1914

Years: 1911 1912 1913 - 1914 - 1915 1916 1917

Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s

Events of 1914

January-February

• January 5 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
• January 9 - Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
• January 10 - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa's troops take Ojinaga in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
• February 13 - Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

March-April

• March 1 - The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union.
• March 7 - Prince William of Wied arrives in Albania to begin his reign.
• March 10 - Suffragette Mary Richardson damages Velasquez painting Rokeby Venus in London’s national gallery with a meat chopper.
• March 16 - Wife of French minister Joseph Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmette, the editor of Le Figaro because he threatened to publish Caillaux's love letters to her during his previous marriage. (She is later acquitted.)
• March 27 - Belgian surgeon Albert Hustin makes the first successful non-direct blood transfusion, using anticoagulants.
• March 29 - Katherine Routledge and her husband arrive in Easter Island to make the first true study of it (departs August 1915)
• April 9 - The Tampico Affair results in the occupation of the Mexican port city of Veracruz for over six months.
• April 11 - Alpha Rho Chi, a professional architecture fraternity, is founded in the Hotel Sherman in Chicago.
• April 14 - The city of Irving, Texas is incorporated.
• April 20 - Colorado coalfield Massacre or Ludlow Massacre. Colorado National guard attacks 1200 tent colony of striking coal miners in Ludlow - 24 people dead.
• April 21 - 3000 US marines land in Vera Cruz, Mexico.
• The American Radio Relay League is founded.

May-June

• May 9 - J.T. Hearne becomes the first bowler to take 3000 first-class wickets.
• May 14 - Woodrow Wilson signs Mother's Day proclamation.
• May 25 - The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule.
• May 29 - The ocean liner Empress of Ireland sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 lives lost.
• June 1 - Woodrow Wilson's envoy Edward Mandell House meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• June 18 - Constitutionals take San Luis Potosí - Venustiano Carranza demands Victoriano Huerta's surrender
• June 23 - Kiel Canal reopened (having been deepened) by the Kaiser; Visit of the British Fleet under Sir G. Warrender: Kaiser inspects the Dreadnought HMS King George V.
• June 28 - Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinates Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Sophie
• June 29
  • Austria-Hungary: Secretary of the Legation at Belgrade sends despatch to Vienna suggesting Serbian complicity in the crime of Sarajevo. Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo and throughout Bosnia generally.
  • Chionya Gusyeva attempts and fails to assassinate Grigori Rasputin at his home town in Siberia.
• June 30 - Great Britain - Addresses in Parliament on the murdered Archduke: Lords Crewe & Lansdowne in House of Lords; Messrs. Asquith & Law in Commons.

July

• July 2 - Announcement that the German Kaiser will not attend the Archduke's funeral.
• July 4 - Austria-Hungary: Funeral of the Archduke at Artstetten (50 miles west of Vienna).
• July 5 - Council at Potsdam.
• July 6 - The German Kaiser leaves Kiel for a cruise in Northern waters.
• July 7 - Austria-Hungary: Council of Ministers, including Ministers for Foreign Affairs and War, Chief of General Staff and Naval Commander-in-Chief; Council lasts from 11.30 a.m. to 6.15 p.m.
• July 9
  • The House of Lords completed the recasting of the Amendment Bill.
  • Austria-Hungary - Emperor receives report of Austro-Hungarian investigation into the Sarajevo crime. The Times publishes account of Austro-Hungarian press campaign against the Serbians (who are described as "pestilent rats").
• July 10 - Mr.Hartwig, Russian Minister to Serbia, dies suddenly at Austrian Legation in Belgrade.
• July 11 - Baseball legend Babe Ruth makes his major league debut with the Red Sox
• July 12 - Demonstrations in Ulster suggesting civil war.
• July 13 - Reports of a projected Serbian attack upon the Austro-Hungarian Legation at Belgrade.
• July 14 - Government of Ireland Amending Bill passed by House of Lords.
• July 15
  • Victoriano Huerta resigns and leaves for Colón.
  • Count Tisza makes statement in Hungarian chamber relations with Serbia: " they must be cleared up."
• July 18 - The Signal Corps of the United States Army is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time. British Fleet at Spithead: reviewed by the King.
• July 19 - Austria-Hungary - Press scare concerning alleged "Greater Serbia" conspiracy. The King summons a Conference to discuss the Home Rule Problem.
• July 27 - Felix Manalo registers the Iglesia ni Cristo with the Filipino government.
• July 28 - The Great War begins: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

August

• August 1 - Germany declares war on Russia, following Russia's military mobilization in support of Serbia.
• August 2
  • German troops occupy Luxembourg.
  • Secret treaty between Turkey and Germany to secure Turkish neutrality.
• August 3 - Germany declares war on Russia's ally France.
• August 4 - German troops invade neutral Belgium. Britain declares war on Germany. The United States declares neutrality.
• 5 August - Kaiser Wilhelm I revived the Iron Cross for distinguished service in WW I
• August 5 -16 - The Battle of Liège
• August 8 - German colonial forces execute Martin-Paul Samba for high treason.
• August 12 - The Battle of Haelen
• August 15
  • The Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the steamship SS Ancon.
  • Venustiano Carranza's troops under general Alvaro Obregon enter Mexico City.
  • Edward Elgar's Sospiri, a moving adagio for strings and harp, first performed in London
• August 16-19 - The Battle of Cer, first Entente victory in World War I
• August 17-September 2 - World War I: Battle of Tannenberg.
• August 20 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
• August 23 - Japan declares war on Germany.
• August 26-27 - The Battle of Le Cateau.
• August 28 - The Battle of Heligoland - British cruisers under admiral Beatty sink three German cruisers.
• August 29-30 - The Battle of St. Quentin.

September

• September 1 - St. Petersburg, Russia changes its name to "Petrograd."
  • The last known passenger pigeon dies in the Cincinnati Zoo.
• September 2 - Moronvilliers occupied by the Germans.
• September 3
  • Pope Benedict XV (Giacomo della Chiesa) succeeds Pope Pius X as the 258th pope.
  • William, Prince of Albania leaves the country after just six months due to opposition to his rule.
• September 5
  • London Agreement: no member of Triple Entente (Britain, France, or Russia) may seek a separate peace with Central Powers.
  • In World War I, First Battle of the Marne begins: Northeast of Paris, the French 6th Army under General Maunoury attacks German forces nearing Paris. Over 2 million fight (500,000 killed/wounded) in the Allied victory.
• September 6 - French and British counterattack at Marne ends German advance on Paris.
• September 13 - South African troops open hostilities in German South-West Africa (today Namibia) with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station.
• September 13-28 - The First Battle of the Aisne.
• September 17 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
• September 26 - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.
• September 30 - Flying Squadron established to promote temperance movement.

October

• October 7 - Marriage of Rose Fitzgerald to Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr in Boston.
• October 9 - World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.
• October 13 - Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Athletics 3-1, to win baseball's World Series.
• October 29 - World War I: Ottoman warships shell Russian Black Sea ports: Russia, France, and Britain declare war on November 1-5.

November

• November 1 - World War I: Battle of Coronel fought - A Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock is met and defeated by the superior German forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. This is the first British naval defeat of the war.
• November 4 - Britain and France declare war on Turkey.
• November 5 - The United Kingdom annexes Cyprus, and together with France declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
• November 7 - The Japanese seize Jiaozhou Bay in China, the base of the German East Asia Squadron.
• November 16 - A year after being created by passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.
• November 16 - The Battle of Kolubara begins
• November 23 - US troops withdraw from Veracruz. Venustiano Carranza's troops take over and Carranza makes the town his headquarters
• November 24 - Benito Mussolini is expelled from the Italian Socialist Party.
• November 28 - World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

December

• December 5 - The Toronto Argonauts win their first Grey Cup at Varsity Stadium
• December 15 - Gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine, Kyūshū, Japan, 687 killed. This accident is the worst coal mine disaster in Japanese history.
• December 19 - The Battle of Kolubara ends, resulting in decisive Serbian victory
• December 24 - World War I: British and German soldiers interrupted World War I to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce.

Births

• January 31 - Homer Loomis, co-founder of The Columbians (d. 1991)
• August 8 - Unity Mitford, British National Socialist and Hitler's girlfriend (d. 1948)

Deaths

• April 14 - Hermann Ahlwart - early anti-semitic Reichstag member (b. 1846)