January, 1
Armenia officially becomes an autonomous entity within the Ottoman Empire, with the formation of a single province from the vilayets of Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Kharput and Sivas, under the authority of two inspector-generals : Dutch Louis Constant Westenenk and Norwegian Nicolai Hoff.
Luis Cabrera Lobato, aide to Mexican president Venustiano Carranza, release a decree on land reform in Mexico, promise to provide land to those with the most need.
January, 5
Joseph E. Carberry set an altitude record of 11,690 feet (3,560 m), carrying Capt. Benjamin Delahauf Foulois as a passenger in a fixed-wing aircraft.
January, 7
Italy established the Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aviation Corps) as air force branch of the Royal Italian Army.
January, 10
The British polar exploration ship Endurance, carrying explorer Ernest Shackleton and the rest of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition crew, arrived to meet 100-foot (30 m) ice walls which guarded the Antarctic coastal region of Coats Land.
January, 12
The United States House of Representatives approves a proposal to give women the right to vote.
Carlos Meléndez becomes president of El Salvador by acclamation when no other candidates ran in the presidential election.
January, 13
An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy, registering 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale killed more than 30,000 people.
January, 15
General Joaquim Pimenta de Casto becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.
January, 17
Rival Arab royal houses Āl Rashīd and Āl Saʻūd clashed at the Battle of Jarrab north of Al Majma'ah. The battle resulted in victory of the Āl Rashīd but the only recorded casualty was British military adviser William Shakespear, who came in contact with Ibn Saud, the head of Āl Saʻūd, in the early 1900s. His death resulted in tensions between Ibn Saud and the British and may have had some influence in the Arab Revolt the following year.
January, 18
Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu issues to Chinese President Yuan Shikai the Seventeen Demands : Japan asks for the extension of Japan’s leasehold over the South Manchuria Railway Zone, influence over southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, control of the Hanyeping mining and metallurgical complex, the closure of coastal and island concessions from China to foreign powers, the hire of Japanese advisors by the Chinese government to control China’s finance and police and control over Fujian.
January 23-26
Baptist minister John Chilembwe revolts in Nyasaland but is promptly defeated by British troops.
January, 28
An act of the U.S. Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, begun in 1790, as a military branch over 19 years.
February, 3
John Chilembwe is killed by British troops while fleeing the failure of his uprising in Nyasaland.
February,5
Avoiding the ices, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by the Endurance, reaches the continent of the Antarctic; Sir Ernest Shackleton undertakes the first land crossing of the Antarctic.
February, 8
The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles and becomes what would be known today as a “box-office hit”.
February, 12
In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
February, 20
In San Francisco, California, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is opened.
February, 25
Vilbrun Guillaume Sam seizes power in Haiti following the resignation of Presidnet Joseph Davilmar Théodore.
March-October
Palestine is infested by locusts.
March, 1
Feliciano Viera Borges becomes President of Uruguay, succeeding José Batlle y Ordonez.
March, 4
The Italian Navy occupies the city of Valona, Albania.
March 13
Sergei Witte, former Prime Minister of Russia, dies, aged 65.
March, 14
General election in the United Kingdom : the Conservatives win a majority of the popular vote and 343 seats in the House of Commons, having an absolute majority by 7 seats. Leader Bonar Law forms his cabinet and becomes Prime Minister ; The Marquess of Lansdwone becomes Foreign Secretary, Austen Chamberlain Chancellor of the Exchequer and Edward Carson Home Secretary.
Corfu Agreement : Germany and the United Kingdom decide to finance jointly the Istanbul-Baghdad railway line (better known as the Bagdadbahn), with the Bank of England taking a 23,75 % share in the Turkish Petroleum Company and to schedule the opening of the railway for 1920. Germany wins exclusive rights for the exploitation in a 99-years-lease and officially renounces to establish military outposts in the Persian Gulf.
March, 18
Witte Riot : the burial of Sergei Witte in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint. Petersburg turns into a full-blown riot, repressed by the Cossacks, asking for the full implementation of the 1905 Manifesto and the restablishment of parliamentary monarchy.
April-June
Strikes and revolts against central authority happen throughout the industrial parts of Russia, asking for a full implementation of the 1905 October Manifesto, which promised universal male suffrage, the establishment of a parliamentary monarchy, freedom of cult, press and speech, and tax decrease. The Czar responds by sending in the troops.
April, 5
Boxer Jess Willard defeats Jack Johnson at Havana, Cuba, becoming the world heavyweight boxing champion.
April 6-7
First Battle of Celaya between Pancho Villa (Conventionists) and Alvaro Obregon (Constitutionalists) proves inconclusive.
April, 11
The Tramp makes his film debut in the United States, sparking the career of Charles Chaplin.
April 15-16
Second Battle of Celaya between Pancho Villa (Conventionists) and Alvaro Obregon (Constitutionalists) proves inconclusive.
April, 18
The United States Senate approves the amendment to forbid the States and the federal government to deny the right to vote to US citizens on the basis of sex, effectively giving women the right to vote. The would-be Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is sent to the state legislatures for ratification.
April, 23
The Treaty of Corfu is signed, ending the Third Balkan War : Valona remains under Italian occupation ; Essat Pasha Toptani is recognized as Prime Minister and Regent of Albania ; Northern Epirus is annexed by Greece ; northern Albania is split between Montenegro and Serbia.
April, 26
China rejects the Seventeen Demands by Japan.
April, 29
An Italian force was defeated by Senussi rebels at Gasr Bu Hadi in Libya, with casualties estimated between 3,000 and 4,000.
May, 6
Russian troops forcibly enter a arms’ factory in Rostov that had been on strike since March ; twenty-seven workers are left dead.
May, 7
The United Kingdom, France, the United States, Germany, Belgium and Russia ask Japan to stop with the sending of “demands encroaching Chinese sovereignty and the Open Door Policy in China”.
Elections in Denmark : Carl Theodor Zehle is re-elected as Prime Minister. a new Constitution is approved for the country.
May, 14
The Portuguese Army revolts in support of factions of the Parliament in order to ask for the resignation of President de Arriaga and Prime Minister Pimenta de Castro.
May, 15
The House of Commons repeals the Government of Ireland Act, suspending Home Rule in Ireland ; as a result, Irish Parliamentary Party Leader John Redmond and his fellow MPs refuse to seat in Westminster.
Argentina, Brazil and Chile sign the ABC Treaty, developing cooperation, nonaggression and arbitration of disputes between the three countries.
May, 17
José de Castro is appointed Prime Minister by rebels in Portugal.
May, 25
The Treaty of Kyakhta have Russia and China recognize Outer Mongolia’s autonomy.
May, 29
In order to restablish order in Portugal, President Manuel de Arriaga resigns, caving to the demands of the military. He is succeeded by Teofilo Braga.
June, 5
Women’s suffrage is introduced in Denmark.
June, 6
Personnel of the Baku oil fields decide to go on unlimited strike.
June, 11
Sir Ernest Shackleton becomes the first man to achieve the land crossing of the Antarctic, losing 24 men in the procecess.
June, 22
The Imperial Valley earthquakes shook southeastern Southern California, causing six deaths and financial losses of $900,000. Each shock in this doublet earthquake measured 5.5 Mw and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe).
June, 25
In a heavily contested election, Javier Angel Figueroa (Liberal) beats Juan Luis Sanfuentes (Liberal Democratic) to become President of Chile, amid allegations of fraud.
June, 27
Former Mexican president Victoriano Huerta and General Pascual Orozco cross the US-Mexican border, along with supporters. In the following months, they would meet disgruntled Mexican officers plotting against sitting Head of the Executive Power Venustiano Carranza.
June, 30
The army is sent to Baku to re-open the factories : thousands of workers are killed in the repression.
July, 3
Lord Kitchener is appointed Lord Lieutenant for Ireland.
July, 16
Milo Matanovic succeeds Janko Vukotic as Prime Minister of Montenegro.
July, 17
Tsarevich Alexis, heir to the Russian Imperial throne, injures himself in the groin while playing in the stairs of the Hermitage Palace in Saint. Petersburg ; being gravely ill with haemophilia, the Tsarevich eventually manages to recover, although very slowly and painfully.
July, 21-24
Dublin and Cork are stormed by three days of unrest ; the British military charges and leaves several Irishmen dead in the streets.
July, 27
Haitian President Sam orders the execution of 167 political prisoners, including former President Zamor, sparking a revolt.
July, 28
Haitian President Sam takes refuge in the French embassy in Port-au-Prince but is dragged out and lynched by the populace. Haiti falls into chaos.
President Woodrow Wilson orders the US Marines to occupy Port-au-Prince in order to maintain order. The United States Occupation of Haiti begins.
August 5-23
Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans leaves 275 dead.
August, 8
Norias Ranch Raid : Mexican Sedionists assault an American ranch in Texas and are defeated.
August, 12
Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave becomes President of Haiti.
August, 17
Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.
August, 18
José Pardo y Barreda becomes President of Peru for the second time, succeeding Oscar Benavides after a presidential election.
September, 3
Belgium adopts universal male suffrage.
September, 16
The United States Senate ratifies the Haitian American Convention, granting the United States security and economic oversight of Haiti for a 10-Year period.
September, 20
Ernest Shackleton receives a major triumph in London upon his return from the Antarctic.
September, 24
The British Cabinet proposes a new bill that would officially exclude Ulster from juridiction from Dublin and attach it directly to London, excluding it from Home Rule.
October
Islamic militant Mirza Kuchik Khan rebels in Gilan, asking for autonomy for the province, an end to central government corruption in Persia and an end to Russian and British interference.
October, 2
The British War Office announces a reinforcement of troops stationing in Ireland.
The 6.8 Mw Pleasant Valley earthquake shook north-central Nevada with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), causing limited damage and pronounced fault scarps along the base of the Tobin Range.
October, 5
Bernardino Machado is elected President of Portugal.
October, 8
Battle of Chelsea : the London Irish Rifles refuse to be dispatched to maintain order in Ireland and mutiny in the Duke of York’s Barracks in Chelsea, London, killing their officers and asking the Prime Minister to reinstate the Government of Ireland Act. The government and London District troops react swiftly, quelling the uprising by the end of day.
October, 9
British colonial forces in Somaliland, allied with Ethiopian elements, begin a month-long punitive expedition against the rebellious Dervish state.
October, 12
Tsar Nicholas II receives in private audiences a delegation of the Duma, composed of President of the Duma Alexandr Guchkov, Minister of the Interior Alexei Khvovstov, deputies Pavel Milyukov, Boris Stürmer, Vassily Shulgin and Alexandr Kerensky. The delegation repeatedly asks for a gradual implementation of the October Manifesto.
Secularism crisis in Luxembourg : a proposal to remove the Church from the education system leads to the resign of Prime Minister Paul Eyschen, who had been in place since 1888. Grand-Duchess Marie-Adelaide appoints Mathias Mongenast as Prime Minister.
October, 16
Germany signs a secret defensive alliance treaty with the Ottoman Empire that would enter into full effect should the trail of the Bagdadbahn be under threat.
October, 20
Irish Parliamentary leader John Redmond gives an easing of military occupation in Ireland as a condition for his participation in new negotiations about Home Rule.
Elections in South Africa : Louis Botha is re-elected as Prime Minister.
October, 21
Ojo de Agua Raid : Mexican Sedionists assault an United States Army Signal Corps Station in Texas and are defeated.
October, 27
Luxemburgish Parliament votes a motion of no confidence to clerical Prime Minister-designate Mathias Mongenast ; a coalition government, neutral on secularism issues, is appointed under Victor Thorn.
November, 1
Second Battle of Agua Prieta : Plutarco Elias Calles (Constitutionnalists) defeats Pancho Villa (Conventionists) in Agua Prieta, Sonora.
November, 4
Residents in Dominion of Newfoundland voted in favour of prohibiting the sales and distribution of alcohol with 24,956 voting in favour through plebiscite. Prohibition was introduced on January 1, 1917 and remained in force until 1924.
November, 6
The Mad Mullah and leader of the Dervish State in Somalia, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, secretly swears allegiance to the Emperor of Ethiopia, Iyasu V, who has secretly converted to Islam.
November, 9
Czar of Russian Nicholas II announces that the next Duma, that would convene in November 1917, will undertake a mission to have a new Constitution adopted in Russia that would guarantee much of the October Manifesto. The Duma, meanwhile, adopts a new law of succession for the Russian Empire, reintegrating women into the line of succession.
November,11
Elections in Norway : Gunnar Knudsen is re-elected as Prime Minister.
November, 13
Sweden signs a pact of friendship with Germany, secretly assorted with a pact of mutual military assistance.
November, 17
US Marines capture Fort Rivière, stronghold of Haitian Caco rebels, ending the First Caco War.
November, 21
Huerta-Orozco supporters storm the Chapultepec Castle, seat of the Mexican Presidency, in Mexico : at the end of day, Head of the Executive Carranza is killed, Congress disbanded and former President Victoriano Huerta is installed as President of Mexico.
November, 24
The British cabinet announces the disbandment of Irish British Army units due to “insidious movements”.
November, 25
Albert Einstein formulates his theory of general relativity.
November, 26
In Nogales, Mexico, General Alvaro Obregon announces to Convention troops he’s rallying them in opposition to Victoriano Huerta’s regime.
November, 27
The Second Ku Klux Klan is established in Stone Mountain, Georgia, by William Joseph Simmons, due to the national interest created by movie Birth of A Nation.
November, 29
Afonso Costa becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.
December
Ulster Volunteers register en masse in the British Royal Army, under the support of Home Secretary Carson.
Several pogroms happen throughout Russian Ukraine and Poland, targeting Jewish communities. Members of the Black Hundreds, Russia’s ultranationalist militias, are among the perpetrators..
December,2
US President Woodrow Wilson announces that in wake of the recent coup in Mexico, the United States Navy won’t withdraw from Tampico and Veracruz.
December,3
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, seventh in line to the throne, proposes to his cousin, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of the Czar, who accepts. The Grand Duchess becomes the first child of the Tsar to be engaged, and it’s an unusual move, considering Grand Duke Dmitri had been a member of the anti-Rasputin faction.
December,10
The Nobel Prizes are attributed : Lawrence Bragg and William Henry Bragg (United Kingdom) share the Prize in Physics, Fritz Haber (Germany) in Chemistry, Jules Bordet (Belgium) in Medicine, Emile Verhaeren (Belgium) in Literature and Jane Addams (USA) in Peace.
The millionth Ford car is assembled in Detroit.
December, 12
Chinese President Yuan Shikai proclaims himself Emperor under the era name Hongxian, angering many of his supporters.
December, 15
General Plutarco Elias Calles announces his rallying to the Convention forces in Mexico.
December, 18
United States President Woodrow Wilson marries Mrs. Edith B. Galt while the Eighteenth Amendment, in favor of women’s suffrage, has Colorado as the 28th state ratifying the amendement.
December,19
Elections in Greece : Eleftherios Venizelos is re-elected as Prime Minister.
December, 22
Lou Tseng-Tsiang becomes Prime Minister of the Empire of China.
December, 25
Military leaders of Yunnan Cai E and Tang Jiyao declare independance, starting a national revolt against Yuan Shikai’s monarchy.
