* 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

* Calamity Jane Martha Jane Canary ( May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903 ), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok.

* 1903 – Big Bill Broonzy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist ( d. 1958 )

Buffalo Bill Cody in 1903

Big Bill Broonzy ( June 26, 1903 – August 15, 1958 ) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist.

Local laws had to be adjusted, ergo the ' Light Locomotives ( Ireland ) Bill ' was passed on 27 March 1903.

* Little Bill Raidler — shot and captured September 6, 1895, by Deputy U. S. Marshal Bill Tilghman ; paroled in 1903 because of complication from wounds received when he was captured ; died 1904.

* July 1903 – E. Untermann, a revolutionary, publishes a critical pamphlet on the " Militia Bill "

Local laws had to be adjusted, ergo the ' Light Locomotives ( Ireland ) Bill ' was passed on 27 March 1903.

Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Bill Holman ( 1903 – 1987 ) moved to Chicago, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts while working as an office boy in the Chicago Tribune art department.

Local laws had to be adjusted, ergo the ' Light Locomotives ( Ireland ) Bill ' was passed on 27 March 1903.

In his prime, Waddell was the game's premier power pitcher, with 302 strikeouts in 1903, 115 more than runner-up ( Bill Donovan ), and followed that up with 349 strikeouts in 1904, 110 more than the runner-up ( Jack Chesbro ).

To further confuse the issue, Bill Jackson's paternal grand-father, General Red Jackson, died at age 67 of natural causes — and young Bill's father, William Harding Jackson ( I ), died of complications from typhoid fever at age 29 — both within four-months of each other — during the Spring-Summer of 1903 when young Jackson was only two-years old.

Subsequently, when General Red Jackson died in March, 1903, his portion of the Belle Meade estate was left to his son, William Harding Jackson ( I ) who, in turn, died just 4 months later in July, 1903 ; leaving the estate to Selene Elliston, the Catholic Church and his son, William Harding " Bill " Jackson ( II ), ( then age 2 ) -- all of which was to be administered by James B. Richardson, Executor.

He umpired in 10 World Series – a total exceeded only by the 18 worked by Bill Klem, whose hiring O ' Day had recommended – including four of the first five played ; for the first three, he was the only NL umpire for the Series: 1903, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1916, 1918, 1920, 1923 and 1926.

Local laws had to be adjusted, ergo the ' Light Locomotives ( Ireland ) Bill ' was passed on 27 March 1903.

Soon afterwards, these were followed by designs by John G. Robinson of the Great Central Railway ( GCR Class 8 ) of 1902, and in 1903 by Francis Webb of the London and North Western Railway with his unsuccessful 4-cylinder compound locomotives of the 1400 ' Bill Bailey ' class, and George Jackson Churchward's GWR 2900 (" Saint ") Class which was the first in a long line of mixed traffic 4-6-0 classes operated by the Great Western Railway, and the 105 locomotives of the LNWR Whale Experiment Class, built 1905-1910.

Bernie Naylor Medalists: ( 18 total ) 1894: W. Duffy ( 15 ), 1898: H. Loel ( N / A ), 1899: H. Loel ( 50 ), 1900: A. Daly ( 30 ), 1901: H. Loel ( 45 ), 1902: H. Loel ( 35 ), 1903: T. McNamara ( 32 ), 1911: William Bellion ( 30 ), 1925: Ted Flemming ( 50 ), 1930: Frank Hopkins ( 79 ), 1932: Ted Tyson ( 96 ), 1936: Ted Tyson ( 126 ), 1942: Ted Brunton ( 94 ), 1945: Bill Baker ( 91 ), 1951: Ray Scott ( 141 ), 1955: Ray Scott ( 83 ), 1963: Ron Evans ( 97 ), 1973: Phil Smith ( 84 )

William Henry ( Bill ) Kibby VC ( 15 April 1903 – 31 October 1942 ) was a British-born Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Commonwealth forces.

* Bill Gammage, ' Kibby, William Henry ( Bill ) ( 1903 – 1942 )', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, Melbourne University Press, 2000, pp 15 – 16.

Buffalo Bill staged a performance of his Wild West Show in Thornbury when touring England in 1903.

* Charles Henry Smith ( 1826 – 1903 ), Georgia politician and writer under the nom de plume Bill Arp