1914

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• On 28 June, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalists, an event that starts World War I.

• On 15 August, the Panama Canal opens.

• On 26-28 August, at the battle of Tannenburg in eastern Germany, General Paul von Hindenburg defeats the Russian army and takes 137,000 prisoners. The victory relieves German fears of fighting a war on two fronts.

• In France, from 5 to 11 September, the German army is stopped on the Marne river, and trench warfare begins on the Western Front.

• British troops occupy Egypt.

• Gandhi returns to India and supports the British war effort.

• Germany begins manufacture of stainless steel.

• Viennese composer Alban Berg begins writing his modernist opera Wozzeck, which uses atonal harmonies. Later performances in Berlin (1925) and Prague (1926) cause fierce controversy.

• Writer Wyndham Lewis, leader of the Vorticist art movement, and poet Ezra Pound edit the magazine Blast, which introduces innovative design ideas.

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