A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Dec. 10, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize, winning the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate peace in the Russo-Japanese War.
On Sept. 5, 1905, the empires of Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Portsmouth, an instrument which ended the Russo-Japanese War. Arbitrated by Roosevelt, the treaty was named after the Portsmouth Naval Shipyards in Kittery, Maine, across from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the negotiations had taken place.
It was the first time any American had received the international prize.
But it didn’t make the front page of the Deseret News.
That same week, Utahns were “shocked but not surprised” to learn that one of the state’s first U.S. senators, Arthur Brown, had been shot to death by a longtime mistress in a Washington, D.C., hotel.
The murder was big news in Utah for weeks, and the bulk of local sentiment favored the killer, Anne Maddison Bradley, despite Brown’s success as a lawyer and politician.
Thus Roosevelt’s success was pushed to Page 3.
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
Nobel died in 1895 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Nobel named the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to award the prizes for chemistry and physics, the Swedish Academy for literature, Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university for physiology or medicine, and the Norwegian parliament for peace.
Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about the Nobel Prize, Roosevelt and other Nobel winners:
“This week in history: Teddy Roosevelt mediates end to Russo-Japanese War”
“President Theodore Roosevelt visited Utah in 1903 to defend a Mormon apostle”
“Here’s the true story of how Teddy Roosevelt saved football”
“Don’t miss profile of Teddy Roosevelt — it’s bully!”
“Medal for Teddy Roosevelt may come 102 years late”
“Teddy Roosevelt descendant will re-explore Brazilian river”
“Teddy Roosevelt’s words about families ring true today”
Historically, on this date in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”
On this date in 1994, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize, pledging to pursue their mission of healing the anguished Middle East.
And on this date in 2007, former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.
Here are more stories about the Nobel Prize:
“8 Nobelists muse on virtues of unpredictable”
“Patriotic Potpourri: Presidential firsts”
And here’s more on the Brown-Bradley affair:
“Revelations of sordid private life swung sympathy against senator”