Historical Events
Events 301 - 400 of 698
- 1916-12-23 World War I: Battle of Magdhaba - Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in Egypt's Sinai peninsula
- 1917-01-09 World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
Wilson Asks for War
1917-04-02 US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany
- 1917-04-06 The United States declares war on Germany and enters World War I on the side of the Allies
- 1917-06-13 World War I: the deadliest German air raid on London during World War I is carried out by Gotha G bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children with 432 injuries
- 1917-08-06 World War I: Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins
- 1917-08-14 China declares war on Germany & Austria
- 1917-08-17 Italy declares war on Turkey
Mata Hari Executed
1917-10-15 Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany during WWI at Vincennes near Paris
- 1917-10-26 World War I: Brazil declares it is in a state of war with the Central Powers
- 1917-10-31 World War I: Battle of Beersheba in southern Palestine - "last successful cavalry charge in history" performed by the 4th Australian Light Horse
- 1917-12-07 US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I
- 1917-12-15 World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Russian Bolshevik government and the Central Powers
Wheatless and Meatless Days
1918-01-26 US Food Administrator Herbert Hoover calls for "wheatless" and "meatless" days to help war effort
- 1918-03-07 World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany
Red Baron Shot Down
1918-04-21 German World War I fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen aka "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France. Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown is credited with the kill.
- 1918-05-15 43rd Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard War Cloud wins in 1:53.6
- 1918-05-15 Finnish Civil War ends
- 1918-07-19 Washington Senators catcher Eddie Ainsmith applies for draft deferment; Secretary of War, Newton D Baker rules baseball players not draft exempt but later moves date to 1 September; both leagues end regular season 2 September
- 1918-08-02 Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I
- 1918-08-17 Samuel Riddle buys Man o'War for $5,000
Capture of Damascus
1918-10-01 World War I: Combined Arab and British force under the Lawrence of Arabia, T. E. Lawrence captures Damascus from the Turks
- 1919-02-14 The Polish-Soviet War begins.
- 1919-05-03 Afghanistan Emir Amanoellah begins war against Great Britain
- 1919-05-17 UK War Department orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes
Atatürk Lands at Samsun
1919-05-19 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Black Sea coast, beginning the Turkish War of Independence
- 1919-06-06 Finland declares war on bolsheviks
- 1919-07-19 Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall.
45th Preakness
1920-05-18 45th Preakness: Clarence Kummer aboard Man o' War (regarded as greatest racehorse of all time) defeats Upset by 1+1⁄2 lengths in 1:51.6
- 1920-06-12 52nd Belmont: Clarence Kummer aboard Man o' War wins by massive 20 lengths in world record 2:14.2
- 1920-11-28 Kilmichael Ambush, Battle of the Irish War of Independence.
- 1922-10-06 The great powers of the first world war withdraw from Istanbul
- 1922-12-15 IVVV (association) peace congress on war forms in Hague
- 1924-09-03 Civil war breaks out in China (Gen Tsi moves to Shanghai)
- 1924-11-10 Dion O'Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio's gang, sparking the bloody gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
- 1925-02-26 Jihad against Turkish government
- 1925-07-20 Beirut sultan Pasja al-Atrasj calls Druzen for holy war against France
- 1925-08-18 Belgium & US sign treaty about war debts
- 1925-11-12 US & Italy sign peace accord about war debts
- 1926-02-25 Kwo-Min-Tang (Guomindang) declares war on government and warlords
Chiang Kai-shek Supreme Warlord
1926-05-17 Chiang Kai-shek is made supreme warlord in Canton
- 1927-07-16 Augusto César Sandino begins 5½ year war against US occupation of Nicaragua
- 1927-07-24 The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres
Delhi Assembly Courts Arrest
1929-04-08 Indian Independence Movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw handouts and bombs to court arrest
- 1929-05-19 Chinese warlord Feng Yuxiang declares war on Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist government
- 1931-09-10 Lord Cecil of British government says War was never so improbable
- 1931-09-28 200,000 demonstrators demand declaration of war on Japan in Peking
- 1932-02-04 Japanese troops occupy Harbin, Manchuria
- 1932-05-29 The Bonus Army of World War I veterans begins to assemble in Washington, D.C. to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945
