1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday
of the 13-day slower Julian calendar.

The year 1903 also had the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar has not had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. See: 1696.

Events of 1903

January–February

• January 1 – Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India.

• January 19 – The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east-west broadcast having been made in 1901).

• February 11 – The Oxnard Strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U.S. history that a labor union is formed from members of different races.

• February 15 – Morris and Rose Mitchom introduce the first teddy bear in America.

• February 23 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".

March–April

• March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens.

• March 3 – The British admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth.

• March 5 – Turkey and Germany sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.

• March 14 – The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate later rejects the treaty.

• March 19 – The oldest Turkish football club, Besiktas JK, is founded in Istanbul.

• April 7 – Fredrikstad Football Club (FFK) is founded in Norway

• April 29 – A 30-million-m³ landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta.

May–June

• May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens.

• May 22 – The White Star Liner, SS Ionic, is launched.

• June 11 – Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated.

• June 12 – The Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity is founded at the University of Michigan School of Music.

• June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, was nearly destoyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood.

July–August

• July 1–19 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.

• July 7 – The British take over the Fulani Empire.

• July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A.

• August 2 – The Ilinden Uprising of the Macedonians in the Ottoman Empire breaks out.

• August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.

• August 10 – The Paris Metro train fire takes place.

• August 25 – The Judiciary Act 1903 is passed.

September–October

• September 11 – The first stock car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.

• September 14 – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as British Colonial Secretary, in order to campaign publicly for "Imperial Preference".

• September 15 – Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto-Alegrense is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil

• September 24 – Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.

• September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills 9 people, inspires a ballad and song.

• October – Frank Nelson Cole proves that 2⁶⁷-1 is composite by factoring it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287 after trying every Sunday for 3 years.

• October 1 – The first modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League.

• October 6 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.

• October 10 – The Women's Social and Political Union is founded.

November–December

thumb|200px| [[December 17: The first flight by Orville Wright.]]

• November 4 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaims itself independent from Colombia.

• November 13 – The United States recognizes the independence of Panama.

• November 17 – The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

• November 18 – The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

• November 23 – Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.

• December 17 – Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented, successful, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.

• December 30 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.

Undated

• The Lincoln-Lee Legion is established to promote the temperance movement and signing of alcohol abstinence pledges by children.

• The first box of Crayola crayons was made and sold for 5 cents. It contained 8 colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.

• Osea Island in Maldon, Essex, England was bought by Mr. Frederick Charrington.

Ongoing

• Philippine-American War (1899–1913)

Births

January

• January 6 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)

• January 7 – Warren Hull, American actor (d. 1974)

• January 10 – Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)

• January 11 – Hans Redlich, Austrian composer (d. 1968)

• January 12 – Igor Kurchatov, Soviet physicist (d. 1960)

• January 16 – William Grover-Williams, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1945)

• January 22 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)

• January 27 – John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)

February

• February 2 – Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, Dutch mathematician (d. 1996)

• February 6 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (d. 1991)

• February 8 – Greta Keller, Vienna-born cabaret singer and actress (d. 1977)

• February 8 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)

• February 10 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)

• February 11

• * Rex Lease, American actor (d. 1966)

• * Alan Paton, South African writer (d. 1988)

• February 13 – Georges Simenon, French writer (d. 1989)

• February 16 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (d. 1978)

• February 21

• * Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)

• * Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist (d. 1976)

• February 22 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer and media personality (d. 1990)

• February 22 – Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian Nazi (d. 1969)

• February 22 – Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician (d. 1930)

• February 26 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)

• February 27 – Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)

• February 28 – Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)

March

• March 4 – Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)

• March 4 – William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983)

• March 4 – Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (d. 1990)

• March 4 – John Scarne, American magician and card expert (d. 1985)

• March 6 – Empress Kōjun, Empress consort of Japan (d. 2000)

• March 10 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz musician (d. 1931)

• March 11

• * Ronald Syme, New Zealand-born classicist and historian (d. 1989)

• * Lawrence Welk, American television musician (d. 1992)

• March 14 – Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)

• March 20 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)

• March 24 – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

• March 25 – Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990)

• March 28 – Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (d. 1991)

• March 31 – H. J. Blackham, British humanist and author (d. 2009)

April

• April 6

• * Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player (d. 1962)

• * Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (d. 1990)

• April 10 – Clare Boothe Luce, American publisher and writer (d. 1987)

• April 12 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)

• April 15 – John Williams, English-born actor (d. 1983)

• April 17

• *Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)

• *Morgan Taylor, American athlete (d. 1975)

• April 19 – Eliot Ness, American treasury agent (d. 1957)

• April 24 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician (d. 1936)

• April 25 – Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1987)

• April 28 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979)

May

• May 2 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician (d. 1998)

• May 3 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)

• May 4 – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984)

• May 6 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)

• May 8 – Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)

• May 10 – Hans Jonas, German-born philosopher(d. 1993)

• May 11 – Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (d. 1993)

• May 21 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)

• May 29 – Bob Hope, English-born American comedian and actor (d. 2003)

June

• June 1 – Vasyl Velychkovsky Ukrainian bishop (d. 1973)

• June 6 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (d. 1978)

• June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author (d. 1987)

• June 10 – Theo Lingen, German actor (d. 1978)

• June 12 – Emmett Hardy, American musician (d. 1925)

• June 16

• * Helen Traubel, American soprano (d. 1972)

