AN EVENT IN HISTORY
1901 to 1920
1901
Australia united as FederalCommonwealth.
Queen Victoria dies aged 81.
25th US President William McKinley is shot in Buffalo, and dies 8 days later.
Guglielmo Marconi achieves first trans-Atlantic radio transmission.
King Camp Gilette and William Nickerson team up to produce safety razor.
1902
Treaty of Vereeniging ends Boer war.
Willis Carrier designs first air conditioning system.
Anglo-Japanese Naval Alliance.
1903
Wright Brothers achieve first powered sustained controlled flight in a heavier-than-air machine, with a pilot aboard (Orville Wright is the pilot).
Ford Motor Company officially incorporated.
US and Panama sign treaty to build the Panama Canal.
Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Curie awarded Nobel Prize in Physics (for research in radiation phenomena). Marie Curie will win a 2nd Nobel Prize (this time in Chemistry) in 1911.
1904
Russo-Japanese war begins
Britain and France sign "Entente Cordiale" respecting each other's claims in Morocco and Egypt.
Ivan Pavlov wins Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on "conditioned reflexes"
1905
Russo-Japanese war ends, Treaty of Portsmouth.
Norway independent of Sweden.
Albert Einstein publishes "Special Theory of Relativity"
Sinn Fein founded in Ireland.
1906
Major earthquake hits San Francisco
1907
Albert Einstein postulates E=mc2.
Anglo-Russian entente agreeing spheres of influence in Persia.
New Zealand achieves Dominion status in British Commonwealth.
1908
Ford Model T. introduced.
Devastating earthquake hits Messina, killing 100,000.
"Young Turk" revolution in Ottoman Empire.
Bulgaria declares independence from Ottoman Empire.
Bosnia-Herzegovina annexed by Austro-Hungary.
Crete votes for union with Greece (union is not fully effected until 1913).
"Tunguska Event" - meteor impact in Siberia. The explosion is equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshma bombs.
1909
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) founded.
French aviator Louis Bleriot is first to fly across English Channel.
1910
Alice Wells is first US policewoman (Los Angeles).
Mexican revolution begins: Francisco Madero issues "Plan of San Luis Potosi" calling for nullification of the elections and for Mexicans to take up arms against the government of Porfirio Diaz.
Japan annexes Korea.
Boy Scouts of America founded.
Union of South Africa formed uniting British Colonies with Boer republics.
1911
Italian-Turkish War (1911-1912). Italy defeats Turkey and occupies DodecaneseIslands in Aegean Sea, and Libya.
RoaldAmundsen beats Robert F. Scott to the South Pole.
Republican revolution breaks out in China.
1912
Sun Yat-sen made first provisional President of Chinese Republic. Boy Emperor, Xuan Tong ("Pu Yi") abdicates in February 1912. Yuan Shikai becomes second provisional President.
RMS Titanic sinks on maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, after hitting an iceberg, over 1,500 die
Robert F. Scott reaches South Pole. Scott and his party die, during the return trip from the Pole.
First Balkan War (1912-1913), Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro fight Turkey, and conquer most Turkish lands in Europe. Albania proclaims independence from Turkey.
1913
Second Balkan War: Bulgaria is defeated by Greece, Serbia, Romania and Turkey.
The first known crossword puzzle appears in New York World.
1914
First World War begins when Austro-Hungary mobilizes against Serbia after Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo.
1915
British and Commonwealth forces land in Gallipoli.
The Lusitania sank by German U-Boat off Irish coast.
Italy declares war on Austro-Hungary.
Anglo-French forces land at Salonika, Greece.
Germans introduce poison gas into warfare.
1916
Battle of Verdun, a ferocious battle of attrition on the Western Front between German and French forces, lasts 10 months.
Easter rising, an anti-British rebellion in Ireland.
Battle of the Somme, British suffer 60,000 casualties.
Tanks introduced by British.
Battle Of Jutland between British and German navies, results in no clear victor.
1917
Germany announces unrestricted U-Boat warfare.
British capture Baghdad.
USA enters World War I.
Russian Revolution begins.
Tsar Nicholas II abdicates in Russia.
Lenin arrives in Russia.
Bolshevik (Communist) revolution in Russia.
Jerusalem captured by British.
Russia opens separate peace negotiations with Germany.
1918
Soviets sign Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Central Powers.
Germans launch major offensives in France.
German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and later flees to Holland.
First World War end at 11th hour of 11th day of 11th Month.
Influenza pandemic ("Spanish Flu"), 1918-1919, kills 20-40 million worldwide.
1919
League of Nations founded
Treaty of Versailles.
Eighteenth amendment to the US constitution ratified, prohibits alcohol in the United   States.
German High Seas fleet scuttles off Scapa Flow.
Amritsar Massacre in India, British troops under General Dyer open fire on unarmed Indians.
1920
League of Nations established.
Mexican revolution (1910-1920) ends.
Allies and Turkey sign Treaty of Sevres, ceding most of the Ottoman Empire's land to the Allies.