- 1932-06-17 Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the US Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits
- 1932-07-20 In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House
- 1932-07-29 Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., U.S. troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans
- 1932-08-27 International anti-war congress opens in Amsterdam
- 1932-08-29 International Anti-War Committee forms in Amsterdam
- 1933-05-10 Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
- 1934-02-12 The four-day February Uprising, sometimes called the Austrian Civil War, begins
- 1934-02-16 Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund
- 1935-06-12 Weapons pact ends 3 year war of Gran Chaco (Bolivia vs Paraguay)
- 1935-06-14 Chaco War between Bolivia & Paraguay ends
Spanish Coup of July 1936
1936-07-18 Spanish Civil War: General Francisco Franco issues manifesto and leads an uprising in the Spanish army stationed in Morocco
- 1936-12-12 Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek declares war on Japan
- 1937-05-08 63rd Kentucky Derby: Charley Kurtsinger on War Admiral wins 2:03.2
- 1937-05-15 62nd Preakness: Charley Kurtsinger aboard War Admiral wins in 1:58.4
- 1937-06-05 69th Belmont: Charley Kurtsinger aboard War Admiral wins in 2:28.6
- 1937-08-14 China declares war on Japan
- 1938-06-17 Japan declares war on China
- 1938-09-28 Dutch Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn sends radio message "No war coming"
- 1938-11-01 Seabiscuit, with George Woolf aboard, beats 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral by 3 lengths in Pimlico track record time to win $15,000 in what is regarded as one of the greatest match races in horse racing history
- 1939-03-17 Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out (Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945)
- 1939-03-28 Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to the Nationalists headed by Francisco Franco
- 1939-04-01 US recognizes Francisco Franco's government in Spain at end of Spanish civil war. Pope Pius XII congratulates Generalissimo Franco's victory in Spain
- 1939-09-01 Switzerland mobilizes its forces and the Swiss Parliament elects Henri Guisan to head the Swiss Army (an event that can happen only during war or mobilization)
- 1939-09-03 World War II: Britain declares war on Germany after invasion of Poland. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada
- 1939-09-06 South Africa declares war on Nazi-Germany
- 1939-09-06 World War II: The Battle of Barking Creek.
Limited National Emergency
1939-09-08 FDR declares "limited national emergency" due to war in Europe
- 1939-09-11 Iraq and Saudi Arabia declare war on Nazi Germany
Hitler's Deception
1939-10-06 WWII: Adolf Hitler speech at the Reichstag celebrates the defeat of Poland, offers peace to France and England, and mentions need for "settlement of the Jewish problem" [1]
- 1939-10-06 WWII: Last Polish troops surrender to Soviet army
- 1939-11-06 World War II: 'Sonderaktion Krakau' - a Nazi operation against academics, with 184 professors arrested in Kraków and deported
Pius XII's Peace Appeal
1939-12-24 World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
- 1940-01-12 World War II: Soviets bombs cities in Finland.
- 1940-02-29 Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations
Mussolini and Hitler Agree
1940-03-18 Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler meet at Brenner Pass where the Italian dictator agrees he will, in due course, join Germany's impending war effort in the west
- 1940-04-22 Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable
- 1940-05-10 World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent
- 1940-05-27 World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops
- 1940-06-10 Canada declares war on Italy
- 1940-06-10 Italy declares war on France and Great Britain as part of its Axis alliance with Nazi Germany
- 1940-06-11 Italy declares war on Allies
- 1940-06-11 World War II: British forces bomb Genoa and Turin in Italy
- 1940-06-11 World War II: First attack of the Italian Air force on the island of Malta
- 1940-06-17 World War II: sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France
- 1940-08-07 Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
- 1940-10-07 World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the U.S. into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
- 1940-10-29 Secretary of War Henry L Stimson draws the 1st number - #158 - in the 1st peacetime military draft in US history
- 1940-11-16 World War II: In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
- 1940-11-20 World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers
- 1940-12-22 World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
- 1941-01-02 World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales