date: September 25

text: September 25–October 14 – WWI: Battle of Loos – British forces take the French town of Loos, but with substantial casualties, and are unable to press their advantage. This is the first time the British use poison gas in World War I, and also their first large-scale use of 'New' (or Kitchener's Army) units.


date: October 15

section: Conflict & Security

text: October 15 – WWI: Serbian Campaign – Austria-Hungary invades the Kingdom of Serbia. Bulgaria enters the war, also invading Serbia. The Serbian First Army retreats towards Greece.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 21

text: October 21 – The United Daughters of the Confederacy holds its first annual meeting outside the South, in San Francisco. Historian General Mildred Rutherford addresses the gathering on the "Historical Sins of Omission & Commission", of Yankee historians.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – WWI: The torpedoing of armored cruiser results in only 3 men being rescued from a crew of 675, the greatest single loss of life for the Imperial German Navy in the Baltic Sea during the war.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – William J. Simmons revives the American Civil War era Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia.

source_section: Events › November


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage an Easter Rising in 1916.

source_section: Events › December


date: February 20

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: February 20 – In San Francisco, the Panama–Pacific International Exposition is opened.

source_section: Events › February


date: April 21

text: April 21 – On the orders of Talat Pasha, Haydar Bey organized an expedition against the Assyrians. He killed thousands of Assyrians along with Kurdish tribes.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Auroras drift – The breaks loose from its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.

source_section: Events › May


date: November 21

text: November 21 – British polar exploration ship Endurance finally breaks apart from pressure of ice around it and sinks into the Weddell Sea, stranding Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition party in the Antarctic. The wreck is discovered at a depth of 3,008 metres (9,869 ft), 107 years later in 2022.


date: December 4

text: December 4–18 – The 'Peace Ship' Oscar II chartered by industrialist Henry Ford sails from Hoboken, New Jersey to Oslo on an independent and eventually unsuccessful mission to broker a peace conference.


date: February 1

section: Economy & Finance

text: February 1 – William Fox creates the Fox Film Corporation.


date: January 19

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 19 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 25

text: January 25 – The first United States coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call is facilitated by a newly invented vacuum tube amplifier, ceremonially inaugurated by Alexander Graham Bell in New York City and his former assistant Thomas A. Watson, in San Francisco, California.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – WWI: The Ottoman Army begins the Raid on the Suez Canal.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – WWI: In aerial warfare, German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens becomes the first person to shoot down another plane, using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The prototype military tank is first tested by the British Army.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – WWI: Serbian Army private Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft, with ground-to-air fire.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The 1 millionth Ford car rolls off the assembly line at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit, Michigan.


date: January 5

section: Science & Discovery

text: January 5 – Joseph E. Carberry sets an altitude record of 11,690 ft m, carrying Capt. Benjamin Delahauf Foulois as a passenger, in a fixed-wing aircraft.


date: January

text: January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Pluto is photographed for the first time, but is not recognised for what it is.

source_section: Events › March


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Albert Einstein presents part of his theory of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.


date: February

section: Health & Medicine

text: February – While working as a cook at New York's Sloane Hospital for Women under an assumed name, "Typhoid Mary" (an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever) infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life on March 27.


date: March

text: March – The 1915 Palestine locust infestation breaks out in Palestine; it continues until October.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Lyda Conley, the first American Indian woman to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States as a lawyer, is admitted to practice there.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The U.S. silent film Inspiration, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude, is released.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – HMHS Britannic, which will be the largest British ship lost in WWI (though with only 30 fatalities), departs Liverpool on her maiden voyage as a hospital ship.


date: January 12

section: Crime & Justice

text: January 12 – A Fool There Was premières in the United States, starring Theda Bara as a femme fatale; she quickly becomes one of early cinema's most sensational stars.


date: June

text: June – Armenian genocide: 15,000 civilians from the Ottoman Armenian population of Bitlis are massacred by Ottoman Turks and Kurds.

source_section: Events › June


date: July

text: Armenian genocide: 17,000 civilians from the Ottoman Armenian population of Trebizond are massacred by Ottoman Turks.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – WWI: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad, for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.


date: January 1

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 1 – WWI: British Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable is sunk off Lyme Regis, England, by an Imperial German Navy U-boat, with the loss of 547 crew.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – WWI: German Zeppelins bomb the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in England for the first time, killing more than 20.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – WWI: British armed merchantman is sunk in the North Channel off the coast of Scotland by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-27. Around 200 crew are lost, a number of bodies being washed up on the Isle of Man, with only 26 saved.


text: British Royal Navy battleship sinks German submarine U-29 with all hands in the Pentland Firth off the coast of Scotland by ramming her, the only time this tactic is known to have been successfully used by a battleship.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland: The collision and fire kill 226, mostly troops, the largest number of fatalities in a rail accident in the United Kingdom.


date: May

text: Sinking of the RMS Lusitania: 's main rival, the British ocean liner , is sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 off the south-west coast of Ireland, killing 1,199 civilians en route from New York City to Liverpool. The best-known of the celebrities on board is American sportsman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Friar Leonard Melki and hundreds of other Christians are driven out of Mardin and massacred by Ottoman troops.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – An overloaded International Railway (New York–Ontario) trolleycar with 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, resulting in 15 deaths.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Steamer capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – St. Johns School fire: Fire at St. John's School in Peabody, Massachusetts, United States, claims the lives of 21 girls between the ages of 7 and 17.


date: January 13

section: Climate & Environment

text: January 13 – 1915 Avezzano earthquake hits Italy, around 30,000 people are killed.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Armenian genocide: Earliest recorded deportations.


text: May 22 – Lassen Peak, one of the Cascade Volcanoes in California, erupts, sending an ash plume 30,000 feet in the air, and devastating the nearby area with pyroclastic flows and lahars. It is the only volcano to erupt in the contiguous United States this century, until the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.


date: August 5

text: August 5–23 – Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans leaves 275 dead.

source_section: Events › August


date: January 21

section: Culture & Society

text: January 21 – Kiwanis is founded in Detroit, Michigan, as The Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order Brothers.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The controversial film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles. It will be the highest-grossing film for around 25 years.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Boxer Jess Willard defeats Jack Johnson with a 26th-round knockout in sweltering heat, at Havana, Cuba. Willard becomes very popular among white Americans, for "bringing back the championship to the white race".


