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The heir to the Austrian throne and his wife were assassinated by a man named Gavrilo Princip. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand led to an uproar of war declarations and ultimately the first World War.
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A month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand's Assassination by Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
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Germany implements the Schlieffen Plan and also invades Belgium.
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Turkey entered the war on Germany’s side. Trench warfare started to dominate the Western Front.
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The “Lusitania”, a British passenger liner, was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland.
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The Germans captured Warsaw from the Russians.
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With insufficient numbers of bachelors attesting for the Derby Scheme to be workable, and the French Army in dire need of relief, a Military Service Bill was introduced in January 1916, providing for the conscription of single men aged 18–41; in May conscription was extended to married men. Calculating for the whole of the war, conscripts made up a majority of British serving soldiers. The government pledged not to send teenagers to serve in the front line.
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Became the most disliked law in history. The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution goes into effect prohibiting making, selling, possession, and use of alcohol. This was repealed in 1933.
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"Coco" Chanel introduced Chanel No.5. It was the first perfume launched by French couturier Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel.
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Wonder introduces sliced bread to the market.
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"Frankenstein" starring Boris Karloff hits the silver screen.
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Charles Lindbergh's infant son is kidnapped and held for ransom that stands at $70,000.
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Pretty Boy Floyd committed the Kansas City Massacre in attempt to free Frank Nash.
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Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were gunned down after being chased and ambushed by the Bienville Parish law enforcement on May 23rd, 1934 in Louisiana.
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The first canned beer was sold!
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On the same day Paris fell to the German army and Auschwitz received its first Polish prisoners, the Naval Expansion Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, increasing the capacity of the U.S. Navy by 11%. Four days earlier, Roosevelt had condemned the actions of Italy's declaration of war against France and the United Kingdom.
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Forrest Mars, Sr., son of the founder of the Mars Company, copied the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets called Smarties, a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting. Production began in 1941 in a factory located in New Jersey. The two "Ms" represent the names of Forrest Mars Sr., & Bruce Murrie, son of the founder of the Hershey Company, recieved a 20% share of the product.
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The dubbed “T-shirt” surfaced in the United States when they were issued by the U.S. Navy sometime around the Spanish-American War. The credit of first printed tee goes to the Air Corps Gunnery School T-shirt featured on the July 13th, 1942 cover of LIFE magazine. Mickey Mouse would follow suit a few years later.
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The Germans claimed that they found a ditch 28 meters long and 16 meters wide at the Hill of Goats in which were 3,000 bodies piled up in layers of twelve. All the bodies were fully dressed in military uniform; some were bound and all had pistol shots to the back of their heads. The Germans believed that they would find 10,000 bodies, but eventually the final total was 4,500. The Germans claimed that the bodies were in good condition.
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Invented in Argentina by Hungarian refugee László Biró, ballpoints were first manufactured in Britain for RAF navigators to use at high altitude, as fountain pens would clog.
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Adolf Hitler shot himself in the head with his pistol, likely after swallowing cyanide, ending his own life just before 3:30 pm. In the same room with Hitler was his new wife, Eva Braun, who ended her life by swallowing a cyanide capsule. After their deaths, SS men carried their bodies up to the Chancellery’s courtyard, covered them with gasoline, and lit them on fire.
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He basically introduced McCarthyism and his ideas on blacklisting communists as well as his idea for communist "witchhunts".
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Eisenhower takes over as the top commander of NATO, the military alliance of America and the nations of Western Europe.
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Running as a Republican, Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson and is elected president. He is the first professional soldier to take the office since Ulysses S. Grant in 1869.
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Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin dies from a cerebral hemorrhage at age 73.
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The show "Disneyland" premiers on television to promote the amusement park set to open in Anaheim, California in the summer of 1955.
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In Montgomery, Alabama, the black seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man and is arrested. The ensuing boycott, coordinated by a young Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., will mark an important turning point in the African American freedom struggle.
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Soviet tanks and troops pour into Hungary to suppress the uprising. More than 40,000 Hungarians will die in the fighting.
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Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the court-ordered desegregation of the city's public schools. As a result, nine black students are allowed to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School.
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The U.S. launches its first satellite, Explorer I, marking U.S. entry into the "space race" with the Russians.
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The Soviets reach the moon with an unmanned spacecraft, spurring Americans' fears that the Russians are leading in the so-called "space race."
