1903

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

Events

• March 31: Laura E. Burton graduated from the Louisville Medical College of the University of Kentucky.
• April 1: Sterling Foster became pastor of South Highland Presbyterian Church.
• July 18: Charles Ferguson was appointed to the City Court of Jefferson County.
• September 1: The first official observation was taken at the Weather Forecast Office Birmingham.
• November 10: Mary Anderson received a patent for windshield wipers.
• Giuseppe Moretti began designing the statue of Vulcan.
• Kelly Ingram entered the U. S. Navy.
• Lloyd Noland graduated from Baltimore Medical College.
• The Birmingham Public Library moved to the 4th floor of Birmingham City Hall from the Enslen Building.
• Russian-emigre Simon Goldstein settled in Ensley.

Business

• Physician Courtney Shropshire established a practice in Birmingham.
• August 1: Holt Furnace was blown in.
• Spoon Motlow and his brother Lem launched the Gadsden Distilling Company with W. S. Boyd.
• William Gussen purchased the Birmingham Conservatory of Music from Benjamin Guckenberger.
• Edwin Adams founded Adams Produce.
• The American Trust and Savings Bank opened.

Sports

• Alabama defeated Auburn 18-6 in the 1903 Iron Bowl

Works

Buildings

• Barker Elementary School
• First Christian Church at 2100 5th Avenue North
• Frank Nelson Building on 20th Street North
• Highland Park Golf Course
• Hillman Hospital
• Knesseth Israel Synagogue
• Spiller Building
• Tuggle Elementary School
• The first burial took place at Midway Cemetery in Adamsville

Individuals

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
• November 7: Paul Hardin, Methodist bishop

Deaths

• February 12: Jabez Curry, former congressman and president of Howard College
• William E. B. Davis, gynecologist

Context

1903 was the year of the first transatlantic radio broadcast between the US and England. The teddy bear was introduced. The US took possession of Guantanamo Bay. Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France. Pope Pius X was crowned. Panama gained recognition for its independence from Colombia. The Wright Brothers made their first successful flight and the Curies won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Benjamin Spock, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Lou Gehrig, John Dillinger, Goerge Orwell, and Walker Evans were born in 1903. Paul Gauguin, James McNeill Whistler, and Pope Leo XIII died that year.

1900s

<< 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 >>

Births - Deaths - Establishments - Events - Works