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Women's Institutes are established in Britain.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The Zimmerwald Conference begins in Switzerland.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Symphony No. 5 in Helsinki at a 50th birthday concert for him.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – United States president Woodrow Wilson marries Edith B. Galt, in Washington, D.C.


date: January 23

section: Births

text: January 23 – Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1985)

source_section: Births › January


text: January 23 – W. Arthur Lewis, Saint Lucian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Community (d. 2014)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Piet de Jong, Dutch politician, naval officer, Minister of Defence and Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2016)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Orson Welles, American actor and director (d. 1985)

source_section: Births › May


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)

source_section: Births › June


text: June 16 – Mariano Rumor, Italian politician, prime minister (1968-1970, 1973-1974) (d. 1990)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Charles H. Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Norman Ramsey Jr., American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)

source_section: Births › August


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Frances Hesselbein, President of the Girl Scouts of the USA, CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute (d. 2022)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Frank Sinatra, American singer, actor (d. 1998)

source_section: Births › December


date: March 4

section: Deaths

text: March 4 – William Willett, English promoter of daylight saving time (b. 1856)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Sergei Witte, Russian aristocrat, statesman and Prime Minister (b. 1849)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, American engineer, economist (b. 1856)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, American sportsman (b. 1877; died in the Sinking of the RMS Lusitania)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Anthony Wilding, New Zealand tennis player (killed in action) (b. 1883)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Armenian genocide: The Tehcir Law is promulgated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire authorizing deportation of the Ottoman Armenian population to Deir ez-Zor in the Syrian desert, leading to the deaths of anywhere between 800,000 and over 1,500,000 civilians and confiscation of their property.

source_section: Events › May


text: June 10 – Ignatius Maloyan, Ottoman Armenian Eastern Catholic archbishop, martyr and saint (b. 1869)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, most translated American author (b. 1827)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer and inventor (b. 1827)


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Leo Frank, Jewish-American factory superintendent who was lynched after the murder of Mary Phagan (b. 1884)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)


date: October 4

text: October 4 – John Rigby, grandfather of Eleanor Rigby, to whom Paul McCartney attributes a subconscious influence on naming the song with the same name (b.1843)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Edith Cavell, British nurse, war heroine (shot) (b. 1865)


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Sir Charles Tupper, 6th prime minister of Canada (b. 1821)


date: January 12

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 12 – The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, part of the British Empire, is established in modern-day Tuvalu and Kiribati.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence concludes with an understanding that the United Kingdom would recognise Arab independence in return for Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, launching the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The temporary Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne, and the Republic of China is restored once again.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement, which is to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, following the conclusion of WWI and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, into French and British spheres of influence.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America.

source_section: Events › June


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed.

source_section: Events › August


text: August 17 (August 4 O.S.) – WWI: The Treaty of Bucharest is signed secretly between Romania and the Entente Powers, stipulating the conditions under which Romania agrees to join the war on their side, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – WWI: Peru declares neutrality.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation creating the National Park Service.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.


text: October 12 – Hipólito Yrigoyen is elected President of Argentina.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Pavel Milyukov delivers his "stupidity or treason" speech in the Russian State Duma, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The Kingdom of Poland (1916–18) is proclaimed by a joint act of the emperors of Germany and Austria.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.


text: November 7 – 1916 United States presidential election: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeats Republican Charles Evans Hughes, when California is called a week after Election Day.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Humberto Gómez and his mercenaries seize Arauca in Colombia and declare the Republic of Arauca. He proceeds to pillage the region before fleeing to Venezuela.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 9

text: January 9 – WWI: Gallipoli Campaign – The last British troops are evacuated from Gallipoli, as the Ottoman Empire prevails over a joint British and French operation to capture Constantinople.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – WWI: Battle of Wadi – Ottoman Empire forces defeat the British, during the Mesopotamian campaign in modern-day Iraq.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – WWI: The Battle of Verdun begins in France.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 8

text: March 8–9 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. A garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa; the 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Mexican Revolution: The U.S. 7th and 10th Cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the border, to join the hunt for Villa.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – WWI: The Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the occupation of the Sinai Peninsula.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 24

text: April 24–30 – The Easter Rising occurs in Ireland. Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood proclaim an Irish Republic, and the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army occupy the General Post Office and other buildings in Dublin, before surrendering to the British Army. A total of 485 Irish Volunteers, British soldiers and Irish civilians were killed as well as 2,200 wounded and 16 rebel leaders would be executed.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – WWI: Mesopotamian campaign – The Siege of Kut ends with the surrender of British Indian Army forces to the Ottoman Empire at Kut-al-Amara on the Tigris in Basra Vilayet.


date: May 3

text: May 3–12 - 15 Irish rebel leaders who took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in April are executed. Among them were Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke and William Pearse, brother of Patrick Pearse who had served as a captain rather than a leader.


date: May 31

text: May 31–June 1 – WWI: Battle of Jutland, between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, the war's only large-scale clash of battleships. The result is tactically inconclusive, but British dominance of the North Sea is maintained


date: June 10

text: June 10 – The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, to create a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo to Aden, is formally declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.


date: July 1

text: July 1–November 18 – WWI: Battle of the Somme, opening with explosion of the British Y Sap and Lochnagar mines and the Battle of Albert: More than one million soldiers die, with 57,470 British Empire casualties on the first day, 19,240 of them killed, the British Army's bloodiest day. The immediate result is tactically inconclusive.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 3

text: August 3 - Roger Casement is executed by hanging in Pentonville Gaol, London for his role in the Easter Rising in Dublin.


text: August 3–5 – WWI: Sinai and Palestine Campaign – Battle of Romani: British Imperial troops secure victory over a joint Ottoman-German force.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – WWI: East African Campaign – Dar es Salaam surrenders to British Empire forces, securing them control of the Central Line of railway through German East Africa.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 15

text: September 15–22 – WWI: Battle of Flers–Courcelette, France – The battle is significant for the first use of the tank in warfare; also for the debut of the Canadian and New Zealand Divisions in the Battle of the Somme.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The Georgia Tech vs. Cumberland College American football game ends in a score of 222–0.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Battle of Segale: Negus Mikael of Wollo, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Everett massacre: An armed confrontation in Everett, Washington, between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World results in seven deaths.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – WWI – Battle of the Somme: In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle, which started on July 1.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – WWI: Eastern Front – Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is occupied by troops of the Central Powers.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – WWI: The Battle of Verdun ends in France with German troops defeated.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – WWI: The Desert Column captures the Ottoman garrison during the Battle of Magdhaba.


text: April 24–May 10 – Voyage of the James Caird: An open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean (800 nmi km mi) is undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions, to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, following the loss of its ship Endurance.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's is rescued from Elephant Island.


section: Religion & Belief

text: November 5 – Honan Chapel, Cork, Ireland, a product of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement (1894–1925), is dedicated.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the first person to reach a nominal personal fortune of US$1 billion


text: Ishikawajima Automobile Manufacturing, predecessor of Isuzu, a truck brand in Japan, is founded.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: April

text: Korea Tungsten is founded in Daegu, predecessor of leading steel producer in Asia, POSCO (Pohang Steel Company).


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Mary Pickford becomes the first movie star to sign a million-dollar contract, making her one of the highest-paid people in the world.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – In Seattle, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The first true self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, is founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders, opening 5 days later.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The first 40-hour work week officially begins, in the Endicott-Johnson factories of Western New York.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Radio station 2XG, located in the Highbridge section of New York City, makes the first audio broadcast of presidential election returns.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The British Sopwith Camel aircraft makes its maiden flight. It is designed to counter the German Fokker aircraft.


text: The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.


text: Bray Studios begins the Farmer Al Falfa series, the first of the Terrytoons.


text: Rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute is designed and made by the Bascom brothers (Raymond, Mel, and Earl) and their father, John W. Bascom, at Welling, Alberta, Canada.


text: The toggle light switch is invented, by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg.


text: Gustav Holst composes The Planets, Opus 32.


text: Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique générale is collected posthumously and published.


text: Louis Enricht claims he has a substitute for gasoline.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored and cooled.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic, a forerunner of Planned Parenthood.


text: Oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller closely related to codeine, is first synthesized in Germany.


date: February 9

text: February 9 (6.00 p.m.) – Tristan Tzara "founds" the art movement Dadaism (according to Hans Arp).


