1906 Fun Facts

  • First time Dow Jones closes above 100
  • First radio set advertisements
  • Third modern Olympic Games open in Athens, Greece
  • Einstein introduces his theory of relativity
  • San Francisco earthquake, an 8.25, causes fire that destroys 75% of the city
  • 10th Boston Marathon
  • 32nd Kentucky Derby
  • Wright Brothers patent the airplane
  • 12th U.S. Golf Open winner Alex Smith
  • SOS is adopted as warning signal
  • Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first president to visit other countries – Puerto Rico and Panama
  • Susan B. Anthony dies
  • J.J. Thomson receives the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the electron – 1st American winner
  • Cost of a first-class stamp is two cents
  • Princeton NCAA Football Champions
  • Finland becomes the first European country to give women right to vote
  • Theodore Roosevelt designates 1st national monument in Wyoming
  • The Ford Model N, America's most popular car, sells for $500.00
  • Claude Monet paints his famous Water Lillies
  • Planters Nut & Chocolate Co. is founded
  • The "hot dog" gets its name from cartoon drawn by cartoonist Thomas Drogan who shows a dachshund inside a Frankfurter bun
  • First feature-length film is produced in Australia
  • First airplane flight in Europe
  • Britain Rolls and Royce Johnson found Rolls Royce Inc.
  • W.K. Kellogg invents Corn Flakes by accident and founds Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co.
  • 1st animated cartoon is copyrighted
  • Reginald Fessenden becomes 1st to broadcast music over radio
  • Baseball Hall-of-Fame pitcher Satchel Paige born
  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is first published

More facts from the era

  • Average life expectancy in the U.S. is 47 years
  • 8 percent of homes have a telephone
  • Cost of three-minute call from Denver to New York City is $11
  • Average wage in U.S. is 22¢ per hour
  • More than 95 percent of all U.S. births take place at home
  • Cost of sugar is 4¢ per pound
  • Eggs are 14¢ a dozen
  • Coffee is 15¢ a pound
  • The American Flag only has 45 stars
  • Only 14 percent of the homes have a bathtub
  • Only 8,000 cars in the U.S., only 144 miles of paved roads, and most cities have a maximum speed limit of 10 MPH