June 21, 1904: The Trans-Siberian Railway Is Completed

Vladivostok Distance Monument:

9,288 kilometers from Moscow, or 5,771.3 miles.

The station opened in 1893.

June 21, 1904: The Trans-Siberian Railway is completed. It runs 5,771.3 miles, from Yaroslavsky Station in Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita Khabarovsk, and finally to Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East. That's 7 time zones. Presuming the train stays on time, it can be done in 6 days and 4 hours.

"Vladivostok" means "lord (or ruler) of the east." How far east is it? Further east than any point in China, Korea, or the Philippines, and most of Indonesia, half of Australia, and nearly as far east as Hiroshima, Japan. It is in a part of Russia that curls around the border with China, and the station is just 28 miles from that border. Nevertheless, of the city's 600,000 or so residents, 92 percent are ethnically Russian.

Yaroslavsky Station, opened in 1862

Construction began on May 19, 1891, inaugurated by Czarevich Nicholas, later Czar Nicholas II. It took 13 years, through the coldest part of the country, the place to which, even then, people guilty of crimes against the state were sentenced.

The main purpose of the railway was not passenger traffic, but freight: Specifically, the transportation of food. Hunger has always hung over Russia, and in the decades to come, both World War I and the "Five-Year Plans" of dictator Joseph Stalin would lead to famine in what is, by land area, the world's largest country.

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June 21, 1904 was a Tuesday.  These baseball games were played:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Washington Senators, 4-0 at Boundary Park in Washington. Jack Chesbro pitched a 4-hit shutout, and advanced to 15-3 on the season. He finished the season at 41-12. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants beat the Boston Beaneaters, 6-2 at the South End Grounds in Boston. Joe McGinnity outpitched Vic Willis. The Beaneaters went through some name changes, before settling on the Braves in 1912.

* The Brooklyn Superbas lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. Tom Walker pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at South Side Park in Chicago. Cleveland's 2nd baseman, manager and namesake was Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, who went 1-for-4 in this game. After he left in 1914, the team was renamed the Cleveland Indians. In 2022, they renamed themselves again, the Cleveland Guardians.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 3-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. George Mullin pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-6 at Robison Field in St. Louis. Honus Wagner went 2-for-5.

* And the Boston Americans and the Philadelphia Athletics were rained out at Columbia Park in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The Americans won the opener, 6-4. The A's won the nightcap, 6-2. The Americans became the Boston Red Sox in 1908.