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control in the United States.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Mary, a circus elephant, is hanged in the town of Erwin, Tennessee for killing her handler, Walter "Red" Eldridge.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Friedrich Adler shoots Count Karl von Stürgkh, Minister-President of Austria.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – (December 17 Old Style) – The mystic Grigori Rasputin is murdered in Saint Petersburg.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – French ferry is torpedoed by in the English Channel, with at least 50 killed (including the composer Enrique Granados), resulting on May 4 in the Sussex Pledge by Germany to the United States.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – The Chinese troop transport capsizes off the Chinese coast; at least 1,000 are killed.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – WWI: sinks, having hit a mine off the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with Lord Kitchener aboard.


date: July 1

text: July 1–12 – Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916: At least one shark attacks 5 swimmers along 80 mi km of New Jersey coastline, resulting in 4 deaths and the survival of one youth, who requires limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Matheson Fire: In Ontario, Canada, a lightning strike ignites a forest fire that destroys the towns of Cochrane and Matheson, killing 233.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – German agents cause the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey, an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least 7 people.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – WWI: British pilot Leefe Robinson becomes the first to shoot down a German airship over Britain.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – A mechanical failure causes the central span of the Quebec Bridge, a cantilever-type structure, to crash into the Saint Lawrence River for the second time, killing 13 workers.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Black Friday (1916): A violent and deadly storm hits Lake Erie in the United States.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – WWI: Hospital ship HMHS Britannic, designed as the third for White Star Line, sinks in the Kea Channel of the Aegean Sea after hitting a mine; 30 lives are lost. At 48,158 gross register tons, she is the largest ship lost during the war.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the United States at the time, burns to the ground.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Lassen Volcanic National Park is established in California.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – "White Friday": In the Dolomites, 100 avalanches bury at least 2,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert in the United States.


text: February 11 – The Romanian Association football club Sportul Studențesc is founded in Bucharest.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Club Atlas is founded as an association football club in Guadalajara, Mexico, by English-educated players.


date: August

text: August – Robert Baden-Powell publishes The Wolf Cub's Handbook in the U.K., establishing the basis of the junior section of the Scouting movement, the Wolf Cubs (modern-day Cub Scouts).


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Perm State University is founded in Russia.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – 1916 Pioneer Exhibition Game: game of Australian rules football contested at Queen's Club, West Kensington, London, by two teams of elite footballers selected from men serving in the First AIF at the time.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Robert Baden-Powell gives the first public display of the new Wolf Cub section of Scouting at Caxton Hall, Westminster.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Karl von Habsburg and his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma are crowned emperor and empress of Austria-Hungary.


text: Ernst Rüdin publishes his initial results on the genetics of schizophrenia.


text: The 1916 Summer Olympics are cancelled in Berlin, Germany.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Retta Scott, first woman to receive screen credit as an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios (d. 1990)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Jackie Gleason, American comedian, actor and musician (d. 1987)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Claude Elwood Shannon, American information theorist (d. 2001)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Jane Jacobs, née Butzner, American-born urban activist (d. 2006)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Zail Singh, Indian politician and 7th President of India (d. 1994)


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Robert McNamara, 8th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2009)


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Herbert A. Simon, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Sergeant Stubby, World War I American hero war dog (d. 1926)

source_section: Births › July


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Haider Raza, 2nd Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Air Force (d. 1998)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2009)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Walter Cronkite, American television journalist (d. 2009)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)

source_section: Births › December


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Hans Schmidt, German Roman Catholic priest (executed) (b. 1881)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: March 19

text: March 19 – John J. Davis, American politician, U.S. Representatives from West Virginia (b. 1835)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Ota Benga, Congolese pygmy brought to America as part of an exhibition at the Bronx zoo (b. 1883)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – John Surratt, suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination, son of Mary Surratt (b. 1844)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Edward Felix Baxter, English recipient of the Victorian Cross (b. 1885)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – James Connolly, Irish socialist and political activist (executed) (b. 1868)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Artúr Görgei, Hungarian military general and politician (b. 1818)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Élie Metchnikoff, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: August 31

text: August 31 – John St. John, American temperance leader and Governor of Kansas (b. 1833)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Charles Taze Russell, Protestant evangelist, forerunner of Jehovah's Witnesses (b. 1852)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Lanoe Hawker VC, British World War I fighter ace, killed in action by Manfred von Richthofen (b. 1890)


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Charles de Foucauld, French Roman Catholic religious professed, priest and blessed (b. 1858)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Valentín Díaz, Filipino patriot, during the Philippine Revolution (b. 1845)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – WWI: Atlantic U-boat Campaign: Germany announces its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare, rescinding the Sussex Pledge'.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza is elected president of Mexico; the United States gives de jure recognition of his government.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The Russian Duma declares a Provisional Government. It is dissolved 4 months later.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies, which become the US Virgin Islands, after paying $25 million to Denmark.


date: April 8

text: April 8 (N.S.) (March 26, O.S.) – In Petrograd, 40,000 ethnic Estonians demand national autonomy within Russia.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 12

text: April 12 (N.S.) (March 30 O.S.) – The Autonomous Governorate of Estonia is formed within Russia, from the Governorate of Estonia and the northern part of the Governorate of Livonia.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – WWI: The Selective Service Act passes the United States Congress, giving the President the power of conscription.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 11

text: June 11 – King Constantine I of Greece abdicates for the first time, being succeeded by his son Alexander.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 17

text: July 17 – King George V of the United Kingdom issues a proclamation, stating that thenceforth the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor, vice the Germanic bloodline of House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (an offshoot of the historic (800+ years) House of Wettin).

source_section: Events › July


date: July 20

text: July 20 – (July 7, O.S.) – Alexander Kerensky becomes premier of the Russian Provisional Government, replacing Prince Georgy Lvov.


text: July 20 – The Corfu Declaration, which enables the establishment of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and the Kingdom of Serbia.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The Parliament of Finland is dissolved by the Russian Provisional Government. New elections are held in the autumn, resulting in a bourgeois majority.


date: July

text: Suze Groeneweg becomes the first woman elected to sit in the House of Representatives in the Netherlands (although women will not be granted the right to vote until the following year).


date: August 29

text: August 29 – WWI: The Military Service Act is passed in the House of Commons of Canada, giving the Government of Canada the right to conscript men into the army.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 14

text: September 14 (September 1 Old Style) – Russia is declared a republic by the Provisional Government.

source_section: Events › September


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Zionism: The British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour makes the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people..., it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".

source_section: Events › November


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Women's Suffrage in the United States: Women win the right to vote in New York State.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – (N.S.) (November 2, O.S.) – The Provincial Assembly of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia declares itself the highest legal body in Estonia, in opposition to Bolsheviks.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Georges Clemenceau becomes prime minister of France.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The Senate of Finland officially declares the country's independence from Russia.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 23

text: December 23 (N.S.) (December 10, O.S.) – A local plebiscite supports transferring Narva and Ivangorod (Jaanilinn) from the Petrograd Governorate, to the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia.


date: December

text: December – Annie Besant becomes president of the Indian National Congress.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – WWI: First Battle of Gaza – British Egyptian Expeditionary Force troops virtually encircle the Gaza garrison, but are then ordered to withdraw, leaving the city to the Ottoman defenders.


date: March

text: (February 23, O.S.) – The February Revolution begins in Russia: Women calling for bread in Petrograd start riots, which spontaneously spread throughout the city.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – WWI: The Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the Second Battle of Gaza. This unsuccessful frontal attack on strong Ottoman defences along with the first battle, results in 10,000 casualties, the dismissal of force commander General Archibald Murray, and the beginning of the Stalemate in Southern Palestine.


text: April 17 – The Times and the Daily Mail (London newspapers both owned by Lord Northcliffe) print atrocity propaganda of the supposed existence of a German Corpse Factory processing dead soldiers' bodies.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Robert Nivelle is replaced as Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, by Philippe Pétain.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – WWI: Russian General Brusilov begins the major Kerensky offensive in Galicia, initially advancing towards Lemberg.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – The Silent Parade is organized by the NAACP in New York City, to protest the East St. Louis massacre of early July, as well as lynchings in Tennessee and Texas.


text: Battle of Aqaba: Arabian troops, led by T. E. Lawrence, capture Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire.


date: September 26

text: September 26–October 3 – WWI: Battle of Polygon Wood (part of the Battle of Passchendaele) near Ypres in Belgium – British and Australian troops capture positions from the Germans.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – WWI: Battle of Buqqar Ridge – Ottoman forces attack British Desert Mounted Corps units garrisoning El-Buqqar Ridge, during the last days of the Stalemate in Southern Palestine.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 5

text: November 5 (N.S.) (October 23, O.S.) – Estonian and Russian Bolsheviks seize power in Tallinn, Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, two days before the October Revolution in Petrograd.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – WWI: The Battle of Hareira and Sheria is launched by the British XX Corps and Desert Mounted Corps, against the central Ottoman defences protecting the Gaza to Beersheba Road.


text: November 7 – Iran (which has provided weapons for Russia) refuses to support the Allied Forces after the October Revolution.


text: November 7 – WWI: The Battle of Hareira and Sheria continues, when the XX Corps and Desert Mounted Corps capture Hareira and Sheria, marking the end of the Ottoman Gaza to Beersheba line.


text: November 7 – WWI – Third Battle of Gaza: The British Army XXI Corps occupies Gaza, after the Ottoman garrison withdraws.


text: November 16 – WWI: Battle of Ayun Kara: The ANZAC Mounted Division occupies Jaffa.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – WWI: The Battle of Jerusalem (1917) begins, with the British Imperial Egyptian Expeditionary Force launching attacks against Ottoman forces in the Judean Hills.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The Bolsheviks release the full text of the previously secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 in Izvestia and Pravda; it is printed in the Manchester Guardian on November 26.


date: November

text: The ANZAC Mounted Division (Desert Mounted Corps) successfully fights the Battle of Ayun Kara, in the aftermath of the Battle of Mughar Ridge against strong German rearguards.


text: The British Desert Mounted Corps begins the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe, in the direction of Hebron and Jerusalem.


text: Battle of Mughar Ridge: The British Imperial Egyptian Expeditionary Force attacks retreating Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group forces, resulting in the capture of 10,000 Ottoman prisoners, 100 guns and 50 mi km of Palestine territory.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – WWI: General Edmund Allenby leads units of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force into Jerusalem on foot through, the Jaffa Gate.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – WWI: The British Egyptian Expeditionary Force secures the victory at the Battle of Jerusalem, by successfully defending Jerusalem from numerous counterattacks by the Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group.


text: Battle of Jerusalem: The British Egyptian Expeditionary Force accepts the surrender of Jerusalem by the mayor, Hussein al-Husayni, following the effective defeat of the Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party are rescued after being stranded for several months.

source_section: Events › January


date: February

text: Raid on Nekhl: Units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force completely reoccupy the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The Commissioned Officer Corps of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is established.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The Province of Batangas is formally founded, as one of the Philippines' first encomiendas.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, is consecrated Archbishop by Pope Benedict XV.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Pope Benedict XV promulgates the 1917 Code of Canon Law.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Miracle of the Sun is reported at Fátima, Portugal.


date: November 8

text: November 8 (N.S.) (October 26, O.S.) – Following the October Revolution, Alexandra Kollontai is appointed People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the Council of People's Commissars of the Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the first woman cabinet minister in Europe.


text: The True Jesus Church is established in Beijing.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Sir William Thomas White introduces Canada's first income tax as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Carl Swartz leaves office as Prime Minister of Sweden, after dismal election results for the right-wing in the Riksdag elections in September. He is replaced by liberal leader and history professor Nils Edén.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – WWI: The U.S. government releases the text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – (N.S.) (April 3, O.S.) – Vladimir Lenin arrives at the Finland Station in Petrograd after a German-sponsored voyage in a sealed train from his exile in Switzerland through Germany and Scandinavia.


date: April

text: April – Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki, the first anime, is released in Japan.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – WWI: During the Stalemate in Southern Palestine, the Raid on the Beersheba to Hafir el Auja railway by the British Desert Column takes place: large sections of the railway line linking Beersheba to the main Ottoman desert base are destroyed.


text: October 19 – Dallas Love Field Airport is opened in Texas.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – In Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the National Hockey Association suspends operations.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).


date: December 26

text: December 26 – United States President Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration, hoping to transport troops and materials for the war effort more efficiently.


text: May 13–October 13 (at monthly intervals) – 10-year-old Lúcia Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto report experiencing a series of Marian apparitions near Fátima, Portugal, which become known as Our Lady of Fátima.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – One of English literature's important meetings takes place, when Wilfred Owen introduces himself to Siegfried Sassoon at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The People's Dispensary for Sick Animals is founded in the United Kingdom.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa.


date: February

text: Mata Hari is arrested in Paris for spying.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Ell Persons is lynched in Memphis, in connection with the rape and murder of 16-year-old Antoinette Rappal.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Bisbee Deportation: The Phelps Dodge Corporation has over 1,000 suspected IWW members from its metal mines deported from Bisbee, Arizona.


date: July 16

text: July 16–18 – July Days: Serious clashes occur in Petrograd; Vladimir Lenin escapes to Finland; Leon Trotsky is arrested.


date: July

text: The first Cottingley Fairies photographs are taken in Yorkshire, England, apparently depicting fairies (a hoax not admitted by the child creators until 1981).


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Eddystone explosion: an explosion at an ammunition plant near Chester, Pennsylvania, kills 139, mostly female workers.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Over 300 acres (73 blocks) are destroyed in the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 in the United States.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Speculator Mine disaster: A fire at the Granite Mountain and Speculator ore mine, outside Butte, Montana, kills at least 168 workers.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning lands his aircraft on the ship in Scapa Flow, Orkney. He is killed 5 days later during another landing on the ship.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 in Greece destroys 32% of the city, leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – A Brazilian ship is destroyed by a German U-boat, encouraging Brazil to enter World War I.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – A bomb kills 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history (until the September 11 attacks in 2001).


