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  • Munich, Germany
    1917
    BMW

    BMW logo

    Munich, Germany
    1917

    The BMW logo still used today was created in 1917, albeit with various minor styling changes.




  • New York, U.S.
    1917
    David Ben-Gurion

    Marriage

    New York, U.S.
    1917

    Settling in New York City in 1915, he met Russian-born Paula Munweis. They were married in 1917.




  • Russia
    1917
    First Chechen War

    The Russian Empire failed

    Russia
    1917

    The Chechens' subsequent attempts at gaining independence after the 1917 fall of the Russian Empire failed.




  • London, England
    1917
    John Maynard Keynes

    Companion of the Order of the Bath for his wartime work

    London, England
    1917

    In the 1917 King's Birthday Honors, Keynes was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath for his wartime work.




  • Pottstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
    1917
    Juan Trippe

    Finishing School

    Pottstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
    1917

    Trippe attended the Bovea School and graduated from The Hill School in 1917.




  • U.S.
    1917
    Statue of Liberty

    WWI Recruitment

    U.S.
    1917

    After the United States entered World War I in 1917, images of the statue were heavily used in both recruitment posters and the Liberty bond drives that urged American citizens to support the war financially. This impressed upon the public the war's stated purpose—to secure liberty—and served as a reminder that embattled France had given the United States the statue.




  • Sinai, Egypt& Palestine
    Jan, 1917
    World War 1

    The war in the middle east

    Sinai, Egypt& Palestine
    Jan, 1917

    Further to the west, the Suez Canal was defended from Ottoman attacks in 1915 and 1916; in August, a German and Ottoman force was defeated at the Battle of Romani by the ANZAC Mounted Division and the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division. Following this victory, an Egyptian Expeditionary Force advanced across the Sinai Peninsula, pushing Ottoman forces back in the Battle of Magdhaba in December and the Battle of Rafa on the border between the Egyptian Sinai and Ottoman Palestine in January 1917.


  • U.S.
    1917
    W. E. B. Du Bois

    Joel Spingarn established a camp to train African Americans to serve as officers in the United States military

    U.S.
    1917

    As the United States prepared to enter World War I in 1917, Du Bois's colleague in the NAACP, Joel Spingarn, established a camp to train African Americans to serve as officers in the United States military.


  • Mexico City, Mexico
    Monday Feb 5, 1917
    Mexican Revolution

    Approving a New Constitution

    Mexico City, Mexico
    Monday Feb 5, 1917

    Carranza had consolidated enough power to go forward with the drafting of a new constitution in 1917.


  • Italy
    Feb, 1917
    Benito Mussolini

    Mussolini was injured severely

    Italy
    Feb, 1917

    Mussolini would ultimately be wounded in action in February 1917 and was injured severely enough that he had to be evacuated from the front.


  • Germany
    Thursday Feb 15, 1917
    World War 1

    British naval blockade began

    Germany
    Thursday Feb 15, 1917

    The British naval blockade began to have a serious impact on Germany. In response, in February 1917, the German General Staff convinced Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg to declare unrestricted submarine warfare, with the goal of starving Britain out of the war.


  • U.S
    1917
    Treaty of Versailles

    United States role in the World War I

    U.S
    1917

    The United States entered the war against the Central Powers in 1917 and President Woodrow Wilson largely shaped the peace terms. His war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions.


  • Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Thursday Mar 8, 1917
    Vladimir Lenin

    February Revolution

    Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Thursday Mar 8, 1917

    In February 1917, the February Revolution broke out in St. Petersburg – renamed Petrograd at the beginning of the First World War – as industrial workers went on strike over food shortages and deteriorating factory conditions.


  • Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Thursday Mar 8, 1917
    Josip Broz Tito

    The February Revolution

    Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Thursday Mar 8, 1917

    During the February Revolution, a crowd broke into the prison and returned Broz to the POW camp. A Bolshevik he had met while working on the railway told Broz that his son was working in an engineering works in Petrograd.


  • Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Thursday Mar 8, 1917
    Joseph Stalin

    February Revolution

    Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Thursday Mar 8, 1917

    Stalin was in the city when the February Revolution took place; uprisings broke out in Petrograd—as Saint Petersburg had been renamed—and Tsar Nicholas II abdicated to escape being violently overthrown. In Old style it was on 23/2/1917.


  • United Kingdom
    1917
    Edward VIII

    Love Affair

    United Kingdom
    1917

    In 1917, during the First World War, Edward began a love affair with Parisian courtesan Marguerite Alibert (later Fahmy), who kept a collection of his indiscreet letters after he broke off the affair in 1918 to begin one with a married English textile heiress, Freda Dudley Ward.


