The new two-act ballet, choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, with music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky gets an ambivalent reaction from critics. But the score will become one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous compositions and many ballet companies will rely on ‘Nutcracker’ ticket sales each Christmas season.

Woodrow Wilson, 59, marries a 43-year-old Washington, DC, socialite, Edith Bolling Galt. Presidential advisors voice concern about the marriage just a year after Wilson’s first wife had died. Wilson will suffer a stroke during his second term, leaving Edith to run many routine affairs of his administration.

The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, in Pennsylvania, is up and running, generating electricity for the first time. The $72 million plant, which is the world’s first large-scale nuclear power facility, will supply power to the Pittsburgh area for 25 years until it’s retired in 1982.