* Andrew Ainslie Common ( 1841 – 1903 ), built his own very large reflecting telescopes and demonstrated that photography could record astronomical features invisible to the human eye.

* 1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev ( Bessarabia ) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Israel and the Western world.

* 1903 – Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player ( d. 1962 )

* 1903 – Harold Edgerton, American electrical engineer ( d. 1990 )

* 1903 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, recipient of the Bank of Sweden Prize ( d. 1994 )

* 1903 – Ferenc Keserű, Hungarian water polo player ( d. 1968 )

* 1819 – Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet, Irish-English mathematician and physicist ( d. 1903 )

After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903 – 04.

* 1903 – Fall of the Ottoman Empire: an unsuccessful uprising led by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden – Preobrazhenie Uprising, takes place.

In Serbia Nikola Pašić ( 1845 – 1926 ) and his Radical Party dominated Serbian politics after 1903 ; they also monopolized power in Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1929 ; during the dictatorship of the 1930s, it furnished the prime minister.

* 1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists only for 10 days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.

* 1903 – Habib Bourguiba, Tunisian politician ( d. 2000 )

* 1903 – Louis Leakey, Kenyan-English archaeologist ( d. 1972 )

* 1903 – A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.

* 1876 – Alexander I of Serbia ( d. 1903 )

* Adrian ( costume designer ) ( 1903 – 1959 ), born Adrian Adolph Greenberg, costume designer for over 250 films

* Adrian Rollini ( 1903 – 1956 ), American multi-instrumentalist best known for his jazz music

* 1903 – German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.

* 1903 – James Gould Cozzens, American novelist ( d. 1978 )

* 1903 – Lewis Sargent, American actor ( d. 1970 )

* 1826 – Karl Gegenbaur, German anatomist ( d. 1903 )

* 1903 – Arpad Elo, American chess player, created the Elo rating system ( d. 1992 )

Alexander I or Aleksandar Obrenović ( Cyrillic: Александар Обреновић ; 14 August 1876 – 11 June 1903 ) was king of Serbia from 1889 to 1903 when he and his wife, Queen Draga, were assassinated by a group of Army officers, led by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević

Anaïs Nin (; born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977 ) was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories.

** Anaïs Nin, French author ( b. 1903 )

20th century erotic fiction includes such classics of the genre as: Suburban Souls ( 1901 ), published by Carrington and possibly written by him also ; The Confessions of Nemesis Hunt ( issued in three volumes 1902, 1903, 1906 ), probably by George Reginald Bacchus, printed by Duringe of Paris for Leonard Smithers in London ; Josephine Mutzenbacher ( 1906 ) by Felix Salten ; Sadopaideia ( 1907 ) by Anon ( possibly Algernon Charles Swinburne ); Les Mémoires d ' un jeune Don Juan ( 1907 ) and the somewhat disturbing Les onze mille verges ( 1907 ) by Guillaume Apollinaire ; The Way of a Man with a Maid ( 1908 ) and A Weekend Visit by Anon ; Pleasure Bound Afloat ( 1908 ), Pleasure Bound Ashore ( 1909 ) and Maudie ( 1909 ) by Anon ( probably George Reginald Bacchus ); Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l ' usage des maisons d ' éducation ( 1917 ) and Trois filles de leur mère ( 1926 ) by Pierre Louys ; Story of the Eye ( 1928 ) by Georges Bataille ; Tropic of Cancer ( 1934 ) and Tropic of Capricorn ( 1938 ) by Henry Miller ; The Story of O ( 1954 ) by Pauline Réage ; Helen and Desire ( 1954 ) and Thongs ( 1955 ) by Alexander Trocchi ; Ada, or Ardor ( 1969 ) by Vladimir Nabokov ; Journal ( 1966 ), Delta of Venus ( 1978 ) and Little Birds ( 1979 ) by Anaïs Nin and The Bicycle Rider ( 1985 ) by Guy Davenport.

* 1839 – Gulstan Ropert, French prelate ( d. 1903 )

* 1903 – Henry Corbin, French philosopher and iranologist ( d. 1978 )

* 2003 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French author ( b. 1903 )

However, the French did not consolidate their control over the area until 1903, after having defeated the forces of Rabih in the battle of Kousséri, and established colonial administration throughout the territory.

Camille Pissarro () ( 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903 ) was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas ( now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies ).

However, in 1900 the French scientist Paul Villard discovered a third neutrally charged and especially penetrating type of radiation from radium, and after he described it, Rutherford realized it must be yet a third type of radiation, which in 1903 Rutherford named gamma rays.

Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot ( September 11, 1845 – March 28, 1903 ), French telegraph engineer and inventor of the first means of digital communication Baudot code, was one of the pioneers of telecommunications.

Escoffier's largest contribution was the publication of Le Guide Culinaire in 1903, which established the fundamentals of French cookery.

* 1903 – Raymond Queneau, French poet and novelist ( d. 1976 )

* 1903 – André Berthomieu, French film director and screenwriter ( d. 1960 )

It was a Roman Catholic convent run by French Ursuline nuns, who had been exiled from France after religious education was banned in 1903.

* 1830 – Camille Pissarro, French painter ( d. 1903 )

* 1903 – Raymond Radiguet, French author ( d. 1923 )

* 1903 – Marguerite Yourcenar, French author ( d. 1987 )

* 1903 – Fernandel, French actor ( d. 1971 )

* 1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist ( b. 1903 )

N-rays ( or N rays ) were a hypothesized form of radiation, described by French physicist Prosper-René Blondlot in 1903, and initially confirmed by others, but subsequently found to be illusory.

In 1903, Blondlot, a distinguished physicist who was one of eight physicists who were corresponding members of the French Academy of Science, announced his discovery while working at the University of Nancy and attempting to polarize X-rays.

* 1903 – Bona Arsenault, French Canadian politician, historian and genealogist ( d. 1993 )

* 1903 – Pierre Garbay, French army general and military governor of Paris ( d. 1980 )

* 1903 – Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller ( d. 2003 )

In 1900 the French scientist Paul Villard discovered a third neutrally charged and especially penetrating type of radiation from radium, and after he described it, Rutherford realized it must be yet a third type of radiation, which in 1903 Rutherford named gamma rays.

* Le fils de l ’ étoile ( 1903 ), a French opera by Camille Erlanger ( mus.