• 1st Giro d’Italia - Capitalizing on the success of Classics race Milan-San Remo, Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport beat rival newspaper Corriere dello Sport to the announcement of the first Giro d’Italia. Public reaction was enormous and on May 13, 1909 the race began with 8 stages covering 3,256 km.

• Aix en Provence, France - June 17, 1909, the largest earthquake in French history hit the area just north of Aix en Provence.

• North Pole - Admiral Robert Peary discovered the North Pole.

• Paris - The first escalator was put into service in the Paris Metro.

• Running - Robert Fowler ran to a world marathon record in a time of 2h46’52”.

• Aviation - July 25, 1909, Frenchman Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly across the English Channel in 37 minutes. The airplane, the Bleriot XI, was his own design. In England, Orville and Wilbur Wright introduce their invention to automaker Charles Rolls (Rolls-Royce). A year later Rolls pilots his aircraft across the English Channel and back, non-stop.

Notable Deaths -
Geronimo, 1829-1909, leader of the last Native American (Chiricahua Apaches) uprising in Arizona. He finally surrendered in 1886 and lived the rest of his life as farmer in Oklahoma. He was the guest of honor at Teddy Roosevelt’s 1905 inauguration.

1908

1910

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