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State Rep. Henry Marshall from Lafayette was chosen Speaker of the Indiana House; and Daniel Storms, from Romney, took office as Secretary of State.
Harry G. Leslie, 24, West Lafayette, president of his junior class at Purdue University and a baseball (first baseman) and football (end) team captain, took over as manager of the Purdue Athletic Association, and became involved with intercollegiate athletic scheduling and finances.
A nationwide coal strike for a while limited operations in local industries, i.e., Schwab Safe Co., the wagon works, and the Cruikshank pickle factory.
Jeptha Crouch, who ran the Lafayette Stock Farm on Union Street, received the city's first radio message from his brother 1,500 miles at sea. It had been beamed from ship to New York City, then to Lafayette via telegraph.
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Melville Winans Miller, former Purdue University athlete, lawyer, county surveyor, actor and Journal editor since 1902, as an Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
A semiprofessional rollerskate polo Central League formed at Indianapolis, with franchises in Lafayette, Marion, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute, Kokomo, and Danville, Ill.
Charles Shambaugh was named Lafayette agent Oldsmobile automobiles made in a Detroit factory.
The odd story of George Stein was revealed: Stein, who died Oct. 25, 1902, had counted on a son in Berlin, Germany, to bury him. The son didn't; so Soller-Baker Funeral Home preserved Stein's embalmed remains.
The new iron Brown Street Bridge opened, its asphalt pavement still rather a novelty on public roads.
Lafayette sponsored a week-long chautauqua downtown and at the county fairgrounds featuring lectures, exhibits and entertainment. It closed June 22 with an address by William Jennings Bryan.
Lafayette attorney, former legislator and congressman J. Frank Hanly announced that he would run for Indiana governor in 1904.
Two persons were injured and six escaped when a streetcar derailed at a repair and paving site on State Street Levee. The streetcar tumbled down a 20-foot embankment.
Ground was broken at the northwest corner of Sixth and Alabama streets for a rollerskate polo coliseum seating 2,300. It would measure 97 by 138 feet and face Sixth Street, with a 50-by-100-foot skating floor, restaurant and offices. There were to be two Lafayette Sycamores semipro polo games a week in season, with the "coliseum" available for amateur polo, open skating, meetings or other events.
Seventeen died and 34 suffered injuries at Indianapolis when a Big Four special train carrying Purdue University's football team and fans in 13 coaches, 954 people in all, hit freight cars near 21st Street. The train was enroute to an Indianapolis park for the annual football game against Indiana University. One survivor, at first presumed dead, was athletic manager Harry G. Leslie, West Lafayette, who spent 38 weeks in an Indianapolis hospital, and bore scars for the rest of his life. Scheduled to graduate from Purdue in 1904, Leslie had to wait until 1905.
The Lafayette Sycamores rollerskate polo team opened its season with out-of-town losses at Fort Wayne, Terre Haute, and Danville. Coliseum construction work delayed the team's first home game.
Donations poured in toward a $50,000 goal for a Purdue Memorial Gymnasium honoring those who died in the train wreck.
Four Lafayette passengers were among 17 hurt when a train on the Cloverleaf (Nickel Plate) line derailed a mile east of Frankfort.
Purdue University began using Eliza Fowler Hall, but waited until May 4, 1904, during Gala Week, to dedicate it at commencement time.
Investigators ruled that, by failing to notify the Indianapolis yardmaster of the special train, a Big Four Railroad dispatcher in Kankakee, Ill., was to blame for the tragic accident of Oct. 31.
The Crabbs-Reynolds-Bell grain elevator opened at the foot of Ferry Street.
Interurban railroad service opened between Lafayette and Indianapolis. The first car arrived in Lafayette about noon on Dec. 2 via the Indianapolis & Northwest Traction Company line. (On Dec. 10 a car derailed at the Belt Railway crossing near Main Street in the traction company's first accident.)
Lafayette defeated Terre Haute 5-4 in overtime before 1,500 fans in the first rollerskate polo game in the coliseum. BACKGROUND: The Journal of Dec. 24 contained a drawing of a polo arena and explained polo rules. Purdue University's basketball team used the coliseum floor later in the winter.
Jack Pottlitzer, 11, son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Pottlitzer, Lafayette, died among the 582 victims in the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago during a performance of Mr. Blue Beard. He was in the balcony with two cousins. Hours after the tragedy, inspectors searched Lafayette's Opera House for fire hazards, and deemed the building safe.