1915 - Wikiwand

1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 1915th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 915th year of the 2nd millennium, the 15th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1915, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

From top to bottom, left to right: The Sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat kills nearly 1,200 people, including 128 Americans, heightening tensions between Germany and the United States; the Gallipoli campaign begins as Allied forces attempt an amphibious invasion of the Ottoman Empire, ending in failure; the Armenian genocide starts with the arrest, deportation, and mass extermination of up to 1.5 million Armenians; the Gorlice–Tarnów offensive breaks Russian lines in Galicia, shifting the Eastern Front in favor of the Central Powers; the Second Battle of Ypres marks the first large-scale use of poison gas on the Western Front; and Italy joins the Allies, opening the Italian Front against Austria-Hungary.

Quick facts

1915 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1915 MCMXV
Ab urbe condita	2668
Armenian calendar	1364 ԹՎ ՌՅԿԴ
Assyrian calendar	6665
Baháʼí calendar	71–72
Balinese saka calendar	1836–1837
Bengali calendar	1321–1322
Berber calendar	2865
British Regnal year	5 Geo. 5 – 6 Geo. 5
Buddhist calendar	2459
Burmese calendar	1277
Byzantine calendar	7423–7424
Chinese calendar	甲寅年 (Wood Tiger) 4612 or 4405 — to — 乙卯年 (Wood Rabbit) 4613 or 4406
Coptic calendar	1631–1632
Discordian calendar	3081
Ethiopian calendar	1907–1908
Hebrew calendar	5675–5676
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1971–1972
- Shaka Samvat	1836–1837
- Kali Yuga	5015–5016
Holocene calendar	11915
Igbo calendar	915–916
Iranian calendar	1293–1294
Islamic calendar	1333–1334
Japanese calendar	Taishō 4 (大正４年)
Javanese calendar	1845–1846
Juche calendar	4
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4248
Minguo calendar	ROC 4 民國4年
Nanakshahi calendar	447
Thai solar calendar	2457–2458
Tibetan calendar	ཤིང་ཕོ་སྟག་ལོ་ (male Wood-Tiger) 2041 or 1660 or 888 — to — ཤིང་མོ་ཡོས་ལོ་ (female Wood-Hare) 2042 or 1661 or 889

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Events

Summarize

Perspective

Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.

January

January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".^[1]
January 1
- WWI: British Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable is sunk off Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, by an Imperial German Navy U-boat, with the loss of 547 crew.
- WWI: Battle of Broken Hill: A train ambush near Broken Hill, Australia, is carried out by two men (claiming to be in support of the Ottoman Empire) who are killed, together with four civilians.
January 5 – Joseph E. Carberry sets an altitude record of 11,690 feet (3,560 m), carrying Capt. Benjamin Delahauf Foulois as a passenger, in a fixed-wing aircraft.
January 12
- The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.^[2]
- A Fool There Was premières in the United States, starring Theda Bara as a femme fatale; she quickly becomes one of early cinema's most sensational stars.
January 17 – WWI: Caucasus Campaign – Battle of Sarikamish: Russia defeats Ottoman Turkey.
January 18 – Twenty-One Demands from Japan to China are made.^[3]
January 19
- Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
- WWI: German Zeppelins bomb the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in England for the first time, killing more than 20.
January 21 – Kiwanis is founded in Detroit, Michigan, as The Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order Brothers.
January 23 – Chilembwe uprising: Baptist minister John Chilembwe initiates an ultimately unsuccessful uprising against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi).
January 24 – WWI: Battle of Dogger Bank – The British Grand Fleet defeats the German High Seas Fleet, sinking the armoured cruiser SMS Blücher.^[4]
January 25 – The first United States coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call is facilitated by a newly invented vacuum tube amplifier, ceremonially inaugurated by Alexander Graham Bell in New York City and his former assistant Thomas A. Watson, in San Francisco, California.
January 26
- WWI: The Ottoman Army begins the Raid on the Suez Canal.
- The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the United States Congress.
January 27 – WWI: French military casualties begin arriving at the Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois, established earlier in the month by British volunteers.
January 28 – An act of the United States Congress designates the United States Coast Guard, began in 1790, as a military branch.
January 31 – WWI: Battle of Bolimów – Germany's first large-scale use of poison gas as a weapon occurs, when 18,000 artillery shells containing liquid xylyl bromide tear gas are fired on the Imperial Russian Army, on the Rawka River west of Warsaw; however, freezing temperatures prevent it being effective.^[5]

February

February – While working as a cook at New York's Sloane Hospital for Women under an assumed name, "Typhoid Mary" (an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever) infects 25 people, and is placed in quarantine for life on March 27.
February 1 – William Fox creates the Fox Film Corporation.
February 4 – The Maritz Rebellion of disaffected Boers against the government of the Union of South Africa ends with the surrender of the remaining rebels.
February 8 – The controversial film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles. It will be the highest-grossing film for around 25 years.
February 18 – WWI: Germany regards the waters around the British Isles to be a war zone from this date, as part of its U-boat Campaign.
February 20 – In San Francisco, the Panama–Pacific International Exposition is opened.
February 25 – Armenian genocide: The Ottoman Empire transfers Armenians from its armed forces to unarmed Ottoman labour battalions.

March

March – The 1915 Palestine locust infestation breaks out in Palestine; it continues until October.
March 2 – Armenian genocide: Earliest recorded deportations.^[6]
March 10–13 – WWI: Battle of Neuve Chapelle – In the first deliberately planned British offensive of the war, British Indian troops overrun German positions in France, but are unable to sustain the advance.
March 11 – WWI: British armed merchantman HMS Bayano (1914) is sunk in the North Channel off the coast of Scotland by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-27. Around 200 crew are lost, a number of bodies being washed up on the Isle of Man, with only 26 saved.^[7]
March 14 – WWI:
- Battle of Más a Tierra: Off the coast of Chile, the British Royal Navy forces the Imperial German Navy light cruiser SMS Dresden (last survivor of the German East Asia Squadron) to scuttle.
- Constantinople Agreement: Britain, France and the Russian Empire agree to give Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Bosphorus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik Revolution).
March 18 – WWI:
- Gallipoli campaign: A Franco-British naval attack on the Dardanelles fails.
- British Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought (1906) sinks German submarine U-29 with all hands in the Pentland Firth off the coast of Scotland by ramming her, the only time this tactic is known to have been successfully used by a battleship.
March 19 – Pluto is photographed for the first time, but is not recognised for what it is.
March 26 – The Vancouver Millionaires win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey over the Ottawa Senators, 3 games to 0.
March 28 – The first Roman Catholic liturgy at the newly consecrated Cathedral of Saint Paul, Minnesota, is celebrated by Archbishop John Ireland.

April

April 5 – Boxer Jess Willard, the latest "Great White Hope", defeats Jack Johnson with a 26th-round knockout in sweltering heat, at Havana, Cuba. Willard becomes very popular among white Americans, for "bringing back the championship to the white race".
April 11 – Charlie Chaplin's film The Tramp is released in the United States.
April 21 – On the orders of Talat Pasha, Haydar Bey organized an expedition against the Assyrians. He killed thousands of Assyrians along with Kurdish tribes.
April 22 – WWI: Start of Second Battle of Ypres – Germany makes its first large scale use of poison gas on the Western Front.
April 24 – Armenian genocide: deportation of Armenian notables from Istanbul begins.
April 25 – WWI: Start of the Gallipoli Campaign by land forces (lasting until January 1916) – A landing at Anzac Cove is conducted by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and a landing at Cape Helles by British and French troops, to begin the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire.

April 26 – Treaty of London: Italy secretly agrees to leave the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, and join with the Entente Powers, in exchange for certain territories of Austria-Hungary on its borders.

May

May 1 – General Louis Botha, Prime Minister of South Africa, leads the army in the occupation of German South West Africa.
May 5 – WWI: Gallipoli Campaign – Forces of the Ottoman Empire begin shelling ANZAC Cove from a new position behind their lines.
May 6 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora's drift – The SY Aurora breaks loose from its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.^[8]
May 7 – WWI
- Sinking of the RMS Lusitania: RMS Titanic's main rival, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, is sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 off the south-west coast of Ireland, killing 1,199 civilians en route from New York City to Liverpool. The best-known of the celebrities on board is American sportsman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (b. 1877).
- Germany captures the Latvian port city of Libau.
May 9 – WWI – Second Battle of Artois: German and French forces fight to a standstill; German forces defeat the British at the Battle of Aubers Ridge.
May 17 – The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends, when the prime minister H. H. Asquith forms an all-party coalition government, the Asquith coalition ministry, effective May 25.
May 19 – WWI: The third attack on Anzac Cove by Ottoman forces is repelled by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
May 22
- Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland: The collision and fire kill 226, mostly troops, the largest number of fatalities in a rail accident in the United Kingdom.
- Lassen Peak, one of the Cascade Volcanoes in California, erupts, sending an ash plume 30,000 feet in the air, and devastating the nearby area with pyroclastic flows and lahars. It is the only volcano to erupt in the contiguous United States this century, until the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
May 23 – WWI: Italy joins the Allies after declaring war on Austria-Hungary.
May 25 – China agrees to the Twenty-One Demands of the Japanese.
May 27 – Armenian genocide: The Tehcir Law is promulgated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire authorizing deportation of the Ottoman Armenian population to Deir ez-Zor in the Syrian desert, leading to the deaths of anywhere between 800,000 and over 1,500,000 civilians and confiscation of their property.^[9]
May 28 – International Congress of Women meets at the Hague as a major peace initiative.^[10]
May 29 – Teófilo Braga becomes president of Portugal.

June

June – Armenian genocide: 15,000 civilians from the Ottoman Armenian population of Bitlis are massacred by Ottoman Turks and Kurds.^[11]
June 3 – Mexican Revolution: Troops of Álvaro Obregón and Pancho Villa clash at León; Obregón loses his right arm in a grenade attack, but Villa is decisively defeated.
June 5 – Women's suffrage in national elections is introduced in Denmark.
June 9 – U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
June 11 – Friar Leonard Melki and hundreds of other Christians are driven out of Mardin and massacred by Ottoman troops.^[12]
June 16 – Women's Institutes are established in Britain.
June 19 – In Iceland, at this time a dependency of Denmark, women's suffrage is granted to those over 40.^[13]

July

July
- WWI: South West Africa Campaign – The Union of South Africa occupies German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Portuguese Republic and Portuguese Angola. South Africa will occupy South West Africa until March 1990.
- Armenian genocide: 17,000 civilians from the Ottoman Armenian population of Trebizond are massacred by Ottoman Turks.^[14]
July 1 – WWI: In aerial warfare, German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens becomes the first person to shoot down another plane, using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear.
July 7
- An extremely overloaded International Railway (New York–Ontario) trolleycar with 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, resulting in 15 casualties.
- Sinhalese militia captain Henry Pedris is executed in British Ceylon for inciting race riots, a charge later proved false; he becomes a hero of the Sri Lankan independence movement.
July 9 – WWI: Theodore Seitz, governor of German South West Africa, surrenders to General Louis Botha, between Otavi and Tsumeb.
July 11 – WWI: Battle of Rufiji Delta – German cruiser SMS Königsberg (1905) is forced to scuttle in the Rufiji River, German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania).
July 14 – The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire begins; in exchange for assistance against the Ottomans, the British offer bin Ali their recognition of an independent Arab kingdom, although clear terms are never agreed.^[15]
July 22 – WWI: The "Great Retreat" is ordered on the Eastern Front; Russian forces pull back out of Poland (at this time part of the Russian Empire), taking machinery and equipment with them.
July 24 – Steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.
July 28 – The American occupation of Haiti (1915–34) begins.

