* 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

In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, who had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests.

The John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow | Earl of Hopetoun, the first Governor-General, 1901 – 1903

At age 22, Keller published her autobiography, The Story of My Life ( 1903 ), with help from Sullivan and Sullivan's husband, John Macy.

* Keller, Helen with Anne Sullivan and John A. Macy ( 1903 ) The Story of My Life.

While a board of elders was elected for the enforcement of the Society's rules and regulations, business management passed to its trustees: Baker and Henrici, 1847 – 68 ; Henrici and Jonathan Lenz, 1869 – 90 ; Henrici and Wolfel, 1890 ; Henrici and John S. Duss, 1890 – 1892 ; Duss and Seiber, 1892 – 1893 ; Duss and Reithmuller, 1893 – 1897 ; Duss, 1897 – 1903 ; and finally to Suzanna ( Susie ) C. Duss in 1903.

* John Baptiste Ford ( 1811 – 1903 ), American business leader who, in 1883, founded the industrial concern Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company ( renamed PPG Industries in 1968 )

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris ( 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969 ) was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes.

* 1903 – John Wyndham, English author ( d. 1969 )

* 1903 – John Dillinger, American bank robber and murderer ( d. 1934 )

* 1903 – John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, Nobel laureate ( d. 1997 )

The 1903 unveiling of the General John Graves Simcoe monument at Queen's Park ( Toronto ) | Queen's Park in Toronto.

Statue of John Graves Simcoe first Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario | Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada by Walter Seymour Allward 1903 Queen's Park ( Toronto )

Sir John Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS ( 27 January 1903 – 2 May 1997 ) was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse.

After Roosevelt signed an executive order setting aside land in the Benguet region of the Philippines for a military reservation under the United States Army, Camp John Hay of Baguio City was established on October 25, 1903 and named in his honor.

* 1903 – John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer pioneer ( d. 1995 )

Less than three weeks later, on November 18, 1903, the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty was signed between Frenchman Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who had promptly been appointed Panamanian ambassador to the United States, representing Panamanian interests, and the United States Secretary of State John Hay.

* Reed, John Calvin ( 1903 ).

He is regarded by many Catholics to be the first Pope whose body was discovered to be incorrupt, followed by Pope St. Pius X ( 1903 – 14 ) and Blessed Pope John XXIII ( 1958 – 63 ).

In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canada's Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ( something explorers had been attempting since the days of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, and Henry Hudson ), with six others in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa.

* Knapp, John I. with Richard Illenden BonnerIllustrated history and biographical record of Lenawee County, Mich. Adrian, Mich .: The Times printing company, 1903.

She refused each proposal, and in 1903, to his horror, married the Irish nationalist Major John MacBride.