March 1900 - March 17, 1900 (Saturday)

March 17, 1900 (Saturday)

• The Topeka Daily Capital published its final "Sheldon Edition", bringing to a close an experiment that had started on March 13. The publisher of the Capital had challenged author Charles M. Sheldon to try editing a daily newspaper as Jesus might. Sheldon, the author of In His Steps (and the originator of WWJD?, the question "What would Jesus do?"), edited the paper for five days, emphasizing "good news" stories. During the experiment, the circulation of the Capital increased from about 12,000 to more than 350,000 (with the help of presses in Chicago and New York). Rather than closing with a Sunday paper, Sheldon published a "Saturday Evening Edition" following the regular morning paper, with instructions that even the news carriers were "to deliver their papers in time to reach home themselves before Sunday", and there was "no news of the world". Sheldon wrote, "The human race can be just as happy and useful and powerful if it does not know every twenty-four hours the news of the wars and the sports and the society events of the world."
• Richard P. Leary, the American Governor of Guam, issued a proclamation abolishing slavery on the island.
• American forces, led by Major Henry Hale of the 44th Infantry Battalion, arrived at Tagbilaran and took control of Bohol Island in the Philippines The Boholanos resisted American occupation for years thereafter.
• Born: Composer Alfred Newman, who won nine Academy Awards in a career of creating musical scores for films, in New Haven, Connecticut; (d. 1970)