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1910
Boy Scouts of America incorporated. Angel Island,
in San Francisco Bay, becomes immigration center
for Asians entering U.S.
1911
First use of aircraft as offensive weapon in
Turkish-Italian War. Italy defeats Turks and
annexes Tripoli and Libya. Chinese Republic
proclaimed after revolution overthrows Manchu
dynasty. Sun Yat-sen named president. Mexican
Revolution: Porfirio Diaz, president since 1877,
replaced by Francisco Madero. Triangle Shirtwaist
Company fire in New York; 146 killed. Amundsen
reaches South Pole. Ernest Rutherford discovers
the structure of the atom. Richard Strauss's Der
Rosenkavalier. Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime
Band.
1912
Balkan Wars (1912–1913) resulting from territorial
disputes: Turkey defeated by alliance of Bulgaria,
Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro; London peace
treaty (1913) partitions most of European Turkey
among the victors. In second war (1913), Bulgaria
attacks Serbia and Greece and is defeated after
Romania intervenes and Turks recapture Adrianople.
Titanic sinks on maiden voyage; over 1,500 drown.
New Mexico and Arizona admitted as states.
1913
Suffragists demonstrate in London. Garment workers
strike in New York and Boston; win pay raise and
shorter hours. Henry Ford develops first moving
assembly line. 16th Amendment (income tax) and
17th (popular election of U.S. senators) adopted.
Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes
law. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Woodrow
Wilson becomes 28th U.S. president. Armory Show
introduces modern art to U.S.; Duchamp's Nude
Descending a Staircase shocks public.
1914
World War I begins: Austrian Archduke Francis
Ferdinand and wife Sophie are assassinated;
Austria declares war on Serbia, Germany on Russia
and France, Britain on Germany. (For detailed
chronology see, World War I.) Panama Canal
officially opened. Congress sets up Federal Trade
Commission, passes Clayton Antitrust Act. U.S.
Marines occupy Veracruz, Mexico, intervening in
civil war to protect American interests.
1915
Lusitania sunk by German submarine. Second Battle
of Ypres. U.S. banks lend $500 million to France
and Britain. Genocide of estimated 600,000 to 1
million Armenians by Turkish soldiers. D. W.
Griffith's film Birth of a Nation. Albert
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
1916
Congress expands armed forces. Battle of Verdun.
Battle of the Somme. Tom Mooney arrested for San
Francisco bombing (pardoned in 1939). Pershing
fails in raid into Mexico in quest of rebel Pancho
Villa. U.S. buys Virgin Islands from Denmark for
$25 million. President Wilson re-elected with “he
kept us out of war” slogan. “Black Tom” explosion
at munitions dock in Jersey City, N.J.,
$40,000,000 damages; traced to German saboteurs.
Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic.
Easter Rebellion in Ireland put down by British
troops. Jeannette Rankin becomes first woman
elected to Congress.
1917
First U.S. combat troops in France as U.S.
declares war on Germany (April 6). Third Battle of
Ypres. Russian Revolution of 1917—climax of long
unrest under czars. February Revolution—Nicholas
II forced to abdicate, liberal government created.
Kerensky becomes prime minister and forms
provisional government (July). In October
Revolution, Bolsheviks seize power in armed coup
d'état led by Lenin and Trotsky. Kerensky flees.
Balfour Declaration promises Jewish homeland in
Palestine. U.S. declares war on Austria-Hungary
(Dec. 7). Armistice between new Russian Bolshevik
government and Germans (Dec. 15). Sigmund Freud's
Introduction to Psychoanalysis.
1918
Russian revolutionaries execute the former czar
and his family. Russian Civil War between Reds
(Bolsheviks) and Whites (anti-Bolsheviks); Reds
win in 1920. Allied troops (U.S., British, French)
intervene (March); leave in 1919. Second Battle of
the Marne (July–Aug.) German Kaiser abdicates
(Nov.); hostilities cease on the Western Front.
Japanese hold Vladivostok until 1922. Worldwide
influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20
million are dead. In U.S. alone, 500,000 perish.
1919
Third International (Comintern) establishes Soviet
control over international Communist movements.
Paris peace conference. Versailles Treaty,
incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of
League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany;
rejected by U.S. Senate. Congress formally ends
war in 1921. 18th (Prohibition) Amendment adopted.
Alcock and Brown make first trans-Atlantic nonstop
flight. Mahatma Gandhi initiates satyagraha
(“truth force”) campaigns, beginning his
nonviolent resistance movement against British
rule in India.
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