1905

1905 was the 34th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• April 26: The Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Linn Park was formally dedicated.
• August 6: Urban folklore claims Hazel Farris killed her husband, three policemen, and a deputy sheriff.
• October 22: Sells & Downs Shows ended its run in Sylacauga and then wintered in Birmingham.
• October 24: President Theodore Roosevelt visited Capitol Park and the Alabama State Fairgrounds.
• Alice Furnace No. 1 was torn down.
• Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West wintered in Birmingham.
• An explosion at the Virginia Mines killed over 100 miners.
• Vulcan was returned to Birmingham from St. Louis and dumped beside a railroad siding on Red Mountain.

Business

• April 28: Ensley Furnace No. 6 was blown in.
• June 23: Woodward Furnace No. 3 was blown in.
• October 9: American Cast Iron Pipe Company was incorporated by John Joseph Eagan.
• Truman Aldrich bought back the Montevallo Mining Company.
• Mary Anderson's attempt to sell the rights to her windshield wiper through Dinning and Eckenstein was rejected.
• Commercial photography studio Birmingham View Company was founded.
• E. L. Huey Furniture Company was started in Bessemer by E. L. Huey and Chambers McAdory.
• The Majestic Theatre opened.
• Peek Beverage Company was established by chemist Jefferson J. Peek.
• Wiseola was established.

Education

• February 28: The first class of Hillman Hospital's Training School for Nurses was graduated.

Government

• May 4: George Ward succeeded Mel Drennen as Mayor of Birmingham.
• The head of the Weather Bureau's Birmingham Station Agency, W. A. Mitchell, was replaced by W. F. Lehman.
• Will Walton succeeded Thad Mullin as Chief of the Birmingham Fire Department.

Religion

• July 1: Raimundo deOvies became the first rector of St Andrew's Episcopal Church.
• December: St Andrew's Episcopal Church was formally incorporated.

Sports

• November 18: Alabama beat Alabama Polytechnic Institute by a score of 3-0 in the 1905 Iron Bowl played at West End Park before a then-record crowd of 4,600.

Individuals

• A. G. Gaston moved to Birmingham as a boy with his mother.
• Arthur Brown married Mamie Nellie Adams.

Births

• January 6: Richmond Beatty, literature scholar
• February 24: John Weld, stuntman and writer
• April 9: Ida Moffett, nurse
• September 9: Charlie Perkins, Major League baseball pitcher
• October 3: Epp Sykes, Air Force general and "Yea Alabama!" composer
• November 19: Garnet Leader, painter
• December 9: Snitz Snider, Olympian, football player, and football coach
• December 4: James F. Sulzby, Jr, businessman
• Eugenia Woodward Hitt, art collector

Graduations

• Elizabeth Hale, from the Hillman Hospital Training School for Nurses.

Deaths

• January 21: John Altman, attorney and Chancellor
• January 25: Charles Hooper, merchant
• July 3: Gip Spruiell and E. B. Huffman, the first Birmingham Fire Department firefighters to die in the line of duty
• October 20: William Berney, banker

Works

• Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument

Buildings

• 214 – 216 20th Street North
• 218 20th Street North
• Paper warehouse at 1720 2nd Avenue North (now part of Railroad Square)
• Original Birmingham Fire Station No. 6
• Birmingham Realty Company building at 2118 1st Avenue North
• Donnelly House at 2828 Highland Avenue
• Goodall-Brown building at 2200 1st Avenue North
• Majestic Theatre at 1808-10 3rd Avenue North
• Massey Business College building at 2024 3rd Avenue North
• Paper warehouse at 1720 2nd Avenue North
• The original St Andrew's Episcopal Church
• Jayfe Ware residence on Old Springville Road in Clay.

Demolitions

• National Bank of Birmingham building

Context

In 1905, the play The Scarlet Pimpernel opened at the New Theatre in London with a new final act. The Cullinan Diamond was found near Pretoria, South Africa. Rotary International was founded. President Theodore Roosevelt began a full term. Albert Einstein published his paper On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light, in which he explained the photoelectric effect using the notion of light quanta. In India, the 1905 Kangra earthquake hit the Kangra valley, killed 20,000, and destroyed most buildings in Kangra, Mcleodganj and Dharamshala. Albert Einstein submitted his doctoral dissertation On the Motion of Small Particles..., in which he explained Brownian motion. Las Vegas was founded. Norway gained independence from Sweden. Albert Einstein published the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies where he revealed his theory of special relativity. The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were established. Albert Einstein submitted his paper Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? in which he developed an argument for the famous equation E = mc². The Russo-Japanese War was ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth in New Hampshire. The Russian Revolution of 1905 took place, forcing Tsar Nicholas II to establish the Duma.

1900s

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