January
In France, Alfred Loisy writes L'évangile et l'Eglise, which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis.
International Bureau of the American Republics is established.
January 1
The first college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's first registered nurse.
January 8 – A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains and led to the banning of Steam locomotives in the state.
January 23 – A snowstorm at Mount Hakkoda, northern Honshu, Japan, kills 199 during a military training exercise.
January 28 – The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
February 9 – Fire levels 26 city blocks of Jersey City, New Jersey.
February 11 – Police and universal suffrage demonstrators are involved in a physical altercation in Brussels.
February 15 – The Berlin U-Bahn underground is opened.
February 18 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt prosecutes the Northern Securities Company for violation of the Sherman Act.
February 27 – American writer John Steinbeck is born.
March–April
March 6 – Real Madrid was founded.
March 7 – Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
March 8 – Jean Sibelius's Second Symphony was premiered in Helsinki.
March 10 – A Circuit Court prevents Thomas Edison from having a monopoly on motion picture technology.
April 2 – Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
April 13 – A new car speed record of 74 mph (119 km/h) is set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet.
April 19 – A magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocks Guatemala, killing 2,000.
April 26 – Hibernian F.C. won the Scottish Cup 1–0 against Glasgow Celtic F.C., the last time in their history they have won the competition.
May–June
May 8: Mount Pelée erupts.
May 5 – The Commonwealth Public Service Act creates Australia's Public Service.
May 7 – In Saint Vincent, La Soufrière erupts, devastating the northern portion of the island, killing 2,000 people
May 8 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000.
May 13 – Alfonso XIII of Spain begins his reign.
May 20 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.
May 29 – Lord Rosebery opens London School of Economics.
May 31 – The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War.
May 15: Lyman Gilmore plane.
June 2 – The Anthracite Coal Strike begins in the United States.
June 15 – The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City.
June 16 – Australia: Female British subjects (with the exception of Asians, Aborigines and Africans) win the vote with the Uniform Franchise Act.
June 17 – Norwich City Football Club is formed.
June 26 – Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit.
July–August
July 5 ; Erik Gustaf Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden.
July 8 – Service of Reclamation within U.S. Geological Survey.
July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania kills 112 miners.
July 11
Lord Salisbury retires as British prime minister.
The Order of the Garter is conferred on Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
July 14 – St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses.
July 21 – Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro.
August 1 – 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia.
August 9 – Edward VII is crowned King of the United Kingdom.
August 22 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile when he rides in a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.
August 24 – A statue of Joan of Arc was unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.
August 30 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts again, destroying the town of Morne-Rouge causing 1000 deaths.
September–October
October 16 – The first Borstal (youth offenders' institution) opens in Borstal, Kent, U.K.
October 21 – In the United States, a five-month strike by the United Mine Workers ends.
November–December
c. November – The first teddy bear is produced by Morris Michtom in the United States.
November 30 – American Old West: The second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years hard labor.
December–February 1903 – Venezuelan crisis, in which Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
December 10 – The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed.
December 30 – Discovery Expedition: Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.