1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1906th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 906th year of the 2nd millennium, the 6th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1900s decade. As of the start of 1906, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. Polish supercentenarian Tekla Juniewicz (10 June 1906 – 19 August 2022) was the last known person born in 1906 when she died on August 19, 2022.
Contents
Events
January–February
January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
January 16–April 7 – The Algeciras Conference convenes, to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
January 31 – The Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale), and associated tsunami, cause at least 500 deaths.
February 7 – HMS Dreadnought is launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany.
February 11
Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
Two British members of a poll tax collecting expedition are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.
March–April
March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.
April 14 – The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.
April 18
The San Francisco Earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.
April 23 – In the Russian Empire, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.
April 25 – Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party under the leadership of Leo Kereselidze successfully robs the Dusheti treasury of the Russian Empire, one of the largest expropriations of the time.
May–June
May 27
The first inmates are moved to the Culion leper colony by the American Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 receives its premiere at the Saalbau Essen in Germany conducted by the composer.
May 29 – Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by right-wing naval officer and public official Arvid Lindman.
May 31 – Morral affair: The attempted regicide of Spanish King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on their wedding day instead kills 24 bystanders.
June 7 – Cunard liner RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow, as the world's largest ship.
June 26 – The first autombile racing Grand Prix is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.
July–August
July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.
July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
July 20 – In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new electoral law is ratified, guaranteeing full women's suffrage, the first in modern Europe. Women can also stand in national elections.
August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.
August 16
1906 Aleutian Islands earthquake: An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.35 occurs off the Rat Islands in Alaska.
1906 Valparaíso earthquake: A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves nearly 4,000 dead and approximately 20,000 injured.
August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. This leads to the Second Occupation of Cuba, which lasts until 1909.
September–October
September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha, to characterize the nonviolence movement in South Africa.
September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.
September 20 – The RMS Mauretania is launched on the River Tyne, becoming the world's largest ship.
September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.
October 6 – The National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) of Iran convenes for the first time.
October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools (it is resolved by next year).
October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.
October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a mining trust, is created in the Belgian Congo.
October 28 – A train falls off a drawbridge in New Jersey, drowning 53 people, and results in what is widely considered the first ever press release.
November–December
November 1 – International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.
November 3 – SOS becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy) on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.
November 18 – The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.
December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; it is the first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.
December 6 – The Transvaal Colony is granted responsible self-government by Britain.
December 13 – The United Kingdom, France and Italy sign an agreement to preserve, in Ethiopia, the integrity of the ancient empire of Abyssinia.
December 15 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
December 22 – The Mw 7.9 1906 Manasi earthquake in Xinjiang, China, kills nearly 300 people.
December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is first shown, at the Melbourne Athenaeum in Australia.
December 30 – The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party in Dhaka in the British Raj; it becomes a driving force for the creation of an independent Pakistan.
Date unknown
The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis is first developed.
Construction begins on the modern-day Great Mosque of Djenné.
The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.
HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association is officially founded as a sports club in Palestine, predecessor of Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel).
Births
January–February
January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
January 12 – Eric Birley, British historian and archaeologist (d. 1995)
January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist (d. 2017)
January 14 – William Bendix, American film, radio and television actor (d. 1964)
January 15 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
January 16 – Diana Wynyard, English actress (d. 1964)
January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)
January 28 – Pat O'Callaghan, Irish athlete (d. 1991)
February 4
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious, resistance leader (executed 1945)
Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
February 5 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
February 7
Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
Puyi, Last Emperor of China (d. 1967)
February 8 – Chester Carlson, American physicist, inventor (d. 1968)
March–April
March 1
Phạm Văn Đồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
Abdus Sattar, 8th President of Bangladesh (d. 1985)
March 6 – Lou Costello, American actor (d. 1959)
March 13 – Dave Kaye, British pianist (d. 1996)
March 16 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish novelist (d. 2009)
March 19 – Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal (executed 1962)
March 20 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor, director and producer (d. 1975)
