| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1905–1907 | [astronomy] | Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung discovers that there is a relationship between the colour and absolute brightness of stars and classifies them according to this relationship. It is used to determine the distances of stars and forms the basis of theories of stellar evolution. |
| 1906 | Russian Empire [chemistry] | Russian botanist Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet develops chromatography to separate plant pigments. |
| 1906 | [cinema and film] | The first ever feature-length film is produced, The Story of the Kelly Gang, in Australia. It is directed by Charles Tait, and stars Elizabeth Tait and an uncredited actor as Ned Kelly. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [cinema and film] | George Albert Smith of the Charles Urban Trading Co. develops Kinemacolour, the first commercially successful colour process for film: it uses two colour filters and two reels of film. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [cinema and film] | Eugène Lauste patents the first sound-on-film process in Britain, though it is not yet suitable for speech. His attempts at later commercial exploitation of it are thwarted by the war. |
| 1906 | USA, United Kingdom [cinema and film] | The first animated cartoons are made in the USA and Britain. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [clothing and fashion] | German hairdresser Karl Ludwig Nessler introduces the permanent wave for hair styling in Britain. Because of the expense and awkwardness of the process, it will not really catch on until he moves to the USA, where the bob is popular. |
| 1906 | [fiction] | The English writer John Galsworthy publishes The Man of Property, the first novel in his sequence of novels and stories The Forsyte Saga. The final volume appears in 1922. |
| 1906 | [fiction] | The US journalist Upton Sinclair publishes his novel The Jungle, a controversial book that exposes the conditions in the Chicago stockyards. As a direct result Congress passes laws to improve conditions in slaughterhouses. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [food and drink] | Fresh milk is sold in bottles in Britain for the first time, by the Manor Farm Dairy in East Finchley, England. |
| 1906 | England [health and medicine] | English biochemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins is first to suggest the existence of vitamins. |
| 1906 | [painting] | The French artist Pierre Auguste Renoir paints Nude (After the Bathe). |
| 1906 | [painting] | The French artist André Derain paints The Port of London. |
| 1906 | [painting] | The German artist Paula Modersohn-Becker paints Old Poorhouse Woman with Glass Bottle and Poppy. |
| 1906 | USA [telephone services] | A telephone directory enquiries service is introduced in New York City. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [telephone services] | The National Telephone Co. and the General Post Office introduce coin-operated telephone boxes in Britain. The first is at Ludgate Circus Post Office in London, England. Users pay after completing their calls. |
| 1906 | [physics] | English physicist Charles Glover Barkla demonstrates that each element can be made to emit X-rays of a characteristic frequency. |
| 1906 | USA [physics] | US physicist Lee De Forest invents the ‘audion tube’, a triode vacuum tube with a third electrode, shaped like a grid, between the cathode and anode that controls the flow of electrons and permits the amplification of sound. It is an essential element in the development of radio, radar, television, and computers. |
| 1906 | Germany [physics] | German physicist Walther Herman Nernst formulates the third law of thermodynamics, which states that matter tends towards random motion and that energy tends to dissipate at a temperature above absolute zero (-273.12°C/-350°F). |
| 1906 | USA [popular music] | The John Gabel Automatic Entertainer, the first selective disc-playing jukebox, is introduced in the USA. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [legislation] | The British Trade Disputes Act reverses the Taff Vale judgement of 1901. Peaceful picketing is now allowed and unions are immune from claims for damage caused by strikes. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [legislation] | The British government passes legislation to provide children with free meals at school. |
| 1906 | United Kingdom [everyday life] | J Fletcher Dodd opens Dodd's Socialist Holiday Camp, the first holiday camp for families, at Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk, England. |
| 17 January 1906 | France [elections] | The radical Clément Fallières, the candidate of the Left, is elected president of France. |
| 10 February 1906 | United Kingdom [ships and shipping] | The British battleship HMS Dreadnought is launched at Portsmouth, England. Its massive armament (10 30 cm/12 in guns and 24 12-pounder guns) makes all other warships obsolete and its name becomes a generic term for battleships with large-calibre armament. |
| 13 March 1906 | [births and deaths] | Susan B(rownell) Anthony, US suffragette whose work eventually led to women's suffrage in the USA (1920), dies in Rochester, New York (85). |
| 8 April 1906 | Morocco [diplomacy] | The Act of Algeciras is signed, ending the Moroccan crisis. It gives France and Spain chief control in Morocco under a Swiss inspector, and respects the sultan's authority. |
| 13 April 1906 | [births and deaths] | Samuel Beckett, Irish writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, born in Foxrock, Ireland (–1989). |
| 19 May 1906 | Portugal [law and government] | João Franco becomes prime minister of Portugal with dictatorial powers, following conflict between the king and liberals. |
| 23 May 1906 | [births and deaths] | Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet and playwright whose works include Peer Gynt (1867) and A Doll's House (1879), dies in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway (78). |
| 30 May 1906 | Italy [law and government] | Giovanni Giolitti forms a coalition ministry in Italy, charged with dealing with strikes and unrest in southern Italy. The arrangement will continue until December 1909. |
| 6 June 1906 | Russian Empire [law and government] | The reformer Peter Stolypin becomes prime minister of Russia. |
| 22 June 1906 | Austria-Hungary [births and deaths] | Billy Wilder, Academy Award-winning film director and scriptwriter, born (–2002). |
| 26 June - 27 June 1906 | France, Austria-Hungary [motor-racing and rallying] | The Hungarian driver Ferenc Szisz, in a Renault, wins the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. This is regarded as the first ever motor-racing Grand Prix. |
| 23 August 1906 | Cuba, USA [revolution] | A liberal revolt begins in Cuba, protesting against the fraudulent activities of President Tomás Palma's government. President Palma requests US intervention and mediators US war secretary, William Howard Taft, and Robert Bacon arrive on 25 September; Taft commands the Cuban government for 13 days. |
| 25 September 1906 | [births and deaths] | Dmitry Shostakovich, Russian composer, born in St Petersburg, Russia (–1975). |
| 22 October 1906 | [births and deaths] | Paul Cézanne, French post-Impressionist painter whose work led to the development of cubism, dies in Aix-en-Provence, France (67). |
| 22 November 1906 | Russian Empire [law and government] | The Russian prime minister, Peter Stolypin, introduces agrarian reforms in Russia, empowering peasants to claim their share of communal land as private property. |
| 6 December 1906 | Transvaal, Southern Africa [law and government] | Britain grants self-government to Transvaal and Orange River Colony following agitation for autonomy there. |
| 19 December 1906 | [births and deaths] | Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet statesman, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party 1964–82, born in Kamenskoye, Russia (–1982). |
| 24 December 1906 | USA [radio] | Canadian-born US physicist Reginald Fessenden makes the first wireless transmission of speech and music from Brant Rock, Massachusetts using amplitude modification. He broadcasts music, a poem, and a talk, all heard by ships' radio operators. |
