World War I
A shot in Sarajevo brings down four empires
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914 drew the great powers into a war of the Entente against Germany and its allies. It killed millions and brought down the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 20th century
Did you know
Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions, but the last one, Martha, died on 1 September 1914 — a month after World War I began.
Women in New Zealand have voted in parliamentary elections since 1893, a quarter of a century before those in Britain, Germany or Russia.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — 9 years earlier
- 1919 Treaty of Versailles — 5 years later
- 1928 Discovery of penicillin — 14 years later
- 1933 Hitler comes to power — 19 years later
- 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1917 October Revolution — 3 years later
- 1917–1922 Russian Civil War — 3 years later
- 1917 February Revolution — 3 years later
- 1929–1933 Collectivization in the Soviet Union — 15 years later
- 1936–1938 Great Purge — 22 years later
Middle East
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — 6 years earlier
- 1908 Young Turk Revolution — 6 years earlier
- 1915 Armenian genocide — 1 year later
- 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement — 2 years later
- 1916–1918 The Arab Revolt — 2 years later
Africa
- 1897 The British sack Benin City — 17 years earlier
- 1904–1908 The Herero and Nama genocide — 10 years earlier
- 1922 Discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb — 8 years later
- 1935–1937 Italy invades Ethiopia — 21 years later
Asia
- 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War — 20 years earlier
- 1896–1898 Philippine Revolution — 18 years earlier
- 1911–1912 Xinhai Revolution — 3 years earlier
- 1923 Great Kantō earthquake — 9 years later
- 1931 China floods — 17 years later
Americas
- 1910–1920 Mexican Revolution — 4 years earlier
- 1913 Ford's moving assembly line — 1 year earlier
- 1914 Opening of the Panama Canal — same year
- 1914 Death of Martha, the last passenger pigeon — same year
- 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression — 15 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 21 years earlier
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 21 years earlier
- 1911 Amundsen reaches the South Pole — 3 years earlier
- 1912 The death of Scott's polar party — 2 years earlier
- 1936 Death of the last thylacine — 22 years later
Alive at the time
- Thomas Edison (aged 67)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 58)
- Marie Curie (aged 47)
- Mahatma Gandhi (aged 45)
- Vladimir Lenin (aged 44)
- Ernest Rutherford (aged 43)
- Winston Churchill (aged 40)
- Joseph Stalin (aged 36)
- Albert Einstein (aged 35)
- Pablo Picasso (aged 33)