Top News Stories from 1909
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Auguste M. F. Beernaert (Belgium) and Baron Paul H. B. B. d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)
More World Statistics... - North Pole reportedly reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson. Quiz: Explorers & Adventurers
- Turkish parliament deposes sultan Abd al-Hamid II and replaces him with his brother, Muhammad V. Background: Ottoman Empire
- Japan begins 36-year occupation of Korea. Japanese prince Hirobumi Ito assassinated by Korean nationalist.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: William H. Taft
Vice President: James S. Sherman
Population: 90,490,000
More U.S. Statistics... - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded by prominent black and white intellectuals and led by W. E. B. Du Bois.
- Congress enacts Republican-sponsored Payne-Aldrich Tariff, which is met by the public with disappointment.
Economics
Federal spending: $0.69 billion
Unemployment: 5.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.02
Sports
World Series
Pittsburgh d. Detroit (4-3)Stanley Cup
Ottawa SenatorsWimbledon
Women: Dora Boothby d. A. Morton (6-4 4-6 8-6)Men: Arthur Gore d. M. Ritchie (6-8 1-6 6-2 6-2 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
WintergreenNCAA Football Champions
Yale (12-1-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Nobel Prize for Literature: Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The New York Times publishes the first movie review, a report on D.W. Griffith's Pippa Passes.
- Serge Diaghilev opens the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev, which begins the era of modern ballet and his 20-year reign as ballet's leading figure. Mikhail Fokine, Diaghilev's choreographer, is considered the most influential choreographer of the 20th century.
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Wilhelm Ostwald (Germany), for work on catalysis and investigations into chemical equilibrium and reaction rates
Physics: Guglielmo Marconi (Italy) and Ferdinand Braun (Germany), for development of wireless
Physiology or Medicine: Theodor Kocher (Switzerland), for work on the thyroid gland
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich finds a cure for syphilis.
