1913 in the United States

1913 in the United States
Years:	1910 1911 1912 – 1913 – 1914 1915 1916
Flag
48 stars (1912–59)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1913 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: William Howard Taft (R-Ohio) (until March 4), Woodrow Wilson (D-New Jersey) (starting March 4)
• Vice President: vacant (until March 4), Thomas R. Marshall (D-Indiana) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (originally now residing in from of the U.S. state of Louisiana)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-Missouri)
• Congress: 62nd (until March 4), 63rd (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors 2 Lieutenant Governors 2

Events

January–March

March 4: Woodrow Wilson begins the first of two terms as President

• February 1 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest train station.
• February 3 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.
• February 17 – The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays the works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th Century.
• March 3 – The Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 takes place in Washington, D.C. led by Inez Milholland on horseback.
• March 4
  • Woodrow Wilson succeeds William Howard Taft as the 28th President of the United States.
  • The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor. The Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey form part of the Department of Commerce.
  • The first U.S. law regulating the shooting of migratory birds is passed.
• March 7 – The British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in Baltimore harbor.
• March 13 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the United States.
• March 25 – Great Dayton Flood: Four days of rain in the Miami Valley flood the region and mark the worst natural disaster in Ohio's recorded history, killing over 360 and destroying 20,000 homes, chiefly in Dayton.

April–June

• April 8 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.
• April 24 – The Woolworth Building opens in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it is the tallest building in the world at this date and for more than a decade after.
• April 26 – Mary Phagan is raped and strangled on the premises of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta. Leo Frank is tried and convicted for the crime.
• May – The Paul Émile Chabas painting September Morn provokes a charge of indency when displayed in the window of a Chicago art gallery.
• May 14 – New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.
• June – The first edition of the Christian esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross is published in the United States (it continues to be issued bimonthly).
• June 13 – An International Railway (New York – Ontario) trolley and passengers are buried under the contents of an overhead garbage chute that breaks in Niagara Falls, New York.
• June 15 – Battle of Bud Bagsak in the Philippines concludes with U.S. troops under General John J. Pershing taking Bug Bagsak from defending Moro rebels, killing at least 500.

July–September

• July 3 – The 50th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of American Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• July 10 – Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States (as of 2004).
• September 19 – Francis Ouimet wins the U.S. Open by 5 strokes, becoming the first amateur to ever win the event.

October–December

• October 3 – The United States Revenue Act of 1913 re-imposes the federal income tax and lowers basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.
• October 10 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• October 31
  • Indianapolis Streetcar Strike of 1913: Public transportation workers in Indianapolis go on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city and sparking riots when strikebreakers attempt to restart services.
  • The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.
• November 7–11 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 kills more than 250.
• November 26 – Phi Sigma Sigma, the first non-sectarian sorority, is founded at Hunter College in New York.
• December 1 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford is not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one sparks an era of mass production).
• December 21 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• December 23 – The Federal Reserve is created by Woodrow Wilson.

Undated

• The United States Soccer Federation is formed.
• The cities of Winston, North Carolina and Salem, North Carolina officially merge to become Winston-Salem.
• Portuguese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands (1878–1913) ends.
• The National Temperance Council is founded to promote the temperance movement.
• R. J. Reynolds introduces Camels, the first packaged cigarette.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)

Births

• January 1 - Norman Rosten, poet, playwright and novelist (died 1995)
• January 6 - Loretta Young, actress (died 2000)
• January 9 - Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1974, 36th Vice President of the U.S. from 1953 to 1961, U.S. Senator from California from 1950 to 1953 (died 1994)
• January 15 - Lloyd Bridges, film and television actor (died 1998)
• January 29 - Victor Mature, film actor (died 1999)
• January 31 - Murray Bowen, psychiatrist, pioneer of family therapy (died 1990)
• February 4 - Rosa Parks, African American Civil Rights activist (died 2005)
• February 13 - Pauline (Wisniewski) Ryba, Rosie the Riveter and Buffalo entrepreneur (died 2015)
• February 10 - Charles Henri Ford, novelist, poet, filmmaker, photographer and collage artist (died 2002)
• February 14 - Jimmy Hoffa, labor union leader (died 1975)
• February 27 - Irwin Shaw, playwright, screenwriter and novelist (died 1984)
• March 31 - Etta Baker, Piedmont blues guitarist (died 2006)
• June 11 - Vince Lombardi, American football coach (died 1970)
• July 7 - Pinetop Perkins, African American blues pianist (died 2011)
• July 14 - Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States from 1974 to 1977 (died 2006)
• August 9 - Herman Talmadge, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1957 to 1981 (died 2002)
• August 20 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, neuropsychologist and neurobiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981 (died 1994)
• August 31 - Helen Levitt, photographer (died 2009)
• September 11 - Bear Bryant, American football coach (died 1984)
• September 12 - Jesse Owens, athlete (died 1980)
• November 2 - Burt Lancaster, film actor (died 1994)
• November 14 - George Smathers, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1951 to 1969 (died 2007)
• December 21 - Arnold Friberg, painter and illustrator (died 2010)
• December 25 - Tony Martin, actor and singer (died 2012)

Deaths

• January 16 – Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, aeronaut, scientist and inventor (born 1832)
• January 30 – James Henderson Berry, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1885 to 1907 (born 1841)
• February 13 – Charles Major, novelist (born 1856)
• February 17 – Joaquin Miller, "Poet of the Sierras" (born 1837)
• March 10 – Harriet Tubman, African-American abolitionist, humanitarian and Civil War Union spy (born c. 1822)
• March 11 – John Shaw Billings, military and medical leader (born 1838)
• March 31 – J. P. Morgan, financier and banker (born 1837)
• May 1 – John Barclay Armstrong, Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshal (born 1850)
• May 8 – Frank O. Briggs, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1907 to 1913 (born 1851)
• June 1 – Thomas W. Palmer, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1883 to 1889 (born 1830)
• June 5 – Chris von der Ahe, brewer and baseball owner (born 1851 in Prussia)
• June 19 – Thomas M. Norwood, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1871 to 1877 (born 1830)
• July 3 – Horatio Nelson Young, Civil War Union naval hero (born 1845)
• July 13 – Edward Burd Grubb, Jr., Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General (born 1841)
• August 3 – Josephine Cochrane, inventor of the first commercially successful dishwasher (born 1839)
• August 7 – Samuel Franklin Cody, aviation pioneer, dies in aircraft accident in England (born 1867)
• August 8 – Joseph F. Johnston, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1907 to 1913 (born 1843)
• September 3 – John Martin, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1893 to 1895 (born 1833)
• October 16 – Ralph Rose, field athlete (born 1885)
• November 28 – George B. Post, architect (born 1837)
• December 7 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, businessman, inventor of mail order (born 1844)
• December 26 – Ambrose Bierce, writer and journalist, lost after this date in Mexican Revolution (born 1842)

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons