WHAT HAPPENED IN 1909.
Look what happened the 1909.

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

Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. (5. 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)

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

Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera. (25. January 1909)

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

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic. (5. February 1909)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded. (12. February 1909)

New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. (12. February 1909)

The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250. (15. February 1909)

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

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

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)

By signing the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, Thailand relinquishes its sovereignty over the Malay states of Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu, which become British protectorates. (10. March 1909)

Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society. (23. March 1909)

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