WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO MAY 1909
Find out what all happened January to May 1909

A massacre is organized by Ottoman Empire against Armenian population of Cilicia. (14. April 1909)

The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens. (30. March 1909)

Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V. (27. April 1909)

RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day. (23. January 1909)

The first Giro d'Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner. (13. May 1909)

Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole. (6. April 1909)

The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire. (23. February 1909)

The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world. (22. February 1909)

Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London. (26. February 1909)

Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina. (31. March 1909)

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. (16. January 1909)

Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro. (20. February 1909)

Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher. (1. January 1909)

The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, convenes for the first time. (31. May 1909)

The Young Left is founded in Norway. (27. January 1909)

Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km; 112 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest anyone had ever reached at that time. (9. January 1909)

Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome. (18. April 1909)

The U.S. Congress passes the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act. (9. April 1909)

U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State (4. March 1909)

United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish–American War. (28. January 1909)