1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-March

• January 7 - The distress signal CQD is established only to be replaced two years later by SOS.
• February 7 - The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• February 8 - Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts Russo-Japanese War
• February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in Congo
• February 23 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• March 3 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
• March 4 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• March 8 – The first tunnel beneath the Hudson River completed
• March 21 – Battle of Chumik Shenko – British under general Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

April-June

• April 8 - Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
• April 8 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• April 8, April 9, and April 10 - Aleister Crowley receives The Book of the Law in Cairo, Egypt.
• April 17 – 10-minute darkness in Wimbledon, London
• April 18 – Hurricane in Goliad, Texas kills 114.
• April 27 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• April 30 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in Saint Louis, Missouri (closes December 1)
• May 4 - First Rolls-Royce manufactured
• June 15 - A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1000.
• June 16 - Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.

July-December

• July 21 - Trans-Siberian railway completed
• July 23 - In St. Louis, Missouri, Charles E. Menches invents the ice cream cone during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
• August 17 – Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
• August 18 - Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeded by George Reid.
• September 7 - Fire spreads over downtown Baltimore in USA - 1500 buildings destroyed, no known fatalities.
• October 27 - First New York City subway line opens; system becomes biggest in United States of America, and one of biggest in world
• November 4 - In Florence, Italy, the Arno River flooded.
• November - Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker in the U.S. presidential election
• November 24 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).

unknown dates

• Ismael Montes becomes president of Bolivia
• Herero Wars begin
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a "Second Manifesto" against polygamy
• 1904-1905 Welsh Revival- Christian revival brakes out in Wales.

Births

unknown dates

• Gustave Biéler, SOE agent, hero of WW II executed by the Nazis
• Bernard Castro, inventor of the convertible couch
• J. J. Gibson, American psychologist

January-February

• January 1 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician, (d. 1982)
• January 5 - Jeane Dixon, astrologer (d. 1997)
• January 10 - Ray Bolger, actor, singer, dancer (d. 1987)
• January 14 - Cecil Beaton, photographer (d. 1980)
• January 18 - Cary Grant, actor (d. 1986)
• January 22 - George Balanchine, choreographer (d. 1983)
• January 26 - Ancel Keys, scientist (d, 2004)
• January 29 - Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher (d. 1976)
• January 29 - Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
• February 1 - S. J. Perelman, humorist, author (d. 1979)
• February 4 - MacKinlay Kantor, historian (d. 1977)
• February 5 - Walter Gross , cabaretist (d. 1989)
• February 7 - Ernst Ginsberg , actor and film director (d. 1964)
• February 11 - Henry LaBouisse , head of UNICEF (1965-1979)
• February 11 - Sir Keith Holyoake, New Zealand Prime Minister (1960-1972)
• February 15 Evald Tammlaan , Estonian writer (d. 1945)
• February 16 George F. Kennan, U.S. diplomat who formulated Containment policy towards the Soviet Union.
• February 20 - Aleksei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
• February 25 - Adelle Davis , nutritionist, writer (d. 1974)
• February 29 - Jimmy Dorsey, bandleader (d. 1957)

March-April

• March 1 - Glenn Miller, bandleader (d. 1944)
• March 2 - Dr. Seuss, author (d. 1991)
• March 7 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official
• March 8 - Victor de Kowa , actor (d. 1973)
• March 6 - Joseph Schmidt, tenor (d. 1942)
• March 7 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (d. 1942)
• March 20 - B. F. Skinner, behavioral psychologist (d. 1990)
• March 23 - Joan Crawford, actress (d. 1977)
• March 26 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology (d. 1987)
• March 26 - Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece. (d. 2004)
• March 28 - Werner Bahlsen , biscuit producer (d. 1985)
• April 3 - Sally Rand, dancer (d. 1979)
• April 7 - Ralph Bunche, diplomat, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
• April 9 - Sharkey Bonano, jazz musician (d. 1972)
• April 16 - Fifi D'Orsay, actress (d. 1983)
• April 21 - Lembit Pärn , Soviet general
• April 22 - Robert Oppenheimer, physicist (d. 1967)
• April 26 - Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer, prolific goalscorer (d. 1982)
• April 27 - Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (d. 1972)
• April 29 - Karin Luts , Estonian painter (d. 1993)

May-July

• May 6 - Harry Martinson, Swedish author, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1978)
• May 6 - Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais Method (d. 1984)
• May 11 - Salvador Dalí, artist (d. 1989)
• May 17 - Jean Gabin, actor (d. 1976)
• May 21 - Fats Waller, pianist (d. 1943)
• May 21 - Robert Montgomery (actor), actor (d. 1981)
• May 27 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
• June 2 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)
• June 3 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)
• July 5 - Ernst Mayr, evolutionary biologist and author
• July 12 - Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician and leader (d. 1997)
• July 12 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (d. 1973)
• July 17 - Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, eldest son and heir of Tsar Nicholas II (d. 1918).

August-December

• August 4 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
• August 6 - Jean Desses , French couturier (d. 1970)
• August 17 - Leopold Nowak, musicologist (d. 1991)
• August 21 - Count Basie, jazz musician and bandleader (d. 1984)
• August 22 - Deng Xiaoping, revolutionary elder in the Communist Party of China (d. 1997)
• August 23 - Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)
• August 23 - Thelma Morgan, socialite twin, Viscountess Furness (d. 1970)
• August 28 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (d. 1980)
• September 29 - Greer Garson, actress (d. 1996)
• October 25 - Vladimir Peter Tytla, United States animator (d. 1968)
• November 11 - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
• November 12 - Jacques Tourneur, director (d. 1977)
• November 14 - Dick Powell, actor and singer (d. 1963)
• November 25 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)
• November 30 - Clyfford Still, painter (d. 1980)
• Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1988)

Deaths

• January 20 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor of the Periodic table (b. 1834)
• May 19 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• June 4 - George Frederick Phillips, military hero of the Spanish-American War (b. 1862)
• July 3 - Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism (b. 1860)
• July 5 - Abai Kunanbaiuli, Kazakh poet (b. 1845)
• July 14 - Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short-story writer (b. 1860)
• July 22 - Wilson Barrett, English actor (b. 1846)
• August 6 - Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic (b. 1825)
• August 22 - Kate Chopin, American author (b. 1851)
• August 25 - Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• August 29 - Murad V, deposed Ottoman sultan (b. 1840)
• September 26 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman, statesman (b. 1848)
• October 4 - Frédéric Bartholdi, Alsatian sculptor (b. 1834)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - The Lord Rayleigh
• Chemistry - Sir William Ramsay
• Medicine - Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
• Literature - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray Y Eizaguirre
• Peace - Institut De Droit International