1903

1903 was the 32nd year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

Clay model for Vulcan

• June 1: A mass meeting was held at Jefferson Theatre to protest the massacre of Jewish residents of Kishineff, Russia.
• September 1: The first official observation was taken at the Weather Forecast Office Birmingham.
• The Birmingham Commercial Club assumed the planning of Birmingham's exhibit for the 1904 World's Fair. They commissioned Giuseppe Moretti, who began designing the statue of Vulcan.
• The Birmingham Public Library moved to the 4th floor of Birmingham City Hall from the Enslen Building.
• The Country Club of Birmingham and Birmingham Golf Club merged.
• The Holt post office was established.

Business

• April 1: Having merged with the Alabama National Bank, the newly-formed American Trust and Savings Bank opened.
• August 1: Holt Furnace was blown in.
• Edwin Adams' E. C. Adams & Co was formally incorporated.
• A. & A. Ash Jewelers was established by brothers Aaron and Albert Ash selling jewelry from a horse-drawn cart.
• The Commercial Printing Co. was founded.
• The Gadsden Distilling Company was founded.
• William Gussen purchased the Birmingham Conservatory of Music from Benjamin Guckenberger.
• Mary Pratt Furnace was sold to the Alabama Great Southern Railroad and dismantled to make room for a railroad storage yard.
• Spoon Motlow and his brother Lem launched the Gadsden Distilling Company with W. S. Boyd.
• Rountree Publishing Company was incorporated.
• Physician Courtney Shropshire established a practice in Birmingham.
• The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company cut its ties with the United Mine Workers and initiated a policy of only hiring non-union workers.
• The Bank of St. Clair County was chartered.
• Law firm Walker, Tillman & Campbell became Walker, Tillman, Campbell & Morrow with the addition of Hugh Morrow.
• The Wylam streetcar line to downtown Birmingham was established.
• Thomas Furnace No. 2 was rebuilt.
• The Jemison Realty Co. was founded.

Education

• Ensley High School graduated its first class, which was two students.
• Payne Institute became Payne University.

Government

Russell Cunningham

• February 2-10: A 10-day registration of voters was held under the Alabama Constitution of 1901. All those eligible, even those with "Life Certificates" or over the age of 45 or who had paid their poll tax already, were required to re-register.
• With the reinstatement of the office, Russell Cunningham became the first Lieutenant Governor of Alabama since the post was abolished by the Alabama Constitution of 1875.
• J. S. Moore succeeded B. M. O'Rear as Walker County Sheriff.
• Mel Drennen was re-elected as Mayor of Birmingham in the 1903 Birmingham municipal election.

Religion

• April 1: Sterling Foster succeeded J. J. Grier as pastor of South Highland Presbyterian Church.
• December 2: Five Points Methodist Episcopal Church was organized.
• First Baptist Church of Birmingham dedicated its third building on their site at the corner of 6th Avenue North and 22nd Street.
• Pilgrim Congregational Church was organized.
• A pipe organ was installed at South Highland Presbyterian Church.
• G. W. Reed became pastor of Ensley First United Methodist Church.
• The Church of the Advent's Brotherhood of St Andrew merged with a Sunday School mission of the church to form a St Andrew's Mission.

Sports

• October 23: The University of Alabama upset the favored Alabama Polytechnic Institute 18-6 in the 1903 Iron Bowl.
• W. T. O'Hara succeeded Houston Gwin as the head football coach of Howard College.
• Harry Vaughn began playing first base for the Birmingham Barons.

Individuals

• July 18: Charles Ferguson was appointed to the City Court of Jefferson County.
• November 10: Mary Anderson received a patent for windshield wipers.
• November 24: Kelly Ingram entered the U. S. Navy.
• Russian-emigre Simon Goldstein settled in Ensley.
• William Gussen became the director of the Birmingham Conservatory of Music.
• Attorney Jere King and his wife, Martha, moved to Birmingham.
• William Mailly was elected executive secretary of the Socialist Party of America.

Dorothy Sebastian

Births

• March 17: Edgar Mims, architect
• April 25: John Wilson, baseball player
• April 26: Dorothy Sebastian, actress
• May 16: William Hoole, librarian and historian
• August 6: Virginia Foster Durr, Civil Rights activist and lobbyist
• September 2: Buddhist priest and monk Sumangalo, born as Harold Newman
• September 17: Ethel Harper, singer, educator, bandleader, and portrayer of "Aunt Jemima"
• October 16: Big Joe Williams, blues artist
• November 7: Paul Hardin, Methodist bishop

Graduations

• March 31: Laura E. Burton graduated from the Louisville Medical College of the University of Kentucky.
• Football coach Mike Donahue graduated from Yale University.
• Lloyd Noland graduated from Baltimore Medical College.
• Miles Copeland Sr graduated from Birmingham Medical College.

Marriages

• January 1: Clara Solomon married Joseph Loveman
• Baseball player Carlton Molesworth married Ethel Irene Harris.

Deaths

• February 12: Jabez Curry, former congressman and president of Howard College
• February 24: William Elias B. Davis, gynecologist
• May 13: Davis Austin, jailor
• September 27: James Mullin, Birmingham Police officer killed on duty.
• List of homicides in 1903

Works

First National Bank Building

• "Head of Christ" by Giuseppe Moretti

Buildings

• July 15: Hillman Hospital opened a new four-story facility on 20th Street South.
• Allen & Jemison Warehouse was built in Tuscaloosa.
• Barker Elementary School opened to students.
• The Birmingham Athletic Club erected a three story brick-clad building with a full basement on 20th Street North.
• First Baptist Church of Birmingham dedicated its third building on their downtown site.
• First Christian Church replaced their second wooden tabernacle at 2100 5th Avenue North with a more substantial red brick structure.
• The First National Bank Building was completed.
• The Birmingham Country Club and golf course was built on the site of Lakeview Park.
• The first Knesseth Israel Synagogue was constructed on the southwest corner of 17th Street and 7th Avenue North.
• The first burial took place at Midway Cemetery in Adamsville.
• The Title Guarantee Building was completed.
• Tuggle Institute was founded.

Context

In 1903, the first transatlantic radio broadcast was made between the U.S. and England. The teddy bear was introduced. The U.S. took possession of Guantanamo Bay. Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France. Pope Pius X was installed. Boston wins its first World Series title, beating Pittsburgh at their home park, Huntington Avenue Grounds. Panama gained recognition for its independence from Colombia. The Wright Brothers made their first successful flight. The first box of Crayola crayons was sold. The Curies won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Novels published in 1902 included The Riddle of the Sands by Robert Erskine Childers, The Ambassadors by Henry James, and The Call of the Wild by Jack London. Non-fiction included The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois and Principia Ethica by G. E. Moore.

Popular music published in 1902 included "Anona" by Vivian Grey, "Melody Of Love" by H. Engelmann, and "Sweet Adeline" by Richard H. Gerard and Henry W. Armstrong.

Notable births in 1903 included author Anaïs Nin, pediatrician Benjamin Spock, entertainer Bing Crosby, comedian Bob Hope, singer and actress Jeanette MacDonald, baseball player Lou Gehrig, bank robber John Dillinger, author George Orwell, archaeologist Louis Leakey, broadcaster Arthur Godfrey, stooge Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz, photographer Walker Evans, and mathematician John von Neumann. Notable deaths included painters Paul Gauguin and James McNeill Whistler, Pope Leo XIII, and frontierswoman Calamity Jane.

1900s

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Births - Deaths - Establishments - Events - Works