Composer and musician Scott Joplin publishes The Entertainer in 1902.
The January 22, 1903, Hay-Herran Treaty grants the United States a renewable lease in perpetuity from Colombia on the land proposed for the Panama Canal.
On February 14, 1903, the U.S. Census Bureau becomes part of the new U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor.
The first silent film, The Great Train Robbery, debuts in 1903.
Orville and Wilbur Wright are first to fly a controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC, on December 17, 1903.
Prominent civil and women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony dies on March 13, 1906.
The first underground portion of the New York City subway opens on October 27, 1904.