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Halifax Explosion: Two freighters collide in Halifax Harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and cause a huge explosion that kills at least 1,963 people, injures 9,000 and destroys part of the city (the biggest man-made explosion in recorded history until the Trinity nuclear test in 1945).


text: December 6 – WWI: U.S. Navy destroyer is torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean south west of the British Isles by German submarine , killing 66 crew in the first significant American naval loss of the war, the first ever U.S. destroyer loss to an enemy.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – "Livery Stable Blues", recorded with "Dixie Jazz Band One Step" on February 26, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in the United States, becomes the first jazz recording commercially released. On August 17 the band records "Tiger Rag".


date: May 26

text: May 26 – A tornado strikes Mattoon, Illinois, causing devastation and killing 101 people.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Toluca FC is founded as an Association football club in Mexico.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Ōmuta, Japan, is founded by Hiroushi Miruku.


date: March 16

text: March 16 (N.S.) (March 3, O.S.) – Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia refuses the throne, and power passes to the newly formed Provisional Government, under Prince Georgy Lvov.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The Georgian Orthodox Church restores the autocephaly, abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – (N.S.) (April 4, O.S.) – Vladimir Lenin's April Theses are published. They become very influential in the following July Days and Bolshevik Revolution.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for a biography, (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history, for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert Bayard Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism, for his work for the New York World.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The Lions Clubs International is formed in the United States.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – The New York Guard is founded.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Bellevue Conference is held.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The National Hockey League is formed in Montreal, as a replacement for the recently disbanded National Hockey Association.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Jesse Lynch Williams's Why Marry?, the first play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre, New York City.


text: The first edition of the World Book Encyclopedia – simply known as The World Book – is published by the Hanson-Roach-Fowler Company, and is one of the first American encyclopedias to cover the major areas of knowledge to a mass audience.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Jane Wyman, American actress, philanthropist, and first wife of Ronald Reagan (d. 2007)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 17

text: January 17 – M. G. Ramachandran, Tamil Nadu chief minister, actor (d. 1987)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Ilya Prigogine, Russian-born physicist, chemist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 2003)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Abdel Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher (d. 2002)

source_section: Births › February


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Robert Burns Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor, best known for his role in Perry Mason (d. 1993)

source_section: Births › May


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Byron White, American football player and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 2002)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 27

text: July 27 – Wu Zhonghua, Chinese physicist, pioneered three-dimensional flow theory (d. 1992)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Óscar Romero, Salvadoran Roman Catholic Archbishop (d. 1980)

source_section: Births › August


date: September 7

text: September 7 – John Cornforth, Australian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Christian de Duve, English-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2013)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Andrew Huxley, English scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2012)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Sir Arthur C. Clarke, English science-fiction author, best known for co-writing the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey (d. 2008)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Mary Arthur McElroy, de facto First Lady of the United States (b. 1841)

source_section: Deaths › January–February


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Emil von Behring, German winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)

source_section: Deaths › March–April


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Scott Joplin, African-American ragtime composer, pianist (b. c.1868)


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Albert Ball, British World War I fighter ace, posthumous Victoria Cross recipient (killed in action) (b. 1896)

source_section: Deaths › May–June


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Titu Maiorescu, Romanian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1840)


date: July 2

text: July 2 – William Henry Moody, 35th United States Secretary of the Navy, 45th United States Attorney General, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1853)

source_section: Deaths › July–August


text: July 27 – Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1841)


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Werner Voss, German World War I fighter ace (killed in action) (b. 1897)

source_section: Deaths › September–October


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Dave Gallaher, New Zealand rugby union football player (killed in action) (b. 1873)


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Bob Fitzsimmons, British boxer, World Heavyweight Champion (b. 1863)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Liliʻuokalani, last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii (b. 1838)

source_section: Deaths › November–December


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Sir Mackenzie Bowell, 5th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1823)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Frances Xavier Cabrini, first American canonized as a saint (b. 1850)


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The Finnish Declaration of Independence is recognized by Soviet Russia, Sweden, Germany and France.

source_section: Events › January


text: January 8 – American president Woodrow Wilson presents the Fourteen Points as a basis for peace negotiations to end the war.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom: Representation of the People Act gives most women over 30 the vote.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 3

text: March 3 – WWI: The Central Powers and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The United States Congress establishes time zones, and approves daylight saving time (DST goes into effect on March 31).


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Union of Bessarabia with Romania: Bessarabia votes to become part of the Kingdom of Romania.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia declare their independence from Russia as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Women in Canada, excluding residents of Quebec, are granted the right to vote in federal elections.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 26

text: May 26 – The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic is abolished; Georgia declares its independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Armenia and Azerbaijan declare their independence as the First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic respectively.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany appoints Max von Baden Chancellor of Germany.

source_section: Events › October


text: October 3 – King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates in the wake of the Bulgarian military collapse in WWI. He is succeeded by his son, Boris III.


text: October 4 – Wilhelm II of Germany forms a new, liberal government to sue for peace.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The Polish–Ukrainian War is inaugurated, by the proclamation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Galicia, with a capital at Lwów.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Proclamation of the republic in Germany by Philipp Scheidemann in Berlin, on the Reichstag balcony. One of several significant events on 9 November in German history.


text: November 9 – Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.


text: November 11 – Poland regains independence, after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, announces he is ceasing to rule Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, leading to the establishment of the Free State of Coburg and the Free State of Saxe-Gotha.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The Hungarian Democratic Republic is declared, marking Hungary's independence from Austria.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The Podgorica Assembly ('Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro') votes for a "union of the people" between the kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia and for deposition of the exiled King Nicholas I of Montenegro.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Union of Alba Iulia is proclaimed: Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with the Kingdom of Romania.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 4

text: December 4 – President Woodrow Wilson departs by ship to the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first United States President to travel to Europe while holding office.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, a puppet state created by the Russian SFSR to justify the Lithuanian–Soviet War.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, is formed in Germany as a nationalist veterans' organization.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Finnish Civil War: Battle of Oulu – The White Guard defeats the Reds.


date: March 21

text: March 21–July 18 – WWI: The Spring Offensive by the German Army along the Western Front fails to make a breakthrough, despite large losses on each side, including nearly 20,000 British Army dead on the first day, Operation Michael, on the Somme.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – March Days: Bolshevik and Armenian Revolutionary Federation forces suppress a Muslim revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 30,000 deaths.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – WWI: The Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt, launched by units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, ends on 4 May, with their withdrawal back to the Jordan Valley.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Three Minute Pause, initiated by the daily firing of the Noon Gun on Signal Hill, is instituted by Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands. It will inspire the introduction of the two-minute silence in November 1919.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – WWI: The Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship SMS Szent István is sunk by two Italian MAS motor torpedo boats off the Dalmatian coast.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: The Siberian Intervention is launched by the Allies, to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian Civil War.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 2

text: August 2 – North Russia Intervention: Anti-Bolshevik forces stage a coup at Arkhangelsk, and an occupation by Allied forces follows.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 16

text: August 16 – The Battle of Lake Baikal is fought by the Czechoslovak legion, against the Red Army.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – The Bolshevik government of Russia publishes the first official announcement of the Red Terror, a period of repression against political opponents, as an "Appeal to the Working Class" in the newspaper Izvestia.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 18

text: September 18 – WWI: Battle of Épehy – British approach the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal.


date: September

text: The Capture of Damascus begins, with the Charge at Irbid by the 4th Cavalry Division (India).


