The decade from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1909 is sometimes referred to as the 1900s, "the nineteen hundreds", although this term can equally be used for the years 1900–1999. "The aughts" or "naughts" (aught-aught through aught-nine) was one of the more popular contemporary terms for this decade.^{[citation needed]} This was the first decade of the 20th century.

The 1900s were marked by several notable assassinations and assassination attempts:

The cost of an American postage stamp was 2 cents. The cost of a Swedish Postage stamp was 100SEK

The Tour De France starts for the first time in 1903.

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1900 • 1901 • 1902 • 1903 • 1904 • 1905 • 1906 • 1907 • 1908 • 1909

Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. As a result, the Julian calendar was 12 days behind the Gregorian until Wednesday, February 28 (O.S. February 16) and has been 13 days behind since Thursday, March 1 (O.S. February 17). It was the 1900th year of the Anno Domini or the Common Era designation, the 900th year of the 2nd millennium, and the last year of the 19th century but the first year of the 1900s.

Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian".