Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1904.

February

• February 7: The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• February 8: A Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts the Russo-Japanese War.
• February 10: Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
• February 23: For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• February 24: Crew members of the U.S.S. Supply observe three luminous objects in the sky. (Books298)

March

• March 3: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
• March 4: Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria, followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• March 31: British expedition to Tibet – Battle of Guru, British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

 

April

• April 8: The Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France.
• April 8: Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• April 8: Aleister Crowley begins writing Liber Al vel Legis, better known as The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema. He completes this task on April 10.
• April 17: A great darkness descends upon Wimbledon, London. A darkness that lasted 10 minutes and was too dark to go "even out in the open." (Books234)
• April 19: The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.
• April 27: The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• April 30: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).

 

May

• May 4: U.S. Army engineers begin work on The Panama Canal.
• May 9: GWR 3440 City of Truro becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.

 

June

• June 10: Irish author James Joyce meets his future wife Nora Barnacle.
• June 15: A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.
• June 16: Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
• June 16: James Joyce walks to Ringsend with Nora Barnacle; he later uses this date (Bloomsday) as the setting for his novel Ulysses.
• June 28: The Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrants.
• June 29: The 1904 Moscow tornado occurs.

 

July

• July 1: The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.
• July 21: The Trans-Siberian railway is completed.
• July 23: In St. Louis, Missouri, the ice cream cone is invented during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

 

August

• August 3: British expedition to Tibet, The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet.
• August 17: Russo-Japanese War, A Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.

 

September

• September 7:  British expedition to Tibet, The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.

 

October

• October 21: Russo-Japanese War, The Dogger Bank incident - The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea.
• October 27: The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.

 

November

• November 8: U.S. presidential election, Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.

 

December

• December 2: An intense darkness descends upon Memphis, Tenn. for about fifteen minutes. (Books233)
• December 3: Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, Himalia.
• December 16: Mrs Thomas Cochrane of Falkirk, Scotland, is found burned to death in her bedroom. The body was found "sitting in a chair, surrounded by pillows and cushions." (Books656) 
• December 27: The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.
• December 30: The East Boston Tunnel opens.
• December 31: In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.