• * Huldreich Georg Früh, Swiss composer (d. 1945)

• June 18

• * Jeanette MacDonald, American singer and actress (d. 1965)

• * Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)

• June 19

• * Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)

• * Wally Hammond, English cricketer (d. 1965)

• June 21 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (d. 2003)

• June 22 – John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)

• June 25

• * Pierre Brossolette, French journalist and resistance fighter (d. 1944)

• * George Orwell, English author (d. 1950)

• June 29 – Alan Blumlein, British electronics engineer (d. 1942)

July

• July 1 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (d. 1941)

• July 2

• * Harwell Hamilton Harris, American architect (d. 1990)

• * Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)

• * King Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)

• July 3 – Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)

• July 4 – Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)

• July 6 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)

• July 10 – John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969)

• July 13 – Kenneth Clark, English art historian (d. 1983)

• July 21 – Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector

August

• August 3 – Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia (d. 2000)

• August 6 – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (d. 1999)

• August 7 – Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)

• August 18 – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)

• August 19 – James Gould Cozzens, American writer (d. 1978)

• August 23 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)

September

• September 7 – Shimaki Kensaku, Japanese author (d. 1945)

• September 9

• * Phyllis Whitney, American mystery writer (d. 2008)

• * Edward Upward, British author (d. 2009)

• September 11 – Theodor Adorno, German philosopher (d. 1969)

• September 13 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (d. 1996)

• September 15 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (d. 1992)

• September 17 – Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)

• September 21 – Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (d. 1956)

• September 25

• * Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Pakistani journalist, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1979)

• * Mark Rothko, Latvian-born painter (d. 1970)

October

• October 1 – Vladimir Horowitz, Russian pianist (d. 1989)

• October 4 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer engineer (d. 1995)

• October 5 – M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (d. 1989)

• October 6 – Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

• October 9 – Walter O'Malley, American baseball executive (d. 1979)

• October 10 – Bei Shizhang, Chinese biologist and educator (d. 2009)

• October 16 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)

• October 18 – Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)

• October 22

• * George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)

• * Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (d. 1976)

• * Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, American comedian and actor (The Three Stooges) (d. 1952)

• October 25

• * Katharine Byron, American politician (d. 1976)

• * Harry Shoulberg, American painter (d. 1995)

• October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)

November

• November 1 – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (d. 1973)

• November 2 – Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (d. 1944)

• November 3 – Walker Evans, American photographer (d. 1975)

• November 6 – Carl Rakosi, German-born poet (d. 2004)

• November 7 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1989)

• November 19 – Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)

• November 27 – Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)

• November 29 – E. Harold Munn, American temperance movement leader and presidential candidate (d. 1992)

December

• December 5

• * Johannes Heesters, Dutch singer and actor

• * Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)

• December 4 – Lazar Lagin, Soviet writer (d. 1979)

• * A. L. Rowse, English historian (d. 1997)

• December 12

• * Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer and pianist (d. 1976)

• * Yasujiro Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)

• December 17 – Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987)

• December 19 – George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)

• December 22 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)

• December 24 – Joseph Cornell, American sculptor (d. 1972)

• December 26 – Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (d. 1995)

• December 28

• * Earl Hines, American jazz pianist (d. 1983)

• * John von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1957)

• December 31

• * Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)

• * Will Mastin, American vaudevillian (d. 1975)

Deaths

January–June

• January 3 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)

• January 17 – Quintin Hogg, British philanthropist (b. 1845)

• January 28

• * Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)

• * Robert Planquette, French composer (b. 1850)

• February 1 – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (b. 1819)

• February 7 – James Glaisher, English meteorologist and aeronaut (b. 1809)

• February 14 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (b. 1831)

• February 22 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)

• February 26 – Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (b. 1818)

• March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834)

• March 6 – Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris, French scholar (b. 1839)

• March 13 – George Granville Bradley, English vicar and scholar (b. 1821)

• March 16 – Roy Bean, American pioneer (b. 1825)

• March 28 – Emile Baudot, French telegraph engineer (b. 1845)

• April 19 – Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician (b. 1820)

• April 28 – Willard Gibbs, American physical chemist (b. 1839)

• May 4 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1872)

• May 8 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)

• May 13 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino political theoretician and Prime Minister (b. 1864)

• June 11

• * Nikolai Bugaev, Russian mathematician (b. 1837)

• * Draga Mašin, Serbian queen consort (b. 1861)

• * Aleksandar Obrenović, Serbian king (b. 1876)

• June 19 – Herbert Vaughan, English Catholic cardinal and archbishop (b. 1832)

July–December

• July 2 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player (b. 1867)

• July 11 – William Ernest Henley, English poet, critic, and editor (b. 1849)

• July 13 – Béni Kállay, Austro-Hungarian statesman (b. 1839)

• July 17 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (b. 1834)

• July 20 – Pope Leo XIII, Italian Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1810)

• August 1 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman (b. 1852)

• August 5 – Phil May, English artist (b. 1864)

• August 17 – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)

• August 22 – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)

• September 18 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher (b. 1818)

• October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian-Jewish author (b. 1880)

• October 20 – Thomas Vincent Welch, American politician (b. 1850)

• November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1817)

• November 13 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (b. 1830)

• December 8 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (b. 1820)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie

• Chemistry – Svante August Arrhenius

• Medicine – Niels Ryberg Finsen

• Literature – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

• Peace – William Randal Cremer