Emmeline Pankhurst was among 148
suffragettes who were arrested in London, after they began breaking windows in order to attract attention. At 6:00 in the evening, the women, marching in favor of their right to vote, brought out rocks they had been carrying, and attacked storefronts in
Westminster. "Never since plate glass was invented has there been such a smashing and shattering of it as was witnessed this evening when the suffragettes went out on a window-breaking raid in the West End of London," The New York Times wrote the next day. Attacks took place on famous streets such as
the Strand,
Haymarket,
Piccadilly,
Bond Street,
Oxford Street and
Regent Street, and even at
Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith's residence at
10 Downing Street.[1] Mrs. Pankhurst was sentenced to two months in jail, along with Mabel Tuke and
Christabel Marshall.[2]
Albert Berry became the first person to make a
parachute jump from an airplane in flight, leaping from above the Jefferson Barracks near
St. Louis, after being taken aloft by pilot
Tony Jannus. A few months earlier, Berry had been tried in connection with
a lynching in
Pennsylvania.[3]
The
British coal miners' strike, which had started earlier in the week at one company in
Derbyshire, continued to spread across the
United Kingdom, with one million workers walking off the job until a fair minimum wage could be guaranteed them.[4]
As rioting broke out in response to the fall of the
Manchu dynasty in
China,
Beijing was placed under martial law. Foreign troops arrived the next day to protect the citizens of their respective nations.[6]
U.S. President
William Howard Taft issued a proclamation warning American citizens to avoid visiting
Mexico, and advising those who were living there to be prepared to leave.[7]
Mexican General
Pascual Orozco, who had helped
Francisco I. Madero win the revolution of 1911 and become
President of Mexico, declared a revolt against the Madero government after having been denied a major role. Orozco and his followers, the "Orozquistas", then assisted
Victoriano Huerta in overthrowing Madero.[9]
Italian forces became the first to use
airships in war, as two dirigibles dropped bombs on Turkish troops encamped at
Janzur,
Libya from an altitude of 6,000 feet.[18]
Ecuadoran General Julio Andrade, seven weeks after suppressing the Ecuadorian rebellion, was killed by his own troops.[24]
A
general strike involving thousands of tramway workers in
Brisbane officially ended but many of the striking workers were fired from their jobs.[25]
Following a successful acquittal for the murder of former
XIT Ranch manager Albert Boyce, Jr. in
Fort Worth, Texas, cattle baron's John Beal Sneed's father was shot and killed by tenant father R. O. Hillard in
Georgetown, Texas. Hillaird committed suicide after, leaving a note that said the killing was
in retaliation for Sneed shooting Boyce in January.[26][27]
The National Biscuit Company (now
Nabisco) introduced the
Oreo cookie.[28] The
Hydrox cookie, which also consisted of two chocolate cookies with a creme filling in-between, had been introduced by
Sunshine Biscuits in 1908, but was less popular, and the brand name was changed in 1999 to "Keebler Droxies".[29]
Standard Oil of Indiana (now
Amoco) increased its capital stock from one million to a record $30,000,000 following a vote by its shareholders.[35]
March 8, 1912 (Friday)
The
Reichstag approved a bill to make the
Imperial German Navy the greatest in the world by 1920, with construction of 60 large ships and 40 cruisers.[24] One historian noted that the new law proved to be "the death knell to any potential understanding between Britain and Germany". The expansion of the German Navy would be halted, and then reversed, by Germany's 1918 defeat in
World War I.[36]
The German Antarctic mapping expedition, led by
Wilhelm Filchner, was brought to a halt when its ship, Deutschland, became entrapped in the polar ice pack at the
Weddell Sea. The ship would be trapped for eight months within the moving pack, finally breaking free on November 25, and nearly 750 miles (1,210 km) further away from Antarctica.[37]
Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the provisional President of the
Republic of China.[40] Described by one historian as "a traitor to the republic just as he had betrayed the Qing" Empire,[41] Yuan would move the capital of the republic from
Nanjing back to
Beijing, then re-establish the monarchy in 1915 with himself as the new Emperor. Yuan would die in 1916.[42]
The provisional constitution of the
Republic of China, with 56 articles, was promulgated, giving most executive power to a prime minister and cabinet. It would be replaced in 1914 with a new constitution giving more power to President Yuan.[43]
Royal Navy submarine A-3 was raised from
Portsmouth harbour, along with the remains of the 14 men who had gone down with it when it sank on
February 2.[45]
The
University of Hong Kong held its first classes, starting with 70 students and a medical school. UHK's enrollment would be more than 22,000 students within 100 years.[46][47]
Died:Lee Shelton, 57, American criminal, known figure in the
St. Louis underworld; his killing of Billy Lyons was popularized in the song "
Stagger Lee" (b.
