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Hollywood becomes center of movie production
In the early 1900s, most motion picture patents were held by Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey, and filmmakers were often sued to stop their productions. To escape this, filmmakers began moving out west, where Edison's patents could not be enforced.Los Angeles became the capital of the film industry -
Assassination of Ferdinand
As Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie drove through the city, Serbian nationalists Gavrilo Princip shot them both. Princip was a member of the Black Hand, which was an organization promoting serbian nationalism. On this date, Austria-Hungary declared what was expected to be a short war agaisnt Serbia. -
Germany declares war on Russia and France/ Great Britain declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary
On the afternoon of this day in 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. Hours later, France makes its own declaration of war against Germany -
Albert Einstein proposes theory of relativity
Einstein then spent 10 years trying to include acceleration in the theory and published his theory of general relativity in 1915. In it, he determined that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, which is felt as gravity. -
Alexander Grahm Bell makes first telephone call
On this day Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service as part of a demonstration that included dignitaries in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Jekyll Island, Ga. Bell, in New York at the time, made the first call to Thomas Watson, his former assistant, who was in San Francisco. -
German U-boats sank the Lusitania
In the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes. -
Battles of Verdun and the Somme claim millions of lives
At Verdun, the Germans begin another attack on the west bank of the Meuse. This time they gain the advantage and within three days capture the two French hills they had been striving for since early March, thus achieving a solid position northwest of Verdun. -
Wilson is reelected president
Wilson faced former United States Supreme Court associate justice Charles Evans Hughes of New York in the presidential elections of 1916, and became the first Democrat since Andrew Jackson elected to consecutive terms. He was narrowly re-elected on the slogan, "He kept us out of war". -
Russia withdraws from the war
Russia signalled her withdrawal from World War One soon after the October Revolution of 1917, and the country turned in on itself with a bloody civil war between the Bolsheviks and the conservative White Guard. -
The U.S, declares war on Germany
President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, 1917. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress declared war upon the German Empire; on April 2, President Woodrow Wilson had asked a special joint session of Congress for this declaration. -
The selective Service Act sets up the draft
The Selective Service Act or Selective Draft Act (Pub.L. 65–12, 40 Stat. 76, enacted May 18, 1917) authorized the federal government to raise a national army for the American entry into World War I through the compulsory enlistment of people. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to President Woodrow Wilson's attention shortly after the break in relations with Germany in February 1917. -
The Bolsheviks establish a communist regime in Russia
In the Second Party Congress vote, the Bolsheviks won on the majority of important issues, hence their name.[5] They ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[c] The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and founded the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which would become the chief constituent of the Soviet Union in 1922. -
Wilson proposes the League of Nations
The League of Nations was an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes. Though first proposed by President Woodrow Wilson as part of his Fourteen Points plan for an equitable peace in Europe, the United States never became a member. -
Congress passes the Sedition Act
On this day in 1918, Congress extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broad range of spoken or written offenses, including the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language” about the federal government, the U.S. flag or the armed forces or speech “that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt.” -
the First World War ends
On Nov. 11, 1918, fighting in World War I came to an end following the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany that called for a ceasefire effective at 11 a.m.– it was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. -
Worldwide influenze epidemic
The worldwide influenze epidemic killed over 30 million people. the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down and peace was on the horizon. The Americans had joined in the fight, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the Germans. Deep within the trenches these men lived through some of the most brutal conditions of life, which it seemed could not be any worse. Then, in pockets across the globe, something erupted that seemed as benign as the common cold. -
Congress aprroves 19th amendment
Congress approved the nineteenth amendment, which granted women the right to vote. At the time the U.S. was founded, its female citizens did not share all of the same rights as men, including the right to vote.