1902
Centuries:
19th century -
20th century -
21st century
Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s - 1900s - 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
Years: 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 - 1902 - 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907
- January 28 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
- France, Loisy's L'�vangile et l'Eglise which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis
- February 11 - Police beat up universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels.
- March 10 - Circuit Court's decision disallows Thomas Edison from having a monopoly on motion picture technology.
- March 10 - Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
- March 31 - Disputed first powered heavier-than-air flight; most date it 1903 if at all
- April 2 - "Electric Theatre", the first movie theater in the United States , opens in Los Angeles, California.
- May 8 - In Martinique, Mount Pelee erupts destroys the town of St. Pierre and kills over 30,000 people. Only a small handful of St. Pierre's residents survived the blast.
- May 15 - In a field outside Grass Valley, California, Lyman Gilmore reportedly becomes the first person to fly a powered airplane (a steam-powered glider).
- May 17 - Archaeologist Spyridon Stais finds the Antikythera mechanism
- May 20 - Cuba gains independence from the United States
- August 9 - Edward VII is crowned King of the United Kingdom.
- September 3 - Popular author Sarah Orne Jewett is thrown out of a carriage, virtually ending her writing career.
- October 21 - In the United States, a five month strike by United Mine Workers ends.
- November 30 - American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years hard labor.
Other events
Year in topic
Births
- January 6 - Max G�de, attorney (+ 1984)
- January 9 - Josemar�a Escriv�, Spanish priest and founder of Opus Dei.
- January 20 - Nazim Hikmet, lyricist and dramatist († 1963)
- January 31 - Alva Mydral, politician (+ 1986)
- January 31 - Tallulah Bankhead, actress (+ 1968)
- February 1 - Langston Hughes writer (+ 1967)
- February 4 - Charles Lindbergh American aviator (+ 1974)
- February 8 - Lyle Talbot, actor (+ 1996)
- February 10 - Walter Houser Brattain, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956
- February 11 - Arne Jacobsen Danish architect/designer
- February 20 - Ansel Adams, photographer (+ 1984)
- February 27 - John Steinbeck American writer
- February 27 - Gene Sarazen, golfer
- March 7 - Heinz R�hmann, actor (+ 1994)
- March 9 - Will Geer, actor (+ 1978)
- March 16 - Leon Roppolo, jazz clarinetist (+ 1943)
- March 17 - Bobby Jones, golfer (+ 1971)
- March 21 - Son House, blues musician
- March 24 - Thomas Dewey, politician (+ 1971)
- March 28 - Dame Flora Robson, actress (+ 1984)
- March 29 - William Walton, composer
- March 29 - Marcel Aym�, narrator and dramatist, humorist and satirist (+ 1967)
- April 4 - Louise Leveque de Vilmorin, actress (+ 1969)
- May 6 - Max Oph�ls, director (+ 1957)
- May 10 - Anatole Litvak, film director (+ 1974)
- May 10 - David O. Selznick, Hollywood film producer (+ 1965)
- May 15 - Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago, Illinois (+ 1976)
- May 18 - Meredith Willson, composer (+ 1984)
- May 21 - Marcel Lajos Breuer, architect (+ 1981)
- July 4 - George Murphy, dancer, actor, Senator from California (+ 1992)
- July 26 - Gracie Allen, actress, comedienne
- August 8 - Paul Dirac, physicist
- August 10 - Norma Shearer, Academy Award winning actress (+ 1983)
- August 11 - Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist
- August 19 - Ogden Nash, poet
- August 22 - Leni Riefenstahl, German film director (+ 2003)
- August 25 - Stefan Wolpe, composer (+ 1972)
- October 5 - Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation
- December 2 - Wilfredo Lam, Cuban artist (+ 1982)
- December 5 - Strom Thurmond, United States senator (+ 2003)
Deaths
- March 26 - Cecil Rhodes, imperialist
- May 26 - Almon Strowger, developed the Strowger switch
- July 4 - Swami Vivekananda
- September 5 - Rudolf Virchow, German doctor, pathologist, biologist, and politician
- September 29 - Emile Zola, French author
- October 26 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, women's rights activist
- ? -Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet
- December 22 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist
Nobel Prizes