This Year in History:
1916
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
With the Great War edging into its third calendar year, British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith introduces the first military conscription bill in his country’s history to the House of Commons…
On January 8, 1916 Rembrandt Bugatti, a sculptor and younger brother of Italian auto designer and manufacturer Ettore Bugatti, dies by suicide at the age of 31. The Bugatti brothers…
On January 8, 1916, Allied forces stage a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Gallipoli Campaign…
After an eight‑day offensive that marked the beginning of a new, aggressive strategy in the region, Austro‑Hungarian troops under commander in chief Franz Conrad von Hotzendorf take control of the…
On January 17, 1916, a group of golf professionals and several leading amateur golfers gather at the Taplow Club in New York City, in a meeting that will result in…
Winston Churchill, beginning his service as a battalion commander on the Western Front, attends a lecture on the Battle of Loos given by his friend, Colonel Tom Holland, in the…
Emma Goldman, a crusader for women’s rights and social justice, is arrested in New York City for lecturing and distributing materials about birth control. She was accused of violating the…
At 7:12 a.m. on the morning of February 21, 1916, a shot from a German Krupp 38‑centimeter long‑barreled gun—one of over 1,200 such weapons set to bombard French forces along…
On the afternoon of February 29, 1916, both the British armed merchant ship Alcantara and the German raider Grief sink after engaging each other in a close‑range battle on the…
On March 9, 1916, Germany declares war on Portugal, who earlier that year honored its alliance with Great Britain by seizing German ships anchored in Lisbon’s harbor. Portugal became a…
Angered over American support of his rivals for the control of Mexico, the peasant‑born revolutionary leader Pancho Villa attacks the border town of Columbus, New Mexico. In 1913, a bloody…
Eight Curtiss “Jenny” planes of the First Aero Squadron take off from Columbus, New Mexico, in the first combat air mission in U.S. history. The First Aero Squadron, organized in…
On April 24, 1916, on Easter Monday in Dublin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization of Irish nationalists led by Patrick Pearse, launches the so‑called Easter Rising, an armed…
On April 28, 1916, Ferruccio Lamborghini, the founder of the company that bears his name and is known for stylish, high‑performance cars, is born in Italy. After World War II,…
On May 4, 1916, Germany responds to a demand by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson by agreeing to limit its submarine warfare in order to avert a diplomatic break with the…
On May 16, 1916, representatives of Great Britain and France secretly reach an accord, known as the Sykes‑Picot Agreement, by which most of the Arab lands under the rule of…
Just before four o’clock on the afternoon of May 31, 1916, a British naval force commanded by Vice Admiral David Beatty confronts a squadron of German ships, led by Admiral…
On June 3, 1916, United States President Woodrow Wilson signs into law the National Defense Act, which expanded the size and scope of the National Guard—the network of states’ militias…
On June 4, 1916, the Battle of Lutsk marks the beginning of the Brusilov Offensive, the largest and most successful Allied offensive of World War I. When the fortress city…
The controversial U.S. military expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa brings the United States and Mexico closer to war when Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing’s…
