125 years ago today
Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President After McKinley Dies
President William McKinley died on September 14, 1901, eight days after being shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley's death elevated Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, who at 42 became the youngest president in American history. Roosevelt had been kept off the presidential ticket by Republican Party bosses who viewed the vice presidency as a harmless dead end — a plan that spectacularly backfired. Over the next seven and a half years, Roosevelt would transform the presidency and the American state through trust-busting, conservation policy, and an assertive foreign policy that announced the United States as a global power.
Alexander von Humboldt
Prussian naturalist and explorer
Alexander von Humboldt was one of the greatest scientific explorers of the modern age, whose five-year expedition to the Americas produced a vast body of work on geography, botany, climate, and geology. He was among the first to describe the concept of vegetation zones and human-caused climate change. Charles Darwin credited Humboldt's writing as a primary inspiration for his own voyage on the Beagle.
Margaret Sanger
American birth control activist and nurse
Margaret Sanger was the founder of the American Birth Control League, which eventually became Planned Parenthood, and one of the most influential — and controversial — figures in the history of reproductive rights. Her advocacy for women's access to contraception challenged laws that criminalized the distribution of birth control information in the United States.
Duke of Wellington
British field marshal and Prime Minister
Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, was the foremost British military commander of the Napoleonic era, whose victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 ended Napoleon's final campaign. He served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and remained one of the most powerful figures in British public life until his death.
Domitian Becomes Roman Emperor
Domitian succeeded his brother Titus as Roman Emperor, beginning a reign marked by autocratic rule and intense conflict with the Senate. Historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius portrayed him as a tyrant; modern scholarship has revised this view somewhat, noting his effective administration and frontier defense.
Harun al-Rashid Becomes Abbasid Caliph
Harun al-Rashid ascended to the Abbasid caliphate, ruling over what was then one of the most powerful and culturally vibrant empires in the world. His court in Baghdad became a global center of learning, philosophy, and art, and he is immortalized in the tales of One Thousand and One Nights.
Dante Alighieri Dies in Ravenna
Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy, died in Ravenna after contracting malaria while returning from a diplomatic mission to Venice. His three-part epic poem — Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso — is considered the supreme work of Italian literature and one of the greatest achievements of Western civilization.
Britain Adopts the Gregorian Calendar
Great Britain and its American colonies switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, losing eleven days in the process. The change brought Britain into alignment with most of Europe and caused considerable public confusion, with some people believing the government had literally stolen days of their lives.
Battle of Baltimore: Fort McHenry Holds
Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor withstood a 25-hour British naval bombardment, forcing the British fleet to withdraw and abandoning their planned assault on the city. The fort's resilience directly inspired Francis Scott Key to write what became the U.S. national anthem.
OPEC Founded in Baghdad
Representatives from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela met in Baghdad and established the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC would go on to reshape global energy markets, most dramatically during the 1973 oil embargo that triggered the worst economic crisis in the postwar Western world.
First Detection of Gravitational Waves
Scientists at the LIGO observatories in Louisiana and Washington made the first-ever direct observation of gravitational waves, distortions in spacetime produced by the collision of two black holes over a billion light-years away. The detection confirmed a major prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity and opened an entirely new window on the universe.
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Start a conversation →Dante Alighieri
Italian poet, author of the Divine Comedy
Dante died in Ravenna after a life of political exile from his native Florence. His Divine Comedy — an allegorical journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven — established Tuscan as the literary standard for the Italian language and remains one of the pillars of world literature.
Duke of Wellington
British field marshal and statesman
Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Kent at the age of 83, having outlasted virtually every other major figure of the Napoleonic Wars. His state funeral was one of the grandest in British history, attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners.
William McKinley
25th President of the United States
McKinley died from gangrene that had set in around his gunshot wounds, eight days after being shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. His death ushered in the Progressive Era under his successor Theodore Roosevelt.
Isadora Duncan
American pioneer of modern dance
Isadora Duncan, who had revolutionized Western dance by rejecting the constraints of classical ballet in favor of free, expressive movement, died in Nice when her long scarf became entangled in the rear wheel of a sports car, breaking her neck. Her unconventional life and tragic death made her an enduring icon of artistic freedom.
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