text: The British Army's Egyptian Expeditionary Force launches the Battle of Megiddo, incorporating the Battle of Sharon, and the Battle of Nablus, an attack in the Judaean Mountains. This day are fought the Battle of Tulkarm, and the Battle of Arara, which break the Ottoman front line stretching from the Mediterranean coast to the Judaean Mountains, while the Battle of Tabsor extends into September 20.


text: Battle of St Quentin Canal begins; Allied forces advance towards the Hindenburg Line.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Armistice of Mudros ends conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, and grants independence to the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Revolution overthrows the pro-Habsburg government in Hungary, effectively dissolving the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – WWI: The Armistice of Villa Giusti is signed between Austria-Hungary and the Allies near Padua.


text: November 3 – German Revolution: Kiel mutiny by sailors in the German fleet at Kiel while throughout northern Germany soldiers and workers begin to establish revolutionary councils on the Russian soviet model.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – U-boats start to rendezvous off Harwich, to begin the surrender of the High Seas Fleet to the British Royal Navy; in the following week the German warships are escorted to internment in Scapa Flow.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Lwów pogrom: Polish troops, volunteers and freed criminals massacre at least 320 Ukrainian Christians and Jews in Lwów, Galicia.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – The Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war, King Albert I having commanded the Allied army group in the September–October Courtrai offensive, which liberated his country.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German commander in German East Africa, signs a ceasefire at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Estonian War of Independence: The Red Army invades Estonia, starting the war. The Commune of the Working People of Estonia is established as a Soviet puppet state in Narva on the next day.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19): Poles in Greater Poland (the former Grand Duchy of Posen) rise up against the Germans, ignited by a patriotic speech made in Poznań by pianist and politician Ignacy Jan Paderewski.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – The Finnish Army Corps of Aviation is founded as a forerunner of the Finnish Air Force (established on 4 May 1928). The blue swastika is adopted as its symbol, as a tribute to the Swedish explorer and aviator Eric von Rosen, who donated the first plane. Von Rosen had painted the Viking symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Council of Lithuania adopts the Act of Independence of Lithuania, declaring Lithuania's independence from Germany, Russia or any other state.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The keel of is laid in Britain, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down.


text: March 6 – The first pilotless drone, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane developed by Elmer Ambrose Sperry and Peter Cooper Hewitt, is test-flown in Long Island, New York, but development is scrapped in 1925, after its guidance system proves unreliable.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in Britain are merged to form the Royal Air Force, the first autonomous Air Force in the world.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The United States Post Office Department begins the world's third regular airmail service, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The United States Army Aviation Section is separated from the Signal Corps, and divided into the Division of Military Aeronautics and the Bureau of Aircraft Production.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries opens in New York; Brazil is the only international exhibitor and the exposition closes at the end of the season.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Ernest Ansermet conducts the first concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – V603 Aquilae, the brightest nova observed since Kepler's of 1604, is discovered.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – The film The Glorious Adventure is released in the United States, featuring Mammy Lou, who becomes one of the oldest people ever to star in a film, at a claimed age of 114.


date: January

text: January – 1918 flu pandemic: The "Spanish flu" (influenza) is first observed in Haskell County, Kansas.


date: April

text: Conscription Crisis of 1918 in Ireland: A general strike is held here against conscription.


date: June

text: June–August – The "Spanish flu" becomes pandemic. Over 30 million people die in the following 6 months.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – WWI: Australian hospital ship is torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on passage from Le Havre to Southampton by German submarine with the loss of 123 of the 801 people on board.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Karl Muck, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is arrested under the Alien Enemies Act, and imprisoned for the duration of WWI.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Grand Duke Michael of Russia is murdered, thereby becoming the first of the Romanovs to be killed by the Bolsheviks.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Suspects in the Chicago Restaurant Poisonings are arrested, and more than 100 waiters are taken into custody for poisoning restaurant customers with a lethal powder called Mickey Finn.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Execution of the Romanov family: By order of the Bolshevik Party, and carried out by the Cheka, former emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, Alexei and retainers are shot at the Ipatiev House, in Ekaterinburg, Russia.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – The is torpedoed off the Irish coast; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – WWI: German submarine sinks off Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – RMS Kenilworth Castle, one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS Rival while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS Kent.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi blows up off Tokuyama, Yamaguchi, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.


text: July 17 – WWI: (famed for rescuing survivors of the ) is torpedoed and sunk off the east coast of Ireland, by Imperial German Navy submarine U-55; 218 of the 223 on board are rescued.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – The Cheka kill the Martyrs of Alapayevsk, six further members of the Romanov family and retainers, by throwing them down a mineshaft.


date: September

text: United States Coast Guard cutter Tampa is torpedoed and sunk in the Bristol Channel by German submarine with the loss of all 131 on board, the greatest loss of life for any US combat vessel in the war.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Cloquet Fire: The city of Cloquet, Minnesota, and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire, killing 453.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The steamer Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die, in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – British battleship is sunk by a German submarine off Trafalgar, with the loss of around fifty lives (the last major naval engagement of WWI).


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Estonian War of Independence: The British light cruiser strikes a mine and sinks near Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea, killing 11 sailors.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – A magnitude (M w ) 7.2 earthquake shakes the Chinese city of Shantou leaving 1,000 dead and causing a moderate tsunami.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The small town of Codell, Kansas is hit for the third year in a row, on the same date, by a tornado.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The magnitude (M w ) 7.1 San Fermín earthquake shakes Puerto Rico with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 76–116 people. A destructive tsunami contributes to the damage and loss of life.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – A magnitude (M w ) 7.2 earthquake shakes British Columbia.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Sinn Féin enjoys a landslide victory of the Irish seats at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, winning 73 of the 105 seats in Ireland. In accordance with their manifesto, Sinn Féin members will not take their seats in the Palace of Westminster but will form the First Dáil in Dublin. Countess Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway Prison (London), becomes the first woman elected to (but does not take her seat in) the British House of Commons.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – The Historic Concert for the Benefit of Widows and Orphans of Austrian and Hungarian Soldiers is held at the Konzerthaus, Vienna.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Russia switches from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the date skips from January 31 to February 14.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Marie Stopes publishes her influential book Married Love in the U.K.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – The victory military parade by the Finnish White Guard is held in Helsinki celebrating their decisive victory in the Finnish Civil War. The day also begin to be celebrated on the Defence Forces Flag Day before it is moved in 1942 to the June 4th.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – The Declaration to the Seven, a British government response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables, is published.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Landgrave Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse is elected King of Finland.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Martin Declaration is published, including Slovakia in the formation of the Czecho-Slovak state.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Red Week: Pieter Jelles Troelstra gives a speech calling for socialist revolution in the Netherlands.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse renounces the Finnish throne.


text: December 14 – Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)

source_section: Births › January


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)

source_section: Births › March


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart (d. 1992)


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States (d. 2011)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Kakuei Tanaka, 40th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1993)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Edwin O'Connor, American novelist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (d. 1968)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Guy Gibson, British bomber pilot, leader of the "Dam Busters" raid (d. 1944)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Frederick Sanger, English biochemist, double Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)


text: October 9 – E. Howard Hunt, American Watergate break-in coordinator (d. 2007)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Art Carney, American actor, best known for his role in The Honeymooners (d. 2003)

source_section: Births › November


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Billy Graham, American evangelist, spiritual adviser to several U.S. Presidents (d. 2018)


