The Fortress Surrenders: Port Arthur Falls
On January 2, 1905, after a brutal five-month siege, Russia's mighty fortress of Port Arthur gave up to Japan — a defeat that stunned the world and announced Japan as a great power.
Tales from the year 1905
The Fist-Sized Diamond Found With a Penknife
On January 26, 1905, a mine manager in South Africa dug the largest gem-quality diamond ever found out of a mine wall with his penknife — the 3,106-carat Cullinan.
The St. Patrick's Day Wedding That Married Two Roosevelts
On March 17, 1905, Franklin D. Roosevelt married his distant cousin Eleanor in New York, with her uncle — President Theodore Roosevelt — giving away the bride.
A Patent Clerk Rewrites Time: Einstein's 1905 Relativity Paper
On June 30, 1905, a 26-year-old patent clerk's paper on the electrodynamics of moving bodies reached a physics journal and quietly rewrote space and time.
The Treaty That Ended a War Halfway Around the World
On September 5, 1905, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Portsmouth at a U.S. navy yard in New Hampshire, ending a brutal war — and earning President Theodore Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize.
Three Pages That Changed the World
On September 27, 1905, the journal Annalen der Physik received a paper from a 26-year-old patent clerk that quietly revealed mass is energy.