1904
1904 was the 33rd year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.
Events
- January 28: A rare snowfall brought 8.1 inches to Birmingham.
- April 30-December 1: Giuseppe Moretti's statue of Vulcan represented the mineral wealth of the Birmingham District at the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy at St Louis, Missouri's Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair).
- June 7: The newly-assembled Vulcan statue was christened with water from the Cahaba River at the World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri.
- July 11: By order of producer Mabel Whitman, the Jefferson Theatre agreed to open its dress circle and parquet seats to African-American patrons for performances of the Whitman Sisters' New Orleans Troubadours on July 23.
- The first barber shop opened in the space still in use as the Hippodrome barber shop in Woodlawn.
- The Woodlawn Library was established by the Women's Club of Woodlawn at Woodlawn City Hall.
- Birmingham City Physician Charles Whelan, Jr enforced a new city ordinance requiring smallpox vaccination.
Business
- January 28: The Ferd Marx Dry Goods Co. was reorganized.
- February 17: John Frye's Traders National Bank opened.
- October: Banner Mine, owned by Pratt Consolidated Coal Company, went into operation.
- December: The Pratt Consolidated Coal Company was incorporated in Delaware.
- December: The former Trotwood Park land was sold by the Birmingham Matinee Club, but the buyer never made payment.
- The architecture firm of Breeding & Whilldin was founded and commissioned to design a new Birmingham High School.
- The Birmingham Mineral Railroad was subsumed into the Louisville & Nashville Railroad system.
- The Empire Coal Company was organized.
- Insurance brokerage Molton & Stickney moved to Dr Smith's Block at the corner of 19th Street and 2nd Avenue North.
- Jesse Motlow and Spoon Motlow founded the Motlow Brothers Distilling Company in Birmingham.
- Porter's Clothing Company opened.
- The law firm of Walker, Tillman, Campbell & Morrow became Tillman, Grubb, Bradley & Morrow
- Rosa Zinszer sold Peter Zinszer's Mammoth Furniture House to Mrs. W. H. Wilder.
Education
- June 3: Industrial High School graduated its first senior class.
- A. H. Parker became principal of Industrial High School.
- A. O. Lane completed his third term as president of the Birmingham Board of Education.
Government
- April 25: Russell Cunningham was sworn in as acting Governor of Alabama while William Jelks was hospitalized out of state.
- Attorney John Altman was appointed to sit on the Northwestern Chancery Division of Alabama.
- Frank Gamble Blair succeeded William Cochrane as Mayor of Tuscaloosa.
- Bibb Graves retired from the Alabama House of Representatives to unsuccessfully challenge incumbent Ariosto Wiley to represent the Second Congressional District of Alabama.
- D. F. Sugg defeated incumbent Charles Camp in the election for chief of the Ensley Police Department.
- Birmingham City Physician Charles Whelan, Jr appointed twelve doctors to carry out a city ordinance requiring smallpox vaccinations.
Religion
- March 27: Bethel Baptist Church was organized in Collegeville.
- The Birmingham Baptist College was founded by William Pettiford and Charles Boothe.
- St Mark's Catholic Church in Republic was established by John Canepa.
- James Coyle became pastor of St Paul's Cathedral.
- W. W. Dorman succeeded E. B. Norton as pastor of East Lake United Methodist Church.
- Adolph Loveman succeeded Simon Klotz as president of Temple Emanu-El.
- J. C. Persinger succeeded W. T. Andrews as pastor of Avondale United Methodist Church.
- St Andrew's Episcopal Mission purchased a lot at 11th Avenue South and Center Street for a new church building.
- St Mark's Catholic Church was founded in Republic.
- Rev. Yasgour served as rabbi of Knesseth Israel Congregation.
Sports
- C. I. Taylor organized the Birmingham Giants baseball team.
- Mike Donahue became the head coach for the Auburn Tigers football team.
- Auburn won the Iron Bowl 29-5 at West End Park.
- Harry "Farmer" Vaughn succeeded Tom O'Brien as manager of the Birmingham Barons.