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)

source_section: Births › December


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Martin Sheridan, American Olympic athlete (b. 1881), Spanish flu

source_section: Deaths › March


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Marianne Cope, German-born American Roman Catholic nun and saint (b. 1838)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Sir George Reid, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Prince Erik, Duke of Västmanland (b. 1889), Spanish flu


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Felix Arndt, American pianist, composer (b. 1889), Spanish flu

source_section: Deaths › October


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Daudo Okelo, Ugandan Roman Catholic martyr and saint (executed) (b. ca. 1900)


text: October 18 – Jildo Irwa, Ugandan Roman Catholic martyr and saint (executed) (b. 1906)


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, Portuguese painter (b. 1887), Spanish flu


date: October 31

text: October 31 – István Tisza, 2-time Prime Minister of Hungary (assassinated) (b. 1861)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, British occultist (b. 1854), Spanish flu

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Alan Arnett McLeod, Canadian soldier (b. 1899), Spanish flu


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (b. 1880), Spanish flu


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Sir Robert Anderson, British police officer (b. 1841), Spanish flu


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Rose Cleveland, de facto First Lady of the United States (b. 1846), Spanish flu


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 3

text: January 3 – The Faisal–Weizmann Agreement is signed by Emir Faisal (representing the Arab Kingdom of Hejaz) and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, for Arab–Jewish cooperation in the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Estonian War of Independence: Estonian forces liberate Tartu from the Red Army.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Estonian War of Independence: Estonian forces liberate Narva, expelling the Red Army from Northern Estonia.


text: January 18 – The Paris Peace Conference opens in France, with delegates from 27 nations attending for meetings at the Palace of Versailles.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – 1919 German federal election, first under the Weimar Republic and the first in Germany with female suffrage.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Dáil Éireann meets for the first time in the Mansion House, Dublin. It comprises Sinn Féin members elected in the 1918 general election who, in accordance with their manifesto, have not taken their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, but chosen to declare an independent Irish Republic. In the first shots of the Anglo-Irish War, two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men are killed in an ambush at Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Estonian War of Independence: Estonian forces liberate Valga and Võru, expelling the Red Army from the entire territory of Estonia.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Inter-Allied Women's Conference convenes to compile a list of women's issues to present to the delegates of the Paris Peace Conference.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Friedrich Ebert is elected the first President of Germany (Reichspräsident), by the Weimar National Assembly.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Grand Canyon National Park: An act of the United States Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – An independence mission to the U.S., funded by the Philippine legislature, sets out from Manila to present its case to United States Secretary of War Newton D. Baker.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – By agreement with the United Kingdom, later confirmed by the League of Nations, Belgium is given the mandate over part of German East Africa (Ruanda-Urundi).

source_section: Events › May


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Women's rights: The United States Congress approves the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women, and sends it to the states for ratification.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, formally ending World War I, five years to the day since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. John Maynard Keynes, who has been present at the conference and is unhappy with the terms of the treaty, brings out his own analysis later in the year, entitled The Economic Consequences of the Peace.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence: The pro-German Baltische Landeswehr signs a peace treaty with Estonia and Latvia. The pro-German Prime Minister of Latvia Andrievs Niedra resigns, and Latvian forces take over Riga on July 8.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, signed in Rawalpindi, ends the Third Anglo-Afghan War, with the United Kingdom recognising the right of the Emirate of Afghanistan to manage its own foreign affairs and Afghanistan recognising the Durand Line as the border with British India.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 11

text: August 11 – In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is proclaimed to be in effect (ratified).


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Friedrich Ebert becomes the first President of Germany (Reichspräsident) under the Weimar Constitution.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – German South West Africa is placed under South African administration.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Estonia adopts a radical land reform, nationalizing 97% of agrarian lands, mostly still belonging to the Baltic German nobility.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation is signed, in Paris, France.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – 1919 Luxembourg general election, the first in the duchy with female suffrage, following constitutional amendments of May 15.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – American-born Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, becomes the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, having become the second to be elected on November 28.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Estonian War of Independence: With Soviet Russian forces just 40 km outside of the capital Tallinn, Estonian forces start a general and successful counter-offensive against the Red Army.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Estonian War of Independence: Battle of Tapa – Estonian forces liberate Tapa, Estonia, from the Red Army.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, is ratified.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Seattle General Strike ends, when Federal troops are summoned by the State of Washington's Attorney General.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The Polish–Soviet War begins, with the Battle of Bereza Kartuska.


date: February 16

text: February 16–21 – Estonian War of Independence: Uniformed peasants in Saaremaa rebel against the government of Estonia; the rebellion is crushed by government forces, leaving more than 200 dead.


date: March 3

text: March 3–April – Russian Civil War: Beginning of the Chapan War as peasants of the provinces of Samara and Simbirsk rebel against Soviet rule.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 8

text: March 8 – British authorities in Egypt arrest populist leader Saad Zaghloul, exiling him to Malta, triggering the Egyptian Revolution of 1919.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Amritsar Massacre: Under the command of Reginald Dyer, detachments of the 9th Gorkha Rifles and the 59th Scinde Rifles massacre 379 Sikh civilians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, in the Punjab Province.

source_section: Events › April


text: April 13 – Eugene V. Debs enters prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia for speaking out against conscription in the United States during World War I.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Greek landing at Smyrna: The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna assisted by ships of the British Royal Navy.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, marking the start of the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is also an official day of Turkish Youth.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Estonian War of Independence: Estonian forces capture Pskov from the Red Army, and soon hand it over to the White forces.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Siege of Spin Boldak (Third Anglo-Afghan War). This is the last time the British Army uses an escalade.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence: The advancing pro-German Baltische Landeswehr initiates war against Estonia in Northern Latvia.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. When the bullets begin to fly to the American side of the border, two units of the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment cross the border, to push Villa's forces from American territory.


date: June 20

text: June 20–25 – Russian Civil War, Southern Front: The White Volunteer Army defeats the exhausted Red forces in the Kharkiv Operation, capturing the industrial city of Kharkiv.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Bloody Saturday of the Winnipeg general strike: Royal North-West Mounted Police fire a volley of bullets into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – British Foreign Office official St John Philby and T. E. Lawrence arrive in Cairo for discussions about Arab unrest in Egypt, having been flown by Canadian pilot Harry Yates in a Handley Page bomber which set off from England on June 21.


date: July 5

text: July 5–20 – Russian Civil War, Eastern or Siberian Front, Ekaterinburg Operation: The Red Army captures the city of Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains from the White rule of Admiral Alexander Kolchak.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Russian Civil War: North Russia intervention – The Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt, protecting Petrograd on the Baltic Sea, is substantially damaged by British Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats (torpedo boats) and military aircraft in a combined operation.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The first Remembrance Day is observed in the British Empire with a two-minute silence at 11:00 hours.

source_section: Events › November


text: November 11 – Russian Civil War: The Northwestern Army of General Nikolai Yudenich retreats to Estonia and is disarmed.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – After Entente pressure, Romanian forces withdraw from Budapest and allow Admiral Horthy to march in.


date: May 8

text: May 8–27 – United States Navy Curtiss flying boat NC-4, commanded by Albert Cushing Read, makes the first transatlantic flight, from Naval Air Station Rockaway to Lisbon via Trepassey, Newfoundland (departs May 16) and the Azores (arrives May 17). (On May 30–31 it flies on to Plymouth in England.)