  • Mesopotamia, Iraq, Ottoman Empire
    Mar, 1917
    World War 1

    Baghdad Capturing

    Mesopotamia, Iraq, Ottoman Empire
    Mar, 1917

    In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the defeat of the British defenders in the Siege of Kut by the Ottomans (1915–16), British Imperial forces reorganised and captured Baghdad in March 1917.


  • Tokyo, Japan
    Mar, 1917
    Yasunari Kawabata

    Moving to Tokyo

    Tokyo, Japan
    Mar, 1917

    After graduating from junior high school in March 1917, Kawabata moved to Tokyo just before his 18th birthday.


  • Gaza&Sinai, Egypt and Palestine
    Monday Mar 26, 1917
    World War 1

    Battles of Gaza

    Gaza&Sinai, Egypt and Palestine
    Monday Mar 26, 1917

    In March and April 1917, at the First and Second Battles of Gaza, German and Ottoman forces stopped the advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, which had begun in August 1916 at the Battle of Romani.


  • Changsha, Hunan, China
    Apr, 1917
    Mao Zedong

    Mao Published His First article

    Changsha, Hunan, China
    Apr, 1917

    Mao published his first article in New Youth in April 1917, instructing readers to increase their physical strength to serve the revolution. He joined the Society for the Study of Wang Fuzhi (Chuan-shan Hsüeh-she), a revolutionary group founded by Changsha literati who wished to emulate the philosopher Wang Fuzhi.


  • U.S
    Monday Apr 2, 1917
    World War 1

    USA in the War

    U.S
    Monday Apr 2, 1917

    Wilson (USA presedint) called for war on Germany on 2 April 1917, which the US Congress declared 4 days later.


  • U.S.
    Apr, 1917
    Marcus Garvey

    Garvey initially signed up to fight but was ruled physically unfit to do so

    U.S.
    Apr, 1917

    After the U.S. entered the First World War in April 1917, Garvey initially signed up to fight but was ruled physically unfit to do so. He later became an opponent of African-American involvement in the conflict, following Harrison in accusing it of being a "white man's war".


  • Northern France
    Monday Apr 16, 1917
    World War 1

    Nivelle offensive

    Northern France
    Monday Apr 16, 1917

    Protracted action at Verdun throughout 1916, combined with the bloodletting at the Somme, brought the exhausted French army to the brink of collapse. Futile attempts using frontal assault came at a high price for both the British and the French and led to the widespread French Army Mutinies, after the failure of the costly Nivelle Offensive of April–May 1917.


  • Verdun, France
    Thursday May 3, 1917
    World War 1

    Drunk soldiers

    Verdun, France
    Thursday May 3, 1917

    On 3 May 1917, during the Nivelle Offensive, the French 2nd Colonial Division, veterans of the Battle of Verdun, refused orders, arriving drunk and without their weapons. Their officers lacked the means to punish an entire division, and harsh measures were not immediately implemented. The French Army Mutinies eventually spread to a further 54 French divisions, and 20,000 men deserted.


  • Tulkarm, Palestine
    Thursday May 3, 1917
    World War 1

    Ottoman army was defeated

    Tulkarm, Palestine
    Thursday May 3, 1917

    In two days the British and Indian infantry, supported by a creeping barrage, broke the Ottoman front line and captured the headquarters of the Eighth Army (Ottoman Empire) at Tulkarm, the continuous trench lines at Tabsor, Arara, and the Seventh Army (Ottoman Empire) headquarters at Nablus.


  • France
    Tuesday May 15, 1917
    World War 1

    Removed Commander

    France
    Tuesday May 15, 1917

    Robert Nivelle was removed from command by 15 May, replaced by General Philippe Pétain, who suspended bloody large-scale attacks.


  • New York, U.S.
    May, 1917
    Marcus Garvey

    Garvey launched a New York branch of UNIA

    New York, U.S.
    May, 1917

    In May 1917, Garvey launched a New York branch of UNIA. He declared membership open to anyone "of Negro blood and African ancestry" who could pay the 25 cents a month membership fee. In his speeches, he sought to reach across to both Afro-Caribbean migrants like himself and native African-Americans. Through this, he began to associate with Hubert Harrison, who was promoting ideas of black self-reliance and racial separatism.


  • Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
    Tuesday May 29, 1917
    John F. Kennedy

    Birth

    Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
    Tuesday May 29, 1917

    John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, at 83 Beals Street in suburban Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.


  • U.S.
    May, 1917
    Marcus Garvey

    Garvey began calling for armed self-defense

    U.S.
    May, 1917

    In the wake of the East St. Louis Race Riots in May to July 1917, in which white mobs targeted black people, Garvey began calling for armed self-defense. He produced a pamphlet, "The Conspiracy of the East St Louis Riots", which was widely distributed; proceeds from its sale went to victims of the riots. The Bureau of Investigation began monitoring him, noting that in speeches he employed more militant language than that used in print; it for instance reported him expressing the view that "for every Negro lynched by whites in the South, Negroes should lynch a white in the North".


  • Greece
    Jun, 1917
    World War 1

    Greece is an Ally

    Greece
    Jun, 1917

    Greece officially joined the war on the side of the Allies in June 1917.


  • Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
    Tuesday Jun 19, 1917
    John F. Kennedy

    Baptized

    Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
    Tuesday Jun 19, 1917

    Kennedy lived in Brookline for the first ten years of his life and attended the local St. Aidan's Church, where he was baptized on June 19, 1917.


  • Illinois and Texas, U.S.
    1917
    Red Summer

    Violent racial riots against blacks due to labor tensions

    Illinois and Texas, U.S.
    1917

    In the summer of 1917, violent racial riots against blacks due to labor tensions broke out in East St. Louis, Illinois and Houston, Texas.


  • U.S.
    Jun, 1917
    Marcus Garvey

    Garvey shared a stage with Harrison at the inaugural meeting of the latter's Liberty League of Negro-Americans

    U.S.
    Jun, 1917

    In June, Garvey shared a stage with Harrison at the inaugural meeting of the latter's Liberty League of Negro-Americans. Through his appearance here and at other events organised by Harrison, Garvey attracted growing public attention.


  • Passchendaele, Belgium
    1917
    World War 1

    Battle of Passchendaele

    Passchendaele, Belgium
    1917

    The last large-scale offensive of this period was a British attack (with French support) at Passchendaele (July–November 1917). This offensive opened with great promise for the Allies, before bogging down in the October mud. Casualties, though disputed, were roughly equal, at some 200,000–400,000 per side.


  • Zborov, Ukraine
    Monday Jul 2, 1917
    World War 1

    Czechoslovak Legon defeated Austro-Hungarian Army in Zborov

    Zborov, Ukraine
    Monday Jul 2, 1917

    Czechoslovak Legion saw action for the first time on July 2, 1917. That’s when a detachment of 3,500 from the unit stormed the Austrian trenches at Zborov in present-day Ukraine. Czechoslovak Legion troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at the Ukrainian village of Zborov.


  • England, United Kingdom
    Jul, 1917
    Winston Churchill

    Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions

    England, United Kingdom
    Jul, 1917

    In July, Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions. He quickly negotiated an end to a strike in munitions factories along the Clyde and increased munitions production.


  • Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Tuesday Jul 3, 1917
    Josip Broz Tito

    The July Days

    Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Tuesday Jul 3, 1917

    Less than a month after Broz arrived in Petrograd, the July Days demonstrations broke out, and Broz joined in, coming under fire from government troops.


  • Germany
    1917
    Laser

    Einstein established the theoretical foundations for the laser and the maser in the paper Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Theory of Radiation)

    Germany
    1917

    In 1917, Albert Einstein established the theoretical foundations for the laser and the maser in the paper Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Theory of Radiation) via a re-derivation of Max Planck's law of radiation, conceptually based upon probability coefficients (Einstein coefficients) for the absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.


  • East St. Louis, Illinois, U.S.
    Jul, 1917
    W. E. B. Du Bois

    East St. Louis riots

    East St. Louis, Illinois, U.S.
    Jul, 1917

    After the East St. Louis riots occurred in the summer of 1917, Du Bois traveled to St. Louis to report on the riots. Between 40 and 250 African Americans were massacred by whites, primarily due to resentment caused by St. Louis industry hiring blacks to replace striking white workers.


  • U.S.
    1917
    Nikola Tesla

    Tesla won AIEE Edison Medal

    U.S.
    1917

    Tesla won AIEE Edison Medal (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, USA, 1917).


  • Spain
    Saturday Jul 28, 1917
    Spanish Civil War

    Spain was neutral in World War I

    Spain
    Saturday Jul 28, 1917

    Spain was neutral in World War I. Following the war, wide swathes of Spanish society, including the armed forces, united in hopes of removing the corrupt central government, but were unsuccessful. Popular perception of communism as a major threat significantly increased during this period.


  • 57th Street, New York City, New York, U.S.
    Sunday Jul 29, 1917
    W. E. B. Du Bois

    Silent Parade

    57th Street, New York City, New York, U.S.
    Sunday Jul 29, 1917

    To publicly demonstrate the black community's outrage over the riots, Du Bois organized the Silent Parade, a march of around 9,000 African Americans down New York City's Fifth Avenue, the first parade of its kind in New York, and the second instance of blacks publicly demonstrating for civil rights.


  • New York City, New York, U.S.
    Aug, 1917
    Nikola Tesla

    Tesla postulated that electricity could be used to locate submarines via using the reflection of an "electric ray" of "tremendous frequency"

    New York City, New York, U.S.
    Aug, 1917

    In the August 1917 edition of the magazine Electrical Experimenter, Tesla postulated that electricity could be used to locate submarines via using the reflection of an "electric ray" of "tremendous frequency," with the signal being viewed on a fluorescent screen (a system that has been noted to have a superficial resemblance to modern radar). Tesla was incorrect in his assumption that high frequency radio waves would penetrate water. Émile Girardeau, who helped develop France's first radar system in the 1930s, noted in 1953 that Tesla's general speculation that a very strong high-frequency signal would be needed was correct. Girardeau said, "(Tesla) was prophesying or dreaming, since he had at his disposal no means of carrying them out, but one must add that if he was dreaming, at least he was dreaming correctly".


  • German Empire (Present Day Germany)
    1917
    Gustav Stresemann

    Becoming the National Liberals' de facto leader

    German Empire (Present Day Germany)
    1917

    In 1914 he returned to the Reichstag. He was exempted from war service due to poor health. With Bassermann kept away from the Reichstag by either illness or military service, Stresemann soon became the National Liberals' de facto leader. After Bassermann's death in 1917, Stresemann succeeded him as the party leader.


  • Germany
    1917
    Albrecht Kossel

    Honesty

    Germany
    1917

    In 1917 Kossel was summoned by the government to pronounce that the allotted food provisions were sufficient. He refused this demand, would never declare untruths as truths.


  • Étaples, France
    1917
    Spanish Flu

    The Hypotheses of the Origins

    Étaples, France
    1917

    The major UK troop staging and hospital camp in Étaples in France have been theorized by researchers as being at the center of the Spanish flu. The research was published in 1999 by a British team, led by virologist John Oxford. In late 1917, military pathologists reported the onset of a new disease with high mortality that they later recognized as the flu. The overcrowded camp and hospital was an ideal site for the spreading of a respiratory virus. The hospital treated thousands of victims of chemical attacks, and other casualties of war and 100,000 soldiers passed through the camp every day. It also was home to a piggery, and poultry was regularly brought in for food supplies from surrounding villages. Oxford and his team postulated that a significant precursor virus, harbored in birds, mutated and then migrated to pigs kept near the front.


  • Russia
    1917
    World War 1

    Russian Empire Defeat

    Russia
    1917

    World War I was a major disaster for the Russian Empire, leading to its collapse in October 1917. The 1.7 million wartime casualties were just the start of even more carnage. Even though Russia exited the war with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, the Civil War plunged the country into even greater violence and destruction.


  • Houston, Texas, U.S.
    1917
    W. E. B. Du Bois

    Houston riot of 1917

    Houston, Texas, U.S.
    1917

    The Houston riot of 1917 disturbed Du Bois and was a major setback to efforts to permit African Americans to become military officers. The riot began after Houston police arrested and beat two black soldiers; in response, over 100 black soldiers took to the streets of Houston and killed 16 whites. A military court martial was held, and 19 of the soldiers were hung, and 67 others were imprisoned. In spite of the Houston riot, Du Bois and others successfully pressed the Army to accept the officers trained at Spingarn's camp, resulting in over 600 black officers joining the Army in October 1917.


  • Caporetto, Kobarid (Italy and Solvania)
    Friday Oct 26, 1917
    World War 1

    Central Powers Spearhead

    Caporetto, Kobarid (Italy and Solvania)
    Friday Oct 26, 1917

    The Central Powers launched a crushing offensive on 26 October 1917, spearheaded by the Germans, and achieved a victory at Caporetto (Kobarid).


  • Beersheba, (Syria this time)
    Wednesday Oct 31, 1917
    World War 1

    Battle of Beersheba

    Beersheba, (Syria this time)
    Wednesday Oct 31, 1917

    At the end of October, the Sinai and Palestine Campaign resumed, when General Edmund Allenby's XXth Corps, XXI Corps and Desert Mounted Corps (British Crops) won the Battle of Beersheba. Two Ottoman armies were defeated a few weeks later at the Battle of Mughar Ridge.


  • Palestine
    Nov, 1917
    David Ben-Gurion

    Balfour Declaration

    Palestine
    Nov, 1917

    After the Balfour Declaration of November 1917, the situation changed dramatically and in 1918 Ben-Gurion, with the interest of Zionism in mind, switched sides and joined the newly formed Jewish Legion of the British Army.


  • Doullens, France
    Monday Nov 5, 1917
    World War 1

    Doullens Conference

    Doullens, France
    Monday Nov 5, 1917

    A Supreme War Council of Allied forces was created at the Doullens Conference on 5 November 1917.


  • Liguria and Peschiera del Garda, Italy
    Monday Nov 5, 1917
    World War 1

    Rapallo Conference

    Liguria and Peschiera del Garda, Italy
    Monday Nov 5, 1917

    The victory of the Central Powers at the Battle of Caporetto led the Allies to convene the Rapallo Conference at which they formed the Supreme War Council to coordinate planning. Previously, British and French armies had operated under separate commands.


  • Russian Empire
    Tuesday Nov 6, 1917
    Joseph Stalin

    Police raided the Bolsheviks

    Russian Empire
    Tuesday Nov 6, 1917

    On 24 October, police raided the Bolshevik newspaper offices, smashing machinery and presses; Stalin salvaged some of this equipment to continue his activities. Date in old-style 24/10.


  • Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Wednesday Nov 7, 1917
    Joseph Stalin

    October Revolution

    Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
    Wednesday Nov 7, 1917

    In the early hours of 25 October, Stalin joined Lenin in a Central Committee meeting in the Smolny Institute, from where the Bolshevik coup—the October Revolution—was directed. in the old-style, it was 25/10.


  • Russia
    Thursday Nov 8, 1917
    Joseph Stalin

    A new Government

    Russia
    Thursday Nov 8, 1917

    On 26 October, Lenin declared himself Chairman of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars ("Sovnarkom"). In the old-style, it was 26/10.


  • France
    Friday Nov 9, 1917
    Treaty of Versailles

    Decree on Peace

    France
    Friday Nov 9, 1917

    The Decree on Peace was published in the Izvestiya newspaper, #208, 9 November 1917. It proposed an immediate withdrawal of Russia from World War I.


  • Jerusalem, Palestine
    Saturday Nov 17, 1917
    World War 1

    Battle of Jerusalem

    Jerusalem, Palestine
    Saturday Nov 17, 1917

    Jerusalem was captured following another Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Jerusalem.


  • Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
    Sunday Nov 18, 1917
    Indira Gandhi

    Born

    Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
    Sunday Nov 18, 1917

    Indira Gandhi was born as Indira Priyadarshini Nehru in a Kashmiri Pandit family on 19 November 1917 in Allahabad.


  • Russian Empire
    Nov, 1917
    Vladimir Lenin

    Constituent Assembly to be elected

    Russian Empire
    Nov, 1917

    The Provisional Government had planned for a Constituent Assembly to be elected in November 1917; against Lenin's objections, Sovnarkom agreed for the vote to take place as scheduled.


  • Munich, Germany
    Dec, 1917
    Heinrich Himmler

    Officer Candidate

    Munich, Germany
    Dec, 1917

    His father used his connections with the royal family to get Himmler accepted as an officer candidate, and he enlisted with the reserve battalion of the 11th Bavarian Regiment in December 1917.


  • Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, U.S.
    1917
    Dwight D. Eisenhower

    Eisenhower was in charge of training at Fort Oglethorpe

    Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, U.S.
    1917

    In late 1917, while Eisenhower was in charge of training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia.


  • Romania
    Sunday Dec 9, 1917
    World War 1

    Armistice with the Central Powers

    Romania
    Sunday Dec 9, 1917

    Fighting in Moldova continued in 1917, but Russian withdrawal from the war in late 1917 as a result of the October Revolution meant that Romania was forced to sign an armistice with the Central Powers on 9 December 1917.


  • Russia
    Sunday Dec 9, 1917
    World War 1

    Central powers russian armistice

    Russia
    Sunday Dec 9, 1917

    In December, the Central Powers signed an armistice with Russia, thus freeing large numbers of German troops for use in the west. With German reinforcements and new American troops pouring in, the outcome was to be decided on the Western Front.


  • Germany
    1917
    Joseph Goebbels

    Goebbels was educated at a Gymnasium

    Germany
    1917

    Goebbels was educated at a Gymnasium, where he completed his Abitur (university entrance examination) in 1917. He was the top student in his class and was given the traditional honor to speak at the awards ceremony. He studied literature and history at the universities of Bonn, Würzburg, Freiburg, and Munich, aided by a scholarship from the Albertus Magnus Society.


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