1901
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s - 1900s - 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
Years: 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 - 1901 - 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906
Events:
- January 1 - World celebrates what is regarded as the start of the new century. (Zero-ists' argument that new century should be celebrated in 1900 rejected worldwide.
- January 1 - The six colonies that make up Australia are federated as under an act of the British Parliament, though full independence is a gradual process (see Australian Constitutional History).
- January 1 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate
- January 7 - Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism
- January 10 - The first great Texas gusher, oil discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas
- January 22 - Edward VII becomes King after his mother, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, dies.
- February 20 - The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
- February 25 - J.P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.
- March 2 - The United States Congress passes the Platt amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.
- March 6 - In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany.
- March 17 - A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.
- April 25 - New York state becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
- May 9 - Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
- May 27 - In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded.
- June 24 - First exhibition of Pablo Picasso opens.
- July 4 The 1,282 foot (390 meters) covered bridge crossing the St.John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world.
- July 24 - O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
- September 5 - The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later renamed Minor League Baseball), is formed in Chicago, Illinois.
- September 6 - American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies there eight days later.
- September 7 - The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Peking Protocol.
- September 14 - With the death of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt succeedes him as President of the United States
- October 29 - In Amherst, Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine.
- October 29 - Capital punishment: Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.
- December 12 - Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal in Newfoundland, Canada; it is Morse code for the letter "S."
- Cleveland Indians founded
- Europium discovered by Eugéne Demarcay
- First prototype Harley-Davidson created
- Okapi discovered (previously known only to local natives)
- Katsura Taro becomes Prime Minister of Japan
- The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm
- End of Boxer Rebellion in China
- Independent Maya of Eastern Yucatan surrender to Mexico
- 1901 in film
- 1901 in literature
- 1901 in music
- "Piano Concerto No. 2" by Rachmaninoff
- 1901 in sports
- January 3 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam (+ 1963)
- January 26 - Stuart Symington, politician (+ 1988)
- January 27 - Willy Fritsch, actor (+ 1973)
- January 29 - Allen Du Mont, television pioneer
- January 30 - Rudolf Caracciola, driver of racing cars (+ 1959)
- January 31 - Marie Luise Kaschnitz, writer (+ 1974)
- February 1 - Clark Gable, American actor
- February 2 - Jascha Heifetz, musician (+ 1987)
- February 10 - Stella Adler, acting teacher (+ 1992)
- February 16 - Wayne King, band leader ("The Waltz King")
- February 25 - Zeppo Marx, comedian, The Marx Brothers (+ 1929)
- February 28 - Linus Pauling, the only winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962 (+ 1994)
- March 4 - Charles Goren, bridge expert
- March 11 - Leopold III of Belgium
- March 21 - Karl Arnold, politician (+ 1958)
- March 24 - Ub Iwerks, cartoonist (+ 1971)
- March 27 - Carl Barks, Donald Duck illustrator
- March 27 - Erich Ollenhauer, politician (+ 1963)
- April 1 - Whittaker Chambers, spy (+ 1961)
- May 5 - Blind Willie McTell, blues singer.
- May 7 - Gary Cooper, actor (+ 1961)
- May 17 - Werner Egk, composer (+ 1983)
- May 20 - Max Euwe, Dutch world champion chess 1935-1937
- May 21 - Horace Heidt, band leader (+ 1986)
- May 21 - Sam Jaffe, actor (+ 2000)
- June 17 - F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, WW II SOE agent and hero (+ 1964)
- June 18 - Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
- June 24 - Harry Partch, microtonal composer
- July 31 - Jean Dubuffet, painter
- August 4 - Louis Armstrong Jazz musician
- September 28 - Ed Sullivan, American TV show host
- September 29 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist
- September 29 - Lanza del Vasto, philosopher, poet and non-violent activist
- October 2 - Kiki, singer
- October 10 - Alberto Giacometti, Italian sculptor
- November 22 - Joaquin Rodrigo, composer (+ 1999)
- December 5 - Walter Elias Disney, later known as Walt Disney, American animator and film producer.
- December 5 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist
- December 16 - Margaret Mead, cultural antropologist
- December 19 - Rudolf Hell, inventor
- Emperor Hirohito of Japan
- January 22 - Queen Victoria monarch of the United Kingdom,dies after the longest reign on the throne in English/British thrones.
- January 27 - Giuseppe Verdi, Italian grand opera composer
- February 11 - Milan I, king of Serbia.
- February 22 - George Francis FitzGerald, mathematician
- March 13 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States
- April 3 - Richard D'Oyly Carte, impresario
- August 5 - The Empress Frederick, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and mother of German Emperor Wilhelm II
- September 9 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter
- September 14 - William McKinley US President
- Abdur Rahman Khan, amir of Afghanistan
