1914
Franz Ferdinand shot in Sarajevo
After a comically botched morning bombing, the Austrian archduke's driver took a wrong turn and rolled straight past a Bosnian Serb teenager named Gavrilo Princip. He fired twice at point-blank range. The heir and his pregnant wife died in the back seat. Within six weeks Europe was at war, and the old world was finished.
Panama Canal opens
After twenty-one thousand deaths from disease and accident, two nations' attempts, and a decade of American jungle work, the first ship steamed from Atlantic to Pacific without rounding Cape Horn. The fifty-mile shortcut would reshape global trade, naval strategy, and the geopolitics of the Western Hemisphere. Teddy Roosevelt called it the greatest liberty man had ever taken with nature.
Japan enters WWI and seizes German Pacific colonies
Japan, bound by treaty to Britain, declared war on Germany and proceeded to take German possessions in China and the Pacific: Tsingtao, the Marianas, the Marshalls, the Carolines. Japan would keep these islands until 1945. The empire had quietly acquired a Pacific reach that would one day make the Pearl Harbor attack possible.
Germany invades Belgium, Britain declares war
Implementing a plan drawn up in 1905, German armies smashed through neutral Belgium aiming to swing around Paris. Britain, which had guaranteed Belgian neutrality since 1839, went to war before teatime. Edward Grey watched the lamps of Whitehall come on and said they would not be lit again in his lifetime.
Marne halts German advance
Paris taxis ferried reinforcements to the front as Joffre's armies counterattacked along the Marne. The Germans pulled back twenty miles and dug in. The Schlieffen Plan, the war of quick movement, the dream of a short decisive campaign, all died in those six days. Four years of trench slaughter lay ahead for Europe.
US occupies Veracruz
A minor incident in Tampico led Woodrow Wilson to order the US Navy to seize Veracruz and cut off weapons flowing to Mexican strongman Victoriano Huerta. The intervention killed hundreds of Mexicans and unified Mexican opinion against American meddling. Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata kept fighting each other and the gringos.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1914?
Saeculum lists 6 curated events from 1914. The most significant is Franz Ferdinand shot in Sarajevo: After a comically botched morning bombing, the Austrian archduke's driver took a wrong turn and rolled straight past a Bosnian Serb teenager named Gavrilo…
What era was 1914 part of?
1914 falls within the Modern Era (1901-2000). World wars, cold war, and the splitting of the atom.
Which regions saw notable events in 1914?
The curated events from 1914 span Europe, North America and East Asia.