Timothy Donovan (1881 - 1916)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Timothy's lifetime.

In 1881, in the year that Timothy Donovan was born, on March 4th, James A. Garfield became the 20th President of the United States. On July 2nd, he was shot by Charles Guiteau, a lawyer, in Washington, D.C. The wound became infected and Garfield died on September 19. Vice President Chester A. Arthur immediately became the 21st President.

In 1896, when he was just 15 years old, in April, the first study on global warming due to CO2 - carbon dioxide - in the atmosphere was published by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius. Arrhenius concluded that human activity due to the Industrial Revolution would amplify CO2 in the atmosphere, causing a greenhouse effect. His conclusions have been extensively tested in the ensuing 100+ years and are still seen to hold true.

In 1899, at the age of 18 years old, Timothy was alive when on February 14th, the first voting machines were approved by Congress for use in federal elections. Several states were already using voting machines in their elections and the Federal government was finally convinced of their safety and accuracy.

In 1904, at the age of 23 years old, Timothy was alive when the Russo-Japanese war began. The Russian Empire and the Japanese Empire began fighting over the territories of Manchuria and Korea. Russia wanted a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean while Japan feared growing encroachment from Russia into Asia. So the Japan fleet launched a surprise attack on the Russian Navy and a one year war began. President Roosevelt of the United States brokered peace between the two nations. It was the first time in the modern era that an Asian power showed its dominance over a European power.

In 1916, in the year of Timothy Donovan's passing, visiting nurse Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. at 46 Amboy St. in Brooklyn New York. Ten days after the clinic opened, Sanger was arrested for "violating laws against giving out birth control information" which was defined as obscenity. The clinic was not handing out birth control - just information about sex and birth control methods. (The Comstock law categorized information about abortion, family planning, and contraception as “obscene”.) The clinics and organizations that Sanger established later evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.