March 21 – Jim Thompson, American businessman (disappeared 1967)
March 25 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)
March 26 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player (d. 1981)
March 31 – Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
April 1 – Alexander Yakovlev, Russian politician, architect of perestroika (d. 1989)
April 4 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
April 5 – Yin Shun, Chinese Buddhist master (d. 2005)
April 6 – Virginia Hall, American spy with the Special Operations Executive during WWII (d. 1982)
May–June
May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)
May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
May 11
Jacqueline Cochran, American aviator (d. 1980)
Richard Arvin Overton, oldest living man in the United States and oldest surviving American veteran (World War II) (d. 2018)
May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general, politician (d. 1965)
May 16 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)
May 19
Bruce Bennett, American athlete, actor (d. 2007)
Jimmy MacDonald, Scottish-American sound effects artist, voice actor (d. 1991)
May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
May 27 – Ajahn Buddhadasa, Thai Buddhist monk (d. 1993)
May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
June 3 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer (d. 1975)
June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born American mathematician (d. 1993)
June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
July–August
July 1
Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician, academic (d. 1992)
Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 2004)
Ivan Neill, British Army officer and Irish Unionist politician (d. 2001)
July 2
Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
Károly Kárpáti, Hungarian Jewish wrestler (d. 1996)
July 3
Alberto Lleras Camargo, Colombian politician, 20th President of Colombia (d. 1990)
George Sanders, Russian-born British actor (d. 1972)
July 4 – Vincent Schaefer, American chemist, meteorologist (d. 1993)
July 7
Helene Johnson, African-American poet (d. 1995)
Satchel Paige, American baseball player (d. 1982)
July 8 – Philip Johnson, American architect (d. 2005)
July 11 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (d. 1990)
July 17 – Dunc Gray, Australian track cyclist (d. 1996)
July 18 – S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-born American academic, politician (d. 1992)
September–October
September 1
Joaquín Balaguer, 41st, 45th, & 49th President of the Dominican Republic, writer (d. 2002)
Eleanor Alice Burford, English writer (d. 1993)
September 4 – Max Delbrück, German-born American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
September 6 – Luis Federico Leloir, French-born Argentine chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
September 8 – Andrei Kirilenko, Soviet politician (d. 1990)
September 17 – J. R. Jayewardene, President of Sri Lanka (d. 1996)
September 26
José Figueres Ferrer, 32nd, 34th, & 38th President of Costa Rica (d. 1990)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
September 27 – William Empson, English poet, critic (d. 1984)
October 6 – Janet Gaynor, American Academy Award-winning actress (d. 1984)
October 9 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1st President of Senegal (d. 2001)
October 10 – R. K. Narayan, Indian novelist (d. 2001)
October 14
Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)
November–December
November 2
Ferit Melen, 14th Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 1988)
Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre, cinema director, writer (d. 1976)
November 5
Philip Roberts, British general (d. 1997)
Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
November 9 – Arthur Rudolph, German rocket engineer (d. 1996)
November 10 – Josef Kramer, German Nazi concentration camp commandant (d. 1945)
November 13
Wanrong, last empress of China (d. 1946)
Hermione Baddeley, English character actress (d. 1986)
November 14 – Louise Brooks, American actress (d. 1985)
November 15 – Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general, vice-presidential candidate (d. 1990)
November 16 – Henri Charrière, French author (d. 1973)
November 17 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese industrialist (d. 1991)
November 18
Alec Issigonis, Greek-born British automobile designer (d. 1988)
Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)
Deaths
January–June
January 1 – Todor Ivanchov, 11th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1858)
January 13 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)
January 18 – Sir William Forbes Gatacre, British general (b. 1843)
January 19 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine statesman, military figure and author, 6th President of Argentina (b. 1821)
January 20 – Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception Brando, Italian Roman Catholic nun, saint (b. 1856)
January 25 – Joseph Wheeler, American general, politician (b. 1836)
January 29 – King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
February 8 – Giuseppina Gabriella Bonino, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed (b. 1843)
February 9 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and publisher (b. 1872)
February 13 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
February 18 – John B. Stetson, American hat maker (b. 1830)
February 26 – Jean Lanfray, Swiss convicted murderer (b. 1874)
February 27 – Samuel Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)
March 1 – José María de Pereda, Spanish writer (b. 1833)
March 4 – John Schofield, American general (b. 1831)
July–December
July 1 – Manuel García, Spanish opera singer, music educator and vocal pedagogue (b. 1805)
July 11 – Grace Brown, American murder/and or drowning victim (b. 1886)
July 17 – Carlos Pellegrini, 11th President of Argentina (b. 1846)
August 6 – George Waterhouse, 7th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1824)
August 14 – Aniceto Arce, 27th President of Bolivia (b. 1824)
August 19 – Ezequiél Moreno y Díaz, Colombian Roman Catholic priest, saint (b. 1848)
September 1 – Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet, librettist (b. 1847)
September 5 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (b. 1854)
September 13 – Emily Pitts Stevens, American school founder (b. 1841)
September 23 – August Bondeson, Swedish author (b. 1844)
October 9 – Adelaide Ristori, Italian actress (b. 1822)
October 16 – Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (b. 1826)
October 19
Arthur von Mohrenheim, Russian diplomat (b. 1824)
Charles Pfizer, German-American chemist, co-founder of Pfizer (b. 1824)
Nobel Prizes
Physics – J. J. Thomson
Chemistry – Henri Moissan
Medicine – Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Literature – Giosuè Carducci
Peace – Theodore Roosevelt