Mahatma Gandhi is sent to prison in India for civil disobedience. His campaign for ahimsa (nonviolence) inspired movements for civil justice throughout the world.
Egypt gains self-government from Britain, Fuad I becomes king. Later in the year, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon are the first to enter King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 3000 years.
This year Communist political parties are founded in China, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Portugal, and Spain. (A Communist party had been founded in the U.S. in 1919 and in England in 1920.)
Adolf Hitler is named leader of the Nazi political party in Germany, His fiery speeches attract large, enthusiastic crowds as he condemns the harsh penalties imposed by the victorious Allies.
The Civil War spreads in Russia: The Red Army, a Communist force led by Lenin is opposed by the White Army, Conservatives who want a return to a monarchist government. (“Doctor Zhivago” 1965 film based on 1957 Boris Pasternak novel.)
First Constituent Assembly provides for Russian democratic republic, but Bolsheviks desolve it the same day. Romanov family (Tsar, wife, four daughters and son) executed by the Cheka at Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Soldiers of Allied and Central Powers endure brutal, useless trench warfare.
Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated for the second time. Public opinion turns toward entry in the war on the side of Britain and its countrymen that many Americans feel most relation in family and culture.
On April 6th, the US Congress declares war with Germany and General Pershing arrives in France with “Doughboy” infantry soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force.
More than a million soldiers die in the battle of the Somme, July~November; there are 60,000 British casualties the first day.
British military campaigns fail against Ottoman Empire in the Mid-East: troops are evacuated from Gallipoli after trying to capture Istanbul and are defeated in Mesopotamia ~ now Iraq.
As World War enters its first year, American opinion turns toward Allied sympathy: German U-Boats begin to target British ships such as the RMS Lusitania, sunk off Ireland with a loss of 1089 American and British passengers. British nurse Edith Cavell is executed for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium and combat in France.
Diplomatic relations with Mexico break down, U.S. Marines land in Veracruz which they will occupy for 6 months.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated. As European nations begin World War I, President Wilson promises to keep America out of the conflict.