1865)
March 12, 1912 (Tuesday)
British coal operators and representatives of striking miners began their first direct talks, meeting in London.[17]
Abdelaziz Thâalbi, a leader of the
Young Tunisians, was prosecuted for supporting a
boycott against Italian-owned trams in
Tunis. He was expelled from
Tunisia along with three other colleagues. Two others were exiled to
Tataouine in the south part of the country and another was imprisoned. The boycott continued until the head of the month.[52]
Bandits
Ben Kilpatrick and Ole Hobek were killed while attempting to
rob a
Southern Pacific train car in
Sanderson, Texas. Express messenger David Trousdale used a mallet to kill Hobek when he left Kilpatrick at train's engine to check on the rear cars, then obtained guns to shoot Kilpatrick dead when he ventured back to look for his partner. Trousdale was considered a hero by many in
Texas and received cash rewards from
Wells Fargo, Southern Pacific Railroad and the federal government, as well as a gold watch from the passengers on the train who were held hostage during the robbery.[53]
Anarchist Antonio Dalba attempted to assassinate
King Victor Emmanuel and Queen Helena at
Alba,
Italy who had been partaking of 12th anniversary of assassination of King Humbert.[55]
In
Hillsville, Virginia, storekeeper
Floyd Allen was found guilty of interfering with the arrest of his two nephews. As the jury foreman was announcing the recommended sentence of a year in jail and a fine, there was a gun battle in the courtroom. Dead were
Carroll County Judge Thornton Massie, County Sheriff Lew Webb, County Prosecutor W. M. Foster, a juror, a witness, and a spectator, while eight others were wounded, including Allen, who would be executed the following year, along with his son Claud.[57]
Frederick Seddon was convicted of the 1911 poisoning murder of Eliza Barrow in a British court. He would be hanged on April 18.[17]
The
P&O ocean liner
Oceana, bound from
London to
Bombay, sank after colliding with the German barge Pisagua at
Beachy Head,
England. All of the 241 passengers and crew were evacuated from the ship, but nine people died when their lifeboat, first to be launched, was swamped and capsized, and another lifeboat took on so much water that it was on the verge of turning over before its occupants were saved. One author would note later that the event "surely contributed to the initial reluctance of Titanic passengers to board their lifeboats" Richard Davenport-Hines, Titanic Lives: Migrants and Millionaires, Conmen and Crew (HarperCollins UK, 2012) the following month.[61]
After removal of the bodies of the sailors who died in its 1898 explosion, the
USS Maine was towed to sea by the
USS Osceola into international waters, three miles from
Havana Harbor, and sunk again to a depth of 620 fathoms (roughly 3,700 feet or 1,100 meters).[62]
Despite a general amnesty proclaimed on March 11 by President
Yuan Shikai, 200 rebels in China were executed at
Guangzhou.[59]
Lawrence Oates, one of the five remaining members of
Robert Falcon Scott's
South Pole expedition, left the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time." Captain Scott, who was already seriously ill after he and his group marched back from the
South Pole, reported the event in his diary, but was not sure whether it happened on the 17th or 18th.[63] Oates's body would never be found.[64]
In
San Antonio, 26 people were killed, and another 32 injured, by the explosion of a boiler on a locomotive owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Most were repairmen working for the railroad, but some were local residents.[65]
U.S. Senator
Albert B. Cummins of
Iowa introduced a bill for a nationwide primary election to select presidential and vice-presidential party nominees, as well as electors, to be held on the second Monday of July prior to every presidential election, beginning with July 8, 1912, and prohibiting American political parties from holding nomination conventions.[66]
Revolutionaries seized control of the Paraguayan capital of
Asunción after two days of fighting. General
Emiliano González Navero, who had been president from 1908 to 1910, took control the next day as the President of the provisional government after President
Pedro Peña took refuge at the Uruguayan embassy.[17][73]
A
cyclone struck
Balla Balla and
Port Hedland in
Western Australia. Over 150 people were killed in the storm, including the loss of all passengers and crew of the coastal steamer Koombana which was presumed sunk after search crews came across floating debris that was part of the ship on April 2. The wreck has never been found.[74]
Thomas Mackenzie was elected
Prime Minister of New Zealand by members of the Liberal-Labour Party, which controlled the Parliament, winning 72–9. The incumbent Premier, Sir
Joseph Ward, deferred his resignation until Mackenzie could select a Cabinet.[75]
The French Chamber of Deputies passed a vote of confidence approving the nation's policies in
Morocco.[17]
Women suffragettes in
China occupied the National Assembly building in
Nanjing.[17]
The recently recovered bones of the remaining 67 officers and men of the
