-
Period: to
Second Boer War
On October 11 1899, the second Boer War began after Britain rejected the Transvaal ultimatum. It had demanded that all disputes between the two states be settled by arbitration (British troops on the borders will be withdrawn, troops bound for South Africa by ship will not disembark). -
Death of Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was the longest reigning British monarch in history, ruling the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. Her death at age 81 was mourned around the world and signaled an end to the Victorian Era. At 6:30 p.m. on January 22, 1901, Queen Victoria died, surrounded by her family, at the Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. -
Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins coordinated by Danilo Ilić. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Greater Serbia or a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the movement that later beca -
Partition of India
The Partition of IndiaIt was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics. This led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan) and the Union of India (later Republic of India) which took place in 1947, on August 14th and 15th, respectively. -
Japan makes 21 demands on China
Primary Documents - '21 Demands' Made by Japan to China, 18 January 1915They were a set of demands made by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu sent to the nominal government of the Republic of China resulting in two treaties with Japan. These demands - comprising five groupings - required that China immediately cease its leasing of territory to foreign powers and to ascent to Japanese control over Manchuria and Shandong (Shantung) among other demands. -
Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
In 1905, Einstein wrote five articles and had them published in the prestigious Annalen der Physik (Annals of Physics). In one of these papers, Einstein detailed his Special Theory of Relativity. There were two main parts of his theory. First, Einstein discovered that the speed of light is constant. Secondly, Einstein determined that space and time are not absolutes; rather, they are relative to the position of the observer. In a follow-up paper published that same year, Einstein determined the -
Persain Gulf War
Persian Gulf WarsA.k.a. Operation Desert Storm, commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf War, Gulf War I, or the Iraq War, before the term "Iraq War" became identified instead with the 2003 Iraq War (also referred to in the U.S. as "Operation Iraqi Freedom"). -
Reunification of Germany
The Reunification of Germany and Its AftermathIt was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/West Germany), and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die Wende (The Turning Point). The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity (German: Deutsche Einheit), celebr -
Collapse of USSR
FALL OF THE SOVIET UNIONOfficially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, this collapse left all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union as independent sovereign states. The dissolution of the world's largest communist state also marked an end to the Cold War. -
Transfer of Hong Kong to China
China Resumes Control of Hong Kong, Ending 156 Years of British RuleA.k.a. "the Handover" internationally and "the Return" or "The Reunification", it was the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. -
Uprisings in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan
Uprising in KyrgyzstanA.k.a. the 2010 Kyrgyzstani revolution, was a series of riots and demonstrations across Kyrgyzstan that led ultimately to the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The uprising stemmed from growing anger against Bakiyev's administration, rising energy prices, and the sluggish economy, and follow the government's closure of several media outlets. Protesters took control of a government office in Talas clashes between protesters and police in the capital Bishkek turned viol