1903
LORD CURZON, the Viceroy of India, instigated two weeks of festivities full of pomp and finery at the end of the previous year to commemorate Edward VII as the new Emperor of India.
The events culminated in the official ceremony on January 1, when Lord Curzon, sitting on a regal gold and white dais, signalled the trumpets to sound whilst a lone horseman rode up and read a proclamation. Lord Curzon then read a message from the new Emperor and announced that there would be a remission of interest on British loans for those states suffering from famine.
The US and the Republic of Colombia signed a treaty on January 22, allowing for the construction of a Panama Canal.
The Colombian government credited the US the right to build a canal and a strip of land six miles wide, in exchange for an annual rental and a sum in gold. The project had keen support from President Roosevelt who believed that a U.S-controlled canal across Central America was of vital strategic interest to his country.
Indeed, the potential of a water passage between North and South America was recognised by the earliest colonists of Central America, and schemes for such a canal were floated several times in the subsequent years.
An initial attempt by France to build a sea-level canal failed, but only after a great amount of excavation was carried out. This was to prove beneficial to the US engineers when they began work.
Lord Salisbury, four times Tory Prime Minister, died on August 22 at the age of 73. He had suffered from a weak heart and had retired as PM the previous year. His nephew and successor Arthur Balfour was by his bedside when he passed away.
Telegrams of tribute arrived in London from all over Europe. The funeral, on August 31, was a private affair at the Cecil family home of Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, with just family, a few intimate neighbours and tenants and staff present. The coffin was carried to and from the parish church by family retainers.
The Archbishop of Canterbury officiated at the funeral service, and Lord Salisbury was buried beside his wife in the burial ground on his estate. The King and Queen sent wreaths, as did other European Royalty.
Simultaneously, a memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey, attended by dignitaries and politicians.
At a stormy congress in London on November 17, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party split into two distinct groups – the Bolsheviks (‘majority’) and Mensheviks (‘minority’).
The Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, believed that a revolution must be led by a single centralised party of professional revolutionaries. The opposing Men-sheviks, led by Yuly Martov, advocated a broad proletarian party.
Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, resigned from the Cabinet on September 17 after eight years. He quit office in order to have greater freedom in advocating preferential tariff treatment for Empire countries.