USS Maine, whose deaths led to the
Spanish–American War, were buried in
Arlington National Cemetery. Interred after fourteen years underwater, the remains, none identifiable, were placed in thirty-four coffins. In 1899, ninety-six of the crew had been buried at Arlington.[78]
An army of 6,000 rebel troops under command of
Pascual Orozcodefeated around 7,000 federal soldiers at
Rellano, Chihuahua,
Mexico, inflicting 600 casualies while sustaining 200 themselves. The victory was a high point in the rebellion but two months later the rebels were defeated at the same location.[80]
The ambassadors of the "Four Powers" (the
United States, the
United Kingdom,
Germany and
France) presented a joint memo to the Chinese government, protesting China's recent borrowing of further money from Belgium.[84]
Eighty-one miners were killed in an explosion at the Jed Coal and Coke Company near
Welch, West Virginia.[85]
Police in
Rock Island, Illinois fired into a crowd of rioters, killing three of them, as they marched toward City Hall against Mayor H.M. Schriver.[86]
By a vote of 40–34 in the
United States Senate, U.S. Senator
Isaac Stephenson of
Wisconsin was exonerated of charges of corruption in securing his 1907 election and allowed to return to his seat.[59]
The
New Mexico state legislature elected
Albert B. Fall and
Thomas B. Catron as the new state's first U.S. Senators, after eight ballots. Four legislators were arrested during the balloting on charges of soliciting bribes.[91]
Two weeks after the failure of his North American Wireless company,
Lee de Forest, who had made radio broadcasting practical with the invention of the
Audion tube, was served with an arrest warrant in
Palo Alto, California, and charged in federal court with using the mail to defraud investors. He was kept out of jail by friends who posted his bond and would be acquitted of the charges in 1913.[92]
A resolution to allow women the right to vote failed in the
United Kingdom House of Commons was defeated, on its second reading, by eight votes, 208 to 222.[94]
The "best interests of the child" became the standard in custody cases in the
United Kingdom, by precedent established in the case of the Crown v. Walker.[17]
Being unable to directly prohibit the sale of
white phosphorus matches, shown to be poisonous, the
United States Senate voted to set a high sales tax on the product.[59]
The three remaining members of
Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition —
Henry Robertson Bowers, 28, Dr.
Edward Wilson, 39, and Captain Scott himself, 43 — died while waiting out a blizzard in their tent, still nearly 150 miles from their base camp. Their bodies would be discovered by a search party in November.[34]
Mexico permitted the
United States to ship 1,000 rifles and one million rounds of ammunition to American citizens living in Mexico.[17]
The
New York State Assembly voted 76–67 in favor of granting women the right to vote. Before the bill could go to the state Senate, assembly member
Louis A. Cuvillier moved to reconsider the vote and to table further action. His motion passed 69–67.[97]
The
French Third Republic established the
French protectorate in Morocco after Sultan
Abd al-Hafid of Morocco signed the
Treaty of Fes at 1:30 pm with a representative of the foreign ministry, effectively ending the
Agadir Crisis that plagued the region throughout much of 1911.[98] The "protection" included French power to introduce administrative, judicial, educational, economic, financial and military reforms" as deemed useful, and for the French Army to occupy Morocco as necessary to maintain order, and would last until 1956.[99]
The Chamber of Deputies of
France voted to approve a measure limiting a coal miner's work day.[59]
Emperor Franz Joseph threatened to abdicate from the throne of
Austria-Hungary if the governments of the two nations could not resolve their disagreement.[17]
U.S. Senator
Thomas Gore of
Oklahoma was attacked with a club by Charles Schomulla while speaking at
Waukesha, Wisconsin. One of the hosts, Judge P.C. Hamlin, pushed the would-be assassin off the stage. Senator Gore, who was blind, was unaware of the incident.[100]
The ship
Terra Nova, which had carried Captain Scott's expedition party to Antarctica, arrived at New Zealand. Spokesmen reported that Scott's party had come within at least 150 miles of the South Pole and that he and the group would remain in the Antarctic for another winter, unaware that the five explorers had died on their way back from the South Pole.[59]
^David K. Wyatt, Thailand: A Short History (Yale University Press, 2003) pp. 212-213
^
abcdefghijklmnopThe Britannica Year-Book 1913: A Survey of the World's Progress Since the Completion in 1910 of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1913) pp. xxiii-xxv
^"Dirigibles in Tripoli War", New York Times, March 8, 1912
^Mark Jarzombek, Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech (UPNE, Oct 28, 2004) p. 38
^Untiedt, Kenneth L. (2008). Death Lore: Texas Rituals, Superstitions, and Legends of the Hereafter. University of North Texas Press.
ISBN978-1-57441-256-7.
^Richard Sax, Classic Home Desserts: A Treasury of Heirloom and Contemporary Recipes from Around the World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999) p. 283;
"Food Timeline: Cookies, Crackers and Biscuits; John F. Mariani, Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink (Lebhar-Friedman Books, 1999) p. 225
^John Whiteclay Chambers II, The Eagle and the Dove: The American Peace Movement and United States Foreign Policy, 1900-1922 (Syracuse University Press, 1991) p. 21; "World Peace Code Ratified by Senate", Milwaukee Sentinel, March 8, 1912, p. 1
^Richard C. Hall, The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War (Taylor & Francis, 2000) p. 11
^"Hungarian Cabinet Out", New York Times, March 8, 1912
^
abMax Jones, The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott's Antarctic Sacrifice (Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 87
^"New Oil Capital $30,000,000", New York Times, March 8, 1912
^Hermann Knell, To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War II (Da Capo Press, 2003) p97
^D. W. H. Walton and C. S. M. Doake, Antarctic Science (Cambridge University Press, 1987) p. 146
^"Lawrence Wages Raised", New York Times, March 10, 1912
^Wisconsin Badgers Media Guide 2005-06 p141; "Badger Five Beats Gophers", Milwaukee Journal, March 10, 1912, p. 15; 2001 ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac, p
^"Yuan Inaugurated; New Revolt Starts", New York Times, March 11, 1912
^Louise P. Edwards, Gender, Politics, and Democracy: Women's Suffrage in China (Stanford University Press, 2008) p. 67
^Zhengyuan Fu, Autocratic tradition and Chinese politics (Cambridge University Press, 1993) p. 154
^Wang, Ke-wen (1998). Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Taylor & Francis. p. 269.
^"15,000 German Miners Back". The New York Times. March 17, 1912.
^"British Submarine is Raised". The New York Times. March 12, 1912.
^Carroll, John Mark (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong.
Rowman & Littlefield. p. 85.
^Brian Flood and Richard Papenhausen, Saint John, a Sporting Tradition, 1785-1985 (Neptune Publishing, 1985) p. 92
^"Shots Fired at King of Italy", New York Times, March 15, 1912
^"Lawrence Strike Comes to an End", New York Times, March 14, 1912
^"Hillsville Massacre", The Roanoker Magazine (November, 1982); Brian Lane and Wilfred Gregg, The Encyclopedia of Mass Murder (Running Press, 2004) pp. 15-16
^"Troops to Stop All Arms into Mexico", New York Times, March 15, 1912
^
abcdefg"Record of Current Events", The American Monthly Review of Reviews (May 1912), pp. 540-543
^"Gas Explosion Kills 45 Miners". The New York Times. March 16, 1912.
^"Ten Lives Are Lost by Sinking of Liner", New York Times, March 17, 1912
^"The Maine Sinks to Ocean Grave", New York Times, March 17, 1912
^Captain R. F. Scott and Leonard Huxley, Scott's Last Expedition (Vol. II) (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1913) p. 408
^Cedric Mims, When We Die: The Science, Culture, and Rituals of Death (Macmillan, 2000) p. 37
^Sam Mannan, ed., Lee's Loss Prevention in the Process Industries: Hazard Identification, Assessment, and Control, Volume 1 (Elsevier, 2005) pp. 1-8
^"Would Stop Conventions", New York Times, March 19, 1912
^"Turkish Governor Killed", New York Times, March 25, 1912
^Müller, Stephan (2005). International Ice Hockey Encyclopaedia 1904–2005. Germany: Books on Demand.
ISBN3-8334-4189-5.
^"Attack the Belgian Loan", New York Times, March 26, 1912
^"81 Instantly Killed in Mine Explosion", New York Times, March 27, 1912
^"Rock Island Mob Fired On; 3 Dead", New York Times, March 27, 1912
^Ann McClellan, The Cherry Blossom Festival: Sakura Celebration (Bunker Hill Publishing, 2005) p. 36
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abNeagoe, Stelian (1995). Istoria guvernelor României de la începuturi - 1859 până în zilele noastre - 1995 [The history of Romanian governments from the beginning - 1859 to the present day - 1995] (in Romanian).
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^"Asquith in Tears; Strike Goes On". The New York Times. March 27, 1912.
^"Miners' Wage Bill Becomes Law To-Day". The New York Times. March 29, 1912.
^"New Mexico Senators". The New York Times. March 28, 1912.
^Hijiya, James A. (1992). Lee de Forest and the Fatherhood of Radio.
Lehigh University Press. p. 88.
^Chan Lau Kit-ching, Anglo-Chinese Diplomacy in the Careers of Sir John Jordan and Yüan Shih-kʻai, 1906-1920 (Hong Kong University Press, 1978) pp. 63-64
^"Suffrage Wins, Then Is Shelved", New York Times, March 30, 1912
^"France Controls Morocco", New York Times, March 31, 1912
^James N. Sater, Morocco: Challenges to Tradition and Modernity (Taylor & Francis, 2009) pp. 17-18
^"Maniac Tries to Kill Gore", New York Times, March 31, 1912