1909

William Dickson Boyce, a United States businessman visiting London, England is introduced to members of the Scouting movement. The following year Boyce becomes founder of the Boy Scouts of America.
Karl Landsteiner develops system of blood grouping.
Britain introduces Minimum Wage Laws.
Old age pensions in Britain
The laboratory of Paul Ehrlich creates the Salvarsan treatment for syphilis

January 16 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
January 28 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
February 12 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
February 23 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
February 24 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
March 4 - End of term for Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. He is succeeded by William Howard Taft.
March 23 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
April 6 - Robert Peary, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimo explorers allegedly reach the North Pole.
June 9 Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, became the first woman to drive across the United States. With three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, for fifty-nine days she drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California.
June 22 - Construction begins on the Cape Cod Canal, which would separate Cape Cod from mainland Massachusetts, United States.
July 25 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
August 12 - The first event was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
September 9 - Comet Halley first recorded on a photographic plate.
November 11 - US Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
December 31 - Manhattan Bridge opens.

Births: Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998); Victor Borge, Danish entertainer (d. 2000); Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer (d. 1939); Ann Sothern, American actress (d. 2001); U Thant, Burmese United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974); Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born actress and singer (d. 1955); Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (d. 1994); Max Baer, American boxer and actor (d. 1959); Mel Ott, baseball player (d. 1958); Edwin H. Land, American camera inventor (d. 1991); Mother Maybelle Carter, American musician (d. 1978); James Mason, British actor (d. 1984); Benny Goodman, American musician (d. 1986); Jessica Tandy, English actress (d. 1994); Burl Ives, American singer (d. 1995); Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959); Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-born celebrity manager (d. 1997); Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993); Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971); Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981); Elia Kazan, Hungarian-born film director (d. 2003); Al Capp, American cartoonist (d. 1979); Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (d. 1976); James Agee, American writer (d. 1955)

Deaths: Arthur William a Beckett, British journalist (b. 1844); Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)

Nobel Prizes
• Physics - Guglielmo Marconi, Karl Ferdinand Braun for the development of wireless telegraphy (radio)
• Chemistry - Wilhelm Ostwald for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction velocities
• Medicine - Emil Theodor Kocher for his work on the physiology, pathology, and surgery of the thyroid gland
• Literature - [[Selma Lagerlf]]
• Peace - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert and Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant