Events in 1912

Arizona

Arizona: Admitted as a state on 14 Feb 1912, the last of the 48 mainland states to join the union. The governor is George WP Hunt, Democrat.

The United States

President: William Howard Taft, a Republican, approaching the end of his first term. His accomplishments include civil service reform, trust-busting, introducing corporate income taxes, and getting the 16th Amendment (allowing federal income taxes) passed. Later this year he's going to lose the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson in a four-way race that also includes Progressive Teddy Roosevelt and Socialist Eugene Debs.

The 17th Amendment, establishing that US Senators are elected directly by the people of their states, and not by state legislatures, is introduced into Congress in May 1912, but doesn't pass until 1913. This is a pretty popular issue; it's widely believed that senatorial elections are bought and sold for favors and money.

Misc

• Jan 5: Lenin and Bolsheviks break away from Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Prague).
• Apr 15: Titanic sinks.
• Apr 16: First woman flies across English Channel; she crashes and dies in Massachusetts a few weeks later.
• May 5: First modern Olympic games open in Sweden.
• Jun 6: Novarupta volcano erupts (Alaska).
• Jun 30: Emperor Meiji of Japan dies.
• Aug 4: USA occupies Nicaragua.
• Aug 21: Boy Scouts of America awards first Eagle Scout badge.
• Oct 8: First Balkan War begins. (Ends in May 1913.)
• Oct 14: Would-be assassin shoots Teddy Roosevelt in chest; Roosevelt refuses to go to hospital, gives scheduled speech instead, shows off wound.
• Oct: Tarzan and Fu Manchu first appear in pulp magazines.
• Dec 18: Piltdown Man skull presented for Geological Society of London (exposed as hoax in 1953).
• Word "vitamine" coined ("e" dropped in 1920).
• Scoville Unit devised.
• Theory of continental drift proposed.
• Voynich manuscript discovered.