August

August 5–23 – Hurricane Two of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season over Galveston and New Orleans leaves 275 dead.
August 6 – WWI: Battle of Sari Bair (Gallipoli Campaign) – The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
August 16 – WWI: The Allies promises the Kingdom of Serbia, should victory be achieved over Austria-Hungary and its allied Central Powers, the territories of Baranja, Srem and Slavonia from the Cisleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and eastern Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to Bar).

September

September 5 – The Zimmerwald Conference begins in Switzerland.
September 6 – The prototype military tank is first tested by the British Army.
September 7 – Cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
September 8 – WWI: A Zeppelin raid destroys No. 61 Farringdon Road, London; the premises are rebuilt in 1917, and called The Zeppelin Building.
September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
September 12 – French soldiers rescue over 4,000 Armenian genocide survivors stranded on Musa Dagh, a mountain in the Hatay province of Turkey.
September 25–October 14 – WWI: Battle of Loos – British forces take the French town of Loos, but with substantial casualties, and are unable to press their advantage. This is the first time the British use poison gas in World War I, and also their first large-scale use of 'New' (or Kitchener's Army) units.
September 30 – WWI: Serbian Army private Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft, with ground-to-air fire.

October

October 12 – WWI: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad, for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
October 15 – WWI: Serbian Campaign – Austria-Hungary invades the Kingdom of Serbia. Bulgaria enters the war, also invading Serbia. The Serbian First Army retreats towards Greece.
October 16 – WWI: France declares war on Bulgaria.
October 19
- WWI: Russia and Italy declare war on Bulgaria.
- Mexican Revolution: The U.S. recognizes the Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza de facto (not de jure until 1917).
October 21 – The United Daughters of the Confederacy holds its first annual meeting outside the South, in San Francisco. Historian General Mildred Rutherford addresses the gathering on the "Historical Sins of Omission & Commission", of Yankee historians.
October 23 – WWI: The torpedoing of armored cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert (1901) results in only 3 men being rescued from a crew of 675, the greatest single loss of life for the Imperial German Navy in the Baltic Sea during the war.
October 25 – Lyda Conley, the first American Indian woman to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States as a lawyer, is admitted to practice there.^[16]
October 27 – William Morris "Billy" Hughes becomes the 7th Prime Minister of Australia.
October 28 – St. Johns School fire: Fire at St. John's School in Peabody, Massachusetts, United States, claims the lives of 21 girls between the ages of 7 and 17.

November

November 18 – The U.S. silent film Inspiration, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude, is released.
November 21 – British polar exploration ship Endurance finally breaks apart from pressure of ice around it and sinks into the Weddell Sea, stranding Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition party in the Antarctic.^[17]^[18] The wreck is discovered at a depth of 3,008 metres (9,869 ft), 107 years later in 2022.^[19]
November 23 – The Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.
November 24 – William J. Simmons revives the American Civil War era Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia.
November 25 – Albert Einstein presents part of his theory of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.^[20]

December

December 4–18 – The 'Peace Ship' Oscar II chartered by industrialist Henry Ford sails from Hoboken, New Jersey to Oslo on an independent and eventually unsuccessful mission to broker a peace conference.^[21]
December 8 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Symphony No. 5 in Helsinki at a 50th birthday concert for him.^[22]
December 10 – The 1 millionth Ford car rolls off the assembly line at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
December 12 – President of the Republic of China Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor.
December 18 – United States President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith B. Galt, in Washington, D.C.
December 23 – HMHS Britannic, which will be the largest British ship lost in WWI (though with only 30 fatalities), departs Liverpool on her maiden voyage as a hospital ship.
December 26 – The Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage an Easter Rising in 1916.

Date unknown

Carrier Engineering, predecessor of Carrier Global, a global air conditioning brand, is founded in New Jersey, United States.^[23]
The WWI song Just for the Sake of Gold is published.^[24]

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