Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Major Events of World War I

  • June 28, 1914
    Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, triggering World War I
  • September 6, 1914
    The German Schlieffen Plan fails when French forces defeat the German army at the First Battle of the Marne followed by four years of trench warfare on the Western Front
  • April 24, 1915
    Massacre of Armenians by Turks begins as part of Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, during which over 1 million Armenian was deported and killed
  • February 21, 1916
    Battle of Verdun, which caused one million casualties, begins in Region de Verdun, France, after German General Erich von Falkenhayn attempts to bleed the French Army white
  • September 15, 1916
    British Mark I tank is first used at Flers-Courcelette during Battle of the Somme, becoming the world's first tank to enter combat
  • March 3, 1918
    Bolshevik government of Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which they surrender large territories to Germany, and formally withdraw from World War I
  • June 28, 1919
    The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany and the Allied Powers, blames Germany for World War I, establishes the Weimar Republic, redraws European borders, and creates a League of Nations

Four Great Chinese Inventions

  • 105
    Cai Lun, a Chinese eunuch, tell Emperor He about his invention, zhi, i.e. paper, made of bark, hemp, silk, and fishing net
  • 808
    The first mention of a mixture resembling gunpowder, made of sulfur, saltpeter and herb, appears in Taoist text, known as Taishang Shengzu Danjing Mijue, in China
  • 868
    Diamond Sutra, the first extant complete printed book containing its date is issued using woodblock printing technique in China
  • 1020
    Floating magnetic compass, consisting of an iron body floating in a bowl of water, is invented for navigation in China