The Year 1909 in Review: Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historic Highlights

This quick read is a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historic events from the year 1909. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, entertainment trivia, erratic weather patterns, and much more.

1. Until March 4, Theodore Roosevelt (R-New York) was the 26th president of the United States, and Charles W. Fairbanks (R-Indiana) was the nation’s 26th vice president. On that day, William Howard Taft (R-Ohio) was inaugurated as the 27th U.S. president, and James S. Sherman (R-New York) became the nation’s 27th vice president.
2. The U.S. unemployment rate was 5.1%, and the nation’s inflation rate was -1.09%.
3. In 1909, the average wage in the United States was around 22 cents per hour, and the average American worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
4. American companies and brands established in 1909 included Eureka (home appliance brand), the Hudson Motor Car Company, Max Factor, Mutual of Omaha, and Snyder’s of Hanover.
5. Helena, California, a former Native American camp dating back some 4,000 years, recorded 71.54 inches of precipitation for January. It was the highest monthly amount of precipitation ever recorded in the contiguous United States up to that time.
6. On January 28, U.S. troops began to leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish–American War (April 21 to December 10, 1898).
7. On February 12, W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey, Ida B. Wells, Lillian Wald, and Henry Moskowitz formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Today, the NAACP is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the United States.
8. On February 24, the Hudson Motor Car Company was established. The name Hudson came from Joseph L. Hudson, a department store owner in Detroit, “who provided the necessary capital and gave permission for the company to be named after him.”
9. On March 30, the Queensboro Bridge, which connects Manhattan and Queens, opened to vehicular traffic.
10. On May 23, Charles Pathé introduced the first newsreel, The Daily Bioscope, at a theater in London. (Just so you know, a newsreel is a “short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and 1970s.”)
11. June 9 to August 27: Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, “became the first woman to drive across the United States. In 59 days, she drove a Maxwell automobile 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York, to San Francisco, California, with three non-driving female companions.”
12. On June 18, the strangled body of nineteen-year-old Elsie Sigel, who was a missionary in New York City’s Chinatown, was discovered in a trunk in an apartment belonging to William Leon Ling, a waiter at a Chinese restaurant. The murder gained national attention and set off a wave of anti-Chinese hysteria across the U.S.
13. On August 2, the United States Army Signal Corps Division purchased the world's first military airplane. They bought the “Wright Military Flyer” from the Wright Brothers.
14. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted its first automobile race on August 12, 1909, following the success of hot-air balloon races and motorcycle races earlier in the year. Bob Burman, driving a Buick, won the inaugural race, beating racing driver Louis Chevrolet.
15. On September 27, the Wabash River Earthquake rattled Indiana and is still the strongest earthquake to strike “The Hoosier State.”
16. In November, the New York Shirtwaist Strike, also known as the Uprising of the 20,000, unfolded. The strike involved young Jewish and Italian immigrant women who worked in New York City’s shirtwaist factories. In February 1910, the Women's Trade Union League, representing the striking workers, “settled with the factory owners, gaining improved wages, working conditions, and hours.”
17. On November 11, the United States Navy established a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
18. In 1909, Søren Sørensen, a Danish chemist, developed the pH scale while working at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen. (Just so you know, the pH scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a solution on a scale of 0 to 14. Values less than 7 are acidic, values greater than 7 are alkaline, and 7—for example, pure water—is considered neutral.)
19. Fritz Hofman, a German chemist, received the world's first patent for synthetic rubber.
20. General Electric first used the name “Mazda” on their lamps. GE chose the name Mazda because it is derived from Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian god of light.
21. George Constant Louis Washington, a Belgian inventor and businessman, began to mass-produce Red E coffee, the world’s first widely used instant coffee.
22. Famous people born in 1909 included Ann Sothern (movie actress), Benny Goodman (clarinet player), Leo Fender (entrepreneur), Mike Todd (film producer), and Vivian Vance (TV actress).
23. Famous people who died in 1909 were E. H. Harriman (entrepreneur), Geronimo (war hero), John Clarkson (baseball player), Sarah Orne Jewett (novelist), and Whitcomb L. Judson (inventor).
24. Popular music artists and groups: Henry Burr, Arthur Collins, Byron G. Harlan, the Hayden Quartet, Ada Jones, Harry MacDonough, Billy Murray, the Peerless Quartet, Prince’s Orchestra, Arthur Pryor’s Band, and John Philip Sousa’s Band
25. America’s favorite songs were Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (the Fisk University Jubilee Quartet), I’ve Got Rings on My Fingers (Blanche Ring), and The Yama Yama Man (Ada Jones & the Victor Light Opera Company).
26. Popular movies for the year included A Midsummer Night's Dream, Les Misérables, Oliver Twist, Princess Nicotine, The Judgment of Solomon, The Life of Moses, and The Life of Napoleon.
27. Best-selling books in 1909: Basil King’s The Inner Shrine, Elinor Macartney Lane’s Katrine, and Rex Beach’s The Silver Horde
28. Here are some sports facts from 1909: Henri Renaud won the Boston Marathon, Wintergreen was the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby, and the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series.
29. In 1909 as well, the words "air raid," "attaboy," "boondocks," "bouillon cube," "cinema," "cold war," "color wheel," "empathy," "form letter," "funnel cloud," "holy day of obligation," "joy ride," "lie detector," "mentalist," "microwatt," "orthodontics," "paddy wagon," "socialite," "sound effects," and "Tom Collins" all appeared in print for the first time.
30. Baby crib: $2.98 to $4.75
31. Bedspread (white crochet, full size): 98 cents to $1.39
32. Brass bed: $15.00 to $25.00
33. Carpet sweeper (Puritan brand): $1.65
34. Coal for home heating: $5.25 to $6.75 a ton
35. Dinnerware (100-piece set of fine Austrian china): $14.00
36. Folding table (36" x 36”): 49 cents to $1.50
37. Linoleum: 35 cents to $1.50 per square yard
38. Mason jars (quart size): 48 cents a dozen
39. Oriental rug: $1.00 per square foot
40. Refrigerator (24 1/2" wide, 16 1/2" deep, and 39" high): $6.00
41. Rocking chair (oak): $3.95 to $6.98
42. Sheets (68" x 90"): 42 cents to 55 cents
43. Teapot (enamel, three-quart size): 29 cents
44. Eggs: 26 cents a dozen
45. Flour: $1.75 for a 49-pound sack
46. Ice cream: 10 cents a pint and 35 cents a quart
47. Peanut butter: 11 cents a pound
48. Roasting chickens: 22 cents a pound
49. Swift’s sugar-cured ham: 14 cents a pound
50. White potatoes: 10 cents for a six-quart basket

References:

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1909
2. https://popculturemadness.com/1909-history-trivia-and-fun-facts/
3. https://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/?beginEra=1900&endEra=1915&clean=false&submitsend=Search
4. https://www.mclib.info/Research/Local-History-Genealogy/Historic-Prices/Historic-Prices-1900s/Historic-Prices-1909
5. https://greensboro.com/food-history-from-1900-to-1909/article_25669410-ec4a-5d8d-b9f0-667441e25b36.html
6. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1906.html
7. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1909.html
8. https://www.infoplease.com/year/1909
9. https://www.infoplease.com/year/1909
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1909_in_the_United_States
11. https://playback.fm/charts/top-100-songs/1909
12. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066062690/

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor