BigBlue2
05-21-2009, 07:51 AM
1/1/1901 Australia founded from the six British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. Edmund Barton is appointed Prime Minister. Australias population is 3,773,300. The provisional capital is Melbourne. A permanent capital is established in Canberra in 1911. Government is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature. Currency is Australian pound. New Zealand (population 760,000) gains full independence from Britain on the same day.
22/1/1901 Queen Victoria dies, succeeded by her son Edward VII.
14/2/1901 Edward VII opens his first parliament.
6/3/1901 - An anarchist assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany while he is on a visit to Bremen. A month later his attacker has an unfortunate encounter with a short rope and a long drop.
25/4/1901 New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
9/5/1901 Australias first parliament opens in Melbourne. Edmund Barton, the caretaker Prime Minister, is sworn in as Australias first proper Prime Minister after his party won elections in April.
12/6/1901 Cuba becomes a US protectorate in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war.
3/7/1901 - The Flag of Australia and Australian Red Ensign are adopted by the Government of Australia as official flags, following a national design competition.
5/8/1901 - Britain's first cinema opens in Islington.
14/9/1901 US President William McKinley dies from wounds received in an assassination attempt some two weeks earlier. Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him as the 26th President of the United States.
29/10/1901 Anarchist Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, has his first and last date with Old Sparky.
3/11/1901 Alzheimer's disease is described for the first time by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer.
10/12/1901 - Marie Curie receives a doctorate. The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
28/1/1902 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
11/2/1902 In Brussels, protests by female suffragettes end in violence when police break up the demonstrations. Five demonstrators and two police officers are killed.
7/3/1902 - South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
28/4/1902 - Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1, Year Zero occurred at 10:40 AM on this date.
8/5/1902 - In Martinique, Mount Pelιe erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 28,000 people, with only two survivors.
16/6/1902 - The Commonwealth Franchise Act grants Australian women the right to vote and stand in federal elections. New Zealand Women and the Women of some Australian ex-colonies such as South Australia had been able to vote since the early 1890s.
31/7/1902 The Boer War ends after three years of fighting. The independent South African republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal are absorbed into South Africa. The war has cost about 6,000 British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian lives. About 6,500 Boers also died in the conflict.
22/8/1902 - Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile when he rides in a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.
11/9/1902 - Georges Mιliθs creates the legendary film A Trip to the Moon, which in one scene features the animated human face of the moon being struck in the eye by a rocket.
22/10/1902 - Remains of the second Tyrannosaurus rex specimen, first recognized as such, are excavated in South Dakota.
30/11/1902 - Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years hard labour.
1/12/1902 - "Electric Theatre", the first movie theatre in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
19/1/1903 - First transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and England.
20/2/1903 - The Flag of Australia, altered so that the stars of the Southern Cross (except the smallest one) have seven points each, is approved by King Edward VII.
16/3/1903 Construction of the Panama Canal begins.
29/4/1903 - 30,000,000 cubic metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta.
4/5/1903 - Death of the great Macedonian revolutionary Gotse Delchev in a skirmish with the Turkish police near the village of Banitsa.
19/6/1903 Completion of the first Tour de France. The winner is Maurice Garin of France.
4/7/1903 - Completion of the Pacific cable by the Commercial Pacific Cable Company.
4/8/1903 - Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.
24/9/1903 - Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia at an election to become a judge on the first High Court. He is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
1/10/1903 - The First modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League. Boston wins 5 games to 3.
29/11/1903 - Australia's second federal election is held, the first in the world in which women were permitted to vote and stand for parliament. The incumbent Protectionist Party led by Alfred Deakin defeated the opposition Free Trade Party led by George Reid. Vida Goldstein becomes the first woman in the British Empire to stand for a national parliament. She was unsuccessful in her bid for a seat in the Senate.
17/12/1903 - Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented successful controlled powered heavier-than-air flight.
29/1/1904 Tasmania grants women the right to vote leaving Victoria as the only Australian State without womens suffrage.
8/2/1904 A surprise Japanese attack on the Russian port of Port Arthur starts the Russo-Japanese war.
4/3/1904 More than 100,000 Japanese troops drive Korean based Russian forces towards Manchuria.
27/4/1904 Prime Minister Deakin loses a vote of no confidence in the Australian parliament and loses the subsequent election to the Australian Labour Party under Chris Watson.
13/5/1904 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
16/6/1904 - Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyces famous novel Ulysses, walks through Dublin (First Bloomsday).
1/7/1904 The 1904 Summer Olympics begin in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Lacrosse is played in the Olympics for the first time (it was dropped after the 1908 Summer Olympics). Three teams competed: one from the United States and two from Canada. The first Africans take part in the Olympics - two Tswana tribesmen who were taking part in a Boer War exhibit at the World's Fair in St. Louis run in the marathon. The Yanks win the most medals and the most gold medals.
8/8/1904 - Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
7/9/1904 In the Russo-Japanese war, a Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
15/10/1904 - The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
8/11/1904 Theodore Roosevelt is elected to his 2nd term as President, defeating Alton B. Parker.
31/12/1904 - In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, renamed in April from Longacre Square.
2/1/1905 The longest and most vicious land battle of the Russo-Japanese war ends when Russian forces surrender at Port Arthur in Manchuria. The Russians suffer 58,000 casualties, Japanese losses amount to 32,000 dead, wounded and missing.
5/2/1905 - Bloody Sunday massacre of Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, one of the triggers of the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905.
10/3/1905 The Japanese capture of Mukden (now Shenyang) completes rout of Russian armies in Manchuria.
7/4/1905 - The Supreme Court of the United States invalidates New York's eight-hour-day law in Lochner versus New York, calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract."
28/5/1905 The Russian fleet is thrashed by Japan at the Battle Tsushima. 20 Russian ships are sunk and 4,400 sailors drown in a battle that effectively ends the war. President Roosevelt offers to mediate an end to the war. Russia and Japan accept.
30/6/1905 - Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" where he reveals his theory of special relativity.
6/7/1905 The Watson Labour government in Australia collapses and Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
13/8/1905 Norway dissolves its union with Sweden via a referendum.
5/9/1905 The Russo-Japanese war formally ends as a treaty mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, is signed by victor Japan and defeated party Russia. In the agreement, Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin and port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.
16/10/1905 The Russian army opens fire in a meeting on a street market in Estonia, killing 94 and injuring over 200.
9/11/1905 - The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established from the south-western part of the Northwest Territories.
28/12/1905 - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Fιin in Dublin as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.
1/1/1906 Alliance system in Europe finalised, pitting the Triple Alliance (or Central Powers) of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy against the Triple Entente of Russia, France and Great Britain.
3/2/1906 - HMS Dreadnought is commissioned, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race between Britain and Germany.
15/3/1906 The famous Rolls-Royce motor car company is registered.
18/4/1906 - The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3000, with 225,000-300,000 left homeless, $350 million in damages
15/5/1906 - Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in the UK parliament take the name Parliamentary Labour Party.
30/6/1906 - Tsar Nicholas II is forced to grant Russia's first constitution, conceding a national assembly (Duma) with limited powers.
8/7/1906 President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
12/8/1906 - Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer hastily and wrongly convicted of treason in 1899, is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army July 21, ending the "Dreyfus Affair" that exposed anti-Semitism in French society.
22/9/1906 - Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia kill at least 27 people and the black-owned business district is severely damaged.
16/10/1906 - Impostor Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over city hall in Kφpenick for a short time, amusing all of Germany and other countries.
19/11/1906 - US President Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal. This is the first time a sitting President of the United States makes an official trip outside of the United States.
10/12/1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
3/1/1907 SOS (Save Our Souls) becomes an internationally recognised distress signal.
15/2/1907 In the UK, Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in Parliament take the name Parliamentary Labour Party.
16/3/1907 The first parliamentary elections in Finland are notable for being the first elections in the world with woman candidates as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied.
25/4/1907 - Tasmania adopts the Hare-Clark single transferable vote system, and introduces postal voting.
22/5/1907 The first feature length motion picture The Story of the Kelly Gang - is screened in Australia.
24/6/1907 George Reid and the Labour Party beat Alfred Deakin by one seat in elections.
16/7/1907 The Australian Federal Government announces it will spend £2500 a year to encourage British immigration to Australia.
9/8/1907 Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island.
17/9/1907 - Guglielmo Marconi initiated commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
24/10/1907 - A major American financial crisis is averted when J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Henry Clay Frick, and other Wall Street financiers create a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange.
16/11/1907 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.
31/12/1907 The first electric ball drops in New Years celebrations in Times Square, New York.
12/1/1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
26/2/1908 - Australians Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and others are the first people to scale Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
21/3/1908 - Frenchman Henri Farman pilots the first passenger flight.
30/4/1908 - The Tunguska impact event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs in Siberia. The explosion is caused by the airburst of an asteroid or piece of a comet some 20 metres in diameter blowing up 5 to 10 kilometres above the Earth's surface. The energy of the blast was later estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons of TNT, equivalent to the most powerful nuclear weapons in existence.
26/5/1908 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
18/6/1908 Deakin turns the tables on the Labour party when he is elected for his 3rd stint as Prime Minister.
13/7/1908 In London, Women compete in the modern Olympic Games for the first time.
3/8/1908 - The Young Turks start revolution in the Ottoman Empire, and force Sultan Abdul Hamid II to adhere to the constitution of 1876.
27/9/1908 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
5/10/1908 - Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire - Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar.
3/11/1908 William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
8/12/1908 The First Jewish colony is established in Palestine
1/1/1909 - The Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 went into effect in Great Britain, and the first payments were made to qualified persons at least 70 years old and whose income was less than 12 shillings per week. Pensions ranged from one to five shillings a week (modern day 5 to 25 pounds per week) depending on income. Roughly 490,000 persons received the pension during the first year.
28/2/1909 - President Roosevelt breaks a 120 year old tradition "when he not only trod on foreign territory, but accepted the hospitality of a foreign power". Roosevelt walked into the Austrian Embassy on Connecticut Avenue to have lunch with Baron Hengelmuller, the ambassador.
4/3/1909 William Howard Taft sworn in as 27th President of the United States.
31/3/1909 - Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
27/4/1909 The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V. He is sent to the Ottoman port city of Thessaloniki (Selanik) the next day.
15/5/1909 Victoria is the last Australian State to grant the vote to women. Victorian women had been allowed to vote in Federal elections since 1902, now they are allowed to vote in State elections as well.
18/6/1909 - Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference or ICC.
25/7/1909 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
15/8/1909 - Pius X becomes the first Roman Catholic Pope to ride in an automobile. The motor car had been the gift of American Catholics.
9/9/1909 The Labour party gets another crack at government when Joseph Cook of the Labour party ends Deakins political career.
25/10/1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) is founded.
11/11/1909 The U.S. Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
24/12/1909 - Former Prime Minister Sir George Reid resigns from Parliament to become Australia's first High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
26/1/1910 - The destroyers HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Yarra arrive in Australia, the first ships built for the Australian Navy.
15/2/1910 - In the United Kingdom, a general election held in response to the House of Lords' rejection of the 1909 budget results in a reduced Liberal Party majority (Liberals, 275 seats; Labour, 40; Irish Nationalists, 82; Unionists (the title then preferred by the British Conservative Party), 273).
5/3/1910 An uprising against Ottoman rule breaks out in Albania.
29/4/1910 The merger of several conservative parties into the Liberal party and election of Andrew Fisher as Prime Minister for a three year term end the period of unstable, but peaceful government in Australia.
6/5/1910 Edward VII dies, succeeded by his son George V.
22/6/1910 The first Zeppelin embarks on its maiden flight.
4/7/1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out American boxer James J. Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
31/8/1910 The Union of South Africa is created. South Africa becomes a British Dominion, as opposed to a British Colony.
12/9/1910 Japan annexes Korea. Korea becomes a Japanese colony and is exploited for the next 34 years.
28/10/1910 - Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom and separates from the Ottoman Empire.
7/11/1910 - First air flight for the purpose of delivering commercial freight occurs between Dayton, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse. Ten days later, Ralph Johnstone, a pilot for the Wright Exhibition Team, dies at Denver, Colorado after his machine breaks apart in mid air in full view of about 5,000 spectators. Johnstone becomes the first American pilot to die in the crash of an airplane in the United States.
11/12/1910 William Taft becomes the first president to ride in an airplane.
[break=1910's]
1/1/1911 The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory come into existence as the Australian Government and High Court moves to Canberra.
7/2/1911 - Denmark abolishes the death penalty and flogging.
23/3/1911 - The city of Palmerston in the Northern Territory is renamed Darwin in honour of Charles Darwin.
13/4/1911 In the Mexican revolution, Rebels take Agua Prieta along the US border. Government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" Lopez is drunk. A few days later, Francisco Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juarez but General Juan J. Navarro refuses his demand of surrender
8/5/1911 Mexican rebel Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez. Government troops surrender on May 10.
15/6/1911 Future IT behemoth IBM is incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York.
1/7/1911 The German Warship Panther in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers Agadir Crisis escalating pre-WW1 tensions. Subsequent climb down rallies German militancy.
15/8/1911 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an unreasonable monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
24/9/1911 - Hiram Bingham rediscovers the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru.
6/10/1911 - Compulsory voting is introduced in Australia.
5/11/1911 - After declaring war on Turkey on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica (this act was confirmed by an act of the Italian Parliament on February 25, 1912).
14/12/1911 A Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole, the first humans to do so.
6/1/1912 New Mexico is admitted as the 47th State of the Union.
14/2/1912 - Arizona follows New Mexico and becomes the 48th State of the Union.
1/3/1912 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
14/4/1912 The Ocean Liner Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage along with more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
13/5/1912 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
18/6/1912 - The Republican National Convention nominates incumbent President William Howard Taft in Chicago, defeating a challenge by former President Theodore Roosevelt, whose delegates bolt the convention.
30/7/1912 - Emperor Meiji of Japan dies. He is succeeded by his son Yoshihito who becomes Emperor Taishō. In Japanese History, the event marks the end of the Meiji era and the beginning of the Taishō era.
5/8/1912 - Dissident Republicans form the Progressive or Bull Moose Party, and nominate former President Theodore Roosevelt as their presidential candidate.
10/9/1912 In Australia, the Maternity Allowance Act 1912 is passed, granting a "Baby Bonus" of five pounds to the mother of every child born in Australia (indigenous mothers and other non-citizens are excluded).
8/10/1912 The Balkan war begins when Montenegro declares war on Turkey. The war pits the Balkan League of Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro against the Ottoman Empire.
5/11/1912 In the U.S. presidential election, Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Taft's base was undercut by Progressive Party candidate (and former Republican) Theodore Roosevelt, who finished second, ahead of Taft.
3/12/1912 - First Balkan War ends temporarily - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.
13/1/1913 - The Irish Ulster Volunteers are reorganized into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) by the Ulster Unionist Party, with the intention of defending Ulster against Home Rule.
23/2/1913 As a cold snap puts a dampener on the Balkan War, a military coup in the Ottoman Empire led by Enver Pasha overthrows the Liberal Union coalition and introduces a military dictatorship.
1/3/1913 An outpouring of monarchist sentiment occurs in Russia when the House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne.
4/3/1913 Woodrow Wilson is sworn in as the 28th President of the United States.
26/4/1913 In the Balkan War, which had resumed in February, Bulgarian forces take Adrianople from the Turks.
31/5/1913 An Australian referendum contains six questions on Trade and Commerce, Corporations, Industrial Matters, Trusts, Monopolies, and Railway Disputes. None of these are carried.
24/6/1913 Despite the referendum defeats, Andrew Fisher is re-elected for another term as Prime Minster.
8/7/1913 - The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.
30/8/1913 The Balkan War ends with the signing of a peace treaty in London. The Balkan League combatants gain full independence from Turkey.
23/9/1913 - French aviator Roland Garros flies over the Mediterranean.
10/10/1913 - US President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
6/11/1913 - Mohandas Gandhi makes the news for the first time by getting himself arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
1/12/1913 The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford was not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one did spark an era of mass production).
5/1/1914 The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labour.
16/2/1914 - Maurice Guillaux leaves Melbourne to fly to Sydney in a Bleriot monoplane in the first delivery of airmail. He arrives in Sydney on 18 February after nine and a half hours of flying time.
1/3/1914 - The first military aircraft in Australia are flown in Australia by Lieutenants Harrison and Petre at Point Cook, Victoria. They fly a Boxkite CFS 3 and a Deperdussin CFS 4.
19/4/1914 - Charles Heydon of the New South Wales Industrial Court finds that a "living wage" for a family of four would be 48 shillings a week but more than a living wage should be paid. His recommendation was a minimum wage of 8s 6d for unskilled workers and 9s for heavy work.
14/5/1914 President Woodrow Wilson signs the Mother's Day proclamation.
28/6/1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian extremist.
[break=World War One]
28/7/1914 World War 1 begins as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it fails to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the Sarajevo assassination.
29/7/1914 Russia orders full mobilization.
1/8/1914 Germany declares war on Russia, following Russia's military mobilisation in support of Serbia; Germany also begins mobilisation as does France.
2/8/1914 - Germany issues a 12-hour ultimatum to Belgium to allow German passage into France. Belgium tells them where they can stick their ultimatum.
3/8/1914 - Russia's ally France and Germany declare war on each other.
4/8/1914 German troops invade neutral Belgium at 8:02 AM (local time). Britain declares war on Germany for this violation of Belgian neutrality. This move effectively means a declaration of war by the whole British Commonwealth and Empire against Germany. The United States and Italy declare their neutrality. World War 1 is well and truly under way.
20/8/1914 German forces occupy Brussels, and, in spite of spirited British, French and Belgian resistance, continue their relentless march through Belgium.
9/9/1914 - German forces smash the Russians at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia and invade Russia. Austrian forces are bogged down in Ukraine.
24/9/1914 The Allies halt the German advance at the Battle of the Marne, even though the British Expeditionary Force is almost wiped out. Over 2 million soldiers take part in the battle in which 500,000 men are killed or wounded. Both sides try to outflank each other in a race to the sea.
9/10/1914 Antwerp in Belgium falls to German troops after a month long siege. Trench warfare is established along the rest of the front.
29/10/1914 After heavy German lobbying Turkey joins the war on the side of the Central Powers as Ottoman warships shell Russian Black Sea ports; Russia, France, and Britain declare war on November 1-November 5.
17/11/1914 In the Battle of Coronel a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock is met and defeated by the superior German forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. This is the first British naval defeat of the war.
24/12/1914 British and German troops in Flanders take a break from the war to celebrate a Christmas truce, which in some cases lasts for a week.
19/1/1915 - German Zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20.
26/2/1915 Italy enters the war on the Allied side and invades the Austrian province of Tyrol.
18/3/1915 A British naval attack on the Dardanelles fails, paving the way for the Gallipoli landings.
25/4/1915 Australian, New Zealand, British and French forces invade Turkey on the Gallipoli peninsula in an attempt to knock Turkey out of the war quickly. The invasion fails and trench warfare establishes itself on Gallipoli as it has on the Western front.
2/5/1915 German troops introduce poison gas at the second Battle of Ypres, Belgium. The Battle ends indecisively with 70,000 Allied and 30,000 German casualties.
15/6/1915 The second Battle of Artois in France ends in a stalemate after 110,000 French and 75,000 German casualties. More indecisive battles of this nature follow in September and October, leading to dissent in French ranks in particular.
19/7/1915 - Albert Jacka becomes the first Australian to win the Victoria Cross during the First World War for capturing a Turkish machine-gun nest at Gallipoli and holding it for an entire night.
6/8/1915 The British attempt another landing at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula. It fails and the British become bogged down in trench warfare there as well. Diversionary attacks by ANZACS at Lone Pine and the Nek cost 1000 Anzac lives in less than an hour.
15/9/1915 - Austria-Hungary invades Serbia. Bulgaria enters the war by also invading the Kingdom of Serbia. Retreat of the Serbian First Army towards Greece begins.
27/10/1915 Billy Hughes of the Labour Party becomes Australian Prime Minister, replacing Andrew Fisher after Labour wins the election by 3 seats.
25/11/1915 Albert Einstein formulates the General Theory of Relativity.
2/12/1915 The Gallipoli peninsula is evacuated by allied troops without loss of life or any injuries. The campaign has cost the lives of 8700 Australians, 2500 New Zealanders, 30000 British, 10000 French and 85000 Turkish soldiers. The allied troops are transferred to the Western Front.
19/1/1916 German Zeppelins bomb Paris for the first time.
22/2/1916 The Battle of Verdun starts after months of planning when German forces bombard French positions with artillery. The battle will last until November and cost the lives of 500,000 French and 300,000 Germans.
9/3/1916 - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17. A garrison of the US 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away. President Wilson sends a punitive expedition of 12,000 men to hunt Villa down, but they are unsuccessful.
27/4/1916 The Battle of Hulluch in Belgium sees the most concentrated gas attacks of the war. Both the German and British sides are affected.
31/5/1916 The Battle of Jutland between the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet ends in a victory for the British. The German Fleet returns to port and stays there for the remainder of the war. However, U-Boat warfare continues unabated.
17/6/1916 After 9 months of fighting, Serbia and Montenegro are overrun by German, Austrian and Bulgarian forces. Serbia surrenders and is occupied by Austrian and Bulgarian troops for the rest of the war.
1/7/1916 The Battle of the Somme starts when British troops go over the top after a week-long bombardment. 20,000 British troops die on the first day, the biggest single day loss of soldiers in British history.
3/7/1916 The Anzacs suffer their biggest single day loss of life when 5535 Australians die at Fromelles.
8/8/1916 - The Brusilov Offensive, the height of Russian operations in World War I, begins with the breakthrough of Austro-Hungarian lines.
29/9/1916 Rasputin is murdered by members of the Russian aristocracy. After surviving a dose of poisoning and being shot, he is drowned in a river.
28/10/1916 - Australia holds the first referendum on conscription. It is defeated.
18/11/1916 - The Battle of the Somme ends with the loss of 350,000 British and Dominion lives as well as 400,000 German lives.
30/12/1916 The Brusilov offensive in the east collapses with the result that many Russian units mutiny or desert.
22/1/1917 President Wilson calls for peace without victory in Europe. He is largely ignored.
28/2/1917 The Germans assist Lenins trip to Russia by giving his train passage from Switzerland to Russia. Lenin reaches Russia and starts to foment revolution.
4/3/1917 Woodrow Wilson is sworn in for his second term as President, after beating Charles Hughes in the election of the previous year.
12/4/1917 Canadian forces win the Battle of Vimy Ridge. For the first time, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps were brought together. 3,600 Canadians die in the successful capture of the strategic ridge, while nearly 10,000 Germans lose their lives trying to defend it.
19/5/1917 The Nivelle offensive conducted by France in the west fails with large casualties causing French units to openly revolt against their commanders. The revolt subsides when Marshal Foch is appointed supreme commander of allied forces in the west.
1/6/1917 A mutinous French infantry regiment seizes Missy-aux-Bois and declares an anti-war military government. Other French army units soon apprehend them.
7/7/1917 Germany and Austria launch offensives in the east, leading to further mutinies among Russian units.
28/8/1917 The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele begins in Belgium. It lasts four months and costs the lives of 250,000 Germans and 150,000 British and Dominion troops. The maximum gain is about 3 miles.
5/9/1917 A second Australian referendum on conscription fails. The Anzacs remain the only all-volunteer army in the war.
25/10/1917 Russia overthrows the Tsar and an interim government under Alexander Kerensky takes power. The Tsar flees to Kiev where he is captured by Austrian troops and taken to Vienna.
13/11/1917 Lenins Bolsheviks seize power from Kerensky who is hanged in St Petersburg. Negotiations for a ceasefire between Russia and the Central Powers begin, while a civil war breaks out between social-democratic White Russians and communist Red Russians. .
17/12/1917 An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed. Germany starts transferring troops from the eastern to the western front. German-speaking Austrian troops are sent to training camps in Germany and, within months, also arrive at the Western front. Hungarian, Czech and Slovene troops occupy Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States.
10/1/1918 America warns Germany of military action if American ships continue to be sunk in the Atlantic. Germany starts withdrawing U-boats from the east coast of America, but declare the Bay of Biscay, English Channel, North Sea and Irish Sea a free-fire zone.
12/2/1918 Austrian troops see their first action on the Western front.
19/2/1918 Billy Hughes re-elected as Prime Minister.
24/2/1918 Italy and Austria sign an armistice agreeing to withdraw each others troops to pre-war boundaries. More Austrian troops are transferred to the Western front.
30/3/1918 German and Austrian troops go over the top in a massive offensive on the Western front. Central Powers forces gain more ground in a single day than during the previous 2 years and throw Allied forces into headlong retreat.
4/4/1918 Allied counterattacks, mainly by Anzac and Canadian troops slow the German and Austrian advance, as the allies set up a defence perimeter around Paris and stop the Central Powers from gaining vital Channels ports, with only Dunkirk being lost.
23/4/1918 The German and Austrian supply lines are stretched to breaking point, and with their reserves of men and material running out, the offensive is halted.
28/4/1918 German and Austrian troops start withdrawing to a prepared defensive line called the Hindenburg line. Stalemate is re-established.
1/5/1918 - Both sides begin to put out feelers to neutral countries such as the United States and Switzerland to try to broker a peace.
24/6/1918 At a cost of 1200 lives, Australians recapture Villers-Bretonneux from the German army helping to stop Operation Georgette, an event which the people of Villers-Bretonneux remain indebted to Australia to this day.
15/7/1918 The last major German offensive on the Western Front, the Second Battle of the Marne, begins. It fails when an Allied counterattack led by French forces overwhelms the Germans, inflicting 168,000 casualties. Allied casualties number 125,000 men, mainly French.
8/8/1918 Allied forces (including the French in their first attack since early 1917) launch a massive offensive against the Hindenburg line after a 3-day bombardment. Using shock troops, tanks, planes and gas, more than 2,000,000 men go over the top along the entire front. However, the biggest gains amount to only 1500 metres.
10/8/1918 - Vicious German and Austrian counterattacks halt the offensive. More than 100,000 men lose their lives in 2 days as the offensive becomes bogged down and the Central Powers begin to regain ground.
30/9/1918 The autumn offensive turns into a bloodbath on the scale of Verdun or the Somme for little gain, with both sides losing 250,000 men each before it peters out. The exhausted Allies approach the United States for help in brokering a peace, while the equally exhausted Central Powers approach Switzerland with the same request.
3/10/1918 The USA and Switzerland jointly propose peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland. The Allies and Central Powers accept.
10/10/1918 An unofficial armistice falls across the Western Front as peace talks begin between Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Turkey, moderated by the United States and Switzerland.
31/10/1918 Negotiations in Switzerland make slow, but steady progress, while the fighting is reduced to minor skirmishes.
10/11/1918 President Woodrow Wilson announces that the major combatants have reached an agreement for an armistice the following day.
11/11/1918 The armistice comes into effect at 11:00am. The guns fall silent on the Western Front and in the Middle East. The Great War is over.
1/12/1918 German and Austrian forces withdraw from French territory and British and Dominion troops are being shipped home. The war cost the lives of more than 9 million soldiers and about 6 million civilians, mostly in Russia and the Balkans. Russia lost 2 million soldiers, Germany 1.7 million, France 1.5 million, Austria-Hungary 1.3 million, Britain 1 million, Turkey 700,000, Italy 500,000, British Dominions 300,000 including 65,000 Canadians, 60,000 Australians and 20,000 New Zealanders. The total death toll is more than 15 million people.
7/1/1919 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to lobby the major powers for independence, with Ukraine and Belarus joining a few days later.
15/2/1919 Prominent German Socialists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered as sporadic civil unrest occurs in Germany and Austria between extreme right-wing and left wing groups. Both the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef work on constitutional reform on the urgings of President Wilson.
1/3/1919 The Ottoman Empire begins to disintegrate with armed revolts by Arabs on the Arabian Peninsular.
13/4/1919 - At the Amritsar Massacre in the Punjab in India, British and Gurkha troops massacre 379 Sikhs.
9/5/1919 - In Belgium a new electoral law introduces universal male suffrage and gives the franchise to certain classes of women.
4/6/1919 - The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, and sends it to the individual States for ratification.
31/7/1919 The Geneva Peace Conference ends. Representatives from the Allied countries, including Russia and Italy, the Central Powers, including Turkey as well as the United States and Switzerland attend. The map of Europe is redrawn. Germany hand Alsace-Lorraine back to France and part of Schleswig back to Denmark, but lose no territory in the East. Germany also loses its Pacific colonies such as New Guinea, which joins Papua to become the territory of Papua-New Guinea, administered by Australia. Austria-Hungary loses Bosnia which is combined with Serbia and Montenegro into the new state of Yugoslavia. Austria also loses some territory like Trieste and southern Tyrol to Italy. Russia (renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union) has five new countries carved out of its territory Belarus (incorporating the Warsaw salient and territory stretching past Minsk, its capital); the Ukraine with its capital of Kiev; and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The total population of these five new states is more than 40 million. They institute parliamentary democracies with bicameral legislatures and a Head of State separate from the Head of Government, similar to the Westminster system prevalent in Britain and its Dominions. All sides are allowed to keep their militaries and no reparations are asked for from either side. President Wilsons proposal for a World body to resolve disputes between nations (called the League of Nations) receives an enthusiastic response.
18/8/1919 In the Russian Civil war, the Bolshevik fleet near Petrograd is destroyed by British aircraft and torpedo boats in a combined operation.
19/9/1919 The British decide that getting mixed up in the Russian civil war serves no purpose and withdraw from their only base at Archangel, leaving the Russians to fight it out.
28/10/1919 - Prohibition begins in the USA when the United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
19/11/1919 - The American-born Lady Astor is elected to the British House of Commons, becoming on December 1 the first female MP to take a seat.
31/12/1919 Constitutional reforms in Germany and Austria-Hungary cause both countries to change from virtual dictatorships and absolute monarchies to constitutional monarchies with universal adult suffrage; multi-party, bicameral legislatures and separation of powers between the Head of State (the Emperor), Head of Government (the Chancellor who is the leader of the largest party or coalition of parties in Parliament) and an independent judiciary. Judges are recommended by a two-thirds majority of parliament and appointed by the Head of State. They have a compulsory retirement age of 70 years. The Emperor has the power to dismiss a government for constitutional violations or if it becomes unworkable, but new elections have to be held within 40 day of such a dismissal. The Emperor still has strong influence over domestic and foreign policy and remains as the face of the nation, but major policy initiatives such as declarations of war have to be approved by both branches of government.
1/1/1920 The League of Nations is inaugurated in Geneva. Every major European country except the USSR, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and others join. Overall 85 nations join as members.
2/2/1920 Russia recognises Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence when it signs the Treaty of Tartu.
15/3/1920 - World's first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government takes place in Sweden. Hjalmar Branting takes over when Nils Edιn resigns.
14/4/1920 The Ottoman Empire collapses under continuous armed revolt from Arabs. The Sultan is overthrown and goes into exile in Switzerland. The League of Nations intervenes to carve a number of new countries out of the Arabian Peninsular. These include Palestine (which becomes a British protectorate), Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and Saudi-Arabia. Turkey becomes a one-party state under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk.
7/5/1920 - Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
16/6/1920 - Joan of Arc is canonised. Over 30,000 people attend the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presides over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is richly decorated.
1/7/1920 The Australian government starts its program of immigration, particularly targeting scientists and other highly educated people from Europe, not just Britain. A significant number of Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Italians and French take advantage of Australias incentives and leave war-ravaged Europe.
26/8/1920 The 19th Amendment to the US constitution is passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
14/9/1920 Effective White Russian resistance ends in the Crimea, leaving the Bolsheviks in full control of the USSR.
20/10/1920 Otto Hahn, a German scientist, leaves for Australia to take up a position as a lecturer in physics at Sydney University
2/11/1920 Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats his Democratic opponent, James M. Cox, by a landslide60.36% to 34.19% in the Presidential election.
31/12/1920 A series of referendums in Australia result in significant constitutional change. Australia becomes a republic, but the new Head of State retains the title Governor-General with much the same powers of the old Governor-General. However, these powers are now listed in the constitution. Citizens rights and obligations are also enumerated in the constitution. These include compulsory universal adult suffrage, compulsory military service (the length and age limits being set by parliament), the right to free speech, free assembly, a free press, presumption of innocence, trial by jury, a limit of 40 days detention without trial, no detention without charge, right to silence, a right to legal representation, an absolute right to privacy and freedom of and from religion. The Australian pound changes to the Australian dollar, with a conversion rate of 2 dollars to the pound. Federal elections have to be held every 3 years, State elections every 4 years. Elections are held for the full lower house and half the upper house in both State and Federal elections. The new constitution comes into effect on January 1, 1921, with the first Federal election being held in 1923 and State elections being held in 1924.
22/1/1901 Queen Victoria dies, succeeded by her son Edward VII.
14/2/1901 Edward VII opens his first parliament.
6/3/1901 - An anarchist assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany while he is on a visit to Bremen. A month later his attacker has an unfortunate encounter with a short rope and a long drop.
25/4/1901 New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
9/5/1901 Australias first parliament opens in Melbourne. Edmund Barton, the caretaker Prime Minister, is sworn in as Australias first proper Prime Minister after his party won elections in April.
12/6/1901 Cuba becomes a US protectorate in the aftermath of the Spanish-American war.
3/7/1901 - The Flag of Australia and Australian Red Ensign are adopted by the Government of Australia as official flags, following a national design competition.
5/8/1901 - Britain's first cinema opens in Islington.
14/9/1901 US President William McKinley dies from wounds received in an assassination attempt some two weeks earlier. Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him as the 26th President of the United States.
29/10/1901 Anarchist Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, has his first and last date with Old Sparky.
3/11/1901 Alzheimer's disease is described for the first time by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer.
10/12/1901 - Marie Curie receives a doctorate. The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
28/1/1902 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
11/2/1902 In Brussels, protests by female suffragettes end in violence when police break up the demonstrations. Five demonstrators and two police officers are killed.
7/3/1902 - South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
28/4/1902 - Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1, Year Zero occurred at 10:40 AM on this date.
8/5/1902 - In Martinique, Mount Pelιe erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 28,000 people, with only two survivors.
16/6/1902 - The Commonwealth Franchise Act grants Australian women the right to vote and stand in federal elections. New Zealand Women and the Women of some Australian ex-colonies such as South Australia had been able to vote since the early 1890s.
31/7/1902 The Boer War ends after three years of fighting. The independent South African republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal are absorbed into South Africa. The war has cost about 6,000 British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian lives. About 6,500 Boers also died in the conflict.
22/8/1902 - Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile when he rides in a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.
11/9/1902 - Georges Mιliθs creates the legendary film A Trip to the Moon, which in one scene features the animated human face of the moon being struck in the eye by a rocket.
22/10/1902 - Remains of the second Tyrannosaurus rex specimen, first recognized as such, are excavated in South Dakota.
30/11/1902 - Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years hard labour.
1/12/1902 - "Electric Theatre", the first movie theatre in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
19/1/1903 - First transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and England.
20/2/1903 - The Flag of Australia, altered so that the stars of the Southern Cross (except the smallest one) have seven points each, is approved by King Edward VII.
16/3/1903 Construction of the Panama Canal begins.
29/4/1903 - 30,000,000 cubic metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta.
4/5/1903 - Death of the great Macedonian revolutionary Gotse Delchev in a skirmish with the Turkish police near the village of Banitsa.
19/6/1903 Completion of the first Tour de France. The winner is Maurice Garin of France.
4/7/1903 - Completion of the Pacific cable by the Commercial Pacific Cable Company.
4/8/1903 - Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope.
24/9/1903 - Edmund Barton steps down as Prime Minister of Australia at an election to become a judge on the first High Court. He is succeeded by Alfred Deakin.
1/10/1903 - The First modern World Series pits the National League's Pittsburgh against Boston of the American League. Boston wins 5 games to 3.
29/11/1903 - Australia's second federal election is held, the first in the world in which women were permitted to vote and stand for parliament. The incumbent Protectionist Party led by Alfred Deakin defeated the opposition Free Trade Party led by George Reid. Vida Goldstein becomes the first woman in the British Empire to stand for a national parliament. She was unsuccessful in her bid for a seat in the Senate.
17/12/1903 - Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented successful controlled powered heavier-than-air flight.
29/1/1904 Tasmania grants women the right to vote leaving Victoria as the only Australian State without womens suffrage.
8/2/1904 A surprise Japanese attack on the Russian port of Port Arthur starts the Russo-Japanese war.
4/3/1904 More than 100,000 Japanese troops drive Korean based Russian forces towards Manchuria.
27/4/1904 Prime Minister Deakin loses a vote of no confidence in the Australian parliament and loses the subsequent election to the Australian Labour Party under Chris Watson.
13/5/1904 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
16/6/1904 - Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyces famous novel Ulysses, walks through Dublin (First Bloomsday).
1/7/1904 The 1904 Summer Olympics begin in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Lacrosse is played in the Olympics for the first time (it was dropped after the 1908 Summer Olympics). Three teams competed: one from the United States and two from Canada. The first Africans take part in the Olympics - two Tswana tribesmen who were taking part in a Boer War exhibit at the World's Fair in St. Louis run in the marathon. The Yanks win the most medals and the most gold medals.
8/8/1904 - Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
7/9/1904 In the Russo-Japanese war, a Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
15/10/1904 - The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
8/11/1904 Theodore Roosevelt is elected to his 2nd term as President, defeating Alton B. Parker.
31/12/1904 - In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, renamed in April from Longacre Square.
2/1/1905 The longest and most vicious land battle of the Russo-Japanese war ends when Russian forces surrender at Port Arthur in Manchuria. The Russians suffer 58,000 casualties, Japanese losses amount to 32,000 dead, wounded and missing.
5/2/1905 - Bloody Sunday massacre of Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, one of the triggers of the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905.
10/3/1905 The Japanese capture of Mukden (now Shenyang) completes rout of Russian armies in Manchuria.
7/4/1905 - The Supreme Court of the United States invalidates New York's eight-hour-day law in Lochner versus New York, calling it an "unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract."
28/5/1905 The Russian fleet is thrashed by Japan at the Battle Tsushima. 20 Russian ships are sunk and 4,400 sailors drown in a battle that effectively ends the war. President Roosevelt offers to mediate an end to the war. Russia and Japan accept.
30/6/1905 - Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" where he reveals his theory of special relativity.
6/7/1905 The Watson Labour government in Australia collapses and Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
13/8/1905 Norway dissolves its union with Sweden via a referendum.
5/9/1905 The Russo-Japanese war formally ends as a treaty mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, is signed by victor Japan and defeated party Russia. In the agreement, Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin and port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.
16/10/1905 The Russian army opens fire in a meeting on a street market in Estonia, killing 94 and injuring over 200.
9/11/1905 - The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established from the south-western part of the Northwest Territories.
28/12/1905 - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Fιin in Dublin as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.
1/1/1906 Alliance system in Europe finalised, pitting the Triple Alliance (or Central Powers) of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy against the Triple Entente of Russia, France and Great Britain.
3/2/1906 - HMS Dreadnought is commissioned, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race between Britain and Germany.
15/3/1906 The famous Rolls-Royce motor car company is registered.
18/4/1906 - The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3000, with 225,000-300,000 left homeless, $350 million in damages
15/5/1906 - Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in the UK parliament take the name Parliamentary Labour Party.
30/6/1906 - Tsar Nicholas II is forced to grant Russia's first constitution, conceding a national assembly (Duma) with limited powers.
8/7/1906 President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
12/8/1906 - Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer hastily and wrongly convicted of treason in 1899, is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army July 21, ending the "Dreyfus Affair" that exposed anti-Semitism in French society.
22/9/1906 - Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia kill at least 27 people and the black-owned business district is severely damaged.
16/10/1906 - Impostor Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over city hall in Kφpenick for a short time, amusing all of Germany and other countries.
19/11/1906 - US President Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal. This is the first time a sitting President of the United States makes an official trip outside of the United States.
10/12/1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
3/1/1907 SOS (Save Our Souls) becomes an internationally recognised distress signal.
15/2/1907 In the UK, Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in Parliament take the name Parliamentary Labour Party.
16/3/1907 The first parliamentary elections in Finland are notable for being the first elections in the world with woman candidates as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied.
25/4/1907 - Tasmania adopts the Hare-Clark single transferable vote system, and introduces postal voting.
22/5/1907 The first feature length motion picture The Story of the Kelly Gang - is screened in Australia.
24/6/1907 George Reid and the Labour Party beat Alfred Deakin by one seat in elections.
16/7/1907 The Australian Federal Government announces it will spend £2500 a year to encourage British immigration to Australia.
9/8/1907 Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island.
17/9/1907 - Guglielmo Marconi initiated commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
24/10/1907 - A major American financial crisis is averted when J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Henry Clay Frick, and other Wall Street financiers create a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange.
16/11/1907 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state.
31/12/1907 The first electric ball drops in New Years celebrations in Times Square, New York.
12/1/1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
26/2/1908 - Australians Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and others are the first people to scale Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
21/3/1908 - Frenchman Henri Farman pilots the first passenger flight.
30/4/1908 - The Tunguska impact event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs in Siberia. The explosion is caused by the airburst of an asteroid or piece of a comet some 20 metres in diameter blowing up 5 to 10 kilometres above the Earth's surface. The energy of the blast was later estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons of TNT, equivalent to the most powerful nuclear weapons in existence.
26/5/1908 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
18/6/1908 Deakin turns the tables on the Labour party when he is elected for his 3rd stint as Prime Minister.
13/7/1908 In London, Women compete in the modern Olympic Games for the first time.
3/8/1908 - The Young Turks start revolution in the Ottoman Empire, and force Sultan Abdul Hamid II to adhere to the constitution of 1876.
27/9/1908 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
5/10/1908 - Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire - Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar.
3/11/1908 William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
8/12/1908 The First Jewish colony is established in Palestine
1/1/1909 - The Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 went into effect in Great Britain, and the first payments were made to qualified persons at least 70 years old and whose income was less than 12 shillings per week. Pensions ranged from one to five shillings a week (modern day 5 to 25 pounds per week) depending on income. Roughly 490,000 persons received the pension during the first year.
28/2/1909 - President Roosevelt breaks a 120 year old tradition "when he not only trod on foreign territory, but accepted the hospitality of a foreign power". Roosevelt walked into the Austrian Embassy on Connecticut Avenue to have lunch with Baron Hengelmuller, the ambassador.
4/3/1909 William Howard Taft sworn in as 27th President of the United States.
31/3/1909 - Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
27/4/1909 The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V. He is sent to the Ottoman port city of Thessaloniki (Selanik) the next day.
15/5/1909 Victoria is the last Australian State to grant the vote to women. Victorian women had been allowed to vote in Federal elections since 1902, now they are allowed to vote in State elections as well.
18/6/1909 - Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference or ICC.
25/7/1909 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
15/8/1909 - Pius X becomes the first Roman Catholic Pope to ride in an automobile. The motor car had been the gift of American Catholics.
9/9/1909 The Labour party gets another crack at government when Joseph Cook of the Labour party ends Deakins political career.
25/10/1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) is founded.
11/11/1909 The U.S. Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
24/12/1909 - Former Prime Minister Sir George Reid resigns from Parliament to become Australia's first High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
26/1/1910 - The destroyers HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Yarra arrive in Australia, the first ships built for the Australian Navy.
15/2/1910 - In the United Kingdom, a general election held in response to the House of Lords' rejection of the 1909 budget results in a reduced Liberal Party majority (Liberals, 275 seats; Labour, 40; Irish Nationalists, 82; Unionists (the title then preferred by the British Conservative Party), 273).
5/3/1910 An uprising against Ottoman rule breaks out in Albania.
29/4/1910 The merger of several conservative parties into the Liberal party and election of Andrew Fisher as Prime Minister for a three year term end the period of unstable, but peaceful government in Australia.
6/5/1910 Edward VII dies, succeeded by his son George V.
22/6/1910 The first Zeppelin embarks on its maiden flight.
4/7/1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out American boxer James J. Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
31/8/1910 The Union of South Africa is created. South Africa becomes a British Dominion, as opposed to a British Colony.
12/9/1910 Japan annexes Korea. Korea becomes a Japanese colony and is exploited for the next 34 years.
28/10/1910 - Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom and separates from the Ottoman Empire.
7/11/1910 - First air flight for the purpose of delivering commercial freight occurs between Dayton, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse. Ten days later, Ralph Johnstone, a pilot for the Wright Exhibition Team, dies at Denver, Colorado after his machine breaks apart in mid air in full view of about 5,000 spectators. Johnstone becomes the first American pilot to die in the crash of an airplane in the United States.
11/12/1910 William Taft becomes the first president to ride in an airplane.
[break=1910's]
1/1/1911 The Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory come into existence as the Australian Government and High Court moves to Canberra.
7/2/1911 - Denmark abolishes the death penalty and flogging.
23/3/1911 - The city of Palmerston in the Northern Territory is renamed Darwin in honour of Charles Darwin.
13/4/1911 In the Mexican revolution, Rebels take Agua Prieta along the US border. Government troops take the town back April 17 when the rebel leader "Red" Lopez is drunk. A few days later, Francisco Madero's troops besiege Ciudad Juarez but General Juan J. Navarro refuses his demand of surrender
8/5/1911 Mexican rebel Pancho Villa launches an attack against government troops in Ciudad Juarez. Government troops surrender on May 10.
15/6/1911 Future IT behemoth IBM is incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York.
1/7/1911 The German Warship Panther in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers Agadir Crisis escalating pre-WW1 tensions. Subsequent climb down rallies German militancy.
15/8/1911 - The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an unreasonable monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be dissolved.
24/9/1911 - Hiram Bingham rediscovers the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru.
6/10/1911 - Compulsory voting is introduced in Australia.
5/11/1911 - After declaring war on Turkey on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica (this act was confirmed by an act of the Italian Parliament on February 25, 1912).
14/12/1911 A Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole, the first humans to do so.
6/1/1912 New Mexico is admitted as the 47th State of the Union.
14/2/1912 - Arizona follows New Mexico and becomes the 48th State of the Union.
1/3/1912 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
14/4/1912 The Ocean Liner Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage along with more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
13/5/1912 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
18/6/1912 - The Republican National Convention nominates incumbent President William Howard Taft in Chicago, defeating a challenge by former President Theodore Roosevelt, whose delegates bolt the convention.
30/7/1912 - Emperor Meiji of Japan dies. He is succeeded by his son Yoshihito who becomes Emperor Taishō. In Japanese History, the event marks the end of the Meiji era and the beginning of the Taishō era.
5/8/1912 - Dissident Republicans form the Progressive or Bull Moose Party, and nominate former President Theodore Roosevelt as their presidential candidate.
10/9/1912 In Australia, the Maternity Allowance Act 1912 is passed, granting a "Baby Bonus" of five pounds to the mother of every child born in Australia (indigenous mothers and other non-citizens are excluded).
8/10/1912 The Balkan war begins when Montenegro declares war on Turkey. The war pits the Balkan League of Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro against the Ottoman Empire.
5/11/1912 In the U.S. presidential election, Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Taft's base was undercut by Progressive Party candidate (and former Republican) Theodore Roosevelt, who finished second, ahead of Taft.
3/12/1912 - First Balkan War ends temporarily - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.
13/1/1913 - The Irish Ulster Volunteers are reorganized into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) by the Ulster Unionist Party, with the intention of defending Ulster against Home Rule.
23/2/1913 As a cold snap puts a dampener on the Balkan War, a military coup in the Ottoman Empire led by Enver Pasha overthrows the Liberal Union coalition and introduces a military dictatorship.
1/3/1913 An outpouring of monarchist sentiment occurs in Russia when the House of Romanov celebrates the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne.
4/3/1913 Woodrow Wilson is sworn in as the 28th President of the United States.
26/4/1913 In the Balkan War, which had resumed in February, Bulgarian forces take Adrianople from the Turks.
31/5/1913 An Australian referendum contains six questions on Trade and Commerce, Corporations, Industrial Matters, Trusts, Monopolies, and Railway Disputes. None of these are carried.
24/6/1913 Despite the referendum defeats, Andrew Fisher is re-elected for another term as Prime Minster.
8/7/1913 - The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, dictating the direct election of senators.
30/8/1913 The Balkan War ends with the signing of a peace treaty in London. The Balkan League combatants gain full independence from Turkey.
23/9/1913 - French aviator Roland Garros flies over the Mediterranean.
10/10/1913 - US President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
6/11/1913 - Mohandas Gandhi makes the news for the first time by getting himself arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
1/12/1913 The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford was not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one did spark an era of mass production).
5/1/1914 The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labour.
16/2/1914 - Maurice Guillaux leaves Melbourne to fly to Sydney in a Bleriot monoplane in the first delivery of airmail. He arrives in Sydney on 18 February after nine and a half hours of flying time.
1/3/1914 - The first military aircraft in Australia are flown in Australia by Lieutenants Harrison and Petre at Point Cook, Victoria. They fly a Boxkite CFS 3 and a Deperdussin CFS 4.
19/4/1914 - Charles Heydon of the New South Wales Industrial Court finds that a "living wage" for a family of four would be 48 shillings a week but more than a living wage should be paid. His recommendation was a minimum wage of 8s 6d for unskilled workers and 9s for heavy work.
14/5/1914 President Woodrow Wilson signs the Mother's Day proclamation.
28/6/1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian extremist.
[break=World War One]
28/7/1914 World War 1 begins as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it fails to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the Sarajevo assassination.
29/7/1914 Russia orders full mobilization.
1/8/1914 Germany declares war on Russia, following Russia's military mobilisation in support of Serbia; Germany also begins mobilisation as does France.
2/8/1914 - Germany issues a 12-hour ultimatum to Belgium to allow German passage into France. Belgium tells them where they can stick their ultimatum.
3/8/1914 - Russia's ally France and Germany declare war on each other.
4/8/1914 German troops invade neutral Belgium at 8:02 AM (local time). Britain declares war on Germany for this violation of Belgian neutrality. This move effectively means a declaration of war by the whole British Commonwealth and Empire against Germany. The United States and Italy declare their neutrality. World War 1 is well and truly under way.
20/8/1914 German forces occupy Brussels, and, in spite of spirited British, French and Belgian resistance, continue their relentless march through Belgium.
9/9/1914 - German forces smash the Russians at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia and invade Russia. Austrian forces are bogged down in Ukraine.
24/9/1914 The Allies halt the German advance at the Battle of the Marne, even though the British Expeditionary Force is almost wiped out. Over 2 million soldiers take part in the battle in which 500,000 men are killed or wounded. Both sides try to outflank each other in a race to the sea.
9/10/1914 Antwerp in Belgium falls to German troops after a month long siege. Trench warfare is established along the rest of the front.
29/10/1914 After heavy German lobbying Turkey joins the war on the side of the Central Powers as Ottoman warships shell Russian Black Sea ports; Russia, France, and Britain declare war on November 1-November 5.
17/11/1914 In the Battle of Coronel a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock is met and defeated by the superior German forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. This is the first British naval defeat of the war.
24/12/1914 British and German troops in Flanders take a break from the war to celebrate a Christmas truce, which in some cases lasts for a week.
19/1/1915 - German Zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20.
26/2/1915 Italy enters the war on the Allied side and invades the Austrian province of Tyrol.
18/3/1915 A British naval attack on the Dardanelles fails, paving the way for the Gallipoli landings.
25/4/1915 Australian, New Zealand, British and French forces invade Turkey on the Gallipoli peninsula in an attempt to knock Turkey out of the war quickly. The invasion fails and trench warfare establishes itself on Gallipoli as it has on the Western front.
2/5/1915 German troops introduce poison gas at the second Battle of Ypres, Belgium. The Battle ends indecisively with 70,000 Allied and 30,000 German casualties.
15/6/1915 The second Battle of Artois in France ends in a stalemate after 110,000 French and 75,000 German casualties. More indecisive battles of this nature follow in September and October, leading to dissent in French ranks in particular.
19/7/1915 - Albert Jacka becomes the first Australian to win the Victoria Cross during the First World War for capturing a Turkish machine-gun nest at Gallipoli and holding it for an entire night.
6/8/1915 The British attempt another landing at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula. It fails and the British become bogged down in trench warfare there as well. Diversionary attacks by ANZACS at Lone Pine and the Nek cost 1000 Anzac lives in less than an hour.
15/9/1915 - Austria-Hungary invades Serbia. Bulgaria enters the war by also invading the Kingdom of Serbia. Retreat of the Serbian First Army towards Greece begins.
27/10/1915 Billy Hughes of the Labour Party becomes Australian Prime Minister, replacing Andrew Fisher after Labour wins the election by 3 seats.
25/11/1915 Albert Einstein formulates the General Theory of Relativity.
2/12/1915 The Gallipoli peninsula is evacuated by allied troops without loss of life or any injuries. The campaign has cost the lives of 8700 Australians, 2500 New Zealanders, 30000 British, 10000 French and 85000 Turkish soldiers. The allied troops are transferred to the Western Front.
19/1/1916 German Zeppelins bomb Paris for the first time.
22/2/1916 The Battle of Verdun starts after months of planning when German forces bombard French positions with artillery. The battle will last until November and cost the lives of 500,000 French and 300,000 Germans.
9/3/1916 - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17. A garrison of the US 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away. President Wilson sends a punitive expedition of 12,000 men to hunt Villa down, but they are unsuccessful.
27/4/1916 The Battle of Hulluch in Belgium sees the most concentrated gas attacks of the war. Both the German and British sides are affected.
31/5/1916 The Battle of Jutland between the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet ends in a victory for the British. The German Fleet returns to port and stays there for the remainder of the war. However, U-Boat warfare continues unabated.
17/6/1916 After 9 months of fighting, Serbia and Montenegro are overrun by German, Austrian and Bulgarian forces. Serbia surrenders and is occupied by Austrian and Bulgarian troops for the rest of the war.
1/7/1916 The Battle of the Somme starts when British troops go over the top after a week-long bombardment. 20,000 British troops die on the first day, the biggest single day loss of soldiers in British history.
3/7/1916 The Anzacs suffer their biggest single day loss of life when 5535 Australians die at Fromelles.
8/8/1916 - The Brusilov Offensive, the height of Russian operations in World War I, begins with the breakthrough of Austro-Hungarian lines.
29/9/1916 Rasputin is murdered by members of the Russian aristocracy. After surviving a dose of poisoning and being shot, he is drowned in a river.
28/10/1916 - Australia holds the first referendum on conscription. It is defeated.
18/11/1916 - The Battle of the Somme ends with the loss of 350,000 British and Dominion lives as well as 400,000 German lives.
30/12/1916 The Brusilov offensive in the east collapses with the result that many Russian units mutiny or desert.
22/1/1917 President Wilson calls for peace without victory in Europe. He is largely ignored.
28/2/1917 The Germans assist Lenins trip to Russia by giving his train passage from Switzerland to Russia. Lenin reaches Russia and starts to foment revolution.
4/3/1917 Woodrow Wilson is sworn in for his second term as President, after beating Charles Hughes in the election of the previous year.
12/4/1917 Canadian forces win the Battle of Vimy Ridge. For the first time, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps were brought together. 3,600 Canadians die in the successful capture of the strategic ridge, while nearly 10,000 Germans lose their lives trying to defend it.
19/5/1917 The Nivelle offensive conducted by France in the west fails with large casualties causing French units to openly revolt against their commanders. The revolt subsides when Marshal Foch is appointed supreme commander of allied forces in the west.
1/6/1917 A mutinous French infantry regiment seizes Missy-aux-Bois and declares an anti-war military government. Other French army units soon apprehend them.
7/7/1917 Germany and Austria launch offensives in the east, leading to further mutinies among Russian units.
28/8/1917 The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele begins in Belgium. It lasts four months and costs the lives of 250,000 Germans and 150,000 British and Dominion troops. The maximum gain is about 3 miles.
5/9/1917 A second Australian referendum on conscription fails. The Anzacs remain the only all-volunteer army in the war.
25/10/1917 Russia overthrows the Tsar and an interim government under Alexander Kerensky takes power. The Tsar flees to Kiev where he is captured by Austrian troops and taken to Vienna.
13/11/1917 Lenins Bolsheviks seize power from Kerensky who is hanged in St Petersburg. Negotiations for a ceasefire between Russia and the Central Powers begin, while a civil war breaks out between social-democratic White Russians and communist Red Russians. .
17/12/1917 An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed. Germany starts transferring troops from the eastern to the western front. German-speaking Austrian troops are sent to training camps in Germany and, within months, also arrive at the Western front. Hungarian, Czech and Slovene troops occupy Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States.
10/1/1918 America warns Germany of military action if American ships continue to be sunk in the Atlantic. Germany starts withdrawing U-boats from the east coast of America, but declare the Bay of Biscay, English Channel, North Sea and Irish Sea a free-fire zone.
12/2/1918 Austrian troops see their first action on the Western front.
19/2/1918 Billy Hughes re-elected as Prime Minister.
24/2/1918 Italy and Austria sign an armistice agreeing to withdraw each others troops to pre-war boundaries. More Austrian troops are transferred to the Western front.
30/3/1918 German and Austrian troops go over the top in a massive offensive on the Western front. Central Powers forces gain more ground in a single day than during the previous 2 years and throw Allied forces into headlong retreat.
4/4/1918 Allied counterattacks, mainly by Anzac and Canadian troops slow the German and Austrian advance, as the allies set up a defence perimeter around Paris and stop the Central Powers from gaining vital Channels ports, with only Dunkirk being lost.
23/4/1918 The German and Austrian supply lines are stretched to breaking point, and with their reserves of men and material running out, the offensive is halted.
28/4/1918 German and Austrian troops start withdrawing to a prepared defensive line called the Hindenburg line. Stalemate is re-established.
1/5/1918 - Both sides begin to put out feelers to neutral countries such as the United States and Switzerland to try to broker a peace.
24/6/1918 At a cost of 1200 lives, Australians recapture Villers-Bretonneux from the German army helping to stop Operation Georgette, an event which the people of Villers-Bretonneux remain indebted to Australia to this day.
15/7/1918 The last major German offensive on the Western Front, the Second Battle of the Marne, begins. It fails when an Allied counterattack led by French forces overwhelms the Germans, inflicting 168,000 casualties. Allied casualties number 125,000 men, mainly French.
8/8/1918 Allied forces (including the French in their first attack since early 1917) launch a massive offensive against the Hindenburg line after a 3-day bombardment. Using shock troops, tanks, planes and gas, more than 2,000,000 men go over the top along the entire front. However, the biggest gains amount to only 1500 metres.
10/8/1918 - Vicious German and Austrian counterattacks halt the offensive. More than 100,000 men lose their lives in 2 days as the offensive becomes bogged down and the Central Powers begin to regain ground.
30/9/1918 The autumn offensive turns into a bloodbath on the scale of Verdun or the Somme for little gain, with both sides losing 250,000 men each before it peters out. The exhausted Allies approach the United States for help in brokering a peace, while the equally exhausted Central Powers approach Switzerland with the same request.
3/10/1918 The USA and Switzerland jointly propose peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland. The Allies and Central Powers accept.
10/10/1918 An unofficial armistice falls across the Western Front as peace talks begin between Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Turkey, moderated by the United States and Switzerland.
31/10/1918 Negotiations in Switzerland make slow, but steady progress, while the fighting is reduced to minor skirmishes.
10/11/1918 President Woodrow Wilson announces that the major combatants have reached an agreement for an armistice the following day.
11/11/1918 The armistice comes into effect at 11:00am. The guns fall silent on the Western Front and in the Middle East. The Great War is over.
1/12/1918 German and Austrian forces withdraw from French territory and British and Dominion troops are being shipped home. The war cost the lives of more than 9 million soldiers and about 6 million civilians, mostly in Russia and the Balkans. Russia lost 2 million soldiers, Germany 1.7 million, France 1.5 million, Austria-Hungary 1.3 million, Britain 1 million, Turkey 700,000, Italy 500,000, British Dominions 300,000 including 65,000 Canadians, 60,000 Australians and 20,000 New Zealanders. The total death toll is more than 15 million people.
7/1/1919 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to lobby the major powers for independence, with Ukraine and Belarus joining a few days later.
15/2/1919 Prominent German Socialists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered as sporadic civil unrest occurs in Germany and Austria between extreme right-wing and left wing groups. Both the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef work on constitutional reform on the urgings of President Wilson.
1/3/1919 The Ottoman Empire begins to disintegrate with armed revolts by Arabs on the Arabian Peninsular.
13/4/1919 - At the Amritsar Massacre in the Punjab in India, British and Gurkha troops massacre 379 Sikhs.
9/5/1919 - In Belgium a new electoral law introduces universal male suffrage and gives the franchise to certain classes of women.
4/6/1919 - The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, and sends it to the individual States for ratification.
31/7/1919 The Geneva Peace Conference ends. Representatives from the Allied countries, including Russia and Italy, the Central Powers, including Turkey as well as the United States and Switzerland attend. The map of Europe is redrawn. Germany hand Alsace-Lorraine back to France and part of Schleswig back to Denmark, but lose no territory in the East. Germany also loses its Pacific colonies such as New Guinea, which joins Papua to become the territory of Papua-New Guinea, administered by Australia. Austria-Hungary loses Bosnia which is combined with Serbia and Montenegro into the new state of Yugoslavia. Austria also loses some territory like Trieste and southern Tyrol to Italy. Russia (renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union) has five new countries carved out of its territory Belarus (incorporating the Warsaw salient and territory stretching past Minsk, its capital); the Ukraine with its capital of Kiev; and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The total population of these five new states is more than 40 million. They institute parliamentary democracies with bicameral legislatures and a Head of State separate from the Head of Government, similar to the Westminster system prevalent in Britain and its Dominions. All sides are allowed to keep their militaries and no reparations are asked for from either side. President Wilsons proposal for a World body to resolve disputes between nations (called the League of Nations) receives an enthusiastic response.
18/8/1919 In the Russian Civil war, the Bolshevik fleet near Petrograd is destroyed by British aircraft and torpedo boats in a combined operation.
19/9/1919 The British decide that getting mixed up in the Russian civil war serves no purpose and withdraw from their only base at Archangel, leaving the Russians to fight it out.
28/10/1919 - Prohibition begins in the USA when the United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
19/11/1919 - The American-born Lady Astor is elected to the British House of Commons, becoming on December 1 the first female MP to take a seat.
31/12/1919 Constitutional reforms in Germany and Austria-Hungary cause both countries to change from virtual dictatorships and absolute monarchies to constitutional monarchies with universal adult suffrage; multi-party, bicameral legislatures and separation of powers between the Head of State (the Emperor), Head of Government (the Chancellor who is the leader of the largest party or coalition of parties in Parliament) and an independent judiciary. Judges are recommended by a two-thirds majority of parliament and appointed by the Head of State. They have a compulsory retirement age of 70 years. The Emperor has the power to dismiss a government for constitutional violations or if it becomes unworkable, but new elections have to be held within 40 day of such a dismissal. The Emperor still has strong influence over domestic and foreign policy and remains as the face of the nation, but major policy initiatives such as declarations of war have to be approved by both branches of government.
1/1/1920 The League of Nations is inaugurated in Geneva. Every major European country except the USSR, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and others join. Overall 85 nations join as members.
2/2/1920 Russia recognises Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence when it signs the Treaty of Tartu.
15/3/1920 - World's first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government takes place in Sweden. Hjalmar Branting takes over when Nils Edιn resigns.
14/4/1920 The Ottoman Empire collapses under continuous armed revolt from Arabs. The Sultan is overthrown and goes into exile in Switzerland. The League of Nations intervenes to carve a number of new countries out of the Arabian Peninsular. These include Palestine (which becomes a British protectorate), Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and Saudi-Arabia. Turkey becomes a one-party state under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk.
7/5/1920 - Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
16/6/1920 - Joan of Arc is canonised. Over 30,000 people attend the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presides over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is richly decorated.
1/7/1920 The Australian government starts its program of immigration, particularly targeting scientists and other highly educated people from Europe, not just Britain. A significant number of Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Italians and French take advantage of Australias incentives and leave war-ravaged Europe.
26/8/1920 The 19th Amendment to the US constitution is passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
14/9/1920 Effective White Russian resistance ends in the Crimea, leaving the Bolsheviks in full control of the USSR.
20/10/1920 Otto Hahn, a German scientist, leaves for Australia to take up a position as a lecturer in physics at Sydney University
2/11/1920 Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats his Democratic opponent, James M. Cox, by a landslide60.36% to 34.19% in the Presidential election.
31/12/1920 A series of referendums in Australia result in significant constitutional change. Australia becomes a republic, but the new Head of State retains the title Governor-General with much the same powers of the old Governor-General. However, these powers are now listed in the constitution. Citizens rights and obligations are also enumerated in the constitution. These include compulsory universal adult suffrage, compulsory military service (the length and age limits being set by parliament), the right to free speech, free assembly, a free press, presumption of innocence, trial by jury, a limit of 40 days detention without trial, no detention without charge, right to silence, a right to legal representation, an absolute right to privacy and freedom of and from religion. The Australian pound changes to the Australian dollar, with a conversion rate of 2 dollars to the pound. Federal elections have to be held every 3 years, State elections every 4 years. Elections are held for the full lower house and half the upper house in both State and Federal elections. The new constitution comes into effect on January 1, 1921, with the first Federal election being held in 1923 and State elections being held in 1924.