Individuals
- June 23: Richard White bought a Wittnauer watch for his bride, Olga at F. W. Bromberg.
- Laura Burton received her medical license and opened a practice in the Watts Building.
- B. B. Comer was elected to the Alabama Railroad Commission.
- Culpepper Exum was elected president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.
- Hill Ferguson became president of the University of Alabama Alumni Society.
- William Gussen was elected first president of the Alabama Music Teachers Association.
- Lloyd Noland was appointed to assist William Gorgas to control disease in the Panama Canal zone.
- John Persons began as a cashier and accountant for Colonel G. T. Bush.
- G. H. Stevenson purchased what would become known as the G. H. Stevenson residence.
Births
- January 14: Robert Chambliss, terrorist
- January 22: John Beecher, activist poet
- February 29: Wilson Driver, jazz drummer
- June 11: Pinetop Smith, boogie-woogie pianist
- September 1: Johnny Mack Brown, football player and actor
- September 25: Arthur Shores, attorney and Birmingham City Council member
- October 5: Sammy West, baseball player
- October 20: James Head, business owner and civic leader
- November 13: Albert Boutwell, 22nd Mayor of Birmingham
- December 20: Spud Davis, baseball player
- Richard Blauvelt Coe, artist
- Alice Johnson, daughter of Crawford Johnson
- Buster Waits, bookkeeper and baseball mascot
- Jennie Wood, socialite and murder victim
- Osburn Zuber, Birmingham News columnist
Marriages
- November 23: Bem Price married Lutie Bragg.
- Charles Carraway married Maggie Lacey of Pratt.
- Rick Woodward married Annie Jemison.
Deaths
- January 24: Mitchell A. Porter, attorney
- February 1: Flora Turner, wife of architect Joseph Turner
- July 10: William Walker, Jr, attorney
- J. W. McMahon, hotelier and murder victim
- Jesse Pearson
Works
- 1904 Moretti bas-relief by Giuseppi Moretti
- Vulcan by Giuseppi Moretti
- William Elias B. Davis statue, also by Moretti
- Portrait of Lady Helen Vincent by John Singer Sargent
- Improved automatic railroad car-coupling, U.S. Patent No. 761,056 by Andrew Beard
Buildings
- 11th Avenue United Methodist Church
- Alabama A&M University library
- Buck Creek Mill mill building
- Clarkson Bridge in Cullman County
- Country Club of Birmingham clubhouse at Lakeview Park
- Douglas Building
- Ensley Works additional blast furnace and bessemer converter
- Lacke Building
- Terence Mackin residence
- Richard Massey residence
- Thomas Rowan residence additions
Gallery
Dissection of a cadaver at the Birmingham Medical College
Plaster cast for Vulcan at Moretti's studio in Passaic, NJ
Context
1904 was a leap year. A January fire destroyed 1,500 buildings in Baltimore, Maryland. The Russo-Japanese War broke out in February. Longacre Square in New York City became Times Square in April. Cy Young threw the modern game's first perfect game in May, the same month that FIFA was established. St Louis, Missouri hosted the Games of the 3rd Olympiad. Teddy Roosevelt defeated Alton Parker to serve a first full term as President.
Ivan Pavlov won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Puccini's Madame Butterfly debuted in Milan and Mahler's Symphony No. 5 premiered in Cologne. The New York Giants won the National League pennant, but declined to participate in a second-ever World Series against the Boston Americans.
Notable 1904 births include those of actors Ray Bolger, Peter Lorre and Cary Grant; choreographer George Balanchine; gangster Pretty Boy Floyd; musicians Count Basie, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Fats Waller; authors Theodore Seuss Geisel and Joseph Campbell; artists Salvador Dalí and Willem de Kooning, physicist Robert Oppenheimer; and Chinese leader Deng Xiaopeng.
Deaths in 1904 included those of Queen Isabella II of Spain; composer Antonín Dvořák; photographer Eadweard Muybridge; authors Anton Chekhov, Kate Chopin and Lafcadio Hearn; and sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi.
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