May 8, 1900 (Tuesday)
- Richard Etheridge, the first African-American keeper of a Coast Guard station, died while attempting a rescue near the Pea Island Life-Saving Stationat North Carolina. He was posthumously awarded the Gold Life Saving Medal for heroism, albeit not until March 5, 1996.
- Cambridge University zoologist William Bateson was riding a train to London when he read the recently rediscovered 1866 paper by Gregor Mendel, and soon became the greatest champion of Mendel's discoveries of the laws of heredity. As one author would later note, "the first half of genetics was officially underway". Bateson translated Mendel's paper and published it in the 1902 book book Mendel's Principles of Heredity: A Defence.
- The National Basket Ball League title was won by Trenton, when it defeated the Millville Glass Blowers, 22-19, to win the championship of the first professional basketball league in the United States.
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