date: June 14

text: June 14–15 – A Vickers Vimy piloted by British aviator John Alcock, with navigator Arthur Whitten Brown, makes the first nonstop transatlantic flight, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The U.S. Army expedition across North America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, with his entourage, marches into Fiume and convinces Italian troops to join him.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Bentley Motors Limited is founded in England.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Oregon places a one cent per US gallon (0.26¢/liter) tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.


date: October 29

text: October 29–November 29 – First Annual Meeting of the International Labour Conference.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – American baseball player Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at this time, a deal made public at the beginning of January 1920.


text: Severe inflation in Germany sees the Papiermark rise to 47 marks against the United States dollar by December, compared to 12 marks in April.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The French Army blows up the bridge over the Dniester at Bender, Moldova, to protect the city from the Bolsheviks.


date: June

text: June – Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, along with his father John W. Bascom at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, designs and makes rodeo's first reverse-opening side-delivery bucking chute, which becomes the world standard.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – The Dutch airline KLM is founded (as of 2025, it is the world's oldest airline still flying under its original name).


date: October 16

text: October 16 – In Germany, Adolf Hitler gives his first speech for the German Workers' Party (DAP).


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Cliftonhill Stadium in Coatbridge, Scotland, opens as the home of Albion Rovers F.C. They lose the opening match 2–0 to St Mirren.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Eddington experiment: Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested by Arthur Eddington's observation of the "bending of light" during a total solar eclipse in Príncipe, and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil (confirmed November 19).


date: July 2

text: July 2–6 – British airship R34 makes the first transatlantic flight by dirigible, and the first westbound flight, from RAF East Fortune, Scotland, to Mineola, New York.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – The International Astronomical Union is founded in Paris, France.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The Save the Children Fund is created in the UK to raise money for the relief of German and Austrian children.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – President of the United States Woodrow Wilson suffers a serious stroke, rendering him an invalid for the remainder of his life.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Prohibition in the United States: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Prohibition goes into effect on January 17, 1920, under the provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered following the Spartacist uprising.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – A. Mitchell Palmer becomes United States Attorney General, through recess appointment.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead in Morelos.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru is arrested.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Pancho Villa takes Parral, Chihuahua, in Mexico, and executes the mayor and his two sons.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – British police strikes in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers; over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The first of the Palmer Raids is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution: over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in 23 different U.S. cities by the end of January 1920.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Abrams v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the conviction of Abrams for inciting resistance to the war effort against Soviet Russia.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – HMY Iolaire sinks off the coast of the Hebrides; 201 people, mostly servicemen returning home to Lewis and Harris, are killed.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Wingfoot Air Express crash: The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago. Two passengers, one aircrewman and ten people on the ground are killed; however, two people parachute to the ground safely.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic collapses.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The United States deports 249 people, including Emma Goldman, to Russia on the USAT Buford.


text: January 15 – Great Molasses Flood: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, Massachusetts, killing 21 people and injuring 150.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The May Fourth Movement erupts in China as a result of the decision at the Paris Peace Conference to transfer former German concessions in Jiaozhou Bay to Japan rather than return sovereign authority to China.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Volcano Kelud erupts in Java, killing about 5,000.


date: September 10

text: September 10–15 – The Florida Keys hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – The League of Nations is founded in Paris, France.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – United Artists (UA) is incorporated in the United States by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks as a motion picture producer.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The March 1st Movement against Japanese colonial rule in Korea is formed.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The Founding Congress of the Comintern opens in Moscow.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Communist International (Comintern) is founded.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Benito Mussolini founds his Italian Fascist political movement in Milan.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Queen of the South F.C. is formed in Dumfries, Scotland.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – The Bauhaus architectural and design movement is founded in Weimar, Germany.


text: April 25 – Anzac Day is observed for the first time in Australia.


text: May 4 – The League of Red Cross Societies is formed in Paris.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, establishes probably the world's first chair in International Politics, endowed by David Davies and his sisters in honour of Woodrow Wilson, with Alfred Eckhard Zimmern as first professor.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Winnipeg general strike: Workers in Winnipeg, Canada, begin a strike for better wages and working conditions; the strike lasts for six weeks.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – The University of California opens its second campus in Los Angeles. Initially called Southern Branch of the University of California (SBUC), it is eventually renamed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).


date: June 18

text: June 18 – The second most popular football club in Costa Rica, Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, is founded.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The International Labour Organization (ILO) is established as an agency of the League of Nations.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – In Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, five games to three, over the Chicago White Sox, whose players are later found to have lost intentionally.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The Coal Strike of 1919 begins in the United States, by the United Mine Workers under John L. Lewis; a final agreement is reached on December 10.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Felix the Cat debuts in Feline Follies.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The French Opera House in New Orleans, Louisiana is destroyed by fire.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom, removing legal disabilities on women entering the secular professions.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German World War II fighter ace (d. 1983)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Joseph Murray, American surgeon, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2012)

source_section: Births › April


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, conqueror of Mount Everest (d. 2008)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Joop den Uyl, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1973 to 1977 (d. 1987)

source_section: Births › August


date: August 25

text: August 25 – George Wallace, American politician, 45th Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)


date: October 3

text: October 3 – James M. Buchanan, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Boris Shcherbina, Soviet politician, known for his role in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster (d. 1990)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Edward L. Feightner, United States Navy officer (d. 2020)


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the People's Republic of China (d. 2005)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Pierre Trudeau, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Keith Miller, Australian sportsman and Air force pilot (d. 2004)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 9

text: December 9 – William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Hans-Joachim Marseille, German World War II fighter ace (d. 1942)


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Jacques Vaché, French writer, associated with Surrealism (b. 1895)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Rosa Luxemburg, German communist politician; assassinated (b. 1871)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian politician, 5th President of Brazil; Spanish flu (b. 1848)


text: January 16 – Ismail Kemal, Albanian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1844)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Yakov Sverdlov, Bolshevik revolutionary and politician, Spanish flu (b. 1885)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Francisco Marto, Portuguese witness of Marian apparitions, canonized, Spanish flu (b. 1908)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Prince Tsunehisa Takeda, member of the Japanese imperial family, Spanish flu (b. 1882)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Petre P. Carp, twice Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1837)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: June 30

text: June 30 – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1842)


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Ernst Haeckel, German biologist, naturalist and philosopher (b. 1834)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Louis Botha, Boer general, statesman, 1st Prime Minister of South Africa; Spanish flu (b. 1862)


text: August 27 – South African Prime Minister Louis Botha dies in office of 'Spanish flu'.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington (United States), originating at an Armistice Day parade, results in the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Lü Bu assassinates warlord Dong Zhuo, who has controlled the central government of the Han Dynasty (since 189).

source_section: Events › By place › China


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Emperor Commodus alarms the Senate, by appearing dressed as a gladiator for his new consulship on January 1. His mistress Marcia finds her name on the imperial execution list, and hires champion wrestler Narcissus to assassinate Commodus; the Antonines Dynasty ends.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Barbarians strike the city of Rome during the Civil War on August 22. 45 die.


text: The kingdom of Champa begins to control south and central Vietnam (approximate date).

source_section: Events › By place › Vietnam


text: Civil war again strikes Ancient Rome (192–193).


text: Syriac Christians establish an early Christian community in Kerala, India.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion