January 1 » Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.
January 1 » The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.
March 1 » The Australian Army is formed.
September 28 » Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.
October 24 » Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
December 3 » In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
Day of death April 20, 1903
The temperature on April 20, 1903 was between 1.1 °C and 8.9 °C and averaged 4.2 °C. There was 7.0 hours of sunshine (49%). Source: KNMI
January 4 » Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death.
January 17 » El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.
February 11 » Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.
February 14 » The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
October 10 » The Women's Social and Political Union is founded in support of the enfranchisement of British women.
October 31 » The Purdue Wreck, a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, kills 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Henny Eizenga-Hendriks, "Family tree Welling", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom_welling/I903.php : accessed January 3, 2026), "Johanna Apolonia Maria Meskes (1901-1903)".
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