March 1900 - March 5, 1900 (Monday)

March 5, 1900 (Monday)

• Two U.S. Navy cruisers, the USS Detroit and the USS Marblehead, were sent to Central America to protect American interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The War Department sent the ships at the request of the American envoy to Costa Rica.
• Wallack's Theatre in New York was closed under decree by Chief Devery of the NYPD on grounds that its presentation of the play Sapho was "a public nuisance in that is an offense against public decency". Lead actress Olga Nethersole and producer Hamilton Revelle were both arrested as well. The same evening, David Belasco's production of Madame Butterfly opened at the Herald Square Theatre on Broadway. The play, not to be confused with Puccini's 1904 opera, had been adapted from the story by John Luther Long