1912

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• On 12 January, China becomes a republic, with Sun Yat-sen as president. He founds the Guomindang (Young China) movement.

• On 17 October, war begins in the Balkans as Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro struggle for independence against the declining Ottoman empire (armistice 3 December).

• Italian troops occupy Libya.

• French troops occupy Morocco.

• Arizona and New Mexico become states in the United States.

• The South African Native National Congress, to campaign for black rights, is formed in South Africa.

• On 5 November, the Democratic candidate Thomas Woodrow Wilson is elected 28th president of the United States.

• On 15 April, the British ship Titanic, the world's largest liner (46,300 tons), sinks on her maiden voyage with the loss of 1,513 lives after hitting an iceberg in the north Atlantic.

• Polish biochemist Casimir Funk discovers 'vitamines'.

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