polar explorer Dr. Frederick Cook, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, boxing champion Jack Johnson, gambler Nicky Arnstein, and Robert Stroud (aka the Birdman of Alcatraz).
34. In March 1906, a "Census of the British Empire" revealed that Great Britain ruled approximately one-fifth of the world. In 1906, British Empire countries included the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Burma, Ceylon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the Solomon Islands, and South Africa.
35. On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and fire killed an estimated 4,000 people and destroyed 75% of the city. The fire destroyed numerous buildings in San Francisco’s Financial District, Union Square, Chinatown, Nob Hill, North Beach, Russian Hill, South of Market (SoMa), and Telegraph Hill neighborhoods.
36. In 1907, there were 140,300 cars and 2,900 trucks registered in the U.S. The speed limit in most cities was 10 miles per hour.
37. On January 1, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt shook hands with over 8,000 people, setting a world record he held for over 70 years.
38. On April 17, 1907, an estimated 1.1 million immigrants passed through the Ellis Island processing station in New York Harbor, setting a record.
39. On September 10, 1907, the first Neiman Marcus department store opened its doors in Dallas, Texas.
40. On October 1, 1907, the 18-story, 750-room Plaza Hotel opened at the corner of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue in New York City. The moment it opened, the Plaza set the standard for luxury accommodations and service.
41. In 1907 as well, the words "bear hug," "bookend," "brainstorming," "buyout," "costume jewelry," "cat burglar," "cornflakes," "fleabag," "junior high school," "plywood," "round-the-clock," "saltine," "shortwave," "thermos," and "timeline," all appeared in print for the first time.
42. On May 10, 1908, the first Mother's Day in the United States was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia. Anna Maria Jarvis, a social activist from Grafton, West Virginia, founded Mother's Day to honor her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, who died in 1905.
43. On September 17, 1908, U.S. Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge became the first person to die in an airplane crash. According to the Air Force Historical Support Division, he was a passenger on a Wright Brothers demonstration flight when it crashed in Fort Meyer, Virginia. “The crash was caused by a broken propeller that struck a bracing wire, causing the aircraft to dive. Selfridge suffered a fatal skull fracture, while Wright survived with serious injuries.”
44. On October 1, 1908, Henry Ford's first Model T, nicknamed the "Tin Lizzie," rolled off the assembly line in Detroit, Michigan. It seated two and sold for $825.
45. On November 24, 1908, the first credit union in the U.S. opened in Manchester, New Hampshire.
46. In 1908 as well, General Electric began selling the first “commercially successful” electric toaster, and the German entrepreneur Melitta Bentz created the first coffee filter.
47. During January 1909, Helena, California, a former Native American camp dating back some 4,000 years, recorded 71.54 inches of precipitation. It was the highest monthly amount of precipitation ever recorded in the contiguous United States up to that time.
48. On August 12, 1909, after a hot-air balloon race and motorcycle races earlier in the year, the first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place. Bob Burman, driving a Buick, won the inaugural race, beating racing driver Louis Chevrolet.
49. On November 11, 1909, the United States Navy established a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
50. In 1909, apples cost 15 cents for a six-quart basket, coal for home heating was $5.25 to $6.75 a ton, and eggs were 26 cents a dozen. Flour was $1.75 for a 49-pound sack, roasting chickens were 22 cents a pound, and an Oriental rug cost $1.00 per square foot. Quart-size mason jars were 48 cents a dozen, a brass bed cost $15.00 to $25.00, and a three-quart enamel teapot was 29 cents.

References:

1. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/yearonlytimeline1900-1950.html
2. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1906.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900s
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_20th_century

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor