In the United States

• Industry output totals 24,250 cars and 750 trucks. Number of registered automobiles rises to 77,988. as compared to only 300 ten years earlier. Automobile is still considered a toy by most people
• Most popular song in the US is 'In My Merry Oldsmobile' by Gus Edwards
• Ford gives workers a $1,000 Christmas bonus, which exceeds most workers annual salary
• Ford abandons the gas buggy style Model A for the Mercedes style Model B
• Ford exports its first vehicle to Japan
• A White Steamer leads President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade
• William Durant ventures into the auto industry buying Buick
• Rear-entry tonneaus are giving way to longer bodies with side doors
• Big gasoline-engine cars are the trend at the 5th National Automobile Show. Exhibits included 177 gasoline-powered cars, 31 electrics, and 4 steamers. The New York auto show is the largest industrial exhibit in US
• Innovations this year include Goodyear universal rims, ignition lock, power tire pump, Gabriel exhaust horn, Weed Tire Chains
• The first cars were sold on the installment plan
• Half the American motor vehicles are in New York or New Jersey
• New York City Police Department buys three motorcycles. They set up one way traffic pattern on Times Square with safety islands in the center
• New York imposes the first one way circular pattern on a rotary at Columbus Circle, based on a concept proposed by French architect Henard in 1903
• C H Laessing invents the modern gas pump
• John Jacob Astor, Jr. spends $30,000 maintaining 20 cars
• American Automobile Association holds the first Glidden Tour to test car reliability and show the need for good roads
• Patrick Tierney of New Rochelle New York makes diners modeled after railroad cars
• Buick spends $100,000 on its racing team
• First stolen car in the US reported in St. Louis
• Mrs. C C Fitler wins an auto race before 20,000 spectators in Cape May NJ
• George Selden builds a prototype conforming to the specifications of his 1877 patent. Its longest run is 400 meters
• Chicago bicycle police officer arrests Flo Ziegfield and Anna Held for violating the 12-mph speed limit
• Glen Pool (oil) discovered in Oklahoma
• On July 5 in New York, the world's record for mile in a steam-powered car is cut to 48.8 seconds
• NSU expands its motorcycle construction facilities to include automobiles

US Auto Manufacturers

• First year production begins for the friction drive Cartercar, Lozier, Moon, and Reo
• The engine in the new Ariel car is air-cooled in winter, water-cooled in summer
• Adams-Farwell boasts a rotary three-cylinder engine
• American Mercedes issues an exact copy of its German-built car
• The Baker Electric makes its formal debut early in the year
• The Crawford Automobile Company is organized by Robert S. Crawford, known for bicycles
• A four-cylinder Cadillac debuts, with three-speed planetary transmission
• Oldsmobile adds a side-entrance, two-cylinder touring model
• Overland produces two-and four-cylinder cars, abandoning the one-lunger powertrain
• The final single-cylinder Ramblers are built; two-cylinder models will be continued through 1909
• A 20-bhp, four-cylinder Studebaker debuts
• Franklin begins featuring six-cylinder engines on its models
• The Winton Motor Company acquires Cleveland Cap Screw Company, which becomes the Electric Welding Company

And From Around the World

• Britain imposes a gasoline tax informally earmarked for road improvements
• London 'Daily Graphic' coin a new word 'smog' to describe the mixture of smoke & fog
• Revolutionaries set the Baku oil fields aflame